A fantastic, if incredibly non linear issue.

Certainly requires reading once or twice more.

Great to see the true meaning of the Pax that Jhiaxus was chanting and more light shed on the whole Gorlam Prime/Cybertron thing.

Also it would appear that

Spoiler

Unicron

is once again hinted at around the whole

Spoiler

what destroyed the planet anyway

thing

 

This is a great issue. Really, really bizarre, and yet very, very good. Something is building, something big. I think your implication is spot on there Ady.

Spoiler

I love that Jihaxus had the same vision of Pax Cybertronia as Ironhide, but interpreted it completely differently. We were only talking about that in the Annual thread recently. Well done Barber for taking that stupid issue and making something more of it. i don't know why Wheelie was so petrified of going back to the planet though. Sure he had a tough time there, but it wasn't that bad. Like to see how he actually got off it at some point though. Apart from those little niggles and my usual complaint about Livio's art, it was a fantastic issue.

 

Remember too that:

Spoiler

the Pax Cybertronia issue also referred to Wheelie as the "bravest of us all, the first to see the great destroyer"

Its all coming together, and thats probably what drove him nuts.

 

Oh yes, I had forgotten that. You could be bang on the money there.

 

And so the slow burn of RID twists and gnarls into a fire that threatens to become an all consuming inferno. Lovely stuff.

 

Oomph! What crap!

I hated the art and Barber's choice of characters. Bludgeon was overused in the Marvel run and Jhiaxus is better left in G2. WHY are the Monsterbots getting so much panel time? It's not like they're iconic characters who deserve the exposure. The whole book reminded me of those horrible Japanese G1 cartoons- hard to sit through, and filled with some of the worst Transformers ever created.

 

Ok

 

Anyway, moving on - I thought it was great. It looks like Barber is really trying to explain what we all saw as continunity errors in the old series.

 

One thing I have noticed, Jihaxus is starting to suffer from 'Heart of Darkness' syndrome. he can't just talk about Shockwave, he has to say 'My greatest student, Shockwave.' Every. Single. Time. It's just slightly starting to get on my nerves.

And please don't feed the troll people. I'm sure I'm not alone in not wanting to see yet another thread de-railed.

 

This issue took me three reads to process. When I finally did, it felt like a warm glow spreading through my brain as the pieces all started to fall together.

Damn, this is getting good.

 

I read it three times and I still don't quite get it.

 

The more I think of it, I have to wonder will this tie into the first spotlight issue with Shockwave - Remember when Shockwave on the first page of that issue says he foresee's a future.......... hmmm???

 

I wonder if it's going to be something along the lines of chaos was unicrons essence being freed and since him taking over cybertron didn't work they are going to use gorlam prime

 

Yeah, the art's not that great. It can be quite unclear at times especially since the plot isn't straight forward this issue.

Bludgeon is not overused in the IDW comics, Jhiaxus is a different character with the same name and loosely similar appearance in IDW - they're building him up to be this story arc's main "big bad" in the absence of Megatron. And the Pretender Monsters (who aren't pretenders here) serve as an experimental gestalt that went wrong in the story. Bludgeon serves Jhiaxus and Monstructor is their big stick.

These are also not Barber's choice of characters. These characters were chosen five years ago in stories like Spotlight: Optimus Prime (written by Furman). Barber is just picking up loose threads from past issues (also Spotlight Wheelie) and attempting to make sense of things that previously didn't make sense (although this issue is still confusing what with all the time travel elements and the artwork).

Also, aren't iconic characters at this point over-exposed? Why do characters who already get enough exposure require even more exposure?

BTW, Monsterbots are Autobots, hence the "-bots" which the Pretender Monsters are not.

 

I don't really know what to make from this comic, or Robots in Disguise in general. Every month I look forward to seeing how the story will continue, only to feel unsatisfied and almost ready to drop the book alltogether.

