But if This Ever Changin’ World in Which we Live in, Makes you Give in and Cry, Say Live and Let Die.
The Death of Optimus Prime. December 21st 2011.
My definition of “restraint” is clearly different from Prowl and Bumblebee’s.
The first thing to note about this one, is it was originally promoted as the “125th” issue of Transformers at IDW, a gimmick they’ve since repeated for things like Star Trek and Sonic (though with more impressive issue numbers), but that this count ignores several series such as the New Avengers crossover and that it was quietly dropped bar the banner on the covers it was too late to remove, shows how tumultuous the transition into this new era was.
Indeed, this is the third big relaunch for the series in just six years, with each of the previous two showing diminishing returns. It’s actually more surprising this isn’t a full reboot, something Hasbro actively wanted at the time to bring the comics into their Aligned continuity.
But the, frankly against common sense, almost certainly led by continuity king John Barber decision to stick to the established continuity will, against all odds, turn out to pay off great dividends this time.
Indeed, this one-shot was so well received at the time, it’s easy to forget it’s first and foremost a transition issue to the two new ongoings, with the two authors working together.
My definition of “restraint” is clearly different from Prowl and Bumblebee’s.
The first thing to note about this one, is it was originally promoted as the “125th” issue of Transformers at IDW, a gimmick they’ve since repeated for things like Star Trek and Sonic (though with more impressive issue numbers), but that this count ignores several series such as the New Avengers crossover and that it was quietly dropped bar the banner on the covers it was too late to remove, shows how tumultuous the transition into this new era was.
Indeed, this is the third big relaunch for the series in just six years, with each of the previous two showing diminishing returns. It’s actually more surprising this isn’t a full reboot, something Hasbro actively wanted at the time to bring the comics into their Aligned continuity.
But the, frankly against common sense, almost certainly led by continuity king John Barber decision to stick to the established continuity will, against all odds, turn out to pay off great dividends this time.
Indeed, this one-shot was so well received at the time, it’s easy to forget it’s first and foremost a transition issue to the two new ongoings, with the two authors working together.
I’ve already talked about James Roberts at length, but only alluded to some of the strengths and weaknesses of John Barber. I’ll speak more about him directly when I reach his first solo issue, but it’s important to note his is also the range editor (though he won’t be directly editing his own book) and is effectively the person with their hand on the tiller of the most successful era of IDW, and, at least critically, Transformers comics in general.
Roberts is more the public face of this run, as he did more cons and has spoken more and at length about his process, but in terms of what Phase 2 (as it’s called) achieves, and at times fails at, Barber is the one most responsible.
And, in another issue where each writer is handling “their” characters separately, it’s Barber who kicks off the new era with Optimus Prime in the wilderness, something you can tell once you’re more familiar with his work from one of Barber’s main quirks: Omnipresent first-person narration. Something he will sometime use well and smartly, but more often than not, comes across as a fear of any ambiguity of what a character might be thinking.
Here, Prime remembers putting the Matrix into Vector Sigma, and is now confused as to where and when he is on Cybertron. The desolation initially makes him think he might have been thrown into the past, then seeing that one of Cybertron’s moons is still missing (a bit of seeding for James Roberts), and the “Galactic positioning system” telling him the flat terrain he’s in should be the Magnesium Mountains, he wonders if it’s the far future, before realising that the bodies of all the Sweeps are still lying about.
Roberts is more the public face of this run, as he did more cons and has spoken more and at length about his process, but in terms of what Phase 2 (as it’s called) achieves, and at times fails at, Barber is the one most responsible.
And, in another issue where each writer is handling “their” characters separately, it’s Barber who kicks off the new era with Optimus Prime in the wilderness, something you can tell once you’re more familiar with his work from one of Barber’s main quirks: Omnipresent first-person narration. Something he will sometime use well and smartly, but more often than not, comes across as a fear of any ambiguity of what a character might be thinking.
Here, Prime remembers putting the Matrix into Vector Sigma, and is now confused as to where and when he is on Cybertron. The desolation initially makes him think he might have been thrown into the past, then seeing that one of Cybertron’s moons is still missing (a bit of seeding for James Roberts), and the “Galactic positioning system” telling him the flat terrain he’s in should be the Magnesium Mountains, he wonders if it’s the far future, before realising that the bodies of all the Sweeps are still lying about.
This makes him realise he might as well follow Ironhide’s long standing advice of not thinking about these things, and has him head to what should be Iacon, but is now a shanty town made out of the remains of Kimia and various ships.
