Hopefully next games they can afford an actual pommel horse.
Free Comic Book 2015: All Ages
Dark Horse Comics (May, 2015)
ASSISTANT EDITORS: Ian Tucker & Roxy Polk
EDITORS: Dave Marshall, Philip K. Simon, and Brendan Wright (also designer credit)
Avatar: The Last Airbender: “Sisters”
WRITER: Gene Luen Yang
ARTIST: Carla Speed McNeil (also cover art)
COLORIST: Jenn Manley Lee (also cover art)
LETTERER: Michael Hesiler
Plants Vs. Zombies: “The Curse Of The Flower Bot”
WRITER: Paul Tobin
ARTIST: Ron Chan
COLORIST: Matthew J. Rainwater
LETTERER: Steve Dutro
Bandette: “House Of The Green Mask”
WRITER: Paul Tobin
ARTIST: Colleen Coover
In our first story Ty Lee is not feeling as fulfilled as she thought she would with the Kyoshi Warriors and is considering quitting. To cheer her up, Toph takes her to a circus, which turns out to be her old circus, where her identical sisters have started performing. This reminds Lee why she feels out with the Kyoshi…wanted to stand out apart from others. However, she and her sisters, with some help from Toph, keep the circus from being burned down by extortionists, which makes her see the value of their similarity. Plus with the warriors she can occasionally take off the make-up and be herself.
Ty Lee is one of my favorite characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender. She’s fun but only helped Azula because they were friends. So she gets to have the spotlight in this story, which funny enough is about learning she doesn’t have to always stand out. It’s understandable being one of a group of identical septuplets so alike even their parents couldn’t tell them apart all the time. It’s a good outing for her, but how did Toph know the ringmaster had a twirly mustache? Was it so prominent she could feel it through his body?
Okay, all I know about Plants Vs. Zombies is that it’s based on a sort of tower defense mobile game or something. And yet I can at least still follow what’s going on. A smart zombie (rarity) wants to see what inventions the story’s human foes are up to, but this is a game where plants fight zombies so his solution is to use a plant robot to get into the shed. The plan backfires when the robot sees all the inventions, falls in love, and switches sides. It’s a fun story and I know enough about what’s going on to enjoy it despite having no connection to the games or the comics this comes from.
The Bandette story doesn’t use the same name as the cover does, going with “Theft At The Theater” instead. This at least I’ve read a bit of before. This one finds her dealing with a pair of assassins while setting up a theft at an art museum. A jewel is on display during a movie showing, so Bandette gets her friend Daniel to set up the theft. Only it’s not the jewel she wants, it’s the movie to share with her friends. Outside of being a bunch of dignitaries I’m not sure who the supposed baddie is but the fact that she wants the rare movie instead of the rare jewel because time with the people she cares about is more important that the rare gem is sweet in a twisted sort of way. I thought it was cute.
Overall this was a fun set of stories, and they were stand-alone stories (I don’t know if they were reprinted or original) rather than teasers so for a Free Comic Book Day sampler it’s what I expect and don’t always get.
BW Media Spotlight 