Transformers #18 Review (SPOILERS)

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:44 am

Unfortunately, as this story unfolds, the failings inherent in it become that much more obvious.

Costa has tried to give the Transformers a more serious tone, tried to inject deeper, more mature elements in the plot. The idea that in some way humans are more advanced than these metallic visitors from space is an interesting one. But it's one of those gambles you take that, if not brilliantly written and executed correctly, like a ballerina performing a triple axle, could land you flat on your ass. Well. Ass? Meet floor. Floor? Meet ass.

Why does this plot element land us on our dereaire's? Because Costa has decided to make that special quality that elevates humans above robots, of all things, a technological one. Can you say 'misfire'? The last thing humans exceed the Transformers at is technology, yet Prime is quick to point out to Megatron that "look how special the humans are! They made a better gun in just three years whereas I've been toting this piece of crap weapon around for millenia!" Never has the word "duh" been so appropriate as in that moment.

If you want to showcase the superiority of humans over machines, you just don't go that route. You focus on something we have that the Transformers might yearn for. We've seen this featured in Budiansky's writing, in Furman's writing. Even they, back in the 80's, knew that to make mankind shine in the face of super advanced warring robots capable of teleportation and interstellar travel, you focus on one thing. The heart and soul. The humanity of our race. That's why that issue featuring Thundercracker worked so well. Because what intrigued him, what lured him in, was our being human.

I guess this was just too ambitious an idea. It's one thing to come up with clever ideas. It's another entirely to bring it to life in the pages of a comic.

Beyond this failure lay others. The showdown between Prime and Megatron was just disappointing. It irks me that Megatron has suddenly garnered an infatuation with employing lowly humans as a primary weapon. It's so out of character, clashing not just with the Megatron of other previously established continuities, but with IDW Megatron himself. He literally pulls up a seat to watch events unfold. Like a Sunday night football game, all he needs is some Kremzeek and he's good to go.

I think I can honestly say that this version of both Megatron and Optimus Prime are the most annoying I've yet to see. Optimus Prime has been an epic failure of a character since issue #1. First, Prime's passive, almost passively agressive, really. The next issue he's manic. Who exactly is Optimus Prime? I want to know! To me, he's almost like the once-wise grandfather suffering Alzheimer's. You almost get the sense that the other Autobots are following his orders out of pity due to his suffering early onset cybernetic dementia. I mean, his wires may literally be crossing.

Are we really going to continue this charade of Bumblebee calling the shots when the entire issue it's Prime barking orders at everyone? Has it ever felt for even one moment that Bumblebee has been leadership material? Again, it's almost senile the way Prime defers to Bumblebee in some instances, and could give a rat's ass about him at others.

Prime doesn't want to believe that Spike killed, wait for it... a Decepticon, yet in the issue prior he proceeds to blow the head off of Soundwave. Guess he was confident that wasn't a kill shot, huh? If that's not a kill shot, what is?

This story is all over the place. It's been 18 issues with only two or three I would say were strong reads. I just want to see this stop.

The word to describe this ongoing thus far is "confused".

Not to be entirely negative, Milne's art again shines. That one page with Prime crashing through the ceiling with Shockers in the background aghast almost makes up for all the cluttered art in Megatron:Origin. Alex has come a long way since then. He's improving leaps and bounds, which is exciting.

Give it a "D+". Art is the only thing worth praising here.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 2:09 am

This is one of my favorite reviews you have posted. Gets to the heart of why Mike's human/TF interaction is so contrived.

Post by **Best First** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:10 pm

This is my favourite Yaya review ever, without question.

I don't disagree with a single word of it.

barf!

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 3:21 pm

*marks "Get BeeFster To Agree With Me On Something" off of list of things to do before I die*

Post by **Best First** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 3:56 pm

ok, given he has said all there is to say, lets derail this topic with what we think is on Jaja's list...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:04 pm

Oh......****...

Post by **Best First** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:28 pm

Let's start with "Passionately kiss Emvee". Def on there. No question.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:53 pm

Best First wrote:Let's start with "Passionately kiss Emvee". Def on there. No question.

Good solution to any religious conflict, really.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:27 pm

It begins..............

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 7:01 pm

I haven't (and let's face it- unless I buy a random truckload of comics for next to nothing off of eBay or something, I won't) read the comic in question, but I enjoyed this review tremendously. Certainly more than I could have enoyed 3.99 worth of this rubbish.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 7:22 pm

But would you pay 3.99$ to see Yaya and Emvee kiss?

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 7:23 pm

Hell, I'd pay 4.99!

