Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life and back to the Rarity Retrospective as we look at our third Rarity comic. And no, it's nothing as zany as the last issue. Which is okay as it's nice palate cleanser. It's a more down to earth slice of life story featuring two characters that I thought I'd never seen interact. But as I mentioned in the last Friends Forever review, that is one of the neat things about this story. I'm hoping they do a Cadance and Fluttershy story. Why not, they're putting out a Discord and Luna story. Also I apologize in advance as this review will not have as many pictures as my previous reviews. As you see I read the last issue on the IDW App as I switched over to that earlier in this year as it's more user friendly whereas when I first got into MLP comics, I purchased them directly from Apple's IBookstore. Also, if you are interested in just MLP comics, IDW recently released an app just for Pony comics but as I'm interested in the Turtles, Ghostbusters, and upcoming Back to The Future comic, I prefer using the IDW App. (Though, there is a Turtles Comic App from IDW as well).
Cover
I am not sure as I think that I may have misspoken about Friends Forever only having one cover for each issue as I have seen at two covers for this comics but the ITunes copy only had this one cover. Ah according to some research, it's a Variant deal and only people that subscribe got the Variant cover.
And I'l; be honest and say that I think the variant does a great job of capturing Rarity but it's not the cover I had for my issue. So let's look at the cover that came with my digital issue.
The standard cover for the issue does a great job of showing the difference between Babs and Rarity in their two styles. Though I remember the first time I saw this on Equestira Daily, I was left baffled as I didn't know what could be done with these two.
Staff
Writer - Jeremy Whitley
I can't say for certain if I'm familiar with anything that Whitley has done but on this comic, he did pretty well as he captured the spirits of the character very well.
Artist/Colorist - Agnes Garbowska
The art and coloring were great. They really popped and it was very vibrant.
Editor - Bobby Cunrow
This comic went by pretty fast. It was a really short read.
The Plot
We open the comic on a sick Sweetie Belle, who has an ear infection which means that she cannot travel. Which bums her out as she was supposed to go to Manehattan with Rarity and was looking forward to spend time with Babs Seed.
That panel of Sweetie falling out of the bed is just adorable. Also, I and a lot of other fans took notice of the Spike doll and when Castle Sweet Castle aired and we saw Spike's Rarity doll, a lot of Bronies that read this comic thought of this page.
But Rarity has to go as she is going on business trip for Sapphire Shores.We see her sometime later in a Manehattan fashion studio planning a dress for Sapphire. And there's a knock and Rarity thinks that it's the Pony of Pop but no, it's Babs. Rarity informs Babs that Sweetie wasn't able to come and just as Babs is about to leave, Rarity suggests that she and Babs can spend time together. And if anyone knows Rarity, you know where this is going.
Rarity takes Babs out on the town, first to a spa but Babs heads outta there as soon as she needs a needle that a spa pony is going to use for acupuncture. They next go to a hair salon but Rarity pulls Babs out before a rather eccentric hair stylist can get too far into Babs' hair. They next go into a department store, where Rarity has Babs model some clothes but Babs finally speaks up and says that she doesn't have the same interests as Rarity. We later see Rarity vent to Sapphire Shores about Babs' lack of appreciation and she doesn't understand why this bugs her so much but Sapphire says that perhaps, Rarity is seeing a bit of herself in that little filly because she reminds Miss Rarity of the stories that she has told Sapphire about her parents not understanding her interests in fashion and that she'd just go off on her own and make clothes for her dolls. There needs to be fan art of that somewhere and that does explain how Rarity was able to use the sewing machine so well at such a young age.
After this conservation, Rarity goes and finds Babs at her apartment. In case, your'e wonder how she knew where Babs lived. They hid there from the cops in an arc in the main series with AJ, Apple Bloom, Trixie, and Fluttershy.
Rarity has cleared the evening with Babs' parents and takes the young filly to a roller derby and Babs is loving every minute of it. It's rather sweet to watch Babs get so excited about the roller derby and explaining to Rarity, what's happening.
Also, hi Elsa Pony.
Yep, it has been confirmed that roller derby pony is indeed, a pony version of Elsa. And I know some reviewers such as one of my favorites, Silver Quill thought that the pony that she was bumping into is a wingless and hornless Cadance. At the end of the derby Babs gets to meet her idol, the pony with the star on her helmet.
And they have a sweet moment talking about this pony likes Babs' hair. And the comic ends with Rarity writing in the journal about what she learned that everyone has their own style. Her and Sweetie Belle had made a special CMC roller derby outfit for Babs with the name, Bad Seed on it. And we end the comic with the two sisters spending the day together. This comic is okay, it's fun but it can't top the last comic but at the same time, it wasn't trying to. I don't think that it's fair to compare this issue to that comic as they're trying to achieve two very different goals. The Rarity and Applejack comic was more about laughs whereas this one really sought out to teach a lesson and it did a good job.
Characters
Rarity
I do think that out of most of the Friends Forever comics, I've read this one felt like it had more one character in the starring role compared to the other as this really seemed to be a Rarity story that happened to have Babs in it to teach Rarity a lesson.
Babs Seed
It was nice to see Babs again as she hadn't been seen on the show since season 3 and the last time, we saw her in a comic was in the Equestira Girls Annual, where she was still a bully and is apparently older than the Humane Six.
Back to filly Babs, while it was nice seeing her again and I loved seeing her reactions to some of the things that Rarity wanted to do with her, i still felt like she was a supporting character in what should have been a story focused on both of these characters.
My Final Thoughts
I enjoy this comic, even for all of it's flaws but it was a nice slice of life read. It's not the best comic that I've read from IDW nor is it the worst. At best, it's okay. Check it out if you want but it's not a must-read. Join me next time as we look at the newest issue of Friends Forever as we look at issue # 19 and see what happens when Ponyville's favorite fashion pony goes on business venture with The Cakes.
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