#allowing easier travel between the worlds because of some kind of convenient plot device

[kingdomoftyto]

Rotating Simon Petrikov in my mind again...........

Right now I can only envision the F&C series ending in one of two ways for him:

Simon is persuaded to permanently move to Fionna's magic-free world--a chance to live the peaceful, scholarly life he was denied by the war and the Crown. We see that he can't relate to the humans in Ooo because they're so far removed from what humans were like back in his time that they might as well be aliens, but this alternate world would be just like he remembered his old life to be, and thus more comfortable for him to settle down in. Even if it meant leaving Marceline and the others behind in Ooo, I could see this being a real possibility if Betty somehow finds a way to go with him. It would require moving on irrevocably from one part of his life, but they'd get their simple, mundane--yet happy--ending.

Simon is forced to reconcile with the fact that reuniting with Betty is either impossible or not worth some terrible price. Maybe he realizes he's not willing to cut himself off from his Marceline and the little ragtag family they've built, even for a life with Betty. Or maybe accepting the mundane life for himself would also doom Fionna and Cake to a life of misery and broken dreams, and he can't bring himself to betray his new friends for such a selfish reward. Either way the result is that he returns to Ooo, to basically the same situation he was in at the start of the season, but finally free from all the regret and guilt and grief that was stopping him from moving forward and finally embracing the second chance that Betty gave him back in "Come Along with Me".

I honestly don't know which I think is more likely at this point OR necessarily which one I would prefer, because they both have pros and cons. I maybe lean toward the second one because I tend to hate "the magic is gone, and that's good!"-type endings, but depending on the buildup I could still see it working. Ultimately it'll depend on wherever Fionna and Cake themselves end up, and I have NO idea where that's going lmao

[inhumansforever]

The Inhumans: Once and Future Kings #3 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

The creative team of Christopher Priest and Phil Noto offer up the third installment of this tale from the younger days of the Royal Family.  Short recap and review following the jump.

As with the first two issues, whole lot takes place in this third issue.  A lot goes down with a lot of quick cuts, scene shifts and flashbacks.  While this works quite well for the tenor of the tale that Priest and Noto offer up, it does makes recapping the matter rather difficult.  Rather than trying to fumble through all that happens in the order it is told in the issue, I’ll going to opt for the lazier/easier approach of utilizing a bullet point rundown.  

Black Bolt, Maximus and Medusa are still hiding out in the human world, convinced by the mysterious Alpha named Elisha that returning to Attilan would result in their being killed by the stewardship king, The Living Terrigen, as part of his ambition to become the permanent king.  The young Royals are being offered assistance by Elisha’s benefactor, Bentley Whitman.

The young Royals had traveled to Manhattan by way of a puppy-aged Lockjaw, whose teleporting powers had allowed them to escape.  Medusa’s sister, Crystal, finally gets some lines in the series as she searches Attilan looking for her seemingly lost puppy.

Crystal encounters her cousin, Gorgon, recently promoted by the stewardship king to act as his viceroy.  Crystal informs Gorgon that her sister has likely fled Attilan because The Living Terrigen had made an ovation toward her to make her his queen.   

Back on earth, Whitman has taken Black Bolt and Maximus to an empty field near the airport where Black Bolt attempts to learn to use a device Whitman has constructed that will allow him to utilize his sonic powers with greater control and precision.  Oddly enough, Whitman has set up cardboard cut-outs of the Fantastic Four for young Black Bolt to aim at.  

Maximus, feeling a touch overwhelmed by the whales of the various airplanes landing and taking off, continues to struggle with his ambivalence over whether or not he should take his antipsychotic medications.  Not taking the medicine would cause his ‘madness’ to return; yet taking them forces him to grapple with the terrible feelings of guilt over his role in the accident that caused the death of his parents’ death.  Perhaps feeling need to keep his wits about him, Maximus ultimately opts to take the medication.  

Elsewhere, Young Karnak has also traveled to Manhattan along with Kadlec The Seeker in an effort to find and return the young Royals.  Yet Karnak had plans of his own and had attacked and escaped the Seeker, venturing out on his own.  His true goal is to discover the whereabouts of his lost younger brother, Triton.   Karnak recalls a flashback of  time where he and his brother were carefree preadolescents playing and exchanging insults.  The two had picked a fight with some of the children of the lower caste and were being chased.  So to escape, Karnak and Triton leapt from the cliffs of the Attilan into the ocean.  It turned out that Triton had never learned to swim and his brother had to save him from drowning (an ironic revelation in that Triton was destined to be transformed into an aquatic being by way of Terrigenesis).  

Karnak’s recollections continue and the flashbacks show him as an irascible youngster who very much disagrees with the cultural traditions of Attilan.  He sees the passage of Terrigenesis as a barbaric practice of mutilation; a high risk gamble where parents force their children to endure the chaotic happenstance of mutagenic transformation.  His parents do not agree, they have faith in their ways, believing that eugenic crafting of bloodlines through arrange marriages will result in beneficial transformations.  Yet Karnak’s point appears proven when his brother emerges from Terrigenesis having been changed into a fishlike being requiring a water based environment to survive.   

