My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Comics

IDW: Demonizing Celestia since 2014.

Following in the footsteps of bronies everywhere.

Though yeah, the flashback ends on a feel-good moment but no real resolution other than the knowledge that Twilight obviously managed to get herself in order... as some have pointed out, possibly the reason why she got too much in order. But then again Celestia also nudged her in the direction needed to help her back out of it in canon, so... All Is Well That Ends Well?

edited 22nd Mar '16 8:30:21 AM by YamiVizziniX

In this case, I wouldn't really say demonized so much as uncharacteristically incompetent. And I'm not sure if taking so long to fix the problem can qualify as making things even.

Friendship is Magic #41

This picture book inspired issue was very good, with a lot of great art and a fun story. Having Zecora narrate was clever, though there were too many gags involving her breaking rhyme. I thought it was a bit of a cop out to have so many speech bubbles instead of leaving things mostly to the narration, but the huge variety of art styles made up for this. Notable panels include Twilight yelling that technically you're always at the back of a line until someone gets behind you, Rainbow yelling at Tank, the black and white page of Rainbow spreading the drearies, the cliffhanger ending, Rainbow pinball, and the page of everyone getting along again.

I guess I take these characters way too seriously now since I couldn't help thinking that they usually manage to not all turn into jerkasses over petty stuff at the same time. But that aside, it was pretty cute and emulated the storybook style well. (And these comics seem to confuse Took a Level in Jerkass for Rule of Funny a lot anyway.

It was a cute, fun story. But damn, the art. Andy Price really did a stellar job. It's a gorgeous comic.

And I mean, this was a week for gorgeous comics. Pretty Deadly, Weirdworld, Mockingbird, and more - a lot of comics with outstanding art came out this week. And MLP still stood out.

So, yeah, major props to Andy Price. I enjoyed Katie Cook's writing, too, but Andy Price's art really was worth the price of the issue on its own.

So I got the new Humble Bundle, and now I've read Fiendship is Magic and the main series up through the end of "Siege of the Crystal Empire."

I just want to say: Holy shit, the Sombra origin comic. Best thing to come out of IDW's MLP line, bar none.

Ehhhhh, it was good... but still hold For Want of a Nail as the best of the main series.

And the Pinkie, Rarity and Celestia micros, and Celestia/Spike FF as slightly better then the Sombra one.

So I slacked a bunch on reading comics, even though I got the newest ones, so I'ma try the mini-liveblog thing again, starting with the Pinkie/Granny Friends Forever.

• Broke her hip? So much for that new hip Applejack bought her.
• Poor Pinkie. Coulda sworn she had better luck apple bucking in the show proper.
• And Granny having secret ingredients she won't even tell her family. Guess it's a good thing she only broke her hip and not her life, given how the whole family needs the cider to survive.
• Poor Apple Bloom. >.>
• Granny's pride getting the best of her thing is turned up to eleven here. At least Pinkie's taking it in stride.
• Okay, Granny's being uncharacteristically cranky. Pinkie's being a total darling, though, almost to the point of too much.
• Aw, and Applejack more or less pulls Pinkie aside to "fire" her from her volunteering.
• Granny Smith hollering at Pinkie reminded her of her granny back on the rock farm? Not sure if good implications or not. <.<

Well, that was predictable, but sweet. Looking back at my list, not a lot stood out, but it was solid enough. Now on to #41.

• Hehe, Dash getting all dorky and cute over the new Daring Do.
• Suddenly, solid cloud?
• Kinda weird for Dash to get mad when she was the one who wasn't looking where she was going. Also weird that the stallion didn't ask if she was okay.
• Under what context would Applejack stick out her tongue at Luna?
• Luna getting lippy with Celestia is kinda funny, though. >.>
• Also, Fluttershy asking Dash if the bird is okay is weird. I'd expect her to ask if both were okay.
• That tank "definition of enrage" index card is great, though.
• Gotta wonder why Dash is so late to get in line here, considering she go up during the night for cider. I guess Dash loves getting drunk more than Daring Do?
• Poor Tank, so determined to help Dash and then Zecora shoves him under the bus.

Nice art style. Not too keen on the story. I think everyone was overreacting way more than was needed to make the point in some places, such that it broke suspension. The biggest gripe, though, is that Zecora was apparently aware of all this and even stepped into the story, but didn't actually do anything to help. In fact, she almost made it worse. Good thing Dash loves Tank too much.

Though I think Dash blaming anypony other than herself is perfectly in character.

I've read the main series up through Siege of the Crystal Empire, which I'll fault for how it handles the "villain team-up" angle (really can't see Iron Will doing what they have him doing here), but the core story involving Sombra was very solid and I'm happy how it played out. Definitely a strong follow-up and conclusion to the Fiendship issue.

I'll have to catch up on the specials and the Friends Forever issues later. But! the Humble Bundle is adding more to the current bundle in an hour!

That's true. But then after the initial incident, she spends the whole day being a jerk to everyone she meets and over a cloud wall crash. I could maybe see it if the construction worker or wall had caused the accidental destruction of one of Dash's Daring Do books or something, but even that would have been pushing it.

