Devestation #3 Review (SPOILERS)

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 1:52 pm

Nice issue.

Storywise, some things are fleshed out a bit more, which is good, and others are left a mystery. A few light moments of humor too. I laughed out loud when Sunstreaker was going to reveal who the head of the Machination was, and then Nick cleverly cuts to a view from the adjoining room where the Machination men are suspiciously gazing back at Sunstreaker through the window. Sunstreaker can't be heard. Loved that. Kudos to whoever came up with it.

At the end, Simon throws us a bone and reveals that several plot threads will soon be colliding. Unfortunately, one of those is the Intergalactic Circus Show known only as the Reapers. Step right up, step right up, get your fresh roasted cheese right here!

Nick does a fine job here, at least with his bots. Things just look so dynamic with his stuff. But I think E.J. is better at drawing humans than Nick, unless you're really looking for something cartoony. Didn't realize how fond I was of E.J.'s Ratchet holomatter dude until I saw Nick's. Which is ironic, because clearly E.J.'s strong suit is how mechanical he makes the bots look.

Also, for much of the issue, I thought it actually looked like E.J.'s stuff. Maybe the same coloring made me think this, or Nick intentionally tried to mimic some of E.J.'s stuff. In any case, I thought there were similarities.

What I didn't like? Well, again, the pacing of the overall story. It's better this issue, but things still are unwinding a tad slow for my taste. When I think back at what happened in this issue, again, it's Sixshot chasing Ratchet...for the entire issue. And Hunter talking to Sunstreaker...for the entire issue. And Wheeljack and Hot Rod dealing with the new Headmasters....for the entire issue. It's certainly a slower burning tale, and that really isn't as much a flaw as a matter of personal taste.

Oh yeah, and of course that glaring speech bubble mistake at the end. Unfortunately, it was the largest speech bubble of the issue too. Feel sorry for people who aren't familiar with Galavatron.

A "B+". I enjoyed it, and can't wait for the next issue.

P.S. Anybody interested in a good laugh, I suggest you read through the Devestation #3 Review thread on the IDW message boards. It's official. That board is going to hell in a hand basket.

Manchester Devil · Post by **Manchester Devil** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:04 pm

I'm sad Nova Prime had to have the "Nemesis Prime" tag just because he was a sinister character. Oh well, I'll just replace "Nemesis" with "Nova" in my mind henceforth.

That said; This is gripping stuff.

Anyone noticed that one of the Reapers on the last page is similar to the chap who got decapitated by Kup?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:40 am

This might be my fave IDW TF issue so far. That's how much I enjoyed it.

Post by **Best First** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:38 pm

the Nemesis prime thing is a bit sh*t - its like Magneto naming his band 'the brother hood of evil mutants' when he thinks he is a messiah.

other than that pretty sweet, if again over too quickly due to the pace. Liked the reference's back to previous issues - esp the news team (Go F*ck yourself San Diego).

Art good, but must admit i prefer EJ. Beast shots of Sixshot were especially good mind.

Yay to Mouse Poo being still alive - altho his survival (and miraculosuly fast cross country trek) were a bit of a streach. Some expositionary dialouge from a supposed world killer that he was going to have some fun given Ratchet was not a threat might have helped.

Really like the way the Headmaster concept has been twisted - Hunter's scene was a bit ham but i found it a guilty pleasure, as was the bot's final intervention.

And ohmygod the combination of trolls, cack handed modding, censorship and sucking up to IDW (Hey! Who cares they screwed up the speech bubbles - **** off) at the baord is becoming depressing. They need to create seperate forums for being a wierd troll and/or fellating IDW so that the normal TF debate can rumble on.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:08 pm

Best First wrote: And ohmygod the combination of trolls, cack handed modding, censorship and sucking up to IDW (Hey! Who cares they screwed up the speech bubbles - **** off) at the baord is becoming depressing. They need to create seperate forums for being a wierd troll and/or fellating IDW so that the normal TF debate can rumble on.

How bout that one guy who asked for a recap of the issue.......three different times!!!!

Post by **Best First** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:00 pm

I'd class him under trolls - that was hilarious.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:52 pm

I was just pondering how good Nick Roche really is as an artist.

I don't know of any artist, in the whole realm of comic books, that has been able to effectively alter their style to fit someone else's, or alter their style so dramatically to create a different tone, like Nick.