The immediate difference between this and what we’ve had recently is striking, it’s a perfunctory opening simply establishing Prime’s confusion (and that today is “the day I died”, got to work that attention grabbing title in somehow), but it’s so much more comfortably sophisticated and flows so much better than anything Costa wrote. Without trying anything like as hard as he did.
Iacon isn’t just a shanty town, it’s an occupied shanty town. Full of Cybertronians Prime doesn’t recognise, and who clearly aren’t happy to see him, as he’s accosted by a small Transformer who is literally designed by Nick Roche (and more on him shortly) to look like Noddy and turn into Noddy’s car.
Which is where the title of the story comes in, if Noddy called me a dick, I too would die.
Noddy (or Tappet as he’ll turn out to be called later) is very angry at “Orion Pax” for not just the confusion of the last few days, but also the last four million years. Which is the start of characters being a bit too harsh and indifferent on Prime in order to get the issue to where it needs to be.
The immediate difference between this and what we’ve had recently is striking, it’s a perfunctory opening simply establishing Prime’s confusion (and that today is “the day I died”, got to work that attention grabbing title in somehow), but it’s so much more comfortably sophisticated and flows so much better than anything Costa wrote. Without trying anything like as hard as he did.
Iacon isn’t just a shanty town, it’s an occupied shanty town. Full of Cybertronians Prime doesn’t recognise, and who clearly aren’t happy to see him, as he’s accosted by a small Transformer who is literally designed by Nick Roche (and more on him shortly) to look like Noddy and turn into Noddy’s car.
Which is where the title of the story comes in, if Noddy called me a dick, I too would die.
Noddy (or Tappet as he’ll turn out to be called later) is very angry at “Orion Pax” for not just the confusion of the last few days, but also the last four million years. Which is the start of characters being a bit too harsh and indifferent on Prime in order to get the issue to where it needs to be.
Sideswipe (in his full G2 look, sadly something Andrew Griffith wasn’t aware of when he drew the character’s next appearance) and Whirl then appear, in a threatening police just checking in way, with Sideswipe setting out one of the key concepts of the Barber book:
NAILs. Non-Aligned Indigenous Life-form. Effectively, Prowl has invented a slur for the returning Cybertronian population.
This gets expanded upon once Prime gets into the makeshift Autobot headquarters, where he finds Bumblebee too busy to talk to him, so Rodimus fills him in:
Following the end of Chaos (Prime only actually lost a few days), the Autobots sent a ship to Earth to fetch Magnus and the others—a nice and low-key way of dealing with that dangling thread—and are then shocked to find more arrivals by… everyone. It turns out Vector Sigma sent out a signal heard by every Cybertronian in the galaxy, every neutral who fled during the war. Thousands of them, with more arriving every day.
And they already have a self-appointed spokesperson, previously Japanese exclusive character Metalhawk, with shoulders so wide, even at the time Nick Roche was joking he had to turn sideways to get through doors.
Metalhawk is the sort of “Both sides” liberal opportunist who has become even more prevalent in the decade since this came out, to the point I suspect his dialogue here wasn’t meant to be setting off so many red flags from the off as it does now.
NAILs. Non-Aligned Indigenous Life-form. Effectively, Prowl has invented a slur for the returning Cybertronian population.
This gets expanded upon once Prime gets into the makeshift Autobot headquarters, where he finds Bumblebee too busy to talk to him, so Rodimus fills him in:
Following the end of Chaos (Prime only actually lost a few days), the Autobots sent a ship to Earth to fetch Magnus and the others—a nice and low-key way of dealing with that dangling thread—and are then shocked to find more arrivals by… everyone. It turns out Vector Sigma sent out a signal heard by every Cybertronian in the galaxy, every neutral who fled during the war. Thousands of them, with more arriving every day.
And they already have a self-appointed spokesperson, previously Japanese exclusive character Metalhawk, with shoulders so wide, even at the time Nick Roche was joking he had to turn sideways to get through doors.
Metalhawk is the sort of “Both sides” liberal opportunist who has become even more prevalent in the decade since this came out, to the point I suspect his dialogue here wasn’t meant to be setting off so many red flags from the off as it does now.
He’s immediately aggressive about the Autobot “Occupiers” of Cybertron, talks about how there was no real difference between the uprising Decepticons and the senate who oppressed them. Even when Prime takes great delight in pointing out that he remembers Metalhawk ran, the neutral still swans off (sideways), smugly pointing out the Autobots are now outnumbered and it’s time they all left.
