I was a little bit nicer here: Deadshirt Is Reading… Original Angry Empty Infinity Lumber-Hulks | Deadshirt
Well, it was a more entertaining read than last issue, but I'm still feeling pretty "meh" about RID considering the promise #28 showed. Would've been nice to see the Galvatron flashback revisited within the issue, I know it'll be expanded on in futures issues, but it just felt kind of abrupt. Well, at least the humans seem marginally less stupid not trusting the 'Cons and having countermeasures against them. So there's that I do wonder if the Cybertronian mind the humans have access to is actually Trion, but which other Transformers are unaccounted for? And if that's the case how did Trion manage to evade EDC? I don't think I'll be dropping RID just yet, there's a lot of story potential, but its not exactly holding my attention very well. I do look forward to the inevitable throw-down between Galvatron and Soundwave though.
*pushes glasses up the bridge of his nose* Let's see if I can't address a few things. 1. Orbital Bounce Technology - The Autobots are using Ark-7 for this voyage to Earth. I checked the wiki to see if it'd been used previously in IDW because at this point, who isn't confused by the massive number of ships bearing the Ark's name? Much to my surprise, it hadn't and its numerical designation is a pretty big jump back from most of the other Arks that've seen service so far. There's a pretty simple workaround, I think to the strange continuity quibble of using Sky Lynx for transport over simply using an Orbital Bounce. I think its logical to assume that, given its number, the Ark-7 is an older ship. Why not say it was mothballed before OB Tech became standardized? Following The Surge, most of the Autobot fleet had been destroyed and in the present day, they're having to press older, less advanced ships back into service? The Ark-7 might not be as technically advanced, hence the requirement of someone like Skylynx to get a ground team planetside. Its not a perfect fit. But its an explanation I'd be satisfied with. Also, SMOG brought up his distaste for the technology because it robs characters like Skywarp of their unique characteristics and while he's not wrong (cuz, y'know, SMOG) I'd still like to politely disagree with you, sir. To date, I believe the Orbital Bounce is strictly Ship-to-Ground, which it seems Skywarp can also do -- at least when jacked directly into a spacecraft. ...and like Star Trek's teleporters, is probably fraught with all kinds of fictionally convenient requirements and drawbacks: needing line of sight to the destination, a large enough undisturbed area to 'port the team down to, so on and so forth. Where I'm going with this, is I don't believe the Orbital Bounce has any tactical use in a fight -- save for removing troops from battle. Where Skywarp can teleport around an active battlefield to his heart's content, popping in behind enemy lines and causing all sorts of havoc and giving him limitless opportunities to harass enemy troops. Unfortunately, for him to do this, it comes with the requirement of the writer giving enough of a shit about Skywarp to even create those opportunities... To sum up, if the writer wants it, I feel there's room in the world for Orbital Bouncing and Skywarp to coexist. BUT, if it comes down to Orbital Bouncing or more Skylynx, I'll take more Skylynx every time. 2. Skywarp taking 'robot' as some kind of slur -- I'll comment on the dialogue as a whole, later. Its handled with all the delicacy of a brick flying through a window, but I think the implication is Skywarp's taking Marissa's use of the word robot to insinuate that he and the other Decepticons are just things and not actual life-forms. Now... you could argue a couple of things: You could argue that the Decepticons don't have a lot of practice interacting socially with humans and don't have a kung-fu grip on all the context and nuances of our speech patterns. ...but that also goes down the drain if one has a long-enough reaching memory to remember that a bunch of Decepticons, Skywarp included, spent at least four years on earth kidnapping high-ranking government officials and cloning them for the purposes of igniting global conflict among the humans and having them tailed by the Battlechargers, listening in on their conversations. That in mind, the notion of Skywarp getting hung up on a human calling him a robot seems absurd. You could also argue that Skywarp is an idiot (Which, he is, right? That's like his thing. That he's dumb?) and, like a lot of people, is really bad at verbally expressing himself. So when trying to correct Marissa that, like herself, he was an living, thinking, feeling comrade on those voyage we call life... he caught a little of the ass-of-the-mouth disease and a bunch of shit fell out of his face. You could also, also argue that the entire exchange was downright awkward and a little unnecessary. ...and I don't think you'd be wrong. Incidentally, in the panel in question -- Marissa looks like she's holding in a REALLY painful poop. 3. Prowl's Nosebleed -- I don't have a problem with it. There's undoubtedly any number of more subtle/creative ways of saying to the audience, "HEY! Something's not right with Prowl physically, probably mentally too!" But in a world where the crew of the Lost Light is a bunch of space drunks and space alcoholics, I'm willing to shrug and roll with it. Its far from the most egregious thing that's happened fictionally in IDW's tenure. I'm interested enough in what caused/what's going on behind that nosebleed, that I don't find the nosebleed itself offensive. 4. The Human/Decepticon Alliance -- No. It still doesn't make sense. At least, not from the human's perspective. The EDC now has anti-Cybertronian weaponry and are developing a weapon that, at least in some capacity, disrupts a Cybertronian's brain module; probably intended to shut one down entirely upon completion. ...and, while we haven't been shown any evidence to the contrary, the name "Earth Defense Command" suggest a multi-national effort. So unless its revealed that the EDC is a strictly North American military force, looking to have another "nuclear deterrence" card in their back pocket against hostile nations, I really don't see the need to work with the Decepticons short of having a wider range of test subjects for their mind bomb. On the other hand, from the Decepticons' perspective, specifically Soundwave's; the alliance starts to make a little more sense. However genuine Soundwave is about wanting to coexist with the humans remains a point of discussion. But if RiD has made anything clear, its that the Decepticons no long have any form of infrastructure. They were a bunch of dudes living in a shack, then they got thrown out and were a bunch of dudes living in the desert. Soundwave obviously still wants to overthrow the Autobots. But you can't do that with an army that's tired and pissed off at you. You need food, resources, housing, infrastructure, and a leader that can command either through respect or fear. Galvatron is a guy that can shout long enough to brow beat the rank-and-file into submission, so that's a convenient install as leader. But, you also can't do this on Cybertron, when Cybertron's last remaining settlement can just stand up and step on you if you get out of line, that's where the humans come in. They have the weaponry to go toe-to-toe with the Autobots and the means to fashion at least a synthetic form of energon. If, however absurdly, you can win over their hearts and minds, you have yourself an ally that'll allow you the time for your army to get itself back on its feet and re-establish itself as a force to overthrow the Autobots and retake Cybertron. But... until we actually learn where this is going, I can't say this is what's actually going on. This is all purely inference. If I were the writer, that'd be my angle... and I'd try to seed that into the story a little more than Barber has so far. So far, we're all left scratching our heads. The EDC/Con alliance, at its core, is purely for shock value. Past that, there's still some industry belief somewhere that after watching a pop-culture movie, there's a big enough portion of the audience that's gonna wanna run to a comic shop and pick up a comic to learn more about what the hell they just watched. So in lieu of a proper AoE book, its pretty clear that whether of Barber's own design, or some higher mandate -- for the meantime, RiD has to carry the burden of being a live-action analogue. So we have the humans and bad robots harassing the good guy robots for a little while. Who wants to make a bet that Lockdown shows up in RiD soon? 5. Arcee -- I really like how Arcee has been handled lately. Prowl and Optimus pestering her about talking to Windblade and Arcee being all 'meh' about it, was probably the best way to handle the whole thing. Yes, there are other people like her now, but it didn't magically solve life and all its mysteries. So she's ready to get on with her life and just be an Autobot now. I like it. Also, thank you Arcee for bringing up poor Hardhead. I'm pretty sure Prime was one more mention of Bumblebee away from forgetting about Hardhead completely. That was nice. 6. Jazz -- Yeah. You killed that one guy that one time and it was a tragedy. But he had your friends at gunpoint with the intention of murdering them. It wasn't a life taken in cold blood, he took a life to save lives. Can we get over it now? And be "we" I mean, this entire fictional fucking universe? Especially when Marissa goddamn Faireborne is barking orders at Skywarp who, I'm sorry, [/i]killed how many millions of people in China[/i], again? 7. Alpha Trion, thing the first -- Alpha Trion spends however many millions of years, paling around the galaxy with Metroplex, only to up and abandon him when he claims he's found "The Holy Grail" then hands Windblade and friends a hologram and tells them to tell Optimus Prime, Earth. Ten Million Years ago on Cybertron, upon meeting Galvatron for the first time, says: ...before getting cut off by Galvatron. Anybody wanna bet a dollar Alpha's next word was gonna be evolution? Also, we live in a world where another Alpha Trion once said: Hm. Call me crazy. But those Headmasters some of you guys keep screaming for? I think they're gonna be cropping up again. 'Cept, none of the toy Headmaster dudes are in this book. So I expect equal amounts of joy and butthurt. 8. Alpha Trion, thing the second -- He went to Earth, presumably. Optimus is looking for Alpha Trion. Galvatron, is looking for Alpha Trion. The humans have access to a Cybertronian mind and Prowl (and thus, everybody) is super convinced its Alpha Trion. So now we're all gonna storm down to Marshall Island and they're gonna kick in the door and see...! It... its not gonna be Alpha Trion. Right? Right? Surely, there's got to be a twist coming? There's. Like. Laws. Aren't there? Like, writing laws? Now. I'm a stupid continuity whore. So. I remember things like, back in Revelation, Straxus and Grindcore just kinda dropped dead. In China. ...and as far as we know, the Autobots never collected their bodies. They sure as shit didn't when it came to Sixshot and Monstructor. So why couldn't it be Straxus or Grindcore's mind mush the humans are poking around in? That'd be a neat twist and fill in a lovely hole in continuity. Putting things in holes, that's how we do, right? Unless I'm right on the money on that whole evolution thing and Alpha Trion handed himself over to the humans willingly... 9. Dudebro Constructicons -- I seriously do not mind. Because, god love 'em, the individual Constructicons are getting to do/say something, anything! Yes, they could be doing literally any number of things that would be better representative of them as characters, but least they're getting any face time in between merging as Devastator. So I'll take it. ...until they start playing Call of Duty on an Xbox, or taking goddamn selfies. Then I'll shit a fucking gold brick. 10. Revolver Ocelot Scavenger, the doublespy -- This can't be beyond Prowl's notice? Right? The Constructicons have gone on and on about how much they love the insides of Prowl's head through combining as Devastator. That's got to be a two-way street, right? It's fucking Prowl. The 'cons having access to (allegedly) Alpha Trion's location is all part of his plan (whatever the hell it is), right? We already played the Prowl-was-taken-for-a-ride card once in this book. So this time, he actually knows what the fuck is going on, yeah? Please? Don't make this book really be that dumb. Hey. Remember how happy you were about Ratbat sending Long Haul to stealthily tail Starscream back in issue #3? It seems the sad fact is, the writer, along with Decepticon Upper Management, have absolutely no idea what the hell to do with the individual Constructicons. They are all practically the same dude at this point. Also, SMOG, aren't you not supposed to be here today? 11. Other Thoughts -- The dialogue in this book is terribad. Every time Kup talks, I just wanna bury my head in the sand. In Wreckers, he was a certified badass, now he's like Grampa Simpson trying to be an action movie star. I have a strong dislike of Barber's Optimus Prime. Its like he doesn't have a single ounce of self awareness. Especially any time him and Prowl have a conversation. Like, are you really surprised that Prowl thinks the humans are an enemy? Shit Prime, Prowl probably thinks you're a threat in some capacity. ...and why in the ever loving hell did he allow Prowl to bring the Constructicons along? Did he convince them a trip to earth was gonna rehabilitate them? Did Prime make Prowl pinky-swear not to combine into Devastator during the trip. Shit. Like seriously Prime. What the hell are you doing? Hey! Shut up! I thought Skylynx drinking energon out of a big doggie bowl was adorable and hilarious So shut your dumb face. But yes. Skylynx continues to be criminally underutilized, and when Prowl goes completely off the reservation and starts tearing crap up as Devastator (because that's where this has to go if this book wants to be taken seriously), then I want Skylynx to be let off the chain and positively wreck shop ...because isn't that his thing? He's a gentlemanly, bastardly WMD? ...that's it. I'm spent. I dunno. Out of all three books in "Season 2," I'm still enjoying RiD the most -- and that's largely in spite of itself. Sideswipe has been the only one saying it, but everyone in this book has been displaced and is uncertain of where the hell things are going. Things aren't simple. Everything's murky. Nobody knows where they're going and there's no solutions to be had in simply shooting the guys with the different badge than yours and I find that utterly fascinating ...but the way the book handles itself on the surface, its like that all happened by accident and its trying its damnedest to get you to not focus on that stuff through sheer stupidity and the Pandora's Box that is Marissa Faireborne's face. So yeah. The lot of y'all are crying foul, and you're not wrong. There's a lot to take umbrage with. But for the here and now I'm willing to stick with it. - Hehe. Spacebus
Hey all. Long timer lurker, first time poster. Just wanted to add a couple of things that I haven't seen discussed yet because I think there's several interesting ideas being put into motion. Like everyone else, I enjoyed seeing Galvatron the Barbarian dismantle the Nexons. It seems like Alpha Trion has a plan for him as a warrior. Could we be on the cusp of seeing Galvatron unite the 13 tribes? If so, do we see the original 13 Primes? And by Galvatron "uniting the tribes" does that mean conquering each one to bring them under one flag? Alpha Trion could be working towards a greater good and using Galvatron to accomplish his goals could be a really interesting plot point going forward. It would also explain, in part, why Galvatron is seeking out Alpha Trion on Earth. Also, what is Prowl's long play here? Why did he come back to Earth and, more importantly, convince Arcee to come with him? My thought is to settle some unfinished business with Spike, et al. Arcee can slip away more easily than Prowl can and the idea of Prowl having his assassin go after a human is something that could finally make he and Prime come to blows
Wow. I agree with nearly everything you just said. I mean I don't think I liked the issue, but I am with you on this one.
hmmm..... You could chalk that up to his continued link and merging with the Constructicons and, being controlled by Bombshell - and no one figuring it out - having something to do with it But Galvatron, to me, is STRAIGHT COMEDY . I HOPE WE GET MORE SCENES OF GALVATRON LOOKING LIKE HIS G-1 ACCURATE TOY(the gun, THE GUN, was on his arm like his cannon )!
I haven't gone back to confirm in the original issues, but I'm pretty sure the Autobots used orbital bounce technology to go from their US base to Eastern Europe (at the very least). I always figured that's why the tech is called "orbital bounce"... it's a transporter beam that "bounces" off a satellite receiver, and redirects to another location on the planet. Generally, I've never been a big fan of "narrative convenience" teleporters a la Star Trek, which is the other side of my disdain for TFs using this tech. The question of it "making other specialists less special" was part of a larger blanket complaint about the tech that Furman was using... invisibility cloaking tech, solid-light hologram projectors, teleporters, etc... I didn't like the ubiquity of that kind of thing. I'm with you there. There we go. That sums up my problem with it. Well, since you brought it up, yeah... I hate that too. I hate Swerve's bar. I hate Transformers swilling drinks in little space-age martini glasses. It bugs me. CONSTANTLY. I also hate Energon Blood, as a general convention. In fact, I never liked "energon" period. It's one of those creations of the G1 cartoon that I never liked. Bah humbug! I know that there is already a lot of cultual and physiological anthropomorphism in the TF fiction as it is... so it's really just a question of degree, and how far is too far. For my part, I tend to lean away from the more overt cultural and physical equivalencies. The nosebleed... just lazy. I mean, it would be nice if someone were to actually address what TF noses are for in the first place. All true. From the beginning, I haven't really been concerned about the Cons' motivation. It's the EDC/Fairborne who come off as complete imbeciles. Well, except they're not necessarily anything like her. She's still a freak of science, and they are... well, we still have no clue what they are. All of this is part of the problem. But I think the over-emphasis coming from the "male" Autobots is part of the problem... frankly I don't even know why they should care about pronouns at all. Getting away from the notion of difference would have been the BEST route to take. And of course, the real problem is that Furman put his foot in it years ago when he set all this in motion with only the thinnest of logics behind it. It's been on shakey ground from the begining. *applause* I think you're probably right. And I'm not happy about it. But for me, cyborg Headmasters were the beginning of the end. If that makes me a crazy old doomsaying heretic, so be it! I hope so. But disappointment reigns around here. Next issue. Any time now. It'll come. My feeling as well. Prowl never gets to do anything without getting shafted. It's starting to make him seem a bit... dumb. Yup, I remember that. *sigh* Today? Or, like... at all? There are other ways to read comics purely to satisfy morbid curiosity, without endorsing them monetarily. I agree. But part of me prefers Kup as a Grampa Simpson. Let Ironhide be the certified badass senior citizen. Kup needs a different schtick. ...of course, Ironhide is no longer even that, since he re-loaded from his last save point before the damn war even started. Everybody remember that? It sort of never comes up how Ironhide currently has NO memories of fighting alongside any of his fellow Autobots, nor any combat experience from that 4 million year era. *SIGH* I'll find it adorable and hilarious once it serves as a counterpoint to Skylynx doing ANYTHING ELSE WORTHWHILE in this series. Taking Skylynx down a peg has no value when he's already at the bottom of the barrel. Spacebus indeed. I still find MTMTE way more interesting. This is mainly because, wherever it goes, I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy getting there. With RID, I'm not feeling that curiosity about the destination, and I've been conditioned through experience to expect the journey to kind of suck too. It's kind of like the post-CHAOS relaunch all over again. RID had the more interesting premise at that time, but MTMTE stole the show by being just damn better in every way. This "second season" of RID has an interesting mix happening... but without a more solid authorial voice behind it, I feel it's just going to be another wasted opportunity. zmog
Is it me, or is Galvatron going a bit G1 S3 on us in RiD? I think he has taken a few too many blows to the head and is now on some form of puritanical Cybertronian superiority kick (Headmasters - HERESY! Combiners - HERESY! etc). Maybe they can glue together what's left of Scrapper's head to give Prowl a break. I actually quite liked Sky Lynx's drinking habits...how else is he supposed to drink? (A straw is probably a bit too MTMTE ) I'd agree that he's not getting enough page space though - More Captain Modesty!
I think they're kind of hoping that everyone will just forget about that whole sorry episode. 'Ironhide died and was rebooted on Cybertron from a four million year old brain pattern you say? Nope, not sure where you got that idea from, let's move along now, nothing to see here. Oh and Pax Cybertronia was just a vision he had, it had to be, Gorlam Prime got destroyed, remember? Anyway you can't trust anything Ironhide says, he's old now and, well, y'know *Mimics drinky drinky motion behind hand*'
The worst part was that the same guy who made a fuss about dismissively killing off Ironhide was the one who shortly after wrote that half-cocked story about him being "resurrected" from an old saved brain scan. Usually lame, ridiculous retcons come from a different writer at least. Costaaaaaaa!!! *shakes fist* zmog
Are you talking about James? Or are there other fanfic writers making more interesting stories than Barber is currently. Because I like to say James wasn't your average fanfic writer.
James extremely rare example of fanfic writer who is one of the best. I was referring to Barber with this arc. It had a lot of potential just seem to lost focus. Humans in the story are not well used in this story. The Transformers are not being develop. 1. Humans are being too stupid in this arc. Even though they would never side with either faction from Cybertron 2. I can see Thundercracker doing what he is doing. After all he has been stuck on Earth with Humans as companions. I am not sure the dog was smart though and went overboard humanizing Thundercracker. 3. I do not believe it Alpha Trion brain that the Humans have. Or any other brain of Cybertronian. Alpha Trion is just way to wise and smart to be captured by humans. It is like capturing a Saint or Monk. It makes sense for the Humans to have a spark if that spark was accidently lost somehow. It was brought to Earth by Jhaxius or Shockwave and was recently discovered. It would make sense for Alpha Trion to go to Earth and recover it. 4. Jazz we know you killed a human. It is really no biggie to the humans of Earth they don't care about the life lost but they do care about tech lost. Skywarp really does know that. Jazz go make your peace already so you can move on.
See, it's not that the story itself isn't interesting. There's a good premise in here somewhere, it's just so far it's being very clumsily handled.
Fanfiction are good writers and some are even great writers. I am not talking about James. I am talking about the premise is a good one and it is badly mishandled by Barbar.
