Infiltration #0-6/TPB

[Denyer]

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
the two Con's had just done a large Robot Mode attack in broad daylight at the garage

Could've been a deserted area. Unlikely, IMO, but could've been. Probably best to chalk it down to crap strategy on Ratchet's part.

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
I love that as soon as they've decided to stop being all secretive and hidden the Decepticons decide to whack a huge 'Con symbol up outside their secret headquaters...

Yeah, Starscream's a scamp... of course, the whole thing could be under a hologram most of the time.

[inflatable dalek]

Originally posted by Denyer
Could've been a deserted area. Unlikely, IMO, but could've been. Probably best to chalk it down to crap strategy on Ratchet's part.

I'm fairly sure they were heading to a town last issue weren't they? Though I'd have to double check that.

Yeah, Starscream's a scamp... of course, the whole thing could be under a hologram most of the time.

I hope so, else the Autobot's inteligence gathering is a bit rubish...

"Hey Ironhide, have we found the Decepticons secret base yet?"

"Well Prowl, we did find a large alien base witha honking huge Decepticon symbol outside, but I believe that's a dead end..."

Oh, and as she got a slaging last time I should say I found Verity much more berable this instalment.

And it just occured to me that is that have that "Page with the headshots of each TF in the issue so there's no suprises..." thing in the BW comic it'll take up half the issue.

[Denyer]

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
heading to a town last issue weren't they?

They drove through one, anyway. Don't recall any people in the vicinity of the garage, so it might be on the edge of town. Ratchet then heads back into traffic to try to lose them when they pursue.

[inflatable dalek]

I suppose it's possible that the reason Prowl and co took so long to reply to the SOS had nothing to do with tardiness or distance travelled, but was down to them waiting for ratchet and Co to get what they considered a minimum safe distance from human settlements to avoid futher contact?

[Denyer]

Feasible—although distance may play a part too, as an undersea base is quite a way from desert regions unless they have some form of teleportation.

[inflatable dalek]

Originally posted by Denyer
Feasible—although distance may play a part too, as an undersea base is quite a way from desert regions unless they have some form of teleportation.

Unless their following the geography of the American cartoon where the parts of the world that weren't underwater were desert. I'd assume no teleportation though as surely they'd have just beamed Ratchet into a holding cell.

And another thing I liked: The old Furman trademark of being able to paint broad charecterisation with just a few lines (in this case the Battlechargers).

I'm quite pleased that comic book guy set me aside the Wildman "Return of the speech bubble" cover- very old school. Shame the dialouge's an old injoke though. And isn't "End of the Road!" somthing Furman saves for the last ever issue? Or does he know somthing we don't? Still, I look forward to speech bubbles on WEildman's next few covers reading "It never ends, Ratchet!", "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees Ratchet!" and, of course, "It never ends Ratchet!".

Slightly more seriously though, I think the Wildman covers for IDW have blown his DW stuff out the water...

[Wildrider]

Got my covers today, enjoyed the issue overall, well paced with plenty of action without losing too much dialogue. However I was a bit disappointed with my Wildman cover.I think he can do alot better then that, although I liked the speech bubble, harked back to Marvel UK days for me.

I'm missing the holo guy though, however I did like the way the battle charger's were used AS battle chargers with suitable alt mode alteration to show their aggressive intent.

I'm enjoying the new look of the TFs they appear a it on the vulnerable side though, not really all that armoured with all their bits hanging out, but I think we've still yet to see Su go to town on the TF's, which should be something special.

It's getting a bit love triangle(y) with the humans though isn't it?
"I'll go talk to her"
Sod off grease monkey let Shaggy get the girl!

P.S.

Was that our own Commander Shockwav 'putting it to the man' on the letters page?

[inflatable dalek]

Originally posted by Wildrider
Was that our own Commander Shockwav 'putting it to the man' on the letters page?

Why else do you think he thought this was an improvement over the first issue?

[Denyer]

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
isn't "End of the Road!" somthing Furman saves for the last ever issue?

Nah, that's "never the end!"

Most memorably used here only five issues in...

http://tfarchive.com/comics/covers/inde ... neration+2

"End of the Road" is the title of two original-era stories -- the last UK black and white strip in #289, and the last story in both the UK and US 'G1' titles.

Sod off grease monkey let Shaggy get the girl!

[inflatable dalek]

Originally posted by Denyer
"End of the Road" is the title of two original-era stories -- the last UK black and white strip in #289, and the last story in both the UK and US 'G1' titles.

And also the cover of the last issue of the US Generation 2 comic: http://tfarchive.com/comics/covers/Marv ... 2%2012.jpg - A deliberate injoke on it previously being used as the title for both the last UK and US strips. Hence my concern

[Aardvark]

Enjoyed this issue, a bit of action and I’m warming to the humans, particularly Jimmy for some odd reason. I'm still a bit down on the rehashing of the same characters over and over. Great Starscream is up to something, which he'll probably use without anyone knowing to become leader of the cons. I just prey to Primus that if and when they introduce Grimlock, we're not just going to get the same rehash of the "Rebel" autobot. I mean he already reached his epiphany in G2 albeit it’s a different continuity to IDW. Characters like Grimlock were what I really loved in the old comics, but it’s becoming too familiar. My heart sank when they went on about using Runamuck and Runabout as some extremely rare, obscure characters that no one would expect. I mean compared to many other characters they got their fair share of scenes in the comics. From the comics and the original tech specs to even the show, the same old characters have become far too well established. Yes character development in Transformers is great when they bother, but can you truly develop already developed characters (Yes they're different continuities and they are trying to put their own spin on Ratchet) There are just so many good characters waiting to be brought to life. I know this all-speculative but still.

