Transformers: Robots in Disguise Season One #1-22

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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Terome wrote:Just had a thought - what's with all the fake maths on the cover? Wheeljack's problem is a straightforward electrical circuit but on a grand scale. We have mathematics for those.
It's SPACE maths. IDW have always been very inconsistent on whether or not we see (presumably translated for our benefit) Cybertronian writing as English, whether is is actually in English, or if it's genuine gibberish. MTMTE seems to be doing one of the first two with RID the later. IIRC the worst example is in the New Avengers crossover where Wolverine is able to read Cybertronian as Cybertronian.

Did the whole suicide thing remind anyone else of the election episode of Blackadder the Third? "Senator Ratbat died in a tragic accident where he accidentally stabbed himself in the chest and ripped a wing off whilst shaving".

Did anyone else want Dirge to respond to the "How many of us died during those weeks?" with "Errr.... one. And he got better later. In terms of long term casualties Megatron's cunning Autobot ambush only successfully killed one Decepticon". Though him being fussy about the Autobots mistreatment of him on Cybertron was a bit rich considering he and Deluge would have been the only ones with weapons and the Autobots still let them go after disarming them.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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der2
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Post by der2 »

I really enjoyed the issue and have the series so far, it is not as good as MTMTE, but such is life and I don't want it to take away from the title. Wheeljack was awesome throughout, nice to see that there is absolutely no infrastructure for the planet to try and piece it's civilisation back together, even currency exchange isn't happening.

I would like to see more focus on the nails too and how they're coping with their world being torn apart.

Starscream going into politics seems to be a good role for him to go for, though I'd expect he's gonna wind up in charge, silver tongued devil that he is.

Cool to see Prowl side with a con over an Autobot, so it'll be interesting where that leads.

We finally get rid of Prime, I'm worried about his return, even if he's Orion Pax, he hasn't been gone very long.

Less Bumblebee please.

Is that Red Alert in the first couple of pages? Isn't he on the Lost Light?
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Did the whole suicide thing remind anyone else of the election episode of Blackadder the Third? "Senator Ratbat died in a tragic accident where he accidentally stabbed himself in the chest and ripped a wing off whilst shaving".
That suicide thing is a big misstep. Surely claiming that he was taken out by one of his own troops would be more credible. He was pinned to the middle of the bloody wall with no feet.
Did anyone else want Dirge to respond to the "How many of us died during those weeks?" with "Errr.... one. And he got better later. In terms of long term casualties Megatron's cunning Autobot ambush only successfully killed one Decepticon". Though him being fussy about the Autobots mistreatment of him on Cybertron was a bit rich considering he and Deluge would have been the only ones with weapons and the Autobots still let them go after disarming them.
The more I think about it the sillier dirges position becomes. They were going to feed the Autobots to the swarm for petes sake. Its not like he was just gaurding them in cells.

Its not a fault of IDW transformers fiction alone but if you are going to go the route of peacetime after war you have to take into account what went before. Why all the cons weren't placed into stasis (as opposed to the most lax prison ever)is beyond me.
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Post by Warcry »

Red Dave Prime wrote:4 - Arcee Face - Sort this one out because it just looks like some weird transvestite.
But she is! Although I agree that she looks terrible.

I wasn't impressed with this one, honestly. Like Bumblebee last issue, Silverbolt's freakout came right out of nowhere. In fact, it's even worse since to the best of my knowledge he hasn't even had any lines since 2008 or so. And using his War For Cybertron design didn't help since it meant I had no idea who he was until he was addressed by name. In general I think the Aerialbots are an odd choice to "walk away" over having to work with the Decepticons, because one of the few bits of characterization they've gotten in older works has show them to be among the most accepting Autobots when it comes to the 'Cons (in the cartoon when the idolized them, and in G2 when fighting alongside them merited little more than lighthearted "Rescued by 'Cons? We'll never live it down!" jokes). And while I could see Air Raid going along with Silverbolt unquestioningly, Skydive, Fireflight and especially Slingshot don't seem the type so it's a shame that we didn't get to see the team discussing the situation amongst themselves at all.

