The team-ups between the DC Universe and Looney Toons continues with a tale of corporate synergy and secrecy.
Lex Luthor / Porky Pig 1
Written by Mark Russell and Jim Fanning
Pencils by Brad Walker and John Loter
Inks by Andrew Hennessy and Paul J. Lopez
Colors by Andrew Dalhouse and Paul J. Lopez
I became a fan of Mark Russell when he was writing THE FLINTSTONES for DC Comics over the last couple of years. In that 12-issue series, he took beloved characters from another era and put them up against themes that plague us in the modern day. Amazingly, despite themes that these characters never would have faced in the cartoon from the 1960s, he managed to write stories that still stayed true to their natures.
With his success there, enlisting Russell to write one of these Looney Tunes crossovers made perfect sense.
In this odd team-up between billionaire supervillain Lex Luthor and one of the best-known sidekicks in all of cartoons, Russell turns to the ills of corporate greed, where you can’t trust anyone if you could possibly stand in the way of their making a buck.
Here, Porky is a patsy. He made a killing with cryptocurrency before a scandal sent him packing. At his lowest point, walking away from a job waiting tables, he was hired by Lex Luthor to run social media for a new branch of LexCorp. Porky quickly makes his way up the corporate ladder as Luthor continues to scheme.
It’s pretty clear what’s going to happen to Porky, but under Russell’s guidance, it’s still pretty heartbreaking when it’s all said and done.
We get the full scope of Lex’s machinations in front of a congressional hearing into corporate malfeasance, but Luthor’s appearance at the Capitol isn’t the only time we spend there in the issue.
Russell includes two other big bads of the DC Universe as corporate heads under investigation – Dr. Sivana (one of Shazam’s arch-enemies) and Professor Ivo (a mad scientist who created the Amazo android to vex the Justice League). Sivana and Ivo spend the issue dodging inquiries from their questioners and seeking advice from the more successful Luthor.
DC Comics should really give Russell free reign to take these older characters and reinvent them for modern sensibilities, because he’s done great jobs with everything he’s done so far. I’m ready to spend money on whatever Russell ends up doing.