TFW2005 Reviews Robots in Disguise #4

I am sorry, Barber, but Ratbat's death was the first straw... Prowl starting to act out of character and Arcee still being a psycho (even though she killed Jhiaxus like, a thousand times... she should have it out of her system by now) - those should have been telltale signs.

It's this issue that made me actually dislike the series. Please, Barber, STOP killing off interesting characters. You did the same in your movie comics, and it just as a bad move here as it was there. When Nick Roche or James Roberts kill off someone, they usually establish said person first and give them a meaningfull exit, even making one-shot nobodies like Shock or Animus memorable. Here? Other way around, Barber takes characters a lot of people care about and offs them left and right. Mostly Decepticons. Not even big names are safe...

And I thought IDW editorial staff learned the lesson with Scrapper's death. Who read this script and approved it? Chris Ryall?

I am especially angry about Prowl, who has been such a stellar character when written by Furman, Roche or Roberts, and has been declining steadily into an angry beat cop from manipulative mastermind during this series.

Oh, and Swindle's speech at the beginning? Did that serve any purpose, other than to establish that our loveable con-man Con has seemingly lost his way with business lingo?

I assume you're just working from the preview here and havn't gotten the issue yet?

He does hang a lampshade on that here though. Prowl specifically thinks about how his character has changed, then changed again, and all. It gives him room to work as it were. I agree Prowl is more fun in Xanatos mode but we did just get that a couple issues ago, so it's not like its been missing. I'm willing to give his Prowl time and space.

Here I 100% disagree with you. Psycopathic mental unballance sociopathic attraction to violence like IDW Arcee has doesn't go away. Expecting her to be any better just cause she got to torture her white whale a bit is pretty silly. She is who she's always been. It'd take a LOT of therapy or reprograming to fix that IMO.


Did you get an early release and someone buys it later in the book, or is this just about UK exclusive Predator Skydive? That seems a strong reaction to the death of a tripple z list nobody.


It gave us an info dump on the quite changed Decepticon possition and circumstances. A check in on how Dirge was doing after last issue. Some time with the popular character Swindle and a look at least one Con's perspective on Starscream and recent events.


-ZacWilliam, maybe Swindle's voice wasn't 100% dead on, maybe, but the scenes definately served narrative purpose.

I believe, based on what he posted on the Allspark, a friend of his got an early release, and someone's gonna die. Possibly multiple someones.

Can someone let me know if anything happened to Dirge? I wasn't able to pick this up today and I'm dying to know if he's safe.

What is is? I won't get my copy till late tomorrow after work.

Who was killed?

The remaining five Constructicons, Sunstorm and Bombshell

My lcs was very cool and let me purchase the book a day early because I won't be around tomorrow.

It's hard, but I keep comparing this book to MTMTE. I know that's not fair, but I keep reading it and expecting it to grab me like MTMTE does and I'm not feeling it yet. The last issue very much felt like spotlight Wheeljack and this one feels like spotlight Prowl to me.

I'm hoping it gets a little better. It was an exciting issue, I'll definitely give it that. Art was great too.

The teaser for next issue is awesome! Sky-Byte arrives on Cybertron! Whaaaa

EDIT: I just read Tim's review. My post can be summed up to "what he said"

That's sad to hear about those deaths.

Ack, and here I was trying to avoid spoilers. I guess that's down the pan then.

At least now we get to have fun wondering who dies next.

I hear Shockwave is in issue 6. If no one's taking bets yet, then I'm volunteering.

YES


YEEEEEEEESSSSSSS

This calls for a haiku:
"Long-gone Sky-Byte's been
Now, in R.I.D.'s pages
He makes his return!"

Before anyone says he hasn't been long gone due to his presence in convention comics... bah.

My thoughts?

'Under Conditions Of Peace, The War-like Attack Themselves' - placard carried by a Nail in The Death Of Optimus Prime.

Good, very good. I like the tone and feel of this comic - it's SO different to MTMTE.

There's a hell of a lot of problems just threatening to boil over but in my opinion the Decepticons are not one of them The multiple deaths of prominent characters being a clear indication of this. They're a spent force. They have no unity, no direction, no figurehead anymore..

Look at Prowl, Starscream and Metalhawk. Each in a different position of power, each with a different agenda, each using Bumblebee's character weaknesses to push their agendas forward.

It was Prowl's time in this issue to show exactly just how dangerous this power can be.

He enforces the peace.

History has shown the extremes he will go to in order to remain in control of a situation. This issue takes that desire for control further.

