Transformers #37 (RID) Discussion thread

Discussion in 'Transformers Comics Discussion' started by Digilaut, Jan 16, 2015.

  1. Digilaut

    Digilaut Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 29, 2008
    Posts:
    11,512
    News Credits:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    362
    Likes:
    +1,633
    So, apparently this comic was delayed or something? But it still came out on iBooks just as planned. Did nobody read it yet....?

    Here are my thoughts, in spoiler tags because I know just how tempting it can be to read stuff that you don't want to read..yet want to read! :lol 

    Ok, to be honest: I'm experiencing another one of those rollercoaster of emotion moments. As hopefully people should know by now, I'm a much bigger fan of MTMTE than RID, but feel RID was genuinely improving in season 2.

    After reading this issue, I feel the book has failed to capitalize on the previous issues' setup, as Barber kind of slips back into a delivery as smooth as a ten ton blunt hammer. That approach seems to work well in the Angry Birds and TF vs GI Joe books, but not here, in my opinion.



    -Arcee tries to flee the scene using Swipe's jetpack, but gets grabbed by Galvatron. Jimmy gets captured by the other Cons, but Galvatron and Arcee start fighting, destroying a satellite in space in the process. Basically three pages worth of content are wasted on a mostly speechless scene of them going up, then falling down again into Australia, with not much damage at all (Galvatron has some scratches and a bleeding chin, even though his impact looks like an atomic bomb has just gone off.
    Props to Griffith, it looks COOL, but still feels like a waste.

    -Prowl has forgiven Spike, and since they both want the same thing - the Enigma of Combination, they decide to work together. Prowl continues to call somebody on the team Scrapper.

    -Here is where the issue really falls apart to me. Blackrock takes Faireborn to his secret bunker facility, where he decides to give them a tour.
    This all happens in one big spread of the facility, where the characters are seen at multiple spots on the page. Incredibly clever idea, but to be honest: it looks pretty awkward as Blackrock's trophies are just kind of scattered in rooms right below the aircrafts' landing pads. You can see a couple of guards, but basically the world's most sought after relic is just up for grabs. Yes, the Enigma of Combination is just sort of floating somewhere.
    I'm sure this was really hard to draw convincingly, but it still bugs me.

    However, what bugs me most about this spread is the blatant exposition.
    Want to know why Blackrock is called Blackrock? Because his direct ancestor was actually the person who built the first human city around the Enigma, and the walls were made of black rock.
    Yes, not only does Blackrock somehow have perfect information about our world's birth of civilization (said to be Uruk, from the epos of Gilgamesh), he's also a direct descendant of the founder and through thousands of years got to keep a last name that references his ancestor... -_-' Subtle!

    -The Enigma of Combination doesn't just combine robots into one...it combines ideas. That's (supposedly) how Earth civilization got a jumpstart: when people gathered around the impact crater their ideas started to combine, causing them to solve complicated problems. Understandably, it's a very useful and dangerous power.

    -There's also that Space Bridge.

    -Bonus cameos: Thrust's body, Ramjet's severed head, a mini-Constructicon, a giant Transformer handgun, an actual piece or pillar of black rock (from Uruk?), and the coolest ones: three cars, one of them is Slicer, and another one looks to be the Model T (one of the original Seekers from the Bay movie that was at one point concepted, in the end turned into that Ransack biplane toy).


    -Galvatron and Arcee stop fighting, and Galvatron tries to persuade Arcee that, yeah he's totally a jerk who killed millions, millions - but the Enigma is really dangerous so we should team up for now to make sure it gets destroyed. After that we can go back to killing each other. Arcee goes with him to their ship, seemingly agreeing.
    I'm not sure why the hell she would, but let's assume she's not genuine as RID has not pulled that exact trick three times already.


    -Spike infiltrates Blackrock's headquarters, and when he confirms the Enigma is there. At that point Prowl combines with the Constructicons into Devastator and attacks the base. SURPRISE, he's going to kill Spike ANYWAY, or at least leave him for dead in the destruction - saying the mission is to secure the Enigma, but that 'Spike is just a target of opportunity'.

    -Blackrock says he anticipated this, and launches the Ramjet and Thrust clones at the other base, where Sanjay Bharwaney panicks as he is not informed. (By the way, I'm totally making it fanon that the scientist Kassem G plays in Age of Extinction is totally this dude.)

    edit: oh yeah, forgot to mention: if I got it right, Galvatron hints to Arcee that fembots were part of old Cybertron by saying '[...]we lost much of the ancient days [...]', and Jhiaxus was, like with the combiners, just experimenting to see if he could bring them back. I guess it ties into IDW's recently revealed Aligned-inspired history. Make of that what you will.


    Overall....2/5 for me. Kind of drops the ball after a genuinely interesting build up. Sigh.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2015
  2. hyruk

    hyruk Genericon

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2014
    Posts:
    976
    Trophy Points:
    91
    Likes:
    +3
    Slick!
    Its finally out

    Judging by the plot...
    I dont think its going down hill...just building up more plot,
    However i wish there was more arcee vs. Galvatron fighting and more explanation for prowls nosebleed
     
  3. Mort

    Mort Apostate

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Posts:
    786
    News Credits:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    122
    Likes:
    +30
    Twitter:
    Instagram:
    Tumblr:
    You made me rush off and buy it and now I realise I'll have to buy it again on Comixology next week. And it's refusing to download for some reason so I can't even read it. :inquisiti 
     
  4. edgs2099

    edgs2099 Optimistically realistic. Moderator

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2010
    Posts:
    14,490
    News Credits:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    342
    Location:
    Fanghorn
    Likes:
    +11,615
    Ugh. That sounds terrible.
     
