After a month of slummin' and bummin' around the malls of their hometown, Britanny reminds the sisters that they are supposed to help out Stripe with the deciphering of ancient ruins in El Dorado. They make preparations to head out, including a tuna race (which Brianna wins.)
(Cut now to the Atlantic Ocean where we find the l'il daemon mouse heading towards the Diggers' household for revenge. It mops up some sharks, easily.) Back to the story.
An embarassing situation arises when the light-gate generator teleports them to El Dorado a bit early, just as Cheetah goes topless before Stripe and his council. It seems Brianna "tinkered" with the controls. Anyway, things get set in motion and the group set out to explore the city's ruins. Gina picks up thirty contacts way ahead of them on her sonar scanner, but dismisses it.
The walls of El Dorado's ruins go as follows. Apparently, El Dorado is a spaceship, and it arrived at Earth for colonization along with its sister city, Atlantis. There was a third ship also, with the passengers only known as the Amara.
Something makes a noise from the darkness and Britanny heads off to investigate. Two timid Amarans, Jan and Rol, are spying on the Kryn but are confident that because of the distance, Kryn ears can't hear them. A very fast Cheetah comes up and snags Rol by his ears, while a swipe at Jan is futile thanks to her phase-unit. Both Amarans, described as "purply rabbit things", think that the "carnivore" is bent on eating them, and as Jan escapes, Rol tells her to avenge his grisly demise. Britanny tries to convince him that she's not going to eat him, but he won't listen.
Elsewhere, Gina, Stripe and Brianna leave the party to join Britanny, and Jan reprograms her worker-bots to send after the carnivore.
Rol is prompted to tell how the Amarans arrived. Their ship, it turns out, couldn't handle the Earth's atmosphere upon re-entry. The ship crashed, but all the Amarans escaped and headed back home, except for two. Trapped in the engineering section, Rol and Jan could only go into stasis. They came out of it four weeks previous and were silently stealing parts of the Kryn vessel for an escape ship of their own when Cheetah found them.
Rounding a corner, Rol points out the vicious-looking worker-bots and orders them to attack Britanny.
Gina, Stripe and Brianna arrive just as Britanny finishes her demolishment of the really-lame-but-vicious-looking worker-bots, much to Rol's horror. Then the big worker-bot arrives, and Rol (seeing a hairless ape carnivore by the name of Gina) attempts an escape. Thanks to Gina's area-affect EMP caster, Rol's phase-unit device conks out, and he hits a wall face first.
Brianna gets dibs on the big worker-bot, but it renders her helpless instantly. Likewise Gina, until Britanny takes it out finally. Rol awakens, but Gina manages to correct the situation, and he becomes an ally. Then Jan arrives, all-blazin'-death-style, until Rol tells her that the carnivores are now friends. The worker-bot self-destructs, and all is well. The Amarans agree to help Stripe and the people of Atlantis to discover their heritage. Britanny then heads off with Stripe for intimacy.
I LOVE the cover. Very primary, very clean, very simple. Cute, too.
The story was good for a "let's meet new characters and gain history" story. It wasn't a big fight fight fight issue (which everyone knows I love), but it had its moments.
Still, why was Brianna played up as the dupe here? First, she wins the tuna race only because Cheetah wanted to save face (or butt as the case may be.) I thought that it was the smart way to win, considering her vs. Brit isn't fair anyway. Then, Brianna gets dumped on because she has an equal amount of affection and love for Stripe, but she's the one who has to force it down because of who she is (i.e. not Britanny). Last, in the final fight, her lack of skill gets her another admonishment from Cheetah. I wouldn't have taken it, personally. If there was ever an issue where she could (and should) have returned to her villainous ways, this would be it.
The artwork was average, with the occasional lapse into the tolerable. Just some backgrounds were off, maybe the odd character design, nothing much.
I dunno. I guess the best part of the whole issue was watching the vegetarian Amarans scared out of their wits, expecting the end of the world, and calling everyone a carnivore. Generally, just their utterly grisly outlook on death. The best line was by Rol to captor Britanny: "Then you're probably planning to play your sick, sadistic feline-prey-games with me... You'll probably tear my eyes out and watch me run around smacking into walls as I..." Man, I laughed for a while on that. Still am.
Yup. Rol. The best part of the issue. And the cover art. (sigh) That's all for this one. Oh well.
(out of four.)
"I Can't Drive 55" - a rockin' Sammy Hagar song
Gina's Car - structurally taken from Hot Rod of the "Transformers" cartoon
MST3K - "Mystery Science Theater 3000" movie show
Death Star - the BIG moon sized weapon in "Star Wars"
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