Karnak had benefited from his brother’s misfortune.  It had changed his parents’ minds and he was allowed to forego the passage of Terrigenesis.  He awakes from his dwelling in past to find he is still in the labyrinth of sewers and subways below Manhattan.  Somehow he’s managed to get his hands on the script for a low budget sci-fi movie about a seamonster.  This is the same movie that Triton had accidentally become involved with back in the Triton solo tales that were published in the back of The Mighty Thor.  Having rested and with the aid of this script, Karnak continues his desperate journey to rescue his lost brother.  

Back on Attilan, Gorgon reports back to his king what Crystal had told him.  The Living Terrigen explains that it had been a simple matter of misassumption.  He had indeed spoken to young Medusa of the prospect of being queen yet had done so merely to see if she might prove a suitable mate for Black Bolt when he is to take the throne.  

Crystal continues to call out for her missing dog and the Lockjaw heightened awareness allows him to sense it all the off in New York.  Feeling Crystal’s distress, the pup teleports away to be with her.  

Hiding out in Whitman’s penthouse, Medusa is irritated that she has been left behind while Black Bolt and Maximus practice and strategize.  She ruminates aloud over the inequities and hypocrisies of gender roles; lamenting how the men in her life stare at her with lust, want to possess her, propose to cherish her while denying her power and keeping her confined.  Elisha sits by, eating ice-cream and suggests that it all has to do with the pheromones her body exudes.  …that and her hair.  He calls her ‘jail bait’ ohmygod.

For reasons unexplained, Elisha is immune to Medusa’s charms.  Perhaps it is a product of his being rendered a sexless drone by the slave engine; maybe he’s gay; or perhaps Medusa just isn’t his type.  Whatever the case, Elisha is able to see Medusa as an individual unencumbered by lust or desire.  Which is too bad in that Medusa’s own prejudices toward the Alpha disables her from being able to see or accept the commiseration he offers.  It’s a rich irony that Medusa can go from complaining about the sexism she experiences whilst being blind to her own racism toward Elisha.  Although the irony is not lost on Elisha.  It’s really quite a stirring scene.  

Elsewhere, Kaldec the Seeker continues his pursuit of the errant Royals.  Here we learn three important features about the Inhumans of Attilan: one they refer to cars as ‘conveniences;’ two, cars are not well suited for their large, ostentatious headgears...

 and three, they have no idea how to drive.   

Maximus and Black Bolt return with Whitman from their practice session (with a quick cameo from Paste Pot Pete the Trapster as Whitman’s chauffeur).  Black Bolt is able to us Whitman’s device to speak aloud and he expresses impatience over returning to Attilan so that he might utilize his more controlled powers to take out the Living Terrigen and rightfully claim the throne.   He is additionally suspicious over Whitman’s insistence that he accompany them.   Whitman has stated that he wishes to ensure the Living Terrigen is defeated so that the human world would be made safe from the slave engine.  While this intention seems nobel, us readers have the foresight of knowing Whitman is actually the super villain known as The Wizard… that he likely has some sinister ulterior motives in pocket.  And Black Bolt seems able to sense the matter.  

Before they can discuss it further, Black Bolt sees something and demands that they stop the convenience (car) immediately.  He gets out and he and his brother see the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man swinging about.  Black Bolt misconstrues Spidey as a fellow Inhuman and the issue ends on this cliffhanger with the next issue promising a team-up between Spidey and these young Royals.  

So that’s what happened in the issue and ,as was the case with previous two issues, Priest and Noto manage to squeeze in a lot of content.  My scattershot effort to relay it all doesn’t give credit to how seamlessly the writing and art spins these disparate vignettes into a smoothly flowing fabric.  It’s quite impressive.  That said, I’ve no idea how the two remaining issues in this series will manage to interconnect and resolve all the disparate plot lines created thus far.  

I don’t want to harp on the matter, yet the persnickety super-fan in me has had kind of a hard time with how significantly the details in this story deviate from preexisting Inhuman continuity.  The most substantial inconsistency being the relative ages between the Royal Inhumans and the heroes of the human world.  It’s confusing that Black Bolt, Maximus and Medusa should all be in their teens while the Fantastic Four is already heroes and Spider-Man is swinging about midtown.  Does this mean that Spidey and Black Bolt are the same age?  That Crystal is a child while her soon-to-be boyfriend, Johnny Storm, is already a young adult?  Of course none of this really matters… it’s just comics after all.  Still, I’ve no idea how this prequel story actually fits into the standardized continuity of the Marvel Universe in general and the Inhumans continuity in specific.   The story is a blast and super fun to read, but the fastidious nerd in me is really riled up by the inconsistencies.  

Oh, and the issue concludes with another fun Lockjaw backup feature by Ryan North and Gustavo Durante. 

This one entails a sandcastle making contest judged over by The Watcher.  Lockjaw confuses Squirrel Girl for an actual squirrel and chess her about, wrecking all of the sand castles the than the one built by Black Bot and Medusa, resulting in the two winning the contest.  Good dog!

Four out of five Lockjaws