The Animal Justice League Protect DC’s WEIRDEST Alternate Earth

Since the dawn of Clark Kent’s emergence as Superman, he has been teaming up with many DC Superheroes, mainly with Gotham’s Dark Knight and the Justice League. In addition to teaming up with members of the Justice League, he tends to find himself in strange alternate realities such as the moment when him and Batman becomes pirates.

But nothing is as weird as when he teams up with an alternate reality animal Justice League called Zoo Crew, which features members known as Captain Carrot, a super rabbit; Alley-Cat Abra, a magic cat; Fastback, a speedster turtle; Pig Iron, a super strong pig; Rubberduck, a duck that can stretch; and lastly Yankee Poodle, a poodle with animal magnetism abilities.

Writer Roy Thomas as well as pencilers Scott Shaw and Ross Andru’s comic Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew Vol. 1 #1, Superman attempts to stop a beam of light from heading straight for Earth from Pluto. On his way to intercept the beam, he hits a force field and uses a meteor to break through it. But when he does, he is teleported to an alternate Earth called Earth-C that is inhabited by personified animals and the meteor shatters to pieces, causing the pieces to fall all over Earth-C. One of the pieces of the meteor lands by a carrot in Roger Rodney Rabbit’s garden and after he meets Superman, he eats the carrot and is given superhuman strength and can leap tall buildings in a single bounce. After being given the abilities, testing his power’s limits by stopping a plane from crashing, as well as naming himself Captain Carrot, he teams-up with Superman to stop the beams from attacking his world and devolving the animals that inhabit it as well as help the Man of Steel return home.

But when Superman and Captain Carrot reach Earth-C’s stratosphere, they bite off more carrot than they can chew. Superman tries to break through the force field again, but is teleported to Pluto instead of Earth One, leaving Captain Carrot to fall to his death because unlike Superman, he can’t fly. Luckily, Captain Carrot is caught by a pig who is as strong as iron, hence the name Pig Iron. After explaining the current issues regarding Superman’s whereabouts as well as the beams that are devolving the creatures of Earth-C, they join one another and venture throughout the world to find other super animals. Eventually, Captain Carrot and Pig Iron find the remaining members of the Zoo Crew and go to Pluto, where Superman is being held captive in kryptonite chains by Starro the Conqueror, an intelligent and super starfish. At first, the Zoo Crew tries to take on Starro individually, but Superman explains to them that if they work together, they will be able to defeat their adversary. So the Zoo Crew accepts Superman’s advice and fights Starro together, immobilizing the starfish in one of the weirdest Superman team-ups in comic history.

After immobilizing and overwhelming Starro, the Zoo Crew devise a plan to prevent him from ever becoming an issue again. While they think of a plan, Captain Carrot recalls the fact starfish are allergic to limestone, which prompts Alley-Cat Abra to use her magic wand to cover Starro in limestone; thus, hindering the starfish from rising up and trying to take over Earth-C again. After defeating Starro, the Yankee Poodle frees Superman from his bonds and everyone returns home.

Even though Superman doesn’t directly team up with the Zoo Crew and fight Starro the Conqueror, he does help by bestowing the animal Justice League with the advice that they are stronger together. It’s the same advice that has proven vital in the fight against one of the strongest DC villains Darkseid as well as the Legion of Doom.

About The Author