oh yeah, thats who i thought it was originally. weren't they hanging out on cybertron? i don't remember how it wound up between them.

overall this comic and RID in general just gets a big MEH. form me. i still read them and pay full price waiting for something cool to go down...

 

Yep. In my opinion, you'd get so much more interaction potential if the combiners were either properly scaled (to their robot mode, anyway) or just slightly scaled up. Because, if the combined form was in scale with their robot modes, we'd essentially have a Devastator or Superion that's about two or three times the height of a normal Transformer. That's more or less having an average-sized dude (e.g., Prowl) go up to the knees, and taller dudes (e.g. Optimus Prime) at belly button level.

That's still pretty darn big! And it would be easier to show the combiner with a regular dude in the same frame and demonstrate scale. As-is, we get the usual closeups of regular dudes with only a specific body part of the combiner in frame (e.g., a giant fist the size of a house slams down on Optimus Prime), or we see a far-away shot of the combiner filling the frame and the regular dudes look like ants. When the size disparity is so big, it's hard to get a sense of how big the combiner really is, and it's not so much "Whoa, look at how much bigger than Optimus Prime he is!" and instead more like "Whoa! It's SO BIG it's like fighting a mountain!"

And, if the combiner was about 2-3 times the height of a regular Transformer, we could have some cool David-and-Goliath fight scenes. Think of Iron Man vs Iron Monger. The Fellowship of the Ring vs the cave troll. The X-Men vs the Sentinels in Days of Future Past. Think of Wolverine fighting the Silver Samurai in The Wolverine.

Instead of scenes where Bruticus or Devastator picks up someone and that person fits entirely in a giant fist, or scenes where a combiner's giant cannon shoots the ground and 50 ant-sized people go flying, we could have scenes where the combiner picks up someone and it's like you're picking up a cat or dog that's scratching you and fighting back. As another example, I could totally imagine a cool sword fight between Grimlock and a Predaking that was perhaps twice Grimlock's height. Their fight would be more dynamic than simply having Predaking being 10 times Grimlock's height, and stomping randomly while ant-sized characters shoot harmlessly from the ground.

 

You're right. I'm also not sure if MTMTE is the right title for Sharon Stone to break into comics.

 

They should bring back the Spotlight issues, and have Stone do those.

I worry about her handeling her a main book, because her characters are Amazing, but her back rounds are...not, and both RID and MTMTE tend to Devolve to big sprawling pages with tons of details.

 

Yes get her on the spotlights, that way she can split it between her acting work etc.

EDIT: In all seriousness her character style IS amazing, she really came into her own in this issue

 

maybe someone brought this up already, but Scrapper is DEAD. lol. i forgot about that. must have been scoop then.  

 

absolutely agree with that whole post, especially this.

 

I also find my little ass agreeing with that sentiment. Gigantic characters have their place, but when combiners made of five guys are more than five times the size of any given individual in them, it's... pffft.

 

You expect too much from Windblade's writer. It's obvious Camiens are her author's pets, logic be damned.

Why you hate Cons so much? They need competent people!  

Stone's art worked well this issue. I'm not sure if IDW does things Marvel way, but it seems they're not and writer has more impact on how panels are laid out. The page layout was more in line with previous RiD books instead of terribly decompressed Windblade mini, so I suppose some issues with Windblade pages can be also attributed to the writer.

I liked this issue.

Transformers having highlighted pupils looks more TF Prime than G1, but it do makes their faces more expressive.

 

That would be freaking awesome.

 

Another reason that I'm not enthusiastic about combiners (though I'm willing to change my mind, if Combiner Wars turns out to be really good) is that the size disparity is so glaring that it takes the drama away from other large characters, like Metroplex and the Titans.

Consider All Hail Megatron: Omega Supreme and Devastator were larger than the Statue of Liberty. Recently in RiD, Prowlstator was able to pick up Galvatron's spaceship!



With the combiners so ridiculously huge, it just means I'm no longer awed by the "dramatic" impact of even bigger characters, like Metroplex or the Titans.

Look here:

Now look here:

See what I mean? So you're telling me one of these is supposed to be several times of magnitude bigger than the other? If the combiners are really so big, it really raises questions like, "Why didn't Prowlstator fight the Necrotitan sooner in Dark Cybertron?" and, "Why are they so dependent on Metroplex saving the day? What's Menasor doing right now, anyhow? Couldn't he battle the Necrotitan? Menasor would be even BETTER than Metroplex because he has a SWORD!"

