So it’s looking very likely indeed that the
top-selling comic of the year will not be anything Avengers-related, nor X-men.
Not movie-boosted Batman or Spiderman. But the comics for My Little Pony.
I’m not sure how I feel about this beyond amused. It’s at once very sad and also
brilliant.
Issue one was a good one – I liked how it was very different
in tone from the cartoon, yet not out there in the bizarre further reaches of
fandom. It was clearly aware of fan fixations and even went further than the
cartoon in acknowledging them – witness Derpy led to her capture by a line of
muffins, or the character fans have named ‘Doctor Whooves’ glancing at a watch –
but it was not at all defined by trying to be like the source or please its
fans. It was rather more boyish than even the most action-packed episodes: the
nasty creatures from the season 2 finale kidnap the CMC and replace much of
Ponyville with clones or zombified mind-controlled versions of the populace,
and only our main heroes can rescue them all with some fisticuffs. Stupid
faces, fast pacing and vicious punches ensue, all of which is very
comic-books-for-boys.
‘It’s clobbering time’, says Rainbow Dash at one point, a
nice nod to comic legends. The artist is also very keen on visual references,
developing the little Big Lebowski cameos of the series – we see Blues Brothers
ponies and a Magnum P.I. pony, for example. It all feels more free-wheeling and
random than the TV show, and that’s refreshing. It probably won’t have as big
an emotional impact on me as some of the fandom’s best comics have, especially
long-running ones like Ask-TheCrusaders or Jappleack (much as I still dislike
the .mov series), but honestly, they’re judged by very different standards and
these official comics have to be much broader in their appeal, which they have
managed.
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