Out Wednesday March 11, 2009.

traitor's revealed. not really a surprise as to who it is since the cover pretty much gave it away. but HIGHLIGHT to view:
i was surprised sunstreaker felt bad enough to blow himself up with the swarm

drift kinda got on my nerves. he comes in to save the day, but then they make it seem like everyone hates him? was he a decepticon before or does no one from prime's team hate him. but, how cool is perceptor? i like him as a sniper!

and that last panel definitely had me reeling a little. pretty obvious now that HIGHLIGHT to view:
sunstreaker's traitorous actions weren't really what got the autobots so screwed over.

and how dumb is reflector? "shall we put them back together again?" humans aren't like humpty dumpty, fellas

HAHAHAH! When Drift is not on-panel, all the other characters are asking "Where's Drift?". SERIOUSLY.

Reading through this issue a second time now.

I take the bit with Reflector to be more of the general sense of boredom that's settling over the 'Cons after defeating the 'Bots and taking Earth. Killing fleshies can only be fun for so long.

Looking at Hound's vehicle mode, it looks like Guido's using the Universe design for him. Not a bad thing - Hound needs some love.

And the traitor is revealed - HIGHLIGHT to view:
Sunstreaker - as well as why -HIGHLIGHT to view:
a hatred for humanity following his experiences with the Machination. It all went horribly wrong...but don't these things usually do?

And dagnabit, I'm liking Drift. And I am looking forward to his Spotlight.

Now, bring on the next issue!

it's not that i don't like drift, it's just that he's done nothing and now his background seems cloudy. did he and ironhide have some kind of feud? was he once a 'con? his spotlight can't come soon enough

One of the covers for his Spotlight issue has a half Autobot/half Decepticon symbol behind him, so I think you might be on the mark.

Gotta pick up this issue today, for sure! But I can say from what I've read here that it pleases me for a storyline that began in issue zero (The Machination) to still be having repercussions on the plot this far into the series.

Well, I'd been expecting Sunstreaker to be the traitor since we got the preview of issue 10, where he's noticably absent. I am really, really unhappy about it, and especially that we lost Sunhunter for it. The fact that it makes no sense at all doesn't help either.

I mean he hates Humanity and thus helps the Cons because of the Machination? The Machination that was just a front for Skorponoks new Decepticon empire? And even after having hunter for a head, a human who would have instantly transfered all the knowledge of the good mankinds capable of, and that he displayed, directly into Sunstreakers thoughts? And How did Hunter not warn the Autobots that Sunstreaker might betray them, when they'd be sharing a brain? Never mind the fact that Sunstreaker actually begged for death rather than let the Machination use him to harm his fellow Autobots.

I also hope they have got some other explanation for how the cons got ahold of the Autbot access codes and what have you, because we know Sunstreaker didn't even pay attention to new weapons his own counter infiltration unit was using before now, and he'd hardly have the rank or experience to be able to get access to that kind of data.

This entire damned reboot just pisses me off so much.

I figured they reverse engineered HIGHLIGHT to view:
Hunterstreak and got some of the codes like that unless Mirage is *also* the Decepticon one.

But yeah, Sunstreaker was completely out of character from his portrayal beforehand and even in Maximum Dinobots.

I'm also not liking Perceptor here. I prefer the nerd to the badass action hero. We already have Drift for that if anybody really wanted it in the first place.

We get some plot in this issue but it was too little too late. If this were the second or third issue of a six issue miniseries I think it would be getting slightly better reviews but AHM is being stretched out to fill/sell issues and not because the story needs or demands it.

All-in-all I'd give it a C-

This was the last issue I had ordered and nothing presented here makes me want to pick up #9.

Sunstreaker, I had vague notions of him being a traitor for that very reason, but like Blud said, you'd think his time stuck with Hunter would've tweaked his perspectives a bit. So a group of humans with nefarious plans working with Scorponok equates to the elimination of the entire human race? Kinda like seeing one bad apple ruining the entire barrel, rather than just removing the bad and/or infected apples.

Drift is starting to grow on me, just a little. *hold index and thumb millimeters apart* I like how he hesitated when Sunstreaker told him to take Ironhide, and how he responded to Ironhide's comment of "know all about it", that there's more to than just Sunstreaker being a factor in the Autobots' trip. Makes me look a little more forward to Drift's Spotlight.

The Swarm is definitely showing more than "BRAAAAAAINS" behavior. That scout taking out Perceptor (HE SHOULDN'T BE THAT SCARY), and then others targeting Sunstreaker and Ironhide? *shudders*

Starscream, while plotting, didn't seem to carry that arrogance we've known him for. Okay, he might be hiding it (CONSPIRACY! :3), but for me, he seems to have hints of his Armada incarnation (cartoon/anime incarnation, not DW's). Just a hint. Either that, or it's just me who is getting that feeling.

