Eeeeeexcept that the line "All hail Megatron" was first said by Blackout (in subtitle) in the 2007 movie, before the comic came out.



If anything, the line in DOTM was derived from the same source as the comic's title.

 

I think this line is taken out of context. From what I recall of being corrected about it, it was more like "this new editor who just signed up with IDW, LSOTW was the first TF comic he got to read".

 

Anyone notice that not only is McCarthy incapable of following continuity, he is also incapable of keeping track of his story?


1: Public did not know about the Transformers (ignoring the fact that Sixshot was on live broadcast), then it turns out the transformers were blamed on the Machination (Which means that the public should know about the transformers), than said public coverup was forgotten ("Are they from Mars?")

2: Megatron went through the trouble of making New York his base of operations (Complete with a phallic monument to his manliness), then it turns out he was going to destroy it (along with said phallic monument).

3: Megatron was angsting about being lost without a plan, when he had a plan the whole time.

4: How the Decepticon got "the codes" kept changing. 1st, they got it from Sunstreaker and Hunter (How they had the codes is unexplained). 2nd, Bombshell got it by turning Hunter into a magic 8 ball. McCarthy must have thought it was a stupid explanation, so 3rd, They got it by reviving the headmaster link and brainwashing Sunstreaker into giving them the codes, which brings us back to the first problem.

Any thoughts?

 

AHM is massively inconsistent within itself.

 

That's understating it.

 

I... like the Trevor Hutchison covers.

 

I'll definitely back you on that one. Some damn classy Transformers covers. Kind of a shame IDW dicked us by using them as incentive-only covers for the AHM Coda issues.

zmog

 

im new to the world of transformer comics and graphic novels. i recently read AHM and now im curious is there a series that led up to AHM ?? and what followed it ??

 

i believe if you are interested, you can read The Transformers: The IDW Collection Vol 1-4, which AFAIK contains every story in IDWs G1 continuity leading up to AHM. Then, the new Transformers ongoing series (#21 was just released, and their are 2 or 3 trades out of it) + the Ironhide, Bumblebee and Heart of Darkness miniseries.

 

There was a lot of good artwork associated with All Hail Megatron.
I really liked the covers along with Guido’s lines and Josh’s colors, too.

While there were certainly stories before AHM, they don’t feel like they ‘lead up’ to it.
That’s mainly why the fans complain so much.

They’re good stories, I would suggest you read them.
But most of the plot points are dropped or reinvented with AHM.

 

You know, every once and while I think about the two to three issue span where we're told Optimus is beyond healing, to his full revival with no questions asked, or exposition given.

I know it's been mentioned many, many times but I still get a chuckle every time I think about it.

 

Yeah, I'm one of those people who keeps mentioning it, too.  

They have a dire conversation about how bad Optimus Prime is and Ratchet says something to the effect of how he doesn't think he can keep him from dying let alone repair him; and then POP! There is Optimus Prime standing in front of the troops looking brand new.

And quicker than you could say WTF:
I AM OMEGA SUPREME

 

Y'know... on a whim I just pulled out issues 8-10 of AHM and re-read them (for the first time in ages).

Honestly, it's better than I remember it being. Sure there are still some of the same plot contortions. Prime's magical recovery is played off as just a BIT too instantaneous and taken-for-granted. Obviously we know that Ratchet and Wheeljack are working on him throughout the series, and we KNOW that he'll probably pull through miraculously (that's how drama works)... except McCarthy seems to have forgotten to even try to make that moment of tension dramatic.  

But a lot of the other stuff is really nicely done. Sunstreaker's betrayal is a lot less out-of-nowhere than people often claim. His original motivation was due to a deal he struck with Starscream... colluding on a trap to help Starscream kill Megatron and end the war... with the conquest of Earth being part of Starscream's conditions. Of course, it blows up in his face, and Starscream totally betrays him.

Sunstreaker is NEVER said to have the access codes. People keep griping about this, and he never handed over the codes. Of course, the whole "using a fusion of Cybertronian and human biology as a hub system for crashing the Autobot security grid" is a bit of an unconvincing stretch. McCarthy devotes a couple of pages to expository dialogue to sell that point, but I don't think it works.

