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ThunderCats #2
ThunderCats, Vol. 2: The Return
Based on the hit animated series from the 1980's, THUNDERCATS: THE RETURN is a hard-hitting, action-packed adventure of redemption and rebirth. Five years after disappearing into the magical Book of Omens, Lion-O has returned to Thundera to find the ThunderCats enslaved and Mumm-Ra in control of his realm. With his people broken and defeated, it looks like all hope is lost. But refusing to succumb to the tyranny of his greatest nemesis, Lion-O, joined by his former compatriots, Panthro, Tygra, Cheetara, WilyKit, and WilyKat, mounts one final assault against the pure evil that is Mumm-Ra.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
40 people want to read
About the author
Ford Lytle Gilmore
22 books5 followersFord Lytle Gilmore is a film producer and comic book writer.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 10, 2017
Kneel before Mumm-Ra!
I bought this in its single comic books but I chosen this TPB edition to make a better overall review.
This TPB collects “Thundercats: The Return” #1-5.
Creative Team:
Writer: Ford Lytle Gilmore
Illustrator: Ed Benes
…AND MUMM-RA WON!
As portraited in the previous volume Reclaiming Thundera, Lion-O has been defending Thundera (the new world turned to be Thundera once again) against old foes and reinforcing his throne as Lord of the Thundercats, so he decides that since all threats were beaten, now it’s the time to go through an intense training, in combat and history knowledge, inside of the Book of Omens where time runs slowly, so he’d be able to train for several years there while outside it’d pass only some days.
However…
…Mumm-ra already foreseen that scenario and he put a spell on the Book of Omens so the time displacement won’t occur.
Panthro is left in charge, and meanwhile thousands of Thunderians came to their new homeworld (due the beacon’s signal) and a whole new city is built around the new Cats’ Lair and the mining of Thundrillium looks so good that they estimate that it will last for generations. This took a year and Lion-O was still inside of the Book of Omens.
And Mumm-Ra waited.
He waited until the Thundercats won’t think about him again, that it would be enough Thunderians back again, and…
…he attacked as never before!
Mumm-Ra summoned a massive Mutant army from Plundarr that overwhelmed to the Thundercats and the Thundarian civilians, and without Lion-O and the Sword of Omens, in just one night, Thundera fell…
…and Mumm-Ra won!
FIVE YEARS LATER
Five years later, Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living, reshaped Thundera to its own image and now he rules without any opposition, even he got to be more powerful since finally he put the Ancient Spirits of Evil to his service and not the other way around.
Panthro is doing forced labors at the Thundrilliium mines; Tygra and Cheetara are slaves of the Mutants at the new Plundarr Castle; and WillyKat and WillyKit are personal assistant of Mumm-Ra at the new Onyx Pyramid; Bengali is dead and Pumyra and Lynx-O seemed to share the same fate.
Only one Thundercat remains at large…
…Snarf!
THUNDERA’S LAST HOPE
Snarf hid himself with the Book of Omens (where Lion-O is inside) and during 5 years Snarf has lost many of his own mental sanity (due depression and solitude) but he kept looking for the Key of Thundera, the only item able to open the said book.
And after an improbable combination of tenacity, stubbornness and a lot of sheer luck…
…Snarf finds the Key of Thundera!
Lion-O is freed from the Book of Omens where he thinks that only passed just one day, so he hardly is able to grasp everything that happened during his absence.
Lion-O is pissed out as never before and he won’t tolerate Mumm-Ra’s ruling in Thundera anymore…
…however, five years is a lot of time, and the Thundercats suffered a lot, unspeakable abuses both mental and physical…
…and some of Lion-O’s trusted Thundercats aren’t what they used to be anymore.
The Thundercats’ team is broken in too many ways than Lion-O could believe.
And for Mumm-Ra there are not secrets, so he already knows that Lion-O is free and he is glad to have a challenge again.
People, this is just beginning!
DARKER THAN A BLACK CAT
Oh, yeah!
