More than Meets the Eye Ongoing #2, Out 02/15/12 Options

[ZacWilliam1]

It's Out!

And soooo... Awesome.

Two issues have turned Swerve from a nobody to incredibly awesome. LOVE him. And his vehicle mode is SOOO cute too. He's now jumped WAAAAAY up the list of characters I want Hasbro to do a new figure of.

And never have I been so happy at a vicious death threat, but boy does Whirl deserve it. That was a great moment,

Oh, so much coolness to talk about here but so little time to type right now.

BRAVO.


ZacWilliam, reclaiming the suffix aside, I'd go Crusaderbot first myself... More comments when time allows.

This post has been edited by MrBlud: Apr 19 2012, 02:33 PM

[MrBlud]

Post about it here.

[Wildwade]

I never thought Alex Milne would be the one to draw the absolute peak of Whirl's facial expressiveness.

Drift's new temperament suits him. I am pleased beyond pleased-ness with this issue and hope IDW aren't stupid enough to ever let Roberts get away.

[ZacWilliam1]

My thoughts on issue # 2 commentary track style:

Warning. Lots of obtuse, half-explained, and random SPOILERS

Page 1. 
- Know these first pages really well from reading the preview a bunch, almost to the point where they feel like something that happened last issue. But it feels weird to skip over them, so commenting away...
- Love that Brainstorm is so in character. This is exactly who he should be. Proud, impatient, less mature prodigy that probably overrates himself a decent amount.

Page2.
- Duobots are neat. If you're gonna invent original characters basing them on an existing concept/gimick is a neat way to make it work.
- Ouch.
-Love the sudden nervousness from Brainstorm when he realizes Magnus might have heard him. Every one has so much character in pretty much every interaction. It just makes the series amazing.

Page 3.
-Hi Moist!
-Boy Cyclonus is having a bad day.

Page 4.
-Skids has a great very Dr. Whoish introduction. Especially the warning behind him. Apparently he knew he would have a total memory failure. The question is why?

Page 5.
- And here Skids goes a bit Action Hero, while still having a very David Tennent Dr.Who ness about him. It's definately a new take on him, but it's fun and given his situation is a complete mystery to him as well as us, that's actually fine with me. I'm looking forward to seeing where Roberts takes him.

-Page 6.
-Heh, 1984. That number can't be at all meaningful to TF fans. ;-) looking forward to seeing what it actually means eventually.

Page 7.
- I like Rung and Ratchet but I think the most interesting thing here is that we seem to be catching a Ratchet whose just at the point of transition between being the old classic miracle worker/reluctant warrior Ratchet of The 80s and the old, worn and a bit grim old-man Ratchet of the new media (Animated, Movies, Prime). This Ratchet is just begining to really feel his age and is annoyed by it. A really interesting point of transition to catch him at.

Page 8
-Roberts may save Drift as a character yet. Relentlessly positive, new age-spiritual Drift is fun enough to make me kinda want the toy. Everyone's response to him really helps to sell it too.

Page 9 
- SWERVE ROCKS. Even if he wasn't awesome throughout (and he is) his line here about Whirl's facial limitation motivated rage would win the issue. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

Page 10
- See previous comment, re:Swerve is awesome. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)  
- Also, this is a good point to stop and say Milne really hits it out of the park this issue. I was worried that Roche's awesome new designs for the minibots wouldn't translate to anyone else's style but no, Swerve and Tailgate both look just as awesome and cute here.

Pages 11 and 12
- Ouch. Hard landing I guess.
- I had a disconnect for a second when Skid says he's unarmed and isn't. Figured it was an art mistake. But worry not, this isn't Heart of Darkness, this is, it turns out, intentional. It wasn't till my second read through that I really pick up how much Skids doesn't know what he's holding, like with taking Hyperion's gun. We'll come back to it.
- I like that Roberts is killing some new guys here. What LSotW did was show us that it's ok to kill characters if you make people care about them and their deaths matter. If your gonna kill folks like this though. In an accident when they're not getting development before or after other than as weaponizing corpses I think new characters are mostly the way to go.

