IDW G5 Set Your Sail #1

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
Previously, on My Little Pony...
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The Sea Ponies WILL be befriended. Izzy doesn't care how much glitter she has to dump into the ocean in order to achieve her dream!

You might as well start singing. The song won't be leaving your mind for a while. "Shoo be doo, shoo-shoo be doo!"
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"I wanna be where the sea ponies are! I wanna see, wanna see them swimming! Waving around those...what do you call them? Oh...FIIIIIINNNNNS!"

So, how is it?

It's good! Are you even surprised with this team? This is the good G5 comics team, the one that did the Discord and Milkyway arcs. This is going to be a good series.

The writing is still good. This writer does still does that thing where Pipp belittles the importance of royal duties, which still feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of the character. But, that's really the biggest problem. And it's just to set up a personal conflict for later in the series. So, FINE! I GUESS! Whatever. Everyone else is in character. No complaint there.

But, there are a few weird places where it feels like the setting jumps around without warning. I'm guessing there were either some last minute changes, or they were just hurrying a bit to get to the meat of the story. Either way, it doesn't hurt the book too much. It's just a little noticeable. I feel like the same thing happened in the first Roller Derby issue, so that will probably improve as the book goes on.

Art wise, this is done by the artist that I like. So, of course, this is VERY lively and animated and just very fun. But, there's a bit of a twist to this art. They seem to be trying out a similar inking style that they used in the Camp Bighoof miniseries on this person's artwork. Instead of just black lines, everyone has more colorful outlines, mostly purple. It gives everything a softer look. I think I prefer the regular black inking style over this, but it is a interesting experiment. I just think this art in particular looks better when you have more black contrasts to make everything look more distinct. Without the contrast, all the detail tends to blend into everything, and you lose somesthing. Black outlines just makes everything pop a little more. But, that's a nitpick, if anything.

So, yeah, this is a good issue. Pick this up! It'll be a good time! I swear! Plus...I mean, I don't want to spoil anything, but...the seaponies just might be showing up in this? I'm sorry if that ruins the book for you, but I don't want you guys to be too blindsided by this carefully concealed reveal.


Wow, caramel onions sound terrible. I mean, some vegetables are probably solid enough with caramel. I could see caramel celery or carrots being fairly pleasant. But, onions...oof!

Well, someone's gonna have to find Dory. Again.

And we have ourselves a ghost ship! The Galloping Ghost! I mean, it's just a sunken ship piloted by sea pony pirates, you can already tell there's no ghost involved here...but it's also a sunken ship piloted by sea pony pirates! And that's still pretty rad!

And we get confirmation that this is indeed a direct sequel to the 40th Anniversary Special comic that released a while ago. Continuity! Oh, it's nice to have.

And Izzy REALLY wants to meet the sea ponies. She's giving Sunny the puppy dog eyes and everything! You can't resist that look!

And Izzy found a mysterious book on the beach! That's probably not a good sign. And apparently, Izzy sees the world like it's a old Betty Boop cartoon. Which...tracks.

"The writer used "cerulean" 57 times in the first ten pages" Sounds like a newbie writer, alright. Always being more verbose than necessary. *looks over at his own writing* Ah-HEM! Moving on...

Meanwhile, Pipp is attacked by birds. She really shouldn't have teased Hitch earlier. The birds have their bro's back!

And this takes place RIGHT after the "Blockywockys" special, since the Board-Trot is fully rebuilt. Hasbro's not giving up on these universes being closely linked! This is...probably the first time IDW's ever had perfect timing for one of these things in their books! Good job on keeping things lined up!

This part comes off as a little jumbled, but stay with me. Pipp wants to focus on her new song, but her mom wants her to focus on a royal duty. And that royal duty is going to meet with the sea ponies. But, Pipp is grumpy about her new song taking a back burner to her princess duties. Her little gwumpy face...

And of course, Izzy wants to come along. And Pipp was planning on it before she even asked. Aw, that's nice.

And Misty's been trying out new spells for breathing underwater. So, they even got that from the new episodes of the show. I'll say it again, well done for keeping up with continutiy IDW! I guess it's not as hard when you're only dealing with 5 minute episodes.

