80-Page Thursdays: DC's Spring Breakout! #1

The day I picked this up was a busy one! I had to replace the battery in my car, which took a bit of doing: walk to the O'Reilly's, walk back with the battery, bike back to the hardware store for a ratchet set...I was lucky enough to get done before it started raining, and the rest of the day kind of looked like how everyone thinks it does here all the time: namely, Seattle gray and rainy. But I had to rush, to make it to a sale the next town over! Anyway, I'm nattering on, since this won't fit in the scanner, and it's also appropriate for here that the cover says "Eight Sensational Stories to Spring you Forward" and we look at it the week we fall back! From 2024, DC's Spring Breakout! #1, with stories by Joey Esposito, Thomas Krajewski, Mike W. Barr, and more; and art by Nico Bascuñán, Scott Kolins, Marco Santucci, and more.

Oddly, only maybe two stories seem really spring break-related: the Teen Titans "Relay for your Life," where Robin tries, and mostly fails, at turning a beach day into team-building exercises; and the Metal Men in "The Day the Robot Danced." Has Scott Kolins done other Metal Men stories? Good fit there. Doc Magnus's latest robot has disappeared, Gold has called in sick but really just wanted a day off, and the Doc might've been distracted when sending Iron and Lead to enter a surf contest. A helpful surfer helps Tin get the hang of it, and he also figures out the new robot's problem: namely, it was built to be too serious, which means Doc Magnus took a perfectly good robot and gave it anxiety.

In "Field Trip" Harley Quinn swings back by Belle Reve prison, to bust King Shark out for some birthday fun: I want to say Harley's currently written as well-intentioned but seemingly with the superpower to make bad decisions. The trip involves an alien monster, space, and Metropolis, because that's how she rolls. "Cold Feet" is a character piece with Batman and Mr. Freeze: Bruce Wayne is a wallflower at his own party, until Mr. Freeze shows up. Stalling, Batman explains, without any direct references to himself, that he didn't like to dance, as he had lost his partner, namely, his mom. But he still ended up at balls or cotillions or whatever, and at one a striking ballerina asks him to dance, which both brings him out of himself a little, but also teaches him how to lead...like, to lead Freeze directly into a trap. But, shades of the Gotham TV show here: the ballerina had been Nora, who had been Freeze's fiance at the time--and was at the party! He met young Bruce! That almost feels like Freeze should be putting two-and-two together in the paddy wagon.

Mike W. Barr's "Soul Survivor" maybe doesn't have anything to do with spring break, but didn't Barr create Katana? Yeah, he can do whatever. Superman and Jimmy are catching "Opening Day" for the Metropolis Meteors, and "Shape-Shift in the Park" has an unusual face-off--multiple face-offs!--with Clayface crashing a Shakespeare in the Park thing, and the Martian Manhunter being forced to play opposite him. The Lex Luthor story might be the oddest, as Lex finds himself buried alive, but getting himself out is how he proves to himself that he was better than those who were just "given" powers. But was he President again? Or maybe this was set when he was...? A choice, that also doesn't really sing 'spring break,' but this wasn't bad. I did get another 80-pager, but am mildly disappointed since I had been looking for DC's I Know What You Did Last Crisis, although that one maybe doesn't have the jokes the cover makes you think it might.