Other than a few of those moments, I REALLY like the dialogue and character moments that are spread throughout the series. Starscream and Megatron both really shine here, and the Autobots become more interesting in their broken, desperate state... a hell of a lot more individual character exploration there than in 2 years worth of Costa's ongoing.

Also Omega Supreme's deus ex machina arrival is a perfectly normal "here comes the cavalry" moment. I find his battle later on with Devastator to be pretty weak, but the moment he shows up on Cybertron actually works pretty well. I like the little banter between him and Prowl...

Like, duhhhh Prowl. Stupid question.  
I thought that was cute, though it became a bit stale by the time the battle gets to Earth.

I think the biggest problem with AHM is the fact that it's rather blatantly being thrown together as it goes along. Despite IDW's protestations to the contrary, it's SO DAMN OBVIOUS that McCarthy's script is a patchwork of an original story that was not written to be in-continuity, and a bunch of hasty changes thrown in to try to blend it with the pre-existing material. Honestly, I think a lot of that is good stuff... but it's stitched together a bit awkwardly.

One such example of how the writing approach seems to mutate through the series is when, after we've been introduced to the new "badass upgraded" version of Perceptor, Ratchet later wishes he "had the OLD Perceptor back, like this war needs another clown with a gun!"

To me, it kind of feels like McCarthy's admission that while a "badass" Perceptor seemed like a good idea at the time, by the end of the series, after receiving feedback from the readers, he acknowledges that it was sort of stupid. Nice... but still a bit schizo and wishy-washy in terms of the writing, when you see an author introduce an idea, and then a few issues later totally ridicule his own creation. It doesn't indicate a very firm sense of direction...

zmog

 

That's the same way I felt about Perceptor when I first saw him. It's the same as the GI Joe/TF series when Ratchet is lost in a post-apocalyptic future and becomes Billy Badass. But at least Ratchet was separated from every other Autobot for years and had no choice but to become a warrior himself, in order to defend the surviving earthlings against Decepticon forces.

Perceptor's near-death experience felt like hollow motivation by contrast. The zany non-canon crossover had more credibility, sadly.

 

Agreed. In fact, it was bad enough when we had to imagine how messed up and traumatized Perceptor would have been to go this way... what it would have taken to turn him into this kind of character. But then they had to write that craptacular Coda story, which honestly just made his transformation all the more facile and superficial.

And it's true. There are a million TF guys with guns, and ONE brilliant absent minded professor. Really, what was the point?

zmog

 

Yeah, I might agreed with Badass Perceptor if I had been along for the ride, but there was so much of the story that didn't jive with previous continuity.
The new Perceptor was just one of many things.

 

Exactly right. As cliched as it is, I vastly prefer G1 cartoon absent-minded professor Perceptor. Pointless to change his character so drastically.

 

On the other hand, Perceptor was totally awesome in Last Stand of the Wreckers, where he retained both his intellect and his newly found badass nature.

 

Was he really all that badass in LSotW? Seems he was pretty much oldschool Percy to me... though of course he could still fight, which helps.

I'm not saying Perceptor always has to be a comic-relief ponce... he can still be a competent fighter. I just think that AHM went way overboard to make him into a cold, silent superbot.

zmog

 

Time to dig out my old reviews and repost. I read this in trade rather than monthly form, so my views may differ from the monthly readers.

All Hail Megatron
Volume 1 trade paperback, originally issues 1-6

“All Hail Megatron” begins with a simple premise, as detailed in the forward by author Shane McCarthy. The Decepticons have finally won the war. There’s no one to stop them from running rampant throughout the galaxy and doing whatever they want. It’s like the old cartoon episode “Megatron’s Master Plan” part 2, only without the sanitized nature of the old cartoon that made sure that no one died and nothing was permanently destroyed. AHM contains plenty of destruction and death, though a lot of it still happens off panel or is implied rather than shown, so it’s no R-rated bloodbath.

