MTMTE #55

[Metal Vendetta]

Three pages of awesome, before it all inevitably goes horribly wrong...

http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/07/19/meet ... iew-319519

[Professor Smooth]

The fourth page was also released, but being that it is the most spoiler-ific thing in the history of things... It's easy enough to find if you're so inclined.

I like it. I love it. I need it.

[snarl]

Enjoyed it overall, quite a lot, although some mixed feelings.

One thing I thought was really interesting...


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Seems it was Helex at the centre of the Simanzi Massacre.

Edit - thinking about it, I reckon it was supposed to be Tesarus at Simanzi but Alex drew Helex by accident / or the panels got muddled somehow / whatever

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucible

Fits in with Tesarus - Which you find out is the real name of one of the DJD.

Scissorsaw is one of the others - which fits Helex's design.

Me thinks the panels for these two got muddled.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Sometimes I wonder how you guys keep up with all the little sub plots and names.

But I thought it was awesome.
Megatron is just rather brilliant. Ravages description of him playing cats cradle is excellent, he's not just powerful but stupidly smart. Awesome.

I love the way he essentially plays lame, and traps the djd in the bubble with him, it reminds me of a line rosarch uses in watchmen....
At this point he has them where he wants them, against the djd and massed firepower (twin fusion cannons, how vain) he is vulnerable but trapped in cage with the gladiator, no chance.

I wonder if he had also hoped to bag overlord in this little plan?

To ravage, and megatrons face. The anguish palpable, I love how ratchet, even if he doesn't like megatron still puts being a doctor to the front and gets him to Ravages side.
That was truly sad.

What was unexpected and somthing I thought brilliant was sound waves feeling the loss, ugh, what a shot as he buckles at the table side.

Brilliant. Where next?

[Hound]

Ravage

"Don't change back" ...really moving. I think it's up there with Scorpy in G1.

But yeah. This was wonderful. I can't help but feel a little trolled that Roller isn't Tarn, but I'm sure the clues about Glitch are there if I go back and look properly.

When Terminus showed up the hairs on my arm stood up. "I lost my way". Powerful

[Metal Vendetta]

FWIW I'm sure Glitch is an already-existing character in the IDWverse, though given the nature of MTMTE I'm almost certainly wrong about which one. But yeah, I think this page will get folded into someone else's eventually. --Emvee 04:49, 3 December 2012 (EST)

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Damus

Absolutely gutted over Ravage

Snarl, I'm pretty sure that the Helex/Tesarus panels got muddled - Helex (with his internal smelting pool) is Crucible and Tesarus (with his bladed grinder in his chest) is Scissorsaw.

[snarl]

Yeah, Roberts confirmed that via Twitter - that's what I meant to type but got the names the wrong way round as I am a thick cockney.

I as most interested with "Crucible" (we assumed it was an object / location and not a being) being named as massively responsible for Simanzi and the planet's southern hemisphere becoming "superheated".

Which is potentially amazing additional backstory.

Which is more galling as it feels like "Tarn's" was "robbed".

If the Roller / Tarn backstory had been replaced with something good, I wouldn't have minded.

It wasn't. It was instead replaced with something kinda *****.

"I'm so ******* clever, fooled you, it was this irrelevant **** in the background all along - and it all logically plays out!"

So ******* what is my opinion. Deeply unsatisfying. What was the point of Tarn?

To illustrate the banality of evil?

If the guy's such an irrelevance, why the [composite word including 'f*ck'] has so much of the comic been hung round him?

All the tension and drama around him was essentially that he was assumed to be Roller.

Turns out he's not... to me, it feels like a joke's been made at the reader's expense.

Is his history going to get backfilled? I doubt it, the way he was dispatched.

Yeah, it's our fault, we assumed too much and got it wrong.

But for me it's a **** resolution, I fell we've been left with a paper thin protagonist.

A character bollocksing of Vader / Anakin Skywalker proportions.

[Metal Vendetta]

Eh, since I never bought into the Tarn=Roller theory to begin with, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out - after all, it's pretty much what I was expecting and yet I'm quite excited by the prospect of adding Roller, Terminus, et al to the present-day cast. Tarn being Glitch has all the same pay-offs as him being Roller (one of Pax's closest allies who betrayed him etc), still makes sense within the context of the story and at least was a surprise - if we'd found out he was Roller all along I think it would have been far more of a let-down.

[Computron]

Rodimus going back for Megatron was powerful stuff. I kinda wish Tarn was Roller but thats the worst I can say about this comic.

Ravage...

That one hurts.

[Hound]

I wonder if Terminus will be responsible for eventually turning Megatron back to the dark side. Let's face it, I *LOVE* Megatron as an Autobot, it's the best characterisation he's ever had, but it's not going to last.

[Yaya]

So just read the last two issues. Top notch stuff. Loved Megs going all....Megs. I needed to be reminded of what makes Megatron the Decepticon king of kings, and after Ravage's unfolding revelations about Megs and his trapping of the DJD in his "bubble of death", reminded I most certainly was.

Ravage. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Nice touch with the Soundwave scene. Beyond time and space, they still shared a powerful bond.

I remember Roller of course, but who the hell was Terminus again?

Glad to see at least Deathsaurus and Overlord live to fight another day. But the whole scene of Overlord just saying "Eh, I've lost interest in Megs. See ya!" was quite lame.

So it will interesting to see where Megs goes from here. Likely back to Con slowly, like when a zombie takes a bite outta ya. You slowly go zombie.

