Review – DC’s Spring Breakout #1: Chaotic Vacations

DC’s Spring Breakout #1 – Joey Esposito, Thomas Krajewski, Meghan Fitzmartin, James Reid, Mike W. Barr, Patrick R. Young, Morgan Hampton, Cameron Chittock, Writers; Vasco Georgiev, Wes St. Clair, Gavin Guidry, Skott Kolins, Kenya Danino, Nico Bascunan, Paul Pelletier/Norm Rapmund, Marco Santucci, Artists; Ivan Plascencia, Rico Renzi, John Kalisz, Emilio Lopez, Eren Angiolini, Arif Prianto, Colorists

Ray – 8.5/10

Ray: DC’s spring anthologies are always odd ones, without a clear theme beyond getting outdoors and having fun—but that freedom can sometimes lead to the best stories. How does this one shake out?

“Field Trip” by Esposito and Georgiev has Harley Quinn planning an epic birthday celebration for one of her Suicide Squad buddies—King Shark. After breaking Sharky out of Belle Reve, Harley’s portals backfire a bit and send them to the middle of a Justice League Dark battle, followed by a deep-space adventure with a very confused Hal Jordan, and eventually to a team-up with Superman that leads to them all being captured by Mxyzptlk. It’s exactly as funny and chaotic as you’d expect a Harley story to be.

“Cold Feet” by Krajewski and St. Clair focuses on Mister Freeze crashing a Gotham party with Bruce Wayne in attendance—and soon getting into a fight with Batman, as Freeze attempts to kidnap a doctor who might be able to cure Nora. But the heart of the story is a flashback to Bruce’s childhood, shortly after he lost his parents, and how one random woman taught him to dance again and brought him out of his shell. The twist ending is a little predictable, but still packs a nice emotional punch.

“Relay for Your Life” by Fitzmartin and Guidry picks up with the original Teen Titans after their recent mini, as they try to de-stress with spring break at the beach like normal teenagers. But they’re not normal teenagers—and their party is soon crashed, first by the Fearsome Five, and then by the Aquaman villain Charybdis, who is terrorizing everyone over the death of his wife. It’s a little chaotic, but Aqualad gets a nice chance to shine and Guidry’s old-school art is a lot of fun like it was on Superman ‘78.

“The Day the Robot Danced” by Reid and Kolins turns the focus on the Metal Men, as Doc Magnus debuts his latest invention—a hyper-intelligent arbiter named the Great Brain that could end all wars—but it goes missing from his lab, and the Metal Men chase it down to… spring break in Florida? This leads each of the robots to take their own unique role in the search, with one having an unexpected secret and one getting a boost in confidence. This feels like a parody of classic beach movies fused with hard-sci-fi and it’s always great to see Kolins’ art.

“Soul Survivor” by DC legend Mike Barr and Kenya Danino is a high-intensity Katana tale that finds her at the mercy of a ruthless assassin whose husband fell at Katana’s sword—and is now obsessed with a dark ritual that might return his soul to her. This is more possible than she knows, of course, so Katana is between a rock and a hard place. There’s some great art and a seriously tense plot, but it doesn’t fit at all with the theme of the issue. Barr has earned getting to have his stories placed wherever he wants, though.

“Buried Alive” by Young and Bascunan also leans heavily into the “breakout” side of things, with Lex Luthor waking up to discover he’s been buried alive and has only minutes to figure out his next move. This is a strong look into Luthor’s obsessiveness and how he views himself as humanity’s savior, and the way it just throws us into the action is very good at getting us invested—and then there’s the last twist, which is out there but also feels very in-character for Lex and the way his mind works.

“Shape-Shift In The Park” by Hampton and Pelletier has Martian Manhunter enjoying a play in the park—until people start heckling the lead actor, and he comes apart. Literally, because it’s Clayface. What ensues is something between a superhero battle and a play, as Manhunter and Clayface take on each other’s worst fears and try to psych them out. The dialogue is a little odd in places, especially towards the end, but the idea of a battle between two shapeshifters is something we don’t see too often.

“Opening Day” by Chittock and Santucci is our grand finale, and this Superman tale focuses on the opening day of the baseball season. As Superman and Jimmy attend a game and wait for a unique show in the sky, a supervillain decides to give them another one. This is a fun story with a good look at the more human side of Superman, but it’s odd—the villain is one who very notably died in comics over a year ago, and so it feels very random. But Chittock has a great handle on the world of Metropolis.

Overall, this is a fun anthology, but it feels much more scattered than previous ones.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.