Lilo & Stitch (Dynamite Comics)

Lilo & Stitch is an 8-issue comic book series, published by Dynamite Comics. The comics are written by Greg Pak and illustrated by Giulia Giacomino. The first issue was published in February 2024, and the last in December 2024.

Plot[]

The comic is set some time after the original film and is split in two main story arcs, one running from issue #1 to issue #4, and one running from issue #5 to issue #8.

Issue #1[]

Issue 1, the story opens on planet Turo, where a robot named the Cluster Sovereign and two of his henchmen attack Jumba's old research facility. The Sovereign is frustrated with his minions' lack of aggressiveness, as he plans to overthrow the Galactic Federation. The facility is abandoned, but inside the Sovereign sees a video diary left by Jumba in which he describes Experiment 626. Realizing that this Experiment 626 could be the key to making his minions more aggressive and destructive, he plots to capture Stitch and sends his minions to Earth.

On Earth, Lilo and Stitch are in the middle of a water balloon fight against Jumba and Pleakley. All goes well, until Jumba uses a balloon filled with explosive plasma that sends Stitch flying into a river. He survives without a scratch, but the incident triggers an argument between Nani and Jumba, with Nani trying to remind Jumba he is part of their ʻohana now and shouldn't destroy things. She is backed up by David and Cobra Bubbles, who drop by for a visit.

After things calm down, Lilo and Stitch head for the beach, where Lilo admires some of Stitch's drawings that recap the events from the first film. Then the robots appear and attack the two. They manage to capture Stitch and take him to their spaceship, but Stitch soon escapes his confinement and breaks out of the ship. Unfortunately, by that point, the ship has already flown to New York and Stitch now finds himself in Central Park.

Lilo runs home and warns Jumba and Pleakley. Together they trace Stitch to New York. Stitch meanwhile tries to blend in by pretending to be a normal dog. The issue ends with him ending up at the New York Toy Con.

Issue #2[]

Issue 2 opens with Nani discovering Lilo, Stitch, Pleakley and Jumba are gone. She radios Pleakley, who tries to convince her everything is fine. Meanwhile, Lilo has gone into Manhattan to search for Stitch. The Cluster Sovereign Drones are likewise looking for Stitch. They enter the toy convention, where they easily blend in with the various cosplaying visitor.

To escape the robots, Stitch hides in a stand selling blue koala toys that strongly resemble him. While it fools the robots at first, he is noticed by the stand's owner, Mike, who quickly realizes Stitch is neither a toy nor wearing a costume. He agrees to help hide Stitch.

Lilo also ends up at the toy convention, just as the robots finally see through the deception and attack Stitch. Along with Mike, she comes to Stitch's aid and throws the blue koala dolls at the robots to confuse them. In the chaos, the two robots collide and fall to the ground unconscious. Lilo is reunited with Stitch, and quickly gives him a wrist-worn communicator in case they end up separated again. Then the first robot regains consciousness and grabs Stitch. As he flies off with his captive, Mike jumps onto the robot and is also taken along while Lilo remains behind.

Jumba and Pleakley show up at the convention along with Nani, whom they apparently picked up. While Lilo brings Nani up to speed about what happened, Jumba hacks the robot that is still unconscious and removes the Cluster Sovereigns programming. Now free from his masters program, the robot tells Jumba that the Sovereign wants to capture Stitch to make his drones more dangerous.

Elsewhere, Stitch has managed to wreck the robot that captured him and Mike. At Stitch's request, Mike ships Stitch in a package to Australia.

Issue #3[]

Nani, Lilo, Jumba and Pleakley return home, having failed to find Stitch. Lilo is naturally upset at the loss of Stitch, and Nani does her best to console her.

Stitch meanwhile is in the Australian outback, where he plans to hide from the robots so Lilo will be safe. He notices a warning sign about the various dangerous animals living here, and adds himself to it. After wandering around the Outback for a while and venting his frustration on the animals and rocks he encounters, Stitch is found by a tour guide named Terry. Terry is not pleased by Stitch's destructive actions and teaches him how his people, the Australian Aboriginals, treat everything with care.

