Steve Ray Archives Vol VI - 'Adventure Time: Vol. Two' Review

ADVENTURE TIME VOLUME TWO- MORE TIME FOR ADVENTURE!

Sunday, September 22, 2013 at 8:33PM

Adventure Time – Vol. 2

Written by Ryan North

Art by Shelli Parline, Braden Lamb and Mike Holmes

Published by KaBOOM! Studios and Titan Comics

Review by Steve J. Ray

I reeeaaallly love this job.

I get sent lovely, shiny new books, read them and tell the world how lovely they are.

Yes, infrequently I get given one I don’t like that much but, on the whole, the wonderful Frequency Liberators know precisely where my levels of insanity are at and send me the good stuff what I like. Sometimes they throw me a curve ball and give me extremely yummy stuff that I had no idea that I would like and end up absolutely loving it!

Such was the case with Adventure Time, an specific taste that I am overjoyed to have acquired. I have had the honour and pleasure of reviewing both Vol. 1 of Adventure Time and the recently expanded Mathematical Edition of said volume, so it seems that my aforementioned masters of liberating all frequencies have deemed me worthy of also perusing and digesting Vol. 2.

Yay! Woop Woop! And various other cries of joy!

In short, this book is fab.

It collects issues 5-9 of the comic series and tells the mind bogglingly mathematical tales of Finn (The Last Human) and Jake (The rubbery shapeshifting warrior pooch)’s adventures in time and also introduces us to Tim.

I like Tim.

The book begins when B-Mo the living computer / sentient gameboy / Ooo’s resident techno genius wants peace and quiet to build Finn and Jake a surprise present. As most of you may well be aware there is never peace and / or quiet anywhere that has a Finn or a Jake in it. Promising them a reward if they succeed in a quest B-Mo sends off our heroes to walk as far as they can in a straight line, without veering off course.

Sounds simple, right? Remember that this is Finn and Jake.

Yes, our heroes get involved in a monster fighting, world exploring, Tim meeting adventure of truly mathematical proportions. They discover brand new lands, brand new friends, brand new enemies and brand new ways of overcoming things that stop you going in a straight line.

Did I mention Tim? I like Tim.

Needless to say, days are saved and heroic deeds are accomplished by the time our fun loving freedom fighters return home. They get back safely and B-Mo finishes his surprise... That’s where the trouble really starts.

While all this has been going on Princess Bubblegum, ruler of the Candy Kingdom, science wiz and all-round sweetie has created a fully-fledged, fully functional time machine... That’s where the trouble carries on happening with no signs of slowing down.

What ensues is a rip-roaring, time-bending, robot battling, mind crunching, cross-eyed inducing adventure with a capital ‘A’! Time travel stories can go from the fun of Star Trek IV, Austin Powers and the Back To The Future movies, to the terror and thrills of the Terminator films, to the all of the above of Doctor Who and the OMG WTF of The Time Traveller’s Wife and / or Peggy Sue Got Married. Some people like and understand time travel stories, others just go boss eyed and stay that way.

If you get nothing else out of this book (except a new found love and appreciation for Tim) you will get a tale of time travel that you will fully understand. In this book Ryan North has (finally?!?) created an explanation of time travel that makes perfect sense.

Perfect sense, time travel and Adventure Time are not things you would ever expect to see hand in hand. In this book not only are they hand in hand, they’re deeply committed to each other and picking out curtains together.

This volume of Adventure Time is every bit as bonkers as the TV series which inspired it and probably even better than Vol. 1. That’s about as high a level of praise that I can bestow on a graphic novel. Once again it is very easily accessible and you don’t need to know these characters coming in, you’ll fall in love with them like everyone does. Having said that, if you have seen the show and read the previous volume you will get more out of it, as a reward for being a faithful Ooovian.

So my friends; sharpen your swords, eat your burritos and prepare to set forth on a journey down multiple legs of the trousers of time. Get ready to see incredible sights, have pulse pounding adventures, face great peril and meet new friends.

Did I mention Tim? I like Tim... Adventure Tim!

(Article originally published on the Liberation Frequency website on September 22nd 2013)