Except that as soon as you make the Doctor into a kick-ass action hero, you've missed the point. I think this applies to Skids too.

Yeah, I don't really see that, particularly in this series. With Roberts, he's pretty much just the very earnest, spiritual, new-age flake... a "believer", and a pretty good foil for Ratchet's grouchy pragmatism. Of course, Drift has never spouted hot-blooded anime dialog, despite many embittered fans trying to hate on him for being that kind of character.

Admittedly, not a bad match. You could probably start with a Prime Wheeljack, and wind up with some decent results. Or maybe Animated Blurr?

Yeah, I don't really get that brain thing... especially since the Sparkeater just kind of leaves it lying around on the floor. I suppose maybe he might have done that to Animus... or could he, since Animus had a full faceplate?

I suspect that with Rodimus, he just had his hands full and didn't have the time to use that ability on him.

zmog

 

Needing extra time was my assumption as well. Maybe it only uses the brain extraction technique if it has time to take its victim by surprise. Like a leopard or tiger prefers to sneak up on prey to give it the best advantage for a kill, but once the prey has seen it, the cat has to sprint to catch it and the chance for stealth is lost. The sparkeater ambushed Shock, so it had the extra time to pull his brain out to ensure that he would be an easy kill. With Rodimus, the prey was standing there ready and waiting to fight, so it didn't have time to do anything but a direct attack.

 

So I decided to finally share my thoughts on this issue. I’m continually impressed with this series and how much it has managed to capture my interest and leave me longing for the next issue to come out. I’ve never felt that way about a Transformers comic before.

So, okay, my thoughts in rough chronological order:

- Like Greyley, I think it’s wonderful that we get to see a Cybertronian mourn a deceased friend in a way that feels “real”. All too often Autobots and Decepticons die and, while we’re told that their friends and fellow warriors are sad about it and miss them, we don’t get to witness actual mourning. Granted, in the case of Shock and Ore here, we didn’t get to see too much either since Shock was killed as well very shortly after Ore, but at least we got to see and read him sorting through his emotions and expressing how much he’ll miss him.

- Innermost energon? Does that mean that it’s from the area directly around their spark or something?

- Good ol’ Rodimus. Roberts and Roche are the only writers that I feel really “get” him and don’t make him either too much of a kid or too much of a reckless asshole with no redeeming traits.

- Rewind insists on accompanying Chromedome (I guess they really are as inseparable as Swerve made them out to be) because it might be dangerous, yet when it does turn out to be a dangerous situation he says that he wants to go home. Heh. I guess he’s not quite as brave as he thought he was.

- Gotta admit, even though I knew that Tailgate was originally supposed to go on the same Ark as Cyclonus I didn’t think he actually knew the guy personally. Poor thing, though. Stuck half in altmode and no one besides Cyclonus cares enough to help him.

- I wanna hear more about The Seething Moon. And more of Ultra Magnus’ stories of weirdos he’s apprehended in the past.

- At first glance I thought that Chromedome was fiddling with his fingers nervously when talking about Rossum’s Trinity, but upon second inspection I saw that he was actually making a triangle shape. Nice detail, Milne.

- Man, Ratchet, you really don’t like Drift, do you?  

- “With corpses, I prefer to go through the eye sockets.” Wow, Chromedome. You really should think about how things sound before you say them. I see Drift shares my sentiments, too.

I really dig the whole “small connectors coming out of the fingers” look, though.

- So Chromedome promised Rewind that he’d stop poking through people’s minds, huh? And apparently there are things that Chromedome doesn’t even share with him. Interesting. I’m curious about where that plot hook is going.

- That’s funny, I didn’t peg Blurr as the musical type. However, Swerve’s old “nickname” fits him well and made me laugh.

- Skids not letting go of that gun concerns me. I keep waiting for him to accidentally pull the trigger. But the fact that he won’t drop it or even acknowledge it is definitely a symptom of some sort of mental block/emotional trauma.

- I wasn’t gonna say anything about this since this sort of thing isn’t usually well received on these boards, but their closeness raised my eyebrows as well. It’s a little...suspicious.  

