IDW Friends Forever #17 Review

With the show coming back for what would turn out to be an unexpected but amazing fifth season in terms of quality, the IDW comics were sliding downhill fast! The main series was bouncing from one insulting two parter to another, with only a rejected Friends Forever script to break things up, and even that was dragged down by Fosgitt's terrible artwork. As for Friends Forever, the best it had to offer in the first half of 2015 was Friends Forever #13, with Friends Forever #14 proving to be a major stumbling block the series ultimately couldn't fully recover from. After Friends Forever #16 was devoted to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at a time when no one cared about them, and the main series was wasting its time on a two parter that was padded out beyond all belief, was this issue that had the unfortunate coincidence of coming out at the same time as Disney/Pixar's Inside Out able to keep the comics series afloat, or just leave them struggling to stay afloat as the show improved without them? Well, let's find out.

We start off with a nod back to the Twilight Sparkle micro series comic, involving Twilight chewing her mane because she's nervous. She's also perched atop a stack of friendship assignments, because she's struggling to solve them and doesn't want to let anypony down. Not helping is that she can't stop thinking about them. Spike suggests she take a break and go see other ponies, and Twilight sees this as a chance for a research project to learn from the work habits of other ponies.

Twilight soon arrives at Sweet Apple Acres after considering candidates like The Cakes and Mayor Mare, but Applejack and Apple Bloom will be busy carting off some crates to the Canterlot Catering Club (we even get a "Try saying that five times fast" joke) and so they can't help Twilight. Applejack does suggest Twilight talk to Big Macintosh though, but instead she opts to study him from afar to learn his work habits. All goes well until Big Mac spots her up in a tree and startles her, causing Twilight to confess she's been spying on Big Mac all this time. She tries to get some answers from him, but he only replies with his usual "Eeyup" and "Eenope", frustrating Twilight to no end.

Storming back to her castle, Twilight discovers a spell by an actual pony named Mumbo Jumbo, which will let her see inside a pony's mind. She gleefully runs back to Big Mac and casts it on him, telling him it shouldn't hurt and for him to let her know if she does. I would say that considering what Big Mac is usually like, that's a bit inconsiderate of Twilight, but the spell doesn't sound or seem as harmful as her "Want It, Need It" spell. It's then that we get to the part everyone says rips off Inside Out, even though that movie technically didn't come til after this issue, and there was no way this issue had any idea what Inside Out would be like when it was written.

Anyway, Twilight ends up inside Big Macintosh's mind, where she meets the talkative part of his mind, a tiny fairy of some sort. Said fairy explains how Big Mac's mind works, how he has fields for which to plant, grow, and harvest ideas. Helpful Big Mac appears soon afterward, showing Twilight that the ideas grow over time, and Big Mac doesn't think about his problems all the time, he moves on to something else and comes back to it if he faces a problem he can't solve, that way he has time to think about the problem and what the solution might be. After being introduced to the intelligent part of Big Mac, we get a brief look at some other parts of his mind, including: Gloomy (Eeyore), Overprotective, Rude (a.k.a Rebellious Teenage Phase), and Curious. Then, on a whim, Intelligent Big Mac goes into Twilight's mind with Helpful and Talkative Big Mac, who help Twilight see that her mind is like a library, a very disorganized and cluttered one since she never stops thinking about her problems. This is a bit sudden, and the resolution even more so, as Twilight announces she's going to start relaxing and stop fixating on her problems all the time, just as what I believe is a giant wave of ink comes rushing in, forcing Twilight to cut the spell!

Twilight exits Big Mac's mind, and at first she wants to go back to the castle and tackle the friendship problems she's been getting. However, recalling what she learned from the various parts of Big Mac's mind, Twilight asks if she can stay and help with any of the chores, so as to take her mind off her problems. And the story just ends as Big Mac agrees, and Twilight walks off with him.

And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? Well, it's very one sided in terms of interaction, Twilight does almost all the interacting and Big Macintosh does very little. Yes, seeing inside his mind technically counts, but we're only there for a couple of pages, and then we jump suddenly to Twilight's mind and back. The story flows pretty well up to that point, then it just rushes through the climax and ends all of a sudden. Smarty Pants makes cameos in Big Mac's mind, but we never get any clarification from either Big Mac or Twilight about what happened to the old stuffed animal. I don't think this issue really ripped off Inside Out, considering it had to be in development before the movie was released and even technically came out before it, plus there have been stories in fictional works involving probing the mind and finding that there are miniature versions of an individual running it. But in the end, this issue doesn't really feel like a Friends Forever one so much as just a one-shot for the main series that could use a little tweaking. Ironic considering that Main Series #29 was originally a Friends Forever entry (likely #15 or #16) but was rejected since it didn't focus on Rarity and Cheerilee's friendship enough, or so the story goes. It's not bad, and at the time this was really the best the comics had to offer in terms of new content, but it definitely didn't compare to Friends Forever #13 which in spite of its problems was a good issue that even foreshadowed "Bloom and Gloom" a bit. I'd say you can go up to $10 on this one, maybe go over that, but if you can try to stick to $5 or $6 as while this issue is alright, it's nothing spectacular.