NEW IDW has announced G5 comics

[Leave a Whisper]

I looked up the writer and found their twitter and apparently they are 41.   

She said that issue 4, "It's truly my favorite issue!" 

But was it truly outrageous?

41 means they have no excuse. THey'd actually have GROWN UP with G1.

That doesn't mean they were familiar with the media. It could be a situation like Lauren Faust where she pretty much made up her own personalities and storylines for the ponies they played with.

Yes, but, in that context you don't choose to do a G1 crossover with an existing storyline. You use one of your own, like she did.

What doesn't make sense is saying they are a fan of G1, but at the same time, not managing to get the plot or the ponies in the g1 storyline correct.  Because you would also think they'd research the subject if it was something they'd never come across.

I never saw the movie as a kid. I wrote lots of pony stories, but I never wrote a story involving Hydia and the smooze, even though they appeared randomly in that one comic when I was about nine or so. It's not something you get inspired by if you haven't seen it. But if you have seen it, you should at least reference it accurately...or not call the comic a 'crossover'.

I stand by my point.

I agree, they probably half read the synopsis on wiki and just threw everything at the wall.

[Wardah]

I looked up the writer and found their twitter and apparently they are 41.   

She said that issue 4, "It's truly my favorite issue!" 

But was it truly outrageous?

41 means they have no excuse. THey'd actually have GROWN UP with G1.

That doesn't mean they were familiar with the media. It could be a situation like Lauren Faust where she pretty much made up her own personalities and storylines for the ponies they played with.

Yes, but, in that context you don't choose to do a G1 crossover with an existing storyline. You use one of your own, like she did.

What doesn't make sense is saying they are a fan of G1, but at the same time, not managing to get the plot or the ponies in the g1 storyline correct.  Because you would also think they'd research the subject if it was something they'd never come across.

I never saw the movie as a kid. I wrote lots of pony stories, but I never wrote a story involving Hydia and the smooze, even though they appeared randomly in that one comic when I was about nine or so. It's not something you get inspired by if you haven't seen it. But if you have seen it, you should at least reference it accurately...or not call the comic a 'crossover'.

I stand by my point.

I agree, they probably half read the synopsis on wiki and just threw everything at the wall.

Or their only interaction with G1 was as a kid so they are merely going by memory from years ago and filling in the blanks with their own imagination. I certainly don't remember every detail of things I watched as a kid and I was always super detail oriented. Thirty years is a long time.

[Taffeta]

True. But they managed to be particular about odd details. Which makes the whole thing more weird.

If you were fan but don't remember, you either make it all up or include vague references eg there was a smooze. You don't then add in Megan and ROL in exact appearance from the wrong special. To get that right means research. To get the show wrong means not enough research.

Sorry but those arguments just don't work. Even if you loved it but didn't remember,  you would want to find out, to do it justice.

Although it may just be the writer bit off too much and can't keep up with the initial brief. The story doesn't seem to gel at all.

[Carrehz]

It doesn't matter if the writer does or doesn't remember anything of G1 from their childhood, the problem is the half-hearted attempt at writing G1 and failing miserably. I totally understand if the writer isn't familiar with G1 or maybe likes the toys but doesn't care for the cartoons, or something, but then why not get someone else to write it? Why write a crossover story at all? And yeah, why write a story based on the movie etc and not do the research. It's 2021/2022, it's super easy to find copies of the movie (dunno how available DVD copies are in the US, but hey, there's always online...), it's not THAT long a film..

Like, I dunno. Maybe the crossover idea and basic movie-derivative plot were mandated by some higher-up and the writer just had to work with the story they were given and didn't have a lot of wiggle room. But again, it really wouldn't be that difficult to do an afternoon of research, I'm not asking them to get everything right, but just a bit of effort would be nice...

[tailrustedtealeaf]

The biggest crime to me is that the story just fails to be interesting at all.

...and that most of the pages are just riddled with traced/reference screenshots.

[Wildshadow]

I didn't know the digital was out since Feburary 9th...dear lord...

Ummmm.... NOPE. Just a large NOPE from me. Had the biggest "face into hand, then sliding hand down face" reaction. 

