He actually did die at some point (Stormbringer #3), only to be brought back without an explanation

 

They should bring back the damn Technobots!

 

Was a good issue, although events felt like they were being hurried here to me.

Spoiler

Trion's dead huh? That's a shame. I guess that's two of the Thirteen who are confirmed dead unless he's able to survive decapitation, I only mention that considering Red Alert took off his head before in a suicide attempt although I guess that was a non-fatal decapitation. Still it's kind of an odd manner to kill off someone like Alpha Trion off screen, by the hands of a mini-con no less, and I found it odd none of the Camiens like Aileron or Pyra Magna freaked out onscreen when they saw Trion considering how Camiens worship the Thirteen as gods but whatever.

It's nice to see Soundwave working alongside Optimus completely now, it feels like a different character entirely.   Livio's art is pretty good here, especially on Sentinel's Infinitus form, and he's drawn the humans really well too. G.I. Joe's little appearance, a bit unceremonious even though we knew it was happening, but considering I've been reading Transformers vs G.I. Joe to get used to the characters, it's great to see Scarlett here. Can't wait to see her kick ass.  

If we didn't already know Blackrock's true identity because of the recap in MTMTE 56, I would say that his reveal as Soverign feels a bit sudden in the issue. And I hate to harp on continuity, but Prowl is still missing his eye and left horn in MTMTE 56, but on the final image of this issue his eye is still gone but his left horn is fix? XD I know it's a minor, minor thing, but come on Barber you're slacking off here. (JK) And why is Optimus's arm still grey? I thought it was repainted last issue when he fought Galvatron in Jupiter. Rambling.

 

I don't think it's common knowledge that Alpha Trion is one of the Thirteen.

 

Well Aileron did say he's a Prime during All Hail Optimus, as did Pyra Magna, Victorion mentioned him by name as one of the Thirteen during the Conquerors arc. The only members than the Camiens didn't know by name were The Fallen and The Arisen.

 

Ah! I haven't been keeping up. So they know that he's one the Alpha Trion then?

 

I would give that issue a 3/5. Good job Livio on this issue! I really enjoyed the art here!
Forgive my ignorance, I have read everything, but I seem to have missed how and why Sentinel is back. I know he just (woke up?) on Cybertron, then teleported to earth because he can turn on Titan Space bridges. But, what exactly transpired for him to wake up?
He seems a little generic in his attitude. So I would love to see some better development there.
This also left me asking what kind of villain do I really want to see? I sort of liked Galvatron, but it got easily repetitive and a little boring. I sort of liked Shockwave, but his trying to become a god or whatever was a little weird and was too big. It resolved easily. Megatron was the old standby but again became predictable and a little boring. He became a good guy. Scorponok held some intrigue by being a shadow villain, but was resolved relatively easily. So I don't know. I honestly don't know what kind of villain would satisfy me.

 

Sentinel's a great villain for a few reasons.
The first is that he isn't a Decepticon. So many non-Megatron villains in this franchise are either other Decepticons or they're associated with them via marketing and story contrivances (Unicron, Megatronus/The Fallen). Sentinel, by representing Autobotism taken to its most extreme conclusion, represents a different sort of threat.
He's not the outside threat. He's what can happen to pervert a noble ideal if the guardians of that ideal are not vigilant.

He's also very real. IDW's take on the Decepticons works so well because they're not just cartoon villains. They're socialists who have fallen into the totalitarian trap, and that's an ideology we can recognize and relate to.
Same with Sentinel. Just look around the world today. ISIS, the Westboro Baptist Church. Or look to the past. Nazism, the segregationists.
Sentinel works because, like the IDW Decepticons, he's a threat we as readers know all too well.

 

The transmission about Optimus's triumphs that Metrotitan sent out across the universe in the one-shot was what woke Sentinel up.

 

I'm definitely accepting that idea that Infinitus was his pre Prime name.

as for the head master/titan master rascism thing, maybe it's deep rooted self-loathing for how he let everything end up like this.