Now imagine if the bigger guys were drawn exactly as big as they should be, but with combiners properly scaled to the average dudes (e.g., Prowl, Soundwave, etc). Prowl and Soundwave might be as tall as Trypticon's toe and completely impotent in a fight, but maybe combiners like Superion are big enough to hit Trypticon in the shins and actually do some real damage.

As-is, though, it looks like all big characters are equal, and that's a shame. :/

 

The only thing to accurately portray combiners is FOC.

 

It's also depends on how good an artist is at showing scale.

Good example.



Bad example.

 

I look at it this way. An average Transformer can be held in a combiners giant fist. I see it the same way when a combiner is compared to a city-bot.

 

I actually really liked this issue and quite frankly, I am liking Stone on this book more than Griffith. The bots are that much more emotional, the images are so fluid... it's gorgeous. I also like Barber more on Cybertron than on Earth. I thought Marissa was dumb and the awesomeness of TC had been nullified by his attraction to earth culture. Good riddance to them both for now. Not sure if Barber upped his game in this issue or if the art made the dialogue better somehow, but things clicked in this issue, despite it being a "wheeljack's back and combiner wars" prequel. Kinda sad that Barber gets stuck writing a lot of the prequel stuff...this and the prequel to dark cybertron.

If I had to nitpick Stone, it's that her Starscream looks a little young to me and about the same size as Windblade. I'm okay with Rodimus looking perpetually young but for some reason not Starscream. Meh. Anyway solid issue all around.

 

I echo the statement that Stone's art is gorgeous. GORGEOUS. I just wish IDW would give her more time to work on her issues. About half of her pages are just full-blown jaw-dropping STUNNING. The other half are...well...they're okay but something's off. Maybe the proportions aren't as good. Lines are more sketchy. Might be hard to see what's happening. Even the worst Sarah Stone art is better than many artists' best efforts, but we all have many demonstrations of what excellence Stone is capable of, and I guess I wish every page looked just as good.

My nitpick about Stone's Starscream, though, isn't with the face. I think Stone draws Starscream's face just right. He's dripping with slime. No, my nitpick is with Starscream's proportions. Almost all of Stone's characters look excellent, but Starscream has a huge head proportionately to his body. He gets thinner as you go down, and he's got a Barbie waist and really tiny legs. It's not just a goof, as her Starscream is consistently like this. It doesn't change my mind about her talent as an artist (she's excellent), but I guess it's a creative decision I don't agree with.

 

I also thought of this too. Completely agree. The combiners are 5-6 bots and they should be around x3-4 bigger than the average one but not that massive as shown in the comics!

Unless the reason is because they have 'mass-displacement abilities' like Megatron with ore-13.

 

IDW combiners do indeed have mass-displacement. It's been stated on many occasions, including last issue.

I agree that there needs to be a clear size disparity between combiners and titans, but I absolutely have no problem with combiners being larger than the sum of their parts. Otherwise, they'd only be as tall as one guy standing on another guy's shoulders, and that's really not much of a threat.

 

I can only handle so much of this mass displacement business. Those pics of the bots in front of Superion are freaking ridiculous.

Imagine a combiner made out of 5 or six seekers. It could be about 3 times the size of one seeker, be as powerful as 6 seekers rolled into one, and probably whoop ass on most any bot. It would represent a pretty significant threat.

Why do they need to make it 30X as big as another bot? Mass displacement my ass, that's just stupid.

 

To be fair "Titans" are almost never portrayed correctly in Media. They are Cities/Starships and should be significantly bigger than they are usually shown.

The Gestalts, even with mass shifting, are portrayed as skyscraper size at best. Even one of IDW's giant gestalts is going to be quite small next to a Titan. One building vs an entire City.

As for why the gestalts are bigger than the sum of their parts quite simply so that they matter. They're meant to be a huge deal, super warriors that can singlehandedly change the course of a battle and maybe the war. They are big and powerfully enough to sell that.

It's been established that mass shifting is too power intensive for most bots to use much, I'd assume that the five-bots merged form allows it to be used more effectively.


-ZacWilliam, it's not like G1 Combiners weren't significantly mass shifted most of the time. Devestator and Omega Supreme have always been counterparts.