This is easily one of the strongest revival stories ever, that you may find of any of the 80’s cartoons approaches in comic books of the new millenium.
So dark and mature that it seems that the creative team wasn’t able to continue it in following miniseries, since after this, you’ll find that Dogs of War isn’t in the same dark and mature line of storytelling and even the next creative team is trying to “fix” what was made here…
…but there wasn’t anything to fix, dang it!
You were a kid in the 80s (at least I was!) and obviously you enjoyed the adventures in TV that you watched of your favorite 80’s cartoons, but if you are reading a revival of those stories nowadays, when you’re adult already, it should be an obvious and desirable evolution to find darker and more mature stories since you can deal with them.
However, I supposed that Wildstorm didn’t have the balls to continue with this dark and mature path, since Dogs of War devolved into a basic action tale and the other two miniseries even they got back to set the storylines in the era of the animated TV series. (With the distinguished distinction of the "one-shots" of Thundercats crossovers with Superman and Battle of the Planets that they may be light but they are a lot of fun and excitement to read.)
Even if you "read" between lines you'll perceive that the creative team was kinda overruled in certain points in the story since in the supposed death of Bengali, well, I found odd that his "skeleton" doesn't look like Bengali but actually Panthro's and it would logical since it has Panthro's nunchakus around his neck, but in the story is said that it's Bengali's skeleton, mmh... I guess that they want to make a real impact and what better than to kill Panthro? That would make this storyline to epic levels, but nope, they opted to kill all "new Thundercats" that I found offensive and too convenient. And again, there isn't any explanation about the absence of Snarfer.
In any case, this story still remains as a solid dark tale recommended to mature fans of Thundercats.
So, enjoy this miniseries, since you never have seen Thundercats as this before…
…but it’s a shame that you won’t see them like this after neither.
Thun… Thunder… Thunder!... Thundercats!!! Hooooo!!!
I bought this in its single comic books but I chosen this TPB edition to make a better overall review.
This TPB collects “Thundercats: The Return” #1-5.
Creative Team:
Writer: Ford Lytle Gilmore
Illustrator: Ed Benes
…AND MUMM-RA WON!
As portraited in the previous volume Reclaiming Thundera, Lion-O has been defending Thundera (the new world turned to be Thundera once again) against old foes and reinforcing his throne as Lord of the Thundercats, so he decides that since all threats were beaten, now it’s the time to go through an intense training, in combat and history knowledge, inside of the Book of Omens where time runs slowly, so he’d be able to train for several years there while outside it’d pass only some days.
However…
…Mumm-ra already foreseen that scenario and he put a spell on the Book of Omens so the time displacement won’t occur.
Panthro is left in charge, and meanwhile thousands of Thunderians came to their new homeworld (due the beacon’s signal) and a whole new city is built around the new Cats’ Lair and the mining of Thundrillium looks so good that they estimate that it will last for generations. This took a year and Lion-O was still inside of the Book of Omens.
And Mumm-Ra waited.
He waited until the Thundercats won’t think about him again, that it would be enough Thunderians back again, and…
…he attacked as never before!
Mumm-Ra summoned a massive Mutant army from Plundarr that overwhelmed to the Thundercats and the Thundarian civilians, and without Lion-O and the Sword of Omens, in just one night, Thundera fell…
…and Mumm-Ra won!
FIVE YEARS LATER
Five years later, Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living, reshaped Thundera to its own image and now he rules without any opposition, even he got to be more powerful since finally he put the Ancient Spirits of Evil to his service and not the other way around.
Panthro is doing forced labors at the Thundrilliium mines; Tygra and Cheetara are slaves of the Mutants at the new Plundarr Castle; and WillyKat and WillyKit are personal assistant of Mumm-Ra at the new Onyx Pyramid; Bengali is dead and Pumyra and Lynx-O seemed to share the same fate.
Only one Thundercat remains at large…
…Snarf!
