I’ve got a Theory we Should Work This Fast, because it Clearly Could get Serious Before it’s Passed.
More Than Meets the Eye issue 2: Liars A to D Part 2: Hangers On. February 15th 2012.
How about—ready for this? —“The Crusadercons!
The first of three issues out on February 15th of this year brings us one of the most important parts of the relaunch, and the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place for this golden era. That being the arrival of Alex Milne on art.
We’ve seen a lot of Milne, and he had his hefty Dreamwave work on top of that, so he’s very much the old hand on this team. But this is a complete reinvention as he makes one surprisingly lacking in ego decision: To follow the style Nick Roche had set in his one issue, even though Roche’s smooth clean Senior influenced art is almost completely at odds with Milne’s very detailed and heavy work.
I’d normally leave talking about the art till last (because I have no artistic skills and often worry I’m embarrassing myself trying to describe it), but this is such an important moment it has to be mentioned upfront: Milne doing this effectively not only creates a whole new style for him that, though against his natural instincts, works brilliantly, it is absolutely key to the success of the whole series. More Than Meets the Eye is as much the art as it is the writing, something IDW would unfortunately never quite realise as the years went on.
As mentioned back in issue 1, this second part to the story was originally just meant to be the second half of that opening issue before someone realised that would be completely insane. So, this is clearly meant to be the more action heavy romp part of selling the series.
How about—ready for this? —“The Crusadercons!
The first of three issues out on February 15th of this year brings us one of the most important parts of the relaunch, and the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place for this golden era. That being the arrival of Alex Milne on art.
We’ve seen a lot of Milne, and he had his hefty Dreamwave work on top of that, so he’s very much the old hand on this team. But this is a complete reinvention as he makes one surprisingly lacking in ego decision: To follow the style Nick Roche had set in his one issue, even though Roche’s smooth clean Senior influenced art is almost completely at odds with Milne’s very detailed and heavy work.
I’d normally leave talking about the art till last (because I have no artistic skills and often worry I’m embarrassing myself trying to describe it), but this is such an important moment it has to be mentioned upfront: Milne doing this effectively not only creates a whole new style for him that, though against his natural instincts, works brilliantly, it is absolutely key to the success of the whole series. More Than Meets the Eye is as much the art as it is the writing, something IDW would unfortunately never quite realise as the years went on.
As mentioned back in issue 1, this second part to the story was originally just meant to be the second half of that opening issue before someone realised that would be completely insane. So, this is clearly meant to be the more action heavy romp part of selling the series.
It's ore or nothing.
Though it starts with more key character work as Brainstorm, aboard the Lost Light, calls Rodimus, outside retrieving the turns out to be mostly fine crew that fell through the atmosphere, to tell him he’s worked out what went wrong with the quantum engines.
Though he has to at first be annoyed that Rodimus wants to speak to Perceptor and then rather bitchy about the skills of his fellow scientist. Setting up his relationship of being envious (and maybe a little bit more) of the more famous Autobot.
It turns out the disaster was simply down to one of the Duobots (either Shock or Ore, apparently no one can remember which one is which. There’s a whole discourse about the joke with their names needing a British accent to work that’s frankly too boring to get into) having broken the first rule of interstellar travel: “Never stand next to a quantum generator when it’s about to break the laws of physics.”
It seems standing next to the engines (for reasons that will become apparent later) has merged Ore (for it is he) with the engines, leaving his body half in and out of them in a visual that seems inspired by the Doctor Who story Earthshock.
With the seemingly Prowl clearing explanation out of the way, it’s back to rounding up the misplaced crew, including Cyclonus, who gets fished out of a lake.
Though he has to at first be annoyed that Rodimus wants to speak to Perceptor and then rather bitchy about the skills of his fellow scientist. Setting up his relationship of being envious (and maybe a little bit more) of the more famous Autobot.
It turns out the disaster was simply down to one of the Duobots (either Shock or Ore, apparently no one can remember which one is which. There’s a whole discourse about the joke with their names needing a British accent to work that’s frankly too boring to get into) having broken the first rule of interstellar travel: “Never stand next to a quantum generator when it’s about to break the laws of physics.”
It seems standing next to the engines (for reasons that will become apparent later) has merged Ore (for it is he) with the engines, leaving his body half in and out of them in a visual that seems inspired by the Doctor Who story Earthshock.
With the seemingly Prowl clearing explanation out of the way, it’s back to rounding up the misplaced crew, including Cyclonus, who gets fished out of a lake.
