Comic Review: Annual #2 (Power Ponies) (And yes, we're talking about THAT) · 5:21am Oct 15th, 2014
It's several weeks overdue, but I believe it is time we finally tackled FiM's second annual. After last year's Equestria Girls prequel turned out to be only slightly better than the film it was based on, it's time we looked at another group of non-Mane 6 characters, the Power Ponies, and their marvelous adventures. Can they foil the evil that ponies do?
Maretropolis is a city beset by villains. Whether it be the tangled schemes of the Mane-iac, the perilous plundering pursuits of Pharaoh Phetlock, the glamorous crime spress of High Heel, or the despair brought on by the ever-saddened Long-Face, the proud ponies that call this noble city home are doomed to a lifetime of suffering and victimhood. At least, that's what would happen if it weren't for the city's mightiest defenders, the POWER PONIES! The Masked Matter-Horn, Zapp, Mistress Mare-velous, Fili-Second, Radiance, Saddle Ranger, and Humdrum, fight a never-ending battle in the name of justice and peace! They are an unstoppable team, loved by everpony in Maretropolis...
And they hate each other.
The Power Ponies is just a big show put on to mask how dysfunctional and broken the team is. Mare-velous resents having to work with others. Fili-Second is bored with everything. Radiance is vain and wants all of the media's attention, much to Zapp's frustration. Saddle Ranger can barely keep from going into a rage from all the fighting. And the Masked Matter-Horn orders everyone around while doing nothing to correct the team's behavior. Only Humdrum seems to have any interest in the Power Ponies staying together.
But this shall be their darkest hour, for in Balkham Asylum, their worst enemies have banded together to bring an end to the Power Ponies once and for all! The Mane-iac, Phetlock, High Heel and Longface are joined by the amorphous Smudge and master thief Shadowmane, and form a mighty Legion of Doom (only not called that because Lex Luthor would simultaneously sue and nuke them). The fractured Power Ponies are no match for the villains' combined assault, and to top things off, their powers are stolen and given to their worst enemies thanks to accursed science. Will our powerless heroes learn the power of friendship and save the city?
Before getting into the issue itself, though, there is one thing: if you didn't like the episode “Power Ponies,” this comic probably won't change your mind. It's still a superhero story done with ponies; outside of the horse puns, you could probably fit any super-team you can think of into this plot and it would have worked almost as well. The comic also doesn't really differentiate them from how the Mane 6 portrayed them, although the actual Power Ponies are far more straightforward in their character types and significantly less friendly. The main difference is their appearance, as they have different coat and mane colors. In addition, Humdrum is actually a colt, and not a dragon; it's a nice touch and helps differentiate the actual in-universe comic from the LARPing the Mane 6 and Spike had to do.
Plus, given that Humdrum saves the day twice, maybe Spike is overstating his uselessness a bit too much.
The original plot apparently had Spike traveling into the comic to help save the day, but it was axed in favor of Humdrum teaching the Power Ponies the values of friendship. You can clearly see where Spike should have been; Humdrum uses a checklist of friendship activities in his instruction, and everything is structured like a school lesson, all of which are things the dragon has to put up with while working with Twilight. Still, I do like the idea of Humdrum getting the lessons in friendship from the Power Ponies' universe's equivalent of FiM; it's an amusing bit of meta humor that has a great payoff.
The villains are all your basic baddies, and wouldn't stand out too much against the Adam West Batman's rogues gallery. Pharaoh Phetlock has a gang of mummies at his command, Long-Face attacks with “Sadness Gas,” High Heel's car is shaped like a sneaker, and the Mane-iac is still a lighter version of the Joker with living hair. Still, it's an amusing touch that they actually get along very well, in comparison to how most villain team-ups have said antagonists bickering about everything while demanding a decent pair of pants. It's a little sad that our heroes have to destroy such a good friendship to save the day and reclaim their powers.
I think the best way to describe this annual is that it's fun, albeit in a very Silver Age sort of way. The heroes and villains are ridiculous, the plot is ludicrous, and it's very preachy and goofy, but all in a good way. It harkens back to the days when Batman wore a different-colored costume every night and everyone in the Superman cast was a dick, only minus the overt racism, misogyny, and political propaganda of the era. Sometimes you just want to read a story about superheroes saving the day without condemning them for wanting to help people, or focusing all of the attention on how much better the villains are, or killing characters off for shock value.
