Grumpy old G1 fan reads IDW - in order!

Discussion in 'Transformers Comics Discussion' started by Ryan F, Jan 6, 2016.

  1. gregles

    gregles quintesson

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    Ryan Congratulations to your brother for getting married.

    Wow your post very accurately described everything I found meh about RID at this stage. I can’t imagine why writers create such whiny indecisive emo characters.

    I’ve seen people put the argument forward that they are supposedly more grown up or politically nuanced ambiguous characters but to me they seem every bit as dumb and simple as the action hero or kiddie friendly characters but the only difference with these whiny characters is that they are an arduous chore to read and suck the happiness, excitement and humour out of whatever story they appear in.

    Even when the comics hit the lows this thread still remains great to read :) 
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2017
  2. NoiseMaker

    NoiseMaker Well-Known Member

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    Well.. screw you guys. I LOVED this two parter when it came out :D  a season high for me!
    Superion always was my fave combiner so I was absolutelly stoked when he arrives in this issue. Must have been the old VHS Key to Vector Sigma/War Dawn I watched all the time.

    When I read the issue I wasnt so critical... more like HOW is this going to work with the other events.
    Who created Superion seemingly overnight? What happened? When will we find out more? As for the timeship stuff.. well, you'll see..
     
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  3. CaptainButtocks

    CaptainButtocks Well-Known Member

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    I foudn the pacing of RiD utterly glacial back in it's early days, and I remember this issue being particularly snooze-worthy. It did read much better in the trade however.

    Incidentally Ryan, IIRC (and my memory isn't what it once was) the guy who did the fanw**k Dr Who continuity apparently claimed to have every DC comic ever made at one point in the eighties. Must be worth a fortune now!
     
  4. Infosaur

    Infosaur Ancient Cybertronian

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    I still feel it felt more like product placement. I don't remember the exact timeline but this book came out around the same time prototype CW Arielbots started leaking on the net.

    (Not that I mind, my CW's are awesome, if frustratingly incomplete)
     
  5. Boatformer

    Boatformer #HaulOfFame

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    ...I sincerely doubt that. The team responsible for Combiner Wars wouldn't come on until after this - at this point T30 Sky-Byte, Tailgate, etc hadn't been conceived.
     
  6. UltraMagnus3786

    UltraMagnus3786 That's what it is

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    On a COMPLETELY unrelated note, for all the coffee books I've seen on Transformers over the years, I don't think I've seen one that really makes the connection between the various forms of marketing. Would be cool to get timelines and inside stories as to how this all works... Hasbro has plan to bring back combiners in toys, tests market with FoC Bruticus and Core Combiners, hits up IDW to do some stories, prototypes leaked, Superion appears in comic, CW Superion appears, combiners used in RiD, etc. Even if it wasn't 100% official, it'd be cool to see how trends develop through various media forms.

    Hehe, we now return to the topic of the thread...
     
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  7. Infosaur

    Infosaur Ancient Cybertronian

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    Just saw Aaron Archer at D.C. TFCon, if anyone would know it would be him.

    And from the jist I got from his panel, Hasbro doesn't think that far ahead.

    The size dictates of Walmart shelves gets a higher priority.

    (i.e. "Next quarter , Hasbro, we are going to add another column to our 'boys toys' area. Your boxes must be .25" shorter than they are now and no wider than 6.5" across.")

    A. Archer actually relayed that tale on his panel.
     
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  8. AdyCarter

    AdyCarter Mentalist Conspiracies

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    Not only was it a sequel to 10th Planet and Tomb of the Cybermen, it was also a sequel to Resurrection of the Daleks, just for added confusion.

    With hindsight though, you'll find the timeship stuff serves more of a purpose
     
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  9. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Spotlight: Orion Pax – “Omega’s Conundrum”

    Orion Pax is, of course, named after Orion, the famous hunter of Greek mythology. One of the most notable incidents of the Orion story is that the character was blinded and then eventually regained his sight. So it’s quite apt that a story about Orion’s Transformer namesake deals with philosophical questions about perception and observation. The titular conundrum asks: if something isn’t being observed, how do we know it exists?

    And the same is true of Transformers history, in that it doesn’t exist (or rather, it exists in a patchwork state) until writers like Roberts pen stories like this and fill in the blanks. Now that we are able to observe these events happening on the page, they spring into existence.

    Yes, it’s another toy pack-in comic, and again it’s a rather amiable tale (albeit hamstrung by the need to fit a self-contained story into a single book). There are some creaks (notably the way in which we’re continually reassured that Pax will change his body again after this story is done, just so that we can rationalise why the design of the Thrilling 30 Deluxe figure doesn’t match Pax’s appearance in Autocracy). There’s also a weird scene in which Nightbeat has to explain notorious Cybertronian geography for the benefit of us readers, when surely Pax and Zeta Prime know all this information already (it’s the equivalent of me talking to an international spy and explaining what the Sahara Desert is).

    So, onto the plot: Orion Pax, Nightbeat and Alpha Trion are tasked with navigating their way through the Rust Spot in order to negotiate a prisoner exchange: Decepticons Rack and Ruin (who appear here as separate and discrete individuals) are to be swapped for Ratchet. The plot is fairly episodic. We have a bit of set-up, then a mid of mid-issue action (as our heroes battle some crazed natives), and then the final showdown at the end. It’s all fairly perfunctory plotting (Prime’s quick-change escape, the collision with Hoist’s ship, and the hidden compartment in the trailer are all well set up in advance), but it rattles along nicely, but there’s nothing really stand-out here.

    A few random thoughts:

    Bludgeon is very Bond-villain here. His first thought is to allow the Autobots (sans Alpha Trion) to leave, but then after a brief battle he instead decides to concoct an elaborate death trap. Rather than just kill Pax on the spot, he ties him to a flying bomb and hopes to murder him that way.

    Other than to keep their appearance a nice surprise for readers, why keep the prisoners’ identities secret? What does Zeta gain by not telling Prime that Ruin and Rack (yep, this is the only time I’m allowed to list them out of order!!!) are in his trailer?

    The design for Zeta Prime is very silly in retrospect. The art here is bright, dynamic and colourful (reminds me of Andrew Wildman in some respects) and Zeta Prime (who looks like a reject from Lord of the Rings) looks really ubiquitous. OK, so his design sort of worked in the darker half-light of Autocracy, but he looks really out of place here.

    I love Alpha Trion. He should feature a lot more. With his crazy proverbs and non-sequitur anecdotes, he reminds me of The Sphinx (Wes Studi’s character) from Mystery Men.

    Although this is an Orion Pax spotlight, and he’s the main protagonist, character-wise we don’t really learn much here that’s new. The issue doesn’t seek to shine a light on him like the Trailcutter and Hoist pack-in comics did. We find out that he’s a quick thinker, and he likes having a faceplate, but really it's Alpha Trion who's the real star of the show.

    Overall, this is an odd one. It’s a bit too light and frothy to be truly satisfying. It’s certainly fun and pretty inoffensive, but I don’t feel like I would have missed an awful lot by not reading it. 2/5
     
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  10. Omegashark18

    Omegashark18 Combaticon turned Autobot

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    Yet another comic a part of the “build up” to Dark Cybertron. This one was among my least favorites, found it a little boring to read.

    Well, back to MTMTE in Volume 3.

    By the way, what do you plan on doing for when you get caught up on the IDW Collection, and there’s none coming out yet?
     
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  11. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Hmm, dunno yet. Maybe start buying the comics digitally when I catch up to the trades?

    So I take it this Dark Cybertron arc is what all the Metroplex stuff has been leading up to?
     
  12. Omegashark18

    Omegashark18 Combaticon turned Autobot

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    You could start buying the individual TPB’s. Either physically or digitally. We could guide you on the reading order.

    You know how we call the ongoing series your currently reading Season 1? Well, Dark Cybertron is the event that serves as the Season 1 finale.

    These Spotlights you’ve been reading are part of the build up, though it’s very minute in that regard, that being Titans and their space bridges.

    RID is the comic with most of the build up. The Orion Pax issues are a part of it. You’ll learn more about the upcoming event, primarily one of it’s key players, in due time.
     
  13. Knightdramon

    Knightdramon Hasbro LIES to the US

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    Yes on Dark Cybertron, but it does appear to be a random order...is Spotlight: Orion Pax recommended after Superion's arrival in RID? Because Dark Cybertron is many issues down the line.

    The Spotlight series [Pax, Trailbreaker, Hoist, Thundercracker, Bumblebee and Megatron] came out at roughly the same time as Generations Metroplex was announced, and were packed in with those toys. The versions I have are packed in as a "Dark Prelude" TPB which is recommended as a prelude to Dark Cybertron itself.

