Transformers: More than Meets the Eye season two discussion

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 11:54 am

It's out and I've read it because I don't need to be at work today!

SPOILERS

This wasn't terribly well done but it was enjoyable. Those two missing pages could have really made all the difference. I was struggling to make out some of the action and the punchline with Megatron and Rodimus was completely lost on me.

It's a shame because there was some wit and knockabout fun going on but the cramped spaces made them more puzzling than satisfactory. Even silly stuff like the end Quantum Leap with Swerve took a bit of scrutiny before I realised what was going on and so could get the joke.

I said it in the last issue but the overt and repeated Earth culture name-dropping isn't entirely welcome. The leaking of the MTMTE Playlists, which I really enjoy, into the comic is a bit uneasy.

I might be judging this a tad harshly. A reread might be in order soon. I did enjoy Thunderclash's overblown speech and Cyclonus' little bit. I liked Ravage and Riptide in the bar and I felt the general Red Dwarfy tone landed well. It's a pity that there just wasn't room for it all!

Post by **zigzagger** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 3:00 pm

Quick notes:

Hmmmm.

It was alright. Totally ****ing ridiculous, but alright. Fun, but not leaving a huge impression.

Going to be honest, I'm feeling some serious arc fatigue right now, and I'm hankering for the next 'big' storyline. These diversions, while entirely welcome, have been going on too long, in my opinion, and it's kind of wearing.

Now that Thunderclash has joined up, here's hoping for some forward motion.

Nice little character moments sprinkled throughout, particularly Nightbeat and Nautica, who are clearly Roberts' new darlings. Nice (albeit brief) showing from Ravage, too.

Velocity could be a welcome addition. Perfect timing, though. She's being bought on just in time for First Aid to take part in that Combiner Wars nonsense.

And I'm off. Back whenever.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 8:05 pm

So Velocity will be taking over as the ship's doctor when First Aid goes off to be a leg then?

I really enjoyed that, played its silly concept well and the two parter was a nice self contained bit of madness. Plus, proper detectoring for Nightbeat!

Though if I were to be critical it didn't quite work as a fair play mystery as there was no way the reader could work out the signifigance of Flamestar's flame in advance.

On the other hand though, the misdirection over making it look as if she was the villain and the bait and switch reveal was handled perfectly.

Awww, Cyclonus.

I'm not sure the story was complicated enough to need a two page recap (though presumably as per usual it didn't eat into the regular page count?), and it likely won't be remembered as one of the greats, but it I got a big kick out of it.

@Terome: Was Swerve supposed to be Quantum Leaping at the end? Though obviously the "Oh boy" was a nod I thought something mysterious was happening to make his hands insubstantial? If that was supposed to be the gag the visuals didn't pull it off.

EDIT: Is it me, or did it look as if Thunderclash didn't get a choice about joining the Lost Light?

Death's Head · Post by **Death's Head** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 8:52 pm

I enjoyed it. Made me feel all nice inside. To see the likes of the Smiths and Saint Etienne namechecked in an official Transformers comic blows my mind. As, indeed, does the use of the word 'arse'

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:00 pm

I'm in the alright camp. Last issue was fine but this issue felt a bit all over the shop in what was going down and ultimately the whole thing feels like filler that feeds into bigger stories. Nothing wrong with that as such but it still didnt really entertain me. Also, the design of the aliens made things hard to follow at points and really didnt help the plot, for me anyway.

The swerve thing at the end? I get the impression thats more than a visual gag (and judging by a future cover

SPOILER! (select to read)
its possible that swerve is heading to his very own rimmerworld

)

Thunderclash aboard the lost light seems like we've added another massive ego in between Megs and Rodimus but given the Tarn army heading their way, maybe its a bit of balancing.

Hope First Aid isnt gone for good. There's been a certain low-key bitterness to him of late which I enjoy (or at least, thats how I'm reading him.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:03 pm

I'm softening. There's nothing wrong with the story that four extra pages couldn't fix. And I do like how Nightbeat is undercut again.

