Quick, Nip Next Door to the, the Vendor of Charisma.
More Than Meets the Eye Issue 1: Liars, A to D Part 1: How to say Goodbye and Mean it. January 11th 2012.
Stop saying “Quest.”
There could be no more on-brand start to the James Roberts run than him using a song from Dexys’ Midnight Runners as a story title. A band basically no one under 40 in the UK could name more than two songs from. In its own way, it’s as pretentious as Mike Costa using all those classical SF novels for titles, and we’re a long way from the worst of it.
I’m looking at you, Morrissey.
This is of course, the big moment for IDW, a mere six years in. I’ve described More Than Meets the Eye as the store front for their output before, and that’s true. It’s the series that got the accolades, the awards and the strong dedicated fanbase (sometimes, perhaps, too strong. A few Roberts fanatics got lost in the bushes along the way). Where the peaks and troughs are in Phase 2 are very much up for debate, but this is the start of the book that matters, for better and worse, in a very tangible way. If you started reading Transformers comics in the last ten years, there’s a very real chance this was your first issue.
Indeed, and we’ll talk more about the growth of digital comics and ComiXology as we go along (and how this series in particular lucked into the best way of reaching its audience peaking alongside it), but it’s worth noting that, as this issue was available digitally right up until IDW lost the licence a decade later, it almost certainly wound up the bestselling IDW Transformers issue through that steady drip drip drip of people trying out this comic they’ve heard about through that time.
So, a big one then.
Stop saying “Quest.”
There could be no more on-brand start to the James Roberts run than him using a song from Dexys’ Midnight Runners as a story title. A band basically no one under 40 in the UK could name more than two songs from. In its own way, it’s as pretentious as Mike Costa using all those classical SF novels for titles, and we’re a long way from the worst of it.
I’m looking at you, Morrissey.
This is of course, the big moment for IDW, a mere six years in. I’ve described More Than Meets the Eye as the store front for their output before, and that’s true. It’s the series that got the accolades, the awards and the strong dedicated fanbase (sometimes, perhaps, too strong. A few Roberts fanatics got lost in the bushes along the way). Where the peaks and troughs are in Phase 2 are very much up for debate, but this is the start of the book that matters, for better and worse, in a very tangible way. If you started reading Transformers comics in the last ten years, there’s a very real chance this was your first issue.
Indeed, and we’ll talk more about the growth of digital comics and ComiXology as we go along (and how this series in particular lucked into the best way of reaching its audience peaking alongside it), but it’s worth noting that, as this issue was available digitally right up until IDW lost the licence a decade later, it almost certainly wound up the bestselling IDW Transformers issue through that steady drip drip drip of people trying out this comic they’ve heard about through that time.
So, a big one then.
Before diving in, it’s worth noting the Notebooks, James Roberts’ exhaustive (and, at times, exhausting) publishing of all his plans and ideas. Now at four volumes, they’re an invaluable and occasionally scary peek behind the curtain at the process of being a writer. Though right from the off there’s going to be stuff to point out from them, I’m going to try not to beat you all over the head to hard with the paths not taken for two reasons:
1: These comics need to stand up on their own, especially a decade later.
2: I’ve just not had chance to reread them in the build up to this, so a lot of their content feels like a fever dream now.
But a big shout-out to my friend and reader Ella, who showed me their copies at TFN, which were carefully annotated with colour coordinated stickers, exactly the sort of thing it would have been sensible for me to have done before starting on all this. That’s someone who’ll actually have some good takes on the genesis of this book.
Someone who may not always have good takes, but does know how to put on a show, is Rodimus as this bold new era opens on Cybertron, at a currently unnamed (though, if I remember correctly, it becomes a significant location later on) but important to their history location. With Rodimus selling the idea of his quest for the Knights of Cybertron to the population. Here, the first Cybertronian changed shape (note, he doesn’t say “Transform”), here, Nominus Prime declared he was going to build the Ark and here Megatron gave Optimus Prime his one and only chance to surrender.
And now, here, Rodimus challenges the population to join him and leave the ingrates behind to find their ancestors, aboard the Lost Light.
1: These comics need to stand up on their own, especially a decade later.
2: I’ve just not had chance to reread them in the build up to this, so a lot of their content feels like a fever dream now.
