And When You all get Shot, and Cannot Carry on, though you Die, la Resistance Lives on.
Autocracy Chapter 8: Overthrown. April 25th 2012.
With all due respect, Sir, you’re boring me already.
Part of the fun of any story where your regular heroes and villains teaming up is seeing them fight together in unusual combinations, something the eighth part of this series wastes almost no time in giving us, as, whilst Zeta tries to assure the empty-headed senate that everything is fine, the building comes under attack from the combined Autobot/Decepticon forces.
This is by far the best of the two plot threads, seeing Ironhide lead the ground troops, Skywarp the air, and Shockwave bringing in the big guns. Sorry, gun. There’s also a nice little plot beat of Ultra Magnus arriving under Zeta’s orders, but choosing to side with the rebels whilst making it very clear that he and Ironhide will have a little chat about his choice of allies once this is all over.
With all due respect, Sir, you’re boring me already.
Part of the fun of any story where your regular heroes and villains teaming up is seeing them fight together in unusual combinations, something the eighth part of this series wastes almost no time in giving us, as, whilst Zeta tries to assure the empty-headed senate that everything is fine, the building comes under attack from the combined Autobot/Decepticon forces.
This is by far the best of the two plot threads, seeing Ironhide lead the ground troops, Skywarp the air, and Shockwave bringing in the big guns. Sorry, gun. There’s also a nice little plot beat of Ultra Magnus arriving under Zeta’s orders, but choosing to side with the rebels whilst making it very clear that he and Ironhide will have a little chat about his choice of allies once this is all over.
There’s nothing shocking or surprising here, it’s just good solid action with some of Livio’s strongest work to date. Autobots and Decepticons fighting together for the common good will become more and more a thing as IDW goes on, but here it’s still just about fresh enough to stay interesting.
The only funny in retrospect bit is Springer being with Magnus and Kup, something that Nick Roche will resolutely and cheerfully ignore.
The other thread, however, is more disappointing. Not just because, thanks to a rare example of poor coordination at this point, we’ve just had James Roberts and Alex Milne give us their take on Zeta Prime’s death one week earlier.
The only funny in retrospect bit is Springer being with Magnus and Kup, something that Nick Roche will resolutely and cheerfully ignore.
The other thread, however, is more disappointing. Not just because, thanks to a rare example of poor coordination at this point, we’ve just had James Roberts and Alex Milne give us their take on Zeta Prime’s death one week earlier.
It sees Megatron and Pax jump down from Astrotrain into the Senate (what actually happens to the other senators who were there a minute ago isn’t clear) and fight Zeta whilst saying meaningless, barely coherent quips at one another, with Livio’s art being far more confused and harder to follow than in the other strand of the plot.
It ultimately concludes with Zeta, forgetting Megatron has a big gun strapped to his arm, holding him close enough for a gloat that Megatron can get a good upper shot through his jaw. For such a pantomime villain, it’s a rather underwhelming death scene.
There’s barely time to note it either, as almost immediately Meagtron does his heel turn, coming up behind the battered Pax as he calls in Ratchet for medical support, and shooting him right through the chest with a “You and your Autobots have served your purpose”, before dropping him through a handy massive hole in the senate floor that seems to be caused by blast damage, but not during the fight that just happened.
There’s a possibly intentional degree of irony that it turns out the modifications to Pax’s chest in Chaos Theory were completely irrelevant as it’s destroyed here, but otherwise, if the plot outside does some fairly standard tropes in an entertaining and fun way, the stuff inside is standard hero and villain fighting together stuff done in a very tired fashion.
It ultimately concludes with Zeta, forgetting Megatron has a big gun strapped to his arm, holding him close enough for a gloat that Megatron can get a good upper shot through his jaw. For such a pantomime villain, it’s a rather underwhelming death scene.
There’s barely time to note it either, as almost immediately Meagtron does his heel turn, coming up behind the battered Pax as he calls in Ratchet for medical support, and shooting him right through the chest with a “You and your Autobots have served your purpose”, before dropping him through a handy massive hole in the senate floor that seems to be caused by blast damage, but not during the fight that just happened.
There’s a possibly intentional degree of irony that it turns out the modifications to Pax’s chest in Chaos Theory were completely irrelevant as it’s destroyed here, but otherwise, if the plot outside does some fairly standard tropes in an entertaining and fun way, the stuff inside is standard hero and villain fighting together stuff done in a very tired fashion.
Indeed, it’s not unlike the end of Dark of the Moon, but with who turns on who out of Optimus and Megatron flipped. And compared to the pace and action of the film—not to mention the novelty of the hero being fully aware the villain is a piece of untrustworthy evil shit and getting rid of them first—this is incredibly lacklustre.
Still, with Megatron now in charge, next week, we can see how running Cybertron works out for him in Chapter 9.
ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ISSUE 4
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
Still, with Megatron now in charge, next week, we can see how running Cybertron works out for him in Chapter 9.
ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ISSUE 4
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI