IDW Comics Marathon

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:09 am

It is! It IS ****ING STRAXUS! How ya doin', buddy? Oh. Got your ass kicked in like 3 panels. That's a shame. Moving on.

Devastation was TIGHT. And mean that in the, "A WHOLE lot of stuff crammed into the page-count of about five and a half issues" kind of way. Still, nice job all around. Great, GREAT stuff. Tied up pretty much everything important while still leaving some things for later down the road. I have absolutely no doubt that Simon Furman will tie up all those lose ends in due time. The Dinobots. Shockwave. The only humans (outside of Circuit Breaker, natch!) that have ever been worth reading about. Now that the first epic is in the can, it's time for another slow build to the next big thing Yes, sir! It's smoooooth sailing from here.

What's that? Maximum Dinobots aside, Simon's pretty much been shunted off the Movie-verse line? Well, surely those awesome humans will have their storylines appropriately finished up, right? They're not just going to be swept under the rug or anything, I presume. And certainly, the human that's actually bridged the gap from Human to Transformer won't just get taken out off-screen, right? I mean, a Transformer won't find him in a sorry state (much like Hunter found Sunstreaker earlier) and just mercy-kill him. Especially since that's exactly what Sunstreaker, himself begged for before being saved by that same human. The Hunter/Sunstreaker arc has been some of the most compelling work in IDW so far. Surely, SURELY, that won't all just be undone for the sake of a quick, hard reboot.

...Right?

...Guys?

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:23 am

Spotlight: Blurr

Okay, first the good. If this is in continuity, then there is absolutely no way that the same can be said of Megatron: Origin. So, that's good. Also, the art is really, really nice. It's interesting to see Blurr in his Generations incarnation...two or three years before that toy would be released.

The bad.

...

...

...where to start.

Blurr is Sunstreaker. Worse, he's IDW Sunstreaker. It's like they took Sunstreaker's template and stuck it on a repainted Drift. Wait. Wrong order. Anyway. Yeah. Blurr IS Sunstreaker. Which is a problem, since Sunstreaker is already Sunstreaker. Oh, and he's pretty much Mirage as well. Dreamwave's Mirage?

Why does Optimus look like Orion Pax? I'd swear that contradicts more than just Megatron: Origin.

This issue reads like a VERY long generic Mosaic. Only the "introspection" stuff is handled by other characters.

I haven't gotten to AHM yet, but this does not bode well...

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:33 am

Spotlight Jazz:

This completely made up for the Blurr Mosai...er...Spotlight. Just a good, solid Autobot vs Decepticon story. And it kept Tracks from sharing a template with that Sunstreaker/Mirage/Blurr Human Centipede thing from last issue.

The art was solid, kind of reminiscent of some of the earlier G2 work without being over the top. Although I thought Divebomb looked kind of strange in a few panels.

Great book. Highly recommended!

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:33 am

Oh, God! Spotlight Drift is next! ... ****

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:07 pm

Casey drew Spotlight: Drift, and I find it quite tolerable for that reason. Why he's not drawing the Ongoing god only knows. Since Don went to drawing monsterbots, Casey is the runner-up to EJ for IDW's best artist.

Devastation was amazing. I cannot say how much I ******* loved that fight with Sixshot, starting with the moment when the Ark almost flattened a lovely little suburb. There's an odd tribute to Michael Bay there, in which EJ proudly displays a woman's cleavage as she runs in terror.

Were you feeling the Bay, EJ? Comments?

Anyway, about the only downside is that EJ didn't draw the whole series, although Nick and... Marcelo? really did well in the fill-ins.

The ending, with the Reapers, Galvatron, the Decepticon brouhaha and Prime's rather cavalier dismissal of Earth--"fend for yourself"--was a perfect mix of Simon's usual MO and the badassery of the Ultimate Transformers mood.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:47 pm

Marathon will continue with...Spotlight: Drift tomorrow.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:40 am

Spotlight Drift:

...was bad.

Art was nice. VERY nice. Guido-type nice. But the story and exposition... What did Yaya say about Heart of Darkness? "Mid 80's style dialog," or something like that. This book's got it in spades.

Previous Spotlight books were used to build the TF Universe. This one was used to show how OMFG AWEEEESOME Drift is. But, seriously, he's pretty much every fan-character rolled into one. He may as well be a female gestalt-limb who shares a body-type with Starscream.

