Friends Forever #1 Review · 12:22pm Jan 27th, 2014
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!
Heya! So I just got Freinds Forever #1 in the post today, the start of a series of comics I've been looking forward to due to its sheer potential alone (i.e. looking into the lives of minor/background characters that the show may not focus on). So I read #1 right away and... was sorely disappointed by what I read :(
That's all I can really say. It was a stinker. 1/10, would not read again, and that 1 point comes from a Pinkie and the Brain reference that made me giggle.
That art is okay, nothing to complain about there.
The story has a very basic setup: Pinkie Pie is entering a baking competition and Applejack is delivering a pie and is mistaken for one of the contestants. Okay, fair setup, maybe some hilarity will ensue.
We see Marine Sandwich, the pony the judges believe AJ to be, trying to convince everpony that she's the real deal, but she is simply kicked out. Literally. Two stallions bucks her away from the stage and tell her to never come back. Harsh. What, don't they have ID in Equestria?
So we cut to Pinkie Pie, who's nervous. Pinkie Pie has stagefright? Who'd have thunk? This could be interesting.
Applejack tells Pinkie that nopony would listen to her when she told them she isn't Marine Sandwich. Wut? Okay, ignoring that for a second, as it is common in cartoons and comics for people to be that ignorant, we then see a new pony crying because she thinks she'll lose, and because of that a cherry pie shop will close down. Pinkie Pie and Applejack love this shop, and so they assure the filly to keep trying and that she'll win. Aww, that's nice. Some friendly encouragement from the competiton.
This is when AJ and Pinkie get the idea to throw the competiton... Well, that's not nice. In fact, that's downright insulting. The idea of a competition is to at least try to win. You compete with others and have fun doing so. It's the journey, not the destination. I mean, sure they're trying to save the shop, but there are other ways to do that, like chipping in a few bits, maybe? Throwing the competition for her is essentially saying, "Hey, you'll never win as long as we're here, but don't worry, we'll throw you a bone and let you win this one time." It's just rude.
So how do they throw the competition? Not by doing nothing or walking away. That would be too easy. They instead opt to give the judges food poisoning by filling their entries with garbage and worms. (Buffalo are herbivores too, right? If not, then I guess at least one would be okay with the worms)
By the way, whatever happened to the 'Pinkie has stagefright' subplot? Oh, that was resolved with the line: "I'm not so nervous when I'm not trying to win!" (Or something along those lines)
So basically, a whole subplot wasted on what could have been Pinkie Pie learning that, whilst winning is nice, it's not everything, and she should just enjoy competing with others and making friends. Instead, we get "I'll throw the contest for you. Hey! I'm not nervous anymore!"
And what of Marine Sandwich? She again tries to convince the judges that she's the real deal, but is again bucked away. So in a fit of rage, she storms the contest and attacks it with some ice cannon thing. It ends with food clogging her backpack thingy and her weapon explodes, freezing her instead.
So the 'villain' of this comic is actually nothing more than a mare who was unfairly pushed around and ignored whenever she pleaded for somepony to listen to her. In a moment of madness brought on by nopony taking her side, she attacked the contest and was then frozen in ice simply because ID checks are lax in Equestria. I get the feeling this was all intended for comedic value, but really, I just feel bad for her. Even when she was freezing Applejack, I still felt more bad for Marine than AJ.
Hell, AJ knew she wasn't supposed to be there, that it was somepony else's competition, and she tried to throw it! It wasn't hers to throw, but she did so without a second thought. And when Marine yelled at AJ, accusing her of being an imposter, still not a single question was raised.
Even after being frozen, there was no resolution. Nopony asked who she was, nopony asked why she attacked the competition, AJ didn't apologise or try to make amends, and nopony showed any remorse!
Remember when Rarity entered a competition tat she worked so hard for but then her designs were stolen and she was crushed? Now imagine if, instead of helping her, her friends just completely ignored her and believed that Suri came up with those designs herself, and then it ended with Rarity frozen in ice. It's not funny, it's just tragic, and not even good tragic.