Then again, I doubt even a great writer like Roberts would be able to convince IDW/Hasbro to let him tackle such a subject, so I’m not exactly holding my breath here. If I’m wrong, though, I’ll gladly eat my words.

- Rodimus is so convinced that he’s the brightest spark, but in his defense he was chosen by and in contact with the Matrix. It’s a reasonable assumption to make.

...Oh, who am I kidding? He’s obviously had his ego overinflated by Drift’s constant compliments and admiration.

- Whirl, you are a jerk. An entertaining jerk, but a jerk nonetheless. Trailbreaker didn’t even do anything to you to deserve being mocked!

- Oh, Rung... It looks like you’re officially the IDW universe’s plaything. You’ll never catch a break.

- I don’t care what you keep trying to tell people, Cyclonus. You’re totally a Decepticon, if not officially then in spirit.

- TURBOFOXES!   I have waited for so, so long to see what they look like...and though I agree that they’re a little too similar to Earth’s foxes than I’d hoped, I’m overjoyed to finally lay my eyes on them.

- I look forward to seeing more of Brainstorm. Like Whirl, he’s also a very entertaining jerk.

- Rodimus, why did you have to nearly pull Rung’s arms off when you were trying to use him as bait? Wasn’t the fact that you had him in front of you enough to draw the Sparkeater close?

- You know, I’m surprised that that quantum generator still works with a Transformer and a Sparkeater melded inside of it. Or are those parts that would be inside completely dissolved?

- Oh, Tailgate, you adorable, naïve fool. You’re going to have a hell of a time on the Lost Light if you go through with becoming a Decepticon. At least listen to the other side of the story first!

Fantastic issue! ...Is it April yet?  

 

Oh man tailgate that decision is pretty bad one to make on a ship full of bots.

 

You can see where it starts to do it to Rung - who grabs his own throat and makes choking noises - but Skids pulls him to safety before it happens.

 

I wondered about that too. The sound of wounded prey will usually attract predators faster, so Rodimus could have manhandled Rung so he would make noises to get the sparkeater's attention. That's an awfully cruel thing for an Autobot to do, though...

A simpler theory is that Rod was just trying to keep him still, and underestimated his own strength. Rung is so small and twiggy compared to the others, it probably wouldn't take much force from a bigger bot to hurt him. Poor lil' guy.

Someone on another site mentioned that the sparkeater incident made it look like Rodimus was overstepping his boundaries as commander, and could potentially get in trouble for risking the life of one of his followers. In this situation, I don't see Rodimus as a military leader as much as the captain of the ship. And ship's captains traditionally have total authority over the ship and crew, even to the point of ordering executions. So using a member of his crew as bait was reckless, but personally I don't think Rod could get in trouble for it. Not that stupid Ultra Magnus won't TRY, but at least Rod seems to be keeping him in his place.  

 

The thing I love about Rodimus thinking he's the brightest spark is that he (kind of) said it right after we all thought it (you thought it right? I know I did). If he had been right, I would've been fine with it because it makes so much sense, but when it turned out to be Rung I just had to grin. You got me Roberts, again. Well played. Man I am just loving this book so much. I never thought anything would top LSotW, but if this keeps up I'm going to eat those words. NOM.

 

Hey hey! Easy on the name-calling   haha

 

I don't think it ever said Tailgate was supposed to GO on the Ark, I think he just wanted to watch it take off. (Kinda like going to see a shuttle launch.)

Cyclonus was from his era, we're "assuming" they know each other but they could be only familiar with each other by reputation.

BTW there is an interesting aside here, Nova Prime was probably a lot more like an Marvel-verse Decepticon from what I understand. He wanted to expand Cybertronian influence thoughout the galaxy, by force if necasarry. IIRC. So although Tailgate is a relatively mild manered bot, he might be more of a Decepticon by contemporary standards than one might think. (Of course, Cyclonus's story was pretty one sided as well.)

