The Transformers (IDW, formerly "Robots in Disguise")

[Dominic]

Issue 6:
Maybe I am burned out in TF comics. Or, more likely, this issue is just not as good as earlier issues. The story opens with a clumsily framed flashback and then aburptly shifts in focus to "now". Orion Pax shows up and does some stuff. Some other stuff happens. I dunno. This issue might be setting up for something worth reading later. But, so far, this arc seems like something out of "More than Meets the Eye", or even a middling Furman run. A few more issues like this and I will cancel my special orders for the compilations of this series.

Grade: C/D

[Onslaught Six]

Maybe you are! I don't have this yet so I have no idea.

Get the compilations off Amazon. They're cheap as hell right now; RID and MTMTE are Ten Bucks and change.

[BWprowl]

RID #6
This is out early this month, isn’t it? Doesn’t it usually hit after MTMTE? The first trade for that series came out this week too (featuring a whopping four comics collected in it, only three of which are actually MTMTE. Fuckin’ wow, IDW), so maybe there’s some schedule shuffling…I dunno.

Anyway, to the delight of no one but me, the artist from ‘Chaos’ returns for this issue. It’s sure to prompt lots of bitching from people who can’t be assed to look at a picture for more than two seconds before they start whining about “I can’t tell what’s going oooooonn!”, but I love this guy’s art, it’s flipping beautiful, and I end up staring at it for some time anyway. I’d love to see him do a poster book or something. Art aside, the actual story: You remember ‘Spotlight: Optimus Prime’? Remember how it was kind of disappointing and lame, due to Furman being Early IDW Furman? Well this feels like a second, somewhat more successful pass at it, complete with coming down to Optimus, I mean Orion (this board needs strikethrough code) fighting Monstructor. It actually follows up on a *lot* of threads from older IDW stuff, from mentioning that it leads directly from the end of ‘Chaos’, to showing where Jhiaxus and Monstructor ended up, Garnak still being around and bringing up the place Wheelie was stranded, having Bludgeon come back, and even mentioning Ore-frickin’-13. You know how I was kind of put off by how Roberts was ‘showing off’ with the Transformers trivia in MTMTE? Well I’m kinda getting that towards Barber with him showing off his encyclopedic knowledge of IDW’s canon (though at least it might shut up the whiny types who wouldn’t leave McCarthy alone for not referencing Furman’s run enough in AHM yes I am still mad about that). It still mostly works though, it’s nice to see Pax actually seeming confident in his place in the universe, after he seemed to waver so much as a Prime in previous stories (notably, Spotlight: Optimus Prime). Him as just a freelance helper-outer guy is kind of cool, and it’ll be interesting what directions he ends up going off on his own (well kind of, he’s still got Hardhead and Wheelie and Garnak tagging along). The ‘place’ of this issue is the only weird point, as it definitely feels like a filler issue (and the preview even indicates that the focus is going back to Cybertron next issue), but it still definitively kicks off a bigger story arc that we’re likely going to be following one way or another. In fact, considering that this issue features pretty much *none* of the characters and themes I’ve been following and enjoying so much in past issues of RID, I’d say it feels more like a one-shot or a part of a separate mini-series that got shoehorned into this month’s issue of RID somehow. Honestly, there’s some padding here, so they almost could’ve shortened bits of this story up and parted it out as backups in issues of RID and MTMTE. It’s not a *bad* story per se, but it does feel filler-y, definitely unfinished as an arc, and seriously out of place. But hey, the art is really, really nice.

Oh, and a definitive example of Comic Covers Always Lying: The cover and solicits for this issue seemed to promise some hot Orion Pax vs. Shockwave action, but of course they never even meet in this. Shockwave is only in here for, like, two pages.

[Onslaught Six]

Wow, really? (Regarding the compilations.) I'm glad I have the single issues now, almost.

I'm wondering if the regular artist (I can't remember who it is right now; I know Milne does MTMTE) had something to do, and rather than interrupt the flow that way, Barber chose to focus on something else entirely. (This might come from above Barber, too. I know IDW is planning some ridiculous "events" like Dinobot Month for no discernable reason.)

[BWprowl]

Wow, really? (Regarding the compilations.) I'm glad I have the single issues now, almost.

Yeah, it's just "Death of Optimus Prime" followed by the first three parts of MTMTE, then padded out with some sketches, some reprinted cover art, and I think like a two-page outroduction of Roberts BSing about the comic he wrote. I was genuinely shocked at the lack of content. (Also flipping through made me realize that between Rodimus at the end of issue 3, and Pharma at the end of issue 5, Roberts seems to have a fetish for characters getting their hands chopped off in this series.)

I'm wondering if the regular artist (I can't remember who it is right now; I know Milne does MTMTE) had something to do, and rather than interrupt the flow that way, Barber chose to focus on something else entirely.

Could be, though this other guy's art seems like the type that would take a while, so it makes me wonder just how scheduled everything was. It's gonna seriously bork up the flow of whatever trade it's collected into, though.

(This might come from above Barber, too. I know IDW is planning some ridiculous "events" like Dinobot Month for no discernable reason.)

Yeah, next month is apparently 'Decepticon Month'. I don't see the point of doing a theme month when there're only two books under the theme, and that 'theme' is half the friggin' cast of said books. Whatever, IDW's being weird lately, but their TF comics are still mostly cool, so I can't complain.

