Mario Bros. themes never get old to me. Probably because like most people you grew up with that song in your head and let your fingers bleed until you beat Bowser. So to see Hero Cats have a Mario themed cover was pretty damn cool. This comic couldn’t wait to be read. The first issue mostly focused on the team and who all these cats were. Number two dives right into a good vs. evil battle. But actually what surprised me most about this comic was the balance of the main plot with giving hints of characterization along the way. I love when a story isn’t so character focused and then isn’t so plot focused either. The plot, reflecting the cover, goes through different levels of the adventure. Our villain goes by Johnny Arcado. After a space object landed in his yard, he discovered a suit on the ship. Powered by his console, Johnny now controls villains from various video games to take over the city. Belle, Ace, Midnight, Cassiopeia, Rocco, and Rocket now must battle it out with Johnny and stop him before he levels up. As I said before, we finally get to see these cats in action, and it was awesome!
Marcus Williams draws these perfect action scenes. It has to be tough to imagine a cat fighting a giant robot, but Williams makes it come together. My favorite is still Rocket. He is a happy feisty kinda cat. I love his fur color and the weird vibe he gives off. Like most readers, I hope we have issues that are based around each individual cat, so we can see our favorite character come to life. As I said though, we do get characterization along the way.
We mostly focus on Belle and Ace’s relationship. Cassiopeia is new to the gang, and Belle is wondering why Ace let another cat in so easily. Belle definitely has a point, but when the battle begins, I think it is clear why a reading cat such as Cassiopeia could help out the group a lot. With all the different cats, there are bound to be some issues. It will be interesting to see how every personality plays out. Besides for Ace and Belle’s relationship, Midnight is the cat that we learn the most background on. I like the flashback we get with the story as well.
This comic has done everything right so far. It has given us background and then exploded into action with #2. The layers of characters keeps readers engaged and also allows them to pick a favorite to follow. The only thing that is a little strange is the overlapping of Galaxy Man’s story. Unless you have read Galaxy Man then you don’t understand his importance in the comic. So maybe a little more background of him is needed or Action Lab could just publish Galaxy Man as well.
Score: 5/5
Writer: Kyle Puttkammer Artist: Marcus Williams Inker: Ryan Sellers Colorist: Omaka Schultz Publisher: Action Lab Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/22/14 Format: Print/Digital