Kung Fu Panda

• Title: Kung Fu Panda #5 (of 6)
• Wiki: link
• Writers: Quinn Johnson, Matt Anderson, Eric Hutchins
• Artist: CV Designs, Massimo Asaro

After four months where the mini-series had apparently run its course, Ape Entertainment’s Kung Fu Panda returns with the first of two new issues before beginning a new series Tales of the Dragon Warrior.

In the main story, “Discipline & Disorder,” Tigress and Po are sent to a nearby village under attack by the warlord Mei, a fox with an army and an invisible striking attack. When the pair find themselves outsmarted and stuck together in a Chinese finger trap they have to learn to work together to survive.

In the short back-up story, “Grrls Night Out,” Tigress and Viper attend the village of Lin Ju’s harvest celebration only to get in a bar fight at a local tavern started by two trying to hit on them.

Although neither adventure is terrific, each is fun and has a nice moral for kids. At $4 the price will always be high for this title, but fans of the characters should enjoy this one. For fans.

[Ape Entertainment, $3.99]

• Title: Kung Fu Panda #4 (of 4)
• Wiki: link
• Writers: Matt Anderson, Eric Hutchins, Jason M. Burns
• Artist: Christine Larsen, Aurelio Mazzara

The long delayed final issue of the Kung Fu Panda mini-series is sadly a disappointment. Until now the comic has done a good job capturing the fun of the films by putting a comic book spin on new stories featuring Po, the Furious Five, and others. Sadly that ends here with an issue that feels very phoned-in and cribbed directly from the current Kung Fu Panda TV-show.

In the main story Po is reunited with his ultra-competitive childhood friend Heng who has arrived to challenge the Dragon Warrior to best him in the “infinite obsta-gauntlet course of trapishness” the pair thought up as kids. The story has some fun moments, and a nice moral at the end as Po allows his friend to save face by beating him before finding a way to turn Heng’s complete waste of money into a profitable enterprise.

The back-up story is a direct lift from “The Scorpion’s Sting” (an episode of Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness) featuring Po’s quest to find a flower in the Forest of Isolation to save Tigress‘ life after she is poisoned. The story substitutes an armadillo for the scorpion but the only real change.

…

Kung Fu Panda #4 (of 4)Read More »