Do You Like All Hail Megatron Thus Far?

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:55 am

Vote

This poll is running on other boards as well.

Cattleprod · Post by **Cattleprod** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:58 am

Well... I was going to complain that the version of the poll at IDW didn't have "good to neutral" and "neutral to bad" in between the three options, but you one-upped them by not even having neutral.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:01 am

Uh, isn't that what Jury Still Out implies? On the fence?

Cattleprod · Post by **Cattleprod** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:07 am

Huh? I was sure it just said yes and no the first time I looked.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:11 am

Cattleprod wrote:Huh? I was sure it just said yes and no the first time I looked.

You're nuts.

Cattleprod · Post by **Cattleprod** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:27 am

Yaya wrote:
Cattleprod wrote:Huh? I was sure it just said yes and no the first time I looked.
You're nuts.

............. you suck.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:01 am

Break it up guys! Hey, this board is getting a reputation as a bad place and Jack was mean to me and honestly, if you don't like AHM you should really just post "pass" and I think best first smells like fish and chips, and not in a good way.

Seriously, Ya of the Ya, I'm surprised on this board that you didn't include a "Hell No" and "Like a Shotgun Shell In the Face" option.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:44 am

also, seriously, let's not start a flame war.

Yaya, that was probably meant in humor, but looks patronizing.

Cattleprod, your response is totally understandable but with future posts, try to not post a first reaction.

Cattleprod · Post by **Cattleprod** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:51 am

Jeez. I thought the little cartoon picture (:x) indicated my response was sarcastic.

The Last Autobot · Post by **The Last Autobot** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:43 am

The story is crap mainly because they say its with continuity with everything else.

I would somewhat appreciate it as a "What If" Story

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:15 am

Cattleprod wrote:Jeez. I thought the little cartoon picture (:x) indicated my response was sarcastic.

Oops, sorry. I guess I'm on sensitive mode from the IDW boards.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:22 am

i actually smell of suasage and egg... mmm, rail station cafe.

Anyway - i think it has been a spectacular dissapointment so far.

stranger · Post by **stranger** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:40 am

It's guff, and feels like it's being written by someone who won a competition...

edit - although in the interest of balance, it is printed on nice paper...

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:10 am

sprunkner wrote:
Cattleprod wrote:Jeez. I thought the little cartoon picture (:x) indicated my response was sarcastic.
Oops, sorry. I guess I'm on sensitive mode from the IDW boards.

Dude, it's Transfans. The home of the playful snark.

It was only yesterday that I actually ventured over to IDW after all the recent hooha, so I've only just seen that announcement from Tipton. "We've got a bad reputation here, so from now on you'll be nice to me or get banned." Haha.

Every angry face here is in jest.

Unless Predabot or Ultrasabre are in the thread, of course. Or Smooth. Or Yaya. Because we hate them.

I have no idea if I like AHM or not. It comes through the door, I read it, I do something else and it's like it never happened. The only time I give it to any thought is when I stumble onto a message board and some muppet who's never actually read a comic that doesn't have the TF branding on it is claiming it as the greatest thing evar. Or, y'know, Yaya's posted something.

So, uhm, no. I guess I don't like it. I don't like that it costs roughly the same as a pasty. At least then I know there'll be some meat. Nooch.

Post by **snarl** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:20 am

Can you make a 4th option, "Aids has Megatron"?

It bollocks afaic.

Mr_Tigg · Post by **Mr_Tigg** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:13 pm

I've read a lot of comics this year, and AHM has definitely been the worst.

It certainly has some saving graces, but it's just been a huge disappointment coming off the back of the Furman story arcs. Also the way IDW have gone about forcing it down our throats along with cutting the Revelations arc has left a sour taste, and has burnt a lot of bridges with a publisher I use to rate extremely highly.

It really makes me wonder about how IDW reach their decisions regarding creatives - Shane is obviously an uninspired writer lacking in imagination, yet somehow he has convinced the powers that be that he could pull this off.

