IDW MLP Comics Review: SUPER ROUND-UP EDITION, PART TWO!! · 2:36pm Apr 9th, 2017
Today I'll be reviewing Friendship is Magic #51-52...
Friendship is Magic #51
This story arc opens on the Mane Six having just watched a performance of The Bridle of Frankenstag, which was a different experience than any of them were expecting.
(Okay, seriously? The writer had to put 'Bridle' in there just to have a horse pun/a lame joke for Fluttershy to make? When we've seen brides and grooms in the show? 
We're not off to a great start here, folks.)
So after the play, Twilight and Spike head home to find the doors of the castle wide open. Spike, already terrified from the play, is letting his imagination run wild with him, but Twilight is calm and collected.
In the library, they find a cloaked unicorn stallion who looks like someone's really bad fanfic OC ransacking the place, looking for something and throwing Twilight's books into total disarray. Bad Fanfic OC escapes, and Twilight calls her friends over for a sleepover because she feels traumatized about having her home invaded in the night. When the ponies are finished putting the library back in order, Twilight confides that she's still uneasy about the books Bad Fanfic OC escaped with. They weren't dangerous books of magic--just history books.
We get a random interlude about Pinkie having a dream about throwing a surprise party inside another surprise party, which I'm pretty sure is just there to fill space. At breakfast the next morning, Twilight is pancake worried about the books that Bad Fanfic OC stole, because while they don't contain any dangerous magic, they do contain information about many dangerous beasts and fiends. Meanwhile, Bad Fanfic OC is doing something ominous...
Using a locator spell, the Mane Six and Spike track down the stolen books, but when they finally reach the location where Bad Fanfic OC apparently stopped, the spell gutters out. However, Spike picks up the scent of books on the wind and follows it. They find the stolen books, only...they're all blank, the words erased.
They split up to search the town and question the townsponies, but these townsponies don't like questions, and won't answer without the mares obliging their dumb requests. Eventually, they find out Bad Fanfic OC's name is Shadow Lock, and he came to town asking a bunch of questions and used the back room of the local magic shop to cast a "strange spell" away from prying eyes. Said spell was intended to erase not only the contents of a book, but the knowledge of its contents from the mind of anypony who'd ever read it.
Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeah...like I said, Bad Fanfic OC. 
They corner Bad Fanfic OC in the library, but he reveals his power: to conjure literary monsters to fight on his behalf. And since they're in a library, he has a limitless supply of bullshit...
Friendship is Magic #52
I'm gonna be honest: After that godawful Bad Fanfic OC in the previous issue? I don't even want to read this one. I'm not going to give a play-by-play here, I'm pretty much just skimming this issue. Bullet points:
- There are some pretty good jokes in this one, I'll admit that.
- Shadow Lock is doing all this for what he believes is a "good reason"--he's searching for a written record of something "too dangerous to even speak of" in Equestria's history, so he can erase it from all living pony memory to protect Equestria from it.
*sigh* Yeah...Bad Fanfic OC.
- Mane-iac cameo, of course.
- Trenderhoof cameo.
- Bad Fanfic OC has dream magic too. Luna would not be pleased.
So...yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah... sigh...
Shadowlock looks like he's gonna be even WORSE than Starlight Glimmer, even more OP but still forgiven, this time because he's trying to prevent some unspeakable evil by erasing all knowledge about it, including the knowledge about how to defeat it. You know it's bad when Twilight herself, in the comic, immediately pokes a hole in that logic. And that's not to even mention the stupid sleepover scene, especially when we learn Twilight had a tracking spell.
The IDW comics just continue to slide downhill, at this point barring a major shake-up in the writing and editing department, I don't see them improving. Get a new editor in there who actually knows what an editor for and understands the meaning of criticism, fire lazy artists like Jay Fosgitt and get rid of the bad writers who keep screwing up like Ted Anderson. That's the only way the comics can even BEGIN to hope to turn things around, not marching lock and step with the show's canon.
4489660 Too be fair Shadowlock's plan makes sense if this evil works like Maleficent from KH where just having knowledge about it is enough to allow it to return. One thing I like is that as it becomes clear that he might not actually be evil he starts to look more like a normal pony over the course of the comics which is a neat detail.
4489665 It still doesn't make sense to erase knowledge about the evil, because if the evil does somehow return no one will know how to stop it. And we don't even know what this great evil he speaks of is, for all we know it's something he's made up or is exaggerating. He hasn't even offered proof or explained what it is he's trying to prevent.
You know, I've said it once and I'll say it again:
GET SOME GODDAMN GUARDS TWILIGHT!
But yeah, it sounds like they're not even trying anymore. Hell, not to boast, but I could probably write a better story than that.
Oh well, as long as those people never touch the show or the movie.
