My Little Pony Friendship is Magic IDW Comics Review

As I look at the covers of the two MLP comic compilations, I immediately lament the fact of being a fan of a franchise meant for little girls. “Why is the logo covered in glitter?” I wonder as I inspect the cover art and the back. This seems like something an eight-year-old girl would do to girlify my comic collection. As I further inspect the outer layer of the comics, I see that both the books have no subtitle and the covers of both of them do not convey at all what the story within the pages will hold. Without removing the plastic covering, the only way you can tell that you didn’t buy the same book twice with different covers is that they are numbered on the spine and have a different summary and authors. As I opened the book and quickly flip through the pages, I glance at the last pages of the book at the art gallery. Most of the art in the gallery would have made a more superior choice for the main cover. I guess instead of having some cool art with some cool villain on the cover, they opted for something less offensive to better catch the eye of their target demographic, the eight year old girls of the world, instead of the real people who will buy it. The Bronies.

Let’s get away from judging the book by its cover and get into the nitty gritty.

Volume 1 is titled “ The Return of Queen Chrysalis “ which compiles the first four issues of the IDW My Little Pony Friendship is Magic comics. In this volume, Queen Chrysalis returns after her defeat at the end of season 2 to enact revenge on Twilight Sparkle by kidnapping Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. The main six knowingly adventure off to what they know is a trap to save the three fillies.

Volume 2 doesn’t have a title, but I’ll call it “Nightmare’s Revenge” for now which compiles issues five to eight of the comics. After the main six are all having insomnia from constant nightmares, Rarity gets kidnapped by the dark powers that once corrupted Princess Luna. It’s up to the main six five, spike, and Princess Luna to travel the moon to rescue Rarity.

The one I chose to read first was “The Return of Queen Chrysalis” which I chose based solely on the fact it had better art. Sure it doesn’t quite get Princess Celestia’s hair right but I do love how the line work venture’s away from the cold, perfectly drawn lines of the TV show to make something that looks more natural and better suited to the comic book format. Facial expressions are drawn really well, especially when you see Queen Chrysalis’ evil face in a few panels. The backgrounds are really well done, with lots of details and little things here and there which demands you to stop looking at the word bubbles to view the wonderful art. Although, this volume did have a lot of issues, little things like dialogue does fit the characters but in some sentences it’s like if the added or subtracted one word it would fit the characters better. Another one is what is up with all the crappy onomatopoeias? “JUMP”, “BETTER KICK”, “CRASH” etc? Seriously, was that on purpose or were they just feeling lazy? My biggest gripes are that background and fan favorite ponies show up in too many panels and too many references to pop culture. There’s even a troll who is such an obvious metaphor for bronies that I was kinda insulted. Mostly because it hits too close to home. All of these little details of references, fan favorites, nods to the fans feels like pandering basically. In the show, they knew that having some references and nods to the fans spaced out in between a few episodes was a good idea. Too much of that gets old and which is basically what Family Guy gets wrong. It ruins the flow of the story when you gotta stop now and again to look at art to get the reference. All of this just seems like something to distract you at how $#!* the story is. Characters don’t act seriously in serious situations in this story which is basically The Hobbit with ponies. They encounter a troll, fend off spiders in a cave, fend off the dangers of the forest as the travel through a landscape to reach their destination. They even have a map which resembles the journey Bilbo Baggins took to The Lonely Mountain. And it ends with what I consider the worst parts of the MLP FiM TV series. When Twilight defeats the big meanie by lecturing them about the power of fwendship. I guess Twilight always succeeds cause the villains willingly submit cause they’ll die from vomiting or audibly groaning too loud.

