Threshold #2 (Captain K'Rot's debut)

Well, the moment we all dreaded has finally arrived. Threshold # 2 has hit shelves, and with it, Captain K'Rot (and Pig-Iron as well. WTH?) makes his rip-roaring first appearance.

I'm going to start off by saying, this is NOT a review of the full issue. I'm just going to be commenting on Captain K'Rot. I know everybody is just dying to know what I think. Well, I can summon it all up with two words:



ROCKET RACCOON!

Yup, that's right, Rocket Raccoon. That's all this character is. People have been bandying it about on the 'net since K'Rot was first announced, and sadly, that's what happened. Captain K'Rot is, for all intents and purposes, a Rocket Raccoon clone. I know Keith Giffen is one of RR's co-creators, but come on. Now, I LOVES me some Rocket Raccoon. I've followed the character from as far back as his first appearances in Marvel Preview #7 (Summer 1976) and The Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982. I have his appearances in Quasar, She-Hulk, his own 4-issue limited series and pretty much all of his current day appearances since Annihilation up until now. So, you'd think, being such a fan of RR, I would love to see a DC-counterpart.

Not entirely true. Let's put it this way. If K'Rot was NOT supposed to be the New 52's answer to Captain Carrot, I would probably adore the character. As it is, I'm kind of left rolling my eyes as I read about him, thinking of the massive missed storyline DC let slide by creating this CC/RR mash-up. More on that later.

I guess I should give at least a quick run-down of what the issue is about. Threshold Presents: The Hunted #2 picks up where #1 left off, with Stealth and Space Ranger, on the planet Tolerance, being hunted by one of the top hunt clubs, the Crimson Thrust. Yada Yada, they emerge triumphant,of course. We then switch to Jaime Reyes (otherwise known as the Blue Beetle), who is being held captive by the operators of The Hunted game show. They plan to release him into the game to hunt down Jediah Caul, a fallen Green Lantern. After Jaime is released is when we get out first glimpse of our new furry heroes, as seen below:


Enter Captain K'Rot, Pig-Iron and...uh...Sleen? Not sure what she's supposed to be exactly, but I think she's a raccoon-person. Yeah, that's right. A freaking raccoon. Really, Keith?

Apparently, this new notZoo Crew has been hired by something called the Consortium to collect a Reach scarab, and they see poor Jaime Reyes as their opportunity to get their paws on one.

Silly Rabbit. Reach scarabs are for kids!
Needless to say, K'Rot and gang fail, and after knocking Jaime unconscious, the scarab activates the Blue Beetle armor. Unfortunately for the notZoo Crew, with Jaime out like a light, the scarab is pretty much free to kick all their asses. K'Rot flees, with the Blue Beetle close behind, and coincidentally leads the Reach warrior right to Jediah Caul (it seems K'Rot and Caul know each other, which makes it even more coincidental). Chaos ensues, and the issue ends with the Blue Beetle facing off against Jediah Caul.

Overall, a pretty good read. I really do like this book so far, but I can't help but think how much better it could have been, from a purely Captain Carrot point of view. Which brings me back to my "more on that later" up above.

WHAT DC COMICS SHOULD HAVE DONE! BUT DIDN'T! BECAUSE THEY ARE STUPID!by Sean N. Koury
Now as far as I can tell, at the end of the real Zoo Crew's last appearance in Final Crisis, the Crew was still stranded in the regular DC universe. I like to imagine, after the events of Flashpoint, they still were. If I was in charge at DC, what I would have done is have Captain Carrot and the rest of the Zoo Crew stay as they were, AND be the only ones to remember the way the old DCU used to be. Imagine it. Out of all the characters in the DCU, the Zoo Crew are the only ones who realize that something has changed. Not Superman, not the Flash, or the Specter, or the Phantom Stranger, but the Zoo Crew. The least likely candidates to have knowledge of something so cosmically profound.

Then, in their journeys to find a way back to their own dimension (which, when last we saw it was flooded and overthrown by Starro), they end up in space, and get tangled up in the events in Threshold. This series would sky-rocket to the top of my list if this had happened, and would fall in line a lot closer with what Scott Shaw! wanted to do with the Zoo Crew after the events of Final Crisis. But then DC would have had to pay out royalties or something. Can't have that, right? (Lame!)

A missed opportunity if ever I saw one. Could have been so much fun, seeing the cartoonish Zoo Crew interacting with the regular DC universe.

I like to think that this did in fact happen, and the Zoo Crew is kicking around somewhere in the nu52, trying to find their way back to Earth-C, or 26, or whatever. Maybe one day, we'll see a Captain Carrot/K'Rot team-up.

Yeah, right. I doubt it.

(PS. What's with the cosmics in this book using "Das't" as a swear word? Isn't that the EXACT same word the cosmics used FIRST in the Marvel cosmic books? Correct me if I'm wrong.)