Writer: Declan Shalvey
Artist: Drew Moss
Colorists: Chiara Di Francia & Martina Pignedoli
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Cover Artists: David Nakayama; Lucio Parrillo; Declan Shalvey; Jae Lee & June Chung; Ivan Tao; Drew Moss
Publisher: Dynamite
Price: $4.99
Release Date: February 7, 2024
Lion-O entered his stasis pod as a boy. He awakened as an adult. Birth makes him the leader of the ThunderCats. But he has much to learn. Can Lion-O lead his people and wield the Sword Of Omens despite his lack of education and experience? Let's leap into ThunderCats #1 and find out!
Story
With their homeworld destroyed and their fleet ravaged, the only surviving ThunderCat ship crashed on Third Earth. Lion-O’s friends WileyKat and WileyKit are cubs. His journey into adulthood begins with no friends his age among the skilled and experienced adults Tygra, Panthro, and Cheetara. Lion-O has no peers. Can he lead and protect his people?
Lion-O seeks solitude in the desert. Instead of answers, he discovers an arriving spaceship. The Mu’Tants tracked their damaged ship! Desperate to prove himself, Lion-O unsheathes the Sword Of Omens. The Eye of Thundera, embedded in the sword, unleashes its power. The adults at his crashed spaceship, the troops aboard the Mu’Tant vessel, and a dark figure who inhabits the Black Pyramid realize Lion-O is in trouble.
In ThunderCats #1, Declan Shalvey introduces a cast of colorful and appealing characters. He paws lightly over their history to focus on the crucible Lion-O must pass through.
Lion-O fled Thundara as a frightened boy. Now, Lion-O must guide and protect an endangered species. Lion-O can look to Tygra for guidance. Panthro can teach him how to wield the Sword Of Omens. But like Paul Atreides, Lion-O must discover his birthright amid a trial by fire.
Art
The ThunderCats leave their damaged ship to explore the alien desert of Third Earth. As Lion-O runs up a slope, a shape emerges from the darkness overhead. A beam of light streaks up from the Sword Of Omens, revealing the ThunderCat symbol to the arriving spaceship. Their leader, Lord Slythe, cringes at its intensity. In the Desert Of Sinking Sands, a giant skull perches on a vine-covered stone floor before a pit within the Black Pyramid.
Drew Moss packs pages with panels that convey history, character, and reactions. Splash pages and double-page spreads introduce and show the cast in action. Backgrounds give way to speed lines amid motion and conflict. Smoke rises from a battlefield when WileyKat and WileyKit surf the air currents on spaceboards and drop capsules onto the combatants.
Reds, yellows, and blues dominate ThunderCats #1. Chiara Di Francia and Martina Pignedoli's limited palette breathes life and drama into each page. The yellow explosions accompanying the ship’s flight from Thundara and the fiery streak of their ship hurtling through Third Earth's sky match the glow inside the stasis pod that robs Lion-O of his teen years. Highlights enrich characters with individuality, while shadows enhance the drama of this opening installment.
Lowercase black letters in colored narrative boxes introduce the characters, relate their thoughts, and tell of the dangers facing them. Black uppercase words in white dialogue balloons grow bold for inflection and swell for shouts but rarely shrink. Jeff Eckleberry infuses training, hunting, and battle scenes with energetic sound effects. When Lion-O raises the Sword Of Omens, his giant white-edged black shout echoes through the remaining pages of ThunderCats #1.
Thanks to Dynamite Comics for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Robbed of his teen years, a young hero struggles to lead the hunted survivors of his race with the strength of his adult body and a mythic sword in ThunderCats #1.
Rating 8.2/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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