Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDS FOREVER #13 (January 2015, IDW Publishing)

To date, IDW's MY LITTLE PONY comics have done reasonably well by a number of characters who have either been undeveloped or underdeveloped in the TV series... which is why I was particularly interested in seeing what Jeremy Whitley and Agnes Garbowska would do with the second four-color coming of Babs Seed.  Babs' first comics appearance, in MLP #21-22, pushed her characterization a considerable distance down the track, but it also may have taken a few too many liberties in its sudden expansion of Babs' problem-solving abilities.  For Babs to progress from the somewhat insecure filly that lay underneath the "bully" surface in "One Bad Apple" to the hard-boiled junior detective who cracked the "Manehattan Mystery" and cleared Trixie's "good mane" (such as it is) required a certain suspension of disbelief.  Happily, the Babs of FF #13 is back to being a little more of a passive, slightly bewildered character -- though not incapable of taking a stand when she has to -- and thus works quite well with the self-confident Rarity.  Though the plot owes more than a small debt to the classic episode "Sisterhooves Social," with Rarity learning yet another lesson about the importance of "give and take" in dealing with a young'un, the conflict simmers at a much lower temperature, and Rarity doesn't have to go to such extreme lengths in order to put what she has learned into practice.

** SPOILERS **

Thanks to a thimbleful of contrivance -- namely, Sweetie Belle getting sick and being unable to accompany her sister on a business trip to Manehattan, where Sweetie was looking forward to reconnecting with Babs -- Rarity finds herself shepherding Babs around the town.  (Rarity momentarily, and self-consciously, puts aside some impending work in order to do so, in order that Babs will not leave disappointed because of Sweetie's absence.  Considering that Rarity barely knows Babs, this is a subtle but welcome reminder of her generous nature.)  Regarding Babs as a sort of equina rasa on which to work her fashionista magic, Rarity is soon consumed with the notion of giving Babs a makeover.  Babs becomes less and less enamored with the idea and finally takes her leave, albeit with no histrionics.  It's pretty clear that Babs likes Rarity well enough; she just doesn't think that their lives have very much in common. Thanks to a talk with her client, the "Pony of Pop" Sapphire Shores, Rarity quickly realizes that she's been too concerned with "her own fashion and sense of style" to pay sufficient attention to Babs' more rough-hewn, "citified" idea of a good time.  She uses her behind-the-scenes pull to treat Babs to a roller derby (hence the cover), and the two finally bond. 

Simple, but effective, this is.  I suppose that I should be annoyed that Rarity didn't completely internalize her epiphany in "Sisterhooves Social," but dealing with a sibling and dealing with a relative stranger involve very different emotional dynamics.  Rarity is more puzzled than emotionally distraught as a result of Babs' unenthusiastic reaction to the makeover, but, true to her nature, she is determined to do right by Babs, and she ultimately does so.

Agnes Garbowska manipulates her static little dolls to pretty good effect here, though there are a couple of places in which a little artistic dynamism would definitely have helped.  I can only imagine what one of the more daring MLP artists would have done with the roller-derby action sequences, or with the obsessed manedresser pony who is bound and determined to cut off Babs' long bang (the one that Babs is seen repeatedly blowing out of her eyes).  There are also a few flareups of the seemingly inevitable "Repetitive Panel Syndrome."  I did, however, like the running gag of Babs being "pulled off panel" by an overly excited Rarity.  Needless to say, Babs gets to turn the tables before all is said and done.

The same creative crew will be handling FF #14, which will feature a teamup of Spike and Princess Luna.  There's a pleasing consistency in this, in that Garbowska also drew the Spike-Celestia joint in FF #3.  I'm hoping for livelier things from the Spike-Luna pairing, and at least one of the issue's covers -- which appears to be, of all things, a "hardboiled detective" parody of the "then, the tall, dark knockout of an alicorn sauntered into my office" variety -- suggests that I may get my wish.

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #25-26 (IDW Publishing, November and December 2014)

What is it about "Wild West" themes and the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic franchise that causes the best of creative intentions to result in something... um, less than optimal?  The TV show's two stabs at Western stories -- season one's "Over a Barrel" and season two's "The Last Roundup" -- are generally not that highly thought of, though, for my own part, I found their biggest sins to be ones of dullness.  Katie Cook and Andy Price sent Rarity and Applejack on the Equestrian equivalent of a "West Coast road swing" during FRIENDS FOREVER #8, during which the "odd couple" took a stagecoach ride and dispatched a bunch of would-be cattle rustlers in the process, but it's hard to separate that incident from the issue's somewhat questionable (in my mind, at least) characterizations of the two "mane" principals.  During that story, one of the defeated rustlers did the "fourth wall" thing with the reading audience, informing them that the gang would be back in a future issue.  Well, here they are, terrorizing and extorting from a small town, like the "bullies" that they literally are. Everything seems to be in place for a good, new-fashioned Western parody.  Instead, we get, by far, THE single worst story that has been dished up in ANY of the IDW MLP comics... and, yes, that includes even the weakest of the defunct MICRO-SERIES offerings.  From Cook and Price, the bellcows of the entire MLP comics franchise?!  Unfortunately, yes.

This failure is basically on Katie Cook, almost 100%.  There's nothing at all wrong with Price's artwork.  Cook, however, seems to have forgotten rule number one about dealing with well-established characters: Never let the desire to tell a particular story tempt you into pulling one of the characters completely OUT of character in order to achieve the goal.  The damage that Cook inflicts in her handling of Twilight Sparkle here, combined with the problems we saw with Rarity and Applejack in FF #8, have combined to make me a little apprehensive about future stories by this creative duo.  Why is Cook suddenly having so much difficulty getting the "Mane 6"'s characterizations right?  And make no mistake, this was a BAD misstep... so much so, in fact, that some people immediately declared that they'd NEVER buy the comics again if the comics could get things THIS wrong.

** SPOILERS **

Given her magical powers AND her status as an alicorn princess, you would think that Twilight would be well-equipped to help Applejack and her other friends handle an invasion of the tiny town of Canter Creek by the massive steer, Longhorn, and his beefy buddies.  Even if Twilight were too nice to get really rough with them, surely she could magically imprison them, or put a protective force field around the town and Applejack's Great Granduncle Chili Pepper's ranch, where the rustlers have squatted in Chili Pepper's absence.  Evidently, however, things are more... um, nuanced than that:

As I said before... there are many different ways in which Twilight could use her magic to neutralize the bad guys, none of which involve the use of lethal magical force.  For example, she could have tried flooding them out, using the same simple magic that she did when she and Rarity (!) knocked down a water tower in order to put out a barn fire that had been set by Longhorn and his meaty minions:

But, no... apparently, the rules for alicorns involve a liberal application of the old "Mutually Assured Destruction" doctrine from the Cold War years.  When it comes to using magic against either "sentient non-magical beings" or "Equestrian citizens" -- Cook doesn't seem to be certain as to which -- Twilight appears to think that there's no alternative between doing nothing and using overwhelming force.

The "logic" behind this... uh... operational paradigm is simply mind-boggling.  If you're a magically endowed villain, like Tirek in the season four finale "Twilight's Kingdom," then it's perfectly OK for Twilight to use any and all magical means to deter you, including... well, if there's a magical equivalent of advanced weaponry, then she certainly used it at some point during her battle with Tirek.

However, if you're a garden-variety, non-magical, "schemer/plotter" type villain, such as, say, The Phantom Blot... OK, I know that his "garden" is far more varied than most, but you get my point... then getting the best of Twilight and the other unicorns and alicorns of Equestria is cake.  Simply find some way to get yourself declared an Equestrian citizen, and then, violate laws with impunity.  St. Paul appealed to his Roman citizenship for a good cause, to demand a trial in Rome, so it would make perfect sense for a villain to use the same tactic for evil.  Actually, the Blot would probably go it one better and get himself attached to an embassy in Canterlot.  It's not as if he hasn't tried that before.

It would have been a simple matter for Cook to have written Twilight completely out of the story, letting her travel with Spike to the Pony Trek convention (now, there's one real-world Equestrian parallel that didn't need to exist...) and leaving Applejack to take the lead in fighting back against villains who have, after all, taken over HER relative's ranch.  In fact, that's what Applejack eventually does, picking up the defeated Sheriff Tumbleweed's discarded star at the end of MLP #25 and becoming the sheriff herself.  For AJ, this represents quite a nice bounceback from the "all ya gotta do to sell apples is sell apples" dumbitude that hamstrung her in FF #8.

