Written by: Christina Rice
Art by: Agnes Garbowska
Publisher: IDW
I’m going to tag this with a SPOILER WARNING because talking about this comic involves talking about the core problem of the characters. You’ve been warned.
It should come to no one’s surprise that I really like My Little Pony since I review all the comics. Why I like the property is perhaps an essay for a later date, but suffice to say, I appreciate it as a vessel for delivering problems, both big and small, both fantastical and mundane. Issue #30 of the Friends Forever line is of the small and mundane line, and it’s all the stronger for it.
Princess Cadence is filled with self doubt. She isn’t sure if anyone respects her or if her title even means anything. All the other princess have saved the world, and all she’s done is be the cute one and got married to her knight in Shining Armor. Now she’s supposed to get some kind of award, and she doesn’t feel worthy.
So her and Twilight go undercover in the Crystal Kingdom to find out what her subjects really think and…well, you can guess where this might go.
As someone who suffers from self doubt on a somewhat daily basis, I find Cadence’s mindset very relatable. It helps that she isn’t wrong, either. She hasn’t done anything big or major in the series. Hell, it was Spike who saved her kingdom in Season 3. Spike! She’s also a bit of a joke in regards to the fandom, at least from what I can tell. She’s the least interesting of the four princesses for this reason alone. Well, that and her lack of screen time.
This MLP:FF issue winds up not only building Cadence up as a character but also taking a few jabs at the fandom itself. It’s good stuff, and I enjoyed the little ride from beginning to end—and make no mistake, it has a really nice, sweet ending.
On the art front, Garbowska does a serviceable job here. I like her art well enough, though there are times when it comes off as a little bland. Now and then a proportion might be a hair out of whack or a facial expression less than perfect, but she’s got a cute style that fits the property well. Here is no exception.
The Friends Forever line of MLP comics either work amazingly well as character pieces or are complete bombs. This one is a nice character piece on a princess that was in desperate need of some development.
