AHM #15 preview

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:36 pm

http://www.bzzurkk.com/2009/09/transfor ... 5-preview/

Nick Roche is making a lemonade-based super-cocktail out of bad lemons. Almost effortlessly. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this!

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:15 pm

wow, that would appear to be made of a kind of awesome i've not seen in a TF comic for a while now...

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:17 pm

A thing of beauty, that.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:13 am

This is the first TF comic I've been excited about reading since Maximum Dinobots.

Gonna love Wreckers.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:54 am

Haven't read it, as to not be spoiled, but by your reactions, I'm stoked.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 12:56 am

Suddenly, I have really high hopes for the Wreckers story.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:22 am

So if Kup's a pretender now, and pretty much only his brain module is left from his old body, by logic

that means:

-Kup's "cigar" is actually his brain module!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:41 am

BB Shockwave wrote:So if Kup's a pretender now, and pretty much only his brain module is left from his old body, by logic that means:

-Kup's "cigar" is actually his brain module!

So, the first time someone tests his jaw for glass, he winds up braindead?

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:23 pm

Anyone else notice the hand reaching up in Kup's chest?

This is going to end badly

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:43 pm

Hound wrote:Anyone else notice the hand reaching up in Kup's chest?

Yes, but I'd assumed it was the reflection of something Kup was looking at.

Perhaps there is also something in the soulless look of his eyes as well?

This is going to end badly

Ooh! Ooh! Like the androids that replace humans in Futureworld? Only with Pretender shells replacing Cybertronians?

Or, maybe not.

Post by **Best First** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:56 am

Yeah saw the hand - is it not just a reference to the crazy time?

This is going to be the first TF comic i buy in a while.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:57 am

Best First wrote:This is going to be the first TF comic i buy in a while.

^ This

And on the strength of this, Wreckers.

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:39 am

I do recommend at least reading AHM #14. If only to see what an utter [composite word including 'f*ck'] IDW has turned into.

Post by **snarl** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 1:01 pm

I gotit today.

First story was great, second story a bit wanky.

Read 14 in the shop. I'd say it's probably got "good" AIDS.

Which is still a bad thing to have.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:51 pm

Beautiful first story. A perfect example of how strong writing can make any idea or story worth telling. Had previous writers (who shall remain nameless) attempted the whole cy-gar thing, I don't think they could have pulled it off.

Nick not only has a very strong command of the English language, but I really like his ideas. They are mature and always unique. With this story, he has shown that he can fashion a very enjoyable tale from the work of others.

In other words, Nick has been the best writer under the IDW banner to tackle the Transformers. Who would have thought? The guy was brought on for his art, and it's his storytelling that attracts me most. Give it an "A".

The second story by Denton was okay, but suffered from the lack of page space. It started off well, but seemed rushed towards the end. It was too big, deserved to be allotted more page space than what it was given.

My problem is that I couldn't remember what last happened to Bludgeon. How did he get together with the Monsterbots? Not that it needed to be shown, necessarily, but everything's a blur now to me. Also, we now know what the gestalts weakness is. A sniper shot to the midsection. Didn't really do it for me, as I felt it really detracted from the threat a gestalt should pose. Art was great. Give it a "B".

Post by **snarl** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 10:30 am

One thing that raelly gets my back up, that strikes me as a mark of just not getting it and that I personally find pure wank are frequent melodramatic over-reactions to any old mundane ****.

By this, I mean the amount of "Pat Lee shocked faces" that the Autbots seem to give as their stock reaction to something that the writer wants us to treat as a bit emotinal or is supposed to be a key development.

It's like we're being given a little shocked face cue so we know, "oh, this bit is a defining moment" or something.

Example 1) Blaster and Springer gushing "thank Primus" whilst beaming like a pair of ******* imbeciles.

Do I find the reaction plausible? Yes. because Springer and Blaster are overly emotional twats that Love Perceptor. Oh, hang on...

There are several other panels where supposedly rock hard Bots recoil in shock and surprise at the seemingly most mundane things. It's ****.

I mean, these things are giant, grim ******* war machines. I'm not getting giant grim war machine conveyed in this comic. I'll neve know if it was specified in the script or if the artists just chose to do it liek this, but the facial reactions from the Perceptor story could have been ripped from a melodramatic, hammy mid day soap.

There was some ******* clunky dialogue too, it just didn't give the impression that I'm viewing a grim war machine. It was like watching grandad looking after the teenagers.

For me, a lot of the prose came across as so overplayed, it reminded me of the worst overacted 80s action films. I was actually reading it in the voice of the litte team america bad asses.

"I got shot in the guts, man. And from that day on I swore I'd put a Jihad on the decepticon empire.

"Now I'm going to give some clunky exposition about these **** things on my arms and my eye that will all plausibly explain how I will become the best at shooting. In the world"

Then we've got this **** action scene shoehorned in at the end.

It'sl dialouge light, you can breeze trough it a couple of minutes, easy. Of the dialogue, ther's nothing executed in a way that I found interesting. It just sounded clunky, hammy, cliche ridden 80s action film stuff.

