I Remember it Well.
All Hail Megatron Issue 14: Replay/Rebirth. August 19th 2009.
Well, there’s got to be some way to shut it up! The noise is unbearable.
It’s all about the two Rs this month as we hit our second, and perhaps most mismatched team-up of stories of the whole Coda run, with the first half looking backwards in a rather redundant (hey, there you go, three Rs) way and the other ahead to a story that…
Well, I’ll have plenty to say about where the Galvatron stuff is going along the way.
This was arguably also the issue that had the least to sell itself on at the time, the first had the returning Furman, the next the returning Roche and the final two stories firmly laying the groundwork for two of the three series that were about to launch. This one doesn’t quite have a hook for people who had faded away as All Hail Megatron went on, and if not for some conversation about continuity, it would easily be the most overlooked of the four.
Well, there’s got to be some way to shut it up! The noise is unbearable.
It’s all about the two Rs this month as we hit our second, and perhaps most mismatched team-up of stories of the whole Coda run, with the first half looking backwards in a rather redundant (hey, there you go, three Rs) way and the other ahead to a story that…
Well, I’ll have plenty to say about where the Galvatron stuff is going along the way.
This was arguably also the issue that had the least to sell itself on at the time, the first had the returning Furman, the next the returning Roche and the final two stories firmly laying the groundwork for two of the three series that were about to launch. This one doesn’t quite have a hook for people who had faded away as All Hail Megatron went on, and if not for some conversation about continuity, it would easily be the most overlooked of the four.
Oddly tortured robots are not a turn-on.
And for the first story, Replay, that is frankly entirely deserved. Written by Shane McCarthy and with very solid art by Emilio Santalucia, it seems tailored to deal with people’s complaints about the Sunstreaker as traitor plot by showing how miserable his time under the Machination was.
So through a series of flashbacks, we go from Sunstreaker being lovingly cheered by his troops just before assignment to Earth, to being brutalised by uncaring Machination scientists as they dissect him whilst awake, to a Machination guy bringing his girlfriend in to fuck in front of Sunstreaker, to Hunter more aggressively bullying him into being a headmaster than was the case in Devastation, to Sunstreaker trying to insist to Ratchet he’s fine before recoiling at his own reflection and kneeling on the floor in anguish…
To a pull out reveal from his dying eyes that all this is what was running though the mind of his dying brain as his decapitated head lay amidst the rubble of the bridge he blew up.
So through a series of flashbacks, we go from Sunstreaker being lovingly cheered by his troops just before assignment to Earth, to being brutalised by uncaring Machination scientists as they dissect him whilst awake, to a Machination guy bringing his girlfriend in to fuck in front of Sunstreaker, to Hunter more aggressively bullying him into being a headmaster than was the case in Devastation, to Sunstreaker trying to insist to Ratchet he’s fine before recoiling at his own reflection and kneeling on the floor in anguish…
To a pull out reveal from his dying eyes that all this is what was running though the mind of his dying brain as his decapitated head lay amidst the rubble of the bridge he blew up.
Don't worry, he gets better.
Now, I’ve completely breezed through the synopsis there, because frankly there is nothing to this story. At all. That it’s all a dream isn’t really used to any great effect beyond the implication of Sunstreaker’s bias (I doubt his troops were really cheering him so enthusiastically) and it tells us absolutely nothing the main series didn’t.
Or rather, what it does tell us, I don’t want to know, I have no idea what the Machination guy trying to use a scary looking alien head squealing in anguish to get laid bit was about.
That said, it’s not even an issue to hate, for all it seems to have been born of the writer being petulant over people not “Getting” one of his twists. It’s just pointless and probably the biggest waste of pages IDW had done up till this moment, as shown by the pull-back reveal that it was all in Sunstreaker’s mind taking two pages. The only really entertaining moment (well, I suppose other than the fact Jon Barber will later give us a mirror to this story with Sideswipe) is Santalucia slipping in a female Autobot during the cheering scene, showing that whatever ideas Furman may have forced onto the series, life finds a way.
Or rather, what it does tell us, I don’t want to know, I have no idea what the Machination guy trying to use a scary looking alien head squealing in anguish to get laid bit was about.
That said, it’s not even an issue to hate, for all it seems to have been born of the writer being petulant over people not “Getting” one of his twists. It’s just pointless and probably the biggest waste of pages IDW had done up till this moment, as shown by the pull-back reveal that it was all in Sunstreaker’s mind taking two pages. The only really entertaining moment (well, I suppose other than the fact Jon Barber will later give us a mirror to this story with Sideswipe) is Santalucia slipping in a female Autobot during the cheering scene, showing that whatever ideas Furman may have forced onto the series, life finds a way.
"This... simple feeling..."
If nothing else, the second story, Rebirth (down a shot for a cartoon reference), is more interesting. Written by Andy Schmidt and with art by someone I’ll talk about further down as they’ll go on to be especially important, it’s a story with the basic task of getting Galvatron back on the table for future plans.
Which is done simply by him flying out of the Solar Pool. Without anyone in the high security prison it’s located in noticing.
He goes with speed to where I had to depend on the Wiki to tell me is Gorlam Prime, whereupon Cyclonus becomes narrator of the issue. And his claim he was the only one of the “Arc” (oh dear) crew who could survive for any time outside the Dead Universe, when it was actually Galvatron is previous stories, is something that annoyed fans at the time, but I can’t get worked up about a fairly harmless retcon at this point. Especially as I suspect it’ll be smoothed over by John Barber at some point down the line.
