The only reason I picked up this mini-series is because I found out some time ago that Nancy Drew makes a brief appearance in the story - and let's face it, if it has Nancy Drew in it, I'm going to pick it up. What's so funny is that it took me a while to finally find copies of the two issues at somewhat reasonable prices. Not really sure why these are so high-priced, as I can't imagine they had low print-runs, nor can I imagine they are highly collectible, sought-after comics. Yet, it seemed every time I found copies up for sale on eBay or other sites, people wanted $20.00 or more for issues that originally cost only $2.99 when they were originally published back in 2005. Thus, when I finally found both copies up for sale for less than $15 for the two of them, I snagged them! And while I'm neither a fan of the Simpsons, nor Futurama, I had to wonder, since I am a huge fan of parodies (and this was clearly, based on the title and the cover of the second issue, a parody), that I might actually enjoy reading this story.
The Simpsons / Futurama Crisis Crossover II is apparently the second comic book crossover of these two properties, the first having been published in 2002 and 2003 under the name The Futurama / Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis (clearly poking fun at the various names of big "crisis" series from the two major comic companies, DC and Marvel). With this second Crisis mini-series, the Simpsons get top billing. The story is written by Ian Boothby, who apparently wrote quite a number of Simpsons comics for Bongo, and drawn by James Lloyd (pencils) and Steve Steere Jr. (inker). I can't say that I am familiar with either of them, but I do have to say that Steere's art definitely captures of the style of the Simpsons cartoon (as far as I can remember, since I only really watched the first season or so back in the day). Whether Lloyd captures the essence of the characters, I'll leave that to real fans to decide!
The story is set in the Futurama universe, where the Simpsons are apparently fictional characters; yet, somehow, they apparently met once before and now here they are again crossing paths when Professor Farnsworth accidentally brings them (and pretty much ALL of the cast from the Simpsons television show) into their universe by creating a gadget that fractures the barrier between reality and the comic book universe based upon the TV show. Before you know it, the citizens of Springfield are turned into human slaves for the citizens of New New York (the name of the city/state where the characters in Futurama reside). The Simpsons escape by hiding out in Fry's apartment and pretending to be life-size action figures. From here, the gimmick jokes start flying by page after page - Mo is tending bar and gets prank-called by Bart and Bender; Mr. Burns finds himself drawn to Mother; Apu is working at a convenience store; the Simpsons and Futurama cast end up on a frozen planet, hanging upside down in a Wampa cave; from there, they are fighting an Alien (yeah, figure it out) onboard a space ship; and by the end of the first issue, Bart and Bender mess around with the gadget that fractured the barrier and throw it out the window, where it ends up in the town's library - letting loose ever fictional character from every book ever written! (No really! Dr. Farnsworth says so on the last page of the first issue, so it must be true!)
And so, we ease on over to the second issue, where the fictional characters have taken over! A martian from Mars Attacks is a newscaster! Dracula is the mayor! Hobbits and John Grisham lawyers have taken over Broadway! The Complete Works of Stephen King are chasing the denizens of Futurama and Springfield! And while all of this is going on, Mr. Burns and Mother watch with glee... Dr. Seuss characters hop on pop (er, that is, Homer), while Marge is surrounded by characters from the covers of romance novels ("take your time," she says to those who are coming to help her!). And my favorite scene of all, which is the whole reason I bought these two comics, occurs on page 13 (hmmmm, my favorite number! a coincidence?!), when Lisa is trying to run away from Mr. Smithers' sword fight with one of the musketeers - and gets tripped by three of her favorite literary characters: Pippi Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables, and ... wait for it ... yes, our very own NANCY DREW! In this one panel, America's favorite sleuth makes her first and only Simpsons' comic book appearance, with her original text blond hair and favorite color blue dress. Sadly, she has no dialogue and does not appear in any additional panels (even though Pippi and Anne do! Not fair!).
I did find the DC and Marvel comic book hero references to be amusing, as all of the characters are kept in the shadows for "copyright protection," as the shadowed-out Spider-Man tells Bart. And when the heroes are about to come after him, he outwits them with the best solution possible - pitting them in a battle against each other (DC vs. Marvel), because as any real comic fan knows, comic book heroes will always fight each other at the drop of a hat (which even Fry, in the far, far future, knows!). So, how do they ultimately put a stop to the literary lunacy? Why, with a giant Homer Simpson, taken straight out of the first Simpsons comic book published by Bongo, of course! Remember, this is a comic book based on two comedy cartoons, so it doesn't necessarily have to make sense!
While I would not necessarily say these two issues were great reading, I would say there are some cute jokes, a few fun parodies, and a "gotcha" cliffhanger ending. Regardless, it is another Nancy Drew collectible, so as far as I'm concerned, it was money well spent.
RATING: 5 spools of number three thread out of 10 simply for the Nancy Drew appearance, as well as a few literary jokes sprinkled in here and there...
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