The ponies' resulting plan to foil Longhorn, while it pleasantly brings to mind ideas from one of the most-beloved Western spoofs, isn't without its own share of nits.  It only works because Longhorn, having basically already won the battle, decides to figuratively "sweep around the telephone poles" and legally take control of Chili Pepper's ranch.  Uh, why?   Why do the "Mane 6" figure that it's all right to temporarily kidnap a clerk and impersonate a legal official in order to flummox Longhorn, right after Twilight had freaked out over the others trying to destroy Longhorn's (notarized) paperwork?  (Twilight definitely was schizophrenic in this story, wasn't she?)

At least Twilight puts her legalese where her magic normally is, when she zips off to Canterlot and returns with... no, not reinforcements, but a surefire legal way to allow her to finally use her magic against Longhorn.  (Of course, it requires Longhorn's unknowing cooperation, but that doesn't prove to be much of an obstacle.)  Alas, even the traditional "stroll into the sunset" doesn't work when the "Mane 6" exit without evincing any interest whatsoever in whatever happened to Chili Pepper.  

Aside from Applejack and, yes, Rarity -- who flirts with multiple stallions, contributes more than her mite to the anti-Longhorn scheming, and gets to use her generally finesse-oriented magic to move houses, knock down water towers, and perform other intriguingly unladylike operations -- the rest of the gang walk through the story as if they're in a daze.  Twilight's deficiences here are manifest, but Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy contribute virtually nothing -- you would think that both of them, especially the former, would be hacked off at the sight of their friend Applejack getting knocked through a barn wall by Longhorn, but no joy -- and even Pinkie Pie is somewhat lacking here.  (A joke about a character eating a red-hot chili pepper, making faces, and then saying that they like it?  That has SO been done... and, therefore, it probably isn't worth wasting Pinkie on.)

So... yeah, a really bad one.  I'm not going to bail, of course -- Cook and Price are doing the very next arc in MLP #27-28, and I'll be interested in seeing how well they can bounce back.  There is some work to be done here, though... if nothing else, to reassure those who, like me, have been on board from the very start.

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDS FOREVER #12 (December 2014, IDW)

Brenda Hickey's cover homage to the "Nowhere Man" sequence from Yellow Submarine (1968) isn't just for funsies.  This issue is a no-holds-barred "psychedelic experience" complete with what THE OVERSTREET PRICE GUIDE (or at least the editions I've seen) would have no hesitation labeling as a "drug use motif."  One could argue that it stands to reason that color-coordinated ponies with strange powers would inevitably have to endure a scenario like this at some point.  And who better to experience the full brunt of the "trip" than Pinkie Pie? 

My opinion of the issue as a whole could charitably be described as "mixed."  I appreciate the immense effort that Hickey, who has sure as shootin' taken a long, strange trip since her MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC comic-book debut, puts into making this thing truly bizarre, and I did enjoy the cleverness of Barbara Kesel's dialogue.  The problem is that, given the whisper-thin plot premise, I don't think that this tale merited a full issue.  The vast majority of the story seems to take place in the "Pinkie Zone," and that's an area that is fun to visit in the short run but tends to drive the visitor away in the long run, simply because Pinkie is so over the top... and she's roughly 100 stories OVER "over the top" here.  In the end, I think that Kesel and Hickey simply try TOO hard to punch the weirdness across.  I can see this working better as one of the backup features that have appeared in most issues of the MLP:FIM flagship title.

I'm not going to bother with SPOILERS here, since the plot could be scribbled on both sides of the paper in a Chinese fortune cookie, with room left over for the standard "lucky numbers" and one-sentence sliver of wisdom. Pinkie is obsessed with treats called "Phenomnomenons" and comes to ask for Twilight Sparkle's assistance in resisting their sugary Siren call, but she ultimately learns that the best way to "kick a habit" is by using one's own willpower.  Welcome back to the 80's... "Just Say No" has returned with a vengeance!  Kesel and Hickey would probably deny that such was their intention, but that's the way the message comes across.  The only added feature here is Twilight's personal intervention, which is itself presented in considerably-further-than-off-the-wall fashion.  For example, Twilight uses the hyped-up Pinkie's innate kinetic energy to trap the pink pony in a Mousetrap-style game-cum-prison.

Unfortunately, Kesel and Hickey muddy their supposed moral a bit in the last panel with Spike.  He didn't really need to be in this issue at all, actually, which makes the coda all the more obnoxious. 

These are definitely NOT the weirdest pages in the story... just the ones I could readily find online.

Aside from its sheer "bizzaritude," this tale will wind up rating a footnote of sorts in MLP:FIM trivia lore, because it marks the first time that any sort of canonical or quasi-canonical pony story has spent any time inside Twilight's "Friendship Castle," the gaudy structure that first appeared at the end of the show's two-part season four finale, "Twilight's Kingdom."  Most of Twilight's anti-temptation experiments take place inside the castle; things don't begin to fall apart for our favorite scholarly alicorn princess until the field of battle shifts outdoors to the open-air food market.

Not a flop, but not really what I prefer to see in an MLP:FIM comic-book story, either.  At least, a full-length one.

"Not pony tales, but"... actually, YES, pony tales.

I have been pretty busy this past week and haven't gotten many opportunities to blog.  I still have a couple of tomes on the old pile-a-roo to read and review.  I'm also deciding on the next DUCKTALES comic-book story and fanfic to dissect.  We're heading into finals week, however, so those features won't appear until the second half of December, at the earliest.

In the meantime, I have some delectable crossover matter for you to nosh on.  I stumbled across these items while I was... OK, I'll admit it, I was searching for a DuckTales/My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crossover fanfic.  I did find one, but... let's just say that I would prefer to pass over it in silence.  I'm sure that the writer did his or her best, but there's just not that much substance to the thing.

Graphical blandishers have been busier:

The image is from IDW's MLP MICRO-SERIES COMIC #8, the one featuring Celestia.  Unfortunately, these kids were making fun of the aging and increasingly oblivious teacher Inkwell.  I'd almost have preferred that they were playing hooky or something.  Also... "A-WOOOOOO"?  Is that the DuckTales theme song or a Warren Zevon hit from the 70s?

If you're not satisfied with ponified versions of HD&L, how about the real McCoys... and an entirely new distaff challenge.  And the lads thought they had issues with Webby and Gosalyn...

Perhaps this faceoff took place during an adventure in which Scrooge found himself in Equestria and immediately did what comes naturally to him -- namely, search for treasure.  Since the MLP:FIM TV episode "A Dog and Pony Show" clearly indicated that certain areas of Equestria are chock-full of gems, this would be a natural thing to do.  Due to the completely alien territory, it would also be natural that Scrooge would seek assistance from a local expert, whose many talents include an ability to find gems with her magic:

I can't wait to see "the division of the spoils" after this adventure.  Rarity's charm (and magic) vs. Scrooge's will (and proven ability to do effective battle with a magical adversary)!  Which would prevail?

Apparently, someone was planning to write a fanfic with this title, but this picture is as far as they got.  Maybe they'll get back to it someday.  If they do, then I hope they'll consider changing the title.  "Friendship is Money" doesn't sound quite as... well, warm as the show's actual title.

As for Launchpad, provided that he could fit his trusty 'copter through the gate, or portal, or continuity rift, or whatever would allow communion between the Ducks and the ponies, I'm sure that he'd get into the spirit of Equestria and make friends quite easily.

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Promos have begun to appear on Discovery Kids (nee The Hub) promising the return of new MLP:FIM episodes in Spring 2015.  I had to chuckle a bit at the teaser below, because it partakes so transparently of "movie trailer-style overkill."  Where is the late Dan LaFontaine when you need him?  "IN A WORLD where Twilight Sparkle discovers the magic of friendship..."

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDS FOREVER #11 (IDW Publishing, November 2014)

FRIENDS FOREVER gets back on the beam with issue #11, doing what I always hope that this title will do... namely, use a limited cast of MLP characters to allow for a focus on certain aspects of a character that have never been examined, or perhaps even clearly defined, before.  The task is trickier here than it might appear at first glance, certainly more so than when Katie Cook and Andy Price cast the hitherto characterization-challenged Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor as refugees from a John Hughes movie.  Spitfire, the Captain of the Wonderbolts and thus something of an "aspirational peer" for the gung-ho Rainbow Dash, has a problem opposite to that of the Princess and her hubby; she has literally gotten a different characterization every time she has appeared on the show, and most of those did not exactly put her in the best of lights.  Somehow, writer Ted Anderson manages to cut through the muck and give us a new take on the character that feels believable and does not entirely abandon what has gone before.  It helps that Rainbow Dash, whose various foibles have been the subject of televised dissection more than once, gets one of her best "supportive adult" moments in any medium here.

