Thunder…Thunder…Let’s Read Thundercats!

[Beowulf]

Issue #18, “Pumm-Ra”, based on the teleplay by Julian Gardner and adapted by Laura Hitchcock. (Episode #5) Cheetara is out for her morning run when the mutants ambush her with some sleeping powder and Mumm-Ra enacts his latest scheme: Disguising himself as “Pumm-Ra, the Puma of Thundera!” and coming to her “rescue.” They meet up with the rest of the ‘Cats, and Pumm-Ra claims his crew was killed and ship stranded when they escaped from Thundera, and he eventually drifted to Third Earth and crashed. Lion-O immediately invites him to come join them.

Back at the lair, Snarf is suspicious and Jaga advises caution and waiting for the facts. The ‘Cats vote to give Pumm-Ra a week’s probation before their final decision. That night, Pumm-Ra disables some of the Cat’s Lair’s equipment and sneaks into a secret chamber to steal the sword of omens. The next day, the team goes out on an adventure and Lion-O and Snarf stay on guard duty. But then they realize the monitors aren’t working and the sword has been stolen, so they rush to the Thundertank to use the “corresponder” in it to call Panthro. Pumm-Ra is there waiting for them, brandishing the sword. Lion-O warns him that the sword won’t work for evil, but Pumm-Ra uses the sword to summon the mutants, which also summons a dark storm-cloud and lightning knocks the sword from Pumm-Ra’s hands. Lion-O gets the sword, and the other ‘Cats arrive to find him fighting the mutants, who’ve taken the Thundertank to use against him. The ‘Cats easily kick them out of the tank and send them running.

But meanwhile, Pumm-Ra has locked himself in Cat’s Lair. (NOW they have locks!) Tigra volunteers to crawl in the power exhaust, despite the risk of getting cooked if Pumm-Ra turns on the power. Fortunately he makes it before Pumm-Ra activates the eye-lasers, so the rest of the ‘Cats create a distraction so Tigra can sneak in and Lion-O can disable the door locks with the sword. Pumm-Ra is revealed to really be Mumm-Ra, who vows to return. The Thundercats reflect on the fact that trust must be earned and how smart it is to rely on your proven friends.

The art is really off-model in this issue; the characters are inconsistent and the sword is outright wrong in several panels. This one of only a few issues Ernie Colon drew and I’m wondering if it was a rush job, because “Safari Jo” had issues but nothing anywhere near this bad. (Most issues of the series were drawn by Jose Delbo or Jim Mooney, who were generally solid and pretty consistent.)

Oddly, Pumm-Ra is constantly referred to by both characters and narration as “the puma,” and I feel like this is the only time I’ve heard a Thunderian referred to by their breed.

This is an odd episode to be adapting for issue #18 of an ongoing comic, because as noted it was only episode #5 of the cartoon, and logically takes place when the ‘Cats and the readers still know very little about Mumm-Ra and what he’s capable of. By this point in the comics series, they’ve already seen Mumm-Ra disguise himself as Jaga, not to mention a bunch of other forms; and he only changed one letter of his name!

They’ve also already backed off the sword being sapient; it doesn’t throw itself out of Pumm-Ra’s hand. Instead, Pumm-Ra using it for evil causes the “cat-astrophic” storm and the lightning strikes it. It does reinforce that Mumm-Ra only knows “of” the Eye of Thundera at this juncture, though, because he clearly doesn’t understand how to use it.

 

[Beowulf]

Issue #19, “Doomgaze”, another adaptation written in both forms by Steve Perry. (Episode #12). Lion-O and Panthro are doing martial arts practice on the steps of Cat’s Lair when they notice a mysterious dark cloud moving in the opposite direction of the other clouds. It’s a Man-O-War Cloud (like the jellyfish; it has tentacles), that floats to the Berbil village and kidnaps Ro-Ber-Belle.

Over Lion-O’s objections, Cheetara chases the creature because she’s the only one fast enough to keep up. Lion-O and Snarf follow but are distracted by Jackelman, who hogties a unicorn and steals one of its shoes. By the time they catch up to Cheetara, Slithe has caught her in a net and cut off a tuft of her hair, then escaped with the Man-O-War. Lion-O concludes that it must be Mumm-Ra gathering ingredients for an evil spell, and Sight Beyond Sight shows him the mutants gathering atop Mount Anguish. He makes a plan that Cheetara will go there through the Phosphorus Desert and he and Snarf will take the Crumbling Cliffs of Vertigo so they can attack from both sides.

Meanwhile, Mumm-Ra summons his sister Ta-She, trapped on a magic barge in the Timewarp Prison. He trapped her there, and offers to free her if she gives him the power of the Doomgaze. She won’t give it up, but agrees to work with him and create a dark age on Third Earth. She just needs a hero to take her place in the timewarp. Mumm-Ra assures her that one is on his way.

The ’Cats arrive as Mumm-Ra is transforming to make Ro-Ber-Belle cry, because a Berbil’s tear is the additional specific ingredient he needs. He summons the rest of the team, but Ta-She emerges and paralyzes him with her doomgaze. Cheetara wants to save him, but fears breaking his confidence if she does it herself, so she steals Ta-She’s cloak to distract her, and Lion-O uses the sword to break the doomgaze and get free. Lion-O threatens Mumm-Ra’s life, but Mumm-Ra cackles that he’s ever-living and flies off. The mutants flee, Ta-She is banished back to the timewarp, and the ‘Cats muse on the lesson they’ve learned: That Lion-O could summon the strength to beat the doomgaze because he remembered he was fighting for his friends. Also, Snarf got totally whammied by the doomgaze and only snapped out of it in the last panel.

There is so much stuff in this issue: Mumm-Ra gathering ingredients for a complicated ritual! Mumm-Ra’s evil sister who he trapped in an extradimensional prison! More terrifying locations that no sane person would visit! (I hope the Thundercats are naming these places themselves.) Vaguely sexist interactions between Lion-O and Cheetara where the writers forget who’s the teenager and who’s the adult! And the fact that Berbils can cry!

 

[Daikaiju]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/toysandgames/the-thundercats-roleplaying-game-is-here

Funded nearly within a minute of launching

 

[Beowulf]

Issue #20, “Excalibur!” was based on a teleplay by Peter Lawrence and adapted by Daryl Edelman. (Episode #51) This is the issue I have the strongest childhood memories of, actually.

We open with a magnificent sword stuck in a stone, that no one could draw until Arthur came along, at which point Merlin blessed him with “goodpower everlasting” and he became a legend that even Mumm-Ra learned about. The Ancient Spirits of Evil tell Mumm-Ra that the sword was consigned to the Lady of the Lake until Arthur returned, so Mumm-Ra transforms himself into King Arthur and retrieves Excalibur from the Lady.

Meanwhile, the ‘Cats are musing on how the sword of omens was able to return the spirits of the Si-Tare to their graves, and how it revealed the mutants’ invisible fortress and freed Jaga’s spirit from Mumm-Ra, and the couple of times Lion-O missed the sword’s growls in the comics. A window gets busted in by “Arthur” who claims to have traveled through time to be there to uphold Justice, Truth, Honor and Loyalty (the Code of Thundera!) and that Jaga sent him. They invite him in, but he’s an incredibly rude guest and eventually challenges Lion-O to a duel over supposed affronts.

