By James Turner
Publisher: David Fickling Books
ISBN: 9781910200063
Courageous, intrepid and mature are not three words you’d use to describe the crew of the Star Cat. Cowardly, ineffective and juvenile are much more like it. There’s the odd shaped-head of Captain Spacington, the utterly useless Science Officer Plixx, the egotistically superior Robot One and the downright unintelligible pilot, all crew on the universe-traversing Star Cat, which is indeed half spaceship and half, er, cat.
If this cropped up on the telly in-between Adventure Time and Spongebob you’d not think it out of place at all. It’s daft, it’s ridiculous and it’s funny enough to keep you smirking throughout. I have a particular fondness for Turnip In Time, a time travel caper that messes with your head as Plixx repeatedly travels moments into the past to save the day only to contribute to a disaster that necessitates yet another trip back in time. Brilliantly done. I also rather liked Incorporeal Punishment where the crew are taken by a being of pure energy from beyond space and time to stand in judgement of their reality – just one huge great excuse for a succession of gags and a conclusion that beats Marvel’s entire Beyonder arc.
The villains are, naturally, almost as inept as the crew, from the enormous presence of Mecha Dracula to the fear-sucking Space Vampyr, although nothing quite compares to the exploding evil that is Dark Rectangle. He’s good at being bad, he is.
It’s jam-packed with complete silliness, from exploding duck bombs to everything being given the prefix of Space, i.e. Space Zoo, Space Zoo, Space Ice Cream. It’s Space-tastic.
And if you liked that: There are lots more Phoenix collections out now from David Fickling Books. Also if you buy any books or back issues from The Phoenix’s online shop at www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk and quote the code FIRST15OFF you’ll get a massive 15% off!
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