Terry takes Stitch to his house, where he is revealed to have a wife and a daughter around Lilo's age. Stitch quickly gets along with her. That night, Lilo calls Stitch on the communicator she gave him. Stitch admits he misses Lilo, but states he won't tell her where he is for her own safety. Then Terry gets an emergency call that a couple of tourists got lost in the outback. Stitch convinces Terry to let him come on this rescue mission. Together, they find the unlucky couple stranded on a high rock. Using his extra arms and night vision, Stitch is able to rescue them, though the rescue is made more difficult because the tourists think Stitch is a monster out to get them and attack him when he gets close.

Unfortunately, news of the rescue is also picked up by the Cluster Sovereign Drones, who thus manage to trace Stitch again. They attack him at Terry's house. This time, they manage to absorb some of Stitch’ DNA, which causes the drones’ heads to morph into head resembling Stitch's. Stitch lures the robots away from the house, after which he destroys them. Knowing Terry and his family will be in danger if he stays with them, Stitch bids them goodbye. Then he makes a raft out of the remains of the robots and sets sail towards India.

Issue #4[]

The story opens in Mumbai, India, where three young aspiring film makers are shooting their own giant monster movie. The shooting is interrupted when Stitch suddenly arrives, riding the raft he made out of the robots. After they get onto the shore, the robots break free and reassemble themselves, but Stitch quickly defeats them again.

The filmmakers are impressed by all this action, and convince both Stitch and the robots to star in their film. The film becomes a success in their community, and elevates Stitch to local stardom. In Kauai, Lilo, Jumba and Pleakley also see the film and thus realize where Stitch is, but also that the Cluster Sovereign drones have already succeeded in sampling Stitch's DNA. The robot that Jumba reprogrammed in New York warns them the drones could be too much to handle now, but Lilo insists they should go save Stitch.

In India, Stitch, the filmmakers and the robots are about to shoot another movie, when the Cluster Sovereign suddenly shows up with two more of his drones; a newer model who also have Stitch's DNA incorporated in their system. He orders them to attack both Stitch and the previous model robots, whom he has come to consider as traitors.

Lilo calls Stitch and tells him they are on their way. She reminds him that, contrary to what the Cluster Sovereign thinks, Stitch is no longer a purely destructive creature, and if the robots are anything like him now, then neither are they. Realizing what she means, Stitch allows the new robots to capture him and tap into his brain, where they hope to find Stitch's main destructive impulses and techniques. What they absorb instead, however, are Stitch’ memories of his trip around the world and the people he helped. This overrides the robots' destructive programming, and they side with Stitch. The Cluster Sovereign tries to attack Stitch himself, but is defeated when he gets tricked into grabbing the plasma bomb he fired at Stitch.

Sometime later, Stitch and his Indian friends are in Hawaii, celebrating his return with Lilo while Jumba and Pleakley question the Cluster Sovereign about his motivations. The Sovereign admits he and his fellow robots are office workers that got fed up with being stuck in monotonous jobs in the Federations. Pleakley asks the Sovereign why they didn’t just quit their jobs and find something fun to do, as they don't actually need the jobs to make money. The Sovereign admits that this simply never occurred to him, as Stitch is the only successful rebel he knows off and he thus wanted to do what Stitch would do. Now that he sees Stich is just living a fun life instead of destroying things, the Sovereign decides to give up on his conquest plans.

Once they are back at their house, Stitch and Lilo promise each other they will never be separated again. That is when a spaceship arrives. On board is an alien named Ambassador Filo, who has a message from the Grand Councilwoman; Lilo’s presence is required on Planet Turo.

Issue #5[]

The issue begins with Stitch recapping the events from issues 1 – 4 through a series of drawings. Then the story picks up where Issue #4 left off, with Lilo being asked by Ambassador Filo to come to Turo, as the Grand Councilwoman wishes to speak to her. The invitation is only for her so Stitch is denied to come along, but Nani uses her status as Lilo’s legal guardian to force Filo to let her come along. Lilo doesn't want to go without Stitch, but Stitch encourages her to take the invitation.

