So, Muppet Robin Hood ended last month, and this Wednesday sees the release of Muppet Peter Pan #1, written by Grace Randolph and drawn by Amy Mebberson. While Robin Hood had its moments, it didn't convince me that two Muppet comics per month are really necessary... I would have been satisfied with continued "adaptation" comics, but I wasn't exactly dancing jigs of excitement in my bathtub in anticipation for each new issue.
But Muppet Peter Pan? Now this is a good Muppet adaptation comic. First of all, there's the art. Amy Mebberson's renditions of the Muppet characters look just like the Muppets, but they're so expressive you can practically hear the tone of the puppeteers' voices. If you've been merely tolerating the cartoony art of The Muppet Show Comic Book and the messy art of Muppet Robin Hood while staring out the window dreaming of a Muppet comic with on-model Muppets, your wait is over. Just check out Sam the Eagle on the first page:
It looks just like Sam! Of course, the writing is important too, and I have no complaints with Grace Randolph's script this issue. I guess I could complain about the fact that Sam here is obsessed with American patriotism, when that was only one aspect of his character on The Muppet Show, but then I would be a Big Fat Complaining Guy. This comic's version of Sam feels like our favorite bald eagle. And all the other characters feel like themselves too, even Bean Bunny, who joins Janice and Scooter as the Darling children who get to meet Peter Pan.
Speaking of which, one of my favorite things about all the Muppet comics is that we get to see obscure and semi-to-completely forgotten characters have a moment in the spotlight. Bean's a funny character who really hasn't gotten to do much in the last, oh... 20 years of Muppet productions.
Kermit is Peter Pan, of course, and Piggy is his fairy sidekick Piggytink. I can't say I'm intimately familiar with the original Peter Pan book (or play? It was a play first, right?) so I don't know how closely the Peter Pan "origin story " in this issue follows what was in the book, but I've never seen any other version of Peter Pan that presented the first meeting of Peter and Tink, so it's cool to see it here.
A question we ask a lot around here whenever there's a new Muppet thing is: "Is Piggy Piggy?" It's been so tricky for recent writers to get her right, but she sounds just like herself here, even if she is a fairy. She gets a little cranky at one point, but she's not just cranky. And she looks purty.
I can't help but compare this thing to Muppet Robin Hood, and here's what I've come up with: Whereas Muppet Robin Hood felt like a retelling of the Robin Hood story with Muppet characters crammed into all the roles, Muppet Peter Pan feels more like the Muppets we know and love putting on a performance of the Peter Pan story. Does that make sense?So, yeah. Read Muppet Peter Pan and you will believe a frog can fly.
Now scroll down or click this link to read Joe Hennes's review of this week's other Muppet comic book, The Muppet Show Comic Book: The Treasure of Peg-leg Wilson #3. And click here to fly to the Never-Swamp on the Tough Pigs forum!
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