Epic Fail

February 15, 2016
Ninja tea ceremony: hot tea, sweet cakes, terrified screams, certain death.... Bumbling ninja buddies Joey and Johnny and their female friend (and rival) Peoni return for a second epic adventure (Get Mooned, 2015). After destroying the training arena at Kick Foot Academy, where they study, the boys have spent the summer rebuilding it (poorly). Just as the ribbon's cut and frightening headmaster FangSwan tests the construction's reliability with the weight of adorable kittens, the whole thing's destroyed by dragons. Battle ensues! But wait...the dragons have just returned with wayward star student Brad; destruction + bloodshed = unfortunate misunderstandings. But when Peoni's tasked with performing the tea ceremony (in which one misstep means horrid death), Joey and Johnny can't let her do it alone...even if she wants to. Unfortunately, evil Scar EyeFace's intent on their demise, as are dimension-hopping pirates, mobile trees, and assorted woodland fauna. Serwacki and Pallace serve up a plump feast of foolishness that could have used some trimming; aside from the aforementioned, their ninjas tangle or hang with superheroes, probable witches, and vengeful ghosts. The prose seems to aspire to Pratchett but gets a bit lost in convolutions. Still, there's many a good giggle for fans. Final abundant art and one comic-strip sequence not seen. An open end promises more martial arts mischief in Volume 3...it's hard to imagine what trope's yet untapped, though. (Adventure. 9-12)

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