Out Wednesday April 8, 2009.

You know the drill, kids.

brace for impact...

I shall withhold judgement untill I glance thru it at the comic shop without buying it.

Oh noes!

Read it at the shop. Not terrible, but not really good either. It was the typical "Hey! who is this mystrious dude? OH NOEZ he used to be evil, but saw the error of his ways. Now its his mission to do good!" Bleh.. Tell me when I can get my next issue of Max Dinos please.

Nothing spectacular here, but a decent issue, I thought. It explains what pretty much everyone had already deduced about Drift. And again, the writers are doing a good job of not making him come off like a jerk.

strange. it didn't really feel like a typical spotlight. interesting stuff about a 3rd faction, though. wonder who exactly is part of it. wish there had been even a brief flashback to drift finding them. nice to get a little background about kup, perrceptor, and the team kup's leading now. but what did they end up doing with the rest of the wreckers? i also found drift's view on the sides in the war intriguing. wasn't the greatest issue, but it at least provided some answers to lingering things from ahm

Weak. Really weak. And I wasn't even predisposed to hate it, I wanted to see the Wreckers again. Just not as helpless maidens waiting to be rescued by Dorifto-sama. And good thing Decepticons build deep shafts behind all their walls, otherwise no one could have a conversation...

I didn't mind it. I wouldn't say that it was spectacular, but it was definitely better than I was anticipating. It at least didn't feel like a waste of $4 like some of the other recent IDW Transformers comics (Alliance, AHM and Maximum Dinobots I'm looking at you).

Wow, wouldn't it have been way, way better to actually do Drift's origin story instead of Kup magically piecing it together out of thin air because he recognized a sword?

Oh and the Decepticon commander, Torment or whatever...could anyone...SEE him? His color scheme did not go well with the environment...

I am genuinely amazed that the story did NOT end with Drift having to draw the super-awesome sword he will only ever draw in the most dire of circumstances.

Truly appalling colours on this, though. Could hardly see a hugging thing. This is Dreamwave-level murk.

Didn't realize this came out today, whoopsie.

turmoil

Well...no idea if this will silence any of Drift's detractors, but this definitely improves my opinion of him. And this definitely explains why he's running around with Kup and company in AHM...and probably helps explain why Perceptor's suddenly 'scary'.

So yeah, I like Drift muchly now that we have a better idea of who he is and where he comes from. Here's hoping we find out more about that third faction that he met.

on some pages the colouring was just hugging amazing. the flesh tone rendering was to die for.
After reading, i knew more about Kup, Pereceptor and the status of the Wreckers.

Drift not so much, i mean yeah some verbal backstory. But im just not getting a sense of him. I see potential, but no emotional growth atm

Haven't read it yet, but I am somewhat disappointed at hearing that instead of just telling a good solid story about Drift, it goes out of his way to make him extra special.

"Okay, so Drift used to be a Decepticon."

"Oh, well that's not so bad. So he had a crisis of conscience and defected?"

"Well... kind of. But he was also recruited by a mysteeeerious third faction."

"...huh."

"And... trained in martial arts by them."

"...huh."

"And he also got a body upgrade from them using some sort of forgotten Cybertronian science that hasn't been seen in centuries."

"Man, hug this."

Gone are the days of taking an obscure, weak character and making them cool through good writing...

its another good "tie-up" issue... we find out Kup's post spotlight. we know why Perceptor's gone battlehard ...its all gravy

but yes.. not a whole lot of characterization for Drift...

I use to be a decepticon -known
I feel bad about it -guessed
I'd like to kill for you guys now -seen it already

I don't think it's so much "I'd like to kill for you guys now" as "I'd like to help you win the war because I'm sick of killing and you're closer to what I'd like our race to be."

Still, I'm inclined to like him, so take my opinions as you will.

