Pop Cult India’s Pet Picks
Keeping the allergies and occasional bites aside, everyone loves pets. Fiction has produced some of memorable pets like Hedwig, Santa’s Little Helper, Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry, He-Man’s Battle-Cat and the immensely popular Dragons & Dire Wolves from Game of Thrones.
The sad part is that comics have generally failed at developing pets. Krypto the Superdog is so illogical that tomorrow there might even be super-pigeonsfrom that planet. Even worse; Ace the Bathound is basically just a dog with a mask. It’s funny how superheroes borrow so much from mythology but the writers failed to interpret the concept of familiars.
However a few pets stood out from other campy creatures in this narrative form.
Lockheed
Unlike the Earth’s gigantic predators this extra-terrestrial dragon is miniscule and floats above Kitty Pryde’s shoulder in many X-Men comics. Apart from flying and blowing fire Lockheed is also omni-linguistic and immune to telepathy. Lockheed may not look menacing like Ozymandias’ lynx, but he is still one of the better superhero companions out there.
Old Lace
Though she may resemble your garden variety Velociraptor, Old Lace is a Deinonychus, a more intelligent species with huge claws on their feet from Brian K Vaughn’s Runaways. Her owner is Gertrude, whose only power is to be able to establish a telepathic link with Old Lace. Isn’t that a pet-owners dream? Complete empathy and control over your animal. Go fetch.
Ampersand
A monkey named ‘@’ is quite the deal. Ampersand is an acapuchin, the same as the monkey from Hangover-II. Can’t give spoilers, but Ampersand is one of the most crucial characters of Y: The Last Man.
He develops an intimate and loyal relationship with his master Yorrick Brown over the course of the series. Also he’s the only other living male on the planet. That means the burden of repopulating his species is on him. Take that Planet of the Apes fans!
Snowy
Over 85 years old in the comics, Milou, or as English audiences know him, Snowy, is a legendary white wire-fox-terrier who accompanies the adventurous journo Tintin. Living on the edge like his master, no other pet from comics symbolises man’s best friend better than him. This fearless mutt always rushes to Tintin’s aid even if a gun is involved. His significance in the stories could put many side-kicks to shame. R2D2 might have been inspired by him. Oh, and he drinks Whiskey too.
Garfield
How many pets are the titular characters of a series? Even Snoopy isn’t featured in every Peanuts strip. This fat, lasagne craving feline was famous before the internet went gung-ho about cat pictures. Garfield was the original sarcastic, grumpy faced, lazy creature.
The reason the striped orange fur ball topped the list is because of his creator. Jim Davis’ always writes Garfield as a pet and not a hero. His chemistry with his owner Jon and co-pet Odie have driven one of the longest running comic strips in history.