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| Min S. Ku's cover illustration for Cartoon Network Action Pack #28 |
Cartoon Network Action Pack is an anthology series for young readers from Johnny DC, an imprint of DC Comics that focuses on kids’ comics. Cartoon Network Action Pack takes action-based animated series from cable’s, Cartoon Network, and adapts them into comic book short stories, with stories running from two to eight pages.
Cartoon Network Action Pack #28 offers 19 pages of cool story fun (and 13 pages of adds?!). First up, is an 8-page Ben 10 Alien Force (“Bad Boy”) which has Ben Tennyson and Gwen Tennyson joining forces with Kevin Levin against the Highbreed and their DNAlien servants. But is Kevin, a former Ben nemesis, really reformed and on the right side? Then, in Samurai Jack, Aku tries to convince two kids what an awful guy Jack is with a phony fairytale in “Aku’s Fairy Tales: Sleeping Beauty.” Finally, Codename: Kids Next Door face something worse that tyrannical adults – a dictatorial public relations agent in “Operation: I.M.P.R.O.V.E.”
In previous issues, the Ben 10/Ben 10 Alien Force tales tend to dominate, but this time around, the “supporting players” are the stars. Jim Alexander’s Samurai Jack mini-story is a really novel comic fantasy that captures a sly, funny side of the menacing Aku. I’ve never really bothered with K.N.D., but I like this story enough to want to try some episodes of the long-running Cartoon Network kiddie sci-fi, action/adventure. Once again, Cartoon Network Action Pack is a winning comic book for young readers.
B+
