Drench Yourself in Words Unspoken, Live Your Life with Arms Wide Open, Today is Where Your Book Begins, the Rest is Still Unwritten.
Robots in Disguise issue 5: A Better Tomorrow. May 30th 2012.
Seriously—we’ve all tried to kill each other.
Following a pretty big gears shifting issue, John Barber takes the fairly sensible decision to take a breather and have an issue that is more about small moments and moving various pieces into place for the future.
Starting with Ironhide watching a new NAIL ship coming into land, musing (as this issue’s narrator) on how everyone coming home has found resentment, anger, and secrets. But Ironhide? He found the future…
It has to be said, this is the first issue the narration really doesn’t work, only being on the Ironhide pages means it’s overloaded onto just certain scenes, and it really adds very little to what you could work out by just reading the issue without it. It’s very much spelling things out to remove any possible ambiguity, something that will become more of a problem as Barber’s run goes on.
Inside Autobot headquarters, Bumblebee is having a sulk about how Metalhawk and Starscream are meeting every new NAIL arrival, and wishes he had Ironhide’s confidence in how things will work out.
Seriously—we’ve all tried to kill each other.
Following a pretty big gears shifting issue, John Barber takes the fairly sensible decision to take a breather and have an issue that is more about small moments and moving various pieces into place for the future.
Starting with Ironhide watching a new NAIL ship coming into land, musing (as this issue’s narrator) on how everyone coming home has found resentment, anger, and secrets. But Ironhide? He found the future…
It has to be said, this is the first issue the narration really doesn’t work, only being on the Ironhide pages means it’s overloaded onto just certain scenes, and it really adds very little to what you could work out by just reading the issue without it. It’s very much spelling things out to remove any possible ambiguity, something that will become more of a problem as Barber’s run goes on.
Inside Autobot headquarters, Bumblebee is having a sulk about how Metalhawk and Starscream are meeting every new NAIL arrival, and wishes he had Ironhide’s confidence in how things will work out.
The sky's the limit.
Which is where the narration tells us it’s not confidence, it’s understanding. Something the end of the issue will explain more.
Metalhawk and Starscream are indeed waiting to greet the new arrival, who turns out to be Robots in Disguise (2001) fan favourite Sky-Byte!
Which is something that’s very easy to overlook in retrospect, because toy promotion requirements will bring in a lot of non-G1 characters in the next couple of years, but this represents a major sea-change for how different properties are handled by IDW.
They were still, just about, putting out comics based on the current Transformers series (though we have passed the last regular attempt to do anything with the films), but the way the Beast Wars comics crashed and burnt with the second series seems to have made the idea of doing any “retro” series outside of Generation One off-putting.
But all those series have at least some fans, and many beloved characters, so how to still include them?
The answer being to bring them into the main series, starting with the safe bet of arguably the most popular new character not to have appeared in an IDW series before. He’s not here because there’s a new toy on the shelf (though it’s a good sign of why he’s a safe bet that he will wind up representing his series in the 30th anniversary toy-line), he’s here because he’s well loved and to see if this sort of cross-pollination will work.
Metalhawk and Starscream are indeed waiting to greet the new arrival, who turns out to be Robots in Disguise (2001) fan favourite Sky-Byte!
Which is something that’s very easy to overlook in retrospect, because toy promotion requirements will bring in a lot of non-G1 characters in the next couple of years, but this represents a major sea-change for how different properties are handled by IDW.
They were still, just about, putting out comics based on the current Transformers series (though we have passed the last regular attempt to do anything with the films), but the way the Beast Wars comics crashed and burnt with the second series seems to have made the idea of doing any “retro” series outside of Generation One off-putting.
But all those series have at least some fans, and many beloved characters, so how to still include them?
The answer being to bring them into the main series, starting with the safe bet of arguably the most popular new character not to have appeared in an IDW series before. He’s not here because there’s a new toy on the shelf (though it’s a good sign of why he’s a safe bet that he will wind up representing his series in the 30th anniversary toy-line), he’s here because he’s well loved and to see if this sort of cross-pollination will work.
Andrew Griffith is so commited to giving lesbians what they want (thick thighed Arcee), the time he spent on this panel meant Casey Coller had to fill in some pages.
It also raises the question of, much like Trigger’s Broom, how far removed from “Classic” Generation One can IDW get in terms of characters, designs, and setup, before it’s only really Generation One for marketing terms? But there’s going to a lot more of that to muse on as we go along.
