By Dustin Cabeal

I have to assume this is based on a show or something. It’s clearly not based just off the game in which you use your finger to swipe across the screen and cut fruit in half while attempting to get a high score and not hit any bombs and shit. I wanted to read it because it looked like dumb fun, it ended up only being one of those things and it’s the former, not the latter.

There are three stories in the issue. None of them connect and honestly none of them matter. Two of them barely have a conclusion to their story, they just kind of end. The first is a big chasing some fruit. That’s about it. The second story is about a guy with a jet pack, there was one gag that impressed me, but they quickly ruined that by having the character obsessively talk. It was through his dialogue that I figured out this was for children, but I can’t imagine most kids that are into Fruit Ninja A) being old enough to get the attempted humor in this comic or B) wanting to read the comic without some heavy parental influence. The last story followed the characters on the cover, but gave no real details about them and made a bunch of strange dancing references. There was only one of them that gave me a mental smile. I didn’t actually smile, but in my mind I did… mental smile. Get it?

The writing is fine. There’s not a ton of dialogue or narration. The art is left to do most of the work, but the writing is competent. I don’t particularly think it’s for children, but I don’t know a lot of adult comic readers that will enjoy this either. It’s one of those comic licenses that just seem to exist, and hopefully, someone gets some joy out of it. With the format there really could have been some better jokes and more zany action instead of following a pig chasing a fruit. The damn thing Homer Simpson’s off a cliff and lands just fine and that just seemed like a missed opportunity for some kind of humor.

The art is good. There are two artists, and they do quite well telling the story. Some of the visuals are humorous. The first two stories have a sketchy look, and at times it's too sketchy. The second artist is cleaner, but the character designs look weird shrunken people rather than what I assume is supposed to be kids. I didn’t fall in love with either style, but I didn’t hate either style. The coloring was much better on the first story. It was too glossy on the second story giving it a 90s cartoon look.

I read this out of curiosity. Again, it seemed like it could be mindlessly entertaining and even had a couple of glimmers of fun, but ultimately there isn’t enough content to warrant reading this or to continue to read it. If you read it and enjoy it, then I’m happy for you, but most readers are probably going to want to pass on this one.

Score: 2/5

Fruit Ninja #1
Dynamite Entertainment