Comics Review: Adventure Time #64

Follow the trail of goo.

Spoilers Below:

The audience talks about the happenings with the competition, and the judges go over their impressions. Marceline texts Finn to report on his findings, but he doesn’t respond in time. The next competition is to blow the biggest bubble with a single stick of gum, and the princesses all get ready. Finn finally texts back Marceline, but his text is vague.

Finn and Jake have lost sight of the goo, distracted by beating up an evil waffle alien, but a passerby puts them on the right track. They catch up with the goo, and sees that there’s not just one piece, but multiple globs of goo all headed in the same direction.

The final competition is a talent show, and Wildberry Princess plans to play the electric piano. Breakfast Princess asks LSP what she plans on doing, but LSP says it’s a secret and storms off. Fire Princess uses her powers to construct a metal sculpture of her subjects, Hot Dog Princess leads a marching band, and Breakfast Princess sings the lead vocals for a rock band. When Wildberry Princess takes the stage, her electric piano runs out of power, and she flees the stage in tears. LSP is the last to go, and she dances to one of her mixtapes. Backstage, Marceline and Bubblegum both agree that something is going on, but they can’t proceed without proof.

The goo leads to the Ice Kingdom, and Finn and Jake are shocked at what they discover. They frantically text Marceline, but she has already cast her vote for the winner. Finn reveals that the one behind it is the Ice King, and Peppermint Butler takes the stage to announce the winner.

Overview:

We find out that the culprit behind everything is the Ice King, but not where he’s gotten the goo, or how he plans to use it. Clearly, Finn and Jake are shocked by what they find, but we won’t be able to see what exactly that is until next issue.

The Ice King being the culprit isn’t a surprising one for Adventure Time, but at the same time, it seems a bit lazy. One of the key components of mystery is presenting clues to the audience very early on. That way, even after the culprit has been revealed, the tricks are shown to be legitimate. There hasn’t been any sort of prior setup revealing that the goo is being controlled specifically by the Ice King, or even shots of the penguins in the background doing some grunt work. A reveal of the culprit can’t be out of the blue. Relying on the idea of ‘there’s trouble, so it must be the Ice King’ is rather weak. Of course, we will see what exactly the Ice King’s plan is next time, but as of now, it’s not very impressive.