See * for disclaimer

 

Another first, let's see what's in the comics this time. Just to summarize this; due to the nature of the comics this appears to be more a listing of pop-cultural references than anything else. There is actual worldbuilding going on, but it's buried under so many in-jokes that it's a bit distracting. So many references from the 80's that it's more indicative of the writer's backgrounds than anything. However, let's take a shot at this.

 

The Return of Queen Chrysalis (Comic Issues 1-4, November 28th 2012, January 2nd, January 30th, March 6th 2013)

 

Summary: The changelings are back, and this time they have a plan! Not a sensible plan, but what do you want? Competence?

 

Issue 1

 

Yep, Hippology. Because 'Hippos' is Greek for horse. 'Potamos' means river, so Hippopotamus = River Horse. Greeks seem to have had strange ideas as to what a horse is.

 

Wide range of animals here, lions, hippos, bears, koalas, flamingos.

 

Big splash page with so many pop-culture references and callbacks to prior episodes, I'm not even going to try to find them all. We've got the Blues Brothers, Magnum P.I., My Name is Earl, plus several OCs for the writers and illustrators themselves.

 

It does appear that Mayor is an elected position, as there's a gonfalon (that's what that kind of banner is called) calling for Mayor Mare to be re-elected.

 

And we have reference to the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' film (1956), with the pointing and wailing.

 

Twilight is referring to the replaced ponies as being 'Infected'. This seems a bit of a misnomer to me, as previously there were two known vectors for the changelings. Mind control, like Shining Armor and the bridesmaids, and duplication like Cadence. Personally, I'd make some differentiation between them. It appears Twilight doesn't think that way.

 

Cute book titles 'You Idiot', 'To Serve Ponies', 'Herding Cats', 'IDW', and especially 'Wonder of Santa Mira' which is the fictional town in California in The Body Snatchers, the 1955 novel the film was based on. Plus a bunch of others including Airwolf (1984 TV series).

 

Heh, Celestia has an answering service for Spike's Dragon Breath letters. Cute.

 

Pretending to be a zombie... straight from Shaun of the Dead (2004 film)

 

Yeah, they're really pushing this as being a blending of the Body Snatchers, and Aliens.

 

The changelings in this seem to have castes or ranks, as some have armor with most do not.

 

And now we have Spike's Dragon Breath postal service able to transport something other than paper. And somehow Crysalis can send items through this, so it's not just connected to Celestia.

 

Ah, some worldbuilding. We have the 'Secretariat Comet' passing through the Horse Head Nebula. Secretariat was the name of a famous racehorse from the 70's, and was ranked the most important Thoroughbred of all time as he pretty much won *everything* it was possible for a racehorse to win. And the Horsehead Nebula is a real thing about 1,500 light years from here in the constellation of Orion. Of course a comet passing through this Nebula would be so far away that it wouldn't be visible, unless they're using the Astrological version of 'passing through' which means the comet is visibly passing in front of the Nebula relative to Equestria. Astrology doesn't deal with relative distances at all, so as far as they're concerned a comet is a special kind of star and all stars are the same distance from the world. This conjunction is extremely rare according to Twilight, and is the biggest thing for 3,000 years. That doesn't mean the conjunction happens every 3,000 years, just that something as, or more, important happened 3,000 years ago. I wonder what? When the conjunction occurs, all magic gets boosted temporarily.

 

Issue 2

 

An extension on the official map. Below the Macintosh Hills there are the Appaloosan Mountains, the forest of Leota, and the Changeling Kingdom.

 

Appaloosa is a horse breed from the Palouse River region of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. I have no idea about Leota, but it has to be a reference to *something*.

 

The mine they're passing through to bypass the mountain used to belong to the Diamond Dogs. Diamond Dogs was the last glam rock album from David Bowie back in 1974. It looks like we're going to be mining that reference a lot. ha. Ziggy and Stardust as the names of the two guardian statues will be the first.

 

Heh, they've got a cave troll. With an Optimus Prime toy made of rocks and twigs. And naming a pet George, from Looney Tunes (which is an older reference to 'Of Mice and Men', but that's even more obscure.)

 

Another David Bowie reference, a statue made up like Aladdin Sane (1973 album)

 

And another, with a sign saying the sashay on the boardwalk. (Lyric from Diamond Dogs)

 

And these would be the Spiders from Mars from 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars', the full name of the 1972 album from David Bowie. Technically the Spiders from Mars was the name of Bowie's backing band at the time. I don't know the band well enough to guess which one is supposed to be which spider.

 

More Bowie references with a sign about red burning like a jungle bright, from Cat People.

 

Twilight's magic doesn't appear to make very good direct attacks in this case. The impact of the blast is just enough to annoy the big spider. Mind you, it out-masses the changelings she was blasting about previously by one heck of a lot, so that's not surprising really.

