Arg sorry this took forever, school got in the way + Marvel Rivals. I have bad hands so I have to pick and choose what the hell I'm going to use them for daily. I am also changing the structure of these and will be leaving my thoughts at the end of the recap. Anyway, onto #8!
Spoiler Free Review: Claudus' Pontius Pilate era
Spoilers under the cut!!
Recap
A Tygra centered issue just like I suspected. The story opens up with the head architect and scientist of the ThunderCats hanging upside down on the skeleton of what will become Cats Lair. Panthero chides him from abandoning his bed rest, but Tygra wont budge as he is trying to move the Treasures of Thundera into their new base.
The Treasures of Thundera is that armory via a portal that Snarf brought to the Cats attention back in issue 2 or 3. As they go to place it Tygra gets sucked into it and pops out on the other side, ending up next to Old King Claudus.
Tygra realizes the portal transported him back to Thundera months before the planet was destroyed. He reminisces about his friendship with the king while Claudus tells Snarf about his new job protecting this place.
While Claudus talks to Snarf, telling the creature he will remain with the Treasures until called upon by Lion-O, he is attacked by an individual hooded in a cloak that resembles the head of Cats Lair. As they battle the figure incapacitates Snarf with magic and strikes down the king, monologuing on how he is going to teach Claudus how to fear. At this point Tygra interferes.
The cloaked figure continues to spar with both words and his halberd, claiming he knows Tygra. Apparently the halberd is supposed to do something but it does jack shit and the figure yeets that shit. His tantrum is interupted by Jaga.
Jaga does not attack, in fact he doesn't seem to acknowledge the trio mid-tussle. He walks in, leading a mass of Mu'Tant prisoners from the Great War that are being escorted through the hall of Treasures into another portal. Soldiers, women, children, being lead to somewhere. This doesn't surprise Claudus as the king solemnly watches. This does surprise Tygra, who first thought the mass of prisoners to be Thunderian refugees. The fight continues after the last guard goes through the portal.
The figure continues to wail into Claudus and incapacitates Tygra with mental magic, the same way he did Snarf. Speaking about how the future will be "a tragedy" as he disappears into another portal.
We cut to Mumm-Ra, who is trying to locate they Eye of Thundera with magic but gets zapped with red energy. He says he has felt this power before, but its changed and "more".
Cutting back to Tygra, Claudus and Snarf, the king remarks on how Tygra is much older than he remembers and asks if their plan to escape to Third Earth had worked. Tygra tells him that they are there, not without loss and then questions Claudus on what he saw with the prisoners. Claudus explains that the prisoner transport was one of mercy, as members of the Council wanted to execute them to deter more attacks after the Great War but the king could not bring himself to commit that act. Instead he developed a ruse, the Mu'Tants would belive that the prisoners had been killed but in reality they were transported via the Hall in their own words quote:
"...a world which we knew could sustain them, while removing the imminent threat to our home. Once we became aware that Thundera would be destroyed, Third Earth became our lifeline."
Tygra is baffled to why Claudus would have considered escaping to a planet purposefully filled with their enemies was a good one, but tries to question Claudus on their mysterious cat attacker. The king does not know about the cloaked figure, but asks Tygra to keep all that's transpired and has been told to him to himself before sending Tygra back through a portal.
On Third Earth, Snarf its guarding the entrance to the Tresures and doesn't permit the twins or Lion-O from entering. Tygra barrels through the portal door and crashes into the unsuspecting Lord, nocking them both off the scaffolding. Lion-O is able to catch hold of the side but Tygra has to be swept up by Panthero. He can't tell them what he and Claudus talked about, but he can tell them when the mysterious Cats Lair clad figure showed him while attacking him with magic. The Mu'Tants have arrived at the skeleton of Cats Lair.
Review
So far the most interesting issue yet, so many questions have popped up. The Treasures seams to exists in a place outside of time where actions that happened months ago in this space can be seen in the future. Basically Book of Omens but without the Book? Or an extension of it? Then Claudus comes out of left field with the war crime committee. God I love morally ambiguous Claudus, 2011 did wonders with that. The irony of Third Earth becoming Thundera's sanctuary after being its dumping ground is so intriguing and I can't wait to see the native denizens of Third Earth reacting to the Cats. No doubt they will recognize that Cats are the ones who brought this invading force onto their planet. The Warrior Women especially will most likely react negatively. As this review is written after I have read ThunderCats: Apex #1 I know who the cloaked guy is and... not what I was originally expecting. When I first read this issue I was entertaining the idea this was going to be Grune with a nice new design. Alas.
WilyKit and Kat are also not adjusting well to Lion-O’s sudden growth. Kit especially, talking back when Lion-O orders them to stay close to the ship.
I really like the twins design, especially Kits little eye markings. I am wondering as they age if they will gain more stripes to look like the wildcats they are based on.
As expected, the twins sneak off and almost immediately fall into a sand trap that magics them to Mummy-Ra’s pyramid. Immediately this put me on edge, I have still not recovered from how The Return treated the kids.
We cut back to the adults, Tygra awakens and him and Cheetara have a moment (Tychee shippers rejoice). Meanwhile Panthro and Lion-O and having father-son bonding time while working on the ThunderTank together. I’m so glad there is no longer animosity between them. They speak on the foes they have encountered and when Panthero goes to retrieve an item in another room of the ship he comes across Tygra, drafting the schematics of Cats Lair. I’m betting next issue will be focused on him. YAAAAY!!
Back with the Twins. They both enter into the Black Pyramid while a baboon watches.
