Finally picked up 8-10 and read them last night. Unfortunately they misfire horribly, first in art - what a visual mess - then in story which just degrades into a series of deus ex machinas and slugfests. Every ounce of promise is drained of this mess as Shockwave's big plan is finally revealed and it's stupider than stupid, but at least Optimus Prime got his groove back and all it took was a pep talk to beat his ultimate evil. That shit straight sucked. The best thing I can say is there was one panel where Kup looked like Kup, then it went back to not looking like Kup.
Dominic wrote:This is the promised breather issue. The only characters in immediate danger are Prime and the other guys trapped in the Dead Universe. (Every time I type "Dead Universe", I feel a little stupider. Anybody else having that problem?) Oddly, nobody seems overly concerned about them.
Well, to be fair, the Dead Universe is now EVEN STUPIDER THAN IT WAS BEFORE, the explanation given in this issue is really awful too.
Nobody is concerned in issue 10 with ANYTHING, it seems. Let's go back to the bar and sing songs. Let's stand around talking while the world crumbles and deadly mysteries awash everything. Hey look roboboobs. Seriously? So it's not surprising that OP and Roddy's trip to the DU is unimportant to the rest of our heroes, they are too busy getting giant thumbs out of giant asses.
The art is better than in previous issues. But, Ironhide is way the hell too big in a crowd scene at the beginning.
You oversold that in earlier messages, he looks totally in scale with Arcee just in front of him, and there's nothing around him that's really throwing off his scale terribly except Soundwave, who has gotten smaller and smaller as this series has continued.
From a marketing perspective, this issue is an absolute mess. If the cover gallery is anything to go by, this is going to be the issue packaged with the upcoming Skybite figure. I had to go back and *look* for Skybite. (He is in one crowd-scene, sitting in Swerve's new bar.) Meanwhile Arcee gets a shiny new body, and the obligatory show-off/intro scene. And, the Minicon/Ammonite combiner actually shows up clearly (albeit as part of an attacking mob).
Skybyte is going to be a Voyager, Voyagers don't come with comics. The cover-bearing characters aren't co-sells anymore, look at issue 8 with Tailgate and issue 9 with Whirl, those are both toys in classes without comic pack-ins. Tailgate didn't even appear in issue 8.
Next issue might be the thing that decides if I stick with TF post "Dark Cybertron".
The previews and solicits promise that somebody is going to die. It is either going to be Bumblebee, Rodimus, Magnus or Prowl.
We can rule out Bumblebee. Call me crazy, but I am not anticipating IDW killing off Hasbro's yellow cash-cow.
Rodimus and Magnus are possibilities. Both characters have more or less resolved their arcs at this point, and killing them is probably the only move that the writers could make at this point.
Additionally, Magnus' death was predicted during the Necrobot's appearance in issue 8 of "More than Meets the Eye" and it would provide a time reference/jump that TF is about due for. Magnus' death would be decisive. It would serve a purpose.
But, if IDW kills off Prowl, then.... That would probably be a clear indication that IDW was abandoning Prowl's "grey area" angle. It might even signal that IDW's TF comics were losing direction.
I've been predicting Roddy's death for a while now, he serves little purpose and his character has been waning, he's the easiest character to kill off at this point, he got shot in the Dead Universe, and now we know Megatron is captaining The Crashed Light, so seems like all signs are pointing to Rodimus getting the ol' heave-ho.
What a piece of fan-service that would be, only 20 years too late.
Anderson wrote:At this point, if they kill off "Magnus", it's not going to bother me, since he's not Magnus and the person wearing the armor has died and passed it on many times before. It's just the way it goes for the Magnuses of the IDW universe, apparently. Frankly, I'll be glad to be rid of him at this point (which is a turnaround from pre-"Stay in Light" issues).
I got the issue today but haven't had time to read it yet. Dark Cybertron feels like a bust to me. It derailed some good storylines in RID, and has taken twice as many issues as it needed to tell the story. I'll be glad to get past it. Maybe the last few chapters will change my mind. I'd like to think so. A good payoff might just make the storyline worth it.
Killing off Magnus is a challenging problem now that they've set up this "lineage of cowl-wearers" thing. Nobody really cares if Minimus Ambus lives or dies if the armor can be passed down, but then again with Tyrest dead, who will be there to pass it down? That might make an interesting storyline, but it needs far more setup than a single issue can provide.
Dark Cybertron I agree feels like a bust, it's derailed good storylines in RID indeed, and I'll add that it's shifted the focus of MTMTE too much to go back easily.