Plants vs. Zombies Volume 1: Lawnmageddon

You should read Plants vs. Zombies! I recommend this book because this book is full of adventure and humor. It might take two minutes, but you might get interested with the book. Don’t doubt me because you might want to read the book first. It is exciting because you will get to meet two new characters: Nate and Patrice. This book is about nature vs evil. You can also get it on your phone,laptop or any other touchscreen device. So,what are you waiting for? This book is totally brrrrains.

The confusing-yet-brilliant inventor known only as Crazy Dave helps his niece, Patrice, and young adventurer Nate Timely fend off a "fun-dead" neighborhood invasion in Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon! Winner of over thirty "Game of the Year" awards, Plants vs. Zombies is now determined to shuffle onto all-ages bookshelves to tickle funny bones and thrill... brains.

* The first Plants vs. Zombies comic book!
funny with a kind of confusing plot and crazy dave the wacky inventor

Plants Vs Zombies is one of the most addictive, entertaining games I've ever played. I played the first game to death, doing the challenges long after I'd completed the game (several times) and not a day goes by since Plants Vs Zombies 2 has been released where I don't play at least one game of it (that damn Treasure Yeti's lunchbox!). I love this gaming series, it's so much fun.

The flip side is that the popularity of the game spawns further iterations of the franchise in other media, in this case a comic book version of Plants Vs Zombies written by Paul "Bandette" Tobin, the go-to guy for writing kid-friendly comics. It might be because this comic is clearly aimed at younger readers, but I could not get through it despite it being a short book of not even 100 pages.

The story - and I use the term loosely - is about a small town suddenly being invaded by zombies. A boy and a girl - because everyone else has disappeared, maybe they're the zombies? I don't know, I didn't read far enough ahead but I doubt it - are the last line of defence against the hilariously dressed horde. Or are they? The girl's uncle turns out to be Crazy Dave, the guy wearing a saucepan, who has been experimenting on plants and created a ton of mutant plants, all of which are scattered about town and are taking down the zombies. It's up to the kids to marshal the plants in an epic showdown against the zombies.

The story, as far as I read it, was the kids running about town, encountering a type of zombie - and all of the plants and zombies used are from the first game, not the second - and then a plant showing up to kill it. This was repeated again, and again, and again, until I couldn't go on any more. The novelty of seeing the plants and zombies that I know so well in a comic wore off a few pages in and after that I was left with the no-plot story and weak jokes. After struggling to keep my interest for nearly half the book I put it down and down it shall remain.

This isn't entirely Tobin's fault - Plants Vs Zombies is a tower defence game, it's all about the gameplay and it doesn't require a story. But transfer the game into a medium that requires a narrative and you can only do so much with what you've got. Plants Vs Zombies - the title is the story, like Snakes on a Plane, but it's also not an interesting story. Fun to play, boring to read.

The Devil May Cry and Assassin's Creed comics are awful, the Street Fighter comics are pretty poor, and added to the bunch is Plants Vs Zombies. Great games do not make great comics.

I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

My daughter loves the plants vs. zombies game and when I saw this, I knew she would love it too. This is a really great story that does an amazing job putting a game into a story that still has the feel of the game to it. I really enjoyed the art and will definitely be buying a copy of this book for her once it comes out.

Paul Tobin, Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon (Dark Horse, 2013)

Full disclosure: I received an electronic ARC of this book via Netgalley.

I am a huge, huge fan of all things Plants vs. Zombies (though giantbomb's First Look feature on PvZ2 leads me to believe that may not be the case for too much longer). I've played through adventure mode and gotten to gold-trophy status at least a half-dozen times, and when I have a spare moment, I'm as likely to play Vasebreaker Endless as do anything else. Going by number of hours expended, PvZ is easily in my top ten games of all time. So when Dark Horse announced there was going to be a comic book, I immediately sat up and took notice. If PopCap was involved, thought I, they'll make sure the quality control is up to snuff. Rarely have I been more disappointed to be wrong.

Plot: hapless kinda-sorta-hero hooks up with Crazy Dave's resourceful niece when the zombie apocalypse hits.

Yes, that's it. It seems to me that when you're doing a licensed project like this, you can go one of two ways and be successful with it. You can be slavishly faithful to the product you're licensing, or you can use some characters or some set decoration and strike off almost entirely on your own. In the film world, Watchmen would be a good example of the former (even if I'm the only person on the planet who actually liked that movie), while Psycho or The Wicker Man would be a good example of the latter. Unfortunately, as is the case with Lawnmageddon, too many people try to take a middle ground: coming up with a different plotline, but shoe-horning in as many references to the original as possible. Lawnmageddon may be more guilty of this than anything I've read in a very long time, and most of those references come off as gratuitous at best and shameless attempts to cater to the nitpickers at worst. A comic is a different medium than a game—use the strengths of the new medium to do things that a game can't do. (Character development called. It wants its comic book back.) Lawnmageddon is not a Watchmen, and it's certainly not a Wicker Man. You want a licensed film to compare it to? Try Alone in the Dark. *