Last year, DC Comics released six one-shot specials that featured DC superheroes and villains interacting with Looney Tunes characters. Elmer Fudd hunted Batman, the Martian Manhunter fought Marvin the Martian, and Lobo became the latest fool to chase down Road Runner. This goofy experiment has since become a semi-annual fifth-week event, with DC releasing new cartoon crossover one-shots on months that have a fifth Wednesday to fill. May featured Hanna-Barbera characters like Jabberjaw and Hong Kong Phooey meeting Aquaman and Black Lighting, and this month ends with four new Looney Tunes books: Catwoman/Tweety & Sylvester, Harley Quinn/Gossamer, The Joker/Daffy Duck, and Lex Luthor/Porky Pig.
This exclusive preview of this week’s Catwoman/Tweety & Sylvester Special goes all out when it comes to the intersection of these two worlds, beginning with a witches conclave that welcomes Looney Tunes’ Witch Hazel to a group of DC magic-users like Zatanna, Klarion, and the hosts of The Witching Hour anthology comic: Mordred, Mildred, and Cynthia. Writer Gail Simone leans hard into the fantasy from the very start, setting the right atmosphere for a story that has Catwoman meeting a lisping cat that falls out of the sky. Meanwhile, Black Canary befriends her own animal companion with a speed impediment when Tweety shows up in her dressing room, setting into motion a mystical plot to determine who reigns supreme in the eternal battle between birds and cats.
The scope of Catwoman/Tweety & Sylvester Special grows to a point where nearly every bird and cat-themed character in the DCU makes an appearance, giving artist Inaki Miranda and colorist Eva De La Cruz a lot to play with as the story turns into a continuity-mining free-for-all. These preview pages highlight how well Miranda reinterprets cartoon characters for a more realistic environment without losing their defining visual traits, and it’s a pleasure to see Miranda and De La Cruz drawing Catwoman again after providing exceptional artwork for an otherwise middling Catwoman run. They get to go bigger and bigger with each page of Simone’s increasingly madcap story, and this creative team understands the expectations of this assignment to deliver a gleeful blend of superhero fisticuffs and cartoon high jinks.