Transformers: More than Meets the Eye season two discussion

[Warcry]

Liked this one quite a bit. It was good to see some character development for Nautica, who seems to be fitting in way better with the weirdos on Rodimus's crew than she ever did among her "sorority".

It's also nice to see Minimus wandering around without the Magnus armour. I'm sure that'll come back to bite him in the ass eventually, but it's a nice bit of character development to see that he's so comfortable with himself even around strangers.

Re: Cyclonus -- I'd completely agree with Unicron's statement if not for the fact that some of the folks that we saw killed on Kimia, like Grotusque, have popped up in the scenery since then (not 100 percent certain about the Technobots that were there, though).

Don't be silly, the Technobots will be back as soon as they need them to flog a new Combiner Wars Computron.

But even then, people at least seem to still be irked by Cyclonus. Whereas Brainstorm is back to palling around with everyone as if the last six issues never happened. And in spite of what was said last issue, he seems to be allowed to wander around making new super-devices without anyone being worried (who's to say that he's not turning Nautica's wrench into a new time-travel killing machine?).

Will Nightbeat and Getaway be perfectly okay next month?

Of course they will be. Even if the monsters tear them limb from limb.

And, whilst I like Swerve more than, say, Warcry, I can't see why he's been given a new skit of Earth Culture when Bluestreak already has that market cornered. Plus, Community probably wouldn't exist in the IDWverse, it started in 2009. Or in other words, when America was a smouldering post AHM apocalyptic ruin. Sitcoms wouldn't have been up to much then.

**** Swerve.

You're right though. Popular culture in the IDWverse would have taken a very different turn after AHM, just like US popular culture became quite a bit more patriotic and pro-military in the aftermath of 9/11.

Something's up with Flamewar. She's evil and a monster queen.

She's clearly up to no good, just like the suspiciously hard to remember medic. How else could she just show up (at around the same time, yet) and become second-in-command, cutting over the heads of all of Thunderclash's established troops, with nobody complaining?

Anyone want to bet that the mystery miracle doctor is Pharma? I know the crewmember that First Aid was talking to used "she" as a descriptor, but she also couldn't recall a single thing about them, so... And he does have a track record of magically being able to repair fatal spark damage.

My head says it's unlikely, but we're tantalisingly close to having a Transformers comic top an actual proper comics chart (oh yes, UK and digital counts Americans and physical-ophiles). It might need a slow week in terms of other titles (though I suppose that depends on how close the top three actually are), but that's still an insane prospect.

It's impressive! It's a shame that we don't know how digital sales and print ones add up, but if MTMTE is doing that well on the digital charts you'd have to think that makes it a pretty solid success overall.

It's surprising to see the book climbing the digital charts so much when the physical sales numbers don't seem to be changing, though (at least, based on the Diamond numbers that are publicly available).

[Unicron]

It's also nice to see Minimus wandering around without the Magnus armour. I'm sure that'll come back to bite him in the ass eventually, but it's a nice bit of character development to see that he's so comfortable with himself even around strangers.

Yup. I fully expect him to be nearly killed while taking a quiet stroll sans armor. Possibly even with his new buddy Ten sacrificing himself to save him.

Don't be silly, the Technobots will be back as soon as they need them to flog a new Combiner Wars Computron.

But even then, people at least seem to still be irked by Cyclonus. Whereas Brainstorm is back to palling around with everyone as if the last six issues never happened. And in spite of what was said last issue, he seems to be allowed to wander around making new super-devices without anyone being worried (who's to say that he's not turning Nautica's wrench into a new time-travel killing machine?).

Like I've joked before, we'll find out it was actually Afterbruner, Nosebone, and Lichtspeed on Kimia and the 3 real Technobots are relaxing on a Hedonian beach, recovering from the fun of Stormbringer and Revelation.

With Brainstorm, I can sort of see things being back to normal (aside from him still being allowed to science unmonitored). I don't think the crew knows he was responsible for the poisoning, he didn't actually hurt anyone, nor did his actions cause any real harm. In fact, his shenanigans had to happen, otherwise the timeline would be vastly different (though no one knew that until afterwards).
There may also be a bit of the scale issue when it comes to comprehending his actions, like with Megatron. Yes, he tried to change history and would have effectively undone everyone, but I doubt people can get their heads around that. That may be giving him a pass.

