MTMTE #23 / DC #2 - Spoilers obv.

[Computron]

I'm not quite sure what to make of it in all honesty. I know this is a cross over event, but I really don't like the non-MTMTE parts. Everytime they are on Cybertron I just want to skip to the next page.

Art was great in areas and not great in others. Loved the art in the Dark Universe section, especially Prime slamming down on to the ground. On the other hand the Cybertron scenes were...well...I know they say critics are those who can't do themselves, but man, I really feel like someone should have just paid Milne whatever he wanted to do the entire book.

Plotwise I already hate Nova Prime and Galvatron as the big bads and they are already setting up the return of Megatron. Tyrest and Pharma had more character in their thumbs than those characters have put together. I really feel Roberts is jammed into a fan fiction story rather than writing literature.

It's easy to be cynical and critical, but I feel like the next few months are just going to be a mess.

Overall, I'd give it 5 out of 10 meh's.

[Metal Vendetta]

Yeah I had a quick read through at lunchtime and the art in the Starscream/Rattrap scenes is, uh, disappointing at best. Where is Milne, anyway? Has he been forced to jump ship?

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Where's me comic gone?

The cybertron art is useless, it could be based on any world.

The mtmte moments have lost their fun, I don't like it... Meh

[Shanti418]

Indeed. Those who were dreading the idea that DC would simply estrange you from your MTMTE goodness: your nightmares have been realized. So far this is mixing the worst aspects of comic book crossovers with ReGen-Scorponok Arc pacing. The art switches are jarring, all the stuff on Cybertron is super lame. And I understand the world has passed me by, but F**K a retractable face plate for Optimus. I don't care HOW he consumes snacks in the break room, let him starve! "Megatron is involved in this, isn't he?" "I don't see how or why, but yeah, probably." Great, thanks.

[Optimus Prime Rib]

issue wasnt all bad. I enjoyed some of the artwork.

see. wasnt all bad.

[Best First]

it was ok - Prime on the lost light is fun. Plus the Transfans logo is actually part of Cybertronian prophecy which is cool.

Also good - Nightbeat.

But yeah - where is my comic book?

And do the exiled 'bots really amount to 7 people? Where is everyone else?

Oh, and the panels where NP shoves Galvy and then a split second later Galvy is still standing next to him. Gah.

[snarl]

It's a ******* mess is what it is.

John Barber's (imo GASH) writing style juxtaposed with James Roberts'...

Bright ******* idea.

Nova Prime and Galvatron - get Furman back to write the RiD stuff already.

This faux, badly done "hey nonny nonny" twattish way Barber likes to write a lot of his major villains is ******* RAGE ENDUCING ****.

[Hound]

I would love to see Furman given RID.

Or Roche, although I prefer his art to his writing. At least he has a passion for it and you could guarantee that crossovers with Roberts would feel a lot less awkward than this.

Yay Nightbeat! I hope they can rescue him!

[Sunyavadin]

August 19:

Trying to maintain the faith that MTMTE will lift RID rather than RID sinking MTMTE through Dark Cybertron.

And now we know the answer.

*Sigh*

[Sunyavadin]

On the topic of Nightbeat, I still prefer a friend of mine's pitch for bringing Nightbeat back, involving a Gorlamite, his corpse, and the headmaster process.

[Yaya]

While it's certainly not up to the typical MTMTE standards, I didn't see this issue as being as bad as everyone else here.

For one, the Lost Light scene was still written by Roberts, and I thought it was pretty strong. Sure, nothing much happened, but Robert's writing is just fantastic. Even when he writes about a bunch of bots sitting around doing not much of anything, you still have to marvel at his mastery of the use of dialogue and his humorous wit. And having one of my fav's in Raiz render that scene with his gritty style only adds to my enjoyment of it.

So what happened in the rest of the issue? I kind of fell asleep.

Seriously, the Cybertron scenes by Barber are just so meh. So very, very, meh. Yes, our new favorite word around here. Meh. Or as snarlz puts it, ******. I mean, Galvatron is one of the biggest baddies in TF lore, and Nova basically just tells him to shut up and pushes him aside like some kind of toadee. That hurt look on Galvatron's face essentially amounted to character castration, as if all the many years of fear and reverence that he had build up across all TF media were suddenly sucked out of him in that one single panel. Thanks Barber.

I have hope that Shockwave will ultimately turn the tables on Nova Prime after he's cleverly used him for his own machinations. If not, then it would appear my worst fear has been realized. Barber has castrated Shockwave as well. Why Shockwave would call an emotional short-fused Prime his "lord" makes absolutely no sense to me. The only thing that would make sense is that Shockwave needs him to realize his ultimate plan, whatever that may be. I hope this is the case.

Bumblebee as leader needs to go away. It was ridiculous before. It's absolutely ludicrous now. After he essentially lost Cybertron to Starscream (which after twenty issues still makes no sense and I still cannot understand the dragged out political shenanigans that led to this point, nor do I have any desire to try to fathom them), he's still hailed as leader.

Aside from Barber's writing, another thing that bothers me about RID is the glaring Hasbro mandate that is so obvious in the story. Like Bumblebee's and Starscream's new bodies. You don't really see this kind of thing in MTMTE. I didn't even realize, for example, that the Hoist and Trailbreaker spotlights were written specifically for the toy packaging. Robert's handled those stories so deftly, they in no way felt like Hasbro mandate. You can tell Barber, on the other hand, can't effectively write Hasbro mandate into the story without it seeming forced and obvious.

[Jack Cade]

Basically agree with Yaya.

I mean, I love to look for the more nuanced take on anything, but it's as plain as day: Roberts writes good TF stories, Barber struggles falteringly against his own limitations. He just doesn't have the chops for either an intricate political story or a mind-blowing epic, and this story is already faltering under his watch - Bumblebee's Autobots dancing around pointlessly, the bad guys posturing emptily. Only Starscream, of Barber's characters, has any sense of spontaneity and intrigue, mostly because he's genre-savvy. Prowl is a hollow shell of the character Roche built him into, the one that still makes cameos in MTMTE.

Ugh.

[Computron]

While we all hope this train gets back on tracks, what are the predictions for the overall plotline as it develops? If this is going to be a full derailment we may as well see what train station we crash closest to so we can have ambulances standing by.

Here are some predictions of mine:

Jhiaxus will get captured by OP and Roddy and reveal the true extent of his plan.

Nova and Galvy are either facsimilies or are paper villains to be shoved aside when either Shockwave's full plan comes to fruition or the real big bad makes an appearance. There are going to be a lot of just as planned moments.

Cyclonus's spark is reacting badly to the dead universe, probably because of his whole Vector Sigma thing ages ago. I'm going to go ahead and guess his spark is special somehow.

Matrix Quest Redux. At some point this thing is going to have to be recharged in order to close the dead universe portal.

[Yaya]

Here are some predictions of mine:

Jhiaxus will get captured by OP and Roddy and reveal the true extent of his plan.

Nova and Galvy are either facsimilies or are paper villains to be shoved aside when either Shockwave's full plan comes to fruition or the real big bad makes an appearance. There are going to be a lot of just as planned moments.

Cyclonus's spark is reacting badly to the dead universe, probably because of his whole Vector Sigma thing ages ago. I'm going to go ahead and guess his spark is special somehow.

Matrix Quest Redux. At some point this thing is going to have to be recharged in order to close the dead universe portal.

Hmm. I'd say those are pretty darn good predictions.