Apparently I can't get Wild Kratts off my mind...
I've been thinking lately how cool a slightly aged up real PBS graphic novel would be. Just slightly more complex, like middle grade level story.
Imagine a Tortuga crew origin story. You could age them all down to tween/younger teenagers. It could have a fairly straightforward overall arc; the Kratt brothers love exploring the Canadian forest nearish their home, but one day they find a sign saying hundreds of acres of it are being torn down for oil drilling and fracking ponds. Which I understand is a real threat to Canadian wildlife.
There wouldn't really be a face to the company as a big bad villain to fight (perhaps a commentary on the faceless actions of those who just go along with the system without question) and the boys would be at a loss at first how to stop it. In the woods they would first meet Aviva and Jimmy. But they don't all get along at first, Aviva is catching specimens to study (possibly dissect, hey they do it in high school, why not for personal research?) for her robotics club projects.
Since in the cartoon she doesn't always instantly warm up to certain creatures, I think when the brothers first meet her she isn't a true animal lover. She's impressed with animals, but doesn't see them much further past analytically studying them. Jimmy is also in the robotics club with Aviva and is easy going enough for her to convince him to come be her assistant in the woods (she promised to pay in pizza).Still when Aviva and Jimmy hear about the fate of the forest they want to stop it too and begrudgingly agree to work together.
Later they meet independent loner Koki, who has engineered an amazing hidden tree house all by herself. Of course she doesn't want her hard work bulldozed so she joins too. The treehouse becoming a Tortuga HQ 0.5. The solution could be fairly typical since they can't just talk to the faceless company, by finding some federally protected species so the forest is protected land or maybe something is wrong with their permits etc.
But to have some action the team splits in two groups with Aviva and the Kratts brothers with proto-creature power suits to sabotage the progress of the deforestation. Meanwhile Koki and Jimmy are finding and proving the company’s malpractices. So the real heart of the story would be more them all learning to be a team together.
A fun foreshadowing twist could be at the very end after the company is stopped it shows a dark boardroom with just the chest down of the CEO angrily conceding he's lost this round. But in a chair next to him tinkering with some gadget is Zac, the CEO’s son.
And while he never interacts with the Tortuga crew it would show his dad's influence on his worldview. Perhaps his dad gives a little speech about how if something isn't useful (i.e. makes you money) it's worthless and those animal lovers are wasting their time. And Zac is thinking hmm how to make animals useful.
Anyway the book would end with the team reunited and celebrating their victory in the treehouse as the sun sets, asking themselves what's next? And one of them will say, “It's a big world out there, I can't wait to explore it with all of you,”.
