{"id":4001,"date":"2025-10-10T11:11:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2025-10-10T14:05:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:05:40","slug":"short-box-dcs-zatannic-panic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/2025\/10\/10\/short-box-dcs-zatannic-panic\/","title":{"rendered":"Short Box: DC’s Zatannic Panic!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DC’s Zatannic Panic!<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

#1A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lee Bermejo Regular<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release:  <\/td>Oct 01, 2025<\/td><\/tr>
Cover:  <\/td>Dec 2025<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Creators<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Writer<\/td>Callie C. Miller, Artist Writer, Rowan MacColl, Roberto Recchioni, Alex Galer, Lyndon Radchenka, Andrew MacLean, Daniel Warren Johnson, Cavan Scott<\/td><\/tr>
Artist<\/td>John McCrea, Rowan MacColl, Don Aguillo, Luigi Cavenago, Daniel Bayliss, Andrew MacLean, Riley Rossmo<\/td><\/tr>
Cover Artist<\/td>Lee Bermejo<\/td><\/tr>
Colorist<\/td>Mike Spicer, Luigi Cavenago, Andrew MacLean, Don Aguillo, Inaki Azpiazu, Matt Herms<\/td><\/tr>
Letterer<\/td>Tom Napolitano, Micah Myers, Ariana Maher, Ferran Delgado, Steve Wands<\/td><\/tr>
Editor in Chief<\/td>Marie Javins<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

DC’s holiday anthology specials are usually more miss than hit for me, but I still buy them anyway. Often in multiples, if they have variant covers I like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, I was probably going to pick this one up anyway, but as I stated on Bluesky, “Zatannic Panic!” is an objectively good title for a DC Halloween special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a bonus, it turns out that this one bucked the trend and was more hit than miss, though most of the stories suffered from being short stories and could have benefited from a couple more pages, or at least a bit more exposition to explain what was going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, the Plastic Man body horror story from Daniel Warren Johnson and Riley Rossmo looked creepy as hell, but I’m not entirely sure what was going on in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was even more confused by the Batman story from Roberto Recchioni that was beautifully illustrated by Gigi Cavenago which seemed to be shooting for having a clever structure rather than telling a coherent story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main story featuring cover and title star Zatanna, the Demon story – which I found to be especially clever – and the Warlord story, all stand out as being about the right length and for having a clear thesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Raven story was a miss for me, but that’s mostly because I’m an old fogey who isn’t especially fond of more modern takes on the character, so mileage will vary on that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Swamp Thing and Constantine story from Alex MacLean was at least interesting to look at, which is a point in favor of this anthology as a whole – everything looked <\/em>good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the breakout story – literally and figuratively – is the closer featuring everyone’s favorite teleporting fourth-wall-breaking bug<\/a>, along with his sidekick the Toy Wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A confusing encounter with his arch-nemesis (there’s a pun in there, if you know who I’m talking about) leads Ambush Bug to believe that a multiversal crisis is afoot- Because when isn’t one at least atoe<\/em> in the DCU? – which leads us on a trip back through the pages of the special, providing us new views of the stories we’ve just read. There’s also a side-trip into an unfinished canceled Superman comic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like I said, this time around it was more hit than miss. It was a nice treat to not be tricked into buying a comic just based on the strength of its title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Born and raised in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Jon Maki developed an enduring love for comics at an early age.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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