REVIEW: PPG The Second Chances Saga

OK, I've reviewed some movies, a TV cartoon...

...and now, I'm reviewing a comic book. And I've chosen The Powerpuff Girls comic book series published by IDW (yes, the same comic book company that publishes Nickelodeon's TMNT stuff).

For those who didn't know how Cartoon Network's trio of cuddly mascots who often fight the forces of evil before bedtime still appears in printed comics as of 2014, I'll tell you a long LONG story: The Powerpuff Girls first made their comic appearances on DC Comics' Cartoon Network Starring. They later appeared in their own spin-off comic series which lasted issues enough to become DC Comics' Cartoon Network comic book blockbuster. As the PPG magazine was discontinued, the girls still made comic appearances on Cartoon Network Block Party until 2009 when CNBP was discontinued, leaving Cartoon Network Action Pack (sans PPG) as the only CN comic published by DC Comics before it too got nixed. Despite the loss of those comic book series, the Cartoon Network characters' comic book hiatus did seldom last long as IDW signed a deal with CN last year to publish new comics based on Cartoon Network properties in addition to reprints of those who used to be published by DC. Their first major product on the new deal proved to be a brand-new PPG comic series which began with one of their most famous comic book sagas ever: THE SECOND CHANCES SAGA...

The saga is somewhat famous among fans of both the cartoon and the comic. It started off exactly on the new IDW series' first issue and ended in issue six. While I expected something better, it's PPG's great comeback appearance in comics. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????!!! Just pay attention as I review this saga.

Issue one: the story begins with the Mayor seeing in horror his beloved Townsville set ablaze. He desperately cries for the girls' help. The girls then find Mojo Jojo to be the one behind all of this and, despite the sick little monkey's vicious efforts, single-handledly defeat him effortlessly. This may sound predictable, but as Mojo is sent to jail, we finally witness the big bad deeply and sadly bemoan the huge amount of times he deviced a brilliant plan to subjugate Townsville only to be torn apart by Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup as he's jailed in his cell for good. I've told you, Mojo Jojo is one of the best developed villains we really love to hate and slam his face not because he's evil for the sake of being so, but because he only wanted to make his sweet dreams come true even at any cost of anything nice in Townsville. Meanwhile, the girls gleefully celebrate just another victory over evil bailing over banana split and later attend a party at a golf club only to be interrupted by a hideous swamp monster. They defeat the monster and end saving a famous golf champion who happened to be engulfed inside. As Mojo Jojo watches all of this live in a TV at his cell, he belittles himself and vows to prove his most villainous worth ever, even if it means reverting back to who he once was: Professor Utonium's harmless, yet a bit troublemaking, pet chimp. So he distraughtly lusts for a little drop of Anthidote X and finally sees Prof. Utonium who was visiting the prison to check on that poor ape as his great chance.

And that was issue one. It's an unpredictable start. It sets everything up, gives us new twists and makes us wish to know what really happens next. It's really the perfect beginning of the greatest comic book saga ever on Cartoon Network history.

Issue two: that one is a emotional return to the old days before Professor Utonium created the girls. The good Professor grants Mojo's wishes to become again a normal pet chimp rather than suffering further shameful losses at the hands of the so-called perfect little girls who fight evil before bedtime and rotting on jail. As he suffers a heavy dose of Anthidote X, Mojo loses his evil powers and is once again a good monkey. This happens to be a touching moment from the saga and we actually feel sorry for him at all. That scene is very well written so those who didn't get to know this villain truly understand the character. The character development as a result is positively compared to 's work of art on Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comics. While Buttercup doesn't take kindly on what really happened to Mojo, Blossom often reminds that sometimes people who the girls grew up to hate deserve another chance and Bubbles is really excited to have Mojo as her cute pet chimp. Later, Mojo starts spreading another path of destruction on the Utonium house, yet he's only doing this without any evil intent of his former big bad self. Meanwhile, HIM also feels pleasure at Mojo Jojo becoming a friendly pet again and starts redeeming the girls' rogue gallery for his sinister purposes. Well, it's just a good cliffhanger.

