IDW Friends Forever #32 Review · 8:12pm Apr 20th, 2017
As 2016 progressed, and the show was going through its sixth season, the comic series was going through another bad year. The main series had started off fairly strong, but by mid 2016 it was clear that the same problems as always were back, and with "Ponies of Dark Water" proving to be a disappointment, no one was looking forward to the "Trump v.s. Hillary" parody that would come out after it. Meanwhile, the Friends Forever series was puttering along, bobbing up and down in quality from issue to issue. With the most recent Friends Forever story involving Rainbow Dash and Little Strongheart that recieved a mixed reception (praise for the artwork but complaints about the story), was this issue with Jay Fosgitt's bad art style able to keep the series on track, or just sending it crashing back down again? Well, let's find out.
Let's get the big gripe out of the way at the start, Fosgitt's art style continues to find ways to get lazier and lazier, and it seems like every issue he breaks new ground with how horrible he can make something look. But if you can look past the art style, there are other things to talk about, namely the story. Fluttershy is approached by Daring Do, who needs Fluttershy's help dealing with a rare animal. As it turns out, Daring Do needs Fluttershy's help to find these ancient map spiders that lead to a long lost temple with a hidden treasure. But she claims she is "allergic" to spiders, so she needs Fluttershy's help to retrieve them.
Daring leads Fluttershy to a pit and gives her a lantern to go down and fetch one of the spiders, Fluttershy does so while telling herself she's not scared. She comes back up to find Daring Do involved in a brawl with some mooks, and after weaving her way around them, hoofs Daring her trusty lasso. But it turns out that the mooks answer to Dr. Caballeron, who has rounded up the rest of the spiders. Daring is forced to stay behind to untangle Fluttershy, who somehow ended up in a tree during the midst of the fight. Daring is horrified to see one of the spiders, but regains her composure as she leads Fluttershy to the temple, which is full of your usual booby traps (she even says it's "One of those castles"). But Dr. Caballeron is not the only bad guy who's found it, Ahuizotl has also shown up, and now he's working with Caballeron directly. He ties up Daring Do and Fluttershy, and puts them in a jar of some kind.
While stuck dangling over a pit, Daring Do confesses to Fluttershy the truth, that she's terrified of spiders. That's why she sought out Fluttershy. She mentions how she's not brave because of the fact that she did this, how she isn't brave like Fluttershy, who was scared of everything but came along anyway and faced her fears. But Fluttershy tells Daring Do that she is brave, and convinces her to let the map spider crawl all over her in order to untie the ropes. The two pegasi escape, and find Ahuizotl and Caballeron arguing about when Caballeron and his crew get payed for their part. Daring Do hatches a plan, distracting Ahuizotl, Caballeron, and the goons, while Fluttershy unleashes the map spiders, scaring the mooks away (along with Caballeron). As for Ahuizotl, he gets knocked out by a falling pillar, and the day has been saved. But Daring Do still has a long way to go to overcome her fear of spiders, as Fluttershy recounts the "Baby Steps" moral to Daring.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? Well, Fosgitt's terrible artwork aside, the story is decent. Yes, it's your typical "What it means to be brave" aesop, and Daring's fear of spiders is definitely supposed to parallel Indiana Jones' fear of snakes. But Fluttershy and Daring Do play off each other surprisingly well, and Fluttershy is wonderfully in character. Despite being scared, she doesn't cower in fear or let her fears hold her back from helping. It may not be ground breaking, but as long as you can look past Fosgitt's absolutely awful artwork (can someone please explain why the heck he hasn't been fired for his many messups), this issue is worth picking up, assuming you can get it cheap (like ten dollars or less). Come back tomorrow when we take a look at the first issue of the replacement for Friends Forever, Legends of Magic.
Yeah, I'd love to pick up some of these comic issues, like the Nightmarity Arc, but the problem is book and comic shops are going out of style, and although reading something on a Kindle is good, there's just nothing like having a physical book in your hands, y'know? Anyways, sounds like a interesting issue!