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:21 pm

He may as well be a female gestalt-limb who shares a body-type with Starscream.

That's utterly fantastic. The ultimate Mary Sue.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 4:13 pm

DJ_Convoy wrote:
He may as well be a female gestalt-limb who shares a body-type with Starscream.
That's utterly fantastic. The ultimate Mary Sue.

Indeed - altho i think you may need to insert the word ninja.

Altho i'm worried the idea of a female gestalt will catch on with the section of the fandom who i suspect has the most need but the least inclination to change their sheets.

Also bear in mind though we all only hate Drift because we think it is cool to do so and therefore our opinions on the matter should be routinley dismissed without any threat of moderation.

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 4:34 pm

That's what happens when you post on a "nasty little corner of the internet."

Honestly? I don't even hate Drift. I even own the toy (admittedly, I bought it as part of a case, so I didn't seek it out, but still, I bought the thing)! It's just taht I see him and I kind of roll my eyes. He's one-note and not remotely worth getting worked up over. There are other things to be angry about.

Like the movies, the ongoing, and all of the other junk us old folks get riled up by. Get offa my lawn you whippersnappers!

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 6:36 am

Spotlight: Prowl

Here's the first thing that jumps to mind after reading this. **** YOU, Mike Costa!

But that's not fair to the guy as a person or as a writer. So I'm going to retract that, at least for the time being.

During this issue, Prowl speaks for, well, pretty much all of us here. He thinks that what Prime is doing is misguided at best, pointless/stupid at worst.

AND HE'S RIGHT!

But anyway, he changes his mind and breaks cover to save a little girl who almost got killed because some idiots were messing around with a Decepticon(?) rifle they found. Which, by the way, does kind of support his whole "humans are stupid and we shouldn't be here" thing. But rather than see this as (WHAT IT IS) a confirmation of his beliefs, he IMMEDIATELY changes his tune about the importance of helping humans on Earth. Even though, a few pages later, he goes on to say that he broke cover again later and got his ass kicked for it.

The most infuriating bit of this whole book, though, is Mr. Costa's all-but constant telling the reader, through either text boxes or terrible, stilted dialog that things MAY LOOK one way, but ARE ACTUALLY another way.

You know who else does this? The writers of the most complained about mosaics. Do you know what the biggest differences between Mr. Costa's work and that of Mosaic writers? Those Mosaic writers do it for FREE and I don't have to PAY TO READ IT!!!

You know... I thought that some of you were being a bit hard on Mike Costa. But reading all of this stuff in large chunks, I just have to marvel at the restraint you've all shown.

Hook2 · Post by **Hook2** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 3:49 am

Spotlight Prowl is the one Idw comic I have never read. Every time I think about ordering it I read a review and that cans it.

After the codas to AHM, I thought we were about to see the Decepticon Civil War. The collapse of that whole galaxy spanning empire thing from the ations era.

But after ongoing #1 came out and I saw where it was going I actually dropped the tfs comics for a while and Sl Prowl is the one issue I've never gone back and read.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:53 am

I just opened up Spotlight Cliffjumper to the first page. This is what I see.

"He is the Autobots' one-man army." Oh, no...

"Always ready for a fight, he will never stop until every Decepticon lays beaten before him." As opposed to...what, exactly? Those Autobots who just quit in the middle of a fight?

"A master of all weapons, he is unstoppable...unbeatable..." Oh, for the love of...

"Written by: Shane McCarthy." Can... Can I just stop now?

Post by **Kaylee** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:58 am

Professor Smooth wrote:I just opened up Spotlight Cliffjumper to the first page. This is what I see.

"He is the Autobots' one-man army." Oh, no...

"Always ready for a fight, he will never stop until every Decepticon lays beaten before him." As opposed to...what, exactly? Those Autobots who just quit in the middle of a fight?

"A master of all weapons, he is unstoppable...unbeatable..." Oh, for the love of...

"Written by: Shane McCarthy." Can... Can I just stop now?

Is it wrong that I hope they just photocopy and cross-out the name to create Spotlight Beachcomber, Spotlight Pipes and Spotlight Hubcap?

It'd be about as character accurate.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:01 am

I'm gonna leave that last post alone. To show how wrong it can be to make assumptions like that.

