What
Did Happen To Captain Carrot?
page 2
(continued from page
1)
Johns
doesn't directly connect the Captain Carrot story to the
larger adventure, except that the also long-forgotten Kid
Devil was reading it before Brother Blood returned. (Kid
Devil himself is another character rendered near irrelevant
by a dark turn -- his adult mentor, Blue Devil, went from
whimsical to mystically grim as a result of the events of
Underworld Unleashed.) Sharp-eyed readers may catch
that a comic book store in Teen Titans #31 advertises
selling Captain Carrot back issues, but that's
it for the hard connection.
Instead
of being directly crucial to the plot, this two-issue guest
appearance serves as something rare in comics -- nuance,
to show us that something really is souring the DC Universe.
Just
as Alan Moore used Tales of the Black Freighter as
a counterpoint in Watchmen, the not-so-funny animals
comment on the larger Crisis. They're all acting out of
character from what we remember, just as the Big Guns of
DC seem to be. If anyone is shocked by their doings, contrast
it to a Batman grown so dark and paranoid that even he has
to collapse, in Infinite Crisis #3, to silently cry
that it wasn't supposed to be like this.
That
same Batman also threw invective at Superman - "the last
time you inspired anyone was when you died." Despite being
potentially in love with Wonder Woman, Batman also turns
his back on her for killing Maxwell Lord.
Despite
the ingeniousness of picking up plot threads from years
before (the much-ballyhooed "Death of Superman" opening
that door between life and death), the real meat of Infinite
Crisis has only been cooking for a couple of years.
Some unidentified larger force has manipulated all this.
If it's powerful enough to move Oa from the center of the
universe without the Guardians actually noticing until it
was too late, it's certainly powerful enough to exert a
subtle yet sudden influence on the basic hopefulness of
Earth.
So
if you don't agree with Batman about Superman, or wonder
why the Bat has recently been such a jerk, it's because
up until a couple of years ago, you were right. Something
within the DC Universe is pushing. Hard.
We
have bright spots, and it can't be coincidence that DC (and
Johns) rehabilitated Hal Jordan just before the worst of
Infinite Crisis hit. Or that Supergirl, a casualty
of the first Crisis, returns just in time to provide the
light the "Trinity" seem to have lost.
It's
rumored that this year's event will allow the heroes to
go back to being heroic in a more pejorative sense. Allegedly,
the darkness will clear and we might have fun with the characters
again.
May
that spread to the pop culture within the DC Universe. The
next time we see Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew,
let's have the whimsy back. Make our funny animals funny
again. Please. When Captain Carrot proclaims "I'm Captain
Carrot," let it be one that can inspire us to have
fun again.
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