Comics Review: CHIP AND DALE'S RESCUE RANGERS #7 (June 2011, kaboom!)

Well, the Danger Rangers finally do reappear (in a manner of speaking) at the end of part three of "Stranger Danger," for whatever that's worth at this point...

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It seems that everything we've seen since part one has been meant to "manipulate" the Rangers into a confrontation with a character who has an obsessive animus against one of Our Gang. Paging Dr. Killjoy, paging Dr. Ivana Killjoy! Now, if this character evinces a burning desire to join the Rangers in C&DRR #8, then we'll have all the "traditional C&DRR fanfic trope bases" covered -- aside from doing Gadget some sort of physical harm, that is (and the butch-y Glitch seems eminently capable of checking off that particular box if she has a mind to).

Foxglove makes her second appearance in the title here, and we get a "kinda-sorta" version of closure regarding the death of Eaglewood in C&DRR #2. The shocking thing is that Foxglove doesn't react to the news of her father's death (which she apparently had been clued in on before seeing Dale) so much as to Dale's reaction to her father's death. A timely wing-whap (which in itself is a little out of character) helps snap Dale out of the funk he's been in, but would Foxy really take the death of her father that calmly? Granted, I'm glad we didn't get a "Death of a Comedian"-style torrent of bathos, but this almost errs too far in the other direction. Ian Brill doesn't make it at all clear how Chip managed to get a message to Foxy from the Ninja Porcupine headquarters (perhaps a homing implant?). Foxy also suddenly develops quasi-super strength; viz., the ability to glide through the air while Chip and Dale are holding on to her wings! Had she possessed those powers during "Good Times, Bat Times," the episode would probably have ended a lot quicker, for good or ill.

Brill has left himself quite a task for #8 -- get Monterey Jack out of durance vile, help Chip recover from a potentially dangerous wound, and allow Glitch and Gadget to have their big showdown. And what about the other Danger Rangers -- not to mention the mute mouse who sent the Rangers on that phony rescue errand? After those first two issues, this title has been a crushing disappointment, but perhaps Brill can pull the ramshackle temple down with some style in the one issue left to him.