The story remains in continuity with Simon Furman’s earlier storylines, and yet it consciously goes back to long-standing character groupings and reverts many characters to their original G1 designs. It’s a “back to basics” appeal to nostalgia, apparently in an attempt to halt the downward slope of comic sales throughout the “-ation” series of stories. The Transformers alter appearance and alternate mode often enough that the change is not implausible, but it is certainly jarring to have read three years of comics that were trying to bring Transformers into the present day, only to go all the way back to the 80s with many of the designs. A few characters retain their IDW designs, and a few adopt the Classics/Universe designs, so it’s not all retro. But it’s clear that the overall approach came from a mindset that believed that IDW’s problems stemmed from straying too far from what the nostalgia crowd wanted. I don’t agree with that, but that’s obviously what dictated the approach.

So the story presents the reader with more familiar and traditional character designs and character groupings. Starscream, Soundwave and the rest of the usual cast of characters surround Megatron. Many of the Autobots are who we would expect to find together from the 84-85 cast, such as Ironhide, Prowl and Jazz. The Constructicons and Insecticons are thrown into the mix for the first time as well. That’s fine, and I can accept that the characters have gathered together as they have and altered their forms as well, given that a year has passed since “Devastation”. The Decepticons have set a wide ranging attack in motion both on Earth and elsewhere in the galaxy, and according to Megatron have broken the back of the Autobot “resistance” as he terms it. They openly reveal themselves and attack New York, killing thousands and trashing the city. They cut it off from the outside and establish it as a base of operations from which they attack other areas around the Earth. But in an interesting turn of events, they find victory less than satisfactory. The forces of Earth are not a challenge to the Decepticons, who slaughter them en masse without much of an effort. Cracks begin to show in the unity of the Decepticons, and Starscream openly asks Megatron “What’s next?”

The Autobots are trapped on Cybertron, and Optimus Prime is near-death with Ratchet trying to keep him alive and repair him. Many of the Autobots are in an obviously damaged state, with missing limbs and holes in their armor. Morale is terrible, and there is a traitor in the mix who sold them out to the Decepticons. Jazz and Prowl keep the secret of the loss of the Matrix from the rest of the Autobots. Like the Decepticons, the Autobots are slowly going stir-crazy, though in their case apart from low morale it’s simply because there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. Cybertron is not a hospitable environment, though in keeping with the end of Stormbringer the environment is recovering from the damage that the planet had taken. The Autobots are able to survive unprotected on the surface when a year ago the Technobots had all sorts of problems.

The plot unfolds very deliberately and naturally. We don’t see all the destruction and attempts to fight back in a single issue. Rather, it is ongoing throughout three or four chapters. The characters gradually go downhill rather than take sudden left turns, which feels much more natural. Ironhide takes a swing at Prowl, setting up his eventual beatdown of Mirage as his frustrations grow. Starscream abandons the battle and banters with Megatron about what’s next now that they’ve won. I’ve read numerous complaints about the slow pace of the story from those who read it month to month, but in compiled form everything feels just about right.

Characterization is the key to this story’s success. I doubt we’ve ever seen the Decepticons interacting in quite the same way that they interact here, and the same is true of the Autobots. They react to the situations they’re placed in according to their individual temperaments and beliefs, meaning that the characters drive the plot as much as they’re carried along by it. Some characters are changed beyond recognition, like Perceptor. The story takes a few risks with the characters and they pay off. The characters that get lines and express opinions become more three-dimensional as a result. We get characters just standing around “chewing the fat” as well as discussing the overall situation.

The human side of the story works better than I expected it to. I held off for a long time on buying the trade paperback because it seemed like there was a lot of human-centered story there that I just wasn’t interested in. But those portions of the plot are quite gripping at times as the military are rapidly outmaneuvered and beaten by the Decepticons, and General Witwicky takes hit after hit to his plans and morale. Yes, the Witwickys are introduced as a military family, with Spike apparently a commando or black ops type of soldier. There’s no sign of Hunter, Jimmy or Verity, though I know Hunter turns up later on and plays a key role in the story.

The art is strong, as is to be expected from Guido Guidi, who’s been drawing these characters for some time now. Many of the characters are very reminiscent of the old cartoon, but that’s probably deliberate as well.

It’s only the first half of the story, but I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit, and that’s the bottom line, isn’t it? It may not mesh perfectly with all of Furman’s stories, but it does work with them and build on them in most areas, while at the same time going off in its own direction and trying to appeal to nostalgia. “All Hail Megatron” is a solid effort at a direction change for IDW and a good story that uses the characters well.