More than Meets the Eye (IDW ongoing comic)

[Onslaught Six]

They aren't after Grimlock, they were after the Decepticons who were heading the Symbol Ship, and obviously had Grimlock as a prisoner.

I've seen lots of people suggesting it's Shockwave's ship; the last we saw him (if I'm not wrong) was when Overlord cut him loose in Wreckers. Grimlock disappeared during the same escape so it's possible that that's what happened.

[Shockwave]

Well, if they're looking for Shockwave they'll be disappointed, he's on Cybertron. The DJD seemed to know who was in the 6 Decepticons on the symbol ship so it must be one of them and not Shockwave.

Unless I missed something somewhere.

[Onslaught Six]

Welp!

To clarify: I don't think the DJD are looking for Shockwave, but people thought he was the target that they're looking for. If that makes sense. Clearly they must've missed Shockwave on Cybertron like I did.

[Shockwave]

Oooooohh ok. Got it.

[Dominic]

And, it dons on me that we are generating 2 or 3 pages of discussion per issue. Roberts and co are doing that much right.

Issue 8:
This go suprisingly bad for the DJD this issue. Of course, given the concept of the team, that hardly rules out future use by other writers. Grimlock's appearance feels almost perfunctory. If it were not "Dinobot Month", I would assume that Roberts was just using Grimlock to show that the character was still around. There is a fair amount of killing and violence this issue, which again raises the spectre of "if Roberts were not writing this book, people would complain". But, that is more the fault of the fandom than the creative team.

Grade: B/C

[Onslaught Six]

Fair amount of killing? Flywheels is the only one who bites it. Everyone else walks away--wounded, sure, but they'll live. (Sometimes, I think Roberts likes almost-killing guys as much as he loves killing them.)

The DJD are obviously going to come up again--they're after Overlord.

The end scene is woaah though. Magnus, Drift, Hound, Chromedome; all scheduled to bite it? Damn!

[Dominic]

Issue 9:
Uh, story time? Apparently, telling stories to or in the presence of somebody with Rung's type of injuries is theraputic for them. Okay. Sure. Whatever. The characters contibuted to two story threads set in Cybertron's past that will presumably come together next issue. And, the situation on Lost Light in the present day gets worse as another crew member is murdered. (And, I suspect Roberts will get a pass for this one as well, even though the fans would normally howl in protest when pre-movie character is killed off.) The old infomercial that Rewind plays has possibilities. But, given this book's track record, I am not expect much to come of it. There are probably a half-dozen Easter Eggs in the crowd scenes that I just did not feel like searching for and identifying.
Grade: B/C


Dom
-now to review the RiD annual.

[Onslaught Six]

Actually, I have to question just how bad Red Alert is dead. Okay, he's missing his head, but look at Rung!

Also, Dom, I think it's time you reevaluated why people tend to get pissed when "old" TF characters get the axe. It's because usually, when a fan favourite or important character is killed off, it's pointless. Steel died in DC recently so that they could show off how badass Doomsday was...again. (I think it was Doomsday. Who fucking cares?) Steel was interchangable there; it could have been literally anybody. Red Alert dies, though, probably because he knew too much about Overlord. Somebody watched him tell Rung's corpse about Overlord, and somebody on the ship knows why he's there, and obviously he wants to keep that a secret. Red Alert was a witness who needed to die. The fact that he's a 1985 character doesn't mean anything; it could've been anybody. (But, Red Alert is one of the few Autobots who is a paranoid psycho. I can't think of very many other characters who could fit there. Whirl, maybe.)

I'm not angry at Roberts for killing Red Alert. I trust that it happened for a good reason. Although, Roberts has something like a 60/40 split of meaningful deaths compared to non-meaningful ones. Skyquake died because Overlord is totally badass and we need to establish that. Pyro died because his death was important. (I still choose to believe that Pyro learned that self-sacrifice is the ultimate heroic, and not that he died because he was annoying.) And in Roberts' defense, I'm only mad about Skyquake because Skyquake is one of my favourite obscure UK guys. (Clench is the other one. Guess who died in Megatron Origin for no reason?)

Now, if Red Alert just died arbitrarily? Then that sucks. But I have nothing against killing 84-85 characters, because for one thing, nobody is ever dead forever in IDW. (EXCEPT CLENCH AND SKYQUAKE, DAMN IT. And they kinda wasted Black Shadow, too, but he was a loose end. A loose end that Roberts set up in the first place, sure, but...whatever.) And for another thing, there are plenty of new, important and interesting characters. Swerve is a major character, here! Swerve!

[Dominic]

You are putting way too much thought in to that.

Most fantards pitch idiotic fantrums when their favourite character, or one of the "classic" characters, dies. The pre-86 cast is held up as sacred by many fans.

Normally, turning one of those sacred cows in to a hamburger leads to the writer or editor behind the story being lambasted in the fantard press and possibly being compared unfavourably to Hitler. (Is talking about Godwin's Law a violation of Godwin's Law? Discuss.)

But, Roberts gets a pass on it. It is not because Roberts is a good writer. It is because Roberts is a fantard favourite. You and I both know that if other writers had killed off Red Alert, their would be fantrums and drama.


Dom
-not blaming Roberts, but will point it out because it is bothersome.

[Shockwave]

Dom, you seem stuck in some fan time capsule from about 5 years ago. Yeah, that would have happened then because the bulk of the fandom was comprised of Geewunners who couldn't get past 1986. But that has long since changed. Even on sites like TFW I see a huge shift where the bulk of the fandom wasn't even around for G1 and therefore have no attachment to those characters. And the fans that would have pitched a fit about this have mostly left the fiction at this point due to not being able to handle change. So, in the state of the fandom now, I don't think there would be fanrage about this regardless of who wrote it.