Volume Two “The Nightmare Strikes Back” doesn’t have art as good as volume one. It doesn’t get some colours correct but it does stick closer to the art style of the show and it does get Princess Celestia’s mane right. But some panel’s of the main villain looking menacing in her battle armour does win me over. Volume Two “The Nightmare Menace” does however win me over in where it counts the most, a tighter focus on story. Serious characters act serious in serious situations, no insipid little references to distract you from the story, and when certain background or recurring ponies do show up, it makes more sense and has a bigger impact on the story. The story delves deeper into the characters than volume one especially for Princess Luna. The dialogue even fits better than volume one. Although, this volume does seem to be written like a modern day action movie. You know, the kind of movies released after the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, where the heroes and the villains amass a huge army or a large group to square off at the climax of the film. You know, movies like Breaking Dawn part two, Deathly Hallows part two, Ironman 3, that Tim Burton Alice movie etc. The ending treads the line of friendship is the only reason they won, but the ending is rather more about facing your fears and looking past your own insecurities than the “friendship is magic” that I loath so much about some of the TV series’ episodes. But all in all, a good read.

Besides all my complaining, both these compilations are pretty good, one just okay, the other one better. Even though one of them kinda gets on my nerves and feels like too much fan service, it still has better writing and is more engaging than most MLP FiM episodes. If you’re a fan of the franchise, they are both good companions while you wait for season 4 to come around. And it’s certainly better than that god-awful Equestria Girls movie.

The Fault in Our Stars Review

To be fully honest, I’m not a very big reader. I have only read seven books in my life, four of which were Harry Potter books, two Star Wars novels, and half of All the Devils are Here. I would say that I don’t particularly enjoy reading, to the point that I always want the subtitles turned off for videogames and I specifically choose the poorly done English dub for foreign movies. Many times I feel too lazy to even read comic books. So right now I would caution that I wouldn’t be the best person to get an opinion on a book. Although for me, I would brave any medium if the work deserves attention.

The first few chapters for me felt like torture. At first I was totally distracted by the writing style. I chose to read this book because I am a big fan of John Green and his youtube channels. I started reading the book and the writing was so John Green that I imagined his voice but was distracted a few pages in when he started gushing over some boy named Augustus Waters. “Huh” I said aloud while flipping the pages back to the first page. At the first few chapters, I constantly had to remind myself I was reading a book narrated by a sixteen-year-old girl rather than a thirty-six year old man.

Next I lamented the fact that this was a book for early teens or “tween” as they are called but more specifically for girl tweens. So much of the story was about her swooning over some guy.  I felt like I accidentally picked-up a teenage girl’s diary during her Justin Bieber phase. Many times I would say aloud “What am I reading?!” disgusted at the fact that I had mistakenly picked up a teen romance novel.

I also didn’t enjoy all the teen angst at first. So much teen angst that they would put Cloud and Squall with their emo hairdos to shame. But then again, they did have cancer, so they have my permission to be as angsty as they wish. Although, that permission is a cancer perk. I imagined Hazel Grace with the voice of Daria from the Beavis and Butt-head tv series (not the Daria TV show cause her voice was too monotone). But I regrettably imagined Augustus Waters as an obnoxious Zac Efron type who just turned all emo because of cancer.

Also early into the novel, part of the story is dedicated to describe what happens in a video game and a movie I’ve seen in real life. So, in a few chapters, Hazel Grace describes what happens on the screen when they are playing a videogame. A videogame I thought at first I would rather be playing then reading about, but from her description sounded like some mediocre shooter that I wouldn’t give my time of day. In a later chapter she describes what happens in the movie 300. I thought to myself, why are you wasting my reading time on a movie I didn’t like. I would say this killed the pacing but this is a book and not a movie.

I continued through the book despite my constant audible groans and I was very glad I stuck with it. The characters eventually grew on me evolving from some dumb Disney Channel characters to smart, endearing, and thoughtful characters. Especially Augustus Waters, who I eventually grown to really like and I was genuinely happy that he and Hazel Grace got together. Not only were the main leads endearing but all the characters, from Kaitlin (who I imagined with the same voice of Rarity from MLP) to the taxi driver.

I loved how the book is both smart yet down to earth. It periodically quoted science, math, history, and literature, which made me glad I was familiar with the references because I watched CrashCourse, Numberphile, Vsauce etc. Besides that, the book itself was smart enough to be down to earth, sometimes even getting very smart quotes and ideas from everyday popular culture. John Green knew his audience, finding meaning in popular culture but yet at the same time explaining more complex concepts and weaving into a believable world. He wrote in a way that everyone could understand the concepts he’s trying to convey.