...Modern comics suck.
Point is, the annual is good...except perhaps for the backup. Originally featured as a SDCC exclusive, the story features the Mane-iac escaping from prison and returning to her hideout. She finds the Crystal Mirror, which is in the factory...for no reason. And she goes through...for no reason. And she ends up in the Equestria Girls world, but is still a pony...for no reason. And then there's a human!Mane-iac that fights her...for no reason.
This backup exists...for no reason.
About the only funny part is the very last panel, where it turns out to be a very weird issue of a comic that human!Dash is reading. And even then, the joke is ruined if you think about it for more than ten seconds. In particular, Dash is weirded out that a pony version of the Mane-iac showed up, which implies that the human cast is the one she's used to in her universe. But the cover plainly shows that the comic is still called Power Ponies. So are they called “Power Ponies” for no reason? Was the joke just incredibly lame? The world may never know.
Point is, the annual is worth picking up. I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys either a different kind of pony adventure or just wants an old-fashioned superhero romp.
Well, that was fun. I wonder why I put this off for so...
...Oh right, that thing.
What has sadly overshadowed how good the comic was is a single, hard-to-see, almost unrecognizable insert of someone's pony OC. In particular, it belongs to someone I shall not name who has produced some...less-than-popular art and critiques of the fandom. The resulting fallout has resulted in a continuing flame war and (possibly) the removal of Ted Anderson from the comics and IDW as a whole. The explosion that lead to RainbowDoubleDash and myself being banned from the Round Stable? That was kicked off by the fandom's reaction to the OC's appearance and their support of the OC's creator. (Plus, RDD is a stubborn blockhead who won't listen when people tell him to walk away and believes that parting shots are acceptable conduct in a discussion. Sorry, but it's kind of true.)
To put it simply, I do find quite a bit of her work offensive, and claiming that it can simply be dismissed because of satirical intent doesn't fly for me. I'm not demanding anyone's head on a pike or the like, nor do I expect anyone that experiences genuine prejudice and hardship to care what a depressed white man finds offensive, but that doesn't change how disgusted I felt. And claiming it was trying to make a satirical point doesn't make things better; you can explain your intentions all you want, but the fact is that you not only failed to tell a joke well, but you made yourself look uglier with what you said.
With that taken into consideration, I still think the reaction was far too overblown for what actually happened, and Anderson doesn't deserve to be fired over this. I certainly had no idea who it was until someone pointed it out and explained the whole mess, and I doubt that many did before the issue's release. But if you go purely by how the community has treated it, you'd think Anderson came to every brony's house and snapped their newborn puppy's neck before drinking its blood. It was a harmless, unremarkable background appearance, and nothing else.
...Now to brace for the inevitable.
It speaks volumes for the comic that I enjoyed it yet hated the episode about them.
Also, I have no idea what the Anderson issue is.
Perhaps I'm lucky.
Bronies are twats, aren't they?
I can buy it's satire. However I completely agree it's bad satire that does a very poor job of conveying its point and is super easy to misinterpret as just a hate piece, so....yea. That whole THAT just went mucked up on so many levels and I agree with a lot of your points.
The story on what happened is out there on several sites, (horse news, EQD) both take good points on it, particularly that Anderson is freelance, and has been for some time. So his loss isn't really effecting him as its normal for a freelancer to do just that.
Because he backed *** up, and because he supported ***, he deserved exactly what he got. It was a slap in the face to the fandom to put that OC in the comments and to pose in that shirt he was wearing.
You do that in any job you will get exactly that. That is how the real working world works. You compromise the job at hand or the companies ability to make money you will be gone.
He didn't help his case anyway with his horrid attempt to 'path things up' he just dug himself into a hole when he could've easily gotten out.
I think it's a hate piece, but the reaction was overblown. The character is no more canon to MLP than the Joker is canon to our world. However, even if it is satire, it's not a good move to but in someone who makes fun of an audience when your job is dependent on said audience.
As for the comic, I really enjoyed it. The Power Ponies were their own characters and not just mane six recolors, and I really liked the villains' plan and the resulting climax at the end.
Plus, that one villain that doesn't talk, his design reminded me of Father from KND, with him being pure black and only the eyes visible. His red outline kept looking like fire to me, which was Father's main form of attack.
It was overblown, but at the same time the OC cameo was no better. It fed the ego of someone who didn't deserve it.
But on that side note, I think the canon was adequate but nice. When I first heard of the comic, I groan at the idea that IDW may make the Power Ponies' personalities parallel to the Mane 6 (because that's all that was known of the Power Ponies - through the eyes of the FiM characters). But gratefully, the Power Ponies were their own individual characters that didn't seem like complete copies of Equestria's own dynamic heroine team. Although that's where slightly impressive story elements end. The rest of the story could be find in any other super hero comic book. A bunch of super villains team up, they beat the super heroes because they didn't have good team work, later on super heroes learn their mistakes and stick together like glue to save the day. The plot is pretty predictable and doesn't give me a whole lot of surprises, but despite that it was still okay to read. I would give it a regular recommendation.
...wait, this is the "few unkind things" you said about me that you warned me about in your PM? I came over here expecting a full dressing down and outlining of why I suck with maybe a pie chart or something!
I am disappoint, IAH.
And that's about all I have to say about that. I haven't actually read the comic yet (and I didn't even know the whole OC thing until after I was already banned; I got involved in the discussion for completely different reasons), but I am looking forward to it once I have more than $7 to my name.
Considering what he spoke of afterwords, he deserved that firing.
I really don't get what people see as satire...
I just see another one of those lame feminazis.
That said, I also am in the camp, that I value both forgiveness and the fact that we would be losing a quality creator from the comic.
I'm of the opinion, that even his supposed "digging his hole deeper" shouldn't count against him, since half this damn fandom can't decide whether Miz Dicks is satire or hate. If that is the case with the debate in the fandom, I can't see how Anderson is supposed to be any more clued into what was what either.
Just tell him to not drop controversial OC cameos and get back to work... Course what's done is done.
On a side note... I took apart my keyboard, which had one pop too many spilled on it, washed the membranes, and every individual key, and the support grids.... Dried it and reassembled it...
WOW!!! It feels so NICE and doesn't at all change the fact that I'm still an absolutely crappy typer!
:rainbow laugh:
...
So want to be a crappy typer with MX Cherry Blues...
I don't believe for a moment that the artist in question is producing satire, and Ted got himself fired (assuming that really happened) by his actions after the cameo was revealed. I have precisely zero sympathy for the situation.
You will be better off not being able to participate at the Round Stable, IAH, that place has been a toxic environment for you for a long time.
2533769 You know bronies, bunch of bitchy little girls...
Honestly, if people have to dig this hard to find something to complain about for this issue, it must have been pretty decent or at least not absolute shit. I don't have any interest in getting involved in the apparent Internet drama surrounding some person's OC and I think the people that are pissing and moaning about it are making a big deal out of nothing. Who the hell cares if some background shot had some person's fake pony in it, there are bigger problems to worry about.
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"Someone needs your help, Gilda."
Considering some of the recent trash from some rather insane feminazis on that Round Stable who be posting and trying to perverse people's words, like twisting those of Faust, to fit their own agenda man-hating propaganda to incite more hate towards males by trying to brainwash more good women into believing their jargon, I can only say let those type of people just circlejerk themselves and leave them to rot in their little hate-filled world all they want.
You're a free bird now, IAH. You can only do better from here on out.
What Andersen did was promoting and bragging about hating men who read his stories, who loves and promotes the manhating of that obvious Neo Feminazi's manhating propaganda she passes off as 'satire'. Burning niggers on a stake and putting them on shirts and telling niggers to not take it offensively because it's 'satire' wouldn't exactly stop anyone from curbstomping the idiot.
Now, granted, he's an idiot who writes for a comic that was created, quite factually if you go through the press announcements, for the more adult fans of the fandom, and yet Andersen hates and doesn't want 'bronies' who regardless of whether anyone associates with the term or not translates flately as "A male fan of My Little Pony".
The fact those two trade their love of hate towards the fandom and he helped promote her and let her know she was in it, only for her to go and brag to all the 'bronies' that her OC became 'canon' is a serious slap in the face to people like Lauren Faust and fans of the show regardless of what their gender be.
Some people might want to live in ignorance and defend one form of hate and descrimination over another because they don't share your gender or sexual orientation, whatever, is just sick and dumb.
If one wants to talk about self-entitlement one need only look towards the bruteful actions of what people like Anderson and that hate artist promotes alongside scum like PinkiePony and her on-demand pose who've taken down Molestia and other tumblrs as well as tried to force someone into killing themselves like the creator of that one, tasteless humor, Button Mash video.