I can't even muster up enough caring for Drift as I'm too annoyed at Perceptor. Call me biased (because I am), but... way to take a unique character, get rid of the one thing that defined the character, and turn him into fulfilling a role that lots of other characters could be adapted for much better. And for what, exactly?

And here I initially thought that McCarthy might have made a change to a character that was actually cool and didn't feel contradictory. Sigh.

At least when Nightbeat finally got mind-altered, it was one, real creepy, and two, he didn't have to live like that. (Well, and three, foreshadowed anyway.)

Word McFreakin' Word. I posted craploads on IDW about this, and while it makes for a tragic angle for Perceptor, once you're past that, it's all 'Now what?' Now we know that Perceptor isn't able to help Ratchet because he ain't smart no more because hey, he done had half his brains blown out. Too bad, so sad. Oh but wait, he can sure point a gun real nice! Oo-er, that'll hold my attention for more than one issue. Only not really, as Shane has essentially killed the character and left an auto-targeting system on legs in his place.

This is not Perceptor. It's Zombie!Perceptor.

In conclusion: Why does Shane hate Science?

I think there are quite a few interesting stories that can be told on that concept alone. That's not the dead end you say it is.

The only way it could prove interesting is if they slowly work him back towards some semblance of himself. Automaton characters don't do it for me. That's not what I read Transformers for.

More like... why does Shane hate Transformers?

I don't think I'd go that far. I think Shane loves Transformers, but he hasn't quite honed the sense of the difference between "what I think would be cool" and "what would be a good story."

I didn't find anything wrong with the issue itself. Only the character description on the inside front cover offended me. Man, that description. It needs purging from my brain.

Really? Not even the mysterious pit behind a wall in a spaceship that's good for removing exactly two and only two characters from the action? Or Commander "I'm part of the wall" Turmoil's color scheme?

So... Drift is really a pacifist turncoat? Who was named Deadlock? He sounds like some odd mix between Animated Prowl, G1 Beachcomber, Animated Ratchet, BW Dinobot, and Lockdown. Weird, but now I have a little bit more of a foundation in my respect for him. Pacifists are always cooler in mye eyes, even if they're forced to fight. It kinda flies in the face of his seemingly arrogant attitude in his debut ("Hello, Swarm. MY buddy Perceptor's gonna kill you.") And Kup's final line of the comic is almost like they made it because of the fan reaction to Drift. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

Note: I haven't read the comic, because, unfortunately, there are no comic shops where I live. So I'll have to wait for the TPB...

Didn't love it but I didn't hate it either, it was just there. Glad to at least find out how Kup got his new body, and how Perceptor became what he is in AHM, but other than that nothing of real interest for me happened in this issue.

Yes, I do think he suffers from this quite a bit. Many issues of AHM tend to resemble a bunch of TOTALLY KICKASS moments linked together by not much at all. I think he can write just fine, but is best suited to a mini-series or one-shots, because the maxi layout just magnifies his flaws.



Yes, that was quite the terrible description. I think I actually rolled my eyes while reading it.



Turmoil's color scheme didn't bother me, but that whole 'falling through a wall into a hole' is confusing the crap out of me. Is it just that my brain isn't interpreting the scene correctly or is it just drawn badly? Of course the 'falling into a pit' thing was probably Shane's idea, but it wasn't executed well art-wise either. And the whole little bit before it where Drift is charging forward all ready to save the day and then runs away behind Kup et al is just weird.

I have the issue now, and just read the intro page.

God that's the most stereotypically fan-characterish description I've ever seen.

Well.... I thought the 20ft. tall green alien lady in the beggining was pretty hot.

I enjoyed it. thought it was a decent story. I kinda think most folks are a shade too citical of Shane's stories. Too quick to jump to conclusions. Give this storyline a chance to resolve and THEN pass judgement on it.

SP

It was okay. Actually, I'd say it was good. Better than Jazz's spotlight by far, since it actually, you know, MATTERED in terms of the overall story. I feel bad for perceptor though. Hopefully he'll regrow his brain. (maybe he'll get a new one from Grimlock?)

