Transformers: Beast Wars (2021 -) #5

Discussion in 'Transformers Comics Discussion' started by Issy543, Jun 29, 2021.

  1. Issy543

    Issy543 Well-Known Member

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    That buildup from issue #4 is starting to pay off:

    • Dinobot is put in a cell, as Optimus Primal believes he is malfunctioning, but soon, Nyx convinces him to let her have a one-on-one chat, which reveals how Dinobot was recruited and why he abandoned the predacons.
    • The Predacons launch a defenceless Maximal ship, causing a battle to ensue. Tarantulas manages to enter the ship, and face Ratttrap.
    • Dinobot is freed by Nyx, and joins the battle.
    Highlights:
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    I’ve enjoyed this issue, and looking forward to seeing this momentum hopefully carrying onto issue #6!
     
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  2. Verno

    Verno Beast Wars Collector

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  3. Necromaster

    Necromaster FEAR ME MORTALS

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    Much improved over the previous issue in most every regard. We've finally got the Maximals and Predacons fighting each other (I know, five issues in, but think about how long it took IDW2 by comparison) and while my gripes about Dinobot's characterization thus far still stands, this is roughly how I would imagine Dinobot's defection happening-- the Maximals take him prisoner after he's left for dead by Megatron, the Predacons attack the outnumbered Maximals, and since they have a mutual enemy Dinobot convinces them to release him so that the odds might be evened, establishing an alliance out of mutual convenience. Dinobot is still far too honorable right out of the gate, but from a functional standpoint that aspect works. The circumstances of the fight also feel pretty in line with the show-- the Maximals are very much outgunned due to technical problems, so it's up to Rhinox, Cheetor and Primal to hold the line while Rattrap gets the automated defenses up and running. It reminds me of episodes like Victory, Fallen Comrades, A Better Mousetrap or The Probe where technical hiccups and limitations provided similar hurdles for the Maximals to overcome.

    Nothing against Josh's style, but the art was clunky in conveying Cheetor's super speed. Some blurs or motion lines would've greatly helped sell the effect, ditto for Skold uppercutting Rhinox-- she just looks like she's floating as opposed to leaping. On the other hand, we get four panels of no dialogue as Tarantulas gets the jump on Rattrap, and it's great. It's like I said before-- Give Burcham's art room to breathe, and he can convey the story through it as opposed to excessive verbosity.

    One more issue until the introductory content is out of the way. After that, the comic is free to go in its own direction. Let's hope this first arc ends on a bang.
     
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  4. Bass X0

    Bass X0 Captain Commando

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    Just what is up with Primal's stupid mohawk? It really shouldn't be that tall. Its just ridiculous and I cannot take him seriously.

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. BattleUpSaber

    BattleUpSaber Result.

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    This book is still doing a very good job at being aggressively average.

    Both the story and the art aren't great, but they aren't bad either.

    It's jus...t fine, y'know? Ok. Acceptable. Passable. 6/10.

    (I'm still holding out hope it picks up soon though)
     
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  6. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    Too much of this book is informed attributes. Dinobot's whole spiel feels disconnected, and his defection still seems a bit forced. He thought Megatron was honourable, but we the audience have seen no such indication that's he's anything but unapologetically villainous. It makes Dinobot look like less of a noble soul and more unintelligent for not seeing the obvious. This is on top of just... not great dialogue. Overly formal in some ways, oddly truncated in others. It's just... needlessly wordy. "Tarantulas, break away from us and sneak inside the ship" really could've just been: "Tarantulas, sneak inside the ship." Did he think Tarantulas would try and sneak in with the whole Predacon team? A minor nitpick, but it plagues almost every single speech bubble that, and they add up over the course of an issue.

    Another thing that contributes to the feeling of the words not matching the actions, why are the Predacons spying on the Axalon in robot mode? The threat of Energon radiation still isn't very extant. This is especially awkward when moments later half of them turn back to beast mode, only for Megatron to order them to Terrorize soon after. (ignoring the fact that almost half the team is still in robot mode) Hey, it's like that one time from the show where Primal changed to beast mode during a commercial break just to dramatically transform back to robot mode when the episode resumed. Not the lore-accuracy I was really expecting. :lol 

    Wait, that's what that panel with Scorponok was? Yeah, not clear, if that even was the intent.

    I dunno man. I love Josh's art, but on top of being a poor fit for organic styles rather than traditional blocky mecha, I find his visual storytelling lacking. Though I do wonder how much of that is poor staging on the writer's part. Like to use Skold and Rhinox as an example, knowing how much smaller she is, an uppercut is a pretty odd visual as it demands she jump up to reach him, which results in the weird image we got. Maybe if she just punched him back, knocking him away, we'd get the same information with a less goofy visual. Of course that information was narrated to us by the characters themselves, so we don't even need the visual. This comic still shows so very little and tells practically every possible, minute detail that the art is honestly unnecessary. Any artist would struggle to put images to what is still 90% people talking in giant blocks of dialogue. There's only so many ways you can do a (o_O )? face if that's what's called for in the script.

