Thundercats: Hammerhand’s Revenge #2

November 8, 2003

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Panthro’s Plight

As Lion-O languishes in Griffon captivity, the Thundercats continue their trek to save Hachiman.

Writer: Fiona Avery
Art: Carlos D’anda
Colors: Wendy Founts-Broome, Carrie Strachan & Darlene Royer
Letters: Nick Napolitano
Editor: Alex Sinclair
Cover Art: Adam Warren
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm

As with far too many comic books, the big obstacle in this issue is the utter lack of recap for those who haven’t read the previous issue. DC could take a big lesson from Marvel’s inclusion of “previously” pages in almost all of their titles.

Lion-O is being held captive, but his teammates, rather than mounting a rescue, are on a journey to the sea to save Hachiman. For someone like myself, who only periodically watched the old Thundercats cartoon and who hasn’t kept up with the current incarnation, this is especially perplexing. Hachiman never appears in this issue, and we are given no inkling of who he is or why he is important enough that the Thundercats would leave Lion-O in captivity for his sake. I assume that this was explained last issue.

The Thundercats themselves seem a bit off as well, although again, this is coming from someone who hasn’t followed them in years. I don’t recall Snarf always speaking in the third person, though, or Wiley Kat ever quite displaying the rational demeanor he does in this issue.

I’m not familiar with D’anda’s artwork, but I am impressed by it. He has a good sense of storytelling and draws good, powerful-looking figures. I could easily see him moving on to do a mainstream superhero book some day.

The story is hurt by the inaccessibility, but the artwork raises it up to above average. The story doesn’t even explain who Hammerhand is or what transgression the Thundercats committed that inspires him to exact revenge upon them. Give it another point if you read the last issue and know what’s going on. It’s an okay comic, but not enough to inspire me to get the next issue.

Rating: 6/10