 

And we finally get to leave Bowie behind with some lyrics from Golden Years.

 

I've played Bocce Ball on occasion. The dog keeps stealing the target ball.

 

And a full map for below the Appaloosan Mountains. Many different references here, but ones to pick out are references to Keplies (a faerie horse that drowns its victims), Elephants, a region known as the Battle of Discord, and what looks like a Preserver monument from Star Trek. Otherwise, it's easier to just snaffle the map in it's entirety. Ah heck, an Oubliette and a Froud reference. We're back to David Bowie again, this time for Labyrinth

 

(1986 film).

 

Issue 3

 

So the somewhere there was a town populated by little cat creatures. Wuvy-Dovey Smoochy Land? Really? Fine. The changelings converted it to their own kingdom.

 

More Star Trek.

 

Yikes. I get the feeling this is a GIR reference from Invader ZIM, but I could easily be wrong. Either that, or Pinkie is a fursuiter... which I remember her doing before once, so...

 

Uhm. This comic is pretty dark in places. Odd.

 

Chekhov's Oubliette...

 

Chupacabra, a mythical creature from the southern United States and Mexico. Descriptions range from a humanoid lizard-creature to what is basically a hairless dog. Corpses of the cryptid that have been examined are so far all of coyote/dog/wolf hybrids with the mange or that genetic glitch that causes hairlessness as per the Xoloitzcuintle (the mexican hairless dog).

 

Huh, aggressive giant flowers. A callback to Fugitive Flowers from G1? These ones fly. I don't remember those ones flying. I'm probably missing a reference.

 

Jackalopes. Another North American cryptid. The name is relatively recent (1932), but the stories of a rabbit with antlers or horns go back hundreds of years all over the world. They just have different names, like the Al-mi'raj and the Lepus cornutus. Unfortunately, there is a real virus that causes cancerous growths on rabbit's heads that could be mistaken for antlers.

 

It's apparently fall, given the color of the trees. Either that or we're dealing with red-leafed trees like the Imperial Maple.

 

The jackalope and the chupacabra don't like each other much.

 

Issue 4

 

The castle there is a lovely example of 19th century Romance Revival architecture, very much like Neuschawanstein Castle in Bavaria.

 

Escher drawing. Though the bouncing ball puts it back to Labyrinth again.

 

A bunch of movie villains, including Mola Ram (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984), Pennywise (It, book 1986, tv miniseries 1990), the Phantom (Phantom of the Opera, 1925 version with Lon Chaney specifically), the Twins (Shining, 1980), and the zombie in the cellar from Evil Dead II (1987).

 

Many an answer has been postulated for Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter riddle, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" However, Mr. Carroll himself said that he never intended there to be an answer, that was the joke. After awhile, he created an answer because he was fed up with being asked. "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" The spelling of nevar being very specific, being raven backwards.

 

The changelings are very weird in this comic, to be honest. It seems that the changelings have a need to be generally irritating. Maybe this whole thing is some kind of tenderizing process? Does that map to what the changelings were doing when they were terrorizing Canterlot?

 

However, one thing we can take away is that the changelings do have individual appearances. Same color scheme all the time, but build and size can be quite different.

 

1960's Batman typography.

 

The comet is causing magical surges, and Twilight's blast has been upgraded. However, it doesn't appear to damage living things still, it's primarily damaging stone, glass, cloth. Interesting.

 

Chrysalis is doing her hair up while looking at a mirror... I've seen that before, but I'm not remembering where.

 

And a quick Bride of Frankenstein hairdo.

 

I want to know more about what happened to Spike. That sounds fascinating.

 

And a giant marshmallow pony attacking Manehattan, straight out of Ghostbusters (1984).

 

How Much IS That Pony In The Window

 

A couple of bonus comics. Here we have Pinkie dressed up in an Edwardian tall lace collar with a tiny top hat. For some reason this kind of thing gets labeled as Steampunk, but it's not actually Victorian which is where Steampunk is supposed to be in, but the next period.

 

Ice cream... wagon. Not a self-powered vehicle, but a pony-pulled wagon.

 

In The Interim

 

Ah good, we get to find out what was going on with Spike.

 

Giant cockatrices, simply big versions of the regular-sized one we've seen in the show. However, these don't seem to have the petrifying gaze.

 

Celestia and Spike appear to have a bond of their own here.

 

And Celestia, Spike, the Guard, and a bunch of regular ponies all pony-up and take care of the issue. Good job, but it does demonstrate that Celestia may be powerful relative to other ponies, she's not a goddess. Her magic should be boosted by this comet as well, and she still needs all that assistance to deal with the giant cockatrices.