The Mighty Zodiac Vol. 1

KIRKUS -- Animal warriors band together to fight a faction of evil moon bunnies.

In Gaya, a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, dying dragon Master Long calls for his 11 warriors to join in a quest to bring him fallen stars that he hopes will cure him. The stars are the remains of a celestial blue dragon, whose place Master Long should have filled, and without their light a legion of evil bunnies has emerged from the moon also seeking the powerful fallen luminaries. Will the warriors defeat their leporine foes and save their ailing master? Vibrantly colored by Laiho and organized into neat panels, Howell's art is expressive and kinetic. Torres, a quietly prolific writer with a sizable oeuvre of comic adaptations of animated shows, truly demonstrates his strength for pacing and timing. Loosely based around the animals of the Chinese zodiac, Torres' tale is nonstop action that propels both a race against time and the struggle between light and dark: tropes that should resonate with comics fans. Although the action rockets along, his narrative occasionally falters as it moves awkwardly between past (signaled by a muting of the palette) and present. Despite this, with its propulsive momentum, episodic feel, and high-octane battles, this reads like a Saturday-morning cartoon brought to life.

A high-energy graphic offering. (Graphic fantasy. 7-12)

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY -- Torres (BroBots) introduces a complex mythology that riffs on figures from the Chinese zodiac in this action-laden first book in the Mighty Zodiac series, in which animal warriors attempt to defend the land of Gaya against rabbit-led forces of darkness. After the death of a celestial blue dragon, six stars fall from the sky, and the Moon Rabbit Army descends on Gaya. On the brink of death, the serpent Master Long calls upon the warriors he has trained-the Mighty Zodiac-to capture the fallen stars and propel him to his place among the stars. Torres quickly introduces the Zodiac members-Buta, a flamboyant performing pig; Rang, a duplicitous rat; and the powerful Great Tiger Ho-but slowly unravels their backstories through flashbacks and dialogue so that, by the final battle, readers care about who they are and why they fight. The action sequences are nearly nonstop, and Howell and Laiho make good use of shifting perspectives and dynamic compositions to sustain a high-energy atmosphere that lays a strong foundation for future tales.