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

[corgsopal]

Yeah. I've kinda wanted a new Skids since Drivaar's run with him on the Cybertron Enquirer. Now I definitely want one. And a two pack of tiny Swerve and Tailgate. And Dat Magnus. FFFfffff (is that the right noise? I'm new to 'dat _____'ing)

[Rosicrucian]

I am just loving the snot out of this. Roberts has this uncanny knack for making me give a crap about the characters he writes, and he dangles just enough in front of us to make me want to know more. Two issues in and I just know there are so many stories you could tell with this crew. Definitely helps that Roberts hit it out of the park on Wreckers, so we know that all these tantalizing threads of plot will get addressed, likely in spectacular fashion.

Beyond that, even Robots in Disguise is pushing all the right buttons with me currently. If anyone had stopped reading IDW during the McCarthy or Costa days, it's time to come on back. IDW is absolutely firing on all cylinders right now, and these are some great reads.

[Somebody]

Something that's seriously bugging me - how the hell was Tailgate meant to have survived SIX MILLION YEARS in a hole without so much as a corroded paint job (beyond the damage he'd already sustained), or death of energon depletion*? With the Stormbringer "death" of Cybertron, centuries of Cybertronian-hostile conditions and the post-Chaos "rebirth" of the planet in-between, no less.

*Even if he'd used everything from his "bomb" - which he clearly didn't - his spark should surely have been extinguished.

[ZacWilliam1]

Something that's seriously bugging me - how the hell was Tailgate meant to have survived SIX MILLION YEARS in a hole without so much as a corroded paint job (beyond the damage he'd already sustained), or death of energon depletion*? With the Stormbringer "death" of Cybertron, centuries of Cybertronian-hostile conditions and the post-Chaos "rebirth" of the planet in-between, no less.

*Even if he'd used everything from his "bomb" - which he clearly didn't - his spark should surely have been extinguished.

He wasn't operational for all that time. Not even close. The moments we see, lasting a few minutes, were likely his entire span of operation across those millions of years. The rest of the time was complete shutdown that used next to no Energon. Assuming Energon doesn't decay when not in use. And all of TF history tells us it doesn't (remember the Ark crew's multimillion year nap) then it sat in him all that time and only used a bit here and there when he woke for a few moments and then went out again.


-ZacWilliam, given the Ark backstory it happens ALL THE TIME in TF fiction, as for the environment, assume he was deep enough underground that it wasn't an issue.

[Database]

Something that's seriously bugging me - how the hell was Tailgate meant to have survived SIX MILLION YEARS in a hole without so much as a corroded paint job (beyond the damage he'd already sustained), or death of energon depletion*? With the Stormbringer "death" of Cybertron, centuries of Cybertronian-hostile conditions and the post-Chaos "rebirth" of the planet in-between, no less.

*Even if he'd used everything from his "bomb" - which he clearly didn't - his spark should surely have been extinguished.

He wasn't operational for all that time. Not even close. The moments we see, lasting a few minutes, were likely his entire span of operation across those millions of years. The rest of the time was complete shutdown that used next to no Energon. Assuming Energon doesn't decay when not in use. And all of TF history tells us it doesn't (remember the Ark crew's multimillion year nap) then it sat in him all that time and only used a bit here and there when he woke for a few moments and then went out again.


-ZacWilliam, given the Ark backstory it happens ALL THE TIME in TF fiction, as for the environment, assume he was deep enough underground that it wasn't an issue.

Yeah, they kind of explain it in this issue. Swerve of basically "You slept for millions of years!"

[MrBlud]

It's possible he did, only to be revived when the rest of the planet was.

Anyway, it's likely Roberts will address that at some point.

[corgsopal]

They'll address it after Tailgate gets back to robot mode. Six issues from now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

Holy stuff...Swerve's going to die. They'll pull an Ironfist with him. Math.

[StarScreamZX]

They'll address it after Tailgate gets back to robot mode. Six issues from now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

Holy stuff...Swerve's going to die. They'll pull an Ironfist with him. Math.

