All Hail Megatron #3 Review

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:57 pm

Cool Trevor Hutchinson cover. Check.

Strong Guido artwork. Check.

Cinematic feel. Check.

Story progression. Very, very little.

Before I get into criticisms though, I want to say, I do understand the feel Shane is going for here. It does seem cinematic in a way, and despite it's comparisons to the cartoon, I don't really get that same vibe these past two issues. I think Shane is going for an "invasion" kind of feel, something global, as felt from the perspective of mankind. Which I think he has achieved, and which I have enjoyed. I enjoy the way Shane is letting Guido's art tell the story.

Also on the plus, we get some character development and hints of history between Megs and Screamer. I actually find it quite intriguing, and the dialogue is a welcome change from the "-ations" series.

But the pacing and story progression? Oh momma.

A major flaw here, possibly fatal. This series thus far has made Infiltration seem like.....like Revelations!

I mean, one has to question, that if Marvel's main title for the year, Secret Invasion, can achieve what it has set out to do in an eight issue series, surely AHM could have followed suit?

What I have seen, I haved enjoyed. Problem is, I have seen very little in terms of actual story progression. Twelve dollars in, we should be seeing much, much more than we have. I mean, cut some of those panel sizes in half. There doesn't have to be more dialogue, just more page space.

I see potential here, I really do. But the way things are going, that full potential will only be met in trade paperback format.

Give it a "B-".

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:27 am

I loved the Starscream/Megatron stuff.

Dead Head · Post by **Dead Head** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:30 am

Yaya wrote: Give it a "B-".

SIDETRACK:

What does that mean? (This isn't specific to your reviewing, though) I find these type of 'school grade' rating scales (A to F) to be mostly useless (not to mention highly variable in their interpretation between reviewers, and the median typically being skewed rather high). It's a bad system.

At least by using a consistent one-word key (i.e. "Great", "Good", "Mediocre", "Bad", "Terrible"), there's far less chance of misinterpreting the grader's short summation. Just a thought.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:05 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:I loved the Starscream/Megatron stuff.

Agreed. That was the best moment from the pair since IDW got the license.

Particularly loved the way Megatron was cleaning his cannon whilst talking with Screamer. That's good writing, IMO. Little things like that have a big impact. A lot of writers would have just had them looking at each other talking, which would not have the same effect.

As a "C" means average, a "B-" means slightly better than average, almost good.

Post by **Best First** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:29 pm

ah, but take into account the fact the Yaya thougt War and Peace is good and then basically assume anything he says should be viewed as highly suspicious.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:46 pm

Best First wrote:ah, but take into account the fact the Yaya thougt War and Peace is good and then basically assume anything he says should be viewed as highly suspicios.

Aye. Tis true.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 5:54 pm

Predabot? Is that you?

(please don't answer. please don't answer)

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:08 am

Best First wrote:ah, but take into account the fact the Yaya thougt War and Peace is good and then basically assume anything he says should be viewed as highly suspicious.

Was War and Peace the 2nd one? I found that greatly enjoyable up until about 2 pages into issue 6.

I think the first DW mini would have made a fine movie...

..if they'd have just left out the part when Prime calls for the Decepticons' heads. Wow, that still burns 7 years later.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:22 pm

Professor Smooth wrote: Was War and Peace the 2nd one? I found that greatly enjoyable up until about 2 pages into issue 6.

Aye, was the second one.

Agree, the ending fell flat , especially the whole "pull on Shockwaves nuclear tube" ending, which was so poorly rendered by Lee, it was shocking they would have the clincher be so indecipherable.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 6:46 pm

I liked War and Peace, all the way through, actually, although the nuclear tube thing was indeed silly.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:20 pm

War and Peace was horrible, but let's not get me started on this - Yaya (Commander Shockwave at the time) and me got into a lot of arguments over that back in the DW boards. Oh, was that so long ago?

W&P started the whole thing, btw, where Shockwave was responsible for everything...

and James Bond villains could take lectures from him in the 'explain your plan to the hero so he can thwart your schemes at the last second' class...

Back on track, does anyone else feel that Shane's strange urge to go back to the G1 designs got too far this time? I mean, sure, a rusty old steam engine. No-one would notice that one going down the tracks, right?

