Comic Review: Adventure Time #13-14
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Magic Man escapes his interrogation and lets loose a swarm of demon bugs, forcing Marceline to have a very reluctant family reunion. Finn, Jake, and Bubblegum work to defend the Candy Kingdom from the swarm, while Betty returns from Mars to try and free Simon from the Ice Crown.
OUR TAKE
It’s the beginning of a brand new arc “The Test of Heroes”!…that feels just like the continuation of the previous one. Well, there’s a reason for that, as the end of this arc, Issue #16, will be the end of Nick Winn’s run, as he’s been writing this comic since it started. No word yet on who will be replacing him, as the solicitations for September only show the continuation of the Adventure Time Quadruple Feature and a special Halloween issue, but we’ll probably know before too long what’s happening with this ongoing and if it will indeed continue to be ongoing. In the meantime, these first two issues definitely feel like a culmination of the twelve we saw before, as the art is most definitely improved from last time, and components from the other three arcs start coming together. The main thing from the first arc is really just Computer Princess, but Ravine, Billy’s daughter, has clearly gotten the adventuring bug, sneaking out after her parents are asleep to join the fun. And as for things from the second arc, we see The Lich, having survived his battle with Finn and Jake, making it to Prismo (who I guess is making his first appearance in this comic?) and getting to make his wish. In the show, it was for “the extinction of all life”, but here he wishes to “defeat every lich in the universe”. Not every lich in EVERY universe, just this one.
I guess we’ll see how that works out and/or backfires on him in the remaining two issues, but based on the covers for those, where The Lich is, Golb can’t be too far behind. And that’s not even the only things going on, as Betty, who was revealed alive at the end of the last arc (though show watchers likely expected this awhile ago if they were reading this comic), decides to take matters into her own hands and use the magic she’s obtained to finally pull Simon out of the fog of the Ice King, bringing him to a sort of half and half form. This does sort of pay off the subplot in the last arc of Marceline trying to get through to him, but it really pales in comparison to how the show took several seasons to do so, mainly due to how it’s only been a handful of issues since then. Maybe this Betty will have the same fate as her show counterpart and become one with Golb to fully free Simon? Even if she does, it’s not going to have even a percentage of the same impact, which I guess is the underlying limitation of this series in the first place. Still, I’m interested to see where things will end up by the sixteenth issue, and we’ll find out that in a matter of months! Oh, and Marceline meets a young vampire named Dion who is probably her brother, but we’ll get into that next time when it’s likely more relevant.