Nah, I think Swerve will pull through this one just fine. Tailgate on the other hand...that little guy came back after 6 million years only to die. Considering he would have died on the Ark-1, I don't think he will be able to escape his fate any longer.

I love what Roberts is able to do with these characters. Take Tailgate for instance. The only thing his tech spec ever mentioned about him is that he gets moved around from point A to B via his magnet. Here, Tailgate tries to move from point A to point B all by himself and ends up in a hole for 6 million years! And the only way for him to make it to his final destination is to be carried by Chromedome. Okay, maybe I'm reading too much into all that, but I still love how traveling is such an important part of Tailgate's life.

I really liked Swerve in this issue, but Whirl is the character that had me laughing out the loudest. I didn't think I would like Whirl much (a bit too dark of a character) but I'm starting to really like his batjive insane personality. Just hilarious how he will try to shift the blame for anything onto others.

[corgsopal]

I hope you're right. About Swerve, not about Tailgate. I like them both.

[God Fire Convoy]

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.

I'm not sure if Hoist would be flattered or insulted at everybody calling him the "springer-colored guy" xD

Here's little a rundown of who's who [going in a backwards "S" kind of fashion, starting from the upper left]

Cyclonus, Blaster, Mainframe, Inferno, Grapple, Cosmos, Smokescreen, Powerglide, Hoist, Brawn, Huffer, Ratchet, Gears, Sunstreaker, Hound, Rung, Skids, Chromedome, Rewind, Tailgate, Swerve, Pointblank, random bot, Magnus, Rodimus, Drift, Trailbreaker

So yeah, you guys are pretty dead on!

[Agent 113]

Random bot is a new character who will get named in a future issue.

[Xaaron]

Random bot is a new character who will get named in a future issue.

...moments before (or after) he is horribly murdered.

[Agent 113]

And just after we've all fallen hopelessly in love with him.

[lastmaximal]

My favorite thing from this issue has to be Tailgate's background transformation. He drops a line about it, Swerve dishes a punchline, then everyone including me dismisses it until he's seen still transforming several panels later. Tailgate is cool. "I almost killed Nut-Job!"

Not sure if I dig Swerve just yet. I like that he's more than just "easily distracted guy" now, but there seems to be too much coming from him at any given time. Then again, as long as it's good stuff, I don't really mind.

Skids, same thing. I'm coming around, mainly because it's the most I've ever seen him do.

Still waiting for when Rodimus is proven right or wrong, to see what he does and how he grows. So far I'm liking this newish take on the role for him.

[Houndiums Prime]

I love the head shots at the end. Perfect for newcomers and funny to boot!

[BB Shockwave]

The only thing that bugs me about Tailgate is Ratchet using carbon isotope dating to determine his age... I mean, unless this Cybertron has a gooey-creamy center too like Beast Machines Cybertron, there should not be too much natural carbon there...

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

Yet, he desires eyebrows. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

This comic is awesome. I love the characters - Skids really shines here, I LOLed when they asked him what his function is ("Ex-Wrecker?" "Theoretician"). Swerve and Tailgate have real chemistry, I really like them both. And yeah, Swerve has a point about the 'Con'-suffix! Imagine if the Autobots make a convention, they cannot call it a Con! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

Brainstorm is really rude and has a dark sense of humour, Ratchet is getting to act a lot like the Animated version, Whirl is just pure psycho... Also, I liked that most characters lost last issue were saved, and we only lost some no-names. (Anyone thinks the Duobots kinda resemble Animated Longarm?) And... a Sparkeater? So that's what the "Don't go in the basement!" warning was about. Finally after Matrix Quest's "Dark Creation", we are gonna get another Alien 'hommage'!

The hilarious entry of Skids, holding a welding tool, with his own warning behind him ("You have not escaped them. They are all around you.") not realizing this and thinking he escaped them... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif) And I think it was a sort-of jab at Skids myriads of weapons - which he never used in most of his apperances - that he kills the drone with only his fists.

Anyone has any idea what the odd shuttle-bots saying "1984" could be? The heads sort of remind me of some Marvel UK character, I just cannot remember whom...

And man, has Cosmos grown. He is HUGE!

