Y'know, I dont tend to agree with you as a matter of course, however you hit so many nails there right on their heads that I am considering getting you to assemble the wardrobe we just got.Cliffjumper wrote:None of Sin's seeded properly, is it? It should be an arc in an ongoing or something but we're dropped into this big revelation story about people we've never met and mysteries that we didn't know were mysteries. Springer's origin has never, ever been a big mysterious thing. Hubcap's not an ignored nobody because the first time we see him he's handpicked to come and back the Wreckers up on a field mission. Stakeout's not this loyal principled cop because he's up to his neck in it the moment we meet him.
So finding out Springer is actually some science project from a tedious never-before-mentioned super-science-villain who's inexplicably able to keep the Wreckers busy with his technobabble has zero impact because we didn't know Tarantulas existed four issues before let alone that he'd made himself an artificial Transformer.
So finding out Hubcap is this bullied little arsewipe has no impact because we've only got his whining to go on and it doesn't remotely scan with the way anyone treats him even after we find out he's the world's limpest traitor ever ("Don't betray us Hubcap"/"I spent my whole life planning this with an evil robot spider telling me to but yeah alright"). He should have been in the background perenially since as close to the start of the IDWverse for it to even half work (considering both Roche and Roberts just assign whatever personalities they like to whatever robot is nearest he should have been Searchlight).
Stakeout shows up and dies almost immediately chasing a ****ing robot rabbit into a whale having established that he's basically Streetwise. If that had any sort of emotional impact on anyone unless the original crap lanky Micromaster was your only companion for five years of being locked in a basement then they're indoctrinated by this sort of false tragedy IDW have been tube-feeding readers since the early days to a startling degree.
All of this is forced by the format of a limited series for sure. But then there was always the option of not just hurling loads of revelations at the thing; the most annoying thing is the whole Prowl/Aequitas plot is actually pretty organic even if it shits all over that gloriously ambiguous frame that topped off LSotW so perfectly (it's the equivalent of Inception having a credits scene where Nolan stands there holding a giant idiot board saying "HE'S STILL DREAMING!!!") but there's just so much other manipulative garbage thrown in because, hey, didn't futile deaths, overpowered villains and pathetic weaklings getting screwed over by The System go down well the first time?
Plus that Ironfist corpse scene is even more tawdry and desperate on a second reading. And you can hear Linkin Park fading in on that last page can't you?
Honestly SIns, I tried to love you, I really did. But Art and Mayhem Squad aside, all that deep monologuing from Spider Boss did not hide the fact that this was a series that was unlovable. Characters I did not like, feeding into arcs I didn't like with a reveal and resolution that I did not like either. Sadly, this wont be a hardback I'll be buying. I'd still give Roche another shot - this aside his three previous work has been quality (I'm going by LSOTW, Spotlight Kup and AHM:the only good one). Plus the new art style was cracker.
But feck it Cliffjumper, when you're right, you're right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd0stUFsZ-o