I agree that Dirge comes off as a dumbass. "You Autobots left me to die at the hands of the Swarm for no reason other than me trying to leave you to die at the hands of the Swarm. You bastards!" Moron.

Wheeljack's obvious contempt for "King Bee" was refreshing, though, and it was nice to see him solve a problem with his brain instead of resorting to brutalizing Decepticons and/or NAILs to make things better. It's nice to see that not all of the Autobots with their head on straight left on the Lost Light.
inflatable dalek wrote:Did the whole suicide thing remind anyone else of the election episode of Blackadder the Third? "Senator Ratbat died in a tragic accident where he accidentally stabbed himself in the chest and ripped a wing off whilst shaving".
Yeah. That was a bit shameless, even for Prowl. Couldn't he have at least tried to blame it on Decepticon infighting or something else vaguely plausible?
inflatable dalek wrote:Did anyone else want Dirge to respond to the "How many of us died during those weeks?" with "Errr.... one. And he got better later. In terms of long term casualties Megatron's cunning Autobot ambush only successfully killed one Decepticon".
Well, to be fair the Decepticons did successfully kill a lot of Autobots during the attack on Garrus 9, and apparently elsewhere around the galaxy. Though notably those successes only happened on worlds where Megatron wasn't in direct command.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Warcry wrote: Well, to be fair the Decepticons did successfully kill a lot of Autobots during the attack on Garrus 9, and apparently elsewhere around the galaxy. Though notably those successes only happened on worlds where Megatron wasn't in direct command.
Of course, that does raise the point (albeit one that may have been addressed in the Costa Crap) that virtually all of the Autobots were supposed to have been killed during AHM. I can accept the conceit that the survivors happen to be 99.99% toy based characters, but shouldn't the Decepticons still hugely outnumber them?
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

That's a fair point. Even if you assume that every other Decepticon unit was as utterly useless as Starscream's was without Megatron to hold their hand and tell them what to do, and that they suffered similar levels of stupidity-based attrition as the group of 'Cons that we've been following, there should still be huge numbers of Decepticons running around the galaxy virtually unopposed. Though that wouldn't necessarily have an impact on RID (since I think the only Decepticons on Cybertron are the ones who were with Megatron on Earth) Rodimus and his crew should be practically tripping over them as they wander around the galaxy.
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Plus a few must have been hovered up in the Deceptigod gestalt thing. Sure, most some fine after, but megatron whacked quite the chunk out of that thing.

It's interesting that if AHM had of gone through to a more downbeat conclusion (like Autobots save earth but Megatron and the cons have taken most of the galaxy) it would have made the ongoing have a easily set out storyline - small autobot rebellion against a much larger decepticon empire. Funny how IDWs various editors all want to try the after-war scenario instead.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Red Dave Prime wrote: It's interesting that if AHM had of gone through to a more downbeat conclusion (like Autobots save earth but Megatron and the cons have taken most of the galaxy) it would have made the ongoing have a easily set out storyline - small autobot rebellion against a much larger decepticon empire. Funny how IDWs various editors all want to try the after-war scenario instead.
But that is what happens at the end of AHM isn't it?
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Well actually, apart from megs being in rough shape, yeah it is :) but for some reason when we next see the decepticons they are a small, shattered force that are resorting to cannibalism. And i cant for the life of me remember why.

I was thinking more along the lines that megatron survives intact and the decepticons become a dominant, united force against the whole galaxy. Think it would have been a better set up for the ongoing instead of the shambles we got.
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Post by StarscreamX »

Gotta say I'm loving Starscream right now. This is the first interesting thing anyone's done with the guy in as long as I can remember and I'm liking how his motivations are being kept secret. We've got no idea if all his talk about regretting past actions and wanting to change is true, or if like Prowl suggests, him helping the NAILS was just a way to score a "PR Victory" and he's still the same old power hungry Starscream, plotting to betray the Autobots

Having him as a political schemer is a lot more interesting than having him be the daft prick who rants about how he's going to be leader of the Decepticons while less than a foot away from Megatron every half hour, so even if he is going to fall back on his treacherous ways at least it's being done in a smarter and more interesting way than the generic stuff in Infiltration, All Hail Megatron and Revenge of the Decepticons.

