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