Pass the Message Around the World, the Medium is in Retreat, the Power is Here, and Packing Some Heat.
The Transformers Issue 13: Heart Like a Wheel. November 10th, 2010.
As the saying goes, “Fortune favours the bold.”
After a series of incredibly pretentious titles, it’s almost a relief to have Mike Costa go for naming this issue after a Human League song. Well, that’s what I’m going to assume anyway (it’s a common enough title that the Wiki page for this issue looks like a debate over where the name comes from), just to give Costa the benefit of having at least some taste.
As far as the issue itself goes, this one is fairly notable if, like me, you had given up reading the book at the time. Because it is, as far as I recall, pretty much the last issue till Chaos Theory, the best part of a year later, that there was any big buzz for an issue online amongst those who were still aboard. Good or bad, after this, I’m actually a lot less certain of what’s to come for pretty much the rest of Costa’s time.
And the reason there was a buzz is simple, Nick Roche is back on art. And to be fair to Costa, it seems like the entire issue—Hot Rod focused and with clear call-backs to his previous work for IDW—was written specifically for Nick to draw. Brining back the key creator of by far the best book of the year (though, in terms of the ongoing sense Costa perhaps wasn’t best pleased at all by the attention that Wreckers got, that’s a Roche work that doesn’t get call-backs here) was genuinely exciting to those still reading. It certainly would have been to me.
And look, it’s Nick Roche. Let’s just take it as read that the entire issue is striking, fun and bold. We’ve had some good work by Guido after he was allowed to settle down into his own style, but this really feels more energetic and enthusiastic than anything we’ve seen on the ongoing so far. Like coming off both a well-received book and having had a bit of a break have done Nick the world of good.
As the saying goes, “Fortune favours the bold.”
After a series of incredibly pretentious titles, it’s almost a relief to have Mike Costa go for naming this issue after a Human League song. Well, that’s what I’m going to assume anyway (it’s a common enough title that the Wiki page for this issue looks like a debate over where the name comes from), just to give Costa the benefit of having at least some taste.
As far as the issue itself goes, this one is fairly notable if, like me, you had given up reading the book at the time. Because it is, as far as I recall, pretty much the last issue till Chaos Theory, the best part of a year later, that there was any big buzz for an issue online amongst those who were still aboard. Good or bad, after this, I’m actually a lot less certain of what’s to come for pretty much the rest of Costa’s time.
And the reason there was a buzz is simple, Nick Roche is back on art. And to be fair to Costa, it seems like the entire issue—Hot Rod focused and with clear call-backs to his previous work for IDW—was written specifically for Nick to draw. Brining back the key creator of by far the best book of the year (though, in terms of the ongoing sense Costa perhaps wasn’t best pleased at all by the attention that Wreckers got, that’s a Roche work that doesn’t get call-backs here) was genuinely exciting to those still reading. It certainly would have been to me.
And look, it’s Nick Roche. Let’s just take it as read that the entire issue is striking, fun and bold. We’ve had some good work by Guido after he was allowed to settle down into his own style, but this really feels more energetic and enthusiastic than anything we’ve seen on the ongoing so far. Like coming off both a well-received book and having had a bit of a break have done Nick the world of good.
Big Rod Energy.
And to continue to be fair to Costa, as with the title, we immediately feel like this story is going to be stripped of the pretentions that have made his work a bit of a slog as we open with a cheerful scene of Rodimus, picking up from where we last saw him, blasting through space in Magnus’ ship, determined to get over his recent mistakes with bold actions and luck. Luck that’s off to a good start because, not only has he successfully stolen Magnus’ ship, the enforcer was even good enough to have left his super-tough unbreakable safe full of weapons open for him. Which is quite a fun gag.
Not having much luck are the Decepticons, for their asteroid is where Hot Rod is heading, and where we see their early warning systems pick him up. Manned by Shrapnel and, in what I believe is his first ever proper speaking role, Acid Storm (who turns out to be a dumb goon), they at first panic, and then decide to try shooting the ship down. Which they succeed at too well, causing the wreckage to crash into and destroy their early warning outpost, with the two panicked Cons barely getting out in time.
Not having much luck are the Decepticons, for their asteroid is where Hot Rod is heading, and where we see their early warning systems pick him up. Manned by Shrapnel and, in what I believe is his first ever proper speaking role, Acid Storm (who turns out to be a dumb goon), they at first panic, and then decide to try shooting the ship down. Which they succeed at too well, causing the wreckage to crash into and destroy their early warning outpost, with the two panicked Cons barely getting out in time.
Big Scream energy.
Which is, again, a nice fun sequence.