 

Yeah, it seems like "Infinitus" was his name before becoming Sentinel.

As for his hypcocracy, that's not surprising. After all the biggest proponent of the tall blonde haired blue eyed Aryan German ideal was a short kinda pudgy dude with black hair and brown eyes.
As for how Sentinel would justify it? I imagine he sees Titan Masters as being special via their connection to the Titans, which are considered holy according to the Primus religion.

 

His head wasn't stolen, that was a first hint that he is actually a headmaster.

 

I realize that now. It's more likely that Infinitus escaped when no one was looking.

 

I just don't really see what they could do to flesh him out more. What kind of things could they add to his character to make it more interesting? At this point I just can't think of any. But maybe I'll be surprised.

Even if there is something, I wish they'd added it earlier on. He's been around for several issues now, without anything to make him real or distinct, and it kind of makes the issues dull for me, when the antagonist is a boring one.

He is less realistic than them. People like Sentinel (a being with only one apparent character trait/belief) don't happen. No one exists as a one-note being, who never had any aspect to them other than their hatred. People in ISIS or Al Quaeda (or the Klan, or the Shining Path) have backstories, things that developed their psychology and personality to explain in part why they believe what they do, and do what they do. They have a history. They have traits other than "hates X" "thinks violence is okay for X" etc.

Sentinel doesn't. He *could* have, if the text hadn't gone out of the way to say that he was bad all along. That's the irony of it: Sentinel would be a more developed character, if they *hadn't* retconned his positive portrayal in Origin. "Good guy dies, is resurrected and is warped into evil and twisted beliefs by the violent horrible end he experienced" creates a more balanced and emotion!creating character than "This guy is super duper evil. He has always been super duper evil. His character? Uhh, did I mention he's super duper evil?"

 

Please, tell me character traits and personal stories of faceless grunts executing people on TV.

Sure they have lives and stories.

But they're not in scope.

Likewise with villains in fiction. The story doesn't need every single villain having their own origin miniseries for them to work.

Sentinel is millions years old. He certainly did something before. Lived for long.


But that's not in the scope for the time being. Maybe even never.

Given how Cybertron looked during his career as a Prime... It's not even possible to tell if he was a good guy... Or if he simply had no reasons for raging because the social order already was repressive.

 

Sentinel isn't a faceless grunt though. Blitzwing or Astrotrain might qualify as such, while Galvatron does not. Galvatron was a primary antagonist. So is Sentinel Prime. A primary antagonist should have some development beyond "this is a bad guy".

And yet a story is much better if the primary antagonist is given some development beyond "this is the bad guy, look how bad he is." A story really needs very little to qualify as functional, but that's no reason not to make it as *good* as possible.

 

A primary antagonist who showed himself only a few issues ago because even in Megatron's origin his role was limited to a cop who gets killed.

When Magneto showed himself for a first time, he was a raging radical screaming about mutant superiority. It took some time before readers were made familiar why he's this way.

IDW Megatron too. Took some time until the Chaos Theory and his Origins showed his reasons.

 

I think it's too early to say that Sentinel's motivations won't be explored.
We've already gotten hints. He's far older than anyone assumes. He's been around the days of the first Thirteen Primes, he has an innate connection to the old as hell Titans. He claims the teachings of the first Thirteen gave him purpose. ex-RiD even ends with him and Optimus going off for a little chat.

Point being that it's a bit too early into this story to start claiming that it's too late to expand on Sentinel's story.

 

Wait, so Galvatron isn't in on this headmaster schtick?
Dangit. The beheading was a bit off-putting for me. But after this whole Sentinel thing, I could see Galva going "got'cha!".  

 

That's the thing--"a few issues ago". That's a lot of time in comic-book time. The entire series is only some 50 issues long. A few issues is almost 10% of its run.

That's as many issues as Tyrest and Pharma, two other antagonists, got, and yet both were given some nuance and comprehensible motivation in that time. Why give us a 2D cardboard cutout for so many issues, when they've shown we can have antagonists that are fleshed out somewhat even in that short amount of time?