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Who Watches The Wizbits

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Who Watches The Wizbits?

 

Based on his popular animated TV show, the Wizbits, James Langomedes crafts one of the finest examinations of Sunday morning animation serials in the history of comics. By giving real, human qualities to the Wizbits, Langomedes was able to craft, not only an excellent and captivating tale, but also truly explains why elemenstors do what they do.

 

It was originally a 12-issue miniseries named Who Wizzes the Wizbits before being collected, along with extras, in the full volume.

 

WWtW Logo

 

The WWtW Logo, which is featured prominently throughout the novel, is the "What Would Ronard Do?" symbol with blood splashed across it.

 

Of course, the "WWRD?" symbol already has blood incorporated into it, so there really isn't much difference.

 

 

Plot Description

 

In typical Langomedes fashion, this graphic novel was published in multiple versions not with variant covers, but with identical covers and variant endings. The following plot description is of the variant considered closest to canon, although no one version is wholly within canon.

 

It begins with a murder. 10 years after the Wizbits cartoon, the Elemenstors are now rejected, loathed through out the Lands. Most of them have retired, except for the Ocumen and Penny (who work for the King of Alfafanar) and Lander, who has taken to vigilante Elemenstoring. Then, Penny is found thrown out of her tower window, Lander begins to suspect that someone is trying to kill all the Wizbits, and the Ocumen grows ever more increasingly distant from humanity...

 

 

Spoilers Follow!

 

One by one, the Wizbits and their allies are elimiated; Doodle is nearly assassinated, Lander is framed for MooMaa's murder, and the Ocumen is exiled. This leaves only Zula and Skip to find out what exactly is happening... and save Battal as we know it.

 

The 'Story within a Story'

 

An innovation by Langomedes was the use of a second story being told within a larger narrative, both reflecting facets of each other. The story is about Ninjas fighting robots on the moon. Haklid, the leader of his clan, must lead them to victory against the evil Norrbot 5000. It's a fascinating piece of writing, and has raised many questions: "What does this mean?", "Is this a printing error", "How do the ninjas breathe?".

 

Quotable Quotes

 

Lander: "Wait, what?! He was a murderer, a monster! He tried to destroy the world dozens of times in dozens of forms!"

Zerik the Persecutor: "Yes. But he was so damn cool."

Skip: "That doesn't seem physically possible! AAAAGH!" - Several times throughout the comic.

Zula: "X the Y, Being X, and now you. Penny?"

Penny: "Yeah?"

Zula: "If we ever meet another 'X,' remind me to punch him in the neck."

Penny: "I'll remind you by punching him in the neck first."

Zula: "Thanks."

"My god..." thought Haklid, "what have I become?", as he brought his sword through the robot's chromium skull

 

New Characters

  • Zerik the Persecutor: The determined student of Anti-Elemenstation out to destroy the Four Underdogs. Also known as Zerik the Perscutor.
  • X the Y: An incognito being who dispenses cryptic advice to the Wizbits shortly before each attack, giving them just enough advice to keep them from dying. When X the Y's true identity is revealed, the crew is in for a shock.
  • Teceta Wren: The genteel executioner and strongarm of the myserious force assaulting the Four Underdogs.
  • Being X: A menacing force guiding the hunt for the Wizbits, a threat that must be purged from time itself.
  • Sendulg Spladefoot: A homely gravedigger that remains sympathetic to the cause of the Wizbits. Had a rather infamous fling with Lander in issue 8, an event that has been desperately retconned out of existence no less than three times, each time somehow failing.
  • Noitisop X: A Chronosorcellor who finally clues in the Wizbits to the nature of their predicament. Exactly what it is depends on the ending one gets.

 

Quotes About Wizbits

 

"Wizbits is peerless"- Rolling Stone

"A brilliant piece of fiction" - The Village Voice

"The first great humane act in Sunday morning cartoons." - Escape

"A bit too complex. Where is one to perform hilariously zany voice inflections?" - (the ever-hated) John Lithgow

"Makes Tolkien's eyes fall out of his sockets, and roll back as well." - The Times

"Genius! Pure genius! Langomedes has taken this series and woven a tale Brahe himself couldn't hope to match! I mean the very idea that- wait. What's going on?! What are you- Blarrgh..." - Michael Bay, moments before his mysterious 'disappearance'

"I liked it. There, I said it. Now where's my royalty check?" - Neil Gaiman

"What is this crap? I never should have hired that Ghost Rider!" - James Langomedes at the WWtW debut party, apparently disgusted at the non-arrival of a Marvel Comics-themed motorcycle entertainer

 

There seems to be no way to summarize the plot without being either deliberately incorrect or inherently spoiling, surely a sign of Epicness yet slightly annoying to the documentor.
Great. Now there's a deliberately incorrect spoiler warning. Actually, that might be the best compromise.
It's not incorrect
"Doodle is nearly assassinated"? That's not incorrect? Are we talking about the same book here?
Okay. Boy is my face red here. Added bit about variants.
Not sure this could be canon at all since the four underdogs went on to found the cerulean citadel and shape elemenstoring as we know it in the 13 books. Although I'll admit I own all of these are they're excellent. -Tim
Ok... seems as though the 6 reality shards explaination of the different underdogs works makes all sorts of other things just fall into place. So I'm supposing that the events here exist in the canon of the wizbits shard. -tim

 

Art

Penny

 

(I sort of thought that "Perscutor" was a cool word)

Comments (4)

Anonymous said

at 2:11 am on Feb 18, 2006

this art is of penny.. note the necklace and ear rings? this is of course the hot penny, like the one from the later elemenstar series

Anonymous said

at 2:15 am on Feb 18, 2006

I thought Penny wore the mask? After her face got slashed by that Quilpanese guy.

Anonymous said

at 2:22 am on Feb 18, 2006

I actually think that this is a picture of her right when she first seens the "quip"

Anonymous said

at 9:28 am on Feb 18, 2006

Yeah... I remember. They covered how she got her scar in the final issue, so there were lots of different versions of it. I got the ending where the Quilpanese guy was pregnant with her baby, right before cuttin' her and then getting cryogenically frozen with ice magic. That's when it was revealed Penny was a man all along, the mere knowledge of which makes the Perscutor spontaneously combust. Then the Quilp guy thaws out, finishes the job, then dies giving birth to Penny's exact, albeit female and non-homicidal, clone, closing the causal loop and thus allowing the Wizbits to save Battal. Well, that was one ending...

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