DC Comics Presents, Vol. 1

#81

Release: Feb 07, 1985

Cover: May 1985

Creators

Writer	Keith Giffen, Robert Loren Fleming
Cover Penciller	Keith Giffen
Cover Inker	Dick Giordano
Penciller	Keith Giffen
Inker	Bob Oksner
Colorist	Anthony Tollin
Letterer	Bill Pearson
Editor	Julius Schwartz

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Yeah! That’s it! I’m dead! What a relief!

A recent exchange on Bluesky about his first appearance got me to thinking about the evolution of Ambush Bug.

Ambush Bug made his first appearance in DC Comics Presents #52, which was a team-up between Superman and the (New) Doom Patrol.

In that first appearance he was already a manic and madcap Bugs Bunnyesque trickster, but he was also a full-on dangerous criminal bursting on the scene by murdering the Metropolis District Attorney.

Things kind of ease up from there, as he spends the rest of the issue, until he’s finally caught, engaging in acts of mayhem that are more annoying than deadly.

By his second appearance in DC Comics Presents #59 – a team-up between Superman and the Legion of Substitute Heroes – Buggy runs amok in the 30th Century, this time without any murder at all.

His third appearance finds him causing problems for Superman’s cousin Supergirl as he escapes from prison and heads to Chicago, which is where the Maid of Might had settled in those days. At this point, Ambush Bug decides to make a career change and become a superhero.

It goes about as well as you might expect, and ultimately he finds himself back in prison.

From there, the character undergoes significant changes as he makes appearances in three issues of Action Comics. His costume becomes permanently attached to him, his ability to teleport is no longer reliant on the use of robotic insect drones, any villainous tendencies he’d had are eliminated, and he begins breaking the fourth wall.

Which, finally, leads us to this issue, his final appearance in DC Comics Presents, a point at which that pesky little murder seems to have simply slipped everyone’s minds.

Not being a villain doesn’t mean that he doesn’t still cause mayhem, and the issue starts with the Bug out on a golf course just being his zany self, much to the chagrin of everyone else out on the links.

While he’s there, he finds a strange glowing red gem and excitedly teleports away in search of a jeweler.

AB, it seems, wants to give the gem to Superman to help mend fences between them, and has it polished and set in a necklace.

Superman, meanwhile, is in the Fortress of Solitude, blowing off steam while simultaneously training himself to use his other super-senses by engaging in a an exercise that involves wearing a lead blindfold.

Ambush Bug pops in to surprise him with the gift, but it turns out to be an even bigger surprise – for both of them – as the strange red gem turns out to be a chunk of Red Kryptonite, a form of Kryptonite that has unpredictable effects on Kryptonians that can last anywhere from 12 to 48 hours.

In this case, the effect is a Freaky Friday scenario, causing Superman and Ambush Bug to swap bodies.

After things calm down a bit, Superman – in Ambush Bug’s body – tells Ambush Bug – in Superman’s body – that he appreciates the gesture and it’s not really his fault, but he has caused a problem, as what if something that looks like a job for Superman should happen while they’re like this?

Ambush Bug gets exactly the wrong idea from this and decides to go out into the world to try to fill Superman’s boots for the duration.

Superman is unable to pursue him as he is detained by his own robots who do not recognize him as their master, and just as Ambush Bug isn’t particularly adept at using Superman’s powers, Superman has no idea how to use Ambush Bug’s teleportation abilities.

While all of this is happening, the terrorist leader Kobra, the Deadliest Man Alive, has been stalking Ambush Bug as he wants to get his scaly hands on Buggy’s suit in order to make its teleportation circuitry his own.

When he finally makes his move he is stunned to discover Superman at the offices of A. Bug.

When he burst in, Kobra meant to introduce himself boldly, as any self-respecting villain would, but sputtered in surprise, seeming to refer to himself as “Koko.”

After he runs off, Ambush Bug considers that “Koko’s” bald head looks familiar, and given that KK is right next to LL, determines that “Koko” is none other than Lex Luthor, so he flies off in pursuit.

Or at least attempts to. He hasn’t quite mastered that.

So instead, he runs after him.

But he hasn’t mastered that, either, so he ends up running around the world multiple times.

Back at the Fortress, Superman is having no luck convincing his robots that he’s really the Man of Steel or at figuring out how to teleport.

Kobra decides to kill Superman and decides on a location where the two can square off.

Ambush Bug does finally manage to stop at Coney Island, but an unfortunate burst of heat vision leads to a raging conflagration causing Kobra to beat a hasty retreat while still being pursused.

In the Arctic, Superman finally unlocks the secret to teleportation.

He finds himself in the water just off Coney Island just before the effects of the Red K wear off.

Kobra is able to make his getaway, as Superman sees that the entire waterfront is ablaze.

Making a perfect swan dive into the ocean, Superman is able to douse the fire with a quick

Unfortunately, Superman didn’t realize until too late that Ambush Bug was on the beach trying, in his own way, to help put out the fire he’d started and had gotten caught in the wave.

Fortunately, he’s unharmed, much to Superman’s relief, albeit a bit worse for wear, much to Superman’s amusement.

Kobra, like Ambush Bug, decides that he’s not sticking around either.

While he was entirely created by the late Keith Giffen, Ambush Bug’s first and third appearances were written by Paul Kupperberg. (His second appearance was written by Giffen and his frequent collaborator Paul Levitz.)

This story was plotted by Giffen and scripted by Robert Loren Fleming, the team who would provide Buggy’s stories from this point on, with the first Ambush Bug mini-series following shortly after this issue hit the stands.

While I’ve read most everything else Ambush Bug has been in, I haven’t read the issues of Action in which he appeared – but look out for a future Mail Call post – though it’s clear that those were the stories that amped up the madcap wackiness of the character that we see here.

That initial murderous moment aside, the change to the character is one of degree more than kind, as he was presented as being a zany foil more than anything else in his first appearance. It’s a natural progression from there to here and to later stories which are very much like this one but more.

AB’s evolution also parallels Giffen’s artistic style, which went from a very clean, simple, and classic look to the wild, expressionistic style we see here, a style that suits Ambush Bug so perfectly that it seems almost tied to the character. In many ways, I got the feeling that Ambush Bug was Giffen’s Id brought to four-color life.

I had already liked Ambush Bug from his previous appearances, but this one cemented him as a favorite. He’s at his best as a well-meaning but misguided agent of chaos in stories filled with references to popular culture – especially comics – bad puns, and just general mayhem. In some ways you could say he’s kind of a proto-Harley Quinn, as she followed a similar trajectory from villain to wannabe hero to agent of chaos.

Of course, the thing that really made Ambush Bug stand out once he got to this point in his evolution was that he was breaking the fourth wall long before She-Hulk or Deadpool, and the creative team making the comics were very much a part of the cast of characters in every story.

So that’s my look at the comic that set the stage for multiple limited series and one-shot specials featuring a character who went from being a homicidal maniac – emphasis on the maniac – to a lovable, if irritating, scamp.

It only got better – and wackier – from here.

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