My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Comics

That's bound to fail against Discord, though. He'll only take it as an encouragement to engage into a 'Who can be the most insufferable' contest.

Actually, it might work on Discord, too. Discord and Blueblood are obnoxious for different reasons. Discord wants things to be interested, while Blueblood just wants to be pampered. If it's pointed out to Discord how he's not as different from Blueblood as he'd probably like to believe, he may decide to become more considerate of others.

Legends of Magic #1
This is the start of a brand new comic series. I'm not too keen on the premise, especially since it makes it less likely that we'll see unexpected team-ups of characters, but let's see if it works out. Wait, come to think of it, I'm surprised this is coming out before the final issue of Friends Forever.

Celestia's hair is interesting here. It's a compromise between the all-pink hair that fans use for young Celestia and Celestia's modern hairstyle, implying that Celestia's hair could have been all-pink when she was even younger. Young Luna looks about how one would expect, a tinier version of her season 1 design. An interesting thing pointed out by Silver Quill's review is that the credits page depicts Celestia with an all-pink mane, meaning it changed at some point. I'm not sure what that could mean.

Celestia and Luna's interactions were great. I like the integration of Trollestia into Young Celestia's personality. The story got less interesting once Luna opened up the portal and we got a bunch of "LOOK LOOK SHE'S GOING TO BE NIGHTMARE MOON" stuff, but it was still fun.

The framing that these stories are legends written by Starswirl that may or may not be true is interesting.

Why do these issues still have previews for the very first issue of Strawberry Shortcake? Is that series even still going? As far as I can tell, it ended with #8 in 2016.

Overall, I liked this issue for its Celestia/Luna interactions, and the rest was alright. For now, this will still be a series where I check for positive reviews before buying the issue, though.

Friends Forever #38 - FINAL - Princess Celestia & Princess Luna
It's sad to see this series go, because there's still so much potential in odd pairings to showcase. However, a consistent problem is that for many issues, they went with obvious and/or boring pairings, particularly due to their insistence on almost always including one of the main characters. Still, the issues that worked really worked.

As for this final issue... it was alright. Some bits were amusing, but Celestia and Luna felt neither in character nor any different from each other. It was just two ponies arguing, and nothing about them felt particularly Celestia-ish or Luna-ish. Crystal Ball's potions and the giant animals were also odd plot points. Plus, it's really really text heavy, which seems unusual given that it was written and drawn by Andy Price, who is mainly an artist, so you'd think he'd go for more "show, don't tell" style. This would have been fine for a normal issue, but as an ending, it wasn't satisfying at all. That said, the art was as great as ever.

Silver Quill's review is much more positive. I don't know, maybe I'm just in a weird mood.

Overall, the Friends Forever issues that I recall particularly liking are 2 (Cutie Mark Crusaders and Discord), 3 (Celestia and Spike), 6 (Rainbow Dash and Trixie), 8 (Applejack and Rarity), 12 (Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle), 13 (Rarity and Babs Seed), 20 (Discord and Luna), and 29 (Rarity and Maud Pie). Huh, laying it out like that, the series was definitely running out of steam as it went on.

edited 19th Apr '17 10:10:47 PM by SigmasonicX

Friendship is Magic #53 - End of Shadow Lock arc
The idea of someone learning about an evil figure, and then literally starting to see that evil figure mentioned in every book he reads, is pretty interesting, though it was just used as backstory here.

The villain depicted in the picture (another picture) is definitely not the Storm King from the movie, so unless the movie involves the Storm King trying to summon this guy, he's probably going to be in the season 7 finale. I'm not a fan of how this season 7 tie in was handled, with Twilight not even learning anything about the villain other than the fact that one exists. Since it's very unlikely that Shadow Lock will appear in season 7, this story doesn't mean anything for when the villain actually appears.

I thought the scenes with everyone breaking history were fun, though it was effectively just to pad out time, since Twilight didn't even realize she was in more danger than she thought until after her friends had gotten to her and Shadow Lock was already talked down.

Overall, this story arc was fun, but a lot of it felt disjointed and pointless. It definitely could have just been a two parter without losing much. The arc didn't benefit much from apparently tying into the season 7 finale, and I doubt the finale benefits from this story.

Legends of Magic #2 - Rockhoof
This continues the framing story with Sunburst reading Starswirl's collection of stories, but this time he's reading a story to Luna. I like the way they interact, with Sunburst getting intimidated by her outbursts and declarations. At the end, I like how Luna declares the lessons acceptable, and permits Sunburst to tell her another story sometime.

The way the "original" story of Rockhoof is presented makes me think it's going to be shown in the show in some fashion, since it seems to assume familiarity from the reader. However, even if it isn't, we get enough to clearly understand the story and what it's meant to represent to ponies, and it was neat seeing this pony fable that everyone was already familiar with. Even the "as you know..." element was understandable, since Sunburst couldn't be sure Luna knew the story, and she couldn't be sure Sunburst knew her version of it.