Chris Mowry is the future in my opinion. The sooner they get him on the main continuity, the better.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:46 pm

Cattleprod wrote:Jeez. I thought the little cartoon picture () indicated my response was sarcastic.

He's a red-faced angry man!

This is 'the Internet' - people are forever misreading each other's tones on message boards (including me and mine!)

Taking AHM completely on its own merit, it fails on all kinds of levels as a story. The Decepticons are completely lacking in motivation. They might as well be Them! or a plague of wasps. The humans fail to even come up the level of your average disaster film's bag of cliches, since there's no internal conflict or 'everyman' appeal to them.

Bizarrely, the Autobots are the heart of the story so far but they lack any feel of the defeated remnants of an army, and their internal tension comes across as a drawn out build-up to ... something, who knows what? Nothing turns on it. Ironhide punches Prowl - so what? He's not going to get court-martialed, is he?

Even the question of 'the traitor' fails to create interest because we don't know enough about events to formulate our own theories (or at least ones that have any grounding in the story).

It's just staggering how little McCarthy, just on this evidence, seems to understand about even the most basic ingredients of a story. Like how protagonists' motivations need to be established in some way in order for readers to care about whether they achieve their goals or not.

Or how a 'mystery' is created by a sparsity of facts, inviting the reader to try to fill in the gaps, rather than giving us nothing to go on. The question of who will win an imminent election is interesting; not so the question of who will win an election in a ten years time, because we know squat about the candidates, the key issues etc.

And how 'good characterisation' does not mean giving characters a page to show they have some special skill, or a temper, or to let another character lecture them on who and what they are. It's like he's watched a load of films, thought, "The bits I like best are those character-definining moments", but neglected to realise that those moments require pre-existing emotional investment and a carefully constructed context.

Oh yeah, and most of the Transformers look like huge toys, not robots - inevitably, since IDW have apparently been ordered to make them look that way. Some of them have alt modes that literally serve no purpose whatsoever.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:02 pm

Cattleprod wrote:Jeez. I thought the little cartoon picture (:x) indicated my response was sarcastic.

So did I.

Sprunk...you're nuts.

Chris Mowry is the future in my opinion. The sooner they get him on the main continuity, the better.

You might be right, there.

I really don't like the movie stuff. But Chris' reign of Starscream was actually fun. So I tend to agree with you, Mowry may be the diamond in the rough.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:17 pm

Incidentally, to get a larger samples size, I posted the same poll on other websites.

Here's the results thus far:

http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.ph ... opic=53801
http://transfans.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7546
http://www.tfarchive.com/community/show ... hp?t=45700
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/comic-boo ... l-out.html
http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopi ... 747#110747

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:27 pm

Jack Cade wrote:It's just staggering how little McCarthy, just on this evidence, seems to understand about even the most basic ingredients of a story.

Can we steer clear of personal comments about the abilities of hardworking professionals please? Keep up this attitude and you'll be on the fast track to a banning.

.

.

Only joking. Go nuts.

Agree with every word. Especially re the traitor mystery. We've no idea what happened, so we've got no idea who to suspect, so we've got no reason to engage with the plot strand. All we've been told is "there's a traitor", so all we have to go on is their standard 2D tech spec. Which is handy, as from the evidence that seems to be the only thing the writer's familiar with. Don't know what's happened, don't care what's happened, just treading water until TEH SHOCKING exposition scene where it's all revealed. Possibly with an accompanying World Of Cardboard speech.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:41 pm

Brendocon wrote:Can we steer clear of personal comments about the abilities of hardworking professionals please?

I was reading [insert name of any publication that contains a reviews section] today and I was deeply shocked at how rude and insulting some of the journalists were. Suggesting that a professional director/author/artist is rubbish at what they do is a disgraceful act and certainly unwelcome in any civilised society. Don't misunderstand me - I'm all for freedom of speech. But there should be limits.

I want them to unban me on IDW so I can post a poll asking whether AHM is 'Great' or 'Excellent'.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:51 pm

I am considering a poll with the following Options.