Overall, not entirely a good one, but not too bad either. B- to C+ range from me.

I realised something.

We now know why Jazz knew Mirage wasn't the traitor. AND why Prime didn't attack.

Mirage likely was spying on this little discussion. Prime knew who the traitor was. But he didn't know that the traitor would be doublecrossed. Odds are they had their attack BECAUSE in the end, getting rid of Megatron was a greater good than losing Earth. After all, without Megs to unify them the Decepticons would break into factions and be easy pickings.

Who was Starscream talking to in the Stronghold I wonder?? Was it Bombshell?? And if this takes place after Max Dinos what happened to Scorponok and Shockwave??

I think thats something the "clean up" issue will cover if it isn't covered in the rest of the story.

I wonder if Ironhide is man enough to apologise to Mirage. And I hope Mirage tells him to go to hell.

Drift is growing on me as well. So far, at least, he's demonstrated impressive skills, but hasn't come off as an arrogant jerk or an unstoppable badass who always saves the day.

Could it be Shockwave who was speaking to Starscream?

Just like Poochy on the Simpsons....I hope Drift shares the same fate

I will also note that I like how Kup's been portrayed: firm, focused, fair, and down-to-earth. Old as he is, he's definitely one of the best Autobot commanders we've seen.

Yep, I like that he's very terse and to-the-point. Comes in, says his piece, leaves. Fits with how he's a very in/out, minimal motion guy in his actions, too. I did like how he paused for a split-second to consider when Sunstreaker told him to take Ironhide and light out, and then did his job.

I also like that he seems to be actively disliked by some members of Prowl's/Jazz's/Prime's unit. At the least, he's no greeted with adulation. At the possibilty of Drift's having been blown up on the bridge, Bumblebee replied, "Does it matter?," for which Kup told him to can it. (IDW Bee has always been a bit pragmatic; he considered the humans ultimately to be, in a worst-case, expendable, in Infiltration, when they were down in the 'Con base.) Ironhide was downright hostile throughout their talk, too.

Wonder if he's an ex-Con? One of the preview covers for his Spotlight shows off a mixed Bot/Con logo behind him.

Sunstreaker...wow! He's always shown the fleshies a good amount of disdain, hasn't he? He's barely been able to tolerate humans, ever since he shut off Verity and co. in an early Infiltration issue. When he had to have humans ride with him, his tone was full of invectives and sarcasm. In Max Dinos, he can't wait to be rid of Hunter, "no offense," of course. It seems as if he was looking at the war very pragmatically; so they're driven off a planet he can't wait to be rid of, where most of his interactions with humans that we know about have either involved people he can't stand or who've joined with Scorponok in outright tormenting him. In exchange, they help Starscream to take Megatron out of the picture. Makes it interesting to me that even HE didn't know how the ambush would play out, i.e. that Megatron or Devastator would be there, or that they would be slaughtered. Starscream was playing him as well. Guess he thought they would take their lumps, but end up being exiled instead of fed to the Swarm. If a people/planet he'd never liked and come to hate through his being beheaded and used to attack other Autobots paid the price for achieving a sort of peace, it was worth it to him.

Even still, it seems as if has a lot of anguish he's working through over what he did. Heck, the guilt is making him want to commit suicide. Probably that's more related to what happened to the Autobots thanks in part to him, though, than people being offed.

Should be noted that although he was worried about the clones of himself being turned on other Autobots, and he says he did what he did to end the war, even with his fellow Autobots, he's not exactly a saint. For instance, he's more worried when he sees Mirage savagely beaten that they'll be caught than the fact that an innocent 'bot is being clobbered for HIS crime. Shows that his compassion for his fellow 'bot only goes so far. Others disliked him, too, if Hot Rod's comments about him in Dev were any indication.

I'll miss him if he's dead; he's a fairly complex guy who's been working through a lot.

Never would have thought that Sunstreaker would end up being a pivotal figure throughout IDW's comics.

Now I'm wondering something else; why is it that Jazz was so SURE that Mirage wasn't the traitor?

i bet screamer was talking to either grimlock and the dinobots or scorponok, if either are still on earth at the end of max dinobots

I kinda suspect neither is on Earth...

The Dinobots will have a way off via the repaired Skyfire.