The mural that the twins see is really interesting. Mumm-Ra overseeing two planets, four suns with a MA-MUT MENTION AYAHAHAAH I have missed him so much, Mumm-Ra is hopefully back in his evil old man era with the crusty white dog. While staring at this mural Kat notices one of the pictographs I of an exploding planet, he says it reminds him of Thundera before he steps on another pit fall trap and gets separated from his sister.
While apart, Kit runs into some un-dead Mu’Tant Lizard men and manifests a speed boost smilier to Cheetara’s powers and Kat grows weak and encounters someone sleeping. They also develop twin telepathy at the same time, Wilykat calling out to his sister mentally. Really cool power idea for them and is counterbalanced by the fact that’s pointed out by Kat that when one uses their new ability the other one is weakened.
The twins got really lucky Mumm-Ra (a) thinks messing with them is underneath him or (b) is too tired out from his fight with Lion-O. Deadass gave me The Return anxiety but they got away. Mumm-Ra sleeping outside of his sarcophagus is low key ass but it made for a cool moment.
The twins then swear to each other not to tell the adults about their adventure(this will most definitely bite them in the ass).
Then we cut to the baboon seen earlier telling Monkian that the twins were about a the rumors of Thunderians being on planet is true.
This interaction proves my theory of Calica being a descendent of Thunderian prisoners wrong and now I don’t know what the fuck she may be.
Slithe and Monkian are teaming up tho so the unholy alliance is brewing.
Overall I really enjoyed this issue, the twins are definitely going to get in trouble. Hopefully we do get a Tygra-centric story next issue :3
With the Tower of Omens Team already being ThunderCats in the Dynamite ThunderCats run they better not make Lynx-O a fucking war criminal again. If they do, I need my fun, Mexican take-out loving grandpa, just Uncle Iroh him
Discussing the relationship between the two planets.
‼️ Spoilers for both Cheetara #1 and ThunderCats #6
Both Cheetara #1 and ThunderCats #6 have added some pretty interesting details regarding the relationship between Third Earth.
First is the obvious, Vultureman drops the bomb that Third Earth is a prison planet under Thunderian occupation. The mutants that the Cats have come across have been stranded on the planet with no tech at their disposal. Either they have been sent to Third Earth in their lifetime or they are decedents of prisoners.
This of course begs the question if Calica is also a resident of Third Earth. She obviously could not recall life on Thunderia well, which was one of the main reasons Panthro did not trust her. Her sudden turn to Mumm-Ra also lends to this theory, perhaps her clan is working intricately with the demon priest. I will not surprise me if Grune is the leader of the Thunderian prisoners, or at least a powerful lone rouge. But I think Thundera’s history with third earth spans more than just a few years, but hundreds.
In Cheetara #1 we are shown the temples on thundera sporting Greco-Roman architecture.
The statues within this building range from Greco-Roman to Egyptian. All of their faces are shorn off: ears, nose mouth and bits of sculpted hair gone. Like they were being purposefully obscured.
Historically statues of great significance were either looted or defaced by conquering rulers. One of the ideas I prepose is that the ruler called Thundera did just this when expanding his galactic empire, and these “gods” are simply trophies. Or Thundera came from Third Earth, a world that was colonized by a dying human race who took the gods of old Earth and brought them to their new people.
This was a simple issue, not much besides Panthro going out for a drive in the ThunderTank to try and find an energy source + to think. Then he gets ambushed by some Vultremen.
He is really struggling with Lion-O growing up so fast and doesn’t know how to deal with it. It sorta reminds me of parents who grow distant from their children because they aren’t as dependent on them anymore and the parent doesn’t know how to handle a soon-to-be adult offspring. He holds no hard feelings for Cheetara beating him and is worried about Tygra’s current state. (Fuck you RD Rivero you’re probably cackling with glee at the skull shadows on his face)
Then a flock of Vultures attack him. Their masked leader dropping some very interesting lore. In this iteration Third Earth was a penal planet for Thundera for many years, explaining why the Mu’Tants are already on the planet. This ties the history of Third Earth and Mumm-Ra closely with Thundera’s galactic expansion and explains why he knows about the Eye.
Snarf was in this one, he was great, but I wish we could understand him. Also Panthro is sooo hot, Moss draws him well
Non-Spoiler Review: I thought Tygra was a butch lesbian & THEY DID IT THEY FINALLY DID IT!
Spoilers ahead!
First off I really think its homophobic they gave some pages for a Johnny Quest preview.
I know that people are bitching about the Cats Lair but its referencing the TOY I THOUGH YOU GUYS WANTED EASTER EGGS??? Anyway, Jaga and Cheetara are introduced. They talk about the faceless gods the Thunderians worship which I find incredibly interesting. The gods statues range from renaissance to egyptian, which has me suspicious about something but that's for a separate post.
Turns out that the tiger from the promo page is Tygra, and I have been thinking that it was a new character who was a butch lesbian... Embarrassing for me but Tygra really experienced twink-death good for him.
Cheetara contemplates her place in the ThunderCats and the universe in which they exist. The ThunderCats, which seem to include the Tower of Omens team (interesting change) plus Tygra(??? the art looks different so idk), Cheetara, Panthro and Jaga, are tasked by Claudius to take care of the infant Lion-O. The Queen is dead again,, and unnamed as of right now.
Cheetara is confirmed as a mother figure for Lion-O I WIIIIIN I WIIIIN!!!! I have never cared for LiChee and this falls in line with my headcanon about '85 Cheetara. She is MOTHER. It was so sweet to see her with growing Lion-O, THAT IS HER BABY HER SON.
She already has her visions, and the ending of the issue is her forseeing the fall of Thundera. RD Rivero wins this one. But it’s definitely hooked me into reading this. Seeing the final days of Thundera and Cheetara’s reaction to danger following her son due to a prophesy will hopefully be emotional.
