It was 45 years ago that Superman was whisked away to another world and ended up teaming up with a rabbit named Captain Carrot to save that world. This didn’t even happen in an issue of Superman comics, and it was instead a moment from The New Teen Titans #16 (1981), or more precisely from a backup story titled “This Bunny Unbound” by Roy Thomas, Scott Shaw, and Ross Andru (for the Superman scenes). However, this was not included in the DC Universe Infinite digital edition of the book, but anyone who wants to read the follow-up can find it in the first book for the amazing animal heroes that headlined the story.
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Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew came out on December 1, 1981, and it followed the introduction of Captain Carrot and the rest of the animal versions of the characters on his Earth. It also brought back Superman after his appearance in The New Teen Titans #16.
Superman Was Used to Introduce Captain Carrot
The first appearance of Captain Carrot came when Superman noticed a beam of energy that made people start to behave like common animals. When Superman makes contact with the energy beam, he ends up in a parallel reality. Not only is this an alternate version of Earth, but it is an Earth where there are no humans, but instead anthropomorphic animals. He then meets a rabbit named Roger, and the two discuss where he is and what might be going on. However, before Superman can stop him, Roger takes a bite of a carrot that had mysterious energy in it, and it gives him superhuman powers. This turns him into the hero now known as Captain Carrot, and he and Superman leap into action to save both of their worlds.
That backup story was a preview, which is one reason that it is not available in the current digital version of The New Teen Titans. However, anyone who wants to see what happened next can read that story on DC Universe Infinite. Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew has a story called “The Pluto Syndrome,” and Superman and Captain Carrot head out to fight an unknown enemy. It is a good thing too because Superman was tiring quickly thanks to the energy beam, and Captain Carrot had proven to be just as strong. It is also good that Captain Carrot became a hero because Superman quickly disappeared.
This quickly led Captain Carrot to meet his new ally, a pig known as Pig-Iron. His origin introduced him as Peter Porkchops, a mild-mannered pig working in a local steel mill who was hit with a meteor fragment from the same energy beam that affected Captain Carrot’s carrot. It knocked him into a vat of goopy stuff that turned him into an iron-covered warrior. After stopping a bank robbery, he became a superhero in his own right. The duo then met Alley-Kat-Abra, who had magical powers, and Captain Carrot’s Zoo Crew began to take shape. By the time the entire team had formed, they showed up to save Superman from Starro the Conqueror, and the rest is history.
How Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew Inverted Earth’s Heroes
It was hilarious that the same villain that the Justice League fought in their first appearance was the same one that caused Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew to develop their powers. By the end of that first issue, the team included Captain Carrot, Pig-Iron, Alley-Kat-Abra, Fastback (a turtle with super-speed), Rubber Duck (a duck with stretching powers), and Yankee Poodle (a dog with magnetic control). It also ended with Superman giving them his endorsement as the best heroes to defend their own world.
The new series ran for 20 issues, although the creative team changed along the way. However, the team itself remained the same, and in the final issue, they actually had Changeling (Beast Boy) from the New Teen Titans appear in a callback to their debut, while also fighting Gorilla Grodd. Another change came when Roger Rabbit (Captain Carrot’s real name) was changed to Rodney later in the series. Sadly, while becoming cult favorites in the 1980s, this entire team was wiped from existence during Crisis on Infinite Earths. The good news is that you can’t keep a good rabbit down.
First, they made their return in Teen Titans Vol. 3 in 2005 in a comic book story inside the Titans comic that was a spoof of dark comics like Watchmen. The Zoo Crew was back in the “Countdown to Final Crisis” tie-in comic Captain Carrot and the Final Ark (2007) with another spoof. This time it was poking fun at the Superhero Registration Act from Marvel’s “Civil War” storyline. Starro even made another appearance, a callback to the team’s debut. That event ended in Final Crisis #7.
Captain Carrot was back during the New 52. This happened in The Multiversity #1 (2014) by Grant Morrison and Ivan Reis. This issue opened with a comic book fan reading what he believes is a haunted comic, and it is pulling him into the “Multiversity” event that was ongoing in DC Comics. This then led to the Superman from Earth-23 (President Calvin Ellis), and he ends up transported away from his team, where he met Captain Carrot, who couldn’t tell the difference between Calvin and the Superman he met. He was there as the greatest hero from their worlds and joined several others to save the multiverse. The first fight he was in was great, as Captain Carrot used the infamous “cartoon physics” in the battle.
While the Zoo Crew never got another comic book series since that original from the 1980s, they lived on through Captain Carrot, who became a member of the Justice Incarnate alongside Calvin Ellis. Sadly, the story did not end well for the characters. In Dark Nights: Death Metal: Multiverse’s End #1 (2020), it was shown that Perpetua had attacked Captain Carrot’s world and destroyed it, along with many of the heroes in it. Captain Carrot was distraught, but even here, he showed why he was a worthy hero and deserving of a starring role beside Superman.
Do you remember Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew? Let us know your memories of this classic team in the comments below.
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