“Yesterday’s” Comic> Mighty Mouse #3 (Marvel)

Bat-Bat looks ready to beat up Samor. Mighty Mouse just realized he doesn’t have popcorn.

Mighty Mouse #3

Marvel (December, 1990)

Yes, two stories in this issue, and only one of them features Mighty Mouse. While I wasn’t a fan of Bakshi’s show, there were ideas that I actually liked. Bat-Bat was not one of them. Basically he’s an anthropomorphic bat who drives a car called the Manmobile (which walks on feet instead of driving on wheels), and his “Robin” is Tick The Bug Wonder. This isn’t even close to the puns involved. I’ve seen better Batman parodies, like Batfink or Courageous Cat & Minute Mouse, and of course Darkwing Duck. But with Mighty Mouse leaving to being his “secret chores” (it’s a Marvel comic, you can groan now) he leaves Mouseville under Bat-Bat and Tick’s care. The Emperor Penguin (who obviously is a penguin, this a human-free world after all) suddenly develops the power to control the cold and snow, Bat-Bat and Tick must stop him from being crowned king of Mouseville. They even try to imitate Bakshi’s art style, which makes sense even though the art in this comic is usually closer to Terrytoons (which Bakshi got his early start at). Pretty much everything I didn’t like in the show is here and I didn’t care for this story. If you like that version you may like this one.

Meanwhile, Mighty Mouse heads to were Oil Can Harry’s Oilsmobile crashed into the ocean in the first issue, only the citizens of Ratlantis already found it…the hard way! This leads to Prince Samor, The Sub-Plotter, to start messing with continuity in the hopes of ending the comic. And yes, he’s a take on Namor, only even more up his own tail. Mighty Mouse finds a way to turn the tide (no pun intended) and eventually makes friends with Samor because this may be a Marvel comic but he’s based on a DC hero when they still tried getting along with other heroes. It’s pun-tastic like the last one but these puns didn’t hurt as much (odd because it’s the same writer) and I actually enjoyed this story.

This was a decent second story with a first story you may or may not get into. I still recommend giving it a look.