Comics this 'n' that

No comic book reviews this time. That'll be later in the week, but a couple of big news stories have broken today.

DC Comics has announced that there will be 4 annuals in March linking together some of DC's most popular characters with some of Hanna-Barbera's. Some of this is just too wack to contemplate, but judge for yourselves:

Adam Strange-Future Quest: Spinning out of the current Death of Hawkman miniseries (don't ask), Strange winds up on an Earth he's not familiar with, and meets up with the Quest team. In the back-up, the Batman has a most unlikely visitor in the Batcave-----Top Cat! Marc Andreyko & Jeff Parker, the co-writers of the forthcoming Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 miniseries, co-wrote the lead feature, drawn by Steve Lieber, while Phil Winslade gets to draw Top Cat. Oh, this will be fun.

Booster Gold-The Flintstones: Mark Russell, writer of the Flinstones monthly, has Fred and BFF Barney Rubble meet up with Booster, who hails from the 25th century (no Buck Rogers jokes, please). The Jetsons, last seen in Scooby-Doo Team-Up issue 8, get a modern makeover from Amanda Connor & Jimmy Palmiotti (Harley Quinn), and it appears that the Palmiottis have cooked up an "untold origin" of Rosie, the Jetsons' robot maid.

Space Ghost-Green Lantern. Enough said. Howard Chaykin has been tasked with a back-up feature with H-B's first primetime stars, Ruff & Reddy.

Finally, there's the Suicide Squad (speaking of Harley), getting bailed out by the most unlikely rescuers of all time-------

THE BANANA SPLITS!

I'll pause while you ask......

SAY WHAT?

Yeah, as goofy as it sounds. Ben Caldwell (Prez) returns to draw this one, written by Tony Bedard. Snagglepuss is in the backup slot, drawn by Dale Eaglesham.

Some of you are asking, why doesn't Scooby-Doo merit an annual? Well, not yet anyway, but weirder things are happening. However, if Space Ghost-Green Lantern does the amount of business I expect it to, we could see the Phantom of the Spaceways meet the rest of the Justice League in 2018 or sooner.
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Over at Archie, they need to put up the "Caveat Emptor" sign with these solicitations, also due in March.

The New Riverdale line tests the waters with a Sabrina the Teenage Witch 1-shot, spinning out of her appearance in Jughead 9-11. This story, though, has Sabrina on her first day at school. Hmmmm. Also, we'll see The Archies finally come together. That's the good news. The bad? Alex Segura, who hasn't exactly won fans with his mishandling of the Dark Circle line, is writing. Speaking of Dark Circle, Frank Tieri, whose Hangman seems to only show up when its artist feels like finishing an issue, moves over to the other beleagured line, Archie Horror, for a twisted take on Jughead. The subtitle, The Hunger, suggests that ol' Juggie may either be a vampire in this continuity, outside of Afterlife With Archie, or, worse, a cannibal. Can't guarantee this will be on time, either.

Rounding out the quartet is the revival of Little Archie, in the very capable hands of Art Baltazar and Franco, who've previously done Tiny Titans, among other projects, for DC, and L'il Hellboy for Dark Horse. I've a feeling two of these books will graduate to ongoing, and I think you know which two.

Unfortunately, the revived Reggie & Me, which just launched, has been downgraded to a 5-issue miniseries, presumably due to poor advance orders. The way Reggie Mantle has been reposited as having no redeeming value at all in the New Riverdale line, should that be a surprise?