    Hard to say. Supposedly we only have one more issue before things get good or something. I dunno. I don't feel like my biggest concerns will be assuaged once they start going in new directions.
     
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  7. Scrapmaker

    Scrapmaker Hadar Sen Olmen

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    I did like the nod toward his original actions of challenging Primal for leadership - and considering the possibility that maybe he should have - but yeah, Dinobot's just not as fun and interesting as the original Dinobot. It would have been an interesting dynamic to have him and Primal come to blows over Primal's inexperience compared with his own, but so far it doesn't seem like there will be much of that.
     
  8. Verno

    Verno Beast Wars Collector

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    Waspy.jpg

    I did not like this last issue, and I do not like it now.

    Beast-modes have advantages (shielding from Energon radiation), but they also have disadvantages -- the ability to shoot being one of them.

    If the combatants can use their bot-mode weapons in beast-mode in this universe, why doesn't Tarantulas just shoot Rattrap with his leg blasters?

    Opening this door will lead to frustrating inconsistencies.
     
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  9. Darth Gonzo

    Darth Gonzo Well-Known Member

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    I really think Dinobot and Nyx are possibly going to be shipped together.
     
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  10. Bass X0

    Bass X0 Captain Commando

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    why can't they just be friends?
     
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  11. Coffee

    Coffee (╭☞ꗞᨓꗞ)╭☞

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    I actually only just caught up from issue 3. I had pretty much dropped this comic to be completely honest. Not even because I think it's bad or anything, I just didn't feel any kind of incentive to read it based on those first three issues. Having read 4 and 5 I'm still not sure if I'll keep reading. Like I said, it's not bad, but it sometimes reads like someone young wrote it, if that makes any sense.

    Like "sneak into their base and hit the self destruct button" is something I'd write in my teens. It really is the most basic plan anyone could think of. And the whole "Let me out of my cell, you need me" cliche is done like really badly here. Nyx having a dilemma over releasing Dinobot is the most non-dilemma I could think of. Like Dinobot doesn't even pose a threat to her. There is nothing to suggest he would, so there isn't really a choice going on here or really a sense of real hesitancy. She's just hesitant because she's supposed to be. But we don't FEEL that shit. Remember in Beast Wars when they had to cooperate with Tarantulas but knew it would be a huge risk because it's fucking Tarantulas? Or, what about in Transformers Animated when Optimus has to choose either releasing an uber-powerful Sari against Omega Supreme and potentially causing even more wanton destruction in order to halt Megatron's plans, or face the Megatron controlled Omega Supreme alone? What if Dinobot really was antagonizing, and outright threatening to Nyx in his cell rather than being friendly with her from the start (and therefore not leaving much room to develop their dynamic). Check it, if Nyx is hesitant about letting Dinobot out there has to be a palpable tension you feel me? If he's gonna be released it's gotta be like a last resort. The Maximals need to be basically down and out, or at least give off the sense that there is a limited amount of time for Nyx to make her choice. Like you don't need to chop Cheetor's legs off or anything, but it has to seriously feel like they might fail, or lose something important, whereas it needs to feel just as likely that if Nyx releases Dinobot he might crush her skull in his hands the moment he steps out. Ergo, if the story is able to create a scenario that makes us feel hesitant WITH Nyx, then... good.

    And then okay, also okay Megatron set his own base to self-destruct? Why would he decide to do that? Is he an idiot? It'll come back up again later obviously as a plot resolution or raising of stakes or something, but why? Why did Megatron decide to have the base self-destruct in case someone "sabotages" it? I don't know what the writer was thinking with this. Like it's so obviously just a part of the plot that needs to happen for something later to work, and it's just off-handedly said by Megatron as if it's not entirely unreasonable. And in that same scene we get this heavy exposition about Scorponok being a ranger, yet he's also a great codebreaker, and then Megatron also tells Scorponok to pretend Dinobot is one of "those" so I guess Scorponok is also a racist. I know he was bland in the original series but racist ranger codebreaker scorpion is too cool a combination of things to just be a bunch of offhanded shit that doesn't actually mean anything for Scorponok.

    But okay okay.