  5. Mort

    Mort Apostate

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Posts:
    786
    News Credits:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    122
    Likes:
    +30
    Twitter:
    Instagram:
    Tumblr:
    Managed to read this through a crappy epub reader; still refusing to download or sync on iPad.

    I liked the Arcee/Galvatron conversation because it touched upon things we were speculating on, but Arcee seems to imply Galvatron is much older than her, making the theory that Jhiaxus grabbed her while still in the DU more plausible. "This conflict between Autobots and Decepticons was never ours" on the other hand implies not?

    Nothing else positive to say really, but I've not been a fan of this season.
     
  6. Mechafire

    Mechafire Shadow Broker Moderator News Staff

    Joined:
    May 9, 2008
    Posts:
    26,212
    News Credits:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    452
    Likes:
    +2,322
    Quote from issue:

    Quote from Spotlight Arcee:

    wat

    Well, at least they're (maybe) finally getting around to addressing it. Aside from that, I actually disagree with your score. Except for the monumentally stupid and completely unnecessary explanation for Blackrock's name, the issue didn't really do anything that stuck out to me as being outright terrible. It was just average, like RID is and has always been. I'd probably give it more of a 3/5.
     
  7. Mort

    Mort Apostate

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Posts:
    786
    News Credits:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    122
    Likes:
    +30
    Twitter:
    Instagram:
    Tumblr:
    Well, Arcee says 'I guess...' meaning she doesn't actually know. Galvatron is telling her that what she thought was wrong. Or potentially lying to her face as he does about Prowl.
     
  8. Mechafire

    Mechafire Shadow Broker Moderator News Staff

    Joined:
    May 9, 2008
    Posts:
    26,212
    News Credits:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    452
    Likes:
    +2,322
    No she doesn't? I have the issue right here in front of me and she doesn't utter the words "I guess" at all.

    But regardless, that doesn't change the fact that Jhiaxus did discard her. If he was so proud and considered her so successful and everything, I wouldn't think he'd have done that.
     
  9. Mort

    Mort Apostate

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Posts:
    786
    News Credits:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    122
    Likes:
    +30
    Twitter:
    Instagram:
    Tumblr:
    Sorry, I misremembered the phrasing, but the 'clearly' could suggest she's jumping to some conclusion. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a retcon, just trying to work around it.
     
  10. Mechafire

    Mechafire Shadow Broker Moderator News Staff

    Joined:
    May 9, 2008
    Posts:
    26,212
    News Credits:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    452
    Likes:
    +2,322
    Don't worry about it. :) 

    IMO, it's just another piece of clunky Barber writing if he's retconning it that way. I appreciate that the Jhiaxus/fembot thing was (finally) brought up, but I just wish they'd actually address it in full if they're going to, instead of constantly just teasing/tiptoeing around it like this.
     
  11. Autovolt 127

    Autovolt 127 Get In The Titan, Prime!

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2006
    Posts:
    83,294
    News Credits:
    16
    Trophy Points:
    462
    Likes:
    +2,907
    I hope someone uploads it on the /co/ soon.
     
  12. ZeroiaSD

    ZeroiaSD Autobot

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2014
    Posts:
    3,483
    Trophy Points:
    222
    Likes:
    +1,329
    Galvatron wasn't new when Nova started his reign. Arcee could've been made a half million years after Nova became Prime. She could've been made a hundred years before Tailgate.

    So it rules her out from being in the tribal era, but Pax Nova era and DU era are both possible.
     
  13. hyruk

    hyruk Genericon

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2014
    Posts:
    976
    Trophy Points:
    91
    Likes:
    +3
    DU Era as in???
     
  14. ZeroiaSD

    ZeroiaSD Autobot

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2014
    Posts:
    3,483
    Trophy Points:
    222
    Likes:
    +1,329
    "Dead Universe," as in all the time the Ark-1 crew was mostly in the Dead Universe (so technically including the post-nova gap, the nominus/sentinel/zeta eras, and then the civil war).
     
  15. CVprowl

    CVprowl Done

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2011
    Posts:
    9,933
    Trophy Points:
    312
    Likes:
    +3,102
    i just read your spoilers and i have to say… if it wasn't for MTMTE i doubt id even be reading RID. Even though Prowl is a main character… these stories just don't do much for me.
     
  16. LegendAntihero

    LegendAntihero Banned

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2011
    Posts:
    14,163
    Trophy Points:
    217
    Likes:
    +40
    How come the spoiler tags won't go away when I touch them on my iPad?
     
  17. Bumblebee2000

    Bumblebee2000 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2012
    Posts:
    2,255
    News Credits:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    262
    Location:
    Australia
    Likes:
    +1,436
    ^They never do for me, I have to copy it to the notes app, although I usually browse on the laptop. Autocorrect is already a pain without words such as Spinister, Sharkticon, Unicron and Kup.
     
  18. ZeroiaSD

    ZeroiaSD Autobot

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2014
    Posts:
    3,483
    Trophy Points:
    222
    Likes:
    +1,329
    I find random issue to random issue I might enjoy MtM more, but when RiD builds up a story that gets me more than MtM's stories.
     
  19. hyruk

    hyruk Genericon

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2014
    Posts:
    976
    Trophy Points:
    91
    Likes:
    +3
    Heh same here
     
  20. Digilaut

    Digilaut Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 29, 2008
    Posts:
    11,512
    News Credits:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    362
    Likes:
    +1,633
    Another workaround is to tab on the quote button and starting a reply. :thumb 
    Far from ideal but at least you won't have to keep switching between apps!