The next day Lion-O rides a unicorn and wins a joust against Arthur, but Arthur seals the rest of the Thundercats inside and continues the duel on foot, arguing over the meaning of honor all the way. Eventually the two swords magically take to the sky and fight on their own, until Excalibur stabs the sword of omens in the Eye and the Thundercats symbols all go blank, causing the Thundercats to go weak and start passing out. Mumm-Ra gloats that he's won and he’ll finish off Lion-O with Excalibur, but Merlin appears, furious that the greatest sword of all time would be used for evil selfishness. He flings Mumm-Ra away and uses Excalibur to restore the Thundercats symbol to the Eye and enable the ‘Cats to recover. Merlin offers Excalibur to Lion-O, but he decides to return it to the Lady instead.

This story alone makes a strong argument that Third Earth is, in fact, a new age of Earth and everything there is a remnant of our society. In fact, you could go so far as to argue that Cat’s Lair and everything within tank-driving distance is in Great Britain, in order for the lake the Lady dwells in to be reachable. (Though potentially it’s been connected to mainland Europe by various upheavals at some point in the interim.) The other possibility is that the Lady, being magical, can appear in any lake throughout time and space.

It's fascinating that this story revolves around not just a more powerful sword that the setting’s key artifact, but also a vastly more powerful wizard than anyone else we see in the series. Merlin swats Mumm-Ra like a bug and restores the Eye with a wave of his hand; his power is nigh-godlike. It’s an interesting choice to establish such a being exists and takes an interest in the affairs of mortals…but then never have him appear again.

The couple of pages referencing earlier events in the comics—mostly comic-original stories, even—are an interesting nod to comics continuity, especially since we’ve spent this entire volume on adapted stories that mostly ignored that continuity.

 

[Beowulf]

Issue #21, “Father Snarf” by Dwight Jon Zimmerman. This is the first story in this volume that wasn’t also a cartoon episode. It’s interesting, actually, that they went through the sequence of six issues of semi-continuous stories by David Micheline, six issues of completely standalone stories (though one referenced a Micheline story!) by Gerry Conway, and then nine issues of adaptations of cartoon teleplays by a stable of writers. Now I’m very curious about the behind-the scenes and what drove these decisions; Carlin’s intro in the collection doesn’t actually shed a lot of light.

Anyway, the actual story opens with Snarf home alone, and he finds a deer-person baby in a basket left on the doorstep. Convinced he can’t take care of a baby (despite having been Lion-O’s nursemaid), he heads to the canineian village on the other side of the forest. The canineians (dog people) freak out when they see the baby, declare that he’s a “herculus baby” and a monster; and they use a catapult chair to forcibly eject Snarf and the baby from town.

So Snarf takes the baby back to Cat’s Lair and apparently manages to make up an entire nursery while this thing is still sleeping. When it finally wakes up it screams so loud that windows shatter, so Snarf runs to get some milk, eventually putting hot milk in a jar with a rubber glove for a nipple. But when he returns, the baby has torn the bars off the window and is outside tossing around cinderblocks. The baby collapses some sort of partially-built structure on top of itself, revealing that it’s both super-strong and invulnerable. And hungry, and happy to take the milk. Vultureman spies this, concludes that the milk is a strength serum Snarf has invented, and plots to steal it.

That night, Vultureman tries to steal the milk, but the baby won’t let go, so he takes the baby too. This goes as well as you might expect, as the baby wakes up and starts hitting buttons on the nosediver. (Also at this point the baby starts talking like a toddler.) They crash at Castle Plun-Darr and Vultureman tries to convince the others that the milk is supermilk, with the baby as evidence. They fight over the milk and shatter the bottle, so then decide to use the baby against the Thundercats. This also goes as well as you’d expect, as the baby runs rampant through Castle Plun-Darr, destroying things and beating up the mutants. When Snarf wakes up and goes to rescue the baby, the mutants beg him to take it back.

When they get back to Cat’s Lair, the baby’s parents are thanking the other Thundercats for babysitting their precious Snookums and say they’ve recommend Snarf to all of their friends.

I feel like I’ve read pretty much this exact story as a “Superbaby” tale; it’s hard to go wrong with a superpowered toddler causing chaos. But it’s also much more “cartoony” in tone than virtually every other story in this collection, from the canineians’ ejector chair to the random goofy action sequences. (Also it annoys me that Snarf can effortlessly decorate a nursery but can’t get together a proper bottle.) The bit where the villains kidnap a child but the kid is so terrible they beg to be able to return him is ancient, with most modern version likely being inspired by “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry.

And boy, it’s lucky the canineians didn’t want to deal with the herculus baby, or that couple would have gotten back from the Mother of the Year ceremony to find a well-meaning Snarf had gotten their baby a cross-species adoption. Maybe Lion-O could have left Snarf a note that he’d be on babysitting duty?

 

[Johnny Unusual]

That night, Vultureman tries to steal the milk, but the baby won’t let go, so he takes the baby too. This goes as well as you might expect, as the baby wakes up and starts hitting buttons on the nosediver. (Also at this point the baby starts talking like a toddler.) They crash at Castle Plun-Darr and Vultureman tries to convince the others that the milk is supermilk, with the baby as evidence. They fight over the milk and shatter the bottle, so then decide to use the baby against the Thundercats. This also goes as well as you’d expect, as the baby runs rampant through Castle Plun-Darr, destroying things and beating up the mutants. When Snarf wakes up and goes to rescue the baby, the mutants beg him to take it back.

People love doing their own versions of The Ransom of Red Chief.

 

[Beowulf]

Issue #22, “Bad Playmates” by James Rose, another original story. Vultureman is showing Slithe his latest invention, “thunder-decoys” of the kittens. They’re exactly like the Thunderkittens in every way except they also have remote-controlled heat vision. The thunderdecoys lure of the thunderkittens for a game of tag, stun them with their eye-lasers, and deliver them to the mutants.

Meanwhile, Lion-O and Snarf are rushing to the harvest festival when Jaga appears to warn them that looks can be deceiving and Lion-O must look deeply into people’s hearts. Great, very helpful Jaga. At the harvest festival (thrown by the grape-haired Nai fisherfolk!) a sea dragon appears and threatens the village. Lion-O looks into the creature’s heart and realizes that it’s full of great evil: The dragon is Mumm-Ra in disguise! So they drive him off and return to Cat’s Lair, where Snarf freaks out that the kittens are missing. The decoys appear but Snarf immediately notices they have blue eyes and must be fakes; so the decoys deliver a ransom message: Come unarmed to the Point of Avarice with ten times the weight of the kittens in moonquake diamonds in one hour. Cheetara and Panthro argue that Thundercats never pay ransoms (has it ever come up before?), and also that the only diamonds they have belong to the warrior maidens and aren’t theirs to give away.

Lion-O and Panthro go to deliver the diamonds anyway, while Cheetara sneaks around to disable the mutants’ cannon. When Slithe is distracted by his loot, Lion-O pulls the sword out of the diamond bag and destroys the decoys (“they’re only machines”), and Cheetara sends the mutants tumbling off a cliff. The kittens are upset the diamonds were lost, so Lion-O reveals that Tigra made fake diamonds to fool the mutants…but also says that he would have really risked any treasure to save them. Back at Cat’s Lair, Lion-O contemplates what Jaga was trying to teach him, and then joins in the game of kickball.

This plot managed to be a decoy: We all thought the story would be about the fake thunderdecoys impersonating the kittens, but that never happens and, in fact, they could have looked like different Thunderian children and the plot would have been the same. The decoys lure out the kittens, deliver the ransom message on stolen spaceboards, and shoot their eye-lasers at Lion-O before he destroys them.

