Out Wednesday March 25, 2009. 3 more to go!

Good for Mirage for not accepting Ironhide's apology. I sure wouldn't have either.

Why can't Perceptor help fix Prime? Just because he's a sharpshooter now, that somehow negated his scientific genius? Or did I miss something?

They're really trying hard to make Bumblebee a jerk, aren't they?

It's nice to see Soundwave caring for Rumble. Don't get why he would turn all the electronics back on again, unless he's the one collaborating with Starscream.

Yay, Prime's finally back on line! And with another "We Can Do It!" speech!

I really could not care less about any of the human characters. Kill them all.

i like how they made soundwave "human". he's clearly really upset about rumble. and i don't know if he turned all that stuff back on on purpose or if he accidentally did it out of grief. i think rumble will be back on his feet, though. he was featured in the preview image for #10. and speaking of that image, i think next month starts the major cracks in the decepticons

wasn't totally pleased with prime. one minute ratchet says he might not survive, the next he's 100% fine. also, everyone's fine now. everyone's fixed. what the crap? i know kup's team had extra energon on their ship, but i didn't think it was enough to fix everyone.

i, too, liked mirage's attitude towards ironhide. but sideswipe is pissing me off. i didn't like how he just abandoned his quest to save 'streaker at the end of revelations, and now he's totally beside himself because 'streaker sacrificed himself. i also think maybe perceptor either got reprogrammed or just doesn't care about the scientific stuff anymore. and drift was definitely a decepticon before joining the autobots. bumblebee made that point pretty clear

as for the humans, i could kind of care less. it's rumble's first appearance and already someone has a grudge against him?

I'd say that despite being a scientist, Perceptor isn't a Doctor. He might be able to Analyze wounds, but he's got little if any medical skill. Dunno if its true for IDW Perceptor; but that seems to been how G1 Perceptor was, as he wouldnt save prime in the Movie.

Perceptor helped fix Blaster in the latter's Spotlight, so he must have some expertise.

Anyhoo, weaksauce issue. Well, Prime's speech was pretty good, but being that he went from being near-death to 100% let's go I'm buying over the course of like 10 pages kinda stretched a bit of what credibility there is to be had...

He was also treating Beachcomber after Bombshells cerebral shell lobotomised him. Really all we've seen Perceptor be so far is a medic. In Spotlight Kup it wasn't obvious what he was up to, all we see is him operating the orbital bounce controls. He's the most likely bot to have been treating Kup afterwards too though. All the sciencey stuff has been handled by Jetfire and the Technobots up until now.

I sincerely hope AHM Coda gives an explanation of why Perceptor was unable to help Ratchet and Wheeljack in patching up Prime. Chances are that's where we'll get the explanation for how Prime got fixed up so quick...assuming there isn't a flashback next issue or something.

That said, I'm glad Prime's back on his feet and that everyone's gotten patched up. Might just help explain why they mobilized to where they did...though admittedly, a bit more explanation earlier of why they went there would've helped some.

Not a bad issue. I miss Guido, but the artists this time around weren't all that bad.

I will also note that it was clever to make Drift a person of suspicion and derision by some of the other Autobots. If everyone was constantly raving about how tough and badass and invaluable he was, I'd no doubt hate him. As it stands, I'm genuinely interested in learning more about him and his background.

After thinking about it, I figure the reason Perceptor's unavailable is because he got shot last issue. Ratchet's complaining that Kup turned Perceptor into a soldier, which put him on the front lines and in danger. I agree though that Ratchet's comment about wanting "the OLD Perceptor" does give the contrary impression that because of his role as a sniper, Perceptor's now unable to function as a medic. But I think it's just because he got wounded. (Which itself just makes you wonder why they made the explosives only go off by being shot instead of being remote triggered).

Can't really get into the humans at all since we haven't seen them since... what, issue 2? 3? Not as if they were well-developed at the time, either. But making the weapon based off Shockwave's cannon is a nice touch.

