(Dynamite Entertainment, 2014)

Writer & Artist: Art Baltazar
Writers: Franco & Chris “Zod” Smits

All right, reader, I’ve been sitting on this review for a few days now, because honestly I have no idea how to react to this comic.  Part of me wants to say, “That was a cool comic” and the other part wants to yell “Yikes” and I end up stuck in the middle not picking a side. And since I haven’t been able to pick a side, we’re just going to have to talk about both.

What makes this comic cool is if you haven’t already figured it out, it’s about cats. In this particular realm cats are people. Now, I’m not saying its cool the comic is about cats, because I personally don’t like cats. No, what’s cool is humans are not the advanced beings of this realm.  As humans, it seems to be in our nature to think we are so much better than every living thing and therefore see ourselves in everything. Ever wonder why you see “faces” in objects e.g. the man in the moon?  It’s that “humans are superior” attitude that we all have built into our brains. Therefore, even though the cats act like people, its cool that they are not – and yet, we still have a comic just like every other comic where people are the advanced beings. Well okay, it’s not like every comic because as I said, the other half of me was like “yikes.”

What was “yikes” about this comic is, it was written like a 1940’s newspaper comic complete with cheesy dialog and the villain giving his plot away (come on people, it’s the 21st century, we don’t need to relive, or write, like the Golden Age). In fact, the first piece of dialog we get is from the villain, Evil Cat. He says “There must be something more evil than me in the universe and with my evil timestream device I am determined to find it.” If that sentence doesn’t scream “This is my evil plan” speech I don’t know what does. And of course he uses the device and it goes back in time to the Silver Age where it finds Captain Action Cat and Dr. Evil Cat (who appears to be the most evil thing in the universe). The two fight for a while before going back to modern time where we meet Evil Cat’s archenemy, Action Cat. Evil Cat and Action Cat continues to fight for a bit before we return to the Silver Age and watch Dr. Evil Cat and Captain Action Cat continue their battle. Their battle comes to an end when Captain Action Cat finds someone frozen in ice. The cat in the ice turns out to be the Golden Age Action Cat. (So if you’re counting, there are now two Action Cats and a Captain Action Cat.) As soon as Captain Action Cat finishes introducing himself to Action Cat and explains that they are in the Silver Age, Captain Action Cat gets a call from Agent Action Cat telling him that…. Yes, I know, I have to cut off the end. But the ending is both good and predictable, so why would I ruin your chance of reading it?

So as I said, and you probably agree, Captain Action Cat: The Timestream CATastrophe is both cool and “yikes.” However, the two conflicting ideas seem to go well together, and in the end you get a pretty good comic that’s definitely worth a read.

___________________________

Ali is a creative writer with an emphasis on Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Comic Books. She first fell in love with superheroes when they were used to teach her to read. When not practicing at her dojo or out seeing the latest superhero movie with her friends, Ali can be found curled up on the couch with her dog and a good book.