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 10:22 pm

I do think MTMTE needs these kind of issues - a couple of small 2 parters and one shots allow stuff to build a better. Its one of the things I really liked about the early issues. I dont feel this quite worked but the benefit is that we get a main plot and then the side plots can go ahead. The last few stories have really been quite big so I'm all for this kind of story.

just would have liked something a bit better

Selkadoom · Post by **Selkadoom** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 10:36 pm

Red Dave Prime wrote:I do think MTMTE needs these kind of issues - a couple of small 2 parters and one shots allow stuff to build a better. Its one of the things I really liked about the early issues. I dont feel this quite worked but the benefit is that we get a main plot and then the side plots can go ahead. The last few stories have really been quite big so I'm all for this kind of story.

just would have liked something a bit better

Considering the utter shitshow that was CW this comes off almost as a palette cleanser of sprts. Sure it wasn't the greatest or most complicated little story but I enjoyed it. Though honestly the Thunderclash memorial cover still makes me snicker.

Post by **Warcry** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:01 pm

Really don't have much to say about this issue...it just didn't make much of an impression on me either way.

Terome wrote:This wasn't terribly well done but it was enjoyable. Those two missing pages could have really made all the difference. I was struggling to make out some of the action and the punchline with Megatron and Rodimus was completely lost on me.

Too true. The issue felt a little rushed and a couple more pages would have really helped in that regard.

I totally expected a silly "Rodimus shows up and the monsters die" ending as soon as Nightbeat identified what the monsters were, though.

Terome wrote:I said it in the last issue but the overt and repeated Earth culture name-dropping isn't entirely welcome. The leaking of the MTMTE Playlists, which I really enjoy, into the comic is a bit uneasy.

It seems very difficult for me to believe that any of the LL crew would have positive memories of Earth, other than maybe Ratchet (who's not there right now). For everyone else, surely Earth would be "that hellhole where we got stomped into the ground after Sunstreaker betrayed us, then spent several years being hunted down by humans"? And that's for the small number who've been there at all.

inflatable dalek wrote:Though if I were to be critical it didn't quite work as a fair play mystery as there was no way the reader could work out the signifigance of Flamestar's flame in advance.

That was probably my biggest peeve with the issue as well. A detective story where the detective knows things that the reader doesn't do a very good job of impressing you with the detective's cunning, but does manage to annoy the reader something fierce. Since the issue did its best to make Nightbeat look silly, though, I'm assuming that was on purpose.

Terome wrote:EDIT: Is it me, or did it look as if Thunderclash didn't get a choice about joining the Lost Light?

Maybe his (actual) XO made the call for him? It seems like his entire crew sans the Camiens came aboard, since his ship was free for the taking when Firestar wanted a ride home.

[EDIT] Also, found it mildly amusing that Skids the thoroughly unlikeable Mary Sue and Getaway the slimy creep are apparently the two most charismatic members of the Lost Light's crew left aboard Thunderclash's ship.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 7:48 pm

It seems very difficult for me to believe that any of the LL crew would have positive memories of Earth, other than maybe Ratchet (who's not there right now). For everyone else, surely Earth would be "that hellhole where we got stomped into the ground after Sunstreaker betrayed us, then spent several years being hunted down by humans"? And that's for the small number who've been there at all.

Yeah, it doesn't add up. There's a core of MTMTE that lives in the Sunbow Season 3 world and I can totally get the Ark crew and friends becoming naturalised to Earth but man, Blaster and Swerve never even went there. Do they all hold Bluestreak's opinion in such high regard?

It's just about excusable by the theory of alien contact that I believe I heard off of Dan Ackroyd - that Earth simply has the best artistic output in the civilised galaxy. Seeing that we tend to see theme planets and run-down Star Wars spaceports, that may well be the case. The closest thing we saw to Earth was Nebulos and Thunderwing nicked the atmosphere.

But when you get right down to it it's a cheap laugh.

Since the issue did its best to make Nightbeat look silly, though, I'm assuming that was on purpose.

Nightbeat got a right thrashing here. Notice how the space barnacles avoided him like the plague?

Also, found it mildly amusing that Skids the thoroughly unlikeable Mary Sue and Getaway the slimy creep are apparently the two most charismatic members of the Lost Light's crew left aboard Thunderclash's ship.

Getaway is a sleaze but he is good at winning people over. Skids does make what looks like a sincere effort when talking to Nautica and he made friends with Rung quite quickly. I know he's a superninja but what makes him unlikeable?