"cause we ALL got a debt to pay"

Sticking it next to Nick Roche's story just highlights this.

Wasted pages...

We've got Drift and Blur playing some **** game, you can lose that for a start. I mean, what the [composite word including 'f*ck'] does it do? It's ****. Then there are 3 pages where there is literally [composite word including 'f*ck'] all apart from pictures (they're really good. But as comic art, it doesn't work for me. It's all a bit too corporate. Shiny, polished).

The end has bad aids.

Yeah, having re-read this, I'm upgrading the story to BAD AIDS.

It's a lot like Mccarthy's stuff. A bag of wank. It's not transformers. Seriously, this is the king of stuff you could give to an 8 year old.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 11:40 am

There was one expression in particular that struck me as silly - when Drift does his ninja thang, muttering, "We all have a price to pay." From no-nonsense, battle-seasoned Kup we should expect nothing more than a 'pfft' or an irritated sigh, but instead he looks so alarmed it's a wonder his cy-gar doesn't fall out of his mouth.

The other major problem with the story I perceive is that Perceptor seems to upgrade himself easily over a matter of hours. One wonders why other Autobots can't receive similar treatment - stabilisers, enforced chestplates etc. God knows they all need help with their aim.

Post by **snarl** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:24 pm

Yes, that question sprung to mind too. The issue all falls apart under a the tiniest amount of scrutiny. I was gong to write about how gash the outcome was but decided to watch football focus.

That's finished now.

Wasn't the end a load of vomit inducing nonsense? Proper A team "oh, hang on, lets just forget the context of the whole ******* issue, that actually, 5 mins ago I was kinda shitting myself because we haven't heard [composite word including 'f*ck'] all from the rest of the autobots, but now that Perceptor became a bad ass, I'm a backslapping, smug, grinning ******* Murdock.

The whole laid back, knowingly smug / badass, quipping seemed pretty forced. The tone of the issue was jarringly off and has been for the whole ******* AHM span.

I also think the art is too, in the main. Nice pictures, but too bright and colourful for the subject IMO. I didn't feel any cinematic awe, I got little inspiration from the composition. Juxstaposed again aginst the Roche story... Now here is a bloke who really knows how to find an exciting angle, how to frame a picture... it highlights jarringly how much more boring I found the Preceptor story. Really, really boring. And annoying. I have an unconscious feeling that I get tthat a lot from IDW. They discover a guy with excellent line work is, but lacking in character and with composition that is often pretty uninspiring.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:37 pm

And I think following that Roche story only makes those weaknesses that much more glaring.

I don't think you can fashion a credible story of this scope in half an issue. You just can't. If you try, you set yourself up for type of criticism above.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:30 pm

Single best issue we've had so far. Densely-written, intelligent, continuity rich, vicious, pragmatic, and just plain fun. I was thinking "mmm, TMUK-ery" way before someone pointed out the inside front cover. Furman cemented his contribution to Transformers by writing into gaps in the US title, and in a very "students become the masters" way that's what we get here, taking things past solid formula and into characters with histories and group dynamics that aren't generic or echoes of profiles.

The Perceptor story also works, IMO. Not only does it sync up with the first story and give us an explanation without involving some kind of macho lobotomy, the team rosters do work -- Bludgeon's a natural fit for a possible pretender-ised gestalt team. It also makes sense that the first gestalt has combination teething troubles (although we'd expect some of the flaws to be engineered out in due course, including upgrades to existing teams.) It also makes sense that a lab-rat wouldn't have bothered with military upgrades until something significant enough happened to cause a change of mind, so the quick turnaround doesn't have to be a plot hole. More space to breathe would just've meant more fight scene.

Wreckers is an obvious cert. I'm almost stoked enough to pre-order the ongoing... but characters being back on Earth, with facial redesigns apparently thrown in for the sake of it... eh. Have seen good things from Costa on Joes (waiting for the trade, sorry to say -- general policy of seeing what consistency is like on titles before investing in series these days) but "They really don't know how to handle it and morale is at an all-time low, which leads to some serious conflicts, really bad decisions, and one of them doing something that nobody, fellow Autobots and readers included, is going to believe." could have come straight from Shane McCarthy a year or so ago.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:11 am

One thing I like about Nick's writing is that he's not afraid to use plentiful dialogue. He did it in his Kup spotlight, and he does it here too. Think about it. This was only half an issue, and it read longer than three issue of AHM put together. Different writing style, I know, but which would you prefer after shelling out four bucks?

I remember when Nick hadn't written a single issue, but had just been interviewed online for his artwork on the Shockwave spotlight. I read his interview, and right there I said, based on the answers he gave in that interview, I want to see him write Transformers. Not sure Nick remembers that, but he was gracious about it. Then, he went on to knock our socks off with the Kup spotlight.

Nick Roche, like Don Figueroa, is a gem. He's a talent you want to see more and more of, the kind of guy that, if given ample opportunity, will leave his stamp on this franchise like Bob Budiansky and Simon Furman have.