And does anyone get what the slag Megs and SS are talking about? "Galaxy-wide assault brought about by one of their own" and "they were fools not to expect threachery"....

Huh? Come again?

stranger · Post by **stranger** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:56 pm

So issue three rolls around and the tedium is replaced with yet more tedium and some wierd conversation between megatron and starscream where neither seemed to know what the other one was on about, yet somehow is being hailed by some as shakespearian in content... huh? Well I certainly had no clue what the [composite word including 'f*ck'] they were talking about, but i was pleased just to see some word balloons.

Pacing - [composite word including 'f*ck'] me. A full page splash of a subway platform no less. the very same mind numbingly boring set up for astrotrain is repeated at the very end of the comic in pretty much the same fashion, and its still no more exciting the second time round. And take in the size of some of those panels... its comic equivalent of writing in a large font to up the page count.

Which really is my main gripe. First three issues, could easily fit into one, and to be honest if they did, it probably wouldnt look that shabby. But its not, so its actually complete arse.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:52 pm

stranger wrote: Well I certainly had no clue what the **** they were talking about, but i was pleased just to see some word balloons.

Good one.

"One of their own" was in reference to an Autobot traitor responsible for the galaxy's downfall.

its comic equivalent of writing in a large font to up the page count.

Yep.

First three issues, could easily fit into one, and to be honest if they did, it probably wouldnt look that shabby.

My biggest gripe too.

stranger · Post by **stranger** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:20 pm

The "One of their own" bit - either through my own stupidity or just not paying attention - I assumed he was talking about Humans. But yeah - your right - Autobot traitor is what he's talking about. I guess that could be interesting, but then the bar is so low, people are getting excited about megatron cleaning his cannon with a flag these days

. Oh well!

EDIT - BTW Yaya - that wasnt a dig at you - I've just noticed so many posts over on the IDW boards about megatron cleaning himself with a flag, you have to wonder how far people are prepared to go to see the positives

Manchester Devil · Post by **Manchester Devil** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:41 pm

And to think people complained about the pace of Infiltration.

The exchange between Megatron and Starscream was the most interesting part of this issue although it pales to their exchanges in Devastation. I mean... oh wait, Eric Holmes had Starscream giving Megatron an arm cannon for christmas so while its a shuffle in the right direction, its not that good.

The humans, bar Bridge (mainly for essentially calling Andy an idiot for being unable to tell the difference between a cat and a dog) have been unengaging, bordering on annoying most of the time. And was there any need to show Astrotrain doing the same thing twice? Bah.

Guido Guidi and Josh Burcham are being wasted here.

I miss the whole destroying society from the inside out that Furman had going on.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 3:09 pm

WTF is this all about - we get some conversation between SS and megs. so what, they have been having similar conversations for the last 20 years. and that was the entire plot of this comic. Megs telling SS that he needs to buck his ideas up a bit...

otherwise, we now know that astrotrain likes to hang around tube stations killing humans, and that the humans are all but beat. Does anyone else feel like they are seeing some clone of cloverfield?

And thats it for this issue, megs tells SS somthing we have heard a zillion times, and the humans are beat and on the run, big ******* deal.

Oh the artwork is reasonably good, if u like humans.

Post by **Best First** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:19 pm

right - so i wasn't going to buy this but having only picked up AHM2 last week after being on hols i had not cancelled it from my pull list before i arrived and i don't like not taking books i have ordered as its not fair on my LCS.

I think this probably was a bit better than the previous issues, but then that is not saying much. Yes there was some ok SS/Megs exchange (particularly Meg's last line), but as with most of this stuff it also felt like a rebooting of the relationship to the usual status quo even if it was to then try and take it in another direction.

Other than that tho... its just more of the same isn't it? Wasted pages, annoying humans and my biggest gripe - it doesn't really make sense - what a load of guff that Megs is some amazing tactical genius - destroying infrastructure isn't exactly revolutionary and his victories largely come from the fact the resources at his disposal are far in advance of those he is conqureing - not some amazing tactics.

Show don't tell.

A statement that could be equally applied to the simultaneous galactic conquest line. "Yeah, this is in fact part of a pan galactic assult, naturally i have divided my troops by which year their toys were released".

Yaya says its global but i don't think we even see that. Its American.

If the deceps are in fact conquering the entire galaxy as we speak, rolling over native populations on multplie worlds then Jesus, lets see it.