Issue three: this one is really FANTASTIC!!!!!! We see every major PPG villain welcomed back to society and doing communitary services to the defenseless citizens of Townsville. Though Blossom and Bubbles seem to be content at those events, Buttercup becomes slightly more paranoid over the true intentions of the bad guys. Meanwhile, the Professor is struggling to keep his good old pet chimp Mojo calmed down. While the girls are at the kindergarten, they hear that (unbeknownst to them) HIM has unleashed the sea monsters to tear the city apart. The girls rush to fight the monsters only to find out that the forces of evil are fighting alongside them against the sea creatures. In the end, Buttercup has somewhat accepted that evil sometimes needs a second chance. The narrator gets even amazed at how things turned to be in this issue so that he makes his own cliffhanger!

Issue four: the girls and their enemies were fighting crime in Townsville normally. HIM was watching all of this from TV and uses his evil powers to make the girls' foes bad guys again to lure the girls into a murderous trap!!! The girls and the forces of evil from Townsville magically become enemies again!!! Meanwhile, the Professor is feeding Mojo with sugar, spice and everything nice. As the Professor takes Bubbles to eat ice cream after a magically ruined picnic with Fuzzy Lumpkins, Mojo plays cards and slowly becomes the big bad Mojo Jojo again. That HIM is also a good villain as he delivers everything so the story could get even more interesting.

Issue five: Fuzzy Lumpkins is once again rampaging with his Meatgun from one of the PPG pilots "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins". Bubbles tells Professor in horror that she doesn't want to be turned into steak and the Professor comforts her. This issue is freakin' awesome and has really fun action scenes. The battle rages on between the girls and Townsville's rogues gallery until HIM suddenly appears from the surface and reveals to everyone that he redeemed the girls' most despicable foes so he could make the girls' lives miserable forever. Of course, the villains get furious and want revenge at HIM for using them as pawns for his own selfish purposes rather than improving their respective lives. Fuzzy turns HIM's beautiful make-up into a roasted beef which only manages to make HIM more ruthless and sadistic. He uses the girls and their foes' sins to overpower and humble them forever, but Bubbles single-handledly defeats HIM with her sweetness. Wow! Even Bubbles' sweetness and gentle heart can be lethal for a big bad! After HIM is defeated, the girls and the villains reach a temporary truce and unwillingly accept that life is not a fairy tale in which everyone lives happily ever after. The girls sadly berate themselves for not being the great wise heroines they were expected to be and the Professor comforts them that they have always been great stuff for his eyes. This issue tearfully ends with the villains unhappily returning to their villainous lives with Fuzzy comforted with Bubbles' piccy of her with Fuzzy. Nice ending for both sides, as it shows clearly that even if good and evil are always in odds, they wouldn't prevail without each other just like the yin and the yang.

Issue six: that's the last one!!! Things seemed to become normal again in Townsville after both the girls and the villains successfully defeated their common enemy who was manipulating the entire events for greater evil and resumed their separate lives until the girls and the Professor see that their house was attacked and ransacked. They reach the lab and read Mojo Jojo's sinister warnings he wrote with... crap! The girls then assault Mojo Jojo's headquarters and find out that Mojo's redemption was all part of... HIS... OWN... MOST... AMBITIOUS... EVIL... PLAN!!!!!! That's right! He redeemed his villainy to build up his most ambitious evil plan of revenge!!! To start this plan, Mojo hypnotized himself to focus on his mission on getting the Chemical X. He later lured the girls to defeat him and take him to prison just like he planned. At prison, he tricked the Professor into injecting Anthidote X on him so the Professor could take him out of prison to keep his progress flowing. The sick little monkey has also left his technology at his HQ to fresh out the communication between him and his machinery. The device's signals successfully reactivated Mojo's humongous brain so he could progress with his evil plan flawlessly. Mojo's plan all along was to launch the bomb to block out the sun in Townsville and he used the Professor's home appliances to build such a potentially destructive bomb!!! As Mojo successfully escapes from his volcano lair in his floating base to space, the girls are only interested on stopping the bomb from doing harm to the planet. Thanks to the girls' efforts, the day is once again saved and this great epic saga has come to a perfect close!

...and so it seems...

At his floating base, Mojo Jojo reveals that is even more bigger and ambitious evil plan is to rule a universe so he could return to Earth to be worshipped as the monkey king among people within a few weeks. This somewhat leads up to the extremelly well done and even more epic and ambitious Cartoon Network crossover saga "Super Secret Crisis War!!!" and beyond. Great set ups, aren't it?

Overall score for the arc: 10/10

The Powerpuff Girls (C) Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network, Inc.
Second Chances Saga (C) IDW