I am a bit puzzled by him still being allowed to do the crazy inventing, but if I try I think I could see the justification. Given his actions and motivations, the real risk is him building another time machine. He may realize the futility in that, as his previous attempt and failure at travel was already baked in to the existing timeline.
It may also not be a risk at all since he spent centuries (millennia?) working on the first one and even had to go shopping at Decepti-mart for some materials. Yes, he no longer has to worry about research (unless he intends to find a way around the predestination problem) and would be able to build it faster this time, he may simply not have access to the necessary parts anymore. It's probably safe to let him work under supervision. Maybe even unsupervised if you throw in the occasional surprise audit from Percy to see if he's up to no good.

Of course, his alterations to Nautica's wrench may be something he's doing on the sly, and is being used as a way to show us just how brilliant he is. It shows he can still do funky science even without his lab.

Random aside: With how impressed Perceptor was at Brainstorm's work on the time machine, anyone else think it's possible they'll end up as friends, or more?

[Red Dave Prime]

Really liked this issue - thought it had a nice sci-fi tone to it and its also cool to have a plot which hasn't been anticipated or dissected so that we already know whats coming. I also thought this might be connected to pharma - I'm not sure that's actually the matrix map, maybe its a link to the other dimension that dragged pharma away and this is that dimensions play at coming across. The barnacles could be seeds of the eventual tentacle thing that dragged pharma off.

But I did enjoy this. I think the difference to being confused with MTMTE and the RID (whatever...) is that I always feel that I might work it out before the reveal in MTMTE and it will make sense with what has been shown whereas sometimes RID is just confusing for the sake of it (Megatrons Master Plan is still a hate of mine)

[inflatable dalek]

It's also nice to see Minimus wandering around without the Magnus armour. I'm sure that'll come back to bite him in the ass eventually, but it's a nice bit of character development to see that he's so comfortable with himself even around strangers.

Yeah, it's actually a bit of toy promotion that works. See Combiner Wars, it can be done!

But even then, people at least seem to still be irked by Cyclonus. Whereas Brainstorm is back to palling around with everyone as if the last six issues never happened. And in spite of what was said last issue, he seems to be allowed to wander around making new super-devices without anyone being worried (who's to say that he's not turning Nautica's wrench into a new time-travel killing machine?).

It's especially odd to see him hanging around with Getaway here, who seemed so incredibly pissed off at his betrayal at the time (punch that wall!) and wouldn't have had much chance to establish any sort of friendship with him beforehand that might mitigate things.

You're right though. Popular culture in the IDWverse would have taken a very different turn after AHM, just like US popular culture became quite a bit more patriotic and pro-military in the aftermath of 9/11.

So I guess we have a choice between either Community or All Hail Megatron being canon.

I've never even seen Community, but that's an easy choice.

She's clearly up to no good, just like the suspiciously hard to remember medic. How else could she just show up (at around the same time, yet) and become second-in-command, cutting over the heads of all of Thunderclash's established troops, with nobody complaining?

I wonder if the medic is going to be Thingey (Christ, I've forgotten her name! The DJD's support gal)? Turns up, pretending to be nice and helpful but poisoning Thunderclash as a side effect?

It's impressive! It's a shame that we don't know how digital sales and print ones add up, but if MTMTE is doing that well on the digital charts you'd have to think that makes it a pretty solid success overall.

It's surprising to see the book climbing the digital charts so much when the physical sales numbers don't seem to be changing, though (at least, based on the Diamond numbers that are publicly available).

Actual digital sales are a mania of mine (as people may have noticed), I'd love to find them out, though with the Comixology chart being weekly and the Diamond one monthly it would probably need some mental adjustment.

I think that's a very healthy sign of the book hitting a wider audience digitally (one that Ex-RID- or any of the other titles for that matter- doesn't seem to be managing). Even if it's only a few 1000 extra copies, with sales still around the 10K mark, that could make a big difference percentage wise.

