Dynamite Comics
For decades, I have always believed Mumm-Ra is one of animation’s most memorable and least understood villains. He’s in my top five, and as for who is number one, you can read my review of Dynamite Comics’ take on Cobra Commander to find out. If folks think I’m too 80s-centric, that’s okay. That was the era when these characters cemented their legacies! To see some of them return in comic book form suggests the publisher has grand plans to unify them into its own Legion of Doom. Well, maybe.
We’re no longer seeing a cartoon villain plague the ThunderCats every episode. Instead, these are competent nasties who will no doubt cause trouble in the modern day. Yes, the last issue needs to be spoiled, because seeing Wah-Sut transform into the Ever-Living and gain a human disguise changes everything. Now that he can walk amongst men, he is even more dangerous! After getting freed from Second and Third Earth, I just have to wonder why he’s been tossed into the modern day. There’s a reason, and I’ll get to that later. But within this series’ continuity, although he hasn’t conquered the Four Ancient Spirits of Evil, the fact they’re willing to play along shows I’ve got a lot more reading ahead of me!
That is, I’ll have to read the ThunderCats x SilverHawks crossover and ThunderCats #1-5. That’s rather sneaky of the publisher, especially now that a centralized catalogue no longer exists. RIP Diamond Previews. Mais c’est la vie. While it’s doubtful this updated threat will meet Cobra Commander and form a league, I still want to know. That’s half the battle when this update is creating a really good shared universe, even though this run is marketed as two properties meeting, where all these heroes have to fight various forms of evil. From masterminds of magic to masters of tactics, I’d be worried too!
Unlike the previous origin story under the WildStorm label, Mumm-Ra is not an already-powerful Egyptian adviser named Wahankh.
This latest take introduces Wah-Sut as a servant and worker living somewhere in the dregs of Egyptian society. His defining characteristic isn’t privilege but hunger. He discovers that a seething arrogance can give him the power to free himself from his past. When he betrays his master, the life ahead becomes rougher. Instead of being whipped into shape, he is shuffled between dimensions. And if this lore is retconned from the ThunderCats bible, that depends on whether a reader is new to the series or a longtime fan. For myself, what’s revealed heavily implies First Earth is the classical world readers once studied in high school as Western Civilization.
In the same vein, classic ThunderCats lore defines the four animal-headed spirits through imagery associated with Ancient Egypt. We meet the Boar, Crocodile, Bull and Vulture-headed deities with no names. They have personalities to shudder at, but what I like is that they are who they should be, and my reading is correct.
Writer Declan Shalvey gives these gods purpose, and a bit of humour too. It’s there, otherwise this series would be too serious. They aren’t background characters anymore, and that’s important to note. Rapha Lobosco’s art also delivers some of that Stranger Things-style wonder. It’s a realm with no upside down or rightside up. Instead, it’s decay-ridden and can be reshaped by greater wills whenever they want. That’s what I noticed, and I admire the patterns being laid out.
That’s because Mumm-Ra is never a sympathetic character. He’s bitter and cruel to the core, and there is no suggestion that he is being mind-controlled. The third issue makes the point that even when he is welcomed by the cats and could have allied with them, his natural distrust shows he wants more. His cruel behaviour mirrors Gollum’s in The Lord of the Rings, and I can see why the artistic direction leans that way. Both were once something far less monstrous.
But for this goblin, there’s no improvement by the midpoint of the book. When he meets the Snarfs, to whom he narrates his story as a would-be ally, his apathy is set in stone.
As for the next chapter, it reads more like a massive kaiju battle between him and the gods. Since that fight stretches from beginning to end, there’s not too much narrative to figure out. When collected into a complete book via a trade paperback release, the series is essentially about massive egos duking it out over who will rule the multiverse. As for who wins, that’s left for the finale to establish before Mumm-Ra gets tossed back to the world in the last chapter.
What’s presented in this mini-series reads well as a standalone product, but there are minor hiccups. That’s mostly due to how much an average-sized monthly comic book has to cram in after advertising is included. An extra panel or two with narrative bits could help fill in the blanks. One addition that would’ve made things perfect is more of what this person is saying to himself rather than simply what he tells the reader.
Although the fifth chapter is a massive head-scratcher because of the environment Mumm-Ra is tossed into, that’s because it’s basically a huge epilogue setting up this villain’s role in the broader story. I also don’t recall whether SilverHawks and ThunderCats ever took place on present-day Earth, where this rather dashing but ruthless mummy in disguise lands. While both properties have connections to the planet in a future sense, I’ll have to look at the crossover series in full. It begins with ThunderCats x SilverHawks and concludes with ThunderHawks. Trade paperback editions are not likely to appear until the end of the year or early next.
As for whether there are lasting problems following Mumm-Ra’s arrival on modern-day Earth, it’s most likely self-contained, lest his spirit wander and find his other selves when the “second era” hits shelves in September and October with the solo series Cheetara this week and ThunderCats (Volume 2) Issue 1 next month. Sometimes solo series are really not that solo at all, brother and sister cats notwithstanding.
4 Meows out of 5
Mumm-Ra, The Ever Living Transformations
