Out Wednesday July 22, 2009.

Keep things on topic and as clean as possible, folks!

For the record? Neither story in this comic gave me a gloom and doom feeling. That alone is a point in its favor.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
"Old Ways" is a nice character piece between Optimus and Ironhide, going back and forth between the present and sepia-toned flashbacks to the early days of the war. You can easily pick up on the connection between the two, the rapport that's formed between them. It doesn't patch up any holes with AHM...but it does give a neat little story. Artwork be damned, I enjoyed it.

The art for "Uneasy Hangs the Head" is a bit more traditional, albeit with a different coloring style. It's Starscream, the traditional scheming Seeker we all remember, but one still chafing under Megatron. He's even genre savvy - he opts to leave the barely-alive Megatron onboard rather than try to toss him, suspecting that even if he could hold off the loyalists, Megs would come back. And we all know that's happened before.

An interesting thing is that unlike other continuities, the Matrix doesn't seem to be an all-powerful bauble - all its power, if this story is the only word on it, is symbolic. The mystique of it is what gives Screamer an edge...but it's obvious that he knows it'll only buy him time.

I had no problem following the art on the first read-through on either story. I have no problem with either story by themselves, in fact, and if this is what we can expect for the rest of CODA, then I eagerly look forward to the rest of the series.

I thought both stories were kinda dull, but the Starscream one at least had an interesting concept.

I liked the little references to Transformers: The Movie in Starscream's story; using Astrotrain in his ship mode, Starscream afraid of dumping Megatron in space, and wearing the Matrix around his neck.

What on Earth was Don thinking?

"Pat Lee's got his Dull Surprise, but what do I have? Oh, I know! I'll make my own horrible face to scar people! Perpetual Bayformers Sneer!"

I'm seriously wondering if he's desperate to work on something other than Transformers and is therefore burning his bridges, because... jeez. Sludge's two different faces in a single issue was less jarring.

Glad to see I'm not the only freaked out by the faces.

Pretty underwhelming. The Decepticons are apparently a bunch of easily-impressed morons if they follow Starscream out of respect for a shiny object. Soundwave's once again insultingly underwritten, and Prime and Ironhide's story doesn't tell us anything particularly NEW for anyone remotely familiar with their dynamic in other continuities.

I was hoping Coda would salvage at least SOME of AHM, but it isn't trying too hard at this point.

Had less of an beef with Don's art though once the issue was in hand. Not as big a deal as people are making it.

Haven't read the issue yet...

But I thought CODA was intended to address broken continuity.... so why is it breaking it even further?

(to be fair, though... the dynamic of Old Ways is a lot more interesting than McCarthy's "I would die for him becayse I wuvs him")

What about AHM #10, when Ironhide and Prime talked about how Ironhide hated Prime when they first met?

So... McCarthy contradicts himself?

Issue Four: Ironhide and Prime were best friends when they first met.

Issue Ten: Ironhide hated Prime when they first met.

Strange until you remember that Drift was introducted in issue five. Clearly his sword is somehow capable of cutting through time and severing relationships.

It's like a perfect clock made of swords.

Soooo Drift is vector prime?

I can live with that.

To be fair, Ironhide said that, IIRC, he would have died for Prime even back when Prime was a fresh kid with no experience, not that he instantly loved him upon meeting him/would have died for him immediately. Don't skewer me, though, I don't have the issue on hand. But I think Prime was a young commander for awhile, as this story showed Ironhide teaching him/Prime teaching Ironhide.

This story also seemed to indicate that Prime had met Ironhide before the troop assembly/lineup moment, just can't remember his name; Prime goes "Errrr..." like he did when he couldn't remember Dogfight's name. It's also said that Prime put the squad, including Ironhide, together.

Issue 10 also showed that Ironhide's memory was a little rose-tinted re:Prime, in that he said, "You're the greatest bot I've ever known," and then Prime immediately said, "As I recall," you hated me, and Ironhide refused to admit that he'd hated him for about half a second and then was all, Yeah, I did.

The Starscream story was the much more interesting one to me; I liked the idea that the Cons learned upon studying the Matrix that it has no apparent (i.e. it could have hidden properties we haven't seen yet) mystical or spiritual powers, and that its value is entirely symbolic instead of its being some all-powerful weapon. It's basically the Autobots' flag, so capturing it has that demoralizing significance. The fact that Starscream said that Megatron had hidden it from the others probably out of shame because it was a useless bauble was very nice, as was the fact that he was about to throw it out the garbage chute! 'Course, very Starscream to turn around, upon Shrapnel reminding him of the symbolic value, and claim to the Decepticons that he'd "unlocked" it and would "light their darkest hour" as a desperate gambit to make a bid for leadership.

The fact that, as soon as he was alone again, he had that silent "Oh, slag" moment, where he puts his hand to his face (Thinking, no doubt, about how he's just bitten off more he can chew by claiming that he can use the Matrix's "power," made it even better. This is a pretense he cannot keep up for long.

I also appreciated Starscream acknowledging the fact that upon returning to Con HQ, he would be immediately challenged by Razorclaw were he to make a claim to succession, and that the Cons in this universe are a disorganized infighting group (Really, most of Megs' problems in the -Ations WERE with rebellious characters in his own ranks. Shockwave, Scorponok, Thunderwing, Swindle, Ramjet, Bludgeon, Sixshot, Starscream and co....Banzai-Tron seems to have his own little personal "empire" of sorts, too, with his intelligence division.). Also cool that Screamer admits he at best would only retain control of his Seekers and the other guys on Astrotrain with him, if he were to try to claim leadership. Acknowledges his status as an Infiltration unit commander.

One note, when he tries to reason with Soundwave that keeping Megatron barely alive is a waste of Energon, he's seeking to appeal to his sense of logic;
the Energon would be put to use better distributed among the rest of them, or as it's presumably being used to allow Astrotrain to mass shift sufficiently to act as a small spaceship with multiple rooms (As he was in this issue). But I think he really was more in love with the idea of pulling the plug on Megs when he makes that appeal to reason that Soundwave is wasting energy.

Finally made time to pick this up today. I actually like Don's Bay-ish style. Personally, it's very refreshing after a YEAR of very Sunbow-y transformers. Soundwave's still his under-written, Sunbow-y self though. GRR.

The things I didn't like about these two stories are small and nitpicky. As a great proponent of the self-contained character-focused story, these are both pretty good. For the first story, I've always felt weird reading about robots getting smashed without knowing exactly HOW it happens. Though that's just nagging curiosity from being an engineer. The other thing was Prime's plateless face. I don't care who draws it or how. It's just always weird.

For the second story, I've already mentioned Sunbow-y Soundwave. The "children" remark was really odd, though. Because it's not like he in any way sired them. I don't know if Costa knew that they were around with Megatron before ever MEETING Soundwave, but it's just weird. This is all really coming from a place that I don't like to see the cassettebots used just as Soundwave's underlings... used characters in sub-grouped ways generally prevents the individual members from experiencing their own development, and ultimately leaves me feeling nothing for whatever happens to them, much like Frenzy (or was it Rumble? see, I cared so little I don't remember) back in AHM 9 (i think it was).

But yeah... other than that minor griping, I was pretty content. I even got a chuckle when the first words in the issue were a Furmanism after not getting anything from Furman in... I'm not sure how long, but it feels like a long while since Max Dinobots ended.

Costa's writing is WAY too cartoon-and-its-accompanying-fanon-inspired... the "children" mention pretty much proves that.

Furman's story was pretty decent, but god damn that horrible art is detracting. And the sneering facial expressions just get worse as the panels progress.

Costa's story leaves me a bit baffled. The art is strange and amateurish, making it feel more like a lengthy Mosaic than an actual IDW product. On the second page of the story we see a toy-accurate Reflector piece, quickly replaced by a cartoon model one with Blitzwing in a confusing pair of panels.... I'm really not sure what exactly happens with those two. I do appreciate the mention of Razorclaw as being another higher-up. That whole gambit with using the Matrix to help him ascend to leadership seems interesting, but the final panels just leave me baffled, like it WASN'T what he wanted or something....
Can someone fill me in? Costa's hardly as confusing as McCarthy was but mostly because of the iffy art I find myself confused as to what happened here or there....

I *think* the issue is Starscream wanting to ascend to leadership but in a way that makes it look like Megatron has failed yet that Starscream is clearly superior. But with Megatron still clinging to life and maintaining loyalists, Starscream doesn't want to waste this opportunity, while acknowledging that using the faux-macguffin of a matrix to ascertain his position just doesn't sit well with him for several reasons.

I get the sneaking suspicion that the ongoing is going to have a lot of that, in order to please and bring in as many fans as possible. I hope not, because I'd rather the comic not read like a fanfiction, but it does seem to be leaning that way.

This is what I'm worried about.

IDW's announcement declared him a "critically-acclaimed" writer... what else has he done?

I got the feeling that Starscream was face-palming that he couldn't get the Decepticons to accept his leadership by logical arguments about wasting resources on a mostly brain-dead Megatron... but show them his possession of what he thought was a worthless shiny bauble and give a gaudy speech, and suddenly they were all gung-ho over him. It's pretty much an "ugh, what a bunch of idiots" gesture.

Of course, considering that most of the Decepticons were all too willing to go against Megatron when they thought he was going against their best interests in the -ations...

Have to agree that while Costa isn't horrible, he didn't do much for me either. I had more fun with SL: Metroplex...

I flipped through it at my shop.

I skipped over the Optimus/Ironhide story entirely based on the preview and went straight to the Starscream one.

I enjoyed it. I prefer the toon Soundwave to the Furman one. The voice and mannerisms make him stand out a lot more IMO. Plus since Shockwave isn't apt to be his ultra-loyal self it's nice Megatron does have someone pulling for him.

I'm actually looking forward to the on-going now as it's by the same writer.

I haven't read this yet, but I gotta say, on it's face I'm not upset with the idea of "fanon" as long as they're ideas taken and used well. There ARE some good fanon ideas out there, and given a new universe to be used it, could work. Granted, there are a lot of bad ones, but I'm open. Soundwave is actually a good example of this - I kinda enjoy the Raksha/fanon-style cartoon Soundwave over the traditional comic version (who is just another generic Decepticon, honestly).

I don't mind the speech.

My problem is with his "undying loyalty" to Megatron, which completely jives with the very behavior exhibited in his goddamn SPOTLIGHT ISSUE.
I loved that issue. It gave us a Soundwave so very true to his original tech specs.

The last panel is also an "Oh, slag, what have I gotten myself into" reaction, because, now that he's claimed that he's all-powerful in order to get them to obey him/make a bid for leadership...he's actually going to have to find a way to back that claim up at some point, when, in reality, he can't do ANYTHING physically impressive with the Matrix to demonstrate his "mastery" of it. He pretty much came up with the plan on the fly when Shrapnel told him that the Autobots revered it. Sure, this bunch of outcasts and clods would buy it for the time being, partly because some of them are loyal to him anyway, but would they later if he didn't ante up? And I doubt someone like Razorclaw would be impressed simply by his claims to having mastered it, without his giving proof.

I LIKE many aspects of the cartoon universe, myself. My only issues with the show revolved around the inconsistent animation/art quality and some of the goofy episode storylines. But the overall feel of it still resonates with me, the way the players are arranged, the situations...although I like the comics, too. And I acknowledge that by today's standards, the cartoon, in its execution, is pretty subpar. But I won't throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that I dislike the characterizations simply because I felt the quality control was lacking.

Mixing aspects of the two media, G1 cartoon and comic have always worked well for me. Loved the Dreamwave comic (After Prime Directive, that is.); I just felt that McDonough/Patyk spread themselves a bit thin with setting up too many subplots at once without delivering on them...and then, of course, had the rug pulled from under them. But if something in terms of characterization or situation reminds me of the cartoon, I tend to accept it, instead of it raising my hackles. So, "Like the cartoon, but darker" isn't really a bad thing in my mind. (But not in the "Resolute" sense.)

Cardinal sin, I know, and I'm sure someone would claim I'm unevolved or something...eh, fuhggeddaboutit I like what I like.

This issue was middling overall, with one story better than the other.

The Prime/Ironhide story really felt like page filler. I usually like Furman's stuff, but this was very eh. Not to mention packed to the gills with cliches. Don's art is interesting, and perhaps a bit more time on this style will bring more consistency to it. There were some issues with face to head proportionality in some panels, but otherwise it was solid.

Story: D+
Art: B-

The Starscream story was much more interesting, although it does seem to conflict slightly with some aspects with AHM. Although the sloppy setup in AHM leads to there being a number of ways of reading it, some of which wouldn't work too well with this story, others which do.

To me it read more as 'normal' Starscream' - wants like hell to get Megatron out of the way, but knows he has to play the game in order to get him gone. Liked the reference to the 86 movie, and his facepalm moment at the end. The bit with Shrapnel seems odd and awkward although if I go back and re-read it with the notion of the Matrix having 'seduced' Starscream into trying to dump it, it makes more sense. I just never thought to read it that way in the first place. I read Starscream's comments that it was merely a symbolistic bauble straight, and didn't assign any secret powers to it.

The art was nice, and I have to say, Chee put a page of this with just the B&W up on his dA account, and no offense to the colorist, but I like the art better in B&W. Maybe he'll put the rest up now that it's out in print.

Story: B
Art: B+

A Decepticon concerned only with his own selfish ends, that the other Decepticons don't like?

Did we really need more of those?

Also, who's to say that he still doesn't have his own personal reasons for/perceived benefits in working closely with/standing by Megatron, now? Starscream is hardly a viable candidate for leadership (As Starscream himself admits!) Soundwave's motivations right now are a mystery to us, because we haven't seen inside his head for awhile, but I can't imagine that someone as self-serving would jump ship from the established leader while he's still alive.

Ratbat firmly believed that Soundwave was loyal to HIM, too, but he had his own opinions, and turned on him when a bigger fish came along. I don't think Starscream is that fish.

And the reasons he does what he does would be even more opaque to Starscream, who, unlike us, hasn't been privy to Soundwave's thought processes in the past, so it would be easy to assume it's undying loyalty on his part.

But say he is ultimately committed to Megatron; it's probably because he thinks he can get something out of it.


Also, he was pretty much Megatron's unseen "hand," per his Spotlight issue, so they've been close for a long time, and nevertheless, he was simultaneously hiding info from him. It's not really a "Treacherous OR loyal" thing with them. He'll act as Megatron's agent, but he'll also serve his own interests.

In terms of his speech patterns...eh, he shifted back and forth WITHIN Megatron Origin itself; rather than call this a contradiction, I'll take it as face value and judge that Soundwave talks differently at different times.

Lets see...

Starscream's story is a complete 180 of his speech to Prime in #12 of AHM. But then betrayal is Starscream all over. Starscream going back on his word is nothing new - ultimately he serves himself and no amount of swaying from Megatron would keep him loyal for long. Starscream may have been lead to believe that Decepticon leadership must be taken by force not offered up by chance but after Megatron was taken out the picture and Starscream had time to think, he reverted back to his old ways.

Starscream calling Soundwave's cassettes as 'children' seems like an insult rather than an accurate description. Also, Starscream would probably be unaware of Soundwave's own manipulation of Megatron. Soundwave... well this is Starscream's story so superficial characterisation for everyone who isn't him was to be expected. Soundwave probably biding his time and just playing the role of loyal follower until the time is right to make his move.

And Starscream thinking of the Matrix as a ceremonious bauble doesn't make it so. He just doesn't understand what kind of power the matrix holds.

Issue was pretty bland.


But that's still better than anything from the last 12 issues.

But this, along with the SDCC announcements, make me think they're trying to distance themselves from the McCarthy stuff as much as possible. I mean, surely they were intending their new direction from AHM to last longer than that?

Either way, I'm happy.

Does anyone else think that Ong's Starscream cover looks a lot like Wildman's stuff from before he started drawing more human-y to piss off Marvel?

Oh god, Don Figueroa is the main artist on the ongoing....


And Primary, I agree. There was a very Wildman-esque feel especially in the faces.

It was ok.

Nothing wow.

Don's art was amazing, some of the most interesting art I've seen in Transformers comics for a long time (the art in Starscream's story was also interesting/different...good use of shadows). Nice to see Don mix it up, especially if it stops him from burning out and stagnating as a Transformer artist.

Furman's story was better than the second, but Costa did a decent job. Neither were particulary interesting though.
------
Just saw this over on IDW-

"There have been alot of worried comments about my "new" art style and I understand the concern. as you know, I've been doing this for a long time now, over 5 years in fact. and I'm sure some of you are tired of seeing the same thing over and over from me. I know I am. as an artist, I like to experiment. I gauge what people like and I try to bend where the wind blows. and recently, I see more and more from the fandom that "Geewun suxxors" and the thing is, I don't consider IDW's take as "G1". the stories are not a continuation of the ones from the 80's cartoon or the Marvel stuff. they didn't crash on earth 4 millions years ago and get lodged in a volcano, it doesn't even fit into Beast wars. sure it's got the same names and elements from G1, but that can also be said with every other series that came and went since G1. Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Animated, the Movie.. All have elements of G1 in them, all have an Optimus who's a red truck and there's a Yellow car that younger people can relate to. references to Matrixes, Unicrons..etc, but they're not G1. so please, calm down everybody. I'm just complimenting the new stories with a new look.

-Don Fig"

----

I can dig it.

I liked the art in the Starscream story. It was like someone pulled the linework up out of an old UK G1 comic, leaving just the colors behind. And I've always had a soft spot for "Starscream finds out leading the Decepticons sucks" stories.

I kindof got that feel too. The style even reminded me a little of Will Simpson. I rather miss his manic faces and lanky style of drawing robots.

All Hail Megatron 13 page by ~chubbychee on deviantART




Chee put one of his pages from this issue up on his dA without the colors. I actually like it better than the colored version. Not that the colors are bad or anything, but I like the arty nature of the shading work Chee's done. Wonder if IDW would ever publish a TF story in B&W?

I think it would be interesting to read a "flashback" type of story done almost entirely in B&W or sepia tones except for whatever the framing story happens to be.

Wow. The black and white definitely is better. The way it was inked and colored was just a bit too... messy. Of course, it looks pretty pristine compared to Dreamwave's TF/GIJ.

I'm a fan of Moose Baumann (who colored the Starscream story), and looking at the black and white art, it doesn't look all that suited to his strengths as a colorist. An odd choice.

With the coloring, it reminded me of a lot of those old G1 storybooks that I really enjoyed.

I was amused that Starscream was still more or less the AHM design, just minus the hip-armor. (Guess he took it off so he could sit down? )

Hmm yeah.

I love Moose's work too, his GL stuff is amazing.

He works best with 'clean' pencillers, IMO.

I liked starscream's story here. Thank god starscream is not the yaoi fungirlish version of AHM where he loves Megatron but he can't tell him his feelings, but he just wants him to die. The fact that he uses all the myths and the legends around the Matrix to make everyone belive that he's the coolest guy around was pretty clever, and it also leaves the doubt if the Matrix is really being used by Starscream, or if it is using him. (in the "oh I tought it was such a good idea to drop it into space" bit really gave me the impression that starscream is being influenced by the matrix)
Ironhide's story, meh. 15 pages for "Hey Prime I want to quit" "No you don't!" "Oh all right", and he gets drunk.
Yeah that's what I expected from the first furman story in a long time, two bots sitting around and talking while getting drunk!
I'm looking forward to Galvatron's story in AHM14. Sunstreaker's, not that much.

I liked both stories.

Furman's piece on Prime/Ironhide is just more of a small little character story than anything, just kinda a nice touch. Nothing really meaty in here, but just nice to have and see. Can't stand Don's new artwork though... the bodies are great, but the faces are flat-out terrible. The teeth, the overdetailed faces, the eyes, just... everything. Ugh. Please no.

The Starscream story could've used some additional length, but I like where it's going. Interesting touches here and there. I agree with Xed that I kinda wonder if the Matrix is supposed to be influencing Screamer...

Thats the impression I got with the Matrix yeah.

One Matrix to rule them all?

Has this been noticed anywhere?

http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopic.php?t=8714

The Lemmy mustache was pointed out rather quickly, although not publically. It was part of the first version of his article on the Wiki.