I notice the blurb in the beginning of #54 got it all wrong to. Fortress Maximus?? I had to go back and read the end of #53 to make sure I hadn't missed something. I think they meant Ultra Magnus.

Anyway, it was nice to get some action these last few issues instead of the whole 'standing around and talking' thing. I mean, I like fleshing things out, but even now, in my golden years, I still wanna see robots going at it.

[Metal Vendetta]

I remember Roller of course, but who the hell was Terminus again?

Megs's legless buddy from back in his mining days.

I notice the blurb in the beginning of #54 got it all wrong to. Fortress Maximus?? I had to go back and read the end of #53 to make sure I hadn't missed something. I think they meant Ultra Magnus.

Yeah it was a typo - what with Magnus becoming MAXIMUS AMBUS someone at IDW got confused...

[Yaya]

The coolest thing was, for the first time in any continuity (surprisingly), straight out of his original 1984 tech spec, Megs channeled antimattter and used it as a weapon. Though it wasn't clear if it was via his fusion cannon.

[Metal Vendetta]

The coolest thing was, for the first time in any continuity (surprisingly), straight out of his original 1984 tech spec, Megs channeled antimattter and used it as a weapon.

*cough*

[snarl]

Yaya...

Fail.

[Yaya]

Lesson learned: Never doubt Simon Furman. If it could be done, he's done it.

[Metal Vendetta]

All credit to Roberts, though, it was punch-the-air bloody brilliant to see it again. Especially after he teased it all the way back in Chaos Theory where Ratchet was worried he might do "that thing with the eyes" - just absolutely first rate Megatronning all round. His arc this past season has basically been the Transformers story I always wanted to see - just what exactly does go on under that bucket of his? What makes Megatron Megatron and how does he justify it to himself? Like I said, it's been bloody brilliant.

Oh, oh, and did I mention that pretty much my favourite plot device ever is having a bomb go off at the end of the final episode that (apparently) kills everyone? I really, really love it when that happens and as this is now the final issue of MTMTE, I can now say that my favourite comic series ended with my favourite ending. Awesome. I need to buy James Roberts several pints.

[Bumblebot]

Oh, oh, and did I mention that pretty much my favourite plot device ever is having a bomb go off at the end of the final episode that (apparently) kills everyone? I really, really love it when that happens

That wouldn't have anything to do with a certain 30-something Transformers #4, where the 'bomb' happened to be Shockwave, would it?

[Yaya]

With so many heavy-hitters, Phase Sixers, Titans, etc running around, it inevitably begs the question "What makes Megatron rise above them all?' Can't be just his fusion cannon. I think Ravage's summation of why Megatron is who he is will stick with me as one of those classic moments that help crystallize the TF world all that much more for me. It makes Megatron's standing more believable, that he's got a little Shockwave in him in terms of guile and foresight. After all, a leader often epitomizes to a superior degree the effective qualities that his followers possess themselves.

That Ravage himself was so close to Soundwave AND Megatron, despite living in the formers chest all these years, also displays the type of loyalty and following he has. So I think that it being Ravage to speak of Megatron in such a way is even more telling. Little touches like that in the writing go a long way, even if they're accidental.

I think the only other time I had sort of an "Wow, that's why Megatron is leader" moment was way back in Marvel #25 when Shockers sent Predaking, one of the most badass Cons of all time, after Megatron and Megatron bested him despite losing half his face and having his circuitry spilling out of his chest. I remember being very impressed way back when. (I think the UK version was a bit different, no?)

[Metal Vendetta]

That wouldn't have anything to do with a certain 30-something Transformers #4, where the 'bomb' happened to be Shockwave, would it?

Ha, I wasn't even thinking of that, but yep that works for me too

I think the only other time I had sort of an "Wow, that's why Megatron is leader" moment was way back in Marvel #25 when Shockers sent Predaking, one of the most badass Cons of all time, after Megatron and Megatron bested him despite losing half his face and having his circuitry spilling out of his chest. I remember being very impressed way back when. (I think the UK version was a bit different, no?)

Kind of... it happened twice - the first time was when Megatron summoned the Predacons to take down Prime (who was coincidentally planning to fake his own death) but Shockwave conspired with the Predacons to take out Megatron for him. Prime and Megatron both ended up on Cybertron, Straxus's head tried to possess Megatron, Prime and Magnus teamed up to take Megatron down and that's when the antimatter started coming out of his eyes. Ratbat used the space bridge to send Prime, Magnus and Megatron back to Earth, where Soundwave discovered that Straxus's meddling had apparently left Megatron with no memory of the whole incident. The second time was our reprinting of #25 where the dialogue was changed between Shockwave and Razorclaw to read something like: "I want you to betray Megatron." "But we just did that last week, won't he, you know, recognise us?" "Nah, it's fine, he doesn't remember that." Everything plays out much the same after that.

Incidentally, that was the second time Megs had used his antimatter in the UK comics - first time around in "Raiders of the Last Ark", it came out of his hands.

[Yaya]

Kind of... it happened twice - the first time was when Megatron summoned the Predacons to take down Prime (who was coincidentally planning to fake his own death) but Shockwave conspired with the Predacons to take out Megatron for him. Prime and Megatron both ended up on Cybertron, Straxus's head tried to possess Megatron, Prime and Magnus teamed up to take Megatron down and that's when the antimatter started coming out of his eyes. Ratbat used the space bridge to send Prime, Magnus and Megatron back to Earth, where Soundwave discovered that Straxus's meddling had apparently left Megatron with no memory of the whole incident.

So only a slight variation then.