Anyway, the "sequel" was fun. My big worry about this comic series was that it would be hard to be interested in the new characters, especially without known ones to fall back on, but Rockhoof and the Mighty Helm were likable.

That said, I'm still unsure about the next issue.

edited 11th May '17 10:01:06 PM by SigmasonicX

Went over to Comixology and picked up volume 10 of the main series and volume 7 of Friends Forever. Figure I should catch up with the comics now that I've caught up with the show. Looking forward to the Shining Armor/Blueblood issue.

EDIT: Issue 40 was very sweet.

edited 29th May '17 4:16:25 PM by Pannic

You know, I have to wonder: if they ever do a MLP EG comic again, how would a Valentine's Day Issue go?

Would be a hoot. But this franchise has been pretty squeamish about romance outside of characters introduced already involved so...

I'd say it's more that they're squeamish about romance involving the main cast. Which is pretty sensible, given how, ah, passionate the fan base can get.

Something is very wrong with the artwork of the 2013 Annual. Like, really wrong. There's clones, it feels like some of it is just photo copied, for lack of a better word, and the smiles. Good lord...the smiles.

Like, sometimes they're fine, but occasionally they just go into insane grins that make them look like they're about to pull out a knife and start cutting some throats. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are the worst offenders.

And it's the same artist who did the same art in the MLP 2014 Holiday Special and at least in that, there was something wrong with the art that I couldn't put a finger on. In the 2013 Annual, however...

Damn it, Tony Fleecs, what the hell?

edited 24th Jul '17 1:20:20 PM by fredhot16

The Equestria Girls specials? Yeah, they just have a hard time drawing the humans for some reason.

I've been forgetting to include my comic reviews here, but I'll just post the newest one.

Movie Prequel #2 was a pretty good chapter. Celaeno and her crew are fun, and I liked her loyalty to her crew and reasonableness. Particularly, I liked how quickly she rejected the magic gem. It's interesting that everyone in her crew has a missing body part. I know I wasn't too keen on Celaeno's design when it was first revealed, but it works well in this comic, along with the rest of her crew, including several members that haven't appeared in trailers or promotional images yet.

I didn't expect Capper to show up as a stowaway, and for the cursed gem to go to him. I thought for sure the gem would be the source of the Storm King's weather control, but apparently he can do that already. Speaking of which, I wonder if we'll get an explanation for how he caught up to them, since Strife was surprised by it.

Silver Quill's review.

As he points out, Strife is interesting, because we haven't seen him at all in movie promotion, but he's playing a large role in the prequel story so far, and he's a very unusual character for this universe. I hadn't thought about how the first two issues show parallels and contrasts between how Storm King treats his crew and how Celaeno treats hers. I forgot to mention, surprised to see Storm King actually choke Celaeno in a MLP comic, even if it is comedy Bart style.

Overall, fun enough story, but note that it's meant to be read with the first issue, and it doesn't have any ponies in it.

edited 26th Jul '17 10:51:09 PM by SigmasonicX

O.K, this has been bugging me for some time and I'm hoping someone can provide me an answer.

I'm reviewing the MLP EG comics and I'm kinda confused about the first EG comic. The first story in the comic is about Sunset Shimmer and how she got to the EG universe. Here's the problem: I remember reading on the YMMV page of the MLP IDW comics that this comic was supposed to be published (or was written before the movie was published) before the movie proper was released. You know, like the MLP: The Movie comic? However, I looked up the release dates for both the movie and the comic and they're pretty different.

The Movie: June 15, 2013 (Los Angeles Film Festival), June 16, 2013 (United States and Canada). The Comic: July 18–21, 2013 (San Diego Comic-Con), October 30, 2013 (United States and Canada).

I guess what I'm trying to ask is "just how much did the writers of the bloody comic know about the movie itself while writing it"? Or "is there any explanation for why a prequel comic meant to be published before the movie would be published AFTER the movie?"

edited 6th Sep '17 3:10:24 PM by fredhot16

IDW is typically in talk with DHX and Hasbro on scripts and stuff, so I'd imagine they knew of the movie's plot well when making the comic.

The movie and comic release can be explained as either incorrect information, or the comic's release getting delayed/movie premier pushed forward for whatever reason.

Catching up on comics after a really long absence and I have to say that what Deviations is something I completely didn't expect, since I never read any of the preview or other spoiler stuff for these if I can help it. I think the topic's already pretty much covered why it's great, but I think it's good enough that I consider it in my top three.

And now all 6 Legends have been introduced. Think Mistmane was my favorite.

Legends #6 was really weird and they knew it (as made quite clear by Sunburst). It was still pretty charming overall, though.

Can't say I was too invested in the story of #59, as the story didn't really grab me. The whole topic vaguely wants to make me write a dumb alternative Pinkie-Dash shipfic just so I can drop the line, "There's only one kind of Pie I like—and it's not the edible kind."

edited 5th Oct '17 2:54:50 PM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi

Hmm, I've been forgetting to post my comic reviews here.