And now for the nerdy nitpick: On the very first page why is the uber expensive, super futuristic palm pilot computer thing all wobbly and ****

[T.V.]

Originally posted by Aardvark
And now for the nerdy nitpick: On the very first page why is the uber expensive, super futuristic palm pilot computer thing all wobbly and ****

That's intentional.

[Aardvark]

No, no, not the panel with Ratchet's hologram holding it, the pic with Verity holding it

[inflatable dalek]

Originally posted by Aardvark
I just prey to Primus that if and when they introduce Grimlock, we're not just going to get the same rehash of the "Rebel" autobot.

To all intents and purposes we've allready had Furman's Grimlock in the comic, he's just been cuningly renamed Ratchet and made more articulate, and hey presto Furman can claim he's avoiding the usual cliche's.

Still, I'll eat my words if the Ratchet/Prowl relationship turns out toottaly different to what I'm expecting next issue...

[Aardvark]

You read lots of grumbles that in the UK comic Simon Furman was forced into using obscure characters and had to write around the American stories but it worked. We got the then marginally obscure Dinobots, the wonderful wreckers, Carnavac ect. I think he needs to be restrained, given some boundaries and direction, look at some of his early US work, its not all that good. And look at Death's Head. Within the boundaries of the transformers universe he was such a good character but let loose in the mainstream Marvel universe and well Furman just let him get his ass kicked a lot. Now don't get me wrong no transformer writer has come close to Furman's work. He puts "THE MAN" in Robot Man X (Sorry). But the battlechargers, that’s meant to constitute as something special. Lets see something a little more "refreshingly" new

[Commander Shockwav]

Originally posted by Wildrider

Was that our own Commander Shockwav 'putting it to the man' on the letters page?

Yip.

I once had one of my post from the DW message board put in their letters column. But they didn't sign it with "Commander Shockwav".

Instead, they wrote "From Loathesome"

I was like "Loathesome? What the **** did I ever do to DW?"

Then I realized it was because I was posting threads about how DW sales numbers were constantly declining all over the internet. Guess Pat didn't like that much.

[Denyer]

Originally posted by Aardvark
look at some of his early US work, its not all that good.

Couple of points...

Furman's first story arc on the US title sticks to the formula Budiansky was working with so closely that it was probably being worked from notes -- and when he gets onto the title, Furman has to work out a way to introduce the dozens of arriving toys required by Hasbro. There's an element of playing for time.

Furman didn't have much control over DH outside of Transformers.

Wandering on...

The Battlechargers being involved isn't revolutionary, it's just a shorthand way of emphasising that a previous continuity isn't being aped, with characters being introduced in toy order, etc. The core cast are popular, but I expect we'll continue to see some mingling.

[Aardvark]

Originally posted by Denyer
Couple of points...
Furman didn't have much control over DH outside of Transformers.

Really, I've never read into Furmaons involvement in the non-transformers DHs. I have all the issues of "The incomplete Deaths Head" and he does claim writing credits, though perhaps he wasn't the primary writer. http://www.comics-db.com/Marvel_Comics/ ... h_s_Head/.
I don't consider any of the Minion and beyond as Death's head if thats what you were referring to. Still I didn't like the aforementioned DH comics much either.

There's an element of playing for time

True but I think that also contributed to the great stories he wrote for the UK comics. (In case that sounds like this I don't mean that his US stories were bad)
As for the Battlechargers well I was only really reacting to the comments in the letters page. I've always liked those guys but they're nothing to be shocked over.

[Denyer]

The actual comment was just "I love that our use of the lesser-used Runabout and Runamuck has thrown some people a bit."

Ryall is doing the whole "I'm a nutter!" thing with the letters page, abetted by Nick Roche... which is preferable to Dreamwave's tactic of only printing / making up extremely short and arse-kissing letters...

On IDH, it's not so much that Furman has a co-writer as he can't actually do anything to make DH effective in a mainstream Marvel universe -- whilst killing the Fantastic Four would be fun, for instance, Marvel have a big list of things that aren't permitted in their titles.

[Cliffjumper]

Furman's initial US arc was crap largely by his own making, to be fair. It's his unusually clumsy scripting and a couple of ludicrous leaps of logic (entire Decepticon Earth army + Prime = no pain for Starscream; Hot Rod's ****ty wrist blasters = knock out blow, etc.) that finish the thing off. Primal Scream's a coffee table comic, and the Matrix Quest is 60% very, very bad; then there's "RoD" where he loses his balls in an almost Russell T. Davies fashion, and then there's The Human Factor. It's only after that that the thing picks up any sort of pace.

#2 - Well, overall it's heading somewhere, but I still see no reason why it can't go quicker. Some nice action scenes, but zero character development, and not actually a huge amount of plot advancement until the last couple of pages - rather ruined by the covers for forthcoming issues being made avaliable online about 19 years ago, a common DW fault.