TFW2005 Reviews More Than Meets The Eye #4

wow.... I love this comic.




Also gotta chuckle at some of the names, Adaptus, pharmus,and Ambulan. lol

The Adaptus sounds odd.

So, is the third Targetmaster (Crosshairs) in the background at all during the comic?

So. Much. World-building.

I love it.

zmog

No kidding.

I'm so excited.

The assertions of racism and hate speech really pulled me out of the story in the preview ~ there's metaphor and then there's slapping you in the face... Arts looking even better as Milne gets things a little more squared-off: some of it seemed to be invoking Geoff Senior style line-work, which is a huge positive in my book.

Ultra Magnus looks ridonkulous.He looks like he heaves on purpose to maintain his figure. How did a metrosexual Magnus get ok'd?

TFs are just like humans mentally and socially in pretty much EVERY way and always have been. Why would small mindedness and irrational prejudice not be included in that.

Anti-non-transforming sentiment makes perfect sense for a species so focused on it. It's a nice piece of world building I think.


-ZacWilliam, Roberts excels at awesome world building like this.

Oh God I can't wait to read this. Real curious about the ending now.

Gonna be hard avoiding spoilers.

Indeed. Don't expect it to be so black and white. Rememebr what we hear is character's takes on it, and different characters will present it differently. It's world building, that's all.

EDIT: Also the TFW resource page has a page from last issue in place of the first bar page for some reason.

It will indeed be the most dangerous mission I've ever been on. But with the power of energon, I will succeed.

Ugh, I have to wait until Thursday at the earliest. One whole day. BUHGUHHH.

Not me. I don't think it's supposed to be a metaphor for racial or lifestyle prejudices... I think that's exactly what it is. It doesn't feel out of place... I like that we're getting more introspective into how their culture works. Affiliation rituals? Cog amputations? Forged or Built? It's great... I want to know more!!

zmog

Plus we finally get an idea behind what the difference behind the "forged vs. built" thing even is. Forged implies a more unique and individual construction, wheras built I guess just means built with standard parts, since Ratchet says he can't have his hands replaced because built ones wouldn't cut it.

This is also a brillaint way of explaining why some robots can have scars or damage that never heals/is replaced, because replacements don't exist for some.

I found that to be interesting, not distracting. Good sci fi is often built upon metaphors for contemporary social issues, no?

It's an interesting explanation for Ratchet's hands, and answers some "why doesn't he just get new ones?" criticism I've seen here and there.

Who do you think the surprise patient is, personally I think that it's Grimlock

Thanks for the sneak peaks...I must wait for the TPB and this looks worth waiting for.

It also emphasizes just how important he is as a surgeon, because his G1 bio discusses how he is the best guy on Cybertron when it comes to tooling new parts. In other words, if you have unique "forged" parts, replacing damaged components with factory parts won't do... you'd need someone with Ratchet's skills to forge new ones.

When did we hear this forged/built dichotomy first? Was it in relation to Megatron? It must have been back in Roberts' 2-parter, right?

Also, what's up with Adaptus? They way they're using the term, it sounds synonymous with Primus (or God, basically). So TFs are pantheists... and Adaptus is the giver of the gift of transformation?

zmog

This is perfect.

Yup.

I'm just going by his name, but my guess is Adaptus is either responsible for bestowing transformation apon them, or for teaching them how to make themselves capable. Specifically the ability to adapt as other vehicles.

Constructed cold was first mentioned in Last Stand of the Wreckers by Fistitron.

Also Adaptus, who is that? Not familiar with him, Phaarma or Ambulan.

Exactly!
Triple M
Genericons
DJD

James has added more depth to Ongoing in 8 pages then Costa did in 2 years. But you cant please everybody. Hence the term Geewiner and living up to the word.

That being said, here's to shape-ism! LOL!

Overlord!

He was last seen with no skin and with no one in a hurry to graph new "skin" to his body I'm sure he's cooped up some where in stasis.

Plus his last words to Kup were "Tell Megatron to come and get him."

So odds are that Blackshadow is one of the 5 DJD who obviously wouldn't mind taking him out based on what was said in LSOTW.

Phaarma and Ambulan are nobodies, based on their names... destined to die very shortly, I would expect. I'm not sure if Adaptus has ever been mentioned prior to this issue, but it seems like Adaptus is the mythic figure who taught them to use their shape-shifting powers. So maybe not a creator god like Primus, but perhaps a Promethean figure?

That's a pretty good theory. It makes lots of sense.

zmog

Adaptus was name-dropped in Roberts' on-going two-parter last year. There seemed to be some mythological if not religious overtones attached to the name; maybe in old Cybertronian lore, they were responsible for Cybertronians learning how to transform?

I try to not get attached to rampant speculation. But a Roberts penned barn burner between Overlord and Black Shadow? That would be... magical.

Who are we thinking makes up the DJD?

All new characters or fanwank?

Personally I think Lockdown's gonna be on. He is the one Megatron sent to bring Drift in after all.

Yeah Lockdown is a big possibility.
So is Blackshadow
Not sure who that is on Cover 7 but he's obviously one.

So that's 3.

My guess would be one more known Bot and one more unknown.

Deathsaurous perhaps?

No.....I think he's worthy of his own arch.

So maybe a Terrorcon or deluxe Insecticons.

Basically someone who's kickass yet doesn't a lot of limelight.

You mean the one reflected in Drift's sword? Isn't that Pipes?

Gah! Mere hours away from more Roberts/Milne-y goodness! I can't wait!

My initial thought when I saw that the Wreckers: Declassified catalogs have been brought up again was that Ironfist was back, but they've kind of made it clear by this point that he's pretty stone cold dead. The only other character who's been seen writing them was Verity, but she's probably still on Earth.

I'm now torn, based on the speculation presented in this thread, as to whether the surprise character reveal at the end is Grimlock or Overlord. I'm kind of hoping for the latter, if simply because Black Shadow's been hinted at for a while now, and I'd LOVE to see those two square off.

Everyone was saying the returning character was going to be Kup or Springer a while back, but Kup seems unlikely at this stage and according to Zero Point, Springer's still recovering at Debris with Roadbuster.

I hope that my comics shop pulls the Roche cover for me, as I've been collecting his covers for the series so far. Tomorrow can't come soon enough!

I think he means the cover of issue 7.

Hmm, for the DJD, here are my guesses:
Black Shadow
Lockdown
Lugnut?
Barricade?
No idea

I dunno, to me it seemed to lack the nuance I've become accustom too from Roberts ~ the way it was dropped in there felt pretty ham-fisted to me, more like the author was beating a political point then telling a story. Those couple frames just totally jolted me out of the story ~ the rest was fantastic: I loved the 'away mission' feel of Ratchet's expedition.

It's Springer.

i read the book the returning bot is Fort Max

really? totaly forgot about him!

Shapism Prejudice splinter groups of Decepticons that have their Transformation cogs removed. Alone that adds a bit of in universe controversy.

The colorful art fits in with Wreckers and the Drift Miniseries. So I'm pleased they referenced both.

See, I have to disagree on that front, since the shapism/Adaptus/monoformer stuff doesn't have a blatant corollary in the real world, nor does Roberts make any rhetorical statements about it. It's hard to say he's making a "political" statement when he's only dumping speculation onto the floor (so far). Showing that Transformers have their own internal social and societal schisms and prejudices (beyond the Bot/Con binary) isn't a specific real-world analogy, but a general one, and something that we should have seen long ago in the fiction. And bringing the question of Transformer religion is hardly anything new. We've had those undercurrents (Unicron, Primus, etc) for ages now.

I agree that he's been a bit too glib in his connotations at times in the past, but I don't think that this is the case here. To me this feels like it's purely enriching the transformers canon itself, as opposed to pasting bare social issues in somewhere they don't belong. So far at least.

Here's a question... if the DJD hunts down Decepticon defectors... how do they have a "territory"? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of hunting down runners/dissidents if you stick to just one area?

zmog

I'm sure it's a base of operations/torture chamber/prison

Plus even Decepticons have to rest their heads somewhere correct? Plus once you've captured whomever you were hunting I'm guessing this would be the place they'd bring them back to for "interrogation".

And since they're labeling these guys as the most dangerous Decepticons in the galaxy being mindful of that area and treading lightly would be warranted.

Just finished reading it on IDW's Comixology ap.

Very cool. Was not expecting who the surprise ended up being.

I am a big fan of his as he was used way back in the Marvel Comic, loved that design and characterization. But havn't been particularly happy with anything IDW's done with him (including his design) thus far. Still, if there's anyone who I would trust to do something good there it's Roberts.

Looking forward to next issue.


-ZacWilliam1, doesn't have time to write his usual way too long review right now. Maybe later I hope...

i really like how all these little details are shaping up and breathing life to the society of cybertonians and more depth to a race that has waged war for millions of years.

but adaptus struck me as possibley their take on evolution? i dont know the description just kinda fit for some reason. very interested to see where it goes

Just finished reading it. Loved it. So much world-building. The ending was great, too.

Can't wait for the next issue.

Awesome.. Didn't see HIM coming at all, which just made the last page all the more fun.
Powerful stuff all round and a nice balance between humour and horror.

Adaptus is one of the gods mentioned by Springarm in Chaos Theory, along with Primus and Mortilus


-ZacWilliam, apparently he's somehow connected to tfing

ah forgot about that tidbit beena while since i red that

but arent TF gods pretty much the primes?

No. The 13 Primes are legendary and mythic figures. Maybe even Demigods in some ways, but they've never really been Gods in a worshiped "supernatural" divine being way.

Before this we've only had a few named "Gods" in TF: Primus, Unicron, Devil Z, the One, and the Chronarchitect chief among them. The early Marvel comics mentioned Primus and Unicron as part of whole larger pantheons of gods but the others are not named.

Roberts has added Adaptus and Mortilus to that list.

-ZacWilliam, would love to see the Myths of Primus, Adaptus and others detailed inTPB extra material if nowhere else...

Btw, the TRANSFORMERS facebook page has updated with Creator commentary on the first 4 pages.


-ZacWilliam, nothing mindblowing, but neat that they're doing it.

do you have a link for that?

https://www.facebook.com/#!/transformers


-ZacWilliam, click on each pic for that page's commentary

cheers!