Only if they're not out to get you.
Leading us into the big centrepiece action scene, as a ship comes out of warp, flying overhead and with a pilot who wakes up from at the controls, thinking his name is “Scum.”
It’s not, it’s Marvel UK favourite Skids, but with initially no memory. Things do start coming back as he looks round (including that he’s “running away”), but he still can’t recall his immediate past, why he’s flying a ship, why it had a mode lock control on the console and what on Cybertron is going on. All he can really tell is he has an inhibitor claw on.
If he looked behind him and saw the (very Marvel US issue 5 cover) scrawled words “You haven’t escaped. They’re all around you”, he might have worked out a bit more, but because he’s an impulsive kinda guy, he decides to turn the mode lock off, set the ship to crash and dramatically bail out.
It’s not, it’s Marvel UK favourite Skids, but with initially no memory. Things do start coming back as he looks round (including that he’s “running away”), but he still can’t recall his immediate past, why he’s flying a ship, why it had a mode lock control on the console and what on Cybertron is going on. All he can really tell is he has an inhibitor claw on.
If he looked behind him and saw the (very Marvel US issue 5 cover) scrawled words “You haven’t escaped. They’re all around you”, he might have worked out a bit more, but because he’s an impulsive kinda guy, he decides to turn the mode lock off, set the ship to crash and dramatically bail out.
There's a subtle reference to the year Transformers started here.
Which he initially thinks might have been an overreaction, until the ship transforms into two, giant hulking robots that have massive swords and keep chanting “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
Which gives us an exciting action scene and a huge amount of character set up and mystery that will take years to play off. Even if some of it is still a bit work in progress, as the 1984 bots will never transform again.
Back on the Lost Light, we get some more setup and things not quite settled into their final forms.
Starting with Ratchet fixing Rung, not remembering his name and being very impressed with what good condition his body is in and asking if he’s ever needed to treat the psychiatrist before.
Roberts successfully distracts us from the importance of all this by making it look like the setup for a joke where Rung replies, no, he’s not needed to be treated before, but it’s such an honour to be seen to by such a famously brilliant and delicate doctor…
Before Ratchet takes a mallet to his own hands to loosen them up.
Rung being such a sycophant for Ratchet doesn’t quite feel true to how his character settles down (and even if Ratchet can’t quite place him, they must have worked together a lot as Cybertron’s top doctor and its top shrink), but that’s nothing compared to Ratchet’s reaction to a happy clappy hippy positive message from Drift, which is basically utter contempt.
Which gives us an exciting action scene and a huge amount of character set up and mystery that will take years to play off. Even if some of it is still a bit work in progress, as the 1984 bots will never transform again.
Back on the Lost Light, we get some more setup and things not quite settled into their final forms.
Starting with Ratchet fixing Rung, not remembering his name and being very impressed with what good condition his body is in and asking if he’s ever needed to treat the psychiatrist before.
Roberts successfully distracts us from the importance of all this by making it look like the setup for a joke where Rung replies, no, he’s not needed to be treated before, but it’s such an honour to be seen to by such a famously brilliant and delicate doctor…
Before Ratchet takes a mallet to his own hands to loosen them up.
Rung being such a sycophant for Ratchet doesn’t quite feel true to how his character settles down (and even if Ratchet can’t quite place him, they must have worked together a lot as Cybertron’s top doctor and its top shrink), but that’s nothing compared to Ratchet’s reaction to a happy clappy hippy positive message from Drift, which is basically utter contempt.
With people always getting his name wrong, Rung must have the patience of Jesus.
On a first read, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is setup for a wacky Spock/McCoy style odd couple love/hate relationship. Which is what it will become (and then some), but the actual intent was for it to be a hate/hate relationship, with Drift being the series’ main villain and Ratchet his main opponent. And with that in mind, it does read much more sharply than it would have at the time.
More immediately exactly as he’ll carry on is Whirl, who even Ratchet is reluctant to fix and awakens to grab Rung (who has to remind him that he’s his psychiatrist) by the throat and can only be talked down by being reminded he’ll go back to prison, for good, if he ever misbehaves again as Ultra Magnus put him on a last warning after what he did to Springer.
Which lays down more pipe and makes Whirl back down and leave the room.
Also pretty much in character is Tailgate, who wakes up relieved he didn’t kill the guy he thinks is called Nutjob (thanks to Swerve, who is just hanging about), but panicked he’s going to miss the launch of Ark 1.
