Comic Review: Adventure Time “Best of Buds Part Four”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Finn and Jake are taken across the stars to dance battle with a bunch of Jake’s half-siblings against a group of space cats.

OUR TAKE

The “Best of Buds” finally completes its four issue arc with…another completely unrelated story that does not really progress the story at all. Like at the VERY END things slightly progress and it seems like things are going to come full circle, as the quest to find Billy is apparently going to lead them back to Computer Kingdom where this all started. But in between that and the start of this comic is simply a bunch of wacky stuff happening, just like the last issue with the art contest, but at least that played around with the art style and had some clever ideas. This is just being zany for its own sake, along with some references to Jake (in this version) being well aware that his biological father is “a shape-shifting extra-dimensional alien” named Warren Ampersand who bit Jake’s dad Joshua and is the reason Jake has shapeshifting powers. In the show, this was a pretty late in the game revelation for Jake (like FINAL SEASON late), but if this comic is basically making a new timeline like it seems to have been, having that come up earlier isn’t really an issue in and of itself. The issue is that, if you’re a newcomer or novice to Adventure Time, this hefty bit of exposition being casually dropped is gonna be kinda weird, and if you know Adventure Time already, it’s not gonna add much either, especially since it’s mainly to have a justification for a pretty weak story. Yay, Jake has a bunch of new half-siblings that are space dogs, but none of them really have any character that makes them stand out.

And while, as said, we are now moving towards more of the Billy stuff, this was also meant to be the end of this “Best of Buds” opening arc for this new comic series. But as a result, it’s not much of an arc at all, just an issue starting the objective, a second issue that gives this new Finn some character development, and two totally random stories with only tangential connections. I have no idea how the first three issues sold, but I don’t know if this is the way to keep readers. Either have a story arc that builds up, or mostly disconnected self-contained stories…don’t ride the fence so that no one is satisfied either way. That’s not to say the story is over, since even though next month is an AU special starring Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, the regular comic will continue with Issue #5 the following month with the NEW arc of “Friends to the End”, which interviews and press releases promise will serve as a “perfect jumping on point for new readers and a thrilling new mystery for the dedicated fandom”. But why was the jumping on point not at the FIRST ISSUE? Who’s gonna “jump on” at the FIFTH? Well, I guess we’re gonna find out in a couple months. And maybe we’ll cover the high school AU special issue next month. You’ll have to come back to find out!