The Adventure Time comic books have been an excellent opportunity to delve into some of the show’s delightful secondary characters — like Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, who often have to play a backseat role in favor of Finn and Jake’s adventures. The comic has given these other characters room to spread their wings and shine … so I guess it makes sense that there’d be a new mini-series planned to focus on Adventure Time‘s super-creepy antagonist, the Ice King. After all, his adventures deserve their time in the spotlight too. Maybe.
Adventure Time arcs on the show can be pretty hit-or-miss depending on the writer, but in general, I think the show has done a lot of interesting things with the Ice King. He’s an evil wizard with a penchant for kidnapping women, which may be the oldest possible villain trope in the book — like, maybe even older than books themselves — yet Adventure Time has managed to humanize him. In spite of allowing the viewer to pity the Ice King, it’s always simultaneously made clear throughout the show that his actions are wrong and that he could be making better decisions (in contrast to, say, the presentation of the Riddler on Gotham, who is continually framed as sympathetic in spite of his relentless harassment of a disinterested woman).
So, even though the Ice King is undeniably a jerk, I think his story could be told well, in the right hands. The planned team sounds like they will be more than able to face the challenge: Emily Partridge will be writing the book, with Natalie Andrewson as the artist.
(via LA Times, image via Tumblr)
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