"Crisis on Earth-C!" - a Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew Comic Event!

Okay, normally I don't do a review on this blog of a particular story from an ongoing comic book series - I either review an entire series or mini-series, or I review a graphic novel collection.  But I recently picked up this two-part story from a comic series that is one of my all-time favorite comic books, and after re-reading it, I just couldn't let it pass without sharing my thoughts of the story.  Ever a DC Comics fan, I instantly fell in love with whole multiverse idea after I read my very first Justice League / Justice Society crossover back in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #183-185 published in 1980.  I waited every year for that annual crossover to take place, just to see what other heroes they would team-up with, and I hunted through a myriad of comic book bins to find all of the previous crossover events from the past.  I mean, seriously - the JLA and JSA teamed-up with the Shazam family, the Freedom Fighters, the Seven Soldiers of Victory, the New Gods, the Legion of Super-Heroes, the stars of the Old West, and eventually even the All-Star Squadron in a huge five-part crossover that spanned two titles (Justice League of America and All-Star Squadron)!   So, you can imagine how geeked-out I became when this fun little title starring a group of funny animal super-heroes offered up its own take on this annual tradition!  It was like a dream come true for me!!!

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew was a unique DC Comics title.  Yes, it was a super-hero title, but instead of featuring human or even alien super-heroes, the title featured a menagerie of funny animals with super-powers who come together to help save their world of animals from dangerous threats!  The feature first appeared in one of those special 16-page inserts that DC made popular during the early 1980s (in New Teen Titans #16) before spinning out into its own title a month later in the first issue of its own comic magazine.  The series featured Captain Carrot, a mild-mannered rabbit who ate radiated carrots to become the super-powered hero.  His Zoo Crew included the magic cat, Alley-Kat-Abra; the elongated Rubberduck; the speeding turtle, Fastback; the patriotic poodle, Yankee Poodle; and the nearly invulnerable Pig-Iron.  Together, this team fought villains such as Kongaroo, Frogzilla, Armordillo, Cold Turkey, The Screeching Tire, and so many others.  It was all in good fun, and the stories were filled with numerous puns that made you laugh or groan (or both!).  

But it was issues 14 and 15 that truly sealed this series as one of my all-time favorites.  Throughout the series, Roger Rodney Rabbit was a cartoonist who drew a comic called "Just'a Lotta Animals" (a/k/a the JLA), starring characters such as Super Squirrel, Wonder Wabbit, Aquaduck, The Batmouse, Green Lambkin, and the Crash.  But they were just comic book characters.  Weren't they?  Well, in the tradition of Gardner Fox's famous "Flash of Two Worlds" story, the Zoo Crew discovers that the JLA is not just a comic book - they are actual super heroes who live on an alternate Earth!  (Since the Zoo Crew's Earth was designated Earth C, what else would the JLA Earth be but Earth C-Minus!)  In a twist of fate, Captain Carrot meets his own creation, Super Squirrel, along with the rest of the Zoo Crew and the Just'a Lotta Animals in order to fight the combined villainy of Amazoo, Shaggy Dog, Feline Faust, Armordillo, Digger O'Doom, and Dr. Hoot!  It was a two-issue extravaganza in the tradition of all of the JLA/JSA crossovers that saw the teams divide up to conquer the villains, with members of CCAHAZC teaming up with members of the JLA.  Plenty of super fights, plenty of super puns, and plenty of good-old fashioned funny animal super-hero fun!  I think these two issues are probably the best example of just how much fun comics can be and still tell great heroic stories.

What I found so interesting about this crossover is that according to Roy Thomas, who co-created the Zoo Crew with artist Scott Shaw!, Captain Carrot was not the actual original idea for the series.  Originally, according to Thomas, the idea was to do a Super Squirrel and the Just'a Lotta Animals comic as a take-off of the Justice League series.  Due to legal issues surrounding the human counterparts to the Just'a Lotta Animals characters, they could not move forward with a comic headlining that particular group, so Thomas and Shaw! re-thought the entire idea and came up with Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (and the "JLA" team was relegated to being a comic within the comic).  And since Thomas admits to being a fan of the Julius Schwartz and Gardner Fox stories about the heroes of alternate Earths teaming-up, it was inevitable that the Zoo Crew would meet the "JLA" at some point.   Sadly, Captain Carrot's regular series did not last more than 20 issues (not counting the 3-issue Oz/Wonderland War that came after), so fans like me did not get to see an annual team-up like their human counterparts had.  (Imagine - they could have teamed up with the "JSA" - Just Some Animals ... or the Legion of Super Pets ... or even the New Dogs!  Sigh, oh, what could have been ... )

There was so much fun packed into these two issues, but two scenes that really stood out for me, and which I have always remembered all these years are:

 

 

(1) page 6 of issue 14. which featured a full page panel showcasing the entire membership of the "JLA," which included the main members mentioned above, plus The Martian Anteater, Rat Tornado, Elong-Gator, Zap-Panda, Hawkmoose, Stacked Canary, Green Sparrow, Firestork, and the Item!  If that page does not make you want to see a regular ongoing "JLA" series, then there must be something wrong with you!  The possibilities are endless!!!  and

 

(2) page 4 of issue 15, which found the Zoo Crew and "JLA" hurtling from world to world, trying to make their way to the Earth C-Minus ... jumping from a world that appears to be the happiest place on Earth (they could not exactly say "Disney" without being sued, I'm sure!) ... to a wacky world resembling the art of Salvador Doggi ... to a world of cat chasing mouse (a la Tom and Jerry) ... to a very familiar world featuring a certain team of Golden Age heroes and their young generation of new heroes - yes, that's right, the Justice Society of America appeared on panel 5 of this page, as drawn by Jerry Ordway, in which Power Girl makes it clear that "I don't care if it is an annual tradition! I'm not working with a team of funny animals!"  (Oh, to just imagine it - a Justice League / Justice Society / Zoo Crew team-up!!!!!)

Even as I write this blog post, I find myself with a huge grin on my face, smiling at the thought of the story, the characters, and the outright fun I had reading these issues.  This, my friends, is what comic book reading should be all about!  FUN!  I think it has been missing in comics for far too long, and it's probably one of the main reasons why I find myself gravitating more and more towards the comics of yester-year.  This book never took itself seriously, it poked fun at just about everything and everyone, including comics themselves, and yet it paid homage to such seminal stories as the JLA/JSA crossovers that had become such an important part of the Justice League of America title.  Later versions of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew missed the mark completely, never being able to capture the essence of what Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw! had created with the original run.  You may never truly be able to go home again, as the saying goes, but that doesn't mean you can't re-read these fantastically fun antics of the best funny animal super-hero team every created!  And believe me, re-read them I do!

 

RATING:  10 crisis crossovers out of 10 for reminding me that comic books can be fun and truly, spectacularly good at the same time and warming my heart with characters and stories that I absolutely love reading again and again and again and again and ... well, you get the picture!