Teen Boat! The Race For Boatlantis is a graphic novel released in 2015, as a sequel to 2012’s Teen Boat!. Just like the original, it was written by Dave Roman and illustrated by John Green (still not that one).
Teen Boat’s ordinary- well, as ordinary as it can be what with his ability to turn into a small yacht- high-school life is turned upside-down one day when Principal Stern reveals that Dockside High will be hosting a boat race by the name of the Orca Cup- Teen Boat is immediately thrilled to enter, but finds himself up against stiff competition in the form of Richard Walet Jr., aka. Teen Bot, a rich boy who was rebuilt with a sleek metal form- and his own transformation abilities- following a boating accident. As Richard Walet seemingly steals his one friend, Teen Boat becomes more desperate to win- especially when Principal Stern reveals that the Orca’s Cup trophy holds the power to reveal the way to the hidden city of Boatlantis, and reveal how Teen Boat came to be.
Meanwhile, prom is also approaching, and a heated spat between Teen Boat and Joey paves the way for a chilling reveal to interrupt the promenade dance- and, if that weren’t enough, Richard Walet’s father might not be all that he appears.
Spoilers for the first installment are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Tropes in The Race For Boatlantis include:
- Aborted Arc: Near the end of the first book, Teen Boat gives up on trying to win Niña Pinta Santa Maria’s affections, instead developing a crush on Catalina Safehaven. Here, he’s back to pining for Niña, and Catalina is nowhere to be seen.
- Actionized Sequel: The first book, while it had some moments of action (Teen Boat nearly being crushed by Uncle Donald’s monster truck, and the incident with the exploding tanker truck) was generally slower-paced and focused on a mix of teen drama and boat antics. This book has Copperface invading Boatlantis, a dramatic battle between the boats and the icebergs, and a Humongous Mecha fight between Teen Boat and Joey and the pirate-ship Transforming Mecha.
- Anchors Away: Teen Bot, after merging with his father’s yacht, had a The Dog Bites Back moment where he swings his anchor at Copperface’s raft- both hitting Copperface and causing one of the energy cubes he was carrying to explode.
- Alliterative Name: The Order Of The Orca.
- Alliterative Title: The second chapter is called “Diving For Dates”.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: It just figures that Niña Pinta Santa Maria turns out to be a cheerleader in the same storyline where Teen Boat joins the football team.
- An Ice Person: Joey, being half-iceberg, has these sorts of powers, being able to cause a smashed dolphin ice sculpture to repair itself and pull an Ice Braker on some prison bars.
- Animating Artifact: Boatlantis’s lighthouse is why the vessels there are Sentient Vehicles; the boats’ consciousnesses will eventually fade if they spend too long away from it, but the process takes a surprisingly long time- Teen Boat’s father is implied to have spent years away from it before needing to return.
- Audible Gleam: When Teen Boat first pops out his wheels, one of these shines on the left tire.
Written Sound Effect: SHWING
- The Big Race: The Orca Cup, a boat race that involves doing Ramp Jumps over fire. (Yes, fire on the water; don’t question it).
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: At the center of Boatlantis is a lighthouse filled with bioluminescent algae; not only is it visually stunning, it’s what brings the boats there to life. Copperface wants after the algae for its incredible energy.
- Blue Means Cold: Joey attends prom dressed as an “ice queen”, complete with a cool blue dress. This turns out to be Five-Second Foreshadowing for her arctic heritage.
- Brick Joke: Done subtly; in the first book, the French teacher somehow got picked to chaperone a trip to Italy. In this book, the same guy is teaching AP English.
- Catapult Nightmare: Just like the first book, The Race For Boatlantis opens with Teen Boat experiencing one.
- Catch and Return: A merged Joey and Teen Boat do this to one of the Jolly Rancher’s cannonballs, catching it, encasing it in ice, and throwing it back to its source.
- City on the Water: Boatlantis, located in a hidden cave and inhabited by sentient boats.
