Image via Cartoon Network
CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
The following contains spoilers for Adventure Time #9, on sale this week from Oni Press.
Oni Press' critically-acclaimed and commercially successful new take on Adventure Time has already seen a number of sellouts and new printings (especially the acclaimed one-shot that followed Bubblegum Princess and Marceline to college), and now the main series is about to start a new story arc with a perfect jumping on point as artist Austin Baechle joins the series' regular writer, Nick Winn, as the new artist on the book for "Handbook Heroes" (there's also a backup story by Elizabeth Brei and Cleonique Hilsaca starring Lemonhope).
Courtesy of Oni Press, Winn spoke about the new arc, "Coming off of Finn and Jake's mishaps in Best of Buds and Friends To The End, Finn and Jake try to right their wrongs of almost destroying all of Ooo by becoming the cleanup crew with Finn's new robot arm. Unfortunately, Robot Finn is still running around somewhere, and now he's mucking everything up for all the citizens! This new arc is going to feature more people of Ooo and dive deeper into their homes and keepsakes as we hunt down Robot Finn in these four wacky issues. I'm curious what you all think the green mold sticking out of Robot Finn's body is? Guess you'll have to read and find out!"
ADVENTURE TIME (2025) #9
Written by NICK WINN & ELIZABETH BREI
Art by AUSTIN BAECHLE & CLEONIQUE HILSACA
Cover A by NICK WINN
Cover B by AUSTIN BAECHLE
Cover C COMPUTER PRINCESS BLUE SKETCH Variant
Variant (1:10) by JUSTASUTA
Variant (1:20) by NICOLE GOUX
B&W Variant (1:50) by NICK WINN
ALL-NEW ARC! ALL-NEW JUMPING-ON POINT! HANDBOOK HEROES STARTS HERE!
With the Enchiridion—the famed guide for adventurers—seemingly gone for good, Finn and Jake set out to make their own handbook on how to be a hero! (See what we did there?)
Armed (literally) with new tech from Computer Princess, the best of buds aim to record all the sword swings, fighting styles, sick dance moves, and weird junk they can find. But what happens when they run into perhaps their most terrifying adversary yet—Robot Finn, who's going around being all unheroic and totally besmirching the real Finn's good name! Can our heroes—with the help of some familiar faces—get to the bottom of this mechanical mystery?!
From cartoonist and animator Nick Winn (Bloody Mary) and the series' next stellar artist, Austin Baechle (Sesame Street), Handbook Heroes! is the perfect jumping-on point for new readers and old fans!
$4.99 | 32 PGS. | FULL COLOR | ON SALE JANUARY 21, 2026
In the preview pages, we see Finn's new robotic arm get an upgrade from Computer Princess, as well as see Jake and Finn decide on their new mission, which is to create a NEW Enchiridion now that the original was destroyed earlier in the series. Armed with a notebook and a pencil (and a robotic arm, of course), Jake and Finn set off to interview other heroes, and get advice on how to be a better hero.
Finn is distracted by a pack of wolves, but then he and Jake meet a new warrior, and they take some inspiration from her. Of course, this is just the START of their journey. You're going to have to pick up a copy of Adventure Time #9 this week to see what happens next!
Source: Oni Press
English (US) · 