Monday, 17 August 2015

Comic mini-review: Friends Forever #19: Rarity and the Cakes

MLP Friends Forever #19 subscription cover
Brenda Hickey's sub cover is rather fabulous
Finally I have a paper copy of this! In a contrast to last months's FlutterDash issue, this comic brings us a much more rarely seen team: that of Ponyville's finest designer and the owners of the town's bakery. Brenda Hickey rarely disappoints, and she does well here, though Rarity's faces do teeter on the edge of self-parody occasionally. Christina Rice's story is nicely paced and ponies are in character. Guest pony Touring Wind is nothing special, but she's okay. There's a funny G1 reference, and a blatant G3 one, but otherwise this is classic Friends Forever: relatively gentle, fairly low-stakes and quietly amusing rather than hilarious. The attractive artwork pushes it up into four-star territory. ★★★★
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10 comments:

  1. Moody Magpie17 August 2015 at 09:29

    And still miles better than the what the main series is churning out.

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    1. Logan17 August 2015 at 10:45

      Very true. Having seen the preview of main-series #33, I'm not that hopeful. I'll buy it because I love one of the covers, but that's it really.

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    2. Sailor Sedna18 August 2015 at 05:17

      I have no hope either; hope something goes right soon.

      Just wondering, what was the cover you like? The one with the Mane Six as bats?

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    3. Logan18 August 2015 at 10:48

      That's the one. :)

      On the plus side, the arc starting with #34 does look potentially interesting. Drawn by Andy Price but not written by Katie Cook -- it's Jeremy Whitley this time.

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    4. Sailor Sedna18 August 2015 at 23:33

      I agree; it's interesting. I hope that Cook's writing quality will step up though...I think Price has the best art; but just wondering, is Whitley also writing #32 and #33?

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    5. Logan19 August 2015 at 01:43

      Nope -- Thom Zahler's writing the "Night of the Apples" arc.

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    6. Sailor Sedna19 August 2015 at 14:45

      Thanks for letting me know.

      I just glimpsed at #33, released today (this has a "see what's inside" thingy): https://www.comixology.com/My-Little-Pony-Friendship-Is-Magic-33/digital-comic/260116?ref=c2VyaWVzL3ZpZXcvZGVza3RvcC9ncmlkTGlzdC9SZWNlbnRBZGRpdGlvbnM

      It is interesting to see how they are as vampires; but I really don't get what Twilight's talking about the thing with the Breezies (personalities/intelligence being retained); if she can turn them into vamponies and such, why can't she try to turn Flutterbat back to normal; also, how ironic is it that "The only hope lies with FLUTTERBAT!" when they've got her tied down in the beginning?

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    7. Logan19 August 2015 at 19:12

      Yeah, I saw the preview. (I have a physical comic on order.) Let's face it, logic hasn't been a strong point of the main-series comics recently.

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    8. Sailor Sedna21 August 2015 at 14:18

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    9. Sailor Sedna21 August 2015 at 14:19

      (Sorry, wanted to fix part of my comment)
      I agree...they need to get it together; someone else has even said that this also breaks show canon in a way because they took away strength (an Earth Pony quality) from Pinkie and gave it to Flutterbat for some reason...

      If Siege of the Crystal Empire is even worse than all of these in a really bad offensive way (kinda like The Good, the Bad and the Ponies, btw I'm also the anon that was those reviews), I might give up hope for the main series to redeem itself, but I will still check your reviews.

      I may get the Friends Forever series though (not #1).

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