** SPOILERS **

Think I'm kidding re: Spitfire?  Glad-hoofing celebrity and partygoer ("The Best Night Ever"), bumbling co-conspirator in a surprisingly incompetent group of supposedly heroic pegasi ("Sonic Rainboom" and "Secret of My Excess"), bland sideline-watching executive ("Hurricane Fluttershy"), hardass drill instructor ("Wonderbolts Academy"), conniving bitch and colleague-betrayer ("Rainbow Falls")... Baskin-Robbins would be hard put to top the variety in that list.  My hopes here were that Anderson would (1) not add to the damage caused by the character derailment in "Rainbow Falls," (2) bring Spitfire back to something resembling the "authority figure" setting of "Wonderbolts Academy," where I think she works the best, and (3) give her some relatable foibles without making her an overt figure of fun.  All three missions accomplished!

Spitfire invites Dash to be an instructor at a "Junior Flyers Summer Camp" because... she simply isn't good at dealing with kids (beg pardon, fillies and foals).  It seems that she doesn't know how to temper down her "mean" behavior as a Wonderbolt D.I. (I'd call it "demanding" rather than outright "mean," but potato, potahto...) and thus lets the littl'uns walk all over her.  Dash suggests being "tougher" with the kids, but Spitfire promptly overdoes it, treating them just like adult recruits.  Spitfire, however, does have a legitimate, inherent ability to motivate others -- though, as we are told in a flashback, it took a while for her to assert herself when she was a new recruit -- and Dash cunningly gives Spitfire a chance to literally show the little(r) ponies how it's done by whipping up a tornado for the Wonderbolt Captain to disperse before their eyes.  (The meteorological danger is perhaps a bit extreme for the purpose, but, then again, this is Rainbow Dash we're talking about.)  The "practical lessons" finally take, and Dash reminds Spitfire that the latter can always get better at working with kids by herself, yet still ask for a helping hoof when needed.

The plot is handled spot-on perfect.  We get a look at what makes Spitfire the entire character, as opposed to Spitfire the icon/buffoon/meanie/bitch, tick.  Anyone who has ever had to wield authority that they have earned, as opposed to authority that they have been awarded, will be able to both understand Spitfire's pride in her capabilities and recognize that any leader must be willing to keep learning, just as Spitfire does here.  And all credit to Dash for being so understanding, thoughtful, and (what else?) friendly while playing a lower-key role than the "cheekily bombastic" one at which she normally excels.

The plot is strong enough by itself, but the artwork, by a newcomer named Jay P. Fosgitt (henceforth to be referred to "Fearless" for blog-obvious reasons), is really something special.  It is at utter variance with any visual depictions of the MLP:FIM characters that we have been given in any of IDW's MLP titles, or on the TV show, for that matter: cartoonier, sweeter, softer-edged.  I would even go so far as to call it "POGO-esque," but that may be setting the bar just a tad high, and, in any event, Fosgitt uses more exaggerated facial expressions and poses than Walt Kelly ever did.  Having seen a preview page or two, I wasn't sure how this style was going to wear in a book-length tale, but it didn't take long for Fosgitt to win me over.  It helped that the story, with its mix of slapstick, reminiscence, and sentiment, seemed to be complemented quite well by Fosgitt's approach.  I don't think that the somewhat stiffer "official" visual versions of the characters would have carried the plot off with such panache.

You can get an idea of the amount of "cartoonification" involved here by looking at the cover at the top of this blog entry and comparing it to the Fosgitt cover.  I hope we see more of Fosgitt in the future; I would be particularly intrigued to see how he would handle a more "action/adventure"-oriented story.

This title continues to mix gems with relative clinkers.  Perhaps I should do some research and try to come up with a numerically-based reason for the inconsistency... you know, like the thing about "original Star Trek movies" only being good if they're even-numbered.

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDS FOREVER #10 (IDW Publishing, October 2014)

One of the more... ah... contentiously received episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to date was season two's "Putting Your Hoof Down."  The ep introduced a funny and promising new character in the form of the minotaur Iron Will, a bombastic "motivational expert" who frequently speaks in the "third equine" as he uses rhymed mantras to teach crowds of put-upon Equestrian ponies (who knew there were so many of them?) how to be more assertive.  The decidedly nonassertive Fluttershy, who's recently been taken advantage of by numerous unpleasantly rude/bitchy/conniving denizens of Ponyville -- who, quite frankly, just seem to have been created for the specific purpose of metaphorically screwing her -- goes to one of Will's meetings and takes the lessons to heart.  Or, should I say, to spleen... because she abruptly pivots and becomes a bigger asshole than ANY of the folks who'd been giving her the stick.  This spasm of ugliness culminates in Fluttershy, as Youtube reviewer Mr. Enter described it, "attacking Pinkie Pie and Rarity's reasons for living."  Going after the ponies who had earlier given her such a hard time evidently never entered Fluttershy's mind.  No, it's much more satisfying to ream out one's closest friends.  See why a lot of fans may have had a problem with this?

Through some strange alchemy of personal discovery and forced plot contrivance, Fluttershy ultimately figures out how to stand up for herself without being a jerk. She uses this magical newfound knowledge to flummox Iron Will when he comes to demand payment for his services and 'Shy invokes his "you pay nothing if you're not satisfied" clause.  The ep ends about as well as it could have, given its extremely contrived nature.  Evidently, though, someone out there wasn't convinced that any future teamup of Fluttershy and Will would have to be handled v-e-r-y carefully in order to avoid the obvious mistakes of the first encounter.  That someone was Christina Rice, the writer of MLP:FF #10, who blithely ignored the "storm of troubles" that dogged "Hoof Down" and launched yet another frail craft into the teeth of the maelstrom.  The results are not pretty, in more ways than one.

** SPOILERS **

OK, try this one on for size: Iron Will returns to Ponyville and asks Fluttershy to help him with his family troubles.  Specifically, Will needs to find "his inner pony" in order to reconnect with his "Mizzuz" and stop being so aggressive around the labyrinth.  My jaw literally dropped at this notion.  All Will knew about Fluttershy when he left Ponyville was that she had been timid and had applied his "assertiveness training" in a somewhat different manner than he had become accustomed to.  Where in Equestria did he get the idea that 'Shy (1) was some sort of personal counselor and (2) would even be willing to take on his case after the events of "Hoof Down," which culminated with Fluttershy basically blowing him off?  Say it with me, kids: "I'm going to have this thing happen, because I WANT this thing to happen!"  The fact that Fluttershy is good-hearted enough to ignore her friends' warnings and accept the challenge doesn't make up for the essential falseness at the heart of the plot.

We subsequently see 'Shy escorting Will all around Ponyville, encouraging him to perform various tasks that are apparently meant to get him to connect with his "softer side."  These include caring for animals, selling treats at Sugar Cube Corner, bucking apples, and going to the spa.  Somehow, I fail to see the point of this.  Fluttershy should be teaching Will to control and channel his assertiveness, not to polish up his domestic skills.  Oh, right, that "teaching moment" does actually take place... once the domestic misadventures have provided eight pages of what is, for all intents and purposes, filler.  We then get four more pages of comparative dross as Will demonstrates his newfound sense of calmness and respect to the entire "Mane 6" -- his cooking skills, as well, but that field test doesn't go nearly so well -- and 'Shy's friends marvel over her ability to win over "crackpots" with nothing more than kindness and patience.  Which wasn't doing Fluttershy much good at the beginning of "Hoof Down," of course, but that was an entirely different plot contrivance.

I think that what we see here is the danger of using the FRIENDS FOREVER title to amplify relationships that have already been established by the TV series.  Unlike, say, relationships between members of the "Mane 6" themselves, which have much more flexibility built in, Fluttershy and Iron Will originally interacted in a very specific, and atypical, manner.  The very fact that the premise was so lame indicates that the whole idea of reuniting them was probably misguided from the off.  Only a completely different scenario, one that had as little to do with "Hoof Down" as possible, might possibly have justified the return engagement.  

