Transformers #13-18 (Ongoing) / Vol. 3 TPB

Post by **zigzagger** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:33 pm

Your all purpose Transformers #15 reaction and discussion thingy.

Out today.

Preview @ IDW Publishing.

Commander Shockwav · Post by **Commander Shockwav** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 10:16 pm

Huh. Two good issues in a row. I think we might be starting to get somewhere.

Megatron is back, but I still think my suspicions will prove true, that Shockwave is behind all of this. For one, the issue is narrated in such a way where it is not clear who the narrator is, referring to Megatron in the third person. So the narrator can't be Megatron himself. Secondly, the narration boxes are purple. Thirdly, we see that Megatron is resurrected by Shockwave himself.

And finally, the statement by Shockwave that "some of us are capable of performing two tasks at once" in reference to building Megatron a new body whilst building a space bridge. But is there a hidden meaning behind this statement?

Also, whether intentional or accidental, Megatron doesn't sound like Megatron at all. Somehow, he seems more...calculating and under control.

All of which point to Shockwave taking it from here. Which would be awesome.

The bots in this look great. Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream, they look as good as they ever have. Don is the man. I was sad to here he will be leaving the book. He just makes things feel so much heavier and lends that darker tone to things that Guido and Nick just can't reproduce.

Also, looking forward to Magnus and Brawn getting some screen time. It's always nice when a bot gets 'spotlighted' in the story itself, if you will.

Give this issue an "A-" I'm seeing potential here. The only downside is that we're being sucked back to Earth. Guess that asteroid wasn't a stepping stone to greater things after all.

Paul053 · Post by **Paul053** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:30 pm

Read it. Yeah, a word that I've not been used for long in the series, better. Or few more words, much, much better. Really a lot of potentials, hope Mike can keep up with them while creating them. Only part that still dragged me down is the first three pages that still full of two people talking, but at least slightly better than Bee-Cracker and Prime-Spike.

Yes, I'm sure that narrator is Shockwave, which makes this issue even better. I'm also curious to see how much Megatron will be changed when back in action.

Don's drawing here is much better than the first six when he tried the new design out. I Also have the same feeling it will be sad and pity if he is really leaving.

I think Starscream should bring Skywarp along with him because Skywarp is really the one who did THAT thing to Thundercracker, right?

Neuronutter · Post by **Neuronutter** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 4:07 pm

Glad to hear the series is improving. I was considering dropping it but now I'll wait and see if the trend continues. Also, Don's off the book again? And Milne's on it? I wish Don would make up his mind and either commit to the series, then we can have some consistency, or leave permanently. I'd rather see him on it, but the constant changing is frustrating.

snavej · Post by **snavej** » Fri Jan 14, 2011 6:40 pm

I wonder if all the little Walthers transform into Mini Megs?! It would be like 'Emperor Zurg' from 'Toy Story 2', only more destructive!

Paul053 · Post by **Paul053** » Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:04 pm

snavej wrote:I wonder if all the little Walthers transform into Mini Megs?! It would be like 'Emperor Zurg' from 'Toy Story 2', only more destructive!

I thought about that, too. And then another even more crazy though coming out, will they combine back to............ Oh well, that's too much.

Post by **Blackjack** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 9:07 am

A lot, lot better than the dire and forgettable International Incident thing, thankfully. I mean, you could basically skip the whole four issues, plus the Spike one, and and read straight from issue 7 to 13 without anything.

Although do we need four pages of seeing random gunner look at his daughter in the radio and whatnot? Kind of boring, and could've been condensed to one page.

A conspiracy website to sow hatred of transformers: a great, fresh idea. But AHM had lots of great, fresh ideas as well. Love the touch of using the Drift cover for the website's heading, though.

Frenzy and Rumble switching colours: unprofessional.

People forgetting Frenzy had already been captured in Bumblebee #2: stupid.

People ignoring the Bumblebee mini: brilliant.

It seems that the Ben guy is a fascimile or otherwise a mind-controlled human. Soundwave breaking out the Autobots is great fun, and Ultra Magnus and Brawn are both great value here. Smokescreen snapping out against the humans is well done as well. Irritating spiky-haired Skywatch agent being run down by Dead End? Nice.

