IDW Comics Review: Friends Forever #25, Friendship is Magic #39 (spoilers) · 1:12pm Feb 17th, 2016
Long overdue review of the latest IDW MLP comics here!
Friends Forever #25
One morning, Rainbow Dash wakes up to discover her wings are missing. 
The weird stitch marks on her side where her wings should be make this situation much, much worse (from a reader's perspective) than it would already be, because the first thing I thought of was Tijuana doctors stealing your kidneys while you're asleep.
We cut to Twilight waking up in the cutest way possible:
...and then this happens:
Using a "traumalocaion" spell, Twilight Sparkle discovers that Rainbow's wings were stolen using unicorn magic, and locates the culprits. Using some scrying magic we've never seen Twilight use before (but it makes sense, so okay), Twilight and Rainbow identify the thieves and listen in on them.
At this point, I have to interject something: This comic is riddled with Transformers in-jokes. I thought it was a coincidence when Rainbow, upon waking, uttered "maximal" as a descriptive for her morning workout. Then it turns out one of the wing thieves is named "Decepticolt".
Yeah, that's cringeworthy. I laughed anyway.
Okay, back to the plot: So remember above, where I compared Rainbow's wing theft to Tijuana doctors harvesting kidneys? Well...I wasn't far off. Three jerkass unicorns: Goldcap, Decepticolt, and Zappityhoof (SERIOUSLY, WHAT?) stole Rainbow's wings. They plan to dissolve Rainbow Dash's wings into a magic potion that will let them grow wings, thinking to turn themselves into alicorns, believing that somehow this will elevate them to Twilight Sparkle's level and make them princesses.
(I feel like I should recognize the designs of these unicorn criminals. I feel like they're a reference to something and I'm not getting it. I hate that. 
)
Naturally, hearing that these jerks plan to dissolve her wings freaks Rainbow out. They don't have much time to find and retrieve her wings before these idiots destroy them!
Twilight shows an impressive diversity of spells in this comic. She comes up with a hilarious variation on the "Disillusionment charm" from the Harry Potter series. That gives herself and Rainbow Dash a US Army camouflage makeover. 
Unfortunately, Twilight isn't used to attacking from the air, casts a shadow that gives herself away, and before she can use her alicorn magic to subdue these three jerkicorns, they combine their power to drop her in a big sticky web. Rainbow tries to save Twilight, but the jerkicorns web her up too. Then taunt her like the jerks they are.
Let's pause for a second here.
These three assholes mutilated a national hero and assaulted a Princess of Equestria.
Even if their insane plan to become alicorns had any chance whatsoever of working, do they really expect to escape this without reprisals? Especially since Spike probably already sent a letter to Celestia the second Twilight and Rainbow left explaining the situation.
Anyway, so with Twilight and Rainbow down, the jerkicorns complete their plan to reduce Rainbow's wings to potion ingredients.
Yikes. 
This just got incredibly dark. The main series isn't this dark at its darkest.
Twilight tries to reason with Goldcap, pointing out that what the jerkicorns is doing is forbidden magic. Goldcap retaliates with a rant about how Twilight was just a unicorn and she got wings, painting Twilight as a hypocrite who thinks she's somehow more important than everypony else. The other two jerkicorns join in, trying to confuse Twilight by asserting that her wings were stolen from somepony else, just like they've stolen Rainbow's wings.
I really, really hate these assholes.
Rainbow comes up with a plan and explains it to Twilight while the jerkicorns wait for the last of the wing bits to dissolve into the potion. (Oh my god 
)
Rainbow's plan also makes a huge assumption: that Twilight knows magic that will let her control Twilight's wings telepathically. (How did RAINBOW DASH come up with something like that? ) Fortunately for her, Twilight does know a spell for that, so Rainbow's plan will work. With Rainbow in control of Twilight's wings and Twilight in control of her own magic, the plan is now to retrieve the potion and give it to Rainbow so she can grow her wings back.
(This comic is VERY Harry Potter all over the place.)
Twilight's assault on the jerkicorns has serious shades of Kamen Rider W. Rainbow is effectively telepathically linked to her, and she identifies the two of them as a team, joined together--much like either W or, more realistically, DC's Firestorm.
Anyway, Twibowstorm rainbooms the jerkicorns and snags the potion, then gives the jerkicorns a BIG Reason You Suck Speech, then passes sentence on them by nullifying their unicorn magic. She tells them that in time, their magic will return, but they will never have wings, because they haven't earned them and stealing wings from another pony is wrong. Rainbow drinks the potion and grows her wings back, and all's right with the world.
