Avengers/Thunderbolts #2

Rating: April 11, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Fine Line

When the Thunderbolts save the day when the The Avengers cannot, will they get a new member?

Writers: Kurt Busiek & Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Barry Kitson
Inks: Gary Erskine
Colors: Brian Reber
Letters: Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Barry Kitson
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The old Avengers foe Cobalt Man goes berserk at a nuclear power plant, but the problem turns out to be an overabundance of power. The Thunderbolts rush in to save the day when the Avengers don’t seem up to the task, and relations between the two teams becomes predictably strained.

It is very much to the writers’ credit that this issue doesn’t fit the standard “fight/team-up” format, even though the fighting would be much more understandable in this case than in most team-up comics. Of course, with four issues to go, it would be a bit much to have a major throw-down this early. While this issue didn’t grab me as much as the first issue, the characterization was solid. The last-page twist was telegraphed pretty early, but fortunately it was the sort of revelation that leaves you thinking “Aha! I KNEW it!” rather than, “Hmph. I saw THAT coming.”

Barry Kitson does his usual bang-up job on the artwork, although a few panels in the middle, where the Thunderbolts are making their grand entrance, look a little awkward in posing. He does a nice job with the size-changing characters like Atlas, showing his discomfort at being in relatively confined spaces, and the designs overall are pretty solid.

A good issue, although not as good as the debut, but it certainly proves that the Thunderbolts are still a viable property deserving of a monthly showcase. One can only hope the sales of this miniseries are good enough for Marvel to get the hint.

Rating: 7/10

Go-Go Gorilla and the Jungle Crew Summer Fun Special #1

August 4, 2005

Quick Rating: Great
Title: The Origin of Go-Go Gorilla & The Terror of Twinchilla

When evil strikes Jungle City who can save the day? Go-Go Gorilla and the Jungle Crew!

Created By: Brent Erwin, Mike Hall & David Hedgecock
Writer: Mike Hall
Pencils: Dustin Evans
Inks: David Hedgecock
Colors: Dustin Evans
Letters: Mike Hall
Editor: Mike Hall
Cover Art: Scott Shaw!
Publisher: APE Entertainment

Anyone who’s been a member of Comixtreme for more than a week probably knows of my strange, some would say disturbing love of the 80s classic Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. For the longest time, I thought I was alone. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this new offering from APE Entertainment, an obvious pastiche of that long-neglected gem by people who really love the superhero/funny animal genre. (And if there was any doubt that these guys were directly influenced by Captain Carrot, it was erased when I realized that the cover was drawn by Cap’s co-creator, Scott Shaw!)

When you start reading the comic, you immediately get the flavor of a silver age yarn, starting with the vision of Jungle City itself. This is a city where humans and animals evolved concurrently, and all species are at about an equal level of development – one which is comparable to that of our own world, but has a lot of unique charms, like a practice of using vines to swing above busy city streets. When a human citizen of the city nearly gets plowed in traffic, he’s saved by the caped simian Go-Go Gorilla! And with the set-up out of the way, it’s time to go into the origin story. It’s pretty familiar stuff: a humble museum janitor wiping up around a strange extraterrestrial meteor, just on the night that a pack of villains try to swipe it.

Following the origin story is “The Terror of Twinchilla,” where we’re briefly introduced to the rest of the team – Mega Mouse, Anubia, Shellhead, Quickcat and Lady Water Dragon as they converge to do battle with the menace of a gargantuan, two-headed chinchilla. If it sounds absurd, that’s because it is, but delightfully so. The story is a little weak in that there’s not really enough room for the fight once we’ve met each of the team in one-or-two page vignettes, this one definitely could have used some padding.

The plots and scripting, however, are superb, endearingly familiar to fans of similar properties and entertaining enough that you’d like to see more of these characters in future specials. These are clearly guys that love what they’re doing, and it rubs off on the reader.

The art, by Dustin Evans and David Hedgehock, is really sharp. It’s a clear, cartoony style that is practically begging to be animated. The designs for the characters, particularly the armored turtle Shellhead, are a lot of fun as well.

In the back of the book, there’s even more fun in the form of a few activity pages – a word scramble, a maze, a word search and a connect-the-dots puzzle, plus a decoder you can cut out and use to decode Anubia’s magic spells. (A lot of fun, to be sure, but you’re hesitant to actually do any of the activities, because who wants to mess up their comic in this day and age?) Plus there are plenty of great pin-ups.

This comic book is just plain fun, something we don’t get nearly enough of these days, and it’s a book that parents who were children of the 80s can easily share with their kids today.

Rating: 9/10

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #1

June 27, 2006

Quick Rating: Great
Title: The Pluto Syndrome

The Zoo Crew comes together with the Man of Steel!

Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Scott Shaw!
Inks: Bob Smith
Colors: Carl Gafford
Letters: Bob Smith
Editor: Dick Giordano
Cover Art: Scott Shaw!
Publisher: DC Comics

Here’s an old guilty pleasure of mine, Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw’s classic superhero comic Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. Thomas established that all of DC’s classic “Funny Animal” comics of the 50s and 60s took place on this alternate world of Earth-C, which (in this issue) was pounded by meteors sent to Earth by the old Justice League foe Starro the Conqueror. The meteors transformed many of the animals into super-beings, including Rubberduck, Alley-Cat-Abra, Yankee Poodle and Fastback. The old comic star Peter Porkchop became Pig Iron, and mild-mannered cartoonist Roger Rabbit (his middle name was later revealed to be Rodney, and that became his form of address to avoid litigation) became the super-powered Captain Carrot just in time to meet Starro’s foe from Earth-One, Superman.

Superman, in this issue, aided Captain Carrot not only in defeating Starro, but in forming the Zoo Crew from the animals irradiated by the meteors. Although Captain Carrot’s series had bid farewell by the time I started reading comics heavily, just a few back issues found in yard sales and the like hooked me, and I eventually tracked down the entire run. This comic was one of the great underrated gems of the 80s, a superhero book with old fashioned sensibilities, funny animals that transcended the genre and lots of great pastiches like their journey to “Earth C-Minus,” home of the Justa Lotta Animals (including their leader, Super Squirrel) that parodied the classic Justice League/Justice Society crossovers. Even the parodies in this title worked as serious superhero stories, though, ranking this title right up there with Roy Thomas’s greatest works like The All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc.

Cap and the Crew recently reappeared in the pages of Teen Titans, but that only whet my appetite for more. I hope like hell that brief glimpse we got of Earth-C isn’t our last… I can’t wait to see the Zoo Crew again.

Rating: 9/10