So...um...after Misty casts the spell, Pipp and Izzy go on the rollercoaster, for some reason? I think maybe something got lost in the scripting process, here. Or Hasbro just REALLY wanted them to feature the Boardtrot? It does kind of look like the rides create portals to different lands, which I THINK is what's happening? I think my fan-theory was right? We haven't quite see that in the show yet, so I guess this artwork doesn't make it super clear one way or another.

Anyway, they get soaked by water and turn into sea ponies! Just as planned! Weird, they did it at the Boardtrot roller coaster, but...fine!?

And Izzy is just dropping lore from these books like it's nothing. She's a big fan. And now she has a big fin...ha-cha-cha-cha!

So, they get tricked by the sea-pirates into boarding a underwater train...because that's a thing...so that the pirates can try to abduct them before they meet with the Queen.

"Call me crazy, but sometimes I hear the shifting of tectonic plates, grinding in a apocalyptic symphony that hails the end of days...or maybe that's just the snack cart comin'" Okay...well, that's a line. These pirates are characters, at least.

"Maybe it's a SHELL-fie...y'know since we're underwater?" That's very hurtful, Pipp. Please don't do that, again.

"Two-eyed Gilbert doesn't need a invisible timeline to know the future! Grid collapse, caramel shortages! Bands of sea ponies sailing the new wastelands!" "You can just ask me not to tag you." I like Gilbert! And I wish to subscribe to his newsletter!

"Obsessive fandom memory don't fail me now!" Izzy is one of us! And she uses her love of these books to identify that these guys are actually characters from her book.

"In the end, when the magic dries to salt, there won't be enough light left to feed a sun pony fish" "You're kind of creepy, you know that, right?" To be fair, Gilbert is right. That's already happened. In fact...I kind of wish they'd go into what DID happen to the sea ponies when magic disappeared. I'm not sure if we're going to get that or not.

And so, the issue ends with Pipp and Izzy getting thrown into a burlap sack and kidnapped before they get to the sea pony castle. I'm sure Pipp will handle this like a champ. Princesses are always getting kidnapped, if certain video games are any indication. Just a normal Wednesday afternoon for her. It'd actually make for a fun livestream.

Also, this is the first issue where we get a letters column! Not much to say about it, but it's just nice that they're adding these in.
 
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CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
. . . Oh.

This is why that TYT special didn't come out weeks ago. They were timing it to come out right before this.

Sorry, TYT intern. I shouldn't have doubted you.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Now this is what I'm talking about.

So the switch to a TYT look isn't just a thing for the Kenbucky Roller Derby miniseries. They tried it here too... and it's hugging great! This isn't a hybrid style. It is straight up TYT, but with shading and even more flexibility with the expressions. It takes everything that does work about the TYT style, and makes it work better. Yay.

The story is largely good and I am fully invested to see where this is going, but yeah the roller coaster bit is nigh indecipherable. I also think it's supposed to be a portal, but there is nothing here making that clear. I suspect it was supposed to be made clear somewhere else. If my theory is correct that the Blockywocky special was adapted from a MYM script, that means this issue wasn't just supposed to follow that special. It was supposed to follow a whole MYM chapter that would have been dropped all at once. So it may not be IDW's fault that this part is unclear. They probably should have explained it anyway to make this story more self contained, but they had reason to think readers wouldn't be confused. This issue may retroactively improve once we know what they thought we'd know.

I adore everything about Izzy's characterization throughout. This is good Izzy.

Pipp... oh Pipp. I defended her characterization in the Milkyway arc, but now I have to agree that this writer is not understanding her side of the royal family dynamic. Other than that Pipp is on point.

I don't agree about the outlines. Generally yes, black outlines are a good idea. This was a risky experiment. But I'm not seeing any problem with how it turned out. These characters are colorful enough that they stand out against the backgrounds just fine. It was a risk but it worked.

Perhaps most importantly, their ears are lively. It's subtle with static comic panels, but it's there. They know what the people want.
 


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