Grumpy old G1 fan reads IDW - in order!

Discussion in 'Transformers Comics Discussion' started by Ryan F, Jan 6, 2016.

  1. Jalaguy

    Jalaguy has no known physical weaknesses

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    The hardcover bonus stories (two prose stories and three mini-comics, IIRC) aren't essential, but they do sow some seeds for MTMTE and Sins of the Wreckers. Nothing so essential that you'd wind up confused later, but you'd miss out on some "I know who this is/what's going on here!" moments.

    On top of those, the hardcover also includes a ton of character profiles (done in a fun in-universe style), script extracts, galleries of cover art, concept sketches, promo art and guest art from other IDW artists, plus some trivia/backstory articles.

    So yeah, not essential, but if you're going to double-dip on anything, the LSOTW hardcover is it.
     
  2. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Spotlight: Hardhead

    3/5: Good in places, less so in others.

    Spotlight: Cyclonus worked brilliantly as a character study, whilst simultaneously advancing the rest of the story. Here that fine balance begins to topple, as the Hardhead / Nightbeat story takes over the issue, to the detriment of the other plotlines.

    The Autobots travel to the Benzuli Expanse and find the doorway to the Dead Universe; Jetfire wants to test the Pretender process on a group of Autobots; Dealer arrives on the scene, offering up the Magnificence; the Wreckers are busy fighting Thunderwing; Nemesis and Jhiaxus do a bunch of portentous evil plotting; Arcee teams up with Banzaitron to go after Jhiaxus… the plot threads are all there, but they’re truncated because so much of the page count is given over to Hardhead. We get about two panels of Wrecker-on-Thunderwing action, Arcee barely has a page, and Dealer gets a couple of panels. I understand this was originally a six-parter that got truncated into four, but the need to crowbar the ‘Spotlight’ aspect into the comic means that there’s even less room for the ‘important stuff’.

    Also, Spotlight: Hot Rod was something I covered so long ago, that to be honest I forget what the Magnificence is or what it does (hopefully upcoming issues have a bit of a recap, because I can’t really be bothered to re-read the Hot Rod book again). Another weird plotting discrepancy is that it’s only now that Optimus Prime decides to retrace the steps of the Ark-1 and investigate the Benzuli Expanse.

    It’s this aspect of the issue that works the least for me. Here we have a shipful of pioneering explorers, including Nova Prime (the Matrix-bearer himself), plus eminent scientist Jhiaxus. And in all the millennia since, no-one has thought to investigate what happened to them? No-one thought: ‘hey, let’s travel to the Benzuli Expanse and see if we can find them? They might be crashed or adrift or something.’ It’s absolutely staggering beyond belief that it’s only now the Autobots decide to go investigate. That’s a whopper of a plot-hole, and I don’t buy it one bit. I’m hoping this was a result of the last-minute re-writes because if this was part of the original plan, it’s an extremely shoddy piece of plotting.

    So onto the main focus of the issue, that being Hardhead. He’s basically a blunt instrument, built to kill. He has two operational modes, ‘brutal’ or ‘direct’, with nothing in between. He’s the go-to Autobot for all the dirty, underhand jobs that the other Autobots are too weak or squeamish to do. He’s like the anti-Wheelie, in that respect. The problem is, we’ve seen ‘living weapon’ done before with Sixshot, making Hardhead seem more of a retread that some great piece of character insight. He’s the strong, silent type, the Autobot equivalent of The Terminator. The fact that his nemesis here is a puddle of silver goop only serves to reinforce the connection. An alternative parallel would be Judge Dredd – I noted back in Spotlight: Nightbeat that Gorlam Prime looked a bit like Mega City One; Hardhead’s willingness to follow painful orders to the letter, his world-weary but determined attitude, his hard-bitten dedication to the cause, all traits reminiscent of the Galaxy’s Greatest lawman.

    What’s interesting here is that he has no qualms about shooting Nightbeat clean through the head when he turns rogue (aaargh! Poor Nightbeat!). Furman is just begging us to compare this act with Blaster’s reticence to kill Beachcomber in Spotlight: Blaster, and it just shows the difference between the two Autobots: one is a ruthless killing machine, obeying orders to the letter, the other a more likeable hero, extremely reticent to kill a friend.

    For every good element of this story, there’s something bad to counteract it. The Micromasters (and their Cybertronian modes) look great – Nick Roche does a fantastic job on them. On the negative side, there’s a lot of clunky exposition – Nightbeat explains the entire scheme to Hardhead, and there’s a lot of “As you already know, Jhiaxus…” dialogue as Nemesis Prime and Jhiaxus disseminate the plot for the benefit of the audience. I get that Furman doesn’t have the page count to play with, but surely there’s a way of conveying this information that isn’t so utterly crass?

    One final thing I find fascinating: I love the scenes of Prime in front of his bank of monitor screens, hearing reports and giving orders. It’s almost like he’s a NASA mission controller, considering options, getting tactical intel, directing the troops. To be fair to Furman, this is probably the best depiction of Prime there’s ever been: an intelligent, practical commander-in-chief rather than a John Wayne-type front-line colonel.

    PS: MatrixOfWumbo and Jalaguy ought to get commission from IDW (sigh), I've just gone and ordered the Wreckers trade...
     
  3. Reask

    Reask Predacon

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    My biggest problem with Revelation is definitely that it should not have been a main story and a spotlight merge because you're trying to focus too much on this one character who is far away from the main Dead Universe action this series should have focused more on. I liked Spotlight Hardhead because of the blunt use of Hardhead as a basic big grunt, but to me, things start to fall apart after this issue.

    On the topic of Last Stand of the Wreckers, I haven't got the hardcover yet, but it's wonderful on it's own without those bonus stories. But that won't stop the collector in me wanting to pick up those bonus stories one day. :D 
     
  4. MatrixOfWumbo

    MatrixOfWumbo I see you

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    Edit: just saw your update on the matter. I wasn't trying to sell you anything, but I do think you'll be satisfied with the extra stuff. One of the best things about Barber/Roberts era IDW is the amount of Chekhov's Guns and callbacks they scatter across the years.

    Maybe I do sound like an IDW salesman...
     
  5. MatrixOfWumbo

    MatrixOfWumbo I see you

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    I'm not sure what the deal with nobody ever looking at the Expanse was. It was a huge mystery on Cybertron (as shown in Nightbeat's Spotlight) and I guess Optimus remembered the Benzuli expanse because he saw Nova in the Matrix back in his Spotlight? The only thing I can think of is A) Nobody wanted to fly there because there obviously still wasn't a known safe passageway across the expanse B) The government post-Nova got... complicated or C) People did look, but nobody checked inside the swirly bit in the center.

    Having not started from the beginning, it does seem a lot more confusing from this angle.
     
  6. Straight Edge

    Straight Edge A Legend In My Own Central Processor

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    The four novellas, "Bullets", "Out of Bullets" (really just scenes originally meant to be part of Bullets), "Zero Point" and "In Word and Deed" serve to enrich the narrative of Last Stand, after the fact. Considering later stories assume the reader is familiar with these stories, the can be considered necessary, but not pivotal at all. You can read "Last Stand" without these stories, and enjoy it completely. And you can read later stories without missing too much, either.

    That said, they are great little stories, and I'd recommend reading them if you can.
     
  7. RNSrobot

    RNSrobot Keeper of the Waspinator Swarm. Blam.

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    Eh, just read the wiki entries when the time comes. After lstow, after issue #16. They are really good, kind of stupid the big collections don't have them.

    I second the recommendation on the lstow hardcover though. Soooooo nice.
     
  8. kgorman79

    kgorman79 WAVE POUNDER

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    Just wanted to jump in here to say that i'm really enjoying this thread and your journey though IDW continuity.
    Your reviews are fair and you're pretty enthusiastic about reading the entire IDW G1 output, you really can't ask for fairer than that :) 
    Great work man :thumb 

    And on the Wreckers hardback, it's all sorts of awesome.
    I got mine signed with a quick sketch by Nick Roche at a convention in Belfast last year :) 

    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Reask

    Reask Predacon

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    ^^^ Next time he's ever in Belfast, I'll pester him for the same thing if they do a hardback of Sins of the Wreckers. I'm probably going to ask for a
    Tarantulas.
    :D 
     
  10. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Spotlight: Doubledealer

    2/5: Not-so Magnificent.