I guess it’s nice that Tigra gets a shout-out for creating the fake diamonds, because he does basically nothing else; he gets a couple of lines in the planning sequence and doesn’t participate in any of the action. Jaga was also unusually cryptic here; presumably they were going for “he could see what the mutants were doing, figured it wouldn’t work, and made this into a teachable moment for Lion-O.”

This was also another story where Lion-O is treated as an adult (albeit one who still struggles with the responsibility of leadership) and the kittens as irresponsible children. Upon reflection, the kittens’ level of maturity also tends to yo-yo depending on the writer, from hyperactive children who really shouldn’t be left unattended to mature teenagers who teach Lion-O important lessons. The comics writers err on the side of them being kids, and we’ve seen a bunch of plots where their role was to be irresponsible or well-meaning but foolish. (I think they also get captured/need rescue in about equal measure. Props for gender equality?)

 

[Daikaiju]

THIS! THIS IS THE CRAP I'M TALKING ABOUT.

You know at some point the Kits look at Lion-O and think, 'We had to wipe nose so many times, you little shit'

 

[Kirin]

“Doomgaze”

Now I’m wondering if there’s something in mythology or older fantasy that both this and FF6 (in translation) are referencing, or if it’s just convergent evolution of ominous-sounding fantasy babble.

Also that Arthurian crossover is pretty wild, was not expecting something like that. I presumably never saw that ep of the tv show.

 

[Beowulf]

Issue #23, “Dr. Dometone!” based on the teleplay by William Overgard and adapted by Tom DeFalco. (Episode #21)

The kittens are swimming at the beach beyond the Forest of Unicorns when a giant frog swallows Wilykit, but everything is fine, because it’s actually Herky, a robot frog piloted by a human inventor named Dr. Dometone. Dometone is the director of the Great Plug of Atlantis. What’s that? Well, there’s a hole in the bottom of the sea, and the ocean might drain through it and extinguish the planet’s fire (causing Third Earth to freeze!), so centuries ago some scientists plugged it. But the plug is under attack by an alien named Scrape from the planet Blue Plunder (a thousand light-years away!), who wants to strip-mine Third Earth. Scrape has a ship shaped like an electric eel that can defeat the frog-robots, but he also can’t get in and pull the plug while the crew is still locked inside. So the Thundercats need to defeat Scrape, save the crew and protect the plug!

Meanwhile, the crew has run out of food and haven’t seen the eel in a while, so they launch a sub to get supplies. Of course the eel was just hiding, so it swallows the sub and breaks into the plug facility. By the time Herky arrives, Scrape has taken over the facility and is demanding everyone evacuate before he pulls the plug. Lion-O and Wilykat put on shark suits and go out to attach a grounding cable to the eel to neutralizer its attack, while Wilykit and Dometone fight the eel using Herky, and they collectively manage to turn the eel’s electric attack against itself. Scrape escapes in a sub and captures Wilykat along the way. Lion-O summons the rest of the ‘Cats, who pile into the Thundertank and rush to help. (Never mind that it explicitly took Herky four hours to get from Cat’s Lair to the plug.) Scrape pulls the plug…but it’s too late for him, because the ‘Cats have enclosed the dome and the plug in a giant compressed air bubble. Scrape refuses to come out, so they suck him out through the compressed air intake pipe and take him into custody. The plug is safe and Dr. Dometone can go home!

I realize that both bad science and plot holes are facts of life in cartoons for kids, but boy, is this a major dose of both. I mean, the alien who’s working hard to destroy an entire planet and kill everyone who lives there so he can mine fuel? That’s totally realistic. The idea that this is the only place in 1,000 light years (at least—in order for this plan to be at all feasible they must have some really impressive FTL drives, so the effective range is probably farther) that has the rocks they need is absurd. As is draining the ocean through a hole in the sea floor to put out the planet’s core.

The fact that there’s a surviving high-tech society of scientists who clearly have allies who refuel/restock them regularly on Third Earth is just the icing on the cake. Though I suppose we only see a handful of them, and except for Dometone we can’t tell their species. So maybe it’s like a secret order of monks, relying on centuries-only technology and recruiting from all the random species on Third Earth; and getting supplies from the Berbils. And because their technology is centuries old, Thunderian tech can totally outpace it—the Thundertank can cross the distance a dozen times faster than Herky can and Panthro and Tigra can easily whip up a giant bubble that can withstand the pressure of the ocean floor in an afternoon.

Actually, okay, here’s my theory: The ocean draining through the hole is nonsense and Dr. Dometone doesn’t understand science at all; he’s the head of a centuries-old religious order that protects the plug but doesn’t actually understand it. The kittens don’t know any better, but the adult ‘Cats immediately figure out that Dometone doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But they also know that pulling the plug would be bad (maybe there’s nuclear waste or a kaiju sealed under it—Cat’s Lair has all sorts of sensors when the plot needs them, they could figure it out), so they go to save it anyway.

 

[Beowulf]

And in Issue #24, our final story is “Through a Dark Glass!!” which Gerry Conway returns to write.

The kittens are in the Forest of Silence gathering nuts and fruit for the peace treaty feast with the hill tribes when they spy some mysterious cocoons. Before they can flee, “duploids” of the four adult Thundercats emerge from the cocoons and capture them. They were created by Mumm-Ra to take the Thundercats’ place in the peace conference, goad the peak and canyon tribes into war, and lay the blame on the real Thundercats so that Mumm-Ra can rule all.

Back at Cat’s Lair, we see the conference with the hill tribes (humanoid goats and sheep) is going well. Afterwards, Lion-O and Tigra talk about pride, and Jaga appears to remind Lion-O that his pride is his dark side, which he’ll soon have to face. That night, the duploids of Lion-O and Tigra march into the Canyon tribe’s camp and insult the leader over his weakness (and claim they were relaying it from his counterpart), while the Cheetara duploid calls the leader of the Peak tribe ugly (and blames the other leader). Both declare that this means war. In-between scenes, the kittens free themselves just as their duploids emerge from their cocoons. Uh-oh!

The two tribes storm Cat’s Lair and announce that the leaders will duel at dawn and the winner will come to destroy the treacherous Thundercats, too. After the duels are announced, Mumm-Ra cackles with glee and instructs the adult duploids to keep causing trouble; and the kitten duploids catch up with them, saying they’ve “taken care” of the real kittens. So the duploids go and attack the Thundercats directly, proving a match for the real thing until the kittens ambush the fake Lion-O and reveal they took down their duplicates and took their place. Then the real Lion-O pulls out the sword, and some combination of it and the light of dawn cause the duploids to melt away. He then charges out to stop the duel and makes the hill tribe leaders realize Mumm-Ra’s agents lied to them, and they need to stop and talk things out rather than rushing to anger. They resume peace talks, and we roll credits.

Kind of an odd choice to have this just two issues after “Bad Playmates”, but I feel like “evil twins” is enough a staple of the genre that it was bound to happen. Also, this issue made good on the fake-out of the previous one, taking advantage of the duplicates pretending to be the real thing and vice-versa. This also puts a cute fantasy twist on a stock kids sitcom plot, where somebody plays two sides against each other by claiming to each that the other said something nasty about them.

