Comic Review: Adventure Time #5

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Finn and Jake return to the Computer Kingdom to finally meet Billy, but meet a robotic duplicate of him made by Computer Princess long ago, and learn of her connection to the legendary hero and the troubled past of Ooo.

OUR TAKE

After two months off (and an announced College AU comic about Bubblegum and Marceline that has been delayed not once but TWICE), the new Adventure Time comic series returns with the beginning of a new arc: “Friends to the End”, which is apparently meant to be a new jumping on point. Now, if you think it’s odd that the fifth issue would be a jumping on point so close after the first…you would be correct. If you ALSO happen to think that “Friends to the End” sounds oddly similar as a phrase to “Best Buddies”, the first arc that covered the first four issues, you would ALSO be correct. Especially since Best Buddies did not really have a conclusion, leads directly into this new arc, and has the same objectives, motivations, and relevant central characters, making me wonder why they are even changing the name to a similar sounding title when THIS IS STILL THE SAME ARC. But okay, now we seem to be at least getting back on track, as Finn acknowledges that they’ve been way too distracted on this quest, and we finally get the guys to meet Billy!


…EXCEPT, no they don’t, he’s a robot made by Computer Princess, who gets a bunch of lore attached to her about how she helped Billy fight the Lich long ago with the help of his robotic double, as well as her apparently having made a bunch of robotic doubles of several of the main characters, including Finn. And on top of that, Finn’s anxieties about becoming a hero and barreling ahead towards danger are really starting to worry Jake, not helped by the fact that Finn lost his arm last issue and is trying to just shrug it off for the time being. He and Jake have an argument, Finn storms off with his own robot double, finds the Lich in Billy’s cave and is very easily coerced into letting the Lich free and getting possessed. And WOW did things escalate rather quickly there, with it looking like it will only get crazier when Jake puts on Robot Ice King’s hat to try and make use of its wish granting abilities, and solicitations for future issues mention Golb, the show’s EMBODIMENT OF CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION, is getting involved. I know I was complaining a bit that things weren’t progressing but this seems like a lot very quickly! And I guess we’ll see how it all keeps building up in October! Hopefully with that Bubbiline comic too!