But a big shout-out to my friend and reader Ella, who showed me their copies at TFN, which were carefully annotated with colour coordinated stickers, exactly the sort of thing it would have been sensible for me to have done before starting on all this. That’s someone who’ll actually have some good takes on the genesis of this book.
Someone who may not always have good takes, but does know how to put on a show, is Rodimus as this bold new era opens on Cybertron, at a currently unnamed (though, if I remember correctly, it becomes a significant location later on) but important to their history location. With Rodimus selling the idea of his quest for the Knights of Cybertron to the population. Here, the first Cybertronian changed shape (note, he doesn’t say “Transform”), here, Nominus Prime declared he was going to build the Ark and here Megatron gave Optimus Prime his one and only chance to surrender.
And now, here, Rodimus challenges the population to join him and leave the ingrates behind to find their ancestors, aboard the Lost Light.
Rodimus is going to be a flawed leader in many ways, but his swagger is impeccable, and the watching crowd (with everyone now designed to look like the War for Cybertron game models, the concession to Hasbro’s original desire for a complete Aligned aligned reboot) certainly look interested.
And hey, there’s Xaaron! Can’t wait to see what this beloved Marvel UK character gets up to.
Prowl, however, isn’t having any of it, confidently telling Wheeljack that he’s used his advanced logical analytical skills to calculate that almost nobody else is going to sign up for this voyage.
Something that, the next day and over the page, looks to be almost immediately wrong as a large crowd is already queuing up to board a huge and impressive ship that, at a guess, I’d say is about the same size as the JMC vessel Red Dwarf.
That’s two pages where the entire format of the series is set-up and Rodimus and Prowl both get their surface personalities defined well, even with Prowl not being a main character in this book. You’d wait whole issues for this sort of development in a Costa issue.
The rest of the issue is less a plot, more a series of character establishing scenes as everyone is drawn to the launch, by fair means or foul. Starting at the Autobot’s Kimia headquarters, where Ratchet has just done an autopsy on the sign carrying NAIL who got a couple of appearances in The Death of Optimus Prime. Who has “Transformed himself to death” as a form of protest against the Autobot “Occupation”, with only Ratchet being considered trustworthy enough to Metalhawk to do the autopsy.
And hey, there’s Xaaron! Can’t wait to see what this beloved Marvel UK character gets up to.
Prowl, however, isn’t having any of it, confidently telling Wheeljack that he’s used his advanced logical analytical skills to calculate that almost nobody else is going to sign up for this voyage.
Something that, the next day and over the page, looks to be almost immediately wrong as a large crowd is already queuing up to board a huge and impressive ship that, at a guess, I’d say is about the same size as the JMC vessel Red Dwarf.
That’s two pages where the entire format of the series is set-up and Rodimus and Prowl both get their surface personalities defined well, even with Prowl not being a main character in this book. You’d wait whole issues for this sort of development in a Costa issue.
The rest of the issue is less a plot, more a series of character establishing scenes as everyone is drawn to the launch, by fair means or foul. Starting at the Autobot’s Kimia headquarters, where Ratchet has just done an autopsy on the sign carrying NAIL who got a couple of appearances in The Death of Optimus Prime. Who has “Transformed himself to death” as a form of protest against the Autobot “Occupation”, with only Ratchet being considered trustworthy enough to Metalhawk to do the autopsy.
The background interesting detail here is using variations of “Transform” is dialogue was already a firm no-no for Hasbro for boring copyright/trademark reasons that are, frankly, outside my bailiwick and terribly dull beyond having gotten sillier in the intervening years, so special dispensation had to be gotten for the use of “Transform” here. With the winning argument being that it needed to be used to sell the horror of what has happened.
The other is, as we’ve already seen in Chaos Theory, that, for a writer who will have his own characters joking about they never transform at one point, James Roberts is absolutely obsessed with transforming and transformation cogs and especially their mechanics after death. So, the little grey scared body even keeps transforming after death due to “rigor morphis”, the body assuming its preferred shape.
Buckle up for a lot more to come.
The real purpose of this scene though, is to establish the new Ratchet. Who, up to this point, has been kind of a cool maverick in the Furman stuff and then resolutely ignored outside of very small moments by everyone else.
