DC's Terrors Through Time #1 [Part Two] - DC Comics

DC'S TERROR THROUGH TIME No. 1, December 2022

Supposedly depicting “the story of the Gotham City Sirens’ first sorta true meet-up”, Peter V. Nguyen’s "The Pueo Promise" possibly pleased some within this anthology’s audience with its abundance of “Scooby-Doo” flavoured antics and girl-powered high jinks. But considering that the Honolulu-born writer pens a story featuring the “fourth pillar” in “DC Comics” publishing line there arguably isn’t much for Harley Quinn to do except scowl from the side-lines whilst both Poison Ivy and Selina Kyle take the lion’s share of the tale’s limelight; “Pamela, wake up! We need you in this fight -- Catwoman won’t last long out there…”

Furthermore, due in part to the author’s lavish art style, many a bibliophile would debatably have been utterly bemused as to what is actually going on within this yarn’s narrative, especially towards the end of the adventure when there’s the distinct suggestion the three anti-heroines are battling an army of undead ‘somethings’ who are all under the thrall of some Greek-looking deity. Such a scenario probably made a lot of sense to Nguyen considering his background in Hawaiian folklore. But for those unfamiliar with the Owl Prince and just how the god somehow conjures up ghosts from one moment to the next, the premise of Kyle subsequently having to relocate “roughly two million cats” to Gotham City in order to save the day is a real head scratcher.

Similarly as bizarre, though much more followable, is “Half-Life” by Zac Thompson, which follows the exploits of two survivors eking out a living in a post-apocalyptic Washington Exclusion Zone. Wary of eating radioactive berries, the pair inadvertently wander into the lair of a truly-mutated Chimera and are only saved from a gruesome death by the Swamp Thing bravely allowing himself to be eaten instead.

Pencilled by Andy McDonald, this ten-pager’s artwork definitely provides the futuristic fable with some pulse-pounding pace, as the multi-headed crocodilian crashes through a man-made shelter in its eagerness to consume human flesh, and subsequently slices Alec Holland’s alter-ego to pieces using the aeroplane rotor engine it inexplicably has lodged in its chest. The design of so grotesque a creature really is highly memorable, so it’s something of a shame that the grisly brute is finally only laid low by getting old, and having its mechanical maw defeated by one too many entangling vines.

The regular cover art to "DC'S TERRORS THROUGH TIME" #1 by John McCrea & Mike Spicer