Before the Big Bang? Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers by Dav Pilkey

WITH ALL OF THAT MISDIRECTION OUT THERE, LIFE CAN GET A LITTLE CONFUSING. BUT DON'T WORRY, THIS EPIC NOVEL CONTAINS NO MISDIRECTION WHATSOEVER. THIS LEGENDARY TOME WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING, FROM OUR RECENT NARRATIVE COMPLEXITIES TO THE VAST MYSTERIES OF OUR UNIVERSE. BY THE TIME YOU GET TO PAGE 210, YOU'LL KNOW IT ALL. YOU'LL BE SMARTER THAN THE MOST BRILLIANT SCIENTIST WHO EVER WALKED THE EARTH

Killer LAFFS, manic MAYHEM, disgusting DRAMA, and funny PHYSICS, some FLIP-O-RAMA sections, and even an explanation (sort of) of the Big Bang Theory (the scientific theory, not the sitcom)--all are to be found when those crazy cartoonists of Jerome Horowitz Elementary School, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, try to sort out all the problems left over from their banishment to their own Land Before Time in Book 9 of this comic classic series.

In Dav Pilkey's latest best-selling Book Ten sequel, Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers (Scholastic, 2013)  we find our resourceful boys deprived of their creation, super-hero (nee school principal Krupp) Captain Underpants, because the nefarious villain Timmy Tinklepants (a.k.a. Professor Poopypants)) has used his version of the Way-Back Machine, the Purple Potty, to send the boys back to the primordial swamps 65 million years ago before Principal Krupp was born and way before the boys could turn him into comic co-conspirator, Captain Underpants.

But George and Harold are resourceful superhero creators. Looking for allies, the boys round up the puny population of cavemen back then to help them fight Timmy. But the cavemen seem to communicate only in grunts, requiring the lads to invent cave paintings and thereby cartooning to show the natives why Timmy Tinklepants is a bad guy. The plan works, the cavemen join the coalition, but they reckon without Timmy's other secret weapon, the Freezy Beam 4000, which freezes the world and kicks off the Ice Age. George and Harold manage to subvert Timmy's evil machine long enough to send themselves back to the future--but this time just a LIT-tle too far, thirty years too far, where they encounter their own worst nightmare.

A RUSTY GREEN 2034 HONDA CIVIC PULLED INTO THE SCHOOL PARKING LOT. IT WAS MR.KRUPP--ONLY THIS WAS A THIRTY-YEAR-OLDER VERSION OF MR. KRUPP.

MR. KRUPP MARCHED TOWARD THE PLAYGROUND TOWARD TWO OBNOXIOUS SCREAMING TEACHERS... AND SCREAMED FOUR WORDS THAT SENT SHIVERS DOWN GEORGE AND HAROLD'S SPINES.

"MR. BEARD! MR. HUTCHINS! GET THOSE KIDS INSIDE RIGHT NOW!"

THE TWO OBNOXIOUS, SCREAMING TEACHERS TURNED AROUND.

IT WAS THEM.

IT WAS THE FUTURE VERSIONS OF THEMSELVES. GEORGE AND HAROLD HAD EVOLVED INTO THE TERRIFYING, BORING, AND VENGEFUL TEACHERS THEY WERE USED TO.

Anything would be better than living out their future lives as mean and grumpy elementary teachers! George and Harold rack their brains to get themselves out of this one, in Pilkey's chortle-chasing Book 10, Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers, even taking on multiple iterations of Timmy Tinklepants in their search for a reset button and risking a return to the Big Bang, a.k.a. the Big KaBoosh, to escape this version of their future. Super silly spoofery abounds, as always, in the hands of author-illustrator Dav Pilkey, who seems to have no problem thinking outside the box. Creator of such mega-gigglers as The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen From the Future (Captain Underpants) (see my review here), Dog Breath, Kat Kong, Dogzilla,  The Dumb Bunnies, and the holiday classic, The Hallo-wiener, Pilkey's work is pitch-perfect parody for the elementary grades. Kirkus Reviews takes it all in in professional stride, adding "The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy. Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride"