Comic Review: Transformers/My Little Pony #2

Transformers/My Little Pony #2

IDW Publishing

Writers: Ian Flynn, Sam Maggs

Artists: Casey W. Coller, Sara Pitre-Durocher

The second part of this strange little crossover between the Transformers and My Little Pony is finally upon us. I was pleasantly surprised by the first entry in this series. The basic premise is that a malfunctioning space-bridge has caused the Transformers to end up in Equestria. The evil Decepticons are causing havoc, meanwhile the heroic Autobots are attempting to fit in with the local inhabitants. Naturally, this leads to a lot of comedy and cheesy dialogue that This issue, much like the first one, is split into two stories. Each one tells the tale of an Autobot and a resident of Equestria teaming up against the Decepticons. Let’s have a look at this latest issue.

The first story is titled “Inspiring” and focuses on Spike the dragon and the Autobot called Grimlock. The two are complete opposites in terms of intelligence. Spike is extremely smart and well-spoken whereas Grimlock can barely string a sentence together and prefers talking with his fists. Despite the differences Spike still views Grimlock as “AAAAAAH! SO! COOL!”. A view that’s shared by most of the Transformers fanbase, including myself. Grimlock is a giant, robotic T-Rex after all. Who could resist that? Eventually the two encounter and battle the Constructicons, a group of Decepticons who combine into a giant robot called Devastator.

This tale does a couple of things. First, it occurs on Cybertron where Grimlock had been left behind. Spike’s presence shows that My Little Pony characters have been transported to the Transformers world too. That’s a good sign since it means future stories aren’t limited to Equestria. I’m sure some Transformers fans may have been somewhat put-off if everything occurred in the My Little Pony world. Doing this is a smart move for keeping those fans invested in the series. On top of this, “Inspiring” manages to be a good story in its own right. Grimlock and Spike are quite entertaining together. The story has a simple message about the value of intelligence and the importance of studying. A lot of people pay so much attention to cool-looking, aggressive characters like Grimlock, and forget this, especially children. It was nice seeing a kids comic like this promoting that message.

Our second story is “They Eat Ponies, Don’t they?”. Here we’re back on Equestria and the pony called Pinkie Pie is hosting a baking show. She and her guest, the Autobot called “Gauge” are performing a cultural exchange of meals. Naturally, it can’t be that simple so the Decepticon scientist, Shockwave appears to capture Pinkie Pie for experimentation. This is a far more slapstick-focused tale but it’s still a lot of fun. Pinkie Pie and Gauge team up as Shockwave pursues them using numerous kitchen utensils as weaponry. There’s a subtle message throughout the issue about the importance of accepting other cultures. Even Shockwave supports the idea of a cultural exchange which was a nice touch given that he’s the villain. This is definitely a comedic story though and it does that incredibly well.

Transformers/My Little Pony has felt a bit like an anthology series. Every story so far has had a different creative team behind it. You might assume this would mean the artwork is noticeably different in each story but that hasn’t been the case. Despite numerous artists working on these stories, they each conform to a similar art-style mixing the visuals of both franchises. This keeps the stories from feeling disconnected despite the various creators involved. The artwork itself looks terrific. I loved the cartoonish style and expressive faces throughout this issue, especially from the pony characters. This is a series that partially focuses on robots who, in a number of cases don’t have traditional faces. The fact that the artists have managed to make it so easy to understand their emotions despite this is incredible.

The lettering throughout the issue is pretty good too. There are some nice little touches regarding the font used, especially in “Inspiring”. Spike’s dialogue appears to be written in a generally larger font than Grimlock’s to represent his excitement and admiration. It helps highlight that aspect of the character for the readers, especially those who’re new to My Little Pony. You get certain words highlighted in bold or that extend beyond the speech bubble for emphasis. There are also different speech bubbles used depending on the tone of voice being used at a time. All of these touches help build the story and draw the reader into it.

Finally, we have the sound effects. Throughout both issues, we have a lot of them. Mostly they’re used for fight scenes with a slight difference in use between stories. “Inspiring” uses onomatopoeia in a more traditional, action comic style. We see it used to represent alarms and add a feeling of impact when characters hit one another. “They Eat Ponies, Don’t They?” does the same but it uses them more for comedic moments during fights. We also get some sound effects that are just regular words that highlight more subtle actions occurring in a panel.

In summary, this was a great little comic. Both stories within this issue are different in their levels of action and humour but they’re both very well-written. The art is gorgeous throughout both tales and the lettering is done to a really high standard. I didn’t expect much from this series beyond a fun yet silly crossover. The first issue made a good impression and made me give the series the benefit of the doubt. There was always the possibility that it was a fluke though and the rest of the series could be terrible. I’m happy to report that this doesn’t seem to be the case. The second issue of Transformers/My Little Pony has given me full confidence that this will be a great series.