^ I was paging through as you annotated. Great work! I missed Sky Lynx's physical appearance at first as well. I think your "Skydive" is Hound, and whoever's been working on TFWiki has him listed as a character. I checked out the Wiki list of Autobots that start with A, but nothing jumps out at me. No two-part combiners, no crossbow references...one is a time machine though, that might explain the message at the end! I do have to nitpick that I can't stand the redesigns that Drift and Red Alert got since Death of OP. Same artist, same characters (and great characters) but they don't look as good anymore. Red Alert is kind of an intriguing design but I only figured out who he was from his function and the red-tipped rocket launcher...and in the last issue he looked exactly like his excellent Generations toy. I actually kind of like Ultra Magnus' redesign. Partly because I'm giggling at what an obvious City Commander reference those new double-missile boxes are!
The question is ... WHO BETRAYED RODIMUS? - Rung He has a chest full of "toys" more or less that he's bringing with him. Even Red Alert was like "WTF? How did you keep all these?". Could it be that some of them were explosives? - Brainstorm The briefcase. Likely a red herring, meant to throw us off but he's a weapons expert and the ship blew up. Hmm. - Swerve He has a quest. Didn't say what the quest was, but implied it was going on the journey with the others. Was his part in this to help blow up the ship? - Rewind He bought what looked like two golden discs from Swindle, but even Swindle made a comment about how F*ed up it was what Rewind was doing. For all we know, Rewind just purchased some information stuff as blackmail to use in his recordings ... or he bought some explosives. - Red Alert Hey, he was the door guy letting people in. - Ratchet We never see him and Prowl talk to each other, thus throwing us off as he did talk to Bumblebee. But Ratchet never had a good reason ... "I am tired of doing this. I want to go do this in space." What? - Ultra Magnus It makes absolutely no sense, it could be the perfect cover. We just know it was two bots who did it and they were in on it with Prowl. Though I'm curious as to the list of characters that Ultra Magnus was discussing, as they were all in the "As" ... Did Cyclonus go with? He seemed to have a bond with Rodimus after CHAOS and seems to be soul-searching. Money on him reviving the Decepticon cause ... maybe not on Cybertron, but with the strays that they pick up. Awesome to have characters mentioned by name, like Mainframe, Waverider, Rad, and Fizzle. Too bad three of the four are probably dead now. Great issue. Loved it. Loved every part of it.
I really enjoyed this comic - it felt like it had a lot of story and character, and that's no small feat with single issues. I usually only buy trades, but I'm anxious for issue #2 and will likely be buying the singles. Can't wait for RID.
So by the looks of it, Prowl's explosion was made to look like the entire ship was destroyed from the onlookers on Cybertron, but (since he's not quite a mass murdering dick) it really just got crippled and jumped to quantum leap or whatever. I could've read that wrong. Loving pretty much everyone in this issue, especially all the little character quirks: Rung's toy collecting (haha), Swerve's joking, Rewind's archiving and defensive about his altmode, Whirl being a batshit-crazy asshole, etc. I loved Cyclonus in particular. He has a lot of potential as a character. The Ultra Magnus POV was a great little touch, as well. Brilliant cliffhanger, too. Damn, Prowl's a dick. Man, things are really looking up for Transformers IDW. I can't wait to see how RID turns out, especially the stuff with the now-free Decepticons.
This single issue is probably my favourite Transformers comic in recent years... the writing was superb here, Roberts really made each individual character stand out from the rest, Cyclonus and Rodimus in particular. and the cliffhanger they left us with makes me hopeful this is going to be a kick ass series. Art wise, Roche is still my favourite of the artisist to come out of IDW's run, but if I was to have one small complaint it's that most of the 'bots now seem so thin. But that's a minor, because the designs are fantastic. Especially like the new looks for Whirl, Rodimus and Swerve. Great use of characters too, never expected Rung to make another appearance. And the flight/fight scene between Cyclonus and Whirl was one of the best action scenes I've read in a while! Can;t wait to see where it all goes from here!
Every time I think that I have come to terms with the fact that a vocal - if not large - section of Transfandom are so narrow-minded as to only accept a certain way of drawing in their comics, something comes along and reminds me of just HOW narrow-minded these people are and makes me despair because they can't accept artistic stylization and bellow for DURRHEY BIG ROBOTS. This is a great expression of Mike Costa's recent statement about people being TRANSFORMERS fans and not COMICS fans. Superheroes of all walks have been drawns in HUNDREDS of different ways in their long history, and Transformers can be too, but noooo, Dreamwave beat a house style into a generation's heads, and the lingering effects of its worst lessons still haven't been shaken by people who just want Transformers to look one way because they're so blinkered and unexposed to the industry these things are part of. The IDEA... the VERY IDEA... that anyone could think Alex Milne will be a better choice than Nick Roche to illustrate these James Roberts scripts is *dumb*. Now, I'll be the first to admit that Alex Milne has improved GREATLY in this past year, with each new issue he's produced being the work of his career - but LOOK at the subtlety of characterization told through facial expression and body language in this issue, complimenting to the Nth degree the loaded script, where practically every exchange of dialogue hints at a greater story! That will be UTTERLY absent from Alex Milne's work. Alex Milne draws ROBOTS. Nick Roche draws CHARACTERS. But no no no, they have stylized proportions and expressions! ALL ARTISTIC MERIT LOST! MUST HAVE MECH-DETAILING! GET SOME FUCKIN' HINGES IN THOSE FINGERS! *throws hands up* God.