Hook2 · Post by **Hook2** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:39 pm

Is it safe to say here that I think it stinks that we didn't get to see the actual battle? And I felt that Megs should have said a little more about the ideological reasons for his surrender than just "it's the humans, Prime".

Just sayin.

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:49 pm

Nope. How dare you hate the lousy anti-climax in a year and a half's worth of books?

YOU DON'T GET IT.

Hook2 · Post by **Hook2** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 11:26 pm

DJ_Convoy wrote:Nope. How dare you hate the lousy anti-climax in a year and a half's worth of books?

YOU DON'T GET IT.

Right, lol!! I just don't understand! After all, I should be thankful to spend my money on a book written by such mighty creators, whose perspective and skills place them in some mythic realm which we as mere fans can't possibly fathom!

After all, it's not like Idw is paying me to totally ruin their flagship book!

Why, I certainly have no right to express disappointment after waiting 2 YEARS for the actual factions this franchise is about to meet and fight it out again only for it to happen OFF PAGE!

Ps Anyone notice that from the midsection down they've started drawing Prime with reference to his Mechtech figure for movie 3? As if Skywatch/sector7 weren't enough.

Post by **Kaylee** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:36 am

Best First wrote:Let's start with "Passionately kiss Emvee". Def on there. No question.

Yaya! You cheating skank!

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:07 am

It's been awhile since I bought any of the new comics. I did pick up #18, though.

...

I can't stand fanboy bitching. It's just something that always annoyed me. How did series like Battlestar Galactica maintain a fanbase for years and years without any new material? Because fans were willing to forgive the faults in favor of celebrating the strengths.

Every time something about some character is changed in a screen adaptation, no matter how minimal, there is a loud outcry from the fan community. Almost inevitably, it dies down once the changes have been shown to work for the adaptation. During the filming of Iron Man and the Dark Knight, fanboy bitching was deafening. But now those films are two of the defining superhero movies.

...

But every now and then, it's justified. And this? This is one of those times. The characters in Transformers are unrecognizable. Not just from a nostalgia standpoint, but even from earlier in the same series.

I give Transformers fiction a LOT of free passes, because it's something that I have, for nearly three decades, enjoyed. But there is no joy to be had from this book. I tried to like it. Beyond that, I tried to tolerate it. I even tried to accept that, "well, it's not my thing, but maybe it's just me."

It's not just me. IDW has put out a lot of stuff that I like. LSotW was amazing. I'm digging Heart of Darkness. Some of the movie stuff is fun.

I want to jump on the anti-Costa bandwagon But he's obviously not a bad writer. His GI:Joe stuff is pretty great. But, as far as Transformers goes, I find his work more difficult to enjoy than that of ANYBODY previous.

Yes. I enjoyed Revenge of the Fallen more than Mr. Costa's work on Transformers. In fact, I think I'm going to pop in the blu-ray version of the movie when I finish this posting.

...

I hate fanboy bitching. And I hate that it's become white noise to creators. Fans bitch about everything, so it's just tuned out. Sometimes, that's for the best. But there are times when companies probably should be listening to the fans complaints. Spider-Man's: One More Day was one of those times. This is another.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:17 am

Wait, it's gotten up to #18? That's a bet I've lost then.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:22 am

Son of a...

I went back and read issue 17. I thought that, maybe, the Jazz/cop and Prime/Soundwave things might have made some difference to how I took #18.

I was obviously wrong. To make matters worse, now I'm compelled to buy the trade because I can't justify reading two issues without paying IDW. ****!

Hook2 · Post by **Hook2** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:37 am

Brendocon wrote:Wait, it's gotten up to #18? That's a bet I've lost then.

Lol!!

I'll bet it doesn't go past the mysterious #125!!

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:08 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:
Yes. I enjoyed Revenge of the Fallen more than Mr. Costa's work on Transformers.

Whoa. Didn't think it was possible to reach a hate level exceeding that of ROTF.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:47 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:Son of a...

I went back and read issue 17. I thought that, maybe, the Jazz/cop and Prime/Soundwave things might have made some difference to how I took #18.

I was obviously wrong. To make matters worse, now I'm compelled to buy the trade because I can't justify reading two issues without paying IDW. ****!

Libraries, kid.

Hook2 · Post by **Hook2** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 12:01 am

Yaya wrote:
Professor Smooth wrote:
Yes. I enjoyed Revenge of the Fallen more than Mr. Costa's work on Transformers.
Whoa. Didn't think it was possible to reach a hate level exceeding that of ROTF.

Well, that and the ongoing are quickly becoming the same thing. The other side is that ROTF KNEW it was completely pointless, stupid and really ugly, whereas ongoing wants desperately to pretend it isn't. That makes ROTF a lot less evil.