MTMTE #18 Preview (Spoilers obv)

[Computron]

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... -18/27504/

I want what Swerve has. You'll know what I mean when you read it.

[Hot Shot]

Hahahahaha! That's hilarious.

[Metal Vendetta]

Hahahaha, utterly brilliant. Considering Swerve's record with guns, utterly appropriate too.

[Best First]

Yes and yes. Laughed out loud.

Takes longer to type than LOL but feels much less tw@ttish.

[bumblemusprime]

Aw man, I thought this was out today.

[Metal Vendetta]

Full preview here: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... iew/27552/

Phew, it doesn't let up for a minute, does it? Lots and lots to take in here.

Remember the Necrobot's list? Hound, Chromedome, Drift, Dipstick and Magnus? I have a bad feeling about this.

[Metal Vendetta]

Cattleprod over at IDW pointed out that this dude who calls himself "Ambus" may not be the same dude as Dominus Ambus, given his different colour scheme. After all, we don't assume that Pious Maximus and Fortress Maximus are the same person, nor Delta Magnus (though we've not seen him yet) and Ultra Magnus. Could be that this is a new member of the "Ambus family".

Oh geez. Where to begin?

[Computron]

Oh Skids. Poor poor Skids. Totally had a Wash from Firefly moment. (Presumably) saves the crew and then gets shanked for his efforts. (By Star Sabre I think?)

Who was that dead Autobot by the door to the Oil Reservoir by the way?

Oh and Pharma. Deliciously evil that one. I can't wait for Ratchet to put him down for good. Hopefully with his own hands. (Revenge is a dish best served cold, seasoned with irony yadda yadda)

[Jack Cade]

Wow.

I know we always say this, but it's going to be a hell of a long wait now.

Question about that final page reveal: does that mean he was lying about how long he's been there, or is there something even more dastardly going on?

[Metal Vendetta]

Who was that dead Autobot by the door to the Oil Reservoir by the way?

I think it's Deftwing

[Best First]

I think it's Boss.

Possibly my favourite issue yet. So much going on, so many good lines.

[Computron]

So much going on, so many good lines.

"And that's when I started swearing."

[Impactor returns 2.0]

There's to much awesome sauce going on I can't keep up!
So magnus is ambus?
If so, where's drift?
Where's whirl and cyclonus

Where's my briefcase, what's in the briefcase?
Ratchet!
Who came through the portal?
Where did that portal come from?
Why so many titans?

[Metal Vendetta]

I think it's Boss.

Hm, tough call - both are on the Lost Light with similar colour schemes and very similar heads - but his remaining arm appears to have a wing on it. Not that he's necessarily dead dead anyway, he could come back from that, but James has said he wants this five-parter to have a "season finale" feel to it and some carnage amongst the crew is definitely to be expected.

So why is Tyrest riddled with bullet holes?

[snarl]

This was awesome. Quite dense for a comic but not at all boring or slow. It was flying off the pages but just seemed to keep on going.

I've been ill recently, but stuff like this is great to have as something to look forward to and is a great countdown timer to when I'll be better again.

RiD is still not my cup of tea, but two out of three is good going.

[Best First]

Yeah i was reading on the iphone and when i got to the Ratchet bit assumed that was the final cliff hanger but it just kept going.

Like it had flames on it's chest.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Whilst it was freaky I suppose ratchet losing his body is no big deal?

[Metal Vendetta]

Whilst it was freaky I suppose ratchet losing his body is no big deal?

Well it's obviously horribly traumatic for him, but I'm assuming First Aid can put him back together. But I agree with Compy, Pharma is quite deliciously evil. I was imagining him as Roose Bolton's bastard throughout. Just perfect.

Question about that final page reveal: does that mean he was lying about how long he's been there, or is there something even more dastardly going on?

So many questions. If he was telling the truth about how he got there then does that mean that Ultra Magnus is like a title passed down? Minimus was arrested by the previous "Magnus" and then at some point during his sentence was offered the chance by Tyrest to replace him? Seems unlikely, but...we have the appearance this issue of none other than the legendary Star Saber, who also appears to be working for Tyrest, or at least, alongside his Legislators (which are souped-up Guardians - squeee!). Now both Magnus and Star Saber are (essentially) powered-up versions of smaller robots - Mags has the white cab and Star Saber has that little red jet dude whose name temporarily escapes me. Could this be Tyrest's MO in creating Duly Appointed Officers - taking a smaller, weaker dude and building them into a larger 'bot in exchange for a term of service? When he got drunk on Hedonia Magnus started talking about how Tyrest offered him things and - worse - he took them, so maybe this is what he was talking about?

