Just'a Lotta Animals
| Just'a Lotta Animals | |
|---|---|
| File:Jlanimals.jpg From left to right: Green Lambkin, the Crash, Wonder Wabbit, Captain Carrot, Aquaduck, the Batmouse, and Super-Squirrel. From Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #14, 1983. Art by Scott Shaw. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | The New Teen Titans #16 (1982) (first mentioned) Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! #14 (1983) (first appearance) |
| Created by | Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | Space station satellite in orbit above Earth-C-Minus |
| Member(s) | Super-Squirrel The Batmouse Wonder Wabbit Green Lambkin The Crash Aquaduck The Elon-Gator The Martian Anteater Zap-Panda The Item The Green Sparrow The Stacked Canary Firestork Hawkmoose The Rat Tornado |
Just'a Lotta Animals is a fictional superhero team that appeared in stories published by DC Comics. The team is an anthropomorphic animal parody of the Justice League of America.
Team history[edit]
Just'a Lotta Animals originally appeared in the series Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! as the name of a superhero comic book written and drawn by Captain Carrot's alter ego, Roger Rodney Rabbit. Various panels of the Just'a Lotta Animals' comic that were shown in the Captain Carrot series were often parodies of classic Justice League storylines. The team was in fact the original proposal by Zoo Crew creators Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw for a talking-animal superhero series for DC, but DC's editor Dick Giordano asked them to create original characters instead. They agreed and created the Zoo Crew, but still ended up introducing the Just'a Lotta Animals team in the series.
In Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #14 and #15, in a storyline titled "Crisis On Earth-C!", the Just'a Lotta Animals were finally revealed to actually exist, on a parallel Earth named "Earth-C-Minus" (as opposed to the world of the Zoo Crew, which was named "Earth-C"). The two teams united to defeat the villains of the story, Dr. Hoot (an owl mad scientist) and Feline Faust (a cat sorcerer; an analog of Justice League villain Felix Faust).
The team's imagery was brought to life by a confused paranormal teenager in the second part of the "Young Justice: World Without Grownups" storyline.[1]
Location[edit]
Just'a Lotta Animals lived on the parallel world of Earth-C-Minus, and made its headquarters in an orbiting satellite space station.
Events and characters on Earth-C-Minus were considered to be fictional to natives of Earth-C, similar to how events and characters of Earth-Two were considered as fictional on Earth-One. Additionally, events and characters on Earth-C-Minus paralleled those of the then-mainstream DC Universe of Earth-One. Like Earth-C, the names of characters and locations tended to make heavy use of various animal-based puns.
After the events of the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was revealed that Earth-C-Minus (and Earth-C) survived intact, as they were actually "alternate dimensions" instead of parallel Earths,[2] although the most recent mini-series Captain Carrot and the Final Ark has suggested that Earth-C is now also considered Earth-26, one of the new 52 parallel Earths in the new DC Multiverse.
Members[edit]
The main members of Just'a Lotta Animals are:[3]
- Super-Squirrel: a squirrel; analog of Superman. Super-Squirrel has a vast array of Chiptonian superpowers, including flight, super vision, and super strength. His main weakness was to chiptonite. Super-Squirrel lived in the city of Muttropolis. Super-Squirrel has a crush on Wonder Wabbit, and displays jealousy when she and Captain Carrot flirt with each other. Unlike Superman, Super-Squirrel comes off as somewhat pompous and self-aggrandizing, in contrast to the Man of Steel's more amiable personality.
- The Batmouse: a mouse; analog of the Batman. Batmouse used a wide array of gadgets in his fight against his various foes, often with the aid of his sidekick, Boyd the Robin Wonder (a robin; analog of Batman's sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder).
- Wonder Wabbit: a rabbit; analog of Wonder Woman. Wonder Wabbit made use of her Animalzon superpowers and tools in fighting crime, including super strength, invulnerable bracelets, a magic lasso, and a see-through robot airplane. Wonder Wabbit originally came from Parrot-Eyes Island.
- Green Lambkin: a male sheep; analog of the Silver Age Green Lantern. Green Lambkin used his power ring in fighting crime; however, his ring had two weaknesses: a 24-hour charge limit (after which it had to be recharged) and a weakness against the color yellow. Green Lambkin was a member of the Green Lambkin Corps, and served the Goat-Guardians of the planet Uh-Oh.
