One can only hope that Barber redeems himself in the up-coming issues. However what is the game plan here? Prowl reveals himself as Devestator and when the cover of the cybertronians are blown, what will that do apart from causing Hysteria among the masses?

Are they hoping that the humans will turn on both the autobots and decepticons which will allow them to uncover Alpha Trion? i really hope hes not locked up in a factory somewhere and being experinmented on because that story has been done in the transformers franchise one too many times already.

Back to the point that Yggdrasil made about Barber being human. He could have just looked up history. I mean how many times has any nation engaged in a war where the upper echelon of the military who committed atrocities / genocide (The Nazis from WW2 come to mind) were spared because they claimed they were just following orders.

The major thing i cannot wrap my head around is that AHM clearly showed the autobots helping to stop the deaths of millions. However fairborne's biggest issue with the autobots is that Jazz killed one guy who was holding autobots hostage and they didn't give them any cybertronian tech with which the humans could kill each other with more impunity.

 

I am SICK of earth. First, in infiltration and whatnot, it was cool, with the multi-phase infiltration. It started to drag on a bit, but then all hail megatron happened, and it got so boring. Rehashing the whole "Oh noo, humans don't LIKE the autobots!" thing was annoying at first, but then they did it again with skywatch in the ongoing/bumblebee series, then AGAIN when megatron comes back. At first, I thought it was over after that. They all left earth after practically forever, and there were good stories like RID and MTMTE. But no, now we have to go back to earth, and deal with the humans hating the autobots once again. I don't see any new interesting things that could happen either. They land, they fight the decepticons, I'm sure an autobot will be captured and tortured or whatever, as it tends to happens. They find alpha trion or some other plot thingy, then hang around until the humans force them to leave. Meanwhile, in MTMTE, megatron is having a trial, has become an autobot, and is now leading the lost light's voyage. Tell me, which do they think people are more likely to buy?

 

Earth isn't the problem in the IDW TF universe, it's how they are using it. There are ways to tell a human story and not have it fall into the usual trap of us fighting the Cons with the Autobots, us hunting down all TFs, or full out Con invasion of Earth stories.

What I would do is get a team of humans off of Earth and into the Universe. See from our point of view how the Cybertronian war has affected the rest of the galaxy. One could set up a series or intriguing opportunities for character development as they explored space. I would include a TF element or two since this would be a TF book in the form of either a Headmaster or two since humans have access to that tech and or a captured Autobot that acts as our guide. (willing or not at first but grows with the crew) Or, their ship could be a captured Bot/Con like Astrotrain or Sky Lynx. The cast could use some old faces like Verity or Spike as well as a couple of new ones.

Maybe give the crew a task or quest to find a way to protect the Earth from future invasions. Some kind of Mcguffin that maybe the Cons are looking for and have infiltrated all of the various worlds trying to find it to boot the Autobots off of Cybertron forever. Not saying that's the exact route to take, but it'd be a hell of alot more interesting than what we're being given to read right now.

 

I still say that this whole thing has the stench of the movies all over it.

First: we don't have movie tie-in comics this year.

Second: Come on a White/Silver Galvatron and his 'Con working with human military to hunt down and kill the Autobots? AOE much?

I'm betting that some higher-up in Hasbro or IDW demanded this story line to tie in with the movie and Barber was given the task of accomplishing this insanely stupid and illogical story because he's the one who used to do all of the best movie prequel stories.

Yes it's probably an insane conspiracy theory fueled by my haterted of Bayformers but I don't care I'm sticking with it.

 

In all fairness her backstory could actually be the makings of a great and sympathetic character. If it was given time and attention to build it up properly, and if it weren't for the stupid Decepticon alliance rubbish >.>

The Decepticon attack opened her eyes. Why is she wasting her time hating a banker and what he stands for when there's an alien race out there that could crush her entire race in a matter of days! All her principles are petty in the grand scheme of the universe. She's taking her determination and focusing on fighting the much bigger threat! I think that's kinda brilliant!

Such a shame...

 

After reading all these comments i'm remind why I usually stay away from comic forums.

 

Sorry you feel that way dude...I try to "hate the issue not the reader." I mean, there were actually a lot of things I liked about this issue, and even more things that I thought could have been great with a little more thought and development.

But the handling of the EDC--to date--has been incomprehensibly bad, and no other humans yet exist in this book's universe. I mean, there are four human characters only if you count Susan Traveller and Josh Boyfriend. There's more diversity in the Constructicons.

If this is just due to the vagaries of the plot, and the reveal of Devastator is going to bring in more human characters and interests, cool. But Fairborne just completely broke herself, she's neither likable nor remotely competent.

 

These are the things I don't get with most of the commenters complaints, what should the EDC and Fairborne be doing?

 

Maybe it's because i'm a political junkie, but the USA has done this with dictators in the middle east over oil so what's the big difference?

And sense the "faction of genocidal warbots who killed MILLIONS of humans" have new leadership and have been pretty upfront and "peaceful" with the humans theres really no reason for them to fight.

 

  Absolutely. Which is why I am thinking/hoping/begging that Barber is leading into the idea that the humans are prepared enough to use the Decepticons to their advantage, and who knows, maybe they're the ones in control? Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit, this feels like it's going to lead to a 'Decepticons betray the humans' storyline where we'll end up with: "Wait... are you trying to tell me the Decepticons... were being Deceptive this whole time!?" *headslap* "So THAT's why they're called Decepti-" CHOOM.

I kind of wish the humans could be smarter about this, not stronger, just smarter, it's like a bad fanfiction where the author kills every human in sight and makes them all look incompetent just so the bots can look better in comparison. Not to mention so far the only human character is Marissa who's... not very smart either, I do hope we get some other characters to balance things out a little.

 

Best case senario: Marrissa and Daniel have agreed to this because they are actually not idiots, but rather when Decepticons show up at their door spouting peace bullcrap they figured it was more advantageous to find out what their true, air-thin-ly veiled intentions were besides risk and all-out conflict with a party known to have many troops capable of disguise, so they're "arresting" Optimus and his guys so they can get some Cybertronian muscle/intel on Urf's side and take out the Decepticons with some good old fashioned "fooled you!" and maybe discover Alpha Trion with friendship.

Worst case senario: Marrissa is as brain-dead stupid as she seems, another IDW human manages to somehow be outdone by their 80's sunbow counterpart, and everyone rolls their eyes with such collective force it changes the direction the world spins.

 

I am hoping for the best case scenario

 

Aren't we all...

 

After reading a few of the comments on this issue I was fully expecting to hate it. It wasn't as bad as many are making it out to be, imo. The worst part about it was Fairborne's face (or maybe the military just thickened her up a lot  ).

I feel the same. The US and Britain aligned with Stalin, who by all reports was responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people prior to the 2nd World War. They also did, and continue to ally themselves with many other despots today (granted, many people feel they are idiots for this too  ). I guess I agree with smog/zmog somewhat in that it is being presented clumsily, but I don't find it offensive.

 

See, this is what I thought from the preview: that the EDC had reason to believe that they had concluded a deal with the Decepticons that secured their own interests. Instead, they are acting like the junior partner on their own planet--they came to parley with a warlord with a sob story, they are remanding the Autobots to Decepticon custody, they demonstrated no ability to restrain Decepticon action, and when questioned Fairborne isn't all "don't worry I has a plan" she is "oh wow maybe I am dumber than a small child."

Basically the EDC are assuming the same role to the Decepticons that the Autobots assumed to Skywatch--roll over.

 

Also, why the complaints about Kup not being able to pronounce Earth? I find it no different than people of different regions pronouncing words differently, even though I cringe every time someone pronounces crayon "cran".

 

I laughed.

The down side being the slightly reactionary undercurrent suggesting that we shouldn't be attentive or critical of what's happening in our own backyards, because look badguys! over there! and they're different from us! join the army! go fetch!

After all, building a bigger bogeyman is one way to unite a divided populace. In this case there IS a bigger bogeyman, but that doesn't mean the inherent flaws, corruptions and inequities of our society are no longer a problem. I just take some issue with a story that unambiguously promotes those kind of nationalizing rhetorics, especially in direct specific opposition to Left wing collective action. A story like that would have to be careful about the thematic message it conveys.

Because the sight of people critically engaging with the material they are reading and articulating valid criticisms rather than being mute consumers is disturbing to you?

That's an absurd comparison. The cases you are describing are heavily mediated, negotiated and complex relationships with a concrete rationale and direct economic/political benefits attached to the US position. They aren't always ethically justifiable... but they aren't quite as bluntly stupid as what's happening in this issue.

And usually such dictators didn't directly attack the USA and publically... personally kill millions of their citizens in an open act of war. What you're describing is like, if the USA suddenly joined forces with Al-Quaeda, specifically to help them destroy Israel, with the only benefit being the USA pointedly losing any geopolitical foothold in the Middle East, and strengthening Al-Quaeda going forward. That would be smart, wouldn't it?

Why is that earlier part in sardonic quotes? It's not "alleged" genocidal aliens who murdered millions of humans. It actually happened. exactly. like. that.

And why would you then team up with the genocidal aliens almost destroyed your planet specifically to help them defeat the largely benign aliens, who not only DIDN'T enslave your race, but who actually SAVED your planet, and who you already have diplomatic relations with? There is NO logic there at all.

* * *

Also... totally different topic. I just have to address this old "You brought your war to OUR planet!" business... also NO.

That's an old cliche that has been tossed around in the old days... except this isn't the 1980s G1. This is IDW. The Autobots didn't bring shit to Earth. The Decepticons actually fully invaded Earth, like they had done to countless other planets... first through subversive Infiltration, then by full-on assault. That was not "their war". That was EARTH'S WAR. With the Decepticons. Human beings were not "caught in the crossfire between two warring factions on their own soil"... they were actually in the process of being invaded by one faction. Earth was the target .

The Bots didn't "bring" the Cons to Earth. The Cons have been here for decades (if not thousands of years, as we see in Spotlight Shockwave). It would have happened regardless of whether Autobots were involved.

The only thing the Autobots did was intercede on humanity's behalf. They actually have ZERO responsibility in this.

Think about that for a minute.  

zmog