MTMTE 44 (spoilers)

[Professor Smooth]

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... ers/33779/

Business is about to pick up.

[Professor Smooth]

Holy ****. That last page. That last ****ing page.

More when I recover.

[Metal Vendetta]

"I think we've both learnt something from this."

Who's the little dude hiding under Ambus's desk on that last page?

[edit]Oooh hang on this is out, isn't it? (I'm on holiday on Canadian time so I kinda lost track) Back in a minute...

[Hound]

I think it's a Ten plushie

[Professor Smooth]

I think it's a Ten plushie

Looks that way. *Awwww*

Couple thoughts.

1: Nobody show Megatron's statue to Whirl. We don't want him trying to beat the high score.

2: Gotta assume Optimus Prime's marker is, at least, on par with Megatron's. Maybe even larger.

3: My suspicions about Dominus Ambus and a certain masked DJD member were, perhaps, on the money.

[Computron]

I was a bit distracted by the art. Sakamoto cant do Milne's balance of serious and funny. Sakamoto only can do comical which didnt work for me.

That being said the last 2 pages totally redeemed the issue for me.

I think Megatron is gonna do some time travel soon.

[Professor Smooth]

I love, love, LOVE, that Swerve's reaction to meeting the Necrobot is to take a selfie.

[Metal Vendetta]

I think it's a Ten plushie

Well blow me down with a feather, of course it is

2: Gotta assume Optimus Prime's marker is, at least, on par with Megatron's. Maybe even larger.

This was my first thought as well. I mean, it would set entirely the wrong narrative note, but there's no way Prime's hands are squeaky clean after all that fighting - even Bumblebee had a patch of flowers. Something to maybe explore in the future though.

3: My suspicions about Dominus Ambus and a certain masked DJD member were, perhaps, on the money.

Hm, not quite sure I agree with your policework there... after all Megs talks about "Tarn" a fair bit. When Rewind said he was looking for Ambus I'm not sure Megatron wouldn't just say if it was Tarn. Keeping secrets like that doesn't seem like his style.

[Professor Smooth]

Think about it. Roller dies. Dominus Ambus "disappears". Ambus has Roller's body converted into an exo-skeleton like the Magnus armor. Megatron *thinks* Tarn is Roller, but it's actually Dominus wearing Roller like the bug in Men in Black.

Have we ever conclusively seen Minimus and Dominus in the same place at the same time? Minimus could just be a Shadowplayed Dominus or something.

[Metal Vendetta]

Think about it. Roller dies. Dominus Ambus "disappears". Ambus has Roller's body converted into an exo-skeleton like the Magnus armor. Megatron *thinks* Tarn is Roller, but it's actually Dominus wearing Roller like the bug in Men in Black.

Oh, now that I do like. That's really good. They didn't go into any details about whether the Necrobot knew Ultra Magnus's secret - was there a statue for Minimus Ambus or Magnus on his planet? Given that the big reveal was that he was just an ordinary dude with sufficient preparation and technology who could make mistakes, it would have been informative to see just how he handled that situation.

Have we ever conclusively seen Minimus and Dominus in the same place at the same time? Minimus could just be a Shadowplayed Dominus or something.

Well we did see them together in the Functionist Universe (though Dominus was a flathead) so I'm fairly sure we can rule that out

[Computron]

I just wanted to add that for me the last 2 page spread now replaces the scene of Prime holding Skorponok in Edge of Extinction as most emotional and gut punching moment in TF comic history.

[Yaya]

Average. If I might quote snarl on the vibe I'm getting from the series right now:

It seems a bit like MTMTE is moving away from what I like, IE cool, well written robots kicking the **** out of each other, and moving towards a niche of self congratulatory twitter ***** with twee storylines about robots dancing to a subtext of them bumming each other.

I'm as fine with dancing and buggery as the next angry white man. I just prefer it in Hollyoaks, not Transformers.

This is going a bit up it's own arse.

Having seen the solicits, I'm confident I'll enjoy the upcoming stories. Just not overly fond of these forced love triangle bits.

There are fun elements, but I too tire of the whole Chromedome-Rewind-Ambus romance triangle Not what I'm looking for in a TF comic. I cringed in fear with the intro of Elita-1 and other fembots for fear TF would take on a sappy romance bend. Looks like Rewind and Chromey got that covered.

[snarl]

Bit forgettable for me.

The art - some bits he really got the Milne style down, in particular the visor fellas, but also a lot of moments where it's all a bit wank - the way this guy draws faces, with their soppy expressions and exaggerated, gaping mouths... is this chibi?

Anyway, that "cute" stuff... not what got me into TFs. It's a side of TFs that to me has always seemed a bit *****.

When was the last time the TFs kicked the [composite word including 'f*ck'] out of each other!?

Don't buy Ambus being Tarn one bit. Soz Smooth, way too convoluted.

What's Ambus' motivation? Anyway, he was offworld when the war started, with Roller getting ****** up way before the war started... highly unlikely that if he died, his body just laid there undetected for millennia(?), only for Ambus to find it and jump inside like some hermit crab bastard!

