Lots of lore and action with this issue: Spoiler Termagax invites Landmine and Geomotus to her house. She ends up having to fend her house from the Decepticons. Red Wing finds out the hard way of not being welcomed. Geomotus had send an update to High Brow, allowing the Autobots to identify her location. Skywarp tries to smooth talk his way with Megatron. Meanwhile, Soundwave also finds out Termagax’s location via Red Wing. This results in Shockwave sending the Insecticon to attack Termagax. As the House is defending everyone, Termagax talks about how she believes the Primes are fictional characters and were created to explain to creation of artefacts such as the Matrix. Just as the Insecticons are about to break in, an Autobot army, lead by Sky Lynx swoops in! Jumpstream is awakened, and reveals Exarchon wins… Highlights: Plenty of content in this issue!
What's with those antennae on Perceptor? He looks like his G1 model otherwise, just something new for this continuity?
It's based on his Titans Returns figure. The Titan Master arms on that toy kind of look like antennae.
I haven’t read an issue in a while. I decided to check in. One of my pet peeves in past IDW comics is when an obscure character shows up and never gets a chance to shine because they’re killed off quickly just to have casualties. It looks like it’s still happening… Kill off the OCs, but don’t deny future writers from letting a potential existing character (who had a toy) shine. Also, even in IDW2 they make Landmine look like Energon Landmine. More of a mishmash but mostly Energon inspired.
nlg, I got really excited for a moment come this page. Spoiler Also I really liked Termagax's talk about how the Primes may not have been real people and just a way for people to explain the Matrix and the Enigma.
This can definitely become a problem sometimes, especially if you have a favorite character among the obscure ones. But then again if the writer dedicates giving the bare minimum of screen time to that character for like five issues how much time did the writer just lose when said author could have already moved to another plot thread already or the characters moving from Place C to Place G. I'm not saying it is not impossible for a character to have some screen time but writers are kind of on a time limit with keeping readers invested in their created stories and sometimes characters are finished off for the sake of the narrative. Spoiler Poor Landmine. He's really not having a good time right now and Geomotus is just soaking in all the the techno relics that Termagax has in her House . Seems like Skywarp is set on paying someone a visit and given that Shockwave hasn't have things go his way as of late things are just going to get worse for him. Seriously Perceptor, listen to Ratchet & give Jumpstream some breathing room she isn't going anywhere this time. Really like the small lore dumps in this comic book. Things can only escalate more in these upcoming issues now.
This was a very good issue. I wish more of the lead-up to this involved as many new ideas and fun character interactions. The art by Anna Malkova is more expressive, lively, and fun than a lot of the earlier artists. She channels Alex Milne in a lot of places while not slavishly imitating him. We've had other flashes of life in the series but I hope this is close to what we get normally now that the war is on than just another one-off. Spoiler Several characters got some more attention, which is nice. I love seeing more Geomotus and Termagax. I want them and a House in my collection. Skywarp seems like he's going to be a lot of fun, kind of a cross between Joker and Mister Sinister. He almost had a fourth wall break in one panel, which I chuckled at. I hope Ruckley isn't going to wear him out too quickly. We also had a couple of normally non-Seeker Decepticon jets shown in Seeker bodies. I think that may have been done before but I can't remember with which characters. I have mixed feelings about that. I like the look of the Cyberjets and Machine Wars/Robotmasters one-step jets and I don't know that it's necessary to redesign them. On the other hand, it's nice to see the Seekers as an expansive force and I get why they may not want to have multiple groups of flyers.
Spoiler Got a glimpse of what some of the thirteen look like in this continuity. Looks like Maximo got redesigned again. Looks more sinister than his Aligned and IDW1 designs, at any rate.
I was so excited to see Wingstun and Space Case as Siege Seekers ...and then they only got some panels. Worse...Poor Space Case. God, I hate when writer doing such things. I love that Skywarp is here again. But I don't know if I like this Skywarp so much... Still not a fan of this art. I'm sorry.
This is the main thing that makes me not want to read this book. I get that Ruckley wants to show how big this world is, but using established characters as cannon fodder limits future stories in a way I don't care for.
I mean the only real established character to die was Brainstorm and I feel like he got more popular because MtMtE/Lost Light comic.
To me, established = had a toy There are so many late G1/Euro-G1/G2 characters that have been wallpaper at most. To see one get speaking lines, DO something, and then ceremoniously killed off to show how dangerous something is just rubs me the wrong way. I’m not saying they never kill more “popular” characters, but the lesser knowns tend to be the cannon fodder.
Megatron should just promote Redwing. He's apparently one of the few non-leader Decepticons with a brain.
