It’s probably safe to say that nearly all of the books that came out under the DC’s Young Animal banner qualify as offbeat. Some more than others, but eccentric weird heroes were somewhat baked in to the very concept of the pop-up imprint. It carried on the legacy of those sophisticated suspense books from the ’80s that helped feed into the Vertigo line of the ’90s.
One of the hallmarks of the time was taking an existing character or team and giving a new often mature spin on it. Resulting in works as wide ranging as Animal Man through Sandman. Sometimes it was an entirely new character, other times they worked with the original and just took a look at them through a new angle. Young Animal carried on this tradition with a flip through the DC Encyclopedia and landing on Cave Carson.
“Fear makes slaves of us all, and many will aid the Whisperer because of this.”
Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye – Volume 2: Every Me, Every You by Jon Rivera, Gerard Way, Michael Avon Oeming, Nick Filardi, and Clem Robins continues the underground adventure for the sake of all reality. It follows Cave Carson, his daughter, loyal friends, and few remaining members of his wife’s people through the multiverse as they attempt to stop the Whisperer. It should go without saying that wacky hijinks ensue.
The team starts the second half of the series in an interesting way. Rather than pick up immediately from the events of the first volume, we get what originally looks like a flashback. A running bit in the first volume was that Cave knows Superman, so we get that story here. With a twist. As what happened seems to shift and it leads into where the team really is, a different Earth. This theme of different wrinkles in realities continues through this arc with a reality overrun by plant-life, one with giants, and an alternate reality with a Cave Carson Junior. It’s fascinating how Rivera and Way work through it, even giving the backstory to Cave’s cybernetic eye.
The artwork from Michael Avon Oeming and Nick Filardi is wonderfully trippy. I’d say it gets even more adventurous in this second volume as the pair use more unique distortions and effects between the line art and the colours. Complete with lots and lot of dots. I feel like Oeming’s animated style is the perfect vehicle for this. His work evokes the energy and verve of Alex Toth and Bruce Timm, that transcends into something new as you get fungi people and hallucinatory nightmares. Perfectly accompanied by a mix of classic primary colour palettes and psychedelic sprees from Filardi’s colour art. And some solid lettering from Clem Robins to match.
“Chloe, in situations like this you have to choose between doing good things or doing bad things. But the worst option is to do nothing.”
Rivera, Way, Oeming, Filardi, and Robins did something fun with Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye – Volume 2: Every Me, Every You taking an old, somewhat obscure and infrequently utilized character in Cave Carson (and Wild Dog for that matter) and giving a fresh spin on him for DC’s Young Animal. They gave us a kind of old school Hollow Earth meets Multiverse adventure that played with family dynamics and ultimately launched a new in-universe podcast. Because we need more podcasts.
This volume also has some in-universe supplementary material from one of the scientists, and Cave’s mentors, done by Mark Russell and Benjamin Dewey. It quite literally is fun with rocks.
Classic Comic Compendium: CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE VOL. 2
Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye – Volume 2: Every Me, Every You
Writers: Jon Rivera & Gerard Way
Artist: Michael Avon Oeming
Colourist: Nick Filardi
Letterer: Clem Robins
Publisher: DC Comics – DC’s Young Animal
Release Date: April 19 – September 20 2017 (original issues)
Read past entries in the Classic Comic Compendium!
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