His killing of Bombshell and the Constructicons here and his knowing that Arcee would kill Ratbat in issue 2 show a character unafraid to embrace the dark path he's been walking for a while now. He can't control the Decepticons, so he'll kill them if they cross him. And fair enough in a lot of respects. They are the recognisable bad guy.

But as the last panel hints, woe betide anyone to stand in his path now.

So what's the need for an Autobot army if Prowl and Arcee can kill all the Decepticons by themselves?

Freakin' hack writer... I knew ending the war was a bad idea.

How appropriate! A character from a show known as RID in the western side of the world is going to be included in a comic called RiD.

I see what you did there, writers!

There isn't an Autobot army, not in the sense there used to be.

The Decepticons are essentially broken now. The 'peace through tyranny' ideal that Megatron was fighting for has gone, and we seem to be left with a bunch of thugs. Outnumbered thugs with no one to rally them. At the moment anyway.

And this peacetime story has legs.

The provisional government headed by Bumblebee is trying to be too many things to too many people and satisfying very few in the process.

The returning Cybertronians are very uneasy with the Autobots in control of the rejuvenating planet. They are treated like dirt by many of them, given slang terms to differentiate them from the affiliated sides, confronted with acts of terrorism like Rodimus' ship seemingly blowing up, obvious malcontent within the governments ranks and Metalhawk's constant undermining of its leader.

They outnumber both Autobot and Decepticon and could easily become a threat.

Page 10, Panel 3.

My favourite cameos so far in this book!

i swear that prowl is turning into a seriously ram damaged motherboarding slag sucking spawn of a glitch

for the love of primus will somebody please snipe the fragging slaggard already?

or better yet have ironhide kick his skidplate all the way to the pit and back



seriously though the guy finally cracked under pressure and hes become a mad dog that needs to be put out ofits misery

I just love this whole series. I mean really, the Autobots are basically the villains of this whole thing with Prowl as their leader.

It's a shame that Sunstorm, Bombshell, Mixmaster, and the other Constructicons died.

But hey! Dirge lives! I'm so happy for him.

My thoughts exactly!!

It makes for some interesting parallels with Autocracy. History repeats itself again?

Not a bad issue overall, art's still a bit weird in places but can't complain too much.

Prowl, oh man, I can't wait for something terrible to happen to him, it will be delicious. I'm enjoying seeing him crack under pressure and becoming paranoid. Kind of ironic that he was going after the thoroughly unhinged Bombshell when he seems at risk of losing it himself. It can't be long now, Arcee talking to him like she does can't be helping.
I'm not much of a fan of the gratuitous deaths this issue, especially the Constructicons, I guess it makes sense within the story with Prowl, but still, did it have to be all of them? Glad Dirge made it out alive though, his death looked almost inevitable at one point, bloody Arcee.
The Autobots are getting pretty tired of Prowls shit, I just wonder how long it'll be before they decide to do something about it, and what.

Looking forward to the next issue with Sky Byte, he's always struck me as an interesting character so I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with him.

Pretty much. A good portion of Autobots, and now some Decepticons it seems, are just ready to move on. To live life as it comes. But the powerful won't let them escape their games that easily.

Prowl makes for a great villain/antagonist.

There were too many good characters killed for no good reason. IDW is going to run out of big name Decepticons if they keep slaughtering them wholesale like this. Well, at least it's comic books so you can never rule out them coming back to life (and they better, dammit).

This was really not an issue I enjoyed; it's a shame, too, cause I really liked the last issue with Wheeljack.

Yep. It's really nice that Dirge managed to overcome his tradition of dying.

Perhaps its a running gag-he lives!

You know what I think would be an interesting development?

If Starscream were to be ousted from power, (which I'm sure WILL happen, eventually) and Bumblebee managed to convince Thundercracker to come to Cybertron and take over as Decepticon leader. As Prowl and friends pull the Autobots down into shady deeds, Thundercracker struggles to raise the Cons up into a noble faction. Has the potential to be a great story.

Now it's scary. Prowl is way more dangerous than Red Rust. He is definitely a main villian of this series IMO.

I'm already expecting future story arc: Prowl becomes more paranoiac and more ruthless, killing everyone on his way, even Autobots and NAILs. Decepticons and NAILs team-up to overthrow Prowl, resulting in his demise...

I love how in this and MTMTE they adressed 2 bots having the same name. Ive always just thought if we had 2 different bots say called prowl its was just them having the same name. Us mere humans have this all the time. Im not the only person called chris. I love that it was mentioned im both arcs. blurrs disbelief over it too made me chuckle a bit. I LOVE the artwork though. I love the WFC/FOC Designs being slipped in.

