Dastardly & Muttley #1

Writer: Garth Ennis

Artist: Mauricet

Colorist: John Kalisz

Published by: DC Comics

I can’t start this review without first mentioning that when I read the writing credit for this book, I did a double-take. Garth Ennis? The guy who wrote an ultra-violent take on the Punisher years back? Taking on a Hanna-Barbera property? Really?

After my initial shock, I have to say, this was a pretty fun book. Since 2016, DC Comics seemingly have been giving free-reign to the Hanna-Barbera properties to well established writers and artists to do with what they will. This spawned the Scooby gang navigating a zombie apocalypse, a Flintstones book that took a harsh look at today’s society through the lens of a prehistoric family living in Bedrock, and turned the Wacky Drivers into a Mad Max pastiche. Dastardly & Muttley, in this first issue, seem to be going in that same direction.

We start with, what else, a nuclear bomb going off in the middle of a middle eastern country and Lt. Col. R. Atcherly “Dick” and Capt. D. Muller “Mutt” are sent to try and retrieve a lost drone that was surveying the nuclear fallout. Oh, did I mention Mutt brought his dog along? After some pretty funny banter between the two, they finally find the drone, nicknamed War Pig One, only to discover that not only is it not crashed and missing, but fully operational and secreting what I can only describe as swear symbols as gas. After passing through this chemtrail, Dick and Mutt begin experiencing a pretty trippy ride before seemingly crash landing their jet. Without giving too much away, things just start getting weirder from there.

After this first issue, I commend Ennis for continuing this insanely weird ride that DC Comics has taken the reader on with these Hanna-Barbera reimaginings. He nails the witty repartee between Mutt and Dick and sets up some intriguing clues as to what we can expect going forward in the story. If it wasn’t clear from my review, Mutt begins as human, but unfortunately the cover does kinda spoil what happens to him after the crash, which you can’t always lay at the feet of the writer. Either way, this was a pretty entertaining issue that was made even better by Mauricet’s art.