Speaking of which,,, who brought Cyclonus up to date on Cybertronian History anyway? He was in the Dead Universe, then he worked under Galvatron in HOD. Who wasn't really a Decepticon supposedly. Where does Jihaxus fit into all this? Since he was also a 1st Ark crew member.

"(Whirl) you could have blown up half the ship!"
"Which half?"

 

So he was like

Spoiler

Hitler

?

Either he didn't think it through or he really wanted to blow up the ship. Maybe a little bit of both.

It's not like Rewind told Chromedome anything about the Golden Discs he bought from Swindle (or has he?).

I always assumed that James Roberts is on a test-ground.
I mean at first they're only talking(more like complaining) to each other, then they're hanging around each other (constantly, but maybe Swerve just exaggerates), hand on shoulder, and after that:

next step is probably holding hands. James Roberts probably takes baby-steps with that subject.

"I have the brightest and purest spark Drift told me so."
I also love the fact that he forgot that NOVA PRIME also wore the Matrix.
I think that being able to bear the Matrix isn't that rare (well,okay maybe), but maybe it's something one is born with, like a 1 in one thousand can wear the matrix?

He wanted to make sure he didn't escape and used unnecessary roughness.
I guess he isn't used to hold someone with non-military armor.

 

This was a great issue. I love Skids so much. And Tailgate and Cyclonus made my laugh.

 

"If Nova prime and the others leave without me their mission is doomed to failure" - page 8 issue 1

Sounds like he was going to be on the ark to me.

 

I assumed Tailgate only knew Cyclonus because Cyclonus was there whenTailgate was rescued. I never got the impression that it was anything more than that.

And on Chromedome and Rewind, I think people are reading far too much into it.

 

Cyclonus was on the Ark, Tailgate was supposed to be on the Ark. Surely they must have at least met before? How would Tailgate even know Cyclonus' name when he never got a chance to meet anyone before blacking out and Cyclonus was unconcious on the ground?

 

Well, if that was his idea (which I doubt because, as you pointed out, that's unnecessarily cruel even for someone as reckless as Rodimus), it didn't exactly go as planned. Besides the initial "You're hurting me!", Rung was pretty quiet.

Yeah, this seems much more likely. Rung is very fragile when compared to everyone else on board, and Rodimus might have forgotten that in the heat of the moment.

Damn, poor Rung. Maybe he should invest in an armour upgrade. Or at least self-defense classes.

Like WreckageGhost said, he expressed that he was trying to get on board in the first issue:

That, together with his questions to Ratchet on the second issue's 10th page ("Have we taken off? Does Nova Prime know I'm on board?" "Have we reached Benzuli?") tells me that he was supposed to be on the Ark when it launched, not merely a spectator watching it take off.

You mean when Cyclonus was completely out cold after Whirl crashed him into the ground?  

Uhh... I wouldn't be so sure about that. In issue 2 Tailgate says that he was doing bomb disposal work with the Primal Vanguard, an off-world peacekeeping group. That really doesn't sound very malicious or Decepticon-like to me.

 

Interesting observation. We already know that the ruling authority just before the war (were they not called "Autobots" in earlier IDW stories?) was corrupt and self-serving... it's actually quite possible that during the reign of Nova Prime, Cybertron was very much in a "Decepticon" phase. Looking at the crew of the Ark-1, there's Scourge, Cyclonus, Jhiaxus, Galvatron and Straxus. Seems like a pretty nasty group when you think about it. They may not have been official "Decepticons", but essentially they were on the same path, avant la lettre.

Though in fairness, Tailgate seems like a fairly gormless, inoffensive type. Not exactly prime Con material.

Was there not a suggestion that the Dead Universe group was spying on this universe interdimensionally? I forget now.

Well, not every expansionist villain is Hitler. In fact it sounds like good old-fashioned European Imperialism/Colonialism to me. Still nasty, but admittedly the founding model of our modern world.

I keep wondering about those. Maybe Rewind was procuring for Chromedome? Whatever taboo stuff is on those disks might actually relate to Chromedome's necromantic tendencies.

Either that, or it was just gay roboporn.  

Wow, I had no idea that a bomb disposal expert was such a make-or-break member of the team. Tailgate was being a bit melodramatic, no?  

