Michel, Doug – Monkey Squad One #5

E-mail

Monkey Squad One #5

Is Doug secretly Donovan Cater in disguise?  Seriously, the similarity in the artwork is uncanny (go ahead and look around at some of the ancient (because he appears to have vanished from comics) Donovan Cater reviews and see if I’m wrong).  Well, I’ll go with the theory that it’s a different person, as a close inspection does show that it probably isn’t Donovan.  Doug does a smart thing right off the bat: he lets the reader know what happened in the last issue.  As this is “#5” that is crucial, but you’d be surprised how many comics creators just don’t bother to keep readers up to date.  Anyway, U.N.C.L.E. Doug (leader of Monkey Squad One) is on trial for losing the team, even though they’ve been lost in time and it apparently isn’t his fault.  The trial goes badly, Doug has a ridiculously easy time escaping from this supposedly secure facility (he is aided by the fact that gravity apparently doesn’t apply to him), and meets up with some old foes to help him out.  They, unsurprisingly, don’t help him out, but it’s a funny conversation that leads them to that conclusion.  Things devolve a bit into Star Wars parody from there, and hasn’t the universe as a whole decided that the prequel movies were so awful that people were no longer allowed to parody Star Wars any more?  Except for Robot Chicken and Family Guy, but they only get away with it because they’re rich and occasionally have scathing satire.  Well, more Robot Chicken than Family Guy on that front, but I’m getting off topic here.  The Rancor is played in this comic by Granmonster, who is able to fill that role as well as getting loose in the town and fulfilling the “giant monster on the loose” requirement.  The comic as a whole is fairly amusing, even with me being at the point of Star Wars parodies just bugging me.  Overall I’ll need another issue to really make up my mind, so it’s a good thing Doug was nice enough to send the next issue along as well.  Even with the recap I don’t know if it’s a good idea to start at #5 of a series; if you’re looking to give it a shot maybe see if the guy has earlier issues available.  $2.50