MTMTE #33 preview

[Metal Vendetta]

Apart from Nightbeat not being dead and Megatron not being a Decepticon and Nautica not being a he, it's business as usual.

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... -33/31215/

[Computron]

I should not have read that because I am now even more anxious for the next issue to arrive, if that is even possible.

Looking like alternate timeline LL is becoming more and more likely to be the result of the Issue 1 Quantum Explosion.

[Best First]

so this usually means we are two weeks away right?

[Professor Smooth]

so this usually means we are two weeks away right?

Yep!

[Best First]

5 page preview

MEGA SPOILERS

http://www.newsarama.com/22128-megatron ... eview.html

[Computron]

5 page preview

MEGA SPOILERS

http://www.newsarama.com/22128-megatron ... eview.html

This suggests that the message from Issue 1 came from the LL crew we know and love...but it still begs the question...why are the LL members disappearing?

I think tears will flow when this timeline's Rewind meets up with Chromedome.

[bumblemusprime]

******* hell this is tomorrow and I am broke... out comes the credit card. I know 4$ isn't much, but I'm strangely afraid the comic shop people will ask "How much are you willing to pay?"

[Professor Smooth]

Can we just pretend I typed "OMG" about a thousand times and call it a day? Because....OMG!!!!

[snarl]

It's good ****.

JR knows how to drop a cliffhanger.

[Hound]

That page with Chromedome put all of the hairs on my body on edge. Beautiful.

THAT ENDING!!

[Computron]

That page with Chromedome and Rewind at the end. WHY IS IT SO DUSTY IN HERE?

So many wonderful lines.

"You two are inseparable."

"Ah your true colors. I forgot how purple they were."

"Touch me again and I'll kill you."

But all the love I felt with Chromie and Rewind was gutted by Brainstorm's duplicity! When that facemask came up purple...not to mention that ending!

I can't put together coherent thoughts at the moment. I'm still stunned.

Edit - Oh anyone else think Megatron is turning out to be a Major Rawne type character? Maybe, just maybe, his change of spark is genuine, even if he is still a "bad person."

Edit #2 - What if Brainstorm is the mole within the DJD?

[Metal Vendetta]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I had a little cry at the Domey and Rewind page.

Man, that cliffhanger. Do I now have to go back and read everything he's ever done from a new perspective?

Argh. James Roberts, you evil, evil genius, you.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Amazing issue... Again!

I take it domey and rewind are not affected by the suitcase device as they are outside the ship then?

[Best First]

i have already lost track of how many times i have reread this.

As Rob says second issue in a row that makes you want to go all the way back to the start and reread.

I think there is something in Meg's comments about not being the usual type - i half wonder if being a Decepticon was another experiment for Brainstorm.

I am in two minds about Rewind coming back - it is yet another character that has not stayed dead which has been a big theme of this book but equally it was lovely. Plus there is of course scope for further tragedy...

My favourite bit was Skids channelling Ratchet "Right. There"

Assume Brainstorm has somehow "edited out" the knowledge that he is a double agent by the time we reach the epilogue?

[Hound]

I have never cared for Megatron but Roberts is making me love him. I can't figure out whether he is genuinely good or a ticking time bomb. Maybe both. I love his relationship with Ravage. Having Ravage on board seems like a stroke of genius.

Delighted Rewind is back. His sacrifice isn't undone and I think it will be an interesting twist in his relationship with Domey, as they both experienced losing each other.

The Brainstorm stuff is mindblowing. I'm with Besters in that the suitcase wipes all knowledge of his betrayal. It makes perfect sense as to why he would carry it around at all times.

[Computron]

As far as comic book resurrections go, I'd say this one is handled as well as anything like it can be. I don't know how quite to describe it, but generally, comic book resurrections tend to be ham handed or clearly done as part of some big marketing scheme without sufficient value to make up for it. (Death of Superman, Death of Wolverine, Death of Batman, I mean this can go on all day)

This was done logically and set up from the beginning, and best of all, it'll definitely have excellent potential for some real powerful character growth.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Apart from brainstorm being a decepticon, what's his purpose?
If he'd a spy, who is he communicating with?

[Metal Vendetta]

Red Alert's attempted "suicide", anyone? A little bit of editing - maybe even shadowplay as Brainstorm's an Institute alumnus and Red was being shadowplayed even back before the war - and even he believes that he tried to kill himself. Right after discovering Overlord. I mean, if we're assuming that Brainstorm has been going around doing bad stuff and then using the briefcase to edit around it, that would be the first thing that springs to mind, but there's got to be loads of other stuff I've missed.

[Yaya]

"Touch me again and I'll kill you." LOL, my favorite line. Don't know why, but I found that hilarious, the way Ravage was getting patted on the head like a kitty cat.

"Right. There." Masterful dialogue again by the maestro James.

I think it's so creative the way one little incident, with Ore (or was is Shock?) getting sucked into the quantum engines had this kind of ridiculous domino effect. It makes Prowl seem even more reprehensible, given all the LL crew had to go through....twice! Do you think Roberts had this in mind from the beginning? It's soooooooooo unfair that Barber gets Prowl.

