Starting to like Swerve, though he probably comes off as annoying in-universe.

The end profiles make Brainstorm sound suspicious, but I'm not sure if he's actually the culprit or just a red herring.

 

Diamonds comics had some problem getting these too all the comic book shops in eastern canada.. have to wait till tomorrow.

argh!

on the plus side, it will be one less day that i have to wait between issue 2 and 3...

 

I thought that's what it was, I guess I just didn't find it all that amusing.

 

Swerve is amazing. Skids motto isn't very interesting   Whirl was twice voted most likely to defect, I can quite believe that. Drift is annoyingly upbeat  

Loved it, absolutely loved it. Never laughed so much reading a TF comic. Just genius stuff.

 

Nineteen eighty four.

 

I love how even though they badassed-up Skids, he's still the same absent-minded guy we all know and love. I kinda hear Springer's voice when he talks.  

Also.. Brainstorm: prolific murderer? What'd I miss there?

The issue has alot of fun character moments and I'm enjoying the Hell out of it. This Rodimus is a much more interesting leader than he was in G1.

 

You guys. You guys are making me so sad I'm still stuck at work for another two hours.  

 

My thoughts on issue # 2 commentary track style:

Warning. Lots of obtuse, half-explained, and random SPOILERS

Page 1.
- Know these first pages really well from reading the preview a bunch, almost to the point where they feel like something that happened last issue. But it feels weird to skip over them, so commenting away...
- Love that Brainstorm is so in character. This is exactly who he should be. Proud, impatient, less mature prodigy that probably overrates himself a decent amount.

Page2.
- Duobots are neat. If you're gonna invent original characters basing them on an existing concept/gimick is a neat way to make it work.
- Ouch.
-Love the sudden nervousness from Brainstorm when he realizes Magnus might have heard him. Every one has so much character in pretty much every interaction. It just makes the series amazing.

Page 3.
-Hi Moist!
-Boy Cyclonus is having a bad day.

Page 4.
-Skids has a great very Dr. Whoish introduction. Especially the warning behind him. Apparently he knew he would have a total memory failure. The question is why?

Page 5.
- And here Skids goes a bit Action Hero, while still having a very David Tennent Dr.Who ness about him. It's definately a new take on him, but it's fun and given his situation is a complete mystery to him as well as us, that's actually fine with me. I'm looking forward to seeing where Roberts takes him.

-Page 6.
-Heh, 1984. That number can't be at all meaningful to TF fans. ;-) looking forward to seeing what it actually means eventually.

Page 7.
- I like Rung and Ratchet but I think the most interesting thing here is that we seem to be catching a Ratchet whose just at the point of transition between being the old classic miracle worker/reluctant warrior Ratchet of The 80s and the old, worn and a bit grim old-man Ratchet of the new media (Animated, Movies, Prime). This Ratchet is just begining to really feel his age and is annoyed by it. A really interesting point of transition to catch him at.

Page 8
-Roberts may save Drift as a character yet. Relentlessly positive, new age-spiritual Drift is fun enough to make me kinda want the toy. Everyone's response to him really helps to sell it too.

Page 9
- SWERVE ROCKS. Even if he wasn't awesome throughout (and he is) his line here about Whirl's facial limitation motivated rage would win the issue.  

Page 10
- See previous comment, re:Swerve is awesome.  
- Also, this is a good point to stop and say Milne really hits it out of the park this issue. I was worried that Roche's awesome new designs for the minibots wouldn't translate to anyone else's style but no, Swerve and Tailgate both look just as awesome and cute here.

Pages 11 and 12
- Ouch. Hard landing I guess.
- I had a disconnect for a second when Skid says he's unarmed and isn't. Figured it was an art mistake. But worry not, this isn't Heart of Darkness, this is, it turns out, intentional. It wasn't till my second read through that I really pick up how much Skids doesn't know what he's holding, like with taking Hyperion's gun. We'll come back to it.
- I like that Roberts is killing some new guys here. What LSotW did was show us that it's ok to kill characters if you make people care about them and their deaths matter. If your gonna kill folks like this though. In an accident when they're not getting development before or after other than as weaponizing corpses I think new characters are mostly the way to go.

Page 13.
- Ok, when first reading this page I was very confused because I thought Ratchet had had Cyclonus brought aboard with Whirl and Tailgate at the end of last issue. I went back and looked though and nope, turns out I was wrong. He only talks about taking the other two aboard ship. I would say it's pretty harsh that they leave him beaten into unconciousness lying face first on the ground, but then he's been widely assumed to be a Decepticon so under those particular circumstances I think I can see them leaving him.


Page 14.
- Kinda cool to have Magnus and Cyclonus in the same room and on the same side for the first time since "The Killing Jar".
-Cyclonus shows his true colors. And it couldn't happen to a more deserving robot. Whirl should be worried. Very worried.

Page 15.
- Love Swerve's alt mode. So cute.
- it's hard to say what I like more here. Tailgate's definition of "Metallurgist", the 2001 a Space Oddessey joke with Rewind, or that thanks to Swerve's comment a couple pages back Tailgate seems to actually think Whirl's name is "Nut-Job". The last one I think.  