I still cant believe that sunstorm got killed off and he was my absolute favorite chracter

This is exactly how I felt.

Even if they're not actually dead. Seeing them killed so easily doesn't sit too well with me.

This one sided death toll is making me really dislike this book. For all that he could've given Sunstorm to Roberts who I'm sure would have done him justice.
This also goes for all the other deaths so far.

So why should we even be excited about Sky Bite? Odds are he would live to see the end of issue five anyway.

Just read my copy, holy crap this issue was good. I didn't expect so many deaths and the characterization for Prowl was great. What was icing on the cake though is the summary for what happens next issue, SKY-BYTE!

Whelp, guess I'm picking up RID #5.

Prowl has become evil. Geez.

I really liked this issue, it gives great characterization for prowl and it shows that they arent immediately forgetting what happened in ongoing however the deaths made me feel kind of bad. the first two deaths I didnt really care about. we never got any characterization from them and i didnt mind them getting offed, however then one of my favourite decepticons was killed. I kind of wish that we got to see more of him throughout the comic but... then again it gave more developement to prowl and makes me think of him as an antagonist along with arcee. the constructicons..... well seeing how a one legged devastator would be kind of lame after a while, i guess in order to lower the already huge cast, a group had to be taken out. it also gave prowl an antagonist feel which i really like. I liked this issue, felt bad about some of the deaths.... but I still liked it.

At least the Go-Bot Rock Lords are safe for now!

I got a good laugh out of Wheeljacks password "The three most important words in the Cybertronian language" I spent ages trying to figure out what it could possibly be, then "Password: Wheeljack Wheeljack Wheeljack" haha.

Annoyed that they killed Sunstorm, could have literally used any generic seeker instead, or even Acid Storm, no one gives a fig about Acid Storm. Not too bothered about the Constructicons, with Scrapper gone we weren't going to see Devs anytime soon anyway. Pity, but you can thank whoever killed him off in the on-going for that. I like that Prowl is becoming increasingly unhinged and paranoid, I can see an almighty something hitting the fan very soon, and funnily enough, it might just be Starscream who emerges with any credit in the aftermath.

Wheeljack should learn how to make safe password.

its 3 times though. winning!

Sunstorm pretty much is a generic seeker. The only reason he's popular was because of that stupid E-hobby toy and his confused religious blabber in Dreamwave's run.

Has Prowl taken on Megatron's motto? "Peace through tyranny" seems to be underlining what he said in the last pannel. It would be interesting to see Megatron come back and have him praise Prowl for controlling the masses with force.

Holy crap a lot of people died in this issue.

Very nice that at CBR issue #4 was named one of the top comics of the week!

Well deserved, hats off to IDW!

Okay, Prowl's just being an idiot. Multiple examples of Decepticons' chips not responding, and he puts each one down to being an individual glitch or a blocked signal? That's just being foolish.

That's your opinion. Not everyones...

By that logic, the same thing could be said about Sky Bite. I bet bet you more people recognize Sunstorm than Sky Bite anyway, so why should be be Psyched about him?

Sunstorm was screwed in this book. Why even bother using him if he wont be at least semi-epic?

True, but I've always liked the idea that he's got the potential to be an incredibly powerful weapon. When I first saw Bombshell tinkering with him, I thought 'here we go, the Decepticons are going to get their own supercharged loose cannon' and then Arcee stabbed him in the face. I was disappoint.


Yeah, and this about Sky Byte, does nothing for me, but if they can call him a 'fan favourite' surely the same term can be applied to poor old Sunstorm?

Can I just say I disagree with you VERY strongly on that? Also, how could the "same thing" be said about Sky-Byte? Did he have an E-hobby toy and religious blather at some point, too?

By the way, Sunstorm was already shown to be a generic Seeker thug even before RiD. The chance they had to make him into a carbon copy of DW's Sunstorm passed.

And I disagree with that, mad scientist Bombshell brainwashing him with pseudo religious dogma, and tinkering with him could have been a perfect set up. Epic fail. Ah well, at least we've got a poetry spouting shark to look forward to...

If IDW really wanted to use such a daft character, they really should have given him to Roberts to use in MTMTE.

Sunstorm over Sky-Byte? Pshaw. Man being in Starscream's body really just makes you hot shit all by itself doesn't it?

Which one is a candidate for HoF? Remind me.