I’m a Sinner, I’m a Saint, I do not Feel Ashamed.
The Transformers issue 27: Police Action Part 2: Only Forward. October 5th 2011.
Have you noticed a tank following you?
We’re straight into the action this issue, as Prowl is saved by his backup, Streetwise, and, after working out from the Korean made shells that their attacker is Brawl, sends the Jr Cop to deal with the Combaticon. This leaves him free to find the “Spotter” for Brawl’s shots, a mysterious figure in the distance, using cloaking technology so advanced, even Prowl can’t get a fix on him.
Which is the moment Prowl remembers he’s sent a cop car to a tank fight.
The following scene of Brawl bitching at Streetwise as they face off, before Prowl comes in and uses a shot he rather smugly thinks he’ll get to brag to Perceptor about later, he knocks Brawl’s aim off, giving Streetwise chance to use the inhibitor on him.
This is actually quite a fun opening, with some nice fast paced action, good banter, a genuine (albeit clunky) attempt to write Prowl as the analyses all the angles guy, and a fun final gag of the two Autobots realising they now have to drag a misstransformed tank back to Omega Supreme.
Have you noticed a tank following you?
We’re straight into the action this issue, as Prowl is saved by his backup, Streetwise, and, after working out from the Korean made shells that their attacker is Brawl, sends the Jr Cop to deal with the Combaticon. This leaves him free to find the “Spotter” for Brawl’s shots, a mysterious figure in the distance, using cloaking technology so advanced, even Prowl can’t get a fix on him.
Which is the moment Prowl remembers he’s sent a cop car to a tank fight.
The following scene of Brawl bitching at Streetwise as they face off, before Prowl comes in and uses a shot he rather smugly thinks he’ll get to brag to Perceptor about later, he knocks Brawl’s aim off, giving Streetwise chance to use the inhibitor on him.
This is actually quite a fun opening, with some nice fast paced action, good banter, a genuine (albeit clunky) attempt to write Prowl as the analyses all the angles guy, and a fun final gag of the two Autobots realising they now have to drag a misstransformed tank back to Omega Supreme.
Brain over Brawl.
Sadly, the quality quickly derails for a diversion to wrapping up old business, as we cut to a house in America where a woman with a Tara King style row of wig disguises in bitching on the phone about how Skywatch is having its funding cut, before she opens the door to a knock, to reveal she is in fact Sandra!
Remember Sandra? The Skywatch agent with a conscience?
No, me neither.
But Pennington has remembered her and has successfully tracked her down, because this on the run from the US government agent is stupid enough to be hiding out in her mother’s house.
They have some back and forth about treason and duty and whether she really did anything wrong or not before she tells him to go away, but, frankly, it’s a goes nowhere does nothing scene, even by Costa’s standards.
Much more fun is to be had at Omega Supreme, as the two cops attempt to interrogate an incredibly dense Brawl, who keeps insisting he was acting alone, up to and including somehow being able to do stealth surveillance on Prowl whilst a tank.
Remember Sandra? The Skywatch agent with a conscience?
No, me neither.
But Pennington has remembered her and has successfully tracked her down, because this on the run from the US government agent is stupid enough to be hiding out in her mother’s house.
They have some back and forth about treason and duty and whether she really did anything wrong or not before she tells him to go away, but, frankly, it’s a goes nowhere does nothing scene, even by Costa’s standards.
Much more fun is to be had at Omega Supreme, as the two cops attempt to interrogate an incredibly dense Brawl, who keeps insisting he was acting alone, up to and including somehow being able to do stealth surveillance on Prowl whilst a tank.
"Apart from the laws of nature"
Sadly, the chat gets cut short as Brawl’s mind is suddenly fried. Resulting in a quick hologram call to Wheeljack (so this isn’t exactly concurrent with the most recent part of Chaos), who is absolutely overjoyed to find that someone has rigged Brawl’s brain to go ZZAPP if anyone uses an inhibitor on him, something that delights the scientist for making the game more interesting.
Which is, again, another nice fun little moment.
We’re quickly back to the ridiculous though, as Sandra leaves home to go… somewhere unclear, to find a cop car outside, with the officer, who can’t possibly know about her visit yesterday, telling her he’s there to escort her… somewhere so she’s safe from random Skywatch guys.
And the stupid idiot gets in. And takes a good long while to realise that, of course, the car is an Autobot and the cop an avatar.
Which is, again, another nice fun little moment.
We’re quickly back to the ridiculous though, as Sandra leaves home to go… somewhere unclear, to find a cop car outside, with the officer, who can’t possibly know about her visit yesterday, telling her he’s there to escort her… somewhere so she’s safe from random Skywatch guys.