To be fair to the comis, while the vilain team up was the weakest part of it, and kind of ruined the rest somewhat both by being so badly done, and taking up time that could have been used elsewhere, that is NOT the writers fault. It's a case of Executive Meddling On two different fronts at that. IDW told him he had to do a villain team up in the arc, while Hasbro would only give him a very small selection of 'villains' he could use for it.

I've always wondered why the Diamond Dogs couldn't have been used for that Villain Team Up arc. They certainly fit the villain role way better then Iron Will and Lighting Dust, and they never had a Heel–Face Turn or got infinitly imprisoned like other actual FIM villains.

I'll say it again, not using Axolotl was a wasted chance. Dude's all but tailored for a Legion of Doom situation.

His time hasn't come to burn yet.

Just read Friends Forever #28 - Luna and the CMC. It's rather weird how the story casually drops a bombshell about a war between yaks and griffons and doesn't resolve it.

I wonder if the script originally called for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but then them turning good required a quick and dirty replacement. However, a big part of the comic is the CMC helping a pony with her cutie mark, so maybe not. It's odd that they're never punished for their bullying.

Really weird that Canterlot Castle would just have dangerous monsters immune to magic wandering around. The solution was kind of clever but also didn't make sense. If Thestra makes things see-through with a spell, and the Mirrorca reflected it, why did the spell affect it? Though looking again, Luna's dialogue claims that the orca copies magic, even though the art clearly shows Luna's magic blast just bouncing off it without the orca casting a copy. Also, I hadn't realized until I read Silver Quill's review, but the Mirrorca wasn't actually doing anything, so they killed it for no reason.

Anyway, I thought that was a pretty good issue, oddities aside. The point about Luna being easier to connect with by ponies who themselves are weird was interesting and sweet, and the art was good, human sitting by Celestia aside. I liked the orca scene, despite my above problem. It was nice that the CMC were all helpful, though that once again makes the synopsis misleading.

At the end, there was a preview for a new Strawberry Shortcake comic. The art is by Amy Mebberson, so I decided to check it out. Didn't see anything that interested me.

The Mirrorca was a strange BLAM, and the solution to it was pretty non-straightforward (I guess by making its skin transparent it lost the reflective nature?). Thestra came dangerously close to stealing the spotlight at the end, but Luna and the CMC still stayed center stage throughout so whatever.

Only real gripes though. The rest was ho-hum, but I did really appreciate Luna's characterization. It's nice to see her worry about something other than NMM again.

Friendship is Magic #42 was great, with amazing art and a lot of fun gags.

It must have been hard on Andy Price to do two comics in a row involving a ton of different art styles. I wonder if he was the one who photographed the real life sections. Given the credit given to Alice Price, I wonder if she was the one who made the crochet ponies and/or modeling clay ponies and/or fruit. It was nice that all of the different art styles had the inspiration clearly credited this time around. If I have one complaint, it's that the normal art style looked odd at times. In particular, on the top of the second to last page, when Rarity is petting Pinkie's head, Rarity's front legs are really weird.

There were a ton of gags, and I'm sure I didn't get a lot of the ones related to particular artists.

This was a great send-off for Katie Cook.

Will get it soon, catching up on what I've missed.

Twi/RD was fun, glad they touched on there is more to Alicorns then just wings and horns. Kind of "What?" over how fast they solved things, and just leaving the ponies alone to do this again.

Blueblood/Shining was amazing, and odd seeing Blueblood make being a rich asshole actually useful.

RD and the very bad day was also really fun. Doubly so with all the rhyming, and the jokes about breaking it, AND how you can't be sure if those creatures were real, or just metaphor.

Was Cook the one who wrote the terrible Action Comics/The One with the badly written Twilight in the western section?

Haven't read it myself, but few people I heard has said she could not write action/heavy plot orientated stuff.

Yes, she cannot do high action, adventure type stories well in MLP, she doens't do enough to make sure they fit the setting, and tends to have to use the Idiot Ball far to much to make her stories work.

Anyone else remember Pinkie's line about how weaver!Rarity could be a jerk "for the sake of the story"? I was half tempted to interpret that as Katie signing off by invoking the MST3K Mantra (or Bellisario's Maxim- is there a meaningful difference?) regarding her characterizations.

edited 12th May '16 2:08:25 PM by YamiVizziniX

Also an issue with her. Not only ignoring whatever she wants to for the sake of her story, but knowing full well she's doing it. And even taking cracks at people who have an issue with it. "What I'm doing is wrong, I know it's wrong, but I'm gonna do it anyway."

This was a rather meh issue. It felt like it was trying to be meta, but wasn't meta enough. It felt like it was trying to explain the creation process, but didn't really go in depth. It did a lot of things but didn't really commit to any of them.

Rarity was great in this issue though. Her borderline schizophrenic reactions was great. Her going manic to serene in the space of a single panel, then back again made it feel like there some history between the two as Rarity still gets excitable from Pinkie's randomness but ends up accepting it immediately after. Also while I recognized the twist slightly before it happened I didn't see it being because it was the anniversary of their meeting. That was a really sweet touch.