Remember how in the Kup Spotlight he went from that warped disproportionate style when things were from Kup's perspective, to that clean Figueroa-like style at the issue's end when things were from the perspective of Springer and the Autobots in orbit? And here, he does it again, this time trying to mimic E.J.....and pulls it off again!

Seriously, we're talking major talent here.

Post by **Best First** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:02 pm

he's good.

but that's actually not that uncommon to be honest.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:29 pm

Best First wrote:he's good.

but that's actually not that uncommon to be honest.

Really? Haven't seen somebody do this before.

I mean, the difference between how the bots look at the beginning and end of the Kup spotlight isn't subtle. I haven't seen someone able to drastically alter their pencilling like that.

Post by **Best First** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:48 am

- Mark Buckingham did it filling in on Gen X for Chris B.

- Arguably most of the fill in x-artists tried to do it when Joe Mad was on his run - some didn't quiote suceed of course.

- Several artists have aped Mignola's style on Hellboy/BPRD projects, or at least shifted their tone to fit in with the book.

- All of the other artists working on Y-The Last Man have echoed the main artists (who's mame escapes me) style effectively.

Imitating someone is not actually that unusual, a lot of artists actually start off immitating someone else and then start to develop their own style - Brett Booth has an sir of Jim Lee, Linil Yu started off basically copying Portacio, Hitch aping Davis etc etc.

Wildman did it for War Within 2 (although his attempts were scuppered by shoddy inking and colouring).

I'm not dissing Nick but you are trying to say something he is doing is really special when frankly its not that unusual at all in the industry.

Its not to say its not apprecaited but its not OMG! The differences in the KUP series are essentially just clean lines vs scratchy ones - the art style itself is still the same.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:35 pm

Usually, this is called forgery, or plagiarism, but here, in a legitimate environment, it's known as 'in the style of'.

Wasn't there an artist, sometime around 30-80 years ago, who made his fortune by painting pictures 'in the style of' other artists.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:01 pm

Liked that. Loved the news team callback (they do Cali and Florida). Perhaps not enough Decepticons. Hunter was ham central and I'm not sure on what the exact purpose of the Headmasters are yet...

His name is Sk-nk. Hrm. I wonder... it's Blot, innit?

Nice to see Holt reappear... his random wacky cameo in Escalation seemed to have sank without trace, so that's a good.

Not enough Decepticons, though. But I guess that's the price we pay for so many awesome plot strands.

Didn't really see anything that made me think "Nick's doing EJ's style." It's distinctively Roche... he's just drawing characters and models that have almost exclusively been drawn by Su. I lurves them both and hope one day to have the opportunity to cut them up and stitch them together into one giant super artist.

Though I suspect that may be illegal. But in no way creepy.

Good spot from Mr Devil on the dreadlocked koala amidst the Reapers.

Less said about the transposed speech bubbles the better. I don't think Nemesis Prime is quite on the level of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I mean he is instructing The Big G to go deal out some death. Maybe he thinks he genuinely is TEH EVIL.

And what is too soon? Or is that drama?

I'm avoiding the IDW review thread on the grounds that I may kill somebody.

Rebis wrote:Wasn't there an artist, sometime around 30-80 years ago, who made his fortune by painting pictures 'in the style of' other artists.

Hrm. Sure you're not thinking of Noel Gallagher?

Post by **snarl** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:51 pm

Brendocon wrote:
Didn't really see anything that made me think "Nick's doing EJ's style." It's distinctively Roche... he's just drawing characters and models that have almost exclusively been drawn by Su.

Agreed.

Dunno where this 'he's altered his work to better fit Su's style' idea has come from, I just dont see it.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 7:36 pm

It was still Roche's style to me, just toned down a bit.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:07 pm

Thankfully the Reapers seem to have brought an army (makes 'em seem more of a genuine threat) and the funnier-looking members stay off-panel. Quite happy with the way that plot strand's going now...

Really enjoyable issue. Fill-in seems to mean we get all the dynamism of Nick's style, and the more exaggerated facial features stay mainly on the humans, which is a win-win balance IMO. Story points are aggregating nicely... although it's going to be frustrating if there's another big gap between Earth arcs, something I feel's responsible for taking the wind out of the main book's sales a bit -- when the title's not monthly and there are cliffhanger endings to arcs, the risk is more people will figure they're waiting anyway and shift to trades.

