General IDWverse *SPOILER* discussion

[MegatronIDW]

Primarily it was an outlandish statement designed to provoke discussion.

But mostly because it's how I'd play it. Arcee's a psychopathic zealot who's obsessed with vengeance... she has nothing beyond Jhiaxus. Sure, we could deal with future plot strands where she tries to come to terms with her new place in the universe... but personally I think the poetry of the situation calls for her glorious sacrificial death at some point in proceedings.

I don't doubt she may well die in this arc. I just don't think Jhiaxus will kill her. She may well sacrifice herself to take him down but to build her up just to have her fail would be too anti climatic.

[inflatable dalek]

Considering the build up was crap her death would be a welcome relief really.

[Rossum]

I don't know, I'd like to see what she can do once Jhiaxus is no longer an issue. The Autobots need a good crazy-dangerous fighter on their side, now that Sunstreaker is all headmastered up. Plus, unless she gets a ton of storytime, her death is going to have pretty low impact. "Oh Arcee died? Huh. Man, she sure was mad all the time."

[Halfshell]

It'd still be more than Outback got.

At least Outback's based on an actual toy, rather than being created solely for demographic purposes..

[inflatable dalek]

Mind, Outback contributed more there than Wheeljack Jazz has in all his IDW showings.

[Halfshell]

And still they killed him. See - nobody is safe!

By the looks of the most recent script wrap, it seems we'll get the return of everybody's favourite skull faced assassin.

Oh yes, I said there'd be spoilers. And now there are.

Bludgeon will be up and running and facing off with Jetfire by issue 4. What do we reckon to that, then?

Last we saw, he was a prisoner in Garrus-9. What would change that? The Dead Universe team setting Thunderwing loose on the planet, perhaps? Maybe a desperate roll of the dice by Fortress Maximus to consult with the only other TF to even remotely comprehend the Pretender technology?

Exciting!!!!

Discuss!

Oh, and in celebration of the big Nightbeat & Hardhead vs. The Population of Gorlam Prime (who have been turned into Transformers) showdown in issue 2. Who's your favourite Micromaster?

[inflatable dalek]

That one who could fist things at long range.

[Halfshell]

Aah. Moonrock.

[MegatronIDW]

YEAH BOY!

Knew Bludgeon would be back, espcecially after his amazing new look Pretender shell (Okay, MOSTLY new look) and pitting him against Jetfire makes sense. The two are opposite in attitudes AND ideologies. Jetfire is a scientist, logical and rational, wheras Bludgeon is obsessed with mysticism and magic, as evidenced by his belief that "Sacrificing" planets would restore the "Spirit of Cybertron" and his groups cult like worship of Thunderwing.

So is he one of the new Dead Universe characters Furman mentioned? Did he mean "New" in the sense that they were new to the Dead Universe or new as in they were never before seen characters? In which case he might mean Six Shot and Bludegon which would fit neatly with the "Four Horsemen" idea someone brought up a while back. Galvatron is "Plague" as evidenced by his "Death Touch". Six Shot is "War" as that is all he was built for. Bludgeon is "Death" because...well, anyone whose fammiliar with the tradional depiction of Death should know why Bludegon fits nicely. And Cyclonus...famine? Maybe he can drain Energon from other Transformer's?

Y'know, I really hope this is what Furman has planned. The idea of a Transformers "Four horsemen of the Apocalypse" is pretty cool IMO. And the three we've seen so far (Assuming Bludgeon is one of them, which seems likely) seem to fit the pattern.

[MegatronIDW]

First of all OMG: Denyer has "What ho, God's of the abyss" as part of his sig. Black Dossier wasn't as good as I hoped but that was worth the price all by itself. Haven't laughed that hard since Dubya's last attempt to seriously adress the nation and pretend he wasn't an inbred ass clown who rigged the votes.
Getting back on topic: Overall a good selection of Spotlight's. Optimus Prime and Galvatron nicely laid the foundation for the Revelation's saga, while giving us good character a moments. A Galvatron very different from the original (Never understood why the fans said he was too simmilar to his original self. Beside the whole" Rebellious herald" bit he's VERY different. For one thing he has no real desire to do harm to anyone from what i've seen. He does what he does to deceive his masters. Amoral perhaps but not the sociopath of the comics/cartoon). Soundwave was a great chance to see the double dealing mercenary in action. And Optimus Prime was good becaus eit gave us a peak into Op's head and helped explain why he sometimes seems so aloof from the others. He's forced to by the prssure of command, unable to show weakness in front of his fellow Autobot's for fear of damging morale.
Ramjet could be the weak link but I liked it. A fun little one shot in the mold of the "Comedy" G1 and Marvel tales (The good ones, not the ones about "Mechanibals" and space wrestlers)
with a blackly humerous twist. It may have started out as a comedy, with brain damaged facsimiles and jive talking androids but it's ll fun and games untils someone loses an eye...an arm...a leg...a head...

