Comic Review: Adventure Time – Best of Buds #2

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Finn and Jake’s quest for Billy is diverted by helping a poet court a misty woman.

OUR TAKE

The new Adventure Time comic continues! And also kinda goes off the rails as Finn and Jake go on a side quest that is pretty much completely unrelated to what they started doing last issue. The adventure itself, helping a poet fight a dangerous mist only said mist to turn out to be who he is courting, would probably be what you would expect from your average Adventure Time episode from the first three seasons or so. But while an average Adventure Time episode would have neat animation to fall back on, having it in comic form is considerably less impressive. Which may be why they bring in recognizable faces like Finn and Jake’s pie throwing robot son Neptr, fire imp Flambo, and one time Finn love interest Flame Princess. So basically we are full on confirming that this is a totally different continuity than the original show since, in addition to what’s going on with Billy and Enchiridion, these character definitely don’t show up until later, especially not Flame Princess, but maybe this is more of a sign that the writers of this feel like using these things and characters in their own way by bringing some upfront and saving others for later.

The result, however, just end up leading to a kind of bland issue for the series, which a second issue really shouldn’t be. Having low stakes self-contained issues is totally fine, especially in a world so typically laid back like Adventure Time is known for being. But for this first arc, I really think they need to keep up a momentum so that existing and new fans will be encouraged to keep reading month after month for more reason than that these are Adventure Time comics. And heck, as mentioned, this has so little to do with the mission Finn and Jake were given last issue, but there are two more issues in this story arc going by the page number of the eventually to be released trade paperback. So hopefully the remaining two issues of the arc more on the plot at hand or this may be a rather short reboot! The end of this issue hints more that next time will focus more on Billy and being tempted by the Lich, something that I’m not sure actually happened in the show itself, but it would be a neat twist! Or maybe it’s a fake out, who knows.