Revisitation 71: End of the Road.

30/4/2022

This week, there's some shock twists and the happiest of happy endings for Hunter O'Nion. Plus, Hot Rod's rod attack fails and the Dinobots leave (again), all as I look at the conclusion to the Simon Furman Era (sort of): Maximum Dinobots Issue 5!

2 Comments

Ryan F

1/5/2022 07:39:55 pm

Yeah, good summary of the issue. It just about gets away with it due to the art and the visceral thrill of the fight sequences. Such a shame Furman went out with a whimper when - at his peak - the guy was insanely good. Along with Terrance Dicks, Furman was probably the most influential author in my life growing up as a kid.

Llama God

3/5/2022 11:38:34 pm

You've certainly nailed it with this being a "frustrating" issue once again. "Unsatisfying" is a word I'd also apply, to. With this being the end of an era, and essentially touted as such at the time, it really doesn't deliver on much at all.

Although we do get an end to the story with the Dinobots and the Machination, it's all so muddled that it doesn't really feel like much of an end, either. Way too much time is spent on the Dinobots' vacillations, which is not only frustrating, but also takes up space that could have resolved the various storylines in a satisfactory way. The end of the Machination, at the very least, needed to be more climactic. Whilst it is satisfying to see Scorponok defeated by the same thing that was fuelling his master plan, it doesn't land emotionally at all.

Sludge's "death" is also too obviously a fake-out that the issue being about that doesn't land either. Whilst this IDW universe had started out with everyone's lives being up for grabs, by this point - and not least because of AHM's extreme focus on nostalgia - that's not so certain, so I wasn't willing to buy Sludge as being dead at the start. And surprise, he wasn't. Yes, it does serve to give Grimlock a moment of introspection, but that also doesn't work since for the reader (well, for this reader, anyway) it just doesn't land.

On the topic of Sludge, though, I think that Raiz's artwork is meant to show that Grimlock's opened his spark chamber next to Sludge's, and is trying to "jump start" him with that. And a good beating. Although I could be wrong. Whatever's going on, it certainly isn't clear.

But it is mostly the art that carries this, with both artists being on great form. And the twist with Shockwave is also very nice, and shows that what he was up to wasn't a result of inconsistent writing, so I enjoyed that.

But by and large, I was expecting a Dinobot-themed story to go out with more of a bang. But then maybe that's fitting for the end of Furman's time in this universe. If only there wasn't going to be such a long wait for his successor to make themselves known. Oh well...

Revisitation 71: End of the Road.

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