But since 2005, Robert Foxworth in the films and Corey Burton in Animated had reinvented the character as an old, and especially in the later case, grumpy Doctor. Something Jeffrey Combs was currently running with in Prime as this issue came out. Meaning that, for all he’s a Marvel UK fanboy, Roberts here goes with what is now the overwhelmingly definitive version of the character.
So, Ratchet could have saved the NAIL, but he’s too old and his hands are no longer any good. He’s tired and is going with Rodimus, hoping to find waifs and strays along the way, including, hopefully, someone who can replace him as CMO.
The other is, as we’ve already seen in Chaos Theory, that, for a writer who will have his own characters joking about they never transform at one point, James Roberts is absolutely obsessed with transforming and transformation cogs and especially their mechanics after death. So, the little grey scared body even keeps transforming after death due to “rigor morphis”, the body assuming its preferred shape.
Buckle up for a lot more to come.
The real purpose of this scene though, is to establish the new Ratchet. Who, up to this point, has been kind of a cool maverick in the Furman stuff and then resolutely ignored outside of very small moments by everyone else.
But since 2005, Robert Foxworth in the films and Corey Burton in Animated had reinvented the character as an old, and especially in the later case, grumpy Doctor. Something Jeffrey Combs was currently running with in Prime as this issue came out. Meaning that, for all he’s a Marvel UK fanboy, Roberts here goes with what is now the overwhelmingly definitive version of the character.
So, Ratchet could have saved the NAIL, but he’s too old and his hands are no longer any good. He’s tired and is going with Rodimus, hoping to find waifs and strays along the way, including, hopefully, someone who can replace him as CMO.
Which seems a terrible idea frankly, Cybertron’s medical profession is going to have to do without a head until Ratchet finds someone out there in space? He’s clearly not the only doctor—Bumblebee’s concern is a losing the best, not the only one on the planet—so they might as well just give the job to whoever is going to all intents and purposes be doing it till or if Ratchet pulls his own choice out of his ass in space.
Bumblebee’s side of the conversation is more setup for his own book that here (he’s paranoid, scared and doesn’t really need the cane), but his one throwaway line about Drift being the one who writes all of Rodimus’ speeches is interesting when you know that, at this point, Drift was going to be the villain of the series in the manipulative bastard role eventually taken by Getaway.
We get a brief scene of a depressed Cyclonus flying about the wrecked Cybertron and lamenting his lost home, effectively taking him fully back to his original characterisation. It also alludes to him having done some sort of deal with Rodimus to have gotten out of the Decepticon pen (and the I/D) scheme and is on his way to meet the Autobot and hope he remembers his promise… But this is never elaborated on as he detects a familiar life-sign, and I don’t remember it ever getting mentioned again.
At Autobot headquarters we get a really key scene for both the characters and the development of the incredibly gay content the series will be famous for.
It sees Prowl pleading with Chromedome to stay on Cybertron, that he could lose everyone else going with Rodimus except his best and most special boy. Something even Chromedome finds ludicrous considering Ratchet is coming with them.
An attempt to appeal to the watching Rewind, who Prowl calls Chromedome’s “Best friend”, gets lost in a new debate about the ethics of the archivist insisting on recording everything.
Bumblebee’s side of the conversation is more setup for his own book that here (he’s paranoid, scared and doesn’t really need the cane), but his one throwaway line about Drift being the one who writes all of Rodimus’ speeches is interesting when you know that, at this point, Drift was going to be the villain of the series in the manipulative bastard role eventually taken by Getaway.
We get a brief scene of a depressed Cyclonus flying about the wrecked Cybertron and lamenting his lost home, effectively taking him fully back to his original characterisation. It also alludes to him having done some sort of deal with Rodimus to have gotten out of the Decepticon pen (and the I/D) scheme and is on his way to meet the Autobot and hope he remembers his promise… But this is never elaborated on as he detects a familiar life-sign, and I don’t remember it ever getting mentioned again.
At Autobot headquarters we get a really key scene for both the characters and the development of the incredibly gay content the series will be famous for.
It sees Prowl pleading with Chromedome to stay on Cybertron, that he could lose everyone else going with Rodimus except his best and most special boy. Something even Chromedome finds ludicrous considering Ratchet is coming with them.
An attempt to appeal to the watching Rewind, who Prowl calls Chromedome’s “Best friend”, gets lost in a new debate about the ethics of the archivist insisting on recording everything.
