i'd lean toward the former, along with the fact that hunter knew way more about the autobots than he should've, having been merged with Sunstreaker. it was because of this that the events of AMH happened in the first place-- the 'cons were able to exploit sunstreaker through a vulnerable human.

that said, didn't drift suggest a few issues back that the collapse of the autobots across the universe couldn't have been the result of just knowledge gained from sunstreaker(/hunter)? guess we'll have to wait until the coda...

 

I'll say it, then.

In your FACE, weeaboo-bot!

But man, they are burning through central characters pretty quickly. I'll miss Thundercracker, a more moderate voice among this pack of complete psychos.

Oh well, large cast and all. I'm actually interested again.

And I just have to add...

TANKOR NUKE!!!

I know, but it was there.

With four issues to go, I wonder where they take this series now? It's not like they have time to have Megatron come back to Earth in force or anything. Spike's view of humanity is, sadly, likely one of the most accurate in any TF fiction I've seen. I second the "back to hiding most of the time" notion.

Oh yes, and nukes aren't so terrifying without an atmosphere to carry the heat pulse and shockwave. In a vacuum, it's all the gamma that's the biggest problem.

- Coeloptera

 

Got my issue today and really enjoyed it, but then I've enjoyed all of AHM. I'm looking forward to seeing where the series will be taken next, especially since one of the covers for issue #14 suggests Galvatron will be making an appearance.

 

This was my first full issue of All Hail Megatron and my first full issue of a TF comic since Dreamwave.
It was rad, defiantely picking up some trades.

 

The letter page confirms quite clearly what's coming up:

All the issues will have two stories per issue.

AHM #13 July
1. Optimus & Ironhide - Furman and Figueroa (great to see Fig returning to the G1 universe)
2. Starscream - Costa & Chee (no idea who Chee is)

AHM #14 August
1. Sunstreaker - McCarthy & Santalucia
2. Galvatron - Schmidt & Griffith (you get your wish Takara Destron)

AHM #15 September
1. Kup - NICK ROCHE (YES! The pefect choice to fill in the gaps of his story)
2. Perceptor - Tipton & Coller (Yea, I love Coller's stuff!)

AHM#16 October
1. Spike Witwicky - Costa & Guidi (yea, Guidi's back!)
2. Bumblebee - Cannon & Chee (yea, my favorite Autobot gets a story, hope this Chee guy's art is good, pairing for this issue makes sense too)

 

great way to end the main arc.

and I loved this cover

 

There was not a single part of the Sunstreaker/Hunter portion of this story that was written well. I have a feeling the Sunstreaker story in Coda, is just going to make it worse.

 

that was kinda stupid in the first place imo I dont see how they could make it any worse

 

I think looking back AHM has had a lot of great moments, some great charicter stuff near the end, Starscream and Megatron have been at there best here, prime sadly at his worst Omega batman is sadly a joke. But I'll go back to the first line a lot of great moments, strung to gether by some thing I really do think deserves to be called a plot. I mean really megatron has new york and the matrix and hes going to do with them??? The cons then get the nuke and they deside to just blow up new york and the rest of the planet again for no real goal, all this talk about being strong and forged in battle then they just want to blow shit up and run.

 

My interpretation is that the story is an allegory about the pointlessness, the price, and the aftermath of extended warfare. The Autobots and the Decepticons have been fighting for millions of years. Both sides became so focused on beating each other that they lost sight of their original objectives and began accumulating massive amounts of collateral damage without putting much thought into it: hundreds of innocents worlds and billions of innocent beings were dragged into their civil war and exterminated, Cybertron was rendered all but uninhabitable by the swarm, etc.

Then the Decepticons essentially won the war (at least temporarily). The reason that All Hail Megatron might seem devoid of a deeper plot is because it started with their victory and essentially asked the question, "Well, now what the heck do we do?" The Decepticons spent millions of years honing the art of warfare against the Autobots and perfected it. And now their adversaries are gone. When you fight for the sole purpose of winning and then finally succeed, what, then, is your purpose in life?

We see the Decepticons take every possible path. Megatron, as big as an asshole as he is, admittedly had a grand vision: he wanted to create a new order while systematically dismantling the Decepticon war machine, even though he realized that, if he succeeded, he'd be rendered an obsolete relic with no place in the empire he'd create. Starscream and the Decepticons he got to join him mistakenly believed that Megatron was now directionless and decided to forge their own path. Some, like Bombshell, Skywarp, and Reflector, just decided to indulge their sadism by conducting inhuman experiments and genocide.

