Spotlight:Prowl Review (SPOILERS)

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:35 pm

When I first heard this was being written, I wasn't keen on it. I mean, it just seemed like a bad idea to try and appease a fan base that has never known, and never will know, appeasement.

Nevertheless, I have to say I was surprised about how it turned out. Not that it's this great work, or that it stands out amongst the better spotlights, but it wasn't anywhere near the disaster I thought it would be.

For one, E.J. is at his best with this. I haven't been the biggest fan of Su's style, but this sucker is mellow. I mean, cool mellow. It's stylin, the colors by Dalhouse are stlyin, and I really appreciated the different style of presentation from Roche's manic style featured in LSOTW this month. It's nice to have a mix of artistic presentations. Many an E.J. fan will appreciate this issue solely for his visuals.

And Costa actually does a decent job with the seemingly insurmountable task of writing this. One thing has become increasingly clear to me about Mike. His strong suit is character pieces. He can fashion a good story with competent dialogue out of a very poor premise and make it readable and enjoyable.

For example, I liked the way he used this tale to contrast Prowl's skeptical and critical analysis of mankind with Thundercracker's newly acquired fond view of humanity. Whereas Thundercracker's story featured the noble elements of humanity, Prowl's spotlight focuses on what's wrong with mankind, and the destructive capabilities we possess as a race. The irony of these contrasting perspectives is not lost on me, given the factions to which they belong.

Granted, Prowl stays true to his Autobot roots by stories end, and doesn't "go Decepticon" on us, as some of us were hoping. But the door is still left open that Prowl can "dabble in the dark side", if you will, and have good reason to do so based on his experience as a "cop" in the police force weeding out rogue elements of a "swarm"-like society.

This is not a story of action, like LSOTW, but again, one of character building. I appreciate this, to be honest, provided there's Rochert's LSOTW to maintain that even keel.

Give it a "B-". Not great, but not lousy either. Certainly, Su's masterful work makes me more accepting of this issue happening in the first place.

Post by **Best First** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:17 am

The use of the term 'stylin' is now banned.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:27 pm

Profilin'?

Looked through it again this morn. That Su art, it's just ******* fantastic. It really is.

Post by **Best First** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:10 pm

Your specific use of the term mellow is also banned.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:32 pm

http://tformers.com/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=1142

Enker's review of the issue at Tformers. Read it, sums up my thoughts perfectly.

The premise of the Ongoing, Bumblebee, and Spotlight:Prowl, is: What happens to the Transformers when the war is over? The answer apparently is that everyone’s IQ drops 50 points and they lose all capacity for rational thought.

Seeing as Prowl has always been my favourite Autobot, I consider Costa's ruining of the character as such an offense like Mad Brick making Shockwave into a Bond villain not long ago.

Though I do not really agree that this version of Prowl is "the best ever", I think the Marvel one is just as good. The parts in the after-Unicron storyline where the extremly patient Prowl is getting very-very angry at Grimlock were some of his best moments.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:46 pm

The premise of the Ongoing, Bumblebee, and Spotlight:Prowl, is: What happens to the Transformers when the war is over? The answer apparently is that everyone’s IQ drops 50 points and they lose all capacity for rational thought.

haha! I wish i had written that. Awesome.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:04 pm

My other favourite is:

The thin reasoning for Prowl’s change from cold merciless ultra badass tactician to wet noodle Sunbow style second stringer is essentially that having spent a few years amongst humans, he is so taken aback by our shear awesomeness that he changes his millennia old philosophies on, well pretty much everything.

The Transfans site is being all wonky again, btw, Besty. Pages takes forever to load, your sig doesn't show, and now I get an "IE cannot display webpage" below instead of the Topic review.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:14 pm

BB Shockwave wrote: Though I do not really agree that this version of Prowl is "the best ever", I think the Marvel one is just as good. The parts in the after-Unicron storyline where the extremly patient Prowl is getting very-very angry at Grimlock were some of his best moments.

That version of Prowl sucked. It was so off character, it was ridiculous. Here, Grimlock was playing like a cool cat, and Prowl was going all "emo".

