Escaltion 6 (spoilers)

Post by **Best First** » Mon May 07, 2007 9:35 am

Yaya wrote: You thought wrong, my friend.

Ok, well in the case, lets just take the notion:

"I and 7 other people on the internet think something and i genuinley believe this should be the basis for a professional changing the way they approach their work, at the expense of changing his work to suit what other loose opinion sharing groups of 3, 6, 12 or any other arbitary number of other people on the internet may want to see and of course at the expense of the proffessional judgement of said professional and tghe ditorial team at IDW"

lets take that notion, laugh at its silly ill founded arrogance, dismiss it and move on.

Put your opinion out there, make your points, and if they are well argued and resonate people might listen. Say "and lots of other peoiple think so to" and instead you invoke a bit of smirking.

rusty_herring · Post by **rusty_herring** » Wed May 09, 2007 1:41 pm

Hi guys... sorry to interrupt this thread a bit... I've been lurking on this board for months, finally decided to sign up, been looking for a TF forum to post on. Love the TF comics, been wanting to see a good discussion thread about it.

I died a little inside during Escalation #6 when Hot Rod said he outranked Prowl.

I kind of think the Dreamwave comics have a bit of a bad rap sometimes. They re-opened the TF comic doors, and had huge, very huge precedence to live up to before Furman began writing.

Post by **Best First** » Wed May 09, 2007 2:14 pm

Hi Rusty Herring. Welcome to the site

I don't really buy this argeument that DW deserve some kind of recognition for resurrecting the franchise - the fact that a number of companies were vying for the licence in the first place suggest that nostalgia (probably fueld by the net providing a more volumous call for a TF return) and the enduring appeal of the property was always the key driver.

Also, i don't think, due to basic issues with editing and story telling, that in a lot of cases they even got the fundamentals of making a comic right, which makes them fair game in my eyes.

I don't really have an issue with the notion that Hot Rod may outrank Prowl, if Hotrod is some kind of special ops lad it makes sense he would have a reasonable level of clearance. That said they may in fact be the same rank, its not entirely clear.

I though #6 was the first time Prowl showed he had something to offer, which was cool.

Post by **snarl** » Wed May 09, 2007 3:48 pm

I got the subtle impression that they're at the same stage in the bot hierarchy, although maybe answer to different people, and perhaps play slightly different cogs in the overall bot machine.

Either way, one cannot pull rank over the other as standard... but in this instance, Prowl's said "this is my manor, just effing listen to me on this one" and it's obviously been a reasonable enough request, because roddy did as told.

It subtly says a bit about Prowl, that maybe he's a bit up tight... that maybe if the situation was reversed, he'd maybe get a bit tetchy about being told what to do (although I expect he'd still agree in the end, he comes across as noble despite being up tight and slightly authoritarian)... He is definitely a more formal, business like character then Rod, thus far.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:11 pm

Yeah, I imagine it was a situation akin to an officer of the Army and an officer of the Navy. Hot Rod may be higher in rank, but this is Prowl's operation.

rusty_herring · Post by **rusty_herring** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:49 pm

(thanks for the welcome guys, much appreciated)

Yeah, I like Prowl's character in the IDW comics because he finally seems to have some sort of personality I've found lacking in previous comics or the original cartoon.

I don't really buy this argeument that DW deserve some kind of recognition for resurrecting the franchise - the fact that a number of companies were vying for the licence in the first place suggest that nostalgia (probably fueld by the net providing a more volumous call for a TF return) and the enduring appeal of the property was always the key driver.

Also, i don't think, due to basic issues with editing and story telling, that in a lot of cases they even got the fundamentals of making a comic right, which makes them fair game in my eyes.

That's fair. I'm definitely not a spokesperson for DW, I just remember how excited I was when my friend brought a copy of the first issue that they released to one of our classes and I was excited about seeing G1 back after so long. But you're right, someone probably could've done better, (and paid their artists for their work owing) and it really wasn't until I started reading Infiltration I got really back into TF.

Hmmm... I need to make myself a sig... and an avatar.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:45 pm

Welcome Rusty.

Manchester Devil · Post by **Manchester Devil** » Sat May 12, 2007 4:19 pm

Well, I'm enjoying IDW's take of the TF since the preview issue a couple of years back. Slight nitpick is Hardhead's cab in tank mode being flipped in comparsion to issues 4 & 5. Will Megatron get a proper tank mode and get his stragetic mojo back?

To me, it also cerments the idea that Ore-13 and Ultra Energon being one and the same (Spotlight: Soundwave anyone?), and do we really to know that the likes of Skywarp and Blitzwing revel in violence or being idiots when they're really nothing but grunts in any continuity? That also goes for our old friends Beavis and Butthead/Runabout and Runamock.

Roll on Devastation, Megatron: Origin, Galvatron and Optimus Prime spotlights.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Sun May 13, 2007 3:51 am

Hey there Manny Dev. Welcome or welcome back.

I'm incredibly pumped for the oncoming stuff. When is the Megatron: Origin series due?

Manchester Devil · Post by **Manchester Devil** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:19 pm

Should be this month but Alex Milne is a bit poorly.

I think it's more like a "welcome back" thing for me since I last posted before yesterday.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:46 pm

So how are comic sales going? We haven't had one of those threads in a while.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Mon May 14, 2007 2:54 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:We haven't had one of those threads in a while.

...thankfully.