As Rainbow and Twilight fly off, Rainbow calls Twilight out on just leaving the jerkicorns where they found them. Twilight shrugs it off, which...honestly bothers me. This is the point at which Twilight should have teleported to Canterlot, summoned the Royal Guard, had these jerkicorns arrested and thrown in the dungeons...
I mean, the comic's already dark enough, why not show some realistic consequences for assault, grievous bodily harm, forbidden magic, and treason against a Princess?
That's my only real problem with this comic, though. This is definitely one of the better issues.
Now, on to...
Friendship is Magic #39
Apple Bloom's face says it all.
Let's see, where were we last time...? Oh yeah, the Filly Five, Snips, and Snails were lost in the mountains and in peril. Issue 38 ended with a literal cliffhanger, as Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara are, umm...hanging off a cliff. The others manage to rescue them. While they're all resting from that harrowing ordeal, it starts raining and thundering.
Even though the sensible thing to do, given their near brush with death and the rain making the mountain even more treacherous, would be to go down, Apple Bloom leads them up the mountain to "look for the search party". While they're climbing, Diamond Tiara points out what's wrong with this plan and asks what the point is. Apple Bloom replies, honestly, that she has no idea what to do and is grasping at straws.
Ultimately, when they reach the top and don't see any sign of the other ponies they were with, they find a cave to hole up in for the night.
We get a Harry Potter reference in this issue: inexplicably, Snails has chocolate frogs in his pack.
We get some interesting character development from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. When Apple Bloom calls them out on their jerkass behavior, they assert that they're better than everypony else because that's what they've always been told by their families.
Well, we've certainly seen that from Diamond Tiara's mother...
They talk about the expectations that they're expected to live up to, and how hard it is to live up to their families' reputations. Diamond Tiara says she doesn't expect the CMC to understand something like that. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle call them out on that, pointing out that their big sisters are heroes who have saved Equestria from disaster time and again, AND are friends with a Princess, AND have their own responsibilities at home. Scootaloo puts in that Rainbow Dash, who "may as well be" her sister, is the best flier in Equestria, while she herself can't even reach a tree branch. Their rant takes some of the bitch out of SS and DT. Not much of it, though, as even when Diamond Tiara admits that the CMC have their own problems she never considered, she does so in a needlessly backhanded and condescending manner.
Snips and Snails try to get in on the empathy party:
"Everyone treats us like we're the town dunces. We've got feelings too, you know! What did we ever do?"
Scootaloo calls them out on that by pointing out the Ursa Minor incident. 
There's an awkward moment after that, followed by an Everypony Laughs stress release.
I'm not sure I wanna know how Sil ended up like that.
So, morning comes, and the gang of lost ponies made it through the night safely. While Diamond Tiara are looking for any sign of a rescue party and discussing whether or not rescue is even likely, the doofy bird that started all this mess (the mythical one they went off looking for in the first place) shows up! Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara are the only ones who see it, as it flies in, screeches, and flies away. When the others come out of the cave to ask what the commotion is, AB and DT say it was "nothing", smiling brightly. Just then, the rescue party arrives--Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spitfire, Soarin, Fleetfoot, and Bulk Biceps!
A flying pony for each missing child. Isn't that nice and convenient?
While the search party and the rescued kids are flying off, we find out that the Turul actually led the rescue party to the lost children.
Back in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie throws a party for the safe return of the kids (I'm going to call it a "Seven children went missing and weren't killed or eaten by something terrible" party 
), and the issue ends with the CMC being the only ponies who actually learned anything from the whole experience.
Honestly? This little two-parter comic was pretty much...well...a season three episode. It felt, from start to end, like it could've been an episode of season three. (Or four, I guess, since alicorn Twilight.)
Can't believe I didn't notice the akward angle Silver Spoon was sleeping in. That can't be good for the back.
Hey, at least she actually does something for once. You know, as opposed to when she refused to do anything to stupid a bunch of outlaws, a racist king, or a greedy business minotuar.
okay have to fully admit to you that when I say that look on Apple Blooms face in the comic cover I actually fell off my chair laughing my backside off. That look is just to adorable!
the jerkicorns do seem familiar but I can't quite place them either. I wanna say they're the witches from hocus pocus but the names don't fit. They'd have parodied that too.
3761423 What about the three human witches from gen. 1 mlp?