Tumbleweed vs. Friendship in Disguise #2! · 5:20pm Sep 3rd, 2020
Masked up, went to the comic book store. Support local businesses, whoo. And the nice lady behind the counter didn't even put me on a list for getting this comic book and an Immortal Hulk trade at the same time! Neat!
In any case, it's issue #2 of the weirdest crossover IDW's done in a while! Issue #1 got all the groundwork laid-- giant robots stomping around Equestria, there ya go. This second issue just jumps into things, with two stories mashing up ponies and robots. And they're ... okay? I guess?
The first story is probably the stronger one. It's pretty straightforward: Spike, having been dimensionally zapped to G1 inverse, is hanging out at the Autobots' crashed ship/base, with Grimlock. The Constructicons show up to be nefarious, there's a fight, and Spike saves the day, at which point Grimlock is kind of wholesome and inspiring. It's honestly a nice take on Grimlock (one of the best transformers), and it didn't make me hate Spike (one of the worst ponies) for being Mary Sue ish ('cause he's not). I guess I'm a little biased 'cause I've seen too many 'Spike as anime harem protagonist' clopfics in the featured box.
The second story is ... not quite as good. It's Pinkie Pie and ... Gauge? Though admittedly the story's written by the same writer who created Gauge, so I guess it's okay if she throws her OC in. Still, kind of an odd choice when there are literally hundreds of other Autobots to pick from. Like, why not have Pinkie party with somebody like Jazz? Or cobble together mad party gizmos with, say, Wheeljack? Ah well.
In any case, Gauge and Pinkie are filming a cooking show (Equestria has TV now?), and then Shockwave shows up wanting to ... eat ponies? Because reasons? I mean, sure, she's only got like 14 pages to work with but you'd think the writer could at least toss in a line about Shockwave doing some mad science and determining that pony-magic is a hithero untapped power source, but ... no. It's just Shockwave with kitchen utensils coming out of his hands. Behold!
Which, admittedly, is a goofy and fun image for a goofy and fun comic, but still. I mean, I would've at least used somebody like the Terrorcons or Predacons or Sharkticons-- you know, bad guys that actually DO eat stuff. But that's just me being the kind of pedant they make fun of in the first issue.
Still, I fully intend to pick up the next issue whenever it comes out. Nice to have an excuse to leave the house, and all that.
From what I recall, half of the original Transformers series was Decepticons looking for new energy sources to exploit and convert to Energon. Pony magic seems like a logical target... but going straight to consuming the biomatter is a pretty startling leap of logic.
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Dare I say it... I can't resist. They put the cart before the horse-err-well-pony.
I can't really get over Shockwave with kitchen utensils.
I have no idea who Gauhe is, but I figured he was selected because he was one of the few Autobots that could actually FIT in a kitchen.