    This is the third in a series of four Spotlights designed to conclude Furman’s Dark Universe arc. Originally it was supposed to be a six-parter that was truncated to four issues – but you wouldn’t know that by reading this issue. Whilst the first couple of issues benefitted from the faster pace as Furman condensed things nicely into the new page-count, here – bizarrely – the plot just stops. Just two things of note happen here: Nemesis Prime attacks Garrus-9, and Hot Rod secures the Magnificence. (One of these plot points I really like, the other I think is really, really horrible. Before I get to those, can you guess which is which?)

    Other than those two events, there’s very little forward progression plot-wise. The Wreckers are still fighting Thunderwing, the Autobot Pretenders are still waiting on their shells, and Arcee is still hunting down Jhiaxus (presumably, anyway – she doesn’t appear here). All of this was happening in issue 2 (Hardhead), and it’ll still be going on by the time issue 4 starts – it reminds me of Devastation, in which Hot Rod and Wheeljack spent six issues retrieving a red van from a car-crushing yard. It’s amazing to think that Furman initially planned this as a six-parter, when you consider how little progression there is here.

    Of course, a lot of the ongoing plots are pushed aside so we can shoehorn in the Spotlight concept, and here we get a focus on (Double)Dealer… except – we learn absolutely nothing about him. Yes, he’s a double-agent, but we knew all that anyway. He mentions the fear that being around Autobots all the time might make him soft, but that’s all we get. This is a ‘character’ who’s defined only by his title. He’s a double-agent and that’s all there is to him. That’s not a character, that’s a job description. When we consider how Cyclonus (conflicted about his place in the new order, a intelligent guy who suffers from Hulk-style rages) and Hardhead (a cross between Judge Dredd and the Terminator) were presented, as pretty well-rounded, fleshed-out individuals, it makes it doubly odd that Dealer is so poorly served here.

    A good writer will often have characters saying stuff they don’t really mean, but frame it in such a way that we the audience can read between the lines. In Julius Caesar, when Marc Antony says “Brutus is an honourable man” we know he’s talking rubbish. A good writer like Shakespeare would have no need of a thought bubble above the liar’s head saying “Ha ha! I don’t really mean what I’m saying!”: the verbal irony should be clear from the context. One of my main problems with Dealer is that virtually all of the internal monologue is “I’m lying”, “I hope Hot Rod doesn’t suspect”, or “gotta play it cool.” Such asides are completely pointless – we already know he’s duplicitous – why does Furman need to spell it out for us as if we are children? Does he not have the confidence in his own writing that he feels the need to reinforce the point so clunkily?

    But what’s even more pointless is that Dealer dies at the end of the issue. I mean, come on, what’s the point of wasting all that page count (which could really have been better spent on other things) on building up a character that you’re only going to kill off anyway? Sometimes that trick works – make your readers invest in someone only to pull the rug from under them – Bob Budiansky did it with Scrounge in ‘The Smelting Pool’ and that was wonderfully tragic. But doing it with a z-list bad guy barely anyone cares about, well, who’s going to feel any shock or remorse when he gets his just desserts at the end of the issue? Anyone?

    [I realise Spotlight: Ramjet did the same thing, but a) it was a fun story regardless, and b) it wasn't the penultimate issue of a two-and-a-half-year story arc.]

    And then we get the Magnificence, the magic 8 ball that really works. Wow. So basically, the Autobots instantly learn all there is to know about the Dark Universe, the Nega Cores, where they are, and what’s going on, in one fell swoop of hand-wavy magic. In stories, when a protagonist solves a mystery, or learns something, I like them to earn that knowledge – like when Columbo spends a whole episode finding who the murderer is, or when Tom Hanks follows the clues in the Da Vinci Code. If those guys had access to super cosmic 8 balls those films would have been pretty short and pointless, yeah? The Magnificence is just a cheat, a cheap way to get characters from A to B. It’s a lazy piece of writing and Furman should be better than that.