THUNDERA’S LAST HOPE
Snarf hid himself with the Book of Omens (where Lion-O is inside) and during 5 years Snarf has lost many of his own mental sanity (due depression and solitude) but he kept looking for the Key of Thundera, the only item able to open the said book.
And after an improbable combination of tenacity, stubbornness and a lot of sheer luck…
…Snarf finds the Key of Thundera!
Lion-O is freed from the Book of Omens where he thinks that only passed just one day, so he hardly is able to grasp everything that happened during his absence.
Lion-O is pissed out as never before and he won’t tolerate Mumm-Ra’s ruling in Thundera anymore…
…however, five years is a lot of time, and the Thundercats suffered a lot, unspeakable abuses both mental and physical…
…and some of Lion-O’s trusted Thundercats aren’t what they used to be anymore.
The Thundercats’ team is broken in too many ways than Lion-O could believe.
And for Mumm-Ra there are not secrets, so he already knows that Lion-O is free and he is glad to have a challenge again.
People, this is just beginning!
DARKER THAN A BLACK CAT
Oh, yeah!
This is easily one of the strongest revival stories ever, that you may find of any of the 80’s cartoons approaches in comic books of the new millenium.
So dark and mature that it seems that the creative team wasn’t able to continue it in following miniseries, since after this, you’ll find that Dogs of War isn’t in the same dark and mature line of storytelling and even the next creative team is trying to “fix” what was made here…
…but there wasn’t anything to fix, dang it!
You were a kid in the 80s (at least I was!) and obviously you enjoyed the adventures in TV that you watched of your favorite 80’s cartoons, but if you are reading a revival of those stories nowadays, when you’re adult already, it should be an obvious and desirable evolution to find darker and more mature stories since you can deal with them.
However, I supposed that Wildstorm didn’t have the balls to continue with this dark and mature path, since Dogs of War devolved into a basic action tale and the other two miniseries even they got back to set the storylines in the era of the animated TV series. (With the distinguished distinction of the "one-shots" of Thundercats crossovers with Superman and Battle of the Planets that they may be light but they are a lot of fun and excitement to read.)
Even if you "read" between lines you'll perceive that the creative team was kinda overruled in certain points in the story since in the supposed death of Bengali, well, I found odd that his "skeleton" doesn't look like Bengali but actually Panthro's and it would logical since it has Panthro's nunchakus around his neck, but in the story is said that it's Bengali's skeleton, mmh... I guess that they want to make a real impact and what better than to kill Panthro? That would make this storyline to epic levels, but nope, they opted to kill all "new Thundercats" that I found offensive and too convenient. And again, there isn't any explanation about the absence of Snarfer.
In any case, this story still remains as a solid dark tale recommended to mature fans of Thundercats.
So, enjoy this miniseries, since you never have seen Thundercats as this before…
…but it’s a shame that you won’t see them like this after neither.
Thun… Thunder… Thunder!... Thundercats!!! Hooooo!!!
November 4, 2021
While I didn’t completely hate this graphic novel, it was a far cry from the cartoon I remember. I thought it would be fun to revisit the campiness and “every episode has a moral” tales of the classic Thundercats! What I didn’t expect was…this.
The overly sexualized art of the female characters, the implied rape, turning the kittens into slaves and implied sexual slaves. It was all a little too far off the beaten path for me.
I don’t mind that they wanted to take it a little darker, make it a little more grown up. But I just felt like they took it way too far. It was so dark and grim, it didn’t feel much like the same source material at all. There was no cheesy humor, no lessons learned, no hope.
I thought the art was really well done (minus the female characters, again being so overly sexualized for no reason), and I liked the plot itself. I thought it was a cool idea to have Liono come back to a broken world and have to reassemble the Thundercats. I just wish it could have been done in a way that felt closer to Thundercats I grew up with and loved!
Not my favorite adaptation. This is one I wish they would have left alone! I should give it a single star alone for what they did to Wilykit and Wilykat! The two cutest characters of the series…..