Great story. Literally the ONLY thing I took issue with was the "CLIFFJUMPER IS AWEEEEEEEEESOME!" preface.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:00 am

Well...I guess I've put it off as long as possible. It's time for All Hail Megatron!

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:14 am

I remember enjoying this issue when I first read it. And I still don't hate it. The story is serviceable. The artwork is excellent. The dialog's not bad. I immediately hate the cliche human fighter pilot (who is apparently dating that GI:Joe villain, Zaranna(?), but that's about it.

But, WOW, it is completely incompatible with what happened in Simon's books. Not just "wait and see how it fits" type incompatible. Completely, 100%, flat-out incompatible.

The TFs were not exactly a well-kept secret on Earth. The US military ordered an air strike on them during the battle with Sixshot. How would the military be so completely unprepared?

Why is Megatron suddenly like 100 feet tall? His head was as tall as two humans.

I still don't hate this, but I can see now just how much shoe-horning had to be done to get this to fit in with Furman's run.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:22 am

Issue 2!

More humans! And this one is thinking of five different ways to kill a hybrid car owner "all with this toothpick."

How convenient. The government DID know about the Transformers, they just...chose not to tell anybody. I think I've seen this movie. It made like half a billion dollars...

Oh, there's a mention of the Machination. Nice.

Hey look, it's Devastator, who is apparently 1,000 feet tall!!!

Wait a minute. Devastator? YEARS are spent building up eventual combiner technology and it just happens during the 1 year gap?

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:31 am

Issue 3:

How much of this story is just the US military talking up how awesome the Decepticons are? That seemed to take up more than half of this issue.

The conversation between Megatron and Starscream was interesting and, if it were not completely out of character for BOTH OF THEM (in the confines of the previously established IDW Universe) it would have been great.

If this book were Dreamwave or IDW's first attempt at a TF book, I wouldn't have much of a problem with it. However, as an attempt as a continuation of what's already happened, it just feels wrong.

Not, "wait and see," wrong. Not, "it will all come together wrong." Not, "Why would Starscream and the Seekers downgrade themselves to F-15s when they were F-22s earlier," wrong. Not, "didn't Reflector die in Spotlight Wheelie?" wrong. No. This is, "these characters are absolutely not the same ones I've been reading about for the last 50 or so books," wrong.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:56 am

Issue 4: Same as before. More backstory on what happened to the Autobots...who are at least a bit more recognizable than their Decepticon counterparts. Although Bumblebee is a bug for some reason. This does seem to fit with Spotlight: Jazz.

Issue 5: Hey, look! It's Spike! The most uber-badass mother on this or any other planet. Knowing what I know now, maybe I can be forgiven for not already noting that this was also the first appearance of DRIFT!!!

Issue 6: Now we've Drift being awesome. With SWORDS! Word of advice to the writer: Don't have another character tell us when something is "so cool." If you have to do that, it isn't. Also, apparently the other world powers are going to bomb New York. Fairly sensible, I guess. For people.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:06 pm

Issue 7: The return of EJ Su to help fill in the gaps helps this issue along IMMENSELY! No fleshy BROS take away from this issue. While there's still a lot of "out of character" stuff going down, it looks like steps are being taken to smooth things over.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:24 pm

Issue 8: Sadly, EJ doesn't handle the scenes in the past, but Guido does a nice job of using his designs, if not the overall style.

The traitor is revealed. Much like Dreamwave's "Bring me their heads" Optimus Prime, "Kill all humans," Sunstreaker just absolutely does not work for any incarnation of the character.

And wheeeeeee! More Drift!

Issue 9: Oh. The cover is Spike standing in front of a 35-foot tall...cassette tape... Nice start.

Aaaaand there's Shirtless Spike buttoning some pants.

What were the human scenes in this book inked with? A baseball bat? I've seen thinner lines at Disney World.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:45 pm

Issue 10:

Somehow the Swarm have "found a way around" an unbroken expanse of nothingness.

Starscream turns on Megatron and it's revealed that Megatron was waiting for this all along. The fight with Devastator, while epic, just doesn't look right. Again, I think the inking is to blame.

