Due out Thursday, July 10, 2008.

What the crap??

When did IDW become Dreamwave? Seriously, did anything happen in this issue other than DIE HUMANS DIE and OPTIMUS PRIME IS GONE! WE'RE BLOODY USELESS NOW!!!

At least Guido's art was purty...

i actually thought it was a good starting point. not much happened, but oh the question that were raised!!!!

HIGHLIGHT to view:
how did the autobots all get back to cybertron, including ironhide and sunstreaker?!! what happened to optimus?!

HIGHLIGHT to view:
soundwave?! insecticons?! laserbeak?! how'd they all get there?!

oh, i think this is going to be a good series. i think they needed an explosive start since iirc, this'll be a 12 issue series. and i'm sure after revelations and the eventual maximum dinobots series, some questions will be answered

Argh, the glow effects. They were really distracting this issue.

Guido's art was in top form. Some really great panels in there - I was especially struck by the shot of Megatron's torso from the office window. Gorgeous.

The story...ah, it's the first issue, I'll give it some leeway. But man, there's no surer indicator that a military guy is gonna die than a scene with him looking at a picture of his sweetheart. It's like when a cop says he has three days 'til he retires. The presence of a hoary old cliche like that is, perhaps, not a good indicator...

I thought this sucked. Art was good.. but nothing happenned, and theres not much indication that anything is even going to happen. I may as well have stuck with the 5 page preview.

Prime is dead? How original.

And to think I was actually looking forward to this :S

Dear sweet hugging GOD, the Photoshop glow in this issue completely ruined a lot of the art. I mean, seriously, what the hug? The top-left corner of EVERY hugging OUTDOORS PANEL was hidden behind a blinding yellow haziness. Jesus hugging CHRIST - too Dreamwave for words.

Ahem. That said, enjoyed what there was of the issue - not a lot happened, as others have said, but I'm interested to see where it goes.

who says prime is actually dead? he could very well just be really jacked up and things aren't looking good

Issue was pretty much a big "meh." How long until we get back to the Hunter/Sunstreaker/Machination storyline? That is about the only part of the IDWverse left that I care about.

And hey, where's the thread for Saga of the Allspark #1? That came out today, too.

Ugh, way to dump everything unique and interesting about the IDWverse for blando-nostalgia soaked stuff. This better pick up next issue. Yeah, Guido's art was cool, but Josh man, settle down on the Photoshop glow effects...

who says it was photoshop






but yeah.. i hear ya.. was a weird funk i was in at the time [spotlight mirage can vouch for that] and the latter issues have definately toned down as far as that goes

your cries are not unheard xD


cheers for the feedback guys!

There were some bits that had a bit too much glare, but the art was still great. I did notice (if I remember correctly) that they removed the blood from the constructicon scene.

I really think the DW comments are undeserved. This is a new "jumping on" point for new readers also. It is a reintroduction of the characters (without a rewrite of the series). I look at it like the opening scene of a movie. This shows the Decepticon's destructive potential. It show's Megatron's capacity to commit mass murder. It show's Starscream's distain for Megatron, and his want to grandstand. Skywarp also gets some good characterization. We have the human angle of being attacked by TFs. The scene where Skywarp transforms in front of the fighter pilot sets the awe nicely. You can even tell Thundercracker was unconfortable with the whole situation. So, this is a reintro. Yes, we've seen these characteristics before, but new people might have not. I think that there will be much more story ahead, and look forward to it. I don't think Op is dead, but the bots are definately out of commission.

I think part of the problems is we got that 5 page teaser, and this is mainly a continuation of that without very many scene changes. So, it's a bit stale in our minds. We've had the intro. Things should pick up next issue. I think it will be how us humans are dealing with the invaders (probably more characterisation of Deceps, and humans alike).