What is odder is what Cyclonus is doing, as all the Ark 1 crew are now dead or dying, including the Was There All Along Honest Scourge, he’s collected their bodies and is about to throw them all into a big furnace.
Which, OK, Cyclonus is operatic, so a Viking funeral is very much what he’d go for. But not without any accompanying ceremony, he’s just piling bodies up to be chucked in, whether they’re dead or not.
Which is done simply by him flying out of the Solar Pool. Without anyone in the high security prison it’s located in noticing.
He goes with speed to where I had to depend on the Wiki to tell me is Gorlam Prime, whereupon Cyclonus becomes narrator of the issue. And his claim he was the only one of the “Arc” (oh dear) crew who could survive for any time outside the Dead Universe, when it was actually Galvatron is previous stories, is something that annoyed fans at the time, but I can’t get worked up about a fairly harmless retcon at this point. Especially as I suspect it’ll be smoothed over by John Barber at some point down the line.
What is odder is what Cyclonus is doing, as all the Ark 1 crew are now dead or dying, including the Was There All Along Honest Scourge, he’s collected their bodies and is about to throw them all into a big furnace.
Which, OK, Cyclonus is operatic, so a Viking funeral is very much what he’d go for. But not without any accompanying ceremony, he’s just piling bodies up to be chucked in, whether they’re dead or not.
"Bright eyes, burning like fire..."
So, it’s probably lucky Galvatron arrives when he does, blasts the bodies (which somehow annoys Cyclonus despite what he was about to do to them), and uses his touch to revive Scourge. Who, yes indeed, still functions.
Seriously, someone put a ban on that line.
Turns out that merging with the Darkness has done… something… to it and Galvatron that doesn’t get explained here. But means when he throws Scourge onto the bodies of the dead crew it somehow revives them all as exact doubles of Scourge. Or “Sweeps,” if you will.
The best part of the whole issue is by far and away Galvatron’s disappointment that the Sweeps were meant to look like him, and his being short with a very cheerful Scourge about it.
Cyclonus is as baffled by all this as I am, but a speech from Galvatron about his strength of spirit (and how growing a beard isn’t in his future), convinces him to follow his leader in whatever his actual plan is, for they are Seekers and it’s time to seek.
It’s hard now not to read this through the lens of the storyline to come that’s going to follow up on it, but even without that it’s a very odd one. Cyclonus remains solidly characterised and Galvatron’s reaction to the Sweeps is very funny. But I’ve no real idea what is happening and what any of it means, like it’s trying for an oblique mystery but winds up a muddle. It’s hard to feel any tension or dread at everyone flying off on their mission when whatever it is they’re actually doing is only offered as vague proclamations.
Seriously, someone put a ban on that line.
Turns out that merging with the Darkness has done… something… to it and Galvatron that doesn’t get explained here. But means when he throws Scourge onto the bodies of the dead crew it somehow revives them all as exact doubles of Scourge. Or “Sweeps,” if you will.
The best part of the whole issue is by far and away Galvatron’s disappointment that the Sweeps were meant to look like him, and his being short with a very cheerful Scourge about it.
Cyclonus is as baffled by all this as I am, but a speech from Galvatron about his strength of spirit (and how growing a beard isn’t in his future), convinces him to follow his leader in whatever his actual plan is, for they are Seekers and it’s time to seek.
It’s hard now not to read this through the lens of the storyline to come that’s going to follow up on it, but even without that it’s a very odd one. Cyclonus remains solidly characterised and Galvatron’s reaction to the Sweeps is very funny. But I’ve no real idea what is happening and what any of it means, like it’s trying for an oblique mystery but winds up a muddle. It’s hard to feel any tension or dread at everyone flying off on their mission when whatever it is they’re actually doing is only offered as vague proclamations.
A clean sweep.
If this issue has a legacy though, it’s that it’s the first professional Generation One art (after debuting on one of the Revenge of the Fallen tie-ins) of Andrew Griffith. Who is going to be one of the main stalwarts of the most popular IDW era, effectively being the counterpart and equal to Alex Milne.
He possibly doesn’t get shouted about as much of some of the other artists (though that there’s no attention drawing controversy around him probably helps), but he is going to do some of the biggest and most important work we’ll be seeing as we go along and has that Jeff Anderson skill to keep potentially very confusing sequences clear and clean. A vital talent with some of the plots coming up.
And, for all some of the writing doesn’t help, that’s as true here as it will be when he’s more settled in. The only real sign of this being an early professional gig (and one that may have been a scripted requirement) is the strange choice to have energy constantly coming out of Galvatron’s eyes that makes it looks like he’s always crying. But otherwise, this is an assured first step on a very long road for a key creator.
A key creator making their debut is something we’re going to get more of next week, with the return of Nick Roche, who is bringing a friend with him.
ALL HAIL MEGATRON ISSUE 13
2009
COMMENT
KO-FI
He possibly doesn’t get shouted about as much of some of the other artists (though that there’s no attention drawing controversy around him probably helps), but he is going to do some of the biggest and most important work we’ll be seeing as we go along and has that Jeff Anderson skill to keep potentially very confusing sequences clear and clean. A vital talent with some of the plots coming up.
And, for all some of the writing doesn’t help, that’s as true here as it will be when he’s more settled in. The only real sign of this being an early professional gig (and one that may have been a scripted requirement) is the strange choice to have energy constantly coming out of Galvatron’s eyes that makes it looks like he’s always crying. But otherwise, this is an assured first step on a very long road for a key creator.
A key creator making their debut is something we’re going to get more of next week, with the return of Nick Roche, who is bringing a friend with him.
ALL HAIL MEGATRON ISSUE 13
2009
COMMENT
KO-FI
