DC Showcase: Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth!

His world was conceived as an “homage” to Planet of the Apes when Marvel beat out DC for the license. Yet, his comic book outlasted the competing tie-in series, because Jack Kirby created such an appealing character. Fittingly, many of the story elements that made the original comic book popular are incorporated into Matt Peters’ animated short, DC Showcase: Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth!, which makes suitable way to mark his reported in-world birthday today (11/21).

On this multi-verse Earth, “The Great Disaster” led to the near complete extinction of humanity, leaving the new mutant animal-people to rule the planet. Kamandi survived, because his grandfather safely secured him inside the “Command D” life-support pod (the source of his name), where he taught the young boy the necessary skills to navigate the hostile new world, before his unfortunate demise.

Now on his own, Kamandi forged friendships with some of the animal-hominids, particularly Prince Tuftan of the Tiger Empire, whom he tries to save from the Ape-like people. Shrewdly, screenwriter Paul Giacoppo gives viewers the Planet of the Apes (dig that Statue of Liberty) fix that was the original comic book’s reason for being.

Unfortunately, Kamandi will soon need saving himself. Ben Boxer, the augmented cyborg, who still counts as one of the few humans in Kamandi’s world, tries to get the job done, but all three find themselves forced to participate in the apes’ bizarre ritual.

The DC Showcase Kamandi short is a great introduction to Kirby’s post-apocalyptic world. It also notbly duly builds towards one of the most intriguing plot-strands of the vintage comic series, which linked it back to the overall DC multiverse. Frankly, watching the short will make viewers yearn for a feature-length animated Kamandi adventure, but we were probably lucky just to get eighteen minutes devoted to such a deep-catalog character.

Regardless, there are retro touches that will warm the hearts of comic fans. The animation is not the most sophisticated, but it is colorful and energetic. Indeed, the various creatures look great on screen. Again, this is an excellent example of the superiority of DC animation over most live-action superhero movies, from any comic universe. Like Jonah Hex, Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth shows that it is just as true for the DC Showcase shorts, if not more so. Very highly recommended, it is available on the Constantine: House of Mystery DVD shorts collection.