Captain Carrot
Encyclopedia
Captain Carrot is a fictional
anthropomorphic
superhero
published by DC Comics
. His first appearance was in a special insert
in The New Teen Titans #16 (February 1982). He was created by Roy Thomas
and Scott Shaw!
.
who lived on the other-dimensional world of Earth-C
, an alternate Earth populated by sentient
animal
s, 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.
After their initial appearance in New Teen Titans #16, Captain Carrot and 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 Captain and Crew returned in a miniseries titled Captain Carrot and the Final Ark! (October–December 2007. Written by Bill Morrison and Drawn by Scott Shaw!
and Al Gordon). After the new DC Multiverse
, Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew are said to reside on Earth-26. 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 to New Earth. The Justice League
encounters the ship and lands it safely, though all the passengers, including the Captain and his 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.
In Zatanna #4, it is revealed that during his time on New Earth, he fathered a child named Lucky with one of Zatanna's rabbits, who is still in her keeping.
Wonder Woman passes by Carrot's action figure in a Tokyo toy shop.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. His first appearance was in a special insert
DC Comics insert previews
DC Comics insert previews were 16-page comic book stories inserted into issues of existing DC Comics series to promote new series usually debuting the next month. Running from 1980 to 1985, they consisted of a front cover, 14 pages of story, and a back cover that depicted the cover of the actual...
in The New Teen Titans #16 (February 1982). He was created by Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
and Scott Shaw!
Scott Shaw (artist)
Scott Shaw is a United States cartoonist and animator, and is also an esteemed conductor of the concert band at Mary Institute and Country Day School...
.
Fictional character biography
Captain Carrot is depicted as a superheroSuperhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
who lived on the other-dimensional world of Earth-C
Multiverse (DC Comics)
The DC Multiverse is a fictional continuity construct that exists in stories published by comic book company DC Comics. The DC Multiverse consists of numerous worlds, most of them outside DC's main continuity, allowing writers the creative freedom to explore alternative versions of characters and...
, an alternate Earth populated by sentient
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s, 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
Who Censored Roger Rabbit?
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is a mystery novel written by Gary K. Wolf in 1981, later adapted into the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit .-Plot:Eddie Valiant is a hard-boiled private eye, and Roger Rabbit is a second-banana cartoon character...
(and later film
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
) character Roger Rabbit. Rodney was officially stated to be his middle name in the letters column.
After their initial appearance in New Teen Titans #16, Captain Carrot and 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
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
and penciled by Scott Shaw!
Scott Shaw (artist)
Scott Shaw is a United States cartoonist and animator, and is also an esteemed conductor of the concert band at Mary Institute and Country Day School...
and Stan Goldberg
Stan Goldberg
Stan Goldberg is an American comic book artist best known for his work as a flagship artist of Archie Comics and as a Marvel Comics' 1960s colorist, who helped design the original color schemes of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and other major characters.-Career:Stan Goldberg began work in the...
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
Land of Oz
Oz is a fantasy region containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fantasy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...
/Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
War (in which the characters became involved in an interdimensional war involving the worlds of L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
and Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
), was ever published.
The Captain and Crew returned in a miniseries titled Captain Carrot and the Final Ark! (October–December 2007. Written by Bill Morrison and Drawn by Scott Shaw!
Scott Shaw (artist)
Scott Shaw is a United States cartoonist and animator, and is also an esteemed conductor of the concert band at Mary Institute and Country Day School...
and Al Gordon). After the new DC Multiverse
Multiverse (DC Comics)
The DC Multiverse is a fictional continuity construct that exists in stories published by comic book company DC Comics. The DC Multiverse consists of numerous worlds, most of them outside DC's main continuity, allowing writers the creative freedom to explore alternative versions of characters and...
, Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew are said to reside on Earth-26. The end of that series shows their Earth to be rendered uninhabitable and the Captain has an ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
loaded with refugees that is transported off the planet by the Just'a Lotta Animals
Just'a Lotta Animals
Just'a Lotta Animals is a fictional superhero team that appeared in stories published by DC Comics. The team was an anthropomorphic funny animal parody of the Justice League of America....
. The ship is then accidentally sent to New Earth. The Justice League
Justice League
The Justice League, also called the Justice League of America or JLA, is a fictional superhero team that appears in comic books published by DC Comics....
encounters the ship and lands it safely, though all the passengers, including the Captain and his Crew are transformed into non-anthropomorphic animals. The superheroine magician, Zatanna
Zatanna
Zatanna Zatara is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman vol. 1 #4...
, unaware of the animals' true nature, claims Rodney as a pet for her magic act.
However, in the climatic battle in Final Crisis
Final Crisis
Final Crisis is a crossover storyline that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics in 2008, primarily the seven-issue miniseries of the same name written by Grant Morrison. Originally DC announced the project as being illustrated solely by J. G. Jones; artists Carlos Pacheco, Marco Rudy and...
#7, Captain Carrot participates, his anthropomorphic form and powers (along with those of his Zoo Crew teammates) restored by the renegade Monitor
Monitors (comics)
The Monitors are a group of fictional comic book characters, who appear in books published by DC Comics.They are based on The Monitor, a character created by comic book writer Marv Wolfman and comic artist George Pérez as one of the main characters of DC Comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths limited...
Nix Uotan.
In Zatanna #4, it is revealed that during his time on New Earth, he fathered a child named Lucky with one of Zatanna's rabbits, who is still in her keeping.
Wonder Woman passes by Carrot's action figure in a Tokyo toy shop.
Powers and abilities
- Upon eating a "cosmic carrot," Rodney is imbued with various superpowers, including limited invulnerability, super-strength, enhanced speed, stamina, hearing, and vision, and the ability to make gigantic, powerful leaps. Later in the series, Captain Carrot was able to achieve full flight.
- 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 grow-opCannabis (drug) cultivationThis article presents common techniques and facts regarding the cultivation of the flowering plant cannabis, primarily for the production and consumption of marijuana buds. Cultivation techniques for other purposes differ...
to ensure a continuous supply of carrots and keeps two holstered on his costume for recharges when necessary.
External links
- comiXology.com's podcast with Bill Morrison and Scott ShawScott Shaw (artist)Scott Shaw is a United States cartoonist and animator, and is also an esteemed conductor of the concert band at Mary Institute and Country Day School...
on the Captain Carrot and the Final Ark mini-series