    You've read Trailbreaker, Hoist and Orion Pax so far, right?
     
  14. Infosaur

    Infosaur Ancient Cybertronian

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    While that's a really cool observation, I can damn near guarantee nobody in 1985 put that much thought into Optimus's "Clark Kent" name.

    They probably said we need something that sounds science fiction-y with the initials "OP". (Orion was probably easier, who knows how they came up with Pax?)

    Also early on sometimes Autobots/Decepticons referred to their names as "code names" which implied they were secret identities. (Again probably drawing on the trope of superhero names at the time)

    On top of that there's the whole matter of names being an approximate translation of Cybertronian concepts into English words. Which can be interesting when an English word has multiple meanings.

    Quasi-Spoiler: in the future (as far as this thread goes) a writer will attempt to tackle this very issue with Jazz. I'm less than satisfied with the result.
     
  15. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Oh yeah, the writers of the cartoon series probably just made the name up in five minutes... but what I’m saying is, maybe Roberts took inspiration from the name and then penned a story about appearances and observation?

    In the Ye Olde 80s G1 comics, Jazz confirms that “Jazz” is just a codename and that his real name would be unpronounceable to humans (in ‘Man of Iron’).

    My guess is that real Transformer names are more like those of the High Council (in another UK comic story, ‘And There Shall Come A Leader’), names with a double-a... Xaaron, Traachon, Tomaandi.
     
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  16. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Spotlight: Thundercracker – The Hunting Party

    2/5. A story in search of a character, or a character in search of a story?

    I’m probably a lot more down on this issue that I might otherwise have been, purely because it falls in a run of issues (the DJD issues of MTMTE, the Dinobot issues of RID, plus Spotlight: Orion Pax) that have felt a little… ephemeral. I’m eager to see the story progress and move forward, but at the moment we seem to be stuck in a rut where forward progress seems very glacial indeed.

    So you can imagine I wasn’t super-enthusiastic to read yet another fairly inconsequential side-track here. Decepticons are on the hunt for Metroplex; Autobots intervene; Metroplex vanishes. That’s about it, as far as the plot goes. Nothing of note happens; the world wouldn’t be terribly worse off if this comic never existed.

    Now, my problem with Thundercracker is that I just don’t get him. I don’t know what drives him, what his motivations are, why he joined the Decepticons and why he left them again. He seems too squeamish to be a Decepticon; he baulks at Bludgeon’s wanton destruction of some alien settlements that just happen to be in their way. He hides vital information from his colleagues, with whom he shares very little rapport. He seems to be using the Decepticons to further his own agenda, but I’m still unsure what that agenda is, or how allying himself with the Decepticons furthers that agenda. He just seems shady, vague and ill-defined.

    His face-turn in AHM seemed abrupt at the time, and it appears as though IDW’s writers have been tying themselves in knots ever since, trying to get a handle on the character – and to be honest, so have I. But instead of clarity, this issue just serves up more questions.

    The problem is, even Thundercracker himself doesn’t know what he wants. He has personal reasons to pursue Metroplex, but we don’t know what those reasons are. To prove himself? Because it’s his innate nature as a Seeker? Something else? When Metroplex vanishes, even Thundercracker himself doesn’t really know if his search was a success or a failure: “I still don’t know if I found what I was looking for.” Why should we care about Thundercracker’s quest when it’s so ill-defined? When there’s no tangible goal? The only real thing we learn here is that he’s always been a poor fit amongst the Decepticons’ ranks, but that much has always seemed obvious.

    Bludgeon is still a bit rubbish. He’s yet to really do anything of note in the IDW-verse, other than be evil and hatch evil plans. He’s there to press G1 fan-buttons, but he lacks those qualities that made the G1 version popular in the first place. One of the most notable aspects about Bludgeon is his quirky appearance, so of course his design here is based on the bland inner robot and not the cool samurai Skeletor shell that everyone remembers.

    Other than Bludgeon, the other Decepticons here are just fodder and don’t really do much of anything. The Deluxe Insecticons were hi-then-die characters in the old G1 comics and they fare little better here. Bumblebee, on the other hand, makes for a surprisingly adept and decisive field commander and is well-served by the material, so it makes you wonder why the present-day Bumblebee of RID is so angsty and full of self-doubt.

    The Spotlight toy pack-in comics serve a dual purpose. First of all, they become an extra incentive to buy the toys themselves (look, kids! Get a free comic book when you buy this toy!). But a secondary thought process is that maybe someone might buy a toy, read the comic and then get hooked on IDW’s offerings. Unfortunately, this issue is so mediocre that it probably had the effect of driving potential readers away from the comics, rather than towards them.

    The G1 comic story called “The Hunting Party” was pretty cool. This book isn’t really worthy to bear the name of such an illustrious forebear.
     
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  17. Omegashark18

    Omegashark18 Combaticon turned Autobot

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    Another boring spotlight to me. That’s all I have to say.
     
  18. Ikkstakk

    Ikkstakk Well-Known Member

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    Well, "pax" means "peace" in Latin, so.
     
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  19. Calvatron

    Calvatron Well-Known Member

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    Not too far off, this run of spotlights that were also pack ins was a pretty forgetable lot, even IMO the most enjoyable one, sl:megatron. I don't want to spoil too much but they do push a revolution run-muck theme about the decepticon insurfency later on that makes thundercracker less convoluted in context and he becomes quite the fan favorite. His motivations do become more clear and he gets to really develop and shine through, so don't give too much concern to that now.
     
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  20. Ryan F

    Ryan F Transform and Roll Out!

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    Spotlight: Bumblebee – “The Question”

    That’s ‘Bee in the spotlight. 3/5

    As per the Orion Pax and Thundercracker spotlights before it, this is a pretty trivial story that makes very little impact. It exists, it does a job, it’s done-in-one.

    And yet…unlike those other two comics, this feels more satisfying somehow. The fact that this slots rather well into the events of the Costa arc gives the whole thing a sort of neatness and sense of place to it; a feeling that this is part of a larger tapestry instead of a one-shot cul-de-sac.

    There’s also a quite endearing ‘cuteness’ to the issue. It’s a sweet story, with a sweet ending, and it focuses on the kid-friendly character of Bumblebee. It even references the events of the equally-juvenile Bumblebee mini-series. Everything seems just a bit more cartoony and larger-than life than in the regular comics – even Prowl seems like a nice guy in the last panel!

    So: the majority of the Autobots (and Megatron) have left for Cybertron, leaving a skeleton crew of Autobots back on Earth. Whilst Prowl is doing his whole “investigate Spike” thing (shudder), Bumblebee is off working out what happened to the dregs of the Decepticon army.

    It turns out that Megatron’s new body contains space bridge technology that he copied from Metroplex. As soon aas he arrives on Cybertron, that will allow the Decepticons on Earth to jump through their Stargate and follow suit. Bumblebee tracks a radiation signature to the Decepticon Stargate, and (although he can’t stop the majority of the Decepticons evacuating) he is able to incapacitate the Stunticons by putting a spanner in the works (so to speak), thereby proving to himself and his fellow Autobots how much of a kick-ass leader he is.

    I mentioned the ‘cartoony’ nature of this comic, and nothing says ‘G1 Sunbow’ more than a seemingly innocuous item that has special powers. From powerful Burmese Rubies and Golden Lagoons to Incan pyramids and Arctic crystals, the old G1 cartoon liked nothing more than having the Decepticons hunt for power sources in really weird places. Here, an abandoned Native American settlement has just the right “aetherial acoustics” to make the space bridge work. It’s that sort of insane pseudoscience that pushes this comic into a more hyperreal territory.

    On a related note, the art here is also evocative of the cartoon. The blue/brown colour palette evokes the desert-and-sky backdrop to season one of the G1 cartoon, and there’s a flatness of texture here that almost passes for cel-shading. The inks seem… unfinished? There’s a splash page of the Stunticons in shadow that almost looks as though artist David Daza couldn’t be bothered drawing them fully, and background characters are often blurry and featureless (poor Ultra Magnus). Again, this reminds me of the old cartoons where you’d get animation errors and characters would be missing a mouth or whatever.

    I suppose my main gripe here is that I thought we’d drawn a line on the whole Costa thing. RID and MTMTE were both a reaction to, and a move away from, previous storylines and regimes. Even these hardback comic compendiums have the words “Phase 2” stamped all over them, presumably to distance the modern tales from their forebears and draw a line under the rather messy Phase 1. While I can see that picking up on some of the old dangling plot-threads may bear some interesting fruit (the whole Shockwave thing, for one), going back to a story set during the events of ‘Police Action’ seems like – I dunno – reopening old wounds, somehow?

    Anyway, on the whole I quite liked this. It still feels pointless and inessential, but at least it’s charming.
     
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