I give the comic creators a lot of credit that if you weren’t paying attend to the credits on the first pages and hadn’t seen all the episodes of the cartoon, you would have a very hard time telling what was an original comic story and what was an adaptation. Micheline’s issues were a little more sequential, but Conway’s especially managed an “episodic” quality complete with the moral lesson and the creative fight sequences. Overall this was a worthy companion piece to the original cartoon; the continuity was a bit messy because of the adapted stories being out of order, but it manages to keep everyone in character and the world lore at least as consistent as the cartoon itself did. It’s not Shakespeare, but it never had to be—and except for a couple of places where the artist was clearly in a hurry, they weren’t phoning it in. They set out to make a fun comic for kids, and they succeeded.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

This is kind of a fun cover except boy are the kittens off model.

 

[Daikaiju]

Quite. The artist never seems to properly capture them

 

[Beowulf]

Thundercats: Reclaiming Thundera (Wildstorm, 2002)

In 2002, Wildstorm (an imprint of DC Comics) launched a continuation of the original cartoon series, clearly aimed at adults who had been fans back in the day. The first book was six issues, written by Ford Gilmore and mostly drawn by Ed McGuiness. (Francisco Herrera was a guest artist on issue #3, and it’s painfully off-model. Everyone has a Bruce Campbell chin and constantly looks bored and annoyed; and the Lunatacs are barely recognizable.)

The most noteworthy thing about this is that it’s an entire trade paperback where barely anything happens, and it seems to exist mostly to remind people who haven’t thought about the Thundercats since 1989 that they were cool. Issue #0 is Wilycat recounting various fights in a more violent way than they actually happened.

Issue #1 picks up properly after the end of the cartoon series, when the Thundercats have restored New Thundera and are setting up to call the rest of the Thunderian diaspora back there. The Ancient Spirits of Evil summon Shadowmaster, who attacks the Thundercats with an army of shadows. They fight the shadows with flash bombs and Lion-O banishes Shadowmaster with the sword. Then Ancient Spirits bring back Mumm-Ra again.

Issue #2 features Hachiman, who needs some healing waters from Thundera for his father. Mumm-Ra gathers the mutants and has them attack, but the ‘Cats and Hachiman defeat them and get the healing waters. The Feliner is damaged in the fight, and Panthro debuts his new Thundertank.

Issue #3 bring in the Lunatacs, who capture Mandora: Evil Chaser, have some flashbacks to the cartoon, and then attack the Thundercats (who are mining Thundrillium in the new tank). Lynx-o coaches Cheetara on her sixth sense (in case you forgot that was a thing) and the ‘Cats quickly take down the Lunatacs and free Mandora. Mumm-Ra sends Ma-Mutt to kidnap Wilykat.

In Issue #4, Wilykat gets kidnapped as the adults are activating the beacon they built to tell all the other Thunderians to come home. Wilykit reports the kidnapping and Lion-O leads the team to Mumm-Ra’s pyramid. Mumm-Ra tries to persuade Wilykat that he isn’t so bad, then the ‘Cats show up, so he transforms and duels Lion-O. Panthro dumps Mumm-Ra’s sarcophagus into the magic pool so he can’t easily return when Lion-O wins. After they leave, Mumm-Ra cackles that the Thundercats are so predictable that they did exactly what he needed them to do: Provide the power he needed to resurrect Grune the Destroyer.

In issue #5, Mumm-Ra demonstrates his control over Grune because Grune is mortal again and vulnerable to Thundrainium. Then he gives Grune his original mace and the sword of Plun-Darr and sends him to challenge Lion-O for leadership. Jaga appears to Lion-O to warn him about Grune and then say goodbye, because Lion-O has grown and no longer needs him. Grune challenges Lion-O, Lion-O makes a speech about needing to accept the challenge to be a good leader, then he goes and hands Grune his ass. Grune refuses to surrender and gets knocked off a bridge to his presumed death. Lion-O then says goodbye to the team, as he’s going into the Book of Omens for training, which will be ten years for him but seem like days to everyone else. Then we circle back to Mumm-Ra, who reveals his scheme: He’s unleashed a series of easy challenges on the Thundercats to make them complacent, but messed with the temporal passage inside the Book so that Lion-O will actually be gone for a decade. And in that time, he’ll conquer Thundera!

Like I said: very little happens. This could have been crammed into a single issue, especially since the long fight scenes are often giant panels and not even that exciting or varied: You’ll have four panels of Lion-O and Grune in slightly different poses clanging their swords against each other as one page.

I give them credit that they mention hyperdrives several times when characters travel between Third Earth and New Thundera, which gets around the light-years of distance and need for suspension capsules.

Oddly, Claud-Us is called “Claudis” in this. His name is weirdly inconsistent throughout the series. (How much you want to bet that somebody advocated for him to be named Lion-N at some point in development?)

The fact that Mumm-Ra has Grune’s Thundrainium mace will likely be forgotten and never come of anything. Honestly, as we’ll see in the next volume, it’s pretty clear that Gilmore wasn’t quite sure at any point where he was going with this and there’s a lot of tossing things out and then ignoring them later.

 

[Kirin]

This is a perfectly fine, if a bit straightforward, cover but I have questions. Why does it look like there’s two Tigra? Why is Lion-O’s left hand huge?
(I also don’t recognize the lady at the center left but I assume she’s just a later TV character I don’t remember or something.)

 

[Beowulf]

This is a perfectly fine, if a bit straightforward, cover but I have questions. Why does it look like there’s two Tigra? Why is Lion-O’s left hand huge?
(I also don’t recognize the lady at the center left but I assume she’s just a later TV character I don’t remember or something.)

The second Tigra is Bengali. He, Pumyra and Lynx-o (immediately below him on the left side) were introduced in the season 2 premiere as additional refugees from Thundera. (I always assumed he looked like a blue Tigra because they toy manufacturers wanted to re-use the mold.) They never appeared in the Star comics series, which only pulled material from the first season.

As for Lion-O's hand, I'm guessing it's some combination of the artist not understanding perspective and not understanding that the claw shield is just a glove, not Hellboy's evil hand.

 

[Torzelbaum]

As for Lion-O's hand, I'm guessing it's some combination of the artist not understanding perspective and not understanding that the claw shield is just a glove, not Hellboy's evil hand.

Is this also why Lion-O's right hand is two different colors?

 

[Daikaiju]

No, that's from the original design. All the 'Cats have various markings. It's never stated specifically whether this due to skin pigmentation or a very light fuzzy coat.

 

[Torzelbaum]

It has been so long since I've seen Thundercats that I have almost no memory of it.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Mostly, I just remember the show's intro looked really good. I'm also given to understand that it doesn't represent the animation within any given episode...

 

[Beowulf]

Thundercats: The Return (Wildstorm, 2002)

In Issue #1 we meet an extremely-addled Snarf, who has finally found the key to the Book of Omens and manages to retrieve Lion-O from inside. It’s been five years--he’s been gone much longer than he thought--and Mumm-Ra has conquered Thundera! The Thunderian refugees all came home, everything was peaceful for a bit, then Mumm-Ra brought in a massive mutant army and conquered the place overnight. Mumm-Ra personally defeated Panthro and put him to work in the mines. Mumm-Ra is so powerful now that the Ancient Spirits of Evil serve him, rather than the other way around. Lion-O announces that no matter how powerful Mumm-Ra has become, he’s also become mighty and can take back Thundera. Then we cut to Mumm-Ra, delighted that a challenge has appeared after years, and he reveals that the grown-up kittens (clad in Huttslayer Leia outfits) are his servants now.

