It’s a knock-down and drag-out fight. It’s Captain Pollution vs. The Planeteers in a prelude to the main event. Mr. Wheeler, forced to watch the ecosystem unravel before his eyes, very much regrets giving the aptly named Plunder the key to fabricating his own power rings. As Plunder becomes the self-dubbed “Captain Pollution” he immediately sets out on absorbing energy and power from wherever he can.
The crux of the issue sees all five members find various strategies to work together, but the real star of the show is Kwame the bearer of the Earth ring who goes one-on-one with the greedy one. How can one man, on a crutch no less, go up against a superhuman force? By transforming rocks and concrete into a giant stone Gundam-like Mech. That’s how. Punches are traded while a verbal exchange takes place between them. Kwame tries to appear to justice and sanity, but quickly finds reason and sanity does not work with someone as ruthless and self-centered as Plunder.
However, the villain does have a good line about how he isn’t the criminal, but to look at the world society as a whole as see who is really the one’s at fault for the constant decay, pollution, and state of the world. “People like me didn’t corrupt this planet… We’re simply its reflection.”
Not bad Mr. Pepose, not bad at all. Straightforward, no punches pulled, and right the point. These Planeteers aren’t messing around, and some will push those boundaries to achieve victory.
This runs like an all-out assault on multiple fronts. Gradually the Planeteers defeat their respective foes, and ultimately Unite to summon the one being who could possibly stand up to pollution personified. We know who that is, but you’ll just have to read the story to find out how.
I don’t like giving away too much, so you will not be disappointed when you go to your local comic shop and pick up this very intense issue. all I will say is that the creative forces behind Captain Planet certainly know how to take a classic equation, giving it an incredibly new modern take which does not seem campy, cliched, nor predictable. I find it very similar to Skybound’s approach to GI Joe and the Transformers. Taking old school characters but catapulting it forward into imagining what a reality with these characters would be like today.
