Transformers #22 Review (SPOILERS)

[Metal Vendetta]

Holy ****, you're serious aren't you?

I may have to buy this.

[Best First]

This issue and next are Roberts. They have the potential to rescue the entire continuity - the war has been framed in ways that i have never seen (in cannon stuff) before in one issue.

After that it's Costa but with some support from Roberts for Chaos (not sure if that is also true of the alternating earth story).

Comic is Bi-weekly til Christmas with Chaos and Last Story on Earth alternating.

Then Issue 125. Which is called The Death of Optimus Prime. This may be a clever double bluff. Written by Roberts and John Barber who i believe has done some Movieverse stuff which Smooth likes. Drawn by Robots. Sorry, Roberts.

Then 2 ongoings from next year, one by Roberts and Roche (on art only it seems, officially anyway), the other by Barber.

Plus 81-100 kicking off mid next year.

Non of which really justifies the last 3 years but if it's as hoped could make it just sort of go away and before you know it your brain will be telling you that International Incident was actually an episode of the cartoon.

[The Last Autobot]

Good issue.

But I felt Op and Meggy were a couple fighting in Las Vegas after one of them spent all the minibots college fund.


And after reading this I really like a lot that Op killed Megatron in DOTM.

[Yaya]

Whirl did it.

[bumblemusprime]

God ******* dammit there is not a copy of this ******* comic to be found anywhere near me.

Emvee--this is the preview. It sold the hell outta me.

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... iew/22300/

[Hot Shot]

Re-read this tonight and I think I guessed why Megs turned himself in.




*possible super-spoilers*








I think Megatron wants to die, and he thinks the best way to stay dead is to be executed by Autobots who want him to.

It would be a good reason for the flashback of his "beginning" and the discussion over his and OP's near-death experiences.

[Metal Vendetta]

Emvee--this is the preview. It sold the hell outta me.

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... iew/22300/

Er, bloody hell. Impactor, poetry, Nominus Prime, Pathblasters, Xaaron, the VVH, that black hole thing, Tarn, a communicube, Whirl and Shanix? These are all things that are good.

I might toddle off to town and see if I can find somewhere that will sell me a copy of this.

[bumblemusprime]

Thanks to the magic of Transfans, I have read it, although I will indeed spend the 3.99 when my LCS finally gets the damn thing in. Minor spoilers.

I asked myself many times "If Mike Costa or Shane McCarthy had written this, would I love it? Would I find it pretentious, overlong and talky? But then again, could they have written it?"

I don't think either of them has the vision Roberts does. And that's what i love here.

For three years, Costa and McCarthy have given us talky stories about the characters of the TFs, but neither of them could communicate the grand vision Furman always had. Oh, sure, some of their dialogue was pretty good. I thought Costa had a good sense of dialogue and just needed someone to hand him plots.

But Roberts, with the same ear for dialogue, did something amazing here. He created a layered, deep backstory the way Furman did, only through Prime and Megatron talking in a room.

Costa and McCarthy just did not get the sense of Cybertronian history. Costa tried to write a story about how the TFs needed to change and evolve, but Roberts, because he understands TF lore, did it all in one issue.

I love this. I love what it says and what it doesn't say about Megs' character.

I'm going to disagree with Hot Shot without going into too much detail. The Megatron we meet here is going to pick up his arm cannon and start killing again the minute he gets a chance. This was more of a chance to explore the self-doubting Furmanus Prime, pitting Megatron against him as a force of nature. Megs once had a vision of Cybertron restored, but it has welded to his hatred to the point where he simply kills and conquers, kills and conquers, and does not ever question himself.

He knows who he is, but he doesn't know who he left behind, and he doesn't worry about where that idealism went, or if he ever had it.

I love this Megatron. Gone But Not Forgotten is the only time we have ever seen a characterization for him of this magnitude, and Roberts did it without robbing Megs of his dignity and driving him nuts. Stunning. I realized when reading this that Simon has never quite had a handle on Megatron. For Simon, Galvatron is an apocalyptic nut; Prime is a quasi-mystic troubled but determined to remain in the fight; Grimlock is utterly reactionary, but Simon's Megatron never quite seemed to have a center. This Megatron is the one I've waited for since Bob Budiansky threw him through a broken space bridge. Or even before.

[Kaylee]

Thanks to the magic of *mumble mumble it fell off the Internet mumble*, I shall soon be reading it...

Although I fully accept that means I don't deserve to enjoy it...

[Kaylee]

So far only up to issue 11, which I'm really liking because I love Guido's artwork.

I don't like that the artists all have totally different ways of drawing the robots: it makes it look like they're being rebuilt in between scenes.

I don't like that the artists all have totally different ways of drawing the humans, since apart from short-haired-blonde-military-girl the others are almost indistinguishable.

The story has ups and downs. Mostly downs. Mostly because the characters are utterly stupid and behave in nonsensical ways.

The story is also way too melodramatic. Everything is big. And drawn out. And full of sililoquey. And feels like it was written by a high school senior trying to be profound.

Oh and Magnus is a douche. So is Prime. So is Hot Rod. There are probably more

I begin to see where the Mosaics get their wannabe-profound twaddle from.

With all my complaints though I don't hate it, it's about as entertaining as I expect a comic book to be. Though that is probably 90% down to my not paying for it and 10% not having to wait one month in between issues to read the story advancing by 3 inches.

Onward to issue 12!

[Brendocon]

I'll read a scan in a year's time

Or, y'know, four years and 25 days. Whever.

(issue's quite decent, tbf)