Revisitation 112: Rodimus Gets Fridged.

10/2/2023

This week, one very lucky bot crashes the party the Decepticons are having.

Plus, Bombshell learns the importance of a proper vest in cold weather and Megatron tries being stealthy.

All as I look at the return of the king (NIck Roche) in ISSUE 13 OF THE MIKE COSTA ONGOING.

3 Comments

Post Mordor

12/2/2023 07:34:56 pm

This is one of the most hilariously entertaining issues from this run, and probably from the entire continuity as a whole. I really loved the humor in this issue, and I'm glad to see the "nuke the fridge" reference here. It helps that Roche is doing the art, his cartoony style is a perfect fit for this story. Overall a great highlight of Costa's run, at least until later on with Robert's Chaos Theory.

With the praise out of the way, it does feel bad to hear about how the higher-ups at IDW dealt a bad hand to Roche and Figueroa. I'm glad Roche was still able to have more writing opportunities with the Wreckers sequels and Last Bot Standing. For a while I wondered what ever happened with Figueroa, but since last year at least he's made it to Twitter and seems to be doing fine posting art and such.

Also, this is my first time learning about Roche's pitch for an Earth spy team mini. A shame, I would've loved to see that kind of story. I know Furman's "-ation" series was kind of close to that concept, but by the end he already went full haywire with the Dark Universe stuff. It didn't feel as if the original premise was done all too well, and I'm sure Roche would've done a much better job. Knowing how much he wanted Verity, Jimmy, and Hunter back together, I'm sure he would've found a way to get those first two back somehow. Ah well, one can only dream.

Snowkatt

12/2/2023 10:40:13 pm

Behind the scenes shenanigans not with standing, this is one of the few highlights of Costa's run.

A great breezy read, that barrels through its story without any ponderous slow moving pseudo philosophical nonsense, which is nothing more then sound and fury while the writer desperately tries to do something while aimlessly thrashing around.

Like the next storyline.

Because the quality sadly flat lines again for five tedious issues, before bouncing back up again with issue 19.
Also featuring Hot Rod.

Those 5 tedious issues are also interspersed with the go nowhere "Heart of Darkness" and the abysmal "Infestation".

Schmidt might catch a lot of deserved flack but the editor on the 2009 series and beyond has been Carlos Guzman.
Who seems to have been a lot better at his job come 2012.

But issue 13 it self is a great highlight and it's a shame Costa couldn't have written more issues like this.
Because its well written tightly plotted and most of all doesn't take three issues to get anywhere while wasting time and pages and pretending its "oh so srs".

While still telling a full story and get things underway.

I'm halfway certain Roche helped out with plotting.
Considering the dramatic downturn next issue.

Llama God

15/2/2023 07:35:37 pm

Heart like a wheel! Black as his steel! He'd rather die than give you contr-... eel? I dunno. Anyway, that's been going through my head every time I've read the issue's title, so have it. A problem shared, and all that... is sharing something that should never have been shared. Anyway.

This is certainly a surprising up-turn of quality in Costa's run. Probably made all the more successful by, as is suggested in other comments, him not trying to be all "worthy" in this issue and just having fun. But what does of course make it work is Roche's art, which makes Costa's usual, sparse scripting style work. Because if you look at it there are certainly the same number of text-free action panels and splash pages here as many of Costa's other works, but because Roche is Roche it just works BRILLIANTLY. And I do have to wonder, as Snowkatt does, whether there were any slight alterations to the script made as Roche was doing his layouts. Something to ponder on, and never get an answer on, most likely...

The handling of the Matrix is confusing in this issue it's true. It was indeed Megatron's seeming focus during the AHM arc, but it's also possible that he got bored of the thing, having not figured out how to use it. Or at the very least he's realised it wasn't the key to securing the all out victory against the Autobots that he was hoping it would be. Either way, it's not too surprising he's happy to just be rid of it. Which, given it seems to have turned into the One Ring during its time with Starscream is probably for the best.

But yes, this is most certainly a much-needed breath of fresh air amongst the run of comics we've had since Last Stand of the Wreckers finished. And yes, there's something of a slog to come, but on the other hand, only ten issues or so now until Chaos Theory. We can do it, team! I believe in us! Fortune favours the- Oh.

Revisitation 112: Rodimus Gets Fridged.

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