Aw, yeah. That's just what the doctor ordered. And quite worth the "schedule slip," as you call it. Looovely heretical/mystical effects! Can you Smeeell what The Motormaster is cookin'!?!?!? Aaand once again, spoiled by the comments before I even know the comic's updated, I need to find these things out quicker!
Fudge! O_O I doubt I can say much that hadn't already been said, but this was an awesome update! =D Lots of subtle rejoicin' about things bein' the way they got to be even if there's bittersweet reminder that they fudged up on their objective and leadin' to Mirage getting company in the cell. Yet not forgetting some humor as well, like with Prowl temptin' those two guys to add one more to the pile... Such gruesome detail on Ravage after showin' their sleek vehicle modes (reminding yet again one of the beauties of collecting... lots of pretty things to look at) and the return of Megatron...
That was amazing! Coolhand, you need to quit your day job and do this comic fulltime. Four seekers; Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp and... I am guessing the orginal green Starscream M.P as Acid Storm but we shall see.
Are you INFER(NO)ing that I was caught RED handed trying to sneakily fix a plot hole without ALERTing anyone? Thank you, glad you’re enjoying it. ☺ World of Warcraft? Heh heh. In all truthfulness, Mirage isn’t in danger and Prime knows it. Remember, Grimlock gave his word that the killing was over. Dinobots are all Samurai-like about giving and keeping their word.. Doh! Good catch, will fix. Thanks. ☺ Me Grimlock not force you to choose. You can have both poke and stab if you like, at no extra charge. Well, actually me will charge. Good stabbings require a decent run up. Me Grimlock glad you approve. It make things less painful for coolhand. Actually, it not make things less painful at all, but me like to hold out false hope. It funniest kind of hope. Hellhounds? Ravage would hate that. Hellkitteh’s? Maybe less so. ☺ Ah, I love HA’s. Thing is, the bot mode is so radically different from the Alts in aesthetic terms, I’d need a good plot based way of explaining it. Which I do have. So yeah, at least one HA will put in some sort of appearance at some point. ☺ Yeah, poor old Shocks got tricked something rotten. In fairness to Shockwave, it’s not that he’s a dupe. Only a handful of beings in the universe would be skilled and treacherous enough to play him like that. Trouble is, Ravage is one of them. Thank you. ☺ He’s got the powahhhhh! Great. Now that song’s going to be in my head all day. Excuse me whilst I go an do my laundry, no matter the cost. World of Warcraft again? What is it with that game? He’s cooking potato salad. Everyone likes potato salald. Right? The Big Meg is indeed back, and he’s got a lot of work to do… World Of Warcraft! The wait begins…NOW Me Grimlock say: Don’t worry, Coolhand will turn it into epic fail before you can blink. Him always able to fail, no matter the cost. Good to hear. Cool. Bittersweet was the vibe I was going for with Streak’s epilogue, glad it worked. ☺ Glad you enjoyed it Battlefudge. ☺ I’d love to do exactly that, but I’ve tried eating nothing but air before and whilst it’s low fat it’s also low in stay-alive. Yep, Seeker number 4 is Acid Storm. Depending on how my finances go this next couple of months, we will see if Dirge, Ramjet and Thrust were alive but just out of shot in that update or if they stay dead.
Prime also knows that Grimlock knows lots of interesting things that wouldn't kill but might make Mirage think twice about being such a dick in the future. Not that I'm saying Prime would approve mind you, but he may chuckle under his breath as he walks away from scolding Big Grim.
Well, hate to say I called it... Though to be fair, I NEVER expected Ravage to manage to bring back Megatron. Though knowing him and his devotion to Megatron and his ideals, it's really the only scheme that ultimately makes sense for him. The final scenes there had an interesting fatalism to them. Ravage never expected to survive this... at most he hoped to survive long enough to glimpse Megatron's return, but he is very much a bot who has made his peace. AND accomplished the unthinkable. Megatron is back. In Masterpiece form, as strong as he was at his height, whereas Optimus has obviously taken on a smaller, more efficient, and likely far less powerful form. The Seekers have returned. Even just four of them, against an enemy with no air power of their own? Air superiority wins wars, and currently the Decepticons own the skies uncontested. And they STILL have the engine. Potentially unlimited cannon fodder. That's the true threat. Things are about to get much MUCH uglier.