I have yet to get it (No chance to go out today!) but I have to say I liked the cinematic approach from the preview images I saw. Why? Partially because one of my favorite things early on in the IDW 'verse, something I feel has been lost a bit despite my continuing to enjoy the story, is how huge and threatening the Transformers appeared compared to humans. This was another aspect that made the new movie lots of fun for me as well. I'm big into the "robots in disguise" idea, always have been, and IDW really got that sense of scale going that we hadn't seen in awhile, not even in Dreamwave, where Transformers tended to be common knowledge and treated somewhat casually (Since that was being written for the hardcore fans...or rather, was what people thought the fans "wanted".)

Anyhoo, glad to have it back.

All this issue did was raise questions.

...and not the good kind.

It wasn't even a story just a giant magic eye daring you to figure out how what the hell is going on.

We had NUMEROUS Decepticons that came out of nowhere. Other ones that were lost suddenly found without so much as an explanation, and old ones suddenly in new bodies. All of which took place without anything close to an explanation. The ending was another 'HA! bet you didn't see that coming"

Plus more decompressed story telling, a two page spread in the 80's is again a full issue.

Didn't much care for it so far but I'll give it a few more issues before I drop it.

Been eagerly anticipating this issue for a long time.

When I read the first issue of any new story, it's absolutely critical that it begins with a bang. It should be something that "wows" us, that gives us something that we won't forget and makes us think, "yes, this sucker is going to be good!"

Does this issue accomplish this? From an art standpoint, mission accomplished. More importantly though, from a story standpoint, sadly, I don't think it does.

Others have said this is only the first issue, and that's true, I wouldn't dare prematurely judge this series by a single issue. So I'm evaluating it only on the basis of what a first issue should accomplish, and in this regards it falls flat, IMO.

It's waaaaaaaay too short an intro. This is what Focus on Decepticons should have been.

Regarding the events of this issue, the human elements were quite cliche, in particular the Kamikaze style death of that pilot. I mean, did any reader have any sort of emotional connect with him at all? We know him for three panels, and then we're supposed to be moved by his actions.

There are positives, for sure, like the incredible talent of Guido and the masterful colors. It really is presented in a cinematic way, and that's what McCarthy is aiming for, I suppose. It was nice to see the Big Three Cons rendered the way they were, smugly taking everything the humans threw at them.

The most interesting elements of the story, IMO, were the pages involving the Autobots. Seeing Prime down was a nice surprise, an example of providing the reader with something that jolts them from the getgo, and more along the lines of what I would have expected from this first issue.

My only hope is that each issue of this year-long tale has double the content and story that this one did. Otherwise, we're looking at a six to eight issue tale strecthed to 12, and that's not something I want to see. That's the formula for boredom and frustration, so let's hope we stay away from this.

As a preview issue, it's perfect. As the first issue of the series, it underperforms.

I give it a "C+". Artwise, it's quite nice, but the story thus far is trite, cliche, and needs to really pick up next issue.

I do hope it gets better in future issues. Reign of Starscream #1 didn't do anything for me either, but the second issue was quite good and I look forward to issue three next week a good deal. So I know that being the first issue that's just setting the table for the story before really getting into it, it's possible All Hail will take off. But, man, Decepticons show up in New York and blow stuff for no apparent reason, Starscream and Megatron do their usual thing, the Air Force ineffectively counterattacks and obviously doomed pilot dies, blah blah Autobots on Cybertron blah Prime out of commission blah boring blah. Not a good start.

And while I know it's supposed to serve as a jumping on point for new readers, I'm not one of them and can't just switch off what I know about the IDWverse and pretend to be. For example, where is Skywatch and why aren't they stopping what they'd surely know to be a futile attack by the U.S. military? Why are you showing us Sunstreaker and Sideswipe together on Cybertron, thus lessening the moment of the brothers' reunion when it happens in Revelation or Maximum Dinobots, or wherever?

We're talking about a comic.. is anyone ever actually dead? lol In any case, it seems thats what they want us to think at this point. We all know hes going to be fixed up for issue 12 and save the day.

It would be more interesting if he actually were dead for good.

