Comics Review: Bart Simpson #82

Spoilers Below

“The Martin Chronicles!” is the story of how Martin wants to take the initiative to take over the spot of second least popular kid in school. Who does he want to conquer? That would be Milhouse, of course. So, after Bart makes Martin do all of his homework, and Milhouse to do all of his chores for a month, he gets pressed for an answer. Bart gets caught handing papers to them, and stuffs his papers into the suggestion box.  One said “more chores,” and the other said, “more homework.” So, Skinner takes that as a suggestion, and forces the school to get more homework, and to help Willie with the groundskeeping.

“Nights of the Dinner Table,” starts off with Homer getting home late from the bar, and Bart trying to sneak downstairs for a snack to eat. They catch each other, and figure out the best way to make sure they go to Church in the morning. They come up with the bright idea of staying up all night. It works out pretty well, until they get disturbed by what sounds like a burglar. They get into costumes, and they go outside, to see that it’s just Santa’s Little Helper chewing on a sprinkler. He doesn’t recognize Homer or Bart, so he attacks them. That causes Marge and Lisa to wake up, seeing Bart and Homer fighting with the dog. What happens next? They all pass out in church.

“Springfield Babies,” is a filler story where Marge takes Maggie to a photographer, who happens to tell the future through baby pictures. They show baby pictures of some of the adults in Springfield. Marge wasn’t having any of this, takes Maggie, and gets out. At least we have a glimpse of what Maggie’s future holds.

“Itchy and Scratchy in: So Long Chum!” is just Itchy taking out Scratchy’s eye, shoving dynamite into the eye socket, and blowing him the hell up. I guess they had to fill two pages?

Overall, this is a solid monthly book. The shorter stories actually provide a decent change in pace. However, the fillers (Springfield Babies and the Itchy and Scratchy) didn’t provide much in way of substance. They really only subtract from what the two main stories provide. It’s probably better than getting seven pages of ads. So, I’ll take the bad with the good.

I was taken aback when I first started reading this. As I read the book again, I actually grew to like the shorter stories in Bart Simpson.