TITLE: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! vol. 1, issue #2
YEAR: April 1982
COMPANY: DC Comics
Written by Roy Thomas
Artists: Alfredo Alcala and Scott Shaw
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Editor: Dick Giordano
When I started mycomicbookjourney.com, my original pick to kick things off was “Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!”.
Growing up, I bought every issue, read each comic many times. So badly that since then that I had purchase a full run of the comic book series five times. Twice that I read and carried around with me that they got tattered, one that stayed in my box, another for my sister when she was young and reading and the fourth time, just for my young son when he began reading. It became a favorite of his and I couldn’t help but share this comic book, it’s how much I loved it. I had to purchase it again in Showcase format and picked up the other comic book mini-series and issues that came years after.
With the second issue, Superman is leaving to his Earth and the group discusses what to do now. Captain Carrot has an idea of forming a superhero group (no surprise as Roger Rabbit is the artist of “Just Lotta Animals”, Earth-C’s version of JLA) and we start to see the inner bickering as Alley-Kat-Abra and Yankee Poodle dislike each other and Rubber Duck (Hollywood superstar Byrd E. Rentals) and Yankee Poodle (famous celebrity interviewer Rova Barkitt) are busy with their own careers…but all of them decide to do it, except one…Pig Iron.
Pig Iron (steelworker Peter Porkchops) likes his normal life and not wanting to fight supervillains, so as he leaves he ends up creating a fenderbender and as the driver of the car tries to pounce on him, he ends up throwing the guy, which was seen by onlookers who tell the police to arrest him.
Pig Iron is not too thrilled that people are coming after him so he fights back and before things escalate, Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew! end up taking on Pig Iron.
But as the group try to take him down, a villain known as Brother Hood captures Pig Iron and offers him to join his evil group, A.C.R.O.S.T.I.C. (A Corporation Recently Organized Solely to Instigate Crimes) and to convince Pig Iron to join, he is introduced to Armordillo! A taller, powerful baddie with claws that can slash and a tale with spikes.
And when Pig Iron refuses to join, Brother Hood has Armordillo to teach him a lesson and sure enough Pig Iron learns quickly of how powerful Armordillo is and how deadly with his sharp claws.
Will Pig Iron be defeated or will Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew be there for him?
This second issue a solid issue introducing readers to the porcine powerhouse and introducing us to the supervillain Brother Hood and Armordillo. The issue also goes into character dynamics and relationships, for example, Yankee Poodle showing disdain towards Alley-Kat-Abra (dog vs. cat) and how she can’t stand Fastback/Terry Terrapin (because he’s more of a redneck from the swamp not aware how things are in society) but the second issue shows us teamwork and how the group eventually came together as team!
Overall, a wonderful issue from Roy Thomas, Scott Shaw, Alfredo Alcala and team!