4 out of 5

I don’t have much to say about this except that it bears all of the positives of the previous issues – strong art and coloring, and a script that benefits from having access to main characters.  I can’t quite recall if the cartoon covered how the Mutanimals got together, but regardless, these issues fill in the moment they met, and more importantly, shows how/why Pigeon Pete may be effective and not just a gag character.  Manning’s script takes a typical “flashback from Slash’s past informs his current decisions” structure, but I appreciated how pointed the flashbacks were: neither the moments shown or their resultant applications felt out of character for those involved.  The only oddity is that the narrator’s voice seems to be setting us up for a “who’s telling this tale?” twist that never happens, but that’s okay – the conversational tone makes it flow well, even if the voice isn’t tied to any actual character.

The backups in these issues are a little weaker than the previous two, just sorta hum-drum adventures, but the book is still allowing for a nice variation of artistic styles.