Super Dinosaur 1

I’m not sure that the writer’s name will attract the right audience to this: it’s aimed at a young audience, and it hits its target pretty well.

It feels as much like an animated TV show as a comic, really, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes one before long. This is partly down to the art style, which has more modelling than you’d see in a cartoon, but otherwise modern animation is the mode: clean, clear, bright, energetic, bold. It’s very readable, and Howard does faces well, though some of the action feels a bit routine and uninventively staged.

The setup is cartoony too, centring on youngster Derek Dynamo and his best pal, a Tyrannosaurus Rex from a world beneath the Earth. Derek has plenty of superscience gimmicks, as does the armoured Super Dinosaur. Derek’s dad, Doctor Dexter Dynamo, discovered the subterranean dinosaur world, and was a genius, but now his mind is going, and his genius son is picking up the slack. This means Derek worries when the government assigns technicians to help them, as he has been keeping his dad’s decline secret – even his dad doesn’t know, as Derek sneaks in to correct his work.

This is a likeable start, and we also get some villains and fight scenes: the Doc’s old partner, Max Maximus, and his own trained dinosaurs, plus a female dinosaur named Tricerachops (a slightly weak name) with her own agenda, who seems the more interesting and original adversary on the basis of the appearances here.

I have no idea if this will stay especially entertaining or not – perhaps it will be a sequence of inconsequential and inconclusive battles with Derek and Super Dinosaur defeating the bad guy dinosaurs – this seems a real risk with a juvenile creation with such specific purpose. On the other hand, we know Kirkman is a good writer, so perhaps there will be a little more to it than that – in fact the final scene here does suggest more emotional depth than I am implying, so I guess there is reason for some optimism. Anyway, for now, this is a lively and enjoyable start.