Art is alright. The Cybertron stuff (I'm assuming its Emiliano Santalucia) does a fairly decent job of miming Guido's work. Deas' pencils are alright, and I think would work good in a book by themselves, but they look a bit out of place next to the more detailed Santalucia (and Guido) stuff. The coloring also makes 'em look really flat (but at least it's easy to read, a problem past issues have had).

Overall, the biggest problem here is just the sloppy, lazy writing. It's not really clear what Soundwave did that suddenly fixed the radio blackout. The huge sound Soundwave makes starts before he walks over to Rumble... those scenes just didn't make much sense. And even worse is Prime's miraculous ressurection.

Page 9: "You're going to need to prepare yourself... Prime might not survive this."
Page 20: "Hey, sup guys."

In the space of 11 pages, Prime suddenly goes from near-dead to brand-new, off panel, with nary a hint or explanation behind his miraculous recovery? Sheesh. What's the point of dragging this too-short story out over 12 issues if supposedly major plot points are going to be resolved so cursorily?

I like Deas' artwork, but feel it was a VERY poor fit for AHM. I understand things change, but we were told AHM would be all Guido, a shame to see that changed by what.....5 different guest artists so far? And Guidi is pretty good with his deadlines normally too. A shame.

The issue was disjointed as usual. Nice to see Tom Cruise make an appearance. Oops, Spike, sorry.

The Prime thing was stupid, unless it turns out to be Mirage or Hound projecting.


Still, this series is pretty dreadful. Such great marketing, so little actual content.

One thing that bothered me the most about this issue was how quiet Rumble. Its commented that he is a 'Punk' and 'Mouthy' but barely utters a word the whole time he is attacking the humans. We had a couple of pages of him just chasing the bike and I would have liked to have seen him mouth off a bit more.

Good lord...Usually it's hard for me to find a fault with anything, but the artwork in the human portions of the comic is just bad. Like it came out of a coloring book or something.

Personally, I don't think that's really Optimus up and about. We don't see Kup, Ratchet, or Wheeljack anywhere around when he makes his return. I don't have the issue handy to check, but I don't recall seeing Hound anywhere in the scene, so I'm wondering if maybe Kup had Hound make up a hologram of Prime to try and boost their morale and keep them from giving up and/or killing each other...basicaly trying to prevent another Ironhide/Mirage incident.

Hound and Mirage are both seen as part of that group when it starts (before Sideswipe walks in and starts giving his speech).

I'd feel more like there's a possibility that the Prime is fake, except that we saw Prime in the preview for #10 talking to Ironhide. Not the sort of thing a fake would do... maybe...

Plus we've been told in a couple of interviews he'll be up and about again now. I'm not sure why people are surprised that Optimus Prime has magically gotten over a near death experience. This has been nothing but false drama since issue 1.

I find it's much easier to just replace any instance where he's ever referred to as dead or incapacitated with the phrase 'he's having a bit of a nap' myself. It all flows much better.

Nice issue, but I didn't like the art in the human parts of the comic. Really doesn't fit into the rest of AHM.

Aside from that I really liked the dialogue and the characterisation all round.

Good stuff.

Ugh, bad issue. The human scenes were absolutely atrocious... Shane McCarthy clearly decided to "inspire" himself for those scenes by watching movies like Independance Day a few times too many. His attempts at making Spike witty fell incredibly flat... And that Charles fellow pops up out of the blue... why? Shane clearly has no idea what to do with the humans... and it shows.
And why does Soundwave suddenly care so much for Rumble all of a sudden? The whole scene just reminded me of that Robot Chicken sketch.
Nothing, especially not in IDW's timeline, has indicated that Soundwave cared enough for those tapebots that he'd mourn their deaths in such a way. Hell, Soundwave never even used Rumble or Frenzy as tapes until AHM. They got "assigned to him" or something in one of the last issues of Megatron Origin and that was it until this series.
(and it doesn't help that the art for the Earth scenes was pretty awful)

The Cybertron scenes are a bit better but things are still off. Prime's supermagicrecovery... Sideswipe suddenly going from "Sunstreaker can go hug himself for all I care" at the end of Revelations to "OH NO MY BELOVED BROTHER IS DEAD WE ALL DESERVE TO DIE" here... Of course Drift is totally the voice of reason and he's totally got a troubled past too...

