Plot
Deep in the Jurassic jungle, Meriem the Cavewoman plays hide and seek with a triceratops named Spikey (or Spikes). The tri-horned dinosaur gets a little too much into the game and headbutts Meriem’s bottom. She scolds the triceratops but quickly make amends and rides the reptile to Marshville.
Upon entering the town, she seeks out her boyfriend Bruce and her friend, Professor Cook, but to no avail. She happens upon a pet store ran by Cynthia Cross, who knew Meriem when she was young. The two catch up before Cynthia reveals that Bruce and Professor Cook have been working for her, trapping non-prehistoric animals for her to keep safe. Meriem uses her superhuman powers to sprint off into the jungle in search of the duo.
Soon she encounters a baby T-rex that is being bullied by a trio of raptors. Meriem curbstomps one, uppercuts another, and pile drives the last. She then tears off the raptors’ limbs to feed to the baby T-rex who grows attached to her.
Bruce and Professor Cook pop out of the foliage and the three reconnect. Their reunion is short-lived as a giant dinosaur’s stomping causing them to hide, thinking it is the baby T-rex’s mother. Instead, it is a Spinosaurus that promptly devours the infant. The three make their escape back to Marshville and to Cynthia. Bruce and Professor Cook hand over their captured animals and agree to let Meriem accompany them on future excursions. Cynthia marvels at Meriem as she holds a bunny rabbit in her arms, saying she is good with animals.
Commentary
“Bunny Ranch” is a one-shot Cavewoman comic published in May of 2012, with Rob Durham penning the story and doing the art. As a one-shot comic, like the previously reviewed “Extinction” issue, the story is self-contained, though it introduces a new character, Cynthia Cross, a potential paramour to Professor Cook.
Compared to the solid one shot “Extinction” and the exciting “Snow” story arc that were published in the prior year, “Bunny Ranch” is a major let down. This issue suffers greatly from a ham-fisted coincidental exposition dump, tonal whiplash, and a regression in Bruce and Meriem’s relationship. The overall gist of “Bunny Ranch” is fine, but the actual writing fails this one-shot.
Early in the issue, Meriem walks about Marshville looking for Bruce and Professor Cook. She happens upon a pet store, sees a family of bunnies in the window, and has a memory come back to her. She remembers being a little girl, Gramps buys her a bunny, and then Meriem’s mother sells the bunny to buy drugs. The next page, Cynthia, the store proprietor, notices Meriem feeling sad and comments the extent of (paraphrasing) “I know you from ten years ago, your grandpa bought you a rabbit, and then your mother took it away.” Why would Cynthia remember these precise details ten years later? It is not a believable exchange between the two characters. It is an exposition dump executed with convenience in mind rather than taking an organic approach with more exchanges, plot building, and dialogue.
The tonal whiplash occurs later in the issue after Meriem has saved the baby T-Rex only for it to be eaten by a Spinosaurus. It is a shocking scene, and a little sad since the baby T-Rex has a cute factor going for it and it had bonded with Meriem. The scene does underscore the harsh reality of how dangerous the primeval jungle is, and death can come at any moment to anyone. The scene loses its impact immediately after when Meriem makes a sexual tease that Professor Cook should mate with Cynthia. This causes the professor to turn beet red and everyone to laugh. It is not an instance of gallows humour, but maybe writer Durham intended this moment that occurs mere minutes after watching the baby T-Rex be devoured as a means to cushion the shocking scene. Instead it comes off tonally wrong, not fitting the gravity of the scene. The joke itself is fine but would have been better executed later when the trio returned to Cynthia in Marshville.
The joke Meriem makes so soon after witnessing the baby T-Rex get eaten, especially after saving it from the pack of raptors, seems uncharacteristic of the character. Prior issues of Cavewoman have explored the mothering and nurturing attributes Meriem exhibits, such as saving Susie from the underground tentacle monster in “Extinction” and have the fever dream about her unborn children in issue four of “Snow”. The subject of the joke is not the issue, but its sudden utterance after watching the infant T-Rex, which she shared a brief mother-child relationship with, comes across as callous and not keeping in with Meriem’s character.
This not keeping with how characters should be operating continues with the last major flaw with “Bunny Ranch”, and that is the regression of Meriem’s relationship with Bruce (and, to some extent, Professor Cook). An initial first impression, everything does seem status quo between Meriem and Bruce: they are still in love, still care about each other, etc. The big question: why isn’t Meriem privy to Bruce and Professor Cook’s outings to the jungle to collect animals for Cynthia? The duo have been doing this activity for quite a while, and Meriem has never been notified about it. Shouldn’t Bruce keep his girlfriend in the know of what he is doing, especially if what he is doing involves venturing into the dangerous Jurassic jungle? At the end of “Bunny Ranch”, Bruce and Professor Cook even admit it will be great having Meriem on their adventures go forward because she has valuable skills. So, why not bring her in the loop earlier? The only reasons for Bruce to keep his activities from Meriem are either a) he wants alone/male-bonding time with Professor Cook, b) not thinking and unintentionally coming off as insensitive, c) bad writing that was designed to introduce the new character of Cynthia and get Meriem into the jungle to close the narrative loop (which may have had the side effect of causing a or b). As a reminder, back in “Snow” issue three, Professor Cook tells Bruce a secret while Meriem is away and neither she nor the readers are informed of what was said during that story arc. This does establish that Bruce and Professor Cook are not above keeping information from Meriem, which may explain why they were not initially letting her in on their bro-time.
While the writing falters severely in “Bunny Ranch”, the issue does have its high points. Durham’s art style is excellent, as usual, and his depictions of Meriem capture that cheesecake jungle girl vibe perfectly. There is no nudity in this issue, but Durham does find ways to pepper in some sexploitation. Meriem’s posterior is highlighted a handful of times in the issue. Meriem has a proclivity of being butted in her rear, toppling her forward, causing either her bust or her butt to become more prominent depending on point of view. In “Snow” issue two she is hit by a truck that causes her breasts to pop out of her top. In “Bunny Ranch” she is butted by a triceratops and later by the baby T-rex. It is a combination of a running gag within the series and a way to sexualize Meriem in an otherwise non-sexual situation.
The curbstomped raptor is a brutal panel, but exciting to see in action. While the artwork depicts Meriem as a pinup, it is moments like these that remind the viewer that she is incredibly powerful and can be vicious. If anything, after “Extinction” and “Snow”, Meriem’s violent side has not been explored nearly enough, so it is nice to see it exhibited in “Bunny Ranch”.
Conclusion
Regretfully, “Bunny Ranch” is not a good issue in the Cavewoman series. While the art remains consistently pinup stylistic and the overall story at a high-level works, the actual writing to execute it is severely flawed. Flawed so much that it hampers the characters, portraying them in uncharacteristic fashions: Meriem’s mothering nature being swept aside for a sexual joke that tonally does not fit the scene; Bruce (and Professor Cook) keeping their activities a secret form Meriem for seemingly no reason. Finally, what exactly is a “Bunny Ranch”? The issue ends with a joke, with Cynthia watching Meriem pet rabbits, inspiring her to want to open a bunny ranch. Is this a reference to the Nevada brothel of the same name? Is Cynthia looking to become a madam and prostitute Meriem out? Questions that should not need to be asked if the writing was better.
For more information on Cavewoman “Bunny Ranch” check out the official product page at Amryl Entertainment:
For more reviews of Budd Root’s Cavewoman series I’ve penned, check these out (chronological order of issue publish date):