Just'a Lotta Animals

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Just'a Lotta Animals

From left to right: Green Lambkin, the Crash, Wonder Wabbit, Captain Carrot, Aquaduck, the Batmouse, and Super-Squirrel. From Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #14, 1983. Art by Scott Shaw.
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance The New Teen Titans #16 (1982) (first mentioned)
Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! #14 (1983) (first appearance)
Created by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw
In story information
Base(s) Space station satellite in orbit above Earth-C-Minus
Member(s) Super-Squirrel
The Batmouse
Wonder Wabbit
Green Lambkin
The Crash
Aquaduck
Elongator
The Martian Anteater
Zap-Panda
The Item
Green Sparrow
Stacked Canary
Firestork
Hawkmoose
The Rat Tornado

Just'a Lotta Animals is a fictional superhero team that appeared in stories published by DC Comics. The team was an anthropomorphic funny animal parody of the Justice League of America.

Just'a Lotta Animals originally appeared in the series Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! as the name of a superhero comic book written and drawn by Captain Carrot's alter ego, Roger Rodney Rabbit. Various panels of the Just'a Lotta Animals' comic that were shown in the Captain Carrot series were often parodies of classic Justice League storylines. The team was in fact the original proposal by Zoo Crew creators Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw for a funny animal superhero series for DC, but DC's editor Dick Giordano asked them to create original characters instead. They agreed and created the Zoo Crew, but still ended up introducing the Just'a Lotta Animals team in the series.

In Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #14 and #15, in a storyline titled "Crisis On Earth-C!," Just'a Lotta Animals were finally revealed to actually exist, on a parallel Earth named "Earth-C-Minus" (versus the world of the Zoo Crew, which was named "Earth-C"). The two teams united to defeat the villains of the story, Dr. Hoot (an owl mad scientist) and Feline Faust (a cat sorcerer; an analog of Justice League villain Felix Faust).

Contents

[edit] Location

Just'a Lotta Animals lived on the parallel world of Earth-C-Minus, and made its headquarters in an orbiting satellite space station.

Events and characters on Earth-C-Minus were considered to be fictional to natives of Earth-C, similar to how events and characters of Earth-Two were considered as fictional on Earth-One. Additionally, events and characters on Earth-C-Minus paralleled those of the then-mainstream DC Universe of Earth-One. Like Earth-C, the names of characters and locations tended to make heavy use of various animal-based puns.

After the events of the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was revealed that Earth-C-Minus (and Earth-C) survived intact, as they were actually "alternate dimensions" instead of parallel Earths,[citation needed] although the most recent mini-series Captain Carrot and the Final Ark has suggested that Earth-C is now also considered Earth-26, one of the new 52 parallel Earths in the new DC Multiverse.

[edit] Members

The main members of Just'a Lotta Animals were:

  • Super-Squirrel: a squirrel; analog of Superman. Super-Squirrel has a vast array of "Chiptonian" (Kryptonian) superpowers, including flight, super vision, and super strength. His main weakness was to "chiptonite" (kryptonite). Super-Squirrel lived in the city of "Muttropolis" (Metropolis). Like his counterpart Superman, Super-Squirrel has a crush on Wonder Wabbit, and displays jealousy when she and Captain Carrot flirt with each other. Unlike Superman, Super-Squirrel comes off as somewhat pompous and self-aggrandizing, in contrast to the Man of Steel's more amiable personality.
  • The Batmouse: a mouse; analog of Batman. Batmouse used a wide array of gadgets in his fight against his various foes, often with the aid of his sidekick, Boyd the Robin Wonder (a robin).
  • Wonder Wabbit: a rabbit; analog of Wonder Woman. Wonder Wabbit made use of her "Animal-zon" (Amazon) superpowers and tools in fighting crime, including super strength, invulnerable bracelets, a magic lasso, and a see-through robot airplane. Wonder Wabbit originally came from "Parrot-Eyes Island" (Paradise Island).
  • Green Lambkin: a male lamb; analog of the Silver Age Green Lantern. Green Lambkin used his power ring in fighting crime; however, his ring had two weaknesses: a 24-hour charge limit (after which it had to be recharged) and a weakness against the color yellow. Green Lambkin was a member of the "Green Lambkin Corps" (Green Lantern Corps), and served the Goat-Guardians of the planet Uh-Oh (Oa).
  • The Crash: a turtle; analog of the Silver Age Flash. The Crash was gifted with the power of super speed. According to Captain Carrot #14, he was presumably inspired to become the Crash by reading comic books of (Earth-C's) the Terrific Whatzit as a youth, just as Barry Allen (the Flash of Earth-One) was inspired by reading comics of the adventures of Jay Garrick (the Flash of Earth-Two).
  • Aquaduck: a duck; analog of Aquaman. Aquaduck, like Aquaman, presumably possessed the ability to swim at terrific speeds, survive the ocean depths, breathe underwater, and communicate with all sea life (though the latter might not be as impressive in light of the sentience of animals on Earth C-Minus).

Other members of Just'a Lotta Animals include:

[edit] Enemies

Enemies of Just'a Lotta Animals or its individual members include:

  • Kangar-Roo: a kangaroo; analog of Kanjar Ro. He once enslaved Just'a Lotta Animals in his "slave ship of space."
  • Lex Lemur: a lemur; analog of Lex Luthor. Super-Squirrel's archenemy.
  • The Porker: a pig; analog of The Joker. Archenemy of the Batmouse.
  • Hector Hamhock: a pig; analog of Hector Hammond. Enemy of Green Lambkin.
  • The Weather Weasel: a weasel; analog of the Weather Wizard. Enemy of the Crash.
  • The Shaggy Dawg: a very hairy dog; analog of the Shaggy Man.
  • Feline Faust: analog of Felix Faust.
  • Amazoo: an android composite of the parts of a dozen different animals; the Earth-C-Minus analog of Amazo.
  • Brainy-Yak, presumably a yak; an analog of Brainiac mentioned once.
  • A duck analog of early Justice League foe Xotar, the Weapons Master is seen in a panel of one Just'a Lotta Animals comic page.

[edit] Sources

http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2000-09-07 -Oddball Comics, Column by Scott Shaw where he discusses the team's creation

Alter Ego magazine # 72- contains an interview with Thomas and Shaw on the team's origin

[edit] See also