The Autobots were also forced to take a long, hard look at themselves. Optimus Prime realizes towards the end of the series that, in a sense, his troops were no better than the Decepticons because they'd essentially never given a second thought to all the innocent beings they'd sucked into the war. That's why he decided to take the first step in changing that by going back to Earth and liberate it.

 

If that was what they were going for its a good idea exicuted badly then, poor pacing has been the burden of AHM since the begining cos really while there were hints of that it came off more as something dumped in the last few issue and the rest was oh look I blow shit up but I'm all deep about it. I don't know the whole thing came off as only half done, maybe it his skill as a writer, in the begining it just didn't have that underton to I think something like this needs and the end felt to thrown together. I blame the writer here but I have to wonder how much damage taking this from a stand alone story idea to being the main IDW universe had given all the past plot line that had to be tied in and future one that'll now spring from it.

I would say the change of editoral direction is what did for AMH and put me off its writer but then again he did invent Drift.

 

It seems the concept should have been fleshed out beyond the pitch "What if the Decepticons were on Earth unopposed by the Autobots?!" The Jazz/Prowl leadership thing was weird, the Sunstreaker traitor arc seemed tacked on, and the Ironhide-Mirage bit was lifted from an episode of RiD with the Spychanger versions of these two.

And upon reflection, it was fucked-up how Skywarp would just execute Thundercracker like that. Starscream directly opposed Megatron and Skywarp didn't do a thing, just stood on the sidelines and waited to see which way the fight went. Hopefully that wasn't a fatal blast and he just warps an unconscious Thundercracker into a starship holding cell for judgement once Megatron recovers.

 

I think the Iornhide mirage thing in RID was just a retelling of the Cliffjumper Mirage stroy from the G1 cartoon, damn 3 universe of the other bots not tursting him, about time some one had a little faith the poor guy.

 

I think a lot of the issues people have voiced here are mostly because of the fact that AHM obviously was meant to be a stand alone tale and was not supposed to replace the main continuity.
Think about it: why have the whole "Sunstreaker is a traitor" reason for the Decepticons' conquering Earth when the last story arc in the main continuity had the Autobots' leaving the Earth unguarded anyway?

So, I have chosen not to elaborate on where McCarthy's story doesn't fit with Furman's anymore.
I can see that he made an honest attempt to make it work and he was pretty successful.
The fate of Hunter was grim and, in my opinion a good bridge between the two continuities -regardless of the last "feel good" panel of Maximum Dinobots.

The story could have been paced better, but it worked.
I liked it that Megatron "got in Starscream's head" and it worked.
It showed that Megatron has many abilities beyond his fusion cannon.

But I don't like the fact that we see Ratchet saying how it will be near impossible to repair Optimus only to have Optimus swoop in and save the day the very next issue with no detail on how any of it happened.
I also want to know what is The Matrix in the IDWverse, what did Megatron want to do with it (and why didn't he just do it?) and who has The Matrix now?

 

I actually liked Thundercracker's sense of honor as well and hope he survived.

As for Skywarp's actions, they weren't that fucked-up. I mean, he was already whining about how none of the other seekers were hanging out with him anymore and got all damn emo about it. Plus, there's a difference between his going after Thundercracker and going after Starscream: Thundercracker's just a grunt like Skywarp while Starscream is the seeker commander and second-in-command of the Decepticons.

 

I'm a huge fan of Thundercracker and I was really happy with his portrayal in this issue. I can't remember if it showed up at all in a previous issue or not, though. I'm hoping that he survived the blast from Skywarp, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just killed him off.

It was disappointing to see Kup showing up in two parts of the fight here. I hate this new direction they've taken him by giving him some huge authority role. The cartoon had it right when he was just an old grumpy guy that had experience but no leadership. But in this issue for him to beat Bombshell, then fight Skywarp, and then show up to fight Dropshot? That's just too much. Why couldn't anyone else have saved Sideswipe? With all these characters, why not showcase another one of them there?

 

Am I the only one who think this issue sucked?

 

you know the art work was super rushed...that was a drag....but i liked the issue for sure

i dont think thundercracker is dead though....hunter on the other hand is definitely dead