And Scorponok ALWAYS has a backdoor, as we have seen.

on second thought, i'm totally wrong about who screamer was talking to. i was looking over the issue last night and the bot in question definitely has a wing. kind of reminded me of astrotrain or maybe blitzwing or possibly a seeker

Well since typically Sunstreaker is considered a Sociopath with a narcissistic/superiority complex. Is anyone really surprised he wouldn't want to hug over the humans for what was done to him. i hope his survived though, give him some more solo time and see where it takes him

for once, i think he should stay dead. it'd make for a much more fitting end to his character to die giving the autobots a big time break after betraying them so horribly

All Hunter has to do is get to a Clonestreaker and BOOM! Sunstreaker's back.

This.

with the shape hunter is in (no right arm, wires going into the back of his head and into his right eye), i don't know if he'd even survive being unplugged. he'd probably be like darth vader, more machine than man, so why not become a new bot instead of going back to being the guy who wanted your entire species destroyed?

I liked this issue a lot, and Sunstreaker is definitely the best Autobot through out IDW's different series. I hope he's not dead as I'd like to see him again. Hot Rod & Sideswipe are up there for favorites too.

I never had a problem with Drift, but he is starting to get some character now. I'm glad to see Starscream is up to something after all that he did through out the first 3 mini-series.

Randy

HAHAHAHA!!!! I just want you to know I laughed so hard when I saw this. You made my day!!

To redeem Sunstreaker's name.

Or good old revenge, either or.

Plus, for all we know, Hunter could still have some of Sunstreaker in him. Call me crazy, but this might just lead into an homage of the Hi-Q/Optimus Prime thing from the old Marvel run.

Maybe Starscream was talking with Thundercracker? he's been shown so far in this series to be quite disgruntled with the way Megatron has done things.


SP

Redeem his too really. I mean they were the same being while the events that lead to this took place. If Sunstreaker was feeling a genocidal contempt for mankind at any point before they were separated, Hunter would have too, and he'd have known exactly what Streaker was capable of. If nothing else, the guilt of not doing enough to prevent his other half from doing what he did would likely drive him to make amends

Great issue.

Incredible art and colouring.

The Reflector gag was amusing.

The Autobot escape scene featured a dichotemy of Autobots in vehicle and robot mode working together in combat that is very rarely ever seen in Transformers, which I thought was very cool. Gave the scene a sense of urgency and helped establish how much of a credible threat the swarm actually is.

Characterisation and dialogue of the Autobots and Decepticons was again good (Blurr, Cliffjumper, Bombshell, Starscream, etc), but I think the issue really shone when it came to Ironhide, Kup, Sunstreaker and Drift.

-You can tell Sunstreaker is one messed up puppy, with demons running around his head and that. Being captured by someone, mutilated, and then having to feel/watch human-piloted robots created in your form being used for abhorable tasks (including attacks on your brothers in arms) and THEN having to bond with a member of that species just to survive might fly anyone over the cuckoos nest. His sacrifice was quite poignant (I look forward to seeing where the story's going to go with Hunter).
-The way Ironhide was clearly hurt and felt betrayed as opposed to being aggressively angry when Sunstreaker admitted he was the traitor was quite touching (especially considering Ironhide's punch-happy antics in AHM).
-Kup is becoming one of my favourite Autobot leaders in a story ever. Serious and stern when he has to be, but also "one of the boys" when it's appropiate.
-Drift was fleshed out a lil more in this issue, and I admit it's good to see he doesn't talk like an offensive Japanese stereotype, but is instead quite concise and to the point as Ataru said. In and out, as it were. His interaction with Jazz and Ironhide (Bumblebee's "Does it matter?" was particulary telling) suggests that he's got an interesting history to him, something that'll probably be explored in his Spotlight, in the same way that Blurr's confidence and selflessness is presented in his respective Spotlight. OLOL, POOCHIE!1

I suspect there will be a greater emphasis on the humans in the next issue, which is something that I've been looking forward to..

I'm hoping Spike finds and rescues Hunter.

Although I gotta say - I hope the Witwicky/Rumble arrangement goes the same way as the one in Marvel US (where Buster snuck by Rumble, as he was too small for Rumble to notice)

I think it was a bit extreme of Sunstreaker to demand the genocide of Earth's entire human population. But then again, for a narcissistic psychopath, I guess it wasn't that extreme.

Not much to say about this story, except wondering why I'm the only one who thinks Starscream is talking to Bombshell.

Also wondering if Bombshell's tampering with Hunter had any effect on 1) Sunstreaker's actions (are they still bonded?) and 2) the Autobot defeat (did he get the access codes from Hunter's brain?)

