IDW G5 #10

[ZakuConvoy]

Previously, on My Little Pony...

When Pipp wants to do book club, YOU DO BOOK CLUB!

And now for the exciting conclusion to the story almost a year in the making!

So, was the wait worth it? Were the past 10 months worth the build up or was it all a giant waste of time? Does Discord get a happy ending? Does Pipp end up giving Discord a makeover?

...Well...I dunno...because, again, the weather isn't permitting me to pick up the issue right away. *Grumble-Grumble* *SIGH* Oh, well, I'll get it eventually. Might be a little bit of a wait, but I WILL get this issue one way or another. Anyway, the thread's up for everyone else.

 

[Dvandom]

Got my copy, and it's gonna be my last. I mean, I've mostly lost interest in the whole "retconned soft reboot" thing as a sign that they don't have confidence in their own setting and characters, but this "arc" drove home that the cost of the weaksauce soft reboot was to trash the G4 timeline too. Ultimately, the G4 protagonists failed and the world fell into ruin. Bah.

---Dave

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I FINALLY made it to the comic shop. Only a week and change late.

How was it? It was good. But...JUST good. It doesn't hit quite as hard as I would have liked. There IS a really touching moment in the story...but I think you could have gotten more out of the concept. And dragging this out for 10 months did nothing to help things.

The artist is still great, though. This issue feels a little padded in places, with action scenes that don't really NEED to be there and don't especially serve the story, but that's a scripting issue. The artist makes the most of what's given and we get some really great faces here and there.

So...yeah, you almost could read issues 2 and 10 and get enough of the story to make do. (Issue 6 is ALSO important, but I'm debating if this issue would have hit harder without it.) I still defend this "Discord in G5" CONCEPT...but the execution got muddled. This could have been so much more than what we got. Which isn't really fair to the team, but fan expectations are what they are.

I'm glad I saw it through to the end, at least. The art from the "main team" alone was almost worth the price of admission, to me.

Got my copy, and it's gonna be my last.

I'm sorry to lose you, but I can't blame you. I've kind of thought about dropping this book, too, after this issue. I probably won't. If only because...I just don't think this book is going to last much longer.

Looking at solicitations, every upcoming issue we know about looks to be a one shot story. They aren't trying to do long-form stories anymore...and I have to wonder if that means IDW is losing the MLP license. There's been NO NEWS, so this is just speculation, and I have NO IDEA how this comic is selling for IDW...but this ongoing might be cancelled by the end of the year. It's just a feeling that I get. And if that happens, I'd want to see it through to the end. So, I'll try to. I know I haven't been the most reliable with actually GETTING the issue, but I still would like to keep these threads going, if only for others to read. We'll see what happens.

...That's kind of a bummer, though. So, I'll include some fun fan art below in the spoilers to balance things out a little. Be warned BIG spoilers for the ending in the fanart.

Spoiler

"If I don't get sugar every hour my personality gets all wonky" ...I worry about you sometimes, Izzy. BUT! Does this explain why Izzy's personality changes so much between different mediums? Does she just get a little hangry or...hungry-sad...Sungry?

Hitch apparently has a fear of heights. Given the situation he finds himself in...I'm gonna call this reasonable.

Trying to lift the cage with flight would work against you in the real world. The force of your wing-flaps would push down on the cage more than you could possibly lift up. But...magic...so I guess this is a okay plan.

You know, I didn't really pay much attention to the bunnies last issue, but they sure come in handy here. There also weren't as many of them before. Angel made himself a little kingdom at some point.

I've watched too many Looney Tunes. When they saved themselves from crashing into the bottom of the gorge, I was half-expecting a boulder to fall on them from above.

The bunnies have kidnapped Zipp. She will be their new queen.

Discord, if you were actually serious about destroying the Pegasus Crystal you could have just...dropped it, instead of doing a whole villain speech with only your lackey's watching.

Discord's still got a little bit of style, trapping Sunny in a magician's sawed-in-half box. He picked up a few things from Trixie.

Discord's long arms here are kind of weirding me out. This is just...kind of a weird moment in the comic. It doesn't really feel like a "Discord" attack to me, for some reason.

Oh, but then Izzy hits him with Fluttershy's message she recorded on her cell phone. (I guess the phones aren't powered by magic...which makes sense since they were around BEFORE they got magic back).

This one-page spread of Discord being visited by Flutterrshy's "ghost" is a really nice image. SO...here's some fanart re-interpreting that scene.

#3059754 - safe, artist:fridarush2, discord, fluttershy, draconequus, ghost, ghost pony, pegasus, pony, undead, g5, spoiler:g5comic, spoiler:g5comic10, broken horn, crying, female, grayscale, high res, horn, immortality blues, male, monochrome, old m

#3059754 - safe, artist:fridarush2, discord, fluttershy, draconequus, ghost, ghost pony, pegasus, pony, undead, g5, spoiler:g5comic, spoiler:g5comic10, broken horn, crying, female, grayscale, high res, horn, immortality blues, male, monochrome, old man discord, phone, red eyes, scene...

derpibooru.org

I'll admit it...I teared up a little on that full-page spread of Discord hearing Fluttershy's voice for the first time in a hundred years.

It WAS a sweet moment....but...I just have wonder if this scene would have more impact if we (the audience) didn't already hear this message back in issue 6? Or if the message was worded to be slightly more...ironic? It works here, but only because the concept works. Fluttershy's message itself...I think needed to be worded differently to really drive this feeling home. The message feels almost impersonal the way it's worded here, to me, at least.

"Fluttershy hadn't even experienced the worst of it when she recorded that message" Okay, that's worrying. And honestly...I don't know if Make Your Mark has the courage to REALLY live up to something like that. They're probably building up Opaline a *little* too much, here.

