RiD #13 preview

[Jack Cade]

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/ ... firsts.htm

I won't reiterate the criticisms I've made of the direction of RiD in the last thread, but so far this preview continues along the same troubling lines.

And a fresh criticism - Barber seems to love his cliffhangers, but rarely follows them up satisfactorily. Remember Prowl stood on the balcony declaring it's time to get serious? Next issue they took out all the Decepticons' misbehaviour chips. Very serious.

Superion's splash-page entrance? Yet to be returned to.

And now we have #12 ending with a souped-up combat-ready Prowl arriving on the scene, and #13 beginning with him immediately turning tail and fleeing, saying civilians will have to look after themselves! Unbelievable.

[Metal Vendetta]

And now we have #12 ending with a souped-up combat-ready Prowl arriving on the scene, and #13 beginning with him immediately turning tail and fleeing, saying civilians will have to look after themselves! Unbelievable.

It's not only going back on the cliffhanger that's unbelievable. Just what is going on with these Decepticons? Are they dangerous or not? Because everyone's acting like they're going to tear the city apart, but Prowl has just shot one of them and cuffed another two while he and Wheeljack stood around chatting. Then he decided to leave, for, er, some reason. Why doesn't he just handcuff the rest of them? They don't seem particularly dangerous even when he has just provoked them directly, apparently they just queued up for him to put on the restraints. Elsewhere we can see Buzzsaw has guns and Brawl has, like, tank cannons sticking out of his shoulders. Why aren't they firing them? What's with the flaming torches anyway? Are the Decepticons doing anything other than standing around outide Megatron's prison going "rabble rabble rabble"?

Oooh, hang on, there's Regeneration One #87 here as well.

[snarl]

I just don't like RID very much. It's not much kop imo.

Can't even be arsed to rant about it

[Best First]

yeah i feel the same. It's not Costa levels of stupid, it just not very ept.

The art is quite good - maybe a bit too glossy for a ravaged planet altho i suspect that's more the colouring.

I think if MTMTE did not exist it would irk me a lot more.

[snarl]

Yes, I agree there.

The colouring's ok if you like that style, but I agree that it isn't suitable.

Pencils ok - problem is the character designs are totally not my cup of tea - FFS you fat TransForming *****. It's the new year, join TF weightwatchers already.

[KingMob]

Prowl's up to something, guys. He and Starscream are mirroring each other, Starscream's just done an info-dump of his actions/plan over the course of the series, which has all been fairly obvious and in the open for a Decepticon, because of course he's the 'good' bad guy.
Prowl is the 'bad' good guy, who's been doing naughty things in the shadows, but his actual grand plan is still a mystery. Well, he's going to reveal it to Wheeljack and there'll be a TWEEST to how things get resolved.

The story is cleverer and more ambitious than it first appears, it's just not being told very well.

If this was a text piece, I think it'd be good. A lot of the criticisms are based around the visual storytelling.

[Best First]

Not any of mine and not most if the ones I have read.

[Jack Cade]

I don't think it's the visual aspect either, although I have a few (mostly minor) issues with that.

It's a bit Pirates 3 at the moment - everyone keeps switching sides for the sake of plot twist after plot twist, rather than it making an organic kind of sense.

Prowl is all over the place as a character. The only explanations that makes sense are that he's under some kind of mind control or he really has turned evil and has just been screwing with everybody.

[Shanti418]

Well, this was quite an interesting thread to read after reading the issue.

[KingMob]

Not any of mine and not most if the ones I have read.

Apologies if you feel I am creating a criticism to rail against, but I don't think I am. I think my word choice was uninformative.
By poor visual storytelling I meant things like the splash of Prowl posing whilst festooned in guns, and the apparently un-rioting rioters mentioned upthread. The former would be better if a 'cool' visual was avoided in favour of something more low-key and suited to the character's portrayal so far, whilst the latter strikes me as a classic artist/writer disconnect. There are a couple other ones that come to mind. I think if you consider these sequences either in the art style of someone like Sean Phillips, or think of them as just prose, they work.

I don't wish to defend mediocrity too robustly, because this comic is certainly that. But I think it gets jumped on a little too quickly. The writer is attempting a story that relies on mood and payoff. The mood is mostly lacking due to the visual choices - in my opinion - and we haven't had the payoff yet.

I don't have confidence that the payoff will be worth it, mind you.

[Best First]

I acccept that art could be better but i think even if you had Geoff S on the cae you would only see a marginal improvement from a story perspective.

That said when is said none of my criticisms are art based i was clearly lying as i moan about colouring above.

I suspect the outcome will be one of the following;

1) Prowl decided that only Megs was strong enough to unite Cybertron

2) It's a trap! And Prowl is a billion steps ahead of everyone else and needed to ensnare Megatron.

3) One of the above plus Arcee f'ing it all up with Dirge and Swindle

Whatever the case it feels like the conclusion (whatever it will be) was deduced first and then the story worked backwards from there - which as a concept is fine but it's been done in a manner that feels forced in several places to take the characters from issue 1 to where they are now (a lot of the Nails cme across as unbelievable idiots for example). However clever some of this may be (and i remain of the view it's got far better ideas behind it that the previous disaster of a series) the execution is weak and i don't think the art is the primary issue.

I did however smirk at "Shoot anything that's not pink"

[KingMob]

I guess it's horses for courses but I honestly think the story would be better received if the art was more moody in layout, akin to a crime comic say, than like the trad superhero stuff we've been getting. I don't mean to dump on the artists with that, I wish it's something all sides of the creative team would have considered.
Like, imagine if Prowl's return at the end of last issue was more like Orson in the Third Man, or one of the forever smoking anti-hero characters like Spider or Constantine, instead of a splash from a 90s Punisher comic. I agree entirely with your point about certain bits being forced as hell to get to this position, and I think a different tone in the art would've mitigated that somewhat and resulted in fewer raised eyebrows by the readers.

Eh, I'm harping on too much, I'll shush about that now.

Dunno what's going on tbh, didn't expect Prowl to be an actually bad bad good guy, but with Screamer and Prowl in the same room, this storyline needs to be resolved or it'll finally be as drawn out and unsatisfying as it has threatened to be all along. So I'm interested in what happens properly now, rather than just as a mildly diverting puzzle. Hopefully the Chosen One guff is revealed to be just that and that whole plot gets kicked to the curb rather than being the next plot.