Dreamwave Brrap Brrap Superstah Comic Marathon

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:53 am

I really don't think McCarthy stole this. I just think he didn't consider reading DW material, and coincidentally, got burned for it.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:19 am

I do't think McCarthy read anything beyond the blurb on the back of the G1 toy boxes. Accusing him of any more than that gives him too much credit.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:30 pm

right.

Read the rest of this. It is, wierdly, and to echo what others have said, not as bad as i remember.

Still dogsh*t, but not quite as runny as i recall.

Issue 2...

Plods along a bit, most of the story is in the last few pages, as Megs wakes up and Prime reawakens his fellow bots. 2 things that really bugged me - one the fact that no one had found the giant frickin robots at the bottom of the sea and two, when Op greets his millenial soldiers with "Hello Boys". Sheesh

Issue 3

Techno virus + Fight, basically.

Oh and the worst version of Grimlock ever. We shall call him Quimlock.

And! And Megs starts on his 'humans are sh*t lets kill them Prime' shtick, which we don't really seem to have evolved from. Despite it being stupid.

Issue 4

The techno virot device actually gets put to some good use here as a get out clause for the cliff hanger from the previosu issue.

The most notable thing here is that the art really starts to go to crap here (despite its shohen origins!), most notably when the conclusion of Meg's assault, again engineered to try and persuade Prime that humans are sh*t n stuff, produces the now famous shot of Devestator shouting/burping/terrified/victorious/stubbing his toe

Oh, and Hallo is a dick.

Issue 5

Each of these feels like half a comic. The bot's are battling on two fronts, which in fairness results in some nice lines for BB and an almost cool except for the art Prime take down of Devesator (altho the fact that Prime let's all his troops get felled before pulling this move somewhat undermine's the awsomeness.

And again we get "humans are sh*t" and Hallo is a dick. And Canadians are a bit stupid as well.

Issue 6 - yay.

Issue 6 made me angry all those years ago. Now i just feel a bit jaded reading it - one thing that really stands out is how the writer makes the Autobots a bit feckless to get to where he wants in the story. Gee - i'm glad we don't have to deal with that anymore.

Anywau, Prime AMAZINGLY decides not to team up with Megs and kill all hoomons, and the Autobots kinda win the day, but with some death cos this is all mad grown up n shiz.

As has been said, looking back, what really stands out about this is how many of these ideas, as thin as they are, have been recycled by both McCarthy and Costa...

...sigh.

War Wivin next, innit?

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:49 pm

Oh no. Armada TPB #1. You're not out of the woods yet.

It's a massive cliche-fest, but, that said, Prime Directive crapped and got off the pot in six issues. Brad Mick, of course, wanked his way through a lot of bad stuff, but War and Peace looks like... well, War and Peace next to Prime Directive.

And All Hail Megatron.

And the ongoing.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:12 pm

Armanda can wait. I'm not being dictated to by someone with cyber-rabies.

So - War Within 1.

Actually, there was a zero first wasn't there - it was pretty substantial to be fair, and we get some good Grimlock but equally... it probably sets the slightly unambitous tone as well.

War Within was the thing i was really looking forward to - Simon Furman back on TFs, the tale of how the war began and an astonishing new artist who actually was smart enough to realise that 4 million years prior to arriving on earth Jazz probably wouldn't have half a porsche for a chest.

And issue 1 starts well - aside from a rather confusing bit of dialogue about fence sitting that i have read 20 times and still cannot make sense of - WAR! Hunh! What is it good for? Robots ruddy fighting say it again now!

So, the art is a joy. Don wasn't and, in fairness i think still isn't, the world's best storyteller, but the thought and love that has gone into these redesigns is evident for all to see and really set this series apart from any TF series before it.

The story on the other hand, focussing on the ascent of Oppy P, is flatter. Again i feel torn between whether i am the victim of nostalgia or if the reality is that a good idea has been replaced with a less good one. Optronix the librarian, chosen because of reasons never really mentioned and mystically elevated to cool warrior dude just doesn't sit well with me compared to an athlete who wanted to be a doctor but found himself forced to become a warrior.

Plus, the reality is, no one here - at least non of the main cast - is under much threat as we know they are still going to be up and running in 4 million years time.

On the plus side - the action scenes - especially the attempted assasination - are great.

But ultimately, as competent a story teller as Simon is - this feels like a mis-step.

How much this is due to the constraints of not spoiling the alreasy estabished future is up to debate, altho the quality of Infiltration, when Simon was left to play alone maybe suggets this is a factor.

Next... Megatron!