And, though he’s going to a little less manic than his cartoon counterpart, Sky-Byte immediately makes an impression by recognising Starscream as “A conniver, a liar and a killer, in short—a Decepticon.” Which lets Starscream get in a good bit of snark back (“I like this guy”), before letting Metalhawk take this one over and give his now familiar spiel about the two factions having been as bad as each other, before, after finding out Sky-Byte has been along for a long time.
Alone even with other people is what Prowl turns out to be, as he broods whilst Arcee is being very chipper behind him, claiming to know his newest secret (she thinks it’s wanting Dirge dead, she will turn out to be very wrong) and talking about how torturing Jhiaxus for six years really helped her sort her head out, and she’s definitely not a psycho-killer. Though she’s done her suddenly vanishing thing before Prowl can ask “What are you, then?”
Which becomes a more interesting question down the line when we find out who’s really asking. But the key thing is, Barber is continuing his rehabilitation of this version of Arcee at every opportunity, by giving her interesting moments, even in issues that otherwise don’t feature her.
And, though he’s going to a little less manic than his cartoon counterpart, Sky-Byte immediately makes an impression by recognising Starscream as “A conniver, a liar and a killer, in short—a Decepticon.” Which lets Starscream get in a good bit of snark back (“I like this guy”), before letting Metalhawk take this one over and give his now familiar spiel about the two factions having been as bad as each other, before, after finding out Sky-Byte has been along for a long time.
Alone even with other people is what Prowl turns out to be, as he broods whilst Arcee is being very chipper behind him, claiming to know his newest secret (she thinks it’s wanting Dirge dead, she will turn out to be very wrong) and talking about how torturing Jhiaxus for six years really helped her sort her head out, and she’s definitely not a psycho-killer. Though she’s done her suddenly vanishing thing before Prowl can ask “What are you, then?”
Which becomes a more interesting question down the line when we find out who’s really asking. But the key thing is, Barber is continuing his rehabilitation of this version of Arcee at every opportunity, by giving her interesting moments, even in issues that otherwise don’t feature her.
Imagine being told by Noddy you have a flimsy understanding of the political situation.
Sky-Byte is being given the tour by Metalhawk, meaning being introduced to all the people who’d have the worst things to say about the Autobots and the general status quo, especially poor old whipping boy of just about everyone, Zetca.
This clearly makes Sky-Byte need a moment, so he goes out of the city and works on a haiku over the remains of a Sweep (though, apparently, it’s a terrible rule breaking haiku, but I have the poetry sense of a rock).
Which is where a trying to trust people more Ironhide finds him and, after clarifying the continuity error between Heart of Darkness and Chaos of Galvatron’s missing army (they all turned into Sweeps, apparently. As this scene also lets Sky-Byte do a meta joke about once having known Scourge, so it’s a two for two on continuity references), we get the best scene of the issue.
It sees Sky-Byte understandably reticent after all he’s heard and Ironhide being a bit awkward in his attempts to try reaching out to new arrivals, especially as they remember each other and that Sky-Byte used to be a Decepticon, but slowly working round to common ground, through Ironhide trying to be interested in poetry even when struggling with the word “Rhyme.”
This clearly makes Sky-Byte need a moment, so he goes out of the city and works on a haiku over the remains of a Sweep (though, apparently, it’s a terrible rule breaking haiku, but I have the poetry sense of a rock).
Which is where a trying to trust people more Ironhide finds him and, after clarifying the continuity error between Heart of Darkness and Chaos of Galvatron’s missing army (they all turned into Sweeps, apparently. As this scene also lets Sky-Byte do a meta joke about once having known Scourge, so it’s a two for two on continuity references), we get the best scene of the issue.
It sees Sky-Byte understandably reticent after all he’s heard and Ironhide being a bit awkward in his attempts to try reaching out to new arrivals, especially as they remember each other and that Sky-Byte used to be a Decepticon, but slowly working round to common ground, through Ironhide trying to be interested in poetry even when struggling with the word “Rhyme.”
There was a young lady from Venus...
Indeed, Ironhide is so keen to find middle ground, he even encourages Sky-Byte to go talk to “yer old Decepticon pals,” and we’ll see how well that will go.
It’s a very nice bit of writing from Barber, and even, after Ironhide has explained how it’s dangerous outside the city at night, has a giant flying shark.
He may not understand poetry, but he does know booze, so he’s on slightly surer footing when checking in on Blurr, under the pretence of having been asked by Prowl, who (in author synergy between Roberts and Barber, with him wanting to have done this being mentioned by Swerve) is checking out a location for a potential new bar.
