Robots in Disguise #6 – Syndromica [1]

2/5

Right off the bat, I’m going to put my cards on the table: of all the plotlines set up (and rushed to a finish) by Simon Furman, the Dead Universe/Bludgeon/Jhiaxus/Monstructor stuff was amongst my least favourite. For one thing, I just didn’t care for these characters at all, nor did Furman make any attempt to make me care. It was almost as if he thought that inserting old fan-favourites into the script was enough, and that we’d simply lap it up.

The thing is, what made these characters fan-favourites in the first place was missing. Bludgeon and Jhiaxus were extremely entertaining in their G1/G2 incarnations, memorable and full of verve. Their IDW equivalents are just… nothing. I can barely remember what Bludgeon’s involvement in the plot was, post-Stormbringer, and to my mind IDW Jhiaxus has been Arcee’s punchbag for most of the last few years.

IDW works best when it gives us an emotional connection to these characters beyond simple nostalgia. When Roche and Roberts wrote LSOTW they didn’t just think “well, everyone loves the Wreckers anyway, so we don’t really have to try here”, instead they gave the characters new lives outside of their G1 selves. Ditto Ironhide in the Costa material, to be fair.

So John Barber has a lot of work on his hands here – take some of the dregs of the Furman run, and make it into something both enjoyable and engaging. The results are… mixed.

On the plus side, the fact that this issue is set away from Cybertron makes it feel like a breath of fresh air. RID had gotten a little stale in its last couple of issues, and this instalment certainly freshens things up. Hardhead meets Orion Pax in a seedy alien bar and reveals that he holds Jhiaxus prisoner. With Wheelie and Garnak in tow, they follow the clues to Arduria, a planet that’s unnaturally cold.

The low temperature is a result of another Shockwave experiment – it seems that the various ‘ores’ seeded around the cosmos each have their own weird power – whilst Ore-13 created super-energon on Earth, the Arduria ore creates super-cold.

Of course, the whole thing is a super-elaborate plan by Bludgeon to lure Hardhead to the planet, free Jhiaxus, unleash Monstructor and then track down the other 11 ores. It’s such a strange plan, and relies completely on the Autobots’ insistence on bringing Jhiaxus with them to the planet (Bludgeon would have been totally scuppered had Pax ventured to the planet alone).

The characterisation here is mixed: Orion Pax as a John Wayne-style lawman, investigating and fighting without the responsibility of leadership is a good new take. That said, Jhiaxus and Bludgeon are nothing but ranting madmen, and Monstructor just growls a lot. And that’s this issue’s main problem: it feels like it was written by Furman, and has those same old Furman problems – it expects us to care about Bludgeon and Jhiaxus and Monstructor simply because of who they are, rather than what they do or how they act.

A quick word on the art – after the super-clean lines of MTMTE and RID over the past few issues, this is darker, dingier and murkier. It adds a lot of atmosphere and grimness to a story that doesn’t really deserve it.

If ever a single panel summed up an issue it would be the one of Garnak laying bloodied and beaten on the floor, and Wheelie pinned to the wall, skewered with one of Bludgeon’s swords. It looks lovely, creepy, well-lit and dramatic, but ultimately it’s meaningless because both Wheelie and Garnak are fit and well again by the very next page.

This is an issue in which a lot of stuff happens - it’s clearly trying to be momentous and portentous. It’s the return of Bludgeon! The return of Orion Pax! We find out more stuff about Shockwave’s crazy plans! But it leaves me as cold as the temperatures on Arduria. This doesn’t engage me. Orion Pax is the one character here who I can believe in, while everyone else is a decidedly one-note. As a nuts-and-bolts exercise in set-up and plot development this just about works. But as a story, this isn’t something I can really get behind.

 

Yeah, Syndromica isn't really the best read. But it's important in what it's setting up.

Fortunately there's only... three of these issues, IIRC.

 

Syndromica basically exists because Hasbro didn't want Optimus Prime out of the comics permanently. It's also understandable that there's not a whole lot of character development, because Barber is really using this trilogy as a vehicle to clean up some of the continuity snaggles the previous writers left him with. This becomes much more apparent in part II - but saying anymore would spoil the plot.  

 

Syndromica only exists to bridge story arcs together and to appease Hasbro by not kicking Optimus out of the spotlight for a year.