Having Will tangle with one of the other members of the "Mane 6" would probably have produced better results.  Since half of Fluttershy's friends didn't even appear in "Hoof Down" -- and, given that the ep implied that a repentant Fluttershy spent a good, long time in some sort of isolated self-exile, that should be filed in the "Huh?" folder as well -- and all that they actually know about him came from hearsay, it doesn't quite make sense that they all have the same, exact negative reaction to him when he reappears on the scene here.  The excitable Rainbow Dash, for example, might have physically attacked Will for giving Dash's old flight-school pal Fluttershy such a "hard time."  That disagreement would have taken some time to settle, for sure.  By contrast, Twilight Sparkle, thinking of her responsibilities as a Princess of Friendship, might have taken after Will for disturbing the peace of Equestria by implicitly encouraging newly "assertive" ponies to bully one another.  Whichever possible direction strikes your fancy, you've got to admit that any of them would probably have had more satisfying results than 'Shy's turning of Iron Will into some sort of Equestrian "Mr. Mom."

While Rice's plot annoyed me, Agnes Garbowska's artwork made me cringe.  Not because it was particularly poor -- it was pretty much the same slightly clunky, head-shot-heavy, picture-booky art that she's employed from the beginning of her work on the MLP line -- but because she copied panels.  Several times, in fact.  Oh, she slightly changed one or two characters' facial expressions from panel to panel to mask the fact, or she used a different character in the foreground, but, good gravy, does the copying seem blatant.  Perhaps she'd fallen behind with other jobs, or some other emergency came up, and she had to resort to desperate measures to get the work in on time.  But the cheese-paring looks particularly bad when compared with the artwork we've been getting from other sources in these books.  I will say that the opening panel, in which she depicts the Friendship Castle that debuted in "Twilight's Kingdom", looks quite nice.  Since the place is designed as if it belongs in a picture book, it's no surprise that Garbowska was able to render it well.

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #24 (IDW Publishing, October 2014)

October is was Fluttershy Month at IDW's House of "MY LITTLE PONY Comics," with both the regular title and FRIENDS FOREVER giving featured roles to the diffident yellow pegasus.  Let's just say that I had... markedly different reactions to these Flutter-focused efforts.  OK, let me lift the veil completely: This was the good one.  Hey, now you have a negative review to look forward to!  Life is good.

** SPOILERS **

MLP #24 tackles a hitherto-underutilized (outside of fanfics, anyway) genre in the MLP canon, that of time travel.  Twilight Sparkle used a special potion when she was flung back in time to witness dramatic events in Equestria's history in Part One of the season four opener, "Princess Twilight Sparkle."  Given that Discord and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are involved in the MLP #24 story, we would expect a lighter tone, and we get one... for the most part.  Granted, Fluttershy would find drying the dishes to be traumatic, so getting her to think that an event was a potentially deadly adventure would not be that much of a stretch.  Leading the ever-excitable CMC on a wilderness journey to observe animals -- I'm assuming that the fillies called 'Shy in as a "visiting expert" for the purpose -- Fluttershy runs into former antagonist and newly-minted "friend" Discord, whose post-reformation relationship with the pegasus has become a recurring theme in the series.  Since Discord has also had relatively pleasant dealings with the CMC, he sees no reason why he shouldn't butt into the field trip and take the girls off in his own time machine (um, isn't he supposed to be a god, or the local equivalent thereof?  Why would he need to use a device?) to encounter strange beasties from the past.  The group visit "the legendary lost civilization of Anugypt" -- no ponies there, but some startling and unexpected parallels to the origins of the Elements of Harmony nonetheless, not to mention an unresolved mess that Discord had made during his chaotic earlier life -- and take quick tours of "the underwater kelpie city of Coltlantis" (yep, every single fictional character runs across that dump sooner of later) and "the era of prehistoric ponies" (which actually look like normal dinosaurs, but whatever).  Discord blithely ignores Fluttershy's placidly voiced entreaties that the gang should go home until the pegasus actually seems to be in danger.  He then shows his newfound sense of responsibility by calling in an ancient "butterdragon," "the last friend he ever had" (until Fluttershy, of course -- and I do need to point out that Discord never HAD a friend prior to Fluttershy, according to the show itself), to save the day and bringing the ladies back to the present.

Jeremy Whitley's script is solid, especially in terms of how he handles Discord.  Now that Discord is on the side of good, sort of, it will be tempting to write him as a sort of superpowered Quackerjack; Whitley avoids that trap.  The real revelation, though, is Brenda Hickey's ever-improving artwork.  That squash fiasco seems long ago and far away now.  She even crafts an attractive and dynamic cover.

FRIENDS FOREVER #10 coming soon.  Prepare yourselves for the impact.

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY ANNUAL 2014 (IDW Publishing, September 2014)

MLP ANNUAL 2014 isn't the first such animal... er, annual.  A 2013 version was published, but I passed on it, because it was an adaptation of the Equestria Girls movie.  I'm not into that aspect of the Pony fandom.  This annual, however, spun right out of the fourth-season episode "Power Ponies."  Better yet, it promised to showcase an adventure starring the REAL Power Ponies, rather than the approximations of same that the "Mane 6" were obliged to assume after the magical comic book sucked them into the imaginary world of Maretropolis.  (Just go with it, OK?)  Truth be told, this comic was fighting something of an uphill battle from the get-go, since the general consensus about "Power Ponies" was that it failed to deliver on what had been promised.  Could the "Real MareCoys" with the flashy suits and the snazzy powers (some of which, conveniently enough, paralleled abilities that the "Mane 6" themselves already possessed) redeem the concept and avoid the pitfalls that had tripped up the TV episode?  Unfortunately, no.

** SPOILERS **

Let's begin in a logical place, by showing the real Power Pony lineup from the comic...

 ... and the "Mane 6" ripoffs of tributes to the same from the TV episode...

Spike, by the way, takes the place of the Power Ponies' "superfluous sidekick" character, Humdrum.  Not surprisingly, given the nature of this sort of thing, the "useless" Spike is the very character who saves the day after the "Mane 6" Power Ponies are captured and hair-sprayed into helplessness by the villain du jour, the cackling Mane-iac.  (Just go with it, Take Two.)  In the comic, Humdrum plays a similar role, motivating the Power Ponies to come back from what seems like a shattering defeat and exact revenge on their foes.  The reason why the Power Ponies sink so low in the first place... that's where I take some real issue with Ted Anderson's script.

After watching the Power Ponies put beatdowns on several single-traited villains (including a crazed would-be pharaoh, a fashion plate who is obsessed with stealing shoes -- yep, shoes, they do exist in MLP land -- and a misanthropic mime lookalike who spreads "sadness gas"), we see them go back into their HQ, and they immediately start bickering with one another.  We're talking really blunt and crude insults of the "I don't know why I waste my time working with you losers!" variety.  What's worse, in the previous panel, The Masked Matter-Horn (the Twilight Sparkle Power Pony) tells a gathering feting the Power Ponies' success that the PPs' victory was due to "teamwork."  Ladies and gentlemen, Our Heroes... jerks AND hypocrites!

I can see what Anderson was going for here -- a kind of Fantastic Four vibe -- but pulling that particular card out while playing the very first "trick"?  The Power Ponies are supposed to be popular superheroes in Equestrian pop culture.  If this is how they normally interact whenever they are off duty -- and, since this is the first time that we ourselves have seen the characters, I have no choice but to presume that it is S.O.P. for this bunch -- then I can't possibly imagine anypony (OK, I went there) ever learning to like the comic.  Even the Fantastic Four are "a dysfunctional but loving family."  Anderson's error lay in trying to create an existential crisis for the Power Ponies before they had even had an opportunity to face an external one. 

The Power Ponies' main villains, mistakenly assuming that the PPs' success against them is due to simple cooperation, decide to beat the good gals at their own game and form a villain's cooperative.  (They spend a good deal of time discussing the proper term for such an alliance.  How very meta.)  They wind up defeating and capturing the Power Ponies and, for good measure, transfer the PPs' powers to themselves.  The transformation scene itself is quite impressive.  Artist Ben Bates hadn't been seen since some of the earlier issues of the cancelled MICRO-SERIES.  In the interim, he seems to have upped his game; his art maintains its liveliness without being quite so sketchy on the margins (especially when it comes to drawing background figures).