    I understand that things had to be condensed to four issues, so some shortcuts are inevitable. But Furman set up the Magnificence a while ago, so presumably it was always intended to come into play at some point. What’s worse is that the Autobots have had access to this almighty font of knowledge since the events of the Hot Rod Spotlight, but they simply ordered Hot Rod to keep it hidden and basically sit on it. WHAT!!?? If you have access to one of the most powerful artefacts in the universe, one that could win you the entire war, you don’t just tell one of your rank-and-file soldiers to hide it somewhere, you use it as part of the war effort. So not only is it a massive fudge giving the Autobots this powerful super-knowledge, it’s also really weird that they’ve never shown any interest in actually using it until now. It beggars belief, it really does.

    What other gripes do I have about this issue while I’m in rant mode? Oh yeah, Grindcore, what a stupid name for a Transformer. This isn't the first Transformer named after a music genre (Jazz says hi), but this is still pretty ridiculous. What next, an Autobot called Shoegaze? Decepticon Rockabilly Skank? Please, make it stop!

    On the plus, side, however, I do like the promise of a face-off between Optimus Prime and Nemesis Prime. That the entire arc will come down to a face-to-face between two worthy adversaries, that it might be solved by character drama rather than plot mechanics, that is what I like to see. You can have all the Nega Cores and Magnificences you like, but if the universe is saved by two gargantuans having a scrap, this thing might just turn out alright after all.

    What’s really neat is that Nemesis Prime hasn’t come alone, he’s got a glowy black blobby thing – The Darkness – to help him. Whilst it’s another piece of pseudo-mystical claptrap, this is one that I can actually get behind. Furman seems to be deliberately channelling one of his old G1 comics, ‘Dark Creation’, in which Optimus Prime came face-to-face with Thunderwing, who was being guided/controlled by a dark, corrupted Matrix-monster. That issue was also the one where Nova Prime was named for the first time. I’m hoping that Prime will destroy this ‘Darkness’ corrupting Nova Prime, and that the ancient Autobot will be redeemed – I think that would make for a good ending (but then I’m not a writer, so what do I know?).

    So yeah, in a nutshell, I really like the promise of a Nova/Optimus face-off. I also like that Hot Rod isn’t as stupid as I gave him credit for (his first question to the Magnificence is a doozy). Otherwise though, this is a Dealer spotlight that shines very little new light on the character, a truncated story that’s bizarrely stuck in a holding pattern, capped off by the utterly terrible Deus ex Magnificence.
     
  11. Omegashark18

    Omegashark18 Combaticon turned Autobot

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    Yeah, this is things started to become a bit messy writing wise. Never really liked this arc.
     
  12. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Spotlight: Sideswipe

    2/5. A rushed, botched ending. However, it looks lovely.

    It’s easy to feel some sympathy for Simon Furman here, having to wrap up half a dozen storylines in just four issues. Understandably then, some of these resolutions are somewhat unsatisfactory.

    Again, part of the problem is the Spotlight format – huge swathes of the issue have been ‘wasted’ on a character study of Sideswipe, who’s a subsidiary character at best. It may have been a better idea to make this a Nova Prime or Jetfire spotlight and shift the focus onto a character with more relevance to the plot. On the plus side, Sideswipe is a far more interesting subject than Doubledealer, but that’s not saying much.

    Furman cleverly reverses expectations here – Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are not brothers; rather, Sunstreaker was Sideswipe’s ‘training officer’. It transpires that Sideswipe suffers from self-esteem issues, and sees himself as Sunstreaker’s inferior. His desperation to save his mentor is not borne out of loyalty, but rather an attempt to prove himself, to step out of his comrade’s shadow. In previous issues, we were encouraged to believe that Sideswipe’s constant bad attitude was an understandable reaction to (what we thought was) his brother’s capture. Now we learn that he’s actually an insufferable boor, trying to make everything about himself. It’s an interesting twist, and it’s nice to see an Autobot who’s not so squeaky-clean – but with page-count at premium this strand doesn’t really justify its own existence.