Eh, here's some of (the inherently inaccurate) raw data:

TRANSFORMERS: ESCALATION (IDW)
02/2006: Transformers: Infiltration #2 — 35,828 (-21.2%)
03/2006: Transformers: Infiltration #3 — 30,344 (-15.3%)
04/2006: Transformers: Infiltration #4 — 28,835 (- 5.0%)
05/2006: Transformers: Infiltration #5 — 27,264 (- 5.5%)
06/2006: –
07/2006: Transformers: Infiltration #6 — 25,303 (- 7.2%)
08/2006: –
09/2006: –
10/2006: –
11/2006: Transformers: Escalation #1 — 20,625 (-18.5%)
12/2006: Transformers: Escalation #2 — 16,363 (-20.7%)
01/2007: Transformers: Escalation #3 — 15,616 (- 4.6%)
02/2007: Transformers: Escalation #4 — 14,737 (- 5.6%)

TRANSFORMERS: PRIME DIRECTIVE MOVIE PREQUEL (IDW)
02/2007: Transformers: Movie Prequel #1 — 26,477
03/2007: Transformers: Movie Prequel #2 — 18,039 (-31.9%)

G.I. JOE VS. TRANSFORMERS (DDP)
03/2006: G.I. Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 3 #1 of 5 — 26,561 (+ 9.5%)
04/2006: G.I. Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 3 #2 of 5 — 21,386 (-19.5%)
05/2006: G.I. Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 3 #3 of 5 — 20,612 (- 3.6%)
06/2006: G.I. Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 3 #4 of 5 — 18,772 (- 8.9%)
07/2006: –
08/2006: G.I. Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 3 #5 of 5 — 18,208 (- 3.0%)
09/2006: –
10/2006: –
11/2006: –
12/2006: –
01/2007: G.I. Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 4 #1 of 2 — 17,269 (- 5.6%)
02/2007: G.I. Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 4 #2 of 2 — 14,654 (-15.1%)

TRANSFORMERS: GENERATIONS (IDW)
03/2006: Transformers: Generations #1 — 24,104
04/2006: Transformers: Generations #2 — 18,718 (-22.3%)
05/2006: Transformers: Generations #3 — 13,844 (-26.0%) [15,436]
04/2006: Transformers: Generations #4 — 12,986 (- 6.2%)
07/2006: Transformers: Generations #5 — 11,141 (-14.2%)
08/2006: Transformers: Generations #6 — 10,203 (- 8.4%)
09/2006: Transformers: Generations #7 — 9,455 (- 7.3%)
10/2006: Transformers: Generations #8 — 8,678 (- 8.2%)
11/2006: Transformers: Generations #9 — 7,803 (-10.1%)
12/2006: Transformers: Generations #10 — 7,150 (- 8.4%)
01/2007: –
02/2007: Transformers: Generations #11 — 6,337 (-11.4%)

From Marc-Olivier's column at the Beat:
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Tue May 15, 2007 3:44 am

Phew. Generations is really straggling, isn't it? I wish there was a reason for me to pick it up other than a 2$ cover.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Tue May 15, 2007 12:55 pm

On the subject of ranks, Hotrob being some special ops guy might have a rank, that is a similar level to prowls.

in starTrek u have red coats and yellow jackets for example, No1 is a commander, much like i expect Prowl is. Prowls role being head of security?
HotRod might be commander of a special forces unit, so whilst he outranks other TF's I expect prowl is in a 'command' role and can issue orders above what hotrod can issue.

I dunno, army ranks are strange...

Post by **Best First** » Tue May 15, 2007 6:38 pm

its not massively encouraging that Escaltion 4 sold less than half of Infiltration 2 either, is it?

i guess it depends how much people are picking up the TPBs though.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 15, 2007 10:44 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:On the subject of ranks, Hotrob being some special ops guy might have a rank, that is a similar level to prowls.

in starTrek u have red coats and yellow jackets for example, No1 is a commander, much like i expect Prowl is. Prowls role being head of security?
HotRod might be commander of a special forces unit, so whilst he outranks other TF's I expect prowl is in a 'command' role and can issue orders above what hotrod can issue.

I dunno, army ranks are strange...

It's not that difficult, really. Think of it in terms of Police ranks.

Hotrod and Prowl can be of the same rank, say, Chief Inspector, they both run their own units with orders coming from the Chief Constable, i.e. Prime.

But, while Prowl is your basic uniformed by-the-book plod, Hotrod is your plain clothes do-the-business type, therefore Hotrod would be a DCI, rather than a CI.

As they're on Earth, which is Prowl's turf, Prowl has seniority.

Same can be said through miltary ranks, Captains and Majors and the like.

But you are right, army ranks are strange.

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Wed May 16, 2007 12:36 pm

Best First wrote:its not massively encouraging that Escaltion 4 sold less than half of Infiltration 2 either, is it?

I was thinking that...

rusty_herring · Post by **rusty_herring** » Wed May 16, 2007 1:00 pm

As they're on Earth, which is Prowl's turf, Prowl has seniority.

I guess in this comic series too Prowl is a real stickler for rules and would be the one to bring it up - it was surprising to me because none of the Autobots had mentioned anything about it to date.

its not massively encouraging that Escaltion 4 sold less than half of Infiltration 2 either, is it?

I think I liked Infiltration more than Escalation, but I still have all the Escalation copies, maybe fans are just waiting for the 'book' versions.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 16, 2007 7:34 pm

rusty_herring wrote:
As they're on Earth, which is Prowl's turf, Prowl has seniority.
I guess in this comic series too Prowl is a real stickler for rules and would be the one to bring it up - it was surprising to me because none of the Autobots had mentioned anything about it to date.

I thought it was obvious in Infiltration from the way Prowl was bawling out Ratchet for bringing the kids to the ship.