Michel, Doug – Monkey Squad One Annual #2

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Monkey Squad One Annual #2

If you’re reading this, chances are pretty good that you started off reading terrible superhero comics when you were a kid. Or maybe you were lucky/smart enough to only read the good stuff forever, I don’t know. But let’s say that you read the superhero stuff and thought it was awesome, mostly because you were a child. When I was a kid there was also a yearly issue called an Annual, and these generally fell into one of three categories: either a standalone story that was too big for a regular comic, a part of a much larger crossover event, or a glorified filler issue (meaning a meandering story with pinups and/or character bios to pad out the page count). As much as I’ve been loving this series lately, this issue sadly falls into the latter category. Mostly! This requires an explanation. The point of this issue in theory is to fill in the holes of other recent issues. What happened between certain panels, why one character showed up covered in feces, a few more possible alternative universes that were cut because he ran out of space, etc. And it’s a good theory, as Doug has done an excellent job of building a universe for himself that has plenty of room for such digressions. But stuffing them all into one issue like this makes the whole thing feel scattered, and the concept itself makes that impossible to avoid. If and when he puts out a complete edition of this comic, I’d highly recommend slotting these stories in where they’re supposed to fit instead of putting them all together like this, but I am very much not the boss of him. There are also 8 pretty solid pinup pages, with my only problem being the cardinal sin of so many pinup pages: not putting the names of the artists on each page. Sure, they’re all in the front, but many people are too lazy to go back and check such a thing. So overall, if you have an encyclopedic knowledge of this series, I’d still recommend this as is. If not, maybe wait for the collected edition, if that ever happens? Either way, #13 (of the regular series) starts off a six part story, so I’d recommend that as more of a place to get started on this series if you haven’t already.