As this happens, the narrating Rodimus talks about how he’s about to try something he’s done once before, but this time it’s going to be much harder. Which is a direct call-back to his Spotlight of course. However, rather than sky surfing, we get a far more unexpected reference, as he survives the fall to Earth and crash by placing himself in Ultra Magnus’ super tough and fridge shaped safe.
Yes, effectively, this is Rodimus Prime and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullgrin.
Not interested in any of this is Starscream, who is still sulking with the Matrix and completely ignores Bombshell (an odd choice for second in command) trying to report about the crash. At least until the Insecticon tries to suggest doing something about the Matrix, at which point he tells the bug to get out. Whilst talking about himself in the third person (“Leave us”).
Bombshell decides getting away from the crazy is a good idea and leads the investigation of the crash personally, arriving in time for Acid Storm and Shrapnel to be taken down, and his own attempt to use a cerebro shell on their Autobot attacker be defeated by it becoming stuck to the front of the safe door the Last Bot Standing is using as body armour.
Which, again, is another fun visual and moment.
As this happens, the narrating Rodimus talks about how he’s about to try something he’s done once before, but this time it’s going to be much harder. Which is a direct call-back to his Spotlight of course. However, rather than sky surfing, we get a far more unexpected reference, as he survives the fall to Earth and crash by placing himself in Ultra Magnus’ super tough and fridge shaped safe.
Yes, effectively, this is Rodimus Prime and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullgrin.
Not interested in any of this is Starscream, who is still sulking with the Matrix and completely ignores Bombshell (an odd choice for second in command) trying to report about the crash. At least until the Insecticon tries to suggest doing something about the Matrix, at which point he tells the bug to get out. Whilst talking about himself in the third person (“Leave us”).
Bombshell decides getting away from the crazy is a good idea and leads the investigation of the crash personally, arriving in time for Acid Storm and Shrapnel to be taken down, and his own attempt to use a cerebro shell on their Autobot attacker be defeated by it becoming stuck to the front of the safe door the Last Bot Standing is using as body armour.
Which, again, is another fun visual and moment.
Costa suiting up to deflect complaints.
Razorclaw is less impressed, being quite prepared to rip Rodimus and his vest to little pieces, at least until the Autobot simply shoves the cerebro shell into the Predacon’s mouth… and is surprised it gives him complete control of Razorclaw.
I’m not sure the shells should work like that, but, once again, it’s just a nice moment.
Rodimus’ luck continues into being able to use his toy boy to get right to the throne room, and then set the Predacon on Starscream, though the difficulty of making anyone do something they really don’t want to under hypnosis means it’s actually a fairly easy win for the leader, who even manages to quickly work out what’s really going on when he sees Rodimus.
What he couldn’t have predicted is an unpredictable Autobot deciding the best way to deal with Starscream is to simply shoot the Matrix, which, much to his own surprise as anyone else’s, causes so much electrical feedback it knocks Starscream out.
So, it seems Rodimus is having a really good day, “Fortune favours the bold” as he puts it. But his first mistake is to get too cocky and start misquoting the 1986 film, starting to think Unicron’s last words about how this is his destiny as a big black shape with a Decepticon badge looms up behind him.
I’m not sure the shells should work like that, but, once again, it’s just a nice moment.
Rodimus’ luck continues into being able to use his toy boy to get right to the throne room, and then set the Predacon on Starscream, though the difficulty of making anyone do something they really don’t want to under hypnosis means it’s actually a fairly easy win for the leader, who even manages to quickly work out what’s really going on when he sees Rodimus.
What he couldn’t have predicted is an unpredictable Autobot deciding the best way to deal with Starscream is to simply shoot the Matrix, which, much to his own surprise as anyone else’s, causes so much electrical feedback it knocks Starscream out.
So, it seems Rodimus is having a really good day, “Fortune favours the bold” as he puts it. But his first mistake is to get too cocky and start misquoting the 1986 film, starting to think Unicron’s last words about how this is his destiny as a big black shape with a Decepticon badge looms up behind him.
What a shocking twist.
Giving us a full page reveal of Megatron, in his new and infamous stealth bomber design.
Infamous because it was created as part of a pitch by Don Figueroa to editor Andy Schmidt that was rejected, and which he made when he wasn’t under any sort of contract. So, at least at the time (I don’t know how the dust has settled since, though he is on Twitter now and seems genuinely happy to talk about these days and share art from them, so the sting at least seems to have worn off), he regarded IDW as not having the rights to use it, nor had they paid for it.
Now, the situation does get a little confused because the cover with the design on it Don drew for the next issue (which, because of lead-in times, would have been drawn before it), would effectively give Hasbro full ownership of it because of how these work for hire contracts, well, work. But, at the very least, it was a very poorly handled misunderstanding on Schmidt’s part and, along with something I’ll discuss in a minute, shows how poorly the big chiefs were handling their vital talent at the time.
