THUNDERCATS #5, by Dynamite Comics on 6/12/24, finds Lion-O getting a spanking from Cheetara to teach him a very important lesson about life, leadership, and growing up.
Credits:
- Writer: Stephen Mooney, Declan Shalvey
- Artist: Stephen Mooney
- Colorist: Mauro Gulma
- Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
- Cover Artist: David Nakayama (cover A)
- Publisher: Dynamite Comics
- Release Date: June 12, 2024
- Comic Rating: Teen
- Cover Price: $4.99
- Page Count: 30
- Format: Single Issue
Covers:
Analysis of THUNDERCATS #5:
Plot Analysis:
Stephen Moony steps in on creator duties to chart the Thundercats’ new course after the devastating outcomes from the previous arc’s end. Does a new creative voice and a new direction mean a better comic? Maybe.
When last we left the Thundercats in issue #4, Lion-O’s first meeting and battle versus Mumm-Ra ended in a stalemate. Tygra was critically injured during the melee and spirited away by Cheetara. And the broken Sword of Omens was stolen by Calica.
In Thundercats #5, Cheetara sneaks into Lion-O’s bed chamber one early morning to rouse the sleeping Lord for counsel and training. Unsure why Cheetara is leading the training instead of Panthro, Lion-O follows reluctantly.
What follows is a proper beat down by Cheetara when Lion-O doesn’t live up to his potential, claiming he doesn’t want to hurt Cheetara with his superior strength. Lion-O soon finds his confidence is misplaced.
The sparring partners take a break, and Cheetara provides wise counsel. Lion-O is down on him for making mistakes, especially for trusting Calica, but Cheetara reminds him that everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to learn from them.
When the sparring starts again, Cheetara encourages Lion-O to use his strength and reflexes to anticipate. Finally, Lion-O lands a brutal blow, teaching him we can only improve when we learn from our mistakes.
And that’s it.
Character Development:
Stephen Mooney puts the entire emphasis of this issue on teaching Lion-O important lessons about leadership, self-improvement, trusting yourself, and accepting the help of others. It’s the one-shot equivalent of a Tony Robbins seminar.
However, Mooney gets the leadership lessons right but completely misses the mark on character voice and dialog. Lion-O and Cheetara sound like off-Broadway actors reciting lines from a third-rate knockoff of a Shakespearean play. You can have a noble personality without dialog this cheesy.
Artwork and Presentation:
If you’ve been following the series since the beginning, this is the first issue without Drew Moss on art. Stephen Mooney stepped in for art duties and writing. Unfortunately, the art could be considered a lateral move to a downgrade.
Mooney doesn’t have the same flat blockiness of Moss’s style, but the facial expressions are unintentionally comical in spots, facial constructions are sometimes wildly different from one panel to the next, and the character anatomies are just plain bad in spots. Plus, the wider shots which shrink Lion-O and Cheetara to miniature size look terrible.
We’ve seen much better artwork from Mooney on other titles, which suggests Mooney whipped this comic out in a hurry, and it shows.
Art Samples:
Pacing and Structure:
Let’s be honest. This issue is a one-shot designed to fill the space between the first arc and the second. It’s not clear if a filler issue was always the plan or if Dynamite needed something in a hurry due to time constraints on the regular creative team (signs point to the latter), but we’ll give credit where it’s due.
Mooney’s script concept and pacing are solid. The nature of the conversation, putting aside the terrible dialog, makes sense for Lion-O’s recent failures and his journey to maturity as a ruler. The pacing is steady, and Mooney’s leadership lessons are tried and true material.
Thematic Exploration:
At a high level, Mooney puts Lion-O through an Afterschool Special cum coming-of-age lesson about what it means to be an adult. We learn by doing, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes by doing better.
The Bigger Picture:
Series Continuity:
If you’ve been following the series, this issue takes place immediately after the events of issue #4, but neither the main plot nor the sub-plots are furthered in any direction. If you scrub the references to individual sub-plots from Cheetara and Lion-O’s conversation, this one-shot could fit generically anywhere in the timeline.
Final Thoughts:
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THUNDERCATS #5 pauses after the end of the first arc for an issue-long training and counseling session between Lion-O and Cheetara. Guest Artist Stephen Mooney does his best to fill the gap between the arcs for a character piece that bestows important lessons about life and leadership to Lion-O. However, the art ranges from unintentionally comical to bizarrely inconsistent, and the dialog sounds like a third-rate Shakespeare knockoff. All signs point to a rush job to fill the monthly character.
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