Batman / Elmer Fudd #1 Review

...I'm Hunting Bats

Writer: Tom King
Art by: Lee Weeks, Loven Kindzierski, Deron Bennett, Byron Vaughns and Carrie Strachan
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: June 28, 2017


Before the Looney Tune and DC crossovers were even announced, this was the one book I was looking forward to the most. Between being a big Tom King fan, a big Looney Tune fan, and being possibly a little more fun than we’ve seen from Tom since Grayson, this book seemed completely geared for me. So without further ado did it live up to my expectations? Let’s find out.

As we kick off with a monologue from Fudd it’s a little hard to get into the Fudd speak at the start. We get him talking of the rain and a little noir set-up as he heads into Porky’s bar. He’s hunting wabbit and he’s seemed to have found his pwey.

Now right away this book is starting off STRONG on my good side. If I didn’t already love the elements that it consists of enough with this opening scene we get the impression of a scenario similar to Fables, a Vertigo book by Bill Willingham, in that the inhabitants of the Looney Tunes now find themselves in the real world looking like real humans. Now I’m injecting a bit into it, but seeing the different characters and seeing them have their characteristics mixed with their sayings really puts me in mind of Fables.

We get the low down on the story up to this point as it seems Elmer Fudd is in search of Bugs after he has killed a woman. He doesn’t deny it outright and after a short time he comes up with the idea to give up who hired him in order to save his life. Elmer doesn’t agree out right but does eventually get the name of Bruce Wayne. He’s now on the hunt for a different “pwey” and sets out on his plan as we learn more of the backstory to this point. Silver St. Cloud is the woman that Bugs supposedly killed and it just so happens Fudd was madly in love with her.

Fudd does eventually make his attempt on Bruce Wayne’s life and believing he is successful flees with Batman eventually following in tow. We get some fighting between Fudd and Batman that is all worked together pretty well and believable, but they eventually stop to think out what’s going on. Agreeing to revisit the bunny they eventually go back to Porky’s for more great scenes with the denizens and a lot of fighting. For it to eventually lead to the very noir-like ending that works quite nicely.

Overall I really loved this. It’s by far the standout and absolute best of the Looney Tune crossovers to this point and is far and away the first I’ve read that’s actually fun and does something refreshing. It doesn’t just inject the character into the DCU and tries to come up with a story, but actually comes up with a fitting and refreshing idea that a lot of stories could come out of. The similarities to Fables could be swaying me a bit, but it’s a large part of the idea I get from this issue.

Now with that being said there are some negatives. The Fudd-speak is a bit hard to get in to and can be annoying to follow throughout the entire issue. The story doesn’t completely make sense as I don’t completely get what the motive was for the trickery. There’s also a little of the patented King repetition to add to the mix. But I think it says a lot for the fun and refreshing take on this issue that makes me willing to overlook any of the issues I have with it. It’s just fun.

Bits and Pieces:

A little bit of Fables mixed with a Noir tale seems like an odd combination for what comes out to feel like a fun and refreshing take to these Looney Tunes DC crossovers. By far the best of the one-shots to this point.

8.8/10