And the stupid idiot gets in. And takes a good long while to realise that, of course, the car is an Autobot and the cop an avatar.
Tanks very much.
The Watergate journalists, she is not.
At Omega Supreme, after making sure she’s walked past Spike’s door so he can see her, Pennington gets another moment with Sandra, where they again talk duty, honour and treason in a way no reader is remotely invested enough in their story to care about.
After Pennington leaves, we do at least get Ultra Magnus telling Sandra what she did was entirely right in his book, a nice touch for the letter of the law Autobot.
They’re really there to talk Spike though, and in what is meant to be the big moment for this storyline, she goes on at length, but it basically boils down to “Spike thinks he’s a movie soldier, but real life doesn’t work like that and therefore he’s dangerous”.
Clearly, this is meant to be a truth bomb to readers, sure those maverick rule breaking soldiers in films (like, say, the ones in the Transformers films) may be cool, but are actually the villains in real life. We shouldn’t admire them, and such men are dangerous.
At Omega Supreme, after making sure she’s walked past Spike’s door so he can see her, Pennington gets another moment with Sandra, where they again talk duty, honour and treason in a way no reader is remotely invested enough in their story to care about.
After Pennington leaves, we do at least get Ultra Magnus telling Sandra what she did was entirely right in his book, a nice touch for the letter of the law Autobot.
They’re really there to talk Spike though, and in what is meant to be the big moment for this storyline, she goes on at length, but it basically boils down to “Spike thinks he’s a movie soldier, but real life doesn’t work like that and therefore he’s dangerous”.
Clearly, this is meant to be a truth bomb to readers, sure those maverick rule breaking soldiers in films (like, say, the ones in the Transformers films) may be cool, but are actually the villains in real life. We shouldn’t admire them, and such men are dangerous.
Imagine being Mike Costa and having the cheek to write about cliches.
Which is not only really patronising, I don’t think even the most deranged Revenge of the Fallen fan (me, I am that fan) thinks soldiers throwing senior government officials out of aircraft is a good idea.
But the real issue is, this conversation is entirely based on readers having initially liked Spike. Which not one single person seems to have done, all the way back to All Hail Megatron. He’s never been movie cool; he’s always been an obvious twat. So, this doesn’t feel like an intentional commentary, it’s more like Costa realised no one liked his writing and trying to make it look like that was the point all along.
But the real issue is, this conversation is entirely based on readers having initially liked Spike. Which not one single person seems to have done, all the way back to All Hail Megatron. He’s never been movie cool; he’s always been an obvious twat. So, this doesn’t feel like an intentional commentary, it’s more like Costa realised no one liked his writing and trying to make it look like that was the point all along.
Arses R Us.
Even Spike, watching on CCTV, has had enough of this nonsense, so the issue ends on him just going straight up to Prowl and confessing to killing Scrapper (making a page of Prowl analysing the evidence he got from the building site pointless).
In a panel that has clearly been copied closely from a reference photo of a real person, meaning he not only doesn’t look very much like Spike, but he also doesn’t match the simpler style of the other humans in the issue.
This did have some nice fun action movie moments (helped by Brendan Cahill doing more solid work than on the humans), adding to the irony that the weakest parts are the commentary on action movie moments that’s trying to say Mike Costa is a writer way above such petty and pathetic genre conventions, whilst utterly failing.
Even with the fun parts, I can’t imagine any readers caring enough about the Spike plot to even have that level of investment in it. Meaning, as we really hit the final downhill slope part of this era, it’s going out on a whimper.
Next week, back to Cybertron and slightly higher stakes, as this time (after, in a sign of the confusion going on behind the scenes, last issue also promoted it as the next), it really is an Agent of Chaos.
THE TRANSFORMERS ISSUE 26
2011
COMMENT
KO-FI
In a panel that has clearly been copied closely from a reference photo of a real person, meaning he not only doesn’t look very much like Spike, but he also doesn’t match the simpler style of the other humans in the issue.
This did have some nice fun action movie moments (helped by Brendan Cahill doing more solid work than on the humans), adding to the irony that the weakest parts are the commentary on action movie moments that’s trying to say Mike Costa is a writer way above such petty and pathetic genre conventions, whilst utterly failing.
Even with the fun parts, I can’t imagine any readers caring enough about the Spike plot to even have that level of investment in it. Meaning, as we really hit the final downhill slope part of this era, it’s going out on a whimper.
Next week, back to Cybertron and slightly higher stakes, as this time (after, in a sign of the confusion going on behind the scenes, last issue also promoted it as the next), it really is an Agent of Chaos.
THE TRANSFORMERS ISSUE 26
2011
COMMENT
KO-FI
