Transformers: Robots in Disguise #31

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zigzagger
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Transformers: Robots in Disguise #31

Post by zigzagger »

Transformers: Robots In Disguise #31 three-page preview by way of iTunes.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Ooh, Jazz's character development for the whole shooting-a-human thing! He's spent like three years being in the background since that issue, so, uh, he only starts to deal what he does now?

Ehh, better than what Barber did to Prowl.

Still giving this a chance. Art's pretty at least.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

READ AND SPOILERS NOW.





















Solid enough read, especially considering it's built upon the quicksand of the Costa stuff, but despite Barber's best efforts it's really hard to believe IDW Jazz would be that messed up by killing a human over all the other killing he's done as a soldier, and the cliffhanger was a bit tired- Is Prowl evil? YAWN.

On the plus side though, the non human-death related stuff with Jazz looking at the choices he's made over the course of RID was actually quite nice, you could argue it was spelling out motivations that didn't really need spelling out but it still read well and the shot of him holding his broken SPACE guitar was actually quite affecting.

The real problem is the Joe/TF book did the basics of an Decepticon human alliance from start to inevitable betrayal in a page, that can't help but make the ongoing plot here feel very drawn out.
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

Okay, I am still buying this comic even though it hasn't been very interesting so far.

This one was pretty good though. Totally agree that TF VS GIJoe is doing the alliance stuff better but there were some nice beats from Jazz and Cosmos and Thundercracker and Galvatron and Daniel and Sanjay and Arcee and Soundwave so it evens out.

The cliffhanger was impressively unexciting though. Prowl pulled a gun on Ratchet for no good reason in his very first appearance. He loves pulling guns on good guys!

Jetfire is a bum note too - his little drone guy isn't distinctive enough to justify existing yet and his grumpy haughtiness seems to have come from nowhere. Though I guess that's a necessary thing to have in a group dynamic. Dunno about Stealth Paint either - it would be a give in TF VS GIJoe and MTMTE would come up with something more clever. The tone here doesn't suit it.

Art looked great too.

And Scoop is a Decepticon now? Do they want a nice Flanders who occasionally becomes a Bible Coding street prophet nutjob? Is Scoop as a character going to be twisted even more torturously to meet the muddled demands of the plot?

Wonder where Galvatron got his TFTM starship?
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Iron Warrior
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Post by Iron Warrior »

The more of this I read, the more I picture Galvatron as a stroppy teenager and Soundwave as his long-suffering mum.

"GRAARR, humans are weak and I will crush them!!"

"I'm so sorry, it's just a phase he's going through."

I'm still enjoying it though.
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

Iron Warrior wrote:The more of this I read, the more I picture Galvatron as a stroppy teenager and Soundwave as his long-suffering mum.

"GRAARR, humans are weak and I will crush them!!"

"I'm so sorry, it's just a phase he's going through."

I'm still enjoying it though.
Yes, I quite enjoy their dynamic. They are like the schoolteacher and his fat and psychopathic wife in the Pink Floyd song.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Finally got to reading this. It's not bad at all. I do like the Jazz bits, which finally gets to give him some characterization at last after having him be a background dude since, oh... since... since shooting the human, actually. Seeing Jazz do his stuff is fun.

Cosmos is also bloody awesome as well, as is Kup, Sky Lynx and Thundercracker in the short few scenes they got. Arcee doesn't completely make me want to shoot her in the face, so that's an improvement.

I'm not quite a big fan of Soundwave advocating for peace, though that scene with him and Galvatron is a nice one, and evidently Soundwave's methods of peace involves more manipulation and less diplomacy. Just so long as they don't turn Soundwave into a wuss I'll be happy. I like Galvatron raging on the humans and talking about New and Old Mexico. For all the 'we'll build you a home' thing the humans are obviously going to be betrayed by Galvatron, and I for one want Barber to kinda pull a subversion and have a twist throw in. If done well whatever Prowl is planning might be in the interest of undermining their alliance, and that would be a nice schism between the two that doesn't involve the Decepticons obviously betraying their allies.

I'm not a fan of the 'wait is he really evil again' Prowl cliffhanger, and if Barber went and put him under mind control or made him really evil instead of having him be someone who just has his own agenda for the greater good I'll probably stop reading this.

Jetfire is obvious 'give him a bunch of scenes cause he got a toy'. I like his little drone buddy more than him.

Why is Scoop with the Decepticons? Why is Scoop still around? Jeez, go away, IDW Scoop. You are annoying.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the issue. Don't particularly care about any of the human characters, but the Jazz stuff is wonderful and both the Galvatron stuff and the Cosmos stuff are nice. A great, great improvement from the guy that thought up Provestator and did the stupid it-was-a-cerebro-shell-all-along, anyway.