The only bit I liked was Mirage ditching his Autobrand and telling it to Ironhide like it is.

Can't really argue with the human parts being crappy, I personally consider the art to be the main offender, but the writing in those parts is a little sloppy and uninspired.

Also, I don't think that's actually Prime (as stated by Mat-man and others). I'm not sure whether it's one of Hound's holograms or whatever, but I think it's just something Ratchet/Kup/Wheeljack put together to desperately boost morale.

I think IDW's decision to show pages of AHM #10 all those months ago that featured Prime was a swerve on their part (and also to stir up talk concerning the whole traitor angle).

If the Prime is fake, the problem is that, like the traitor storyline, there's absolutely nothing to support even a hint. The traitor storyline failed because there was a not a single thing in the story itself to point to Sunstreaker until issue #8. (Hell, there wasn't anything that even pointed to Mirage either, other than Ironhide's Cliffjumper-like accusations, until the flashback in issue #7). Likewise here. All it needed was one panel (of say, Kup looking down, yet commited to what he needs to do) to place a hint there, but instead the only reason we're guessing Prime may not be real is because it's bad writing to have him come back in 11 pages off panel. There's nothing that would be shocking about it to the characters in the story (as we know), and there's no hint given to the reader, so it just falls flat on its face.

Kup saying they need Prime.

Ratchet saying that Kup should prepare for the worst eventuality.

The stoic faces of the commanding officer-Autobots flanking Optimus, no Ratchet in sight (still working on the real Optimus maybe?).

------

If it does turn out to be a fake Prime, it's true that there was no in-your-face hint to suggest that he was a fake before the reveal, but it's also true that there were subtle hints.

Again, it may turn out to be the real Prime.

I look forward to finding out for sure one way or another.

Thing is though, if all they need is to boost morale, they have Blaster right there.

Seriously, if you need a good rabble rousing speech, from someone who can inspire others and put on a confident upbeat face on things even if he doesn't share those sentiments, 'The Voice' would be the first bot you'd turn to. Especially in light of his recent nearly getting killed by decepticons and comming back from it stronger than ever in his Spotlight.

Gotta agree.

Prime may be able to do a rousing speech, but IDW Prime feels a tad worldweary to pull it off perfect.

Don't get me wrong, The Voice has been through hell too, but he manages to pull A1 quality propaganda speeches anyway.

Total Biscuit has a good point with the Blaster angle, although having Prime back would be the ultimate morale booster. Thing I don't get is that if Ratchet needed help from Perceptor to fix Prime, why would either he or Kup refuse this, especially with Kup blabbering on about needing Prime so dang bad. Can't Percy take a break from wielding the Gun of Doom and hugging well help? Unless he's not smart anymore, which would be another passel of crap writing to add to this.

I really have beef with this now, as Percy's a personal fav. I admit I squealed like a fangirl at the kickass redesign that Guido pulled and at his first appearance as a sniper - that actually made sense, given his optical abilities. Last issue started to push things over the edge though, what with the Wanted style gun grandstanding, but I still got a bit of a kick out of it. This issue really jumped the shark for me as far as Shane's depiction of Perceptor goes though. He's not the same character, he simply looks the same and bears the same name. There's no way his character would not assist Ratchet when needed, or permanently abandon science. And if it's an attempt at depicting how War Is Hell, Son and screws with people's heads, then he's taken it too far, and fanboyed the crap out of it with the silent sociopath sniper schtick.

I have to echo what was said earlier - the only real reason we have to suspect that this isn't the real Prime is that the alternative is terrible writing. Terrible writing that's actually quite the insult to fans, in that they expect us to buy the magic Prime revival, because hey, it's happened a zillion other times in canon, why not whip out that old chestnut.

