IDW welcomes latest licensed property, My Little Ponies, Friendship is Magic, with death, uncomfortable cross-property license.
IDW Publishing, best known for not owning any intellectual property worth publishing, has continued its efforts to obtain licensing rights to all 80′s nostalgia by obtaining what many perceive as the crown jewel: My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic.
The series, which features unicorns, pegasi and common horses, better known as “future glue”, facing their own racism while eating zap apple pie, is highly rated amongst elementary school girls and college age boys. IDW is hoping that this series will bring some of these otherwise adult males into comic book shops which, unlike Equestria, is not run by a sexy and confident princess.
These “bronies” are concerned about IDW’s plans to include the title in its most recent “Infestation” storyline. Infestation is a cross-license crossover concept that IDW has used in the past to connect properties such as Transformers, Star Trek, Ghost Busters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the upcoming storyline, the sand worms from Beetlejuice will face their cousins on Arakis, the desert planet at the heart of Dune, before devouring the Tardis, battling Godzilla and attempting to destroy Sookie Stackhouse and the rest of Bon Tempes, Louisiana.
“I’ll be the first to admit that Infestation has the artistic merit of that anti-drugs ad from the 80′s where Slimer and Garfield warned kids about doing blow, but ‘art’ doesn’t pay the bills,” said IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. “I’d love to be the first person in the world to make a living through valid and worthwhile creative endeavors, but I’m not an idiot. I drive a Cadillac. Idiots don’t drive Cadillacs.”
Early reports indicated that the storyline would include a cross-over with classic space opera sensation Robotech, however these plans were scuttled once Ryall learned that Robotech technically qualifies as anime. IDW has a long-standing policy of refusing to license intellectual properties with Japanese origins. “I leave that Gundam and Appleseed stuff for Dark Horse,” said Ryall.
Equestria Daily, the leading newspaper of the fictional land inhabited by the ponies, reports that the series will introduce a series of shocking twists into Pony mythology.
“I love me some sweet, sweet Rarity,” said series writer Dan Abnett, “but the first few issues are going to feature fallout from her fans as they react to her violent murder. And it’s not a death I take lightly. Her death is driven by the storyline.”