I agree with this, and felt kinda gyped when I bought Focus on the Decepticons (which was just a 5 page preview, plus previously published DW art, and interviews). I am hoping for, and expecting better. Another part of the problem is that we had to wait (what seems like) so long for this. It would be nicer if issue # 2 would come out in 2 weeks, instead of next month. We still have the Spotlights though.

Good catch, I didn't notice that or I would've complained about it too.

Sure were some Classics/Universe toys in this issue? Prowl is now one, as are the twins. I wonder if we could consider Prowl's "upgrade" just an artistic thing, since it's really the same vehicle mode?

Also... is Jazz in charge? Man, I hope so. Jazz never gets the proper respect his alleged position in the chain-of-command would require.

Yeah, the glowing is out of control, it's been said to many times. If it's diminished in the future (pretty prease?), then no worries. Everything else about the colors apart from the glow looked fine, the pencils were spectacular. This was the first issue, so I can forgive how shallow the story seems for now until we get to the meaty bits later. It's too soon to say.

Really did love the art, though.

Well, everyone who complained over & over about Furman... I hope you're satisfied...


Jazz, in IDW-to-date, is about 400th in the line of command. Prime and (not in order after this) Prowl, Hot Rod, Springer, Hound, Magnus, FortMax, Silverbolt, Jetfire, Bluestreak and the head of every other Autobot unit outrank him...

Ditto.



Frankly the human interaction echoed what Dreamwave did...not interesting in the least. We know an all out attack by the cons would be devastating - maybe that should be shown. I think pulling back and showing the grand scale of destruction a Decepticon attack would really have would have more impact.

I am, actually! There wasn't a single "never did want to live forever" in the issue. Sometimes it's nice to take a break.

Overall, I enjoyed it. The pilot gazing longingly at the photo of his GF (or possibly his sister) was cliched, but I'm aways happy when the Decepticons are portrayed as genuinely terrifying, unstoppable killing machines. And the uncertainty visible on Thundercracker's face was a nice touch. Only why does he have a red nose?

Oh, I liked that! As much of a fan as I am of the verbose Furman, it was really fun, I found, to step back and have an issue where the artwork was really allowed to tell the bulk of the story. Very impressive visuals, Guido, but just as skillful scene direction from McCarthy. Had that "opening scene of a movie" feel going, and by the end, I was ready for the titles and opening credits...and there they were, in the back of the issue. The fact that the issue had long moments of silence, with the action taking up the slack was awesome for me. Then again, I'm a fan of stuff like "Blame!" where we can go an entire chapter with two or three sentences being spoken, so...no big surprise.

So, yes, I liked how the visuals carried and created an atmosphere of gravity, while the book still had plenty of humor through the spoken lines. Particularly the cynicism of the Constructicons...got the feeling from that chuckle the two shared and the "Yeah, RIGHT..." look that they're done this many, many times before.

Fine characterization both in terms of what the characters said, and through body language. Honestly, I don't feel I've seen enough of Starscream and Megatron together in this universe to call his toadying moment "out of character" yet. First time we saw him, he juiced up on Ore 13 and hurled himself at Megs, venting his frustrations, and got his ass smacked down. Not exactly subtle. The next time, Megs probably wouldn't have been too happy to see him, either, if the situation with the Reapers hadn't been so pressing, and Screamer was pretty clearly sarcastic in his "I LIVE to serve you" bit. And he was clearly a Megatron fanboy, or at least skidplate-kisser, in Megatron Origin, plus Megs' closest confidant as revealed in Devastation.

I'm looking forward to the prospect of their relationship in this universe being fleshed out in this series a lot more.
I particularly liked how Starscream kept trying to chew up the scenery and scream "Attack" and such, only to have Megs smoothly diss him. Actually, the "born loser" aspect of Starscream is something I've always enjoyed. Poor guy never gets to have his moment in the sun for more than five minutes at best.

And man, Megs was pretty damned SCARY here. Clearly large and in charge.

I found myself reading slowly to take in the building events, and will definitely be going back to look through all the details of the epic battles (Or, uh, slaughters, rather) again.

Oh, also, seeing Sunstreaker and Sideswipe back on Cybertron, and Soundwave back with Megs just makes me more eager to find out HOW these things go down in the coming issues, rather than spoiled. I mean, I figured they weren't going to kill off Sunstreaker, so he'd have to be somewhere by this point, anyway.

And I don't blame the guy for updating his body, considering his old body has become the template for the Headmasters that Scorponok was using to hunt down his fellow Autobots. (Something he wasn't exactly happy about, considering his "kill me" bit.) Not liking a Con or human using his design for cruelty aside, I can't see Sunstreaker being able to tolerate being anything more than "one of a kind".

Soundwave, the Insecticons, Ironhide back in action and the Brothers renuited.....

A lot can happen in the year between Devastation and All Hail Megatron.

But the Jets having the 80's "-based Masterpiece" look instead of their IDW look (which Starscream had in the first page) seemed like the artist's personal preference than nessicary for the story.

It's funny, in a post on the IDW forums awhile back, even E.J. Su wrote he prefers them as F-15s, as it would have been easier to design robot forms for them using the F-15 as a base. In any case, I found it rather (Perhaps unintentionally) hilarious that the jets were pretty much wasting legions of Movie Starscreams in jet form. (And I like Movie Starscream...)

F-15s are pretty common worldwide, in any event, so if the Cons were aiming for disguise at some point, it would have been a good choice. (I seem to recall part of the reason for their assuming F-22 forms would be so their air strikes on foreign targets would be blamed on the U.S.)

In any case, Starscream's and the twins' earlier IDW designs were some of the few I wasn't quite fond of (Not because they weren't G1-accurate...just...not quite my cup of tea) so I have no issues with their having changed.

I'm a bit surprised to see the generally negative consensus developing around here.

My rambling thoughts:

The covers - sheer awesomeness. The Trevor Hutchinson propaganda cover is the one I picked up, but the retailer exclusive Killing Joke cover is also extremely slick. I like the Klaus Scherwinski cover just fine, but it's a lot closer to what we've seen in the past.

The art: I love Guido Guidi's style. I like that he seems influenced by the old Floro Dery models (I'm, obviously, quite a fan of those) but with modern comic sensibilities. The Seekers & Laserbeak vs the American Airforce splash page was a particularly good one. I also like the close-up on Starscream's face in the upper-right panel of page 13. It's easy to feel his frustration at having his orders countermanded by Megatron. It's not just his rendering skills, though. Guido tells a clear and coherent story, with the action flowing easily from one panel to the next.

The story: this seems to be where the biggest criticisms are levied. To be fair, I can see why people weren't satisfied. If this were, say, a six part story arc, I'd be disappointed too. But this is a 12 issue macroseries - about as close as we're ever likely to come to an unlimited series.

A summary: Page 1 is a very brief overview of what's come before, making the story extremely accessible to newcomers while respecting the groundwork that Simon Furman has lain. Then, the story begins in earnest with what seems like cinematic pacing to me. There are the establishing shots, followed by a gradual introduction of the Decepticons with some humor before things get deadly. Without the Autobots to restrain them, the Decepticons gleefully wreck havoc and destruction. The human response is underwhelming - so much so that Megatron toys with them first before unleashing his troops upon them. The final reveal, exactly where the Autobots are during all of this, only hints at what may have happened before and what is yet to occur.

Several things worked about the writing, especially the pacing. It's slow, but builds exactly the foundation that I think Shane McCarthy was going for. Earth, for all its faults, is presented as an idyllic place before it falls under assault by a savage alien force. One gets the impression that Autobots are a long way away from being able to do anything about it, so one can only assume that future issues will show the world struggling against the Decepticons, followed by a brutal subjugation. I think the Transformers received good characterization. Starscream is arrogant when in charge but switches to insincere flattery as soon as Megatron arrives. Megatron is quick to put him in his place with insults, but is solicitious to Soundwave. Even the Autobots, without a line of dialog, come across as hopeless, dejected and desperate.

