Popeye #5 Review

A very humorous tale, Popeye #5 offers a more tight and confined storyline that doesn’t splash out on characters and complex plots.

The official description from IDW:

Popeye and the gang travel to King Blozo’s kingdom to help find a spy at the royal palace—only to find themselves in the middle of a war! Can even Popeye stop a hundred Palookas, each one nearly as tough as he is? PLUS: More shenanigans with Sappo and Wotasnozzle!

This issue offers a simple storyline about Popeye looking after his son, Sweet Pea. I’m not too familiar with the Popeye background, so I’m not sure where or when he adopted a child, but it certainly provides a new angle. In this case, it shows the more caring side of Popeye.

Of course, this isn’t always so straight forward. Many of the early jokes are quite humorous takes on Popeye’s attempts at parenting (anyone care to guess whats for dinner?) . This all leads into a dispute over how to spell the word “cat”, causing Sweet pea to run away. Popeye goes to find him and, thus, the simple plot is set.

In short, this is a very humorous tale, that will appeal t a broad audience of various ages. The art style is still evocative of old school Popeye stories, and the tale itself suits the character well. The interactions with other people he meets alone the way, for instance, allow for some classic Popeye moments.

The second story at the end of the title also features Popeye and Sweet Pea, as Popeye attempts to draw comics for his son. In any other comic I would suggest this was breaking the 4th wall, but here it really isn’t. Instead its just used to show more staple Popeye characters and their attempts to help with the comic, often showing humorous aspects of each characters thoughts and opinions.

In short, this is a very well rounded issue; probably one of the best of the new Popeye issues.