Also, let me see if I got everyone from the crew of the Lost Light - save the main ones (some surprises there, never thought Blaster would be the one to join the crew instead of starting Radio Free Cybertron! Or that Sunstreaker would leave his brother behind)

- Powerglide
- Trailbreaker
- Cosmos
- Blaster
- Perceptor
- Inferno
- Grapple
- Huffer
- Brawn
- Mainframe
- Sureshot
- Pipes
- Rollout
- Pointblank
- Skids
- Smokescreen
- Hound
- Sunstreaker
- Rad
- Siren
- Gears
- Fizzle
- Waverider
- Hoist

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.

I suspected as much myself, yes. Given Roberts' love - and knowledge - of the UK comics, I would not be surprised if it is something akin to the condition we have heard about in "Kup's story".

And wouldn't it be great if the transformer Ratchet will pass the torch on would be... 'G1'-ized Scalpel? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif) Considering some of the NAILs we have seen, I can totally accept 'ze good old Doctor in this universe too.

- 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.

Don't think it'll be related (unless Bomb-Burst is into tentacle spark-rape these days, as evident by the cover of #3) but also, the "almost"-Pretenders are not dead. In Spotlight: Galvatron, Sideswipe says "babysitting decepticons in stasis" - as in, plural - so I always thought Thunderwing and all of Bludgeon's crew were put in stasis there in the ruins of the lab. And anyway, what got Bomb-Burst and Skullgrin seemed more like a flash grenade. They would be out of commission but not dead. I doubt Iguanus died either, he probably went into shock from having his limbs removed, but losing limbs is not really fatal to robots who can survive as just a head (see Scorponok).

This post has been edited by BB Shockwave: Feb 23 2012, 11:09 AM

[Blacknife]

Also, let me see if I got everyone from the crew of the Lost Light - save the main ones (some surprises there, never thought Blaster would be the one to join the crew instead of starting Radio Free Cybertron!

RFC finally got an official nod. About time...

[Jackpot]

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.

Yeah, I'd become used to thinking of him as just a random scientist/inventor dude, serious and more concerned with his ideas than his social status. But I like the addition of him coveting the idea of being thought of as a genius, and his jokes - especially the "rigorous peer-review" dig at Perceptor - were funny. (I hope this also means we'll be seeing more of Perceptor as a scientist and less as a sniper. More on that in a bit...)

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.

Huh. Did Roberts ever say anything about Skids being Dr. Whoish? I actually thought of Memento, specifically the scene that starts with the main character running parallel to someone else, and he wonders to himself whether he's chasing or being chased - just before the other guy shoots at him. And the graffiti made me think of his tattoos. But now that you mention it, his process of discovering what his own personality is does seem pretty Whoish.

At any rate, I'm not thrilled with the idea of Skids being written as a Wrecker-level badass. For the same reason that I'll be happy if sniper-Perceptor doesn't show up for a while, I like it when less violent characters stay that way, since the setting naturally pushes all the characters towards action-hero stuff. Pick a TF at random, and it's almost a given that he or she will be a warrior. A formerly peaceful character being reimagined as a commando doesn't add anything, and in most cases it detracts because it makes them more generic.

But anyway, that's my little rant. I do have a lot of faith in Roberts's character skills, so I'll sit back and let him take me on this ride.

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.

Yeah, for all the old-guy TF characters we've seen, we've never really been shown aging. Everybody's kind of perpetually at the age they're at. Sure, we've seen Kup's younger days in a couple of different places, but there's still a static quality to each vantage point. Ratchet slowly losing the ability that defines him could be an extremely powerful storyline.

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.

Again, agreed. Like so much of what Roberts is doing with these characters, Drift has a fun new layer.

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)

Heee hee hee hee. Yeah, that was hilarious. And it's especially noteworthy when you think about how it was in the old days. I just picked up Classics UK Vol. 1, and I was reminded of how often narration would describe all the characters as though they had equally expressive faces. I love the fact that modern writers can run with the differences, treating them as features not bugs.

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.

Yeah, this feels way more visually seamless than I was expecting. It's still obviously a different artist with a different style, but the range of variation is very comfortable. I'm glad IDW has apparently finally given up their experiment in radical artistic discretion. I wonder if that was another Schmidt-ism.

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.

I hadn't thought about that, but you're absolutely right. It's a balance so delicate I hadn't even noticed it. Bravo, Roberts.

Cyclonus shows his true colors. And it couldn't happen to a more deserving robot. Whirl should be worried. Very worried.

FANTASTIC scene. Cyclonus goes from not caring to caring a bit too much. I can totally hear it in his Roger C. Carmel voice, too.

the 2001 a Space Oddessey joke with Rewind

Ah! I didn't get that. Now the "monument" comment makes a lot more sense. (I was puzzling over how a 'bot as tiny as Rewind could've looked monumental at a distance.)

thanks to Swerve's comment a couple pages back Tailgate seems to actually think Whirl's name is "Nut-Job".

Loved that bit too. I don't think it's the first time the nature of TF naming conventions has been played for comedy like that, but it won't get old with me anytime soon.

This is why Rodimus is a better leader than Magnus or Drift could ever be.

I do like how Roberts is portraying his distinct style. "Science makes me twitchy. Too many rules," and "Because when I walked in I was going to say no." Part of being rash is that he can adjust to circumstances and make snap decisions, which is actually a very valuable leadership skill.

Reclaim the Suffix!

Dug it. Though I was surprised there was no "Omnicons" reference.

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.

Isn't that a fantastic feeling? It's been too long. RiD is similarly paced and intelligent, but MtMtE is getting more of my love because it's so fun and snappy. I'd had my concerns because LSoTW was a little too grim for my tastes, but Roberts is definitely showing that he can do danger and action without going full-on dark.

Something that's seriously bugging me - how the hell was Tailgate meant to have survived SIX MILLION YEARS in a hole without so much as a corroded paint job (beyond the damage he'd already sustained), or death of energon depletion*? With the Stormbringer "death" of Cybertron, centuries of Cybertronian-hostile conditions and the post-Chaos "rebirth" of the planet in-between, no less.

Heh, teach me to reply to old threads without reading ahead - I'd had the same thought. Speaking of, in fact...

The only thing that bugs me about Tailgate is Ratchet using carbon isotope dating to determine his age... I mean, unless this Cybertron has a gooey-creamy center too like Beast Machines Cybertron, there should not be too much natural carbon there...

Heh, true. Also it reinforces the fact that decay did happen to him. Even if that sort of decay wouldn't have had much of a practical effect, it still raises the question of how much minor decomposition can happen before one would expect TF machinery - his "pulleys and levers and pendulums" - to fail.

And... a Sparkeater? So that's what the "Don't go in the basement!" warning was about.

Eh, I don't think ships really have "basements." Sure, "lower levels," but if I were going to send a warning into the past, I wouldn't be so obtuse about it. Plus I want to assume (though I don't suppose there's any specific reason to) that the warnings are in chronological order.

Anyone has any idea what the odd shuttle-bots saying "1984" could be?

No clue. But they were the shuttle itself, right? I was confused on that bit. Unless we're going to find out later that the ship had some other alt-mode, the narrative seems to imply that the mode-lock was keeping the ship from breaking apart into a bunch of monsters. Did other people get that too?

When Swerve was BSing Skids about their quest on page 20, was that a direct reference to anything? I didn't follow Cybertron much, but it sounded like "the 12 fragments of the Primal Key" could've been referring to that. The "Infinity Gate" is the only part that doesn't ring any bells at all for me.

This post has been edited by Jackpot: Feb 27 2012, 07:57 PM

[corgsopal]

Page 9, Skids says, "I'm trapped in a shapeshifting shuttle...", that coupled with the "They are all around you" and the lack of shuttle crashing into the planet, I've been thinking the shuttle was the 1984 guys too.

[BB Shockwave]

It is an odd coincidence, don't you think, that the last time we have seen multiple generic robots forming one spacecraft was in the G2 comics... With the Cybertronian Empire's troopers. Hmmm... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

And yeah, they were the shuttle. 3 of them, actually - one was broken to bits in the crash-landing.