Review: Rescue Rangers comic - issue one

[brendala]

I got my hands on the first issue of the new Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers comic and I wanted to share my thoughts with you all (mainly the Disney fans who are curious if this series is worth your time and money). Short answer: it totally is!

This issue does a great job of appealing to both fans who know the characters inside and out and newbies who may not have watched the series for a while (or at all). We get a lot of back story for Monterey Jack and we finally find out how he met Geegaw Hackwrench (Gadget's father). We also get a short and cute scene of Zipper attending a family reunion and...slightly exaggerating his Ranger exploits.

[SPOILERS FOR ISSUE ONE AHEAD]

This comic establishes what the main story arc for this series is going to be. Animals all over the world are acting crazy and violent and the Rangers can't figure out why. Gadget can tell that Monty is hiding something and the team eventually gets him to spill. It turns out the recent animal freak outs are likely being caused by an old invention that was co-created by Gadget's father many years ago. The machine is called A.R.S (Animal Rescue Signal), and was designed to give animals temporary enhanced strength and speed to help them defend themselves against poachers and hunters.
Gadget's father later realized that the machine could be used for evil. However, since he couldn't simply destroy it with the other scientists around, he took the key to it and had Monty split it into 4 pieces and scatter it around. Now the Rangers' mission is to find the pieces of the key and use it to take back control of the machine (after coaxing Monty out of his "Woe is me I failed poor, dead Geegaw" funk, of course).

The art is just as fabulous in the full issue as it was in the preview a few weeks back. Boom Comics definitely didn't pull a bait-and-switch by tempting us with gorgeous covers only to give us so-so art inside the book. Even if the story was sub-par, the artwork alone would make the comic worth a purchase! Every page is well drawn and so full of tiny gags and fun details that you have to read the comic more than once to catch them all. Leonel Castellani is fast becoming one of my favorite artists (right up there with Terry Moore and Don Rosa!!). 

In short, I highly recommend checking out issue one of Rescue Rangers even if you're not a huge fan of the old cartoon or you don't have warm, fuzzy memories of watching it as a child. And if you are a fan of Rescue Rangers (or the Disney Afternoon-style adventure series in general), you HAVE to buy this comic.