Adventure Time Issue #'s 15-18
By Ryan North
Issue # 15 starts with Finn using Jake-suit mode to defend citizens of Ooo from Magic Man, who is the only one who can't be hurt by magic, of course. We then go back in time 15 minutes and see Princess Bubblegum is having a tea party. Then Lump Princess goes off on one of her long story tangents and everyone gets a bit annoyed at her continual talking of inconsequential subject matter. Then Magic Man shows up, responding to the last question Lump Princess posits, with Princess Bubblegum calling him out and wanting to know his reasons for crashing her party. When Magic Man starts messing up the party, we see Finn and Jake seated on a hill overlooking the party and Finn wishing he could go, Jake reminding him it was for princesses only. Soon they're talking randomness as usual and then some specifically named elephants appear. Jake is the first to notice there's something wrong happening at the tea party and points it out to Finn. Finn then gets Jake to suit him as they do, for the second time whilst Magic Man is setting the "room" on fire, with puns. A water-filled princess washes the burning princesses and Lump Princess is freaking out. The Magic Man is about to take away Lump Princess' voice when Finn in Jake-suit jumps in to intervene. Finn and Jake fake Lump Princess out by playing dead for a moment when they save her from getting hit by the magic blast, then they realize the magic had affected them after PB asks them if they saw where Magic Man had gone. PB figures out they do still have a way of communicating through pictures and Lump Princess is affected by it's beauty. PB decides the boys can't do anything more for now but wait for the princesses to devise a plan, sending them home until being sent for. Finn and Jake aren't happy about this of course, but they converse pictorially of all the different ways they wished the Magic Man could be dealt with. BMO walks up thinking Finn and Jake are doing emoticons, joining them since announcing his professional abilities in the field. Once going inside, they soon start "talking" of food and once making their "sammitches", BMO joins them with their meal and confides how eating will make him strong, Finn giving him a thumb-up thought cloud, which I deduced as "awesome". After, Finn and Jake go back outside and begin practicing what they'd do to the Magic Man with a stuffed dummy which looks similar. After disagreeing over Finn's fighting skills, he shows Jake what he would do, but the dummy fights back, knocking Finn in the gob. Soon, Finn figures neither of them would be able to take out Magic Man one-on-one, but together, are unstoppable. BMO starts speaking when they were all jumping and saying Adventure Time in signs, he then thinking he broke the no-speaking rule, being horrified. BMO gets the call from PB they're ready to reconvene and soon is asking Finn again if he knows where Magic Man is hiding, he showing her a map in his pictorial speak. When they get to the Magic Man's house, they mistakenly go over the plan outside his door, he overhearing it and deciding he won't give Finn and Jake their voices back, but Lump Princess comes up with another plan and they walk off to discuss it out of earshot. PB approaches with the other princesses, heavily armed and threatening to fire on him unless he gives Finn and Jake their voices back, but Magic Man uses another spell to turn what they're holding into slithery awesomeness, but in the end Magic Man gives their voices back because another princess punches holes in his roof and he'd gone through a lot already to design his home how he pleased. The story ends in an upbeat way, everyone going back to PB's for snacks. The next story starts late at night and Finn and Jake are about to go to sleep, it being one of their busiest days, but "rocked it" and know the next day will probably be the same. Then Jake shows some love after lights out, in a not overly weird way. The next story starts with Finn and Jake questing to save BMO. PB soon reveals she may have caused BMO's defense-mode to turn on for an innocent reason in relation to the party they were going to have later. PB also adds she has a plan to fix the problem, but not without some damage done to BMO's memory files. Jake wants to save his files for personal reasons, but they try PB's plan anyways and they catch BMO as he falls, Jake asking his important question involving his selfish reason for keeping BMO's memory files intact, upset with the answer BMO gives him. This ending the issue, these being as entertaining as ever.