MLP Holiday Special 2017

While it was entertaining enough, I was dreading the direction this story was going in. As Flim and Flam take advantage of the season to sell Hearth's Warming merchandise super early, Twilight and Applejack grump about how this goes against the spirit of the holiday. I thought for sure it was going to go in a hypocritical "don't be consumeristic on Christmas but also BUY MLP" direction. There were jokes about that latter part, but I figured it was just going to be that. However, once Twilight stops Flim and Flam's plans, everyone actually does call her out for being inconsiderate, and thinking that they were somehow being tricked by Flim and Flam. They even point out that her solution, declaring that all of Flim and Flam's products were free, was a real abuse of her power as a princess. The actual lesson of the story is, "Jesus, just ease up and let people enjoy what they want!" [1]◊

There's a lot to enjoy from this issue. First of all, it's a pretty rare instance of Twilight and Applejack being the focus characters. I know someone here who should be happy about that. They're largely there to rain on everyone's parade, but they still get nice moments. [2]◊

This story confirms that Snowdrop isn't canon, since there isn't a legend about where snow comes from! Flim and Flam take advantage of this absence to market Windy the Windigo, an adorable mascot for the season, who has her own song, and you can help her out by buying her favorite cookies, which shows her just enough kindness to keep the snow soft and friendly. [3]◊

The art by Brenda Hickey is great, and everyone is wearing festive new outfits, even Flim and Flam. We really need to see the ponies in scarves more, especially Twilight. Biggest shame of the issue is that we didn't get a close up of Fluttershy wearing her cap with bunny ears, or Rarity with her Russian hat. There's also a fun cameo from Fry from Futurama, doing the "take my money" meme. [4]◊ [5]◊

Holy crap, just noticed that Twilight's dialogue in the first panel could be seen as calling out Snowdrop. Also, kind of considering this (edited) as an avatar. [6]◊

Silver Quill's review mentions how the Holiday Specials have all been bizarrely cynical compared to most of the normal issues. The first one was about the CMC cyberbullying Sunset Shimmer. The second was satirical, but did heavily rely on the characters being unpleasant in the tales. This is also pretty cynical, and Twilight and Applejack are somewhat unpleasant, but I think it's handled much better than the previous specials, and there's a nice lesson in the end.

[7]◊

edited 15th Dec '17 11:11:27 PM by SigmasonicX

I'm kinda digging the plot for the current arc. Equestria owes a debt to the griffons, but it's old age and significant percentage of Equestrian shares makes it difficult to just hand over.

Would anyone recommend any particular books or storylines from the comics?

I recommend "Reflections". It's essentially Tranformers: Shattered Glass but with ponies.

So I have been reading the Knightmare Knights series (as of Issue #4), and I think the fourth installment was a major load of HSQ. With that in mind, SPOILER ALERT!!!

I shall start with Capper, who goes ahead, betrays the team (and will likely do it again to the villain), to how our villain was actually used by the Pony of Shadows.

The bigges wham shot in my honest opinion was how we now have the alternate Daybreaker end up being The Woobie, who has endured numerous hardships, but what strikes me is the degree of what she went through is arguably more tragic than what I have seen to date.

Also, why does the ”training” used by the Pony of Shadows remind me of the methodology used by Jacob Seed?

The backstory I get is one of the two alternate sisters (you know who I am referring to) attempted to defy the Pony of Shadows, and ends up meeting her end at the hooves of her own sister, who was coerced into doing so. Now, Eris’ involvement was in finding the two prior to the incident as she gets incapacitated. It was not until she designed a device to mitigate the surviving sister that she goes ahead and betrays the Pony of Shadows by making said device only make its wearer follow her orders. All this is obviously out of order, but then again, Issue #4 felt like a huge Wham Shot with the background information coming to light.

Update: It appears that Eris is actually the crux for the alternative reality’s fall into darkness and the main cause for the Pony of Shadows in that realm.

Edited by Mr_Madman on Feb 3rd 2019 at 8:56:04 AM

So, prompted by talk about Tempest and stuff in the MLP thread over at western animation forum, I finally gave the post-movie Tempest two-parter a complete read (instead of just relying on synopses and random panels from derpibooru).

And my god, that's such a cute little arc. Cadance's, Tempest's and Glitter's characterizations were all very interesting, with nice back and forth between the characters. And I really digged the way they handled the reconciliation between Tempest and Glitter.

Gonna be honest, I kinda ship them after this.

In regards to the finale of Nightmare Knights, I’d say it was totally wicked.

Also of note, Replacement Goldfish is being defied here.

Please tell me someone has read the last two issues.

The show has ended, but Season 10 will continue in the comics.

Wonder what storylines will be covered. Personal predictions include:

• Celestia and Luna's origins
• Real Grogar
• Redeeming Cozy, Tirek, and Chryssie

what else?