Infamous because it was created as part of a pitch by Don Figueroa to editor Andy Schmidt that was rejected, and which he made when he wasn’t under any sort of contract. So, at least at the time (I don’t know how the dust has settled since, though he is on Twitter now and seems genuinely happy to talk about these days and share art from them, so the sting at least seems to have worn off), he regarded IDW as not having the rights to use it, nor had they paid for it.
Now, the situation does get a little confused because the cover with the design on it Don drew for the next issue (which, because of lead-in times, would have been drawn before it), would effectively give Hasbro full ownership of it because of how these work for hire contracts, well, work. But, at the very least, it was a very poorly handled misunderstanding on Schmidt’s part and, along with something I’ll discuss in a minute, shows how poorly the big chiefs were handling their vital talent at the time.
Big Megs energy.
Unfortunately, after the issue has been very solid so far, but the ending retreats into a rather lazy “Subversion” of the film, with Rodimus trying to open the Matrix… Only to get blasted out into space for his troubles as Megatron shoots him right through the wall and into orbit. It’s the sort of thing you’d write when you were 8, and that’s a shame as it’s a nice demonstration of Megatron’s new, ridiculous, power-levels.
Having swatted a gnat and with Starscream no longer having his “Bauble” (make your mind up Megs, do you want the Matrix or not?), he and Soundwave then go to address the troops as they have work to do.
Leaving Rodimus, with a massive hole through his body, drifting through space and looking very, very dead…
Oddly, this is not something that will come up between the two of them in conversation in later years.
If Costa did intentionally write an issue specifically for Nick Roche to draw, thinking “What would Nick do well?” really brought out the best of him. This is the first issue of the ongoing you can largely and unambiguously call a success, slightly weak ending aside. It just rattles along, with nice set pieces, some good humour and a long missing and much needed sense of fun. All the pretentious and beyond his grasp ambitions the series has struggled with are stripped away to just do something that, if largely fluff, is good fluff.
And yes, Nick Roche is fantastic here. Which makes something that happened around this time all the more a shame. According to a panel he was on at Auto (probably the summer 2011 convention?), he’d been trying to angle for more writing work, but was flat out told that IDW had enough good writers, they only wanted him for the art.
Having swatted a gnat and with Starscream no longer having his “Bauble” (make your mind up Megs, do you want the Matrix or not?), he and Soundwave then go to address the troops as they have work to do.
Leaving Rodimus, with a massive hole through his body, drifting through space and looking very, very dead…
Oddly, this is not something that will come up between the two of them in conversation in later years.
If Costa did intentionally write an issue specifically for Nick Roche to draw, thinking “What would Nick do well?” really brought out the best of him. This is the first issue of the ongoing you can largely and unambiguously call a success, slightly weak ending aside. It just rattles along, with nice set pieces, some good humour and a long missing and much needed sense of fun. All the pretentious and beyond his grasp ambitions the series has struggled with are stripped away to just do something that, if largely fluff, is good fluff.
And yes, Nick Roche is fantastic here. Which makes something that happened around this time all the more a shame. According to a panel he was on at Auto (probably the summer 2011 convention?), he’d been trying to angle for more writing work, but was flat out told that IDW had enough good writers, they only wanted him for the art.
Hole in one.
Which probably worked out better for Roche in the long term, it inspired him to push harder for work outside the ghetto where he could have more writing and creative input beyond the art. Which has paid off for him in spades. Indeed, at that same convention, he wasn’t so confident he’d ever work on the franchise again, and certainly going forward, as far as I can recall, his only interior work before the next relaunch brings him back into the fold, is on Infestation in the new year. Which was a chance to work with some proper “Big” name Marvel writing talent.
For us simple Transformers fans though, the squandering of the talent behind the best received book of the year is frustrating and shows how roughly run things were behind the scenes. Nick Roche should have been a talent to court and woo, give him that Wreckers sequel now rather than in years, or the spy team on Earth miniseries he also pitched. They’d have gotten a happy artist and, based on his overall hit-rate, some more genuinely well received comics. A win for everyone.
Still, for all that is going on behind the scenes, this is a success and a much needed one. The question then becomes, can Costa carry on that winning streak into the final issue of 2010?
DRIFT ISSUE 4
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
For us simple Transformers fans though, the squandering of the talent behind the best received book of the year is frustrating and shows how roughly run things were behind the scenes. Nick Roche should have been a talent to court and woo, give him that Wreckers sequel now rather than in years, or the spy team on Earth miniseries he also pitched. They’d have gotten a happy artist and, based on his overall hit-rate, some more genuinely well received comics. A win for everyone.
Still, for all that is going on behind the scenes, this is a success and a much needed one. The question then becomes, can Costa carry on that winning streak into the final issue of 2010?
DRIFT ISSUE 4
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