The 16th issue begins with Finn, Jake, and the Ice King facing off in large "war" suits, Jake being Finn's and an Ice penguin being Ice King's, in order to save Lump Princess from Ice prison. The awesome duo smash LSP out of her ice jail when Finn, Jake and the Ice King fall down a crumbling hole in the ground, Finn wondering why Ice King fell, for his ability to fly; it being simple enough to explain since he thought they wanted him along for bonding purposes. The Ice King then realizes he may have built the place they've fallen into with another guy, who Finn recognizes and the Ice King then launches into his back-story; which he doesn't remember the most of other than it was "good times" and then informing the boys it was a dungeon for ultimate heroes to try and get through, with prizes at the end, getting Finn and Jake totally ready to check the place out. Then the Ice King offers his help to get through it, but Finn points out how he isn't a hero, but the Ice King believing otherwise and when Jake asks how he believes he's hero material, the Ice King launches into the idea of how he isn't "kidnapping princesses", but rescuing them. The Ice King is so good at embroidering a tapestry of heroic-ness and making Finn and Jake feel badly for having messed up his plans all the time, they agree to teaming up so Finn can do what he was born for. They start walking and Finn finally has a chance to use some items he carries in his back-pack, when they reach the Ice King's Hall of Just Ice. When Jake opens the door, they fight and easily win an ice sculpture monster. Then they have to fight some eyeballs, after which the Ice Queen is defeated by Ice King, with only a little stick figure creature to escape after years of being a part of the Ice Queen. Then the Ice King bring them down again with talks of not being able to remember things from his past, but distracts them with looking through the Ice floor for treasure, not seeing anything. Finn then sees a huge monster and we end there until the next issue. The next story starts with PB having nothing to do on opposite day, which should mean she should be totes busy, but isn't so far. Then she gets a bit existential before the Ice King pops up and demands she be his bride; and she agrees! He's so surprised, he continues to be sure she's sure and then whisks her off to his Ice palace. PB then is shown on a throne deciding what she wants at the wedding. They make it as far as the vows, but the wedding is started so late, PB is able to take back her agreement as the clock strikes the allotted time. The author of the previous totally gave PB a persona which is nothing like how she is, but the story moved along alright. I'm hoping the next one's better, though. It begins with Finn and Jake being surrounded by ninjas and taken to Ninja Island where they're told how the Ninja princess has been kidnapped by the Ice King. They're given a Ninja Fire manual and go after Ice King, who, once found, kicks the boys butts. Finn and Jake think they've found the Ninja princess, but it turns out to be Gunter. They learn that the Ninja princess had escaped long ago and was unnoticed by her people due to her awesome ninja skills. A weird and pointless, but pretty good mini.
The 17th issue we see Finn still didn't actually see the monster who dwells under the ice, so Ice King uses his ice powers and looks for compliments which aren't forthcoming due to his consistently using them. Finn still doesn't see anything below and they begin walking away, when the monster finally pops up. We see the moniker she is given, comic book-style and then as Finn and Jake fall, Finn comes up with a comfy idea for landing which Jake is in agreement upon; a pretty funny way, considering. They then are ready to fight the monster, but Finn is surprised to discover a chainsaw arm on the beast, which the Ice King believes should have been a normal possibility, but he saves Finn from becoming sushi himself. Unfortunately for Finn, he gets covered in fish guts twice, which he finds upsetting, of course, but Jake reminds him of how his horoscope somehow predicted the happenings. They explore underwater in a usual way and uncover a chest. When they open it, the Ice King pulls out a photo of what must be himself and a lady, which to him was great treasure, but to Finn, was a disappointment. The Ice King then informs them the next dungeon which will be coming up, which Finn is excited to see since it's Marceline's dad's design. Jake does the honor of opening the door to detect Peppermint Butler inside, who has apparently been changed in some way, climbing the walls away from them, but the boys aren't surprised by how Pep-Butts seems to get himself into this kind of situation. He'd started writing a message on a stone which the trio then decide to finish, adding their own