Totally get the argument discussed (and thanks for putting it so respectfully @Novaburnhilde). I think for me at least there is definitely a place for an average, fun-but-shallow read such as this. I actually find it in many ways a refreshing respite from the at many times highly overwrought Lost Light, albeit in absolute terms some elements of LL may have been ‘better’- or at least, different. The dialogue in the new series might still be somewhat flat (it is getting better I think), but at least it’s not plagued by constant strained humour and Flanderized characterisation (I will await the gallant defenders of LL’s response to this- not saying it was awful guys, just there were elements I personally didn’t like).

I think hope can get you through a lot of dross much worse than this as well. I really didn’t like AHM for example and struggled through it thinking “I want to stay up to date with the story and it will be over soon and better stuff will come.” It then took two or three issues of Costa to finish me off totally and I dropped the book. I think there is still enough promise in Ruckley’s story to suggest better times ahead.

This is basically what I mean by not awful, not great. I enjoy it, even though the story will only be transient in its impact on me. But I am investing in it as I feel there is enough potential to be built on.

 

Even in AHM as much as I disliked the changes to the story and vharacters, at least things happened, there was action. In both Costa's run and now Ruckley's, I feel the author forgets the page limits of comics, and lets multiple issues pass by before anything happens. That is to me, a fatal flaw in a comic that is still essentially about giant transforming robots.

 

That's part of my problem with this run so far and it's something that could be improved with a better narrative. For example, the first issue is just Bumblebee, Rubble and Windblade walking around until they find Brainstorm's body. That's it. What gets me about is that nothing of important actually happens that necessitates that the whole issue is set from start to finish in the wasteland.

Back during the discussion of the second issue, I presented what I thought would be a better way to structure the plot of the first issue so I'm just going to quite myself:

There's also this I said in issue four:

Another problem with the run is that it decides to play keep away with important information for no good reason.

That's why I don't agree with others that the world-building has been well done so far, because the story hasn't been prioritized the world-building that's important to it and which helps support it. We've been kept in the dark about stuff that would only benefit the story if we knew.

In my review of issue four, I also went into how I thought they could have made its intro more engaging:

I couldn't find the one that lists examples, but just for the sake of completion, I'm including this one instead:

I'm also not keen on a recent character death. My post(s) are a little outdated in terms of information, but mostly still hold up:

Finally, it feels like everyone has already been sorted into their respective factions. Everyone's relationships are all neatly tied up in a way that leaves the least potential for interesting interfactional interactions.

Imagine that instead of Windblade, Bumblebee's best friend was Skywarp or some other Decepticon flier. I'm not saying that because I got something against Windblade in this, I'm saying it because the comic is set pre-war and yet doesn't take advantage of the unique storytelling opportunities this setting presents. Skywarp as Bumblebee's friend would be interesting and honestly, this Windblade's characterization actually fits him. She's neglectful of her job, she's xenophobic enough to fire on innocent aliens, she gets defensive when she's criticized for not doing her job properly.

This would all serve as indications of the person Skywarp might become as a Decepticon, but at the same time you also have the more positive traits like him assuring Rubble that Bumblebee isn't disappointed in him, him trying to comfort Bumblebee after Rubble's death etc. You'd see why he and Bumblebee were friends and know that it's not going to last. It'd be an example of something torn apart by war. You could even have Skywarp not believe that the Ascenticons were responsible for Rubble's death and instead believe it might have been done by some overzealous member of Security. This wouldn't be completely unbelievable because Rubble was a suspect and we see that Security is unnecessarily violent including towards witnesses. Skywarp would suspect that they are scapegoating the Ascenticons because of the general distrust that's been growing.

EDIT: This ended up being a compilation of most of the in-depth posts I did about my critical thoughts on this run.

 

The main problem with this story is there is no real underclass of people. There is stark contrast to haves and the have nots. This could easily rectify if you have Mirage's Towers and a ghetto. From what I had seen so far all the Cybertronians are pretty much equal so far. So why are the Ascenticons even exist. The prior Continuity at least address the inequalities of the social economic situation.

I agree with the previous poster that Windblade is not in character and also be replaced with Skywarp or Thundercracker. I don't even see the reason for the rallies that Megatron is holding.

Heck we still don't know the reason why Brainstorm was murdered or what he was working on. From story stand point we didn't even see a crime scene investigation or even WheelJack looking through Brainstorm's research.

 

I actually joked about this in one of the preview discussions.

