Captain Carrot

Captain Carrot is a funny animal superhero published by DC Comics. His first appearance was in a special insert in The New Teen Titans #16 (cover-dated Feb. 1982). He was created by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw.

Fictional character biography

Captain Carrot is depicted as a superhero who lived on the other-dimensional world of Earth-C, an alternate Earth populated by sentient animals, which was later redesignated Earth-26 in the new DC multiverse. At the beginning of the Captain Carrot series, he was referred to as "Roger Rabbit"; later in the series, "Rodney Rabbit" was usually used, to avoid legal issues involving the literary (and later film) character Roger Rabbit. Rodney was officially stated to be his middle name in the letters column.

In his alter ego, Rodney works for Earth-C's DC Comics as a writer and artist, primarily on the comic Just'a Lotta Animals.^[1]

After their initial appearance in New Teen Titans #16, Captain Carrot and his team appeared in 20 issues of their own series, Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!. The 20 issue run was written by Roy Thomas and penciled by Scott Shaw! and Stan Goldberg with Al Gordon inking issues, #s 6-14. According to the final issue of the series, the book was cancelled in favor of placing the Zoo Crew in a number of miniseries, but only one such miniseries, the three-issue Oz/Wonderland War (in which the characters became involved in an interdimensional war involving the worlds of L. Frank Baum and Lewis Carroll), was ever published.

The imagery of Carrot and several of his allies are brought to life when a confused thirteen-year-old boy receives near-limitless power in the 'Young Justice: World Without Grownups' storyline. ^[2]

The Captain and Crew returned in a miniseries titled Captain Carrot and the Final Ark! (October–December 2007, written by Bill Morrison and penciled by Scott Shaw! and inked by Al Gordon). The end of that series shows their Earth to be rendered uninhabitable and the Captain has an ocean liner loaded with refugees that is transported off the planet by the Just'a Lotta Animals. The ship is then accidentally sent from Earth-26 to New Earth. The Justice League encounters the ship and lands it safely, though all the passengers, including the Captain and the Zoo Crew, are transformed into non-anthropomorphic animals. The superheroine magician, Zatanna, unaware of the animals' true nature, claims Rodney as a pet for her magic act.

However, in the climatic battle in Final Crisis #7, Captain Carrot participates, his anthropomorphic form and powers (along with those of his Zoo Crew teammates) restored by the renegade Monitor Nix Uotan.^[3]

In Zatanna #4 (October 2010), it is revealed that during his time on New Earth, Rodney fathered a child named Lucky with one of Zatanna's rabbits, who is still in her keeping.

Captain Carrot later appeared as a major character in Grant Morrison's The Multiversity. As one of many heroes throughout the multiverse summoned to the "House of Heroes", he is part of the team that travels to Earth 8 in search of the missing Monitor, Nix Uotan.^[4] In the finale of the story, he participates in the final battle against the Gentry, the villains of the series. He then becomes a founding member of "Operation Justice Incarnate", a team of heroes from throughout the DC Multiverse who will assemble to face any high level threats to the various universes.

The Zoo Crew also exists in the post-Crisis DC Universe as popular cartoon characters. In her own series, Wonder Woman passes by Captain Carrot's action figure in a Tokyo toy shop. ^[5]

Powers and abilities

• Upon eating a "cosmic carrot," Rodney is imbued with various superpowers, including limited invulnerability, superhuman strength, enhanced speed, stamina, hearing and vision, and the ability to make gigantic, powerful leaps.
• Rodney's powers are the only ones out of the Zoo Crew that are not permanent; after 24 hours or a period of extreme exertion, Captain Carrot's powers wear off, and Rodney reverts to being normal again. As such Rodney keeps a window-box full of carrots, plus his chunk of the meteorite,^[6] to ensure a continuous supply of carrots and keeps two holstered on his costume for recharges when necessary.

References

External links

• comiXology.com's podcast with Bill Morrison and Scott Shaw on the Captain Carrot and the Final Ark miniseries
• Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 9, 2012.