- The Crash: a turtle; analog of the Silver Age Flash. The Crash was gifted with the power of superspeed. According to Captain Carrot #14, he was presumably inspired to become the Crash by reading comic books of (Earth-C's) the Terrific Whatzit as a youth, just as Barry Allen (the Flash of Earth-One) was inspired by reading comics of the adventures of Jay Garrick (the Flash of Earth-Two).
- Aquaduck: a duck; analog of Aquaman. Aquaduck possessed the ability to swim at terrific speeds, survive the ocean depths, breathe underwater, and communicate telepathically with sea-based animals.
Other members of Just'a Lotta Animals include:
- The Green Sparrow: a sparrow; analog of Green Arrow.
- The Stacked Canary: a canary; analog of Black Canary.
- Hawkmoose: a moose; analog of the Silver Age Hawkman.
- The Martian Anteater: an anteater from Mars (of the Earth-C-Minus universe); analog of the Martian Manhunter.
- The Item: an elephant; analog of the Silver Age Atom.
- The Elong-Gator: an alligator; analog of the Elongated Man.
- Firestork: a stork; analog of Firestorm.
- Zap-Panda: a panda; analog of Zatanna.
- The Rat Tornado: a rat; analog of the Silver Age Red Tornado.
Enemies[edit]
Enemies of Just'a Lotta Animals or its individual members include:[3]
- Kangar-Roo: a kangaroo; analog of Kanjar Ro. He once enslaved the Just'a Lotta Animals in his "slave ship of space".
- Lex Lemur: a lemur; analog of Lex Luthor. Super-Squirrel's archenemy.
- The Porker: a pig; analog of the Joker. Archenemy of the Batmouse.
- Hector Hamhock: a pig; analog of Hector Hammond. Enemy of Green Lambkin.
- The Weather Weasel: a weasel; analog of the Weather Wizard. Enemy of the Crash.
- The Shaggy Dawg: a very hairy dog; analog of the Shaggy Man.
- Feline Faust: a cat; analog of Felix Faust.
- Amazoo: an android composite of the parts of a dozen different animals; the Earth-C-Minus analog of Amazo.
- Brainy-Yak, presumably a yak; an analog of Brainiac mentioned once.
- A duck analog of early Justice League foe Xotar, the Weapons Master is seen in a panel of one Just'a Lotta Animals comic page.[4]
In other media[edit]
Duck Dodgers[edit]
The Green Lambkin appeared as a member of the Green Lantern Corps in the Duck Dodgers episode "The Green Loontern". The rest of the Just'a Lotta Animals did not appear.
Farm League[edit]
The DC Nation block of programming on Cartoon Network features a variation on the Just'a Lotta Animals in Farm League (identified earlier as the Justice League of Animals).[5] In the initial image released, some variations included Superman as a duck, Batman as a mosquito, Wonder Woman as a mouse, Green Lantern as a cat, Martian Manhunter as a vulture, Cyborg as a flea, B'wana Beast as a bear, Lex Luthor as a hairless monkey, Brainiac as a bull, etc. The subsequent preview from San Diego Comic-Con International instead revealed Superman as a manatee named Supermanatee, Batman as a mongoose named Batmongoose (voiced by Diedrich Bader), Wonder Woman as a wombat named Wonder Wombat, The Flash as a fish named The Flish, Green Lantern as a warthog named Green Lamprey, Aquaman as a mandrill named Aquamandrill, Captain Marvel/Billy Batson as a pig named Shazham!/Billy Bacon, Robin as Robin's Egg, Cyborg as a bug named Cybug, Darkseid as a duck named Duckseid, the Joker as a frog named the Croaker, Catwoman as a cat named Cat Cat, Mister Mxyzptlk as a chicken, Solomon Grundy as a rabbit named Solomon Grunny, Two-Face as a bull named Moo-Face, Bizarro as a dog named Bizarfo, Captain Cold as a cod fish named Captain Cod, Sinestro as a hippopotamus named Sinestropotamus, Lex Luthor as a bald-headed liger named Lex Liger, and Ambush Bug as a slug named Ambush Slug.[6][7]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ JLA: World Without Grownups
- ↑ The Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Index, March 1986
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #14, April 1983
- ↑ Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #3 May 1982
- ↑ "Cartoon Network Announces Return of DC Nation with New Press Release". 14 September 2012.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-08-18. Retrieved 2012-09-14. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link) - ↑ "'JL Animals' Shorts Coming to DC Nation Later This Month [Video]". Archived from the original on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2012-09-15. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
External links[edit]
- Oddball Comics column by Scott Shaw! where he discusses the team's creation. (Note - Domain expired 7/14/2013.)
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