Follow the spoiler-bricked road after the break!
Returning to the land of Odd brings with it the same art style of penciller Jenna Ayoub and inker Matt Froese. I've had the chance to read people's comments on the art style and their varying enjoyment degrees. Some enjoy the look as it seems to compliment the fairy tale aspect that the original The Wizard of Oz strove to embody.
Myself, I'm not sold on the style partially because it's the same style as used in Little Fillies. If the art is meant to be an identity then I don't enjoy seeing it applied to two disparate stories. I'm more inclined to view this as Ayoub's standard art style that seems to apply better to humans than to ponies. The most egregious example is whenever the characters feature a 3/4 turn and begin to lose further definition. Ultimately, it comes down to personal tastes and interpretation. I'm not saying anyone is wrong to enjoy this artwork. I can only express why it isn't gripping me.
We pick up with Apple-Dorothy shortly after helping down Pinkie the Scarecrow. This issue is entirely devoted to assembling the famous party with an emphasis on the Tin Woodsmare, Rarity. We get the usual "if I only had a brain" explanation, but we also see an aspect that didn't translate from the book to the movie. Because the Scarecrow is made entirely of stuffing, she cannot be physically harmed nor does she need to eat or sleep. If anything, a brain might weaken the Scarecrow's invincibility as she would have a vulnerable spot.
We experience a similar idea with the Tin Woodsmare, after going through the ritual of oiling her joints and helping her work out the rust. This story takes some liberties with her backstory. While the original Tinman was a Munchkin who fell in love with a lady and suffered the obstacle of an over-protective caretaker, who besought the now-dead Wicked Witch of the East to stop the wedding. For Rarity's take, it is a love of fashion and an effort by Suri Polomare to block her entrance into the fashion world that invokes the Witch's curse.
The Tin Woodsman's story is pretty gruesome. The cursed axe cut off his limb rather than any tree trunk. So he had a tinsmith replace it. Then the axe took another leg, and again the woodsman acquired a replacement. You'd think he'd have learned the lesson by now, but the guy was so fixated on his love that he just kept going and replacing parts of himself as the axe cut away. All of this until there was nothing of the original Woodsman left. This makes the Tin Woodsman an early form of a cyborg, an alternate take on the Ship of Theseus thought experiment, or both. Rarity, mercifully, gives us an abridged explanation of this horror show, with the narrator notes they are not allowed to illustrate.
Less merciful is the fourth wall breaking humor. We have Rarity usurping the narrator's role for a time until Pinkie encourages a reconciliation strategy. It's a fun conflict but it takes up a great deal of panels, demanding that overall story stop and let this play out. Because its focus narrows to two out of five characters, it also requires that half that cast just sit around and do nothing. However, it does provide Pinkie the Scarecrow a moment to employ her thoughts despite her claims of having no brain.
We get a funnier moment within a single panel as Rarity shows a possible homicidal side to the Woodsmare, which is not lost on Apple-Dorothy.
We only have a few pages for Fluttershy the Cowardly Lion to make her appearance. Her introduction is more standard to the original book with a display of force but quickly overpowered by Dorothy's berating. I will say that Fluttershy is the perfect choice for this character and I am so pleased she isn't portraying a character destined to die like before.
With our ensemble complete, we can finally talk about what all this means to the story in a symbolic way. Each of Dorothy's companions is an aspect of herself that has gone under-developed. Within the gray vistas of Kansas, Dorothy was an orphan who had no one her age with which to bond and seemingly no education beyond working the farm. She felt out of place with her home, disconnected from her family and others, and ultimately powerless to change her future. The three companions that Dorothy meets represent that what she must develop in order to achieve wholeness as a person. A mind for ideas tempered by a connective heart and the courage to take control of her own life. In time, each of these aspects will become a ruler in his own right, with Dorothy achieveing full individuation.
But for now, we must leave the party on their journey. With a cliffhanger as they are endangered by Kalidahs. More about them in the next issue!
For this issue, it completes the team but does so in an elastic way. Too long in some spots and too short in others. Opinions on this storyline vary but I think it well worth a read if only to see if it stirs an interest in the original tale.
I'm Silver Quill. Thanks for reading!
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