Comics Review: Bravest Warriors #19

The invasion force hits the Bravest Warriors’ island. What happens next?

There are a lot of things that came from this issue. For one, the beings in the ship aren’t the giant galactic worms. Wallow, has the plot device of the moment with his doorgate, which is rather erratic. Next, we get our first look at the parents of the Bravest Warriors, the former Bravest Warriors. Beth’s father, Johnny Tezuka, turns out to be the mad scientist of the group. He found what turns out to be the Aeon Worm, and he is feeding it with stuff from his dimension garden. Brian, Chris’s dad, sees this as a very bad thing because the dimensional device is meant to break down reality. Back with the present day Warriors, they are in the cave of the Huxtabites, and Chris is freaking out. The ship follows them, which causes the group to jump, and everyone but Chris and Plum are caught and brought to the ship.

Back in the past, the former Warriors are fighting with Ikktites and his platoon. Johnny is nowhere to be found, because he is tending to his worm. Johnny is now void of all emotions, and Chris’s mother Jo, walks in. She sees that he is screwed up, but does nothing. In the present, Plum and Chris are trying to decide what to do, but Plum just wants some alone time. At the ship, we get our look at the Huxtabites, and they’re a hive race from this universe. They have taken the Warriors hostage, because their parents took their god, the Aeon Worm. Down on the ground, Chris is fighting blob monsters, and still going insane, thinking it came from the Dating Pool back from issue 14. Plum is doing everything in her power to keep him on track, but seems to be failing miserably.

We go back to the past, and we get a very telling tale of Beth and her dad, where she came in sad. She wants him to tuck her in like she used to. She asks about her mother, but Johnny tells her that he is her mommy, since he carried her in his belly. As the discussion goes on, she is getting more and more void of emotion like her dad. She leaves, and Johnny checks on the worm. To his surprise, the worm had exponential growth in minutes.

More often than not, this book suffers from not having a whole lot going on. This is that one in nineteen exception, because this book has a lot. We have the Huxtabites with Danny and them, Plum and Chris, and every possible problem coming from Johnny Tezuka. The flips back and forth between everything got very confusing, and became a chore to watch. Now, I am a real big fan of having a story centered story, but this was just too much.I have a feeling that this story is wrapping up next issue, and they are shoehorning too much. This is something that could have easily been fleshed out with more issues, given more time with each situation. For instance, flashbacks could have been a book by themselves. Hell, even do a short at the end. Hopefully, this pacing just relaxes a bit, and goes back to being a decent book.