Between Marvel Unleashed and Strays, it’s a good time to be a lover of pets in fiction. Marvel Unleashed is a new miniseries by Kyle Starks and Jesus Hervas as they embark on a super-pets adventure involving some familiar good boys and some new ones too. Can these heroes rise up and fight crime, especially with little to no powers? That’s certainly one question I kept pondering after reading the first issue.
Marvel Unleashed opens with possibly the most popular and famous Marvel super-pet: L0ckjaw. Snoozing in Central Park, he’s awakened by a blow dart from Kraven. The two spar, but Kraven catching Lockjaw off guard quickly settles the battle. The state of Lockjaw is clearly the central conflict to be resolved, but the only heroes to step up appear to be standard pets.
Much of this issue is spent introducing readers to a few new pets while looping in familiar ones. That includes Hawkeye’s dog as well as Captain America’s falcon. After a brief origin story of a new dog hero and a mystery to resolve involving A.I.M., the issue sets these pets off to save the day. Since most of them have no powers at all, there’s a Homeward Bound vibe to the adventure as you root for these pets whose greatest strength is their determination and good nature.
Don’t mess with a teleporter, dude.
Credit: Marvel
Hervas does an impeccable job drawing these mutts, which is no easy task. Capturing their emotions well, you always know how they’re feeling as they speak to one another. There are some epic reveals of a supervillain as well as a hero pet on the final page that are showstoppers.
While Hervas keeps the character work and story moving, I did find this issue to be far too slowly-paced overall. Maybe because a few of these pets are new characters, or maybe because they are regular pets with no powers, but I found it hard to care as we learn about them. Their adventure has a clear end goal, but much of this issue is spent with the pets walking along investigating a low-risk A.I.M. dilemma. Seeing as it’s A.I.M. and these goons can barely fight, it’s never played as if there is much danger or risk involved. The stakes are raised by the end, however, so I’m invested in checking out the next issue.
If you need more dogs in your life, check out Marvel Unleashed. Starks and Hervas are putting in the work to establish the characters up front in this first issue with the promise of some epic supervillain vs. super-pet action in future issues.
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