"Shadow Lock?" It...doesn't sound quite right to my ears, nor does it particularly match his role (aside from sounding sinister) or abilities as far as I can tell.
Actually. If he gets the subject of a book to read the book, and then uses the spell, could he give them amnesia? This spell sounds either wildly exploitable or totally pointless.
Parody is magic, the forbidden fanfictions!
The Mane Six just watched a performance of "The Bridle of Frankenstag", when suddenly a shriek of terror cut through the night...
It was Rarity, who threw herself in front of Twilight. "TWILIGHT! What happened with your mane?"
"What, this?" Twilight revealed a trembled and shocked Spike hidden inside her mane. "Just fax machine being a pussy."
Terrified and humiliated, Spiked jumped off Twilight and ran until he reached the castle. Twilight was forced to chase him to make sure that he wouldn't break a pawn, she didn't want to deal with the foal service again, and so she found him weeping in front of their home. Once they were there, Twilight found that somedragon didn't close the gate.
"Seriously, how comes you forgot to close the door? You know how easy is to sneak inside here? After Starlight and the changelings, it's a miracle that I'm still alive. If you weren't completely boneless, I would almost suspect that you hope for somepony to take me out."
Spike said nothing.
Anyway, Twilight and Spike wanted to write the essay "Why 'The Bridle of Frankenstag' is a monstrosity", but unfortunately they came across with somepony who was snooping in their books. With horror, Twilight immediately recognized the section he was looking.
"NO! DON'T LOOK INTO MY FANFICS!"
"You write fanfics?" asked Spike, cocking an eyebrow. "Gee, what a loser."
"Wait a second," said Twilight, calming down. "Are you a Bad Fanfic OC?"
Bad Fanfic OC looked to her. "What? Why would you even think that?"
Twilight scratched her chin as she looked him all over. "Well... for starters, I guess you're OP because otherwise, everything would be over in a minute. Then we have the cape, the scar, the shadiness... wait, how comes that I can't see your muzzle when you're lighting up your horn?"
"I'm not OP!" yelled Bad Fanfic OC.
"Oh, very well then." Twilight smiled happily. "If that's so, I guess it will be for me to take you down and lock you into my dungeons. You have no idea how long I've been dreaming–"
In a way that could seem quite OP, Bad fanfic OC buried Twilight under a pile of books... and then simply walked out with three books, whistling a merry tune.
"Quick, somepony stop him!"
The sound of hoofsteps getting away followed by a door closing shut was clearly audible as nopony did anything.
"Good job, Twilight."
"Shut up, fax machine."
Spike glared down to the pony she loved and hated the most for a few seconds.
"Seriously, why aren't you coming out?"
"...I kinda like it here," said Twilight, hugging her books tight.
The next day, Twilight invited all her friends over to sleep with her in case the Bad fanfic OC decided to reappear (she didn't want to stay without meat shields). Only the day after that she remembered that she had a tracking spell for the stolen books.
"How in tarnation is it possible that ya didn't remember it until now?"
"Honestly? Once I realized that he stole my worst fanfics, I just wanted to let him disappear with them. But now, for some reason, I can't recall why I wanted it."
Following the magic ex machina, the mane six found three blank books.
"Oh, good." Twilight sighed in relief, then she recoiled and unconvincingly said, "I mean: Oh, no! That's just terrible. Nopony will never know about my lewd work.
"Well, I guess that's it. Good job, and-"
"Uh, Twi? Shouldn't we search for this mad sorcerer?"
Twilight scratched her neck with annoyance. "Yeah, but we don't really know where he is so good job everypony and-"
"Twi, there's a library right over there," said Spike with a deadpan. "And we're looking for a book thief."
"Ugh, fiiiine!"
And so, our heros faced the dangerous Bad fanfic OC, discovering his evil intentions.
"I will delete the upper evil from ponykind history, by casting a completely op spell on the books!"
"What evil are you talking about?"
Bad fanfic OC narrowed his eyes, two layers of shade underlined the evilness of his answer.
"Bad fanfictions!" he hissed with venom, causing everypony to gasp in shock.
"He kinda has a point there."
Ignoring everypony else, Bad fanfic OC started to babble randomly. "My duty is too important! I will not allow you to interfere!"
"Uh... dude, we just wanna talk..." said Twilight, hesitantly glancing around her.
"Beware my power, fools!" Yelled Bad fanfic OC, unleashing his magic to summon all the characters from the books around. Furthermore, all those characters were his allies for some reason.
"That is defenitly OP!"
Continues...
(maybe not.)
I actually like this series so far, because the Mane 6 and Spike seem funny and really well-written. That said, the second I saw Shadow Locke, I immediately thought the exact same thing, that he looked like the OC of a 14 year old goth on deviantart.
You know what the best part is? These two comics are somehow supposed to tie into season 7. Yeah, the season's not gonna start well at this rate.