Adventure Time’s Marcy & Simon #1 Is Wholesome Content

Adventure Time Presents: Marcy & Simon #1

BOOM! Studios / KaBOOM!
Slimm Fabert (artist), Mike Fiorentino (letters), SJ Miller (colors), Olivia Olson (writer)
January 16, 2019

When the Adventure Time team announced that they were going to release a six-part miniseries about Simon Petrikov and how he’s been handling being himself again after a thousand years as the mind-scrambled Ice King, I was so excited! (So excited, in fact, that I couldn’t even wait for it to come out to start speculating about it.)

Cover for Adventure Time Presents: Marcy & Simon BOOM! Studios Slimm Fabert (artist), Mike Fiorentino (letters), SJ Miller (colors), Olivia Olson (writer) January 16, 2019 - Marceline leads Simon through an icy hallway, while the ice reflects images of young Marcy and Simon as well as the angry Ice King

The advertised plot of Adventure Time Presents: Marcy & Simon is that Simon feels guilty for his time as the Ice King and the trouble he caused for so many (so many) of the citizens of Ooo—and he wants to make it up to people however he can. It’s a cute and wholesome premise, and sure enough, the entire comic is pretty cute and wholesome. He embarks on an “Ice King Apology Tour” and humbly asks for forgiveness from those he’s wronged, who are, to their credit, all very cool about it. His best friend Marcy is with him every step of the way. Seeing the two of them back together is heartwarming and his apology to her made me cry. The rest of the apology tour is full of cute references and throwbacks to specific episodes, which also make great Easter Eggs for big fans of the show. (But, I’m sad to report, no Neptr!) It’s always great to see a writer in the comics who clearly loves the show deeply! Olivia Olson, famous for being Marceline’s voice actor, obviously falls into that category.

Panel from Adventure Time Presents: Marcy & Simon BOOM! Studios Slimm Fabert (artist), Mike Fiorentino (letters), SJ Miller (colors), Olivia Olson (writer) January 16, 2019 - A poster for the Ice King Apology Tour stuck to a tree

Overall, it’s fairly lighthearted, in a way I like! But the whole thing is also a selfless act on Simon’s part, since the influence of the Ice King also caused him a lot of suffering over the years. He goes into his feelings of guilt and what it was like being cursed in the philosophical yet touching way that is often a hallmark of Adventure Time.

There were also aspects of the story that gave me some very distinct Trans Feels™—the way Simon talked about Ice King in the third person, his friends starting to call him by the wrong name and then quickly correcting themselves, his anxieties that people wouldn’t accept him as Simon after knowing him as Ice King even after being reassured that they would. It’s not a story about trans issues by any means, but it made me feel seen as a trans person, and I have to speculate that it’s not a coincidence, seeing as artist Slimm Fabert is a trans man (which also makes me feel seen).

Panel for Adventure Time Presents: Marcy & Simon BOOM! Studios Slimm Fabert (artist), Mike Fiorentino (letters), SJ Miller (colors), Olivia Olson (writer) January 16, 2019 - Simon and Marceline look out over a hill to a few balloons drifting away into the air, as Simon comments that it's time for him to right his wrongs and move on from the past

It seems like by the end of the first issue, the Apology Tour is almost over and new problems are presenting themselves. The setup for the rest of the arc seems to be about Simon’s memories—he’s still having trouble with them, even after he was cured of the crown’s influence. I’m not sure how to feel about immediately jumping into another sad story after I’ve spent so much time being sad about Simon’s backstory while it unfolded on the Adventure Time cartoon. The guy deserves a break! But I’m certainly withholding judgement until I see where the comic goes.

The mix of wholesome content, gags and feels is all very Adventure Time, and so is the art. It’s simple, with thick lines and solid colors. It was slightly off-putting to me at first—not because it’s not very cute, which it is, but just because it’s so much different and more straightforward than the art in the main comic arc, which really has its own distinct style. But after I got used to it, I found myself with a real appreciation for it and the way it resembles the art style of early episodes of the show. It feels like a throwback in a really good way.

Basically, I’m just so glob-darned excited to have five more whole issues all about my favorite Adventure Time characters, I can’t wait to see what else this miniseries has in store for us!

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Jameson Alea

Jameson Alea

Jamey is a non-binary adventurer from Buffalo, NY who wishes they were immortal so they’d have time to visit every coffee shop in the world. They write code, like plants, record podcasts, categorize zines and read tarot cards. Ask them about Star Wars or Vampire: the Masquerade if you dare.

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