Maybe his (actual) XO made the call for him? It seems like his entire crew sans the Camiens came aboard, since his ship was free for the taking when Firestar wanted a ride home.

It is a bit confusing. Apart from Nautica's chums, who else was even on the Vis Vitalis?

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 7:59 pm

inflatable dalek wrote: @Terome: Was Swerve supposed to be Quantum Leaping at the end? Though obviously the "Oh boy" was a nod I thought something mysterious was happening to make his hands insubstantial? If that was supposed to be the gag the visuals didn't pull it off.

Yes, especially as Leaping doesn't work that way and Beckett-inhabiting-Swerve would be replaced by Real Swerve from the waiting room. I think that it's not supposed to be a complete non sequitur and that Swerve really is disappearing, possibly to go chat to Ore (or was it Shock) some more? He just made the reference because he had just been watching Quantum Leap and he is Wacky Old Swerve.

Have to say, some of Cliffjumper's comical hyperbole is coming true. Not just on Swerve - Thunderclash wasn't really dead and now gets to hang around in the background with Smokescreen.

It's an interesting problem. Dramatically, they'll have to kill or get rid of Thunderclash as quickly as possible or else he'll hog the spotlight. But when we've already seen everyone mourn him and lay flowers at his grave, how will that pan out?

Maybe they'll just drop him off on Luna-1. That seems like his sort of place.

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:18 pm

Clearly Thunders knows Megatron is on the LL, since he showed up with Rodders, but does he know Megs is one of the Captains yet? I'm wanting to see him find out, completely lose his cool and attack Megs only to have Rodimus and crew have to hold him back and knock some sense into him

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:47 pm

It's just about excusable by the theory of alien contact that I believe I heard off of Dan Ackroyd - that Earth simply has the best artistic output in the civilised galaxy. Seeing that we tend to see theme planets and run-down Star Wars spaceports, that may well be the case. The closest thing we saw to Earth was Nebulos and Thunderwing nicked the atmosphere.

But when you get right down to it it's a cheap laugh.

I think yes and yes. Some cybertronians clearly are impressed by earth culture and its own fast transforming vibe. Also, as you say, the other races feel very one dimensional. While that's probably just the side effect of writing, I've always felt its made every planet shown in the comic feel more like a small village.

Theres also the thought that IDWs writers maybe want Earth to be important and different to near every other planet out there. It helps explain the TFs keep returning to it.

As for Thunderclash, I think he needs to be front and centre for a bit. He can be the catalyst to get the Lost Light truly and properly back on track. And I'm taking the bet that when Tarn and the boys attack, Thunderclash will be one of the first dramatic casualties.

Although knowing Roberts its entirely possible that Thunderclash will be exposed as being not "all that" after all - wouldn't put it beyond him.

Though honestly the Thunderclash memorial cover still makes me snicker.

Only realised its Thunderclash himself gawking up at the memorial the other day.

Selkadoom · Post by **Selkadoom** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 2:26 am

Red Dave Prime wrote: As for Thunderclash, I think he needs to be front and centre for a bit. He can be the catalyst to get the Lost Light truly and properly back on track. And I'm taking the bet that when Tarn and the boys attack, Thunderclash will be one of the first dramatic casualties.

Although knowing Roberts its entirely possible that Thunderclash will be exposed as being not "all that" after all - wouldn't put it beyond him.

Only realised its Thunderclash himself gawking up at the memorial the other day.

Oh but what if it turns out Thunderclash is Secretly Roller and Tarn secretly Thunderclash and its up to Swerve Bakula to help them!

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 2:02 pm

Warcry wrote:
It seems very difficult for me to believe that any of the LL crew would have positive memories of Earth, other than maybe Ratchet (who's not there right now). For everyone else, surely Earth would be "that hellhole where we got stomped into the ground after Sunstreaker betrayed us, then spent several years being hunted down by humans"? And that's for the small number who've been there at all.

It's not completely outside the realms of possibility. World War II toys and memorabilia were huge business in the UK for the children of those who fought in the conflict (the reason the "Action Man" outlasted his American originator is because playing killing Germans was considered perfectly fine in 1970's Britain in a way that just being a soldier wasn't in the States post-Vietnam), despite the war itself not generally being regarded as a great time, even for the winners.