Which is where, in rather fragrant malpractice, Ratchet lets Swerve break the news to the confused little guy, creating a scream of “SIX MILLION YEARS” that could be heard outside the ship.
More immediately exactly as he’ll carry on is Whirl, who even Ratchet is reluctant to fix and awakens to grab Rung (who has to remind him that he’s his psychiatrist) by the throat and can only be talked down by being reminded he’ll go back to prison, for good, if he ever misbehaves again as Ultra Magnus put him on a last warning after what he did to Springer.
Which lays down more pipe and makes Whirl back down and leave the room.
Also pretty much in character is Tailgate, who wakes up relieved he didn’t kill the guy he thinks is called Nutjob (thanks to Swerve, who is just hanging about), but panicked he’s going to miss the launch of Ark 1.
Which is where, in rather fragrant malpractice, Ratchet lets Swerve break the news to the confused little guy, creating a scream of “SIX MILLION YEARS” that could be heard outside the ship.
What a tosser.
Oh, that Swerve.
As the 1984 bots approach Skids, he attempts to placate them by insisting he’s unarmed, despite holding a gun. Obviously, this doesn’t work, but the body of Polaris, one of the few to die from the atmospheric re-entry, is laying nearby, so Skids magnetises it, throws it (with a very out of character for how we’ll know him, “Fly my beauty fly!”), and then uses Polaris’ own gun to hit the body’s fuel cell, causing an explosion that destroys one robot and leaves the other still saying “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
James Roberts really loves a bit of corpse abuse. Especially if the corpse can be used as an offensive weapon. And it’ll only get more so.
Aboard the Lost Light, Rodimus is meeting Cyclonus. Where, in a slightly confusing move as the last issue made it sound like Ratchet was bringing all the unconscious robots aboard, he’d actually been clinging to the hull in order to come along.
In a surprisingly mature move for Rodimus, he thanks Cyclonus for what he did during Chaos (mainly, ending it), but Cyclonus also killed an awful lot of Autobots at Kimia, and this isn’t the sort of ship that automatically welcomes a war criminal aboard with open arms.
As the 1984 bots approach Skids, he attempts to placate them by insisting he’s unarmed, despite holding a gun. Obviously, this doesn’t work, but the body of Polaris, one of the few to die from the atmospheric re-entry, is laying nearby, so Skids magnetises it, throws it (with a very out of character for how we’ll know him, “Fly my beauty fly!”), and then uses Polaris’ own gun to hit the body’s fuel cell, causing an explosion that destroys one robot and leaves the other still saying “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
James Roberts really loves a bit of corpse abuse. Especially if the corpse can be used as an offensive weapon. And it’ll only get more so.
Aboard the Lost Light, Rodimus is meeting Cyclonus. Where, in a slightly confusing move as the last issue made it sound like Ratchet was bringing all the unconscious robots aboard, he’d actually been clinging to the hull in order to come along.
In a surprisingly mature move for Rodimus, he thanks Cyclonus for what he did during Chaos (mainly, ending it), but Cyclonus also killed an awful lot of Autobots at Kimia, and this isn’t the sort of ship that automatically welcomes a war criminal aboard with open arms.
Pals!
For his part, Cyclonus won’t apologise for actions during war and doesn’t want to be an Autobot any more than he wants to be a Decepticon. He just wants to find something better than the inferior new Cybertron they’ve left behind.
Which is enough to convince Rodimus to let him come along after initially planning to say no, but an incredibly wide Ultra Magnus is less welcoming, largely because he seems to have been talking to Whirl outside.
Whirl, obviously remember what Rung said, makes a show of being the bigger man and forgive and forget with Cyclonus. Who simply whispers “I’m going to kill you. Not today. Maybe not for a while. But I will kill you, and don’t think you’ll see it coming.”
This is what Kamen Rider fans call “Heated drama between men.”
Outside, Swerve has taken Tailgate for a walk, which lets the ancient Autobot reveal the “Osal” on his arm is all that’s left of what should say “Bomb Disposal”, because he was with the Primal Vanguard, doing off-world “silly heroics.” He’s also able offer olde-world knowledge, such as Swerve’s job of “Metallurgist” being called “Skin specialists” in his day.
Which is enough to convince Rodimus to let him come along after initially planning to say no, but an incredibly wide Ultra Magnus is less welcoming, largely because he seems to have been talking to Whirl outside.
