Can I just preface this by saying that I'm 37, I am a senior editor in a major multi-national media organisation, and I have worked across the world covering conflicts, crises and disasters. So I know how to understand complex stories. I really am not stupid. I promise.

I have no idea what happened in the last 10 pages of this. Especially the last 5.

Now I know that I am a Geewunner and so I just don't know the backstory to some of the characters (Obsidian / Airrazor and so on) but I don't think that is the problem here.

Who is the teleporting green guy? Who is the pink and yellow robot? Who is the robot who is overlaid over Windblade? Where did Elita One go?

And didn't this start out being a story about an investigation into Swindle's murder?

Honestly, reading this, I feel like I've turned up to a geography exam and the questions are all about French medieval architecture, and in Swahili.

 

1. The teleporting green guy is Liege maximo, one of the original thirteen primes who led the cybertronian tribes. What we know about him in this continuity is that at some point he betrayed the other primes and as punishment Maximo was imprisoned in side his titan Vigilem by Metroplex and the other Titans.

 

2. The swindle story line was wrapped up back in issue 4. That was followed by the events of the revolution cross over and the arrival of the zombie titans from the titan wars event. Dont know why the site wont let let me make both my points in a single post

 

The Liege Maximo. He's referred to by name multiple times in the issue, including pg14 when Obsidian explicitly warns that he's going to be set free.

Strika, the secondary character who has appeared in nearly every issue of TAAO.

Windblade was overlaid onto Vigilem/Carcer, the Titan whose brain module she was plugged into, to represent the fact she was controlling him.

Nowhere...? She blows up Vigilem's brain module on pg18 and then doesn't appear on the last two pages.

 

But in all the images of Windblade with the robot superimposed over her, it doesn't look anything like Vigilem. For one thing, it has separate eyes, which Vigilem doesn't.

 

I also found this confusing, and I *have* been following the storyline closely. It took me a bit of puzzling to work out that Metroplex and Vigilem were communicating telepathically in the first few pages, since we've never heard Metroplex spead so verbosely before.

I'm not sure I understand why/how Vigilem was able to break Leige Maximo free - or rather, why it needed to be an explosion, if it's a prison inside Vigilem's body. I'm also not sure why all the guards, including Strika, went down immediately, before he'd even stepped out of the prison.

That aside, it was a pretty exciting, if brief, read.

 

Vigilem does have separate eyes and a mouth, he just deploys a visor and mouthplate (and swords) when he wrests control back from Windblade on page 9.

Hmm? That's all just Metroplex monologuing. The different box colours are just his different sub-routines or moods or whatever, as per usual.

 

Yeah, the Titans Return crossover tie in issues here have been... strange. This issue is kinda a mess. I'm struggling to put it all together at this point when the narration, panel images, and word dialogues all seem to be at a bit of cross purpose. I'll finish this story arc (Pretty sure next issue is the epilogue) but then I think I'm out.

 

and why is the issue named after an exotic soft drink, found in the UK?

 

Crossing the Rubicon - Wikipedia

 

My tongue was firmly in my cheek.

 

I don't get the confession people are having with this issue, its was easy to fallow for me.

 

Look, it's hard to read sarcasm on the internet, okay?  

 

Same here; didn't really have any trouble following things.

 

Isn't the red bubble Vigilem telling Metroplex he should have killed him?

 

I took that as Metroplex saying; "I should have killed him".

 

Anyone have a picture of Liege Maximo from the end of the issue?

 

... Better than the last issue I guess? Although only slightly. There are more relevant plot-points here so at the very least you don't feel like you wasted your money on the read like most decompressed issues from this book, Scott at least wanted to progress the story.

That being said, my God, the pacing here was atrocious. Scott has never been the best at plot-planning but the flow of the story was pretty erratic here jumping from place to place, character to character constantly. Pitre-Durocher's artwork didn't help matters, I've been mentioning this for a while but while her style looks really good, her storytelling is not the best, that coupled with Scott's poor handling of progress, particularly during action scenes, makes the issue difficult to read.

Well, at least this story is finally over so we can move into a hopefully better arc.

 

I found myself really enjoying this issue, but a good portion of that might be relief at being done with this dismal story arc. I can't put all the blame on Scott, since this was sort of mandated by Titans Return, but geez was this a slog to read through.

Hopefully now we can return to more social/political stories, like the stellar Combaticons arc.

 

Look at page... 9 I think (the one with the 'keep... fighting!' bubbles at the top).

You can see Vigilem's head design at the top of the page, then the full electronic outline at the bottom. Same chin, same cheek things. That said, I do think 'Carcer' is *supposed* to be modified to look somewhat different.

Did you miss the latest issues, perhaps? It honestly feels like you missed much of the arc.