It's not all roses: Shane attempted, admirably, to give his human pilots some characterization so that we might actually root for them. I'm not sure how successful he was in my case. It's an uphill battle, admittedly. New human characters are seldom embraced readily, especially when one get the sense that they're not long for this world. I don't think he did anything wrong except maybe employing a tired device in the form of the photo of the girlfriend. In fact, the page for the pilots was almost textbook screenwriting. I just think that for his target audience the effort may have been wasted.

Another frequent complaint is that AHM is ignoring the work of Simon Furman. I don't think this is a valid criticism. I got the impression, both from the book and from interviews, that Shane is very aware of where Simon is going (and visa versa), so I'm not too worried about continuity gaps. I think we all expected to see Ironhide back in action at some point, and Sunstreaker back with the Autobots. The reveal that Prime is critically injured may or may not tie in to Furman's run, though I'm sure it will be explained in AHM if not in Revelations/Maximum Dinobots. I say this as a huge Furman fan.

Overall, I think AHM is a worthy addition to the IDW cannon. The presentation is beautiful. Shane did a good job of building an interesting premise, and I'd like to see where he runs with it. Perhaps most importantly, the story is a terrific jumping on point for new readers who may have some memories of the old show but haven't had a chance to check out IDW's work in the past.

JimS

Something else occurs to me regarding Starscream's toning down the direct challenges to Megatron. Maybe he, uhm, remembers what happened the last time he directly attempted to challenge Megatron's authority? He was out of commission for weeks, maybe months. Starscream seems like a pretty smart guy; he'd have to be very foolish not to have learned from his mistakes. It clearly chafed on him to have Megs countermanding him at every turn, here.

I liked how a lot of the Seekers' characterization was through their body language and facial expressions...for instance, Skywarp smirking at pretty much every insult Starscream received, and expressing appreciation for Megatron ("Always bet on the leader!"...it's in keeping for him) and Thundercracker looking less than thrilled to be there.

Not too bad, like any first issue it's mostly setting up for things to come. My only real gripe was the set up of DJ's death. Way too cliché.

I just have one question....

Why the hell is Mirage still stuck in that grossly outdated 70s-era Formula race car body???

I actually think that fits his aristocratic personality pretty well. Old money y'see, they drive classic cars heh heh.

I also liked this issue, though having read Focus already did take away from the experience of course.

Agreed on both points...

The only thing I'm not keen on in the interior art is Megatron's face in some panels. Compared to CC's rendition of Megs on the cover... well, anything wouldn't look as good. And there's a couple of 'Con group/battle shots that have some odd proportions or lack detail. Overall, the art's very effective storytelling.


Again, I think the art carried the plot point -- which isn't new by any stretch -- really well. Ditto the silent bits at the beginning and end.

The rest? A bit meh so far, especially with the handling of Focus. Got the first half pre-ordered though, so we'll see where it goes...

I'm so glad Furman is done on TF. Shane's stuff id 10x times better. No more "It's all Kicking off" or every character sounding the same.

Furman is hardly done though on TFs. Max Dinobots, Revelations etc. I never wanted Furman gone....just think we could do with a bit more writers to spice things up, and thankfully we've been seeing a lot more of that lately. Spotlight Wheelie is a great recent example of why Furman needs to stick around (even if it is in a team effort with Klaus....Claus???...need to look that up)

Shane's first issue gives me reason to be optimistic, but I think it's a bit much to say he's the best ever after just one issue I'll reserve judgment until at least after these 12 issues.

I was hoping Furman was done. I don't like the way he writes Transformers.

Nope, Ryall says they're committed to keeping Simon around. Plus, he's going to handle "The 13," the IDW Transformer origin story next year, in addition to Maximum Dinobots and the additional three issues (Let's not forget those!) that Ryall has told us go between Revelation and All Hail.

Personally, I just hope DJ's death goes somewhere, like Anders remaining in play as a recurring character or us meeting DJ's wife/girlfriend/whatever. What I liked was that rather than appear heroic, his end came off as utterly futile, and in fact in a way glorified Megs (As much as any bad guy can be) by giving him that awesome "emerging from the flames, laughing" moment. In that sense, it was 1000X better than the Dreamwave "Crash firetrucks into Megatron" thing, which actually helped Prime out.

