IDW Friends Forever #1 Review · 6:59pm Nov 19th, 2016
At the end of 2013, IDW announced it was going to end the Micro Series and starting in 2014 it was going to launch a new series entitled "Friends Forever". The series has had its ups and down since then, but how did this first issue featuring Pinkie Pie and Applejack fair considering it came out around the same time as "Pinkie Apple Pie"? Most people say this first issue was a dud, but are they perhaps, mistaken? Well, let's find out.
We begin with Pinkie preparing to represent Sugarcube Corner (and Ponyville) in the Equestria Super Chef Competition (likely on behalf of The Cakes), she sets off while trying not to lose the recipes she's just memorized. Meanwhile, Applejack is on her way to the contest to deliver a pie (not exactly sure why you'd be delivering an apple pie to a baking contest if you weren't participating in it), but she is distracted by Pinkie and the pie gets sent flying. She quickly retrieves it, wrapping herself up in a red tent which apparently leads to her being mistaken for Marine Sandwich (who is a Fluttershy pallet swap, we also have a Shining Armor pallet swap in the form of Jumbo Don, a unicorn who basically provides the Equestrian equivalent of television). The other three contestants are Summer Van Der Hoof who looks like Fluttershy but talks like Rarity, Blade Sparxx (a pyromaniac), and Toffee Truffle.
The real Marine Sandwich tries to get in, but the guards throw her out (I would assume they'd check for I.D.), and the contest gets under way. Pinkie tries to make something, but she spent so much time memorizing recipes she suffers a creators block and forgets how to bake, causing Applejack to win the first round (the judges still think she's Marine Sandwich, and admittedly this plot only works because they're idiots. If Marine Sandwich was a pallet swap of Applejack, at least it would make some sense). Applejack quickly denies to Pinkie any interest in competing, and then the two overhear Toffee Truffle sobbing about how her restaurant in Dodge City (I think they meant to say Dodge Junction) has closed down and she wants to win so she can reopen it (I would think you could do that without winning, just as long as you make a good showing in the contest, but maybe she needs the prize money to buy it).
This gives Pinkie and Applejack the idea to throw the competition for Toffee, yet despite Pinkie's attempt at apparently food poisoning the judges (you would think something made of garbage would be an automatic disqualification) she wins the second round, and Toffee expresses her desire to win fair and square, to which Pinkie and Applejack agree. For the third round the judges ask the contestants to make their favorite recipe, but Summer and Blade quickly fall apart when Summer has a breakdown and Blaze submits the same dish as before but with more fire. Applejack offers up an apple and since it's a dessert competition and the apple isn't in a pie she loses, and Pinkie starts throwing custard pies at random (I thought she and Applejack agreed they weren't going to throw the competition so Toffee would win).
After Toffee presents her entry, Marine Sandwich storms in, and via a giant frosting cannon she goes Mr. Freeze on everypony, including the judges and the contestants. Applejack and Pinkie team up to launch pies at Marine, only for Applejack to end up frozen and leaving it up to Toffee and Pinkie to save the day. She loads up one of her confections into Pinkie's party cannon, missing Marie but striking the frosting tank and freezing her. Luckily, the frosting can be easily eaten away, and Pinkie does so to free Applejack. Toffee Truffle wins, and Applejack scores a business deal out of it, while Pinkie walks away with a new friend. I should mention that the artwork isn't anything stand outish, it's pretty basic though nowhere near as bad as the first few issues of the micro series (they didn't start prioritizing the artwork until Fluttershy's issue).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? Honestly, it's an alright start, especially compared to the micro series. Sure, there's a lot to find fault with, and the series has since gone on to hit much higher marks, but at the same time it has presented far worse O.C.s with far worse artwork and far worse stories (can we agree to stop using the Friends Forever series as a dumping ground for these bad O.C.s, no one cares about your poorly made O.C., especially when you make them more important than our established characters we're reading the story for). Sure, there may not be much friendship between Pinkie Pie and Applejack, but compared to the micro series this was an okay start to a series that while it's bobbing up and down in quality, seems to be doing better than the main series comics at the moment ("Ponies of Dark Water" started out promising but was horribly rushed by the end, then we got a two parter pardoying Trump v.s. Hillary that ended up being wrong in its political prediction, and now we're on a story that could go either way, it could either be really good, or bomb horribly and considering who's writing it the latter seems likely). So, if you can find this issue for cheap, I'd say pick it up (some of the better Friends Forever comics are going over 25 dollars on Amazon).
Oh yeah! I like this story, but judging by the comic cover, I thought AJ and Pinkie were coming to compete with each other! XD