My Little Pony: Friends Forever #14 Review

Writer Jeremy Whitley returns for Friends Forever’s 14th installment! Does it reach the greatness of the previous issue? Let’s take a look.

Here’s the official description from IDW:

When a dragon problem in Fillydelphia threatens to get out of hand, Luna enlists Spike’s help to find a peaceful solution. There are many suspects and no easy answers as both Spike and Luna must admit to personal shortcomings in order to find the true culprit.

At its best, there are few things as entertaining as a buddy-cop story. I thought Deliver Us From Evil was very enjoyable as well as Gotham’s constant team-up of Gordon and Bullock. For the first time I believe, we’re getting that kind of a story here. The characters used are quite a unique match-up. Luna and Spike haven’t had much interaction in the show, and in comic land they’ve only really talked once way back in the Reflections arc of the main title. What we have here is a quality story, unique and one of the more memorable Friends Forever issues.

Jeremy Whitely is becoming one of the best MLP writers. Last time he crafted a very compelling story featuring Rarity and Babs Seed. He works his magic yet again here with Luna and Spike. The latter in particular with the comics and even the show can be easy to write off as “the sidekick,” so it was nice to see him taking a proactive role here. Luna too is very good, and there’s a lot of great dialogue between the two. The setting is also unique, being in Fillydelphia and then a sub-part of it, Dragon Town. It was a treat to see the Pony versions of the police. (Though sadly, most of them are forgettable and useless to the story.) Dragon Town introduces a concept: that not all dragons are bad or greedy. Mina was a nice new character, even  though she may have went a bit overboard with the “I ship this.” And of course , the actual mystery is engaging with a twist you won’t see coming.

Agnes Garbowska’s art is simple, but most definitely effective. The main cover by Amy Mebberson is nicely detailed, though perhaps inaccurate to what’s within since there’s no epic showdown with a dragon. The subscription variant is definitely the more accurate one (and humorous) and I think should have been the main cover.

Overall, a great issue of Friends Forever. The buddy cop style works with MLP, hopefully it’ll be used again in the future. The mystery of who’s making the fires will keep you engaged from beginning to end. Even if there wasn’t a mystery, the dialogue between Luna and Spike is worth the price of admission alone.