The girls and Ben look like they’re about to compete over who can swipe Jack’s sword.
Cartoon Network Super Sampler
IDW Comics (October, 2013; posted to comiXology November, 2013)
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Rachel Gluckstern
EDITOR: Joan Hilty
Samurai Jack: “ Double Dutch Death Valley”
WRITER: Robbie Busch
ARTIST: Mark Chiarello
LETTERER: Nick J. Napolitano
The Powerpuff Girls: “The Big Green Wall”
WRITER: Robbie Rusch
PENCILER: Ricardo Garcia-Fuentes
INKER: Mike DeCarlo
COLORING: Heroic Age
LETTERER: Travis Lantham
Ben 10: “Ole”
WRITERS/CREATORS: Man Of Action
ARTIST: Dario Brizuela
COLORING: Heroic Age
LETTERER: Nick J. Napolitano
Did they honestly just reuse the Free Comic Book Day Samurai Jack story in their Halloween Comicfest book? What’s more it’s already a reprint from a DC Comics anthology. Well if they’re going to be lazy so will I. From that review: “Jack’s search for a way back brings him to the desert and a group of jump roping kids who happened to be possessed by Aku. So was the time tunnel a fake so Aku could toy with Jack? A decent enough story but I think I’m spoiled by Jim Zub’s run on the solo series.” And now I wonder if the other two stories are reprints as well?
Our second tale has the Gangreen Gang getting their hands on one of Mojo Jojo’s experiments and using it to cause havoc in Townsville. Mojo tries to reclaim it and just ends up giving the Powerpuff Girls the tool they need to save the day. It’s a fun little story, and there’s a nice nod to Top Cat and Benny from Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat cartoon.
Yep, they must all be DC reprints because the Ben 10 story, despite the reboot cartoon character model on the cover, is also from Cartoon Network Action Pack. It was also in a previous IDW sampler. So from the original review: “The Tennysons are checking out a bullfight in Mexico not knowing that the bull is a robot. The matador just wanted to create a show and get his fans further behind him but when the robot goes berserk Ben and the Omnitrix goes into action. It’s an okay story but nothing spectacular.”
So what we have here are reprints of stories from a different company and not even very good ones. They weren’t bad but they weren’t all that spectacular either. Ben 10 never had a solo run outside of two graphic novels from another publisher and I haven’t read many issues of the Powerpuff Girls solo comics, but as far as Samurai Jack stick to the IDW run with Jim Zub and just watch the shows for them all.
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