Ryall's stated that those "additional three issues" have been dropped.

Oh, okay! Probably neater this way. I mean, All Hail has plenty of time within its run to answer questions on what happened in the year interval. (I highly doubt every issue will be as action-heavy as this one, not that I objected at all to how the first one was handled.)

Pretty dull.
"Decepticons smash stuff and the Autobots don't stop them."
some actual story in this issue would be nice, You don't need to use the entire issue just to reestablish a status quo set by the tagline.

Same here as with most of the comments. Sweet covers, nice art, annoying glow effects. Story is "meh", too much of a "G1 cartoon status quo" reset-feel in terms of characterization and character relations, stereotypical human characters... Too Dreamwave-y, overall.

Hope issue 2 picks up, but I'm not holding my breath, quite frankly.

It was a little too short and there could have been more to it. Yet you couldn't help but rood for the Decepticons and see what they meant about why the other cons see Megatron as an inspiring figure.

I think it's clear what Megatron is doing here and why the other decepticons follow him. He empowers them and makes everything around them feel week and helpless compared to them.

I mean think of it this is really a serious war for resources and more ground to wage the battle on. Yet their treating the earth like some victim that they could take for granted instead of a viable military installation they can use.

What I mean is that the Autobots and Decepticons have been at war for millenia. Yet Megatron realizes that his men need to feel more powerful then their enemy.

So he lets them oppress a weaker species and play with them first. Giving them this feeling of strength and power over others. So much that their too pleased to really question his orders or challenge him. Other than Starscream maybe ins which such things aren't enough.

Yeah it's rather amoral and makes them more evil than taking out of necessity in a shrewd manner.

Yet it works, if an army of raiders weren't kept entertained or satisfied there would be eventually a mutiny. It's working out well in that sense.

I wonder if this would affect Shockwave's appearence if he ever tries to wrestle leadership.

I could see him as blaming Megatron for exposing them and waisting time yet not clearly seeing that Megatron does this to keep his troops morale up.

That shot of Thundercracker looking at the building falling was amazing you could feel the pain he felt there in that shot. As well as feel his helpnessness. I swear thats Thundercracker spotlight material right there. It makes me want to see a story where Thundercracker turns on the Decepticons someday. I really feel sorry for the guy being trapped on the wrong side like that. Though he is a character that just can't become an Autobot either because of his contempt towards non-fliers.

Anyways it was a bit too short the part with the pilot was definately cliche. It was okay for a first issue. It just needs a lot of clear development afterwards. This to me felt like the Deceptcons vacation from war and going touring and sightseeing. Which really is what it was if you think of it. Earth is like a vacation resort for Megatron and his pals.

Hopefully there is the brewing of more serious developments for the cons as there currently is for the humans and Autobots.

It would be interesting to see a lot of the depth and the intentions the cons have in this universe. As that hasn't really been built up yet.

I can also easily see the cons going back into hiding and subterfuge if the Autobots stop them and need to rethink their plans for earth. I just hope that theres more of that energon to explain them needing earth other than another military outpost and place to strip metals, and other materials from.

Otherwise with so many billions of planets what would make earth so special. Also if the cons have an empire. You would think they would start stripping minerals and metals from the astroid belt in our solar system and from all the different planets.

Of course the population seems very thin between Autobots and cons for that.

Anyways I wonder if thats what the constructicons are for. Building refineries and fortifications on the new Decepticon world.

I hope we see some Decepticon enslaved worlds in the future. It would make sense that the small population of immortal robots that can be killed but can't reproduce would need slaves.

It would mean the bots are at a disadvantage though.

I liked this issue, but right now I'm more interested about what happened in between Revelation and AHM. Of course We've only got 1 issue of Revelation and Maximum Dinobots will fill that in.

But from what I remember and want to see.

