Today’s Comic> Cartoon Network Action Pack! #53

The Ultimatrix sampled Fugitoid from the Ninja Turtles?

Cartoon Network Action Pack #53

Featuring Ben 10: Ultimate Alien & Samurai Jack

DC Comics (December 2010)

This issue resumes the original layout of multiple stories, 2 “Ben 10″s with a “Samurai Jack” in the middle, and I will judge each one separately.

The first “Ben 10” story, set in the “Ultimate Alien” time period, finds Ben judging a beauty contest that is suddenly interrupted by Sixsix. Amy Wolfram gives a good fight scene in “Beauty & The Ben” (which is a lame title), but she really likes making Ben a jerk, which I wish the show would get past already, and not a bright one at that unless there’s fighting. Mike Cavallaro and Dan Davis are on art duties and the Swampfire transformation splash panel looks cool. (I also have to give proper credit to colorist David Rodriguez for the next panel, when Swampfire is showing off.) Still, it’s just another “old show villain appears out of nowhere to fight Ben and runs off when his butt is handed to him” story, which is less annoying in the “short subject” comic but still lazy storytelling.

Next comes the “Samurai Jack” story, and maybe because it’s only a couple of pages long, but “Smoke” is rather confusing in first read. Aaron Williams and Ethen Beavers give us a story where Jack is attacked in his sleep but a nearby idol turns the campfire into a smokey version of Jack to fend them off. It’s not a bad story, but not worth the comic alone.

Sadly, “Target: Rath” doesn’t really help any. Jake Black has Ben being led into a trap by Jarett so he have another go at Rath, which is a short fight with Sixsix and another bounty hunter (and the Dreedle Brothers name dropped) taking up some time as well. This might have worked better as a full length story, with Ben going through a gauntlet of enemies. As usual, Min S. Hu does a great job imitating the cartoon character models. I also have to ask why Ben has a “Swampfiremobile”. Are they trying to sell a toy here?

Recommendation: A useless story, a story that can’t save the rest of the comic, and a story that might have been more interesting as a full comic. The alien profiles in the back are OK, but unless you’re that big a Ben 10 fan, save your money.

Tomorrow’s Comic> Iron Man: Legacy #8