Merge with the other thread if necessary, please! Its out on the IDW App, so go check it out.

I'm a bit split on this issue. Love the character intereactions, but I am rather lukewarm on the plot. Its just too... silly for me.

Quick Summary:

Spoiler

Skids and Nautica are dancing together and discussing Caminus. Skids points out what I think everyone has been thinking since Day One; Nautica claims she's shy, but she's not shy at all. Nautica tells us that on Caminus there's a huge social pressure to get an Amica Endura, so when Firestar and Nautica couldn't find one, they took the "Oath of Constancy" together, which is why they don't really get along despite being "best friends". She also tells us that if you break up an Amica Endura relationship then you are shunned. We also find out that Skids had either an Amica Endura or a Conjunx Endura (I assume its the former, but its not clear) called Chopper who he broke up with. No way that's not going to be important later! The whole conversation Skids is becoming more and more exhausted until eventually they are attacked by the creatures that attacked Nightbeat and co.

Speaking of them, Ravage has regained his senses and blasts some of the creatures. We have confirmation that Ravage does have Attention Deflectors (not big on this) and he was acting so strange because they were overloading from having to hide him from so many things he couldn't see.

Minimus and co. are also being attacked from creatures that were inside Thunderclash (a bit of an anticlimax there, tbh) and Velocity takes a few down while Firestar arrives, but she's too late to save Skystalker, who is bisected by one of the creatures. Thunderclash suddenly awakens and gives a heroic speech to his comrades that they should run while he covers them. Firestar notices that the creatures react strangely to the speech.

Everyone arrives where Skids and Nautica are and Velocity points out that Firestar has been exaggerating her feats to Nautica. Nightbeat has worked everything out after seeing that Skids is also covered in barnacles. This is where things get a bit hoaky to me; The creatures are Personality ticks and they hooked up on Firestar's group when they were on Marasma. They feed off of charisma, which is why they're latching to the more charismatic crew members and why Thunderclash's speech hurt them, because they were being overloaded with charisma. They also weren't really invisible, they just are able to be unnoticed in a way similar to how some people "disappear in crowds", although they can do it "without the crowds". As they become overwhelmed by the ticks, Rodimus and Megatron walk in and all the ticks die.

Ultra Magnus and Nightbeat discusses the aftermath later. Thunderclash is slowly healing and no long needs the Vis Vitalis, as the ticks had fixed his wound in order to extend his life so they could continue feeding off his charisma and will be able to join the Lost Light. Nightbeat tries to take credit for their victoy; he worked out that Megatron and Rodimus have so much charisma that they couldn't handle the overload. However, Magnus points out that there is no way that the two Captains could have arrived in time; actually a group of nobodies that nobody pays attention to (Skater, Flex and Borer) had worked it out before Nightbeat and summoned them.

Firestar and Nautica discuss their relationship. Firestar has decided not to join the Lost Light and both agree its not working and Firestar offers to be the one to break up the bond so that she is shunned and not Nautica, but Nautica refuses to break it up. She thinks that their relationship is different to normal Amica Endura but that's not a bad thing.

Back at the Lost Light everybody is partying to songs I don't recognise by artists I don't recognise. Tailgate tries to get Cyclonus to dance again, but he still refuses until what I assume is a sappy love song comes on, but by this time Tailgate has left and is dancing with Getaway. Velocity comes over to Nautica and announces that she's joined the crew, assumedly as part of the medical team. Skids compliments Swerve on the bar's success and he jokes that his 'work here is done"... Only to his surprise, he literally disappears!

As I said, some fantastic character interactions but I absolutely can not get into the ridiculous

Spoiler

personality tick

thing. Everything about them is silly. Outside of that, I'm glad this issue finished the plot-line cleanly and jumped straight into a new one. Very much looking forward to the next issue!

 

Definitely some very interesting bits. Loved how

Spoiler

Thunderclash is his own over the top heroic self, and he joins up with the Lost Light!
Also liked how the mystery was also solved independently by three nobodies of the LL crew  

What I DIDN'T like however, was that this issue was WAY too heavy on explanatory text. It starts with a TWO-page recap from just the last issue, which wasn't that long to begin with. I'm sure those pages didn't detract from the page count, but that was jarring.

It gets worse in the issue itself when Roberts feels the need to explain both the mystery and the

Spoiler

super powerful versions of attention deflectors

to great length. He's flying off the handle here.

Character moments were great, but if people who dislike MTMTE would have to pick one issue that shows all of the problems they have with the book, THIS issue would be it. (This coming from somebody who usually loves the banter and quality writing).


By the way, some of the songs at the end add up to what is happening.

Spoiler

the song that plays for Cyclonus is once again the BTTF song, then there's Velocity, and finally, Swerve is disappearing into light.

 

Transformer romances v2

Personality parasites

Thunderclash on LL

Thanks for synopsis, I think I can safely skip this issue.

But I must say I really dislike an idea od Ravage using a cheap mcguffin trick like attention deflectors. It does damages character a bit in my eyes, I always prefer when master assassin goes with his skills. His classic way of remaining invisible was much better.

 

Im tempted to skip this too.

But as I have this on order Ill pick it up.

Its the first time in a long time Im tempted to skip an issue in a run. That says a lot both about where I am with my Tf comics and the MTMTE story as a whole.

 

Hey, even ninjas have to wear black clothes. Ravage is still a bad ass.

 

I've always been a bit surprised by the comment(you're not the first to make it) attention deflectors, by their very design, are not the be all end all, perfect cloaking device. They only work if you don't know that the thing is there to begin with.

