Adventure Time Season 11 #1
Ted Anderson (writer), Meg Casey (colorist), Marina Julia (artist), Sonny Liew (story)
BOOM! Studios
October 10th, 2018
This review contains spoilers for the Adventure Time finale!
As a long time fan of Adventure Time since season one, the finale last month was a bittersweet event for me. It’s a show that means a lot to me, and even though I was so happy with the way things wrapped up, I felt a profound sense of loss. After being there for me for ten years, I had to come to grips with the fact that it wouldn’t be anymore.
So when it was announced that Adventure Time would continue in comics form, with the new arc being called “Season 11,” I felt both excited and relieved. But I also wasn’t sure what that meant! How much would it actually feel like a new season of the show? How faithful would it be to the continuity? Would it let us see what happened with some of the plot threads opened in the finale? I was so excited about Marceline and Princess Bubblegum getting together and Simon returning, but I also felt slightly cheated that all this great stuff happened right as the show ended, so I couldn’t enjoy what Ooo was like after these changes.
Excitingly, issue #1 is an early indicator that they weren’t kidding about season 11. It takes place right where the finale leaves off and immediately starts exploring those plot threads. After the Candy Kingdom was left in ruins after the war, PB and Marceline are overseeing reconstruction efforts as a couple. Simon is still getting used to being Simon again, and he and Marcy are rejoicing in each other’s company and reminiscing about the old times. It’s heartwarming and exactly what I wanted to see.
But it’s not just finale aftermath, as there’s almost immediately a new adventure to be thrown into! When BMO won’t turn on, Finn and Jake go through a portal to try and save their friend, only to find themselves a thousand years in the future with a pink-haired Marceline who barely remembers them, and her three robotic companions that she claims to have built using her friend BMO’s old parts! Oh no!
As is usual for Adventure Time, the comic is cute and fun, but also interesting and philosophical. It’s a little early to say, but I can feel a theme emerging that revolves around memories and collecting things from the past. Finn and Jake rummage through what they can recover from the remnants of the treehouse. Simon returns Marcy’s spoon from when she was a little girl, and she calls it a relic, and in the future it seems like she’s still searching for any old relics she can find. It ties in perfectly with future BMO from the finale, living on top of Mount Cragdor among their collection of mementos and memories.
Marina Julia’s art is a little different stylistically, both from the show and from most of the previous comics, but it’s extremely cute, and I like it a lot! It’s very colorful, and Meg Casey’s colors are gorgeous, which is important for a franchise like Adventure Time that is so associated with vibrant colors! Noteworthy cute moments include Simon sporting a ponytail and pink-haired Marceline (who I couldn’t help but notice seems to be wearing the same sweater a thousand years in the future that Simon is wearing at the beginning of the comic, which is so cute it makes me weep).
It’s hard to know for sure what the series has in store, but it certainly seems to me like season 11 is going to be a must-read for Adventure Time fans! I’m intrigued by the future that Finn and Jake have stumbled into, but I’m also anxious to see more of modern Ooo and what changes have befallen it in the wake of the war. What will the new Candy Kingdom look like? How will Marceline and Bubblegum’s relationship evolve? Will Simon take on a quest to help Betty? Will the humans make an appearance? Only time will tell!