- Coming of Age Story: Over the course of his adventures, Teen Boat grows and matures as a person, realizes his feelings for Joey, and makes peace with his identity. The book isn’t above playing this for a gag, however, as the story ends with him declaring that he is now “Man Boat”, and Joey finding the name a bit stupid.
- Cool Gate: The grand entrance to Boatlantis is a massive gate bearing an icon of an old-fashioned ship’s wheel.
- Couch Gag:
- On the page opposite each chapter’s intro image is an item related to the previous chapter; these are, in order, a football in a pool of gatorade, the pencil Joey snapped, the conch shell Principal Stern received a message about the Orca Cup in, the Deus Ex Nautica, the Orca Cup trophy, the icicle crown that came with Joey’s “ice queen” prom outfit, one of the Boatlantis narwhals, one of Copperface’s energy cubes surrounded by coral and seaweed, and Ol’ Curlybeard frozen in a block of ice. After the final chapter is a page that’s blank except for a simple anchor with a bit of rope attached.
- Aside from the one for the first chapter, each intro page has its own spin on the tagline “The angst of being a teen - the thrill of being a boat”.
Chapter 2 Intro Page: The anticipation of prom - the fear of rejection!
Chapter 3 Intro Page: The angst of being a teen- the threat of a machine!
Chapter 4 Intro Page: The angst of being a teen- the angst of being a boat!
Chapter 5 Intro Page: The thrill of competition- the desire to win!
Chapter 6 Intro Page: The fun of parties- the elegance of proper attire!
Chapter 7 Intro Page: The tinge of regret- the call of destiny!
Chapter 8 Intro Page: The heritage of being a boat- the battle for survival!
Chapter 9 Intro Page: The thrill of being a boat- the chill of being an iceberg!
Chapter 10 Intro Page: The aftermath of adventure- the resolution of story! - Dedication:
To my mom, who is still waiting for me to buy her a boat.
—Dave
To my parents, who taught me to fear and respect boats.
Mostly fear.
—John - The Dog Bites Back: After spending most of the book being kicked around by his father, Richard Walet Jr. (who has been merged with his father’s luxury yacht by Boatlantis’s magic… just go with it) finally turns on him, preventing him from leaving Boatlantis and pulling an Anchors Away move on him.
- Dream Intro: Teen Boat has one where he’s sailing… and a small island suddenly turns reveals itself to be a robot which fires a Freeze Ray, generating icebergs (with snarling faces) that advance on Teen Boat, freezing and crushing him. And then he wakes up.
- Drench Celebration: Alluded to, as someone in a donkey mascot suit dumps a cooler full of gatorade on Teen Boat during the football game, triggering his transformation.
Mascot: Usually we save this for after the game, but… (dumps the cooler on Teen Boat) Look sharp!
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Joey Steinberg is revealed to be able to transform into an iceberg.
- "Far Side" Island: Teen Boat sees one of these in his dream… which quickly reveals itself to be a robot in disguise.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Between living ships and sentient icebergs, of all things; by the end of the book, a combination of Teen Boat and Joey’s mutual love and the fact that the rivalry was exploited by Copperface so he could get at Boatlantis’s lighthouse while they were fighting each other makes them agree to stop it.
- The elder boats of Boatlantis also look down on Teen Boat for being a Half-Human Hybrid, although this gets resolved by the end of the story.
- Foreshadowing: Once again, there’s more hinting that Joey is an iceberg.
- Teen Boat’s Catapult Nightmare from the beginning of the book features icebergs with faces on them.
- When Teen Boat angers Joey with his plan to have her ask Niña if she’ll go to the prom with him, Joey’s hand starts turning oddly whitish-blue… almost like ice.
- The sixth chapter is called “Prom Meltdown”, and prominently depicts a dolphin-shaped ice sculpture on its intro page; this also just so happens to be the chapter in which the secret is revealed.
- Freeze Ray: Seen in Teen Boat’s dream, fired by a robot that disguised itself as a "Far Side" Island. It generates icebergs that, for some reason, have snarling faces on them.