With his comrades bereft of powers and hope, Humdrum steps forward and tells the Power Ponies that what they're missing is... the power of friendship.  He knows about the latter because he watches a TV show (My Little Donkey, hyuck-hyuck) with that message, you know.  OK, that's pretty clever.  So, too, is the somewhat mechanical manner in which the PPs go about trying to learn how to be friends, with The Masked Matter-Horn literally checking all the boxes on a "Friendship Bonding List."  To no one's surprise, their first attempt at revenge fails.  They ultimately succeed by, oddly enough, worrying less about their own friendship and more about making sure that the villains fall out.  This is accomplished by the usual method of voice-throwing.  Meanwhile, Radiance, the Rarity replacement, fixes up the villains' machine so that it will reverse the transformation process.  (Even in a different context, there really IS nothing that mare can't do.)  Things soon are "again as they were," with the villains captured and the Power Ponies thanking Humdrum for teaching them to act more like a real team.

The decision to make the Power Ponies bickerers from the off is arguably the biggest conceptual mistake that has been made to date in the handling of the entire IDW MLP:FIM franchise.  Not only is it a terrible choice for an initial Power Pony adventure, but it may just compromise any Power Pony stories that may show up in the future, since said stories won't make any sense unless the Power Ponies build on what happened here and continue to learn lessons about friendship.  In other words, any future Power Pony stories will almost have to parallel the development of the original My Little Pony series itself.  That seems like a waste of a halfway-decent concept.  I think that IDW would have been better off going the Super Friends route and simply treating these tales as light-hearted, cliche-tweaking romps, saving any unnecessary angst and character developments for the canonical show.

Disney Comics: NEXT PUBLISHER UP!

While he was attending the New York Comic Con, Joe Torcivia passed word along to me that "classic" American Disney comics are finally on their way back.  So, did Disney finally grow a brain and realize that, hey, it now owns one of the world's biggest comics outfits (Marvel), so Disney should oblige it to get cracking?  Well, um, no.  The publisher is actually going to be IDW.  Surprise, surprise!

Let's look at IDW's official announcement of what it terms "a monumental collaboration" and see what we can glean from it:

This monumental collaboration kicks off with multiple monthly series featuring some of the most iconic characters of all time: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and many more! Re-presenting acclaimed comics from the past and today, these series will highlight the best and brightest of Disney’s impressive comic catalogue.

Looks as if the old standby titles -- MICKEY MOUSE, DONALD DUCK, UNCLE $CROOGE, and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES -- have some life left in them yet.  Hopefully, IDW will know who to consult regarding identification of the "best and brightest," starting with those people who made the final few months of Boom!'s Disney comics line so enjoyable.  Given IDW's interest in publishing adaptations of animated series (MY LITTLE PONY, ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, and various CARTOON NETWORK series, just to name a few), could some Disney Afternoon-related titles also be in our future? 

The award-winning Artist’s Edition line, pioneered by IDW, that showcases original artwork, will feature collections from the immense talents who have contributed to many beloved Disney comics over the years. Artist’s Editions featuring the legendary Carl Barks and Don Rosa will receive the spotlight in these gorgeous over-sized collections of original art reproduced at full size.

Sounds good, too.  Given the collector-focused nature of the Artist's Edition line, it is likely that the regular comics will be pitched at both collectors and new readers.  American Disney comics MUST do something to increase the pool of potential patrons, or we all are simply going to die out! 

Launched in 2014, Micro Comic Fun Packs have enjoyed immense success with highly recognizable franchises, and will expand its line with multiple Disney properties. Packed with a mini-comic, stickers, posters, and more, the Micro-Comic Fun Pack has been captivating new comic audiences on a mass-market scale.

OK, as long as IDW doesn't try to stuff comics material into boxes of ice-cream treats.  (A few of you will know what I am referring to there.) 

Celebrating the rich history of the many facets of comics, the Library of American Comics offers detailed and insightful looks at specific comics and creators. Beginning in 2015, the LOAC will begin collecting the various newspaper strips that have featured iconic Disney characters.

Given that Fantagraphics is releasing the Barks and Gottfredson collections even as we read, what could IDW have planned here?  Collections of the SILLY SYMPHONIES strips, perhaps?  I can't see them simply taking over from Fantagraphics.

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Back to personal musings... If IDW's handling of the MY LITTLE PONY franchise is any indication of how the Disney characters will fare in the company's hands, then there is every reason to believe that IDW will be good stewards.  Management of American Disney comics has been so erratic, whimsical, and downright perverse over the decades that I, for one, could stand for a spell of honest, reliable craftsmanship.  One open question at the moment is how "hands-on" Disney will be with IDW.  Actually, I'm inclined to believe at this point that Disney couldn't care less.  If Disney found it easy enough to ignore its alliance with Marvel, then Disney clearly saying that it's perfectly willing to let IDW take the comics off its hands (or somewhere near there), just as long as they don't have to deal with the issue any longer.  "Ignorance is bliss," Disney style?  It might actually be a blessing.

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDS FOREVER #9 (September 2014, IDW Publishing)

Another do-over of sorts, as the featured players in this latest issue are Granny Smith and the carny-con duo The Flim-Flam Brothers.  Up until this point, the boys' character arc in My Little Pony has traced a path intriguingly similar to that of Flintheart Glomgold in Carl Barks' stories.  The first time out, in season two's "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000," F&F were not out-and-out con artists so much as slick-talking rivals to the Apple Family, laid low by their own carelessness.  Season four's "Leap of Faith" presented them in a much more conventionally negative manner, as they tricked Granny and other lame, halt, and blind ponies into shelling out for a phony cures-whatever-ails-ya tonic, subsequently slipping out of Ponyville after their scheme was discovered.  Here's where the Glomgold analogy breaks down, as Christina Rice and Tony Fleecs' new story does NOT, repeat NOT, find the tricksters suddenly devolving into cold-blooded, would-be murderers.  Instead, they're mutually alienated rivals in love, and it's up to Granny to restore their partnership.  If you're wondering why Granny would even bother doing so, given the trouble F&F have caused the Apples to date, then you obviously aren't fully hep to the Apple Family credo of "family coming first."

That is pretty much all there is to the meat of FF #9; the real wonder is that Rice and Fleecs were able to stretch such a simple plot idea out to 22 pages.  This is done through the media of, among other things,  not one but two flashback sequences, a two-page spread showing the reunited F&F doing their usual singsong routine to a gaggle of excited ponies, and another two-pager display depicting the setting of the drama, AppleCon 45, which appears to be a combination of a Farmer's Market and a... do I even need to say it?  Rice actually does surprisingly little to exploit the comic potential of a fruit expo serving as an agricultural equivalent of a "fanboy" mash-up.  Granny complains a little about the Con getting too big and diverse over the years ("Comic-Con International," just saying), but the gripes soon narrow down to a specific mad-on about the presence of *gasp!* orange salesponies.  I know that Granny's supposed to be a bit ossified and devoted to apple-mongering, but Rice overplays her comments to the point that the old greenish mare sounds, well, a bit "fruit-ist."  The backstory on Flim and Flam's breakup over a comely librarian mare named Marian removes whatever picogram of a doubt may have remained that these characters were directly based on Professor Harold Hill of The Music Man.  The fact that the young Granny found herself at the center of a similar set-to many moons ago seems a bit convenient, but I'm not complaining.  Just about every background and foreground pony ever seen in the series, and even a few from the comics, appears here, as if to make up for the plot's comparative lack of substance.

A decent enough effort, but a bit too much on the slight side for my tastes (which encompass both apples AND oranges, if you don't mind, Granny).

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #23 (September 2014, IDW Publishing)

"The Legion of MLP Pets" get to star in a comic all their own, as they must free their mesmerized mistresses and the other denizens of Ponyville from watery destruction at the hands (?) of a frankly self-deluded water sprite.  Dialogue occurs on only two of the book's 22 pages, and you know what that means... REBUS TIME!  Well, no, not exactly.  The animals communicate through a series of simple symbols, most of which are tolerably understandable, a few of which are not.  (Though I suppose that Pinkie Pie's pet alligator Gummy's non sequitur symbols are an accurate reflection of his personality, if not his actual thoughts, such as they are.)  It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the show that Fluttershy's bossy bunny, Angel, does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to leadership.  Besides the fact that he's easily the most aggressive of the sextet, he's the pet to whom it is easiest to give funny facial expressions and comical reactions.  This might actually be Angel's most likable role of any sort in MLP, full- or semi-canon editions; most of the time, his appearance on screen leads to an immediate hankering for Hassenpfeffer.  All of the other critters get useful things to do at various times, but Angel pretty effortlessly hogs the stage.

