IDW G5 #18

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
Previously, on My Little Pony...
milkway_illusion.png

Milkyway is a big Naruto fan. She gets that from her mom, too.

This cover is more plot relevant than you might expect!
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So, how is it?

Are you kidding me? Do I even need to say anything at this point? You really should be picking this comic up already! This is still managing to be probably the best G5 comic.

The art continues to impress. This is still the best G5 artist. I've run out of unique ways to praise this artist. She's just GOOD!

The story is managing to have a few more twists than I was expecting. You know my criticism about Pipp's characterization? Yeah...that kind of gets addressed. Which...kind of just leads into ANOTHER cliche, but it's a cliche that better fits the character? So...I'm okay with it now. I underestimated this writer a little. And, there's a few twists on Zipp's side of the story, too. I didn't expect this to go quite this way. It's still a "Freaky Friday" story, and it still hits all those beats you would expect. But, there's a little more drama here than I was expecting. And I'm actually curious how this gets resolved, now.

So yeah...go pick this up! It's good! I promise!

So, this issue starts as you probably expect...with Zipp humiliating herself trying to be a pop star. It's REALLY important to her that she shows Pipp how "easy" this all is. As she falls flat on her face.

"Start with the positives" "The lights went out when you tripped" "That's a positive?" "Yeah! It was too dark to see you fall. And if it's too dark to see you fall, did it really ever happen at all?" Izzy's logic is flawless.

So, Zipp has the idea to get the Pippsqueaks (who are now...the Zippsqueaks! That's so weird, but so right!) to come over and watch her practice so that Zipp can try and feed off a crowd's energy like Pipp does when she performs. But...they don't WANT to come over?! And they're clearly faking sick.

And Pipp's busy...picking out soaps for the various bathrooms in the castle for the dinner! So many soaps. More soaps than you would expect. I honestly don't know why you would bother picking out different soaps for different bathrooms in different wings. I guess I'm just uncultured swine. *shrug*

But, after Pipp manages to kick Queen Haven out of the room, Pipp gets a better idea! CYBER-STALKING! She's going to look up EVERYONE IN ZEPHYR HEIGHTS to find out what THEY might like to have at the party! And then she's going to do...ALL OF IT!

And, yeah, this is another cliche. Trying to make EVERYONE happy and ending up making NO ONE happy. But...I think this fits Pipp better than not being good at party planning at all? She's over-excited and over-eager, leading her to over-extend herself and over-reach just how much she should do. That feels like something Pipp would do. And HAS done. Trying to throw the BIGGEST PARTY EVER and it all just collapsing under it's own weight works. I retract my pre-emptive criticisms from the past issue threads.

Back over to Zipp's side of things, Zipp brings over some get-well gifts for the Zippsqueaks (...I still can't get over that). And to see if they're really sick. Izzy feels SO BAD about already eating all the treats they were going to bring them. Just a torrent of tears, everyone's so expressive in this comic, I love it. But, they DO find out why everyone's looking at Zipp weird, now.

It all turns out that Carotang, the musician from the first issue of this arc, is bad mouthing Pipp/Zipp (this spell makes things confusing) in the media, and claiming she/they are trying to silence his music. Turning Pipp not allowing him to replace ALL her posters with his, into not even giving him shout out on her social media. That's...so DIRTY! I...kind of LOVE it for this subplot! It makes Carotang into a more unique "villain" for this arc. But, not all of Pipp/Zipp's fans believe that Pipp/Zipp would actually do that. I like that not EVERYONE instantly falls for this. Some of the fans still believe in their idol.

Also, Izzy turns one of Carotang's posters into a jaunty paper hat! Because Izzy's gotta Izzy!

So, Zipp does what any sane, reasonable pony would do in this situation. And she drags Carotang into a abandoned alley and threatens to either whip the cutie mark off his flank OR exile him from her kingdom! This...this is kind of great! I kind of love this for Zipp! QUEEN! Zipp chooses violence and I am here for it!

Oh, but it gets better. Because Carotang still has his microphone on, so EVERYONE just heard Zipp threaten this musician. And now EVERYONE thinks Carotang was telling the truth all along. This...is actually GREAT drama for this comic! Carotang didn't even really have to do anything! Zipp just made this ten times worse all by herself!

And so we cut back to Pipp, who is busy being a boss and actually managing to get all this done pretty well, so far. She's got a arcade and a golf course and a mud bath and somehow managed to get a entire FERRIS WHEEL into the castle hall! I guess when you're royalty, you can just make things happen. I do like the detail of Pipp kind of losing the forest for the trees, by completely eliminating the food from what was supposed to be just a dinner. I mean, even travelling circuses have food stands here and there!

Hitch tells Pipp that he's having his critters look in the woods for Milkyway. And we get a interesting little nugget of lore. Before THIS wish, Milkyway had been mostly making smaller wishes come true so that she wouldn't risk messing them up. This is actually Miklyway's first BIG wish. So...we're getting some hints that something bigger is going on with Milkyway. We don't see any of her this issue, which is a shame. But, we still manage to forward her arc a little, with background details. Nicely done.

I just kind of like this panel where Pipp is going all slouchy-sideways-leany after being frustrated that they'll be stuck this way for longer than she wanted. It's just...interesting horse-posture, I guess. There's a lot of character in this art.

And another medium confirms that Hitch has the hollow bones of a delicate baby bird. Since, Pipp is able to lift him so effortlessly to get him out of the way of a Ferris Wheel entering the hall.

And Pipp...is REALLY into mud baths, judging by her facial expression when she dips her hooves in. She makes it look nice.

Oh, but things go wrong for her, too. As a engineer for Pipp's "carnival" accidentally slips on some of the mud Pipp tracks through the area, knocks a wedge that was keeping the Ferris Wheel up, causing the Ferris wheel to fall on the vat for the mud bath, causing a tidal wave of mud to erupt out of the hall.

So, yeah. Both sisters are kind of making things worse, due to their unique personalities. But, in ways that work for the characters. I like this. Like a lot of this book, it's done better than I expected.


Also, they mispelled Carotang "Carotan" on the last page. I don't know what the pun or reference is for his name. But, now I can't help seeing his name as "Caro-Tan" like he's Japanese or something. I could TOTALLY see Caro-tan being a fangirl-nickname for him.
 
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CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I'll pick this one up this weekend. I'll avoid the spoiler until then but I'm glad to hear the quality is still good. This is what I hoped the G5 comics would be.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
This felt less dense than the first two parts, but I'm still enjoying it. Things are certainly escalating. It feels like this trivial event may actually destroy Zephyr Heights. You cannot take these ponies anywhere.

If I had any issues with this, that one panel with Izzy would more than make up for it. You know the one. That's the kind of image that instantly puts me in a good mood.
 


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