Adventure Time #12 doesn’t waste any time picking up the story where we left off. Finn, Jake and Ravine are trying to catch Robot Finn and all of the stolen items, while Marceline is trying to convince Ice King to give up his crown and let Marceline help him. Marceline is desperately pleading for Ice King to let her cure him from what the crown has done to him while Ice King slowly grows crazier the longer Marceline is withholding the crown. She’s so desperate to save Ice King, that she contemplates asking her dad for help.
As this is happening with Marceline and Ice King, Finn, Jake, and Ravine are trying to get everything that Robot Finn stole. As the group is trying to catch Robot Finn, Robot Finn is using some sort of green slime to deter them from catching him and it even changes Ravine to be a can of soda. Eventually the two storylines come together in the climax of the story when Marceline ends up running with Ice King’s crown to the beach. Robot Finn steals Ice King’s crown before Robot Finn encases them in a green web. The green web is revealed to be Magic Man, who was using Robot Finn’s body. Princess Bubblegum and her guard question Magic Man while Finn and Marceline share a heartfelt moment about grief before getting back into the swing of being a hero.
One moment that sticks out in this issue is Finn taking what he learned about grief last issue to comfort Marceline who’s struggling to accept the fact that the Simon she knew and loved is long gone. Despite Finn being young and this series being geared towards younger readers, it’s a beautifully written moment that will hit home for a lot of readers, no matter their age. Nick Winn has been doing a phenomenal job lately of having these hard hitting moments in the middle of a fun issue. I enjoyed seeing this small moment of dealing with grief continuing in this issue, and I would love to see how this will develop in later issues with Finn and his arm and Marceline and Simon/Ice King. I would also like to see how other characters deal with grief, such as Jake, who lost his dad.
Outside of the grief moment, the two stories coming together in the climax was bound to happen since the two stories have been happening at the same time, but the way it happened was a little unexpected. Magic Man being behind all the chaos and thievery that Robot Finn has been causing is not surprising and makes sense especially for fans of the show. I wasn’t a fan of Magic Man when I would watch the show, but it’s nice to see that his personality and antics have translated well into a different medium.
The art by Chelsea Akpan looks like it was geared toward a younger audience, but it may be a stylistic choice as the art style has slowly been getting more juvenile and less polished as the “Handbook Heroes!” arc continues. This could be because a plot point of the arc is Finn and Jake making a new handbook for heroes as the Enchiridion has been destroyed, and as they’re creating this book, Finn, Jake and Ravine have been drawing in it more than writing. Specifically Ravine, who is a kid and seems like she’s been drawing in the handbook the most.
“Lemonhope Alone” the mini story at the end has unfortunately come to an end. Lemonhope meets Caffe Latte while singing, who turns out to be the owner of the puppy, wafer, who is following him around to sing. Caffe Latte takes Wafer and Lemonhope back to what looks like the Breakfast Kingdom before Lemonhope leaves as he wants to be left alone to sing.
Lemonhope Alone is a cute mini story which ended the comic on a brighter note and while I’m sad to see it go, hopefully Elizabeth Brei, Cleonique Hilsaca and Heather Breckel will give us another bright and cute mini story soon.