I just want the physical copy with the Pinkie Pie and Surprise variant. And the other physical copies with Surprise. Just looking at those are the only good things. Though I wish her hair was less yellow on the covers but UGH I'll probably get the other cover with the Lava... I'm a sucker for Lava and VOLCANO OF GLOOM. And original Witch's...

Spoiler

The writer for sure didn't know much about the witches, I liked the whole 'sweets are EWWW!' opposite stuff....

and I SKIPPED lots of the dialog this last issue because I just gave up after the first scene and when the two 'witches' were "WHAT'S THAT YUMMY SMELL?? " so I just scanned over the rest and reading only small parts...

Such a huge disappointment for the ending. ENDS TOO 'PERFECTLY'.   I'm sure the dialog I skipped might have shined light onto the reason but I'm sure it's boring as well  Why does everything have to be 'oh redemption!' 

I some how would like to hear from the writer as to WHY to a lot of things but 

[Dragonflitter]

Ugh... so I read the last issue and I'm so disappointed I don't even want to review it... It's just not even worth my time. Sigh.

Even up to the very end the G1 ponies were barely relevant to the plot. This was not a crossover at all.

The best thing about the entire series is the variant covers by Samantha Whitten. Her art style is adorable and mimics the original G1 style without copying it perfectly, and it features each of the Mane 6 paired up with a G1 pony. I would buy prints of her art, but not the comic itself.

[Carrehz]

Wait, it's over already? Argh, I'm so far behind, I really must catch up. Though from the sounds of it, I don't know that I really want to

[Taffeta]

It just sounds to me like a bad fanfiction cobbled together by using google.

It's like when a student hands in an assignment based on wikipedia. You can tell they don't know anything, and it hurts.

...They would have done better leaving G1 out of it and writing a really solid story with the M6 taking on the witches etc. I dunno. It seems like a waste to me.

On the flipside, it doesn't sound like they were trying to undermine G1. They just didn't know how to write about them.

Or from the bits I've seen, how to write anything at all, honestly.

Even with a bad adaptation, if the plot works you can get away with a lot of stuff.

[Dragonflitter]

I honestly think it would be an insult to call this fanfiction. Fanfiction is something a fan does out of love. Sure it might not be as well written as people who do things professionally, but at least you know fanfiction has some sort of heart behind it, some sort of appreciation from the fan for the media.

I can't say that the person writing the script for this comic has any emotional connection to MLP. If they do, I apologize, I don't mean to be insulting. I just can't see it here. (Well maybe I see it a little in Pinkie and Violet Shiver's growing relationship, but nothing else in the comic really screamed MLP FiM to me. And certainly nothing about it seemed like G1 either.)

I also can't say that the artist had any strong connection to MLP, because they often use screenshots or other official MLP art to make their poses, and there's been instances where they've gotten details wrong and no one caught it. (In one scene in this last issue, Twilight is wearing a rainbow locket on one page and then on the next page the locket is just gone for the rest of the fight scene. The artist forgot to draw it after that page.)

I'm trying to be polite because I know sometimes content creators check out online reactions to their work, and I don't mean to belittle the people who created this comic. I'm just very disappointed. I'm guessing this was just a paycheck for everyone, not a project they felt emotionally connected to. It's a shame, but that's just how the business world works.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Yeah this comic sucked. I'd seek out the variant covers if they weren't so pricey.

If you guys aren't aware, the artist of the variant covers sells pins here.

[Dragonflitter]

Omgoodness, her shop is amazing! Thank you for sharing! I needed some new pins to wear to work.

[Wardah]

Apparently they announced a new G5 comic series. So I guess the crossover was just there to fill in the gap between G4 and G5.

[Leave a Whisper]

 IDW is losing the license to Hasbro's comics. If their writing teams can only churn out boring and/or unresearched slop such as this, then good riddance. I didn't like their TF comics, I found them dull and passed them onto people who I hoped might appreciate them more. And the few Jem ones I saw, seemed like bad character inserts.

[Taffeta]

I think that's a good description of the Jem ones, at least what I saw.

It bothered me that it tried to force a niche fan idea in there to make it canon, and did so as though it were always fact and didn't need to be explained, when in fact, it definitely did.

I wonder if them losing the licence was always going to happen, hence the halfbaked pony effort.