Comics Review: Adventure Time “Islands”

A long, long time ago.

Spoilers Below:

The story takes place after the Great Mushroom War, at a time of struggle against the vampires, and long before Finn and Jake take the stage. The protagonist is Bunny Girl, whose name is revealed to be Jo. From what we know about Jo in ‘Everything Stays’, she is a young girl traveling with a small tribe of fellow humans in search of a safe haven. Along the way, she befriends the immortal Marceline. Islands starts after she Jo and her tribe set off from Ooo by boat for a faraway island.

Jo dreams of a large snake attacking her and wakes up in a panic. She goes to see the tribe leader, Two Bread Tom, who decides to cheer her up with a song. The next day, sea monsters attack the ship, and the tribe is forced to defend themselves. In the middle of the battle, Jo falls off the ship and plunges into the ocean. The sea monsters swarm her, but she manages to get back onto the ship to safety.

That night, she overhears the key members of her tribe talking. Horn protests that the world is filled with dangers, and without the presence of Marceline, they need to learn to defend themselves. Tom is less certain about that and disagrees. The next day, Horn and some members of the tribe test their archery skills but fail to hit the targets.

One of the members of the tribe calls out that they have spied land with people on the shore. Horn worries that they might be hostile, but once they go ashore, Tom strikes up a friendly conversation with one of them. The islander says that they haven’t seen other humans in a while and that they are running low on food. On the island, there are no vampires, but there are sludge monsters and it is unbearably hot. While the tribe shares their food with the natives, Jo sees the snake from her dreams in one of the nearby bushes. Tom suggests that they all band together to survive, and the natives agree.

Some time later, the humans have established a village. Some of the neighborhood children tease Jo for being weird and continuing to wear her rabbit hat. The other members of the tribe have since shed their animal hats, but Jo insists on keeping hers on. She and her friend, Michiko go out to explore, but a giant bird mistakes Jo for food and snatches her away. Jo bites the bird’s foot and falls into the woods, miles away from civilization.

She is alone and scared in the dark, and tries to imagine what Marceline would do. A figment of her imagination in the shape of Marceline appears and convinces her to eat and take the steps to find her way home. Along the way, she learns survival skills, and even befriends some rabbits. It takes many long days, but she slowly becomes self-sufficient. 

Finally, when she is close to the village, she meets the snake from her dreams. She is armed with a weapon, but instead decides to boop its nose and says that she has no interest in fighting it. 

When she makes her way back to the village, she sees that her tribe has donned their animal hats again, and is building a huge wooden figure. Tom is surprised to see her alive and embraces her, but then yells at the tribe to get back to work. He explains that they are constructing a giant golem that will act as a village defense mechanism, and destroy anything that moves. Tom is consumed with the fear of losing anyone close to him ever again but Jo responds that what he’s doing is wrong. She tells everyone that it’s not scary out there and that she can teach everyone the skills to survive. The tribe realizes that she is right, and follows her, as Tom pleads with them all to stay.

Overview:

Seeing human civilization, or what is left of it after the Mushroom War, is interesting. The tribe escapes Ooo and its threat of vampires, but the island has potential threats of its own. 

Jo starts out as a fearful character. She was first introduced in the series as a character who was saved by Marceline, but now she is slowly proving to have strength of her own. She wants to survive, and she wants to be safe. The outside world, or the potential threat the outside world imposes, terrifies her to the bone. Even when a safe village is constructed, and she is surrounded by people that care for her, she is still unadventurous. 

While Jo lacks confidence and remains fearful, her channeling Marceline as a symbol of strength motivates her. On her own, she cannot rely on anyone else for protection and has to forge forward on her own. Instead of giving up, she learns how to handle herself, until the things that scared her before are no longer as terrifying. She is able to confront her fears and discovers that it is possible to coexist with nature. 

A direct contrast to Jo is Tom, who starts out working for the greater good. He also wants everyone to be safe, but his tactic is to keep the people he cares about separated from the outside world. He is willing to destroy anything that he perceives to be a threat. He does not want to confront the outside world, so he lives in continuous fear. 

The animal hats that the tribe wears are all herbivores, creatures that are in constant fear of being attacked by something more powerful. They symbolize the fear that lies within them all. In the end, Jo finds the courage to shed her rabbit hat, but Tom fails to shed his. It is unclear what will happen next, but hopefully, the Islands miniseries will shed some light on Jo’s story. We are left with the hope that Jo, and people like her, who find the strength to embrace the outside world, have a fair chance at surviving.