Animal superheroes come to the rescue

Longtime comics fans might remember DC Comics' Legion of Super-Pets, with such furry, faithful heroes as Krypto the super dog, Streaky the super cat and Beppo the super monkey. (Honest.) Now it's Marvel Comics' turn to go to the dogs with "Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers."

The first issue of the four-issue miniseries recently arrived in comic book shops. The story, writer Chris Eliopoulos says, stems from a suggestion by editor Nate Crosby.

"He's a bulldog fan," Eliopoulos said. "And Lockjaw being a bulldog, he just said, 'I think we need a book about Lockjaw and some of the other animals.'"

But which animals? The answer took some work.

"I had to do a lot of research," Eliopoulos said. "I went online, I went through the Marvel archives, and we got an intern to help out and find us all the animals that the Marvel Universe has had in the past. And then I picked and chose which ones I felt would really work well with this story."

That story, he said, follows the planet's mightiest pets on a "Lord of the Rings" kind of quest. "It's up to the animals to find these items throughout time and space so that the bad guy doesn't get them."

The team is assembled by Lockjaw, a dog with the power of teleportation and a member of the royal family of the once-secret society known as the Inhumans.

The rest of the team:

• Hairball, a cat with the kinetic energy powers of his owner, Speedball. "He's just sort of a typical cat -- all about himself," Eliopoulos said.

• Redwing, pet bird of the high-flying hero known as Falcon. "He's kind of the proud, 'I'm better than everybody else' kind of character," Eliopoulos said.

• Lockheed, the pet dragon of Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. After selling out the X-Men in "Astonishing X-Men," "he sort of becomes the saved soul in this book," Eliopoulos said.

• Ms. Lion, who, despite the name, is not a Ms. and not a lion. He's a dog belonging to Peter Parker's Aunt May. With no powers, "he's just sort of the comedy relief of the team."

• Frog Thor. In the '80s, a memorable story by Walt Simonson saw the mighty Thor transformed into a frog. This latest Frog Thor, Eliopoulos said, is a different character -- "just a frog who gets the powers of the thunder god."

Eliopoulos is known for examining the lighter side of the Marvel universe, but "Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers" isn't played just for laughs, he said.

"My mind-set is I am doing a Pixar movie here. I'm doing that sort of movie where you have drama, but you also have comedy and light moments that match the dark moments. There's a real threat to not only these animals, but to the world -- and maybe even to the universe."