Issue #2 opens with a strung-up skeleton, strangled with Panthro’s nunchunks, which Snarf implies is Bengali. A monkian is the overseer in the mines; Lion-O fights him and breaks his neck, then intimidates Panthro’s location out of a jackelman. Mumm-Ra watches from his pyramid, gloating that he’s toying with Lion-O so he can crush him later, and then tortures Wilykit for funsies. Lion-O beats up some monkians and jackelmen in the mines (complete with blood-splatters!), and the other slaves agree to fight the guards so Lion-O and Panthro can escape. As they do, Panthro declares they’re going to kill Mumm-Ra, once and for all.

Issue #3 opens with gold-bikini Wilykit giving Mumm-Ra a bath, and he refers to her as his “concubine,” noting that she didn’t demand to be sent to the mines instead, like Cheetara did. He gloats that Lion-O will be distressed when he sees what’s become of Cheetara, and then scries Castle Plun-Darr, where Slithe, Jackelman and Vultureman are watching over Tigra and chafing under Mumm-Ra’s rule. Monkian notes they should enjoy themselves, while ogling a chained-up Cheetara in shreds of her usual outfit. Snarf runs in, causes a distraction, and tosses Tigra and Cheetara their weapons (which the mutants had been ineffectively playing with) and then Lion-O and Panthro charge in for 6 pages of fight scenes. They free Cheetara and she slaps Lion-O as they leave. Then we swap back to Mumm-Ra, as Wilykat agrees to lead the Thundercats into a trap in exchange for him and Wilykit going free.

Issue #4 opens with Wilykat convincing himself he’s doing the right thing, then scratching himself up so it looks like he was in a fight. Mumm-Ra goads Wilykit with her brother’s actions, mostly so he has an excuse got zap her again when she gets mad. (He seems to be genuinely arguing that Wilykat is a gleefully evil traitor, and I feel like the reader is supposed to believe it?) Anyway, Cheetara vents her only-vaguely-justified feelings at Lion-O for abandoning them until Wilykat arrives to convince them to sneak into the pyramid and attack Mumm-Ra. Mumm-Ra casts a spell to power-up the mutants. The Thundercats beat a couple of guards, arrive in the pyramid, and Mumm-Ra reveals Wilykat’s betrayal (and then, just to twist the knife, double-crosses him, refusing to free him and Wilykit). Then he tops that off by blasting Wilykat into a cauldron, seemingly killing him. Mumm-Ra gloats that all of his plans have succeeded thanks to Lion-O’s arrogance, and invites the mutants to finish off the Thundercats.

Issue #5 opens with a long-ass fight scene with the mildly-larger-and-stronger mutants. Mumm-Ra tortures Wilykit a bit more, but when she continues fighting back he frees her to go die with the rest of the Thundercats. He then transforms into his Ever-Living form and waits for Lion-O. The Thundercats appear to kill Monkian and Slithe, and Lion-O goes to confront Mumm-Ra. Mumm-Ra gloats that he doesn’t care about the Thundercats or even if he kills them, he just wants the sword so he can conquer the universe. Lion-O throws down the sword and attacks Mumm-Ra with his bare hands, which is dumb, because as soon as Mumm-Ra gets the upper hand he pulls out the Sword of Plun-Darr and tries to kill Lion-O. Thankfully, Panthro jumps in so Lion-O can punch Mumm-Ra in the chest and turn him to ash. He declares that Mumm-Ra will always return, and they’ll need to stay on the offensive to take back their planet from him; and Tigra reminds him of the Code of Thundera. After they leave, Mumm-Ra re-forms, agrees that the rules have changed, and plots to bring in Wilykat (who isn’t dead, of course) as his new general.

Where the first volume was a “remember this bright, action-filled series from your childhood?” this one is “we’re going to make it as grimdark as possible!” (This volume is also by Ford Gilmore, and penciled by Ed Benes, who really loves drawing the female ‘Cats in T&A poses.) Lion-O outright kills a mutant! It’s heavily implied both that Mumm-Ra has made sex slaves of the kittens and that the mutants (particularly Monkian) had been raping Cheetara. By the end, though, it was already backing off: It’s implied that the Thundercats kill the main four mutants, but not actually confirmed. And Lion-O still never once cuts anything with the sword of omens.

Gilmore’s opinion of Bengali, Pumyra and Lynx-O is pretty clear, though: They not only don’t appear, the only mention of any of them is Snarf’s aside that something terrible happened to Bengali.

Mumm-Ra’s machinations are clearly supposed be him playing 4D chess, but it remains obvious that both he and the writer are pantsing it. Nothing he’s doing is consistent from issue to issue; he just keeps claiming it’s “all according to plan” after it looks like he’s suffered yet another loss. Both Panthro’s bloodlust and Cheetara’s misplaced blame get 30 seconds of note and then get forgotten; and it feels like Gilmore had no idea what Tigra was actually doing and just kinda glossed it over as “he was held captive by the mutants and forced to work for Mumm-Ra doing something at a desk.” And Wilykat was actually decently written as having his spirit broken to the point he’d believe Mumm-Ra, otherwise all-powerful and unbeatable, would free his sister if only he did this one thing…but we’re apparently supposed to believe that this is his “start of darkness”? He’s not evil, he just needs therapy.

I suppose the one bright spot is this finally gives the sword of omens credit for how powerful it really is. Apparently this whole time Mumm-Ra could field an army that could conquer Thundera in a day, but he didn’t because Lion-O and the sword were there. Except, actually, Lion-O barely uses the sword at all in the story or the fight scenes—he uses it once as a flashlight and to rally the slaves in the mines. He doesn’t shoot any beams or make any forcefields or really do anything with it that he couldn’t do with a normal sword (or a blunt club). In the end, Lion-O defeats Mumm-Ra by punching him. I actually wonder, looking at the panels, if he was supposed to stab Mumm-Ra and somebody got cold feet.

Anyway, to sum up: These comics were not good.

 

[Daikaiju]

Oh yeah. the Wildstorm series swung for the fences...

...behind home plate.

 

[Beowulf]

There was another Wildstorm book, Thundercats: Dogs of War, written by John Layman and published in 2003. I once owned a copy, and I got rid of it because it was that bad. The rough synopsis is that 10 years after The Return, Lion-O has aged unnaturally fast and is looking for a successor when the “Dogs of War” (an anthropometric dog race led by the Doberlord) attack and he’s forced to go to Mumm-Ra for help. They form a fragile alliance with the Mutants (who aren’t dead) while the War Dogs conquer Thundera and then they all end up captured and tortured. Ma-Mutt betrays Mumm-Ra, because he’s a dog. Adult Wilykat returns from exile and there are new Thunderkittens running around. Adult Wilykit gets a boyfriend. The Lizarians (somehow different from the reptilians, Slithe’s race) eventually help defeat the War Dogs and Mumm-Ra kills the Doberlord. Then Mumm-Ra retrieves from Waters of Life from Third Earth to reverse Lion-O’s aging so they can keep fighting in the years to come. Clearly they were trying to walk back some of the grimdark without ignoring continuity, but that’s a hard balance in a well-written book, which this was not. The art is very “generic Wildstorm,” again trying to split the difference between the cartoon and more “realistic” grimdark and failing. (You cannot have a serious story about the horrors of war and also introduce a character called the Doberlord.)

Also, the dogs are evil. Like, even in the world of Thundercats that’s just not believable.

You might notice from that synopsis that Layman ignored Gilmore’s foreshadowing and not only does Wilykat not become Mumm-Ra’s evil general, it seems like Mumm-Ra has done fuck-all in the intervening years.

