Was not a fan of this, unfortunately.

A lot of it just felt like pointless filler too me. It really just seemed like Barber was trying too hard to be clever with his dialogue. It borders on self-parody at times.

The art is fine and dandy... for the most part. Griffith REALLY has to work on his human faces, because there was only like one instance of Marissa being drawn by him that I didn't think was completely terrible.

I thought the flashback was by far the best part of the issue.

So then we get to my main complaint... the human/Decepticon alliance. I'm sorry, I don't buy it. I'd hoped there would be more to it, and there very well may be more revealed in the future - but as it's being presented right now, I don't buy it. You have Galvatron standing there, making it blatantly obvious he's only interested in blowing the shit out of everything and little else, yet these humans are just gonna overlook that because Soundwave shut him up and gave a little inspirational speech?

They try to justify it, with stuff like Jazz's killing of the human back in the Ongoing, but it overall just seems INCREDIBLY flimsy to me. I really hope there's more to it, because right now, it's completely nonsensical IMO.

And honestly, there's not that much more to this issue. Jetfire's little drone buddy is cute I guess? But that's about it.

Weakest issue of the month for me. 2/5.

 

This series should purely be about Thundercracker's Hollywood Adventures, featuring Buster the Happy Pup. They're literally the only good part of the book so far.

 

The whole time I was reading I was thinking "Really? REALLY?!"

The humans must be suffering from stupid because the only way Galvatron could be more obvious is with a giant flashing hat that says "I will kill you all". He's not even trying to hide it! He calls Marissa and the General 'weak' to their very faces and not a damn was given. Why would the humans trust the Decepticons after what they did, even if Soundwave told them that the Autobots were now sided with Megatron(not a lie exactly) I would at least try to confirm it with my past allies before kicking up a fuss. Decepticon, it's all in the name.

I was hoping one of the grunt soldiers would speak up and say something like "Um, sir, mam. I'm pretty sure he's evil."

The sad thing is I could actually believe it if Galvatron wasn't there. Soundwave is fully capable of leading the Decepticons and I can see him easily convincing the humans of the Autobots betrayal. Galvatron is just a joke and I can only think that it was desperation and confusion from the Decepticons ranks that got him his new position of power.

There was a lot of dialogue in this issue. That isn't always a bad thing(looking at you MTMTE) but so much of it was just TALKING but with nothing to say. I can't help but think MTMTE might be at fault for this. Barber and Scott have seen what works and might be trying to emulate it a bit with various degrees of success. So far, Scott seems much better at it than Barber.

Things I did like!
Although I did smile when they revealed that their ships are pressurized since that same topic was brought up in the MTMTE thread. Question answered, I guess XD

Prowl and his little posse of fanboys are still amazing and fun to read.

@Chantinelle: I agree, make the book about Thundercracker and Buster trying to make it big in Hollywood. I'd read that.

My biggest fear is that RiD is going to go back to Autobots Vs Decepticons and I don't want that. We've seen it a thousand times before and I actually found the political thriller story from season 1 far more interesting than PEW PEW PEW.

Edit: Oh no, just had a thought. It's going to be a double double cross. Isn't it? The Decepticons double-cross the humans(duh) but the humans are like "HA! We knew you guys couldn't be trusted so we decided to double-cross you instead!"

 

why is a puppy which takes the art's space by "AARF AARF" speech balloons, considered a good thing?

 

Not liking this new direction at all........except Cracker & Buster

 

Agreed. While not as bad as Barber's pre-Dark Cybertron issues, this one suffers from a relative dearth of plot. And Griffith seems to be channeling Wildman in the worse possible way...

 

Man, I haven't even read this yet. You guys are turning me off. Bad or not it's still part of the main stream story. Hopefully Barber has a explanation for this.

 

This issue was definitely "meh" to me. I feel like the whole thing was building up to Devestator appearing, but I don't know why we had to get a whole issue to get to that point.

 

This comic is a train wreck. It is no better than the Costa written material.

