Aaaaand...we're back! MTMTE #28

[Metal Vendetta]

Preview available over at Newsarama.

And when did you first decide that the universe needed "dominating"?

[bumblemusprime]

So far, the best thing ever. I'm putting off my buying of Dark Cybertron finale until I can chase it with this.

[Snarler]

Heh, I guess the Lost Light won't have to worry about the DJD anymore.

[Metal Vendetta]

I'm really interested in where Roberts takes the DJD now. Tarn is a massive Megatron fanboy and seeing him wearing a red badge in command of a ship full of Autobots is going to blow his mind. I honestly cannot predict how he'd react, anything is possible. Can't wait.

[Best First]

Hmm. Just realised that Dark Cybertron actually gave us a break from the exitsential agony of waiting every month for MTMTE.

I can feel it creeping in again...

when is it out?

when is it out?

when is it out?

when is it out?

when is it out?

WHEN IS IT OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT?

[Metal Vendetta]

Issue #27.5 by Josh Burcham...

[Computron]

Hmm. Just realised that Dark Cybertron actually gave us a break from the exitsential agony of waiting every month for MTMTE.

I can feel it creeping in again...

I should not have read the preview cause now I'm all jittery and needing this issue out yesterday.

[Best First]

Issue #27.5 by Josh Burcham...

Outstanding.

[Metal Vendetta]

when is it out?

when is it out?

when is it out?

when is it out?

when is it out?

WHEN IS IT OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT?

It's out right now. I'm off to the comic shop, see y'all in an hour or so for some (hopefully) frantic squeeeing

[Hound]

That was ******* outstanding. Welcome back MTMTE

[Best First]

Can't believe Amazon have ruined comixology the c-units.

FFS.

Anyway - this was utterly, utterly brilliant.

[Computron]

It's wonderful to come back to grand space opera again!

The great thing about Roberts is how dense with layers each panel is. Hidden clues, subtext, hints pf things to come.

As a quick aside, is Barber hampered by the fact that RiD is the traditional Autobot v. Deception story while Roberts gets to make new stuff up? Or is it just a failure of imagination?

[snarl]

Think he's just **** mate - there is the possibility that his mandate is to write stuff squarely for the large amount of ***** in the fanbase though.

And lord knows there are a large amount of ***** in the fanbase.

[Metal Vendetta]

YEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAH!

Now that's how you write a Transformers comic. Lots and lots of layers with a little bit of payoff and a whole load of setting up new plotlines. Absolutely loved it, now I have to come to terms with the fact that it'll be a whole month until the next issue. I'm not sure I can

[Computron]

Oh for the record, don't open the coffin!

[Impactor returns 2.0]

What I can never work out is if I'm being fed a clue, or its just random dialogue I'm reading.
Each issue is like a murder mystery novel it's deep layered stuff that needs to be digested and picked apart.

Great stuff.... What's in the coffin?

[Metal Vendetta]

Ravage! Ravage on the Lost Light! I am so happy about that, a genuine 'Con on board is the one thing MtMtE has been missing from the start.

I love the way that we already have so many mysteries being seeded into the story - there are probably loads I missed, but some key questions:
What's up with the Pyrobots?
Who were Phobos and Desecrus?
What's Ravage's mission?
Who was Terminus?
What caused the "power surge"?
Who's the other Hydrobot who resembles Aquabat?
What's on the communicube Megs gave Rodimus?
Why are numbers and letters disappearing?
Where's Whirl's arm?
What's up with the scream on Rewind's message?
Who's Whirl conspiring with?
WHAT'S IN THE COFFIN?

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Yeah I noticed the lettings missing aswell, what's that about?

Can u repair half a matrix?


When megatron is walking into court, who's the big guy behind him?

[inflatable dalek]

You know, one thing I was thinking yesterday. Both Windblade and RID (beyond my Schrödinger's cat issue with the cliffhanger to the later- I won't be sure if it works or not till issue 29 comes out) were very enjoyable reads for me. But this issue of MTMTE- despite being fairly average by the standards of its own series- is really, really in a completely different league. It's almost a shame for the other authors- pre-2009 both those issues would have pissed over most of the competition. But what James Roberts is doing has raised the whole game to an entirely new level.