I imagine being an individual with a genius level intellect, and then being reduced to just another gunslinger (albeit an extremely accurate one) must be a tad frustrating for that individual no?

I definately see the potential.

Anyway...

Good issue, I liked how it nicely explained Kup and Perceptor in AHM (knowing how Drift saved Perceptor now makes that scene where Percy snipes a swarm over Drift's shoulder even cooler). I wonder what happened to the rest of the Wreckers between this issue and AHM. It was nice to see them finally doing that reflected their commando-team nature though (hadn't seen that since...well, Target:2006).

And yes, the character introduction at the very beginning was very cheesy, but alot of them tend to be. It was a good story, with nice characters (who like in Spotlight Blurr, sounded like different characters) and I also greatly enjoyed Coller's work here who I feel did a good job of instilling Drift's character through his art (he also draws good humanoids). He's going to be one to watch I think.

The colouring in the first section was beautiful, not so good towards the end, but still very nice to look.

I wonder if that "2nd chance" line at the end was meant for the fanatical Drift-haters

My only gripe is that Turmoil seems to have graduated from the same "Generic big Onslaught-resembling badguy" school as Grindcore, his cannon arm was cool though.

Soooo, he becomes an angry psycho gunslinger? Dude, you need to tell me what you're seeing in this, because it's either too late or I'm too cranky to see what you evidently do.

Well... I can see a potential angle in it... a "Flowers For Algernon" sort of story where you remember being brilliant, even though you're currently not. Having always been a "brainy" sort of person, I can imagine how I'd feel if I was suddenly reduced to sub-normal INT (provided I was aware this happened).

That... just doesn't strike me as fitting in with the Transformers vibe somehow, though. Plus I'd also rather see a straight-up take on how the scientific minds handle their roles in a never-ending war. AFAIK we've never really had a canon story that deals with that sort of thing. (Aside from maybe Stormbringer, but even there the science-y bit was more just a setup for Planet-Smashing Thunderwing than its own storyline.)

First part of what she said Dinogrrl.

I thought the reason Perceptor couldn't help Ratchet was because he got shot in AHM.

I did too, but given what we've seen here, I am starting to wonder if the idea is that Perceptor's been re-wired. Sigh.

This issue was actually pretty good, IMO. Did a nice job of explaining where the other Wreckers went, and how Kup ended up with the new crew (though it does leave open the question, where did the rest end up?). I liked the setting at the start ... always nice to see the Transformers as one part of a larger universe with lots of races. On the bad side is Drift himself. His character background just screams terrible 13-year-old fan character... used to be evil but now he's good, uses swords, carries some magical sword on his back he only uses in dire circumstances, upgraded with ancient arcane technology yet he's as powerful as anyone else, and he's a ninja... etc etc. But given that, it's handled in the best way possible... the other characters don't harp on it too much, and it doesn't center the story around it.

I liked the other Decepticons' designs, even if Turmoil blended in with the background a bit too much.

Nyegh. I really, really hate this frequently used McCarthy style of dialogue:

Alien 1: "Keep your voice down!"
Alien 2: "But - you hate them as much as anyone. Why - "
Drift: "Decepticons."
Alien 1: "Decepticons?"
Alien 2: "The cruiser is a Decepticon vessel."

Why can't people talk in complete sentences that mean something??

The entire alien intro didn't serve much purpose for the story, plot-wise or thematically. It just gave Drift a chance to be mysterrrrrrrrrrrrious.

The battle pacing was surreal. Drift just kinda shows up and nobody really cares much ("Oh... there's a guy over there. Who could it be? Oh well.") Drift runs forward, does nothing, runs backward. Kup and Drift somehow fall into a pit via a hole in the wall.

When was Perceptor's head damaged? The blast went through his chest.

