Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake: Card Wars Review

Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake: Card Wars

Writer: Jen Wang
Penciller & Letterer: Britt Wilson
Inker & Colourist: Rian Sygh
Editor: Shannon Watters
Publisher: Kaboom Studios

A review by Amelia Wellman

Adventure Time’s favourite gender-bent duo is back with an all new caper in Card Wars! Cake can’t be beat at Card Wars and Fionna… is really tired of getting beaten! When Fionna takes her to the Ultimate Game Time Club to get her hooked up with some other players, they come upon a moderately hurt but super dramatic Lumpy Space Prince. He was the greatest Card Wars player in the land of Ooo until a hooded figured flooped him out of his championship place! Now it’s up to Cake to rise to the top of the Card Wars Tournament and bet the mysterious flooper!

Like all the Adventure Time side series comics that have come before, Card Wars is a six issue story that’s separate from what’s happening in the main Adventure Time comic. They cover side characters that don’t get much time in the main comic or the television show, like the Banana Guard, or Marceline the Vampire Queen, or Peppermint Butler. A fan favourite has always been the gender flipped land of Ooo where everything is exactly the same except everyone is the opposite gender and it’s the Ice King’s fanfiction. The story is light and fun with action and funny dialogue. Adventure Time always makes me laugh and Fionna and Cake are no exception!

The art in Adventure Time comics is always bright and cartoony like the show. It’s fairly simplistic but still very expressive. Wilson has a style that’s a little rough around the edges (in a few spots) but Sygh balances it out with very neat and clean colours.

There are some things that I’ve only ever come upon in the Adventure Time comics in terms of art. One thing is portraying movement through multiple character models layered over one another. An example of this is when Cake is vehemently nodding and it’s shown all in one panel just by having her face drawn three times, one atop the next. The second thing is having an emotion portrayed on a character’s face by just writing the word. It happens when Prince Gumball makes Fionna blush and her face goes blank expect for the word ‘blush’. They’re some bizarre choices, but by no means terrible ones. It’s so super cute and really charming to see the art take such unexpected routes.

The Verdict
Buy it! Fionna and Cake get into adventures just as epic as their male, non-fanfiction counterparts Finn and Jake and the side series comics that Adventure Time does are always a fun little diversion!