Thunderbunny #1 (Warp Graphics)

Not since the heady days of Superman Meets Bugs Bunny have I found such enjoyment in the funny-animal books as I did this weekend digging through the back issue bins to find an incomplete set of Thunderbunny from Warp Graphics.

It is a great shame of the coming DCnU that series such as the aforementioned classic or say Phil Foglio’s Angel And The Ape will most likely be retconned out of existence. Where this leaves such esteemed tomes as Dodo and The Frog or Peter Porkchops I dread to think. After all, at the end of the Final Crisis, Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew were seen in the last shred of reality before the Miracle Machine recreated reality. Did the Machine recreate Earth-C? Or were the good Captain and his colleagues fated never to see the skyline of Gnu York again? Have they been reduced to pets in the wake of the Flashpoint?

Now before you all think I have lost it, I fear I must explain myself. Although the original Captain Carrot series only lasted eighteen issues (quite a healthy run by some standards), I devoured each issue with an appetite ill suited to a person my age. The bad puns, the bwah-ha-ha before the term was even coined kept me digging through the bins until I found every issue.

Having missed the original funny animal books by the virtue of not even being born at the time, Captain Carrot opened up a whole new world in comics for me. No dark and brooding anti-heroes, no misunderstood mutants fighting to protect a world that fears and hates them, just giant fried egg monsters and the Rabbit from Easter Island.

I assume the more recent Captain Carrot and the Final Ark didn’t sell brilliantly, as there is no new Zoo Crew series on the horizon. I’m not surprised however, as the three issues seemed to move away from what the funny animal books were all about. That being the first syllable – FUN.

These comics could form (for want of a better term) a gateway drug to the world of comics for the youngest readers. Prior to the first Crisis, DC was able to balance the childishly inane with the more serious titles, and that has been lost in today’s market.

Marvel managed to do it a little better. Lots of throwaway minis like Slapstick, who later get absorbed into the main continuity as that character’s fans came of age. We saw him in Civil War for example. And then again, there was last year’s X-Babies! Let’s see more X-Babies! And the Super-Hero Squad is doing stupendous work. I wish I could say the same for the Tiny Titans.

Thunderbunny was a slightly more serious book, but began a traditional I had previously only seen before in Fem Force and Dynamite to utilise unused, public domain characters, like the Black Terror. He even teamed up with the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and I saw a cameo by ACG’s Magicman. A boy, given powers from an alien world, transforms into a seven-foot tall rabbit with super-powers, and all sorts of hi-jinks ensue. It’s traditional super-hero fare, but with a giant rabbit, and I highly recommend it.

I have always had a soft spot for the rabbit characters. Do you remember Jaxxon, the tall, green furred Lepi smuggler from Marvel’s Star Wars comics? I’ve never seen him again since. Or maybe Bucky O’Hare, previously from Continuity?

Of course, fans clamoured for the return of Hoppy The Marvel Bunny, but nowadays we seem hard pressed to even find a bolt of magic lightning, never mind one striking a funny animal.

So, Marvel, DC, and the rest of you publishers out there; let’s bring back the concept of the in-universe super-powered anthropomorphic animals. There are cartoons and movies abound if you get the right licence, and you can use such a mascot to draw in the younger readers to the rest of your properties.

Hop to it, folks!