[Dominic]

Issue 7:
Barber is back on his game this month. Turmoil (Drift's/Deadlock's old commander) arrives on Cybertron. McGuffin wise, this issue introduces a time machine, which may or may not play in to the "message from the future" angle shown in "More Than Meets the Eye" and/or Ironhide's premonitions about the future. Concept wise, this issue goes back to the high concept of the series, specifically the the difficulties of maintaining peacetime Cybertron. While Skybite's arrival in issue 5 was about scaling back the presence of security and regulation, this issue is about how security is still necessary. And, it touches on the dicey issue of using technology (or by extension other commodities) gained through questionable means (in this case slavery and murder).

Starsceam and Metalhawk are used to good effect, and there is a context nod to the Drift series. Starscream is given solid and credible motive to support Bumblebee.

Of course, there are no small number of fans that will just carry on about how awshum it is to see Skybite in Blurr's nightclub.

Grade: A/B


In other news, I saw the Diamond solicit for the annual. Apparently, Metrotitan is slated to appear.


Dom
-kind of wants a good Metalhawk toy.....

[BWprowl]

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #7

Thank you based Barber, we’re back in business after that weird side-trip last ish. Lots of Wheeljack this issue, plus some good bits from Starscream (I now see where Dom’s coming from in his assertion that Starscream is being sincere in his assistance with the ruling party). Seeing the governing group having to make choices with how to deal with Turmoil’s arrival (Barber once again showing off his attentiveness to IDW continuity), and how its issues at hand pretty much run counter to what occurred with Sky-Byte a couple issues ago, makes for an interesting story that works well with the feel this book has been going for all along (though it’s lighter on the conspiracies than some previous issues were, instead focusing on how a ruling body can do the best for the greater public even when the actions they have to take may not seem like they would immediately satisfy that public). Only real niggle is that we never find out exactly *what* Turmoil planned to do once turned fully loose on Cybertron, aside from ‘be evil’, though there’s a possibility that may get resolved in a future issue as the characters deal with the mystery of the time machine (which I’m not sure what to think of, though the way they described it made it sound more like a Transwarp drive than a straight-up time machine), so I’ll withhold my misgivings for now.

Art’s really cool in this issue too, doing a small-panel checkerboard sort of thing, with a couple places (notably the last page) having the whole sequence build as a larger image. Ends up being a really neat effect; nice enough that I’ll forgive the artist mistakenly randomly drawing Ratchet and First Aid on the aforementioned last page, even though they should be, you know, off in space in MTMTE.

I'd like a good Metalhawk toy too, but I'd prefer the Masterforce version, since I'm not big on his RID look, and MF Metalhawk's actually a pretty cool guy, while RID Metalhawk's kind of annoying.

[Dominic]

What is wrong with Metalhawk? He is being written as a neutralist. It makes sense that he is not going to just help BB because BB is an Autobot.

I do not recall seeing First Aid and Ratchet? I know that Street-wise is on the last page though.


Dom
-needs to recheck that last page...

[Shockwave]

What is wrong with Metalhawk? He is being written as a neutralist. It makes sense that he is not going to just help BB because BB is an Autobot.

I do not recall seeing First Aid and Ratchet? I know that Street-wise is on the last page though.


Dom
-needs to recheck that last page...

He's also being written as a complete dick. I find him annoying too and most of his lines just make me want to slap him in the face. Or shut down his vocalizer. or whatever. Yeah, he's a dick. Being neutral doesn't mean that you have to actively subvert and undermine the efforts of the ruling regime at every pass and that's what Metalhawk does. Disagreeing with BB would be one thing and wouldn't bug me unto itself, but the way Metalhawk does it just makes it seem like he's trying to make himself look better at the expense of making the Autobots look bad. And I hate people like that. I occassionally have to deal with people like that and I really just wish they would go the fuck away.

[BWprowl]

Oh hey, Shockwave beat me to it, and pretty much summed up my thoughts as well.

I mean, I understand his neutrality, and even his dissatisfaction with the factions and his desire to express it, my problem with Metalhawk is how he harps on these issues, even when it would be better for the planet and the population he’s allegedly working for the betterment of for him to be a little more…cooperative. I think it’s in the second issue, where Bumblebee is welcoming some returning Cybertronians, and he’s allowed Metalhawk to be there with him for diplomacy’s sake and all, and Bumblebee’s trying to ease the guys in and show that he’s genuinely interested in working with neutrals and the like, and Metalhawk just *butts in* and starts telling the guys “Don’t listen to him! The Autobots will never care about you! They ruined this planet, ruined it!”. That’s…not helping anyone, and it certainly isn’t going to quell the anarchic attitudes you’d want simmered down in Cybertron’s current political climate. And then, even when Bumblebee’s not working as a welcoming committee or on other official business, when he’s just trying to drive around somewhere, Metalhawk continues to just follow him around and tell him what a fuck-up he thinks he is. That’s…just asshole-ish. And now, according to this issue, apparently being fair and balanced to all Cybertronians in the interest of eliminating faction bias falls by the wayside as soon as his personal feelings tell him otherwise. Turmoil shows up, and everyone else is like “Well, it’s only right that we give him the same chance we gave Sky-Byte, that’s what we’ve been working towards til now” and Metalhawk just goes “No, I don’t like him, so he doesn’t deserve our trust, let’s imprison/kill/whatever him”. Dude. The guy is just…a whiny, selfish, jackass.