Well, sure, the Algernon thing is great for maybe a Spotlight: Dumbceptor, but honestly, how far can you go with that before it's played out? It would also take some subtlety of writing to do it well, which I'm not seeing out of Shane right now. I'm just trying to see how to work the new character, which is essentially what he is now, into the new regular series, when he doesn't do much but shoot things. *shrug*

And I agree on your second point - and this happens because I think the typical Transformers writer and perhaps even fan would consider this sort of storyline boring, such that I'd be floored if one ever actually emerged.

Well, at least we still have Jetfire, wherever the hell he is right now.

In the third panel on page 14, we see one of Turmoil's cons kick him over and fire at point blank range into his right eye. And when Drift's being Hero Man by rescuing him and they're falling backward out of the ship, you can see that most of the right side of Percy's head is missing.

Edited to add: Well, it's page 14 in my scan, dunno what that is in the book, I can't be arsed to go into the next room to pick it out of the 'ditch' pile. Anyway, it's the third panel down on the page where he gets gutted by Turmoil's blast.

It also explains the weird 'Drift runs forward, then back' bit, such that he's supposed to be running forward to save Percy, but Turmoil blocks his way, so he runs back like a pussy and then falls down the rabbit hole. Or something. God that was awkwardly scripted and poor Casey didn't really seem to know what to do with it.

Those two words sum up this issue very nicely.

Yeah. More's the pity, as I've seen it handled interestingly in some fanfics and Mosaics, so I'd like to see a pro take on it. It would help give TF that much more of a serious scifi treatment, too. (Although Furman *had* been doing a decent job working towards that angle... le sigh.)

Indeed, and although I like Furman, I also think he's not quite up to the level of sophistication I'm wanting out of comics today. He can write a rollicking good yarn, but is a little too trapped in his own style to branch out.

As I noted over at IDW's forums, the AHM storyline would have been considered great stuff back in the late 80's/early 90's of the comic, and at that age I wouldn't have noticed nor cared about the inconsistencies. But today's comic audience is not only older on average, even the younger readers are wanting more complex material than what you would have read. Transformers seems to get stuck in a rut of mediocre stock standard Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots-style stories, with no deeper substance.

There've been some attempts at deep and meaningful in AHM, but they're surface gloss with nothing underneath, as it's all ultimately aimed at a huge-ass smackdown where you're meant to go 'ooooo ahhhhhh' and worry about who dies, rather than there being something meaty to the storyline and character development. I honestly don't give a rats who he kills off in the next two issues, hell, he can even kill Perceptor now for all I care. There's no suspense, we can see it coming from miles away.

The Infiltration series started off so well too, but it kinda wobbled off the rails with Revelation and AHM totally jumped the shark from interesting new direction to tired mediocre mishmash.

God I hope the new series will be a step up.

Further than Furman was going with "I sound like everyone else, anyway watch out Blaster there is someone out to get you! Also... I sound and act like everyone else".

McCarthy used a subtle approach to storytelling in Spotlight: Blurr, as opposed to Blurr standing around, narrating for 10 pages about how he's conflicted about his purpose in life. So I'm sure he would be able to effectively utilise a plot-line he's introducing through Perceptor.

I think this is just one of those things we're not going to see eye to eye on really.

I personally enjoy things that rock the status quo established by whatever came 25 years ago.

---

Ultra Magnus being a peacekeeper? hugging awesome.
"Shockwave did it!" Not awesome.
New Pretender origins? hugging awesome.
Kup being a headcase, and then becoming the best characterised Autobot leader since Blaster in the original Marvel run? hugging A.

---

My point is sometimes change is good, and it's worth giving it a chance to pan out before condemning it as dung.

I'm really sick of people saying Furmans characters all sounded the same, when alot of the time what people mean is they don't use the voice quirks they did in the old cartoon to help distinguich which character was which since there wasn't enough time to flesh them all out properly.

Frankly the way furman writes them is pretty standard for most fiction I've read, particularly in superhero comics, where more often than not a charaters dialogue could be said by pretty much any other character and not seem odd. Like with Furmans Transformers, it's when the character says what they do, and how they react that to things that makes them more individuals.

