A Few Thoughts on Comics from This Week

Let's start this week with the big favorite: Muppet Peter Pan! Issue Four came out this week and it easily lived up to the promise of the first three issues. Great art? Check. Great story? Check. Heart tugging moment? Check. A moral that's not heavy handed in its delivery? Check. 'Lady and daredevil and hippie in distress!' Kermit Pan is the 'bad guy' only because he's been selfish. He needs to get past that to succeed and help everyone else. Janice remains a main character. Gonzo gets to shine as well. The ending isn't necessarily the ending one might want, but it's the ending that should be there, especially given the theme of the story. Quite simply, this is the Muppet comic that any Muppet fan MUST have. I don't need to explain it as 'it's good once you accept...' or 'it's funny even though...'; this is just flat out good Muppetness.

G-Man Cape Crisis #5 also completes this series. I'm keen to have a kid read this story. It strikes me as the sort of thing that I would have loved as a kid. There's adventure and excitement and some danger but nothing too dangerous. It's funny and the relationship between the super powered brothers is a highlight. Good stuff.

Transformers: Bumblebee #2 was interesting. There's a lot of stealth and intrigue involved in this post 'All Hail Megatron' world and the way things are playing out is interesting. The Autobot and Decepticon factions are largely gone in the fight to survive against the humans that want to capture the remaining Transformers and shut them down. Bumblebee struggling to becoming a leader is a more interesting story than I expected.

Simpsons Comics #162 was surprisingly solid. These comics are generally good but this was more of a 'why wasn't this an episode?' issue than most. 'Take Your Parent to Work Day' leads to Homer and Mr. Burns becoming brothers. Meanwhile, Bart's substitute teacher is Mrs. Skinner, a prank master whom Bart cannot defeat. The issue builds the story well and the final page punchline was completely unexpected but so in character. Good stuff.