Leaving the final choice fully to Chromedome. Who goes a long way back with Prowl and has done a lot of things for the Autobot cause. And he’s not going to use his talents like that again. Time to draw a line under the past, and he leaves with Rewind, who has a reassuring hand on his arm that teetering towards holding hands. All as Prowl shouts that just because the wars over, it doesn’t mean they can afford to stop fighting.
Now, one thing we do firmly know from the notebooks (which, outside of some outlines for IDW, are Roberts own notes for himself, so no need for being coy), is Roberts did not originally intend for any gay relationships. Rewind was legitimately Chromedome’s friend, he’s sincerely searching for his other friend, who was at that time, Eject.
What isn’t completely clear is if he’d already decided to go for romance and he’s just carefully soft peddling to build up to it in case it doesn’t go down well, or if it’s a journey of discovery for him as well as he responds to reader feedback (which was immediately akin to how Kamen Rider fandom reacts to Heated Drama Between Men).
In short, was Prowl always meant to read as being a bitch when he calls Rewind and Chromedome “Friends” or was that entirely sincere.
The more newly published notebooks might shed a light on that (with food poisoning, I’ve not had chance to read them at all yet in the week since TFN), but we are definitely at the start of something special for IDW that all the writers will run with.
What will also be run with and into the ground is the moment where Prowl, in a moment of bubbled over rage designed to show he’s just as on edge as Bumblebee, tosses over a table. A deft moment here that’s so well visualised that, unfortunately, it will just become a Wacky Prowl Character Quirk.
He also puts in a call in to someone, telling them he couldn’t change Chromedome’s mind, so it’s time to load the cargo aboard.
Nothing ominous there.
Now, one thing we do firmly know from the notebooks (which, outside of some outlines for IDW, are Roberts own notes for himself, so no need for being coy), is Roberts did not originally intend for any gay relationships. Rewind was legitimately Chromedome’s friend, he’s sincerely searching for his other friend, who was at that time, Eject.
What isn’t completely clear is if he’d already decided to go for romance and he’s just carefully soft peddling to build up to it in case it doesn’t go down well, or if it’s a journey of discovery for him as well as he responds to reader feedback (which was immediately akin to how Kamen Rider fandom reacts to Heated Drama Between Men).
In short, was Prowl always meant to read as being a bitch when he calls Rewind and Chromedome “Friends” or was that entirely sincere.
The more newly published notebooks might shed a light on that (with food poisoning, I’ve not had chance to read them at all yet in the week since TFN), but we are definitely at the start of something special for IDW that all the writers will run with.
What will also be run with and into the ground is the moment where Prowl, in a moment of bubbled over rage designed to show he’s just as on edge as Bumblebee, tosses over a table. A deft moment here that’s so well visualised that, unfortunately, it will just become a Wacky Prowl Character Quirk.
He also puts in a call in to someone, telling them he couldn’t change Chromedome’s mind, so it’s time to load the cargo aboard.
Nothing ominous there.
Six million years ago (nice gag in just a caption there), Minibot Tailgate awakens underground to find that he’s fallen through a hole in his haste to get to the launch of the Ark, somewhere he has to be because their mission will never succeed without him. But he’s got no means of communication, no legs and his diagnostics are telling him he’s an idiot.
It is a bit Kryten in Terrorform, but I have many years ahead of me of going “That’s a bit Red Dwarf that is”, so let’s go lightly.
The important thing, Tailgate clearly thinks he’s very important and vital, but is also easily panicked klutz. Making you wonder how his plan to crawl over to his trailer (actually one of the little Micromaster carriers) and use its contents to set off an attention-grabbing explosion will go…
Someone also without a well thought out plan is Whirl, who, in the present, is giving an impassioned speech to a room about how the people in it have really helped him out through these tough times. But it’s time to go, and he really knows how to say goodbye and mean it…
Which is when Cyclonus walks in, thinking he’s smelt Scourge, and reacts like a mother walking in on a teenager looking a porn to the sight of Whirl’s “Friends”.
Who are in fact all Sweeps, who (at least Whirl later claims) were all already dead and never really alive anyway. Whose bodies he has been desecrating. For fun.
This series was originally meant to be a lot darker and more unforgiving that it will become (whether that’s Barber coming in as editor after the initial planning or Roberts falling too in love with his characters to keep to some of his plans is hard to say), and it’s fair to say the Whirls of even a few issues from now would likely never mutilate corpses for jollies.