I still stand by the sentiment behind that joke because we haven't seen anything that seems serious enough to push a population towards the inevitable civil war that awaits. I'd even say that I don't see how the unrest escalated to its current level. Why did the Ascenticon ideology piss off so many people that their rallies became known scenes of violence? Maybe it's been said, but I honestly can't remember.

The Ascenticons seem to have no real reason to complain about their lives. For example, they all seem to be in excellent condition and operating at peak efficiency, so why are they unhappy with the fuel rations? It doesn't seem to negatively affect them.

To provide an example of what kind of negative effect rationing might have, I'll tickle my ego and use the story that I'm working on as an example: In it, fuel is dispensed in rations on a weekly basis and at one point, the amount each person is entitled to is cut down. This causes an uproar because former military mechs are typically built very large and so requires more fuel to function. The cutback means that they have to ration their daily dosage and many won't be able to do the heavy lifting that they hired to do and so will either be fired or will only qualify for an even smaller ration pack. This is part of the discrimination they face. It also contributes to more of them ending up Empties on the street or being forced to turn to criminal work or to the gladiator matches to survive. The government then uses the fact that so many of them wind up on the streets homeless or criminal as evidence of why they should be recycled since most of them "obviously" can't take care of themselves or they'll become a danger to society.

What's weird is that, if I remember it correctly, there was apparently a lot of Cybertronian soldiers exiled after or during this run's Cybertron becoming a utopia, so one way to fix this could have been that the soldier-class were all exiled to another world for the sake of peace and for Cybertron to politically distance itself from its violent past. ​

Depending on whether you want to spin it with a sympathetic angle or not, these people could have only done what they were created to do and what they were ordered to do. Everyone else shared the same xenophobic attitude at the time, but because they did the dirty work, they were scapegoated and shoved off to some poorly managed planet perhaps by the same people who authorized their creation and initiated these resource wars.

If they don't want to go for a sympathetic angle then they were exiled because they were created to only function in conflict and cannot be programmed for peace times. There were several incidents that prompted the decision. If you still want to allow for sympathetic characters, it was a blanket decision that sent good 'bots (like the Dinobots) to the same prison world.

I agree with the previous poster that Windblade is not in character and also be replaced with Skywarp or Thundercracker. I don't even see the reason for the rallies that Megatron is holding.

The Brainstorm subplot really isn't fond of giving clues or even showing much investigating going on. So far, they've just talked to people. It lacks a forensic element.

​

 

Rallies like those are expensive. My home town had Trump rally this year it nearly cost 1/2. Million dollars to the city. (That is about as political I am going to get.) I don't think Megatron rallies on Cybertron are any cheaper for the cities. That what puzzling me with the Ascenticons. Energon Rationing is also poorly explained it look like there is plenty going around. Plus it will take a lot more energon being used at rally than being saved from rationing.


I thought Rubble was wasted opportunity as well. I thought Bumblebee is a poor choice for a mentor it would make more sense to have Soundwave or even Prowl in that role. Bumblebee joining the Ascenticons makes less sense than him being arrested for child endangerment which should had happen. Bumblebee you should had Windblade or someone to watch over Rubble it called babysitting.

 

Especially since the first issue had the Ascenticons march to Tarn to do the rally. They didn't use some kind of transport like a train. They walked all the way from one city to another. The story could have explained that some of them went low on fuel to conserve enough rations to participate in the rally like how people in real life go without luxuries to save money for trips, but it doesn't.

I actually think it could have been fun to watch Prowl end up babysitting Rubble because the latter snuck out to try to find the voin. Since the lead's a time-sensitive one, Prowl can't just march him home and he can't get a hold of Bumblebee (because he's off talking to Soundwave). Bonus if Rubble gets to meet his pet terradactyl.

 

You won't get any arguments from me regarding MTMTE/Lost Light. I think my opinions on Roberts and his work are pretty well documented at this point. That said, I also think that "average, fun-but-shallow read" was not what they were going for on this iteration and that's kinda sad. Ad copy aside, I think they were really going for deep political thriller. However, they're missing the mark on a lot of levels in my opinion and failing to spark any interest in me. It's kind of like someone listened to a description of a political thriller and then tried to write one from that memory. Again, I'm fully willing to place these issues on a team that is having a hard time working with one another for some reason (and crappy art in my opinion).

There doesn't need to be an underclass - just some kind of conflict. There's no well defined conflict because the initial presentation is "CYBERTRON IS A UTOPIA". Generally speaking, there'd be inklings of civil unrest presented soon thereafter.

