Thats pretty much where my mind was with it, i haven't checked it against what we had either, but from memory, they seemed similar!

Oh, I haven't seen the cover from issue 7 yet, I had been kinda staying away since I saw issue 6 of RID and was like "shit, I would have liked that to be a surprise..."
But i figured the

Spoiler

Phase Sixers

might take appointed roles, I mean, He might be taking care of everything out in Delphi, Not sure tho... As for the transforming addiction, is there any nods to this in his ol' tech spec?

 

What about Great Shot? Since he has already used Japanese characters like Overlord and Black Shadow, what about a Sixshot clone with multiple modes.

 

I wondered what that was about. All I could come up with was it being a clunky reference to Masterforce.

 

I don't think so. And it seems that if you were going to pick up anything from his character history and run with it, I imagine it would be the "space gangster" thing. But who knows? Based on what I've seen from Roberts now, I'm sure it wasn't just an idle name-drop in Wreckers... I'm betting he knows EXACTLY what kind of player his Black Shadow is going to be, and why he's a Phase Sixer.

On the other hand, we don't necessarily know if the guy on the cover of the upcoming issue is actually the LEADER of the DJD, do we? I have a feeling that the DJD is going to be a team with a few stand-out characters. It's possible Mr. Badge Face might be one of the others... or for that matter, a faceless DJD shock trooper or something, right?

Yeah, it was kind of their take on those inflatable human decoys from way back on old Marvel. Each Earth-based Autobot had a holographic avatar for their driver's seat. However, they also seemed to be able to project them outside the car mode, even into buildings... AND they're bullshit "solid light" constructs, so they can also "touch" things. It was a really awful idea (I remember solid light constructs was popular in 80's UK Marvel Captain Britain comics, maybe that's where the idea came from).

Anyway, that was just one of many generic technologies that Furman decided to make accessible to all characters (along with teleportation and holographic camouflage), thus robbing characters like Mirage, Hound and Skywarp of those things that make them special.  

However, seeing Roberts revisit the idea of the avatars in this last issue was kind of neat. Now let's never speak of them again.  

OH... and seriously, can we cut it out with the spoiler warnings already? How many pages into this discussion thread are we? For those who don't want spoilers, don't cruise the goddamn discussion thread!  

zmog

 

Don't mean to diverge off topic, but have you had any luck yet?

Like yourself, I'm using an Ipad. The banner's been up for a while, but still no issue 5. I've Been trying to avoid spoilers, and it's difficult.

 

Spoiler

Oh smog ;-)

 

Spoiler

I just think that a discussion thread means you come here to discuss the comic. If you want to avoid hearing people talk about the comic before you read it, then this is really not the place to be, right? Sounds pretty logical. That's why I just got here.... I only read it a day ago.  

In this instance, I understand, a few people have been having trouble accessing the online version of the issue, which is kind of a special case if folks in this thread can help out. But in general... I think the responsibility for "spoilers" needs fall on individual common sense. That's all.

zmog

 

I completely agree. Just couldn't resist the bad joke.

Back on topic, after glancing through again, I'm really curious about this "thought warfare" business. I can only think that it's a reference to Bombshell or the "sub routines" that Prowl installed in Kup. Have we really experienced any mind control before? Also maybe Six Shot when he was controlled by the Reapers.

 

I liked solid light avatars. I think they are the only bit of tech I've seen so far that makes infiltrating organic societies practical. Particularly enjoyed Spotlight: Ultra Magnus.

I wasn't expecting to see it called back in this way but it was clever.

Transformers have technology, not super powers. In IDW especially, they are a military faction, not the Justice League. And Skywarp has been plenty special, he seemed to practically enable the Decepticon operations on Earth.

 

Oh in that case, the character on the cover looks totally new. As for Black Shadow, I just remember he was a space gangster   That's Jap profiles for ya   His tech spec as Sky Shadow recently does allude a bit to his new role as a Phase Sixer, though I believe kinda exaggerates his level of dangerousness.

 

I think it's probably something even more ephemeral, since it's something that "never materialized"... and probably has a lot to do with Skids and his memory issues.

I like the idea of them so far as they need to be close to the source (as in projected via some means) and can't friggin' TOUCH things! The way they are now, they are EXACTLY a form of telekinetic projected awareness... ghost helpers. It's a completely broken concept. It begs way too many questions. Want to infiltrate an enemy base? Send your ghost in to scope the joint. Need to steal something or flip a switch? Send your ghost. Need a beer from the fridge, but too lazy to get it yourself? Send your ghost. Hey, it's a projected solid light avatar, it can do everything.

I think Roberts' comment about them being energy inefficient and hard to concentrate on was partially his way of trying to close the door on a stupid old bit of continuity... while simultaneously exploiting it in ways that demonstrate how broken it is.

Actually, no, it has always been quite the opposite. The fact that these characters have these unique abilities makes it (and has always made it) very much a case of them having "special powers". As soon as you make it a simple matter of technology then you open a whole other can of worms, and rob the characters of some of their individuality. By overly "militarizing" them, you make them more generic, and the technology/abilities become cheapened as a result.

And Skywarp didn't do anything for the Decepticons that an "orbital bounce" couldn't have done (which the Autobots also used, frequently). In fact, he almost never treated it like personal short-range teleportation and seemed to instead use it in much the same way as a Space Bridge, opening long-range portals that other TFs could fly through. There is nothing I like about that.  

zmog

 

We are going to have to agree to disagree. Of course, different Transformers have different capabilities, but that's because of the way they are built, the ways they've modified themselves, and the things they have learned. To their infinite credit, Furman and later Roberts have concentrated on this rational and technology-based explanation for the cool stuff that Transformers can do.

Skywarp just happens to be one of the few Transformers that can teleport, and in all likelihood this is a sacrifice that cuts into his flight speed and maybe even his famously deficient processing power. I do not like the idea that his special snowflake spark lets him teleport. Likewise, invisibility is a power that Transformers can acquire by equipping the right technology, and Mirage has this technology because it helps him do his job. And whatever special modules and learned abilities Hound has, I think we can agree that he is not the only Transformer that can use Google Earth!

Of course, this is part of why I DON'T LIKE Skywarp and most other Transformers that are essentially a magic power. (no complaints about Mirage and Hound as there is some additional there there and their powers are less earth-shaking and unique)

Contrary to your statement, Transformers are very interesting even when almost none of them have unique Justice League powers (for more see Beast Wars and Marvel...comics, not profiles). And of course, I rather like IDW.   (And I like what you like about how Roberts handled the holo-avatars, while still being glad they existed in the first place as infiltration technology. I like to think Ratchet kept it aboard partly cause he's a sentimental old thing who misses the Infiltration kids.)

 

Obviously technology is something that can be implemented by different characters, depending on the sitution, but the idea of unique technology and abilities is something that has been entrenched in the fiction from the very beginning, and dovetails rather nicely with the idea of techno-industrial decay after eons of warfare and the obliteration of their culture. It cannot be denied that each Transformer character in G1 was very pointedly granted particular abilities and signature weapons specific to them, and that these would be difficult to equip en masse. Whatever logic you apply to special abilities like teleportation or black-hole transdimensional links, or force-field generation, or magnetic inducers... whether due to mutant sparks, or unique, difficult-to-duplicate schematics, or simple lack of resources and technical knowledge... these are clearly meant to be proprietary traits of the characters who use them.

In this sense, I don't think Roberts is buying into Furman's military replication. I think he's integrated the idea of unique designs and abilities (are medics built or forged?) and as far back as Roche's Spotlight Kup, Trailbreaker was called in as a "specialist" because of his force-field abilities (which according to your model would be easily replicated with available technology). Transformers are both unique personalities and unique physical entities with specialized, mostly exclusive power sets. Get rid of this, and the genre becomes poorer.

Quite bluntly, I think your philosophy on this (and Furman's I suppose, but Furman was always bad when it came to observing the individuality of characters who weren't Grimlock) is totally anathema to the tradition and intent of the fiction. I understand your logic and that you have a preference... that's fair. But I fundamentally disagree with the core spirit of it, and think that it runs counter to what Transformers is about.

zmog

 

Gasp and shudder! Someone thinks I'm wrong!  

Note that my view of things does not preclude robots having abilities that are not trivial to replicate. It's easier for Springer to call in Trailbreaker as a "forcefield expert" than it is for him to build one, on the spot, and stick it in some guy.

Transformers are unique, but I don't believe they should have super powers. Animated had an interesting take where every character did something different...but these were physical "upgrades" and it was very straightforward for Lockdown to just rip them out and use them himself.

 

I'm sure this has been covered somewhere, but I'm just getting caught up on all the IDW books and MTMtE #5 is showing up as $3.99 instead of &1.99 in comiXology for me. Why the price hike. Giant-sized issue?

 

New issues are almost always 3.99, that's cover price. After a while, they'll drop to 1.99.

 

As far as I know, 3.99 is the default price for new books. I paid that for most of my digital copies bought with the first week.

 

Just to break the mood a bit here...

For anyone still trying to download from Comixology. ZacWilliam has suggested a workaround. That's about all I could find in my "rigorous" search.  

It isn't listed as a new release on the IDW app, but a search for "More than meets the eye" will bring up 5 issues, rather than the 4 I've been staring at all week.

 

That is disappointing. Whatever happened to all that talk about the lower prices of digital distribution?