I'm a fairly firm believer that a fairly quick turn over in writers on franchises they didn't create is generally a good thing. There are exceptions of course, but a lot of the time anyone who works for more than five or six years straight on a franchise tend to have used up all their good ideas and start running on vapours.

I mean, there's no more cautionary tale for writers than Branon Braga. When watching season 5 of The Next Generation I was reminded how well regarded he was by fans at the time for knocking out so many fantastic ground breaking high concept episodes like Cause and Effect (which did Groundhog Day before Groundhog Day). Ten years later and the end of Enterprise and he's a joke best remembered for Borg Tits and technobabble. If he'd left around the time of First Contact he'd have most of his reputation intact.

But, like a demented David Tennant, right now I don't want James Roberts to go. And I have the terrible feeling he's unlikely to last a full five years anyway despite his fanishness- He's likely got other writing ambitions (amongst other things, I'd like to see what he could do with a Big Finish Doctor Who audio, they've used at least one other IDW writer so it's not impossible) and is more than smart enough to have spotted that Transformers often winds up a ghetto that creators struggle to escape from and will be keen for it not to be his entire writing career, however proud he is of the work. The equally smart Nick Roche is currently pushing his non-TF work hard for similar reasons.

Plus, with all the praise and accolades the series is getting, it's likely doors to whatever other dream jobs he wants to do will open more smoothly at the moment. I think one way we call all help prevent this is to stop going on about how great the comic is and treat it like a big secret so no one else ever offers him any work. I think the destruction of his career ambitions are a small price to pay for the continuation of this excellent comic and can't see why any sane man would object to that.

[bumblemusprime]

I loved this. The two-page spread of Megatron's trial is definitely one of the best TF sequences ever ever evvvvvvahhhhh.

Too much story to read in monthly installments, though. I don't think I can handle stretching these questions out--of how we got from Megs' trial to now.

Love Ultra Magnus as the defense lawyer. He's going to out-argue Prowl and it's going to be amazing.

[snarl]

Hmm.

I think JR will stay as long as they'll have him, with the caveat being until he finishes his opus.

Don't know the guy, never contacted him in any form, but he wrote a ******* novel about Transformers - it clearly means a lot to him.

Yes, he may have other ambitions, but I would imagine that finishing MTMTE as he originally envisioned it (allowing for the odd meander) ranks pretty ******* high up there. And realistically, it's one he can get checked NOW, and might never be able to get checked again, were he to ignores checking it in the current climate.

I will re-interpenetrate your original comment though and agree - it is ridiculous to have such a high quality book running alongside RiD.

Would not for one second be surprised if I ever found out he was embarrassed for it to be running alongside RiD.

[Yaya]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Much better.

Do you guys realize that Roberts has got every one of us to agree on something on these boards for the first time EVER?

I mean, yeah, there was the "it pains me to agree with Yaya on this, but..." consensus that is shared by all of you, but I disagreed with that sentiment. Given I, er, am Yaya, and all.

But wow, yeah. MTMTE is in a league of it's own, we can all agree on that.

I think the big bot behind Megatron at the trial was Broadside?

Didn't quite understand why it was Whirl who was angry at Megatron and not the other way around. Suppose there's more to that which will be revealed later.

[Metal Vendetta]

Much as it pains me to say it, I agree with Yaya

[inflatable dalek]

As yaya specifically says boards plural, I should say I do know one poster at the Archive who really, really doesn't like MTMTE at all. It's a position so distant from my own his posts on the subject often read like a foreign language to me (though more power to him for enjoying RID that much more).

As such... I can't agree with Yaya.

[Yaya]

We must hunt this TFArchive poster down and subject him to a punishment most befitting of the crime.......we must force him to agree with me. I know, I know, it's a bit extreme. But necessary