The Art Of War #5

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:54 pm

I notice there was no Art of War ish 5 thread.

Guess apathy sums up the feelings towards this series then?

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:08 pm

Stormwolf · Post by **Stormwolf** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:41 am

Damm, it was a cheese fest.

Anybody else notice that guys like Nightbeat, Bludgeon or Carnivac never appeared in any issues. Though it was nice to see Piranacon.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:28 pm

I'll do a spoiler review tomorrow... I think it was fun, the story was 'weeeird' but it give some odd Cons good characterisation... perheps I liked it for the same reason why I liked Micromasters.

And Overkill was in it! OMG!!!

His first comic appearance! And he TALKED!!! And you'll fall off your chair when you'll hear what he said... as I said, friggin weird...

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:33 pm

OK!

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S
S
S

SERPENTOR ON A PLANE!!!

Ok, now then...

We kick off straight where we left (kinda odd), Prime slams his fist on Serpentor, crushing him badly and telling him to surrender. Serpentor of course states it's not Prime's way to kill (failing to remember Prime just killed Sixshot and Piranacon last issue...) and sicks the Cons on Prime... Prime faces off against all the gestalt leaders (save Snaptrap who seems to be dead) and Octane.

Motormasters states "you can't beat us all" and OP simply says "Watch me" and kicks their asses prime time, KO-ing Hun-Grr and slashing up Onslaught with Razorclaw's sword. Meanwhile Serpentor is alive but badly wounded, and when he tries to repair a hole on his neck, he gets an electric shock... assuming it's only caused by the damage, he ignores it (and states for the up-teenth time how badly he wants the Matrix, duh...

)

The Cons finally beat Prime, who still manages to radio Hot Rod (who for some reason seems to be in charge, even though Magnus and Prowl are there) that the hostages are free and he should commence the attack. Rod gives a short speech, then the combined Joe-Bot forces attack, "Yo Joe" - shudder-

But at least there's a mention of Primus.

Meanwhile, inside the base the Snake-Eyes and gang have freed the captive bots and are massacring the Cons. Quite unbelievably, a force made up of Grimlock, Arcee, Perceptor

and three Joes manages to kill off the likes of the smaller Terrocons and all the Predacons bare Razorclaw...

Yeah sure.

Here comes my favourite scene... Hawk is assaulted by Overkill. Now if your've read his profile in the old Marvel days, you know he loves to brag instead of fighting, and he does just that (also note - first talking animal casette we had in a long time!), stating how the Joes gonna lose, and when the Cons rule Cybertron, he's gonna have... get ready... a harem!!! of girl-bots... red ones, blue ones... (I wonder what he'd do with them, seeing he doesn't even have a remotely humanoid mode...) Then Snake-eyes saves the day by stabbing poor Overkill through the eyes, who dies shouting "Come back here! I don't need to see!" I didn't know whether laugh or cry.

All the Cons are dead, save Runamuck whom Grimlock picks up and demands to take them to Prime 'lest he takes him apart. Runamuck refuses thinking Grimmy, as a Bot, wouldn't do that (guess he watched the cartoon only) - guess what, he would, as to the shock of the Joes Grimmy yanks out the Battlechargers arm and tells him the next one will be his head...

-Note - until this page, Joe NG was doing the pencils, his style hasn't really changed from the blocky looks and the weird perspectives. Now Raiz takes over, and man... his style is great. A bit manga-ish, but he has some panels that I considered taking as wallpaper.

Back in the throne room, Prime is really beaten to a pulp (no kidding, he looks like after the beating by Megs in TF the Movie). Serpentor says he's sorry it has comes to this, then opens Prime up with his tentacles and takes the Matrix, saying "Arise, Serpentor Prime!"

Yeah, campy, but his speech about how he started life as a 'frankenstein's monster' but will become Cybertron's greatest leader is pretty good.

Outside, the Joes and Bots fight against the Cons who have Trypticon

and hordes of Sweeps to back them up, on a simply awesome splash page, that is only ruined by the Joe banter and Shrapnel reciting his second Movie line... I also gotta wonder how good an assault rifle is against a TF, but after Snake-eyes ninja trick last issue, I stopped caring about credibility.