[Unicron]

I wonder if the medic is going to be Thingey (Christ, I've forgotten her name! The DJD's support gal)? Turns up, pretending to be nice and helpful but poisoning Thunderclash as a side effect?

Nickel. And seems unlikely, given her small size. Also there being no hints to any sort of weird Rung-like memory issues with her

[Heinrad]

WOOHOO!!!!!! MORE NIGHTBEAT!!!!!!!!

Yeah, he seems to be more like The Question from Justice League Unlimited than Remington Steele, but as long as he's got some kind of a foil to keep him from going all conspiracy theory, he should be fine.

Having joined this series when Nightbeat did(the different take grated on me a little at first, but the only way to get proper Nightbeat involves time machines and kidnapping Simon Furman in the late 80s), a lot of the background stuff and "handwavey" things I seem to have missed.

But this was a lot of fun. Although I will admit the Thunderclash School of Heroic Arts felt a little odd. I admit I know squat about Thunderclash so far in this series, but I skimmed the posts the first time he showed up, and it kind of left me with the impression that the place might have been named to honor him. Kind of like the famous hero coming back to address a class of cadets only to discover they're renamed the whole institution after him.

I'm still having conceptual problems with Minimus Ambus, but I think that's more to not being entirely certain who Ambus is.

[inflatable dalek]

We only have Flamey's- possibly highly dubious if she is evil- lack of recall to suggest that there is a memory issue.

[Unicron]

We only have Flamey's- possibly highly dubious if she is evil- lack of recall to suggest that there is a memory issue.

Perhaps. Like so many others, this is a mystery that requires more info before we can solve it.

[KingMob]

The crew at large don't know Brainstorm spiked them.

Nautica allowing Brainstorm to further 'upgrade' her wrench was shown as a sign of rapprochement last issue, the object itself is symbolic of their friendship. She's allowing him to add to it again because of that connection, and she may even be letting him do it because she knows he likes to tinker and he's under restrictions; he's not allowed in his lab without supervision.

Also note that he adds the attention-deflector detector to it on Getaway's request.

Skids and Getaway are two of the more capable people on the ship and are in the know about Brainstorm, so suffice as 'watchers'. If they're even there in that regard.

Getway has been shown to be a manipulative SoB and so him acting chill around Brainstorm could well be a facade (either just to get the tech he wanted, or as part of his general 'keep 'em onside' behaviour)...as could have his noticeably dramatic reaction to finding out he was a traitor in the first place.

[Red Dave Prime]

The crew at large don't know Brainstorm spiked them.

Nautica allowing Brainstorm to further 'upgrade' her wrench was shown as a sign of rapprochement last issue, the object itself is symbolic of their friendship. She's allowing him to add to it again because of that connection, and she may even be letting him do it because she knows he likes to tinker and he's under restrictions; he's not allowed in his lab without supervision.

Also note that he adds the attention-deflector detector to it on Getaway's request.

Skids and Getaway are two of the more capable people on the ship and are in the know about Brainstorm, so suffice as 'watchers'. If they're even there in that regard.

Getway has been shown to be a manipulative SoB and so him acting chill around Brainstorm could well be a facade (either just to get the tech he wanted, or as part of his general 'keep 'em onside' behaviour)...as could have his noticeably dramatic reaction to finding out he was a traitor in the first place.

That's some pretty good thinking there King Mob. Beats my ideas anyway.

[Auntie Slag]

I didn’t get on with this issue at all initially. It felt exactly like one of those Star Trek: TNG filler episodes, you know, one or two people solve the ship-wide infection, hit the reset button at the end and move on. And that’s unduly harsh. I should have reacted the same way to the Delphi story but didn’t, and that has had plenty of repercussions since. There’s no reason to think elements of this story won’t affect future stories either, that is the way the writer works.

And going back over it has given it more of a fun theme. I feel Swerve is likeable again after hitting his low at the beginning of the Megatron arc. Like KingMob said; the crew don’t know it was Brainstorm’s doing that poisoned them, so don’t the majority blame Swerve instead, which is another reason why everyone’s off at Mirage’s bar?

I like the fact that Bluestreak sticks with him, though.