Two more miniseries were published by Wildstorm, ThunderCats: Hammerhand’s Revenge in 2004 by Fiona Avery and ThunderCats: Enemy's Pride in 2005 by John Layman. I know basically nothing else about them; Dogs of War was bad enough to turn me off to the series and I honestly figured they cancelled it after how bad that was. I only found out these existed when I was doing this project. They apparently also released several source books and crossover one-shots with Battle of the Planets and Superman.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t think the Wildstorm comics were good and certainly don’t hold them to be in continuity.

 

[Beowulf]

Thundercats (Dynamite, 2023)

Then finally we get to the brand-new material, the Thundercats comics Dynamite has been publishing for the past couple of years. I actually snagged a big collection of them in a Humble Bundle.

Volume One: Omens

Ever notice how comics used to be much more dense? More panels, more dialogue, at least one story to each issue? Anyway, like with the Wildstorm books, I feel like I can summarize each story rather than each issue, here. Issues #1-4 make up “Arc 1.”

Issue #1 gives us a similar recap to the original show: Thundera was destroyed and the rest of the fleet lost when the Mu’tants attacked, seeking the Eye of Thundera. Lion-O’s suspension capsule malfunctioned and he grew up during their journey, and Jaga died en route to Third Earth. It takes a darker tone: Panthro is shown training Lion-O harshly, Tigra looks older (and his name is spelled Tygra), the ‘Cats are shown hunting animals for food. The Mu’tants attack, Lion-O does the familiar call with the sword, everyone has their usual weapons and tricks and flying surfboards, and we see Mumm-Ra stirring when he senses the power of the Eye. But then Lion-O and Slithe clash and the Sword of Omens…breaks? And Mumm-Ra seems to be speaking to Jaga’s ghost! Mysterious!

The Mu’tants were driven off and the ‘Cats search the Mu’tant ship for useful parts, and find an injured Thunderian on board. (They also clearly have communicators!) She’s a peasant Thunderian named Calica who had been captured and experimented on by Mu’tants. (Panthro and Tygra immediately realize her story is suspect, but Lion-O has a crush and doesn’t want to hear any of it. He spends the next three issues making goo-goo eyes at her.)

Meanwhile, Slithe and the Mu’tants march off to find a place to set up camp and get themselves captured. Slithe, separate from the rest, is revealed to have been captured by Monkian, lord of the Mu’tants of Third Earth (as opposed to the reptilians from Plun’Darr).

Panthro spends a lot of time repairing things and contemplating if they’ll stay or try to go back into space. He contemplates that they detected Thundrainium, and potentially mining it for power. (Which gives me brain noise, because Thundrillium is the power source. Thundrainium works like kryptonite; Fire Rock Mountain was full of the stuff in the original cartoon.)

Mumm-Ra spends several issues just kicking around his tomb with Jaga’s spirit, trying to get answers out of him. All he seems to get is angry ghost-face.

Snarf emerges from a hidden chamber he’s been guarding; Snarf can’t talk but can communicate telepathically with Lion-O. The chamber contains relics of Thundera and Snarf only passed two months inside, despite it being years since Thundera’s destruction.

Panthro doesn’t trust Calica and gets pissed enough at Lion-O to take a swing, and for the affront, Cheetara challenges him to a Thunder-duel. They fight with wooden swords to settle the dispute; Cheetara wins, Panthro concedes to Lion-O’s authority.

A horde of reptilians wrapped in bandages and cloaks approach the Thundercats ship. The ‘Cats tear into the hoard until Mumm-Ra reveals himself and starts throwing lightning, zapping Tygra. Panthro runs. Lion-O confronts Mumm-Ra alone while the rest retreat to get Tygra medical help. Mumm-Ra offers to have Lion-O work for him, which is refused. Then we learn that Lion-O doesn’t even have the sword of omens with him, just a Thunder-Cutter sword. But that’s enough to hold off Mumm-Ra (who also suffers some mysterious loss of power mid-fight) until Panthro returns in the Thundertank!

They return to find Calica used telepathy to knock out Snarf and steal the sword while they were gone. (Curse her sudden but inevitable betrayal!) Lion-O declares they’re staying on Third Earth and must construct a base. We end on Lion-O musing about his search for answers and a reveal that the Book of Omens is in a snowbank somewhere.

(In the 80s, dashes were cool. Now, apostrophes are cool.)

The Thunder-Cutter, introduced in episode #27 of the original cartoon, was the samurai Hachiman’s sword. I wonder if we’re going to get any humans at all in this new series?

This plot actually ends up being an interesting parallel to “Pumm-Ra” in the original cartoon and comics; the fake Thunderian who they foolishly trust enough to give the run of Cat’s Lair who then steals the sword. Also, I was looking at notes of the original series and apparently the sword was broken and reforged three times over the course of it, so this time should be pretty manageable whenever they get the sword back.

 

[Beowulf]

The next two issues are included in the first trade collection but are standalone stories.

Issue #5 opens with Cheetara waking Lion-O and dragging him out to the forest for training. And by “training” we mean, “let’s fight while I explain the ways of the world to you because you’re a preteen dumbass in an adult body.” Lion-O is not, in fact, a match for Cheetara in the slightest. Lion-O admits he knows he’s not worthy of being the lord of the Thundercats; which was clearly Cheetara’s goal as he needs to learn humility. A lot of this is deconstructing the new personalities for the adult Thundercats and how the seek to teach and counsel Lion-O: Panthro in is straightforward and coarse and wants to call Lion-O out on his shit; Tygra is knowledgeable but enigmatic and will let Lion-O make his own mistakes. The writers here lean hard into Lion-O’s sudden jump from childhood to adult responsibilities. And then they fight some more so that Cheetara can teach Lion-O to act and think faster and rely on agility—and he actually lands a hit by anticipating her movements.

(This issue also includes a preview of the Cheetara miniseries; I’ll get to that later.)

Credit where it’s due: The fight scenes in this are actually decently choreographed and blocked out so they’re interesting to read. If you’re going to spend so much page time on one-on-one dueling, this is the way to do it. It’s definitely better than the Wildstorm comics in that regard.

Issue #6 revolves around Panthro and the Thundertank. The ‘Cats are running out of the Thundrillium they brought from Thundera to power all of their equipment, so Panthro modified the ‘tank to pull Thundrainium, a similar ore found on Third Earth, from the ground. Panthro’s inner monologue explores his relationship with Lion-O (he’d expected to be a soldier and engineer, not a mentor) and flashes back to the Thunder-Duel. He’s attacked by a flock of Mu’tant vulturemen; he beats a few of them hand-to-hand and baits the flock into a canyon so he can blast them with the tank’s cannons. When it looks like they might be overwhelming him, Snarf emerges from under the seat and helps out, trapping one vultureman inside the tank. Then Panthro jumps the tank into a rock formation to smash off the remaining vulturemen. Afterwards, they question the captive, who reveals Thunderians have been using Third Earth as a penal colony for many years and banishing their enemies here; the vulturemen hate Thunderians for this and were trying to steal the extracted Thundrainium. Panthro frees the prisoner and tells him to report that if the vulturemen stay away they’ll have no quarrel with the Thundercats. After they drive off, the prisoner reveals that he’s Vultureman, leader of the Vulture Army, and he will absolutely not stay away.

I feel like they either should have taken the advantage of a new continuity to name him Vultaire like the 2011 cartoon, or name the species the “avians” or something.

They clarify what’s going on with the Thundrillium/Thundrainium confusion earlier; I’m actually hoping this becomes a worthwhile plot point.

