Written by: Christina Rice
Art by: Jay Fosgitt
Publisher: IDW
Almost five seasons in, three movies, and more comics than I’ve bothered to count, and I still don’t quite know what to expect from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The series has a huge range, featuring action, slice-of-life, drama, heavy issues, silly problems, and a diabetic level of sweetness, and it jumps between all of these things at seemingly random. In the case of My Little Pony: Friends Forever #22 it’s the latter, and while this comic doesn’t offer much more than pure, low-tension adorable, I think I’m fine with that. It’s not my favorite direction the franchise goes, but it’s certainly one it knows how to work with.
We start on a train to Canterlot, where Princess Cellestia has called Pinkie Pie for a very important and secret mission: baking a cake for Princess Luna’s surprise birthday party. Pinkie Pie is overjoyed at first but soon realizes she has no idea what to do. Everything has to be perfect, and Princess Cellestia isn’t giving her any direction to go with.
Like I said, it’s a low-tension problem, though one with merit. We’ve all been in a similar situation, one where we’re given an important project and few instructions. Yet as a comic, it’s maybe not what we’re looking for in terms of plot, not when there are places in Equestria we have yet to explore and villains that we have yet to thwart!
What sells it all is Jay Fosgitt’s artwork, which is simply wonderful. I’ve read other MLP comics he’s worked on, and I’m starting to think he’s my favorite artist for this particular franchise. His style is so damn cute, his facial expressions and movement so on point, that I just can’t help but smile at every page.
He’s also best suited for Pinkie Pie, who can jump from excited to worried to depressed at the drop of a hat. That high level of energy can’t be easy to work with, but Mr. Fosgitt makes it look easy.
At the end of the day, MLP:FiM:FF #22 is…well, exactly what it wants to be. It’s cute, it’s silly, but there’s not much else going on. I don’t mind that though, because the MLP series leaves itself room for this kind of story alongside the currently running arc of Sombra’s scary return. We can have our cake and evil too!
