IDW 20/20 - A Middle-Aged Man Reads JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS

Wherefore art thou, Blaze?
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And so it ends, without a question mark this time. Though this was officially-speaking a What If, so it's not officially canon with the previous issues (giving them space to go back and continue if they really want to), but it feels like a solid conclusion (far more so than Truly Outrageous or Dimensions did), so I'll treat it like one.
And what did I think? I quite liked it. The previous pseudo-finales brought the Jerrica-Jem-Rio and Jerrica's self-confidence arcs to good conclusions, but left open the Holograms vs. Misfits rivalry and Pizzazz's personal growth (among other minor arcs), and this brought both of them to a good conclusion. At least, it did the best it could in a single issue. It's a time jump ahead, so it's perfectly justified in asking us to assume that everyone involved underwent some personal development in this time (notably Pizzazz, who's pretty much the main character of this issue). Pizzazz shows that she's fundamentally the same person, but she's matured a lot. It feels like natural growth to her character, even if we didn't get to see it all.
The issue overall seemed to have a theme reflecting on the series as a whole, too: Things don't always last forever. In-universe, Jem and the Holograms only lasted a brief time. In the real world, the comic run also only lasted a brief time. But that doesn't mean it's forgotten, and it certainly doesn't mean it doesn't matter. We can come back to share our love of it, even if we don't need it to come back in full.
Only real criticism I have of this is, as you mentioned in the description: Where the hell is Blaze!? She's a pretty major character to disappear like that. I can imagine maybe she left the Misfits to lead her own band, but it would have been nice if she could have at least been mentioned. Maybe as you said they originally planned more for this but it got cut down.
For the series as a whole, I agree with your assessment. It had distinct ups and downs, and a lot of weird art style shifts, but it was never down for too long straight, and importantly it started strong and ended strong. It didn't last forever, but it was great that it happened, and we can all come together to fondly remember it and show it our love.
Thank you for this review series, Andrew!

[@andreweisen]

Thanks for accompanying me on this journey; glad you enjoyed it!