Elmer Fudd

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Elmer Fudd created by Tex Avery
Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger

“My name is Elmer Fudd. He’s Batman. And we’re hunting wabbits.”

One of the more bizarre entries into the Shamus Game is Looney Toon ELMER FUDD, that wascawwy wabbit-hunting weirdo, who becomes a po-faced bounty hunter in the Batman/Elmer Fudd Special, an entry in 2017’s DC Meets Looney Tunes series of one-offs, which teamed up  various DC superheroes with assorted Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

But this isn’t the cuddly, cartoony version of Elmer you might have been expecting. There is humour here, of course (how could there not be?), but it’s humour of a rather tight-lipped, dark kind, in keeping with it being a Batman story.

And a rather noirish Batman story at that, scripted by Tom King (Gotham City: Year One) and illustrated by Lee Weeks with noirish precision.

Like Fudd says, “Sometimes the wain comes down so hawrd you forwget you’ve ever been dwy…”

Sure, a lot of the Looney Tunes gang show up—Sylvester and Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam; The Tasmanian Devil; Marvin the Martian, Michigan J. Frog, Speedy Gonzalez, Pépé le Pew and Daffy Duck all show up. But they’re realistically drawn humans, who share noticeable traits—mostly catch phrases and certain mannerisms–with their cartoon counterparts. They all hang out in a dive bar and criminal hangout run by a jowly man Porky.

Fudd’sstill a country bumpkin, of course, but he’s relocated with his beloved shotgun to big, bad Gotham City, where he ekes out a living as a rather humourless, relentless bounty hunter. He’s obsessed with taking in—or blowing away–Bugs “The Bunny,” a buck-toothed, stone-cold assassin with a taste for carrot juice. There’s a bounty out on him, but for Fudd, it’s personal. Extremely personal.

Bugs is wanted for murder—the murder of none other than Silver St Cloud, who was Elmer’s lover.

The eternal trickster Bugs, though, easily convinces Fudd that although he did kill St. Cloud, he was paid to do so by her former lover… Bruce Wayne!

And so, off Fudd goes to stately Wayne Manor to kill Wayne—which doesn’t go over well with Batman. The Dark Knight sets out after Fudd, and after the obligatory skirmish, the two team up to confront Bugs at Porky’s.

Where—in true noir fashion–the rug is pulled out from under all of them.

It’s a great little story; a satisfying blend of low-rent, gritty pulp and goofy callouts (how many Looney Tunes did you spot?), capped off by a nifty betrayal, and all three of them ordering a round of carrot juice from Porky.

Plus a suggestion by Batman so audacious and chilling I may never view Bugs the same way again.

Too grim for your taste?

The issue wraps up with “Rabbit Season,” a bonus Looney Tunes backup story (by King again, this time with art by Brian Vaughns) which is a spot-on, goofy blast of pure, old-fashioned  lunacy. Bugs, Elmer, and Batman re-enact the classic “rabbit season/duck season” argument from the 1952 cartoon classic “Rabbit Seasoning” with Batman replacing Daffy. After getting shot by Elmer a few too many times in the face, Batman realizes he needs back-up, and his solution is completely bonkers, sure to please fans of both Batman andLooney Tunes.

I have no idea how other team-ups in this series fared (Wonder Woman and the Tasmanian Devil? The Joker and Daffy Duck?), but King, in two completely different takes, nailed what we love about both Elmer Fudd and Batman. I was just blown away.

OH, HEY! DID YOU SEE…

  • The copy of Detective Comics #27 in Elmer Fudd’s room?

COMICS

  • DC MEETS LOONEY TUNES
    (2017, DC Comics)
    11 issues
    A series of one-offs, teaming up various DC superheroes with assorted Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

    • “Elmer Fudd Meets Batman” (August 2017) | Buy the graphic novel | Kindle/ComiXology it!
      Includes:
      “Pway for Me”
      Written by Tom King
      Art by Byron Vaughns
      “Rabbit Season”
      Written by Tom King
      Art by Byron Vaughns

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

THE DICK OF THE DAY

  • August 13, 2023
    The Bottom Line: This team-up from Hell shouldn’t work. But it does. Bounty hunter Elmer, shotgun in hand, and Batman team up to go after a buck-toothed hitman named Bugs “The Bunny,” putting a brand new spin on Wabbit Season.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith, with a big tip of the fedora to that wascawwy Chris Gumprich.

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