Megatron guns? Meh. But if the weapons are reverse-engineered from Megatron, it does gives stuff credence. Like a rogue Skywatch group.

Bunch of plot holes in it, but not as bad as the past few issues.

What I hope wouldn't be f***ed up completely, like Shockwav and Red had said, is Megatron. We had him monologue in issue 7, we had him rebuilt in a new body last issue.... and now we have him as a disembodied head here. I don't know, this might be another chance for bad continuity.

Don's art is amazing, and his humans are nicer at least. Great touch with changing the eyes to be able to emote.

Better than the crap we had before, thankfully. More like this, please. But almost every arc IDW churns out had a great start. We'll see if this holds. I'm through with hope.

Post by **Blackjack** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 11:25 am

Read this one too. Impressed, truly am. Like issue four. Which brings to bear, if Costa could write gems like this why the hell did he **** the International Incident arc up?

Brawn was amazing, Starscream, Shockwave, Megatron, Ultra Magnus are all amazing... the plot isn't another boring rehash for once. The anti-TF human organization is believable enough, and the fact that they have backing with subconscious whatnot from Megatron in those guns is a nice touch. Though for all the crap made out of the cerebro shells in past issues I'd have expected them to be used instead.

That montage of scenes explaining what happened between AHM and now is great. Shockwave is in tiptop form, despite his eye colour change. Don's art is amazing.

Do we need more humans? Why the hell does Doctor Einstein is needed when this could be a job for someone like First Aid or Wheeljack to undertake?

Not sure if the narrator is Shockwave. I thought he was Megatron, but after reading Shockwav's argument... well, I dunno, I've read it as being Megatron in the first place. I think it's left vague on purpose. I do hope Shockwave would have lots of machinations behind the scenes.

Don't like the Thundercracker development.

Why the hell is Screamer in his F22 body when two issues ago he's in his F15?

Next issue seems to be Spotlight Brawn. Wheeee.

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:20 pm

Nice issue. Plenty of little seeds to mull over and guess what may/may not be going on. Some parts feel a bit hokey - Prime and the others not being able to establish radio contact? fine but they better be offline if thats the case. Megatron fearing the matrix around starscream but not when it was around Rodimus (or Prime in AHM for that matter). Also the bit when it flashed back to Megatron shooting Rodimus, I swear it looks like the old Megatron Cannon Arm.
I'm also not massively sold on Magnus thinking the gun is megatron. Surely even a basic scan would reveal that?

But these niggles dont take away from what is overall an enjoyable issue that could lead on to good stuff. I know a lot of people have sworn of the IDW stuff and I wouldnt send out the "all clear to return" just yet but this isnt looking too bad.

Edit: On the subject of the narative, I'm not sure if its any particular transformer. I get the feeling its just a narative.

snavej · Post by **snavej** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:15 am

Can an Autobot scan spot this 'fake Megatron'? It depends on how the shrinking-to-gun-mode process works and also if the Autobots managed to obtain recent scans of the real (gun) Megatron for comparison. The Decepticon leader would resist being scanned unless he wanted it for some reason.

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:31 am

I can understand if they were decieved from a distance but it's a bit much to expect that they would be decieved up close. And if all those guns do turn into even mini megatons, it flies in the face of the fact that the deceptions had very low fuel reserves.

snavej · Post by **snavej** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:40 pm

Yes, Autobots would be master scanners by now. However, some people suspect that Megatron and others use extra dimensions to store excess mass when they shrink. If true, this would complicate the situation.

With regard to energy, people like Shockwave are experts and could dredge up a bit more from somewhere. Shockwave is said to contain a small nuclear reactor. We don't really know all the details of that asteroid and the space around it.

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:47 pm

I think you should name these "people" you speak of. The public has a right to know.

snavej · Post by **snavej** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:06 pm

I don't know all the names: I only heard about it second-hand. Nothing is proven, as far as I know. I did find this, which talks about the theories (and absurdities!):

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Size_changing

The extra mass has to go somewhere else, otherwise most people would be unable to lift gun Megatron or similar shrinking Transformers. [Law of conservation of mass.]

