A Look at Disney Gets Tangled: Guarding Against Adventure (Tangled: The Series Issue # 1)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our look at Tangled: The Series. However, before we get to the review, I do have a couple of announcements to make.  First off,  I will continue on with my look at this show's second season but except for the season premiere, those reviews will not come out until after the second season.  That is the minor announcement regarding my plans for Tangled but I do have a bigger plan in mind.  If you've noticed, most of my reviews for A Look at Disney have been Tangled related and I have been neglecting a lot of other things that I've wanted to do for this blog and that why I've decided after my review of the season finale, that I will be moving the Tangled reviews to a new blog.  So, when season two comes along, Iyou will be introduced to my new Tangled blog, Tower of Corona.   Depending on when season 2 starts,  you might see the first Tower of Corona post around Halloween.  With that outta the way, let's begin. 

Cover

I really like this cover as highlights two things that are important to Rapunzel, her loved ones and her love of art.   Granted, it doesn't tie much into the story that we are looking at but it is such a fun cover that really grabs the reader's attention to let one know what Rapunzel is all about.




The Plot


The plot is a fairly simple plot about Rapunzel wanting to prove herself after she finds out that there are thieves running about in Corona and one of the things that this comic gets right about the characters is the tense relationship between Rapunzel and her father as he orders all of Corona to not leave the kingdom after sunset and needless,  to say his daughter doesn't take well to this.  to stay in Frederic, Frederic, Frederic.  This is your answer to so many things involving danger and your daughter is right that you are punishing the kingdom and not the thieves.  Granted, you also did this to your daughter in the show.  As annoying as that is, at least that trait is consistent with your characterization in the show.

This is something that I'll just upon a bit more as I go throughout this review but man, the panels in this comic are really creative.  They aren't just flat pictures such as how this one here are diamonds that appear to be on a drapery that you would see in the palace of Corona.  That is such a neat idea as it allows the artists working on this comic to show their creativity and artistry, instead of just having a stagnant page. If we also take this a step further, like the comic's cover,  doing the panels in this style is a great idea as while this may not be intentional,  it reflects upon Rapunzel's love of art.




Rapunzel being who she decides to disobey her father's wishes and sneaks out the castle to find the thieves and go after them herself.    While that's going on, Eugene is out with Stan  (one of the guards)  on patrol and he spots,  Rapunzel and Cass out in the open and attempts to hide them.  And once again, the panels are gorgeous as they tie into the setting.

The panels are tree branches on this page.  That is such a clever way to make use of the surroundings of the characters and make the setting feel lived in.  The tree branch panels continue on to the next page as Eugene continually knocks the guard out until he meets up with blondie and they have a discussion about why she shouldn't be out here.  This is when we get the coolest panels in this comic.   

All of the panels on this page are silhouettes are Rapunzel and Eugene and just as the characters on the page are talking about what is best for the kingdom and Rapunzel and just as they are arguing and showing how headstrong, Rapunzel is,   the silhouettes are also  having a conservation reflecting the way the characters are represented on the page.  The silhouettes did a great job of capturing the body language of Eugene and Rapunzel.   Eugene's silhouette has his hand out showing concern for the most important person in her life and doesn't want to get hurt and is trying to explain that to her.   Whereas Rapunzel's silhouette has her arms crossed,  showing that she has already made up her mind and will not budge from her stance.  Not only does this do a great job of capturing the moment on the page but it also captures who Rapunzel is in the show as time and again, Rapunzel has shown to be a headstrong princess that tends to think on emotions.  And that what this story seems to be highlighting, this is perhaps both Rapunzel's great attribute and perhaps her biggest flaw.  It's noble to do want to the right thing and put your heart into all protecting your people and that is what we are seeing with Rapunzel  here but at the same time, with Rapunzel thinking on emotion,  she is putting herself in harm's way and that is what the others around her want to understand.   But I would probably side with Rapunzel more on this one well, she is Best Princess but really,  she is showing how brave and caring she is by disobeying the orders of her father and going out to stop these thieves and nothing or no-one will get in her way.  (Ooh awkward Varian reference) 





Afer the talk between Eugene and Rapunzel,  Rapunzel catches up with Cass and had overheard the conversation and we see our two groups go their separate ways with Stan, none the wiser that Rapunzel had snuck out.  Soon, however, Stan and Eugene come across a young girl that seems to be looking for help but it turns out that she was tricking them as she works with thieves that had been stealing from the citizens of Corona and takes Stan and Eugene hostage. 

Okay,  this is perhaps something that bugged me as I think that I may have been overthinking it here but if I am misremembering things, I thought that it had been shown that Flynn Rider was a well-known figure amongst thieves.  So,  I was expecting the characters here to maybe know who Flynn was.  Obviously,   Corona doesn't have things such as Twitter or Facebook.  So, there's not a way to track the popularity of people like that and he may have reformed before these thieves knew who he was.  Again, I am willing to give the comic the benefit of the doubt and assume that is more the fault of the reader than the creator. 


Through the shadow of the moon,  Rapunzel comes and saves the day and rescues Eugene and while Eugene is appreciative of the rescue, he warns her that she may not have much freedom left if her father catches outside the palace walls. 

This comic does a great job of telling a story that feels like an episode of the show with a lot of great action.  The only thing missing is Pascal but other than that,  I really liked this comic. 



Characters



There isn't too much to say about the characters here as the comic is more or less meant as a way to welcome fans of the show into the comic and the comic does a great job of capturing who they are represented on the show.  I'd be curious to know if anyone that only saw Tangled or Tangled: Before Ever After would be able to follow the story with the characters here.  Granted,  it's not hard to follow but I'd be curious to see if they'd be thrown by any of the new characters such as Cass or Stan.  I doubt it but I have to imagine that there might be some readers that picked up this comic that have not see an episode of the show.   Perhaps, I'm the wrong person to speculate on this being a superfan of the show. 


My Final Thoughts



This comic highlights why I love IDW so much, the comics that they put out based on licensed properties as they take such great care to make sure that these comics evoke the spirit and feeling of the characters that they are adapting for their comics.   This has been very evident with their MLP comics and they further prove that they have a great understanding of how to transfer from characters from a medium such as a TV show or movie and make them work in a comic book.   Peace!