The Bad Guys in The One?!

The Bad Guys #12

by Aaron Blabey

Seriously, WHAT is going on with Snake?! Terrible powers have been revealed! Evil allies have materialized! Inter-dimensional doors have opened! Shady-looking cloaks have been purchased! What is his deal?!

And that's not all! Why does Agent Fox suddenly have a whole lot more backstory than we'd counted on?! Dang it! We need answers! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!

Wolf and the gang are back. And things are worse than ever. Or badder than ever... if you think that sounds cooler and don't have a problem with bad grammar.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Childrens, Humor, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Animals

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2020

About the author

Aaron is an Australian author of children's books and artist who until the mid-2000s was also an actor. His award winning picture books include Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon and the best-selling Pig the Pug.

In the field of acting, he is probably best known for his lead roles in two television dramedies, 1994's The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, for which he won an Australian Film Institute Award, and 2003's CrashBurn, before retiring from performance in 2005.

Reviews

[Liander (The Towering Pile) Lavoie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These continue to be very entertaining, though this one feels very... lacking any conclusion? It's very much like a chapter in a larger story. I know the whole series is kinda like that, but really this one is like a bridge.

[Victor The Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things are about to get crazy for our heroes as the evil voice inside Snake has manifested into an evil spirit named the Splaarghön and now has released his great threat in the form of the Multiverse. To make matters more complicated, Agent Fox reveals than only she can stop him and with all their teamwork, they will have to find the doorway that’ll cross them over to the Multiverse. Once they go pass door number one, it’s unclear what they’ll discover. A (100%/Outstanding)

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m really excited that we get two more of these stories this year! Always a fun quick read.

[Elliott Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sounds cool, I’ve been reading the series. This book doesn’t come out until November something.

[Kelly K · Rating 4 out of 5]

About to be the only childless person in their 30's in the theater seeing THIS AS A MOVIE. *crosses fingers* Please don't fuck it up, Dreamworks.

[Jen]

I've decided to stop rating some of the kids books I read because it isn't fair to bring down the average, since I am a 39-year-old woman rating them subjectively lol. I saw the trailer for the new Bad Guys movie, which inspired me to pick up one of the books. Unfortunately, the first in the series wasn't available but I assumed it was one of those series where they basically read as standalones... It is not. I was very confused and the book even referenced events that happened in books four and six. It also is aimed towards those who enjoy fart humor... :)

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t help it... I love this series as much as the kids do! The Bad Guys are back in Book 12: The Bad Guys in The One?! by Aaron Blabey. As always, these characters are funny and the story is full of crazy adventures- and certainly leaves readers hanging & ready for number 13! As the series progresses it is feeling darker and scarier and I want to make sure to keep that in mind for our younger readers!

[Heba · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was EXTREMELY weird and nothing makes sense but it’s still entertaining lol

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh wow, this is getting interesting! Oracles, The ONE, The others! What’s next?

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a restaurant of 💩

[Patrick McGrady · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the most complicated/confusing installment to try to explain to a 4 year old. Multiverse is not a word that means anything to her. And I am likely not smart enough to explain it well either.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bloody hell… there’s lots happening here. I’m hoping they can get back to four stars.

[Lesley Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Son enjoyed reading this one, though I feel it was lacking a bit and not as great as rest of series... but still entertaining.

[Theresa Grissom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Love The Bad Guys. This series never gets old. Students love them too. And I just found out it’s becoming a movie in 2022?!? Yes!!!

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are the one does that mean you are relly alive? Or are you the spirit of the one?

[Kg · Rating 5 out of 5]

ITs cool

[Azmol Hussain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man it gets more and more funny and interesting with each installment of the book series. I am in awe with this book and the way the author has made it funny and comical with the settings and jokes. It is a children's book but nonetheless could be extremely well enjoyed well by people of all age.

Now waiting to see where they go from POOP RESTUARANT. LOL.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not loving this new story line at all. Snake has become an evil underlord and is trying to get the rest of them to join him

Eliana’s review: “I like Granny Gumbo and her poop burgers store. That’s so funny. Who wants a poop burger?”

[chapstik · Rating 1 out of 5]

We have officially veered off the rails and torched all of what made this series great. Blabey could have so easily stuck with them trying to be good and blundering through it for a few chunks books-that premise is so charming, and he handled it so well. But too soon, there were aliens and super powers and now this random weird Dark Lord stuff, none of these things made this series fun. It was Wolf and his team trying to be good and blundering their way through it. It was endearing and funny and so entertaining.

Now it's just a really pale shadow in comparison. It's disappointing. It doesn't feel silly and fun anymore, it's just a chore. It feels so contrived and unbelievable. The jokes are so, "Ha. Ha. Isn't this sO eXcItInG and sO NeW and sO wEiRd? Who's writing this stuff anyway?" And Fox being "ThE oNe" and Piranha being "tHe OrAcLe." It just has me rolling my eyes. It's just sooo overdone, and the premise of the original books felt so fun and new. It feels like such a cop-out to just go back to boring, overdone tropes that aren't even fun to read. I know it's for kids, but it should still be good!