Not that Costa was blameless, but yeah I think IDW's biggest mistake was listening to, and acting on, the constant, misguided, nitpicking of some fans. This issue was friggen incredible, BTW. Check the rub sign!
Did they EVER really act on what fans were asking for in the past, though? I mean, RIGHT NOW, THIS is when they're really giving everyone what they wanted! James Roberts writing an ongoing! Furman and Wildman on G1 revisited! It's put-up-or-shut-up time for the fandom this year, a real money-where-your-mouth-is situation - NOW, they've finally listened and given use what we've been asking for for years. It needs to succeed - people need to not have just been blowing smoke about buying this stuff. So everyone, get out there and get this and prove that when they listen, we respond.
I can't think of anything to say, because there's no way I can describe how amazing this was. The next month is gonna feel sooooooo long.
I read it through comiXology and ordered printed version for archiving. Though I like Milne more than Roche, I think Roche's art style will fit in this story rather than Milne's. I hope Roche to return working on this series.
I think they tried to, yeah, hence the soft reboots. It wasn't until (they sort of lucked into, IMO) LSotW that they found a formula most people seem to agree on. I'm just really, really glad they were able to work that into Ongoing.
Ok, thanks for clarifying Chris. I LOVE Roche, btw. I get more frustrated by changing designs than changing artists. They are practically related, but not logically related. Story-wise, TFs can change their designs, but don't do it on a whim (much less return to a previous one, and of course I don't like it when IMO an attractive design is ditched for an ugly one). On superhero comics artists change all the time, but not costumes, equipment, etc., without guidance from editorial. Well, the bodies of TFs are how we distinguish them. I don't want the quality of the comics to be thrown under for TF geekery...but that's not geekery, that's recognition. As far as Milne, so far I think he draws Transformers that are more appealing to me in isolation...but again, SO FAR, he draws less impressive COMICS. They are probably my top two favorite though, so of course I'm pumped.
Picked this up yesterday but was only able to read it this morning. Absolutely loved everything about this issue, from the story to the art to the little Easter eggs. Did anyone else notice Tailgate's trailer is a Micromaster transport that was available with Star Convoy, Sky Garry, etc? Can't wait until February Better yet, I can't wait to come home so I can read it again!
Well, I bought three copies (A, C, and E covers because B and D were sold out). My local shop only had three copies left after I got mine a couple hours ago. Best issue since ongoing 22-23. The Chaos arc was disappointing, but if this is the payoff, then I'm ok with that. Really looking forward to the story not having Prime and Megatron for awhile. Hopefully they keep them gone for at least a year or so. Not that I dislike the characters, but everything else feels a lot fresher without them taking up plot.
yah know, I like a wide array of TF art. I love Geoff Senior and pre-Ongoing-Don the most. I dig Milne. I dig Wildman. I thought the Chaos dude's stuff was interesting. I loved Jae Lee's TF/GIJoe. Bill Sienkiewicz's cover to Marvel #1 is an all time favorite. I like Casey Coller. I thought Trevor Htchinson's All Hail Megatron covers were jaw-dropping (I'm still pissed they didn't get full-size reproductions in The Complete AHM) I even dug Roche's work on LSOTW. but I don't dig Roche when his characters looks so Loony Toons that it looks like the just stepped off the set with Bugs Bunny. So sue me. I want my robots to at least look vaguely robot like. (i still cringe every time i see someones Animated avatar) Everyone seems so willing to take it and praise it, but i'm just not. I thought LSOTW struck the right balance, i thought the preview for this looked ridiculous. It's just so over the top. (I also can't stand Humberto Ramos for the same reasons, who lots of folks seem to love). It doesn't mean he's not a good story teller, he is. It just means i can't stand his stye.
Yet again, all the robots change their bodies. Can we have several issues in a row they don't reformat. Maybe this sounds 'Geewunner' as the nerds like to say but leave them in their G1 bodies or at least close, since this is a G1 comic. At least it would make it easier to figure out who the hell some of these guys are. If they hadn't said Chromedome, I'd have no idea it was supposed to be him. I think this series will be dropped if the story isn't good after a few issues. Frankly I wasn't that impressed with it and besides Ratchet, no one in the cast are characters I care about. RID seems to have all the characters I like.