Basically, Marine Sandwich's role was just to be screwed over by everypony and that was it. Her being frozen was literally where it ended.
So yeah, that's it in a nutshell. Solid foundation, bad execution. They set up subplots that were resolved horribly, the 'villain' is actually more of a victim that really I feel the most for in this comic, and there was barely any characterisation to AJ and Pinkie Pie, and their interactions were limited to their mutal agreement to throw the competition. The cover suggests the two have a heated contest with eachother, but no, that's literally all that happens between them. They meet during the intermission and decide to throw the contest.
I feel cheated, to be honest. I was expecting some kind of conflict between the two that would be resolved, or at least actual interaction between them that shows their friendship together.
Art was alright, background characters did not stand out (for some reason Twilight was there when Marine attacked yet did nothing), Equestria is shown to be the least secure country ever, and the highlight of the issue was literally that one Pinkie and the Brain reference.
So far, the series is not off to a good start. Hopefully #2 will pick it up, but I've gotta say, if this is what's replacing the micro-series, then I'd rather the micros come back. Even the less entertaining ones that I didn't really care for at least told a better story that I wouldn't mind reading again.
Feel free to comment on your own thoughts about the issue below ^_^
Well I hope that I will enjoy it more than you because I have already preordered a copy.
Oh my word, I bought that too and I regret every second of my purchase.
In fairness, identification does seem to be a problem in Equestria, seeing as how in Game Ponies Play, the Mane Cast thought Ms. Harshwhinney was some random rube.
You're not the only one who hated this. And Marine Sandwich's situation sounds a lot like Trixie's in Boast Busters, to boot.
1764764
I thought the same thing, but Marine's was actually worse. At least with Trixie, she was able to get even with the hecklers by embarrasing them onstage, and the ursa tragedy was leading to a future plotpoint (and wasn't really reveal to be a complete tragedy until MD).
Here, it's like they wanted it to be comedic, but that only works if they've established the character has having done awful things in order to make this karamatic. It's a bad sign when you feel more sympathy towards a one-shot 'villain' than towards the mane cast (or heck, any emotion at all. Seriously, Marine was the only pony I actually felt anything towards)
This sounds terrible. I was expecting some sort of baking contest between Pinkie and AJ. Why wouldn't they do that straight?
In the post? Is there a way to subscribe to the comics or something? I have to drive to a mall that's like 20 miles away from my house just to get the comics every month.
1765111
I preorder 'em from Forbidden Plannet whenever they get new issues in stock and they just deliver 'em to my house :3
1764764 You too, huh? Yeah, Marine's a jerk, but if being a jerk was a crime half of Equestria would be in prison. And she only turned to violence after a more peaceful solution (talk to the ponies in charge) was made a non-option by the 'security'.
Yeah, from Marine's viewpoint, the whole scenario seems to be that Applejack is intentionally trying to ruin her by stealing her entry and then drag her name through the mud by serving up horrible food while claiming to be her. Clear case of identity theft. I'm going to assume that Applejack receives a nice fat lawsuit in the mail a few weeks down the line.
1765355 That'd be one heck of a good plot bunny...
And half? Honestly... I'm trying to think of characters with defined personalities who weren't jerks at least once and I'm coming up snake-eyes.
Seeing how much advertisement this comic got on EQD, and being a long-time fan of comics in general, I couldn't help buying a digital copy on Comixology.
Comixology allows to see the first three pages before purchasing and like you have mentioned, these first pages showed good enough premise to get me hyped up to reading more.
Story wise, just like you, it made me feel deeply bad for Marine Sandwich and just left an unpleasant aftertaste
Art wise, Friends Forever #1 appeared rushed and dull. The characters wore nothing but two -dimensional expressions and often faded in the lazy, often nonexistent background background. Seriously, many panels were of the same color as the characters inside (I.e.: Pinkie Pie in a light pink panel, or brown buffalo over a brown background of same value and saturation. However, I must admit that I enjoyed the art on page 12. Except for that one page, it didn't visually grab and hold my attention.
This comic was a waste of money and time! Terrible!
I only hope that similarly to the Micro Series it will get better in coming issues.