Mostly set up, but some really cool and interesting moments throughout. I particularly like all the Optimus and Grimlock stuff in the afterlife. Really helps get across what this mythical godlike version of Optimus is all about. Feel free to talk about it or try and predict how goddam crazy the finale will be.
This issue was killer. The way they used Defensor to give it a distinct structure was brilliant. I have NO IDEA how #13 wraps everything up, but this issue did a good job kicking off the massive mother-of-all-battles.
I loved it. So many great scenes and panel work. Always something to love on each page. Lots of cool ideas. Only real criticism is the whole Snake Eyes scene where we find out he's binary bonded to Maximus now. More of Scioli throwing shit at you and saying, "ACCEPT IT." Don't get me wrong, crazy and awesome idea, but no set up at all. Granted apparently it was supposed to have been set up in a short story for issue 11. Snake Eyes has been all over the place this entire series. Afterlife stuff was probably the best, but also enjoyed how this issue brought together some threads started way back in the early issues. Haven't read over, but have thought a lot about past issues,and I have to say Scioli's pacing has been damn good. Well in an overall sense. Issue to issue can be a mind fuck, but thinking over the story in total, so far it's been damn good. Really good story even. As for what may happen next issue. I say, may, because in truth there's no use predicting since Scioli will no doubt come up with more crazy shit than you could have possibly imagined. 1. Prime is resurrected, and kills Megatron with the Sword of Vengence, or whatever it was. Uses the matrix to restore Earth....or..... 2. Cybertron becomes the permanent home of the remaining human kind. 3. Snake Eyes destroys Trypticon with Maximus. 4. Going by art on his twitter, Flag may get hung. 5. No doubt lots of death Happy Ending, Tragic Ending, or Bittersweet Ending? Hard to know. Scioli seems like one that could go in any direction.
I really liked Optimus and Grimlock in the afterlife and Cobra Commander and the Baroness hooking up. I'm gonna miss this series.
Yeah, I'm really curious about how this will all end too. I geniuniely hope there is no easy undo for Earth. I can't believe that the human home planet got sacked, its totally amazing and crazy! This series has had the fastest and most dramatic escalation of stakes ever present in TF fiction, it'd be difficult to see Earth be restored, I feel like it would undermine what we just went through. That said, I'm a big fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that series is just Earth mulligan after mulligan. Loved this issue, killer, as ever.
Yeah, this was my only criticism of the issue too. Usually when there's an off-panel narrative jump in this series, it's just A jumping to C by stepping over the obvious B you knew was coming and implicitly understand "happened" without having it shown to you. This was... wha? Snake Eye's "arc" in this series is looking increasingly like it's not going to be tied together in any way that makes sense. Why did he pretend to defect to Cobra? Why did he then come to Cybertron on his own? Where did he get the Master Sword? I mean there's a whole double-sized issue to come so maybe it'll all link up, but this is a forward-moving series that is not given to pausing for continuity's sake...
Hopefully that scrapped text story mentioned in the notes in this issue makes its way to the next issue. Or at very least the Hardcover.
I was thinking this was the last issue for some reason. I'm happy there's one more to wrap it up. I really enjoyed the Optimus and Grimlock afterlife stuff also. I really liked when they ran in to Bludgeon. Seems like an appropriate place to see him.
Same feeling here - I don't think there'll be an 'ah, i see!' moment for all his toings and froings. I feel like there's a few plot points that dropped off the radar a bit (the green zone, dr venom being absent for a lot of the last few issues) - doesn't massively bother me (I really love this series in general) but does niggle a bit. My favorite drawings this issue were of defensor shooting at trypticon at the end - great stuff! What are people's hopes for bonus material in a potential collected edition? I'd really like to see some of the early drafts that Scioli draws up in the process of getting to the final product. And as many unused pages as possible (that unused drawing of slag that appeared in one of the commentaries was great). And I'd love to see some of the 'might have been' ideas & concepts from earlier discussions between him and Barber.
After this ends, it's going to be hard for me to work up the will to read any of the other IDW comics. They are fine and everything, but they just don't do it for me the way this book does. Maybe if Titans Return brings a bunch of Headmasters into the mix, but it's still going to feel like a pale shadow of the imagination and inventiveness that Scioli brought. I hope they do an oversized hardcover collection of all 13 issues. I will buy it in a heartbeat.
A hardcover collection would be nice. This book looks as if it was best to read in a one go as a nice collector print.
