Langridge does a couple really profound things–wait, only one profound thing–the other thing isn’t profound as much as interesting.

I don’t remember a lot of “the Muppet Show,” mostly the movies, so I don’t know if the theater’s history was ever discussed “in canon,” but here Langridge establishes the theater was around before Kermit and the gang, which is something of a crazy idea (just imagine, a prequel series–someone call Hayden Christiansen).

The profound thing is taking Statler and Waldorf out of their balcony seats and sending them home for the night. It’s an incredible moment.

Otherwise, it’s a nice, pleasant issue. There’s lots of funny Muppet Show sketches, there’s the heartwarming conclusion. It’s a fine series.

I think some of the problem just stems from the constraint–it’s about the Muppets doing the show, which cuts into how much dramatic plot points each issue can contain.

I just read this issue and I can’t tell you a thing in it except a Pigs in Space episode–not as funny because Piggy’s not in it–something about Piggy being covered in fake jewels–and a really touching scene with Animal.

The series has been full of touching scenes with Animal. It’s more of a character than I’ve ever seen him, but I’m not entirely sure I read Muppet comics for Animal’s character development. Pretty sure I read them to laugh and, here, Langridge does come up with some impressive writing… only not plotting. The rhyming alone is exceptionally impressive.

I can’t figure out what Langridge’s doing with this issue because it’s nothing like either one before it and it doesn’t exactly raise the drama for the last issue. Instead, he has this flop of an issue. It just doesn’t do anything. There are some smiles, no laughs.

This issue has almost no Muppet Show stuff, as in sketches. Instead, Langridge is developing the Peg-Leg Wilson story. It’s a different, very successful approach (I just expected him to open the series with it). This issue is more akin to one of the Muppet feature films. There’s lots of plot.

There are a couple sketches and both work, but instead Langridge’s asides are just nicely presented single page emphases on certain characters or events (Scooter’s investigation into Kermit or the search of Animal’s replacement).

The issue ends on a strange note, like something’s been resolved, even though it hasn’t (except the Kermit mystery). I wonder if Langridge is going to solve on mystery an issue, though I suppose the Animal changing isn’t actually a mystery.

The best thing about the comic is the nuance. Langridge suggests, never says, Animal is scared he ate one of the stage rats.

Animal’s getting smarter, Rizzo and the rats are digging for treasure in the studio and Kermit’s acting very strange (leather jacket and shades). There’s also a ninja hanging around.

While the series has a subtitle, suggesting a unifying theme (at the least), Langridge is really just doing another Muppet Show comic, with bits from the show interspersed with the behind-the-scenes goings on. It’s all incredibly solid, though the laughs are more in the show bits (for whatever reason, the Pigs in Space sketch is really funny–even though there’s almost no punchline at all).

Langridge gets it, but the idea of a unifying factor–The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson–just distracts. It’s clear the book should be run as a loose ongoing, with the comic format allowing for some brief sketches and so on.

It’s not a fast read and it requires attention, which is pleasantly surprising.

The issue’s a wee bit speedier of a read than I would have liked–it took a heck of lot less than five minutes to read–and it seems like a joining issue anyway. There’s the conclusion to a cliffhanger from the previous issue–Barreto handles the superheroes, Krause handles the Plutonian, which is efficient, sure, but not necessarily the way to make a fluid comic book–but Waid cops out on the Plutonian’s family story.

Spoiler alert–the Plutonian kills his former foster brother and sister and leaves his mentally handicapped foster brother to starve to death. In other words, he’s a really, really terrible piece of shit.

In some ways, it might be the worst thing Waid’s shown him do so far, torturing someone so exaggeratedly helpless. I’ll bet Waid wanted to have him brutally kill a kid and Boom! wouldn’t let him.

Still, it’s way too quick.

Interesting revelation this issue–not the stuff with the Plutonian’s girlfriend and the space alien, which is amusing both comedically and in terms of a character being boiled down to nothing more than a girl who likes bad boys (which works in an episode of “Seinfeld,” but is a little banal in more literary ventures)–rather about the Plutonian’s youth.

Actually, wait, it does relate–besides the squeeze finds out he’s a psychopath and the revelation–Tony “broke” his baby brother–are about the same thing. The Plutonian didn’t just snap, he’s always been a nutcase. It breaks the Superman parallels, quite intentionally, and Waid’s moving Irredeemable onto its own ground more and more each issue.

Unfortunately, regular artist Peter Krause isn’t on the whole issue. Diego Barreto, who isn’t bad, does the first half. He’s serviceable, but the issue feels off visually.

Once again, Waid’s on with this one.

Wow, it’s best issue so far. It’s still a complete piece of crap, but it’s the best issue so far. Why’s it the best issue? I have no idea, maybe I’m just being generous. Maybe the art is a little bit (we’re talking on the microscopic level) better. Or maybe because Waid isn’t having his protagonist giving speeches Sarah Palin would think are stupid?

Speaking of the protagonist, isn’t Max Damage a standard character name for everything? You’d think Boom! would have wanted something they could trademark.

So the big cliffhanger is that Max became a good guy because instead of him killing a bunch of people, the Plutonian did it.

Lame, but about on par with what I’ve come to expect from this comic book.

There isn’t anything to Incorruptible at all, except to see a smaller publisher exploit a property as selfishly as one of the big two.

The series isn’t terrible; it has cute finish. Not a particularly successful one, but a cute one. There’s a lot of goofiness, not just in the narrative but in the handling of it.

For example, when Disney gave Boom! the kids comic license, were they aware Boom! was going to do a page and a half of text with some nonsense about the writer disappearing? It’s supposed to be funny, but it falls flat (a Boom! comic making jokes about bad writing in Hollywood when so many of their projects have been Hollywood-bound properties is just lame).

Speaking of lame, the Crusades are a rock band, led by Pepe the King Prawn (get it, king?). I’m assuming this “creative” decision was made for kids, who aren’t going to learn about the Crusades in school so why should they learn about them in a comic book.

It’s a weak move.

Beedle comes closer to–no pun intended–making a bullseye this issue than the previous two suggested he was capable of doing. There’s some of the silly anachronisms, but even they don’t stand in the way of it finally turning into a Robin Hood story.

I can’t remember if the archery contest is a Robin Hood standard (I know the Little John fight on the bridge is one and I sort of remember the contest from Disney’s Robin Hood), but it provides Beedle with some action and a dictated pace. Trying to tell a Muppets story in summary apparently hasn’t been working for Robin Hood and now, with the bad guys being bad, not funny, it’s getting good.

There are still a lot of solid jokes–Fozzie following Sam Eagle around with a little Sam Eagle doll is hilarious, even if it doesn’t technically fit–and the cameos are better.

The second issue is more of the first, but with more of the primary Muppets. What’s with Gonzo, by the way? It seems like no one can draw Gonzo to really resemble the actual Muppet?

The best thing about this issue are Johnny Fiama and Sal. Johnny’s playing the evil prince and Sal’s there too. Johnny’s prince is almost too addle-brained to be a sinister villain and Sal’s too funny to dislike (unfortunately, the comic cuts before Gonzo gets dunked in a tank–as torture, which he’s thrilled to be enduring since it gives him a chance to escape, Gonzo the Great and all), which means the book doesn’t really have a bad guy.

Unfortunately, it also doesn’t have much of a story. It’s ostensibly Robin Hood, but it’s not a faithful retelling of the legend (another difference from Christmas Carol and Treasure Island). It’s too loose, too scattershot.