I am loving this series so far, but I don't see myself keeping up the individual issue thing much longer. I've been more of a trade type of guy recently, and the pacing of the story seems more suited to that format. I may bite the bullet and drop the remaining issues and wait it out. Key word being MAY.
Explosions, random human deaths + fan bloodlust for human deaths, endless splash pages only go so far. One hopes the story moves beyond just 'destruction' by the next issue. Erm, no. Nemesis Prime isn't even an Autobot in the traditional faction-based sense. Nemesis Prime would likely be an enemy of all. I would think they were referring to Double Dealer, who betrayed Hot Rod and was a major supplier of information to the Decepticons (he supplied the Decepticon Secret Police) with information on the Pretender Monsters location at Fort Max's prison). Nightbeat's forced betrayal by Jhiaxus wasn't even in view of any Decepticons, and they had nothing to do with his betrayal in the first place.
Then they better also explain why all three Reflector parts talk as one in this comic, but not in Spotlight: Wheelie. Again, something I'm skeptical they'll ever address, along with Soundwave's sudden G1 cartoon speech. Anyways, this comic is steadily getting better, though I think they're stretching the story out a bit too much so far. ...And I'm guessing the President is dead now? That's what I assumed from that downed jet, but I wasn't totally sure... I thought the Astrotrain bits at the beginning and end were totally awesome, though.
Erm, no. Why would Megatron consider Nemesis Prime and his Dead Universe crew "enemy of all" when Galvatron pulled his ass out of the fire when the Decepticons battled the Reapers? And what did Doubledealer do besides remind Hot Rod to go get the Macguffin that would allow the Autobots any chance of unravelling the Expansion? Oh yeah, die.
Galvatron infected Deathbringer with the necrovirus to give the Decepticons a fighting chance against the Reapers so Earth would not be destroyed. Megatron and the Decepticons had no idea what was going on when Deathbringer started to attack his own Reaper comrades, and they certainly did not notice Galvatron. Nemesis Prime wants Earth preserved so that he can add it to his empire. The Expansion refers to the Dead Universe swallowing the living Universe, merging both universes toogether. He wants Earth to become what they have already done on Gorlan Prime: convert the inhabitants into cyborgs, then into Micromasters, as only in this form could they survive the harsh conditions of the Expansion. It is reasonable to surmise that should the Decepticons not bow down to Nemesis Prime's supremacy, they would face the same fate as the modern Autobots. Assuming McCarthy didn't create a new Autobot traitor, Double Dealer was established in Furman's storyline as the informant to the Decepticons (Spotlight: Arcee), while Beachcomber was assigned to assasinate Blaster (and it is unclear if he was forced to do anything else).
With the exception of gestalt tech, which the Constructicons could have full well developed on their own, Doubledealer was never shown to do the Decepticons much good at all, let alone cause the Autobots' downfall. I think based on Josh's reply above, that Megatron wasn't referring to Nemesis, but a third party. Based on the new characters appearing in AHM, I'm thinking a core G1 cartoon character. Perhaps Mirage.
We'll know for sure next month. According to Shane McCarthy, seems like we find out in Issue #4. Does the "Next Issue" preview at the end of #3 foreshadow the traitor? Having someone unexpected be the traitor would surely create some buzz around the story.
Or Shane McCarthy never had Furman's gestalt tech rules in mind when he wrote his book. He's certainly not using Ore-13, previously the only reason Megatron and co were so interested in Earth in the first place. It is moot anyway. Nemesis Prime, the Dead Universe arc and whatever that was associated with it was dumped in favour of AHM.
I admit, I liked this issue more than the last few, if only for the character interaction between Starscream and Megatron. I find this issue does weird up the pacing of the series though. We spent the first two issues focusing on a long prolonged attack on New York, and within this issue alone we have the Decepticons suddenly wrecking half of America mostly off panel. It's like he's trying to make up for lost story development. As I mentioned last issue, I do appreciate Shane McCarthy coming up with various innovative ways the Decepticons can wreck havoc on humankind, but I hope he doesn't do so at the expense of story space.
I read the comic. I bought it in fact. The read was way too fast. I mean, it took me longer to read Animated #2 than AHM #3. I look at this series and while it's cool for being different than what we're used to, I think you could probably take the first few issues, put them together, and walk away with a sense of satisfaction you get out of a Marvel or DC comic. A grade of C for this series so far.
I'm with Kickback... there's been some solid art, but about a half a real comic company's issue worth of plot... FFN said it best... it's time to move past splash pages and death-tolls. There's nothing here yet.
So, yeah, I finally bought this and read it. Three issues in and the series is really looking weak to me. It's like they're padding out a whole comic to justify one HOLY SHIT moment per month. I DO however like that Hook is getting the central focus for the Constructicons. I've always felt he had the best characterization and was the best written in the old cartoon. One question though...why were the Reflector bots speaking in unison? I thought that in the comics they each had individual identities (admittedly though, I don't really follow the comics that much).
AHM is obviously trying to follow the 1984 cartoon more than anything else, and since the Reflector units never spoke during that (at least as far as I remember, and that "Warrior" guy who gets sent through the space bridge doesn't count either), so they're probably trying something new with them. DN
Actually, Reflector DID speak in the cartoon, and they did speak in unision. He was voiced by Chris Latta and sounds exactly like Starscream x 3. Also, he was apparently a hivemind of sorts, since the three robots always refer to themselves as "I" instead of "we" Rewatch Autobot Spike or Roll For It to see what I mean. Kinda sucks that they're doing that in AHM though. I've always been more of a fan of the toy's interpretation, which gave each unit not only a sperate indentity but different designs, too.
Basically, IDW is desperate for the sort of sales Dreamwave achieved in it's heyday, and they figure they're going to get it by doing an 'adult' (meaning lots of humans dying) interpretation of how the TFs were portrayed in the G1 cartoon (the depiction of G1 that people are most familiar with), even if it creates continuity errors...
I also agree with KickBack,The issues move way to fast(especially this one).I finished this issue in under 5 mins.I love the art which keeps me going back to re-read them,but for the price I would love to have more fleshed out issues.
Just read this issue. I am extremely loving this series. It's well-written and the art is great and it presents an awesome alternate view on what the Earth would be like if Megatron and his Decepticons won the war. I know this quote isn't from the third issue but it's my favorite so far. "Destruction? As always, Starscream, you talk big...when everything about you is so small." Also it was awesome seeing Astro-Train in this issue and I really liked the dialogue between Megatron and Starscream.
