DCAU #284: Bride of Bizarro

IN THIS ONE... Lobo brings Bizarro to Earth in search of a bride.

CREDITS: Written by Mark Millar; art by Aluir Amancio and Terry Austin.

REVIEW: What happens when you put two annoying characters together? Nothing good. After the show gave us Bizarro + Mzyzptlk, the comics go for Bizarro + Lobo. And it really IS a Bizarro tale. I don't mean that it ends with a caption saying "The Beginning". I mean that almost everyone seems written out of character. Lobo taking an interest. Clark telling Lois to be quiet around the office. Lois screaming "eeeeek". It's always just a bit "off". And then there's the scene where Superman thinks Bizarro killed Lois in order to make a Bizarro version of her, which makes absolutely no sense given what he knows about the Bizarring process. Manufactured tension at its worst, with a sound-proof room offering lame rationale.

There's not much light at the end of this tunnel. Lobo bullying Superman into lighting his cigar (to no avail) isn't a bad bit, nor is Bizarro's giant distress signal. The use of a cosplay convention to convince Bizarro he need not stay - Metropolis IS defended - is kind of cute. But Lobo's a real waste, and there's always something creepy about characters that build their own mates. Not that we're likely to see Bizarro Lois again (at least, not in televised canon).

IN THE MAINSTREAM COMICS: The convention goers are referred to as the Superman Emergency Squad, which was the name given a tiny Kandorian force in the Silver Age. Jimmy's super-charades including a background joke about hook-hand Aquaman, even though that's a few years off in terms of DCAU continuity.

REREADABILITY: Medium-Low - Despite a couple of fun bits, the story is a mess that guest-stars characters I really don't need to see quite this often.