ThunderCats #11 // Review
Lion-O needs some time to himself. He is the lord of his group, but he’s feeling the weight of everything on his shoulders. So maybe he needs to find a little bit of respite for himself. However, there's never enough time to reflect and there's always more action. However, he might just have a little bit of time to himself in ThunderCats #11. Writer Declan Shalvey continues a thoughtful treatment of the beloved 1980s animated action series. Artist Drew Moss our renters at some depth to a world and an ensemble of characters that have been created for cell animated action on the cathode ray tube decades ago on over-the-air television.
Snarf isn’t letting Lion-O the kind of time he needs to himself. But it's not his fault. And it's not really anyone's fault. And circumstance have conspired against the ThunderCats. there are danger around every turn and quite a bit of tragedy in the recent past. So anyone would have a great deal of difficulty maintaining leadership in a time of stress. The leader like Lion-O is going to have that much more difficulty managing matters as things progress. Everyone else is going to have a great deal of difficulty letting him have his space as well.
Shalvey manages to center aspects of the story that were never totally well centered in the original animated series. There was a lot of potential there that the animated series never quite managed. And what's interesting here is that in this particular issue there is a direct connection between the arch villain and the central h TV series is never really managed to do in any way that was terribly satisfying. The creator of the series had everything lined up perfectly. However, the overall thrust of the animated series never quite managed to live up to its potential. In a single issue. Shalvey find the central pulse of the series with impressive accuracy that almost approaches a kind of campy siulliness without ever actually making it there.
Moss is also working with imagery that had been around for a long time. And it had already been pretty solidly defined. It's just a matter of finding a way to frame the action in a way that does better justice to the central premise than the original animation, the opening sequence and certain interstitial were really impressive in animated format, but much of what was executed for the animated series was actually pretty weak. So it really takes to improve on. The series is to frame the action with the kind of drama that is its potential. Moss does a very good job of this in one of the better issues of the series thus far.
It's interesting, seeing the basic trappings of the series without the originally defined format of a half hour of animated television. It allows the series to have more weight for individual scenes. And this first real meeting between the hero and the villain hits the page with impressive force. Hoopefully the rest of the series can live-up to its 11th issue.