I appreciate these more self-contained, character-focused stories as “breathing room” after the introductory arc; though I really feel there’s not enough meat in each issue. The original series managed to cram multiple events, often with new and exciting villains/plots/hazards, into 22 pages or 22 minutes. Compare this issue against Issue #3 of the original comic, which is also about Panthro going off solo in the Thundertank to mine fuel and be introspective, and him getting ambushed by unknown foes who he needs to be clever to fight off. But that comic introduces Tessa, gives us her full backstory and worldbuilding about her powers and the Dagger Mist and the Warrior Maidens, and resolves that as a full story; and it also has a complete sub-plot about Lion-O “crying wolf,” getting trapped by a fantastical plant, freeing himself, and learning a valuable lesson. I know, I know, I’m harping on this; but they have so much opportunity to both use the medium and capture the giant, chaotic, sprawling world of Third Earth and it feels like they’re squandering it on glacially-paced stories.

 

[Beowulf]

Volume Two: Roar

Issue #7 opens with the kittens balking that they need Lion-O’s permission to go out, given that from their perspective he was the same age as them a few weeks earlier. Needless to say, they ignore him and go exploring. This version of Wilykit is definitely the instigator of the pair, goading her brother into danger. They hit a snag, have a rough landing, and land at Mumm-Ra’s pyramid.

Back at the ship, Cheetara is at Tygra’s bedside when he wakes up; and Lion-O and Panthro repair the Thundertank and contemplate the various enemies arrayed against them. Later, Tygra gets up and starts designs for a Cat’s Lair, built from the ship’s materials.

The kittens sneak in and begin exploring the pyramid, and find a mural of Mumm-Ra that includes an image that looks like Thundara. WilyKat trips a trapdoor and falls in, splitting the pair; and at the bottom something causes him to go weak. WilyKit charges forward to search for him, demonstrating that she can speed-run like Cheetara can (and smashing through some of Mumm-Ra’s zombies in the process). Then she hears WilyKat telepathically calling. She catches up with WilyKat and realizes that he’s fallen into the lair of the sleeping Mumm-Ra.

Babboo (a monkian) reports to Monkian and Slithe that all of Slithe’s troops were taken by Mumm-Ra and are undead now. Slithe flies into a rage at the implication that he’s a poor leader and kills Babboo, proving his mettle to Monkian. Slithe claims to have a plan to go forward.

As they escape, the twins theorize they have powers that are just starting to develop: Shared telepathy and speed, but that one of them is weakened when the other uses them. Wilykat also heard Mumm-Ra speaking about Jaga; and they don’t know what that implies. They agree not to tell the others about any of this.

Another random note: Everybody wears pants in this version of the series, and most of them wear proper jackets as well.

Issue #8 opens with Tygra hanging upside down on a construction scaffold, getting to work on Cat’s Lair. Panthro and the kittens tease him for a bit. He sets up a process to move the special door to the Treasures of Thundera, briefly screws it up and shunts himself to a strange desert where a ghostly hermit observes him, then returns to the treasure room, which is full of time doors. From there, he invisibly watches as Claudus and Snarf walk through, having come through a time door from the past. Claudus is assigning Snarf the role of guardian of the Treasures and noting that it will reunite him with Lion-O. Then the mysterious hermit bursts in and attacks Claudus. The hermit seems to know Claudus and the treasures (and Tygra, when he jumps in to help). He grabs a poleaxe, but seems surprised when it does nothing special. Then Claudus commands them to hide, as young Jaga marches through with a parade of Mu’tant survivors/prisoners of the Great War. After the pass, the hermit attacks again, declares that a tragedy is coming, and disappears though one of the doors. (We will later apparently learn the hermit is named “Apex.”)

Meanwhile, Mumm-Ra is scrying for the Eye and gets blasted with feedback because something has changed.

Claudus explains some backstory to Tygra: Rather than executing Mu’tant prisoners, they chose to exile them, not realizing they’d need Third Earth as a lifeline later. He asks Tygra to keep their plans and the hermit secret and sends him back through the correct door. Back home, Tygra exchanges nods with Snarf and says he can’t say what he learned except for the warning that the Mu’tants are coming to attack.

Issue #9 sees Cheetara out checking the perimeter and finding nothing, but wondering about Calica (who is lying in a river, observed by the ghost of Jaga). Cheetara gets a psychic vision of the Mu’tants and realizes that she’s stumbled on the monkian lair and that they’re planning an imminent attack. Meanwhile, Panthro is looking at the horizon and realizes the same thing: Mu’tants are approaching. The Cat’s Lair doesn’t have defenses set up yet, so Tygra scrambles for them, Panthro goes for the Thundertank, and Snarf guards the thundrainium. Lion-O and the kittens bomb the army from the spaceboards, and Panthro ends up in hand-to-hand combat with the Monkian leader. Panthro wins, unsurprisingly, and takes the tank to catch up with the main force. Lion-O does a “Thundercats, HO!” with the Thunder-Cutter, which is not as impressive. The ‘Cats battle the Mu’tants for a while until the ship’s defenses reboot, and Slithe ambushes Lion-O but Snarf saves him. Tygra realizes that Slithe’s poleaxe is the blade Apex was surprised by in the treasure chamber, and disarms Slithe. The blade turns into the Sword of Plun’Darr and it sets off a chain of explosions (apparently in the Thundrainium stores), destroying the frame of Cat’s Lair, shattering the Mu’tant army, and leaving the Treasure door exposed.

Issue #10 opens seconds later, as Slithe crawls from the wreckage and grabs the sword, which turns back into his poleaxe. Another reptilian appears to lead him to safety (claiming to be Great War refugee, not part of Slithe’s crew), and while he’s initially suspicious, he goes along. He flashes back to the Great War on Thundera and leaving his wife Ovipia and their son when he went to war. He considered the war the finest moment for Plun-Darr and the most devastating blow the Thunderians ever suffered. But they ultimately failed and it turned out the Thunderians fooled him into attacking so they could destroy his home. With nothing to lose, the Mu’tants kept fighting until Thundera was destroyed and then pursued the Thundercats to Third Earth.

Slithe sees that the Thundercats are still alive and retreats with the other reptilian. Monkian confronts them; Slithe reveals that he has the Sword of Plun’Darr, and the reptilian kills Monkian. Then he reveals his identity: He is Scail, Slithe’s son, banished here during the war (through the Treasure Room) and now leader of the local reptilians. Slithe is delighted to learn his family is alive and vows to join and lead them.

It turns out I made a mistake: I thought the collections were six issues, but they’re five. So volume 2 ends at issue #10 and on our revelations about Slithe.

 

[Daikaiju]

Issue #7 opens with the kittens balking that they need Lion-O’s permission to go out, given that from their perspective he was the same age as them a few weeks earlier

Yes. More of this, please. Heck, I'm pretty sure Animated Lion-O is younger.

 

[Beowulf]

Volume 3: Apex

Issue #11 opens with Tygra and Cheetara having finished disassembling the flagship and moving the materials into the underground portion of Cat’s Lair. Tygra confesses his love for Cheetara and she returns it. They kiss. Wilykit retches. Panthro grunts.

Out in the desert, Lion-O finds that Snarf has followed him. He decided that after learning all the secrets (the Mu’tants banished to Third Earth, Cheetara knew Thundera was doomed, the kittens found Mumm-Ra’s tomb) that he would just go off and fight Mumm-Ra alone—and that includes not bringing Snarf! He continues into the pyramid and confronts Mumm-Ra, and they fight and banter for most of the issue, Lion-O clearly not realizing what a terrible idea he had. Then Mumm-Ra transforms into his Ever-Living form and as we pan away Lion-O contemplates that he’s alone.

