Loved it from start to finish. I mean, it’s a ridiculous situation: Dana International becoming Pope is more likely than Megatron surrendering, becoming an Autobot and THEN co-captaining the Lost Light. But once they took the leap, I found James Roberts’s interpretation of it amazing.

Old Megs gets taken on an actual character journey for the first time, well, ever! From his despair during his trial, he sees a chance at redemption and, in a typically Decepticon style, grabs it with both hands. The scenes on the Necroworld where he’s confronted with the proof of his atrocities - first by the endless fields of flowers surrounding his statue and then by the DJD - are some of the best written scenes in any comic ever.

And better still, it’s the rarest of all things in comics: a real turning point with actual consequences. After Necroworld he’s clearly accepted that that he can never really make up for what he did. When he eventually tells Rodimus that whatever the punishment for his crimes he deserves worse, he means it.

And also, I never thought anything could make me feel sorry for the DJD but... oh, those poor bastards were dead the millisecond Tarn laid a single finger on Ravage. They thought they were the ultimate in Decepticon badassery, and then they made the mistake of going up against the guy who literally wrote the book on it.

“TWO fusion cannons? Look at yourself.”

 

Heart attack serious. Well half. I thought it was an amazing reveal, made sense in hindsight, and actually was a parallel to the first Shockwave reveal in MTMTE (and *that* was the best reveal they ever did).

 

Honestly? He didn't really change. At all. It'd be like if Doctor Doom threw on a tunic with an Avengers "A" on it and didn't change his behaviors.

 

He renounced Decepticonism, became a pacifist, lost his disdain for organic life and, when given the opportunity to lead another violent insurrection in a parallel universe, embraced non-violent resistance instead. His whole character arc is about him changing by being confronted with the damage he caused, coming to terms with his actions and choosing to accept the consequences instead of avoiding them. It’s about as far away from Doctor Doom being nice for a few issues as it’s possible to get.

 

I want decepticon Optimus prime. Energon and unlimited power under his rule is the right of all sentient beings

 

Slight OT, but I would *really* dig a "What If?" in the old IDW continuity, set just before the war, where just a couple of key events change and Optimus ends up in command of the Decepticons. It'd be interesting to see how far he'd go when presented with the same set of circumstances Megs faced in the beginning. I'm a sucker for that whole nature vs nurture/ morality is point of view schtick.  

 

As mentioned in another thread, in the real world you don't get to murder millions of individuals, then apologize, say you're a pacificist, and church up your behavior, then go co-captain a ship.

OJ hasn't killed a single wife since his wife, and if you follow his Twitter he actually seems like a funny, fun dude, but that hardly matters. Once you kill someone, you're a killer.

While I appreciate them giving him an arc, especially since his character is fairly static - which works better in cartoons than it does in comics - it's very similar to every time Magneto joins the X-Men. It's something that is done in comics a lot but feels wrong every single time. Interesting, but, in my opinion, not particularly compelling. Maybe killing him off is cliche at this point, but usually if a character does the things Megatron does, he's gone down a point of no return, and no amount of apologizing or change in philosophy is going to feel genuine.

 

I read it like the average reader whose investment in the franchise was purely nostalgia.

Did I like it?

Sure.

I was coming into this from a MU/DC/Image/Valiant/Continuum/Indie comics reader so my take is as a reader only. Megatron became a character seeking redemption. Cool.

Would that work with Galvatron? EFF-NO!  

Some aspects (the too much earth ref in the characters kind of grated) didn't wow me, but overall I enjoyed it.

This part got my feels, yo.

RAVAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEE!EEEEE!      

America colonists? 

 

I feel like comparing a murder like that to war killings are a bit hard to compare, but I get the point.

 

Yes, context is kind of important here. OJ murdered his wife while a wealthy member of a mostly peaceful society, in which the majority of people live lives free of violence.

Megatron's first kill was during a riot when he was practically a slave, and after he had come close to being lobotomised for speaking up. He then killed more people while rising up in a criminal underworld, much like many children who are involved in gang violence today. From there into a long-lasting war.

Nearly everyone else on the Lost Light is also a killer - some of them were literally *made* to kill. Many of them still tote around weapons.

I'm not necessarily saying this makes Megatron's redemption plausible, but it makes it so far removed from anything any of us have a proper handle on that it's really hard to call it.

 

Autobot Megatron was a story idea with potential, but in practice it was completely and utterly mishandled by the writer, to the point that it basically took the entire book down with it.

The book wants to present this narrative of Megatron as the hero who lost his way, but it largely ends up being a comic about Megatron being an arrogant bully towards his crewmates (especially Rodimus) and being more concerned with his own legacy than actually making amends for his actions. And while all this is going on, the book also goes out of its way to ascribe unprecedentedly heinous war crimes to the army Megatron ran, including turning prisoners into landmines and a direct analogue to Nazi gas chambers.

Megatron does eventually show some contrition and humility, but only after being written out of the book for a year, with the character development happening off-screen. But even that doesn't really hold up because shortly afterwards he agrees to a plan that allows (one version of) him to go have fun adventures in another universe without ever facing justice.

 

Pretty much the point I wanted to get out, just wasn't motivated enough to voice it.

 

Yeah all these folks comparing megs to real history are spectacularly uninformed to how easily and often war criminals are forgiven. Reality is far and away more fickle than an Xmans comic book.

 

Is it really the worst thing though? More Than Meets The Eyes did win awards for their stories while Megatron joined the Autobots and was co-captain of the Lost Light.

 

I'd say certain art choices were worse than anything written.

 

To be fair, although I don’t consider the Autobot Megatron thing to be the worst thing ever, most “comics awards” are kind of a joke.

 

On the plus side, I thought it was refreshing to see a different angle to Megatron and the dynamic it created with the Autobot crew. Milne's art for him was also excellent.

The problem is that I found it wholly unconvincing how the writers took him from the events that culminated in RID into MTMTE -- somehow being the antagonist-in-chief for millions of years to then suddenly grow a consciousness, or worse, for his sincerity to actually be given the benefit of the doubt. If he's supposed to be the big brain warrior-philosopher that he was retconned to be, then that change of heart should have occurred as soon as he realized what his movement had become and the sorts of characters it attracted.

 

Autobot Megatron is just proof of how IDW doesn’t have the talent to pull off ideas like that. Like how Marvel did it well with Magneto. This is one of the reasons why idw1 is just overpriced fan fiction.

 

These topics are starting to have the same 3~4 people frequent them and talk shite. As long as their replies are, and how well written they are; they say the same exact things in every single topic.

It’s almost like it’s copied and pasted at this point. We’re just missing one poster and then the whole party will be here.

Hell. We even have someone who doesn’t read the books at all pop into these threads now and give a opinion that isn’t worth a damn.

#TFWFTW

 

Probably because IDW is trying to emulate marvel and dc nowadays.