Most of this '80s cartoon nostalgia trend hasn't appealed to me at all. In fact, outside of a couple of a strong Transformers scripts from Dreamwave, my interest in the fad has been negligible. Still, Kaare Andrews has proven himself to be a unique new artistic voice in comics, and I figured this merited a quick looksee. To my surprise and pleasure, I discovered that Andrews is doing something with these kids' cartoon properties that other creators have not done throughout this revival: he treats them like kids' cartoon properties. He takes a couple of liberties with the plotting -- key information is omitted, making for an occasional confusing read -- but overall, he offers a light, fun read.
An energy portal opens on both the Thundercats' and G-Force's worlds, and the team's leaders -- Lion-O and Mark -- are drawn in. They find themselves the prisoners of a throng of mutants and Spectra agents, and what's worse, they don't have their weapons. Meanwhile, the Thundercats come to believe that humans have kidnapped Lion-O, and the members of G-Force believe that a race of strange, alien cat-people have absconded with Mark. Conflict -- and some odd efforts on the Thundercats' part to fit into Earth society -- ensues.
Andrews's artwork is rich in color, and it captures the more innocent tone of the source material quite well. There are some particularly striking computer effects and even glimpses of photorealistic backgrounds at times that really set the artist's work apart from traditional line art. Andrews's manga leanings work particularly well with the G-Force characters, given their anime background. The colors also bring texture to the artwork, but never so much so that the lighter, more magical tone of the characters is lost.
The plot is a simple team-up formula, but simplicity works here. Andrews isn't trying to present a grown-up, darker view of these characters, but rather revels in their basic beginnings and original intent. The interaction between the two teams in the latter part of the book is particularly cute, and if a younger audience still exists for these characters, this would be the book to give to them.
Andrews provides a few scenes in which we see these properties as they were intended: as cartoons. Two characters are included in the script, young boys who are rabid fans of the Thundercats and G-Force. While Andrews makes no effort to incorporate them into the plot here, they do make for good incidental scenes that serve to remind the reader of the original point of the characters: fun and imagination.
Some plot points are surprisingly glossed over. One of the villains is masquerading as an ally here, but that's never made clear until the story is pretty much wrapped up. Furthermore, Andrews doesn't delve into the basics of the heroes' motives and powers, seemingly assuming that readers will be up on all that information. It's too bad... I've never watched an episode of Thundercats, and it's been a looooooonnnnnggg time since I watched Battle of the Planets. So, there were moments in the book when I was at a loss.
