Mirage should've known better really. It was foolish of him to expect Optimus to just hand over all of his power to him, especially considering Mirage is being a right prick about it as well. I laughed at Sunstreaker's scoreboard too. Great stuff there..
Yay! Update! Loved how some of the 'Bots were watching Doctor Who, shook my head at Sunstreaker's target score (shooting civilian targets? tsk, tsk), and I loved Mirage's expressions in the last two panels. Be very interesting to see what happens next.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Optimus Prime. Will this damage his position? Undoubtably. The fact he hasn't come clean about this already is likely because this is some ugly truth, and most likely will reflect poorly not just on him, but quite possibly on Perceptor, and if it didn't harm the cause or his people, Optimus would protect the memory of the fallen. That's changed now, and the only baffling thing is that Mirage so completely misread Optimus as to not see this coming. He had a trump card that, if properly played and on his terms, could have drawn support to his position and undermined Optimus. But instead of keeping it close when it became clear Optimus had no intention of transferring power back to the remnants of the Council, he waved it around to try and bully Optimus into getting his way. You can't bully Optimus Prime. That Mirage was so blinded by arrogance not to realize that, after all this time, shows just how ill-prepared he was for this bid. So now Optimus snatched away the trump card, and played it himself, on his own terms. Now ANY attempt Mirage makes to use it will seem petty and small. It's simple politics: If an authority figure is revealed to have a dark secret, his approval takes a hit. But if he admits to that dark secret before anyone even knows about it, his approval will tend to improve. Congrats, Mirage, you just entrenched Optimus even more firmly in his position. And now you've destroyed any place or position you may have had in this new society, and pissed away the sympathy you could have used to build underground support by laying your cards on the table prematurely. Starscream couldn't have messed up this opportunity more effectively.
Sidesipe: Hostile" 100% Civilian: 0% Sunstreaker Hostile :100% Civilian: 100% Also the Tracks alterantors custom.....the head, it looks like Bumblebee's OR is it Bumper
I'm not sure how hard the metals transforms are to find now. Try kotoys.com perhaps: I got mine from there years ago. All the joints are lose on the KO Prowl and Grimlock I own. Grimock's (ahem, Soundwave's) upper arms have both broken...those ridiculously narrow joints prior to the forearms break easily on mine. I had the same thoughts. That can't be a Chekov's gun, right? Surely CH wouldn't do something like that, would he?
Oh you have no idea..... More will come, hopefully a little sooner than the last one! SunStreaker's idea of an escort mission is somewhat Darwinian in nature: If you get yourself killed, it's your own dumb fault! Glad you liked the Grapple shot. He's actually in that extreme close up because I still haven't got around to sorting out his proper Custom Alternator body yet, so I'm trying to disguise the fact that his head is still attached to his Classics frame. I'm very lazy. Me Grimlock tried eating Beano the Clown as suggested. My tummy still not happy, but those funny little squeaking sounds he made as Me Grimlock chewed were hilarious. Nasty tricksy coolhand has stolen the updates! Thanks. It's proving to be an interesting experiment as I can't actually take my guys outside for filming. It's hard to find environments in Urban London that are convincing, and free of people who won't mug me and take my stuff, so I'm actually using bluescreen and sets to try and replicate the outside environment. Results are...mixed. The truth, if brandished carelessly, can indeed cause deeper wounds than any sword. Sometimes in unexpected ways... You could try here Thanks man Everyone loves Doctor Who. Well except for Daleks, perhaps... Exactly. The irony with Mirage is that he's genuinely one of the smartest and most capable bots around, but his own arrogance and his under-estimation of both the abilities and the moral character of every other bot around him leads him to make some terrible miscalculations and mistakes. Assuming that everyone is manipulative as you are doesn't always work out... Yep. Mirage now has a big hole in his foot and a smoking gun in his hand. And he actually hasn't yet realised quite how badly he's screwed up... Glad people liked that one. Whoops. My bad. I probably didn't make it very clear in the strip. That's actually Tracks. Right at the start of this season, there was a panel that showed Ratchet working on Tracks to restore his chameleonic paint systems to their full working state. In his BT bio (which OOTDL uses as a large source of inspiration) Tracks has the ability to alter his paint to be any colour he wants. It got damaged by a Wheeljack related explosion before the strip began (they were arguing about it way way back when we first me them both in Season 1), hence why Tracks was always blue, but now Ratchet's put it back online and so he can change his colour at will. So you'll see Tracks flip his colour from Blue, to Red, to Yellow (and maybe even more if I can work out the right GIMP trickery) whenever the mood takes him.
or, you could get some KOs and do a rainbow of trackses and maybe one WITH a rainbow deco to be a "chameleon circuit broken" mode
You know what I like most, the facial expressions on Mirage. Such a subtle thing to alter but it really helps sell the story and make these more than toys. Man, I wish I had more free time, I'd gladly offer to help you expand your cast with a few custom characters. But I don't even have time for my own projects anymore.
I agree. It's so well written, with spectacular photos and graphics. It's a real treat everytime a new update appears.
YES! He didn't cave! I had a feeling he wouldn't. If for the ONLY reason to not leave his fellow Autobots in the hands of Mirage. I did enjoy watching that smirk fall off from one panel to another. Great stuff. I missed this comic.