The setup here is great, the NAILs are a well thought out concept, and the potential here is huge. Unfortunately, the NAILs will kind of vanish from the series after a while when new concepts of civilian Transformers have to be introduced, but for now, Barber has created a rich source of stories.
This is also the moment Prime takes to show the others his broken coconut shell. That must have been rattling around his chest in a most annoying fashion.
Outside, we find out that all the Decepticons are now back to normal and hemmed into the gun barrel of the crashed Kimia, effectively a concentration camp as they try to work out what the hell happens now the war is over. These include Cyclonus, reminding us all he’s not a Decepticon (though he is a mass murderer and committed war crimes, so a little bit rich to think he’s better than the others), and a talking Ratbat who has decided that, as an ex-senator, he now leads here.
The setup here is great, the NAILs are a well thought out concept, and the potential here is huge. Unfortunately, the NAILs will kind of vanish from the series after a while when new concepts of civilian Transformers have to be introduced, but for now, Barber has created a rich source of stories.
This is also the moment Prime takes to show the others his broken coconut shell. That must have been rattling around his chest in a most annoying fashion.
Outside, we find out that all the Decepticons are now back to normal and hemmed into the gun barrel of the crashed Kimia, effectively a concentration camp as they try to work out what the hell happens now the war is over. These include Cyclonus, reminding us all he’s not a Decepticon (though he is a mass murderer and committed war crimes, so a little bit rich to think he’s better than the others), and a talking Ratbat who has decided that, as an ex-senator, he now leads here.
Barber can be hit and miss on what ideas from bad comics he revisits, but this is a good choice that, again, gives lots of potential for stories.
It also turns out all the Cons have been implanted with I/D chips to keep track of them and… do other things Bumblebee’s vague about.
One surprise here that I’d forgotten is, for a comic where two authors are meant to be setting up their own series, it mostly focuses on the John Barber side, with only two scenes entirely focused on the James Roberts. Making it a surprise this opens the first More Than Meets the Eye trade rather than the Robots in Disguise one.
The first of these is only one page, as Prime is summoned by Perceptor and Rewind, who’ve been examining the Matrix shells, with Rewind finding writing in “Old old Cybertronian”. Saying either “One from many” or “Many from one”, and at this point I can’t remember what that will turn out to mean, so it’s going to be interesting to see if it goes anywhere.
It also mentions a “Fist or hand”, which Prime reveals is the “Guiding Hand”, something so secret even Rewind hasn’t heard of them, with Prime only knowing because the Matrix had made him privy to “Alternate facts”, though those are now fading from his mind.
It also turns out all the Cons have been implanted with I/D chips to keep track of them and… do other things Bumblebee’s vague about.
One surprise here that I’d forgotten is, for a comic where two authors are meant to be setting up their own series, it mostly focuses on the John Barber side, with only two scenes entirely focused on the James Roberts. Making it a surprise this opens the first More Than Meets the Eye trade rather than the Robots in Disguise one.
The first of these is only one page, as Prime is summoned by Perceptor and Rewind, who’ve been examining the Matrix shells, with Rewind finding writing in “Old old Cybertronian”. Saying either “One from many” or “Many from one”, and at this point I can’t remember what that will turn out to mean, so it’s going to be interesting to see if it goes anywhere.
It also mentions a “Fist or hand”, which Prime reveals is the “Guiding Hand”, something so secret even Rewind hasn’t heard of them, with Prime only knowing because the Matrix had made him privy to “Alternate facts”, though those are now fading from his mind.
Considering we know how much planning Roberts was putting into his setup, it’s amusing how quickly the idea the Guiding Hand are incredibly “Prime’s eyes only” secret (presumably done here to explain why no one’s ever mentioned them before) will be retconned. Including that Rewind knows all about them, just not every version of the story.
With hindsight, it’s also very funny this implies that the Matrix bearer knows the entire truth about the Hand, and if Prime could still remember, More Than Meets the Eye would have a much shorter run.
Back in the Barber side, Metalhawk is drawn to fellow previously Japanese exclusive character Zetca, soothing his anger at the current situation by being deeply insincere about having sympathy for the Autobots’ position, and that he can change their minds.
Which turns out to be as much a speech for the passing Bumblebee, who gets the more on the nose point that the NAILs are on the point of doing something serious, and something he won’t be able to stop.
With hindsight, it’s also very funny this implies that the Matrix bearer knows the entire truth about the Hand, and if Prime could still remember, More Than Meets the Eye would have a much shorter run.
