Review by Woodrow Phoenix

Big Jim Begins is the 13th Dog Man book and that title doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense at first, since we have seen Big Jim in most of the series already as a resident of cat jail who becomes Commander Cupcake. But we know that Dave Pilkey enjoys puns and jokes in his titles that reference other films and comics. A few pages in, older readers will get that it is a riff on the film Batman Begins.

This is another story where Dog Man takes a small part in the proceedings, appearing in only 52 of the 209 story pages (and half of those just in the background of one or two panels) which all centre around the goofily cheerful and upbeat Big Jim, a prisoner who shares a cell in cat jail with the very grumpy Grampa. He’s another criminal cat but he’s more of a typical hardheaded tough guy, in a child-friendly, comedic way, of course. The two form a classic odd couple pairing with Big Jim making up songs, telling awful jokes and getting Grampa to secretly break out of jail with him to… fight crime.

The ‘begins’ part of the title refers to the funny presentation of Big Jim’s origin story from his childhood as ‘Little Jim’ to now; but there are several versions of that story. Which one is true? And is there time to find out when the Earth is under attack from the Space Cuties From Space: aliens who look like Sanrio cast-offs, with names like Captain Cuddles and Doctor Dimples but hearts as evil as evil can be? There’s a lot to read in this tale, so much so that this is the first Dog Man book to be half of a continued story. Kids can read more from and about Big Jim in the second half of this sprawling adventure in the 14th book, Dog Man: Big Jim Believes.