This is enough for him to attack a very disinterested Cyclonus though, just to make sure no one ever knows.
It is a bit Kryten in Terrorform, but I have many years ahead of me of going “That’s a bit Red Dwarf that is”, so let’s go lightly.
The important thing, Tailgate clearly thinks he’s very important and vital, but is also easily panicked klutz. Making you wonder how his plan to crawl over to his trailer (actually one of the little Micromaster carriers) and use its contents to set off an attention-grabbing explosion will go…
Someone also without a well thought out plan is Whirl, who, in the present, is giving an impassioned speech to a room about how the people in it have really helped him out through these tough times. But it’s time to go, and he really knows how to say goodbye and mean it…
Which is when Cyclonus walks in, thinking he’s smelt Scourge, and reacts like a mother walking in on a teenager looking a porn to the sight of Whirl’s “Friends”.
Who are in fact all Sweeps, who (at least Whirl later claims) were all already dead and never really alive anyway. Whose bodies he has been desecrating. For fun.
This series was originally meant to be a lot darker and more unforgiving that it will become (whether that’s Barber coming in as editor after the initial planning or Roberts falling too in love with his characters to keep to some of his plans is hard to say), and it’s fair to say the Whirls of even a few issues from now would likely never mutilate corpses for jollies.
This is enough for him to attack a very disinterested Cyclonus though, just to make sure no one ever knows.
Over at the Lost Light, we get some excellent sleight of hand with three seemingly just comedy introductions to characters, as security chief Red Alert vets everyone who comes aboard.
There’s cheeky weapons specialist Brainstorm and his briefcase that he won’t let be opened; a blabbermouth Swerve who won’t shut up about how much he loves a quest (such as the one for Luna 1); and Rung.
Who, despite being Red Alert’s psychiatrist, Red Alert doesn’t recognise. And who has an “interesting” serial number of one hundred million. And who has kept his delightful model ship collection in perfect condition, much like himself, through millions of years of war because he has a knack of staying out of harm’s way.
All of which seems just as jokey as the previous two boarders but is going to all be hugely important.
The deflection from making you think it is just all jokes is topped by a wildly flying Cyclonus accidentally passing through the scene, taking both Rung’s ships and one arm with him.
There’s cheeky weapons specialist Brainstorm and his briefcase that he won’t let be opened; a blabbermouth Swerve who won’t shut up about how much he loves a quest (such as the one for Luna 1); and Rung.
Who, despite being Red Alert’s psychiatrist, Red Alert doesn’t recognise. And who has an “interesting” serial number of one hundred million. And who has kept his delightful model ship collection in perfect condition, much like himself, through millions of years of war because he has a knack of staying out of harm’s way.
All of which seems just as jokey as the previous two boarders but is going to all be hugely important.
The deflection from making you think it is just all jokes is topped by a wildly flying Cyclonus accidentally passing through the scene, taking both Rung’s ships and one arm with him.
Aboard the ship, and oblivious, the three highest ranked officers of Rodimus, Drift and Ultra Magnus are holding court.
It might seem strange that the guys who are, in theory, the lead characters are the one’s getting the least time spent on them this issue, but the idea at this point is the focus is more on “Lower decks” characters, the seemingly unimportant ones with the big boys taking more of a backseat.
This was accompanied by the usual snipping at Star Trek, that no one ever sees the little people who do all the work in the future. Which is a little unfair considering the character with the second most appearances in all of Trek is NCO Chief O’Brien and the very term Lower Decks comes from an episode of The Next Generation.
Magnus’ problem is the state of the crew (currently at 208, much to Rodimus’ delight), running through the names with each one’s flaws (including “Liar”, “Mad (literally mad)”, “He owes me money” and “Never, ever let him near a crossbow”), which just covers the “A’s”.
Magnus not only agrees with Rodimus’ joke that anyone with a wonky badge shouldn’t be let aboard—as that’s in direct contrivance of military regulations (very Arnold Rimmer)—it turns out he sees the world through “pedantic Terminator vision”. Where everyone he sees is judged according to their criminality and personality flaws.
So Rodimus has a risk of future criminal activity rating of “Variable”, whilst Drift is “Off the scale”.
It might seem strange that the guys who are, in theory, the lead characters are the one’s getting the least time spent on them this issue, but the idea at this point is the focus is more on “Lower decks” characters, the seemingly unimportant ones with the big boys taking more of a backseat.
This was accompanied by the usual snipping at Star Trek, that no one ever sees the little people who do all the work in the future. Which is a little unfair considering the character with the second most appearances in all of Trek is NCO Chief O’Brien and the very term Lower Decks comes from an episode of The Next Generation.
Magnus’ problem is the state of the crew (currently at 208, much to Rodimus’ delight), running through the names with each one’s flaws (including “Liar”, “Mad (literally mad)”, “He owes me money” and “Never, ever let him near a crossbow”), which just covers the “A’s”.
Magnus not only agrees with Rodimus’ joke that anyone with a wonky badge shouldn’t be let aboard—as that’s in direct contrivance of military regulations (very Arnold Rimmer)—it turns out he sees the world through “pedantic Terminator vision”. Where everyone he sees is judged according to their criminality and personality flaws.
So Rodimus has a risk of future criminal activity rating of “Variable”, whilst Drift is “Off the scale”.
Which is very funny, but also an even bigger departure from how he’s been written in the past than Ratchet. But the whys are something we’ll explore in time.
That leaves Rodimus and Drift as not really getting anything but their most basic characterisation this issue, but we’ve had a lot of Rodimus recently (and he’s largely going to be consistent), and the planned more dubious motives for Drift are meant to be oblique at this time.
Outside, three events are coming to a head, even if one takes millions of years to do so.
First, Cyclonus and Scourge continue their fight, with Cyclonus finally giving up on trying to be reasonable.
Then, in the past but getting ever close, Tailgate tries to crawl to the energon in his trailer but keeps passing out along the way.
Back today, and on the surface, Chromedome, Ratchet and Rewind are walking to the Lost Light, with Chromedome making some pointed but in theory good natured jokes about Rewind’s giant memory stick mode being useless. Leading to a conversation about the value of alt modes, and the old saying “Everyone’s shape serves a purpose”.
That leaves Rodimus and Drift as not really getting anything but their most basic characterisation this issue, but we’ve had a lot of Rodimus recently (and he’s largely going to be consistent), and the planned more dubious motives for Drift are meant to be oblique at this time.
Outside, three events are coming to a head, even if one takes millions of years to do so.
First, Cyclonus and Scourge continue their fight, with Cyclonus finally giving up on trying to be reasonable.
Then, in the past but getting ever close, Tailgate tries to crawl to the energon in his trailer but keeps passing out along the way.
Back today, and on the surface, Chromedome, Ratchet and Rewind are walking to the Lost Light, with Chromedome making some pointed but in theory good natured jokes about Rewind’s giant memory stick mode being useless. Leading to a conversation about the value of alt modes, and the old saying “Everyone’s shape serves a purpose”.
Which is actually kind of an awkward way to introduce these key ideas to the series, I doubt even their best white friend could make jokes about apartheid to a black South African, which is basically what Chromedome’s mode-ism here is.
Their conversation is, perhaps luckily, interrupted by Whirl smashing Cyclonus into the ground. Letting him pin the mutilated corpses on the now unconscious Unaffiliated Cybertronian and prepare to deliver a head shot that even Ratchet can’t talk him out of.
What can talk him out of it is the ground exploding beneath him, and Tailgate emerging. Who is initially worried about having missed his launch, before seeing Whirl and thinking he killed him, sends him into a panic and a faint.
Which is the point Ratchet just gives up and decides all the knocked-out bodies are coming to the Lost Light, they can sort out all this nonsense later.
But as the dragging starts, Rewind sneaks off to a meeting with Swindle, who apparently has a lot of free movement and thinks a criminal meeting is best had out in the middle of nowhere rather than in the cover of the shanty-Iacon.
He’s here to hand some discs that Rewind has paid a lot for, something he’s surprised such a “wholesome” Autobot would want.
Their conversation is, perhaps luckily, interrupted by Whirl smashing Cyclonus into the ground. Letting him pin the mutilated corpses on the now unconscious Unaffiliated Cybertronian and prepare to deliver a head shot that even Ratchet can’t talk him out of.
What can talk him out of it is the ground exploding beneath him, and Tailgate emerging. Who is initially worried about having missed his launch, before seeing Whirl and thinking he killed him, sends him into a panic and a faint.