I think the problem is we need to see the Transformers have as much interest in the culture of other planets (just a mention of another theme night would do it, I don't expect Roberts to invent an entire social environment for a disco), and to have some of the regulars not give a toss about human society.

though with that last part, I suppose the issue is so many of the Transformers basic personalities are taken from stock human fiction tropes (or indeed, based on very specific characters in the case of those like Nightbeat) that of course they're all going to love Earth culture. They're ripped from its DNA.

On alien planets in general... There is a tendancy in science fiction to treat alien planets as mono-cultures. One of my favourite early Babylon 5 episodes actually did the rare thing of acknowledging this despite trying a lot harder than most to display diversity in its cultures (the Minbari have three times as many religions as the Klingons have managed in 50 years. Making for a total of three. Even if the splitting of Minbari society into three was down to a time traveling human doing a Brainstorm).

I think IDW haven't been too bad on that, mainly because we've barely seen anything of any other alien planets beyond, as mentioned, their space ports (and aren't all airports the same?). I think Nebulos is the second most explored non-Transformers world after Earth and I don't think we've seen that since Spotlight Magnus.

That was probably my biggest peeve with the issue as well. A detective story where the detective knows things that the reader doesn't do a very good job of impressing you with the detective's cunning, but does manage to annoy the reader something fierce. Since the issue did its best to make Nightbeat look silly, though, I'm assuming that was on purpose.

The wiki entry reminded me that her flame having changed was pointed out by Nautica last issue so it wasn't quite as out of nowhere as I thought, but it's still a bit rubbish. It puts me in mind of the otherwise very good Mummy on the Orient Express episode of Who where the central mystery of why it took the mummy 65 seconds to kill people was explained by a bit on nonsense technobabble that came from nowhere.

[EDIT] Also, found it mildly amusing that Skids the thoroughly unlikeable Mary Sue and Getaway the slimy creep are apparently the two most charismatic members of the Lost Light's crew left aboard Thunderclash's ship.

Charisma doesn't mean "Warcry likes them"

Roberts weighs in with his response to some critiscm over having the bulk of the new female character go instantly away. As that's not been mentioned here, I only post it because one of the reasons for sending them off was because he'd have nothing for them to do but be background extras before the end of season 2. Which implies Thundercrash (and the new doc) will be doing more than hanging around with Gears: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1smqlij

Considering he still seemed to be unconscious at the end though I wouldn't be surprised if Clash doesn't wake up until he's needed.

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 11:31 am

A fun romp with a bit of a silly monster. And Nightbeat getting taken down a peg or two. And Ravage just.... being Ravage.

Although as I was reading it, as both Skids and Getaway got weaker, all I could think was "Skids? Charismatic? SKIDS?!?!", but I've got no clue as to his previous history here. Well, other than Warcry not liking him.

Part of me is wondering what Nightbeat might well be wondering right now: Are the three Generibots actual crew members, or another case of those 'Personality Ticks' taking on a role to keep from losing their food supply? The Lost Light might be full of misfits, but there's a lot of charisma there. A much gentler feeding program could keep them fed for millennia.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:25 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1smqlij

There's no male equivalent of Spinister, apparently. Well, we do need some more female Cons.

This story was a bit weak, I thought. I liked Ravage, Skids, First Aid, Cyclonus & Thunderclash in this one, but overall will be glad to move onward (and hopefully upward). Please can we drop the Earth references though? Really.

Post by **Warcry** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:48 pm

Terome wrote:Yeah, it doesn't add up. There's a core of MTMTE that lives in the Sunbow Season 3 world and I can totally get the Ark crew and friends becoming naturalised to Earth but man, Blaster and Swerve never even went there. Do they all hold Bluestreak's opinion in such high regard?

Roberts is probably inspired more by the most-movie UK books than the cartoon, given his origins, but I think you more or less hit the nail on the head with this. MTMTE seems to draw as much inspiration from the 80s fiction as it does the actual IDW universe.

It would probably be a bigger issue if the bulk of the non-Roberts IDW output wasn't terrible, though. As-is, we seem to be mostly happy enough to ignore the previous/concurrent series anyway.