Issue #12 opens on Panthro, contemplating their survival on Third Earth while surrounded by enemies. Cheetara and Tygra spar for a while and it’s extremely obviously foreplay. Scail leads Slithe up a mountain towards their new home. Calica flees across a landscape and curses that Jaga assigned her this task, and then his ghost appears. He reveals that while he trained Calica as a spy, he didn’t teach her the mystic arts he used to keep his soul adrift. He should have been attached to the Eye, but Mumm-Ra ensnared him with dark magic until Calica stole the sword and broke that spell. Mumm-Ra was trying to control Calica, but her freeing Jaga broke that spell, too. It turns out Jaga had her undercover with the Mu’tants in the first place. Also, there’s someone mysterious stalking her.

Panthro and WilyKat return from a supply run for more Thundrainium. Cheetara wakes to find Tygra in his lab, contemplating Thundrainium. Thundrillium, we learn, is a processed version of the same element; but Tygra has theories about what you can do with the raw version now that he has plenty to work with. And the explosion has transformed it into something brand-new: “Thundore.” No one is impressed. Then they realize that no-one knows where Lion-O is and we zoom-out to see he’s wrapped up in Mumm-Ra’s captivity.

Finally, Slithe arrives at the reptilian camp and learns that Ovipia died of illness months ago (Scail just didn’t want to admit it) but that he has another ally against the Thundercats: Vultureman!

Issue #13 is a near-wordless adventure starring Snarf, who goes adventuring through several of the time-doors. He chases a butterfly through an idyllic landscape for a while, then goes to someplace with lots of doors and SNRFs at some other snarfs, one of whom challenges him (and loses) and another who sends him through a specific door. Snarf distracts some hooded humanoids and is injured by one of their rifle shots, then is found and nursed to health by Apex, who calls him “old friend.” We finally see Apex’s face; he’s a bald Thunderian with red sideburns and what appears to be the Eye of Thundera replacing his right eye. He tells Snarf he needs to go back and prevent the Thundercats from dying; and we see Snarf finding Calica. We close on another shot of Lion-O trapped by Mumm-Ra.

Issue #14 opens with a flashback to a ragged creature (resembling a naked Mumm-Ra) digging itself free from the sands, when a caped figure with a sword commands it to yield.

Fast-forward to the present: Mumm-Ra attacks the Thundercats. The kittens run for help while Panthro confronts him solo. Mumm-Ra brags that he killed and ate Lion-O, enraging Panthro, who hits Mumm-Ra with all that he’s got but has fallen by the time the rest of the team arrives. Cheetara pummels Mumm-Ra, but Tygra pulls her back with a plan to help Panthro and sends the kittens to distract Mumm-Ra. Tygra and Cheetara cover Panthro in Thundore which apparently stabilizes him. Mumm-Ra knocks the cat’s head off the lair in a display of power. Then with a cry of HO! Snarf, Calica and a hoard of Ro-Bear Berbils emerge from the door. They take Mumm-Ra down and Panthro demands Lion-O’s location. Mumm-Ra refuses to yield and Jaga’s spirit smashes through him, turning him to dust.

Calica explains that she was acting according to Jaga’s instructions and returns the sword. She introduces the BR-BR/BLZ, who had helped her (they were apparently what had been pursuing her several issues ago) and who then help rebuild Cat’s Lair. In an epilogue, we see Panthro recovering, Tygra building a suit of armor, and the team searching the black pyramid but not finding Lion-O.

Issue #15 opens with us learning that a door opened in the pyramid and Lion-O was able to tear off the bandages and escape into a snowy landscape. He encounters a rhino-sized bug-creature that attacks him, but he kills it and uses its carapace for shelter. And while musing that no Thunderian has ever seen these sights…he realizes a cat’s head is carved into a nearby rock.

Weeks later, Lion-O has grown sideburns and a mustache (and gave himself a rockin’ haircut and assembled some new clothes) and has made his way to more temperate climes. He fights some rockmen, which in this continuity are more like 15 feet tall and actually made of rock. Then he fights some gargoyles (which are clearly organic), gets into trouble, and is saved by Apex. He tries to greet the stranger, but Apex declares that “Lion-O is a distant memory!” and attacks him. Their battle is interrupted by a Man-O-War Cloud snagged Apex, and when Lion-O saves him, his helmet falls off and reveals the truth: Apex IS Lion-O!

Apex explains that he is Lion-O from years in the future, and he claims a great war is coming that he needs to prepare Lion-O for. The two of them walk away together, and that’s the end of volume 3.

I actually really appreciate that they spool out these mysteries but then resolve them at a reasonable pace and then, in turn, use those revelations. The pacing is slow, but it’s not bad. They have some really solid ideas and twists on the classic formula. And hey, they’re using some of the ridiculous creatures and hazards from the original series.

By the way, I haven’t been posting the covers, but by and large the individual covers have been entirely unrelated to the stories, and also there have been half a dozen variant covers for every issue, some of them even less relevant than the main one. Issue #15 had a variant that was Lion-O traveling alone (accurate!) and also variants including Lion-O and Monkian (who’s dead), Lion-O fighting the Mu’tants (doesn’t happen), Cheetara (doesn’t appear), Jaga (doesn’t appear); and Lion-O and Cheetara fighting Mumm-Ra (doesn’t happen). The Star Comics covers might have given inaccurate impressions of scenes from the issues, but at least they were things that could have happened!

 

[Beowulf]

There was also a one-shot titled Thundercats: Apex:

It opens with Apex finding the Book of Omens in a desert. He’s riding a black unicorn and is stopped by a warthog-man named Sparl who tries to rob him. Sparl pushes his luck so Apex cuts off his arm, beats up his men, and demands to know where to find Molemaster. Apex is directed to an old west-style saloon populated with Mu’tants, where he interrogates a vultureman bartender named Griffon about Molemaster’s location. Griffon, upon learning that Apex is a cat, tries to throw him out, and the other patrons join in. Apex smashes up the place until Griffon directs him to Molemaster’s mining operation in Thorburn.

Apex and his unicorn Ceros are pulled into the ground and confronted by Molemaster’s lackey Driller. When the molemen attack, Apex commands the Ancient Spirits of Evil to transform him into Apex the Ever-Living, splatters a bunch of them and tears Driller’s limbs off. Molemaster reveals himself and asks what he’s done wrong. Apex explains that in several years, Molemaster will use his riches and access to Thundrainium to join the Mu’tant army and kill everyone Apex loves. He promised in their final moments that he’d undo what had been done, and ceased to be Lion-O and became Apex. He decapitates Molemaster and takes control of the mines, declaring that they’ll mine for Thundrainium and he’ll be prepared when he fights the war a second time.

A “reading order” I found suggested reading Thundercats: Apex between issues 10 and 11, but it honestly made more sense to me to wait until now. After issue 10 we know basically nothing about Apex and his motivations. By waiting until after issue 15 we got to suspect Apex’s identity as clues were dribbled out until Lion-O learned it (and got the shock value there) and this gives us more detail about his motivations and backstory.

 

[Kirin]

Man, this may not be Wildstorm’s kinda puerile grimdarkness, but everyone but Lion-O dying so he allies himself with evil powers and becomes a time-traveling killer to try to prevent it is still pretty dark.