It’s another nice scene, establishing Blurr is healing, but still slow, and is very done with being an Autobot. And even though he’s not sure about the location or running a pub when he’s a nightclub guy, Ironhide continues his attempts to be gentler and more supportive by pointing out all these new arrivals will need somewhere they can just hang out and chill, with Blurr being just the right guy to do that.
In real need of a drink is Bumblebee, who is having to put up with Metalhawk and Starscream, claiming to have been inspired by Sky-Byte’s horror at the idea (though as ever with Starscream, you never know quite where his sincerity lies), trying to get him to disable the I/D chips as being unnecessarily cruel and creating a dangerous underclass.
It’s a very nice bit of writing from Barber, and even, after Ironhide has explained how it’s dangerous outside the city at night, has a giant flying shark.
He may not understand poetry, but he does know booze, so he’s on slightly surer footing when checking in on Blurr, under the pretence of having been asked by Prowl, who (in author synergy between Roberts and Barber, with him wanting to have done this being mentioned by Swerve) is checking out a location for a potential new bar.
It’s another nice scene, establishing Blurr is healing, but still slow, and is very done with being an Autobot. And even though he’s not sure about the location or running a pub when he’s a nightclub guy, Ironhide continues his attempts to be gentler and more supportive by pointing out all these new arrivals will need somewhere they can just hang out and chill, with Blurr being just the right guy to do that.
In real need of a drink is Bumblebee, who is having to put up with Metalhawk and Starscream, claiming to have been inspired by Sky-Byte’s horror at the idea (though as ever with Starscream, you never know quite where his sincerity lies), trying to get him to disable the I/D chips as being unnecessarily cruel and creating a dangerous underclass.
location, Location, Location.
The best Bumblebee can manage is to point out the NAILS hate the Decepticons as much as the Autobots do, even with Starscream’s politicising giving him some inroads. Something Ironhide (who is really getting around this issue) even backs up by saying Sky-Byte mainly had a terrible reaction because he used to be a Decepticon himself. Letting Starscream get a nice gag in when Ironhide says “Tried to kill me once,” responding with “Who hasn’t?”
This mention of Sky-Byte’s allegiances means Prowl suddenly vanished from the room, like he’s been learning some tricks from Arcee.
Sky-Byte has now followed through on Ironhide’s advice and, in arguably an unlikely turn of events, the very Decepticons he’s decided to chat to are Swindle, Needlenose and, the guy they’re hiding to Needlenose’s annoyance, Dirge.
Yes, of all the ‘Cons on the planet, he’s managed to pick a chat with Cybertron’s most wanted without really trying. Prowl really hasn’t been putting much effort into finding Dirge based on this, maybe he has his mind on other things.
This mention of Sky-Byte’s allegiances means Prowl suddenly vanished from the room, like he’s been learning some tricks from Arcee.
Sky-Byte has now followed through on Ironhide’s advice and, in arguably an unlikely turn of events, the very Decepticons he’s decided to chat to are Swindle, Needlenose and, the guy they’re hiding to Needlenose’s annoyance, Dirge.
Yes, of all the ‘Cons on the planet, he’s managed to pick a chat with Cybertron’s most wanted without really trying. Prowl really hasn’t been putting much effort into finding Dirge based on this, maybe he has his mind on other things.
He's byten off more than he can chew.
A lovely deft little character touch is that Sky-Byte, upon being told what Prowl did to the Constructicons, he actually fairly sanguine about it because not only has he seen the full horrors of what the Constructicons can do, it was one such massacre on their part that made him flee the Decepticons in the first place.
His uncertainty is tested though, when a Prowl led team (including Sideswipe and Streetwise) suddenly appears and orders their surrender, with Swindle pointing out following Ironhide’s advice was a set-up to use the new arrival as a stalking horse.
Which is a little unfair. But when shots start being fired as Swindle tries to sneak Dirge out, Sky-Byte is horrified to realise everything he’s been told about the awfulness of the Autobots looks to be true.
Streetwise takes a bad shot to the face, but Needlenose can’t hold out and eventually falls to a quipping Sideswipe (“You Autobots never change! The war never ends!” “Does for you”), and Sky-Byte is taken off for some police brutality back in the cells.
Adding to his woes, to get directions from a NAIL about where Sky-Byte was, Sideswipe told him they were actually tracking the guy who beat up Zetca, Skywarp. So, when the crowd outside see Sky-Byte being dragged onto the street in custody, they assume he must be Skywarp and said crowd morphs into a debris throwing mob.
His uncertainty is tested though, when a Prowl led team (including Sideswipe and Streetwise) suddenly appears and orders their surrender, with Swindle pointing out following Ironhide’s advice was a set-up to use the new arrival as a stalking horse.
