Thundercats #7 // Review
Lion-O had told them to stay on the grounds. WilyKit felt understandably awkward about this. It hadn’t been too long ago that Lion-O had been her age...playing around with her like a child. Now he’s the leader and she’s supposed to listen to him. Naturally she and WilyKat are going to do a little bit of exploring regardless of who is their leader in Thundercats #7. Writer Declan Shalvey continues an exploration of the early origin of the beloved 1980s characters with artist Drew Moss and colorist Martina Pignedoli. Having focussed-in on other characters in the course of the series, Shalvey and company turn their attention to the youngest of the group.
WilyKit and WilyKat are hoverboarding around the perimeter when they run into something that looks interesting. They really shouldn’t be exploring some strange structure, but they are quite curious about the new planet they find themselves on. Besides...what danger could they possibly run into? It’s a largely dead planet and they’re moving around in what appears to be a large desert. It’s all just a bunch of sand...perfect for surfing around on the air. Of course...Third Earth IS a dangerous place and they ARE going to encounter something totally unexpected.
Shalvey is working with quite a few of the basic fundamentals of the series. The original animated episodes didn’t really spend a whole lot of time looking into deeper matters of the emotional lives of the ensemble. The series had a certain pace that had to be maintained in order to keep-up with the script format of a 1980s syndicated cartoon. Shalvey can slow it down a bit and that’s exactly what he’s doing here in order to get a closer look at a couple of characters who hadn’t gotten much of a close-up in the original series.
There’s a certain amount of depth and detail that the animation of the original series lacked. The impressively dynamic open title sequence aside, the cel animation of the original series felt pretty weak. Moss adds a bit of depth to the visuals of Third Earth with the aid of Pignedoli’s colors. Some of the action feels a bit stiff in places, but on the whole it’s just cool to be able to see a bit more drama drawn into the faces of everyone in the ensemble. The overpowering presence of Lion-O in the opening of the issue is a nice touch too.
One gets the impression that if the script was tweaked just a bit it could end up giving the original series’ premise a hell of a lot more depth. Perhaps a bit more history on Third Earth could be written into a text-based page at the end of each issue to build-up and flesh-out the world of the series a little bit more. There’s so much potential for a series like this that doesn’t have to cram itself into the script formula for a pulpy ‘80s space fantasy cartoon. It’s easy to get impatient with the monthly format.
Grade: B
