“Today’s” Comic> Barham Asylum FCBD Preview

And yet I avoided the Absolute Power and Barda YA FCBD previews.

Barkham Asylum 2024 FCBD Special Edition

DC Comics (June, 2024)

WRITER/ARTIST: Yehudi Mercado

LETTERER: Saida Temofonte

“Diana And The Hero’s Journey”

WRITERS/ARTISTS?: Grace Ellis & Penelope Rivera Gaylord

LETTERER: Lucas Gattoni

In the first story, one of the Joker’s two guard dogs, Jester, is more interested in making people (well, animals), laugh. That doesn’t sit well with Chuckles, the other dog who is more focused on his work. Jester’s jokes fail to make Chuckles laugh, but it does get a laugh from a stray cat we later learn is named Penny. In return he helps her steal a leftover pizza slice from a restaurant display and she tries to convince the dog that his “friends” are actually bad guys…who ends up busted by Batman. Seeing supervillain pets as too much of a liability and mistaking Penny for one of the Joker’s (Chuckles gets away), she and Jester are taken to Barkham Asylum.

As an introduction to the story, this works. You get a good introduction to Jester and Penny and the concept for the full graphic novel. It even sort of works as a standalone, though on that level it doesn’t do more than introduce Jester, Penny, and Chuckles, and we don’t even know that Chuckles will show up again. I like the artwork. This might be worth checking out.

The story of little Diana, princess of Themyscira, is totally preview with a story that doesn’t stand alone. It’s the start of the story as the chef tells her the story of Hero (get it?), a woman warrior on a quest for a special sword with her talking dog. The chef tries to add a bit more pizazz to the telling as they come upon a talking door that will only open if Hero tells her a secret that right now Hero herself doesn’t know. The telling ends with bandits descend on the hero.

I get the feeling that the writer/artist team just wanted to tell this story and is using the future Wonder Woman as a way to get it to a mass audience. It could be that once the chef tells the story that it ties into some story young or present day Wonder Woman ends up dealing with, but that’s not the impression the preview gives. I can’t tell you the story of course, I’m judging the preview and it doesn’t feel like a Wonder Woman story so much as using Wonder Woman to get the story of Hero and her talking dog published by DC. Also, given current mindsets I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t something about this being “Hero’s journey”, given that the hero’s journey is currently under attack by the usual suspects. That I hope I’m wrong about and it’s actually showing how a female hero can have a proper hero’s journey instead of already being good at everything. I probably wouldn’t check this one out, though.

As it is I’d have to hear more about Barkham Asylum, but I don’t know about Diana And The Hero’s Journey since it doesn’t sound like the type of Wonder Woman story I’d be interested in based on the preview alone. Remember, these are supposed to get people interested in a full graphic novel or series, and that’s how I’ve judged both stories as far as what to spend time and money on.