You know I want to support Shane and was rooting for him in part because he's a fellow Aussie, and in part because I get tired of the fandom squealing like stuck pigs every time something new gets bandied around. But this issue has me losing faith almost altogether, with the exception of Mirage and Ratchet. So many bits make no sense either within the issue, compared to past issues or the larger IDW universe, especially characterization-wise (and I'm no Furman worshiper either). If Shane's planning some twist with this stuff, then he's doing a poor job of laying it out.

I'm going to have to rethink whether I'm going to bother buying the trades or not. I was looking to pick up the first one yesterday, but then I read this issue, and suspect it's only going to suck more before it's all over. I haven't spent dollar one on this series so far, and may not yet.

That would require this story being set in IDW continuity and not 1986.

I think Prime HAS to be a fake: otherwise that whole issue falls flat on its face.

'Prime may never recover. Woah he's fine. Dang, I shouldn't be doing this job drunk. Sorry everyone!'

Prime never really gets hurt, it's just that sometimes he has to sleep off a the effects of a heroism bender.

(Incase 'going out on a bender' doesn't translate for non Brits, it means getting very, very drunk, and has nothing to do with heroic homosexuals, whose effects are vastly different)

You know... I once posted on the IDW boards that I liked the fact that so far Transformers has managed to stay away from the whole concept of being a monster B-Movie with giant robots fighting each other while stepping on the humans busy running around and screaming and being useless while their planet got trashed.

...yeah.

And then while discussing some of the character changes after the first few issues of AHM and whether they were good or bad things...



(Original Post)

Yeah.

Of course, at this point, I'm hard-pressed to believe this is an actual story. Instead it reads more like a marketing experiment where McCarthy keeps throwing out different types of plot approaches and developments out there to see which ones the audience likes the best. "Hmm. They totally hated that, but liked this other thing, so let's switch to doing this other thing next issue." I'm at a loss for how else to explain the constant mood shuffling, or plot threads getting picked up, dropped, changed, and shuffled around instead of flowing from one to the other properly.

I don't like Perceptor: Man Of Action.

I always liked Perceptor: Man Of Science. That's what made Perceptor cool.
This "new and badass Perceptor" feels like he got a spark transplant with Sureshot or something.

I don't see why Sureshot couldn't have sufficed.

Seriously. Sureshot. His entire gimmick is that he's a badass sniper.
Why couldn't he be there instead of having Perceptor steal his personality.

Because:

He's too skillful for his chestplate

Perceptor stole his personality...

WITH SCIENCE!

Also, men of science can be actiony and make it work. Look at Walt Simonson doing Reed Richards. Heck, even Stan and Jack had him able to throw a punch that one shotted Blastarr. It's just if the SCIENCE! is ignored we got a problem.

Even before McCartney, IDW did that. Look at Arcee. "I'm female, RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!"

Yeah, I agree with Detour and Chiasaur.

The first time we saw Percy as a sniper it was kind cool, as the fact that his tech specs say he's got some sharpshooting capabilities tends to get ignored.

Having him *only* be a sniper, though... yeah, it pretty much removes what made him cool instead of just another TF. *points at her user title here with a little cough*

I'm not even going to get started on the rest (like the fact that the only humans I've liked so far in AHM are either dead or being tortured, and I usually like the human characters in TF unlike most TF fans...)

Sureshot isn't from the first two seasons or the movie, though.

Plus it's kinda weird to turn Wheeljack from a regular soldier into a scientist, and then turn Perceptor from a regular scientist into a soldier (albeit a specialised one)

Why bother?

Yeah, I have no problem with Perceptor being a sniper in addition to being a scientist. That's expanding the character in a realistic way. When we first saw it (and got the ensuing "that's scary"/"that's awesome" conversation), it was good. But completely replacing his scientist role with sniper? Stupid. The real Perceptor would've immediately pointed out the flaw in Kup's plan to have a sharpshooter set off the bridge demolitions with bullets.

Shane still doesn't know how to pace a story well. A good writer doesn't drop bombshells at the end of an issue and then ignores them for a few issues.

I wanted to find out more about the Starscream and his mystery guest as well as more of what Megatron's plans are.

Everything just seems so disjointed.