Nah. They're totally gay robots.

Or they would be, if Transformers actually had gender, right?    

zmog

 

Yeah, he's too much of a nice guy and a pushover to be a proper Decepticon. They'd eat him alive.

You know, that's actually a pretty interesting idea! It could be a gift or something to help Chomedome (I guess as a surprise, since he made sure to go get it quickly without Chromedome or anyone else's knowledge). Maybe it's information on mnemosurgery and possible alternative ways to do it without the health risk, since Rewind was really concerned about him going through all that pain?

And this would nicely tie in to Swindle's comment about the disks' contents being "sick", since I bet even a guy like him would be disgusted and disturbed by the process of mnemosurgery on the living and on corpses. You may be into something there, SMOG!

 

I think the fact that Rung has the brightest spark hurted Rodimus' pride. Maybe Rodimus unleashed his anger by using Rung as bait.

 

Okay just re-read the issue, great stuff. I have observations and questions & speculations though. Spark Eater, fist time I heard it mentioned was in LSOTW by Topspin, he asked if that was what the team he ended up on was tracking. Does anyone know if there sentient? How are they created? I was thinking they kind of remind me of vampires but instead of blood they like sparks, so is it possible that the the former Nail crew had a memeber infected and they kept it alive with Turbo Foxes, while I don't know trying to find a cure or treatment? There was a way of monitoring it since Hot Rod used a screen in the Sparkeater's cell to call Rung. Mabye the Sparkeater was driven crazy from lack of food, I imagine turbofoxes are like peanuts when compared to a Cybertronians Prime Rib spark. I think the briefcase totally saved Brainstorm because that thing had it's hand poised for a killing blow. I also think that Skids gun is something that he was going to use to kill himself but for some reason he's blocked it out, if he's been anywhere near where I think he's been that'll make sense later. Also Shock & Ore Prowl's men were trying to put a tracer on the engine, I think that mabye they were always supposed to do that but what other cargo did Prowl mean in issue #1?But on the other hand mabye Prowl has more inside bots than we know. Also why must we keep comparing the two TF titles as superior and inferior I think there ment to appeal to diffrent tatse of TF fans? Can't we appreciate them for their diffrences, and just be thankful for great TF comics again that are worth re-reading?

 

yea that's one thing i hope they dont leave unmentioned- the tracer they should have found at the murder scene.

So Prowl wanted them to stick a tracer on the engine (not sbotage the ship) this is just Prowl wanting to be able to check in in the future- it's his contingency plan. Shock and Ore, his two moles on the ship are both dead, the one that died first (shock) was probably about to place the tracer when the ship made an unexpected jump whil still in cybertronian orbit.

In issue one they specifically mentioned that the jump happened before it was supposed to. So either the ship malfunctioned, or, more likely, someone who had nothing to do with Prowl sabotaged the ship, made it jump too soon (why shock got killed, cause he was about to plant a tracer when....) , and possibly set a bomb up to blast a hole in the hull.

I dont know- it would seem plausible that somehow a decepticon messed with the ship (but how did they get by Red Alert?) or that the Nails that sold the Lost Light to Rodimus sabotaged the ship beforehand? They did leave a sparkeater on board after all. Maybe the Nails in question are working with Metalhawk to destabilize the autobots so Metalhawk can make a more serious bid for power in the future, meanwhile he can let Bumbleebee do all the dirty work blowing up people's heads and such. (Metalhawk was kind enought to inform Bee that 'people have been saying you killed rodimus etc)

For the people left on Cybertron- the Lost Light seeming to blow up means that they can't hold out hope that Cybertron is going to be restored by the Knights of Cybertron. Given everything that has happened on Cybertron recently, The lost light is a very strong symbol of hope. Destroying it means that the Cybertronians left on Cybertron have to make due with Cybertron the way it is - which in some way only lends support to a non-autobot/decepticon such as Metalhawk (cause he wasnt part of the war that ruined cybertron)

good thought Smog on the rewind/chromedome/swindle's merchandies thought .