I think I might have missed it, but how did Rewind not get disintegrated with the rest of the LL crew? Has that been explained yet?

And I agree, hate seeing characters return from the dead. Seems like even with James, character death is a tough thing to write. Seems like only minor characters like Pipes and Red Alert stayed dead. Even Ultra Magnus cheated death, as did Tailpipe (both of which I am glad to see made it, I must admit). James is such a superb writer, I think character death opens the door for more underutilized bots to get the Roberts treatment, which is exciting to think about. He's certainly trying to add new energon to the mix with Nautica and that other aquatic looking bot whose name escapes me, but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Nautica so far, as there are enough braniacs around, and adding one more to the Brainstorm-Perceptor-Chromedome mix seems a bit excessive. Minor niggle though.

All in all, still the best comic on the market today.

[Metal Vendetta]

Seems like only minor characters like Pipes and Red Alert stayed dead.

Red's still alive, he's hanging out with Fort Max on Luna 1.

[Best First]

So many questions.

Was Brainstorm actually the traitor that led the DJD to the door? If so would they not have spared him?

Is he even a Decepticon - i can't help but wonder if this is just another experiment. The thing that makes me question this most if the compassion he shows Chromedome in the wake of Rewind's death. Maybe that is just the depth of his cover but this strikes me as an act beyond maintaining an identity.

But also if he has the power to rewrite reality.... why let Rewind stay dead? Or not deploy it to prevent the Sparkeater in issue 2? Or is this the breifcase bolstered by the power of the 1%er spark from Tyrest's moon?

The DJD do seem ridiculously nails - didn't look like they got a scratch on them.

[Hound]

I only just noticed that the alt-briefcase survived the trip as well as Rewind.

I have no idea what is going to happen next. No other comic keeps me guessing like this.

And the best part is that Roberts doesn't have to rely on recycling old stories. This is all new stuff (in TF-lore at least)

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Yeah can someone explain to me how the DJD can kill everyone on board, I mean theres hard and then erm OTT?

Lets, see, they killed, roddy(?) Magnus (as you do) Overlord (no one kills him) oh and everyone else.... yeah come on.

or did they?

Whats the weapon that makes everyone hold in thier alt mode?

[bumblemusprime]

This was a really interesting arc. I need to go back and read it again. And again. And again.

I was hoping for a bigger payoff. At the same time, the slow burn and the slow reveal of character in scenes like Megatron's with Ravage were fantastic. As an arc thinly disguised to introduce us to the new cast members, quite good, and also setting up what has apparently been a long-burning Brainstorm subplot. Wow. Much wow.

Will the Hasbro Brainstorm have a removable faceplate, do ya think?

[Yaya]

I'm not convinced that Brainstorm is evil or that he's a traitor. There's more to this than.....yeah.

Trying to figure it out. Whirl would be too obvious. Cyclonus ain't Con. Certainly, Brainstorm is among the top suspects given his secrecy. Gonna have to go back and look at the cast again. If you forced me to guess who the real traitor is, I'd have to say Chromedome is somehow involved. He strikes me as the self-consumed kind of bot that would be willing to do anything for himself and Rewind. Was Chromey shown amongst the dead? Could it be coincidence that Rewind survived the massacre, or that the DJD purposely kept him alive due to prior arrangements with Chromey?

[snarl]

Re: Whirl, but he is certainly working an angle for somebody on our LL, as per issue 28 and his attempt to provoke Megs.

It's not a massive logic jump to assume he's been somebody else' eyes for the whole time.

He is also mental.

However, I don't think it was he who invited the DJD aboard.

Re: Brainstorm - can quite easily see him as a con. Lets not forget, MTMTE cons and bots are not too dissimilar, the scavengers certainly had honour, shades of grey remember.

IE, he could be undercover and still have genuine feelings for Chromedome - it'd just be that his belief could surpass a friendship if it ever came to choosing one over the other.

[Hound]

I don't think it's such a stretch that the DJD could take out the entire crew.

This is a team of Decepticons who take out Phase Sixers for fun after all.

Catch the crew, of which there are few power-houses on board, unaware and I think they could easily take the LL down.

[Computron]

Not to mention we don't know how exactly they got aboard. To add to Hound's point presumably since there was a traitor on the ship, that person could have deactivated defense systems and alarms allowing the DJD to get rolling before the 'Bots could organize a real defense.

To be honest, the Alt-LL crew only had Magnus as a true heavy weight. They didn't have Rodimus, Fort Max, or Skids aboard. Whirl is properly mental, but he's not a dreadnought like Magnus or Prime are.

[bumblemusprime]

I can't see Chromedome as a Con. Rather, I see him as a black ops/intelligence type. Brainstorm as a deep-cover Decepticon makes sense, because he could funnel his research back to the Cons. I think James likes to show how individual morality can all be shades of gray even in service of larger moral causes that have greater justification.

[Yaya]

Red's still alive, he's hanging out with Fort Max on Luna 1.

Really? Wow. So much forgotten. I don't remember that. What are they doing on Luna 1?