The overly sexualized art of the female characters, the implied rape, turning the kittens into slaves and implied sexual slaves. It was all a little too far off the beaten path for me.
I don’t mind that they wanted to take it a little darker, make it a little more grown up. But I just felt like they took it way too far. It was so dark and grim, it didn’t feel much like the same source material at all. There was no cheesy humor, no lessons learned, no hope.
I thought the art was really well done (minus the female characters, again being so overly sexualized for no reason), and I liked the plot itself. I thought it was a cool idea to have Liono come back to a broken world and have to reassemble the Thundercats. I just wish it could have been done in a way that felt closer to Thundercats I grew up with and loved!
Not my favorite adaptation. This is one I wish they would have left alone! I should give it a single star alone for what they did to Wilykit and Wilykat! The two cutest characters of the series…..
May 28, 2017
If you always thought Thundercats was missing death, a half naked Cheetara and Wilykit, and implied rape, have at it. But it’s not the direction I’d have chosen to take the franchise.
October 17, 2019
If you were looking for a grimdark dystopian ThunderCats story with a healthy side of rape fantasy, you've come to the right place!
June 1, 2023
Nuevos malos y planes complejos para derrotar a los Thundercats. Me encanta haber regresado
July 7, 2025
Volume 1 was fun, but this volume tanked. Not interested in continuing.
October 6, 2016
I read this tripe many years ago, when it was first released back in 2003.
As long as writers remain faithful to the source material (specifically, keeping the character's personalities the same), I have no problem with updating a series, changing a character's look or giving a classic a darker story line (case in point - I adored the Thundercats 2011 revival cartoon).
This comic, however, failed on all counts (spoilers ahead - if you care).
The gist of the story - Lion-O returns from training within the Book of Omens, only to find Thundera conquered by Mumm-Ra and his former group are now enslaved to him. Lion-O's mission? Save his idiot friends from Mumm-Ra's evil clutches.
Why are they idiots? Because the whole plot of the series could have been avoided if the Thundercats had actually did as Lion-O had asked of them. I'll explain.
People who recall the TV series will remember that time flows differently within the Book of Omens when compared to the outside world. Lion-O had entered the Book of Omens in order to train - within the Book, he'd be training for months; while outside of the Book, only a week would have passed. Well, despite the fact that Lion-O gave specific instructions for his comrades to come and get him after a week had passed, the Thundercats - for a particularly stupid reason - failed to do this, and Lion-O only emerged from the Book five years later - at Snarf's behest. (no, Mumm-Ra didn't attack them within that first week; preventing them from retrieving their leader. It took him a good year before he was powerful enough to overthrow the Thunderian rule and enslave Thundera as a whole). After being struck by an enraged Cheetara (who, in this series, seems to have lost her powerful telekinesis/telepathy and was reduced to being the Mutants personal sex toy - more on that later), Lion-O demanded to know why no one had come to retrieve him after a week, as he had instructed them to do. Then, we find out why the Thundercats failed him.
Cheetara's rage filled answer: 'Because you told us not to/disturb your training!'
...the leader of the Thundercats specifically told them to come for him after a week. Cheetara's excuse for their failure to follow a very straightforward task is utter bullshit and makes the Thundercats complete imbeciles, as a result. Adding insult to injury, Lion-O accepts the responsibility for their collective ineptitude.
Something else that really enraged me about this series was the complete and utter sexualization of Cheetara and Wilykit (Wilykat, as well - though not to the same degree as either of the females). Both once strong female roles, both capable fighters within the original series were reduced to little more than eye candy/sexual fodder - Cheetara being chained up and used/abused by the Mutants (indicated by Monkian drooling over Cheetara - who's uniform was reduced to a very scant bikini; with only scraps of her uniform covering her naughty bits. while Wilykit (and her twin, Wilykat) got it even worse - being turned into Mumm-Ra's personal concubines.
Yup...the Thunderkittens...Mumm-Ra's sex slaves. Let that sink in.
