3 out of 5

I’m absolutely sure there are relative statements to be made about any era – and even stating what I’m about to, my brain wanders to comic things in the 70s like Marvel’s Crazy mag – but the early 90’s were a strange time for kidtertainment.  I have to feel like the culture that’d grown out of more accessible technology (NES / SNES, home PCs with a dial-up connection to whatever) was ‘changing the conversation,’ so to speak, along with kids that grew up in more psych-soaked eras (i.e. Ralph Bakshi, responsible for the version of the ‘Mouse cartoon to which this comic is indebted) now producing some of the entertainment weening such kids, and thus equally responsible for that conversation change.  Humor was getting more self aware, a trend that has continued to this day.  I remember reading this book at that point and being blown away by its 4th-wall breaking nyucks, and now that I’m older, I can also appreciate how many parodying comic references I missed.

It’s not that it doesn’t hold up; it’s definitely the same pun-filled humor I recall.  If you’re familiar with writer Michael Gallagher from Alf (also going on at the same time, and equally surprisingly weird and aware at points), it’s very similar goofball humor, with the added layer of imagination mined from the Bakshi cartoon.  Which isn’t to say that Gallagher and team don’t bring their own fun creations into the fold, especially during the two issue Crisis on Infinite Earths parody.  It’s more that the humor plays it safe, which was part of the general 90s oddness of grappling with mature humor but still trying to be comics-Codey and angry latter savvy.  …Although the printed letters seem like they’re from adult readers, which makes some of the ever-so-slightly risque gags that pop up likely worth the risk.  All the same, I feel like it was a few years after this – the followers of Bakshi, like John Kricfalusi with Ren and Stimpy – who would finally shake the “safe” humor shackles for the truly bizarre.  Until that point, the whole Marvel and DC line seemed to hover in this mid-space between squeaky clean and bids for maturity that resulted in long boxes full of odd ducks like Mighty Mouse.

The artists this book drew are quite impressive.  Ernie Colon pops up the most, and probably has the best balance of action and humor and timing around Gallagher’s wordy jokes, but Milton Knight shows up and does an aces McFarlane impersonation for the biting satire if ‘Ferment’, not to mention a cover by George Perez…

While it never really achieves laugh-out-loud humor,  the 90s incarnation of Mighty Mouse frequently hits the eye-rolling mark (in a good, godawful puns way) and, should you nab a set out of some bins, will probably catch you off guard with its weird and meta humor.