On Turo, Lilo learns that she has become a legend because of her ability to tame Stitch. The Grand Councilwoman now wants her to deal with another problem; a large, dinosaur like creature that is threatening to destroy a city. The councilwoman wants Lilo to tame this beast like she did with Stitch, but Nani objects and tries to convince Lilo to let Gantu, who is also present, handle the problem. Lilo however insists she should take this task, and Nani reluctantly agrees, but on condition that Lilo is given some sort of protection. The Grand Councilwoman thus gives her a mech suit. In the suit, Lio approaches the monster. The beast won't listen to her and wrecks the mech, but Lilo gets out in time. She notices something attached to the monster's tail and removes it, upon which the creature immediately calms down. The Grand Councilwoman explains that it is an electro-tag that is used in the zoo to subdue creatures, but in case of this creature it only made her angry. The Grand Councilwoman orders Gantu to bring the creature back to the zoo, but Lilo stops him.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Stitch is saddened that Lilo is gone. As he wanders aimlessly across the beach, he overhears a hunter named Carlington Jaeger talk with a fisherman about a brown snake; an invasive species that he is tasked to find. Curious, Stitch returns home and asks David what an invasive species is. David explains it's an animal that is not native to the local ecosystem, and thus can cause a lot of damage by lack of natural predators. Then Carlington shows up at the house. He gives David his calling card and asks him to call if he sees the snake. Then he spots the snake hiding in a tree and pulls out his knife to deal with the creature. Stitch, feeling sorry for the snake, saves the animal and brings him to Jumba's ship so Jumba and Pleakley can return the snake to its natural habitat.

On Turo, Lilo convinces the Grand Councilwoman that the monster doesn't want to return to the zoo, but the Grand Councilwoman tells Lilo that letting the creature go home is no option either as her habitat was destroyed. So she allows Lilo to bring the creature with her to Earth instead.

Issue #6[]

Lilo and Nani are back on Earth, with their new friend. While Nani explains the situation to David, Lilo introduces Stitch to the purple monster, whom she named Tiny. Stitch is willing to give Tiny a chance. However, Tiny’s huge size proves problematic, as she accidentally destroys a tree. David suggests they ask Jumba for help. Jumba reveals he has a shrink ray, and uses it to shrink Tiny down to Stitch’ size.

Lilo and Stitch show the now small Tiny around the island, and she gets a lot of compliments from the locals, who find her cute. When Tiny trips and almost hits Lilo, Stitch tackles Tiny to the ground. Unfortunately, Lilo does not belief Stitch that Tiny was about to hit her, and she sends him home. This makes Stitch jealous of Tiny. He returns to Jumba's ship and gets the shrink ray.

With the ray, Stitch ambushes Tiny at Mrs. Hasagawa's fruit stand. He zaps Tiny and causes her to grow giant again, but the ray also ends up hitting Stitch himself. With both of them now gigantic, Tiny and Stitch get into a fight and cause quite some property damage. They only calm down when Lilo angrily orders them to stop. Then Gantu and Ambassador Filo arrive in their ship. Gantu beliefs Lilo failed in her task and he should step in to prevent a disaster. However, as he approaches the monsters, he flies so low over the ocean that his ship creates a huge wave which threatens a boat. Tiny and Stitch team up to save the boat before it gets smashed against some rocks.

Once the boat is safe, Lilo shrinks Tiny and Stitch back to small size. Gantu wants to take them from her now, but is stopped by Ambassador Filo, who is impressed by Lilo's unconventional yet successful ways to redeem Tiny. He bestows on her the title of Galactic Federation Socialization and Education Agent Number B34, and gives Lilo her next assignment; 3 more destructive beasts she must redeem.

Issue #7[]

Ambassador Filo introduces Lilo to her three new charges; Zargon, the Entrapinator, and Kezo Nine Seven. As the creatures leave with Lilo, Gantu declares she and Stitch will need a miracle to handle these beasts. Unbeknown to them, Lilo, Stitch and the monsters are also seen by Carlington Jaeger, who tries to convince the mayor to get him a license to hunt down these invasive species.

Stitch uses the shrink ray on Zargon, the Entrapinator and Kezo Nine Seven to shrink them all down to his size, just like they did with Tiny. The following morning, Nani finds the creatures in Lilo's bedroom and is naturally not amused. The creatures are hungry and make a mess of the kitchen, until Stitch calms them down with food.

