Friendship is Magic #23

[Marimo 555]

(W) Jeremy Whitley (A) Amy Mebberson (CA) Amy Mebberson, Sara Richard

A special one-shot issue featuring the ponies' pets! When some new trouble comes into Ponyville, all of our normal heroes are incapacitated. Luckily help is on the way in the form of Angel, Owlicious, Gummy, Tank, Winona and Opal! Will they be able to use teamwork to save the day?

 

Extended preview came out eariler today!

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=23344

 

Expect its release this Wednesday.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

A one-shot eh? I really wonder what they have in store for this one with the Mane 6 pets...should be interesting; at least.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

Dunno if I'll be picking this one up. Doubt it, unless I get some money out of nowhere. Premise looks a bit bland and a bit risky, and it doesn't look like something I want to dish actual money out on. I might watch a YT scan of it, but I don't think I'll pay money for it.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

Dunno if I'll be picking this one up. Doubt it, unless I get some money out of nowhere. Premise looks a bit bland and a bit risky, and it doesn't look like something I want to dish actual money out on. I might watch a YT scan of it, but I don't think I'll pay money for it.

 

I'd be lying if I said I didn't share some of the same concerns. I think that, for me at least, that stems from some of the pet-related episodes being fairly forgettable.

 

But then again the comics have surprised me in the past. I'm willing to give it a shot. ^^

[Banul 3,831]

So I finished reading it just now. It was 'aight. I tended to dislike the episodes with the pets, but I thought the comic did a good job with them. Maybe even better than the show, in that respect. The end with the main antagonist was a little wonky:

 

 

 

I'm with Rainbow Dash here. That sea monster was enslaving the ponies and trying to flood their town not 5 minutes ago, and we're just going to give it a free pass? I'm all for second chances, but they didn't even talk about it. Nobody but RD seemed even mad about it. Seemed sort of weird to me how quickly that got resolved.

 

 

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

So I finished reading it just now. It was 'aight. I tended to dislike the episodes with the pets, but I thought the comic did a good job with them. Maybe even better than the show, in that respect. The end with the main antagonist was a little wonky:

 

 

 

I'm with Rainbow Dash here. That sea monster was enslaving the ponies and trying to flood their town not 5 minutes ago, and we're just going to give it a free pass? I'm all for second chances, but they didn't even talk about it. Nobody but RD seemed even mad about it. Seemed sort of weird to me how quickly that got resolved.

 

 

 

It's out today? Crap, I got my release days mixed up!

 

*Mental note to purchase when home*

[Megas 27,564]

I liked it but the ending was dumb

Edited September 7, 2014 by Matter Horn

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

I loved the visual communication the pets had, and it was great seeing their interaction.

But man that ending was like a g3 kids speical. And I really do have to agree with Rainbow Dash, why didn't the Kelpie just ask for help? Would it really have been to hard to just say "hey I need help moving these water sprites".

 

Gags were nice

Interaction between pets were fun

Visual communication was a pretty good laugh

 

But man, that conflict resolution. Sweet Jesus not even power rangers gets that bad.

[ShyPie 164]

I liked it, was really a lot of fun. Agreed with most, the actual conflict and villain of it all was rather weak, but was clearly an after thought of the whole concept of the issue (ie. focus on the pets). Gummy was marvellous (when you first see him just rolling past and then when it comes to his part in the plan and Tank just thinks "screw ball"  ). I had heard an interview with the writer over at comic geek speak a couple weeks ago where he talked about writing the issue and he said Opal was the Wolverine of the team. Loved it and agreed 

Edited September 6, 2014 by ShyPie

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

So, I just finished reading the issue...and I call serious bull on that ending. I'll admit, I like the design of Cassie the Kelpie, she's cool looking, but remember that her Plan A was to brainwash an entire town consisting of families, children and a crown princess of Equestria and use them as her unwitting slaves to destroy a block in her path. I'm pretty sure the ponies would have been less forgiving if she had somehow ended up in Canterlot and started pulling Celestia and Luna's strings. There was literally nothing stopping her from asking "Hey, I need help or my little friends will die!" I'm sure a sizable number would have been more than willing to help her but nope, she just had to go and pull a Queen Chrysalis.  

 

Just imagine what would have happened if Angel and the others hadn't stopped her. The second the dam burst she and her water sprites would have been on their way, but all her pony puppets would have been swept away in the ensuring flood, either being smashed against the sheer force of the waters or outright drowned. I don't care if she needed to get her water sprites to the sea or they would have died, she was readily willing to destroy an entire town just to get her way. An after all that, all she gets is a slap on the flipper? Dash was totally right, but they try to sweep it under the rug by saying that people do stupid things to help a friend? Yeah, did that stupid thing ever result in massive property damage and a death toll?

 

Oh...this issue was about the pets, right? I liked how they captured each pet's individual personality and reactions: Angel can be grumpy, but he knows when to take charge when necessary, Owlowiscious was sad to see his owners gone, Tank was awesome in how he saved the two when the pony puppets cornered them and Opal was completely uncaring unless it directly concerned her. The art really had to be good since the majority of the comic has little to no dialogue.

Edited September 7, 2014 by PoisonClaw

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

So, I just finished reading the issue...and I call serious bull on that ending. I'll admit, I like the design of Cassie the Kelpie, she's cool looking, but remember that her Plan A was to brainwash an entire town consisting of families, children and a crown princess of Equestria and use them as her unwitting slaves to destroy a block in her path. I'm pretty sure the ponies would have been less forgiving if she had somehow ended up in Canterlot and started pulling Celestia and Luna's strings. There was literally nothing stopping her from asking "Hey, I need help or my little friends will die!" I'm sure a sizable number would have been more than willing to help her but nope, she just had to go and pull a Queen Chrysalis.  

 

Just imagine what would have happened if Angel and the others hadn't stopped her. The second the dam burst she and her water sprites would have been on their way, but all her pony puppets would have been swept away in the ensuring flood, either being smashed against the sheer force of the waters or outright drowned. I don't care if she needed to get her water sprites to the sea or they would have died, she was readily willing to destroy an entire town just to get her way. An after all that, all she gets is a slap on the flipper? Dash was totally right, but they try to sweep it under the rug by saying that people do stupid things to help a friend? Yeah, did that stupid thing ever result in massive property damage and a death toll?

That was a huge issue that bugged me. A really simple solution to the issue would have been to have the kelpie communicate only through body language and song. Booom, she can only communicate via song, and thus had to take control of them to get her sprites to safty. It could have placed more emphasis on the non standard communication going on in the comic, and allowed for a lot more believable motovation and resolution. But in making the kelpie able to just speak, it ruins the entire thing as she is now a violent sociopath who was willing to murder and enslave an entire town when she simply could have asked for some help in moving.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it a LOT more than I originally thought I would. Really, this issue really did a MUCH better job with the pets as a whole than I think any one episode of the show did.

 

Major kudos!