Amy Mebberson's art is just fine, particularly her renderings of Angel's reactions.  As for Jeremy Whitley's script... Ehh, once he gets us through the symbolic portion, his conclusion could be considered a source of some potential disputation.  The sudden existence of an old-fashioned dam in Ponyville (this, after the episode "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" depicted a sure-nuff hydroelectric dam in the vicinity!) is iffy all by itself, though I can see why Whitley created it, so that the inhabitants of Ponyville could be more easily hypnotized en masse.  But the recovered Twilight Sparkle's blowing off of the water sprite's attempt to force the ponies to break the dam as "silly" and "the wrong act for the right reasons" (the sprite needed to get her baby sprites [I guess...] to the ocean but found the dam in her way), an action that was done in the name of friendship and therefore could automatically be excused... just... NO.  Is the phrase "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions" unfamiliar to Equestrians?  Twilight herself has engaged in "this is for your own good" actions that backfired horrendously, e.g., her decision to denounce Princess Cadance as evil in "A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1," which led to her being shunned by her friends, her brother, and even Princess Celestia.  She's also one of the ruling Princesses of the land.  Is it really conceivable that she'd be quite so forgiving of an action that would have destroyed Ponyville and a lot of its residents?  At the very least, the sprites should have had to make some sort of recompense for the not-inconsiderable damage they caused. 

Whitley also leaves the fate of one of the pets completely up in the air, which seems more like the ending of a Darkwing Duck episode (specifically, "Planet of the Capes") than the neater and tidier conclusions that we've become accustomed to in MLP eps.  It's still a pretty good issue, on balance, but Whitley seems to have gotten so enamored with pet-sitting that he neglected to take care of the "plot wolf" at the door.

Comics Review: MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDS FOREVER #8 (August 2014, IDW Publishing)

The next couple of issues of FRIENDS FOREVER are going to be... interesting?  Actually, a better word would probably be "challenging."  I have pre-publication details on all of the upcoming issues through #11, and all of them involve "friendship team-ups" that have already been explored in some detail in various episodes of the animated series.  I have long made it clear that this is NOT where I think this title should be going.  Nonetheless, I will have no real issue with the rehashes, as long as the creators can take different, and equally imaginative, routes in exploring the relationships between the characters involved.  Previous issues that featured hitherto-unexplored teamups could be examined in isolation on their own merits.  Now, the creators have burdened themselves with the double duty of doing something novel while still paying appropriate tribute to what has gone before.  How successful will they be?

In FF #8, Katie Cook and Andy Price set themselves quite a challenge by teaming up Rarity and Applejack in a cross-country travel epic, "Reins, Trains, and Carts with Wheels."  These two members of the "Mane 6," with their diametrically opposed sensibilities and aesthetic tastes, have previously butted heads in the animated eps "Look Before You Sleep" and "Simple Ways," with intermittently funny results.  Heck, they have even gone so far as to change personalities in the course of their quasi-duels.  So what more about their relationship can be explored without seeming to plow old ground (a metaphor that Applejack would appreciate) or stitch up an existing dress (ditto for Rarity)? Well, C&P actually do come up with something... namely, the mares' approaches to their respective businesses.  Applejack, traveling cross-country to strike an apple-peddling deal with some "Coltifornia" relatives, tries to keep things honest, simple, and straightforward.  By contrast, the "Type A" Rarity -- who, it must be remembered, runs the Canterlot Boutique as a one-pony show -- is all about employing up-to-date (at least in the Equestrian sense) business methods (including "social media" -- Celestia only knows what that entails in an Equestrian setting).  The duo don't exactly come to a "middle ground of agreement" as to how best to run a business -- they are simply too different for that -- but they do wind up apologizing for insulting one another on the matter.  Again, that is something we have seen before.

While the "business conflict" here is interesting and realistic in light of what we know about Rarity and Applejack, the accompanying humor is... problematic.  In their attempt to bring out the differences between the characters and exploit them in a funny fashion, I believe that C&P indulged in some unnecessary oversimplification... not quite as bad as "Flanderization," but of the same general variety.  The more extreme example of this is Rarity being cast as a guidebook-toting "overenthusiastic tourist" who goes into raptures over roadside features like "the largest ball of yarn in Equestria."   I can sort of see what C&P were attempting to latch onto here.  Because of her intense interest in aesthetics, Rarity often does become mercurial and overenthusiastic about minutiae.  The question is, which minutiae are we talking about?  Rarity being excited about visiting star-filled "Applewood" is one thing; Rarity acting like Goofy on the road trip in A Goofy Movie is quite another.  AJ slams this version of Rarity as "an unprofessional fluffhead," and I have to agree.  (Interestingly, I've read a MLP:FIM fanfic about a similarly "long and strange trip" through the Equestrian interior in which Rarity played the [comparatively] "straight," impatient role and Pinkie Pie played the giddy traveler.  That dual characterization makes much more sense, I think.)

Applejack herself doesn't get off scot-free, largely because her typical simplicity of approach is itself simplified to something approaching the point of absurdity.  Her "business plan" turns out to read: "Sell apples."  Come on, Katie and Andy, she's not THAT stupid.  Sweet Apple Acres is a thriving business and has been for some time.  You really don't think that AJ would have picked up a more sophisticated understanding of operating a family farm by now?  Even if one posits that Granny Smith and Big Macintosh play a more active role in farm affairs than it might seem at first glance, Applejack should certainly be one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, movers and shakers when it comes to running the place.

FF #8 is still a lot of fun to read, as one might readily expect when Cook and Price are involved.  We get C&P's usual complement of background "in-jokes" and movie references and some imaginative visuals (e.g., the last panel being made up of a series of touristy snapshots, each of which summarizes a small portion of what has gone before in the narrative).  We also get a clever foreshadowing of an upcoming adventure in the MLP regular series when a group of literal "Cattle Rustlers" disrupt the mares' stagecoach trip.  I can't rank this as one of the dynamic duo's best efforts, however, because of the previously-mentioned character issues.  I hope that the upcoming re-do's will have slightly better luck.

DUCKTALES RETROSPECTIVE: Episode 99, "The Golden Goose, Part 1"

A few words before we figuratively "kick for home" in a cloud of goose feathers and gold dust... 

I greatly appreciate all of the comments and suggestions I've received while I've been working on what has turned out to be a two-years-plus (the latter, just barely) project.  It's been quite an experience, and, as I've said before, I've been continually amazed at how much MORE I've been able to say about the DuckTales episodes than what Joe and I included in our original DUCKTALES INDEX.  After we've taken a fresh gander at "The Golden Goose," I plan to do a wrap-up post, similar to the one I wrote at the conclusion of the Kimba reviews, and then... quien sabe?  I definitely intend to review the cutscenes of the DuckTales Remastered video game, since (as I can now personally aver) the scenario does resemble a 101st episode of sorts, provided that you squint hard enough and aren't distracted by all the bleeping and blooping.  I'm also thinking about reviewing some of the DUCKTALES comic-book stories -- not the ones I've already discussed, such as "The Gold Odyssey" and the various stories that appeared in kaboom!'s UNCLE $CROOGE during its DT phase, but stuff from the early-90s DISNEY ADVENTURES, the "non-serialized" era of the Disney comics DUCKTALES title, and other sources, most of which I've never had a chance to put under the critical microscope before.  (In certain instances, that might actually be a good thing!)  I'm also seeking out whatever interesting DuckTales fan fiction might be lurking out there on the Internet.  There isn't much of it -- or, should I say, much that is legitimately worth reading -- but I have unearthed a bit of promising material thus far.  Do you, my humble and lovable readers, have any further suggestions as to DT-related matter that you might want to see me dissect on this blog?  If so, then please let me know.

