My mistake.. its actually six issues including 'opening salvo' - according to thr joint interview on comicbookresources, John Barber states: '*put it in a real world setting: It's six issues (one "Opening Salvo" and five actual parts, just like most of the Combiners have) that starts in "Transformers" #39, goes to the new "Transformers: Windblade" #1, back to "Transformers" #40 and alternated until it's done. Mairghread and I are writing it, and the art is by the amazing Sarah Stone and Livio Ramondelli, alternating issues.' So, yeah... six issues all in all, guess i just misremembered the interview.
Even still, given that Ratchet's leaving the book for a while and RiD #40 says First Aid is the LL's new chief medical officer, he definitely isn't leaving MTMTE. And Roberts wanted Mirage on the LL in season 1, so I think he'd still want him as well.
I have a feeling that everyone will be returning to their respective books after the Combiner Wars crossover is over. The traditional Combiners will probably keep their ability to combine, I doubt we'll be seeing Optimus Maximus again after the crossover.
1. Issue feels rushed. 2. Overall, combiner Wars feels that it is mostly there to advertise the toys. 3. IF Optimus does become a combiner, will that be "blasphemous"? Will his combiner members become "primes" themselves or taste the energy of the matrix? 4. I thought the Mirage sub story was cool. 5. I like how Starscream talks against superstition which is exactly what placed him in to power the first place. 6. If Prowl does not want combiner technology how is he then different to Galvatron? Is it because he does want it but for himself, whereas Galvatron does not want anyone to have it? 7. Where is Alpha Trion? He should definitely been a representative. 8. Did anyone else notice the spelling mistake of 'Cyberton' when Starscream was saying that Superion was his friend.
Gonna get some hate for this... I'm glad Stone didn't do this. From what I've seen of her work on windblade, yuck.
I agree. Who needs an artist that distinguishes between characters and actually draws the right ones in scenes? Ewwww.
I doubt it'll be blasphemous (well, Galvatron may think it so). With the matrix being less than active, I doubt there's any bleed over effects either, though even if it was they'd hardly be Primes. Yes. Prowl has *no problem* with himself having combiner tech. He doesn't want others to have power. Galvatron feels the tech is inherently corruptive, Prowl doesn't. He's an advisor, and hasn't been anyone's leader for millions of years. There's not exactly a slot for him.
Did Alpha go back with Optimus to Cybertron? I can't seem to remember what happened to him after the issue where he tells the story of Galvatron and Nova Prime's past. Do people outside of Optimus' Earth team even know that he's been found? If so, do people even care who he is, or is he just a forgotten relic from Cybertron's past?
I know, right? Who needs colourful, personable art? HACKS! THAT'S WHO Anyway #40. Art aside? I loved it. The political angle was great. Especially how Prime turned it all on Starscream by basically praising his purported progressive agenda and using it to actually put forth a truly progressive plan. The Mistress of the Flame stuff is interesting too. She didn't strike me as malicious or evil. Just a bit frustrated that the Matrix bearer wasn't quit what she thought they'd be like. I'm hoping they don't make her a villain. The "corrupt religious authority figure" angle's way too cliched by this point. I'm hoping Prowl isn't mind-controlled again. I'm really curious to see what would compel him to burn down his entire civilization.
I think I've finally had it with Barber's writing. He actually needs a promotion to "story line editor", because his long term plotting is amazing (Prowl being a Machiavellian asshole, President Starscream, Optimus renounces his Prime-hood, Thundercracker going native.) see all of those are GOOD things to me. It's his interpersonal dialogue that falls short, there isn't the sense of character I get from Roberts or even Marghid (sp?) Then you have a book like this where all the negatives kinda come together in a Great Conjunction of Fail. The cover where Ironhide isn't even human sized, (assuming Mixmaster still transforms into a cement truck, Ironhide's standing about 2'7" under that licence plate.) Livo's moody art,,, eh, sometimes I like it, I don't defend it, but for god's sake we've got the WRONG bots in the scenes many times. (Mainframe,,, unless he becomes the 6th Protectobot,,,, well that would be cool) Hasbro's obviously being heavy handed with getting upcoming CW characters into position. (nothing from Mirage for years and then suddenly? Bam! he's integral to the plot? Nothing to do with a Dragstrip repaint at all.) And Barber's Dialog,,, Seriously when did Prowl outrank Prime? He acts like he's got the authority to go over his head and nobody mentions this? Barber, don't get me wrong, keep up the good work on the long game, but please bring in an understudy for the dialogue and scripting. Kay Thx Bye
I am not complaining to much with this one. I was looking at the Combiner Hunter covers where Livio did the coloring and loving it. They need a good writer and have someone just do the editing. It makes my bad grammar look good. I am Mirage fan and I like the attention he is getting. I think G1 chars from 1984 get special preference here. Even though uptight snob and dick. I also get the feeling that Hasbro has more of preference to some chars than others. Prowl expanded so much from his early day as simple prick to his complex prickness in IDW. Mirage and scarcely touched for some reason. It is the same with Jazz. It is almost Hasbro has set idea of what some mechs should be like.
Now come to think of it Prowl was rather unremarkable & bland in the G1 cartoons. In fact the minibots had more screen time than he does!
In this issue it seems redundant what with the, y'know, arresting him. Prime has chewed him out for going on his own repeatedly. So yes, it gets mentioned. The fact that he's out of control is a major plot point. He's high enough in command to get away with a lot, but he's pretty much been done listening to Optimus and just scheming with no shackles. Barber has had a *ton* of good lines and moments. Arcee's character growth, Thundercracker, Starscream, Wheeljack Wheeljack Wheeljack, Soundwave in the past being taken in by Ravage... His characters have distinct voices. His political scheming is good... and IMO underrated. He does subtlety. This is a great scene. Script-wise. So yea, I really like his writing, not just his plots. Oh yea, Chris Sims of Comic Alliance is doing a review of IDW stuff, starting with the Death of Optimus Prime and going forward. His reaction to the first RID volume "Going into these comics, I expected to like More Than Meets The Eye. That’s the one most people were recommending, and a quippy, action-packed space adventure that kicks off with a zombie cannibal robot certainly seems like it’s more directly up my alley than a political robot drama about talking Volkswagens. And yet, here we are, and I am fully into this. It’s not too surprising — I’m a fan of what Barber’s done on Transformers vs. GI Joe with Tom Scioli — but if you’d told me six months ago that I’d be this stoked about finding out who was going to lead the postwar Cybertronian government, I’d probably still be laughing." And this is someone not into transformers before this. To someone on issue 40, familiarity may blind a bit to how good at drawing us in to the situation the book is. MtMtE is a great series no doubt, and it has a lot of quippage and fun moments, and RiD has a different pacing and style, but a lot of the differences are in kind, not really quality. If you want the MtM style dialog, you'll be disappointed, but I really, really like Barber's writing, and I don't think it's as simple as saying one is better than the other. There does need to be better editing on the books Barber writes than the CW ones have gotten, but there's ways to do that without taking a great writer off the book.
I think it is both. I do not believe that Cons or someone is controlling Prowl but his own belief what are the Autobots.
