Penguins of Madagascar 2 will satisfy fans of the series

Madagascar is a cash cow.  In addition to producing a spin off for King Julian on Netflix the Penguins have their own movie and a 4 issue comic book mini-series.  The Penguins of Madagascar are from Titan comics and issue 2 picks up with Private, Kowalski, Skipper and Rico in Rome.  They’re investigating the competition for Afro Circus, a one man show called The Magical Magnifico.

The Penguins get their tickets, sit in the audience and get sucked into the show courtesy of Biscotti.  Biscotti is the rabbit part of the act in The Magical Magnifico. Biscotti confuses all of the Penguins by doing some real magic and well, just being quicker.  The magic starts to get too real for our non-flying friends when Private volunteers to be in the show with Biscotti and Magnifico.

The buzz saw aspect of this particular act is real and almost saws him in half.  Thankfully the gang saves him, which in turn destroys the stage and gets the boys in trouble.  The final trick for Biscotti is a hypnotist act where he gets the audience to hand over all their valuables to him and his giant bunny henchmen.  It turns out that Biscotti was the real magician, even hypnotizing Magnifico.

The Penguins try to stop the theft.  They chase the rabbits through underground Rome on appropriately sized vehicles until Biscotti gives them the slip.

The personality of the Penguins is exactly as you remember them from the movies.  The Penguins, just like King Julian; have such distinctive voices that you think in their voices when reading the comic book.   The art in Penguins is more cartoonish than what you’re used to seeing.  It’s even different from what’s on the cover of the comic book, which is the way that you’re used to seeing them.

Penguins retails for $3.99 and has the average number of pages in this all age comic book for that price.    There is a little too much white space on the exterior of the panels, but it’s nowhere near as bad as Scooby Doo.  Our 5 year old likes the comic because he loves animals and knows that many of his friends like Madagascar or the animals from there.

Children and fans of Madagascar will like it, but this mini-series isn’t a classic.   If your child is already into all age comic books this is one that you might want to skip.  However, if your child enjoys these characters then it could be a great way to introduce them comics and the enjoyment of reading.