Post by **snarl** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:47 pm

There's dialogue in the Prowl story becasue that's how comics generally are, when they're done well - they have stuff written in them! But It is very well written and well thought out stuff. Which is a great change.

Because I tend to enjoy that more then illogical, ill thought out, convoluted stories which seem to be there for the sole perpose of giving cool bot of the month a few one-liners, shallow characterisation and pacing that leaves jarring, chasms of plot holes in story-line.

But hey, those action sequences ROCKED HARD!

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:33 pm

That Nick story should have been called "Spotlight: Prowl". Cause, it's all about him. Not Kup...

I loved that story (mostly because I love Prowl) - the guy simply became fed up with hotheads like Springer, Grimmy, Hot Rod ruining his elaborate strategy that could have won the war... and so he starts taking steps, in typical Prowl-y cold "blood", all for the greater good, and all with such precaution that he will never be revealed. Prowl would have made a great vulcan in the Star Trek universe...

The explanations for Kup's restoration, Perceptor being on the Wreckers team (IE, cleaning up AHM's mess) are feasible enough. I still fear that Sandstorm, Broadside, Whirl gonna get killed off in the Wreckers mini to explain the reduced numbers, though. I was unsure whether I'd buy the explanation for the "Cy-Gar" but that panel when Kup looks at his detached arm and starts having visions again... brilliant. Convinced me.

There is one flaw of this issue, and this is where it shows that Nick is still a beginner: dialogue. Sometimes, less is more (same what I said about the Jazz Spotlight) - the whole comic was a long read because of the many internal speech bubbles from Prowl, but some were, IMHO, non-essential. An effective logical guy like Prowl does not add internal comments to every sentence Springer says... But still, this is a minor issue. I hope we see more Nick stories soon.

Perceptor's story, though, was utter bollocks. When reading Springer/Kup say "you have despoiled yourself", I wished to slap the writer in the face.... Hardened commando units are NOT taken aghast when a labcoat takes up a gun. They should pat the labcoat on the back saying "not bad, doc." Ptah.

And the whole Bludgeon thing... firstly, Bludgeon was incarcerated in Fort Max's prison as a spark. His shell was at Autobot HQ and Jhiaxus shortly controlled it to kill Jetfire. No way he could have escaped in such a short time, gotten his shell back and shrugged off his apparent mind-link problems from Stormbringer. As for Monstructor, it is universally assumed that when Jhiaxus's control was severed over him, he shut down and Banzai-Tron took him to the Con labs for analyzing - hence Devastator being created. I'd find it odd to find them running loose with a rogue Con outcast, no?

Post by **snarl** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:26 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:Perceptor's story, though, was utter bollocks.

QFT.

Think Blaster said You've defiled yourself. I'm just being pedantic.

Still, it was gash. I hadn't considered it's gashness from your angle, which I think is valid. I just thought "what a twattish thing for an autotbot to say. How [composite word including 'f*ck'] melodramatic, he's hardly done [composite word including 'f*ck'] all to himself."

Utter bollocks.

Seriously, why not just ship future Shane issues with a postage stamp? You can put all the plot on that and then just have a book with 22 posters that have nice pictures of transformers looking on in shock and awe at pieces of cheese.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 1:26 pm

snarl wrote: Seriously, why not just ship future Shane issues with a postage stamp? You can put all the plot on that and then just have a book with 22 posters that have nice pictures of transformers looking on in shock and awe at pieces of cheese.

"Cheedar, you bastard!"

Well it's the same as with Mad Brick's War and Pieces - it could have been a nice poster-book without dialoge. All those speech bubbles obscured that marvellous Pat Lee artwork. (I am being sarcastic.)

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 7:29 pm

Really loved Nick's story - it's the first time I've read a TF comic in ages and not felt cheated afterwards. Very reminiscent of TMUK obviously, and Prowl's internal monologue felt a bit clunky once or twice but these are minor, minor details compared to the overall quality of the writing and art. Now I'm more stoked for Wreckers than ever. Bring on Pyro and Ironfist and Rotorstorm!

Perceptor - eh, I think Snarlos has summed up my feelings on this one. It's just so cheesy I can't invest in it

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:31 pm

I honestly have no earthly idea why they can't see what a wasted talent Nick is. Give him the ongoing, FFS!

Post by **Best First** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:11 pm

"Just doin' my job"

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

Kup was suh-weet though. Prowl is a dick!

Given the level of commentary already provided i think this is sufficient reviewage on my part.

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:36 pm

Agree with comments; Roches story good, Dentons story bad.

However, in both cases I need an elementary continuity flow chart, or something!

Prowl; hasn't he been continually busy elsewhere? When did he get chance to do all this AND end up stranded on Cybertron, where Kup reappears?
Bludgeon; did I miss them memo? Wasn't he last an inactive zombi with a disolved brain? And so was Monstructor, after revelation (in principle, I like this team up, though. Could have some real mileage in the right hands).
Hot Rod; now he was definatly too busy on earth to be flying around needing to be rescued, wasn't he?

I may need to re-read stuff!