IDW Comic Issue #21 review! · 8:25pm Jul 25th, 2014
An update to Direction will be posted tomorrow, but not much of one. I have to work all night, but before I go, here's my thoughts on the newest issue of the IDW comic. Not much snark, because there's not a lot to nitpick.
This issue opens in Manehatten. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Apple Bloom, and Babs Seed are all there, with nopony else. Why are they all there but the other's aren't, aside from narritive convienence? Your guess is as good as mine, but I guess it doesn't matter too much. There outside Carneighie Hall, because whoever named everything in Equestria was apparently drunk. And there's also a completely unneccessary joke and old joke about how to get to Carneighie Hall that makes no sense because the ponies telling it are already there.
They go inside and Rarity drops some exposition on worrying about diamond thieves. Then they see the act on stage: the Great and Powerful Trixie! Oddly, Applejack seems unhappy, even though she seemed perfectly fine going in. Was there no advertising on who the star whould be?
After a page of her pulling off some acts, this time without lying to anypony about her accomplishments (seriously, people need to stop pretending she's innocent in her first apperance) she goes for her final trick of the evening: she presents the famous Ostlerhiemer Diamond, which she will make disappear while suspended upside down blindfolded over a vat of pudding. Cute, Trixie, I'll be impressed when you have something to block your magic.
The trick goes off well, and Trixie says she has the Diamond hidden under her hat. Only... she doesn't. It's gone, and the police bust in. The gang goes to talk to her, and can even though the police are running around, keeping everypony where they are, because... reasons. Or maybe the police are as useless as the Royal Guards.
Before I go on, I should note that Trixie and her assistents were on two legs during their whole show. I'm going to assume that's part of the showmanship.
The group confronts Trixie, who tells them that this is all part of the plan: she was working with the police. The Diamond used was a fake, with a tracer on it, and they were waiting for it to be stolen by Rough Diamond, a thief who has been on crime spree.
Trixie activates the spell to find it, and she locates it... under Applejack's hat. While they start stammering that she didn't steal it, another officer says that somepony broke into the Stage Director's office, where the real diamond was being kept.
They search the office and find the safe the diamond was being kept in is only filled with a smoke bomb. Chief Stablemaker reveals he had a tracer put on the real Diamond, and traces it... under Trixie's hat.
Stablemaker decides to arrest Trixie, and then decides the others must be guilty as well. Trixie panicks, throws down a smoke bomb, and leaps from the window, dragging the group behind her with an invisible rope that came from nowhere. So in the process of trying to prove they aren't criminals, they become criminals. Especially since Trixie accidentally takes the diamond with her.
Trixie swears she's innocent and begs for help. The cops show up again, and they lose them in subways... wow, technology in Manehatten must be miles ahead of the rest of Equestria. While resting, they find a piece of map in Trixie's hair. Babs recognizes it as the Manehatten Museum of Art, so the gang decides to go looking there.
This comic... is okay. Not great, but not bad either. Personally, I think Stablemaker's two cops and the stage director are behind it. We'll see next month.
Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity is up next. Hopefully by Monday.
To be fair, we weren't given a balanced viewpoint on them during the Canterlot Invasion. All we saw was a single pair of them captured by the changelings, and for all we know the rest were kicking some serious changeling ass off-camera.
I also think the police are behind it, because otherwise they are about as stupid as... I don't even know. It just strikes me as a stupidity to accuse the NATIONAL HEROES WHO SAVED EQUESTRIA, WHAT, THREE TIMES(?) of helping somebody steal something.
Never said she was innocent, but it wasn't hard to at least find her tolerable compared to the behavior of three of our main characters. Yes Trixie was lying, but some of the greatest performances are nothing more than illusions. Part of being a showmare is knowing how to attract an audience's attention.
2315594
I like the theory that the guards are just Princesses' eye candy for six untrained mares done more to save equestira on screen then they have. In fact, does anyone remember a single victory they had.
Granted where suppervillians and you don't expect the police to beat the Joker.
So I guess its however you think. They are incomptent soldiers that are there for Princessess eye candy, or they are compotent, but all the times they fight in the show are against overwhelming odds that it take Princess level of power to take them down, which the mares combined can match.
2318776 If that's the case, then clearly dear ol' Sunbutt needs a good bitch-slap session.
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Which part: them being eye candy instead of an actually military, or they competent but are set up to fight impossible odds that need a more superhero touch?
2320651 Both, but mostly the former.
This issue is pretty good, IDW seems to be doing really good with Trixie and Discord. The only major problem with this issue is that apparently in Equestria, the "innocent until proven guilty" mentality doesn't exist. If it looks like you might have commited a crime, you're arrested right on the spot. No questions asked. Even if we're talking about the theft of a rare diamond, Trixie and the others shouldn't be arrested until it can be proven that they stole the diamond.