Written by: Ted Anderson
Art by: Ben Bates
Publisher: IDW
Season four of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic introduced us to Equestria’s version of The Justice League: The Power Ponies. With comic books and comic movies now a multibillion dollar industry, it was delightful to see MLP:FiM take on the trend. However, the Power Ponies only received a small bit of air time before they were left to the wayside…until now. The MLP Annual 2014 comic book has brought the Power Ponies back, and it’s nothing short of awesome.
At its core, the MLP Annual 2014 is a superhero comic book first and a pony comic book second.
The entire 43-page comic book plays homage to old-school comics and comic book heroes. Think Adam West Batman, and then hold onto that thought with everything you have. We have a 4th wall breaking narrator, villains with rather silly super powers, a smattering of bad puns, and a focus on teamwork and friendship.
There’s no modern DC grit to be found here, but that’s alright. I prefer my superheroes a bit silly and filled with bad puns.
While normal issues of MLP:FiM are filled with background gags, the MLP Annual 2014 plays host to references that span a large variety of superhero comics. The Power Ponies live in a tower that’s very reminiscent of the Teen Titans home for example, and each of the ponies plays on a common superhero. There’s a Flash, a Hulk, a Green Lantern, and a Storm here, though I’m sure the other two reference superheroes I’m simply not familiar with.
What elevates this comic into something more than just a parody is how genre savvy the writing is. There are plenty of little twists and turns on normal comic-book tropes, and that coupled with the humor make for something very fun to read.
Unlike your normal Justice League or Avengers team, for example, the Power Ponies actually don’t like each other but only team up to make life easier. They’re surprisingly selfish and mean when not in the spotlight, and of course this becomes their undoing. On the reverse, the villains team up in a Sinister-Six style grouping and get along great together.
Friendship, it seems, is chaotic neutral.
Like everything else, the art style borrows from superhero comics and looks pretty great. The fights are snazzy, if not a little too quick moving, and the facial expressions on everyone are a blast to look at. If there’s one thing the MLP:FiM comics do well, it’s facial expressions.
I really can’t think of anything bad to say about this one. There might be some little thing keeping it from being absolutely perfect, but I’m not sure what that is. Fans of the MLP:FiM franchise should have fun, but even if you’re just a normal comic book fan, this might be worth checking out simply for its twists on popular comic book tropes.
Just remember, this is Adam West Batman and not Christian Bale Batman. If you go in hoping for the latter, you’ll be very disappointed.