Back in the Barber side, Metalhawk is drawn to fellow previously Japanese exclusive character Zetca, soothing his anger at the current situation by being deeply insincere about having sympathy for the Autobots’ position, and that he can change their minds.
Which turns out to be as much a speech for the passing Bumblebee, who gets the more on the nose point that the NAILs are on the point of doing something serious, and something he won’t be able to stop.
I’ve not revisited Barber’s run very often, so, whilst I know the broad strokes, it’s going to be interesting to see where he goes with this strong of dubious sincerity character.
Over at Autobot headquarters, the NAILs are protesting (including one guy with a sign who gets a couple of close ups in the issue, remember him for next time), an argument is happening as it turns out the Matrix halves also had a map on them, Drift has decided it’s the map to Cyberutopia, home of the Knights of Cybertron.
Which gives us a quick explanation of this term we’ve heard thrown about before: They’re the original Cybertronians, who left Cybertron ten million years ago to bring peace to the Universe, which, as Bumblebee points out, as no one has heard of them since and considering the general state of the Universe, they probably didn’t get very far or, as Prowl says, never existed in the first place. Which annoys Drift considering the Circle of Light were obsessed with them and the idea of the map (it turns out Dai Atlas even took his name from “God Map”).
It’s not really clear what about the map makes it look like it leads to Cyberutopia, indeed, for such a key McGuffin, we don’t even see it here. But there’s also some key questions which everyone is ignoring that will become important at the very end of the series: If no one has heard of the Knights of Cybertron since they left Cybertron, how does anyone know about Cyberutopia? And how did a map of it get into the Matrix? Boy are some of these characters going to wind up wishing they’d asked these things here and now.
Over at Autobot headquarters, the NAILs are protesting (including one guy with a sign who gets a couple of close ups in the issue, remember him for next time), an argument is happening as it turns out the Matrix halves also had a map on them, Drift has decided it’s the map to Cyberutopia, home of the Knights of Cybertron.
Which gives us a quick explanation of this term we’ve heard thrown about before: They’re the original Cybertronians, who left Cybertron ten million years ago to bring peace to the Universe, which, as Bumblebee points out, as no one has heard of them since and considering the general state of the Universe, they probably didn’t get very far or, as Prowl says, never existed in the first place. Which annoys Drift considering the Circle of Light were obsessed with them and the idea of the map (it turns out Dai Atlas even took his name from “God Map”).
It’s not really clear what about the map makes it look like it leads to Cyberutopia, indeed, for such a key McGuffin, we don’t even see it here. But there’s also some key questions which everyone is ignoring that will become important at the very end of the series: If no one has heard of the Knights of Cybertron since they left Cybertron, how does anyone know about Cyberutopia? And how did a map of it get into the Matrix? Boy are some of these characters going to wind up wishing they’d asked these things here and now.
This is all enough for Rodimus though, who has itchy feet, has decided no one wants them on Cybertron anyway, so he’s going off to follow the map with Drift and anyone else who’ll come, and maybe the Knights will help them fix all their problems.
Bumblebee is both disgusted that Rodimus would once again want to run off, and determined to stop him doing it, even though it’s not really clear what Rodimus would be doing around here if he stayed anyway. Which says a lot about his current state of mind (as does him still using his post-Mike Cost injuries cane).
The debate is cut short as a NAIL sets off an explosion, with the peasants now revolting, and about to become too much for Sideswipe’s security team to handle. Which is when Prowl is almost a little too pleased to put his backup security plan into play…
Letting the Decepticons loose to calm down the crowd with their hands, feet and teeth. Something even Starscream can’t quite believe Ratbat is going along with, getting a great line, when told he doesn’t understand: “I understand why nobody’s listened to Ratbat for four million years”.
It turns out the reason they’re so compliant is the D in I/D stands for “Detonation”, any trouble from the Cons and any one of their heads can be exploded on command. Which at least get some mild sarcasm from Prime, who choses to pretend Prowl was very reluctant to do this.
Once the riot has been quelled, though not without Metalhawk taking a hit as he tires to stick his oar in, the Autobots can resume their arguments. With Bumblebee insisting that if Rodimus and Drift go rather than staying to try and turn the NAILs round, they’ll be completely alone, just two outcasts.
Bumblebee is both disgusted that Rodimus would once again want to run off, and determined to stop him doing it, even though it’s not really clear what Rodimus would be doing around here if he stayed anyway. Which says a lot about his current state of mind (as does him still using his post-Mike Cost injuries cane).