 

It is pathetic. Like something out of a Paris Hilton fantasy.

 

I need to let this one settle for a bit, but right now...some dudes be MASSIVELY over reacting

first impressions are enjoyable but suffering a bit from middle issue syndrome. It's laying the ground work, answers are not due until later. And I'm LOVING the Prime/Prowl dynamic

And I'm sorry, only similarity to the Costa era is being back on earth

So basicallym, fun issue...and the answers you say we're not getting appear to be answers we're not meant to have yet

Actually the more i think on it, the better this issue gets. It's rapidfire action, but we know SOMETHING is up with the alliance and we know Prowl is doing what Prowl does. And he is continuing the feeling he's had since the teens of RID where he is slowly loosing control

 

Out of the team Prime picks, Jazz is the murdering face of the Autobots, Arcee is a 'reformed' psyschotic and Sideswipe is a bit of a thug all told.

The EDC actually take the Decepticons on board despite their number including several instrumental in the genocide of AHM and in spite of a clearly unhinged, untrustworthy and battle hungry Galvatron at their helm.

And Prowl.. Prowl's response to keeping things on the QT is to reintroduce the Cybertronians to Earth by bringing Devastator to a population centre.

I don't know where this is going, unless the story is Prowl intending to prove 'YOU'RE ALL IDIOTS. ALL OF YOU. EVERY LAST ONE'. In which case it's progressing nicely.

-EDIT- This came across as a rant, and it wasn't intended as such. The character rosta is just so inflammatory given what has come before that it's quite likely Prowl almost committed suicide by facepalm looking at it then set off on a course of action that would blow all parties clear out of the water.

 

It seems like Soundwave is really leading the Decepticons and just letting Galvatron think he is.

I think the Prowl/Devastator appearing is Prowl saying we're here for Alpha Trion and then we're out, who cares if they see us.

 

they spelledd it out . the Decepticon and mmarissa fairborne DON'T WANT Cybertronians to be revealed to the general human populace, so he is doing devastator on done small town in the middle of nowhere. now presumably Melissa is going uto be revealed as having a working arrangement with the Decepticons. which is going to turn everything on its head.

I enjoyed this issue. and reread issue 1 last night, and realized it was very cohesive. in game for what RID is doing

 

That's what I was thinking what Prowl's plan is. Every human's lasting memory will be tied with Devastator in NY during AHM. Prowl is probably thinking the best way to destabilize an EDC-Decepticon alliance is to have the biggest and baddest Decepticon show up and rampage a small town and simultaneously neutralize the Soundwave-led Decepticons. The only issue is that this plan lacks Prowl's trademark of subtlety and doesn't guarantee the Autobots ability to continue to operate incognito on Earth. Then again, his personal motivations for coming to Earth don't appear to quite match up with Prime's.

 

Agreed.

It was an okay issue. It didn't push nobody's mom down the stairs. Damn.

 

I feel like I would've enjoyed this more if I hadn't seen the solicits showing off Prowlastator coming up. Rereading I better understand what Prowl's game is, or at least I think I do, but I'm just worried it's gonna build up to be Prowl v. Optimus at some point.

 

Strange issue. Was hoping devestator to show up a bit sooner but i suppose the plot would center around that in the next issue. I'm just hoping that Prowl doesn't break his allegiance with the autobots and decides to go solo (him and the constructicons). My only complaint would be that Marissa's face appears to change every panel and that the story is bonkers....

 

I don't think I'd go so far as to say this was a Costa-tier issue.

Look, in the end, my feelings on the issue will fully solidify depending on how they execute the human/Con alliance. If they pull out a twist that justifies it, I'll probably warm up to this issue a bit.

If this is literally all there is to it? Then what I said stands.

But as a standalone issue (and even compared to the strong opening issue that was RID #28), this wasn't up to par with what I've come to expect out of TF comics recently. It didn't even entertain me as much as MTMTE #29 and WB #2, both of which I was a little down on.

Hopefully I'll feel more enthusiastic about next months' comics.