Another solid Mosaic. Now, since someone reminded me of it, is Melissa DeHaan's "Business Lunch" on the print schedule? Really cool bit of retro.

Ignoring the layout goof on the last page, 4.5/5 and I hope there's a similar pace and energy to the second half of the arc.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:36 pm

Really liked this one... we get Sixshot chasing Ratchet, some exposition about Headmaster tech, seeing human reactions about TF activity, and two major threats emerging at the end...

I really liked Roche's art - his humans are a bit funny, but his TFs are fluid and nice. Only thing that bothers me is the way he draws hands - looks like the TFs are wearing holey gloves over the hydraulics.

Is it me, or is Sixshot HUGE? Especially in the scene where he enters the city in tank mode or when he's chasing Ratchet in wolf mode. He's pretty much on actual toy scale with Ratchet...

I laughed out loud when Hot Rod was ridiculing the Headmasters. In a way, I think it's Simon's way of getting back at Hasbro for the silly concept he had to work with waay back then.

"covering your fleshy parts"... The interesting 'upgrade' to the idea is that they are all linked to Sunstreaker, drawing from his skills and memories. I don't think Hunter will 'bond' with him, rather he'll just swipe a trans-sector and go ape on the Machination. But maybe Scorpy is ready now...

Btw - it's 100% Scorponok. Sunstreaker utters "Sk -nk" before telling the name off-screen. Besides, it's only logical.

Nice bit of tech spec trivia using Wheeljack's gyro-inhibitor-shells!

The Reapers are all there and looks like Earth gets an old-fashioned alien invasion now...

Nemesis Prime and the whole deaduniverse thing intrigues me. It's obvious now he wants to return to the living, question is, why can't he just travel back like Galvy did... and what is it on Earth he needs to protect for his return? My bet is on OP and the Matrix, but we'll see. Also, I'd guess Galvy will show up in #6 as deus ex machina when the Reapers are winning and wipe them all out, then maybe kill a Con before departing just to show he's not on their side... At any rate, we're looking forward to a Megs/Galvy meeting, the first one since... well, a long time.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:16 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:Btw - it's 100% Scorponok. Sunstreaker utters "Sk -nk" before telling the name off-screen. Besides, it's only logical.

Thanks. I missed that when reading the issue.

Anyway, you're wrong wrong wrong.

It's Sixknight.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:03 pm

'slaps forhead'

Brilliant!

Mad Brick wishes he had that idea back then....

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:24 pm

How do we know it's not an evil skunk?

Loved Roche's art in this. I think we need a weekly comic drawn by Su and Roche and Figueroa that is at least 50 pages long. Although for some reason the big final shot of algae-covered Autobots underwhelmed me.

Personally, I could complain a bit about the ending--how'd the Autobots know where to find MousePoo and etc?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:29 pm

sprunkner wrote:How do we know it's not an evil skunk?

Aaah. Gaskank! Or whatever his RiD name was.

Personally, I could complain a bit about the ending--how'd the Autobots know where to find MousePoo and etc?

They crashed off the Gulf of Mexico. Ratchet drove down to Florida. They were already there. The convenience of their timing would be the quibble.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:29 pm

How fast does an Autobot swim?

Faster than a smoking goat?

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:27 pm

They can't swim as they weigh more then water (unless they have inflatable buttocks like Data had) so they must have been walking along the bottom of the lake all along.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:26 pm

They made the Gulf of Mexico a lake?

****ing Republicans.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:28 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:They can't swim as they weigh more then water

Or, they could have just used some propeller-like motion to provide submersible thrust.

Oh wait, that'd be called swimming.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:43 pm

...now I have images of Autobots with fold-away propellers in their backsides in my head...maybe that's just me though.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:15 pm

Probably.

There are some that have that "spinning hips" part to their transformation, tho.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:38 am

BB Shockwave wrote:they weigh more then water

Depends how much water...

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:27 pm

Well, I know if I'd toss Pat Lee in cement shoes into the sea he'd sink like Dreamwave did. And an Autobot certainly weighs more...

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:03 pm

There's no call for this kind of mass stupidity...is everyone just being really dense?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:03 pm

It's about density not weight.

I think.

I'm not Rebis. But I know somebody who is...