The cover was irritating. I just don’t like the whole Femmebot concept, and this goes back to the 80’s cartoons. I know their existence has been explained with the whole Camina thing, but I’d still much rather we had issues about Scraplets or Donny Finkleberg or something.

I’m intrigued as to who that massive guy is standing behind Groove when Rodimus hits the gong. He’s kind of orangey with a winch on his waist. Makes me wonder whether that’s the first appearance of Spoke or Lockstock (although Spoke may turn into a bicycle, or a robot Vulcan).

The only robots who appear immune to the germs/egg-things are the Caminus femmebots, so perhaps the solution to the problem lies with them, if First Aid can discover it before he succumbs to the infection?

The final panel is pretty cool too, it reminds me of a mashup between the City of the Dead story from Marvel (featuring Magnus, Flame & the Wreckers), and the IDW Insecticon infestation two-parter with Jazz, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe & Bumper vs. Insecticon clones in small US town (always liked that story).

Really happy if this remains a First Aid, Ravage & Minimus centric story. I’ve wanted more Ravage character treatment ever since The Enemy Within. He’s been painfully underused since then.

[Death's Head]

Yeah, more Ravage is always a good thing. More Roberts' Ravage, in any case!

[Auntie Slag]

I wondered if the infection was aided by excess activity, the dancing in this case, and the only reason I say that is because Getaway has been infected whereas Nightbeat hasn't. That's further negated by the fact that Countdown died shortly after arriving onboard with no time for dancing.

Where is the rest of ThunderClash's crew?

Any, lots of little touches to appreciate in this issue too:

- Rodimus' 'Weve Achieved Something' sign.

- Whirl in the audience looking like he couldn't care less.

- Doublecross annoying... who I think is Repugnus?

- The Protectobots (Groove & Streetwise) doing some groovy dancing, and Hotspot with a sort of gleeful look like a happy parent.

- The Thunderclash signature on the Select-A-View wall panel behind Nautical & Skids.

One thing that interests me is why Ravage is seemingly 'sparking' all over his body when he leaps over Nightbeat & Getaway. Is this the infectious eggs attacking his nanoscopic attention deflectors? Are they doing this to prevent themselves being revealed & eradicated? (I'm assuming the eggs could be seen on a robot who has deflector tech).

I wonder if they are a mutated form of Scraplet. Mutated by... A reanimated Pharma in a dress?

[Auntie Slag]

Just found out the big orange guy standing behind Groove is an Action Master called Rollout.

So still no visual confirmation on Spoke & Lockstock as yet!

[Edit] Rollout's Action Master partner is a guy called Glitch. I wonder if there's any possibility that he could have a link to Glitch from Pax's Outlier team? I'm sure you could argue not based on the Prowl/Dent thing, and the fact that Skids has had no interaction with Rollout when there's a chance they may be familiar with each other, what with Skids also being an Outlier and Glitch nowhere to be seen in the present.

[zigzagger]

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #42 full preview @ Tformers.

Out June 24!

[Selkadoom]

A bit disappointed we didnt get a Battoussi joke but overall looks promising. The scathing literary quptations bit though is going into my potential weapons catalogue, along the the low iq affecting Sarcasm beam

[Rack 'n Ruin]

Hmm, Skids was infected by the energy sapping nasties, but Nautica seemingly wasn't, as evidenced by her energetic dancing. Maybe the female TFs are immune to the bugs somehow? That could explain why Thunderclash's ship seems to now have a high percentage of female crew - the males have already been felled by the bugs.

[zigzagger]

Huh. Learned more about Camien culture in a five page preview, than in five issues of Combiner Wars.

[Rack 'n Ruin]

Indeed. I wonder if Windblade and Chromia are Amica Endurae in t'other books? That could explain why Windblade has to turn a blind eye to Chromia's actions at times - the shame of "unfriending" her would be terrible.

[Selkadoom]

Indeed. I wonder if Windblade and Chromia are Amica Endurae in t'other books? That could explain why Windblade has to turn a blind eye to Chromia's actions at times - the shame of "unfriending" her would be terrible.

Their equivalent of Facebook must be a goddamn minefield.