Revisitation 107: No One Told You Life Was Gonna be This Way.

7/1/2023

This week, Thundercracker would much rather be watching TV, but Bumblbee is determined to be friends.

As long as Thundercracker can be used by him anyway.

Plus, Ratchet didn't get the memo about staying in vehicle mode and Brawn is tank'd off as I look at issue 11 of the Mike Costa ongoing!

3 Comments

Llama God

8/1/2023 02:55:17 pm

Well here we are with what is certainly another issue in the Costa ongoing. That's probably all I can say about that.

Okay, whilst it is probably slightly better than the previous issue that's not really that difficult, and whilst the character stuff is certainly more interesting, it's also not that well done, and as a consequence not that interesting either. The discussions are pretty basic stuff, and there's no real sparkle or flair to the dialogue. As it is this stuff just happens. And as it then leads into some standard-issue cod-military discussions its impact is also immediately undermined. Which is certainly a shame since the Thundercracker stuff clearly has merit, but it's only something that'll work in the hand of better writers.

The art is okay in this issue. As you point out though, the big issue is that it's hard to tell any of the human characters apart. I wasn't sure if the person that Sandra's talking to was meant to be Spike, or someone else we're meant to know, or just someone new. I know that Spike's meant to be in North Korea, but it's hard to remember who's who right now. In a story that's all about working with humans this is a real weakness.

The final reveal of (80% of) the Predacons working with the Chinese government is a real head-to-the desk moment though. There's possibly an interesting idea in here somewhere, with different groups of different disaffected Cybertronians working for different governments. But it's an idea that I can't see being handled particularly well by someone with Costa's grasp of plotting, pacingm nuance and characterisation. I can only despair at what's to come.

And I have of course read this all before. But the fact I can't actually remember how this all plays out doesn't fill me with much hope...

LiamKav

16/1/2023 10:52:15 pm

To be fair, it's possible that Rampage getting the name of the country wrong is deliberate to show that they aren't actually as fully invested as they're pretending. But I dunno if that's too subtle for MC.

Snowkatt

21/1/2023 10:40:27 am

Well its a better read and less offensively stupid, or just plain offensive then any previous Costa penned issue.
It's being mostly just action.
That says very little and is more damning with faint praise but there it is

What i wonder more about is how IDW kept him writing Transformers for another full year, despite the lack of quality.
And why Hasbro let them.

Revisitation 107: No One Told You Life Was Gonna be This Way.

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