- Fusion Dance: Teen Boat and Joey, after kissing, fuse into something that looks like a half-boat, half-ice Combining Mecha; this bursts them out of Copperface’s cube, and in this form they have a mecha battle with the transforming pirate ship.
- Funny Background Event: In the graduation party, Mrs. Steinberg (an iceberg with a face) can be seen floating just off the dockside.
Mr. Steinberg (completely casually): Have you met my wife?
- Graduation for Everyone: The tenth and final chapter has Teen Boat and Joey graduating from high school.
- Half-Human Hybrid: This is why Teen Boat can transform into a yacht; even more confusingly, his father was a submarine. His friend Joey also turns out to be half-iceberg; there’s no word on how either of them were actually, ahem, produced.
- Harmless Freezing: After their defeat, Uncle Donald, the Totally Pirates, and the Mechanic are frozen in blocks of ice by the icebergs, who are apparently going to thaw them out and deal with them up north.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs:
Teen Boat: Are you pulling my rudder? I’d never make tryouts!
Some random boat: Scuttle my butt!
- A non-boat version; Ol’ Curlybeard says at one point that he “put two and two planks together”.
Submarine: Well, sink my battleship!
- After Teen Boat complains about Boatlantis’s lack of a wi-fi signal:
Submarine: Ha! Boatlantis can be behind the tides.
Submarine: I’ll always cherish our time together, son. May the currents be ever in your favor!
- Ice Breaker: Joey breaks herself and Teen Boat out of Boatlantis prison by freezing a prison bar and having Teen Boat hit it with a “boat-powered karate chop”.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:
Teen Boat: At least I’ve got my friends, real friends, who aren’t impressed by-
(Sees Joey sitting and chatting with Teen Bot) - Intelligible Unintelligible: The living icebergs communicate in creaking and groaning noises, which certain humans- most notably Mr. Steinberg- are able to understand and translate for others.
- Interspecies Romance:
- Principal Stern once had a crush on a yacht named (S.S.) Krystyna (long story).
- Teen Boat was product of a romance between a human woman and a submarine.
- And then there’s Joey’s father, who married an iceberg.
- Masking the Deformity: Richard Walet Sr. gained the moniker “Copperface” after a boating accident left him forced to wear a metal mask.
- Meaningful Rename: Teen Boat gives himself one at the end of the book, after graduating. Joey thinks it’s stupid.
Teen Boat: From now on, you can call me… Man Boat!
- Message in a Bottle: Principal Stern was told that the Orca’s Cup should be reinstated by a message in a conch shell.
- No Animals Were Harmed: Spoofed with a message put below the Special Thanks section.
*No boats were harmed in the making of this book.
- No Full Name Given: We never do find out the first names of Mr. and Mrs. Steinberg.
- No Name Given: We never learn what Teen Boat’s submarine father is called.
- One-Word Title: Chapter 10, ”Graduation!”
- Privileged Rival: Teen Bot. the son of a wealthy oil tycoon who has a much bigger yacht than Teen Boat can turn into.
- The Prom Plot: The school’s upcoming prom is a subplot through the first half of the book, with Teen Boat trying to get Niña Pinta Santa Maria to go out with him and eventually succeeding after winning the Orca Cup… only to get jealous when his friend Joey shows up with his rival Teen Bot, flip out, and have Joey reveal that she’s half-iceberg.
- Pun:
- Principal Stern offers Teen Boat some “magic cufflinks” called the Deus Ex Nautica; they’re also clam-shaped and powered by a “shellfish act” (meaning selfless, not selfish).
- When Teen Boat enters Boatlantis, he asks a group of sailboats “how yawl doing?”.note
- After freezing the hand off of the pirate ship Transforming Mecha, Teen Boat and Joey comment that:
Teen Boat & Joey: Looks like we finally got the upper hand!
Principal Stern: So, Teen Boat… how was Boatlantis?
Teen Boat: I reconciled my identity issues and met my father.
Principal Stern: That sounds pretty deep.
