Comics Review: Bart Simpson #90

This is a book full of good and bad. How does the book fare? Find out after the jump!

Spoilers Below

I usually have a clever lead in for the review, but I really have nothing for this. This book has two stories, and one is fun to read, the other made me want to go to sleep. Let’s get this tale of two stories on the road.

In “The Curious Case of Hans Moleman,” Lisa and Bart start out stuck in the old folks home because of Skinner. Skinner declared it, “Listen to Your Grandparent Rant About the Good Old Days” Day, and it is the only thing that can make her dumber. This was a terrible plot hook, and it will only get worse. Lisa finds a book from Grandpa Simpson’s war days, where Hans Moleman is there, and hasn’t aged a day. They go to the Historical Society, and find that there were more moments in history that Hans has been seen in. Lisa is baffled, so the siblings go to Kwik-E-Mart for a Squishee. They return to the old folks home, and they look at who signed him out. They find the person, and they make their way to the Springfield University A/V Club. They are photoshopping Hans into different photos in time, and they call it real life memes. Later, Frink is looking at an excavation site, and he finds a cave painting with cavemen worshipping Hans.

This was just bad. Real life memes make absolutely no sense, because memes are supposed to be internet entertainment. Putting them in real life is just a moronic idea. Oh, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone say that they want Hans as the basis of any Simpsons story? Thankfully, it’s the only one I’ve seen, and the only one I will see. There was nothing internal that made me want to finish the story. Thankfully, there’s a second story.

“The Rebooting” gave us gender-swapped dopplegangers for Bart and Lisa, named Barb and Lee Simpkins. They are the same as Lisa and Bart, but better in every way. Barb is a better skateboarder, prankster, and has a MyPad for her comics. Bart goes to Lisa for help, who initially declines to help. Then Lisa meets Lee, who reads math books for fun, and is that much better than Lisa in the Sax. So, naturally, he gets first sax in the school band. Luckily for Bart and Lisa, the reactor exploded, thanks to an even bigger moron clone of Homer. They kick rocks, and the town is back to normal.

This was a very decent read. Bart and Lisa are thrusted outside of the comfort zones in school,in essence, by Bart and Lisa. They had their niches in the school, but they got up rooted by their reboots. We should get a One-Shot Wonder sometime where we follow the Simpkins on a normal day in their lives. Unfortunately, we would probably need to see the family in more episodes.

That first story just nagged me too much. I felt it was a very lackluster story with no redeeming value. I really liked the second story, however, I wanted to just get the book over with. I can only imagine what mess will be waiting for me with the next issue.