Hello folks! We're back with another G5 one-shot. What's the big mystery? There's only one way to find out!
Our story begins in the Cloud Coliseum of Zephyr Heights. The Mane Six are eagerly watching a performance by Airen, the greatest pegasi flier in Zephyr Heights. They're reacting the way you would probably expect: Zipp is a fan of his moves, Pipp is talking about how he's trending on social media, Izzy has painted her face, it's all good--until it isn't.
Mid-performance, Airen pulls off his signature move, the Zephyr Comet, and there's a bright flash of light--and then he's gone. Panic and frantic and other similar sounding things occur as the disappearance sinks in.
Anyone else reminded of a reaction you'd see on an old episode of Speed Racer?
We then cut to a pegasus reporter named Sky Scoops as she goes through and interviews each of the Mane Six in turn about what they saw. We learn a bit more about Airen, how he was a record-breaking performer turned movie star, given the key to Zephyr Heights by Queen Haven, etc.
From Hitch's interview we see him acting as security and being told by Airen's assistant not to have anyone disturb him for two hours prior to showtime, then helping a pony who lost his vending badge. Then we see Sunny making a special smoothie for Airen and directing the pony with the lost vending badge towards Hitch. After waiting for two hours, she delivers the smoothie to Airen but is abruptly shown the door by Airen's assistant.
One of the better panels, but my eyes are drawn towards her ears and I keep thinking of rabbits.
Izzy's next and she's seen getting her face painted and getting some cotton candy, also observing the missing badge pony as he frantically goes around looking for it. She then does some uni-cycling, picking up discarded items like a bag with feathers on it. Then it's Misty's turn. She's marveling at the sights and sounds, a bit overwhelmed by the scale. A friendly, familiar-looking pegasus helps her with that, and mentions that celebrities are just regular ponies at heart before happily spotting a mare he'd been waiting for and bidding Misty farewell.
Sure is a good thing he decided to have this conversation with someone who wouldn't instantly recognize him.
Scoops then interviews Pipp who had herself been interviewing Airen live for her followers. He said he was doing things a little differently for this show, but abruptly had to cancel the interview and leave early, without answering Pipp's question about a rumored secret girlfriend. Zipp closes out these interviews, having spoken to Airen during setup. She introduced herself as a big fan and asked how he does it all and stays calm. Airen answered that one of the best things to do is to push boundaries and leave an impact.
I'd say Zipp's excited and embarrassed at meeting an idol--but she's had that red on her face the whole comic, so I can't really be sure.
Just as Sky Scoops closes out the interviews, Airen's assistant is accosted by the upset crowd of vendors and attendees who demand to know where Airen is, if this was all a publicity stunt or what.
I guess it really wouldn't be a pony event or con without some sort of back scenes drama.
Hitch and the girls step in and take the assistant into a room to interrogate him. He doesn't want to say anything, being Airen's friend and mentions all the pressure he'd been under. But as the Mane Six begin listing what they've noticed, like the bag of feathers, the demand for privacy, Airen mentioning wanting to leave a lasting impact is enough to get the assistant to immediately crack. He takes them down a secret tunnel to a room where Airen and his girlfriend have been hiding out. The truth comes out: Airen wanted to ditch the spotlight and go on an around-the-world flight expedition with his girlfriend, connect isolated communities, document air routes, etc. He decided to pull a disappearing act because he didn't think his fans would understand giving up the fame and fortune for the sake of adventure.
So clearly Airen's not much of a brain trust, got it.
Our protagonists encourage him to come clean and tell his fans the truth, which he does and, of course, it does indeed go down well, closing out with a message about great adventures not being about escaping your old life but finding the courage to start a new one, especially if you have someone to share it with.
Thoughts
In an earlier review I had expressed a certain satisfaction in the fact that there were more stand-alone and one-shot comics, that not every issue was part of a four- to six-issue miniseries that ran the risk of outstaying its welcome or having a disappointing conclusion. While I still do like having a mix of both, I think the continuing number of G5 one shots feels a bit more like the comic is spinning its wheels and seems largely at a loss for what to do with this series.
Unfortunately, the last few G5 one-shots haven't left me with too much to sink my teeth into. The framing of the story as a mystery could have been interesting, but with this many characters it has to speed run through the story to squeeze them all in. Some of the choices seem unusual, like having that one vendor pony searching for his badge appear in three of the interviews before abruptly being dropped. That doesn't seem to work as either a red herring or a running gag.
Alas poor vending pone, we hardly knew you. No, really.
The way the mystery is resolved isn't too satisfying either, considering we didn't really see our protagonists piece things together. The assistant pretty much flat-out told us what the answer was after a bare minimum of them reciting a few facts of the case. This really didn't display much of the respective strengths of the Mane Six, just quickly showcase some of their quirks and how they'd react to things going on around them.
Finally, the big issue of the art. It's is an acquired taste--that I just didn't acquire. The art is by Asia Simone and she draws pony heads as largely a circle, emphasizing roundness.
Personal space, Izzy!
They're also drawn with disproportionately large, curved pointy ears that put me in the mindset of elves or gremlins.
The red mane and pointed ears make me think of more a devilish character, which I doubt was the intention.
Ponies are often drawn with their mouths and eyes wide open, occupying more than half their total face and a number of characters have permanently red-tinged cheeks.
While making your characters wide-eyed can indeed make them appear cuter--I think the G5 comics has shown aptly that it doesn't necessarily make them cute, but rather more unsettling.
While there are other expressions used, the over use makes it that much harder for things to stand out. Backgrounds are either simple gradients or, barring some outside shots, largely set against backgrounds that seem largely yellow and that doesn't help ponies like Sunny or Hitch stand out from them.
I looked up her website to get a better sense of her art style and I've seen examples of her work in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comics--and it works really well there, capturing the look from their animated series while incorporating Simone's distinct style. I wonder if the issue might stem from her trying to translate certain human-esque expressions onto ponies. While it worked out quite well for Moon Girl, I don't think the same can be said for MLP. Regardless, I don't want this to turn into another thing where the fandom dogpiles a comic artist fort their style because it isn't what they're used to or what they prefer in pony comics.
Overall, the comic doesn't leave too much of an impression, like a placeholder in the grand scheme of things, though perhaps others may find it more impactful than I did. We'll have to see what comes next for the comics.
Thanks for tuning in!
