Well, the only downpoint this time is that...NO DEFENSOR! The portrayal of Optimus Prime here is more like a general who knows he has to take charge but can't because DEMOCRACY IS RULE, or something. He is itching, but his ideal hinders him.
I am curious how Mirage is going help Optimus Prime. I do not mean the shippen way. I mean most of the problems Optimus Prime are facing are his own creation.
Y'know, I'm not entirely sure what Rodimus was thinking. They needed a representative to show and Rodimus sends the possibly mentally unstable guy with nightmares of Cybertron burning.
This was really good and once again, I admire Barber's ability to incorporate the most illogical pieces of continuity in way that actually makes sense.
i think what i enjoyed the most from the issue was the conversation between Superion and Optimus. I really would like to see more about the combiner process, mentally speaking.
A real mixed bag of an issue, though I'm finding the 'small moments' a lot of fun, like "Fat Tankor" being a matter of public media record now, along with Circuit's general 'sterotypical bad tv reporter' deal. I loved Optimus' head droop with Windblade's "lie of ommission" line (though if she really knew Prowl...). In my head I heard the Flanders kids from The Simpsons going "Lies make Baby Jesus cry!" I'm hoping more and more that something bad happens to Prowl here. He's EXTRA spiraling the drain now. "I may be a 'bot that trusts no one and constantly takes matters into my own hands, but HOW DARE Optimus not trust me and assume I'll take matters into my own hands! I definitely can't trust anyone now! Time to take matters into my own hands!"
I believe the problem people may have (or me personally) is that Prime has gone back to acting the way he did when he first gave up the Autobot command. Hes posturing and it is extremely infuriating. I do agree that wartime leaders have difficulty coping with peace times as is evident from our own history where conquering and ruling have been proven to be two different things. However to believe that the events of Dark Cybertron have had no positive impact on the image of the autobots in front of the "nails" is something i find very hard to digest. I pointed this out in my previous post as well that SS had waged war on behalf of the decepticons for over 4 million years and somehow everything was brushed aside and it doesn't feel natural to me at all. With regards to Prowl, he is an extremely intelligent and clever individual. The thing he boasts about most is how he is able to calculate the probabilities/outcomes of any given situation and I have 0 doubt that he purposely told the wreckers to let go of Squadron X just because he knew that Impactor would take it upon his self to eliminate them. This way he has followed "protocol" and has still managed to fulfill his objective. Prowl is not inherently evil, he knows full well that the autobots couldn't cope against the decepticons on Bravado alone, not when they are out numbered and out gunned (thanks to phase sixer technology). His logic has always been that the ends truly justify the means. Lately we've been seeing the fallout of some of his actions but we have no idea how many lives he has saved because of his espionage tactics. When we talk about Garrus-9, it was 1 battle field out of a countless billion battlefields. In a war, the line between good and bad does get blurred quite often. Coming back to the aspect of Religion and Superstition vs Democracy, this does not tie in well with the fact that Matrix does indeed hold supernatural power. Now the matrix may in fact be a powerful piece of technology just like the Enigma of combination but prior to the 13 being introduced, we saw time and time again how it was able to prevent calamities. If Starscream argues about superstition than his whole "chosen one" angle is flawed because if the NAILs believe that, how can they reject Optimus's claim? Furthermore sure Optimus has no freaking idea on how to handle peace time but if he was so willing to bend over backwards for the humans why the hell is he acting like a douche to the Mistress of Flames? shes just doing what she believes is correct by giving him Prominence and addressing him with utter respect. Jeez. Lastly i do realize Livio and Rojo do get a lot of hate but tbh we always say its a hit and miss but the ratio feels like 80% miss and 20% hit. Rid 17, 22 and 26 were some of his better issues in my opinion. However bad art can detract you from the story as it may be difficult to follow the dialogues and correlate them to what is actually happening in the panels.
You know, Optimus' inaction makes total sense. I mean, what is he supposed to do? Institute martial law? Return things to a theocratic monarchy? Just revoke the people's right to democratic vote? Honestly, the best thing for Prime to do right now is to form a colony with any of the Autobots that will come with him, and form a colony. Then, invoke the Crisis Act, and when the Autobots vote to keep him in power, form a new, democratically elected Senate, and draft up a new constitution based on the Autobot Code, that disavows both Funtionism and Decepticonism. Finally, become a member of the Cybertronian Alliance or whatever, and boom, everybody wins.
I wonder if the writer has to limit himself based on the artist's capability or this is the best he can get for this story? The Protectobots aren't even drawn correctly. The actions are lacking. How long has Superion being Superion? How come he stays united? What of Menasor? Has the Stunticons became individuals again? So many unanswered questions between this and Windblade 1
I'm obviously out in the cold here, I found the narrative utterly grating. It just wasn't enjoyable to read, and the constant "news" feed was really intrusive. Why nobody just punched the reporter is beyond me. I did enjoy seeing Starscream's new look though.
There were some parts that I enjoyed. I like the political ideas going on. in particular, and I even actually still kind of like Prime's indecisive dickishness as a war hero who just really doesn't like peacetime, even if he won't admit that to himself. I just hope we get a little bit of development on that character trait, since he's been very static since Dark Cybertron. I also like that the Protectobots have a fairly valid reason to, a) be together, and b) be on Cybertron. And it's good to finally give Spotlight: Mirage some justification. Now I think the only weird Spotlight left to explain is Metroplex. However, this was Livio's worst showing to date and it seriously hurts the issue. I thought his art was actually pretty decent in the first issue, but here it's just trash. Plus a lot of the dialogue is your standard Barber nonsense, and character motivations are fuzzy as always; Prowl in particular. But hey, the next issue at least won't be Livio, so I'm looking forward to it.
I saw it as a case of Rodimus/Crew realising they just couldn't provide Mirage with the long term care he needed. True, Cybertron is still rebuilding but it's a more stable environment than the Lost Light, and has more than one fully qualified Medic at hand.
The news feed was the part where I always stopped reading and rather continued working for a few more minutes. I mean... I usually read the comics at work, because I can't wait till I am home and I rather read a comic than work. So... when I rather work a few minutes to get a break from such a short comic... lol
I told myself I wouldn't comment on Livio's art anymore (having shared my dislike with a touch of 'I get he might be working under limitations' before)...but wow. This issue was atrocious. Really the worst issue drawn by Livio I've ever seen, and unfortunately that is not hyperbole. So many panels where it just seems he put something in fast and never went back to correct it. Megatron and Rodimus look weird, but I lost it completely at the bit where Starscream is giving his speech, accompanied by the Camien leaders. So much crooked ugliness. So many errors. Suddenly Hot Spot is in the crowd in his new body, while that character is underway in a shuttle in that same issue? And no, the dream sequence wasn't that impressive to me either. A lot of simple photoshop tricks to get those effects, and some damn low res flame/cloud textures...sorry, no. Writing was also pretty clumsy. This entire thing feels rushed. Are writer and artist working under an insane deadline? Spotlight Mirage gets a mention - that's what Barber does best. But the Protectobots all taking Mirage back, while Rodimus was asked to send a representative? Way too forced, but he tried to make the best out of it, I guess. Dropping this half of the crossover right this instant. Will keep buying the Windblade one for Stone's art. Very, very disappointed. By the way, this issue's recap in the upcoming Windblade mentions Firt Aid as 'Fixit'..oopsie!
They should just make one-shot comics that are out of continuity with IDWs stories. These events really disturb the story telling...