According to GeoX's diligent correspondent "Christopher," "The Golden Goose" wasn't actually meant to be DuckTales' farewell adventure.  The creative staff supposedly believed that there would be more episodes to come, perhaps even another feature film or two.  Granted that "Christopher" might have access to some "inside infor" that I don't possess, something about this theory doesn't ring right to me.  DuckTales: The Movie was animated by Disney MovieToon Studios (now DisneyToon Studios) and Walt Disney Animation France, neither of which had anything to do with the production of DT half-hours.  Therefore, delays caused by animation studios being busy with other projects (as, for example, Hasbro Studios releasing only 13 new half-hours of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic during the 2012-13 season, due to the Summer 2012 release of the Equestria Girls movie) ought not to have been an issue.  The absolute best possible time to have produced a substantial number of new eps would have been the 1990-91 TV season, the first season of The Disney Afternoon and the first season following the release of the theatrical feature.  The decision to make only four 1990-copyright episodes and stop at a total of 100 eps (a strip-show-friendly number, since it is divisible by five) seems suspiciously convenient.  In the end, perhaps the best argument in favor of "Goose" being an appropriate end of the road is, in essence, a psychological one.  Its narrative may be "lean and lively" rather than "sweeping and epic," and it plays out on a relatively bare stage, but it simply feels like a finale, blending elements from all "eras" of the series -- action, moral seriousness, slapstick, verbal humor, great character dynamics -- into a satisfying whole.  Add the fact that the storyline, for all of its sideline silliness, features the most apocalyptic vision EVER put forth in a story about talking ducks, and you've got the ideal way to wrap up modern TV animation's most groundbreaking single series.

Our quartet of creative contributors (Ken Koonce, David Weimers, and Alan Burnett on story; Jeffrey Scott on script) waste zero time cutting to the wild goose chase (Burger's favorite, in case you weren't aware), putting all of our major players into Barkladesh right away.  (That initial pan shot of people shopping in the marketplace must have blown the budget for extras for the entire adventure; a "cast of thousands" will be conspicuous by its absence the rest of the way.)  As will be confirmed in Part 2, this country (which ought to have been named "Barksladesh," but you can't have everything) is tucked away somewhere on the Indian subcontinent.  The appearance of a snake charmer and a merchant's reference to "rupees" further hammer home the point.  This inevitably leads to speculation as to whether Dijon and his brother Poupon, anchorite-in-chief of the Brotherhood of the Goose, are Barkladeshian.  I have no real problem with the notion.  It's easy to imagine Dijon, the kleptomaniacal "black sheep" of the 'on family, literally being forced to strike out on his own as a lackey-for-hire and winding up somewhere in the Middle East (with dress to match the location) just in time for the events of DuckTales: The Movie.  Funny how he seems to regard morphing into a "professional beggar" as a step up in class from that.

The explosive meeting of Scrooge and Dijon in the marketplace, as I confessed in my review of "Attack of the Metal Mites," really SHOULD have been the characters' first get-together since the final scene of DT:TM.  They quickly recognize each other and display entirely appropriate reactions.  It might have been nice to have had one additional reference to the events of the movie -- perhaps Scrooge making note of Dijon's takeover of the Money Bin while Dijon had control of the magic lamp and its Genie -- but what we got was perfectly adequate.  Given Dijon's subsequent character arc in the story, it's for the best that we start back at "ground zero," with Dijon occupying the same moral position that he did when he escaped with that pantload of "loose change" in the movie's final scene.  It also makes sense for HD&L to suggest that Scrooge immediately let bygones be bygones by giving Dijon a quarter (which, when you come to think about it, makes about as much sense as that legendary Scottish ditchdigger giving "young Scroogie" an American dime).  That turns out as well as you might expect.

After Dijon swipes the robe (yes, I know it looks like he paid the merchant, but watch carefully; he actually paid with money cadged from the guy's own pocket) and "joins" the Brotherhood, we segue to Glomgold and the Beagle Boys on the balcony, with Flinty making with the exposition about the Golden Goose.  Get comfortable with this, because there are several additional info-dumps to follow.  There was no real way to avoid this, of course, since we only have 45 minutes or so in which to develop and wrap up the entire storyline.  One noteworthy aspect of this scene goes unmentioned but deserves comment: This is the only time in the series when Glomgold actually steals a march (an appropriate phrase, methinks) on Scrooge when it comes to seeking out a treasure.  Flinty has aggressively taken the initiative in the past, of course, but such proactiveness involved duplicitous behavior (framing Scrooge in "Duckman of Aquatraz"), a new business venture (commissioning the giant robots in "Robot Robbers"), or a challenge to a contest (coming to Duckburg to literally throw down the gauntlet to Scrooge in Carl Barks' "The Money Champ").  In "Wrongway in Ronguay," "Master of the Djinni," and throughout "Time is Money," Flinty gets involved in a treasure tussle in response to various actions by Scrooge.  Here, Glomgold is boldly treading on turf that should, by all existing precedent, be Scrooge's.  I wonder where Flinty got his original "infor"... or do I want to know? 

Greg is right -- that is Flinty's arm when it should be Scrooge's.

You can tell by the red cuff.

The relationship between Dijon and Poupon will, of course, be of key importance throughout the remainder of the tale. Poupon's obvious decency and willingness to forgive his wayward brother are unquestionably admirable, but his inclination to give Dijon such an important responsibility (that of guarding the Goose on its fountain) right away could be flagged as a bit... naive.  Even real-world monastic orders, after all, don't give their novices major duties right off the bat.  Rather, the novice must typically demonstrate fidelity to the order through acts of humility and selflessness.  Since Poupon offhandedly disses Dijon in the fountain scene ("Have you anything worthless... besides yourself, of course?"), he pretty clearly thinks that Dijon has a ways to go before fully meriting the good opinions of others... and Dijon quickly backs him up on that by casting a covetous glimpse at the Goose the moment after Poupon has left the fountain room.  Poupon can't even be sure that the two big monks at the door will provide a fail-safe, since Dijon is well-known for his slipperiness.  Dijon, Scrooge, Glomgold, and the Beagle Boys all share some responsibility for the metastatization of the "Goose crisis," but Poupon's contribution shouldn't be neglected just because his actions were the result of kindness.

The Beagles provide the main levity of Part 1 when they don the inevitable "cheesy disguises" to try to sneak into the fountain room.  I'm in agreement with GeoX that the Beagles are a bit on the irritating side here -- Burger makes one or two too many food references, and the absence of Bouncer deprives the Beagles' performance of some needed gravitas (did I ACTUALLY JUST WRITE THAT?!) -- but the "tacky tourist" garb the B-Boys employ here is simply too funny for words.  Dijon is quick to get with the program, embracing his inner Toon and materializing an impromptu disguise of his own that fools the monks into giving him the (literal) boot.

Commence Moral Dilemma Number 1!  Dijon shows off his shiny new conscience by talking through his options on the mountainside.  I think that Scott made the right decision by having Dijon's final remark (the one before the Beagles accost him) suggest that he might have voluntarily returned the Goose.  It's our first real indication that this seemingly hopeless case might be salvageable, after all... and it makes Poupon's angry "supposed final break" with Dijon during Part 2 have even more of an impact.

Scrooge finally becomes involved in the adventure through no effort of his own, thanks to the proverbial "conveniently placed box."  (In case you're wondering where the "fifty rusty door chimes" are, Greg, they're obviously under the packing material on which the Goose lands.)  Scrooge's relative passivity here contrasts, in a certain sense, with what most of us would like to think about the character, just as Glomgold's aggressive treasure-seeking is something out of the norm for him.  The dissonance is especially true of the classic "old sourdough" version of Scrooge who dug his fortune out of the frozen ground of the Klondike, "outsmarted the smarties," and so forth.  However, there are more than enough UNCLE $CROOGE adventures in existence into which Scrooge gets sucked by one means or another, so I have no real problem with his portrayal here.

After Poupon collars Dijon and teases what we will learn about the Goose's powers in Part 2, we shift back to Duckburg, where Scrooge begins to get an inkling as to the true worth of the "ugly" Goose after Burger tries to steal it (Big Time would have been my first option for that job, but that's just me) and Glomgold attempts to bargain for it.  I'm not sure why Greg was so negative about the "sale negotiation" scene.  Scrooge knows enough about Glomgold's capacity for do-badding that he should naturally be suspicious at any interest Flinty might show in a seemingly "worthless" item, especially after one attempt to steal it (and by a figure who has worked with Glomgold in the past, no less) has already been made.  Flinty's comment to Scrooge back in Barkladesh that he had "more important things to do" than search out bargains may also have popped back into Scrooge's mind here at just the right moment.  Scrooge keeps raising the price only because Glomgold is able to match several of the lower offers for the Goose.  That's not being "a jealous old jackass," that's elementary CYA in the ongoing conflict between this pair.

