DC’s Young Animal 2018
Written by Jon Rivera
Cover & Interiors Illustrated by Michael Avon Oeming
Coloured by Nick Filardi
Lettered by Clem Robins
Back-Up Illustrated by Paul Maybury
After a year of multiverse-hopping and fighting in the Milk Wars, returning to a normal life of digging and cave-diving just isn’t the same for explorer Cave Carson. Sure, he’s got his podcast, family and that cybernetic eye, but reminiscing about times gone by isn’t the same as living. Luckily for Cave Carson and his daughter Chloe, they’re about to get sucked into an all-new adventure—literally—when they go spelunking in a black hole! But what’s caused this black hole to appears and what’s its connection to the intergalactic music sensation Star Adam?
This may be the best thing to come out of Young Animal to date and by that I mean the entirety of Cave Carson stories. Yes I long for the whole 60’s/70’s interiors of the original artwork but then I am an admitted purest when it comes to my comics. Still everything about this screams originality and every piece of it works together in ways that bring us the best kind of storytelling possible. Also I am very disappointed that Wild Dog isn’t with them right now he was a huge part why the past year has been so gosh darn enjoyable!! So hopefully he isn’t gone for good and the revival of that character in these pages was unexpected and a huge bonus.
The book is written extremely well and the way it’s structured so we get it’s own special ebb & flow just fits with the whole aesthetic. Not gonna fib when this opened up and we saw that little robot telling the others what to do my first thought was L-Ron. Part of me wanted it to be him so bad just because and the penchant for characters to show up here out of the blue is something we see often. Still the way we traverse it’s pages and see how the issue unfolds shows us how Jon’s passion for this series shines brightly.
Michael and Nick do do some stellar work here. Still being able to bring that stylised work and yet in instances show some amazing attention to detail. The house for example when we see the Robot being bossy we also see the interior and the walls and statues are wow factors. The way that page layouts are utilised and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a great eye for storytelling. Backgrounds are used nicely and just add that atmosphere which is so important for the story. Okay so yes the characters seem a bit simple and more in tune with cartoons than comics but again it’s part of the charm of the book much to my chagrin.
I like the introduction of Star Adam and how Jon manages to bring his complete story in one issue. The connection to Cave and his family and his own journey through life. There’s potential for this character in what we learn about him and I am interested in seeing if that comes to pass in some way, shape or form. After all the conversation between Star and Chloe happened for a reason here. Also that Marc is among them after having been saved in an alternate timeline and has joined them in their pursuits again I find most interesting. Also it seemed the original Marc and Star Adam had something a strong sexual attraction and if this Marc is like his doppelgänger then here’s hoping that will be explored further.
Oh the backup almost made me want to cry. So I do like that Cave and Chloe do a podcast because it’s so very modern of them. Hopefully someone somewhere else (in the DC Universe) will mention it. Also his vanishing clothes man device needs an explanation, as to why Cave has a man who loses his clothes. But the biggest thing that’s coming out of this is going to be learning about the original team and what happened to them.
A bright shining light in the sea of darkness that overcrowds DC’s line of books, free of gimmicks and not a victim of needless crossovers this stands as one the best books they put on shelves.