I was way more into the Rust Worms when they were a cool setting piece that clearly acted as a symbol for the Transformers' spiritual decline following the age of expansion as we are reminded that all Transformers are a part of Cybertron, and how the state of the planet with its shifting plates and erupting geysers reflect the nature of the Transformers themselves. Then Ruckley's narration just goes on to explain the metaphor to us instead of letting us reach that conclusion ourselves. Ruckley it's way more impressive when you don't explain what you were trying to do right after doing it. We also get a description of the Sea of Rust's origin, despite this not having nearly as much to do with the setting as it is a means of filling some worldbuilding. Turns out the Sea of Rust is all worm shit. I guess when you put it that way the setting must be saying something about the events taking place here and their significance on the rest of the story, but when that narration continued all I could think was "say less." Like god damn, I was so into the bits of character development Landmine was receiving in those first few pages, giving him a whole story in such few words and over several issues. He was a former adventurer that met some kind of accident and stopped his adventuring since, resulting in his nervous ticks. And then Ruckley repeats all this in Termagax's dialogue, and has the gall to write: "Almost a metaphor for the entire civilization." Come oooonnnn. Don't make metaphors if you are going to say "This is a metaphor. I'm using metaphors here." right after. Let the audience interpret their own shit, god. I think there were periods of that this issue. Like Shockwave didn't need to reiterate that he has Devastator in his back pocket, or that Megatron is underestimating Termagax, or that he has an army of Insecticon clones (even though there is also an army of traditional Insecticon clones with the Insecticons??? So what's the purpose of this and how does it not be a redundancy). We know this. Like that scene offered nothing except to remind people who may not be paying attention. Like an extended "Previously On". I'm assuming Shockwave REALLY needs those numbers if he's consulting the Insecticons, since he has chosen to disclose the Enigma's whereabouts to them and is tasking THEM with retrieving it for HIM after establishing with Bombshell that the only reason Shockwave is conversing with him is because he can't destroy them yet. Like it seems to be kind of a risky venture when something as built up as the Enigma of Combination is on the line. I thought the branding ceremony scene kind of funny, since it felt like Ruckley finally curing the tfwiki of it's "Nobody's in the Autobot category" syndrome with this comic and its tfwiki articles. The dialogue and framing of this scene is also kind of awkward. Optimus is making a speech like "WE ARE AUTOBOTS!" And then he just casually whispers to Pyra Magna, "Oh, uh, by the way Bumblebee called. You need to reach Termagax before the Decepticons do and retrieve the Enigma of Combination" and she's just like: "But me and Termagax haven't met each other yet." Like I don't know, last issue built up Bumblebee's role to involve an actual discussion with the Autobots since he's an active criminal now, and not a phone call that Optimus decides to offhandedly bring up during some big ceremony. Also seeing Arcee, Springer, and Kup together in the background is cool but it also kind of looks like they're looking around for someone that's missing. Is that a subtle hint that Hot Rod is inbound or is Ruckley continuing to ignore him for some other reason? His absence is honestly weird to me, and him not being created yet is kind of an uninteresting answer since we have already followed the stories of newborns in this comic. I think the artist might have caught on on how dry this issue is, because I can't imagine Ruckley included to have Perceptor do the "imagination" rainbow with his hand in that panel. Unfortunately it had to happen in a scene that was obviously meant to continue the tension from the previous one. Like it's tonally out of place. I actually liked seeing Termagax's more atheist view, while still admitting the artifacts are beyond them technologically, while still clearly for Transformer use. Implying that maybe there in fact are no 13 and the artifacts are from an ancient advanced Cybertronian civilization. Of course we also have no reason to believe Optimus hallucinated any portion of his journey into the Matrix proving the Primes to have existed, as well as Primus. This conversation kind of happens at a poor time. Like they are under attack and Landmine is dissing her for selfishly isolating herself. Nice to see Sky-Lynx arriving to the rescue, but I think this was kind of predictable. Like we knew they were coming because of that earlier ceremony scene. Ruckley's messed with time in this comic, he could have had that scene come after to show that Bumblebee's message went through, but I guess it would have risked coming off as a deus ex machina to Termagax's story. But then the issue is being solved by an Autobot strike team either way rather than Termagax, Geomotus, or Landmine on their own so it's not that different from the last time this specific team of Autobots saved a tech team. In fact this is the third time this team of Autobots specifically has acted as cavalry for a tech team of some kind in this comic. It would be cool if Termagax like, rewired the Enigma of Combination to combine Cybertronians, but not distribute weight evenly, or not merge into something humanoid that could stand or fly, and used it on the Insecticons to ground them and make them one easy target, using the Enigma as a detriment rather than something that would make you more powerful, and also comitting a kind of "sacrilege" on the artifact. I mean at least that way the focus could be on just these three Transformers and we could see them try to get themselves out of this on their own and not with the help with the team of more or less generic Autobot warriors (aside from Sky Lynx). With so many characters, Ruckley seems to repeat himself narratively as well as in expository means. Last issue saw Bumblebee choosing to spare Barricade. I thought it was a not bad scene, but we also just had Cyclonus make the same choice a couple issues earlier. If different choices were made maybe it would make sense, but Ruckley used the same dilemma twice. I don't know, I think after bloating his comic with characters, Ruckley has weighed down the momentum of his comic. So much repetition and unneeded exposition in this issue though. I know there are three editors on this comic but I feel like they either don't care, or don't have actual training in editing or something. It's bizarre how many obvious rules these editors are breaking when they let some of these things slide.
