Locked up, Can't get You off My Mind.
The Transformers issue 17: Revenge of the Decepticons Part 5: The Demolished Man*.
No. I’ve had enough of that.
*See the discussion below for why I’m using this title for the issue…
The astute amongst you will have noticed that the subtitle to this concluding part of the story is the same as that as the first. Considering that Costa loves a bit of pretension, it’s easy to assume this is intentional, that he’s having a full George Lucas “It’s like poetry, it rhymes” moment.
It turns out this was in fact a mistake, and the subtitle should be Enemy Mine, which some trades did indeed fix. Mind, I say mistake, readers last week will have seen the next issue advert used this title, so it’s not just a case of cut’n’pasting the wrong one in, it seems someone genuinely forgot they already used it.
Either way, the scans I’m using are of the original printing, and the Hachette trade (the most recent reprint) uses this version as well, so, error or not, that’s what I’m going with.
Which is all a more exciting thing to talk about than the issue itself…
No. I’ve had enough of that.
*See the discussion below for why I’m using this title for the issue…
The astute amongst you will have noticed that the subtitle to this concluding part of the story is the same as that as the first. Considering that Costa loves a bit of pretension, it’s easy to assume this is intentional, that he’s having a full George Lucas “It’s like poetry, it rhymes” moment.
It turns out this was in fact a mistake, and the subtitle should be Enemy Mine, which some trades did indeed fix. Mind, I say mistake, readers last week will have seen the next issue advert used this title, so it’s not just a case of cut’n’pasting the wrong one in, it seems someone genuinely forgot they already used it.
Either way, the scans I’m using are of the original printing, and the Hachette trade (the most recent reprint) uses this version as well, so, error or not, that’s what I’m going with.
Which is all a more exciting thing to talk about than the issue itself…
Old happy smiling Ultra Magnus.
At Omega Supreme, Thundercracker (annoyed at being fixed by Wheeljack rather than the more famous Ratchet) is enjoying the news about “Jazz: Cop Killer,” till an annoyed Prime tells him to either give all the information he has about where Megatron would go to ground, or he’s just another prisoner in the cells.
Though it turns out Thundercracker (understandably for a guy who’s been out of touch with the Decepticons for years) knows diddly squat.
Luckily, there’s one competent person on the team in Ultra Magnus, who reveals, with a wry smile of the sort I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of, that he’d placed a tracker on Soundwave.
After hearing about some exciting new not even authorised for use weapons yet from Spike, Prime sends Jetfire into space to do some science, whilst also telling Jazz he’s going to be Bumblebee’s problem. Because that guy can deal with HR admin crap,
He also resolutely ignores Prowl telling him what a terrible idea it is to go take on Megatron one on one, but, with the biggest ex-energy we’ve seen between the two of them yet, This Time It’s Personal.
Though it turns out Thundercracker (understandably for a guy who’s been out of touch with the Decepticons for years) knows diddly squat.
Luckily, there’s one competent person on the team in Ultra Magnus, who reveals, with a wry smile of the sort I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of, that he’d placed a tracker on Soundwave.
After hearing about some exciting new not even authorised for use weapons yet from Spike, Prime sends Jetfire into space to do some science, whilst also telling Jazz he’s going to be Bumblebee’s problem. Because that guy can deal with HR admin crap,
He also resolutely ignores Prowl telling him what a terrible idea it is to go take on Megatron one on one, but, with the biggest ex-energy we’ve seen between the two of them yet, This Time It’s Personal.
TFW Optimus Prime.
Personal enough for him to copy a trick from Michael Bay, jumping out of a military jet and landing through the ceiling of Megatron’s base, where the astute Shockwave is able to identify him as “Optimus Prime.”
With Soundwave ill on the table and needing no disruptions during a delicate repair operation, Megatron accepts Prime’s offer to step outside, where we get more of their back-and-forth bitching. With Prime saying the great thing about humans is they are constantly changing, unlike him, who has used the same gun for millennium, and Megatron, who has only just changed his body and weapon of choice for the first time in a similar period.
This is of course, completely at odds with what we’ve seen in IDW so far, where most of the regular characters are onto at least their third design and a large part of the Furman run was about Megatron using Ore 13 to make himself more powerful than ever before. So, it’s all a nonsense argument.
One that Prime shoots down my shooting Megatron a few times in the chest, seemingly ineffectually, before driving off, much to Megatron’s confusion.
Turns out the shots were just to provide a targeting vector for a “Kinetic harpoon.” A fancy way of saying Jetfire is dropping a Skywatch satellite from orbit with the force of a nuclear bomb. Which creates a massive explosion, but one that, much to Prime’s increasing “Why won’t you just DIE” shock, just walks out from.
With Soundwave ill on the table and needing no disruptions during a delicate repair operation, Megatron accepts Prime’s offer to step outside, where we get more of their back-and-forth bitching. With Prime saying the great thing about humans is they are constantly changing, unlike him, who has used the same gun for millennium, and Megatron, who has only just changed his body and weapon of choice for the first time in a similar period.
This is of course, completely at odds with what we’ve seen in IDW so far, where most of the regular characters are onto at least their third design and a large part of the Furman run was about Megatron using Ore 13 to make himself more powerful than ever before. So, it’s all a nonsense argument.
One that Prime shoots down my shooting Megatron a few times in the chest, seemingly ineffectually, before driving off, much to Megatron’s confusion.
Turns out the shots were just to provide a targeting vector for a “Kinetic harpoon.” A fancy way of saying Jetfire is dropping a Skywatch satellite from orbit with the force of a nuclear bomb. Which creates a massive explosion, but one that, much to Prime’s increasing “Why won’t you just DIE” shock, just walks out from.
We all have that ex.
Though presumably it does kill all the Decepticons who were watching the fight. Or at least vaporises Soundwave.
Of course, Prime could have just used Ultra Magnus’ tracker for the targeting data, but I guess it really was This Time It’s Personal.
It’s also worth noting that the kinetic harpoon is a fancy name for the sort of orbital bombardment that’s very popular in science fiction (Babylon 5 called it Mass Drivers, and it usually involves asteroids), especially because it lets you have all the effects of a nuclear bomb without any of that pesky radiation. Which means Prime is cheerfully ignoring all the environmental damage from the huge amounts of debris thrown into the air by such an impact. Sort of what killed the dinosaurs, but on a smaller scale.
A short while later, back at Omega Supreme, the Autobots are shocked to see Megatron dump Prime’s unconscious body (how he won the fight in the end is never shown) outside, before declaring he is surrendering into their custody.
Of course, Prime could have just used Ultra Magnus’ tracker for the targeting data, but I guess it really was This Time It’s Personal.
It’s also worth noting that the kinetic harpoon is a fancy name for the sort of orbital bombardment that’s very popular in science fiction (Babylon 5 called it Mass Drivers, and it usually involves asteroids), especially because it lets you have all the effects of a nuclear bomb without any of that pesky radiation. Which means Prime is cheerfully ignoring all the environmental damage from the huge amounts of debris thrown into the air by such an impact. Sort of what killed the dinosaurs, but on a smaller scale.
A short while later, back at Omega Supreme, the Autobots are shocked to see Megatron dump Prime’s unconscious body (how he won the fight in the end is never shown) outside, before declaring he is surrendering into their custody.
"He should know better than to text me when drunk"
Which is one of the best remembered aspects of the run, largely because of a story that’s not too far away now. Which makes it all the more surprising that it’s not the end of issue cliff-hanger.
Instead, we carry on for a few pages, of Megatron strung up in Omega Supreme (with the threat that if he causes any nonsense, Omega will transform and crush the Decepticon. Not sure how that’s supposed to scare a guy who just walked off the equivalent of a nuke), taunting Optimus.
In particular over the fact that, having retrieved his body and played back his last memories, that Megatron knows Spike killed Scrapper, something that shocks and horrifies Prime.
Who a few pages earlier was trying really hard to kill a Decepticon.
Frankly, knowing some of Costa’s later comments, it feels like this is all just about pre-empting the forthcoming James Roberts story by showing how such a chat “Should” be done.
It does see Prime asking Prowl to start an investigation before he starts thinking about the coming Chaos…
Instead, we carry on for a few pages, of Megatron strung up in Omega Supreme (with the threat that if he causes any nonsense, Omega will transform and crush the Decepticon. Not sure how that’s supposed to scare a guy who just walked off the equivalent of a nuke), taunting Optimus.
In particular over the fact that, having retrieved his body and played back his last memories, that Megatron knows Spike killed Scrapper, something that shocks and horrifies Prime.
Who a few pages earlier was trying really hard to kill a Decepticon.
Frankly, knowing some of Costa’s later comments, it feels like this is all just about pre-empting the forthcoming James Roberts story by showing how such a chat “Should” be done.
It does see Prime asking Prowl to start an investigation before he starts thinking about the coming Chaos…
Exactly where he wanted to be was in a 50 shades roleplay.
Well, I say “He,” but a string of narration boxes that seem to be from him suddenly start talking about Prime in the third person towards the end, so maybe it’s the author who’s worried about Chaos?
Still, he goes and has a good think in his chair, which isn’t quite as exciting an ending as Megatron surrendering.
The drawn-out mediocrity of this story continues right to the end, with characters posturing and giving meaningless speeches (often at odds with their values in other IDW issues) till it simply stops. Potentially drastic changes in the status quo like Megatron giving up have less impact than they should because it’s taken so long to get here and doesn’t feel like anyone is acting truly to themselves. Costa is throwing his biggest moments at the wall without having built the wall first.
This entire story should have at most, been three parts. Something that could have been quite easily achieved by having one Autobot/Decepticon confrontation instead of three. By this point, my will to live has vanished like Megatron’s desire for freedom.
Still, he goes and has a good think in his chair, which isn’t quite as exciting an ending as Megatron surrendering.
The drawn-out mediocrity of this story continues right to the end, with characters posturing and giving meaningless speeches (often at odds with their values in other IDW issues) till it simply stops. Potentially drastic changes in the status quo like Megatron giving up have less impact than they should because it’s taken so long to get here and doesn’t feel like anyone is acting truly to themselves. Costa is throwing his biggest moments at the wall without having built the wall first.
This entire story should have at most, been three parts. Something that could have been quite easily achieved by having one Autobot/Decepticon confrontation instead of three. By this point, my will to live has vanished like Megatron’s desire for freedom.
Pod people!
On art, Milne closes out his taking over from Don run with continued solid work, including some nice big pages like the surrender. He also puts in a little joke of including the Underbase Podcast hosts Dave Wallace, Aimee Morgan, and Matt Morgan in a crowd. Which has an added irony as that podcast would, by the end of the year, do the most infamous Mike Costa interview.
Solid art can’t help a poor story though.
Next week, we’re back to issue 2 of a story without even the solid art, so we’ll have to see how that goes…
HEART OF DARKNESS ISSUE 1
2011
COMMENT
KO-FI
Solid art can’t help a poor story though.
Next week, we’re back to issue 2 of a story without even the solid art, so we’ll have to see how that goes…
HEART OF DARKNESS ISSUE 1
2011
COMMENT
KO-FI
