Skywarp is certainly feeling like royalty, regarding his confidence and care free behaviour in this issue: Spoiler Skywarp sets out for the Enigma of Combination in Termagax’s home, and manages to find the item. He tries to use it as bargaining power, but a fight with Jumpstream, and a bite from Sky Lynx ends his plans. Skytread then holds the Enigma of Combination, but an earthquake causes him to fall into the Sea of Rust, thus ending the battle. And it looks like Ruckus and Paragon are back…along with Exarchon. Highlights: Looks like things are only going to get more messier in Cybertron…
Good issue! It's a treat seeing Optimus act heroic. Baffled that Skywarp is apparently dead already, but that teleportation fight in the air was cool. Also some of the panel framing was great, like Sky-Lynx's open jaws behind Skywarp. Also seeing Sixshot and Skytread's Megatron-Starscream dynamic be fulfilled in this battle was great because it's just so specifically Decepticon. And of course the first big battle of the war would involve it's Decepticon commander executing his treacherous second in command. I also 100% called that Provoke reveal. And Exarchon being inside Flatline means he will be providing medical access to both sides of the war. Whoops.
Spoiler Skywarp was pretty much a funny hoot in this book and along with that nice fiery crunch Sky Lynx gave to him in the end. Aaanndd now the jig is up for Exarchon because they are terrible actors with no unlimited patience and Geomotus is the top awesome character in this issue for being a total bro towards everyone.
Spoiler Love Skywarp in this continuity, refreshing to see him as something more than just the dumb jerk who hangs out with Thundercracker and Starscream. Glad to also see the Enigma of Combination out of the picture, it'll probably return in the future but for now I think we've had enough arcs about ancient artifacts like the Enigma. Also, just wanna say that Springer ramming Flamefeather looks really funny to me
I will hand it to the writer for not doing the obvious thing Spoiler Pyra Magn's team in such close proximity to the enigma and we don't get Victorion? Color me surprised.
Yeah, the fact he Vomps seems to leave his fate sort of vague, though I also initially interpreted the massive energy discharge as Sky Lynx biting through whatever mechanism allows Skywarp to teleport. Either way we got no confirmation on his death
This entire arch has been my favorite of the series and this issue is no different. Skywarp doing his thing just made it all the more fun.
One thing I do like is having dead characters "live on" as memories of those that knew them, portrayed as ghosts but not actual ghosts. Here, Cyclonus is just imagining them and what they would say.
I haven't bought or read any of the other issues in this series. I bought and read this one just because the cover looked awesome, and was not disappointed. I also agree with the general consensus that this is a really good Skywarp. I would never have thought of him as a semi-Joker type, but it works really well and made me smile. It's easily the most distinctive Skywarp in...well...ever.
I've said it on here before but skywarp is this continuity what thundercracker was to idw1 in so far as getting some proper characterisation instead of being just a background stooge for starscream. Remember in idw1 after issue 22 of the costa run tc takes off and disappeared for a long time. Maybe this will happen with skyward. We think he's dead but he returns in some form but months if not years later. Maybe....
Oddly enough, I did. That's my exact characterization of Skywarp in my own setting, IDW beat me to the punch!
Upon re-reading, I'm not as convinced he survived... the bottom panel could have been a depiction of him successfully warping away as Sky Lynx began to burn him, or him trying to warp away, and blowing up instead. (It seems to have been intentionally ambiguous... the wounds Sky Lynx gave him were certainly gruesome enough to be fatal, but TFs are insanely hardy, and his body was actually shown still intact above the explosion instead of blowing apart.) I could definitely see those injuries being so bad that he'd be permanently brain-damaged, though, which would reduce him to the more familiar "useless without supervision" level he clearly is NOT at this point (he was Exarchon's Air Commander and everybody is scared shitless of him. Shockwave put on power armor when he saw him, the Autobots in House shit a brick, and freaking Sixshot of all people just said "oh no" and basically fell back and waited to see what happened) I certainly hope he survives though, he's definitely the most entertaining Decepticon so far. It would be weird for both of the "modern G1 redux" media to have Skywarp die before they even reach Earth. I appreciated the red herring of having Pyra Magna and her companions literally right next to the Enigma and them NOT becoming combiners. I'm all in for this story. Ruckley has consistently surprised and delighted me with both his predictable and left-field choices in this canon. It kind of makes me wonder: what if this iteration of G1 TFs never actually makes it to modern-day Earth? Or what if their initial crash happens in the modern day, instead of prehistorically? What if this whole story is building up to something totally different from what we expect? I do want to learn more about Exarchon though. I could see Optimus and Megatron teaming up to destroy him once and for all, though... he's an existential threat to their race, plus they already fought against him in this continuity.
why do I have the feeling this last full Autobot-Decepticon battle we'll see where every Autobot miraculously survives? Welp, for now at least the Autobots and Decepticons are 1-1 on combiners. uh-oh I just saw one of the covers for #38 and looks like Uncle Magnus will once again enjoy a nice spot in Meg's holding cell. I think I read that Ruckley doesn't have any favorite human characters. My guess he's going to draw out his story for as long he can ( which is fine by me as long as shows us the other colonies/planets like caminus, velocitron) and possibly hand off the Earth arc to some unfortunate soul writer.
What if the Enigma unites the worms into the Dweller? That could be interesting down the line. They certainly laid down the thread for the Enigma's eventual retrieval. Provided you have a way of locating the thing, all it takes is somebody who's physically invincible... or who has an impermeable force field.
Yeah, having the Enigma down amongst the rust worms is bound to mean trouble down the line. I hope Skywarp isn't dead, because otherwise he was brought into the story with some major buildup and accomplished only one thing, removing the Enigma from Termagax's house before being chomped to death. I'm hoping for more from him, because this is as distinctive as Skywarp has ever been.
I hadn't considered that the Enigma might start creating things beneath Cybertron's surface. I genuinely hope we see some monstrosities in the future because of it, and not just have it come back and start making regular combiners again. There's a lot to work with. In fact I wouldn't mind an entire issue dedicated to Nova Storm trying to get the Enigma and dealing with its creations.
Yeah, Skywarp has been absolute blast! Far from being "the dumb one" of the usual Seeker trio, he has so much character I wouldn't mind if this "agent of chaos" portrayal found it's way to other Skywarps.
