There’s Nothing Left for you to Give, the Truth is all That You’re Left With, Twenty Paces Then at Dawn, we Will die and be Reborn.
Autocracy Chapter 9: Transformation. May 9th 2012.
Citizens of Cybertron—the autocracy has been broken!
Transformation? Bit of a crap and obvious title, innit?
Megatron wastes no time following the death of Zeta (and apparently the rest of the government just… going away) to go on TV to declare himself the winner and ruler of the entire planet despite only really having extended his influence to one city.
But we’re used to politicians talking bollocks on TV, aren’t we? Plus, he sneaks an awkward title drop in as well, which I always appreciate.
It’s therefore unsurprising that the remains of the Autobots (or at least Pax’s and Magnus’ teams, what happened to the entire rest of the police state is also unclear beyond “scattered”) don’t take the offer of an amnesty seriously. But, without their leader, they’re just fractured, with Ultra Magnus wanting to stage a long-term resistance movement; Ironhide wanting to fuck up some shit right now and Bumblebee not wanting to commit obvious suicide.
Citizens of Cybertron—the autocracy has been broken!
Transformation? Bit of a crap and obvious title, innit?
Megatron wastes no time following the death of Zeta (and apparently the rest of the government just… going away) to go on TV to declare himself the winner and ruler of the entire planet despite only really having extended his influence to one city.
But we’re used to politicians talking bollocks on TV, aren’t we? Plus, he sneaks an awkward title drop in as well, which I always appreciate.
It’s therefore unsurprising that the remains of the Autobots (or at least Pax’s and Magnus’ teams, what happened to the entire rest of the police state is also unclear beyond “scattered”) don’t take the offer of an amnesty seriously. But, without their leader, they’re just fractured, with Ultra Magnus wanting to stage a long-term resistance movement; Ironhide wanting to fuck up some shit right now and Bumblebee not wanting to commit obvious suicide.
Oh, and Hot Rod, who just wanders into their hiding place to point out that everything has failed, so maybe now is the time to try something different. Which just starts an argument between him and Bumblebee over blowing up cities. And him not agreeing with Bumblebee is the one and only way this even vaguely feels like the same character currently in More Than Meets the Eye.
Though speaking of the work of James Roberts we dive right into something below the citadel Roberts himself will have to work around fairly soon.
This being that the mystery inexplicable hole has dropped the still just about alive (despite his own conviction he’s done) Pax outside a secret chamber that the locked doors have now been blown off, which has something inside calling to him…
The Matrix. Which shows him not just the connected live of all those on Cybertron, but the entire Universe (making the IDW Matrix sound far bigger than it will eventually be revealed to be).
Though speaking of the work of James Roberts we dive right into something below the citadel Roberts himself will have to work around fairly soon.
This being that the mystery inexplicable hole has dropped the still just about alive (despite his own conviction he’s done) Pax outside a secret chamber that the locked doors have now been blown off, which has something inside calling to him…
The Matrix. Which shows him not just the connected live of all those on Cybertron, but the entire Universe (making the IDW Matrix sound far bigger than it will eventually be revealed to be).
Not a Matrix of leadership, or creation, but of sparks. All the sparks if you will.
Which is, if nothing else, a bold way of merging three basically identical McGuffins from over the years.
There’s also an almost certainly put in by editorial caption clarifying this hurts a lot in an attempt to sync it up with what we were told in Chaos Theory.
At their easily found by Hot Rod hiding place, the Autobots are horrified that the Decepticons have easily found them, resulting in the whole crew being carted off, except Hot Rod, who is offered a chance to make the right choice by the impressed by the whole blowing up cities thing Starscream…
Back below, all he has seen has now convinced Pax that the idea of divisions between people is the true great deception, that everyone truly is one and freedom is the right of all sentient beings.
Which is, if nothing else, a bold way of merging three basically identical McGuffins from over the years.
There’s also an almost certainly put in by editorial caption clarifying this hurts a lot in an attempt to sync it up with what we were told in Chaos Theory.
At their easily found by Hot Rod hiding place, the Autobots are horrified that the Decepticons have easily found them, resulting in the whole crew being carted off, except Hot Rod, who is offered a chance to make the right choice by the impressed by the whole blowing up cities thing Starscream…
Back below, all he has seen has now convinced Pax that the idea of divisions between people is the true great deception, that everyone truly is one and freedom is the right of all sentient beings.
Which, accompanied by a homage to (of course) Transformers: The Movie (1986), sees him transform into…
Optimus Prime!
With the suggestion that he’s been working on his Prime name for a while. Maybe it’s like your porn name, everyone has a crack at it in their heads.
With the above ground scenes basically putting the characters into a holding pattern until the new Prime can catch up with the plot, the fun part is the Pax to Prime journey. Which is entirely carried by Livio’s art and plays to his strengths of big, widescreen slightly insane imagery perfectly.
So even if it is a little trite, and even if it is hard to care about the resolution to what has been a very half-arsed attempt at an arc for Prime losing his anger, the visual splendour carries things well enough for this to be a highlight of the series so far. With the writing not up to much, let’s hope the final three parts of this series play as well to Livio’s strengths as well, because he’s carrying it at this point.
Next week, Pharma lends a hand.
AUTOCRACY ISSUE 8
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
Optimus Prime!
With the suggestion that he’s been working on his Prime name for a while. Maybe it’s like your porn name, everyone has a crack at it in their heads.
With the above ground scenes basically putting the characters into a holding pattern until the new Prime can catch up with the plot, the fun part is the Pax to Prime journey. Which is entirely carried by Livio’s art and plays to his strengths of big, widescreen slightly insane imagery perfectly.
So even if it is a little trite, and even if it is hard to care about the resolution to what has been a very half-arsed attempt at an arc for Prime losing his anger, the visual splendour carries things well enough for this to be a highlight of the series so far. With the writing not up to much, let’s hope the final three parts of this series play as well to Livio’s strengths as well, because he’s carrying it at this point.
Next week, Pharma lends a hand.
AUTOCRACY ISSUE 8
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI