If you are someone who has been of cartoon-watching age (or of cartoon-watching habit, for that matter) sometime in the mid 90s, then there is a good chance that you remember the 'Biker Mice from Mars' show, you might even remember the slightly older 'Robo Force' toyline. You definitely also know that toy and comic book tie-ins for animated shows has been a decades-old tradition when it comes to cartoon entertainment. This book collects two of the latest such entries, as parts of the NacelleVerse, with the storylines setting up their respective animated series.

This volume includes the two runs of RoboForce #1–3 and Biker Mice from Mars #1–3, as well as NacelleVerse #0, all written by Melissa Flores whose excellent 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' and 'The Dead Lucky' runs have already established her as an ideal creator to handle similar material. It also features art by Rahmat Handoko, Rhoald Marcellius, Francis Portela, Diogenes Neves, and other well-known names in comics. Beyond the undeniably talented team behind it, and beyond its status as a cartoon tie-in, this book is actually an also pretty fun read.

With similar tie-ins, it's not uncommon for the quality to be less than stellar, and for the books to only exist as promotional, nostalgia-bait material. So it was good to see that this is certainly not the case here. There are the familiar characters and lore, but there is also a well-crafted storyline that combines both feeling true to the original and also fitting modern standards. Overall an enjoyable, action-packed, and nostalgia-fuelled read, whether you're already a fan or you're curious to discover those franchises.

A big thank you to Oni Press for providing an advance review copy of the book.

Look, I like it but you need to understand I also rented Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue from the video store every chance I got. My dad still gets a shell-shocked look in his eye when it comes up, and he would warn you my opinion here is extremely biased.

The big crossover part of Nacelleverse is the introduction of The Great Garloo (based on a toy from the 60s) when his home planet is blasted to piece while he's away looking for work. He has a completely understandable outburst, and gets bailed out of space jail by some delivery dude who "just wants to help." They zoom along through a collection of 1980s cartoon worlds, most of which are a little before my time). On Mars, the Biker Mice show Garloo his buddy's true colors before shipping him off the Detroit on Earth with Roboforce - firmly linking the franchises into the larger Nacelleverse. After that, we get a storyline about the Plutarkian invasion on Mars for its resources, a bit of good old-fashioned eco-vigilante action, and a solid prologue to the Biker Mice from Mars cartoon before switching over to a Roboforce storyline. It's fun in the style of one of my favorite childhood cartoons, and the characters are handled well.

Is it a cash-grab from a toy company? Of course it is. But that's also how these characters came into being to begin with, and we're getting real comic book professionals playing in the sandbox. It's a fun read, and I intend to keep up with the Biker Mice from Mars comics from Oni anyway. I like it a hell of a lot better than those Thundercats comics from Wildstorm.