The thing thats galling is that some of the stuff, the tunnels, the decimation of the navy, the lack of hope in the rail tunnels, could pack a lot of punch, but its undermined by the pacing and the toony pics. Now i like Guido but i think the way he's portraying this, which seems very much a tribute to the cartoon, does not jive well with the events depicted.

And the cliff hanger - do i give a crap? Oh no, what if generic fly boy dies where will we see such rich characterisation again?

This is fluff.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:56 pm

Eh, I was excited over my new SparkBlue Music Label Soundwave, so I bought this while I was there.

I'm with Impy. Megs has a conversation with Starscream - of questionable value, plotwise - and then wipes his cannon with a flag. And that's about it.

Woo.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:18 pm

Rebis wrote:Predabot? Is that you?

(please don't answer. please don't answer)

YOU ASKED FOR IT!!

In your dreams... you begged me... you yearned for it...

You said my name thrice...

On topic however, it sounds like a rather bad issue. And since I haven't been bothered to pick up any of the earlier issues, I think I can cope without this one as well. At least I'll probably wait until after Revelations has wrapped, whence it might get scarce in the list of TF-issues.

Aye.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:35 pm

Best First wrote: Now i like Guido but i think the way he's portraying this, which seems very much a tribute to the cartoon, does not jive well with the events depicted.

You know, I kind of felt the same way too. I take nothing away from Guido, I think this stuff in this series he's shown us has been great, but the Sunbow tone of the art doesn't fit with the theme, does it?

I mean, for me personally, the best thing to come out of AHM thus far are the Trevor Hutchinson covers. They fit the theme. Sunbow doesn't.

But Roche and Figs wouldn't really have fit either.

So who do you think would have? I'm thinking Raiz with some gritty coloring, or Jae Lee as rendered in that TF/GIJoe series, would have worked best.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:57 pm

Su! Su! SUUUUUUUUU!!!!

Seriously... Geoff Senior.

Post by **Best First** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:46 am

Senior circa EOE.

But i would probably opt for Su even over that.

Yeah, i know.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:22 pm

Somehow Senior wouldn't seem right without Simon writing it.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:50 pm

Yaya wrote:"One of their own" was in reference to an Autobot traitor responsible for the galaxy's downfall.

Umm, Dealer? He hardly did anything to that extent...

Nemesis/Nova Prime? When he left with Ark I., it was before the civil war - he's neither Bot nor Con, just like Galvatron or the other Dead Universe cast.

But the text made it look to me as if he was talking about the humans, too.

And btw, Starscream shot down a jumbo jet to crash into the White House, or what? Isn't commercial flight forbidden there?

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:15 pm

Yaya wrote:Somehow Senior wouldn't seem right without Simon writing it.

Well, as long as it's my fantasy, Furman is also writing it. Of course, that means it is now "All Hail Galvatron"

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:35 pm

sprunkner wrote:
Yaya wrote:Somehow Senior wouldn't seem right without Simon writing it.
Well, as long as it's my fantasy, Furman is also writing it. Of course, that means it is now "All Hail Galvatron"

Ooh! Ooh! Does it end with Jazz charging towards a horde of Decepticons and Spike flying a flag at Decepticon HQ?

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 2:10 am

Rebis wrote:
sprunkner wrote:
Yaya wrote:Somehow Senior wouldn't seem right without Simon writing it.
Well, as long as it's my fantasy, Furman is also writing it. Of course, that means it is now "All Hail Galvatron"
Ooh! Ooh! Does it end with Jazz charging towards a horde of Decepticons and Spike flying a flag at Decepticon HQ?

No. It ends with someone saying "Til all are....one?"

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:23 am

I see continuity has taken another kicking this issue... wasn't the Reflector trio kinda deaded already?

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:50 pm

the story they are spinning is that Wheelie happened a long way in the future so he is still alive now - seems a bit of a reach to me. Plus, oh look, more changing speech patterns. Why not just... not use them rather than spinning some daft yarn.

Post by **snarl** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 4:10 pm

Because the bloke is a dull, thick ****.

Who's ******* ruining it all, just to pander to some sick individuals who, lest I say it, are probably sex offenders.

Whoop ******* Whoop.

TransFans.co.uk

All Hail Megatron #3 Review

Re: All Hail Megatron #3 Review