Whirl, obviously remember what Rung said, makes a show of being the bigger man and forgive and forget with Cyclonus. Who simply whispers “I’m going to kill you. Not today. Maybe not for a while. But I will kill you, and don’t think you’ll see it coming.”
This is what Kamen Rider fans call “Heated drama between men.”
Outside, Swerve has taken Tailgate for a walk, which lets the ancient Autobot reveal the “Osal” on his arm is all that’s left of what should say “Bomb Disposal”, because he was with the Primal Vanguard, doing off-world “silly heroics.” He’s also able offer olde-world knowledge, such as Swerve’s job of “Metallurgist” being called “Skin specialists” in his day.
Original tec specs rule.
I can’t remember if this was so obviously all bullshit at the time, but Tailgate clearly enjoys talking about himself in the most glowing way, and if there is anything off there, Swerve doesn’t notice because he’s more interested in trying to find out what Tailgate transforms into.
The kinky sod.
The sight of a giant memory stick tells Swerve Rewind is nearby, and where he is Chromedome will be (so Roberts may well be leaning into that intentionally by this point), leading to a proper introduction between them and Tailgate.
They don’t have chance to correct Whirl’s misapprehension that Whirl is called Nutjob as Skids suddenly lands amongst them (leading to a very Joss Whedon moment of Chromedome and Rewind pointing out this sort of thing happens to them a lot), meaning Skids can get Chromedome—who thought he was long dead—to take off the inhibitor claw and allow him to use his inbuilt weapons.
Jumping at a 1984 robot with a cheery “Let’s dance!” (he really isn’t in character this issue at all), he thinks about how the fight brings back a lot of his memories, including his slightly disappointing motto. Though Roberts has enough respect for Bob Budiansky not to outright say if this is the same as the 80’s version of Skids’ motto.
He wins the fight easily, leaving everyone gushing about how amazing and wonderful he is. Giving us the best gag of the issue, when Swerve asks “Who are you? An ex-Wrecker? One of the warriors elite? An old pit fighter?” and gets the reply “I’m a theoretician.”
The kinky sod.
The sight of a giant memory stick tells Swerve Rewind is nearby, and where he is Chromedome will be (so Roberts may well be leaning into that intentionally by this point), leading to a proper introduction between them and Tailgate.
They don’t have chance to correct Whirl’s misapprehension that Whirl is called Nutjob as Skids suddenly lands amongst them (leading to a very Joss Whedon moment of Chromedome and Rewind pointing out this sort of thing happens to them a lot), meaning Skids can get Chromedome—who thought he was long dead—to take off the inhibitor claw and allow him to use his inbuilt weapons.
Jumping at a 1984 robot with a cheery “Let’s dance!” (he really isn’t in character this issue at all), he thinks about how the fight brings back a lot of his memories, including his slightly disappointing motto. Though Roberts has enough respect for Bob Budiansky not to outright say if this is the same as the 80’s version of Skids’ motto.
He wins the fight easily, leaving everyone gushing about how amazing and wonderful he is. Giving us the best gag of the issue, when Swerve asks “Who are you? An ex-Wrecker? One of the warriors elite? An old pit fighter?” and gets the reply “I’m a theoretician.”
He be transfiorming so hard.
Now, because Skids is brilliant and multi-talented and everyone tells him how brilliant and multi-talented he is, Roberts has been accused of creating a self-insert Mary Sue character. But to be fair, that same accusation will be made about half a dozen other characters as well go along (and only one of them will have a holo-avatar directly based on Roberts), I think his very distinctive authorial voice and that he clearly falls in love with his leads creates a stronger impression that everyone is him than is truly the case.
After Skids, confused as to why Chromedome thinks he was holding a gun he wasn’t using, get offered a lift and Tailgate pays special attention to the last “Nineteen Eight-Four” from a dying 1984 robot, it’s back to the Lost Light for a closing crew meeting on the bridge.
Which is where we really get the first sense of one of Milne’s great understated strengths, the sense of geography and location. The ship feels as real as any TV set, and that will be a huge asset to the series going forward.
As Rodimus gets conflicting advice from Magnus (be honest and depressing) and Drift (be way too cheerful to the point of downplaying the two deaths) on the best way to address everyone, Swerve successfully goads Tailgate into trying to transform.
Which, wonderfully, fills the background of several panels as he tries and fails to do so, as Swerve talks to Skids and we get some more very Joss Whedon dialogue of Swerve outright lying about what the Quest is about, before admitting the truth and Skids saying her preferred the silly over the top version.
