IDW Comics Revisited - Main Series #15

This was the one arc in the comics that I intentionally avoided even back in the day. What I saw of it convinced me to give it a hard pass. Yet it exists, and the sad truth is that the comics would subsequently sink to lows even deeper than this one. So has time lessened the sting of this arc, or is it still as bad it's always been perceived as? Well, let's find out.

We begin with Applejack asking Twilight for help identifying some strange cocoon like objects sprouting up around Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight can't find any answers though because something is tearing up the pages in her books. It soon turns out that the cocoons are sprouting up all around Ponyville, and the source of the problem is a literal book worm. Somehow this worm is moving too fast for Twilight to just zap it with her magic, and too fast for Spike to grab it with his claws. So we already have a lot of stupidity going on in this arc, especially with how ditzy Pinkie Pie seems to be written here and Rainbow Dash popping up out of literally nowhere.

Spike suggests using magic to go into the books to track down the book worm and stop it, referencing "Power Ponies". Keep that in mind for later. Anyway, Twilight decides to rope Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Rarity (who alongside Fluttershy is only now being added to the story) to go into the books to help her catch the book worm while Spike will stay with Applejack and Fluttershy in case something pops out of the cocoons. The four venture into their first book, but the book worm somehow still eludes them despite the fact that it was shown literally leaving pages in the book and there's nothing to suggest it's magical. Then the challenge becomes finding a way out of the torn up book to continue the search. But when Rarity, Pinkie and Rainbow decide to do the story their own way (against Twilight's objections) it ends up changing the story.

Back in Ponyville, meanwhile, one of the cocoons bursts open to reveal Daring Do who is treated as a fictional character here despite the fact that "Daring Don't" canonically confirmed she was a real pony. And considering they referenced "Power Ponies" there is no way they couldn't know about "Daring Don't", so now we have a continuity error. The real issue though is that this requires Rainbow Dash to become Daring Do in the next story since it's the only way to progress and chase after the book worm that has little in the way of personality, it just claims the books and stories for itself because it can. Twilight still whines about sticking to the story even though the story here will already change since Daring Do isn't around.

The search continues into the next story, a romance mystery that Rarity just so happens to know the big twist to and thus spoils the whole thing for no reason even before the book worm has shown up (Pinkie and Rainbow don't seem to be taking things seriously either, and Twilight is just annoying here). Suddenly, the book worm begins destroying the page the four are in and while they manage to escape through a hole they're stuck in a void as Twilight laments that they weren't taking things seriously, while Pinkie has lost part of her hoof to the page being erased. And while all this is going on, fictional characters from the stories (including a pony Snow White, apparently) are popping up left and right in Ponyville from the cocoons, but Applejack and Fluttershy are just cowering instead of trying to do anything.

And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? Well, it's main plot is definitely as bad as I remember in regards to its premise and characterization. You can't root for anyone: Twilight is too obnoxious and whiny about preserving the stories as they are even if that's not an option, Pinkie and Rainbow are just fooling around and changing things up whenever they can even if it's not necessary, and when Rarity isn't being a damsel in distress she's spoiling a story she's at home even when the book worm hasn't altered the story. The side plot with Applejack and Fluttershy though is just pointless and confusing, even now that we know this isn't canon. How can they reference "Power Ponies" but not acknowledge "Daring Don't" and Daring Do being real? The biggest problem is that the book worm as a villain/antagonist has no personality, no real motivation, it's just there to be plot armored and occasionally move the story along. I'll give the Nightmare Forces arc credit, they had an interesting premise that they failed to capitalize on (and clearly didn't know how to start given Rarity's sudden and unexplained self-doubts). This, however, isn't creative or interesting. Book worm aside there have been several plots of this type about getting stuck in stories and having to relive them in order to escape (and they've also been done with video games where you must finish the game without losing all your lives to escape). If you're really curious and wanna see for yourself, go look up this comic on YouTube as there's a channel that covers every comic from IDW at least for the main series. Otherwise, give this issue a hard pass, you won't be missing much.

Whew, and there you have it. Come back tomorrow when we'll see how this undisputed low point for the early comics wraps itself up with Main Series #16.

Comments

[superfun]

Some of this is stuff I definitely didn't think of when I read it a few years ago