    I also have a big problem with how easily he (and the other Transformers) so easily beat Nova Prime’s mob in battle. Grindcore (ugh) and Straxus are both from the Dead Universe, and yet conveniently they don’t seem to have the same zombie death touch that Nova Prime and Galvatron do. Indeed, all of the ‘supervillains’ prove to be easy meat here, with Nova, Galvatron and Jhiaxus all dispatched quite simply. Presumably this is another symptom of the truncated ending and that – if Furman had more pages to play with – we might have actually seen what happened to the likes of Monstructor, Sixshot and Thunderwing. Are they dead? Who knows? The comic’s not telling.

    Another muddy plot point is the status of Bludgeon. When last we saw him, his spark was being held prisoner on Garrus-9. So did he escape? Or is this just his soulless body we see here? Again, it’s not clear at all. Indeed, considering Furman was struggling to wrap everything up, the appearance of Bludgeon just seems like another superfluous addition. Indeed, this issue seems to cheapen ‘big’ names such as Sixshot, Bludgeon and Straxus. Straxus was one of my favourite G1 characters when I was a kid, so to see him used as merely a grunt with barely any lines seems like such a waste.

    An additional quibble is that, retrospectively, Revelation makes the ‘Autobots abandon Earth’ thing at the end of Devastation really pointless. I mean, Ironhide, Wheeljack and Bumblebee haven’t done anything in these spotlights, so why was it vital that they left Earth? Of the Earth crew, only Hardhead and Optimus actually did anything of note.

    I mentioned in the review for Spotlight: Doubledealer that the Optimus / Nova face-off had a very-similar set-up to the Prime/Thunderwing clash in the G1 comic story Matrix Quest. So it proves, as the Darkness (a Dead Universe equivalent of the Matrix) seems to be the ‘main’ villain here, having corrupted Nova. The battle relies on a string of coincidences to work (the Darkness wants to jump ship, Galvatron arrives in the nick of time, there’s a handy solar pool lying nearby), meaning that it’s not quite the satisfactory showdown I was hoping for. To be fair, though, it does continue the good work Furman has done with Optimus Prime this far: as in Escalation, it shows Optimus Prime as someone who has a cool head in battle, always thinking, always analysing. He tends to win fights with his mind, rather than his fists. That said, it would have been nice to have an explanation for the solar pool, like what its function is. It looks like a health and safety nightmare – a deadly pool of energy stuck in the middle of the floor like that. You’d think they’d have railings around it, or a sign or something.

    One of the plot threads that did get tied up satisfactorily was the Arcee/Jhiaxus plot. Whilst I have reservations about Arcee’s genesis, it’s rather satisfying to see her finally confront her bête noir and kill him (lots of times). It’s also great to see Hardhead pop up again – after Cyclonus, his was the most successful of this batch of spotlights.

    I don’t mention the art much in these reviews, mostly because I’m not that much of an art buff. As long as it tells the story, I’m happy. But the art here is absolutely stunning. EJ Su does the whole lot (pencils, inks and colours), and it’s a joy to pore over. The script might be wobbly but every panel of art is a mini-masterpiece. This is probably my favourite issue to date, looks-wise.

    So to sum up: the Sideswipe stuff is diverting but unnecessary, the villains get defeated too easily, and a lot of the plot threads are rushed and muddled. I can’t really recommend this comic, except to say that it looks very nice.
     
  13. Omegashark18

    Omegashark18 Combaticon turned Autobot

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    Yeah, and it didn't even have a lot of Sideswipe!

    Now you've got only one more Furman series left.
     
  14. MatrixOfWumbo

    MatrixOfWumbo I see you

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    Many of the characters you mentioned do get further closure from future writers, you might like to know.

    I believe Furman's original plan was that the Darkness in Nova Prime was the Matrix, a la "Dark Creation," but that plan changed during the switch to McCarthy.

    I completely agree about Arcee. Don't quite like howbher story started, but the ending is quite satisfying.
     
  15. colky7

    colky7 Well-Known Member

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    Hey Ryan, yeah you pretty much sum up my feelings near exactly here. IIRC furman had actually planned at least another two 6 part -tions for these threads/storylines and was given very little time in both issue space and literally to wrap it all up. Being given just 4 issues ruined what I think could have been a fantastic arc(s). Virtually all the things you mention letting this one down could be solved by more space, the confrontations in particular really deserved and needed more space.

    The official reason for furman's sacking was that he wanted to take TFs in a direction idw were totally against IIRC, but as you mention I'm sure the sales figures falling played a large part. I tend to blame many of the quite justifiable criticisms you had of his idw stuff on the editors at the time. I think you mentioned in an earlier review he works so much better when under tighter editorial control and don't think he was ever given that here and I always felt with a better editor this could have been a real epic. I absolutely loved the concept he brought to idw of a sort of ultimate TF as it was called at the time. Perhaps I'm biased though being an unashamed furman fanboy! Schmidt in particular despite seeming an incredibly nice guy was IMO a very poor editor.

    You also said how you grew reading his work in marvel uk and it immediately connected with me. as I was just the same and credit him with improving my vocabulary as a child and instilling a love for reading into me from a young age and making someone of only average intelligence far better read than I ever would be otherwise. Whilst travelling I read a hell of a lot of the classics of literature and really don't think I would have without having this enjoyment of reading given to me as a youngster by simon's work. I find the dropping of the -tions especially grating even till this day when it was replaced by the utter crap we had to endure for years under McCarty and then Costa. I hated their stuff so much I stopped paying for TF comics for the first time since I picked up marvel uk number 7!

    Anyway bitch over and I look forward to reading more of your reviews as you move into phase 2 so to speak. As I said before I love this thread and your reviews and check in daily for more! I love how many things you talk about that I was a big fan of too and find it funny there was probably loads of other kids like us growing up in the uk and rest of the world all with these very similar experiences, yet at the time I thought I was the only one or certainly the only one I knew! I Was what those from the US would call a jock at school so perhaps that's why I knew so few others like us or perhaps I was just unlucky! Either way it's great to read so please keep it up. Can't wait for you to get to LSOTW which at the time was like a beacon of glorious light in a years long ocean of shit for me at the time!!
     
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  16. Reask

    Reask Predacon

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    I was looking forward to Spotlight Doubledealer a lot because of how much I enjoyed the Hot Rod spotlight so I couldn't wait for the closure. And, yeah it felt very, ho-hum. Meh.

    Spotlight Sideswipe is definitely one of my least favourite spotlights, no blame on Simon Furman but IDW at the time just made so many poor choices. The thing is I really loved Furman's stories and seeing what he was trying to go for as the end goal, so it only makes the rushed endings of Devastation and Revelation all the more bitter for me.

    It was quite disappointing how Nova/Nemesis Prime was beaten that easily, and Sideswipe's whole monologue could have been told say, some time closer to the release of Spotlight Galvatron instead. I won't say anything else about this cancelled concept but, it is very anticlimactic.

    The art work was absolutely beautiful though. :) 

    Only Maximum Dinobots to read before we get to a new approach to the story, for better or worse...
     
  17. Noxex

    Noxex Well-Known Member

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    Barber really did the Lord's work when he took over the line. The quality of James and his books alone would have made everyone happy. But the fact that he decided to go back and make all this stuff (and Mccarth/Costa) make sense and feel important is remarkable. Its way more subtle too, unlike other similar situations, like say Geoff Johns on Green Lantern. I'm more of a comics fan than TF fan, so I think MTME is a whole other level from exRID but man, who else but Barber would try fix this mess?
     
  18. Reask

    Reask Predacon

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    ^^ Yep, I couldn't be happier having Barber on as the editor for a couple more decades. :D 

    Him and Roberts manage to make continuity all that more special and hell, I was impressed when Barber took what we thought was a continuity error at the start of Combiner Wars and turned it into a small plot point. Even when I read the Dark of the Moon prequel he wrote, I appreciated how it fit so well in the continuity of the films. :) 

    I'm also very glad he fixed up a continuity error from a, certain series that should seem like a minor error but, it was done wonderfully.
     
  19. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Yeah, I'd agree that a lot of the blame can be placed at the feet of the editors. I think I've read somewhere that the issues had quite a few production mistakes (RG1 certainly did!) that were later corrected for the trade. Then you have things like fembots appearing in Megatron: Origin, the decision to turn Revelation into a bunch of Spotlights, the Seekers' constantly changing designs in the Avengers crossover, a lot of scale issues (both Iron Man and Sixshot seemed to be capable of mass shifting)... and I'm sure there's a whole bunch of other examples that I can't think of off the top of my head.