[Blackjack]

In my opinion, Revelations will be featuring on the Combiners. They have been popping out everywhere. the Predacons, Swindle, the Combaticons, Silverbolt, Blades, the Constructicons, Airraid (cameo in Meg origin), the Stunticons (Meg Origin)....

I'm betting Thunderwing and Sixshot coming to be used as mindless drones by Novamesis Prime.

Scourge is surely in. Cyclonus and Galvatron.... They come in one set with Scourge.

More Micromasters are comfirmed by Furman in the Devastation TPB, so I'm expecting the more major patrols to be used (i.e. Roadhandler's patrol, Blackjack's patrol, Storm Cloud's patrol, Mudslinger's patrol, Countdown, Skystalker....)

[Drivaaar]

There's definetely loads of Micromasters in Revelation. I'm not a MM expert, but the majority of them show up at some point or other, there's something like 30 of them I think.... little bastards to colour.

[Blackjack]

My bet is that Blackjack and his Decepticon Race Track Patrol (my favourites, by the way, that's why I call myself Blackjack), which have been used to capture Nightbeat, will appear again as filler troops for the Dead Universe.

Roadhandler is the guy that fists things. He and Mudslinger's Off Road Patrol are major Autobot Patrols, I'm sure they will appear. Big Daddy's Hot Rod Patrol could also be used easily.

The Decepticon Air Strike Patrol (Storm Cloud, Whisper et al) and the Autobot Rescue Patrol (Stakeout, Fixit et al) will be my next best bet. Countdown, Groundshaker, Skystalker and Skyhammer have been used as major characters in DW's Micromasters too.

In my opinion, Micromasters will be tiny, fast mindless slaves for the dead universe, as well as from using Thunderwing, Bludgeon and Sixshot zombies. Go Micros!

As for Bludgeon, I am speculating that his Pretender body still exists, and locked down in Garrus 9. Hey, if they put Arcee's lightsabers there, why not put a pretender armor there? Otherwise, Galvy stole it along with Thunderwing's body. Fine and simple.

[Starfield]

I really like Hot Rod in the IDWverse. He is one of the most developed characters for sure. However there are some mysteries about him. His character doesn't quite make sense to me. He is screaming for a more developed back-story.

He seems to have a phenomenally high rank. Why? While this matches his Tech Spec, he doesn't seem the type of bot that would rise that high in an Optimus Prime organization. The way he's written, it is more like he has his rank by privilege. Like he has connections to influential members of high Cybertronian families, or something. He acts like he takes power and authority for granted. He acts a bit like a spoiled prince.

He also came out of nowhere in Escalation and pretty much bumped Jazz out of the picture. IMO, his presence did a bit to undermine what has been established in Infiltration. Infiltration spent a lot of time establishing the Earth Team. Jazz was the Special Ops agent on the Earth team. He spent at least four years there getting to know the territory. He also spent that time learning to work with Wheeljack as a team. Hot Rod shows up and is given the same mission as Jazz had before. Search and rescue for a thrashed Autobot with Wheeljack. It should have been Jazz's mission. It totally demolished Jazz as a character and turned him into a second-string lightweight when Prime called Hot Rod in to take his place. TFTM all over again.

I know we were meant to get the feeling that the Earth Team as in over their heads, but they should have just had Prime call in reinforcements to help them do their job, and not call in elites to take over because they weren't up to it.

Imagine Transformers Animated if the Ultra Magus showed up and started calling in Elite Guard to do the missions of Prime's crew and you pretty much have Infiltration/Escalation.

[Halfshell]

His character doesn't quite make sense to me. He is screaming for a more developed back-story.

He's got somewhat of a backstory, in regards to his Spotlight at any rate. Certainly more of a backstory than other characters.

He seems to have a phenomenally high rank.

Does he? Hadn't noticed. He's lead field missions, but beyond that...