Hunter is like the Waspinator of the comic universe. All he gets is abuse, first from Verity, now from various Decepticons (punctuated by a crushing rejection from Sunstreaker).

I forgot, was it ever established what happened to Verity and Jimmy? Are they still dead?

Sunstreaker did pretty much what I expected a Sunstreaker to do. That's basically how he rolls. It worked for me.

i believe ratchet was able to stabilize them, but we haven't seen or heard from them since

And then there's the irony that something similar is happening to Hunter as it did to Sunstreaker. And I agree. Maybe there's some sort of control over Sunstreaker by possessing Hunter. Either that, or maybe Bombshell is trying to reverse engineer what Skorponok did, and make his own headmaster army.

I'm torn on this. I thought Sunstreaker had become one of, if not the most interesting character in the IDW-verse.

I think the character had a lot more ground to cover, so to speak, and it's a shame IMO to see him destroyed prematurely like this. I think the Hunstreaker thing could have been given more time, before leading to this.

But I guess he's easy to bring back, if needed.

And is Sideswipe involved? On that first bridge shot of 'Streaker, we see a figure at the opposite end of the bridge, whose silhouette matches Sideswipe perfectly. We don't see that again.


I am interested to see how Hunter got in the hands of the Decepticons. Did Ratchet not finish his recovery? I would have thought that would have remained a priority for Ratchet. And again, what about the other two humans?

I'm also curious about the whole thing. The Sunstreaker thing does rely a bit on past continuity. I wonder if he really was Shane's first choice, or if plans changed at some stage?

That's Ironhide, who is reacting to Sunstreaker's bridge-standing, just before Ironhide transforms and drives up and engages him.

I'm pretty sure Hunter wasn't introduced earlier in the mini, which makes the cliffhanger a bit confusing for anyone who has used the series as a hopping on point. I'm also a bit uncomfortable at the degree of /nastyness/ in the last page, less on an 'oh the Decepticons are evil' but more 'that's a bit far'.

I'm also really unsure what Sunstreaker thought his plan /was/

All in all though a much, much better issue than the rest, but really this should have been issue 3 at the most.

so appearing once or twice later as a brief cameo?



Probably a good thing actually in terms of believability - no way would they recover quickly from that. but a brief mention on their status would be nice.



Agreed. Say what you want about Furman but he knows how to make a story progress. I am starting to think that Shane may not be completely to blame for the tediously slow pace throughout AHM - I'm now thinking he was forced by IDW to expand a relative regular sized story into twelve stories just to sell comics. Thats how its reading like now.

No, if I recall correctly he said it was pitched as a 12-issue series.

And I was annoyed by Springers oh-so-convenient 'Oh I can't fly right now.'

Like the Autobots being in constant pain, never mentioned, never hinted at til conveniently needed.

Knowing that Springer was damaged like that would have made the crash seem a bit bigger. As it is, no-one died from it, it was a mild inconvenience.

well even so, its clearly stretched out to be longer than is necessary to tell the story in.

and yet they still drop bombshells which don't get picked up on for several issues later. Spike? Dan Witwicky? The Pedophiles plot to blow up New York? The airforce guys from the first issue? Don't introduce human sub-plots if they're not going to be taken anywhere. And now they introduce the Hunter sub-plot... and four issues remaining to get everything wrapped up in.

I bet they're kicking themselves on wasting pages showing Astrotrain destroy the subway tunnels TWICE in the early issues now!

No, what it's reading like is "Oh crap, people want answers? Uh well... I better start making jive up to pacify them!" Seeing as all the plot is suddenly getting crammed in at once. Streached, it would seem like there would be a bit more of it spread out though the issues with alot of filler, which here, the first 6 issues are about 95% filler as Shane tries to break away from everything that came before.

okay. i wonder what AHM would have been like if nobody kicked up a fuss about Shane's writing and the direction he was taking the story in if he didn't have to bow to pressure.

I've been wondering that too, especially with this issue.

Sunstreaker and his reasoning just doesn't strike me as fitting with the overall story and it's repeated goals during interviews etc.

the hell u on about, i'm sure it was mentioned early on about the gravity of the attack and his injuries. go back and read

You know now don't you?

I suspect that if Springer hadn't piped up many would have been quick to say "Why didn't Springer just pick them off from the air?", and they would've criticised McCarthy for having neglected to look at that alternative.

I prefer the information was relayed to the reader this way, subtly and in the context of a scene rather than Springer saying "Oh noes Kup, I can't fly cos of the crash, guess I'll have to drive with the rest of you ground hogs lol!"

Okay, I've got no problem admitting when I'm wrong, but which issue was this?