    It certainly makes you wonder what the editors were playing at!

    Well, you got me beat (my first UKTF issue was #44)! But yeah, I completely agree. I distinctly remember reading issue #100 and having to ask my parents what a 'Charnel House' was. I think Target:2006 also used the word 'somnambulant' in there somewhere. It's great that Furman took it upon himself to put unusual words and phrases in his books, thereby forcing kids like us to work out what it all meant.

    No idea about McCarthy and Costa, but I'll certainly give them both a fair crack of the whip!
     
  20. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Maximum Dinobots #1

    4/5. A promising opening.

    Abraham Dante is basically a Bond villain. He has a stupid name, likes to explain his grand plans to his minions (for the benefit of us readers), and makes grandiose proclamations like “we shall very soon be the controlling force of this world… the Machination Empire shall rise!” If this was converted into a live-action series or movie, you know full well that Dante would be played by someone who could really, really ham it up (Jim Carrey would be great). In fact, those Dante scenes encapsulate the whole issue – this isn’t going to be a completely serious piece – ‘romp’ is most definitely going to be the word of the day.

    The opening sequence is set on Cybertron, and it quickly fills us in on who the Dinobots are and what they do (for the benefit of new readers). They’re extremely proficient killing machines, and they have a penchant for cheesy slogans: “Maximum mayhem!” “We came. We saw. We trampled.” Again, this is all very tongue in cheek; in our hypothetical movie adaptation Grimlock would clearly be played by Vin Diesel.

    Grimlock manages to track down the ship that brought him to Earth, and he’s almost immediately set upon by a bunch of Sunstreaker clones, courtesy of Dante. Of course, just as Hot Rod and Wheeljack had no problem dealing with these creeps in Devastation, so Grimlock makes short work of these decoys.

    For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of these Grimlock scenes was an illustration of a computer read-out on the Dinobot ship, composed of little hieroglyphs that are full of in-jokes. There are references to Radiohead’s OK Computer album, Led Zeppelin IV, Gene Simmons’s KISS make-up and a Boba Fett helmet. I’m sure there are some others in there which look familiar (possibly some Klingon letters?) but suffice it to say we have three whole panels of solid hieroglyphic in-jokes. If this is a Bond film, this is one of the Roger Moore ones, rather than a Daniel Craig.

    I mentioned in previous reviews that both Skywatch and the Machination came across as somewhat shambolic organisations, and thankfully that seems to have been corrected here. Skywatch knows setting the other Dinobots loose is a silly idea, but because the results of their tests are being manipulated by a Machination plant, their reliance on the other Dinobots is a bit easier to swallow. Skywatch’s Agent Red is starting to get suspicious, further cementing the idea that they aren’t completely stupid.

    The Machination, too, are much better served. They know the Sunstreaker clones are a bit rubbish (basically, they’re Stormtroopers), so their real scheme is much grander. By beaming Grimlock into the middle of a populated area, they are goading Skywatch into releasing the other Dinobots as a countermeasure.

    There is a short cameo by Hot Rod, who appears in two panels near the end, approaching the Machination base. Considering that Hot Rod has had plenty of time to have a long chat with the Magnificence 8-ball, he should theoretically be able to one-up Scorponok quite easily, I’d imagine – that’s the problem with giving someone unlimited knowledge, I suppose.

    But what really exacerbates the problem with the Magnificence is a short scene involving Hunter and Sunstreaker. They learn about the Dinobots – not because of some magical amulet of wisdom – but via a bit of detective work of their own, much of which happens off-panel. It’s a perfunctory scene, but it serves to highlight how easy it would have been for the Autobots to learn about the Dark Universe by means other than a Cosmic Oracle.

    It’s all set-up so far, and promisingly so. Where previous Furmanation stories have been somewhat po-faced, this adventure is much camper, and all the better for it. Furman can be funny when he’s in the mood (‘Fallen Star’, ‘Out to Lunch’ and The Bad Guy’s Ball’ are all testament to that), so I’m quite excited about the prospect of a more light-hearted approach. Let’s hope all that promise doesn’t lead to the same disappointment I got from Devastation and Revelation.