User blog:Tecku/Tecku Talks: PvZ Official Comics

Hey guys! So, this is gonna be my last post for awhile. It may be one of the last posts I do. I might check in if a big update or new game comes out, but don't count on anything. If you want my opinion on the new PvZ2 mints, they're.. fine. They seem to be fine for new plants, and I would love to experiment with them, but I have no interest in Battlezs.

So, I thought I'd wrap things up by talking about the PvZ offical comic series. This is something that I've kinda wanted to talk about, but it would alway seem to take too long. But if this is gonna be one of the final ones I do, may as well go big! 

Story

The official comics of PvZ takes place in a fictional town of Neighborville. Two kids named Nate and Patrice stumble into a hidden world of plants and zombies fighting for control of the suburbs without anyone in the town ever realizing it. Joining the cause, the two kids set out to help Patrice's uncle Dave and and army of plant defend their town from the zombies and their evil leader Dr. Zomboss. They get into all sorts of misadventures as the war continues on, sharing plenty of laughs and adventure along the way.

Okay, so on the surface, this seems pretty standard. You've got the hidden world noone knows about, two cutout kids getting thrust into a new and fantastic world, and so on. However, there is one main thing about this setup that I'm going to keep coming back to, and its both a praise and a criticism. This world plays very fast and loose with what "normal" is considered to be. For example, the town doesn't know about the plants, and they have to walk around in disguise. But then we see great big random things, like the whole town panicking over whether Dave will be able to finish a giant ice-cream cone, complete with police showing up to set up barriers and give him space.

Now on the one hand, this type of loose rules can be good. It allows the stories to get wacky and creative without having to take time to fix every plot hole that arises. Since we know the world is zany, we can overlook character not recognizing obvious details, or wondering about the consequences of each wacky invention and change that would usually happen. This lends itself into creating great big scenarios like time-travel or the events of Garden Warfare 2 without breaking the narrative.

On the other hand, there are a few problems this creates. First, the story is going for a "hidden" world inside a "normal" one, which doesn't really work when both worlds have the same level of insanity. Now, this can still be done while having both worlds feel crazy. Invader Zim is a great example of this, with its cynical look on humanity while also building up the zanyness of the alien Zim. However, there is a major difference between those two, which bring me to the second problem: how the characters inteact with the world. Invader Zim uses their characters to strengthen the world, while PvZ seems held back by it. We'll get to that later.

The Characters

A lot of my complaints about the comics come from the characters. Well, kinda. The charcters aren't bad, but there are a few issues I have, and a lot of complaints about one of them.

Nate

Nate is one of the two main characters, and is portrayed as a fun-loving, dim-witted, imaginative, hyperactive boy. Now, Nate does manage to be a good character on some levels. He gets along with the plants, and more importantly, he seems to work within the world the comics have laid out. For example, he has stories about times his cell phone got stolen by a monkey, or about how he has run away to circuses multiple times, only to mess everything up, to the point where Patrice actually has to check up on him about it. That's pretty creative, and lends itself well to some jokes.

Hoever, the problem is the Nate isn't given a lot of depth to his motivation, and he can't be taken seriously when supposed to. For example, when the plant moves into their own house, his learning instructions include "ordering pizza" and "prank calls." While his imaginative side is able to be used to his advantage, and he sometimes saves the day with his wacky ideas, they don't give him any sense of control at all. Even comic relief characters need some depth, especially when we're trying to buy that they've been thrust into a unique world. It just feels like he was written this way because "boys be dumb and messy and screwups, and that's the only thing about them, amiright?"

Patrice

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, Patrice is the closest thing the comics have to a "straight man" that the world can bounce off of. She's calm, clean, smart, and keeps the rest of the group on track. And... that's it.

Yeah, the main problem is that Patrice is boring as rice. She's the straight person thrown into a realm of insanity, and she doesn't seem to have any reaction to it. In these stories, you need the normal person to interact with the world uniquely and in an interesting way. Look at Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Wirt from Over the Garden Wall, or Tulip from Infinity Train. Each of them in the normal person in a crazy world, and deals with it in a way that defines their character. Heck, you can even have the normal person still be as insane as the rest of the world, like Dib from Invader Zim. But no, she's just bland, comes up with the plans, and keeps everyone on track because "grils be smart and clean and motherly, and that's the only thing about them, amiright?"

The other main point Patrice serves is to be a translator for Crazy Dave. It's not interesting, and it turns half her lines into exposition. Speaking of which...

Dave

If I could change one thing about this comic, it would be how they handle Crazy Dave. First off, you know how Dave always makes gibberish sounds, but we always know what he's saying? Well, in this version, Dave doesn't talk in a language we can understand. Now, this could be easily fixed by putting in a subtitle dialouge box or by limiting how much of his talk is gibberish, but no. We just make Patrice exposition what's he saying. No more unique dialoug like PvZ2 or GW2, we just hear the main idea of what he said. Instead of hearing his rambles about squirbos or tacos, instead we just hear "Uncle Dave invented a new plant."

Next, the only point Dave seems to have in the stories is to serve as an uncaring, ingorant deus ex machina. Dave doesn't seem to care about what Nate and Patrice need, nor does he intend to help them. He just wanders off to do his own thing, creating something that inerests him, and that thing will just happen to save the day. Nate and Patrice need help? Dave doesn't care. He's off inventing unmeltable ice cream. But it's okay, becuase that ice cream will come back to block Zomboss' heat ray at the end of the story. There's a difference between being crazy and being a jerk. I know for a fact that the Dave from GW2 would at least care about stopping the zombies, even if it's just a side mission to his current desire.

Zomboss

Alright, now this is a character I can get behind. Zomboss is egotistical, he's zany, he's grouchy, he's greedy, and he's so over the top, it's impossible not to love him. This is a guy who is a genius controlling an army of literally mindless zombies, and his frustration with them works out so well. He's a guy who is smart, but can also be impatient and sometimes easily fooled. He's so diabolical, but he just loves what he does, and I just love to hate him.

If I did have a complaint, I'd say they play the egotistical card one time to many. There's a joke where the reward he gives his troops for a job well done is an autographed poster or photo of himself, and they re-use this joke a loooot. I don't mean it's a running gag, and just reused a lot.

Plants

The plants are a lot of fun. They're cute, upbeat, but they can also get into trouble. They have personality, but you can tell they each have their own ones. It's about as could as the comics could have handled them.

Zombies

Also a lot of fun. Dumb, obedient, but its also shown that some of them are smarter than others. It's funny to see them try and handle Zomboss's abusive orders while being too stupid to complain about it.

Final Thoughts

The stories are where the comics shine. A lot of the stories mix suburban adventures with the zany war adventures of the plants and zombies. Road trips get mixed in with overblown contraptions, caves get turned into zombies bases, it's a lot of fun.

However, it's probably a lot more fun for kids than it is for adults. A lot of the enjoyment of the comic supposed to come from the zany ideas, like and ant that can eat a whole pizza, or a glove with tongues on it. This works more for kids that haven't seen other fiction works with such zany ideas. As an adult, you still enjoy the zaniness, but you also want to see how the characters interact and grow in each new setup. If you're a person who loves cartoon zaniness more than anything, you'll like it fine. I just think more could be done with the ideas shown here.

So, I guess this is it. I'll see you guys around!