This book attempts to do this by 1) obliquely referring to warring colonies, and; 2) presenting Megatron's position. In short, he's protesting the extremely restrictive government that provided for the Utopia. He's effectively taking on the position of IDW1's Adaptus. Megatron posits that Cybertron is stagnating under the current rule. While it might seem to be a somewhat silly position, there's something to be said about the "pressure valve" of war. One of the things that can arguably keep a society from turning on itself is the ever-present threat of the other as a unifying force. In other words, conflict often results in both nation-forming AND technological innovation. Although a potentially extremist view today, recall that in the not too distant past many "advanced" cultural predecessors have seen expansion and colonization as not only beneficial, but necessary to stay competitive on a global scale.

However, this book doesn't provide that sense of urgency. The colonies are an afterthought, left to defend themselves or something as we know nothing about them. Cybertron itself doesn't appear to be suffering from any sagging or broken infrastructure issues as a result of stagnation. We're merely inferred that there's a deep seated underlying issues because the Ascenticons and other characters like Quake have gown bored as veterans of the colony wars. This borrows from shades of the G2 Comic's Jhiaxus, who sought to harness the "inherently warlike" nature of Cybertronians to expand - again, using expansion and war as a pressure valve to keep the Neo-Decepticons/Cybertronians from turning on themselves.

And therein lies the issue. We have to dig for this stuff. That's fine for a later plot, but out the gate? Not a great idea to keep your bold strokes to yourself.

As for a general failure in investigation and/or characterization... well, the book here moves super slow. We may see an account of the investigation forthcoming as a plot point. As for Windblade... eh. Complaining about characterization in Transformers is spitting into the wind at this point. Soundwave went from stoic aide de camp for Megatron in 1984 to sensitive new age flower baby in IDW1. So many stones have been thrown in this arena that all that's left of that glass house is a fine pile of sand.

 

I don't actually have a problem with Windblade's characterization in this. I quite like writers taking characters for a new spin once in a while (which is why I like IDW Soundwave and Cyberverse/RID Grimlock), and she is one of the characters with some good nuance because of the things that I mentioned.

It does all depend on whether I'm suppose to be seeing her the way that I do or not. For example, there's the whole thing in the first issue where she shoots at some innocent aliens for no reason. Is that suppose to indicate that she's xenophobic or was that just meant to be her scaring off criminals?

 

Naturally. I always open fire on random foreign hobos bothering children on the street. Just a few warning shots just to make sure they know their place.

 

You kid, but I see it in media often enough. It's either a case of "It's not bad if the hero's the one doing it!" or the creator(s) just not realizing what they wrote.

 

Or she could be totally racist and classist, which would be a Bold New World in Transformers storytelling. How about it, IDW? Give us our own Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS.

As a side note, I actually met the actress that played Ilsa at a con. What a nice lady with an awesome sense of humor about her body of work.

 

I find it interesting that Bumblebee doesn't react to her shooting at those aliens which implies he either doesn't care or that he's choosing to ignore it because it's his friend doing it.

It would explain why he's fine with joining the Ascenticons (who I think are implied to be xenophobic or am I misremembering something?)

 

Or it could be that he knows something about Voin that we don't. Like, for all we know they're physically and psychologically compelled to accost everyone they meet and subject them to slideshows of their last vacation which are probably grounds for execution under the current Cybertronian regime for all the information we're getting about society here.

 

Me too. Slow burn, but it's developing well and I like the setting.

 

I'm liking it. As others have said, it's a little on the slow side, but other than that I think it's fine. It certainly hasn't reached the heights of the previous continuity yet, but then it's only been a few months, so I wouldn't have expected it to. I look forward to reading the new issue each fortnight, so I'd call it a success.

 

I dunno 'bout you, but if a new continuity isn't as deep and intriguing as a decade old continuity is, then it's trash.

 

Sadly, I've seen a lot of people with this take.

 

I am enjoying it! I like its use of contemporary themes; the world building; and there is something awesome about owning the toys of the comic designs right from the get go.

 

I don't feel it has lazy storytelling or dumb decisions. Slow pacing to be sure, but it's clearly building to something.

Also raging on stuff for not being top-tier doesn't help contrast the 'has good points but could use polish' from the 'actually bad.' And there is a tendency- one that's definitely present here- to conflate 'I don't personally love it' with 'the worst thing ever' or 'the storytelling is awful!' or what have you.

The tf wiki has an article labeled 'ruined forever!' for a reason, and the reason has nothing to do with stuff actually being all that bad.