Was Jazz p0wni3g Springer with Ninja Skillz more or less totally cool than Sunstorm and Jetfire using bada$$ Wrestling skillz?
a) More totally cool
b) Less totally cool
c) Please shoot me in the face.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:54 pm

Don't belittle Jazz's skillz. One moment Springer was the right way up, the next he was completely upside down. I ain't never seen that.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:55 pm

Jack Cade wrote:I want them to unban me on IDW so I can post a poll asking whether AHM is 'Great' or 'Excellent'.

Hell, I'll do it. My account's not been banned (that I know of) and I've got no desire to ever post there again... if I can remember my password I'll happily go for it.

[EDIT] Anyway, as Head of Special Ops (or whatever), shouldn't the Wreckers technically be reporting to Jazz anyway? No sense for that animosity crap, really.

arkonseal · Post by **arkonseal** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:10 pm

Jack Cade wrote: The humans fail to even come up the level of your average disaster film's bag of cliches, since there's no internal conflict or 'everyman' appeal to them.
......

And how 'good characterisation' does not mean giving characters a page to show they have some special skill, or a temper, or to let another character lecture them on who and what they are. It's like he's watched a load of films, thought, "The bits I like best are those character-definining moments", but neglected to realise that those moments require pre-existing emotional investment and a carefully constructed context.

This has really weirded me out in the few issues I read. The plight of humans being massacred, the Autobots defeated and depressed - absolutely nothing. There seems to be an assumption that since we know the names and tech specs of most of the characters, we'll start the story deeply invested in all of them, and therefore no further development or filling out need be done.

And as for the humans, I just don't know. It works well if you read their scenes as a kind of parody of disaster movie characters (a la Airplane!), meant to make you cheer when they die.

AHM does have this weird meta effect where each scene makes you think about the author's intention ("wait, am I supposed to be sad here?") before (or rather than) being affected by it. It's like a little psychology puzzle. Maybe it's all an artistic experiment, meant to make readers re-evaluate the meaning of space robot wars/comics/life.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:18 pm

arkonseal wrote:AHM does have this weird meta effect where each scene makes you think about the author's intention ("wait, am I supposed to be sad here?") before (or rather than) being affected by it. It's like a little psychology puzzle. Maybe it's all an artistic experiment, meant to make readers re-evaluate the meaning of space robot wars/comics/life.

I think you've stumbled across the next Party Line.

"It's not meant to be in continuity/good - it's art!"

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:53 pm

Such venom.....such hate.....

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:57 pm

heh and I haven't even begun yet...

Manchester Devil · Post by **Manchester Devil** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:37 am

Yaya wrote:Such venom.....such hate.....

Well, AHM is crap, and therefore deserves the mother of all kickings.

arkonseal · Post by **arkonseal** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:50 am

Yaya wrote:Such venom.....such hate.....

I don't know if I can muster up enough emotion to hate it, it's just...really not enjoyable, and has so very many forehead-slapping cliches. But other people adore it, so I try to to see it from their point of view, which then leads to me trying to puzzle out what the author meant in the first place. Is it:

-an enthusiastic "Transformers, f--k yeah!" (Extended scenes of Deceps taking out New York and the military, Jazz being super-anime character-badass, Kup chomping on a cigar"

-a moving tribute to military manliness and heroics (All those scenes of Soul-Patch pilot, Andy, Danny Witwicky, his son)?

-an unabashed homage and melting-pot of all things G1 (Prime dead, Matrix in jeopardy, Mirage Might Be a Traitor, Starscream Is A Shrill Upstart )?

It's a bit like he's trying to have it all ways. The Ratbat v. Rubber Boat scene was a good example - the humans launch a heroic effort, (OK, go soldiers!) only to be wiped out by Ratbat (Haha, rahrah Decepticons!), only to have Witwicky spend a page speechifying about the tragedy (OK, go humans again?)

I do think it's a little sad that there's so few votes on the poll on each board, even on the busier ones. For all the nerdiness that being a TF fan entails, you'd think there'd be more interest in the comics. Or maybe most comics-reading TF fans just don't frequent the message boards?

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Do You Like All Hail Megatron Thus Far?

Do You Like All Hail Megatron?