Revisitation 148: Soul Man.

29/10/2023

This week, no preamble as I'm recovering from a bug, so it's right into my look at the shocking More Than Meets the Eye issue 3!

8 Comments

Post Mordor

29/10/2023 09:06:18 pm

Definitely a fitting issue to read while Halloween sets in! I think Roberts' style with character interactions and dialogue really settles in with this one. Each exchange between the cast felt pretty natural imo. The biggest standout character though has to be Rodimus, it's clear he's the main focus for this story as throughout the time he's depicted as this reckless, self-absorbed leader; which I think contributes a lot to what makes MTMTE so iconic. Sure, it doesn't align with the original self-doubting humble leader from G1, nor with Furman's previous characterization of him within the same continuity as you mentioned, but there's a lot more to this portrayal than what's being lead on as we'll see while progressing through the series.

And speaking of things that'll eventually become more important than what's being lead on here, I really love the amount of future story elements established in this issue. The mysterious whereabouts of how the sparkeater and the dead turbofoxes got onboard, everything shown in that pre-war flashback during Cyclonus' talk w/Tailgate, mnemosurgery, Rossum's Trinity, and the matter of Rung's spark (alongside poor Animus, with his particularly green-colored spark as opposed to the traditional blue)...all of these are nice little tidbits of foreshadowing that'll take time before seeing the payoff. I think this contributes a lot into why this series is so re-readable, at least for me.

One thing I definitely didn't catch onto until you pointed it out is how Megatron was likely aiming at Zeta Prime during the flashback showcase. It makes a lot of sense now that I think about it, especially as we find out in the next issue that Roberts clearly had a different vision for what went down with Zeta Prime that conflicted with what we saw in Autocracy. Now I wonder how different things could've been with Roberts' vision in mind...

So all that's left then is the art, which I mean...what more is there to say, really? Alex Milne and Josh Burcham are a match made in heaven, and as mentioned the work done in the scary monsters department as well as the dead bodies was handled extremely well, there's a lot more of that to come as we'll see in the next issue. The sparkeater's design definitely gives off the creeps. Another great issue then, one that's befitting for a Halloween-spirited read.

Stuart

29/10/2023 09:37:19 pm

One fun thing is that the Sparkeater isn't planned setup, the notebooks show the process of working that connection out backwards from Elegant Chaos.

Post Mordor

29/10/2023 09:46:01 pm

Ooh that's fascinating. From an outsider's perspective you'd be easily fooled into thinking Roberts had a LOT planned out from the beginning as I did in my first re-read of the series, but those notebooks really proved otherwise huh? I was very surprised when I learned Chromedome and Rewind weren't originally planned to be a couple, the same for Cyclonus/Tailgate. Really need to get my hands on those notebooks some day.

T-Wing link

30/10/2023 06:32:22 pm

God, I wish Roberts had kept to his original plan for Cyclonus and Tailgate...

Ahem, anyhow, this is a good one; the Sparkeater's a great, creepy concept executed to perfection by Milne. I remember, having Bullets in my head, instantly thinking the Megatron with a sniper rifle image was indeed his assassination of Zeta Prime moment. And then Autocracy put the lie to it only a short time later. And then Barber will try to roughly massage it all together six or seven issues from now in HIS book.

Llama God

9/11/2023 01:27:39 pm

To continue the Halloween-y theme for this issue I'm commenting on this a horrifying two weeks late. Another thing that was definitely planned, and not retroactively justified...

The thing that's most jarring about this issue is the sheer number of historical events and cultural details that Roberts brings into the story, that we've never heard about before. But that's certainly not a bad thing. Instead we're starting to see Cybertronians as having an actual culture and history for what might be the first time. Between this and Barber's writings we really are being given something we've never been given before.

And indeed this is par of what makes this issue so good. There's worldbuilding, tension, scares, character beats, all very deftly integrated to produce a great story, which works both as a self-contained horror story on its own, but also an essential piece of the ongoing story. A properly masterful piece of work.

And what is there to say about the art that hasn't already been said? I guess that'll learn me to comment sooner. (I promise to learn nothing.) But Milne and Burcham are really doing top tier work here.

In all, a brilliant issue, and the one that started to assuage my fears that maybe this bold, new reboot wouldn't take. Just as well I wasn't following one of the other ongoings at the time...

JeremiahEcks

10/11/2024 01:16:07 pm

About Rodimus' arc up to now...

We see him in the Magnificence storyline where he is crippled with guilt for getting his team deaded but then he utilises remnants of that guilt to throw himself into finding Sunstreaker during Maximum Dinobots. Where he gets pretty ripped apart. Adding to that he learned his loyalty to his troops allowed Doubledealer to play him, and maybe the lesson he's learning is his loyalty and guilt don't always work out for him.

During Costa's run, he learns a different lesson. He gets Ironhide 'killed' so he technically runs. By this point he has a habit of getting people close to him killed or he himself torn up, so he runs from the main group but because he can't help be charismatic, he brings troops with him. And again his impetuousness allows him to be played.

He runs, takes people with him, they get killed / he gets beaten / they get betrayed, run cycle. His broken down 'loyalty' to his troops gets buried in this cycle of running but being unable to hide from being the leader who he is. Even chasing Sunstreaker is his leading tendencies not to leave anybody behind.

Then he runs off to get the Matrix. He's running TO something but he's still running. This is the only time he runs and doesn't take someone with him.

Then he ends up with the Matrix. That chooses him. Fills him up with confidence and 'rewards' him finally for going against the mainstream and doing his own thing.

So post Chaos, the Matrix has taught him that running and doing his own thing can bring reward but too much trust and he can be played or fail. So he surrounds himself with the most transparent authoritarian ever (Magnus) with seemingly no hidden sides, and an ex-Decepticon who he thinks by his wanting to change, has proven his trustworthiness (and he has but not in Roberts' original intent - showing Roddy is still able to be Double-Dealed).

What I'm getting at is I don't find Rodimus' personality anything beyond a slow development through the Costa stories. I do think they bridged from Furman's take to Roberts' take very well and I don't find him jarring at all.

The only character I find a little weird at first is oddly Ratchet. But that can be explained too as Costa didn't exactly develop him much...

Llama God

11/11/2024 09:34:57 pm

Nice summary of Rodimus' arc there - I'd not thought of it in those terms before myself, and it certainly feels a little more organic when put like that.

JeremiahEcks

12/11/2024 06:10:13 am

Alas what it doesn't work with is the guy blowing up cities but that's Autocracy for you.

Revisitation 148: Soul Man.

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