style to the dark message. Then they travel through a corridor which closes up behind them, Finn and Jake complimenting the style so much Ice King feels a bit put down by their being underwhelmed by his dungeon. Even more so when they run into the first monster, impressed with its hardcore-ness. So far the two "monsters" they defeat, are both vulture in nature, but in different styles. Finn gets the feeling the dungeon might be too easy again, but Jake feels he's earning the prize when a giant fist from the wall punches him in the face. Which is the beginning of the "boss" monster which knocks out the Ice King, so Finn and Jake begin fighting it, but then Jake gets taken out of the fight. Finn gets mad and takes off his beanie to get down to business, which we don't distinguish the details of until the next issue. The scene after beginning with a recap of the picture of the Ice King and an extension to the message on the back of the frame. The next story starts with Finn and Jake visiting PB's lab, she wanting to ask a favor. She then shows them her silly-string theory device and how she is unsure of the results, which of course fascinate the boys. She asks them to guard the machine whilst she looks up some facts in her library, not wanting sabotage before the science conference. They of course accept, with funny one-liners to boot. Finn becomes hungry and Jake suggests noshing on the string theory experiment, which doesn't take much convincing with the possibility of helping PB's experiment along, but upon blowing a bubble, Finn has changed the innards of the silly string to a universal degree. Jake begins seeing the innards of the bubble becoming populated, when an evil princess smashes through the wall and threatens to mess PB's equipment up, starting with the Bubbleverse. Jake decides to look for help in the Bubbleverse whilst Finn tries to use the weeping blade to defend the orb attached to his face. Then the evil princess gets schooled by her mama, which Finn realizes Jake was actually a Yermamasaurus from inside the Bubbleverse which can shape-shift. The Yermamasaurus also shares with Finn about how he can get the Bubbleverse off his mouth area by doing a Peter Pan, the fairy part, anyways and the Bubbleverse changes; this was an entertaining one.
Issue 18 shows us what Finn had in mind to stop the big 'ole monster who popped up in the last issue. His plan is to slice off parts of the monster, which doesn't do much since it can regenerate limbs. Finn resorts to picking up the guys and trying to wake them up so they can help him, since he seems to be out of ideas. Finn's recourse is to using the Ice King's powers since he realizes he can move him to freeze objects. Finn is then able to revive the Ice King after he freezes the monster, focusing reviving Jake after taking a ribbing when he's unable to speak for being lip-locked with Jake in the kiss-of-life. After the monster is destroyed, they expose the treasure which was inside its body, which also didn't impress them, identifying a strange exit from the dungeon, or possibly an entrance to "Skullberg", as Finn supposes. The Ice King then sets him straight, letting them know it was the entrance to another guy's dungeon, with the name of, Lich Land. Finn wants to rid it of it's evil connection to the Lich, but Ice King advises against it, the boys set on going now. When they enter, Finn is decidedly changed and Jake has some worrying alterations, as well. Jake sniffs out a remnant of the Lich and after destroying it, being evolved into a helmet. Then we see Finn and Jake, again looking different and believing they've been taken back home. We then see Finn has Jake's powers and instead of going back through the door yet, they decide to go after the Lich. Finn uses his Jake powers and it's well taken care of without either of them going far. Then we see where Ice King ends up, which is into a room and his old flame is bound to a wall. He's able to release her easily enough and then we see what's actually going on, the boys didn't seem to go anywhere, but other things were coming in, with them all hallucinating something else. Which will be ended in the next issue. The next story starts with Finn and Jake spying on something and how uneventful it can be, since it's usually the waiting game. Then they see some why-wolves and decide to stop them from turning PB into one of them. They stop them and confess to PB of their counter-espionage, then getting the why-wolves side of the story. It's much more scientific than Finn had expected. The boys are still suspicious though, so even though they're conducting experimental research and then go to a conference, once denied entry they watch from outside what's happening within. It ended with a total criss-cross espionage resulting in a surprise ending. Quite entertaining.