That list was "MIAs", IE people the Necrobot who's spark's were no longer being detected, IE had fluffed, it but that he hadn't seen physical evidence of. As I read it, it'd take something pretty drastic for that machine not to detect your spark signature... IE death, or being in another galaxy / technically "dead".

Now, Nightbeat was in another galaxy / technically "dead". For me that's reason enough why his spark wasn't detected by NBs little machine. One thing lacking from the story is we don't know if the machine has resumed picking up Nightbeat's spark signature. Regardless, I don't follow how just hiding inside another guy's corpse would provide a plausible reason for his DA's spark not being detected by the machine - I think JR has a more fiendishly brilliant reason why he's gone on the list.

Plus I'm pretty sure that it's either written or heavily implied that Tarn is a devotee of Megatron and the cause from way back, preceding the war, due to being seduced by the writing.

Plus Roberts has dropped numerous similarities of Roller and Tarn into various stories that they're the same dude, with the implication Roller's conversion from Prime fanboy to Megatron being down to him being "abandoned" at that spark hotspot in Elegant Chaos.

I'd be absolutely astonished if they weren't the same character, and if they aren't - there'd have to be a pretty spectacular explanation to avoid all the readers who have been following this angle not feeling cheated.

[Yaya]

I'd be interested in knowing what the status is of the statue of a certain one-eyed purple people-eater. Or Bumblebee's. Not because I care about the little **** after Barber got a hold of him, but it would help give a lead on Shocker's whereabouts.

[Professor Smooth]

I'd be interested in knowing what the status is of the statue of a certain one-eyed purple people-eater. Or Bumblebee's. Not because I care about the little **** after Barber got a hold of him, but it would help give a lead on Shocker's whereabouts.

I haven't been keeping up with (previously) RiD, but didn't they both pretty decisively bite it at the end of Dark Cybertron?

[Yaya]

I'd be interested in knowing what the status is of the statue of a certain one-eyed purple people-eater. Or Bumblebee's. Not because I care about the little **** after Barber got a hold of him, but it would help give a lead on Shocker's whereabouts.

I haven't been keeping up with (previously) RiD, but didn't they both pretty decisively bite it at the end of Dark Cybertron?

Presumably. But did you see a body?

Getting sucked into an alternate dimension would give the perfect opportunity for the two of them to end up in James wacky world of quantum mishaps and such.

[Professor Smooth]

You're gonna make me read Dark Cybertron again, aren't you? You monster.

[Metal Vendetta]

Bumblebee lives in Starscream's head now, like in BSG

[Hound]

I think we are going to get a Shockwave/Bumblebee mashup similar to Megatron and Ratchet

[Yaya]

You're gonna make me read Dark Cybertron again, aren't you? You monster.

j


Professor, we have had our differences. But do really believe I could stoop that low?

[Metal Vendetta]

The art - some bits he really got the Milne style down, in particular the visor fellas, but also a lot of moments where it's all a bit wank - the way this guy draws faces, with their soppy expressions and exaggerated, gaping mouths... is this chibi?

Yeah, some of that annoyed me a bit, Megs and Magnus were just a bit too... cutesy for me at times. Took away from the wry humour of the dialogue at times.

Anyway, that "cute" stuff... not what got me into TFs. It's a side of TFs that to me has always seemed a bit *****.

Eh, I have faith. This is the late "mid-point" of Season 2, there's plenty of time for all sorts of horrible things to happen to them yet. It's interesting that when we first met Chromedome and Rewind they were like an old married couple, and now they're (literally) rediscovering each other they're making a fresh start. Anyway, any moment of happiness between them is only going to make it that more painful when Domey finds out that his Rewind has been alive all this time, being alternately mind-raped and tortured by Overlord at his leisure while Chromedome was all lovey-dovey with his quantum duplicate and not even looking for him.

When was the last time the TFs kicked the **** out of each other!?

Heh, unless you count the brawl in Macaddam's in #37, way back in #30 when the Decepticons gatecrashed Megatron's trial. Long way back now. But there is an army of Decepticons out there looking to kill everyone, so there's that.

Plus Roberts has dropped numerous similarities of Roller and Tarn into various stories that they're the same dude, with the implication Roller's conversion from Prime fanboy to Megatron being down to him being "abandoned" at that spark hotspot in Elegant Chaos.

I'd be absolutely astonished if they weren't the same character, and if they aren't - there'd have to be a pretty spectacular explanation to avoid all the readers who have been following this angle not feeling cheated.

I know that all paths point to Roller being Tarn at this point, but I can't help but feel we're being sold a dummy on that. I'm sure there's a big clue we're missing in open sight - I mean, we've just had two mystery characters unveiled in one issue and neither of them really turned out to be who or what I thought they would be. I mean, sure, they both make sense in hindsight and there were some clues in there, but I don't remember either one being a popular fan theory. Either that or Roller is Tarn, but there's a big part of the picture that we're still missing which will shine an entirely different light on what happened to make him become that. Because from what we've been told... eh, it just seems too neat. With all those hints, there's got to be something else at play.