    What's got me to just stop reading this story until now is the fact that the story feels strangely mechanical in its execution. Like so far most of this story has just had every facet of Beast Wars disassembled before our eyes and explained in grudging detail. The Vok, Dinobot's honor, the Predacons, the strange occurrences on the planet, Megatron's name not always being Megatron, the Tripredacus council being patient, Rattrap eating fruit, transwarp drives. I don't know, there is something distant about the way all of this is done and seems to both latch too hard onto what Beast Wars did while trying to be different in ways that don't really seem to excel. Like here's the thing, they wanted to have this be the same world as Beast Wars right? Floating mountains, mysterious aliens, the golden disk, all that jazz. But the writer knew that setting these up as mysteries was pointless, because they aren't mysteries anymore. So they all just get thrown at you right away just to say "yes, we are keeping all these elements. And those things that were never explained in the show, well, maybe we'll just answer them ;)  ." But to that I must digress-- Why?

    Like what if this story began in medias res, and was about Maximals waking up from stasis pods, knowing only sort of what and who they are, and fighting the beast wars on earth(?) for resources and territory and at the same time slowly learning more about Cybertron and what they were put on this planet to do. Is that change too crazy? Like it would still be the same cast of Maximals and Predacons from the show, and elements could be reintroduced and reinterpreted, but it would change the framing and allow it to be its own thing right? It's a new continuity specifically for Beast Wars, why not treat it like one?

    Did this comic need to show that ever story, setting, and character element of the Beast Wars show are also in this comic? Even that challenge to a duel gets referenced in this issue as something Dinobot could have done but just decided not to. Why are we clutching onto the show so hard like this? It's weird. It feels weird that I'm watching Beast Wars reassembled in this bizarre wordy way and it's just not interesting to me. And it's not even because it's beast wars that it's weird, it's because it makes for a bizarre story in a vaccuum. Like the only purpose it really serves is for the writer to show he's watched Beast Wars, whereas if you were to pick this comic up with no knowledge of the show you'd find these dialogue choices and exposition dumps really jarring. It feels like I'm reading people discussing Beast Wars on tfw2005 rather than an actual conversation between two characters.

    And then in this issue specifically there is just some WEIRD shit going down, and I don't care if this is just me wearing nostalgia goggles, or if they are just weird nitpicks or whatever. Like did the Predacons really just sneak around in robot mode, and then start fighting in beast mode? I don't even mind that they decided to fight as beasts, I'd love to see them use their beast modes in creative ways to fight in fact. Waspinator shoots shit out of his stinger? Hell I'm game. But would they not have just been in beast mode already and then whoever felt like fighting in robot mode would just transform once the fight started? And also, like, Megatron yells terrorize, and then nobody transforms at all. And Cheetor's fast right? Cause Cheetah's are fast, you know? You know one thing I know about conveying speed through art though? You don't do it like that. And Tarantulas' mouth-- you don't draw a tarantula's mouth like that. It's mandibles, not a normal mouth between each mandible. Like seriously look at that thing it's ridonkulous. Also Rattrap's nickname for Nyx is goggles, but then he also wears goggles, so you have two guys on the team with goggles, but then Rattrap doesn't take note of the fact that Nyx's nickname isn't unique to her. Like Rattrap, why aren't you also goggles? Why is Rattrap being given goggles anyway (Okay I'm actually having a bit of a laugh with this one).

    Speaking of Rattrap, what HAPPENED in that Tarantulas scene, man? He shoots Tarantulas once, Tarantulas was ON TOP OF HIM, and then the next panel Rattrap is like a block away behind Tarantulas, how did he even do that? And like, what is some of this dialogue. I criticized Ruckley lately for his dialogue, but "As I recently told a friend, I don't like falling." Bro, what? Just say "I don't like falling" and you get a wham line that calls back to the first issue, that's so obvious, what are you doing?! And then, okay. Skold doesn't have a stutter right? I remember it was thought she did, but then it was confirmed she didn't, and then this issue seems to suggest she does, or she's just scared of Rhinox while clearly kicking his ass and bragging about it. So when it was asked whether she has a stutter or not, was that idea taken? Like... from a fan? Okay so that's probably definitely not the case, but then why is she stuttering here? Also I get they started working on comms equipment to find Nyx by the morning at the latest, but they really did spend all that time not-searching for Nyx doing nothing huh? Like Primal was able to boot up the thing to track Nyx, but everyone else just tried and failed on that apparently, and then the defenses got ignored somehow of all things. Maybe if tracking her signal was more of a process it would be easier to stomach that they didn't have the time, but I thought it was assumed they were at least working in the meantime Nyx was missing. Like I don't know, they decide they aren't going to find Nyx and it's this whole decision of Primals, and then Rattrap goes "Oh yeah, we don't have the thing that would be convenient for us in this specific moment because we were working so hard on the whole Nyx thing." Like I don't know, it makes Primal's decision seem almost pointless. The idea is he made a poor decision to not go out looking for her, but then it turns out he kind of ended up looking for her anyway. I'm sure Primal will apologize to Nyx for not physically going out to search for her, but I don't know.

