QFT

Clueless meets Saved By The Bell meets High School Musical anyone?

All together now "Im just a teenage dirtbag baby, listen to Iron Maiden baby, come with me friday dont say maybe"

 

With all of the sitcom references in this issue I'm very surprised/disappointed they didn't have Ravage appear with a holo-matter avatar based on Salem from "Sabrina the Teenage Witch". Seems like it should've been an obvious inclusion.

 

Swerve's shoulder injury is old. REALLY OLD. It's in Chaos.

 

For the love... It's not standalone. It's part of a greater whole.

From the wiki:

Okay, step back a second. ALL THE WAY BACK in frigging "Chaos", the first time Roberts wrote Swerve in a comic scene (he'd written him earlier in the prose-only "Bullets"), Swerve's left shoulder had a piece of metal riveted over it. Nothing was made of it at the time, but later references were made to him having an "old injury" in issue #21 and issue #29—the issues, you'll note, in which we now know he opened Brainstorm's briefcase, and in which the first "Swerve recap page" first appeared, respectively. We now know that metal patch was his own quick-and-dirty fix job for this old wound. And in addition to that, back in issue #13, Swerve mentioned (in response to Ultra Magnus asking where his badge was) that his insignia "got damaged".

 

Forgot to mention that the design for the characters was outstanding.

Bluestreak and Rodimus looked particularly hot.

 

Hot damn, I love this comic.

 

Loved this issue, so happy it wasn't like the last two. And that ending has me so excited!!

 

That's his war wound, though, not the meta-bomb. And the war wound relating to Agent 113 is obviously something that had been being set up since the beginning. The rest of this issue does not give that impression.

I have to agree that the meta-bomb worked much better and was much funnier when it was simply a two-panel joke and I'm not convinced that it being shoe-horned into this issue suggests that it was ever originally intended to be more then that.

I think that's a good contrast actually. The war wound being foreshadowed for so amazingly long is Roberts at his best, but some of this issue, such as the meta-bomb coming back into play in such a way, is a low for me. It's an issue with a high high but a pretty low low.

 

The metabomb and the shoulder injury are two separate things. The metabomb was a stupid joke (which IMO, was the only thing really out of place with that issue).

The running shoulder injury was a better needle in the haystack, as it was a recurring mention, but they've been shoehorned together here.

Glad you enjoyed it. Still didn't make the metabomb an actual plot. Just a tool used to tell a different story. And the power given to Swerve via it wasn't even resolved.

 

I doubt Roberts wrote the original scene thinking, "and according to my notes, issue 43 is when we'll get back to this plot thread." But it's entirely plausible that he was thinking something like, "at some point I'll want to do a whole silly meta-issue of some kind with Swerve in the lead, and if I get around to it, great, I have a maguffin now."

Or not, who knows. But either way, when he did sit down to such an issue, hey, he had a maguffin in place, why not use it.

 

The meta bomb is linked to the re-cap page/breaking of the forth wall, which is linked to the suitcase and mentions of the injury yeah? I have yet to see anything in MTMTE that was said entirely in passing. Even if JRo threw it in there with the intention of making use of it in some way later he hadn't thought about yet, does it matter?

Yep.

 

Great issue.

 

This makes the whole issue better, but only just.

As much as I enjoy the wank this series provides us all, it WAS built on a plot, and I WOULD like to get back to it at some point. Roberts said it was supposed to be based around a 100-issue proposed concept. The first 25 issues were pretty good and since that it's been a sideways trek.

MtMtE is good. I want it to be good more frequently, and because the plot progresses. Not just because it's quirky and entertaining.

 

By contrast, I don't give a fuck about the Plot. I'm not reading it to see if they find the Knights of Cybertron or complete the Quest. So, I don't particularly care if they sidetrack and don't advance things at all, as long as the characters continue to interact in the way that they do. The ongoing Plot is really the least interesting thing to me about the book. I'll take another 43 issues of nothing actually happening but character moments if I can.

 

^^^this^^^

I'd be quite happy if it was never revealed whether the Knights are even real of not. It's all about the journey, not the destination.

 

But Roberts has always said that MTMTE is about the journey, not the destination. [EDIT: Ninja'd by Kraken  ] People have said before that the main contrast between MTMTE and RID is that MTMTE is character-driven, while RID is plot-driven. So taking whole issues to focus on a few characters or a single character is a key component of what MTMTE does.

And plot progression has been sprinkled throughout. At the end of Remain In Light, they lost the Matrix and their map to the Knights. With the #41-42 arc that seems to have disappointed people, the background plot progression was that they did gain Thunderclash who it has been established also can lead them to the Knights.

MTMTE is supposed to be a mix of comedy, drama, world-building, character focus, sci-fi space opera, etc. But different issues will focus on different things. With #43 the sillyness reaches a high point, but we've also had past issues that swung in the other direction. I don't think think this indicates a prevailing trend. Roberts has said in the past he likes to use mood whiplash.

We recently did an interview with him at TFcon Toronto, and here's his response to some of the criticisms raised about the last arc:

I fully expect the next few issues to swing the pendulum back towards the more serious aspects of MTMTE, but ludicrous elements are part and parcel of the MTMTE experience.

 

I liked that the no one really likes Swerve subplot was resolved. He's a great character and deserves the spotlight and progression. It was nice how the resolution led into setup for hopefully a showdown with the DJD.

Rodimus and Megatron's holoavtars were spot on.

Saying all that I did not like the execution of the issue. I felt like he was talking down to the critics with the comments on how ridiculous previous plots were. The meta or whatever it is was too much and distracted from a genuine and touching moment for Swerve.

I also think think the issue would of been better received if wasn't coming off the heels of 41-42.

Sometimes I think he forgot he ever said that.

 

I'll be more verbose.

Yes, I agree the journey is more important, but at least before it felt like there WAS a journey going on. This just feels like a weekend get-together we read about with Transformers characters tossed in.

The series has felt like a non-event for some issues now. Like I said, I enjoy it, it just doesn't accomplish anything. There IS no journey. I couldn't give a rat's if they find the Knights, or ARE the Knights, or there flat-out aren't any Knights. But at least before there was progression. None of the issue today was relevant to anything but self-pandering, except maybe a few short pages. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't pointed.

The only thing I like about these issues are the holomatter avatars.

Megatron looking like an evil cartoon character, Rodimus looking like Judd Nelson's Bender from Breakfast Club, Nightbeat was Shaft. That's neat.

 

Anyone not willing to throw four measly bucks down to check out a story for themselves in which Literally Megatron Yes That Megatron risks his life and his dignity on a small chance to rescue a useless member of his crew--the one who hates and fears him most of all--does not read Transformers comics for the same reasons that I do.

 

I'd just like to point out that in pretty much every story the journey is more important than the destination. That's where the story happens. It's common sense, Roberts doesn't have to say it, it's nothing new, it's the standard for every story.