Today’s Comic> Tails of the Pet Avengers: The Dogs of Summer

Hey, Lockjaw, what's that weird growth on your back?

Tails of the Pet Avengers: The Dogs of Summer

Marvel Comics (September 2010)

The Dogs of Summer is a one-shot anthology, containing four adventures, two of which are reprint stories. In other words, they padded out the $3.99 price tag for what is supposed to be a kid-friendly title. Nice going, guys. But is it worth the money?

First we have the main story, “Garbage Grief”, and here is where we learn that this isn’t a “Pet Avengers” comic. It’s a Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius comic, which for the uninitiated is like Johnny Test set in the Fantastic Four family. Franklin doesn’t have the near-godlike power of the mainline but often gets in trouble involving messing with one of Reed’s inventions. In this case Chris Eliopoulos and I. Molinar give a story of Franklin throwing a device out to hide the fact that he broke it, only for the device to turn the garbage of New York into a giant monster. Franklin’s teleporting puppy Puppy (yeah, just “Puppy”) does get the Pet Avengers and they help fight the monster, but that’s it. It’s a decent enough story and the only complaint I really have is that there’s some odd shading ideas around the characters eyes. That and I bought a “Pet Avengers” comic and not a “Franklin Richards” comic.

We do get one “Pet Avengers” story, but it’s really just a preview for the upcoming Avengers/Pet Avengers crossover arc that’s coming up. “Once More Into the Breach…” puts Ig Guara on art and Chris Sotomayor on coloring, with Joe Sabino lettering. We find Iron Man, Thor, and the current Captain America getting on Fing Fang Foom’s bad side, so he turns them into frogs. Hmm. Didn’t know Foom had that power. Thor makes a mental contact to Frog Thor and that’s how the preview ends. The art is good, but that’s all I can really say about it, as I’m betting this scene shows up in the arc anyway.

The next two stories are reprints of old Franklin Richards stories, how Franklin first gained Puppy and the other (with Marc Sumerack) has pre-Puppy Franklin dogsitting for Lockjaw (although I wouldn’t be surprised if Lockjaw was actually babysitting Franklin). Brad Anderson colors both stories. They’re entertaining stories, but their again NOT “Pet Avengers” stories.

So if you’re looking to buy a Pet Avengers comic, this isn’t the comic for you. If you want a Franklin Richards comic, this is a pretty good one.

Later Today: “Best Scene of the Week” in the Weekly Wrap-Up