Holy. Flipping. GOD! Both stories were great, but what a place to end the "season!" This is gonna turn things up something fierce! So we finally understand what that whole alert thing was about. I'll admit straight out it was confusing--in fact, I thought it was something Shockwave had done. You can never tell what's going on with him because of his famed lack of reaction. Now it all comes together, and it is nothing short of AWESOME. And while we have an increase in Autobot numbers...you get the feeling it's not going to be enough.
Simply stunning, Coolhand: Your best update yet. There is sooo much goodness to comment on here! I'm glad to see the return of Streak's monologue. It's an excellent device, and you use it well, balancing individual character development with plot advancement. I particularly enjoy how you've brought that arc full circle, ending with essentially the same monologue about Autobot deaths that you opened with three or so years ago. Is there a name for that plot device? Four Seekers. And Megatron, of course. I wonder who the fourth Seeker is? Prowl's insistence about having first crack at interpreting the data is interesting, and fits with his earlier anger about the Prombies ("I know they look like me!", or words to that effect). You can feel Megatron is ultimately behind Ravage's plan. Interesting that Megatron apparently kept it secret. What if Ravage or the others who knew of it died? Then what? Ohh, the agony of having to wait to get some answers.
Heh heh. "Me Grimlock promised no more killing, and me keep my word. Me simply going to make Mirage WISH he was dead." We will indeed see Mirage and Grimlock interacting as cell buddies in the next Season... Yep, you totally did. I didn't want to comment on it in the thread, but yeah, a few people caught wind of where this was going when Ravage started to be notable by his absence. It's not the Ravage you can see that you should worry about, it's the Ravage you CAN'T see.. Ravage is indeed a true Decepticon believer. When he swore his life to Megatron, he did exactly that: pledged to live or die for cause. I like the idea of bad guys who are genuine in what they stand for. I mean, yeah, it's fun to have some hypocritical snivelling cowards in the ranks too, but it's the one or two dudes who are the real deal who always stick in my mind. Very, VERY ugly. Optimus is indeed much less powerful than Megatron now, and that's not only due to his current smaller form... ...and Megatron's elite air-wing should hopefully be a lot of fun next season. I figure that if you're one of the elite in an army as brutal as the Decepticon's you've got to have a certain scary something about you. Now, I've just gotta save up for the coneheads and stack the odds in favour of the bad guys even more. Cool, glad the whole thing with the rift opening was clarified sufficiently. I didn't want to draw TOO much attention to what was going on in the initial update to feature it in case it gave away slightly what Ravage might be up to, but sorry if it was a bit too confusing. It would have been clarified sooner if I'd got my butt into gear and GIMPED faster. Thanks Gladiator Prime. I think it's called a callback, but I'm not sure. That might be me mis-applying the term. Seeker number 4 is Acid Storm. The other Seekers are a bit wary of him. He's a bit...spooky. Prowl and the prombies is a plot point that isn't going away just yet. These things are walking around with his old soul, and it's bringing up some awkward issues for Mr Rulebook. Heh heh. The full details of the Principian plan, and exactly how Megs and the Seekers returned (They're not zombies and they're not resurrected as such either) will be discussed in Season 4, but Megatron kept the details secret for a very specific reason...
Words can not describe the epicness of this update! Which means it's probably a good thing that this is a photocomic. Afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words, making the latest update worth at LEAST a couple volumes!
Did you base Megatron's return on the "Human Transmutation" mechanic from Fullmetal Alchemist? I just thought that there was too much of a parallel between Ravage's cost for invoking the power of the Engine and Roy Mustang's cost for performing Human Transmutation in the manga.