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:44 pm

I read War Within recently. I'd mostly forgotten how many mystical elements there were to it, how long Prime and Megatron spend underground not doing much and how though Don's redesigns looked amazing, his action scenes were oddly static.

But it was still a majorly positive move from Dreamwave: recognising old comic book fans by bringing back Furman, giving Figueroa his big break and the pre-Earth setting spicing things up a bit.

I dunno. I found it exciting at the time but it was probably elevated in my eyes by the crap that surrounded it. And nostalgia played its part. Characters like Megatron, Starscream and Grimlock were being written how I thought they should be.

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 8:04 pm

I actually think Pat Lee had the right idea not to pay the useless hacks who write the modern TF comics. I wish IDW would do the same everytime a crap script gets handed in.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 3:05 am

War Within was a bit of a disappointment. Primarily (spoilers for the end somewhat) because I agreed with Grimlock in the end.

However, it did set the stage for a very strategic Prime in the IDW run, one who was willing to cut Earth's losses. Optronix Prime is a bit of a wanker, but if you take War Within I as canon for IDW's run, which is pretty easy to do, it makes sense, especially his refusal to let Cybertron burn in Stormbringer.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 3:13 pm

Issue 2;

We start with a slightly odd (seeming) tribute to Emirate Xaaron, in the form of the dead corrupt Emirate Xeon. It's almost as if an explicit reference to UK continuity to seen as too much. Then again it was early days and we do have UK Grimlock trudging around, so that's probably not the case.

Here we get the core elements of the Decepticon origin myth - Megatron aware of secrets older than the memory of the TFs themselves, and the games and the war all part of a grander plan, a - hey! Deception.

There is a line i particularly like "Hidden, wrapped in guile and subterfuge. Such is the Decepticon way". Non of this truamatised unionionist nonsense. Again i gravitate towards the idea that Megatron origins is a propoganda story. But anyway...

As Prime tries to evacuate Cybertron we get disgrunted Autobots, especially the usual suspect, and Meg's decides to get Op's attention by firing off one of Cybetron's long hidden engines and blowing up a good chunk of the surface.

Op responds by going it alone underground and soon pays the price when he is ambushed by Soundwave and the Insecticons and find's himself falling further into Cybertron.

And then Shockwave and co turn up to F Iacon up.

This is pretty good stuff. It has a bit more going on than issue 1 now the scene is set. My only critcisms would be Prowl acting rather out of character (thank goodness this was a one off!) by telling Prime not to base his decision on statistics and some confusing art sequences - Don is great at drawing the TF's themselves, but when it comes to the wider environment things get a bit lost - Brawn drops something that looks like... a big brown blob, Megs command tower drills throgh the surface of Cybetron (i think). I think some of it may be the colouring, they seem to have decided that while the bots themselves are vibrant, Cybertron will be... mud coloured, like a...

Ceramic Planet! Band name for Spencer.

Prime is still a bit sweeby here - which is fine i guess given he is new to all this, but the new origin still seems like a misstep.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:34 pm

I like Megatron in this issue. He sort of... smoulders. Great last shot of Shockwave too.

I think if it was Xaaron and not Xeon it might have pissed some people off, no? He would've deserved more than a dead hand cameo.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:49 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:I like Megatron in this issue. He sort of... smoulders. Great last shot of Shockwave too.

I think if it was Xaaron and not Xeon it might have pissed some people off, no? He would've deserved more than a dead hand cameo.

Yeah, that's kid of what i mean by it being an odd tribute.

He's got a... similar name. ish. And that's it.

Agree on Megs.

The Last Autobot · Post by **The Last Autobot** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:29 pm

And much more than being a bastard traitor.

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:45 pm

From what Furman was saying at the time they couldn't use any characters created by Marvel, hence the fudge on the name and not calling the Wrecker the Wreckers directly when they first show up in War and Peace (instead you get that terrible "Lets teach these guys the meaning of the word wreck!" line). Obviously this was either bull or something changed as this didn't last long.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:20 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:From what Furman was saying at the time they couldn't use any characters created by Marvel, hence the fudge on the name and not calling the Wrecker the Wreckers directly when they first show up in War and Peace (instead you get that terrible "Lets teach these guys the meaning of the word wreck!" line). Obviously this was either bull or something changed as this didn't last long.

Yeah. Weird. The Wreckers were in The Dark Ages.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:06 am

I don't remember the Wreckers being in TDA or W&P. Going to have to break those back open.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sat May 14, 2011 1:48 am

So, you give up on this, Paulie?

Post by **Best First** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:30 am

nope - pause while i work 16 hours a day for a month - normal service will be resumed the week after next.

looking ahead tho...

SPOILERS

SERIOUSLY - MAJOR SPOILERS

Shockwave did it.