    Anyway I think the reason I might be dropping this comic doesn't have really anything to do with it not being Beast Wars enough, or for being weird, or being too adherent to the little things that cropped up in Beast Wars. I think it's because this comic kind of reads like it's for kids. Beast Wars was one of those shows that you could watch as a kid, grow up, and watch it again. But I know saying that has the risk of just being nostalgic for the show, since it took my Transforming robots virginity way back when, and I get making TOO many comparisons to the show is kind of pointless. I think regardless of whether Beast Wars can be watched by adults or not, this comic reads like it's geared to the same Saturday morning audience the Beast Wars show was. Oh yeah, sure there's a torture scene, but guess what, it's not dark. It's extremely tame and I have seen the exact same scenario in other kid's shows before. Electricity torture where the bad guy gears it up to 11 and his minion goes "Wait, that's the maximum setting!" I've SEEN that before. It's not impressive. Everything else? It's tame, and it's basic. None of the choices made are difficult ones, some seem forced for plot, etc.. In IDW1 MTMTE had this air of mystery, humour that wasn't brainless, and did enough foreshadowing and lore-building to show that Roberts was taking his audience seriously. There was some clunky exposition mostly towards the end, but it didn't really feel like you were being spoken down to at first. In IDW2, Ruckley depicts a state that is crumbling from the inside out, and those first few issues shows the perspective of a father raising a son in a world where a tragedy with major social implications occurs, only to soon lose that son thereafter. Say what you will about the execution of that story, but it wasn't something done just to be edgy; it was treated as a tragic event that had huge implications both for Bumblebee, and for an already restless planet. It doesn't matter if these comics aren't your cup of tea, the point is they expected some level of maturity in their audience, and actively asked them to think about what was happening, and to pay close attention to the information being drip-fed to them. Beast Wars the comic doesn't do that for me. Like I love the way Josh draws Tarantulas' legs as these stringy little spirals, and how Rhinox and Megatron have these same sort of spirals on their knees, but that's all that's really struck me about this comic. I keep not wanting to continue this series because I don't think I'm the audience for it, even though I am. I am a guy who watched Beast Wars as a kid, and now I get to read the Beast Wars comic. I'm one of the younger BW fans in fact, since what I watched were the reruns. That said, this comic just reads like it's being written for kids, and even if I haven't grown out of Transformers, I have grown out of most stuff targeted exclusively for kids.

    Also Waspinator refers to himself in the first person at one point and I don't care for that at all.
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2021
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  12. Darth Gonzo

    Darth Gonzo Well-Known Member

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    Because Beast Wars had characters get shipped in it.
     
  13. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    Between beast mode-accessible weapons and the fact that characters spend time outside in robot mode Willy nilly, there’s really not much purpose to beast modes and transformation in general.

    It’s especially unfortunate because beasts modes could and should be weapons themselves. Have Waspinator try and impale Cheetor with his stinger instead of just shoot these little lasers, etc.

    Because comic readers ship everyone, and comic writers eventually appeal to that.
     
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  14. Fallout

    Fallout Banned

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    that's not laserfire...
     
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  15. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    Poor guy is so scared he sprung a leak!
     
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  16. Coffee

    Coffee (╭☞ꗞᨓꗞ)╭☞

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    Waspinator:

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. justiceg

    justiceg Well-Known Member

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    Man, I don't know. For me (strictly me) I have a tough time thinking I'd pay $20 or upwards for content in the hopes that "now that I've spent $20+, things are gonna get moving next time!" =)
     
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  18. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    Yeah, it's like how some people say that after two years the ongoing is finally "worth it."

    Plus, like I said before, I don't think freedom of direction is going to solve the big problems with the book.
     
  19. The Adorkable Mike

    The Adorkable Mike My third favourite colour is yellow

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    I once herd someone somewhere describe the whole "this series gets good after you trudge through x amount of books/episodes/time" as stockholm syndrome, and thinking about that has really saved me form investing too much time and money into things I wasn't enjoying just in the hope that it gets good later. I want to enjoy this series, but I just can't and don't want to keep investing time in the hopes that it gets better. It's not necessarily a bad book, and good on for y'all who are enjoying it. I think it's neat to see Beast Wars getting some attention again and hopefully exposing some younger fans to the the same series I grew up with. And I have to respect the creators for being willing to take on one of the most revered Transformers series of all time. But this just isn't for me, and if I want to scratch that nostalgia itch for Beast Wars, I'll just go back to the original show that I know I'll enjoy, instead of trudging through an okay comic in the hopes that it'll get better.
     
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  20. Bass X0

    Bass X0 Captain Commando

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    Hey, if these weren't Transformers comics or I wasn't invested in Transformers as I am, I wouldn't be reading them right now.