Issue 11:

Amazing art. More explanations for why nobody's been acting the way they have for millions of years. And, oh no! The Decepticons have an atomic bomb! Is that supposed to mean anything? They have space bridges and teleportation and...

Issue 12:

As befits an IDW series, a rather abrupt conclusion. Nice art, as ever. The portrayal of Starscream is maddening.

If All Hail Megatron had been the first TF movie, I think a lot of people would have been very happy. But as a follow-up to everything that Furman had done, and setting the stage for what will come later, it's 12 issues, an entire year, and $48 worth of disappointment.

Up next: All Hail Megatron: Coda...which was renamed All Hail Megatron #14. Ah well. One thing left over from Furman's time. It. Never. Ends.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 4:22 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:
What were the human scenes in this book inked with? A baseball bat? I've seen thinner lines at Disney World.

AHM was some nice ideas, even some nice execution. It ultimately failed but more because it shat on continuity than anything else. Etc here:

http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.co ... rticle=032

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 6:30 pm

It's weird how severe a gear change comes with #7. Not enough of one, mind you... but it's definitely there.

Reading the very defensive interviews with McCarthy, saying the series was EXACTLY as he planned it makes me smile.

Where does the idea that this was supposedly supposed to be a Generations title come from? It's been vehemently denied a million times... but methinks they doth protest too much.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:11 pm

Enjoyed AHM #4, #5, and #8. That was about it.

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:46 pm

The moment of AHM that sticks with me is Sideswipe unplugging Hunter. That was a sad moment.

It also makes me angry as there was so much mileage for future Hunter/Sunstreaker stories, and it was scrubbed out to wipe out all of Sunstreaker's development.

Hook2 · Post by **Hook2** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:59 pm

At least it introduced Spike...

I remember reading issue 12 the first time, thinking this would be one heck of a battle between Prime and Megatron. I had somehow read all the way through thinking this human wouldn't actually do this. It would just be a horrible idea to topple megs with a randomly introduced army guy rather than Prime or Hotrod or someone like Starscream or Sixshot.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:22 am

Hound wrote:The moment of AHM that sticks with me is Sideswipe unplugging Hunter. That was a sad moment.

It also makes me angry as there was so much mileage for future Hunter/Sunstreaker stories, and it was scrubbed out to wipe out all of Sunstreaker's development.

I have to assume that, somewhere down the line, they'll tell that missing Sunstreaker/Hunter story.

Another little annoyance is that, if the Decepticons had Hunter, they could have just bypassed the whole "traitor" thing. The Autobots could have been fighting amongst themselves only to find that it was the experiments on Hunter that gave the Decepticons the access codes.

Upon re-reading issue #12, I don't mind Spike's attack on Megatron so much. Yeah, it messed him up, but it was Prime who delivered that final blow.

By end of the series, it's firmly in continuity. However, I still take issue with that 1 year gap. Rather than have the characters advance to the point they're at naturally, they try to do it retroactively. Which just seems like a cheat.

I remember hearing that All Hail Megatron wasn't going to be in continuity, although long before issue 1 shipped, I believe that was cleared up. Maybe it was just a rumor? I guess I'll check out the TF Wiki to get that cleared up.

My best guess though, is that somebody tossed around the idea that we wouldn't find out that it was in IDW's current continuity until either the last few pages of issue one or sometime down the line. Which might have softened the blow, not being told "THIS IS IN CONTINUITY" when everything seemed to (and still did) contradict that.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 1:47 am

Issue 13:

Oh, great! It's Simon and Don again! Can't wait to open this up and...OH DEAR GOD! WHAT IS THAT?!?!

What can I say about the art that hasn't been said before? Well, I can say something about the artist. Don's given us some of the best TF comic book art in the last 20 years. So, if he wants to try something new, experiment a little bit, then good for him. It's not my cup of tea. A lot of people seem to think the same way. But, hey, it's DON. Give the guy some slack.

Prime going to Ironhide for council, though? That's pretty much unforgivable after reading Spotlight: Optimus Prime. You know, where it explicitly says that Omega Supreme is the only one Prime can go to for such matters.

The Starscream story, on the other hand, was just a very nice little follow-up to AHM proper. The art was amazing and it told a story about the Matrix that actually makes some kind of sense. The throw-away line about not dumping Megatron into space because he'd probably just come back more powerful than before was good for a quick laugh.