The fight is interrupted when the Matrix's flame lights up from the tunnel. Inside, Serpentor Prime truly arises (he's as big as a TF now and really cool-looking).... then starts to cry like a baby!

No kidding! The matrix opened his eyes as to how evil he is, and he can't bear it... Stating idiocies like 'you should all live in peace!' he grabs Motormaster's gun and wants to shoot himself... when he shorts out again!

When he rises again, it is made clear that this was the control program Dr. Knox wrote and that Zartan attached to the robot's neck 4 issues ago... and since he's such a bragging retard, Cobra Commander goes to all lenghts of Shockwave-y explanations to let us know how he did it all.

In control of Serpentor Prime's body, he crushers Motormaster and Razorclaw into half with the tentacles, then goes for OP... when Grimmy and the gang burst in.

They attack him, but he swats everyone aside (note how a hit that crushes Perceptor's shoulder only knocks the Joes unconcious)....

Arcee is left standing and she does a flip-jump which I guess was only in to let us have a look up her underwear. No, really! She has hydraulics showing everywhere!

She manages to tear off Serpy's chestplate, and is knocked out. As CC/Serpy moves in for the kill (talking rubbish all the while) Prime tosses Hawk at him, who grabs the Matrix, despite OP's warnings (then why did he toss Hawk?). As the Matrix goes 'swoosh', Hawk states 'The universe is so... perfect... so beautiful..."

Then the Matrix falls to the ground, leaving the smoking remains of Hawk and Serpy/CC behind. Hun-Grr awakens and is puzzled what the heck he missed, but decides to add OP to the casualty list... only to get a huge hole blown into his chest by some Joe girl - apparently they won, leaving us to guess whether Trypticon was defeated by Wheelie off-panel.

Back on Earth, Dr. Knox (or is she Zarana?) finds that the flesh-and-blood Cobra Commander got his mind fried thanks to the happenings...

On Cybertron, rebuilding starts again. There is another idiotic 'tag' game between Scarlett and Snake-Eyes, and Roadblock makes a horrible joke that makes Perceptor (yes, THAT Perceptor) laugh. Grimlock grudingly admits not all humans are wimps "Joes great warriors. Great heroes. Great Friends." Gimme a break...

OP is repaired by a neat cameo of the Paradron Medic, and he starts writing his log about the events - we see a statue built to honour Bumblebee (frankly I already forgot he died 2 issues before) and Arcee sheds a tear. OP also talks about threats close and far, and we see Mindbender and the -shudder- Cobra-La-La guys with Unicron in the background and some apocalyptic alternate Joe future chars fighting (note that Trypticon is on the Joe side...

WTF?) Also revealed is that Hawk is now part of the Matrix... i still don't get it how, as he's shown standing there in robes, with a blue glow in his eyes (Dune?) and that he's gonna lead humankind into a golden age. Yeah, if he can win the elections against George Bush...

The End... or is it? I hope it is...

All in all, a fun thing to read, lots of obscure Cons were used, though we didn't get too many Bots get characterisation. I also liked Serpentor, too bad he was finished in such a cheap plot. Cobra C.'s takeover was truly out of the blue and not really necessery. All in all, an intersting fanfic crossover, but not one that I'd recommend to every fan.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:39 pm

Even I didn't recognise all the TFs so I dread to think what a Joe fan thought.

This series has gone way off base since the down to Earth first volume.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:47 am

i got this at the weekend.

it was a weak end.

Prime gets done by Razorclaw and MM? Please.

the whole things was just gibberish IMO.

The Last Autobot · Post by **The Last Autobot** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:27 pm

This looks more like a flash/youtube fanmade video.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:00 pm

Just when I thought it might actually be worth it to invest in a G.I.Joe/TF crossover, I have to been proven the fool again.

The series showed promise at the beginning, but like its predecessors, by the end it failed miserably.

How many times do I have to bite before I learn my lesson.