Page 16 and 17
- This is not your Father's Skids. Maybe he got lost on the way to some universe where he kicked total @$$
- for the record it's: "Deep down, we are more like than unlike humans." Which, if less than dynamic, makes sense with him being an Anthropologist and all. Less so if he's never been to Earth in IDW continuity.

Page 18.
- Yeah. See. Whatever that is in his hand he's got a literal blind spot to it. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be something beyond a normal gun. Also... Does Tailgate recognize 1984.3?

Page 19.
- Ooh, Blaster and Brawn came with them. Cool.  
- Wow Cosmos got a size-lift. Who's he think he is, Seaspray?
- Rodimus' final line on the page is just great.

Page 20.
- Ok, I don't know any non repetitive way to say I love Swerve at this point.
- Also, I think I agree with Skids.

Page 21.
- I can't tell you how happy I am that Wavrider and the other obscure folks sucked out last issue will live.
- Boy when Tailgate said he'd take Transforming slow, he meant it!
- This is why Rodimus is a better leader than Magnus or Drift could ever be.
- Reclaim the Suffix! (I will buy any toy Hasbro ever makes of him.) But I guess Crusaderbot works too. Could we steal "Questors" from the Japanese?

Page 22.
- It's not a good day to be a Duobot.
- annnnd now it's hard to tell them apart again.
- It's probably an entirely new monster but if the Sparkeater turned out to be in anyway related to Bomb-Burst (yeah, I know he's dead) it would be the first time anyone actually used his awesome bio. Anyway even entirely unrelated I'm sure it'll be awesome.

Usually if I read a 5 page preview the rest of the issue would feel short when the actual book comes out. This book is so full of great writing and art it still felt like a full issue. And a great one. Can Not Wait to be back for issue #3. I hope this era of Transformers goes on forever.


-ZacWilliam 1, would buy this series weekly if he could.

 

As a weapons designer on Kimia, he designed some of the most destructive and creative weaponry in the universe. Most of it didn't get past the ethics committe, and he calls them 'Unmentionables'

He is carrying one such weapon in his briefcase.

 

Go watch David Tennant's first episode as the tenth Doctor in Dr. Who and you'll know where I'm pretty sure they were going with him.

 

are you listening hasbro????????

 

I had to wait a few hours after reading to post any comments, because otherwise my post would have been nothing but a giant block of hundreds of smiley faces. Pardon me for a moment... SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!1!11! *deep breath* Okay, now that's out of my system.   What a great comic!

Random thoughts:

- We already knew this from the preview, but Milne does some incredible work with the art in this issue. A lot of people were expecting a jarring transition from Roche's stylized artwork, but he manages to adjust to that style beautifully. Every time he's been given a challenge in the recent TF comics, Alex has delivered like a boss. Awesome work!

- It cracks me up that the other bots have a fixation on Rung's eyebrows! TFP has sold me on the idea of robot eyebrows, but it's not something you usually see in G1 styled art. It gives Rung a unique trait, even in-universe. I bet he's been known as "the guy with the eyebrows" since he was a protoform.  

- "It's not polite to ask someone what they turn into!" Hmm, another little piece of world building. Add this to Rewind's complaints about the others making fun of his alt mode, and it looks like alts can potentially be a touchy subject. We know Cybertronian culture has a history of discrimination, maybe alt modes were part of that.

- The question marks above Skids' and Whirl's heads in those two scenes have a really old school comic feel to it. I like it.

- I didn't notice Tailgate's slooooooow transformation until the second read through. I love those kinds of touches.

I don't like how jealous he sounded of Perceptor ("beloved Perceptor" and all). He obviously wants to be known as THE genius of the group. Brainstorm seems like the type who would have no problem arranging an "accident" to get rid of his competition.

 

And he probably *is* worried, considering that he didn't have any of his typical macho and aggressive comments as a response. And I'm very much looking forward to watching Cyclonus carry out his threat.

I completely missed that, but I think you may be right! Tailgate doesn't seem like he has a jokey personality, and that line read like it was delivered seriously. Could he be any more adorable?

 

This should tell you something, if my way too long not-really-quite-a-review above didn't...

This evening I went down to my permanent, by year, big ol basement shelves and pulled out Swerve, Tailgate, Rewind, Chromedome, Skids, Whirl, Hot Rod, Brainstorm, and Ultra Magnus and put them off on a table together as, y'know, a group.

-ZacWilliam, really wish I had G1 Ratchet, Cyclonus, a Rung and Drift

 

You don't have a Rewind?

Spoiler

Neither do I, sadly.  

 

Actually I do. I also unfortunately have the chronic habit to flip their names.


-ZacWilliam, I do it alot and I really don't know why, they make much more sense the right way...

 

Lightning in a bottle. If you fell out with Transformers comics, it's time to fall in love again. Keep this team IDW, they are diamonds.

 

I think the saboteur is Red Alert.

I don't think Shock and Ore did anything than being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Edit: And is it me or does Whirl's design look like it was based on Tomahawk? The bits of helicopter kibble on the arms and the wings in particular, which previous idw and toy versions of Whirl didn't have and which we do find on Tomahawk.

 

LOL Swerve is funny. He's almost trolling at times lol. Great issue. Loved Cyclonus telling Whirl he will kill him. I do wonder if the Quints have done something to Skids. Very good read! Great art as well.