After Skids, confused as to why Chromedome thinks he was holding a gun he wasn’t using, get offered a lift and Tailgate pays special attention to the last “Nineteen Eight-Four” from a dying 1984 robot, it’s back to the Lost Light for a closing crew meeting on the bridge.
Which is where we really get the first sense of one of Milne’s great understated strengths, the sense of geography and location. The ship feels as real as any TV set, and that will be a huge asset to the series going forward.
As Rodimus gets conflicting advice from Magnus (be honest and depressing) and Drift (be way too cheerful to the point of downplaying the two deaths) on the best way to address everyone, Swerve successfully goads Tailgate into trying to transform.
Which, wonderfully, fills the background of several panels as he tries and fails to do so, as Swerve talks to Skids and we get some more very Joss Whedon dialogue of Swerve outright lying about what the Quest is about, before admitting the truth and Skids saying her preferred the silly over the top version.
Maybe it's time for a new security chief.
Rodimus ultimately decides on a middle-ground acknowledging their loses (Hyperion being the other death), but also looking forward to the next part of the quest, finding the Circle of Light and then going on with them to the Knights of Cybertron. And, in a sign of some of the long-term setups going on here, he ends the memorial part of the speech on “Till all are one.”
Swerve, who actually gets quite a lot this issue, almost like he’s meant to be the connecting tissue between the different groups of characters, is more interested in coming up with a name for the group. His suggestion of “Crusadercons” is met with horror considering the whole “Con” thing, but he wants to reclaim the suffix.
What’s more horrible is what’s happening below decks, as the only people not at the meeting were Red Alert and Shock, who were investigating strange noises on the lower decks (oddly, considering what we’ll know later, on Rodimus’ orders despite him having very good reasons not to investigate strange noises on the lower decks), and a horrified and trying to take no responsibility for failing to secure the ship properly Red Alert has found Shock’s body with a hole ripped out of the centre. There’s a sparkeater aboard!
That must have been quite a shock.
As a way of showing how what is a very talky series will handle the action side of an action franchise, this is extremely successful, letting Milne show off and giving a good balance between the exciting fighting and more character driven moments. Only Skids odd Arnie style quipping feels a bit much for a character who will never be like that again.
Swerve, who actually gets quite a lot this issue, almost like he’s meant to be the connecting tissue between the different groups of characters, is more interested in coming up with a name for the group. His suggestion of “Crusadercons” is met with horror considering the whole “Con” thing, but he wants to reclaim the suffix.
What’s more horrible is what’s happening below decks, as the only people not at the meeting were Red Alert and Shock, who were investigating strange noises on the lower decks (oddly, considering what we’ll know later, on Rodimus’ orders despite him having very good reasons not to investigate strange noises on the lower decks), and a horrified and trying to take no responsibility for failing to secure the ship properly Red Alert has found Shock’s body with a hole ripped out of the centre. There’s a sparkeater aboard!
That must have been quite a shock.
As a way of showing how what is a very talky series will handle the action side of an action franchise, this is extremely successful, letting Milne show off and giving a good balance between the exciting fighting and more character driven moments. Only Skids odd Arnie style quipping feels a bit much for a character who will never be like that again.
The "Meet the Crew" page that would soon become a staple.
A lot of the character work is also very strong, with Ratchet, Swerve, Cyclonus and Whirl all especially shinning.
The only real negative is some of the others don’t quite feel right yet, though that is more a retrospective issue from knowing what they’ll be like in the future. Some of the plotting is also a bit clunkier than we’ll see from the best of the series, but that may be a result of one planned issue being split into two.
All in all, that’s three good issues out of three so far in this relaunch, a better hit rate than IDW have had in years at this point.
Wait, what do you mean, five issues?
Oh, yeah. Next week, Autocracy chapter 3!
AUTOCRACY CHAPTER 2
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
The only real negative is some of the others don’t quite feel right yet, though that is more a retrospective issue from knowing what they’ll be like in the future. Some of the plotting is also a bit clunkier than we’ll see from the best of the series, but that may be a result of one planned issue being split into two.
All in all, that’s three good issues out of three so far in this relaunch, a better hit rate than IDW have had in years at this point.
Wait, what do you mean, five issues?
Oh, yeah. Next week, Autocracy chapter 3!
AUTOCRACY CHAPTER 2
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
