So, in the latest MLP comic, we find out that Cheerilee has a twin sister who's a professional wrestler.

Anyone else want to see a threeway clopfic featuring Big Mac, Cheerilee and her twin sister Cherry Blossom?

Woo! Expanded canon! Stuff like this is why I love the comics.

But yeah, that would be something to see. Who would top?

I'm sorry to go off-topic so soon into the thread, but is anybody else here really, really bothered by this style? I think this is the same artist who did the Dash/Spitfire issue, and I couldn't get over it there, either. Like, what's up with Cheerilee's everything in that fifth panel? How long is her neck there? What am I seeing? Is that her knee as she raises her foreleg in front of her? Or is that her shoulder as she suddenly grows insect legs?

I'm not trying to be an asshole or anything. I genuinely just can't ignore this, no matter how hard I try.

4184002 Yeah, and it just makes everyone look too young. If the CMC looked like this and adults more chiseled, I could accept it, but everything looks so squishy and small. It honestly is far too distracting. A visual medium should never have visuals that keep you from enjoying the story.

4184064

Exactly, yeah. This was especially a problem in the Dash/Spitfire issue where actual foals were an important part of the story. I could only tell them apart from the adults by their size, and even that was skewed at times.

4184074 In general, IDW's quality on MLP has been dubious. From the Power Ponies issues, the Dragon Dicks fiasco, issue 28 with their cruelty to the villain, and the questionable style of these issues. It just makes you wonder what is going on.

4184091

It's definitely been in decline alright. Personally, I blame Bobby Curnow. Lately he's been letting writers like Ted Anderson and Jeremy Whitley get away with bringing their personal politics into the comics. I wouldn't even mind the writers being morons if they just kept it out of their work, because they are capable of writing good stories if only they're able to suppress their own urges. Jeremy Whitley wrote some of my favourite issues (the Discord stories), and even Ted Anderson, as mediocre a writer as he might normally be, has had his moments. But instead, Curnow lets them get away with copy-pasting their ill-informed rants about racism into the middle of a children's comic, or giving cameos to some of the worst kinds of human garbage to ever come out of the trash heap that is Tumblr.

I hope that they shape up soon, but so long as Bobby refuses to discipline writers and IDW keeps ignoring criticism and fandom outcry, I don't see it happening. For now, I'm just hoping that Katie Cook gets back on her game and starts writing good stories again to counter the rest of the crap.

4184091

Also, I just got done reading issue #28, and I have no idea what you were talking about when you mentioned cruelty to the villain. As far as I can tell, King Aspen got away scot-free.

4185921 Mainly it was word of mouth from other people mentioning it. I'm not exactly caught up. :(

4185961

Well, if you're lost for context, that was a joke. King Aspen isn't the actual villain you've heard about. He's just a massive prick.

4185990 He's also an ecoterrorist and a racist. And yet somehow he's the good guy. Blackthorn was the better leader, and should be the one ruling the country.

4184207 It's too early to say for certain the main series have hit an all time low since we've only had two clunky two parters, and the Friends Forever series has been decent enough.

4184064 It's not as bad as the Rarity/Babs Seed Friends Forever issue blantantly recycling animation, twice! There's no excuse for that.

4184207 Being too political is exactly what nearly sank Marvel Comics in the late 70's. IDW needs to get a new staff leader, one who knows what criticism means and how important continuity really is.

4186069

He's also an ecoterrorist and a racist.

Well, yeah. That's exactly why he's such a massive prick. King Aspen is what we call a designated hero. Someone who the narrative expects us to sympathise with but who isn't really deserving of any sympathy. And it's such a shame that he was used in that way. This concept of the deer as a race of arrogant, forest-dwelling asshole elves who would fuck over ponies at the slightest provocation and steal land just because they feel they're entitled to it is actually really good. But it's a good concept for villains, not victims. Nor heroes, for that matter.

The trouble facing the comic right now is that after we've seen Twilight battle the likes of Tirek, it's hard to take a gang of cattle rustlers or a minotaur property developer seriously as threats (not that it couldn't be done if a writer tried hard enough, but no effort was made here). So far, Cook has handled this problem by relying on contrivance and making Twilight an idiot. But King Aspen is a capital letters Big Deal, on par with Celestia, or at least Sombra. If he were the villain, he would have posed a serious threat. There would've been some real tension, and you wouldn't even have to make up excuses for why Twilight couldn't just trounce the guy and call it done. He's both on her level in terms of power, and as a king in his own right, doesn't have to acknowledge her royal authority.

Seriously, the pieces are all in place. Aspen would've been a perfect villain.

In fact, he will be. This comic has inspired me. I'm getting some writing done after I finish this comment.

It's too early to say for certain the main series have hit an all time low since we've only had two clunky two parters, and the Friends Forever series has been decent enough.

The worst MLP comic that will ever be produced already exists, and it's called the Equestria Girls Holiday Special. I will actually be fucking shocked if something worse than that comes out. I'd go into detail about it, but it's probably easier to just link you to my nine thousand word review of it. Talking just about the main FiM series, yeah, I suppose it can still get a lot worse from here, but I still think that this most recent arc was the worst one of it so far. I'll give it this, though: even Cook's bad stories never bore me, and that's more than I can say for Manehattan Mysteries, the bookworm arc, or that forgettable pirate adventure. Those arcs were all... inoffensive, I suppose, but they never gripped me all that much.

Friends Forever is... okay. It's very hit or miss for me.

Being too political is exactly what nearly sank Marvel Comics in the late 70's. IDW needs to get a new staff leader, one who knows what criticism means and how important continuity really is.

Amen to that.

4184002 I pretty much lost interest in MLP:FiM #29 as soon as I found out the same artist who did that HORRENDOUS Spitfire/Dash comic did this one too. Seriously, the freakish Pony Babies art style is just terrible and offputting.

And then there's some...questionable aspects to the writing. Madisoat Square Garden? Really? That's the best they could come up with? "Trotdown"?

The story itself was...meh. Predictable...nothing special. Very Tiny Toons, honestly.

Disappointing issue. I really hope IDW never uses this artist again.

4205263 Or at least, confines him to CMC centered stories. That's where this artwork could make actually make sense.

4205263

Well I hoped that they'd never hire Ted Anderson again too, but here we are, living in a post-Equestria Girls Holiday Special world and with two new Anderson stories ominously looming on the horizon. We don't always get what we want. All I can do is offer my shoulder to cry on when IDW inevitably decide that they want Fosgitt to come back for five more issues because of the positive response he got from Equestria Daily.

4205289 IDW seriously needs to get a new head of staff, one that actually knows what criticism means. And one who knows what you don't include in a comic book series about mutli colored equines.