Which is the point Ratchet just gives up and decides all the knocked-out bodies are coming to the Lost Light, they can sort out all this nonsense later.
But as the dragging starts, Rewind sneaks off to a meeting with Swindle, who apparently has a lot of free movement and thinks a criminal meeting is best had out in the middle of nowhere rather than in the cover of the shanty-Iacon.
He’s here to hand some discs that Rewind has paid a lot for, something he’s surprised such a “wholesome” Autobot would want.
And when I say discs, I mean discs. It’s literally three giant (they look bigger in a Transformer’s hands than normal ones do in a human’s) CDs. In a comic that came out in a year where that format was already effectively dead, creating an unintentionally hilarious image that’s the 2010’s equivalent of Optimus Prime putting his mind on a floppy disc.
With everyone aboard, Rodimus has no time for either Red Alert’s complaints about a “Weapon of mass destruction” (it’s left vague if he means Cyclonus or Whirl, but Whirl is the funnier choice). And more tellingly, he’s no time for a call from Bumblebee, instead ordering the ship to launch.
As the watching cast of Robots in Disguise watch said launch from the surface, Bumblebee pointedly demands of Prowl “I thought you had a plan”.
At which point, the Lost Light seems to explode.
Oh, dear guys, that’s no way not to look like you haven’t done something guilty as hell.
With everyone aboard, Rodimus has no time for either Red Alert’s complaints about a “Weapon of mass destruction” (it’s left vague if he means Cyclonus or Whirl, but Whirl is the funnier choice). And more tellingly, he’s no time for a call from Bumblebee, instead ordering the ship to launch.
As the watching cast of Robots in Disguise watch said launch from the surface, Bumblebee pointedly demands of Prowl “I thought you had a plan”.
At which point, the Lost Light seems to explode.
Oh, dear guys, that’s no way not to look like you haven’t done something guilty as hell.
This almost feels like it should be the cliffhanger to the first issue, it’s such a strong image, but there’s a few pages left. And indeed, until very late in the day, the original plan was the events of the first two issues would all happen in #1, until someone realised this is clearly insane.
We quickly see that the Lost Light has survived, but inexplicably (according to Mainframe anyway), Quantum Jumped without proper programming, meaning the ship is damaged and lost in space. And with a hull breach that’s sent several crewmembers, including poor old Marvel UK favourite Fizzle, out into space and a nearby planetary atmosphere.
Rodimus is determined to make a win out of this though, by rescuing everyone. But even he has to concede that, as they land and see his crew burning up in the atmosphere (which and Magnus actually saying “Burning up” makes it seem like they are unambiguously dead, more on that next issue), this not a good start.
And it looks like things are only going to get worse for him as back a Cybertron, a message that keeps breaking up (and that no one hears because they’re all too busy being sad) starts broadcasting that claims to be from the future. It doesn’t think this will work (because if it had, there wouldn’t be a message), but the launch needs to be stopped!
But, if it’s arrived too late for that, find Rodimus and pass on these messages:
Don’t open the coffin.
Don’t let them take Skids.
Don’t go the Delphi.
Really don’t look in the basement.
And, for the sake of everything…
Oh, that’s when this, what you might call a future echo, fades out entirely.
We quickly see that the Lost Light has survived, but inexplicably (according to Mainframe anyway), Quantum Jumped without proper programming, meaning the ship is damaged and lost in space. And with a hull breach that’s sent several crewmembers, including poor old Marvel UK favourite Fizzle, out into space and a nearby planetary atmosphere.
Rodimus is determined to make a win out of this though, by rescuing everyone. But even he has to concede that, as they land and see his crew burning up in the atmosphere (which and Magnus actually saying “Burning up” makes it seem like they are unambiguously dead, more on that next issue), this not a good start.
And it looks like things are only going to get worse for him as back a Cybertron, a message that keeps breaking up (and that no one hears because they’re all too busy being sad) starts broadcasting that claims to be from the future. It doesn’t think this will work (because if it had, there wouldn’t be a message), but the launch needs to be stopped!
But, if it’s arrived too late for that, find Rodimus and pass on these messages:
Don’t open the coffin.
Don’t let them take Skids.
Don’t go the Delphi.
Really don’t look in the basement.
