Episode Re-Review: Power Ponies · 3:00pm Mar 28th, 2021
Season 4 was chugging along just fine five episodes in, the season seemed to be firing on all cylinders and although there were still divisions within the fandom most were accepting of the new changes. And now it was time for the first of what would be three Spike focus episodes for the season. Considering the reputation Spike episodes had garnered by this point, it was really worrying and concerning to have one now when only "Secret of My Excess" had been a success with Spike in the lead role. Meghan McCarthy teamed up with the returning Charlotte Fullerton, but the two inexplicably teamed up with a writer from Johnny Test named Betsy McGowen for what would be her only writing credit for this show. This didn't seem like a really good mix of writers even though Meghan had shown that she got Spike. But both Josh Haber and Ed Valentine had debuted to high praise and people were starting to come around to Dave Polsky despite his comedic writing style, so maybe this odd mix would all work out somehow? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins late at night with Spike reading a comic about the Power Ponies. There's a ton of exposition which is at least framed understandably (Spike telling it all to Twilight who's never heard of the Power Ponies before) but at the same time it's kind of sloppy and rushed out. Still, it leads to a sweet scene where Twilight lets Spike stay up a little later to keep reading his comic. Seems like an okay start so far. But things start taking a turn for the worse when we cut to the next day and the mane six are fixing up the Castle of the Two Sisters. Spike is ready to help but the mane six turn down his offer and say they have everything under control. Spike then complains about Hum-Drum only being good for comedic relief and always getting in the way as a sidekick, right before he steps in a bucket. The subtly lands with all the impact of a brick. They're making it painfully obvious how Spike is feeling and that we're supposed to sympathize with him. But it's really just contrived in that no one lets him help and no one will explain why.
Then, Spike notices that the last page of the comic is blank for some reason. He goes to get a magnifying glass and reads some fine print at the bottom of the blank page. It triggers a portal of some kind and one by one each member of the mane six gets sucked in since they happened to be nearby (though Pinkie Pie just jumps in after her friends). Spike comes to and discovers that the mane six have become the Power Ponies.
Each Power Pony has a different design: Twilight is Masked Matterhorn which has powers similar to Cyclops but design wise takes some inspiration from Batgirl (who Tara Strong once voiced), Applejack is Mistress Marevolus who is meant to be similar to 90's anti-heroes like Wolverine (before the MCU reinvented and basically rewrote him) but also has Wonder Woman's golden lasso, Pinkie Pie is Filli Second who is an obvious nod to speedsters like The Flash, Rainbow Dash is Zapp who is basically Storm from the X-Men, Rarity is Radiance whose powers seem most likely to be a nod to Green Lantern in that she can conjure up objects with a wrist mounted device and Fluttershy is Saddle Ranger who is basically The Incredible Hulk. And of course, you can't have superheroes without a super villain. And our super villain is The Mane-Iac who has a similar color scheme to The Joker (and her origin story is vaguely similar to The Joker's alledged backstory in "The Killing Joke"), but has powers similar to Doctor Octopus.
Spike proceeds to tell each mane six member what their powers are, but unsurprisingly they have no control over them even though for at least half of them their powers are similar to what they already are (Twilight can shoot spells from her horn, Rainbow Dash has a pendant that can control the weather and Applejack has a lasso that she's telepathically connected to). Fluttershy's power is exactly the same as The Hulk's, Pinkie Pie's is super speed and Rarity can conjure up anything if she thinks about it. But even they are completely incompetent and unable to use their powers. And it's not because the comic is forcing them to or anything like that. They just completely suck at using their powers even when Spike tells them what to do or how to do it. Yet it isn't until he trips over his own cape and gives The Mane-Iac a powerful orb she's been looking for that he realizes he's Hum-Drum, the useless sidekick.
Twilight reassures Spike that he's not really Hum-Drum and Rarity points out that he must have powers if he's wearing a costume, but Spike insists that he's useless and Rainbow Dash at least reinforces it by telling him to just lead the way to the Mane-Iac's secret base and then let his friends do the rest. Unsurprisingly, the Mane-Iac operates out of a shampoo factory (you might as well put up a sign saying "I'm here!") and Rainbow stupidly attacks the neon sign and tips the Mane-Iac off before anyone even has a plan. Still, the mane six battle. Or at least, all battle except Fluttershy who isn't even a little bit mad and needs to be bailed out by Rainbow Dash. The powers become uneven as Twilight still can't do much of anything but Rarity can do almost anything (Pinkie Pie is only really good at distracting enemies and then hitting them with desserts). The henchponies fall but the Mane-Iac just unleashes a powerful hairspray that freezes anyone it touches. And even when the rest of the mane six see what it can do after Rainbow Dash is frozen to the ground, they stupidly rush headlong towards the Mane-Iac and get frozen too. And Fluttershy is too terrified to be angry even though her friends are in danger.
And then the Mane-Iac makes the classic villain mistake of sparing Spike simply because he has no powers, leaving him free to break in and rescue his friends. Strangely enough, she's smart enough to have a henchpony keep spraying the mane six so they can't regain movement but this is the only instance of her being prepared or genre savy. She even monologues for no reason and explains her plan in full while again dismissing the threat of Hum-Drum. Twilight says that Hum-Drum always comes through for them, which inspires Spike to try to save the day. But he only manages to get away with it because The Mane-Iac isn't paying attention.
So the mane six are freed and now all of them can use their powers to the fullest, except for Fluttershy who still isn't angry despite all she's been through. However, that changes when The Mane-Iac swats away a firefly and that is what makes Fluttershy mad enough to basically go Hulk (though the design is just a mutated form of Bulk Biceps' character model). The Mane-Iac is defeated, her powerful weapon destroyed and then everyone is teleported out of the comic and back to the castle. Spike no longer feels useless, but then in a rather stupid revelation it turns out that he bought the comic from an enchanted comic book store and didn't think it was literally enchanted. So all the mane six start laughing at his stupidity, completely negating the moral that was just learned as the comic disappears while no one's looking.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, if it wasn't obvious before it was obvious here that Spike was being stuck with the label of "Sidekick" even though he'd already gotten several focus episodes and more than once was directly in the spotlight on his own. While this episode was the first to start exploring Spike's insecurities and feelings of uselessness, it does so in a very heavy handed way that is contrived and predictable. The intended moral is that Spike is not useless. But the way it's presented makes it look like he can only be useful if everyone else is useless or just incompetent. And it gets undercut by having Spike be the one who started the whole thing by buying a comic book he didn't think it was literally enchanted despite buying it from an enchanted comic book store. The mane six being completely unable to use their powers properly at first and some of them only mastering them out of the blue at the end is poor pacing, and it doesn't help that some superpowers are way more useful than others (Rarity's is borderline broken as Radiance). I get that the intent was to pay homage to the campy Silver Age of comic books, but this feels more like a bad parody that uses every dumb cliche associated with that age and then some. And even in that age sidekicks are never so useless that they could only save the day if their partner superhero was useless or incapcitated. You want to see a proper homage to the Silver Age of comics? Check out Batman: The Brave and the Bold or Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader, both of which knew how to use Silver Age tropes and themes properly. I'm not sure who wrote what or why, but I think it's clear that none of the three writers here worked well together. Meghan probably could've done this episode on her own and it would've been just fine. If she really needed a writing partner Fullerton and McGowen were not the answers. The end result is an episode with the rating of a D+. Cool superhero designs and superhero nods in general can't make up for how botched the story and characters are. I daresay, this feels like it took inspiration from the Joel Shumucer Batman films of the 1990's and we all know how those turned out.
And now comes the first of my many unpopular opinions for Season 4. Most everyone seems to have nothing but praise for the next episode, but for me it's the first undisuptable dud of Season 4. I'm of course talking about "Bats!" or as it might be better known "The Strawman Is Right, The Episode".
For me, this episode was one I loved at first, but I did end up souring on it over time
5484926 Same here.
While this episode was far from perfect, I'm sure some people would consider it to be a better swan song for Charlotte Fullerton than the last episode with her name attached to it.
5485003 Honestly, this is a worse send-off for her. Sticking her with a Meghan McCarthy too busy with new additions and other projects to help out and an inexperienced writer who needed a much better guiding hand, resulting in a case of "Too many cooks spoils the soup." The episode already bears a lot of Meghan's biggest weaknesses, and Fullerton and McGowen were ill-equipped to assist her. Fullerton deserved better than this, she deserved one last chance.
5485152
If what you said in your closing paragraph is anything to go by, the next episode makes you feel the same about Merriwether Williams.
I love superhero, but this episode is just that