The females couldn't even be respected when battles took place. Cheetara had no part of her rescue (chained up and needing to be rescued by Lion-O, Tygra and Panthro), and when Lion-O and the Thunderctas finally faced Mumm-Ra and the Mutants in a final battle, both Cheetara and Wilykit had very little screen time. What little they had, Cheetara needed to be saved by Snarf (Snarf, for God's sake!) and Wilykit gave us an ample show of the camel toe she was sporting.
Overall, this story was lazily written, didn't show any respect to the source material and was incredibly sexist when it came to handling the female characters. Hopefully, this review spared you from wasting money on this garbage.
Show your love for the Tcats - stay away from this tripe!
As long as writers remain faithful to the source material (specifically, keeping the character's personalities the same), I have no problem with updating a series, changing a character's look or giving a classic a darker story line (case in point - I adored the Thundercats 2011 revival cartoon).
This comic, however, failed on all counts (spoilers ahead - if you care).
The gist of the story - Lion-O returns from training within the Book of Omens, only to find Thundera conquered by Mumm-Ra and his former group are now enslaved to him. Lion-O's mission? Save his idiot friends from Mumm-Ra's evil clutches.
Why are they idiots? Because the whole plot of the series could have been avoided if the Thundercats had actually did as Lion-O had asked of them. I'll explain.
People who recall the TV series will remember that time flows differently within the Book of Omens when compared to the outside world. Lion-O had entered the Book of Omens in order to train - within the Book, he'd be training for months; while outside of the Book, only a week would have passed. Well, despite the fact that Lion-O gave specific instructions for his comrades to come and get him after a week had passed, the Thundercats - for a particularly stupid reason - failed to do this, and Lion-O only emerged from the Book five years later - at Snarf's behest. (no, Mumm-Ra didn't attack them within that first week; preventing them from retrieving their leader. It took him a good year before he was powerful enough to overthrow the Thunderian rule and enslave Thundera as a whole). After being struck by an enraged Cheetara (who, in this series, seems to have lost her powerful telekinesis/telepathy and was reduced to being the Mutants personal sex toy - more on that later), Lion-O demanded to know why no one had come to retrieve him after a week, as he had instructed them to do. Then, we find out why the Thundercats failed him.
Cheetara's rage filled answer: 'Because you told us not to/disturb your training!'
...the leader of the Thundercats specifically told them to come for him after a week. Cheetara's excuse for their failure to follow a very straightforward task is utter bullshit and makes the Thundercats complete imbeciles, as a result. Adding insult to injury, Lion-O accepts the responsibility for their collective ineptitude.
Something else that really enraged me about this series was the complete and utter sexualization of Cheetara and Wilykit (Wilykat, as well - though not to the same degree as either of the females). Both once strong female roles, both capable fighters within the original series were reduced to little more than eye candy/sexual fodder - Cheetara being chained up and used/abused by the Mutants (indicated by Monkian drooling over Cheetara - who's uniform was reduced to a very scant bikini; with only scraps of her uniform covering her naughty bits. while Wilykit (and her twin, Wilykat) got it even worse - being turned into Mumm-Ra's personal concubines.
Yup...the Thunderkittens...Mumm-Ra's sex slaves. Let that sink in.
The females couldn't even be respected when battles took place. Cheetara had no part of her rescue (chained up and needing to be rescued by Lion-O, Tygra and Panthro), and when Lion-O and the Thunderctas finally faced Mumm-Ra and the Mutants in a final battle, both Cheetara and Wilykit had very little screen time. What little they had, Cheetara needed to be saved by Snarf (Snarf, for God's sake!) and Wilykit gave us an ample show of the camel toe she was sporting.
Overall, this story was lazily written, didn't show any respect to the source material and was incredibly sexist when it came to handling the female characters. Hopefully, this review spared you from wasting money on this garbage.
Show your love for the Tcats - stay away from this tripe!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews