http://www.trans-bot.com/?p=714

The secondary cover itself is much more interesting than the preview page.

Those covers and the Devastator splash page are beautiful.

i love megatron's last two lines of the preview

Omega vs. Devistator in a smashy smashy contest. I can't wait

That is some really pretty art.

Shame about the plot though.

I think it's now abundantly clear that McCarthy either really didn't read the fiction prior to this, or just didn't actually remember any of it.

I mean it's not just me right? Megatrons goal is to turn the Decepticons into what Furman has already been writing them as since Infiltration? Megatron did say infighting and petty ambition was something he'd considered them to have moved past, and they were using carefully planned, calm and measured phase systems to conduct subtle, secret takeovers, rather than running around like psychos? And the Cons did previously mutiny against Megs when he stopped following said planning and calmness? Where the hell is this entire 'You’re all monsters' thing coming from?

Never mind the fact that it's the new guys that are rebelling here, not the army he's saying is fundamentally flawed by his own designs? I mean the Insecticons were only just created to be the new ideal for the Decepticons, and they're the ones trying to kill him.

And how convoluted and insane is his plan here anyway? So he stops controlling the Humans with Facsimiles, stops using the Phase system, attacks a few cities, them leaves the Cons without any real direction or leadership, so they'll get pissed off at him for his lack of leadership and goals for them, so they'll attack him, which he wants so he can kill anyone who thinks he's not providing them with leadership or direction, and will be saved from death at their hands by the EU happening to attack at exactly that moment, using the same method the USAF used that the Cons can easily beat.

It's actually given me a headache just working out what the hell is supposed to be going on.

Add to that the fact that the EU are attacking, not NATO or the UN, as would make sense, and that they're using a nuclear bomb, not missiles (seriously, do any of the European nuclear powers even have any bombs these days? I can't remember hearing about anything other than missiles in the UK at least). And why if they're going to nuke New York, are they pointlessly picking a fight with them at extreme close range with aircraft first? If it's to keep them distracted, why bother, when the jets took them by surprise, so a few dozen missiles would have too, and would have killed them all. Or should have at least, if we were keeping consistent with human weapons being dangerous as in the ations stuff. Hell, it's a nuke, it'll kill them, plenty of Transformers use machine guns for goodness sake, it can't logically not be lethal to most of them, barring maybe, maybe Megatron.

And apparently Megatron Origin is completely out of canon now, since according to this the Autobots came about after the Cons, which ties into Megatron calling them rebels or what not in an earlier issue, despite them being active as a police force under Sentinel Prime when Megatron was just a miner before now.

This whole plot is just so very, very stupid, it hurts.

Oh, bulljive Megatron "planned all this". Please.

So... McCarthy has pretty much abandoned the weird tower with the Matrix in it plotline?

Because I don't know how he's going to give us any satisfaction on that in only two issues.

I liked how Megs went into detail of his famous quote. "Peace threw tyranny."

I mean really, the Decepticons still have the Matrix, and the Autobots are still on the other side of the galaxy. After twelve issues, what will have moved forward in the plot?

Plot?

I'm just tickled by how Megs is all "Blah blah blah I totally planned this," and then you just KNOW Omega Supreme is about to land on him on the next page after what they've shown. Sue me, I'm easily amused.

As an aside, per issue 6, dropping the nuke was supposed to be a secret action performed in the midst of the air assault (The pilots aren't, mostly, to know about it), though I'm wondering how Sparkplug knew. (Huh...maybe that guy who rightly thought it was mass murder slipped the U.S. the word. I know, I know, plot hole until proven innocent, but I don't wanna get into a debate about the subject right now, just wanted to add my reaction.)

Yeah...

This is probably why they're getting a new writer for the next TF series.

Let's hope the next one knows how to do his homework.
And knows how to write a story and not a mere interlinking of "totally awesome movie trailer scenes".

All Hail Megatron are the twelve worst Transformers comics ever published in the brand's twenty-five year history.

Well, eleven issues of pointless dialogue trying to emulate Bendis, then one issue with a fight scene so confusing you can't figure out who won.

Gestalt/big bot fights are VERY rarely executed well in Tformer comics (the best one was in Issue 10 of the DW ongoing between Bruticus and Predaking).

Look forward to it.

I hope at the end Scarlet Witch just undoes it all.

Then IDW replaces their home page with a splash that just says "We're sorry."

=P

No real surprise this thing isn't even dealing with the plots it established given McCarthy's treatment of the preceding stories. I feel sorry for Guido, Casey and Josh who've done some splendid work on this title but have been saddled with an absolute turd of a story.

Andy

Not quite 12 of them, but yeah

Never understood all the hate for this title. For me, it's been a nice break from Furman's stuff, with its nigh-incomprehensible mystical plots and interchangeable, poorly-defined characters.

AHM is more of a character story, and the plot is accordingly more-or-less shoved out of the way in favor of interesting dialogue moments between characters. We actually get to know something about the robots and their motivations, moreso than we have in anything since early Marvel G1 comics. It's more drama than fantasy, and I love that direction.

Anyway, it's far from perfect, but I've really enjoyed it. I'd say its biggest weakness is that it's supposed to be in continuity with the convoluted -ations that came before, when it would work much better as a reboot or standalone.

Times like this, I'm glad I'm only a casual Transformers fan. I'm not overtly keen on all the G1 do overs, but Furman seemed to have a good story going from what I've read. Shame this seems to have crapped all over it to give us Transformers Buckets O' Blood.

Unfortunately, it never finds the sweet spot between drama and actually moving the plot, and it disregards nearly everything that came before it.

I mean, I know I keep saying this, but what was accomplished? What did we learn? Was there character growth here? Any lasting contribution to the continuity? Heck, several characters moved backwards or even received less characterization than they got under Furman (Hot Rod, I'm looking at you). Many characters were given Sunbow Cartoon-esque characterizations that didn't fit with their IDW characterizations at all. Heck, the one noble sacrifice of it all, poor sociopathic Sunstreaker, will probably end up not even sticking because Hunter's still out there.

That's a sourcebook, not a comic.


I'm sorry, I don't buy this. Characters in Furman's story may not have that "I CAN TOTALLY PICTURE HIS CARTOON VOICE ACTOR SAYING THE LINE!!!" but the characters are rarely poorly-defined or interchangeable. They drive a lot of the story. Ratchet's "Screw the rules, I'm saving people!" and Starscream's "Screw Megatron, he's lost sight of what we truly are!" are the driving forces behind Infiltration, with elements like Prowl's prickness, Ironhide's gruffness and Jazz's enthusiastic willingness to learn more about humans ("I mean... I never knew the smile was freaking people out!") all complement the story very well.


You'd have a case if the characters acted like they're supposed to. Instead you've got Sideswipe, SIDESWIPE of all characters, giving a speech on the futility of war, Springer turns into a punching bag for Jazz, Prowl becoming borderline nonexistant from his former role as a leader, etc. And the few "character moments" do incredibly little to further advance the plot. Oh yeah, Cliffjumper's the only one paranoid enough to stare at a little light. So?


Really? What about the complete lack of pacing, plot development or sense or even continuity within itself?

Lighten up Detour

If I wanted to break balls I would've made a case for DW volume 1, Micromasters, the Avengers crossover, etc.

People keep mentioning that AHM supposedly has great character moments, but I'm not seeing it. There are some nice lines, and such, but the character development isn't there. Prime is more like the perfect leader he is in the cartoon and less like Furman's (more interesting, IMO) self-questioning version. Prowl has lost his prick-ness edge that he has under Furman and turned into just another one of the Autobot cars. Heck, ALL the Autobot cars are pretty much interchangable under McCarthy. We've gotten almost no development for guys like Soundwave or the Constructicons. And it doesn't help that the parts we DO get, like the Prime/Ironhide relationship, or the deal with the Insecticons, is clouded in purposely-unrevealing dialogue.

I'm glad that there's an explanation for Megatron's stupid plan (I was questioning why Megatron would just stand around and wait for Starscream to challenge him - there was absolutely no benefit in that) but as others have pointed out, the delivery and setup for it is clumsily handled. Megatron's idea of "rebuilding the Decepticons" makes sense - but isn't at all backed up by what we've seen so far. How exactly is he rebuilding anything by sitting around and blowing up Earth? I've always loved the "peace through tyranny" aspect of Megatron and wish it was played up more, but there's a difference between having the character SAY it and having the character/plot SHOW it, and I feel we're only getting the first one.

What makes the characters in Furman's books interchangeable for me is not the things they do, but the things they say. He throws 5-10 new characters into the mix regularly, and they all use the same phrases as other characters (before they die, usually). The "Furmanisms" on the wiki are funny, but they're also lame and distracting. I pointed out in the ROTF comic preview thread that Prowl and Prime both use the (presumably British) phrase "well and truly" in subsequent panels of the same comic. It's stuff like that that makes the dialogue interchangeable. With AHM, the dialogue seems to come from the characters, and I really appreciate that. I don't remember what most of the original cartoon voice actors sounded like (well, except for a few of course, mostly the ones in the movie), but I can "hear" distinct voices while reading this story. I don't get that with most of Furman's work--it all sounds like Furman.

You're supporting two of my points. 1. This would be better as a standalone, without expectations about the characters/past history. Whatever Sideswipe and others were before, they don't need to be in this one as far as I'm concerned. The dialogue makes them work as they are. And, 2., I don't care about advancing the plot, because I'm enjoying the character interactions.

I said "biggest," not only. But I don't have a problem with the pacing, or the plot, like I said. If I had to name other issues, I'd say the poor foreshadowing of important events. But, a lot of that does come back to the "continuity patch" that was applied late in the run, so, yeah, I still think that's the biggest problem.

I could have almost taken it as an alternate universe. However, that's not the route they took. In the end though, it does need to go somewhere. This isn't Seinfeld: Cybertron Edition.

Although that too would have been better than AHM IMO.


I much prefer Furman's stories. Sure he works with archetypes, he even admitted to doing so a while ago. But the space operas with mysticism and wide reaching developments appeal to me. He just thinks bigger than he has space to tell his story in. The last issue of a mini arc tends to fall flat as the build up fails to deliver and plot lines are rushed to be tied up and concluded. If he had an ongoing series to himself with no limit on how long his story arcs can be, then we would be sure to see some wonders.

Basically, Furman can do more in twelve issues than McCarthy can. Unfortunately, Furman hasn't been given the chance to properly. I feel like he has to keep characterisation to a minimum and simply understood because there's just not enough room to tell his story and do the characters a proper job.

So, WHAT'S THE DEAL with these humans!

That'd be a crossover for the ages.

NO ENERGON FOR YOU.

Reading Megatrons speech again, I really just can't see how this fits in with everything that proceeded this.

One of the major things the IDW'verse had in it's favour was the fact that both sides were treated more like real armies, with a slow burning cold war, and the Decepticons specifically not being the bunch of lawless thugs we'd seen previously. they had a structured, measured and clinical method of intergalactic conquest, focusing on long term, slowly expanding power base built on deception and guile.

It actually made them more scary than if they just wandered around shooting stuff, they made their victims kill themselves without even realising an outside force was manipulating them, and when it was too late to do anything to stop them, only then would they step in personally. For an all but immortal species, that's a perfect way for them to fight a war.

I can think of only one Decepticon who acted like how Megatron is describing here. Megatron himself. He went nuts, gave into anger and pride, threw out all the professionalism and planning Starscreams team had spent years putting in place, and set Sixshot on the world. And all the other Cons, the ones he's here so suspicious of in case they turn on him because he says his army is so flawed, all of them agreed he'd completely lost it and needed to be stopped.

The only other character I can think of that acted like that, were Cyclonus, Arcee, and Sideswipe. None of whom were Decepticons. You could somewhat argue that the Terrorcons were like that, but really they were an isolated group of idiots who took their hero worship of Sixshot too far, and tried to get as big a rep as him.

As for Megatrons plan itself, I also note that of the Cons that turned on him, 3 were the new super troops, who were supposed to be the future of the Decepticons, worth 1000 mutilated freaks for every one created, and the Constructicons, who seem to be new to the front line, and primarily builders and technicians.

All the nutters stuck with Megatron. Astrotrain who likes killing en mass for fun, Reflector who seems to be a mentally handicapped psycho who tortures humans to death, and doesn't understand why he can't do it more than once, Skywarp who, other than the teleporting gimmick, is best know pushing people down stairs as a joke, and Soundwave, who spent millennia lying to Megatron for his own personal gain, and comes up with plans that involve forcing an Autobot to kill his friends. And Thundercracker, who has so far been Megatrons most vocal critic.

If this plan was supposed to sort the wheat from the chaff, it well and truly failed.

So what I got from that preview was that a long bonding had occurred between Spike and the other humans who are too forgettable for me to remember their names.

Why weren't they featured earlier and developed, so moments like these actually meant something?


And as to Megatron's speech.....................he wanted........things.......to be......exactly ....as they were......circa Infiltration.


This whole thing, his whole desire, is something he already bloody had.


Jokes on us. A $180 something joke.

Very impressive.

I know Nick's Coda story will be awesome, but I'll be judging the others very closely. And I don't think I'll buy the ongoing automatically, I think I'd rather wait and see how it pans out.

And if I see the name 'McCarthy' on it, then I'll be sure to stand at least 50 feet away at all times.


(I also posted this at the IDW boards. Should be fun)

I'm still banking on "CODA" to be AHM's savior with its only flaw being the stories being told within its four issues should have been worked into AHM itself as and when (even if the overall issue count reaches 16 still).

But AHM didn't really need to be this long. #1 - #12 could easily have been told within six issues easily as a regular sized story arc if only it had proper pacing and direction. It wouldn't even lose much characterisation if all the 'empty' scenes got cut out.

I also disliked the use of cliffhangers to lure the reader into buying the next issue to see what happens and constantly said cliffhanger being ignored.

"Oh, no! Megatron has the matrix!"

"Oh no, Ratbat killed Spike!"

"Oh no, Spike survived!"

"Oh no, the Euro-humans plan to nuke America!"

"Oh no, Hunter is well and truly hugged up!"


And every time (working from memory), none of these cliffhangers ever got touched upon in the next issue.

One writer's personal brand of storytelling? Or just an overall cheap gimmick to continue pulling in the readers?

That and (presumably) not coming with a $25 refund for AHM proper.

How does it add up to this much? (I'm actually curious; being 'Mercan, we sometimes don't know these things. )

At least it gave us Drift right?

To be honest, I didn't even look at the preview page with them in it. That's how little I care about 'em.

I was quoting the Seinfeld/Transformer crossover =P

Only if you forget that Micromasters happened. And the first DW miniseries. Both those had terrible story AND terrible art, while All Hail Megatron is at least generally gorgeous.

Ah, Bass' post in the middle threw me off. But still. Humans, airline peanuts...



Micromasters' story wasn't so bad... it was just harmed by the incomprehensible art.

I am not a fan of the colors.
After the colors were pretty much the only major complaint after the release of the preview in Focus On Decepticons, I think IDW had enough time to go back and tone down the burning glow. They didn't, so after a single issue, I dropped the series. Was the sun moved closer to earth to overcompensate for the darkness of G.I Joe vs Transformers?

"The Transformers: The Premiere Collection vol 2" contains Revelation. Which means that when the third one comes out, it'll likely contain Maximum Dinobots, which I guess I'm going to end up buying again. Unless there's regular six-issue TPBs, an All Hail Megatron Omnibus (which may or may not contain the "Coda"), and a Premiere Collection.



Keep the Spotlights coming, IDW.

I'm a big McDonough and Patyk fan, but...

..the story was pretty bad. Not so much the story actually, it was an interesting concept that tied into the rest of the mythos they were establishing in their run (And Countdown was quite awesome). But the dialogue, and the excessive use of cybertronian slang and swear words didn't make for good reading (made sense considering they were effectively "teenagers", but the story suffered for it IMO).

What's really frustrating is that the idea of having to cull the Decepticon ranks of all the psychos and thugs they generally contain once the war is over would be a great story in a different continuity family. Heck, it might have even been more meaningful here if, as was already pointed out, the loonies weren't siding with Megatron.

Nothing in comics irritates me nearly as much as wasted potential.

Heh, I show up to find that folks have mostly said what I would have said... especially Biscuit, Rosicrucian, and Detour.

So mostly I wanted to focus on... I consider myself a character junkie, so seeing people laud AHM for characterization bugs me.

For one... while having characters standing around jawing with little to no plot can work for a single issue, it doesn't work over 12. Over the longer course of a story, a story that properly focuses on characterization should have the characters and their actions driving the plot, as opposed to characters messing around as the plot goes on around them.

For two, his choice of which characters have which actions just feels so OOC even if you disregard the -ations and hearken back to the tech specs. A few things I could think of from the top of my head...

Instead of Springer and Jazz, the conflict should have been between Springer and Prowl. I mean, think about it. You have Prowl on one hand who's the likeliest one to be in charge, and who's Mr. Logical By-the-Book, trying to deal in Prime's absence with a very chaotic and not-covered-by-the-book situation. Meanwhile, you've got Springer, who's outside the proper line of command, but trying to make the case that he and his Wreckers are the ones best equipped with dealing with this situation of having to hold the line against a planetary invasion.

...And then Kup comes in, smacks sense into both of them, takes charge and gets them working together. (There's no getting around the weirdness of Kup being there at all, so might as well run with it.)

If you really wanted to have Sideswipe angst, set it up first. Have it so that Mr. Thrill-Seeker is having a yee-haw of a time shooting up Swarm folks (probably with Cliffjumper's help), then does something stupid to get someone killed. Then has the whole crisis of conscience.

In the scientific front, instead of getting lobotomized, Perceptor just gets really badly damaged, to the point of nearly dying, but without mental harm. When he recovers, the trauma of it makes him decide that going into full battle mode is the only way they're going to survive retaking the war from the Decepticons. So he turns into a full-fledged warrior... busy turning that formidable brain of his into battle tactics and weaponry ideas.

Cue him getting into a conflict with Ratchet, where they argue about the turn Percy's taken. There's the sort of standing-around-jawing scene I could take. You could even have Sideswipe eavesdrop, then come in to talk about his recent experiences, if you wanted to highlight that crisis of conscience.

And so on. We won't even get into the Decepticons; we could be here for pages otherwise.

Or just something like that. A pro writer ought to be able to come up with more creative and IC ideas for characters than what we've seen so far, basically.

The only TF I saw played well and IC by -ations or tech spec considerations was Thundercracker... and his plot didn't even go anywhere. Conversely, the only even halfway decently developed human character was Andy, and he's dead.

So, urgh. While I had my own gripes about the dialogue at times, at least the -ations gave us characters that were IC or, with a few exceptions, logical reinventions of their original selves, and defined themselves with what they talked about, what they did, and how they related to each other and drove the plot. The human element was also much more inspired.

P.S. As a general comment, I have to admit I liked a forum post I read on one of the other TF forums that pointed out as comparison that: Watchmen had 12 issues.

Cross-posting from IDW, where a number have mentioned the godawful scale issues with the art, hence the focus on art in my post. But first, what Jeysie said. Especially on the Percy front.

*****
AHM #11 preview.

Guido, honey, I love your art to death, but I has critiques. The floating mini-panel towards the bottom of the first page, where the humans are reacting to the arrival of the Euro force, visually makes no sense until I read the lowest panel's dialogue mentioning said forces. I had take a close second look see the little poofs of dust which apparently indicate an attack, as at first glance, the humans suddenly seemed all stressed out for no apparent reason. Hell, for a second I thought 'What happened? Did someone fart?'. Perhaps there is need for a sound-effect along the lines of 'boom' with that floating panel, because it's not initially clear what they're reacting to. This is compensated for by the fact that Guido does draw some nice looking humans.

Devastator. I know exaggerating scale is a useful stylistic tool in bringing home a visual point, but you still need to keep a lid on it, lest it cross over into ridiculous territory. Which this one did, which is a bummer, as it's otherwise lovely art, and on first glance truly awesome to look at. But the longer you look at it, the more problematic it becomes, and unless Devastator is able to magically grow in size, those construction vehicles are preposterously mis-scaled.

Covers - did we call it on a Devastator/Omege Supreme smackdown or what? Not that it wasn't terribly predictable, but hey. Casey's cover is solid, but suffers from the same overblown scaling problems as Guido's interiors. Hutch's cover is awesome and also in my favourite color. Seriously, IDW - posters of these, please.

Megatron's dialogue - I don't have as much of a problem with what he's saying, as I do with the timing of said dialogue. This strikes me the same as Kup and Drift's impromptu talk in Spotlight: Drift. It is necessary explication (in keeping with Shane's writing style), but the timing of it within the storyline seems off. The same here - Megs is happily yapping away while Europe flings its best at them. I guess that's meant to show how worthless human weapons are, and I'll just state here that I prefer the more realistic approach of the movie - many of our weapons may prove useless, but we do have a few that are nasty enough to have an impact. Rendering all our weapons completely ineffective makes the whole human aspect of this story seem even more throwaway.

Of course, I can see where this is heading - Spike and pals still have the secret weapon developed from Shockwave, and I can see the lack of conventional human armament being played out as a way of building up the use of this secret weapon. Which I will totally throw myself out on a limb by predicting that its use will be a, if not the, critical turning point in the upcoming battle. Will Megatron meet his 'end' with it?

The nuke issue is not doing it danger-wise. We already know it will do diddly to the TFs, and we haven't gotten to know enough of the humans to really feel for their imminent demise. Same goes for what must be at least still several millions of people left in NY. I guess the threat has been floating around for so long, that the reaction now is largely 'eh'.

****

Well, there you go. And if you think this is a long-winded dissection of a five page preview, just wait till I get the thing for real. I am going stone cold peer review on its booty.

Hey, it'll be more fun than the actual peer reviews I have to do. YAWN.

I think that when they invent time Travel i'm going to send a future version of Chris Ryall back in time to warn them to let Furman do the ation stories as a ongoing comic, and to not do something like AHM.

I swear I want them to bring back furman and treat it like the past few months never happend. For them to just continue things from straight after Revelation with furman.

Transformers: Forever.


(If you don't get the reference, Marvel are doing a book called X-Men Forever, which disregards EVERYTHING that occurred after Chris Claremont left.)

Awwww, they're doing it just for those of us who only read Essential X-Men and other back issue trades, right? We're maybe a couple Essential volumes away from that point.

Although it reminds me too much of "Batman Forever"...SHUDDER...

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1649694

Edit- OH NOES, WRONG CRAPPY BATMAN FILM...my bad

Same here... All Hail Megatron has been a real let down. They need the AHM storyline to be a separate continuity. I really enjoyed the Universe that Furman was creating, a completely new direction and more serious take on the Transformers. AHM just seems to much like the old DW G1 books for my taste. I'll pick up the occasional Furman written stories, but in the most part they lost me as a subscriber to the IDW books.