I think it was SMOG that said it best somewhere: this book features some incredibly great ideas, but the execution of it is falling short of that promise.
Barber is the master wizard in guarding and fixing continuity, but the stories themselves are not really doing it for me (at least the RID ones). I do feel this is going somewhere though, and that's probably why I still continue to buy this book: it will all pay off someday. I hope.

This story was a giant flustercuck of confusion - not entirely illogical for a time-travel story, but even after reading it twice I'm not entirely sure what has been going on. And for some reason, I just don't seem to connect to the characters' inner monologues. I must be going crazy, but I just don't get it! I don't get the lessons they are learning, the things they are contemplating about....I have no idea why that is. Also, please. Stop breaking. Up the talks. Into tiny. Little panels. Presenting the events in tiny panels doesn't give the artist much leeway, and a full page of those panels is just really off-putting. But again, This comic is going *somewhere*...

As for the art: Ramondelli handles a sort of concept art / speedpaint style, which is super hit-or-miss. I like how there's practically no other artist (at least in TF books) that uses a similar style, but mannn...sometimes there's a panel (or two) in there that's just so, so wrong. There are definitely styles in which you can get away with over-simplifying blocky characters, or even wrong perspectives -god knows those are all aspects that I use myself, in cartoony work- but it just doesn't work here.
Entire characters look 'off' in the scenery because their frames are angled awkwardly. Monstructor doesn't look the least bit menacing, he is simply a couple of boxes stacked on each other with some messy texture over it to make it all seem detailed.

So why is that? My guess is on the amount of time and money he gets from creating this. Mind you that he is doing all of the art by himself (not divided between pencils, inks and colors), but I'm sure I've seen him do better in some pages of Chaos and Autocracy - although I will have to say: neither of those two are consistent good art-wise, they have the same problems present in this comic.
Livio Ramondelli is talented, alright, but these comics seem to miss that finesse, that little extra care.


Concerns aside for now: did anyone notice the Quintesson figure appearing on the Decepticon missile in Turmoil's time period? I know another Quintesson marking started to glow at the end of Spotlight: Wheelie, so even with the hints to Unicron, the Quintessons are all part of this somehow, as well.

And by the way, didn't the same aliens from LV-117 (Varta and pals) also appear in the Drift miniseries as prisoners? In fact, now that I look at the background characters behind Turmoil, those guys also look like the slavetraders from that comic...



John Barber: please prove me wrong!

 

Read the tfwiki page for this issue. They explain or point out a few things that may not be initially clear.

 

Dude, like... Woah. That was a thoroughly enjoyable - if slightly confusing at first - read. Man, I'm starting to get as excited for new issues of RID as I do for MTMTE! I actually kind of liked Livio's art here.

My thoughts exactly, Barber may have taken a little while getting here but, wow, things are looking very, very promising.

It'd be interesting to see if any other Transformers had the same vision as Ironhide and Jhiaxus, and what their interpretation of it was.
If Unicron does indeed end up being what destroyed LV-117 and is "The Great Destroyer" I can only hope Barber and Roberts have something a little different and potentially awesome planned for his possible reveal.
I couldn't help but notice the Quintesson face on the side of the rocket as well, I know there was a reference to them in Spotlight: Wheelie already, but it's not really made any more clear as to what they have to do with all this. Maybe they showed up on the planet to study the missile a looooong time ago and used Varta's people as slaves, hence their understanding of it? I dunno, I'm not as good at theories as some of you guys, haha.

 

All I have to say from a quick read through on the train is that I need to read it at least one more time. Quite confusing, but there's definitely some heavy substance there. Also, I got a very Spotlight Prime-esque feel from the inner monologue. Overall, Prime seemed a little different in this book. I'll have to look back for the Quints, and really take the time to digest everything.

 

People giving their heartfelt opinions are not Trolls, sir. Everyone doesn't find the book as enjoyable as you do.

 

If your alleged opinion amounted to more than "Why is this book not full of characters only from 1984?", people might take you seriously.