A to Z: A...mbush Bug

OH EM GEE! A new article? A new FEATURE?! And so soon after the last one? It's almost like I actually do stuff! If you can't work out what I'm going to do with a series called A to Z... Well, you're not very intuitive.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when I bring up a beloved 4th wall breaking character or series that stretches the imagination, makes you laugh and breaks down comics on a fundamental level? Not just that but a comic that begins with the letter A?

Yes Anima- NO NOT FLARKING ANIMAL MAN! I'm talking about the crazed green guy with the creepy doll for a child! I'm talking AMBUSH BUG! And more specifically his awesome 1985 limited series.


A series unlike any other (except the other Ambush Bug series' out there), Ambush Bug managed to be straight-up comedy and parody other comics and tropes without having to resort to the shoddy modern Deadpool 'wink at the reader' stylings. In fact the series turned out to be massively prescient, predicting such things as Darkseid sitting in a heroes flat waiting for them (retarded Mary Marvel moment in Countdown to Final Crisis anyone?). It also shows an anarchic hate for everyone, be it the readers, characters in the DC universe, or even just the staff working on the book themselves. In fact it hates DC characters so much that it actually devotes page time to bring up how freakish some characters are, like that 'midget' Wonder Tot, or the Legion of Super-Pets (they were a group?!):


The story itself in Ambush Bug is completely pointless, in that there isn't one. It's just the creators pissing about and doing whatever they find appropriate issue to issue, whether it be taking the mick out of different countries, what the comic would be like done by other artists, the appearance of a villain who doesn't even belong in the final issue and having a fight between Ambush Bug and said villain drawn by the creator's son because Keith Giffen came down with a virus. If comics tried to pull this stuff off, even in satire, nowadays comic fans would hunt it down and declare it the biggest rip-off ever (with the exception of Ambush Bug: Year None, which has been accepted with no issue, so perhaps I should shut up and walk away) but Ambush Bug defies the money-wasting aspect of the comic by being a rip-roaring (I did NOT just say 'rip-roaring' did I?) adventure into DC obscurity through silliness.

I can't believe these bloody fools actually think that the English even bloody speak like that, those c**ts!

In fact writing about it has been nigh-on impossible due to how ridiculous and pointless the whole affair is. I may as well just curl up in a ball and pretend I never tried to write about it. No, that's the weak person's way out. I WILL POWER THROUGH THIS! Ambush Bug is one of the best comic series of all time and has rightfully earned it's place as the first series I ramble aimlessly about on A to Z. It's even quite easy to find now that it's collected in a brilliant Showcase volume alongside some of the character's small-time appearances and the Son of Ambush Bug series. If you haven't peeked into this series you should really buy a copy, chuckle a lot and then wish that I had written about it in a way that was actually interesting and more than just a vague ramble.

SOPHISTICATED!

LINK TO THE SHOWCASE VOLUME

So if that's A, what's B? B...etter Written, I hope!