Argh. I'm going to have to check a whole bunch of previous issues to find out what we know for certain about Ultra Magnus. Considering practically half the crew went wandering around inside him to fight the Nanocons, and presumably Ratchet examined him, he can't be that different physically from the average Cybertronian or someone would have noticed - "Hey, how come Magnus has a little green and white moustachioed dude inside of him?" - and the mechanics of them being inside his mouth would have just been awkward. So, body tourism? Shadowplay? The Institute? This has their fingerprints all over it - when we saw Overlord at The Institute it was guarded by, heh, Guardians and they weren't averse (even in their "New Institute" incarnation when Brainstorm and Chromedome got their nicknames working there) to employing the likes of Trepan who was...morally dubious to say the least. Could be that Pharma's just their latest recruit and that "they" - whoever runs The Institute these days, and the "them" in "Don't let them take Skids" - are the ones pulling Tyrest's strings as well. Plus, that's where Brainstorm thought Skids's gun came from. Phew. That almost sounds like a workable theory.

Except...why does Skids say this issue that he came to with Legislators all over him and a blowtorch in his hand? Is it something like Brainstorm's perception filter on his briefcase, or everyone's seeming perception filter regarding the contents of the Matrix map and Rung's name where he literally can't remember his gun? Arrgh.

[Metal Vendetta]

Also, after posting a lot about Ultra Magnus, it's odd that you can say "Optimus" or "Prime", but we never call UM "Ultra". Nor do we call Fortress Maximus "Fortress" as an abbreviation but with the recently-introduced (and Max's possible "spark-brother"?) Pious Maximus, I'd feel happy calling him Pious for short. Kind of a weird unwritten rule that if it ends in "us", it's okay?

[bumblemusprime]

Okay by us.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Tons of reactions, but mostly: **** ANOTHER MONTH

[Mr_Tigg]

The Roberts / Milne magic continues!

Everything I want to say that's positive has already been said (either here or over on IDW boards). Can't wait for next month!

[Best First]

So... Skids burnt out his own memories right?

He knows something deep down that Tyrest (or as suggested someone else) needs to know for something... not good.

Like MV says so many questions.

Lunar 1! Titans! Bulletholes! Decepticons!

If a remote controlled Magnus suit is an option i want one by the way. I think it's always been Ambus but that raises the question of the spark, etc...

Mind blowing stuff.

[snarl]

Just had a read of the IDW board.

That guy "Matrix" is a mind blowing ****.

[Mr_Tigg]

Just had a read of the IDW board.

That guy "Matrix" is a mind blowing ****.

I actually quite like him - if you think his MTMTE hate is bad you should see what he has to say about RID. Some of his past critiques have been hilarious.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Oooooo I'll go read!

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Ok, so I'm thinking out loud here about the magnus suit idea going around..

A few issues ago we see magnus in his past battles getting hurt over and over... At least that's what I thought.

Now I'm thinking it wasn't magnus getting hurt buy it was magnus, or who ever was using the suit getting killed.

I. E. There have been lots of tf playing magnus

[Yaya]

Another fantastic issue, can't add much more to what's been already said. But I will say again, this issue seemed like it had three different possible conclusive money shots but it just kept going. Sweet.

I find the whole Magnus thing interesting, but at the same time, am somehow bothered that the big UM may not be the bot we thought he was. Meaning, if he really is just a small bot in a big robot suit, that kind of detracts from his legend somewhat, not add to it. I mean, if anyone can just jump into a "warrior suit" and become one of the Autobot or Decepticon heavies, that's kind of disappointing. I can at least hope that if that's the case, then it's a very rare thing. But when you look at it, some of the most powerful bots have been 'upgrades'-Overlord, Shockwave, Ultra Magnus. On the flip side, upgrading would seem a very logical endeavor for a race of warring robots. I mean, we already know, for example, that Jhaixus and Megatron gets their upgrade fix by try to turn every group of bots into combiners. Pretender tech is another example of an upgrading.

Maybe the Functionists were onto something. Maybe they were afraid of everyone just upgrading and becoming something they could not control, and hence, were necessary to keep the society in check.

Oh no....I'm a functionist.

[Sunyavadin]

Yeah, I guess next issue will be explaining how Minimus Ambus ended up with what looks like a permanently grafted Apex set.
I was always wondering if they'd end up going this way with Magnus in this continuity, the upgrade angle which has previously been used to explain why his G1 counterpart was an Optimus Prime repaint in a big trailer suit.

The functionists will no doubt get a mention. I mean, as you pointed out, this flies completely in the face of what they preached. It could date to their time, or simply to the start of the war, maybe as another of Senator Shockwave's experiments. Or it may go back even farther and may have been an attempt by a lowly member of one of the castes which existed prior to Nova's reforms to elevate themselves, or even one of Jhiaxus' experiments.

[bumblemusprime]

Can I just say:

It is a wonderful thing to be having this conversation after years of "How will Dreamwave rip off the TV series this week?"

Reminds me of the golden guessing period between season 2 and 3 of Beast Wars. But better. Richer, deeper.

[Auntie Slag]

"You wanna avoid a slap?" Perhaps the coolest line Rodimus has ever said to one of the most important Transformers in the universe. Rodimus is Sigue Sigue Sputnik and the Clash right now.

I can't wait to see how his character develops, and how its affected by the people who are and aren't around him (i.e. Drift and Magnus). I love Whirl and Swerve, but Rodimus is picking up steam, and its been a while since his brilliant showing with the Sparkeater.