Purely as an illustration of the concept, Alan Moore talks about storage in other dimensions in his 'Miracleman' comic stories.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:20 pm

The storage in Miracleman involves straight-swapping bodies via what's basically teleport; it does not involve any kind of mass reduction, Miracleman and Mike Moran are seperate entities, one of which just happens to be stored in a 'limbo' dimension when the other is out on Earth or whatever.

They do not transform into each other, they swap places (cf. Captain Marvel/Billy Batson and Captain Marvel/Rick Jones, for obvious reasons), meaning one can survive more or less independantly of each other (for instance, Johnny Bates is dead, but Kid Miracleman is still alive, just trapped in the limbo dimension with seemingly non-lethal, unrelated injuries; a similar concept was later used by Miller in The Dark Knight Strikes again, with Captain Marvel living on despite the death of Billy Batson). This would be the equivalent of Optimus Prime swapping places with a truck which his cloned brain controls. i.e. nothing like what happens.

Have you actually read Miracleman or was it just another attempt to cite something completely irrelevant in a desperate grab for the middlebrow ground?

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:17 pm

Mass shifting's been inconsistently treated by IDW pretty much from the start anyway. It started off as this amazing difficult thing that takes a minimum of normal pure Energon and causes huge atmospheric disruptions whenever it's done. And then because something Soundwave does as standard with no problems whatsoever. And that was with the same writer still working within his Masterplan(tm).

Post by **Blackjack** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:09 am

Soundwave: superior. Continuity: inferior.

Neuronutter · Post by **Neuronutter** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:47 pm

Transformers #16 is out, apparently. Anyone know if it was any good (as I didn't buy it)?

Anyway, the usual thing: Voice your opinion, vent your spleen, etc.

Link to a preview? (http://www.mtv.com/geek/comics/issues/?id=803) Copied from IDWForum.

(Also, how do I make this thread sticky?)

Commander Shockwav · Post by **Commander Shockwav** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:24 pm

This issue makes the third somewhat competent issue in a row. Admittedly, I enjoyed this one.

For one, having seen Milne's past panel-cramped Pat Lee-ish work, I was concerned I would again get nauseous trying to decipher it. But this issue was the best from Milne I've ever seen, and the similarity to Don's work, including the angles and scale, was striking. Obviously, it was purposeful in keeping with Don, and he pulled it off. Stick with this, Alex. It works. Magnus looked kickass.

Another plus were the character interactions. Putting aside the ridiculous scenario of humans pwning Transformers repeatedly, and putting aside the ridiculous notion that somehow Earth holds a special place in the universe and so they must remain there, the character interactions were fun, especially between the trio of Brawn, Screamer, and Cracker. Not so sure about the believability of Brawn's wailing on Screamer so convincingly (then again, he is the Autobot' s 'second strongest'), but that's what I want to see in my Transformers comic. Bot on Bot action, with no human's around to interfere.

Plot-wise is, of course, where the utter failing of Costa's work has lied since day one. The story just gets sillier and sillier, something that tends to happen when you trap the Transformers on a giant mudball planet. Now, Megatron's back! For revenge! Look out humans!

Seriously, revenge? My, my, how far we've fallen from Simon's cool, collected version of Megatron. On the one hand, we're told Megatron has wised up, is back in control. So what does he do? He makes it his purpose to return to this backwater planet just because that's where a single human shot him in the face. Oh no, he's not interested anymore in the Autobots with whom he's waged war on for millenia. He wants them flesh bags to pay. Ultra Magnus, buddy, you're just gettin in the way.

You almost get the sense the thought process behind this was Costa thinking to himself "so you readers won't be convinced about the power of humans and their cocktail bombs, but by golly George, Megatron sure as hell will be!"

It's been said before, many a time, by many a fan, on many a TF message board. Do us all, and yourself, a favor IDW and get the Transformers the hell off Earth.

Give this issue an "A-". Probably the best issue since #4. Which was twelves issues ago. That's a year.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:32 pm

Neuronutter wrote:
(Also, how do I make this thread sticky?)

Just like that.