I think you're underestimating the human adversaries here. They've had ample (and in Krieger's case, decades) time to study Cybertronian technology and how to fight and subvert it. The whole point of Miles's MASK tech was to find ways to hide from and hurt Cybertronians.

Additionally, this attack came out of nowhere during what should have been pomp and celebration. The Cybertronians were starting one foot behind to begin with. And since the big attack is a distraction from the smaller main group...

I generally side with the idea that TF's have some serious advantages against humans (see the movie continuity for how to get that really wrong)... but they've covered their bases here.

 

Except this is addressed in issue #4: the Cybertronians DON'T see the humans as a threat. They see them as a minor annoyance that will be easy to take care of. The only person to take the threat seriously is Optimus (aka, the one guy who has actually dealt with some of these villains before.) It's not they're not organized, it's that they're being naive and not treating the humans like an actual threat.

 

Also, the Cybertronians DID organise and put up a fight... against the attackers on the surface, who were the only ones they knew about. Despite Starscream's standoffishness, he immediately sent teams to look for Colton once he was told about him.
And, being fair to Elita, she doesn't really have a reason to trust the humans... though I will acknowledge that it's almost certainly petty point-scoring over Starscream.

 

Yeah it is almost as if the last 20 issues of everything that isnt the LL has been dedicated to showing humans interacting with TFs in politically and technologically meaningful ways?

Naysaying this event seems to be pissing on a parade for the sake of it.

 

Sorry fellas I'm a little to the story but who is the dark pink Cybertronian with Miles Mayhem and Destro?

 

That is an unnamed Cybertronian that most people are assuming is Antagony. However, in the second issue, the Micronuats villains Shazraella Enerchanged with Antagony to possess her body.

 

Though I'm not convinced on the plot, I did enjoy the characterization of the villains in this one a bit more. REALLY wish IDW had kept to its intended reading order.

 

i am a fan of transformers ince 1984 watched the cartoon and bought them later on dvd along with beast war/machines. i bought the tf uk issues. but, i'm still an outsider, however, i have loved reading the tf idw hardcovers as it flows in a way that mike costa and wreckers are part of the mythology (i would have hated to see earth destroyed and the autobots just fly away). i enjoyed the media, the realistic clean-up, the hatred of all cybertronians (i'd probably hate them, as well) but i felt humans were needed. since i collect the hardcovers, i doubt humans will ruin it for me, since roberts and other spotlights and mini-series will keep things space-surfing. i don't want human stories every issue like budinski (sp) did in the american issues--no disrespect sa he is the one that came up with names, biographies, the war, etc. i loved the first 12 issues of the us series except when they had the double page spread for all the autobots to tell the reader their name. i really like how idw gives their name and personality in a little narration box. my point is i think humans and cybertronians can co-exist in the same mythology and it helps readers to share a human p.o.v. every now and again, while, still focusing on the sci-fi, political, theology, battles, etc. but, as i stated, i'm still an outsider.

 

In issue #5, Starscream says "anyone and their conjunx feels free to barge in (my office)" when Elita and Obsidian stand behind him. Does that imply that they are Conjunx Endura?

 

Having just read issue five... While I'm definitely enjoying this mini-series, I can't help but feel like it's been padded out just a smidge.... seems like they could have cut this down to 5 issues or so instead of six. I'm not entirely sure what I'd cut, but still.

 

No; Starscream is being sarcastic.

 

Yea, I think I'd cut some of the Scarlett's history with Colton stuff (though I get why it's there to build him up), flipside, I'm enjoying most of it. The villain team has some really good interactions and seems plenty threatening, especially with Shazraella present to be muscle and them partially counting on the Cybertronians really underestimating their threat.

Starscream is entirely enjoying the Optimus Prime thing too. He literally takes a moment just to soak it in ^^

The big fallout of this is Optimus Prime has wrecked his political position by flat bypassing the council- even his ally Windblade- in a crisis.

 

Makes you wonder how this is going to affect him going forward. Windblade isn’t going to put up with him anymore, and Starscream and Elita One are going to slander him with this.

Guess we’ll get an idea come Optimus Prime #13.

And I personally think this whole event has been perfectly paced. The plot is simple and character driven, with bits of political intrigue in there for good measure. I’m eager to see how this ends.

 

I'm eager to see how Barber (presumably) continues Windblade's building when Scott, in her "Last Strike", chose to write her favorite character to the ground like a, well, unruly subordinate.

 

These recent crossover events (ROM vs. Transformers and First Strike) have been unironically more entertaining than the mainline TF titles. Scott is an excellent writer and it's nice to see Optimus doing something heroic for once and (at least a few) people realizing it. OP's growing friendship with Scarlett is a delight.

 

Scarlett is totally someone who can relate to the Cybertronians in her responses to both Optimus Prime and Soundwave. I am liking Optimus Prime in this series. The problem with Starscream is he is in the position where he can enjoy it but secretly he agrees with Optimus Prime. He also sees Elita One being short sighted about the humans in general.

 

Wait, so you're telling me that everyone actually has a legitimate gripe against Optimus? I haven't read any of these issues yet, but over in the thread for the latest Optimus Prime issue, people were framing First Strike as if it was just the latest in a ten year parade of characters pissing on Optimus for absolutely no reason.

 

Basically in this case, OP is doing the obviously right thing and by right I don't mean morally right, I mean he's actually using his brain cog and taking the best course of action to solve this problem which is teaming up with the Joes who understand what these villains are capable of instead of meandering about like the council who refuse to listen to anything the Joes offer on Colton. This is a battle and Optimus knows what he's doing when it comes to saving a planet seeing how this is the third or 4th time already. I kind of agree with the sentiments of the other thread though, just about every IDW book at the moment spends a lot of time ragging on Optimus.

 

Basically: Optimus broke the GI Joes out of Cybertron jail to help stop the baddies after Starscream had them arrested. Which was undoubtedly the correct thing to do in story terms, because the Joes are the Good Guys™, but also he - a civilian with no legal authority on Cybertron - bypassed the will of Cybertron's actual government and assaulted several guards.

 

Plus, before he could claim to speak for Earth at the council, even if it wasn't formally inducted the fact it had the public support to be a colony world and had a titan gave him something of an advisory role. Now that that's Marissa's job, Optimus can really claim no positions besides 'leader of the Autobots,' a position that's certainly degraded in authority, and 'Prime,' a religious position without formal powers.

Like Boatformer said.

"Yea, sure, of course I respect your judgement on keeping the GI Joe team that just arrived locked up."

*Bursts them out anyway, without consulting Windblade or anyone*

It might be the right move, but he directly went against the council in a way that completely crossed Elita (who wanted them dead- Starscream gave the fairly reasonable compromise of the official GI Joe security team already assisting security forces being allowed to continue to do so, and all other humans held until the crisis was over), and also annoyed Windblade in bypassing the authority (which, if you'll recall, she spent all of both Windblade series and Til All Are One making compromises to support).

Flipside, I think Optimus was very on-point in that he's very used to being able to give wartime speeches to get everyone on his side to do what he thinks is right, and he's not really sure where they'll stick any more, and he does have a tendency to go ahead and do his way anyway. It's something they're doing consciously and I think with a fair amount of nuance (meanwhile in OP, Aileron is basically acting just like Prime does and having to put up with Optimus's fanatics as well- Optimus taught her well).

As the peace stabilizes and things become more politics than heroic, Optimus's own success has helped push him out of a job and he's somewhat uncomfortable in what is a functional political system.