Prowl going "emo" is not Prowl. Simon got that wrong.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:58 pm

Yaya wrote:
BB Shockwave wrote: Though I do not really agree that this version of Prowl is "the best ever", I think the Marvel one is just as good. The parts in the after-Unicron storyline where the extremly patient Prowl is getting very-very angry at Grimlock were some of his best moments.
That version of Prowl sucked. It was so off character, it was ridiculous. Here, Grimlock was playing like a cool cat, and Prowl was going all "emo".

Prowl going "emo" is not Prowl. Simon got that wrong.

I disagree. Prowl was not going all 'emo.' He was simply feeling irked and betrayed that Prime would choose Grimlock as successor over himself. He'd already served under Grimlock's command before, and knows how bad some of those decisions were and didn't want a repeat performance. He didn't trust Grimlock to make the right decisions and made sure that his disagreement was made public.

Hardly the actions of someone going 'emo.'

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 3:39 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:http://tformers.com/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=1142

Enker's review of the issue at Tformers. Read it, sums up my thoughts perfectly.

Read this review, and gotta say, he's on the money with this.

As an individual spotlight, I think it works just fine. But you know what? This wasn't intended to be an isolated spotlight, as the reviewer mentions. It was intended to patch holes, and fails miserably at this.

Though I disagree with how low a score he gives it, I can fully understand the ire behind giving it.

It was folly to try this. Would have been better if IDW simply said, "Yeah, we messed up, so just ignore Prowl's behavior in issue #1 and get ready for more on Prowl's underhanded dealings in the future". No spotlight necessary.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 4:01 pm

Yaya wrote:
BB Shockwave wrote: Though I do not really agree that this version of Prowl is "the best ever", I think the Marvel one is just as good. The parts in the after-Unicron storyline where the extremly patient Prowl is getting very-very angry at Grimlock were some of his best moments.
That version of Prowl sucked. It was so off character, it was ridiculous. Here, Grimlock was playing like a cool cat, and Prowl was going all "emo".

Prowl going "emo" is not Prowl. Simon got that wrong.

Given you are always banging on about character development i find this post hilarious.

Put people in stressful situations and their behaviour changes.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:44 pm

Best First wrote: Put people in stressful situations and their behaviour changes.

Put Furman on as writer and Wildman with his "grandma" wrinkly emo-faces, and you've got emo-Prowl.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:54 pm

Yaya wrote:
Best First wrote: Put people in stressful situations and their behaviour changes.
Put Furman on as writer and Wildman with his "grandma" wrinkly emo-faces, and you've got emo-Prowl.

So...

In Perchance to Dream and the rest of the Earthforce stories it was emo-Prowl, was it?

Post by **Best First** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 9:02 pm

Yaya wrote:
Best First wrote: Put people in stressful situations and their behaviour changes.
Put Furman on as writer and Wildman with his "grandma" wrinkly emo-faces, and you've got emo-Prowl.

Right.

So, having established you don't really knwo what character development means we can also conclude you don't really know what 'emo' means.

Or what old women look like.

Sound like on the other hand...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:09 pm

Best First wrote:we can also conclude you don't really know what 'emo' means.

Yeah right.

He's that little red guy on Sesame Street.

Thaaaaat's Emo's wooooooooorld!

Hmmm. When next I get banned, I'm coming back as Emo. I like it.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:48 pm

Yaya, I always felt that it was especially showing just how dire the situation was, and how extremely irritating and pig-headed Grimlock can be, that even Prowl has begin to lose his patience. I always felt that had Grimmy not been doing the stuff he did (going hiking instead of keeping up the troop's spirits, beating Fangry to a pulp instead of trying to reach out to those Cons who were willing to give peace a chance) the whole alliance might have worked. Even Bludgeon and Krok say some Cons seemed to want it.

On a side note, I just re-read my copy of Stormbringer #3 and found your review of the previous issue posted in the letter columns.

Small world...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 12:13 am

BB Shockwave wrote:Yaya, I always felt that it was especially showing just how dire the situation was, and how extremely irritating and pig-headed Grimlock can be, that even Prowl has begin to lose his patience. I always felt that had Grimmy not been doing the stuff he did (going hiking instead of keeping up the troop's spirits, beating Fangry to a pulp instead of trying to reach out to those Cons who were willing to give peace a chance) the whole alliance might have worked. Even Bludgeon and Krok say some Cons seemed to want it.

