If Captain Planet is out, why do the rings still have power?
Captain Planet And The Planeteers #7
Marvel (April, 1992)
EDITOR: Rob Tokar “Hope Springs Eternal” WRITER: Barry Dutter PENCILER: Pat Broderick INKER: Bruce Patterson & Ralph Cabrera COLORIST: Sarra Mossoff LETTERER: John Costanza “Toxic Terror!” WRITER: Ian Rimmer ARTIST: Mario Capaldi COLORIST: Louise Cassel LETTERER: Cie CO-EDITOR: ??? Stone
Last issue we saw the Planeteers destroy Gaia with their powers. It repeats this issue before the disappointment sets in. It’s a modified origin story for Captain Pollution. The eco-villains arrive on Hope Island and take the Planeteers’ rings so Blight can duplicate them. Then she’s dumb enough to give them back to the kids to tell them to destroy each other. Except the brainwashing has worn off and they attack the villains instead. So they combine their pollution-based powers and summon Captain Pollution. Continued next issue.
So we have a cliffhanger last issue that made this issue sound like a big deal. Instead, it’s resolved in half an issue, with the fight with Captain Pollution concluded not here but in the next issue. And the character already had an origin story in a TWO PART EPISODE that isn’t even being adapted (outside of the evil pollution copies of the Planet Rings that we never see used individually) from the episode. That’s so weak.
The second story is rather average. Looten Plunder is dumping a chemical into the Nile River to change the crocodile’s skin color to make his harvested gators worth more to buyers. It’s not bad, in fact it’s average a story and not average for this mediocre franchise, but it’s hardly worth cutting a major story at least in half and taking over half a comic. Maybe a full comic would have improved this one and allowed the other one a chance to be better.
This was the last issue I bothered picking up, and it really wasn’t worth it. If not for the cliffhanger last issue, with the Planeteers attacking Gaia, readers might not have bothered with this one, and wouldn’t have missed anything important. For once I’m going to point to the TV show with the superior story, namely the origin of Captain Pollution.
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