"King 'Bee"? In-Joke toward King Grimlock or forshadowing that Bumblebee's leadership is going to turn out to be as godawful as Grimlock's was? I can't see 'Bee becoming as much of a tyrant as Grimlock was during his time as leader but then again the pressure already seems to be getting to him

Silverbolt and the Aerialbots leaving was a nice twist, it'll be interesting to see if they end up becoming a threat to both the Autobots and the Decepticons down the road. Given that Silverbolt seems to be a bloody nutter I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being a villain in the future

For a guy who's meant to be pretty smart, Prowl can be pretty damn thick sometimes can't he? Does he seriously think anyone is going to buy the idea that Ratbat commited suicicide? Even DIRGE can see that that's a load of bollocks and when you can't even trick Dirge you know you're doing a piss poor job
Decepticons forever!

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Terome
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Post by Terome »

For a guy who's meant to be pretty smart, Prowl can be pretty damn thick sometimes can't he? Does he seriously think anyone is going to buy the idea that Ratbat commited suicicide? Even DIRGE can see that that's a load of bollocks and when you can't even trick Dirge you know you're doing a piss poor job
Some real-life context to Prowl's suicide report:

http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/iv-death-steve-biko

Steve Biko died in detention following a 'hunger strike,' after which he 'appeared unwell.' Solomon Modipane died after 'slipping on a piece of soap.'

Prowl's not being thick, he's making threats.
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Post by Summerhayes »

I've got #3 of RiD and MtmtE at home waiting for me, so I'll pass proper judgement later. But I've actually enjoyed rid from the start
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Transformers: Robots In Disguise #4

Post by zigzagger »

This is your all purpose Transformers: Robots In Disguise #4 reaction and discussion thread.

Preview @ Newsarama
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Bluecatcinema
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Post by Bluecatcinema »

Looks like Bombshell's up to his old tricks again.
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Looks like Bombshell's up to his old tricks again.
The Blaggard!
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

I have a feeling that we're going to get a needlessly complicated explanation for Bombshell being in Spotlight: Blaster. Is that what we wanted?
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Post by TLB80 »

Terome wrote:I have a feeling that we're going to get a needlessly complicated explanation for Bombshell being in Spotlight: Blaster. Is that what we wanted?
Didn't we already get one in the form of 'oh, it was a different guy that just happened to be called Bombshell and look exactly like him'?

Anyway, this preview raises a lot of questions. Will Bombshell survive this? (I hope he does) How long will it take for the Autobots to figure out who's behind it all? (I mean, the cerebro-shells look exactly like Bombshell) How many more characters will Barber kill off? And how genius are IDW's editors for letting a typo get in the bloody title?

I suppose I'll find out soon.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Perhaps Bombshell's twin and Blaster's twin from Stormbringer went off and had lots of exciting adventures?
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

Perhaps Bombshell's twin and Blaster's twin from Stormbringer went off and had lots of exciting adventures?
Those were the Lethal Weapon movies. They didn't have the budget to include robots back then so they just used people and reckoned no one would notice. It was a successful gambit!

I have read this now and I thought it was like a lot of the other issues of this title: It contained some cool ideas and some surprisingly bold moves. Looks like Prowl now boasts a named bodycount higher than any other Autobot we've met, that Griffith is pretty awkward at putting these character designs through the athletics that the script asks and that they totally punked us with 'Turmoil' being in the solicitations. There's a much better Decepticon mentioned in the Next Issue slot.

I hope they go all the way and have Dirge be the protagonist of this story. He's the only character, bar Wheeljack, who doesn't seem to be going steadily insane. I'd also like to see them lay off of Prowl for a while. This issue was a double-thick extra dose of him and I'm not convinced that there's much more to learn about him. I'd be impressed if he is being set up to be murdered quite soon.
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Post by relak »

lol. is "Devisive" meant to be intentional?
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