Transformers: Robots in Disguise Season One #1-22

[inflatable dalek]

Shockwave's role as a scientist really goes all the way back to the early Marvel stuff, he removes Prime's head, performs experiments on it to extract the Matrix and designs and build the Constructicons (with no indication at any point anyone else is overseeing those tasks). He never really does science stuff again, but that story more than left its impression on the readers who grew up to do Dreamwave and IDW.

EDIT: Is Starscream as a scientist mentioned in any of the '80's stuff bar the first Skyfire episode? I don't think it's in his profile and it always felt a bit "How the hell do we explain why these two completely different guys are friends?"

Odds on next issue being anything other than 11 pages of Starscream going "I wear my Armada body now, Armada bodies are cool" and 11 pages of explaining whatever happened to Agent Red?

[Terome]

Odds on next issue being anything other than 11 pages of Starscream going "I wear my Armada body now, Armada bodies are cool" and 11 pages of explaining whatever happened to Agent Red?

Well that's easy. He took Jimmy Pink with him on his yacht and went simply everywhere.

[Terome]

EDIT: Is Starscream as a scientist mentioned in any of the '80's stuff bar the first Skyfire episode? I don't think it's in his profile and it always felt a bit "How the hell do we explain why these two completely different guys are friends?"

Wasn't he a scientist in one of the recent games? I wonder what his PhD was on? Transformers are generally so scientically backward that he probably went to some shady Young Earth college and bought most of his essays over the internet from cynical Indians.

Science is a lot like military tactics in Transformers, really. Characters talk about it from time to time but you don't really see a lot of it. Most scientist characters tend to be engineers and nobody seems bothered with peer-review.

[zigzagger]

Transformers: Robots In Disguise #22 three-page preview by way of iTunes.

Page 1: http://imageshack.us/a/img33/1849/jq11.jpg
Page 2: http://imageshack.us/a/img811/911/bmpa.jpg
Page 3: http://imageshack.us/a/img46/6369/gskx.jpg

[Red Dave Prime]

While the more civic minded version of Soundwave feels a little out of place, it's an interesting extensionr of what he showed in his initial Spotlight (by trying to stop the resseurection of Thunderwing for the greater good of Cybertron)

Hopefully we will get some major revelations and plot movement here - there's really no excuse for this issue to end without movement.

[inflatable dalek]

OUT AND NOW READ....
















The last two flashbacks showing the secret origin of Soundwave were great, very nicely done and raised all sorts of interesting questions (as he's an amnesiac how long before people decide he's a Knight of Cybertron?).

Everything before that... meh. Best summed up a a lengthy fight to the death between two characters who know they're in a place where they can't die. Which is about as pointless as that sounds, throw in some more "Explaining the obvious for the terminally dim" flashbacks and you've got two issues in a row that could so easily have been merged into one. Even even a half, with the other being made up of something more, or even at all, interesting.

But hey, we're back where we were four issues ago! More forward momentum at last?

[MikeB]

I completely agree that it could have been squeezed down dramatically, and frankly I think a single issue of the soundwave story could have been one of the highpoints of the RID run so far. As it stands it's been a frustrating run of issues that have almost put me off the series.

I do like the mystery they've introduced over soundwave's past though. Sure, the amnesia angle is a well worn trope but it at least adds a bit of intrigue to this half of the IDW comics.

My only hope is that Roberts has some say in where it leads (knight of cybertron or otherwise) as I've a lot more faith in his ability to do a decent payoff, eg Senator Shockwave and the various exploits of Prowl.

The other thing I've enjoyed over these last couple of issues is the juxtaposition of art styles portraying present day and historical cybertron. I wasn't 100% convinced by Ramondelli previously, but I think his style works well in this manner, and contrasts nicely with the more cartoony present day.

[Red Dave Prime]

Anyone else feel like Ravage should be voiced with a cockney accent (and a bad, american attempt at that)?

I've enjoyed the past 2 issues I must say. It has been stalling but its nice to get some insight into Soundwave. I actually feel a bit bored of Shockwave at this point in the way he acts and speaks - I am pure logic, I predicted you would do this - but Soundwave was interesting here, even if its a take on the character that doesnt quite feel right to me.

I did like the link he has to his minions (stop calling them cassettes!!) and it adds a nice dimension to their relationship - its almost Dominus Ambus like (!!). In particular it gives more sense to the scene of Soundwave holding a dying ravage in MTMTE.

On that point it looks like we wont get a reference to the Kill switch in RiD. I cant help but feel if they dont acknowledge it, that its a big mistake - especially coming up to a story which is all about joining the two series for a big event.

So now we are set up for Dark Cybertron. No more preludes or roads to. Lets get this story going!

Still feel we are going to see a Titan Gestalt (or some variation) in all this. Sad face.

[Terome]

Mmm, quite taken with this one. It takes Soundwave's super-empathy to a great place, weaves an arc for him and Ratbat out of thin air and gives us a new, interesting and quite different Ravage. It also tells us a thing or two about Megatron. Those are good accomplishments.

I too was expecting a kill-switch reference (would have made for a more dramatic fight scene if Soundwave had dropped everything to appeal to Shockwave on Ravage's behalf and would have been a neat wrinkle for Ravage to have been spared from the killswitch by Ore-14 rather than Tailgate). Oh well. I did like that panel of Soundwave blasting Shockwave to bits, at any rate.

