Rocky and Bullwinkle #2: Review

After a few decades in retirement, Rocky and Bullwinkle have been resurrected once again. And this time just for comic geeks.

Here’s the official word from IDW:

In “The Washed-Up Wizard,” Rocky and Bullwinkle help an aged magician regain his fame…but why do the evil Boris and Natasha care about his powers of prestidigitation? That can’t end well! Plus, a Dudley Do-Right story!

Mark Evanier, the writer who penned the scripts for most of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons takes the lead once again with issue #2 of IDW’s reboot of this old-school cartoon. While the first issue was structured as micro-stories that all revolved around a the same loose theme, issue #2 takes a deeper stab at being just one story. Yes, we do get a little intermission narrative in the shape of a Dudley Do-Right story, but the primary action here is about a magician whose dusty tricks can’t compete with the fast-paced demands of today’s kids, and he’s trying to find a way to engage his audience once again (does anyone else see this as a metaphor for Hanna-Barbera?). Regardless, I’m sure you can already see the story rolling out: Rocky and Bullwinkle want to help, and Boris and Natasha want to take advantage. Regardless, the story is fun and Evanier’s decision to stick with one narrative actually works well, especially when considering the comic book format.

The art, by Roger Langridge, continues to be awesome. Yes, Rocky looks like Rocky and Bullwinkle looks like Bullwinkle, and Langridge even takes a gentle stab at modernizing the feel of the book by folding in some contemporary references. It’s worth picking up just for this alone.

So far, so good: Rocky and Bullwinkle is working — and issue 2 works even better than the last — so check it out.