Night of the Dragon (Richard A. Knaak, Kindle eBook)



Yeah, I gave up on the game after Dragonflight, but I guess I'm never getting away from World of Warcraft.

This book takes place some time between Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, and it's just... dry. A bunch of characters catch onto strange activity at Grim Batol, they go in and find some evil dragons, and through some plot conveniences sort it all out. It falls into a trap that's common for spinoffs where it assumes you know these characters and locales from the original property, so it skimps on characterization and worldbuilding. Except not all of the characters are from the game so, like, I'm not entirely sure why Iridi wanted to free Zzeraku, other than they're both from Outland. An easy idea would be to have the naaru task her with it, knowing whatever the Twilight Hammer wants him for can't be good.

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Absolute Batman Vol. 1: The Zoo (Written by Scott Snyder, Illustrated by Nick Dragotta et. al.)



I know some years back I said I wouldn't be doing introductory collections but the series is still going, this trade tells a complete story and isn't just setting up the game board (can't say the same for the first volume of Absolute Superman), and I want to talk about it.

For those who don't know, the Absolute Universe is a line of comics set in a universe created by Darkseid where everything is seen through the world's most fucked up funhouse mirror and Absolute Batman - or as he's known to fans, Absolute Unit Batman - instantly became the favorite child. So Bruce Wayne still becomes Gotham's protector after the death of his father and a mishap involving bats, but he's a working class construction worker instead of a billionaire playboy, his mother is still alive, Alfred is a grizzled black ops veteran instead of a mild-mannered Butler, the sleek Batmobile is now a Batbulldozer, and several of Batman's rogues gallery from the mainline universe are his childhood friends. One question I've seen people ask about the Absolute universe (or maybe just Absolute Batman) is if you're going to make these characters so different, why not just make them new characters? Because then you lose the funhouse mirror vibe. The Absolute universe is about taking the alternate universe shenanigans DC is known for to, well, the absolute limit and seeing how far you can distort an image and have it still be recognizable.

This first storyline isn't too horrific, mostly focused on using zoos as an allegory for humans in a city and there that are some moments that are so over the top they circle back around to being goofy. But this is only the beginning and you know shit is going to hit the fan.

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Straight Outta Nowhere! Scooby-Doo Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog (Not Rated)



Sure, why not, it's not the worst idea for a crossover I've ever heard.

Everyone knows what Scooby-Doo is, but I have to confess I did not grow up with Courage the Cowardly Dog. I only ever saw the pilot where Eustace gets turned into an alien chicken, and it scared me so bad as a kid I didn't watch the rest of the show. But I know it's about a dog saving his owners - a loving but oblivious woman and a curmudgeonly old man - from supernatural horrors, so looking at this as an outsider... it's a harmless little romp for kids. The two halves of the crossover play nice and I'm sure a Courage fan would get a kick out any Easter eggs and in-jokes, but I wonder how they feel about the mystery Nowhere's history with the supernatural not just getting explained, but in a Scooby-Doo crossover of all things.

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The Lion King 1 1/2 (G)



If this was just about how Timon got exiled from the meerkat colony and met Pumbaa, okay, you'd only have enough story for an episode of Timon & Pumbaa but that'd be a fine half-hour short story. But then it keeps going as Timon and Pumbaa insert themselves into random scenes from the original movie, and it gets annoying. I guess there was no harm in expanding on Timon and Pumbaa raising Simba, but then it goes back into pointless shit territory.

I've heard people say that if The Lion King is Hamlet and The Lion King 2 is Romeo and Juliet, this is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a title I still cannot hear without thinking of Vagrant Story. And I'm sorry, I could only hear Marge Simpson whenever Timon's mother said anything.

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