Later on in the book I was kind of complaining about how the chapters were getting shorter and shorter. I was gonna make a comment on how John Green got lazy after chapter fourteen. But I realized reading more that it was done on purpose. It was some sort of metaphor of how short life becomes when stricken with cancer on your last days. I found my self wishing that the last few chapters were longer like how one wishes their sick loved one had more days to live. But I didn’t get my wish. “The world is not a wish-granting factory.” The last ten chapters were so, so heart wrenching.

I wasn’t sure at first with this book but it eventually drew me in. This was the kind of story that made me think about it for a few minutes when I finished reading it. With the book still firmly clenched in my hand, I wasn’t sure if I should put it down. I was sad that it ended but glad I read it and I don’t think it should have ended in any other way. This was one of those rare stories that stuck with me even after I finished it. The kind of story that I couldn’t get out of my mind no matter what I did, keeping me up at night or making my showers longer than usual. It’s a tragic tale but still smart enough to not totally envelope you with sadness with some perfectly placed wit and humor. As a person who doesn’t like to read much, this is a must read.

Sonic Genesis by Archie Comics Review

I’ve got an unopened 20th anniversary Sonic action figure on my wall with the 226th issue in it which happens to be the Archie Comic’s Sonic comics reboot. Now I don’t want to open the package just to read the comic or else the collectors value will go down. So instead I managed to pick up a collection book with all 4 issues plus a prologue and an epilogue. As I got half way through the collection, I put the book down for a second and looked up to the ceiling thinking to myself “GOD THIS IS  AWFUL!”

Why is Amy in this box? She’s not even in the Genesis Part 1 comic.

I don’t normally read comics, in fact the last comic I read was a few years back so if I said that I thought a comic was good I would be skeptical about my own opinion. But I was taken aback at just how horrible Archie comic’s attempt at a reboot and their shameful grab for new readers of their long running comic series. I’ve heard DC comic geeks moan about the multiple reboots of their favorite comic franchise so I guess this is my attempt at a moan of a reboot.

My biggest gripe with the Genesis collection is the lack of any story for the majority of the books. Or should I say nothing remotely interesting happens and there’s little explanation of what’s going on. As a long time fan of the games I knew exactly what was going on and didn’t need much explaining but people who aren’t too familiar will just be totally lost. So if Genesis part 1 was the first Sonic comic you’ve ever read then good luck figuring out what the f* is going on as there is little story to introduce newcomers to the world of Mobius or even any kind of motivation and personality of any of the characters.

Any semblance of an interesting story is only present in the prologue, epilogue, and half of Genesis part four. If I ran out toilet paper parts 1, 2, 3 and the first half of 4 would be used to wipe my ass as those parts are just a guided tour of most of the levels of Sonic 1 and 2 on the Sega Genesis. And just like a tour, the tour guide clearly states the names of all the interesting bits of the level along with the annoying tourists tagging along the journey. The characters might as well just shout out “To your left you will see a Caterkiller! We are now entering Chemical Plant zone which was opened back in 1992!”

I don’t see any reason why the characters have to blatantly say all this s*#%, fans of the games don’t need each place spelled out for them cause it would be more fun figure it out on their own while newcomers would just be confused. Rather than a sly wink and some fun hidden easter eggs it feels like it’s taking the audience on a Disneyland carnival ride, shoving into your face any and all famous mascots and landmarks it possibly can get away with.

As the characters go through all the zones, all the characters speak to each other as they go through famous obstacles of each level. It’s like I’m watching a Let’s Play of some morons going through the game and just like a bad Let’s Play it just annoys me and makes me want to play the game then continue on with this garbage.