 

I really want to like this because Bludgeon and Jhiaxus but wow it's bad.

And what was this:
Hardhead - so um, Prime..uh, half your friends blew up after you left and whatnot
Prime - eh...I'm sure they're fine, you know, because meh, whatever it's Hot Rod.
Me - *shakes head over and over*

 

I couldn't have cared less about this issue when I first read it, but once I understood the implications of what it was setting up, I liked it better, as a set up issue. I do like how Hardhead keeps calling Pax 'Prime' because that's what the fans are used to calling him too. I can't say much else without ruining any big moments, but I will say I liked the end result despite it's flaws.

 

Autocracy Chapter 1: Law and Order (3/5)
Autocracy Chapter 2: Parasites (1/5)

As these Autocracy web-comic thingies are a lot shorter than a regular comic, I’ll cover these two-at-a-time…

In our previous visits to pre-war Cybertron, one of the most intriguing aspects has been the state of the Autobot nation at the onset of hostilities. ‘Megatron: Origin’ showed us a corrupt, uncaring senate, and a number of ‘name’ Autobots working as a police force for the oppressive state. This always struck me as worthy of a follow-up: how did these Autobots we know and love end up fighting on the ‘wrong’ side?

Law and Order delves into some of that thinking. Set after ‘Chaos Theory’, we see Orion Pax lead a squadron of Autobots to intercept a Decepticon weapons deal. Whilst the Autobots manage to prevent the exchange, they cause a lot of collateral damage – not only to the nearby buildings but they also lose the hearts and minds of the locals. From the neutrals’ point of view, they’ve just witnessed a bunch of sadistic state troops assassinate a freedom fighter and beat up a Decepticon.

Whilst I love the various shades of grey involved, I’m slightly disturbed that – of all the Autobots – only Bumblebee dares to question what’s going on. All the other Autobots are portrayed as fairly straight shooters, ‘just following orders’. They’re all knowingly culpable, and yet they go along with the senate anyway. Hopefully this story will explain how the likes of Optimus Prime and Ironhide transition from dodgy state-sponsored assassins to saviours of the galaxy, but I have a bad feeling that whatever explanation they come up with, it’ll be really unsatisfactory.

Another gripe is the use of ‘name’ Transformers. Whilst the role of arms dealer is perfect for Swindle (and the Decepticon spy is obviously Laserbeak), it does make Cybertron seem a much smaller place when the same fifty-or-so Transformers keep bumping into each other. Overall, though, the opening chapter is a pretty decent scene-setter, and it packs a lot into its small page count.

***

Parasites, on the other hand, is much less fun. The problem with all these early-days senators and Primes is that they are all really horrible people, and obvious villains. In Chaos Theory we did at least get a couple of Senators who weren’t all scenery-chewing baddies, and had some nuance and subtlety about them. Here, though, Zeta Prime is such a raving loony that you wonder how he was ever appointed in the first place. He test-fires a volatile WMD inside the council chamber, and makes plans behind the other senators’ backs. In theory this could have been an intriguing political piece, but it just leaves me cold because Zeta Prime is just TOO insane. There were so many things that could have been explored here: the moral question of ruling in tyranny for the greater good; the nature of power and how it corrupts; the difference between a terrorist and a freedom-fighter. But instead we get a 1960s Batman villain with a big gun – I was hoping for a bit of light and shade here.

Flint Dille pretty much co-wrote Transformers: The Movie and had a hand in all the best episodes of Visionaries. His CV shows that he’s well capable of producing clever and witty scripts. Maybe if Zeta Prime was voiced by Chris Latta or Frank Gorshin hamming it up then this might have been a fun (or at the very least serviceable) cartoon script, but as it stands it just feels… two dimensional. It’s like he’s boiling down a promisingly complex situation in the dumbest way possible.

Oh, and why is Starscream there? Isn’t he a well-known Decepticon? What’s he doing in the senate, especially given the events of Megatron: Origin?

Anyway, Prime’s evil plotting and cackling is recorded by Soundwave, who runs off with the incriminating footage. Will Zeta Prime catch him? Will the evil senator’s dodgy scheming be broadcast to the world? Who knows?

Chapter two is a major let-down after part one - hopefully this story can still be salvaged somehow in the upcoming instalments.

 

I have a feeling your going to be going up and down a lot with this series and it's two sequels.

It should be noted, that for Megatron Origins, this, and all other previous pre-war comics you've read. Get a lot of retcons via the two main series, primarily RiD.

 

Wow - I didn't realise they'd stuffed in Autocracy here. This run of comics is so bad I haven't even bothered to read it past the first couple of parts. Along with Heart of Darkness and a few issues toward the end of RiD's first season, it's the only IDW Transformers series I've just not bothered with.

 

Jesus, you (and we) have to sit through this shit before getting back to mtmte and rid?

 

The Autocracy Trilogy is a huge snore fest. *yawn* Ugly art and tedious pacing.

 

Gotta take the rough with the smooth... although you're not filling me with much confidence here!!! I take it this doesn't end well?

I might try to get this out of the way super-quick by speeding up the review rate a tad. I'm as eager to get back to the good stuff as you are!

 

So begins a bit of a detour from the main comics. I'll get to the continuity problems of this comic when it happens, but when I first read it I mostly enjoyed it as a dumb ass G1 cartoon tribute.

Now, when it comes to pretty much all of the Autobots starting off on the wrong side, it is jarring when later issues show us more and more of these beloved characters as evil jerks like this is Shattered Glass. I'll admit it's certainly an original origin compared to previous origins, but it's difficult to side with anyone when there's jerks on both sides.

Zeta Prime, I love that over the top design for him, but it wouldn't have made much difference if it was just Sentinel Prime in the villainous role again. I was taken back a bit when Starscream showed up on the council advising Zeta. Turns out when him and Megs were arrested in Origin, no one was actually making a record of who they captured. So as far as the planet is concerned Starscream is an innocent civilian.

 

Autocracy's biggest crime is that it takes the complex, more nuanced depiction of pre-war Cybertron of Megatron: Origin and Chaos Theory and says, "eh, too complicated" and boils it down to a way more black-and-white conflict without really bothering to justify it. Answering the question of "how does Optimus go from being on the side of the old regime to fighting his own battle?" could have made for a very compelling story, but instead the answer is (basically) "the previous Prime was a complete psychopath," which always struck me as supremely lazy.

Autocracy (and to a slightly lesser extent, its two sequels) had a habit of basically ignoring established continuity details, as you'll see in later issues, to the point that it took a lot of retconning later on to make it all make sense (Starscream randomly being in the Senate, for instance). It will become very apparent as you finish this and get further into MTMTE that Dille and Roberts were very much not on the same page with their ideas of this time period and how the events played out.

 

The cracy stuff is so unessential. You could never read it and miss nothing. Rid and mtmte benefit not at all. It's filler. It is not equivalent value of product to the monthly ongoings.

I read the wiki entries only. Ugh. Who cares.

 

That's a really big fudge. They don't have computerised records? No Cybertronian equivalent of the Internet or the cloud?

And what about the fact that, in Megatron: Origins, the entire plot centred upon Ratbat selling footage of the Decepticons' illicit gladiator battles around the globe? Did the Autobots not think to take screenshots and zoom in on the various participants and audience members? Ouch!

 

I think the implication was that Sentinel's mass raid and round-up of the Decepticons in Megatron: Origin was that it was such an impromptu thing (it would later be retconned that the Senate was called for an emergency meeting in Kaon, which is why they were there of all places) that they just didn't bother with recording everyone, they just threw them all in jail until the Senate came in to give it a legal justification.

This could just be how I've justified it to make sense in my head, though; if that was the intent, it definitely wasn't made clear in the comics themselves.

 

Actually, there is one panel that detailed Starscream's very impressive lists of past crimes, including robbery, murder and impersonation of state officials. So there's already many bad records of him. I really don't know how he can get to be a senator using his own name.

 

Kind of took a step back from following as I was very bored with the Transformers regular series. Glad to peek in and see your now delving into MTMTE....is it sad I was giggling to myself as your ticked off the "chekov's guns"?

 

The Starscream thing is a hard thing to swallow, plot wise, but...

Megatron explicitly said he wanted Starscream not to participate in battles in the arena [but rather, carry out other acts], so there should be less footage of him.
Starscream and Soundwave murdered the Senate, so none of the folks that actually arrested him were alive.

But yeah, overall, a low point.