That Prowl just wasn't my cup of tea and I would much have preferred it be Jazz or Ironhide getting his feathers ruffled about Grimlock.

Don't get me wrong, I and many TF fans in the US owed Furman big time. Simon actually saved the Transformers from the dark chasm that was a Bob "Bored to Death" Budiansky filled up to his ears with ennui about writing the Transformers. The way things turned out, well, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

On a side note, I just re-read my copy of Stormbringer #3 and found your review of the previous issue posted in the letter columns. Small world...

Must have been a glowing one if they printed it. I really liked what Simon did with Stormbringer...up til the very end where he shat all over what was about to be a perfect miniseries by having Prime "talk" Thunderwing to death til he ran out of gas. Ah well.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:56 am

They should have blown up Cybertron at the end of Stormbringer.

That would have been a better conclusion and set Prime on a more interesting path.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:24 am

Yaya wrote: Must have been a glowing one if they printed it. I really liked what Simon did with Stormbringer...up til the very end where he shat all over what was about to be a perfect miniseries by having Prime "talk" Thunderwing to death til he ran out of gas. Ah well.

Erm, Prime talked WHILE shooting him with huge guns. Like Churchill said (I think), he spoke softly and carried a very big stick.

What Prime said was rather self-reassurance then anything meant to reach Thunderwing, we know there was practically nothing of Thunderwing's mind in the shell at that point, only echoes of his memories.

I quite liked the outcome. We have already seen that this new IDW Prime is quite different from the sometimes over-sentimental Marvel Prime (for starters, he hasn't sacrificed himself so far, not even once!) in that he is willing to make difficult choices and leave humans or even Autobots to their fate if it serves the greater good. But even he has to draw a line, and Cybertron was where he drew it - it was something too important to be thrown on the pyre feeding the war.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 1:50 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:
Yaya wrote: Must have been a glowing one if they printed it. I really liked what Simon did with Stormbringer...up til the very end where he shat all over what was about to be a perfect miniseries by having Prime "talk" Thunderwing to death til he ran out of gas. Ah well.
Erm, Prime talked WHILE shooting him with huge guns.

I'm more inclined to interpret it as Prime talking Thunderwing to death.

I mean, think about it. In one panel of the series, Prime, Megatron, Omega Supreme, AND Trypticon are firing at Thunderwing simultaneously. Didn't do the trick. Prime states soliloquoizing. End result? Dead in his tracks.

He talked him to death. End of story.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:08 pm

Yaya wrote:That Prowl just wasn't my cup of tea and I would much have preferred it be Jazz or Ironhide getting his feathers ruffled about Grimlock.

Two characters that would have been less likely to have had their feathers ruffled about Grimlock.

Post by **snarl** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:37 pm

Yaya's gone mental.

You clearly don't really read the comics do ya fella - that Prime was able to down Thunderwing in Stormbringer was due to the way he was fuelled.

I personally thought it was a bit gash, but there was a definite reason behind it.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:54 pm

I knew about the whole fuel thing snarlos, just being sarcastic.

Talked to death vs. ran out of gas. Either way, twas lame.

Post by **snarl** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:10 pm

It was a bit emo, yes.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:18 pm

snarl wrote:It was a bit emo, yes.

And so ridiculously off character.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:30 pm

What is especially putrid about the story in this issue is thus:

We could have had a Thrust fight.

There is plenty of room to stick that in the story. Makes it a bit exciting, picks up the pace, shows off EJ's stuff, no?

Instead, Costa shuns the action. save for saving a wee girl.

Give the book to Furman or Rocherts or even Chris Mowry. I haaaaate this slow approach.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:26 pm

bumblemusprime wrote: We could have had a Thrust fight.

There is plenty of room to stick that in the story. Makes it a bit exciting, picks up the pace, shows off EJ's stuff, no?

I don't think you could really have had a Thrust fight take place in this the way it was written. Would have been a distraction from the point of the story. (A welcome distraction, from your vantage, I'm sure. )

I think I liked this issue more than most here, as a spotlight.

