Review:
Who knew Gotham and Riverdale were so close together? Our characters pop back and forth between the locations so much and so easily throughout this fun six-part limited series cross-over that, if not exactly a suburban commute, it's certainly day-trippable.
I picked up this gorgeous hardcover collected edition, a beautiful book with glossy finishes and packed with fun extras. The variant cover gallery shows the sheer delight artists like Jae Lee, Gene Ha and Dan Parent took in pairing these four ladies. And the draft sketches give great peeks into their artistic and creative processes.
This is fundamentally a concept piece - overlapping two very different worlds - and to some extent the story scarcely matters. For what it's worth: Veronica's father, Mr. Lodge the wealthy businessman, wants to turn the local swamp into a university and mall as his next grand business venture. On hearing the news, Poison Ivy determines to preserve the area's biodiversity and endangered species. So she and Harley Quinn travel to Riverdale to persuade him to change his mind. When he inevitably turns them down, Gotham's anti-hero duo decides to infiltrate the local high school scene and kidnap Veronica.
But at a teenager party, they wind up magically body-swapped, Freaky Friday style, with Betty and Veronica. Hilarious hijinks ensue as they encounter loads of other characters from both universes. Riverdalians like Reggie Mantle, Moose, Midge and Principal Weatherbee on one hand; Gothamites like Zatanna, Joker, Catwoman and even Alfred on the other.
It's an odd, occasionally indulgent romp of a collision between Gotham and Riverdale. And it works, for the most part. By pulling from the lighter, goofier side of the Harley and Ivy spectrum and pairing it with the more YA end of Archie and friends, writers Paul Dini and Marc Andreyko find enough overlap to sell this crossover. The result is much more successful and entertaining than the awful DC Meets Hanna Barbera crossovers, which fell flat in part because of the vast differences between those universes.
Artists Laura Braga and Adriana Melo match the fun tone with their bright, open images and the glossy treatment of this collection really lets them shine. And I loved the attention to detail of the fashions - de rigueur in the land of Betty and Veronica comics, in which the teens have a seemingly endless closet. But superheroes tend to wear the same thing over and over. But even Ivy and Harley get into the changes, and I count at least five different outfits on them as well.
This is a delightful meeting of two beloved comics universes and their much-adored leading ladies. With a beautiful package and loads of attention to the little details, it's a success!
Description:
The bad girls of Gotham meet the good girls of Riverdale!
Hiram Lodge (Veronica's father) wants to invest in the future by building a university with free tuition for Riverdale's residents. His site is a protected swamp on the outskirts of town, and once news of the plan reaches Gotham City, a certain eco-warrior (a.k.a. Poison Ivy) is determined to prevent the dream from becoming reality.
However, once Poison Ivy and her bestie Harley Quinn arrive, they get mixed up in the sort of hijinks that can only happen in Riverdale. At a superhero-themed costume party, the night's entertainment--Zatanna-- manages to place the personas of the Gotham City Sirens into the bodies of the town's notorious frenemies: Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. While Ivy (in Ronnie's body) seeks to derail Lodge's agenda from within, more than a few nefarious forces--from Jason and Cheryl Blossom to the Clown Prince of Crime himself--have their own foul plans.
This groundbreaking miniseries teams up two of fandom's best-known duos, bringing the ladies of Gotham and Riverdale together for the first time! This madcap mayhem comes courtesy of Paul Dini (Harley Quinn) and Marc Andreyko (Wonder Woman '77), with art by Laura Braga (DC Comics: Bombshells)!
Collects: Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica #1-6
Authors: Paul Dini, Marc Andreyko
Artists: Laura Braga, Adriana Melo
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Sept. 4, 2018
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN: 978-1401280338
Pages: 160 pages
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