I'd even argue that McCarthy does a worse job of making them individuals, with alot of his characters acting in very similar manners, more often than not by being utter jerks. Kup and Colonel Witwicky use the same right wing macho prat characterisation for example. Yes, he makes them say meaningless lines to fit in with their opld techspecs alot, but other than that they don't feel like individuals very often, they're all very aggressive and humourless, and the odd bit of lightheartedness is something transformers needs, and has always had.

Even when Kup was insanely killing poeple, he was still more endearing and likeable than he is now. Blaster was a great mix of his cartoons over the top DJ and the comics brooding badass, and everything he did in his spotlight reflected that, he used deception, acting and his voice to win a fight, and inspired Beachcomber to win his own internal struggle. That was actually using the character to drive a story, not having all the Autobots suddenly all chummy and upbeat again because Optimus Prime isn't asleep, whereas before they were a step away from killing one another.

If you honestly think Kup sucking on a pacifier all day and being an arsehole to everyone is a sign of being a good leader than I'm hardly surprised your lapping up this poorly written crap so readily. Personally I'm just shaking my head about how stupid all his plans have been, and how he's no longer likeable.

Well it appears we have different opinions in what makes a character entertaining and enjoyable to read (Kup is basically Nick Fury here, which is pretty awesome IMO...for the record I said best characterised Autobot leader, not best leader per se ), as for it being poorly written crap, again, thats your opinion (most comic reviews have been very favourable in regards to AHM, but that's by the by).

In regards to Furman's characters all sounding the same, I am not referring to the fact that they don't all have the individual voice quirks and accents from the cartoon. Yes, James McDonough and Adam Patyk (oh I wish IDW would pick them up) heavily referenced them in his writing, but they also did an amazing job of distinguishing between each character by expressing what each given character would most probably say in a given situation based on their personality (I'd say that was their greatest strength as writers).

---
[e.g. War and Peace, issue 3, Jazz, Windcharger and Brawn are scaling a snowy mountainside searching for Scourge]

Jazz- "Any sign of Count Decepticon down there?"
Windcharger-"Nothing---but more slaggin' ice and snow!
Brawn-"Ha! Seems like ol' Windcharger ain't cut out for this sort of off-road exploration."
---

It's the expostion approach to writing characters that Furman utilises which makes them generally all sound the same, their personalities are defined by what happens to them in a story, rather than the individual way they respond or express their opinion of that given event. Fact is AHM is packed full of moments like Roadbuster practically humping the modfiied cannon Wheeljack's set-up, as opposed to having a page full of Nightbeat talking about why he's going to such and such planet. As a result of this, the pace of the story in AHM isn't as a fast as it would've been if it had been written by Furman, but it has instead concentrated on fleshing out characters (for example, Thundercracker, who's been there since day 1, and who now for the first time ever has a hugging personality).

I understand if alot of people don't like that approach to storytelling in Transformers after being used to Furman's style for so long, I think that's perfectly understandable. Personally I prefer this fresh approach.



1- The McCarthy style of writing (i.e. Bendis talk, see my post above).
2-Alien intro gave us, the reader, a greater insight into the way Transformers fit into the rest of the universe in which they exist (and how they are hated for being at war all the time and colonising worlds).
3-Drift ran whilst under covering fire to try and recover Perceptor (who had been earlier shot in the head while prone and on the ground by a random generic decepticon), Turmoil turned up and started blasting so he ran back behind the Wreckers. He and Kup fall down hole in floor created by Turmoil's blasts.
4-Percy was shot in the head whilst lying on the ground.

Hey isn't it pretty awesome how Kup is a total ripoff of another character instead of being unique!
Man I can't wait until Bluestreak starts totally being Wally West Flash and Bludgeon totally turns into Silver Samurai and Cyclonus becomes Spawn!!!!