Soundwave was stuck in his alt form and Laserbeak was under Skywatch's control.
Sunstreaker's off Earth and has a new body, but going by that Mosaic I assume he's still a Headmaster with Hunter.
Ironhide's back, but I suppose his spark was alright.

And of course what happened to Prime.


Also the Autobots are on Cybertron, I thought that was uninhabitable from the war and Thunderwing, things must be bad for them to live there.

First IDW series that I'm looking forward to. Nice to hear we're getting a bit of proper characterisation. After what IDW did to Ramjet and Sunstreaker, I really want to see them improve certain characters.

What's with all the Dreamwave naysayyers? I loved Dreamwave. You read the MTMTE books and you'll see they really knew the G1 characters. DW Sunstreaker was a hell of a lot cooler than whiney IDW Sunstreaker and the Ramjet spotlight was abysmal. Personally I've hated a lot of IDW's changes to TF but hopefully we'll see a turnaround for the better.

Loved Furman's Marvel and DW stuff but his dialogue is really ruining IDW for me. Hopefully AHM will herald a change for the better in the TF comics.

Anyway, rant over. I am looking forward to AHM and actually enjoyed the 5 page preview. Found the Constructicons joke funny though almost felt guilty for laughing at it when they started blasting the humans. Don't often get a response like that to a comic.

BOO

Wouldn't be any confusing problems with sub numbering if you just made an ongoing storyline instead of all these miniseries...

Yep, Spotlight Galvatron showed that they can be stationed there if need be, as long as a force shield is erected. That was where Hound's unit was watching over Thunderwing. I figure it's serving as a hideout of last resort for them, particularly since the first page showed that Shane's aware of the "world in ruins, needing evacuation" aspect. Makes sense--who would think to search them out in such a hellish locale, or necessarily devote a lot of resources to it, considering being outside without a force dome is very bad for TFs' systems.

Ramjet's always been a bit of a cypher. "I like to hit things with my head" isn't exactly what I'd term "characterization". Turning him into Starscream-lite wasn't what I would have done, but the issue was amusing in any case.

Sunstreaker's ALWAYS been a vain, whiny narcissist. Dreamwave took the "sociopath" part from fanfiction. Not that I don't think it's a neat aspect to add to Sunstreaker, but IDW Sunstreaker is pretty much exactly how he's always been written prior to Mcdonough and Patyk's DW stuff.

The DW profile books were undoubtedly among DW's best output, but they aren't perfect, nor do they give the "definite" versions of every character.

"Sociopathic" is IN Sunstreaker's Marvel Universe profile, dude.

http://www.ntfa.net/universe/english/index...har=Sunstreaker

Well, okay. But it was never as ramped-up as Sunstreaker was portrayed in the DW G1 ongoing.

I've read plenty of fanfiction long before that portrayed Sunstreaker as he's written in DW. Beforehand, in the cartoon and comic, he was just some guy with a vain streak. ALthough I remember Furman's Earthforce stuff having him abandon some humans to death because he didn't want his paint scuffed...

Especially the whole "Sunstreaker sizing you up, thinking of different ways to kill you" look that is described in his MTMTE profile. I swear I've heard that line or something similar dozens of times before.

Of course, if Matt Noylan is to be believed, he was looking at others for a different reason...

Which is a pity. "Sociopath" is how Sunstreaker was originally characterized. However, he was really softened for the original cartoon, because, hey, it was the Eighties and it was a kids show.

Also, let's be serious here. Sunstreaker never really had that much focus to begin with. Even in the Marvel Comics, he was out of commission for most of the run. And one of the few times he was focused on, he diverted Decepticons towards a human city to preserve his own paint job. And that's not some post-modern interpretation of a naive storyline, it specifically showed humans getting injured while Sunstreaker was super proud of himself for "resolving" the "problem."

Sunstreaker was always a sociopath and an bunghole. His handful of lines in the original cartoon made him nothing more than Tracks Lite, but everywhere else he is consistently this portrayal you refer to as "fanfic."

Even in the cartoon, he once called humans "inferior lifeforms."