It didn't really clear anything up about the whole "change in Prowl's character" thing though. Which was the very point of having this.

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Sun May 02, 2010 2:14 pm

Finally catching up with this.

Contrary to what others have said (others I usually agree with), I think this did provide sufficient explanation for Prowl's actions in the Ongoing. As I read it, the point of the story was to show that Prowl reached the limits of his abilities to compute outcomes. Too many variables, too much unpredictability. He basically reached the point where he was forced to either revert to his instincts or just watch terrible, preventable things happening. And he got a taste for the former.

So now, happily, he's got his two sides. He can still be the Prowl we know and love but he's maybe got a flavour of what it is that drives Prime and Hot Rod and the others to do stupid things. It reminds me a bit of the Viz strip where an 11 year old has a sip of wine for dinner and then, on the way to school the next day, thinks: "I can't stop thinking about that wine. I must have more!" and becomes a pissy tramp withint 24 hours.

I don't really see it as a valuing life thing. Prowl has always valued life. It's more about how it feels for him to give himself over to his instincts, rather than try to rationalise everything.

And EJ's art is gorgeous. Absolutely wonderful.

*But* I will say this: after reading this spotlight, I opened up Wreckers#4 and read the first page. And I'm sorry, but the way Nick and James write Prowl just knocks Costa's version into a tin hat. Just in that single page, he came across as an infinitely more fascinating, insidious and complex character - partly because we're seeing him being proactive. I guess it's what others say about Costa handing the Autobots the 'idiot ball' - it takes away so much from them, particularly a character like Prowl, to try to write this saga of confused, directionless Autobots trying to 'work stuff out'. It might have something of a logical basis but it just isn't particularly exciting.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sun May 02, 2010 10:05 pm

Yaya wrote:
bumblemusprime wrote: We could have had a Thrust fight.

There is plenty of room to stick that in the story. Makes it a bit exciting, picks up the pace, shows off EJ's stuff, no?
I don't think you could really have had a Thrust fight take place in this the way it was written. Would have been a distraction from the point of the story. (A welcome distraction, from your vantage, I'm sure. )

I think I liked this issue more than most here, as a spotlight.

It didn't really clear anything up about the whole "change in Prowl's character" thing though. Which was the very point of having this.

Oh, come on, a little Thrusting always makes a story more interesting. Gets the pistons going, so to speak. Revs up the engines. Changes the oil. Opens the showroom doors and lets in a fine sleek model.

So, let me get this straight:

The reaction to Costa and Fig has been lukewarm, at least among the hardcore fans. Sales are okay, but one could also argue that it outsells the other books because it is an ongoing with A-list characters. This reasoning is based on the fact that the -ations, AHM and the ongoing have all hovered around the same sales rate.

Reaction to Wreckers has been great, even if sales haven't been.

So tell me this: if Rocherts took over the ongoing, who is to say the sales would drop at all? Are people buying the ongoing for the story, or are they just buying it for Prime every few pages?

Generally, you are selling these comics to kids who want comics with their favorite toys in them. However, a decompressed story with passive characters is not how you attract kids to the comic. Furman's writing in the 80s was hardly high art, but it was full of action and fun, a la Rocherts in Last Stand.

I say this: the ongoing is selling because of the characters. Put Rocherts on the writing and Su on the art and it would sell just as well, maybe better once they step up the action.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:51 pm

bumblemusprime wrote: I say this: the ongoing is selling because of the characters. Put Rocherts on the writing and Su on the art and it would sell just as well, maybe better once they step up the action.

I have no doubt this is true. I think the ongoing is selling more because it's the ongoing, irrespective of who writes it.

But consider this, which is why I haven't really pushed for Roche on the ongoing so much, despite my belief he would be the best choice. And that is, on a peripheral title, Roche can get away with whatever he wants. He's going to have much more wiggle room than he would on the ongoing, where he'd likely have Hasbro breathing down his neck and tossing mandates and stipulations at him like McCarthy had thrown at him during AHM.

Give Rocherts regular peripheral minis and leave the ongoing to Costa. As long as we get a monthly Roche fix, I'm satisfied. I don't find Mike to be anywhere near as bad as Shane or Holmes, and IMO, he's a better choice than Furman.