The debate is cut short as a NAIL sets off an explosion, with the peasants now revolting, and about to become too much for Sideswipe’s security team to handle. Which is when Prowl is almost a little too pleased to put his backup security plan into play…
Letting the Decepticons loose to calm down the crowd with their hands, feet and teeth. Something even Starscream can’t quite believe Ratbat is going along with, getting a great line, when told he doesn’t understand: “I understand why nobody’s listened to Ratbat for four million years”.
It turns out the reason they’re so compliant is the D in I/D stands for “Detonation”, any trouble from the Cons and any one of their heads can be exploded on command. Which at least get some mild sarcasm from Prime, who choses to pretend Prowl was very reluctant to do this.
Once the riot has been quelled, though not without Metalhawk taking a hit as he tires to stick his oar in, the Autobots can resume their arguments. With Bumblebee insisting that if Rodimus and Drift go rather than staying to try and turn the NAILs round, they’ll be completely alone, just two outcasts.
Which is where Magnus doesn’t help by saying he’ll be going as well, which pushes Prowl over the edge as he starts screaming about this meaning how the NAILs will have “Won”, leading into a massive rant about how this is like a war and the cheeky buggers don’t just get to wander in after the fighting has stopped to take the planet he and his have been fighting for back without having done anything to protect it.
Resources are so scarce, Ratchet has been treating Metalhawk in the room, letting the Neutral drop the bomb on why Prowl is overeating about this: He used to be one of them.
Giving a great moment of Prowl, the rage drained from him, admitting he did try to leave Cybertron during the early war, but his ship was shot down and he’s been glad of it ever since because he had to face the realities of the war, rather than running away from it. “I don’t hate neutrals, Ratchet, but I’m sure as hell glad I’m not one”.
This is effectively the last piece needed to create the setup for the John Barber book, with all the characters and their stances neatly defined and full of potential.
Which may be why Prime feels his time has come, as he goes out to the balcony and gives a speech to the assembled NAILs and Decepticons. He acknowledges the new arrivals have every right to stay, but so do “Those who stayed behind”, which is a nice coy way of getting around having to say “Decepticon” if he calls out the Autobots specifically.
Resources are so scarce, Ratchet has been treating Metalhawk in the room, letting the Neutral drop the bomb on why Prowl is overeating about this: He used to be one of them.
Giving a great moment of Prowl, the rage drained from him, admitting he did try to leave Cybertron during the early war, but his ship was shot down and he’s been glad of it ever since because he had to face the realities of the war, rather than running away from it. “I don’t hate neutrals, Ratchet, but I’m sure as hell glad I’m not one”.
This is effectively the last piece needed to create the setup for the John Barber book, with all the characters and their stances neatly defined and full of potential.
Which may be why Prime feels his time has come, as he goes out to the balcony and gives a speech to the assembled NAILs and Decepticons. He acknowledges the new arrivals have every right to stay, but so do “Those who stayed behind”, which is a nice coy way of getting around having to say “Decepticon” if he calls out the Autobots specifically.
But Prime himself is nothing but a symbol of the war, so, first thing in the morning, he’s leaving Cybertron forever. Forever ever.
Oddly, though I suppose it’s because outside events have moved the book along a lot by the time it happens, I don’t recall him ever getting called out for “Forever” turning out to mean “About two years”.
Later, after the crowd dispersed, Rodimus and Bumblebee manage to have a small reconciliation, largely over Rodimus being impressed Bumblebee would have exiled Prime if he hadn’t chosen to leave. Turns out he’s becoming a tough little Bot now.
But the argument about Rodimus leaving and whether there ever really was a “Golden Age” starts again, until Optimus walks in and, without saying a word, gives them half a Matrix each.
I hope he gave Rodimus the half with the map.
The next day, “The day I died”, sees Prime leave Cybertron, genuinely happy because it wasn’t a selfless decision to go, but a selfish one, “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings”, and that includes him. Optimus Prime is dead and Orion Pax reborn, and there’s no pressure on him to do anything but what he wants as he explores the Universe.
That’s Pax for you, he’s that pretentious he can die metaphorically.
Oddly, though I suppose it’s because outside events have moved the book along a lot by the time it happens, I don’t recall him ever getting called out for “Forever” turning out to mean “About two years”.
Later, after the crowd dispersed, Rodimus and Bumblebee manage to have a small reconciliation, largely over Rodimus being impressed Bumblebee would have exiled Prime if he hadn’t chosen to leave. Turns out he’s becoming a tough little Bot now.