The way he's written, it is more like he has his rank by privilege. Like he has connections to influential members of high Cybertronian families, or something.

No idea where that impression's come from.

He acts like he takes power and authority for granted. He acts a bit like a spoiled prince.

... you've read his Spotlight, yeah? Because his actions within are the complete opposite of what you're describing.

Hot Rod shows up and is given the same mission as Jazz had before. Search and rescue for a thrashed Autobot with Wheeljack.

Noooo... Hot Rod turned up as part of the reinforcements when Optimus Prime realised how advanced the situation on Earth was. His first mission was assisting in the capture of the FC in Brasnya.

I'm not saying that Jazz couldn't have been given the spot rescuing Wheeljack. But you seem to be skipping randomly over events here.

It should have been Jazz's mission. It totally demolished Jazz as a character and turned him into a second-string lightweight when Prime called Hot Rod in to take his place. TFTM all over again.

Or maybe Prime thought Jazz would be more useful shifting Ark-19 than Hot Rod. Being as Jazz is more familiar with the ship and Hot Rod only just arrived. Who's the faster of the two? Who can get to Ironhide first?

I know we were meant to get the feeling that the Earth Team as in over their heads, but they should have just had Prime call in reinforcements to help them do their job, and not call in elites to take over because they weren't up to it.

That's what they did. Yeah, the three brought in were specialists in certain fields, but Hot Rod's a different sort of Ops Agent to Jazz. His actions in his Spotlight illustrate why he may be better suited to a retrieval scenario.

[Starfield]

That's what they did. Yeah, the three brought in were specialists in certain fields, but Hot Rod's a different sort of Ops Agent to Jazz. His actions in his Spotlight illustrate why he may be better suited to a retrieval scenario.

I guess I'm just biased towards Jazz because he was one of my favorites. The Earth Team didn't have heavy artillery or a detective so Prime called Hardhead and Nightbeat. But they did have a Special Ops guy, although I suppose it would be fair to say Jazz was never solidly established as the Special Ops guy in anything but his Tech Spec. I would say that Jazz's familiarity with Earth would have made him a better choice for that mission than his familiarity with the Ark would make him for flying it around (are Arks that different from each other?), but that is my opinion and not Prime's.

Does he [have a phenomenally high rank]? Hadn't noticed. He's lead field missions, but beyond that...

Hot Rod outranks Prowl in Escallation and Prowl outranks Springer in Spotlight: Kup, so his rank is pretty high anyway.

... you've read his Spotlight, yeah? Because his actions within are the complete opposite of what you're describing.

I get the impression that he takes it for granted that he has authority, with little chance of being demoted, even though he is not entirely comfortable with having that authority and thinks he has to prove to others that he deserves the authority he has, instead of already having proved himself worthy of his rank.

[dotCommunism]

Hot Rod outranks Prowl in Escallation and Prowl outranks Springer in Spotlight: Kup, so his rank is pretty high anyway.

Does he actually outrank Prowl? Prowl just says that he doesn't outrank Hot Rod, which could also mean they're the same rank or that Hot Rod is outside of the traditional command structure due to his role. Of course the command structure itself seems pretty ill-defined in general.

I think you could make the case that rather than having authority, Hot Rod's mainly a free agent within the Autobot ranks. Due to his ability and specialization, he's allowed to mainly operate on his own, especially due to his authority issues (which I'm not sure is necessarily supported by this version of the character) and the trauma he underwent when his entire team was wiped out in his spotlight.

[Chip1123]

Due to his ability and specialization, he's allowed to mainly operate on his own

makes sense as to why he was allowed to stay behind on Earth when the others left...

[Blackjack]

Heck, Jazz and Hardhead are the only (earthbound) Autobots without any decent or solid role yet, acting as filler soldiers with 'speech patterns'. (Jazz being human-esque, Hardhead being triggerhappy and hardheaded). Furman is playing favouritism here, leaning more towards Ratchet, Hot Rod, Prime, Bumblebee and Prowl.

As for the earthbound Decepticons... Only Megatron, Starscream, BLitzwing, Astrotrain, Ramjet and (maybe) Skywarp with characterization. Thundercrackah, Runabout and Runamuck are just... fodder.

[Halfshell]

Heck, Jazz and Hardhead are the only (earthbound) Autobots without any decent or solid role yet

Latter should change soon.