Terome wrote:Getaway is a sleaze but he is good at winning people over. Skids does make what looks like a sincere effort when talking to Nautica and he made friends with Rung quite quickly. I know he's a superninja but what makes him unlikeable?

Because he's good at everything even if he doesn't want to be. He's a warrior, a scientist, a diplomat, a spy, etc, etc, and he's perfect at all of them. And he's super-brave, willing to tell off Megatron to his face! And everyone loves him! And he can fix Rung with just a couple words when all other efforts fail!

Seriously, am I the only one who finds it incredibly grating that the story is constantly telling us how perfect he is and that we should love him?

And the fact that we got this badly-conceived jackass instead of daydreamer anthropologist Skids makes it more annoying. If Roberts had attached this personality to Hubcap or Searchlight or Pointblank or anyone else who's never been used as anything more than a crowd-filler, I'd probably be a lot more accepting. But Skids was actually a likeable character at one point and Roberts has made it all but impossible for that Skids to ever show up.

Red Dave Prime wrote:Although knowing Roberts its entirely possible that Thunderclash will be exposed as being not "all that" after all - wouldn't put it beyond him.

"He's so great and everyone loves him!" really doesn't work outside of a throwaway gag (hence why Skids sucks), so I think it's safe to say we'll start seeing some more depth to Thunderclash in the future. Well, assuming he sticks around and doesn't wind up getting killed off anticlimactically like Dai Atlas did as soon as they got together with him.

inflatable dalek wrote:On alien planets in general... There is a tendancy in science fiction to treat alien planets as mono-cultures. One of my favourite early Babylon 5 episodes actually did the rare thing of acknowledging this despite trying a lot harder than most to display diversity in its cultures (the Minbari have three times as many religions as the Klingons have managed in 50 years. Making for a total of three. Even if the splitting of Minbari society into three was down to a time traveling human doing a Brainstorm).

I know that's a common complaint in sci-fi, but I've always thought it was a realistic consequence of a unified (or even quasi-unified) world with a strong global communications infrastructure that's been around for centuries. When you get right down to it, the reason why there are so many diverse cultures on Earth right now is that different groups couldn't communicate with each other, so we drifted apart from a common origin over tens of thousands of years. But the printing press quickly spurred on the growth and strengthening of national identities. And as things like radio and TV came on the scene, cultural output was able to reach more and more people across the globe.

And now we've got the internet, and people from every continent can come together in one place and argue about Transformers comics written by a Brit, drawn by a Canadian, coloured by a Portuguese woman and published by a US company. Culture -- or at least popular culture -- is already becoming a global thing. And it's happening fast. Imagine what the world will be like a couple hundred years from now.

I don't think our unique cultures will ever completely disappear, but I certainly do think that global culture will be a strong enough influence everywhere that outsiders might not be able to tell the difference.

inflatable dalek wrote:Charisma doesn't mean "Warcry likes them"

No, that's true. But shouldn't I at least be able to tell why the characters do? I mean, I think MTMTE Rodimus is a shallow caricature based on all the dismissive things that hardcore 84/85 only GEEWUN fanboys say about the guy, and I don't like him at all, but in spite of that he's still got a sort of magnetism and I can understand why so many Autobots want to follow him. The same goes for Megatron. He's a monster, and everyone knows he's a monster, but he's a very convincing monster and it's completely understandable when even the likes of Ultra Magnus seem to be falling for his charms. But Getaway has been a creep from the first "bomp" and Skids is the guy from every hackneyed high school movie who was super-good at sports and aced all his classes without studying because he was too busy volunteering to make dinner for old people and had all the girls after him and was every teacher's favourite. I don't see how it's even possible to like either of them because to me it seems like they're both written to be as unlikeable as possible.

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:10 pm

I can just about buy "charisma" draining aliens, but calling them Personality Ticks and lampshading the silliness of the concept doesn't help. It actually makes the culture and politics of Velocitron being based on competitions (as presented by the comic formerly known as RID) look relatively three-dimensional.