If Ravage was to stand in front of someone and shout at the top of his lungs, then the deflectors would do bugger all to mask his presence. Once his presence is known, they stop working. If someone is actively looking for Ravage then the deflectors don't work. Ravage has to remain hidden for the deflectors to be of any use. I don't see how it's a cop out or hurts his reputation. He still has to use his skills and knowledge to their fullest degree.

Ravage is still a master of stealth. That hasn't changed. The deflectors are a last resort, a back up, an extra oomph to his already impressive skills. It strikes as more interesting to explain how Ravage augments his abilities with technology(which makes sense for a mechanical race) It creates a more believable explanation other than "He's stealthy because he hides in shadows and the plot tells us so super stealthy".

 

I don't care if it hasn't changed.

Attention deflectors are cheap gimmicky writing for me and they will stay that way for me.

Originally he was using a combination of skill, silent movingg and a stealth shield on top of it. It sounds much better than some "attention deflector" invented for Ultra Magnus arc and then reused again and again.

It's a repetitive writing, a thing that I start noticing in MTME more often.

To be honest I hope Megatron and Ravage will not stay in MTME forever because they're effectively mothballed there and I'd rather see them in a main TF story.

 

The attention deflectors didnt disguise mimimus ambus from Ratchet either. He knew Magnus' deal but he didnt care. He said deflectors didnt work on him lol.

 

I fail to see how a stealth shield is any different from attention deflectors. Aren't they basically the same thing?

He still is using combination of skill, silent movement and a 'stealth shield'. What is a stealth shield? What does it do?

 

Have it from his original G1 bio:

An ability of shielding electromagnetic output across all its spectrum which is, techncially, an invisibility field. You can't be seen. At least by anyone who uses fotoreceptive senses, like humans or TFs.

Which is actually more sensible way of explaining someone disappearing in a plain sight than "magicky magicky attention deflector that screws with people's brains except nobody explains how it exacly works".

And how exactly Ravage was supposed to remain stealthy before MTME? Are attention deflectors working on humans? Let's hope they are some kind of forced telepathy device, because if they are not... How exactly he was capable of sneaking upon humans in AHM? He's bigger than a compact car.

More believable explanation?

A very idea of attention deflectors is a pure handwavium technology based on the Bellisario Maxim. A pure plot device not even masked as anything else. It's not a more believable one.

It's a quite poor retcon.

 

So he cheats? He just flicks a switch and he's undetectable? It just sounds just sounds a bit handy wavey. But if that's the version you prefer then fair enough.

And again, 'disappearing in plain sight' is not what the deflectors do. I think that's where you're getting a bit confused.

 

No, isntead they magically alter people's perception based on... Magick?

Yeah, a wizard did it.

Of course, that's certainly less handwave-y because it's in MTME and written by Roberts.

I swear, amount of blind fan love disabling any amount of critical thinking around this series is hilarious at times.

 

I cant wait until we move onto the Scavengers and the DJD.

Far more interesting then this

 

Right oh, if that's how you're going to be I'll leave you to it. I have a different opinion to you, that's it.

 

"Ravage can hide his presence from others virtually completely. He can shield any electromagnetic radiation inside him from being detected by any monitoring devices."
So either he should be
A) rendered blind from the fact EMs are being redirected around him as to hide his presense.(common problem with "invisible" power sets)
Or
B) be blinded by his own EM emissions being contained and reflected back at him.
But a stealth shield isnt a flimsy macguffin riddled with issues as well. Huh.
To quote the punchline is machoismo, "Where did you get your science license?"

 

Still a miles better explanation than a magic powered branscrew device.

Which was a not-so-great idea, but a needed one, when it was introduced in Ultra Magnus's story.

But then it was reused in Brainstorm's arc.

And now it's reused again.

Makes me wonder how much more repetitive MTME can get.

Would be better if Ravage was just painted in this stealth paint ex-RiD uses on their bots.

But I suppose every idea is better just because it comes in MTME.

Even when the series slowly heads to nowhere and since Remain in Light can't get on a right track...
Or when it slowly reads less and less like a comic book and more and more like a tumblr fanfic mixed with sitcoms. Except human actors this time are cosplaying for big robots.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_blindness
But heres the thing, attention deflectors are based off of a real condition of living beings. And considering youre dealing with a race of technological beings it becomes far more easier to inflict then say on a human. Despite the fact we know its a real occurance because humans -experience- it.

 

I feel like I've given the impression I didn't thoroughly enjoy it, which is not true. Some of the things I found a bit silly, but I still really, really had fun reading the whole thing and I immediately was aching for more when it ended.

 

My thoughts: While there are some things I found a bit daft,

Spoiler

such as the Personality Ticks(love that name btw)feeding off of charisma,

I'd rate this MTMTE as above average on the MTMTE scale of goodness. Is it a brilliant issue? I liked it okay, it's not my favourite but I see it as set up on the way to more important things.

All the elements that you enjoy are there. We get more world building, the

Spoiler

Quest actually gets some development in that a recovered Thunderclash is on board. I really can't wait to see how that goes because for a while I'd dimissed Thunders' mysterious visions as just another part of his heroic persona, but there does seem to be some actual weight to those claims. That, plus he's drawing the Cog symbol that has been linked to the Functionists, Guiding Hand and the strange talking spark Skids encountered.

Plus we have set up for the next issue

Spoiler

(SWERVE!) and a new female character to add to the ranks.

Although, I kinda want to slap Cyclonus and tell him to fight for his man.

Sorry for the wall of black.