I’m a huge fan of Adventure Time, but I wasn’t always. Back when it first started, I pegged it as a nonsensical cartoon that only very small children and very high college kids could appreciate. However, when I took the time to watch a bigger chunk of it, and especially when Marceline and Simon’s story and Finn’s past lives became more prominent storylines, I found that I really liked the way they combined a world that was simple, colorful, and a bit wacky with complex backstory, sophisticated character development, and surprisingly thorough world-building. I think that’s why so many people enjoy Adventure Time; it offers a lot in terms of narrative as well as an endearing kind of innocence.
I think that’s really where The Four Castles misses the mark. It tries to have the goofiness/dark narrative combo, but the way that it comes off is kind of stilted and awkward. Writer Josh Trujillo has a solidly Ooo-ish plot: a thief masquerades as the leader of the heroes’ guild in order to trick Finn and Jake to steal some magic items from various citizens of Ooo. Along with this, Finn and Jake are having trouble communicating with each other. This is pretty standard Adventure Time fodder; the season 5 episode Dungeon Train dealt with Finn liking adventuring a bit more than Jake, and Finn learning to balance adventuring time with other hobbies. Other episodes have seen Finn and Jake fight over various disagreements and learn to make up. However, the Finn/Jake dynamic is very shoehorned in amongst the thievery plotline and various other side-plot-ish things, like Marceline singing a song about reputations (I thought the big lesson we were learning was about talking about your feelings?) and Lady Rainicorn going back to graduate school (I don’t even know).
Apart from a crowded storyline that feels like it’s trying to fit in just too much stuff, the ending doesn’t feel organic. Not that all Adventure Time storylines wrap up nicely or even have endings that aren’t complete left turns into the “What Just Happened” kingdom. However, the last fifth of the story suddenly puts Princess Bubblegum into play, with no lead up whatsoever, and seems to be partially setting up a new big bad something to happen. Yet the whole story ends on a bad-joke-and-everyone-laughing sitcom send-up, without resolving much of anything. I also have to go back to the Jake/Finn conflict; it’s the problem that preoccupies most of Finn’s reflections, but the focus of the resolution is the thievery.
Zachary Sterling and Phil Murphy provide illustrations that are very in keeping with Adventure Time style and provide extremely expressive characters throughout the book; the scene where Muscle Princess is putting some of the Candy people through a workout are especially great. However, many of the scenes are focused closely in on characters the entire time, making it difficult to get a sense of place and occasionally difficult to follow the story.
If you really need a Finn and Jake fix, Four Castles may scratch your itch. However, I’m hoping that Trujillo and Murphy’s President Bubblegum, out this Fall, will either follow up on some of this to greater satisfaction or generally get a little more of that real Adventure Time atmosphere.