Later that day, the mayor drops by to investigate the rumors that Lilo has giant monsters living with her. Nani show she the now shrunken creatures, who are playing peacefully with Lilo and Stitch, and convinces the mayor they are just weird looking dogs. However, no sooner is she gone, or Carlington shows up, and he is not so easily fooled. He fires a tranquilizer dart at the monsters, who in turn attack him. To prevent them from harming Carlington, Stitch shrinks the creatures even further. He does the same thing to himself, and along with the creatures he crawls into Carlington’s clothes to inconvenience him. Unable to get rid of the tiny beasts, Carlington demands Lilo turns the creatures back to their normal size. So Lilo grabs the shrink ray and zaps Carlington, turning him into a giant and restoring Stitch and the others back to their former size. As a giant, Carlington now finds himself targeted by other hunters, and soon he is taken captive and loaded into a truck to be taken to a hospital.

That evening, the mayor visits the Pelekai house along with Cobra Bubbles. She assures Lilo that none of the alien creatures will be seen as an invasive species. As far as she is concerned, they are just weird dogs. However, she does insist that the “dogs” should learn to behave and thus have to be send to obedience training at the local animal shelter.

Issue #8[]

Lilo, Stitch, Nani, David and Cobra Bubbles have brought the four alien creatures to the animal shelter to be trained. The owner is not too thrilled to see more of these "weird dogs" as she remembers Stitch all too well. Nevertheless, she gets to work.

The dogs are put in the same class as Mertle's dog, Baxter, who quickly gets along with Lilo's dogs. However, the creatures have no intention to listen to the trainer and run off along with Baxter and Stitch, forcing Nani, Lilo and Mertle to chase after them. During the chase, Mertle and Lilo get into one of their arguments.

The group follows the aliens and Baxter to Lilo’s hula school, where they find Moses Puloki painting. He has managed to calm the creatures down by giving them crayons and paper to make their own drawings. When Lilo looks at the drawings, she notices they all depict members of the aliens' own species, locked up in cages. Now she understands what is truly ailing the creatures; they are all juveniles, and their parents are still locked up in a zoo on Planet Turo. The creatures where not evil, they just miss their parents. Since Mertle has already seen so much, Lilo tells her the truth and ropes both her and Baxter into a rescue mission to get the aliens' parents back.

Lilo and Stitch first take the creatures to the Grand Councilwoman to demand she releases the creatures' parents. However, things are not so simple; the creatures are all put in the zoo as part of a treaty the Galactic Federation made with the Entobian Consortium, who had razed the creatures natural habitat. In return for the Consortium halting further developments, the Federation authorized a Zoological Garden to house the displaced monsters. The Councilwoman herself is not pleased by this situation and has started proper procedures to change the treaty, but the formalities could easily take 30 years. She also warns Lilo that she herself is an agent of the Federation now, and if she where to break the treaty she could start a war.

Lilo and Stitch thus take the creatures to the zoo, where they meet their caretaker; a member of the Entobian Consortium. He sympathizes with the creatures and their parents, but like Lilo he too can not just break the treaty without starting a war. Lilo already anticipated this, so she reveals her plan; she unleashes Baxter, who has been enlarged by Jumba’s shrink ray, onto the zoo and lets him break the cages open. She then returns the creatures themselves to their normal, gigantic size so they can finally be reunited with their parents. For a moment, the caretaker fears this will mean war, but the Grand Councilwoman explains to him there is no risk; Baxter is not a member of either the Federation or the Consortium, so his actions don’t impact the treaty.

The monsters and their parents depart, while Mertle shrinks Baxter down to his normal size and admits that Lilo isn't as bad a person as she thought. The two girls and Stitch return to Earth, where Mertle and Lilo are now on much friendlier terms then they were before. The final panel shows them and al their family and friends spending a day on the beach.

Continuity[]

While the comic series is set after the first film, it is quite difficult to pinpoint where in the timeline it is set as there is conflicting information.

On one hand, no experiments other than Stitch are seen or even mentioned. While Mertle is present as a character and shown to have a dog of her own, this dog is not Gigi but a normal Earth dog named Baxter.

At the same time, Gantu is also a character in the second arc, and he is shown to be still, or again, captain of the United Galactic Federation; a position he lost at the end of the first film and did not regain until the end of Leroy & Stitch. There also doesn't seem to be any enmity left between him and the Pelekai sisters, as Nani even tries to tell Lilo to let Gantu handle the creatures the Grand Councilwoman wants her to reform.

Overall, the comic seems to be set in an alternate continuity compared to the sequel movies and TV series.