Comic Review - Main Series #32 · 1:15am Jul 27th, 2015
She is vengeance. She is the night. She. Is. Flutterbat! That's all I know about this issue, Flutterbat Returns. Flutterbat Strikes Again. I'm fine with that, Flutterbat Forever!
We start off with a holy crap moment, Celestia's battle with Nightmare Moon, except instead of the Rainbow Friendship Beam, Luna is throwing meteors and Celestia is throwing fireballs as Luna is cast out to the moon. I doubt the show could get away with this but it's cool. The narration said the fallout of the battle eventually returned as well, and we see one of the meteors crash on the Apple farm. Applejack goes out to investigate and sees the tree baring fruit, but it's not time for it to yet. Yet apples keep dropping and she's soon buried in apples. Cut to the Mane Six sans AJ and the CMC in Ponyville the next day, discussing what makes a cutie mark a cutie mark - finding what you're good in, or finding what you love.
Time out. Art time. The artist for this issue is Tony Fleecs, who has previously done of the Micro Issues and Friends Forever, this is his debut in the main series. I don't remember the art in any of his issues well enough to comment, but here, no. At first they look fine, proportions are good, the designs match the show well enough. Then you get to... the faces. It took me a moment of looking to figure out why this art looked weird, and the faces is why. They look too human. It's unsettling. It doesn't ruin the issue, but every now and then there's an odd face that just jars you.
Something else too, a lot of artists for the comics do this; they outline the strip of green Spike has going up to the bottom of his mouth. On the show there isn't an outline, but in the comics there often is, and it makes him look like a doll or a robot, where his jaw is like a ventriloquist dummy's that slides up an down. I hereby dub this phenomenon "SpikeBot" and shall refer to it as such in future reviews.
Spike suggests asking Celestia about it in a letter, and then fawns over Rarity a bit as she gives him a disgusted look, which I'm not on board with because Rarity likes Spike's affections, even if just for the attention. As the ponies begin to discuss Applejack and how they haven't seen her all day, Spike is bombarded with apples behind them and they don't notice. They reach the farm and find it quiet, and head to the barn and find... the Apples and Spike being held hostage by talking oversized apples with spears and helmets.
I got nothing. I think that direct description is the best I can do to explain what I'm seeing.
The Mane Six try to run but are overwhelmed with apples. Good jokes here from Pinkie, first commenting it's time to hit the chase scene music, and then snarking "this is your revenge for all the cider we drink, isn't it?" Rainbow tries to fly off, but the leader of the apples, who has a mustache, orders a catapult operated by the Apples (this is gonna get confusing to describe) to fire, and the bombardment takes Dashie down. Twilight asks the lead apple, who I hereby dub Applesauce, what he plans to do. "Gloat! There will be much gloating!" Actually he's gonna enslave them and use them to build catapults to attack the town. I'd expect the ponies to be more surprised at talking apples, but considering everything else in Equestria, this seems almost restrained.
At night there's a few odd jokes between the Mayor and an accountant as the apples attack. And next panel the town is on fire. Okey dokey. Watching the carnage, Applesauce laughs. "My victory will be both golden and delicious!" Once again, I have nothing. With this town under their control they can make it a base camp to expand their operations. Also cameos, Derpy, Octavia, Vinyl, Dr. Hooves, and Luna. The next day the Mayor is trotted out and signs a formal surrender. You'll notice I'm not commenting on the absurdity of Ponyville being enslaved by an army of sentient talking apples with catapults and spears, because... yeah. What more can be said about it than that?
As the town is put to work making more armaments for them, Applesauce makes plans to match on Appleloosa, and then other cities. Scootaloo spies on him and reports to the Mane Six in Fluttershy's cottage. Twilight says the treaty the Mayor signed says unicorns can't use magic on apples, but she can still use them on ponies. AJ questions following that treaty, and Twilight says "if the apples find out, who knows what will happen." I should be angrier at this that Ponyville and an alicorn princess have been subjugated by sentient apples, but... apples! Twilight is gonna turn one of them into an apple to infiltrate them, and goes with Pinkie for a really bad joke that Pinkie is already more of a vegetable than most of them. AJ points out apples are fruits, but Twilight replies to the effect of "I know but I wanna make this joke."
Apple Pinkie infiltrates the farm with a good joke, lying her name is Apple Pie to get past the guards. The caged Spike sits in defiance, refusing to give them anything except his name, rank, and serial number, and since he doesn't have a rank or serial number, they won't be getting much from him. Pinkie tries to free Spike and rightfully questions how apples can use locks. Another captive, a green apple named Good Apple, says only apples can use apple technology. He also explains the apples weren't all created the same, he's a good guy, but the evil Bad Apple... no, I like my name better, he's still Applesauce. Applesauce is evil and rallied the other apples to the cause of conquest.
Pinkie is spotted and flees. In an amusing bit the guards stop her, but Pinkie asks them what their orders were, just to keep others from getting in, right? Well she's not trying to get in, she's trying to get out. The guards agree those were the wordings of their orders, and they can't overstep their authority, that's just anarchy. They step aside and Pinkie escapes. She tells the others about how her infiltration was pretty pointless and just padded the story. AJ comments she wishes the vampire fruit bats were still around, they could help. Twilight asks if Fluttershy can get their help, but they're on the other side of the farm and she can't get to their sanctuary, and even if she could, the only time she could speak their language, or what she presumes is their language, is when she was one of them. Twilight has the obvious idea and casts a spell, telling Fluttershy to remember.
And so our comic ends with the transformation, and the return of what this comic has been building up to - Flutterbat is back.
This issue is stupid as stupid does. And it revels in it. It's really kinda admirable how it simultaneously takes the apple invasion seriously and as a joke. Applesauce is delightfully cliche and hammy, the jokes from the cast mostly work, and the issue isn't afraid to have some dumb fun. If there's a critique, it's that the issue is too long. We all know from the covers where this is going, it's just the build-up to the inevitable rise of Flutterbat. They could have trimmed the fat a bit and tightened up the pacing, but the comic isn't very long, 20-some odd pages, and it doesn't really drag, it's just some parts seem unneeded.
Overall, this issue is apples. Because apples, and apples apple. Also, Apples.
And Flutterbat.
This may be the most convoluted thing I've ever read
All in all, this is a rip off of a parody of B Movies, and as a result it's just impossible to take it even remotely seriously. It feels very much like the writers are running out of ideas, and that they're now trying to cash in on what the fandom loves. In this case, Flutterbat.
It's nowhere near as bad as the other two parters we've gotten this year, but it's still a far cry from the quality IDW is capable of producing.
3272596 Yeah, if the cheese factor doesn't work for folks, which I understand, this issue has nothing but Flutterbat. I hope the Crystal Empire arc coming in #34 brings back the epic.
3272624 Well, it all depends on whether or not the criticism lodged at the comics has finally gotten through the thick heads of IDW. If not, I don't forsee things getting much better.