If Furman had been writing AHM instead, we would have been treated to a better juggling act.

Still only three issues left now. But at this point, most of us are just waiting for it to be over with so we can move on to the next thing than eagerly awaiting the climatic showdown between Optimus Prime and Megatron.

I can spoil it for you, based on the utter-crapfest this series has been so far... Prime kicks the sh#% out of Megatron while Stan Bush sings 'Touch' in the background. All the other Decepticons get real scared of the Autobots and flee Earth. The humans rejoice, and wonder how they ever got along without these wonderful transforming robots... well, the nice ones anyway.
Epilogue: But, the Autobots don't realize that a new menace has appeared... Unicron! A story told in a way it has only been told four times before! Fall 2009!

"A sweet, kind, and loyal Autobot to her friends, Arcee is also a merciless, lethal warrior to her enemies... But catch one of the Autobots, or worse, a Decepticon, making a disparaging remark about Hot Rod in Arcee's presence and the offender will more often than not find his hydraulic hoses sliced to ribbons before he knows it."

Arcee's original TFU character profile.

Vicious, cutty Arcee is completely random characterisation, pulled from the air... Yep.

Perceptor's characterisation reminds me why I dislike AHM, not only is it going against his previous appearance and role in the same continuity and it's also redundant as the Autobot sniper role would fit Mirage better as he's also a sharpshooter. I won't be surprised if his complete personality shift is explained as a war movie cliché, having a close friend die in his arms during the Decepticon onslaught, despite being a scientist and medic in a long running conflict and undoubtedly seeing the death of countless friends and allies... I mean, it's basically what he's done to poor Sideswipe, only in the other direction.

Written by Shane McCarthy.

Who retcons Galvatron and Cyclonus' origin to have always been created by Unicron.

Realistically...

I'm guessing:

[10]
-Autobots start to fight off the Swarm.
-Starscream + others and Insecticons attempt to overthrow Megatron.
-Spike and the other humans make their way towards Megatron, run into trouble, get helped out by that guy who supposedly got smushed by Astrotrain a while back.

[11]
-Autobots defeat/escape Swarm with help of the real revived Prime.
-Megatron overpowers Starscream and others who try to overthrow him, seemingly victorious.
-Spike shoots Megatron, critically wounding him, allowing Starscream or whatever to defeat him.
-Deus Ex Hunter is explained.

[12]?

----

I'm not convinced that the Cybertron stranded Autobots will return to Earth before the series ends. Other pockets of Autobot resistance (Dinobots, I don't know) will probably be involved.

Megatron No More!

Heh, you're right.

Forgot about that cover.

Given the Hutchinson covers so far, I would assume that #10 features the Megatron/Starscream showdown (and possibly something about the Matrix), #11 has the Autobots returning to Earth, and #12 will be a Megatron/Prime showdown.

Well, Wheeljack was the tech guy of the Ark 17 crew, wasn't he?

I mean, not his only skills or anything, but it was part of his work.

If I had my name attached to this loser for 12 issues... I wouldn't want to be Megatron anymore either.

Yes, he was. He was the one who rigged that connection port for the SM-40 in Infiltration.

Also created Gyro-Inhibtor shells, that were used against the Sunstreaker clones, at which point Hot Rod says he's constantly inventing bits of tech and new weapons.

Well, it'll be sixteen issues in total what with CODA being announced.

I know I shouldn't put faith into CODA saving the series for me but I'm going to look forward to it regardless until we find out what it does.

I think the series is finally starting to realize its potential, which is a good thing, but this issue still proves that McCarthy just can't keep that many balls in the air. Last issue we had Starscream scheming with the Insecticons, a mysterious figure he's also conspiring with, and the excellent reveal of Hunter O'Nion. This issue, that plot thread just stagnates, while the humans who were absent for several issues are picked back up. In both cases, the humans and Hunter, we just don't get the sense of urgency we need to care, because the pattern is that McCarthy always leaves at least one plot element to stagnate per issue.

This is entirely on par with the course for 2000s super-duper-doomsday crisis event comics, though...