BIZARRO BREAK #6 – Batman Smells
BIZARRO BREAK #6 (Batman Smells)
Writer – Patton Oswalt
Art – Bob Fingerman
Colors – Dave Stewart
Edits – Joey Cavalieri
Special Thanks – David Cross & Bob Odenkirk
Boy, this Bizarro World book has turned out as being something of an “embarrassment of riches” when it comes to Christmas stories! Two outta six so far!
This one comes to us from that dude from The King of Queens… and, I’m sure other stuff too. I’ve only ever read one other comics thing from Oswalt, but if I’m being honest, it’s probably been every bit of twenty years since then. It was JLA: Welcome to the Working Week… and, gun-to-my-head, I couldn’t tell ya a single thing about it.
Let’s look at a shorter subject from the man, and see if that other one might be worth revisiting somewhere down the line…
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We open with a rather stinky-looking Batman preparing to enter this evening’s adventure into his Bat-Log. Oh, by the way… it’s Christmas! Alfred heads over to take the dictation. Apropos of nothing, there has been great care taken into copious amounts of bat-poop being strewn around the cave… like, it looks like hundreds of melted-down candle-stubs. Anyhoo, Batman’s story begins… with a skirmish with Killer Croc in the sewers. Croc manages to best the Bat, dumping him into… well, some very smelly sewage.
A call comes through that the Joker is up to no good, and so, before we know it… Robin arrives on the scene to pick up Batman and hit the trail. During the ride, however, Ra’s al Ghul makes a cameo appearance in order to cast an “Avian Vengeance Spell”, which I didn’t realize was part of his repertoire… but, we’ll allow it. Whatever the case, it causes Robin to… lay an egg. D’ya see where this is headed yet? D’ya?
This egg-laying causes Robin to lose control of the wheel… and, turning tight, sends one of the wheels of the Batmobile flying. At which time, the Joker is more than able to escape pursuit. D’ya geddit yet?
Alfred takes his seat at the Bat-Computer, and asks Bruce to start again from the beginning. Batman decides to just give him the “quick” of it, claiming he’ll fill in the rest of it later. That “quick-version” is… well, pretty familiar if you ever rode the school bus around Christmastime as a kid.
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This was fun! Pretty cute and clever idea for a project such as this. Honestly, in my 30+ years of reading comics, I’m actually sooooorta shocked that this is the first time I’d ever seen a riff on the ol’ “Jingle Bells/Batman Smells” song in a comic! Maybe I’m missing some obvious prior references in the Bat-Books… or heck, maybe I’m just a little too dense to have picked up on them.
Not a whole heckuva lot to say here, other than I had a good time with this. The art wasn’t exactly my favorite… and I could’a done without the almost-passionate prolific placement of the poop.
Overall, a very fun diversion… and another fine chapter in this collection!