Another main gripe that I have is that the story just moves along too fast. Sure I was expecting it to go fast as it was only like 4 comic book issues and those are relatively short but the pacing seems much too quick. The characters go through location and location within just a few pages with little explanation of what their doing or any kind of story or character development. It feels like it needs to get through all this S#%^ cause it assumes that the reader already knows what’s going on. There’s one instance when a romance is starting between Sally and Sonic when they give each other the naughty eye then two pages later it’s like they broke up for such a flimsy reason which seems to come up from no where. It’s like it needs to get the most important story points out of the way immediately. I guess the writers thought the plot “gotta go fast”

I was initially interested by the Genesis collection of the comic because it was published on a few of my favorite gaming sites. “A reboot?” I thought to myself considering becoming a regular reader again. You see, I used to read Archie Comic’s Sonic the Hedgehog when I was a wee lad. I started reading it when it was at the height of the series with Sonic the Fugitive part 2. I stopped reading the comics while it was still decent because I couldn’t be buggered to go to the grocery store to buy a new issue each month. I was hoping that a reboot would let me come back to reading the comics without having to read though all the pile of dog vomit that was the post Dreamcast era comics.

I was hoping that – using a videogame metaphor – that they would hit the reboot button on Sonic 1991 on the Genesis and an entirely new game would pop up which was hopefully not Sonic 2006. But actually reading through the collection it seems like they only hit the reboot button because they failed the mission (probably the mission was getting money from morons), then hit the “reboot” button, booted up another game to keep the player busy, then simply “rebooted” and loaded their save game and continued through the mission.

In the story context of the comic, Spoiler Alert Sonic gets a game over because he failed to save Sally. So Eggman wins and you get the bad ending to the videogame. After watching the lengthy bad ending cutscene, Sonic gets it in skull that there is a good ending after all and hits his own version of the “reboot” button and loads his game save and saving Sally unlocking the good ending… Well, kinda until you get to the end of the epilogue comic that is. Spoiler Ended

So in reality, Sonic Genesis isn’t really a reboot of the Sonic comic. Well that is if you consider four comics a reboot. When you reach the epilogue comic the universe just picks up where the prologue left off. So it didn’t reboot it in the sense I was thinking where it started from the beginning and continued on with the new universe it introduced with a new setting, new characters, and a different story. Rather it started from the beginning then said F* that pulls the curtain over your eyes and just continues with the established universe with its long convoluted history.

I was hoping it was a reboot like Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight to Tim Burton’s Batman but instead it’s like Superman Returns which seemed like a remake with new actors and all but was just really a continuation of the Christopher Reeve movies. Or if you want a closer comparison, it’s like the Sonic 2006 reboot but gladly it not as bad as that.

OK, I’ve felt like I’ve been overly negative on this comic since there are some things that I did like about it.

Even though I said that the writing is atrocious in the sense of story but with dialog writing it hits right on the money. Sure the dialog is pretty grating but it really makes you feel like Sonic and Sally really are tourist guides who made a Let’s Play of Sonic 1 and 2. As I was reading through the comic, I imagined the voices of the post Sonic Colours cast delivering the lines of Sonic, Tails, and Eggman and the cast of the Sonic SatAM cartoons for Sally, Boomer/Rotor, and Antoine and it fit perfectly with the dialog. If that’s not a good sign of good dialogue writing, then I don’t know what is.

Secondly the art is probably some of the best I’ve seen from the Archie Comics series I’ve seen yet, especially since alot of it is done by Sonic the comic long time favorite Patrick “The Spaz” Spaziante. Also considering one of the reasons I stopped reading Sonic comics is that the art done by Archie comics back then don’t look that great when you compared it to Marvel or DC. I also like how Tails looks like the Japanese art of the first Genesis games rather than the awfulness that is the post Saturn era Tails design.

In the end, I think that the 4 part Genesis series fails at what a good reboot should do, that is to introduce a brand new universe that newcomers will feel accessible and won’t feel threatened to join because of the bloated previous history. After reading it, only longtime Sonic fans of the old Genesis games, the saturday morning cartoon, and the Archie comics will really fully appreciate it. So people who aren’t fans of Sonic should definitely avoid this comic. Also, it kind of infuriates me is that you won’t get the full story if you only purchased the four part Genesis series (issues #226-#229). The collection I picked up had some tidbits from the previous issue and the one after it. So all in all I wouldn’t consider it a reboot. Rather they publicised it as a reboot to trick me into buying a copy and stealing my money.