Which is a little unfair. But when shots start being fired as Swindle tries to sneak Dirge out, Sky-Byte is horrified to realise everything he’s been told about the awfulness of the Autobots looks to be true.
Streetwise takes a bad shot to the face, but Needlenose can’t hold out and eventually falls to a quipping Sideswipe (“You Autobots never change! The war never ends!” “Does for you”), and Sky-Byte is taken off for some police brutality back in the cells.
Adding to his woes, to get directions from a NAIL about where Sky-Byte was, Sideswipe told him they were actually tracking the guy who beat up Zetca, Skywarp. So, when the crowd outside see Sky-Byte being dragged onto the street in custody, they assume he must be Skywarp and said crowd morphs into a debris throwing mob.
"I must kill any man with bigger titties than me"
This is where Ironhide—musing on how Prowl has been struggling with being wrong for a while now, but he’s still one of his best friends so he won’t hold it against him—arrives and makes himself an imposing presence to calm things down.
He apologies to Sky-Byte for having caused all this, however accidentally and, more importantly, stares Prowl down when he tries to continue taking the shark back to the cells where he can accidentally fall down the stairs a few times on the way.
Which makes Prowl, the guy Ironhide was calling a best friend a few pages earlier, point his gun right at Ironhide’s chest.
To which he doesn’t even blink, as he continues saying that not only is Sky-Byte innocent, but Metalhawk and, God help him, Starscream were right about the I/D chips as well. If the Decepticons do revert to old ways, they’ll stop them, but they have to leave the past behind.
Prowl tires to counter this to the watching Bumblebee by asking does he want to go down in history as the Autobot leader who let the Decepticon’s free? With Ironhide basically finishing by saying Prowl is right… but maybe that’s not going to be a bad thing to be remembered for, because tomorrow is their day, and this may well work out.
The main odd thing in what is otherwise another solid scene, is that Metalhawk and Starscream are also present, but just stand there mutely, even when being talked about. They’d probably have been better off staying back at base.
He apologies to Sky-Byte for having caused all this, however accidentally and, more importantly, stares Prowl down when he tries to continue taking the shark back to the cells where he can accidentally fall down the stairs a few times on the way.
Which makes Prowl, the guy Ironhide was calling a best friend a few pages earlier, point his gun right at Ironhide’s chest.
To which he doesn’t even blink, as he continues saying that not only is Sky-Byte innocent, but Metalhawk and, God help him, Starscream were right about the I/D chips as well. If the Decepticons do revert to old ways, they’ll stop them, but they have to leave the past behind.
Prowl tires to counter this to the watching Bumblebee by asking does he want to go down in history as the Autobot leader who let the Decepticon’s free? With Ironhide basically finishing by saying Prowl is right… but maybe that’s not going to be a bad thing to be remembered for, because tomorrow is their day, and this may well work out.
The main odd thing in what is otherwise another solid scene, is that Metalhawk and Starscream are also present, but just stand there mutely, even when being talked about. They’d probably have been better off staying back at base.
Casey Coller Chonk.
The next day, it turns out you don’t need to ask Blurr to open a bar twice, with the reveal that his new business is Macadam’s Old Oil House, which is a nice use of an established IDW location (and the interior matches Chaos Theory well) and it’s always nice to see such an unlikely Marvel UK callback.
Prowl is kind of horrified Bumblebee actually listened to Ironhide and is trying to have it out with his supposed BFF as he’s trying to have a drink with Sky-Byte. But Blurr isn’t having any of that, forcing him to sit down and enjoy a free drink on the house. Which, even though Prowl is very sarcastic about the idea of building bridges through beer, he still does.
Leading to the stinger of the issue as Ironhide, when asked why he was confident Prowl wouldn’t just kill him, cheerfully reveals a secret he’s not told anyone else, that during the planetary reboot of Chaos, he had a vison of the future where everyone was living on Gorlam Prime, there was peace and everyone around now and all their grudges were dead.
Now, I said this at the time I covered the last Costa issue, that I really don’t like this. Not because I’m especially hung up on protecting the artistic vision of Mike Costa (it was after all, quite a bad attempt at knocking off a Peter David comic) but bringing it into “canon” and explaining it is completely missing the point of that issue on an almost cosmic level.
Especially when, as we’re reminded of a few times this issue, Ironhide has also lost all his memories of the last 4 million years, that would have been enough justification for him being a more optimistic and keener to build bridges character than he has been previously.
It is, if not the first (how unneeded a lot of Ironhide’s narration is this issue is also a symptom), the biggest sign yet of Barber’s main weakness of wanting to tie everything together, regardless of whether it needs doing or is especially interesting.
Prowl is kind of horrified Bumblebee actually listened to Ironhide and is trying to have it out with his supposed BFF as he’s trying to have a drink with Sky-Byte. But Blurr isn’t having any of that, forcing him to sit down and enjoy a free drink on the house. Which, even though Prowl is very sarcastic about the idea of building bridges through beer, he still does.
Leading to the stinger of the issue as Ironhide, when asked why he was confident Prowl wouldn’t just kill him, cheerfully reveals a secret he’s not told anyone else, that during the planetary reboot of Chaos, he had a vison of the future where everyone was living on Gorlam Prime, there was peace and everyone around now and all their grudges were dead.
Now, I said this at the time I covered the last Costa issue, that I really don’t like this. Not because I’m especially hung up on protecting the artistic vision of Mike Costa (it was after all, quite a bad attempt at knocking off a Peter David comic) but bringing it into “canon” and explaining it is completely missing the point of that issue on an almost cosmic level.
Especially when, as we’re reminded of a few times this issue, Ironhide has also lost all his memories of the last 4 million years, that would have been enough justification for him being a more optimistic and keener to build bridges character than he has been previously.
It is, if not the first (how unneeded a lot of Ironhide’s narration is this issue is also a symptom), the biggest sign yet of Barber’s main weakness of wanting to tie everything together, regardless of whether it needs doing or is especially interesting.
"I never got this shit from Slapper"
Otherwise though, whilst this issue is a little disjointed as it moves various pieces into place (and as a result, trying to keep the “one main character focus an issue” thing doesn’t quite work here), it’s still mostly a collection of very strong and important scenes.
And, even though I don’t like the motivation for it, the new chill Ironhide just trying his best and with confidence because he knows things are going to be OK, is a fantastic fresh take on a character who is too often a sitcom level Texan whose wife and sister are the same person.
And whilst Barber might have been a little cautious in how Sky-Bytey Sky-Byte should be (it’s actually quite hard to hear Peter Spellos saying these more weary lines), it’s still a successful transfusion of fresh blood into Generation One that will only be built on in future, with him being a successful character in his own right. The only real shame is, as far as I remember, he doesn’t really get much to do after this when a more reasonable NAIL voice than Metalhawk might have been a good ongoing addition.
For art, Griffith does his usual strong work on his pages, including helping bring Sky-Byte over by making him feel of a visual piece with this world without losing his uniqueness. Which, I suspect, was a trickier job than it looks.
This is also the first issue of either ongoing to bring in a supporting artist, something we’ll see more of going forward. Casey Coller is always good value and, though his art is chonkier (that’s a word) than Griffth’s, it’s not distractingly different and the pages flow well in and out of each other.
So, perhaps not an outstanding issue, and one that probably reads better in trade as a piece of a bigger hole, but ably shows that even the more workmanlike than fancy issues of this era will have a lot of good moments and, mostly, do what they need to do get the plots and characters where they’re needed well.
Next week, am I at the stage of Autocracy where I couldn’t even get a haiku out of my thoughts on the series?
AUTOCRACY ISSUE 10
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
And, even though I don’t like the motivation for it, the new chill Ironhide just trying his best and with confidence because he knows things are going to be OK, is a fantastic fresh take on a character who is too often a sitcom level Texan whose wife and sister are the same person.
And whilst Barber might have been a little cautious in how Sky-Bytey Sky-Byte should be (it’s actually quite hard to hear Peter Spellos saying these more weary lines), it’s still a successful transfusion of fresh blood into Generation One that will only be built on in future, with him being a successful character in his own right. The only real shame is, as far as I remember, he doesn’t really get much to do after this when a more reasonable NAIL voice than Metalhawk might have been a good ongoing addition.
For art, Griffith does his usual strong work on his pages, including helping bring Sky-Byte over by making him feel of a visual piece with this world without losing his uniqueness. Which, I suspect, was a trickier job than it looks.
This is also the first issue of either ongoing to bring in a supporting artist, something we’ll see more of going forward. Casey Coller is always good value and, though his art is chonkier (that’s a word) than Griffth’s, it’s not distractingly different and the pages flow well in and out of each other.
So, perhaps not an outstanding issue, and one that probably reads better in trade as a piece of a bigger hole, but ably shows that even the more workmanlike than fancy issues of this era will have a lot of good moments and, mostly, do what they need to do get the plots and characters where they’re needed well.
Next week, am I at the stage of Autocracy where I couldn’t even get a haiku out of my thoughts on the series?
AUTOCRACY ISSUE 10
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