More please.
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Post by Summerhayes »

I really enjoyed Cosmo's bits. I've always had a lot of time for the big chubby fella who inexplicably turned into a flying saucer and he's very amusing here.
Otherwise, all fairly standard stuff. There are a lot of parallels with AoE here when Prime attacks a human base and tries to stop them reverse engineering his cybertronian friend; they even have Galvatron!
I like bears.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

THEY SLAUGHTERED RATCHET PAPA TRION!
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Of course, the reason Prowl pulled a gun on Jazz is that he's realised the truth, that's not Alpha Trion... It's Scrapper in a fake Jeremy Beadle style beard!


[Let's face it, with Combiner Wars coming up Scrapper is going to be making a miraculous recovery at some point, being a prisoner in the secret human base is a good a way of him turning up as any.]
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

SCRAPPER IS SCOOP!

NO! WAIT! I GOT IT! SCRAPPER IS MARISSA!
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

No no, you've got it all wrong. Alpha Trion worked with Spike to fake Scrapper's death and capture him so that Trion could reconfigure Scrapper's body, shadowplay him, and send him back in time to be the person Scrapper was always meant to be: Alpha Trion. That's how Trion knows of all sorts of things. He's remembering the past.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

A couple of Throtlebots are going to make miraculous recoveries as well aren't they?
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Post by Blackjack »

Unicron wrote:No no, you've got it all wrong. Alpha Trion worked with Spike to fake Scrapper's death and capture him so that Trion could reconfigure Scrapper's body, shadowplay him, and send him back in time to be the person Scrapper was always meant to be: Alpha Trion. That's how Trion knows of all sorts of things. He's remembering the past.
ALPHA TRION IS SCRAPPER!

HOLY SHIT THAT'S WHY HE'S SUCH A DICK IN IDW! HE'S AN ANGRY DECEPTICON ALL THE WHILE!

AND NO DOUBT SCRAPPER BEING SENT TO THE PAST WAS WHAT CAUSED THE LOST LIGHT TO DISAPPEAR, NOVA PRIME TO GO PSYCHO, JHIAXUS TO GET THE TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE MONTRUCSTOR AND THE PORTAL TO THE DEAD UNIVERSE TO MATERIALIZE!
inflatable dalek wrote:A couple of Throtlebots are going to make miraculous recoveries as well aren't they?
Aren't the Throttlebots all alive in the IDW comics? Even that Goldbug-who-is-not-Bumblebee? It has been a while since I read Spotlight: Metroplex, though. I thought Sixshot was playing around so their deaths didn't look too final.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Technobots! I meant to say Technobots.
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

You are forgetting one key thing guys. Its shockwave who sends scrapper into the past with alpha trion costume to hunt spike.
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Red Dave Prime wrote:You are forgetting one key thing guys. Its shockwave who sends scrapper into the past with alpha trion costume to hunt spike.
Of course, how could I miss Shockwave's involvement? He's only responsible for everything in IDW
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Joking aside, I quite enjoyed this issue. Some stuff breaks a bit when you think about it for then a second but it flowed well from one spot to the next and the human involvement worked better than before (note to barber - just cause you show TCs dog does not mean it always needs to be doing something or making a noise).

The Underbase reviewers came up with an interesting idea that Prowl hasnt turned evil but is about to conduct a mass attack on the deceptiocns by using one of the constructicons to lure the rest of the cons to the island which allows Prowl to zap them all with the Brain attack thing Alpha Trion appears to be connected too.

I quite like that idea (that prowl wants to achieve this, not that it will actually work) so fingers crossed the next issue doesnt let me down.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

When they said that on the podcast it seemed so obvious I can only assume it didn't occur to me before because I was so bored evil Prowl I didn't give it a moments thought.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Red Dave Prime wrote:The Underbase reviewers came up with an interesting idea that Prowl hasnt turned evil but is about to conduct a mass attack on the deceptiocns by using one of the constructicons to lure the rest of the cons to the island which allows Prowl to zap them all with the Brain attack thing Alpha Trion appears to be connected too.

I quite like that idea (that prowl wants to achieve this, not that it will actually work) so fingers crossed the next issue doesnt let me down.
Yeah, this was along the lines of what would make me happy instead of either 'Evil Prowl' or 'Stupid Evil Prowl'. Having him actually with a plan to take down the Decepticons and generally show everyone he's doing it for the greater good of taking down the Decepticons even if he's going to piss off everyone else in doing it.

Whatever the case, the next few issues will be the deciding factor whether I'll continue reading RID or completely ignore the shit out of it.
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