Page 13.
- Ok, when first reading this page I was very confused because I thought Ratchet had had Cyclonus brought aboard with Whirl and Tailgate at the end of last issue. I went back and looked though and nope, turns out I was wrong. He only talks about taking the other two aboard ship. I would say it's pretty harsh that they leave him beaten into unconciousness lying face first on the ground, but then he's been widely assumed to be a Decepticon so under those particular circumstances I think I can see them leaving him.


Page 14.
-  Kinda cool to have Magnus and Cyclonus in the same room and on the same side for the first time since "The Killing Jar". 
-Cyclonus shows his true colors. And it couldn't happen to a more deserving robot. Whirl should be worried. Very worried.

Page 15.
- Love Swerve's alt mode. So cute.
- it's hard to say what I like more here. Tailgate's definition of "Metallurgist", the 2001 a Space Oddessey joke with Rewind, or that thanks to Swerve's comment a couple pages back Tailgate seems to actually think Whirl's name is "Nut-Job". The last one I think. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

Page 16 and 17
- This is not your Father's Skids. Maybe he got lost on the way to some universe where he kicked total @$$
- for the record it's: "Deep down, we are more like than unlike humans." Which, if less than dynamic, makes sense with him being an Anthropologist and all. Less so if he's never been to Earth in IDW continuity.

Page 18.
- Yeah. See. Whatever that is in his hand he's got a literal blind spot to it. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be something beyond a normal gun. Also... Does Tailgate recognize 1984.3?

Page 19.
- Ooh, Blaster and Brawn came with them. Cool. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)
- Wow Cosmos got a size-lift. Who's he think he is, Seaspray?
- Rodimus' final line on the page is just great. 

Page 20.
- Ok, I don't know any non repetitive way to say I love Swerve at this point.
- Also, I think I agree with Skids.

Page 21.
- I can't tell you how happy I am that Wavrider and the other obscure folks sucked out last issue will live.
- Boy when Tailgate said he'd take Transforming slow, he meant it!
- This is why Rodimus is a better leader than Magnus or Drift could ever be.
- Reclaim the Suffix! I will buy any toy Hasbro ever makes of him. But I guess Crusaderbot works too. Could we steal "Questors" from the Japanese?

Page 22.
- It's not a good day to be a Duobot.
- annnnd now it's hard to tell them apart again.
- It's probably an entirely new monster but if the Sparkeater turned out to be in anyway related to Bomb-Burst (yeah, I know he's dead) it would be the first time anyone actually used his awesome bio. Anyway even entirely unrelated I'm sure it'll be awesome.

Usually if I read a 5 page preview the rest of the issue would feel short when the actual book comes out. This book is so full of great writing and art it still felt like a full issue. And a great one. Can Not Wait to be back for issue #3. I hope this era of Transformers goes on forever.


-ZacWilliam, I'd buy this book weekly if I could...

This post has been edited by ZacWilliam1: Feb 15 2012, 04:58 PM

[Yanthrax]

This issue was awesome!!! I have to wait another month now? I don't like that!

[ZacWilliam1]

This should tell you something, if my way too long not-really-quite-a-review above didn't...

This evening I went down to my permanent, by year, big ol basement shelves and pulled out Swerve, Tailgate, Rewind, Chromedome, Skids, Whirl, Hot Rod, Brainstorm, and Ultra Magnus and put them off on a table together as, y'know, a group.


-ZacWilliam, really wish I had G1 Ratchet, Cyclonus, a Rung and Drift

This post has been edited by ZacWilliam1: Feb 15 2012, 09:26 PM

[Cyoti]

Swerve may be a redone Kup for the upcoming new CHUG line.

[shellspark]

Words are really insufficient to describe how much I'm enjoying this so far. Two spectacular MTMTE issues in a row. Swerve is by far the biggest breakout character we've gotten in some time.

[MrBlud]

It's probably an entirely new monster but if the Sparkeater turned out to be in anyway related to Bomb-Burst (yeah, I know he's dead) it would be the first time anyone actually used his awesome bio. Anyway even entirely unrelated I'm sure it'll be awesome.

I'm thinking the Sparkeater has something to do with the disc Rewind got from Swindle.

[G1MarvelBlaster]

Only disappointment was that the little head shots at the end weren't done in the Ultra Magnus vision style from MTMTE #1.

Also, Squee! Blaster!

