This issue had quite the delay. 2 month! But it seems to be worth it in the end, because this issue will surely please Devastator fans: Spoiler The Constructicons are in disgust, looking at the work they have done, while they hide in the shadows. The Insecticons kill a few innocent bots, and produce unstable energon. The Constructicons tap into he unstable energon, transform into Devastator and destroy the city. After all of this, the Insecticons give the unstable energon to Shockwave, and the Constructicons reminisce on their freedom. Here’s the best moment from this issue: Lots of action, good artwork, and doing justice for the Constructicons; the wait may have been long, but it turned out to be a great issue!
That was a great issue! Gives a lot of backstory... Sets up the Decepticons for a lot of early victories!
I don't know. The Constructicons "heel turn" didn't seem earned to me. I re-read all 4 issues and theres just this disconnect between them being bored and unfulfilled on Mylax (or whatever) to suddenly being happy to murder every single living being in the city. I get that the Insecticons also manipulated them and they were angry at Nominus Prime, but the series just didn't do enough to sell me on them becoming homicidal and wanting to destroy what they created, even as Devestator.
Well that was predictable. They didn’t even get off planet in the end, huh. Just the thing we were told was going to happen by Shockwave happened. I wonder if the static nature of the art’s mood might have affected this story a bit. I feel like it would have been more effective had the art been less moody in the earlier issues and slowly denigrated to the macabre imagery we got here. That said, the bodies just draped around Devastator and Bombshell just eating a hand was sick, so kudos for the bit of spunk in the gore. I also probably would have enjoyed this arc more had it not taken like half a year to be completed.
I agree with this. I understand them wanting to obliterate any form of the government's presence. I could see them wiping out security. But what did all those poor civilians do?! Aren't they also exiled and trapped on this hellhole?! And the crazy part is that they don't feel any remorse once they come out of their combined form. Like, there's no moment of reflection where they take a look around at all the strewn corpses and are like, "Primus...What have we done? Are we monsters, after all?" at least if they came to embrace it that would have been something but no, not even Scavenger seems phased by the massacre they had just committed.
Exactly this. Issue 3, the flashback issue, should have pared back the flashbacks a little bit and given more present scenes establishing the Constructicons' HARD turn towards the darkness. It's one thing to realize you've been discarded by society and say "you know what? Fuck this work I was doing for them." It's a whole other thing entirely to say FUCK EVERYBODY'S LIFE ON THIS ENTIRE PLANET. It honestly strains credibility that there really wasn't anybody else at all on the entire planetoid that they liked. I mean, wouldn't they have been treated well by the people there, at the very least? I think it would have been more effective if the Insecticons influenced them to merge for an ostensibly justifiable reason ("aren't you tired of being on this rock? We'll give you the power to form into Devastator and you can build yourself a ship"), while grooming their resentment so when they finally DID merge, the shared mind would be focused on their hatred rather than their love of building... which would cause them to TRULY go out of control. (They could still murder people to get the energon, just without the Constructicons knowing... which still implicates the Constructicons, which works fine with where I'm going with this anyway) Then when they disengage, they're horrified by what they've done, but also horrified that a part of them enjoyed doing it, and beholden to the Rise not just ideologically but also basically trapped, mafia-style, because now they can't go back to regular society, having committed an unspeakable atrocity (initiated by the Insecticons' murders they didn't even know about that they would undoubtedly be held responsible for as well). You could even have Bombshell or Kickback (or even Shockwave) make that painfully clear with an epic speech of breaking when all is said and done. Then the Constructicons, resentful, refuse their offer and try to strike off on their own... THAT, to me, makes more sense than them just saying "fuck it let's kill e'erbody here and figure out what to do later." The ONLY thing that kind of foreshadowed their heel turn was their indifference to Hook's "accidental" killing of a laborer -- he didn't mean to kill him, but he DID intentionally throw the girder that did with what would legally be deemed "depraved indifference to life and limb." So, not outright murder, but still negligent homicide or manslaughter. That showed the Constructicons literally didn't care about the lives of anybody else there. But still, not caring is a far cry from outright wanting to murder them all for no clear reason. I mean, what was their objective, other than just to rampage? If all they wanted was to leave, who was really in a position to stop them? I still liked this issue but not nearly as much as the first two. It had all the payoffs we expected and they were executed pretty well -- in particular, the robo-carnage was pretty intense -- and the Insecticons were gloriously creepy, but I feel like it could have unfolded in a more interesting way and still left all the characters in the exact same situation at the end to advance the overall plot. One thing I did really like was the sheer extent of the Insecticons' power and their outright usefulness to the Decepticons. I mean they're basically like if some people were born who could eat garbage and excrete real food (and eat real food and excrete superfood). The way this story was written also begs the question of whether Nominus was justified -- that they would have inevitably thirsted for 'living spark' -- or whether their banishment from society, and resulting atrophy of their sense of connection to society at large, was basically a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, if you banish a child to the wilderness because you're convinced they'll become an animal, how surprising is it really if they actually do become animalistic? How were they supposed to be anything else?
I thought the first arc of Galaxies was okay to decent. I really liked the portrayal of the insecticons, those vile creatures. As for the Constructicons, I thought they had okay characterization with at least some personality compared to previous interpretations. Unfortunately, they were all also kind of the same character. My biggest complaint with this book is that the dialogue felt very stiff and hyper-transparent. I get it. Tyler is a first-time writer, but I’m not a fan of having characters explain the themes in such an obvious way.
This was my biggest problem with this issue as well, you've summed it up really well. As for the story as a while, there were a few awkward pieces of dialogue, clunky exposition and the occasional weird pacing, but there were also some neat, interesting ideas, and you could feel there was some enthusiasm behind the writing. It wasn't super good, but it wasn't the thrash fire I had expected either. Overall, I think with a little coaching and a good editor to back him up, Bleszinski could grow to be a pretty good writer. If Bleszinski manages to polish his style a little, I wouldn't mind reading some more stuff from him. @GizmoTron , if you still remember our little debate from several months ago, I stand corrected.
I just read this story arc for the first time in the collected edition, and I have to say that Livio Ramondelli's art is better than I remember. In the past I often found it dark and hard for me to follow, but it's brighter and clearer here, for the most part. I enjoyed it more than I have. It was good to see the individual Constructicons get more focus and lines, but some aspects of the story were a bit too pat, such as finding the enigma of combination out on the field and what felt like a fairly quick heel turn by the Constructicons. I get what the writer was going for, but it felt like we skipped a few steps in the chain from "loves to build" to "angry and out for revenge". Still, the story mostly worked and was enjoyable.