Again, this clash of screwball comedy and detective yarn shouldn't work as well as it does. But this is a comic that only strives to be serious on the surface level. Beneath that, King and Weeks pay loving homage to both franchises and utilize every opportunity they have to offer fun new spins on familiar characters. It's enough merely to soak in the sights of Porky's bar and savor the numerous sight gags, cameos and bizarre new interpretations of old Looney tunes favorites. If any of these DC/Looney Tunes specials deserves a full-length spinoff, it's this one.
But as is pretty much always the case with King's Batman, there's a great deal of emotional weight beneath the humor and bizarre trappings. King and Weeks could have simply told a fun, straightforward story about the world's greatest detective clashing with the world's most dedicated wabbit hunter. But they make a concerted effort to cast both men as kindred spirits who share far more in common than one would ever expect. The same goes for low-level gangster Bugs "The Bunny," who proves a surprisingly compelling figure in his own right. There's a surprising sense of gravitas to this story, one that elevates it from merely being a fun romp to something much more memorable and ambitious.
And for those who want a Batman/Elmer Fudd crossover that skews in a more traditional Looney Tunes direction, the backup feature has you covered. There, King and artist Byron Vaughns basically cast Batman as the Daffy Duck figure caught in the middle of Bugs and Elmer's eternal feud. It's a completely silly and nonsensical alternative to the main story, and so the two halves complement each other nicely.