Written by Ryan North
Illustrated by Jim Rugg
Colors by Chris O’Neill
Letters by Steve Wands
“Jelly Wars Part Two”
Written by Eric M. Esquivel
Illustrated by Phil Jacobson
Cover by Mike Holmes
Publisher: Kaboom!
Shmowzow! Adventure Time #28 is sadly less than mathematical.
Adventure Time the cartoon is a work of inspired foolishness set within a post-apocalyptic dystopian society. Adventure Time the comic book may have the same setting but it’s foolishness is anything but inspired. Forced would be a more accurate term.
The first story in Adventure Time #28 is a bland Ghostbusters ripoff featuring a group called the Ghost Destroyers. The Ghost Destroyers are summoned by Princess Bubblegum to catch Finn and Jake after they become ghosts. Around the time that the containment unit bursts and all the ghosts previously caught by the Ghost Destroyers escape to wreak havoc, it will become apparent that flipping on Netflix and just watching Ghostbusters would be a better use of time than finishing this book.
If one does slog on they will be treated to a tired cliche of a story in which The Strawberry Jelly Kingdom and the Grape Jelly Empire go to war only to find out that the donut soldiers on both sides are actually filled with custard. We are all the same on the inside, isn’t that nice.
The art for the first story is very flat and looks like someone took early storyboards from the show and just colored them in. It’s apparent that Jim Rugg is attempting to copy the look of the cartoon but the end result ends up looking rather sketchy and unfinished. The art in the second story is slightly better. At least Phil Jacobson managed to draw everything in his own style.
Upon reading the issue unclear whom the market for this comic series is either. Adventure Time’s older fans will find it a bit childish;younger fans will be hung up on exchanges such as “Two point five? But how did you solve the corporeal flux dispersal problem?” “I didn’t! Instead I fed that dispersal back into the phase discriminator!”.
If you are a big enough fan of Finn and Jake that you have to have more than the cartoon to satisfy your Adventure Time needs then you’ll probably be picking this issue up, as well as all the others regardless of reviews. Just don’t expect to read anything as well crafted as the cartoon.