We've jumped full-on into fanfic territory with that, the playlist entries, boatload of new characters, big bad turned good, etc. Roberts is one of the few writers that can pull it off, but the emohawk-inspired threat of the week didn't ground things enough, IMO.

dalek wrote:I think the problem is we need to see the Transformers have as much interest in the culture of other planets (just a mention of another theme night would do it, I don't expect Roberts to invent an entire social environment for a disco), and to have some of the regulars not give a toss about human society.

Yes.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 5:30 pm

Warcry wrote:Roberts is probably inspired more by the most-movie UK books than the cartoon, given his origins, but I think you more or less hit the nail on the head with this. MTMTE seems to draw as much inspiration from the 80s fiction as it does the actual IDW universe.

It would probably be a bigger issue if the bulk of the non-Roberts IDW output wasn't terrible, though. As-is, we seem to be mostly happy enough to ignore the previous/concurrent series anyway.

I also get the feeling that perhaps Roberts has become a bit bored of writing robots that are completely devoid from Earth frame of reference and having to jump through small hoops to make them work and has just thought "Sod it, they all love Earth now and I can just namecheck whatever the hell I like".

The big conceit of course is that will thousands of years of human culture to chose from, everyone aboard seems to have latched onto the things a British guy who grew up in the 1980's would have liked. I mean, I've never heard of some of the bands namechecked here so they're probably a bit obscure/forgotten even if you are part of that demographic.

I know that's a common complaint in sci-fi, but I've always thought it was a realistic consequence of a unified (or even quasi-unified) world with a strong global communications infrastructure that's been around for centuries. When you get right down to it, the reason why there are so many diverse cultures on Earth right now is that different groups couldn't communicate with each other, so we drifted apart from a common origin over tens of thousands of years. But the printing press quickly spurred on the growth and strengthening of national identities. And as things like radio and TV came on the scene, cultural output was able to reach more and more people across the globe.

I'm going off on a real tangent here, but what works against that argument is that Earth-- no matter how long the planet has been unified within the fiction-- is always portrayed as being as full of diverse cultures as ever it was (though understandably with an unrealistic focus on the culture making the show/film/book). The closest attempt at realism on meshing the world together on TV is probably the complete and utter subjugation of the French national identity by the British in The Next Generation.

As you say, the general mish mash is almost certainly going to happen in real life though.

Ohhh, Ringworld (and presumably Niven's other books set in the same Universe) actually pulls it off well, opening with Louis Wu teleporting around the planet and bemoaning how everything has become the same dull city.

No, that's true. But shouldn't I at least be able to tell why the characters do? I mean, I think MTMTE Rodimus is a shallow caricature based on all the dismissive things that hardcore 84/85 only GEEWUN fanboys say about the guy, and I don't like him at all, but in spite of that he's still got a sort of magnetism and I can understand why so many Autobots want to follow him. The same goes for Megatron. He's a monster, and everyone knows he's a monster, but he's a very convincing monster and it's completely understandable when even the likes of Ultra Magnus seem to be falling for his charms. But Getaway has been a creep from the first "bomp" and Skids is the guy from every hackneyed high school movie who was super-good at sports and aced all his classes without studying because he was too busy volunteering to make dinner for old people and had all the girls after him and was every teacher's favourite. I don't see how it's even possible to like either of them because to me it seems like they're both written to be as unlikeable as possible.

Getaway pretty much has to be charming, that sort of manipulative bastard always is. We get a different perspective on him because we see more of the bigger picture than the characters do. Skids is clearly well liked by the other characters, so it really is just you

Denyer wrote:I can just about buy "charisma" draining aliens, but calling them Personality Ticks and lampshading the silliness of the concept doesn't help. It actually makes the culture and politics of Velocitron being based on competitions (as presented by the comic formerly known as RID) look relatively three-dimensional.

If you don't like personality ticks be grateful someone only suggested Rodimus was a "Deus ex charisma" to Roberts after the issue had already come out.

Emohawk! I knew it was an episode with a strong Red Dwarf vibe (inevitably with Ace Thunderclash I suppose), but for some reason I was thinking of the one with Rimmer on the Id moon.

EDIT: And 3 on the UK comixology chart once more, not bad considering it seemed to sneak out (even Roberts didn't know it was out this week until Chris McFeely pointed out to him that his comic shop had been invoiced for it a couple of days beforehand).