Though squabbles, rivalries and arrogance cause much of that luster to fade in the course of the voyage, Pylos, the rough-humored crew and its clever, smiling captain Jason in general acquit themselves well in the crunch. Picked up by genial, if poorly socialized, Hercules, young Pylos is awed to be among the renowned heroes crewing the great ship Argos. Kiwi author Catran offers a melodramatic retelling of Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece, seen through the eyes of a cabin boy. Overstuffed with narrowly typecast characters and featuring a bulky side plot shoehorned in apparently just to keep Captain Hook and the Lost Boys in sight while the other players are off in London, this formulaic sequel shows two writers for adults who are just going through the motions. Despite introducing a chilling, Dementor-like bad guy in the person (or whatever) of soul-seizing Lord Ombra, and pacing cranked up by dozens of quick point-of-view cuts, so dependent is the plot on repetitive set pieces-how many times will Ombra ooze into another clueless victim’s shadow? Or Tinkerbelle use her flashbulb trick to daze some attacker?-that the melodrama soon takes on a labored cast.

When the evil Others come back with a powerful new ally to recover the trove of supernal Starstuff rescued in the first episode, Peter reluctantly leaves Mollusk Island (“Never Land”) to deliver a warning to Molly (Wendy’s mother-to-be) and the other Starcatchers. The co-authors of Peter and the Starcatchers (2004) go to the same well, and that would be one trip too many.

Peter and the shadow thieves