Today’s Comic> Cartoon Network Action Pack #48

But can it tell time?

Cartoon Network Action Pack #48

DC Comics/Johnny DC (June 2010)

I’m not going to call this “speed run mode” anymore, since it doesn’t qualify with the current format. However, anthology titles will have the same format. Maybe I’ll call it anthology mode.

Also to be noted: This isn’t just spoilers for the comic inside, but an upcoming TV series. Ben 10 is getting another upgrade. Alien Force will become Ultimate Alien later this month. (I plan to review the first episode, along with a new series, Generator Rex, created by the same group, Man of Action.) So while spoiling the comic (although not all of it) is kind of what I do in the reviews, note that your getting some hints into the cartoon as well.

Read on if you dare.

In the new series, Ben’s secret is out and he has a new “Ultrimatrix”, which allows his aliens to go into a supercharged mode. The letter page in the comic also promises new aliens, but the first two stories only demonstrates the ultimate mode of the current aliens and the third story has Humongousaur in one panel.

There are three stories in this comic, the first two written by Amy Wolfram, with “Heroic Age” (no connection to Marvel) on coloring duties. The first story, “Fashion Victim” had Ethen Beavers on art duties. Ben’s fame has led to his jacket becoming a fashion statement. Charmcaster attacks Ben and the team at the mall, ordering her monsters to attack anyone with that jacket. It’s not a very strong story, and only shows up Ultimate Echo Echo and the fact that Kevin seems to have reverted to how he was in the first season of Alien Force, only absorbing the properties of material he touches rather than being a composite “monster”. It’s not a bad story, and it’s not a good story. It’s a story.

“Going Viral” is a more interesting story. Min S. Ku takes the art chores here as Ben is humiliated in a dragon fight that is seen on the internet. Here we see the ultimate form of Spider-Monkey. Like the previous story it’s mostly to show off an ultimate form alien, but both offer a decent attempt at the show’s “transformation sequence“, with this one apparently giving us a look at “ultimateizing”.

The final story, “Dodge Ben”, has a different writer, Jake Black, while Beavers returns for art duties. No offense, Jack, but it’s the weakest of the stories, but I can blame that on the limited space given. Why not one big story? This one has a new kid coming to school and becoming a bully. At least until he learns there’s a superhero going to this school. The only thing this does is make me wonder how Ben is going to have any kind of normal life in a way that makes sense. Especially since this is Ben Tennyson we’re talking about here.

According to solicits, Ultimate Alien will be dominating the comic for a while longer, as I again ask why they don’t just give the series its own comic. (Stay tuned, for I will be getting to a digest-sized graphic novel of Alien Force as soon as I get through some other GNs, including a Middleman supercollection.) If you want to see a preview of the new series, give the comic a look. The new series starts on April 23rd, at least in the US.

Tomorrow’s Comic: Doctor Who Classics Series 3 #2