Teen Boat: It was. He’s a submarine. - Pun-Based Creature: An in-universe example; Dockside High’s football team is the Horseshoe Crabs, with their mascot being depicted as an ordinary red crab with horseshoes in the place of claws.
- Pun-Based Title: The first chapter is called “Out Of His Depth”, while the fourth is called “Pier Review” and the fifth is “Day Of Wreckoning”.
- Ramp Jump: For being a boat race, the Orca’s Cup involves a surprising amount of these.
- Saw It in a Movie Once: This is what Joey says when she pulls an Ice Breaker to get herself and Teen Boat out of Boatlantis prison.
- Sentient Vehicle: Boatlantis is inhabited by sentient boats and ships of all types, although the only named one is a yacht (with a giant pink bow named S.S. Krystyna).
- Shout-Out:
- The title page for the first chapter greatly resembles the infamous film poster for Jaws, with a "Far Side" Island in place of the swimmer and Teen Boat’s bow in place of the shark.
- The title page for the third chapter puts Teen Boat in a game of “Smack’Em Whack’Em Androids”.
- “I like big boats and I cannot lie; the other rudders can’t deny.”
- Teen Bot’s ability to transform into a captain’s chair which can control his father’s yacht when connected is oddly reminiscent of a Headmaster.
Bitemark: Yippie ki-yay, motha rudder!
Submarine: Teen Boat. I am your father.
- Once loaded with bioluminescent algae, Copperface’s transparent storage cubes greatly resemble Energon cubes.
- When Teen Boat and Joey are stuck in one of those aforementioned storage cubes:
Teen Boat: It’s no use. This thing must be made out of transparent aluminum.
Submarine: Well, sink my battleship!
Narwhal: Look! Up in the sky? Is it a berg? Is it a boat?
- When Teen Bot blocks his father from leaving Boatlantis:
Teen Bot: You… shall… not… pass…
- The back cover contains the line “With boat power comes boat responsibility”.
- Special Thanks: The back of the book contains a “thanks to” list, with such odd entries as Sunbow Productions, King Triton and Sebastian, Jason and the Argonauts, Herman the Manatee, “the other John Green”, and “the cast and crew of Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular at Universal Studios”. Once it gets past all that, there’s also a note thanking people who support cartoonists, and the creators in particular.
- Speaking Like Totally Teen: When Principal Stern attends a student party:
Stern: Hey!! Hey!! Hey!! What do you think? Am I hip to the jive?
- Take My Hand!: When Copperface is desperately trying to cling onto an energy cube in the water, and being dragged down by its weight:
Teen Bot: Grab my anchor; let go of the cube!
- Talking Animal: For some reason, in addition to living boats, Boatlantis is also inhabited by talking orcas and narwhals. This is never explained, but probably has something to do with Boatlantis’s lighthouse.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Krystyna, a yacht, wears a gigantic pink bow.
- That's No Moon: In Teen Boat’s dream at the beginning of the book, a "Far Side" Island turns out to be a cap on the head of an amphibious robot.
- Toast of Tardiness: Teen Boat is seen with one in his mouth as he leaves for school in the beginning of the book.
- Underdogs Never Lose: In the boat race, Teen Boat, a rather underpowered yacht, competes with this crew: some students who are more interested in grilling hotdogs on his back deck than helping; Niña Pinta Santa Maria, who is live-tweeting the race; and Captain Harry Cobb, who keeps spinning Teen Boat’s wheel randomly for fun. He wins anyway… mainly because, midway through the race, he briefly transformed back into a human to dump his useless crew.
- Versus Title: Chapter 3, “Teen Boat Vs. Teen Bot”.
- Villain Team-Up: To get at Boatlantis, Copperface recruits the Totally Pirates, as well as “Uncle” Donald and his sons. Oddly, he also recruits the Mechanic, who wasn’t a villain in his first appearance.
- We Can Rebuild Him: This is the origin story of “Teen Bot”, the son of a wealthy oil tycoon; he was horribly injured in a boating accident, and rebuilt using the most advanced technology his father could acquire- including giving him the ability to transform into a yacht…’s captain’s chair.