Neither of those possibilities occurred to me until I came here but what are the odds that Soundwave isn't either a Knight or the Mr. Ambus The Older?

Not bothered by the stalling or the lack of forward momentum myself but with all the repetition and big splash panels they could have easily squeezed these two issues into a mind-blowing single issue. As it is we have a slightly frustrating two-parter that contains some cool bits.

Does anyone think it might have been better / been received more graciously if it had actually run in chronological order? That way you'd have a strong start (Soundwave meeting Ravage) and a strongish finish (Oh shit, Shockwave is immortal and the Titan is here, let's get him guys) rather than a weak beginning (let's talk about how we should get Shockwave maybe and take a minute to establish some things about Ratbat), a limp mid-way cliffhanger (Megatron spoke to Soundwave that one time, remember?) and a strong ending (Ravage pals up with Shockwave). There's not the kind of complexity there that really requires the staggered timeline and it may have hurt the reading experience rather than help it.

[Unicron]

Soundwave can't be Ambus. Ambus and Rewind left Cybertron at somepoint pre-War on a search for Luna 1, came back, found the war underway, and they joined up with the Autobots before Ambus disappeared.

[Terome]

Good point. Phew.
Shockwave was a great twist but any more 'turns out they were THIS GUY' developments would be a bad base of diminishing returns.

[Knightdramon]

Not a bad issue, although still written in a weird way.

If Senator Shockwave had come across Soundwave instead of Senator Ratbat, Soundwave would probably be with the Autobots now

Very neat way of "repairing" Megatron Origin. Sheds a light to many, many mishaps of that series.

[Terome]

If Senator Shockwave had come across Soundwave instead of Senator Ratbat, Soundwave would probably be with the Autobots now

That's a neat thing to contemplate. Though would Prime, who is of a more conflicted, contemplative humour than Megatron, be as inspiring a beacon to Soundwave? Surely he's come across him before and found him lacking.

I feel a bit sorry for Soundwave having to be in the same room as guys like Skullcruncher or Overlord. Yikes.

[inflatable dalek]

Mmm, quite taken with this one. It takes Soundwave's super-empathy to a great place, weaves an arc for him and Ratbat out of thin air and gives us a new, interesting and quite different Ravage. It also tells us a thing or two about Megatron. Those are good accomplishments.

You've summed up the bits I liked better than I did, all that stuff was lovely and well done and almost seemed to come from a different comic than the one which gave us "Soundwave STANDS THERE!!!!!!!!!!!".

Also agreed with MikeB that the two different art styles worked well together to distinguish the past and present.

I'd probably be more forgiving on the lack of forward motion (after all, not everything has to be about The Big Picture and character stuff is always welcome) if it had just been the one issue and hadn't come on the back of three or four (? I've genuinely lost track) where pretty much nothing had happened.

[Summerhayes]

I've almost lost interest in dark Cybertron now, the prelude has gone on so long. But hey, it's nearly here and hopefully it will actually turn out to be decent.
I am quite looking this Soundwave. He's always been a favourite and even if this is a different angle, I like it. Especially the relationship with the cassettes (I'm not going to use minion because he goes out of his way to say that's not what they are)

[Knightdramon]

Re-read issues 18 to 22 in a row, and it does read much better in one go rather than waiting monthly.

They all actually come to the same place in time [the sunrise]. And I was shocked at how much I loved the art on 19 on the second reading. This guy should get more work on these comics his way!

[Terome]

I'd probably be more forgiving on the lack of forward motion (after all, not everything has to be about The Big Picture and character stuff is always welcome) if it had just been the one issue and hadn't come on the back of three or four (? I've genuinely lost track) where pretty much nothing had happened.

Yeah, but remember what happened last time RID gave us forward motion. I'll take nice character pieces for the likes of Starscream, Arcee and Soundwave and indulgent continuity back-filling over lame returns and stretched-out mysteries and plain old bad ideas any day. I honestly wouldn't mind if RID went all the day to becoming a de facto Spotlight book.

[inflatable dalek]

Even if the comic were to go in that direction though (and I'd have no problem with it myself), I think it would still need to hang the character stuff on better-or in some cases any- plots. Arcee Soundwave and (to a lesser extent I'd say, he's not been helped by the dropping of the ball on the elections) Starscream have all had good stuff recently, but everything else going on around them has let it down.

[Red Dave Prime]

Even if the comic were to go in that direction though (and I'd have no problem with it myself), I think it would still need to hang the character stuff on better-or in some cases any- plots. Arcee Soundwave and (to a lesser extent I'd say, he's not been helped by the dropping of the ball on the elections) Starscream have all had good stuff recently, but everything else going on around them has let it down.

One difference between Roberts and Barber in my eyes is that Barber really only seems to focus on one plot and everything around it suffers. Roberts seems much better at juggling various plot threads and having them naturally (well, most of the time) converge at key points. Barbers introduced characters to RiD during the Megatron return arc that had no impact other than to appear. It feels forced.

Maybe its the way Barber lacks to focus his individual issues very much on one story. I prefer a comic to have a few different plots running around so if one thing doesnt grab you theres a good chance something else will.

[Knightdramon]

Somewhat out of topic...

Anybody in the UK with access to physical copies of issues 21 and 22? B covers by Casey coller please.

PM to let me know if you have them, cheers