Sigh. I wish he'd find his way back to what made these books so good. I'm crossing my fingers at the end of all of this stupid multiverse nonsense there's a universe and time machine that can pop us back to when Marmalade was only an evil guinea pig and we can go back to the good stuff. *crossing my fingers*

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was alright, the world is coming to a seeming end (again) and the only ones who can stop it is Shadow Squad G! The book opens with a totally sad clip of Mr. Snake as a little baby snake being bullied out of school by his peers and teachers only for the to be paralleled by Snake assuming his Homies are cutting him out, but now those same Homies are going on a Trans-dimensional journey to get Snake back to normal with the help of Mrs. Fox, who, it turns out, is The One.

I like that we're getting to see a lot of the side-friendships like how well Milton and Legs are getting along now. I also think it's really funny that the new reporter Tiffany Fluffit has basically been volunteered into the club. I really liked how we split these groups and I'm excited to see how the members of each group will get along by the end of the story.

Also I know Kitty Kat is sick of Mr. Wolf making jokes about how, if their lives where a book series, certain events must have happened in this book and arooouund thiiiis page in that book. Good stuff.

[Annamarie Carlson (she, her)]

Have you ever read a series that feels like it is very self-aware that is spiraling? That is a little what the last few Bad Guys have felt like. Where do you go after alien invasion, zombie kittens, superpowers, time travel, the end of the world, and a good guy really going bad? A car chase? A mysterious savior? The multiverse? Granny Gumbo's Poop Burgers? It's all here. I still love reading these, but we have traveled quite a distance from the days of the first Bad Guys support group meetings and a quaint mission to save cute dogs from certain doom at the pound. I also wish each book had a bit more a self-contained arc--these get a little frustrating to read in one sitting while feeling like you haven't actually learned anything new or moved forward with the storyline.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 4 out of 5]

The previous book took the series in a new direction, breaking the fourth wall and introducing a variety of new conflicts. This next installment breaks the fourth wall even more and chews on the scenery, and it is absolutely ridiculous and hilarious. The use of familiar tropes in wildly unconventional ways appealed to me deeply, and I admit that I laughed out loud at the bathroom humor at the end, because YES, that is how to disguise a door to another dimension!

The book ends on a cliffhanger, as all of them do, but this one is a particularly rough cliffhanger, since so much of the book's action is transitional, without a full plot unfolding in this volume. I'm glad that I'm reading this series after so many books have been published.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn't much of a plot except to extend what happened at the end of the last book (Snake attacks the squad, Agent Fox protects them but can't tell them how or why) and give us a little bit of context about how we got here and what needs to happen next. The whole A-Team/B-Team conversation was entertaining and made the book overall more enjoyable than it would have otherwise been, but then again my 8-year-old (who's been keeping us chugging along with the series so far) wanted to take an extended break from it in the middle, so I wasn't the only one who didn't feel like there was enough holding it together.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read the series before a book discussion with elementary kids. This volume was published just as we had our discussion.
This one took a hard turn to more scary. I did enjoy Wolf noting which book foreshadowed certain events. Missed the visual joke of Wolf and Snake scuffle over changing the Bad Guys emblem to Good Guys before each book began, and the costumes of Shark.
I still think I would enjoy them more in color.
I will not be read any more, but will watch the movie in 2021 if theaters safely open.

[McKenna]

I’m very much so liking the introduction of a new big bad with the underlord as well as this new character arc for the snake as he is my comfort character, but I do hope that the snake ends up being good again in the end because I care about him deeply. Some of the jokes in this didn’t quite land for me as they are meant for children, but overall I still enjoyed this episode.
I’m a little annoyed at the meta comments- those kinda bug me in shows/books so I’m hoping those stop.
Overall good episode!!!

[Eugenio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daughter review: I like when Piranha became the oracle and was funny! I also liked seeing everyone turn bad and Snake is a big bad! I liked the action scenes, and the 2 teams!

My take: it’s an interesting take. Having to move on from the alien threat, now we are in a multiverse story and having Snake pulled into the villainous henchman role is a fun spin. Now that we have a ton of characters, splitting them up is needed for giving the chapters (and my many voices) a bit of breathing room.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snake we learn isn't "the" master but being controlled by someone else. Foxy is questioned as to her abilities and is being vague about what to do next. Read on to see how, where, when and why(? might be explained) our group is going. It seems the universe lets us only know things as we go along and it thinks we need them.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 12 picks up immediately after book 11. I love the reference Wolf makes to previous books as part of the dialogue. More humorous moments in a book full of them. Readers learn who The One is and see how Snake is conflicted but being swayed by the one who is finally named in this book. A double cliffhanger ending.

[Gretchen Craven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review from a 5-year old

“Okay. Poop poop, how do you do. If you pooped on a burger, I will toot 💩

Poop is funny💩 I like poop 💩Okay?

This book is silly because there is poop in it. 💩

This is funny.😂

So, my favorite part was when I saw granny’s poop shop 💩.

The hot poop burgers were yummy 💩🍔.

I really like when the hot poop was talked about. 💩

That’s all. 👋🏻”