Okay, try to keep up here: Mikaal Thomas — known as the superhero Starman — and Congorilla — a talking ape from Gorilla City, made famous in the pages of The Flash — team up to “unlock the secrets behind the toxic Omega Man’s dark energy, which has encased Washington, D.C.”. All righty then. In this full-color one-shot from DC Comics, our heroes — one blue, one furry — encounter several friends and foes from the DC universe, including Animal Man, Sirocco, and “a certain wonder-dog named Rex”. You can thank writer James Robinson, illustrator Brett Booth, and cover-artist Gene Ha when Starman/Congorilla hits the shelves in early January.
DC Comics
How Did We Miss This?
An older item, which we recently stumbled across: DC Goes Ape is a full-color trade paperback collection released in 2008 by — who else? — DC Comics. It features nearly a dozen excerpts from DC Comics over the decades involving monkey and ape characters in the worlds of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and more. Simian heroes, simian villains, and they’re not even all Gorilla Grond! With writers ranging from Otto Binder to Elliot S! Maggin and E. Nelson Bridwell (and more), and art by the likes of Carmine Infantino, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell — and more. With a great front cover by Art Adams, too. Like we said, this is older now, so take a look around for it.
In case the younger furries missed it…
DC Super Friends issue #14 brings us a new adventure with the Super Pets (in full color of course). It’s written by Sholly Fisch, with pencils by none other than Scott Shaw! and Mike Kazaleh. When the Justice League is trapped in a paralyzing force-field created by the evil alien overlord known as Kanjar Ro, it’s up to Ch’p the squirrel Green Lantern and a cadre of super-pets — including Krypto the super-dog, Ace the bat-hound, Beppo the super-monkey, and more — to save the day.
Not to be outdone, Marvel Comics has brought us Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, a new 4-issue full-color comic miniseries by Chris Eliopoulos, Ig Guara, and Chris Sotomayor. Lockjaw, the magical transporting canine of The Inhumans, discovers the existence of power crystals that evil forces intend to use for galactic conquest. He gathers a group of well-know animals from Marvel Comics to help him retrieve the crystals first — among them Ka-Zar’s sabertooth cat Zabu; Lockheed, the alien dragon from various X-Men series; Throg; a frog who looks and acts like The Might Thor; and Redwing, Falcon’s hawk companion.
The Return of Man-Bat
DC Comics has brought back a popular (especially with anthro-fans) side-character from the Batman series: Dr. Kirk Langstrom, the geneticist whose secret formula frequently changes him into the savage Man-Bat. (Dr. Langstrom’s formula was the source of many human-animal ‘morph plots in the Batman animated TV series.) In the new Man-Bat full-color one-shot (spinning off from plot points in the current Batman: Battle for the Cowl miniseries), Dr. Langstrom is pressed into the services of the evil man known as Dr. Phosphorous — who’s in for much more than he bargained for! The Man-Bat one-shot is written by Joe Harris, with art by Jim Calafiore and a cover by Ladronn (of Hip Flask fame).