Long stuff:
So, yeah. Slice it however you want. SJWs and manhating are almost hand-in-hand with each other. Is it any wonder people jump ship the moment the word 'feminist' comes into play? A lot of people thinking by avoiding drama you can somehow come in and leave random comments like 'bronies are twats' and leave it at that, but acknowledging one's ignorance and calling themselves lucky while throwing blind assumptions and insults at a crowd of men and women (surprised? yeah, women identify with that bronies thing too. a shocker, I know...) only serves to spread more ignorance as false assumptions get passed down to others who rather avoid looking at the nasty side of things and acknowledge, that sometimes, shit happens for a reason.
Andersen is a freelance. He's pretty much in the clear short of his dismissal reasons being put in detail on his record. And even though I would've just wanted him moved to another section away from Faust's characters, I'm not going to feel sorry for his type. Anyone who supports hate towards any class of people be it race, gender, or creed, are just scum.
This fandom has been lovingly supportive of women overall. People aren't stupid, they're just tired of the drama. I'm tired of the drama. Today's SJWs look at the word "Feminism" don't even see it as equal rights to these people anymore so much as a War Cry to assemle their troops to attack the next thing that falls between their cross-hairs. Where there are no debates, just those who will stop at nothing to make enough noise and shutdown any attempts at conversations unless they get what they want.
They just want to fight and make a scene. Overshadowing the ones that TRULY aim for equality that have turned a word once used to represent them to represent so much hate towards anyone 'unfortunate' enough to be born with penis.
TL;DR: Comic was pretty okay, I was hoping for more original looks than pallet swaps, but it did the trope thing well enough. Better than the episode that's for sure.
Wow, that's waaaaay too much drama for a normal person to experience. Hence why I don't dabble in the extended media.
Also, is anyone else tired of comics copping out of actually trying by just making their entire purpose to "parody" old campy comics? Its becoming so standard that I'm not even surprised anymore. Its like a director making a horror movie thats so bad that they later try to brush the failure off by marketing it as a B movie tribute.
Who's character was it to spring a reaction like that?
2534554 This +1
Is it someone "internet famous?" Y'know, small name, big ego?
I had no idea there was any kind of OC.
I don't think that misandry is really meant to be satire, as much as it is meant to be a criticism of traditional gender roles. If you're interested, I think this article breaks it down pretty well: https://medium.com/the-archipelago/men-get-on-board-with-misandry-4a3bc6c08e16
I think the same very much applies here. When she says "Bronies are twats," or whatever, she's obviously not saying "every single person who considers themselves a brony is a twat," but that there are aspects of brony culture that shelter many twattish attitudes, in her eyes. I'm not sure I quite agree, but I can understand what she's saying.
That being said, I think it was a mistake for Anderson to get involved, or, at the very least, for him to post publicly about it. However, as others have said, he's a freelancer, so this probably doesn't cripple him too much.
Yeah, I have no idea what all that business is about. I loved the comic. I just hope those poor villains can make up and be friends later!
seriously, I loved that they got along so well. They're so adorable!
Wait, wasn't the fandom, as in the bronies, pissed to all hell over the OCs appearance, and were supporting the firing of Anderson for being an ass hat?
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Okay, long and short of the business at the end is simple. On tumblr, in the vast sea of shit and islands of mind blowing orgasms, there is some broad whos extremist views are the very definition of misandry, and if there is someone who would like to correct me saying that shes not, this is the broad who drew toy models of popular MLP characters with action toy weapons so they would have all that they need to go and kill boys. Anyway, this broad has her own little cutesy OC that she likes to show off, saying how boys should be exterminated, and how females are the superior Reich, and what not.
Anderson is a big fan of her's apparently, and decided to include her OC in the comic because hes an idiot. When people starts calling him out saying WTF, he went on a number of long winded arguments where he said a number of really fucking stupid things defending the sexist tumblr SJW artist. The guys who publish the comics didn't know he put her OC into the comic until a bunch of people sent in emails saying WTF. They in turn investigated the OC and comic, and lo and behold, its a OC that represents a sexist bitch. So they fired him.
Way I see it, its no different than if he were to draw in the swastika instead, or the symbol for the KKK, because its still a symbol of a racist and extremist group and view of life.
Who is the OC everyone's going off about, anyways?