Wow what a disapointing issue, amazing art but lacking in story. It went no where for me. I am gonna sound harsh but no wonder this has gotten the boot. Spoiler It felt like going round in circles in Starscreams head and oh hey Swindle is all fine, oh cool Airachnid again, weird abuser vibes all round. oh whats the point one more issue and this is gone.
I quite enjoyed it. She's spending time on the characters not just the events. Hopefully the Bumblebee stuff may be coming to a head now. Will be good to see what Starscream does about Windblade as well- maybe he'll go in to rescue her or maybe the resolution of the Bumblebee plot will tie in with that somehow (you know, as characters who exist primarily at the moment on a mental plain), who knows. Swindle has obviously been lobotomised- that might tip Blast Off into blowing the whistle perhaps. If next issue is the last one though (knew it was ending but didn't realise so soon) there seem like an awful lot of threads to tie up. I mean they could get tied up in other series but it would be nice to tie up the ones raised in and characteristic of this one. I will miss it anyway. I have dropped Optimus Prime now and Lost Light suffers a lot from "it's quite good but..." syndrome for me. I could enjoy this one without qualms. Oh well.
Whilst i've been kinda keeping up with this series, it really hasnt thrilled me. There has been the odd moment of greatness, but mired in bland story and art. Its been sub par at best in my mind. I really wanted to like it too, but am actually kinda relieved its been cancelled.
Not sure what people are getting at, I thought this issue was great. An excellent insight into Starscream's mind and his struggles with his self-image(how he sees himself vs how he thinks others view him) LOVED the inner fight against Carcer and Windblade, especially how Windblade's appearance changed depending on her strength of will, really nice touch. It's just so sad that the next issue is the last. I wish the bloody hasbroverse had never happened because the transformers comics, the comics I care about, are suffering for it.
Y'all are fickle. This seemed a natural outgrowth of the last (superb) issue and brought up issues dating back to the very first volume of Windblade. It's also a great character study of Starscream, where he's not just a quote factory. It doesn't leap off the page the way #10 did, but it's a good solid issue that makes me regret the axe falling still more.
I really liked this issue quite a bit. The past couple of issues have been the strongest imo. We get to see the breakdown of Starscream being overwhelmed by his situations. Some of it being caused by his own actions while some of it is out of his control. It really sucks that this series is ending because I'm so curious as to how Starscream would continue to evolve as a character.
This issue just reinforces how upset I am that IDW is cutting this title short. Mairghread has done such a great job of slowly moving these characters (Starscream, Windblade, Bee, and the Combaticons) to a point that I actually care about what they are doing now and who they are. I have always considered this book (and the two Windblade minis that preceded it) to be the real follow up to the story begun in RID Season 1 because it is ultimately a character motivated story (i.e. things are happening in the story because the characters have their own desire for things to happen). The fact that Mairghread was able to do all of this while basically being the writer responsible for the Hasbro-mandated stories and characters (Windblade, Combiner Wars, Titan Returns, First Strike) is just remarkable. I think everything we are seeing now would have absolutely sung in the next now-not-happening story arc of TAAO. Bah. Why can't we have nice things?! The IDW-verse worked so much better when the creators had more autonomy.
The Hasbroverse has nothing to do with TAAO's demise - it's ending because its sales fell and Scott chose to finish rather than do a soft-reboot shake-up. People keep saying that it's ending because the First Strike crossover is going to change the Cybertron status quo in a way Scott didn't like, but that's not at all what her blog post said, and makes literally no sense when Scott is one of First Strike's co-writers.
About today's comic I really liked it. Although the issue makes you feel sorry for Starscream part of what is happening is his fault and there is no way he could have a happy ending, for example the source of the Combaticons' problems was because of his plan in which Swindle and Menasor attacked Caminus and killing several innocent bots. Truth. Here's her comments on First Strike:
Hmm? Her options were ending the book or doing a soft reboot, and she chose to end the book. I'm not sure what you're getting at?
That's quite the point. There's a difference between "choose to finish" and "choose from two options forced upon her and neither is good". In the end (or at the beginning) it's IDW who choose to finish.
Yeah, and that's exactly what I said in the original post...? "chose to finish rather than do a soft-reboot shake-up."
IDW and Hasbro wanted GI Joe on Cybertron? Hmm. I certainly don't want that, but is that what the fandom wants as well?
Scott's being extremely diplomatic about the TAAO situation. Anyway. Extremely enjoyable issue. Wonderful character work on Starscream; his outburst about being alone to mindBee was terrific. He so rarely lets his facade fall. Intriguing stuff with Windblade and Vigilem as well. SWINDLE YAY! So sad we won't get to see the ultimate payoff of Starscream mindfucking the Combaticons. And... well, seems pretty clear that Bumblebee is back in the real world by that last panel.
I'd love to know how he got to Cybertron from where he was before, though. Spoiler Transformers Annual 2017 made it fairly obvious that he's alive but how exactly he left the Crystal City "pocket dimension"?