And...Discord gives up pretty easily, really. I guess it was obvious that his heart wasn't really in it, but...I don't know. It does feel a bit anticlimatic.

"I made it dad" This part ALSO had me tearing up, just a little bit. It's nice to remember how much finding Canterlot originally meant to Sunny all those months ago.

#3058535 - safe, artist:makaryo, artist:maren, discord, hitch trailblazer, izzy moonbow, pipp petals, reginald fursome, sunny starscout, zipp storm, draconequus, opossum, pegasus, pony, rabbit, squirrel, unicorn, g5, idw, spoiler:g5comic, spoiler:g5c

#3058535 - safe, artist:makaryo, artist:maren, discord, hitch trailblazer, izzy moonbow, pipp petals, reginald fursome, sunny starscout, zipp storm, draconequus, opossum, pegasus, pony, rabbit, squirrel, unicorn, g5, idw, spoiler:g5comic, spoiler:g5comic10, animal, bag, bittersweet, broken horn...

derpibooru.org

Yes, everyone lives happily ever after. In a MLP comic. I know, I was surprised, too.

"Power Pass" Zipp's making up games for everyone again. This has really kind of become her thing, and I never expected it. Zipp just really likes building stuff..

And Discord's mane is even in a ponytail by the end. He's starting to take care of himself a little bit more. He's obviously feeling a little better now that he's around ponies again.

And yeah, Discord sticks around at the end. He doesn't leave on a journey or anything. And everyone knows where Canterlot is now. I don't know how that works with the shows. "Party Canon", I guess. *shrugs*

 

[CoffeeHorse]

They are probably losing the license. Hasbro is going to want their licenses in the same place, wherever that ends up being. Splitting things up is just a headache. This comic would have to be selling gangbusters to avoid it, and I doubt it is or we would have heard about it. But even if it is selling well, it's not going to stop the incredibly obvious demise of IDW as a whole.

In the meantime, I won't lament the switch to standalone stories. It's exactly what this comic needs to be doing, for however long it gets to do it. The pretense of an ongoing story was getting in the way.

 

[blueskyscribe]

I dropped the G5 comic pretty early on, and I will admit that a big part of that was I don't like Discord and I'm disappointed he's not dead. But also . . . the comic seemed very SPARSE and rather boring.

*shrug* I really wanted to like it. I was really excited right before issue #1 came out. Ordered it the first day and everything. But it had a very weird vibe and didn't seem able to fully commit to a new setting (yeah, it's technically the same universe but it's been a dystopia for a thousand years) and new characters.

At the very least they should have had a solid year of stories to hype up the new locations (Maretime Bay, Zephyr Heights, and Bridlewood) and to give the writers time to find their feet. Can't get details on upcoming plots from Hasbro? Okay. Do prequel stories. Or stories taking place between the movie and the MYM show. You could get so many stories just out of the building of the new lighthouse and Pipp's decision to leave Zephyr Heights and get a job.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The seeming lack of confidence in the setting is really strange, because it is a great setting. Maretime Bay is very cozy, and has a much more defined layout than Ponyville ever did. There's plenty to work with there. Zephyr Heights is magnificent eye candy. Bridlewood is a constant joke waiting to happen. Everything they do is strange to anyone that doesn't live there. IDW could have had fun with it.

I think their hearts just aren't in it. They know IDW is collapsing. They've either lined up their next jobs and are just riding out their contracts, or they are aggressively shopping their resumes around. Either way, they're phoning in their IDW work while their attention is elsewhere.

 

[Dvandom]

It probably didn't help that the soft reboot got tacked on. Why spend time exploring Bridlewood's past when you know it's just "post-apocalyptic Equestrian refugees" and destruction of the happy ending of G4?

---Dave

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I wonder if IDW just got distracted by a cool idea and...didn't know what to do with it? I mean, I imagine they NEVER expected Hasbro to okay letting them use Discord in G5. I can only assume they swung for the fences on that pitch and were as surprised as anyone when they actually got it approved. So, they got to do it...but couldn't actually DO anything with it, because it would change the setting too much if they did.

I don't know. I keep going back and forth. Most of these comics weren't outright BAD, just kind of underwhelming. There's only 2 out of these 10 issues that I'd say were sub-par, the rest were...par. Some were even pretty good. It's comparable to IDW's G4 comics...which became a joke in the fandom, but still.

And I know I'm the one that brought it up, but we probably shouldn't be counting IDW out just yet. People have been predicting IDW's demise for YEARS, and they're still around. Mind you, there are perfectly good reasons why people keep predicting their demise, but it never seems to happen. And some places, like ClownfishTV on youtube, seem to almost have a personal stake in wanting to see them fail. IDW is...probably...going to stick around for years to come. IDW's problems exist, but they might be a little overblown. I'm really not sure.

And I get the feeling that the success or failure of the Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers movies this year MIGHT just determine the future of ALL of Hasbro's comics. Hasbro MIGHT be jacking up the price of their comic's licenses because they think they'll be getting a giant pile of Hollywood money this year. If these movies fail...Hasbro might be willing to lower their license prices a bit. I think that's why we haven't heard a peep about new Transformers or GI Joe comics from ANYONE. Everyone's waiting to see how these movies do at the box office, so they can negotiate prices either up or down. We'll have to see what happens.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

If IDW does manage to survive I'd love to seem them turn this around. As underwhelming as this all was, there is potential. There's been plenty of moments that tell me they get most of the characters reasonably well. As terrifying as it must be to move on from their G4 cash cow, they need to let go and give G5 its due. They can do it.