But the argument about Rodimus leaving and whether there ever really was a “Golden Age” starts again, until Optimus walks in and, without saying a word, gives them half a Matrix each.
I hope he gave Rodimus the half with the map.
The next day, “The day I died”, sees Prime leave Cybertron, genuinely happy because it wasn’t a selfless decision to go, but a selfish one, “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings”, and that includes him. Optimus Prime is dead and Orion Pax reborn, and there’s no pressure on him to do anything but what he wants as he explores the Universe.
That’s Pax for you, he’s that pretentious he can die metaphorically.
There’s a lot that happens in this one, probably more than happened in all of Chaos, and it is very much a bridging issue between the two eras. But it was met almost euphorically at the time, and it’s easy to see why when you read it in context. It’s not just better than anything Costa has given us, it’s considerably more so in the case of his more recent issues.
And unlike Chaos Theory, it’s not a one-off, it’s a statement of intent. The promise of better things to come. Like a drowning person being thrown a lifebuoy, the entire fandom grabbed onto this hard.
And the character work is outstanding, the new situations are interesting and full of potential, including the potential to try and say something with a bit more depth and thought to it that has been usual for this franchise.
If there’s a weakness, it is that it doesn’t really set up More Than Meets the Eye as evenly as it does Robots in Disguise, but as a pilot for a wide-ranging relaunch, it couldn’t do much of a better job.
Especially when Nick Roche is on art. For close to a decade at this point, the “Look” of Transformers had been defined by the work Pat Lee and, in particular, Don Figuroa had done. People thinking outside that box, like Livio on the last arc, have been more exceptions than trying to make a new standard, and the most recent attempt to sincerely try something different with the Costa launch was broadly seen as a disaster.
And unlike Chaos Theory, it’s not a one-off, it’s a statement of intent. The promise of better things to come. Like a drowning person being thrown a lifebuoy, the entire fandom grabbed onto this hard.
And the character work is outstanding, the new situations are interesting and full of potential, including the potential to try and say something with a bit more depth and thought to it that has been usual for this franchise.
If there’s a weakness, it is that it doesn’t really set up More Than Meets the Eye as evenly as it does Robots in Disguise, but as a pilot for a wide-ranging relaunch, it couldn’t do much of a better job.
Especially when Nick Roche is on art. For close to a decade at this point, the “Look” of Transformers had been defined by the work Pat Lee and, in particular, Don Figuroa had done. People thinking outside that box, like Livio on the last arc, have been more exceptions than trying to make a new standard, and the most recent attempt to sincerely try something different with the Costa launch was broadly seen as a disaster.
Here, Nick isn’t reinventing the wheel of his own style and there is a degree of transition between the previous and more Aligned designs the ongoings will be using. But by making the relaunch issue have its artist use their own, distinct, style, Noddy and all, it still sets a new standard, one where each artist can be more individual and distinct than they have ever been allowed up to this point. I’ll talk more about Nick’s forthcoming Optimus Prime style departure with the next issue, but, as he decides to go focus more on other things, he gives the franchise the gift of redefining the parameters of “Normal” for these comics.
And I’m not just saying that because I’ll be seeing him in a week and there’s a limit on how many IDW creators I can beat in unarmed combat, so have to be nice about at least one of them.
Speaking of which, no Revisitation next week as I’m taking a break for TFN and to recharge a bit before hitting a run of comics there’s a lot to talk about (look how this has turned out when it’s just a transitional issue), so come back in a fortnight as we hit 2012 and wonder if there really can be more than meets the eye to any toy based comic book,
And thanks to James (auto_thots on social media) for helping me out with the scans I’ll be using from this point forward.
THE TRANSFORMERS ISSUE 31
2011
COMMENT
KO-FI
And I’m not just saying that because I’ll be seeing him in a week and there’s a limit on how many IDW creators I can beat in unarmed combat, so have to be nice about at least one of them.
Speaking of which, no Revisitation next week as I’m taking a break for TFN and to recharge a bit before hitting a run of comics there’s a lot to talk about (look how this has turned out when it’s just a transitional issue), so come back in a fortnight as we hit 2012 and wonder if there really can be more than meets the eye to any toy based comic book,
And thanks to James (auto_thots on social media) for helping me out with the scans I’ll be using from this point forward.
THE TRANSFORMERS ISSUE 31
2011
COMMENT
KO-FI