And, for the sake of everything…
Oh, that’s when this, what you might call a future echo, fades out entirely.
We’ll discuss that as we go along, but it’s fair to say this will be one of the more satisfying long term payoffs Roberts manages.
What’s striking about this issue, all these years and highs and lows later, is how good it actually is. It carefully introduces or reinvents an entire bunch of characters in beautifully constructed series of scenes that often deliberately make you think what you’re seeing is funnier than it will appear in retrospect.
It also throws in a huge amount of foreshadowing without it seeming obtrusive or even, at times, apparent at all. It even manages to do some heavy lifting for the John Barber book by showing the utter state Bumblebee and Prowl are in.
The art is also extraordinary. Alex Milne is going to do great, career defining, work, but it’s easy to see why people were initially worried Nick Roche (sensibly wanting to develop a career outside of Transformers) was leaving after just one issue when he’d initially been announced as the lead artist. But, once again with one foot out the door, he completes his reinvention of the style of IDW he started with Death of Optimus Prime, ensuring every following artist is standing on his shoulders as much as he was standing on Geoff Senior’s.
But equally important is Josh Burcham, who’s washed out, almost old-fashioned feeling, colours are equally as unlike anything we’d seen on this franchise up to this point and will be, again, the standard to which everyone on this book will be hold, whether they’re his long-term successor or just helping out.
What’s striking about this issue, all these years and highs and lows later, is how good it actually is. It carefully introduces or reinvents an entire bunch of characters in beautifully constructed series of scenes that often deliberately make you think what you’re seeing is funnier than it will appear in retrospect.
It also throws in a huge amount of foreshadowing without it seeming obtrusive or even, at times, apparent at all. It even manages to do some heavy lifting for the John Barber book by showing the utter state Bumblebee and Prowl are in.
The art is also extraordinary. Alex Milne is going to do great, career defining, work, but it’s easy to see why people were initially worried Nick Roche (sensibly wanting to develop a career outside of Transformers) was leaving after just one issue when he’d initially been announced as the lead artist. But, once again with one foot out the door, he completes his reinvention of the style of IDW he started with Death of Optimus Prime, ensuring every following artist is standing on his shoulders as much as he was standing on Geoff Senior’s.
But equally important is Josh Burcham, who’s washed out, almost old-fashioned feeling, colours are equally as unlike anything we’d seen on this franchise up to this point and will be, again, the standard to which everyone on this book will be hold, whether they’re his long-term successor or just helping out.
It’s also worth noting the famous group shot cover, which is in turn a homage to one of the most famous comics covers of all times, Justice League International #1. Which is fine as a statement of intent (Roberts flat out says in the afterword to the issue that it was an influence), and many, many titles have homaged it over the years. But it’s one of those things this series will overdo, with homage after homage to this homage. It’s like a band doing an Abbey Road photoshoot as a joke… and making every album cover an Abbey Road photoshoot as if it was their unique thing.
2012 starts with a line being drawn in the sand. Much like Chromedome, the sins of the past are being left behind for a whole new, essential restart. That doesn’t mean there won’t be new sins along the way, but the real good stuff starts here.
Now, we’ve had the Kylie Minogue of the new comics (the one that’s best known and gets all the attention), but soon there's the Dannii Minogue (the ones that isn’t as well-known unless you’re a real fan of the family but does have a hardcore of people who will insist she’s the hot one), with Robots in Disguise issue 1.
But first, a comic that really tends to get overlooked (including by me if you read this piece during the first four days it was up), despite having the return of a familiar name on the credits. Next week, there's a new autocrat in town.
THE DEATH OF OPTIMUS PRIME
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
2012 starts with a line being drawn in the sand. Much like Chromedome, the sins of the past are being left behind for a whole new, essential restart. That doesn’t mean there won’t be new sins along the way, but the real good stuff starts here.
Now, we’ve had the Kylie Minogue of the new comics (the one that’s best known and gets all the attention), but soon there's the Dannii Minogue (the ones that isn’t as well-known unless you’re a real fan of the family but does have a hardcore of people who will insist she’s the hot one), with Robots in Disguise issue 1.
But first, a comic that really tends to get overlooked (including by me if you read this piece during the first four days it was up), despite having the return of a familiar name on the credits. Next week, there's a new autocrat in town.
THE DEATH OF OPTIMUS PRIME
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI