My only complaint is that it ends, and i gotta wait till next month, and this issue answers nothing. Lol.

 

No one else giggled about the reference to 'knock offs?'

 

I hinted about that but didn't want to go there.

Man I Knock-Off decepticon medic. Man in Prime he has the same ego as Pharma

Ugh went there.

 

Oh man this issue gave me such a nerd boner. I YEARNED for Cybertronian reproduction to be explained and they DID. It was the major issue with me being able to buy them as a species. As a species they need a way to procreate. And now we got two confirmed ways they do and did they hint at but not explain a 3rd?

Past that what more do I need to say that others haven't already said? I loved this issue and this book.

And remember guys they want our emails. So everyone email a question to [email protected] and mark it "Okay to print". I think I'm going to ask why Whirl doesn't have new hands yet since they can obviously build them.

 

Did anyone else notice that Brainstorm was building a miniature(?) version of a Perceptor microscope in his lab? Obsess much, Brainy?

 

Urge to procreate much, Brainy.

 

I don't think they have any functioning extras that work for Whirl. In issue 15, when Ratchet and Drift were about to fight Overlord, Ratchet radios to Rodimus "Give Whirl my hands. Tell Ambulon he's the next medic; he's ready" or something among those lines.

Glad Whirl isn't trying to kill Ratchet and take those hands.

 

Dude's had Perceptor microscopes littered throughout his lab for ages.

 

It's been heavily hinted that Brainstorm has a very one-sided obsession with Perceptor. At first it seemed like a rivalry, but it's a bit deeper than that...

 

Probably just a coincidence, but 17-21 is also the range of issue numbers of this 5-part story arc...

 

That was bananas but in a good way.

 

There is no such thing as coincidence with James Roberts!  

This story was awesome all around. My only complaint would be the "convenience" of a large wormhole suddenly appearing now. That part just didn't flow naturally to me.

 

Well, it wasn't so much that it conveniently appeared, since they were following Magnus's stolen shuttle, which led them to the wormhole. I'd say it has something to do with whatever the hell is going on with Mags.

There's no way in hell that's a coincidence. Nice catch!

 

The worm hole just conveniently appearing is a pretty big coincidence, and like you said, there's no coincidences with Roberts.

Afterall, Magnus must have gone through it to crashland on Luna-1, so he sought it out, or was guided/drawn there.

 

We need clarification on Tailgate's spark. Find it odd he is dying and they land on a moon with a billion sparks? Also the first one they find is a .1%'er?!!?

Theory: Is the protoype Autobot Phase-Sixer in Brainstorms briefcase? He seemed to really want to chuck that green "spark" in there. He also lives to shrink stuff so its plausable. Would also explain the , do not open, do not touch, it does not leave me or my sight. He also was one of the few who knew who/what was on the ship as well.



I am also a G1 for ever kind of person, after all the different stories and universes we now suddenyl have a planet with a billion cybertronian eggs???? It is a little out there...........

 

I kinda doubt it, since Rodimus's joking suggestion seemed like something Brainstorm wasn't even thinking of, and even then his reaction was more of a "DUUUUUUUUDE" kinda thing, not serious consideration.

 

I can't wait for this Arc to be completed.

Brainstorm sure has a lot on his mind.
I am more curious to why Pharma is there at all? Running a nursery for new sparks is hardly his style.

 

Great issue!, I am starting to regain the same feeling I had for this comic back from issues 1 - 6. After that it was the scavenger issues(That were great dont get me wrong), a load of flashbacks and Overlord... There things sort of stopped being one long story and moreso a bunch of smaller oneshots that connected yet didn't really make much progress for the characters in the story up till Overlord. Here I get that same feeling with the starting issues where things are feeling more like one longer story than before.

So much in this issue... I guess it is pretty much confirmed how Transformers are made now... finally. I've got great sympathy for tailgate now who was my least favorite character for a while (I mean that in the sense that everyone is so good that he is just the least awesome) But now I've really felt attached to Tailgate. Cyclonus' reaction though... I don't want to say it was emo, because saying that would probably offend sme people... but it felt like the self infliction didn't really come across as clear as it could have been, maybe I would have preferred a sort of reaction like in Walking Dead when Darrel believed whatsherface to be dead. "Very" Aww Perceptor, you are probably going to die. "I was afraid we'd fallen out" Awwww Rung, you will probably lose all your limbs.

Oh yeah, and I think it's official that Rodimus and Brainstorm are Brits now. And also Rodimus gave birth to a billion sparks, coooool. Looks like fathers/mothers are a thing too so that's neat. It appears that I had already speculated about Pharma returning so it wasn't too big of a surprise but, meh, still cool.
I also found that the paneling took away some of the shock of a few scenes like with Dominus and Pharma.

Anyways I found that the art of this issue was amazing, I haven't always been a big fan of Burcham, but here he seriously did amazing in colours for both Pharma and for the scene where the legislators rose from the oil resevoir. Awesome work team, now I just need Roberts handsome mug to be put into a poster to hang over my bed and my life will be complete.

 

Woooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

This is a good one. So much meat here, but only a bite from each platter, to keep us wanting more.

I don't know where to begin, and this thread is already three pages in... let's see...

I'm really liking Cyclonus. This is nothing new, but something about this issue just inspired me to reminisce about everything he's done up till now, and the dude is a great character. Not necessarily a unique character... the honourable, grim anti-hero thing is an established archetype, but he wears it really well. I wonder what his request was... to take Tailgate along, presumably?

Here we go... explanation for TF procreation!! I was wondering if we'd ever get there! Obviously, there are still a lot of details to fill in, in terms of what "fertilization" and "nurturing" actually means, and what the real difference is between constructing a body from scratch and dumping a cloned spark into it, and the "forging" process from a fresh sample.

I agree, there is a bit of a "cabbage patch"... though just the same, I don't really mind. I'd long suspected that it would work something like this, so I'm gratified that Roberts and I seem to be operating according to the same basic principles.

This issue is rich with a lot of other details too... the religious side (Cyclonus' comment about 'consecrated' ground), the social side (Whirl was Forged, and likely Brainstorm too... Chromedome was not), the scientific side (needing some of the surrounding "soil"... maybe to construct a the Spark chamber?)...

Plus... character reveals....!!! Insecticons, Lockdown, Ambus, Pharma... oh my.

Yeah, ain't that a kicker.  

Nice analogy. I like it.  

Yup. And it's not just a personal bond... Cyclonus is a traditionalist and a patriot... even if Tailgate was a lowly sluicer, he represents a lingering heirloom of a glorious age that Cyclonus misses dearly. From his point of view, in his absence, his beloved Cybertronian society has been completely destroyed and degraded. If Tailgate dies, that's one more part of the past that is gone forever.

I think they're in a prison cell together.

I had exactly the same thought. It's just a bad panel layout/dialogue issue. It's a very minor thing, but I find that Roberts, for whatever reason, always seems to have a hard time with the last page. I find he tends to consistently end issues on really awkward notes.

Yeah, I had to go back and re-read the page because for a second I thought the pages had been stapled wrong or something... then I remembered the Rodimus frame story flashback structure. In the rest of the issue, I find it flows rather well, but on that page it is a messy cut.

Remember, before the war, POPs were common knowledge. A pair of lowly ditch diggers on the moon even knew about them. So I don't think that there was ever any doubt that POPs were walking among the Bots and Cons... though only among those who could say they were "Forged" I guess.

What was special about Overlord's Spark was that presumably nobody had found a "wild spark" in so long, and it was a POP to boot. However, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many, if not most, exceptionally powerful Transformers are also POPs. The closely guarded secret of the Phase Sixers is Rossum's Ununtrium Process, not the POPs themselves.

AMAZING.    

It's a good question, but I'm not so convinced we can't chalk that one up to a good old fashioned "comic book inconsistency" or traditional retcon. It could be that Spark extraction still requires the brain be saved along with it, perhaps even still plugged in.

As for Rossum's Trinity, I guess we already know that they can be replaced. The transplant process can't be that rough if Tarn is constantly burning through them (reportedly).

Good catch!!  

Just on the topic of Cybercrosis, it seems like it would still be considered a fairly rare issue, if Pharma only recently documented a case of a Transformer dying of "old age", and some in the medical profession still believe Sparks can live forever. It seems like Tailgate's condition is kind of an exceptional fluke... and as Ratchet suggests, his exposure to radiation and zero-maintenance for millions of years also must play a role.

Incidentally, anyone else catch the irony...? Back several issues, when Chromedome was first telling Tailgate about Dominus Ambus, Tailgate pipes up, saying that he hopes Ambus never found the cure for Cybercrosis that he was searching for. Well, that little bit of schadenfreude certainly came back to bite him in the ass, didn't it?  

I had the same thought... that maybe the numbers might actually pertain to POPs that are active (and which would be numbered... remember that adjudicator who found Overlord's POP Spark? Somehow I'll bet these legislators are connected).

Though it's also possible (which was my assumption up till now) that the number they chant refers to the infraction category. I guess we'll find out soon.

haha! I wouldn't put it past him.  

Yeah, since Whirl used to be an Forged elite, a specialized artisan, he would probably need specially "forged" hands. I imagine he COULD have regular replacement hands as well, but they wouldn't feel right, and might be only slightly better than his claws.

But yeah, clearly both Pharma and Shockwave have opted for replacement hands, so it CAN be done.

zmog

 

Also, all this talk about the Briefcase and Star Saber... unlikely. Star Saber is using a Great Sword from the Circle of Light. He's probably affiliated with those guys... or hell... maybe even one of the Knights.

And I doubt Brainstorm would have an Autobot Phase Sixer under wraps (and for the record, can we finally agree that 'Phase Sixer' is not the right term in that case?), since until recently he was still trying to read Overlord's mind for hints as to his origins.

zmog