[Xaaron]

Spot the 'Bot time...

-Who was Inferno talking to in the spread from pg. 19? It looks a bit like Grapple without all his "bling", or maybe a rare appearance by Tigertrack?

-In the bottom right, next to the guy who looks like Pointblank. The color scheme resembles Jhiaxus, but the chest armor looks like a giant face or something.

[Cyoti]

1. The front part of Magnus's truck mold looks like it was copied off Animated Prime especially the unique window design.

2. Rodimus's alternate mode kinda looks like the drone that comes with the FP Protector Armor.

3. Whirl looks he stole Tomahawk's body.

4. Sunstreaker is onboard so the crew is basically all the parts of the Autobot army that are deemed expendable or dangerous.

5. If there is a spark eater on board, it does give new meaning to the ship's name, LostLight.

[Magnusblitz]

Another good issue. It's really refreshing to have a comic (not just a Transformers comic) full of dialogue on every page. Costa was terrible with decompression, but I got this the same week as Uncanny X-Men, and there was a noticeable lack of dialogue there too. Really nice.

If I had to find a negative, I'd say that the story definitely seemed dialed down after how much of a (literal) bang the last issue ended with. Everyone gets recovered easily and the ship is on its way in 22 pages, no Quintessa or Junk-style stop here. The only losses appear to be two generics never mentioned before. Sure, it's only issue #2, so probably not the best time to start a crisis yet, but this really is still another introductory issue, giving more introduction for guys like Cyclonus, Whirl, Tailgate and Skids.

Here's my attempt to identify all the guys in Rodimus' crew from the big page spread:

1st row: Cyclonus, Blaster, Mainframe, Inferno, Grapple?, Cosmos, Smokescreen?,
2nd row: Hound?, Sunstreaker, Gears, Ratchet, Huffer, Brawn, Springer-colored guy, Powerglide
3rd row: Rung, Skids, Chromedome, Rewind, Tailgate, Swerve, Pointblank?, Jhiaxus-colored guy
4th row: Trailbreaker, Drift, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus

Ultra Magnus is carrying Pipes, Sureshot and Rollout on his body in truck form on the first page. And that's probably Hoist pulling Cyclonus up.

This post has been edited by Magnusblitz: Feb 16 2012, 07:39 PM

[Master Fwiffo]

That was, quite possibly, the most enjoyable single comic issue I've ever read. God damn a month is too long to wait for the next one.

[Yanthrax]

Is anyone else hoping Lockdown makes an appearance?

[Wildwade]

4. Sunstreaker is onboard so the crew is basically all the parts of the Autobot army that are deemed expendable or dangerous.

I don't think you can make that judgment based solely on Sunstreaker's presence.

Well, Prowl did claim he could make do without all the Autobots who were leaving except for Chromedome last issue. But Prowl's a prick.

I don't think Perceptor, Ratchet, Ultra Magnus, Trailbreaker, and a gob of others fall into either the "expendable" or "dangerous" categories.

This post has been edited by Wildwade: Feb 16 2012, 11:06 PM

[Cattleprod]

Perceptor knows Prowl's dark secret, and Trailbreaker and Siren know bits of it. Getting them out of the way works out nicely for him.

[Master Fwiffo]

I noticed something after rereading the two issues together.

Something's wrong with Ratchet's hands.

In issue 1, when they're overlooking the dead body of the protester, Ratchet complains about 'his fingers being too old and seizing up'. On the next page, he says the voyage will be his 'swan song' while holding his hand.
In issue 2, he pauses from fixing Rung to slam a hammer into his hand to get it working again.

The fact that they've focused in on his hands twice, and knowing Roberts cleverness in foreshadowing (think Ironfist), I highly suspect that the problem with Ratchets hands is more than just 'he's old'.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
I would venture a guess that he's terminally ill and he knows it.

[Yanthrax]

Its the little things like that, that make reading these such a joy.
Maybe Ratchet just needs some cool hand lube?

[Cat]

Loved it.

It's great having two high-quality ongoing series.

I am positive that RID is my favourite of the two, but I still love this book too. (Curious about how much longetivity the premise has though).

The Ratchet thing is throwing me a little, as during the -Ations, he always struck me as a fairly young character.