A bit more contrivance ensues back at the Mansion as Scrooge more or less stumbles upon the secret of the Goose (interestingly, much as he did in Barks' "The Fabulous Philosopher's Stone" [UNCLE $CROOGE #10, June 1955])... and then, "away he golds," with Moral Dilemma Number 2 trailing in his wake!  Though the true consequences of this dilemma will not kick into full gear until Part 2, we get ample foreshadowing of it here, with Scrooge gradually turning more and more things in the Mansion to gold, even as his family members warn him that he's endangering the Ducks' "happy home."  The obvious question here is why no reference to the "gold fever" of "Too Much of a Gold Thing" was made.  Upon further review, I honestly don't think that the two situations are all that comparable.  In "Gold Thing," Scrooge was literally overwhelmed by the discovery and massive physical presence of gold, to a degree unlike anything he had ever experienced before.  Here, Scrooge is actively creating gold and therefore has more inherent "control" (a word he himself uses at one point) over the process of acquisition.  If Scrooge were as gold-crazed as he was in "Gold Thing," or even in "Philosopher's Stone," he would not have stopped to go to bed; he would have continued turning things to gold until the cows came home.  (In "Philosopher's Stone," Scrooge's gold-making had a built-in time limit, in that the "radiation" from the Stone would have turned him to gold before long.  Absent that limiting factor, he would unquestionably have gone on indefinitely, as well.)  Part of the intrigue of this story lies in the fact that we never do get to find out whether Scrooge would have been able to control himself once the initial excitement had died down.  Would he have had a moment of "Dough Ray Me"-inspired epiphany and realized that turning every single thing in his house into gold would ultimately be counterproductive?  Would the pleas of Mrs. Beakley, HD&L, and Webby have finally gotten through to him after a good night's rest?  As with Dijon's ultimate "Beagle-free" decision on the mountainside, the "what-if" helps give this tale an extra, and welcome, layer of complexity.

The genetic source of Huey's fantastic leaping ability in "Send in the Clones" REVEALED.

We end, of course, on the cliffhanger that sent many viewers into a tizzy back in the day, HD&L's being turned into gold statues by the Beagles.  This easily trumps even Bob Langhans' array of narrative minefields in "The Gold Odyssey," which is the highest possible complement where DT is concerned.  What we do not know as of yet, of course, is that the Nephews will literally have no further part to play in the story, in terms of active participation.  This, I think, is why Scrooge's grief and distress in Part 2 wind up having the impact that they do.  Scrooge will have to try and atone for his spasm of greed by dedicating the rest of his efforts to the Nephews, but he will also ultimately be forced to choose between acting on behalf of the boys and acting on behalf of the entire world.

A few coloring and animation mistakes from Wang Films aside, this table-setting chapter of the saga of the Goose delivers ALL the goods... and, just think, we haven't even gotten to that whole "fate of the world" business yet.

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Specially requested by GeoX... not.

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"DuckBlurbs" 

(GeoX) The idea is that Scrooge and HDL are in Arabland (sic) to collect old junk to pawn off as antiques (um…didn't "Much Ado about Scrooge" establish that this is considered immoral by the show's metric?)

("Christopher")  I think that when you take actual old items from halfway around the world, it's fair to describe them as exotic antiques, because curios that are made in far away places with strange sounding names always have some level of value in the U.S. It's only when you try to pass off mass-produced cheap junk from Hong Kong factories as antiques that you're stepping over the ethical line.

I'm inclined to side with Christopher on this one.  The lost Drakespearian play in "Much Ado" would certainly be of interest to the entire world, and its ultimate worth, no matter what the quality of the play might be, would be greatly influenced by that fact.  Selling Barkladeshian merchandise as "exotic antiques" is much more of a one-on-one transaction involving the seller and the buyer, and the buyer would always have the option of refusing to buy.

I will say that for Scrooge to be micromanaging the stocking, opening, and operation of a department store -- right down to using HD&L as security personnel! -- does seem a little "off."  Surely, Scrooge would ride herd on the individuals who did operate such a store on his behalf, but going to the trouble of traveling to Barkladesh for merchandise and then manning the store himself?  That's much more of a stretch.  All a matter of plot convenience, you understand...

(GeoX) Yadda yadda, [the Goose] accidentally gets stowed in Scrooge's luggage and towed back to the States, and it's quite weird how the show emphasizes how completely worthless he thinks it looks. Dude--it's a gold statue. He would be all over that shit, whether or not he knew its secret.

And, knowing the properties of gold and other precious metals as well as he presumably does, he would probably be suspicious of the authenticity of the "gold" statue, based on the physical evidence alone.

(GeoX) Back in Arabland [sic], Poupon is insistent that they go recover the goose--otherwise, for unspecified reasons, the END OF THE WORLD may occur, as it's been known to do. But back, again, in Duckburg, the Beagles succeed in stealing the statue from Scrooge, and TURN[S] THE NEPHEWS TO GOLD OH NO and to be continued and I can't help pointing out that if you can turn people into gold, there is really no chance that Scrooge wouldn't have accidentally done it to himself in his transmutation binge.

Even while he is in the throes of his initial binge, Scrooge clearly demonstrates that he realizes that the Goose's beak is the source of its gold-granting powers.  Poupon makes the fact explicit in Part 2, but Scrooge definitely got the message fairly quickly.

(Greg)  Dijon sadly doesn't get the remove the damn cowl put and just goes to the eating part. HA! So the monks remove his cowl and they are not impressed because Dijon is not a monk. Dijon claims that this is not the YMCA. Oh god Jeffrey Scott; what would Dijon KNOW about the YMCA?! It should be "So this is not the Friars League?!". That makes a lot more sense than this.

Change "Friars' League" to "Friars' Club," and I'm with you.  That would have been a first-rate "in-joke," especially considering the nature of the real-world organization.

(Greg) The big ass guard grabs [Dijon] by the nose and throws him back into the fountain because they are there to make sure Dijon keeps his word. Which begs the question; if they are there then why would you need Dijon to guard the goose? Probably punishment for being a thief and a liar I guess.

Dijon's task is to keep the Goose on the fountain; the big monks' task is to (as I said before) serve as a fail-safe.

(Greg) So the nephews grab their whistles, and police caps with night sticks and run out of the security room. Yes; we are supposed to believe that a bunch of ten year olds are Scrooge's Rent-A-Cops. Kit Cloudkicker might be able to get away with this; but not a bunch of crybaby nephews. They chase Burger in the store as Burger realizes that he blew his cover; he collides very poorly into a model of a lady posing right next to a dognose (dogperson; same difference) and the bag goes flying and so does the golden goose. Then we jump cut to Burger leaving the store and getting into the heels' van. Huh?! So how did Burger get out of the store?

I guess he must have simply slipped (sound familiar?) past everyone as they were distracted by the sliding Goose.  Also, Burger's mannequin fail = obvious outtake from "New Gizmo-Kids on the Block."  Just saying.

(Greg) Scrooge touches the scale with the [Goose's] beak claiming that it[s] weight is worth in gold and the scale turns into gold. Obvious logic break: After the nephews are surprised that the scale turned to gold, Scrooge then taps the green book; but nothing. The reason I mention this is because before he turned the scales into the gold; both the green book and desk lamp were ALREADY gold colored. And the desk lamp is red shade with a blue base. So the original scene was to have the SCALE turned last and the green book and lamp first according to Wang's line of thinking. Really bad form there Wang Films.

Yup.  There's a coloring mistake earlier in the ep, in which the shirt color of the dognosed Barkladeshian towing Glomgold around in a rickshaw (or whatever the local equivalent with the bicycle is called) switches between blue and tan.  Since Dijon's vest was blue, did some animator mistakenly think that this guy was supposed to be Dijon??  Given Wang's decidedly spotty track record during the series' final dozen or so episodes, I'm almost inclined to believe it.

Before and after, the Wang way!

(Greg)  Mrs. Beakly comes in and blows of[f] Scrooge for letting the golden touch get out of hand here. Scrooge ribs her and tells her to relax [and] he goes to the golden waste paper basket and gets golden garbage since they can buy a new home from it. Which is silly since in Dough Ray Me; this would devalue gold big time.

Not if Scrooge had the sense to use the gold to buy things a little bit at a time.  The open question we are left with is: Would he ultimately have had the sense, had Glomgold and the Beagles not intervened? 

(Greg) Still; a pretty nasty scene as the heels leave while Big Time proclaims that the Scrooge will like the nephews now because they are priceless. Problem with that line is; Big Time never heard Scrooge say that.

I don't think he was ever meant to.  Scrooge's earlier praise of the Nephews as "priceless" and Big Time's use of the word here could easily have been thought up independently. 

Next: Episode 100, "The Golden Goose, Part 2."