Don't Slow Down, You're Gonna Crash.
Spotlight: Orion Pax: Omega’s Conundrum. 12th December 2012.
Sometimes, foresight can be a burden.
What we have here is an issue where the behind-the-scenes situation is actually far more interesting than the comic itself.
The first thing to note is, unlike the last couple of issues that were pressed into service as such a few years later, this new run of Spotlights was actively commissioned to be packed in with toys. A sensible and fun bonus, and one that the Spotlight format nicely lends itself to, giving kids a nice, self-contained story (though there are some threads and links that carry through for anyone that has rich parents) that gives personality and history to the toy.
It’s such a nice and well done idea, it’s a shame that something (presumably the fact that Spotlights have never done sustainably well for IDW, it’s now been a few years since the last one) forced a change in how the pack-ins worked after this, resulting in a far more convoluted mess of a kid getting part 8 of an involved 12 part story that might not even have the toy in it.
Sometimes, foresight can be a burden.
What we have here is an issue where the behind-the-scenes situation is actually far more interesting than the comic itself.
The first thing to note is, unlike the last couple of issues that were pressed into service as such a few years later, this new run of Spotlights was actively commissioned to be packed in with toys. A sensible and fun bonus, and one that the Spotlight format nicely lends itself to, giving kids a nice, self-contained story (though there are some threads and links that carry through for anyone that has rich parents) that gives personality and history to the toy.
It’s such a nice and well done idea, it’s a shame that something (presumably the fact that Spotlights have never done sustainably well for IDW, it’s now been a few years since the last one) forced a change in how the pack-ins worked after this, resulting in a far more convoluted mess of a kid getting part 8 of an involved 12 part story that might not even have the toy in it.
You can tell if someone is a really into the deep reeds Transformers fan from if they even notice if an Optimus Prime design has the faceplate or not.
The second behind the scenes factor is the 30th anniversary. When collected in trade, this series would be given the subtitles Dark Prelude, the loose threads that reward someone who reads the lot being an intentional setup for the major big birthday bash that is Dark Cybertron, something that won’t start its six-month run until the end of 2013.
Which is an extreme sign of the confidence the various teams now have, we started 2012 with them assuming they might get a year, if lucky. We’re ending it with a storyline that won’t fully payoff for 18 months kicking-off. And yes, the pack-in comics required a longer lead time (this would actually be one of the earliest things Roberts wrote as a solo writer), but working earlier to make them still requires a faith that the comics that will be written later to come out at the same time will definitely happen.
All of which, as noted, is much more interesting than the story itself, which is as close to coasting as James Roberts ever gets. Though the toy he’s been presented with to right about first presented an interesting problem: An Orion Pax based on how he looked in Spotlight: Blurr (or rather how he looked in the cartoon, just taking some cues from that designed to transform practically look), a completely different design to that which he’s had in every other IDW flashback story, including the one that’s just ended.
Which is an extreme sign of the confidence the various teams now have, we started 2012 with them assuming they might get a year, if lucky. We’re ending it with a storyline that won’t fully payoff for 18 months kicking-off. And yes, the pack-in comics required a longer lead time (this would actually be one of the earliest things Roberts wrote as a solo writer), but working earlier to make them still requires a faith that the comics that will be written later to come out at the same time will definitely happen.
All of which, as noted, is much more interesting than the story itself, which is as close to coasting as James Roberts ever gets. Though the toy he’s been presented with to right about first presented an interesting problem: An Orion Pax based on how he looked in Spotlight: Blurr (or rather how he looked in the cartoon, just taking some cues from that designed to transform practically look), a completely different design to that which he’s had in every other IDW flashback story, including the one that’s just ended.
"You're a lot less scary when you're not in fully painted art"
Another writer and editorial team might just have rolled with “We’ve already well-established Transformers can and do change their looks on a whim”, but James Roberts and John Barber never met a minor continuity error they couldn’t dine out on, so the change in look becomes one of the overriding themes of the issue instead.
So, after an attention-grabbing opening splash page flash forwards of Pax strapped to an aircraft in a crash-dive as his inner monologue wonders if he should have gone for Plan B instead…
It’s earlier in Autobot headquarters as Wheeljack shows off the new and totally rebuilt Orion Pax, who is annoyed at losing his “Lucky” faceplate (and Wheeljack commenting that it’s just a plate now it’s come off is where you really feel the difference between Barber writing him and Roberts). A rebuild that was so traumatic that the doctor Kaput has to give him a talk about only transforming carefully for a while, and that the psychiatrist whose name is a struggle to remember will offer him counselling.
It's a minor thing, but whether or not Pax himself is capable of remembering Rung’s name is carefully not clarified one way or another.
The reason for whatever Pax went through being so bad then walks in: Zeta Prime! It tuns out we’re in the immediate aftermath of the defeat of the old Senate and his rise to seemingly benevolent power, something Pax paid a heavy price in helping achieve.
So, after an attention-grabbing opening splash page flash forwards of Pax strapped to an aircraft in a crash-dive as his inner monologue wonders if he should have gone for Plan B instead…
It’s earlier in Autobot headquarters as Wheeljack shows off the new and totally rebuilt Orion Pax, who is annoyed at losing his “Lucky” faceplate (and Wheeljack commenting that it’s just a plate now it’s come off is where you really feel the difference between Barber writing him and Roberts). A rebuild that was so traumatic that the doctor Kaput has to give him a talk about only transforming carefully for a while, and that the psychiatrist whose name is a struggle to remember will offer him counselling.
It's a minor thing, but whether or not Pax himself is capable of remembering Rung’s name is carefully not clarified one way or another.
The reason for whatever Pax went through being so bad then walks in: Zeta Prime! It tuns out we’re in the immediate aftermath of the defeat of the old Senate and his rise to seemingly benevolent power, something Pax paid a heavy price in helping achieve.
He's Trion Nightbeat's patience.
Which sounds like quite a big and exciting story, so it’s a mild surprise that will all the Pax flashbacks (Paxbacks) we’ll be getting in different forms from both authors, this is the one big gap in his timeline we’ll never see. I’m not even sure it will ever even be mentioned again. I don’t know if it was something Roberts meant to come back to at some point in a Chaos Theory 4 and the rapid wrap-up denied him, or if this whole situation was just created to explain the change in Pax for this one issue with no other interest in it, but it is odd.
And though I’ll save talking about art till the end, Zeta’s Prime design just looks very silly when not drawn by Livio Ramondelli.
And though I’ll save talking about art till the end, Zeta’s Prime design just looks very silly when not drawn by Livio Ramondelli.
Amazingly, after all the effort put into them here, I think this is not only the first speaking appearance of Rack'N'Ruin, it's also their last speaking appearance.
Still, silly or not, after dropping some foreshadowing that maybe he’s not the nice saviour of Cybertron the “I’ll follow you anywhere” Pax thinks he is (by insisting on being called by his full title despite their supposed friendship), his main purpose here is to introduce the plot.
Which is very straightforward. Ratchet has been kidnapped by the Decepticons, who want to swap him for a mysterious prisoner being transported in Pax’s trailer (who turns out to be prisoners, Rack and Ruin before they were joined together). Pax is to go with Nightbeat. Who apparently is a crack hostage negotiator. I dread to think what the second-best hostage negotiator is like as he clearly has no patience for difficult to deal with people as his rapidly loses his rag with their other team member, Alpha Trion shows. An expert in the rust spots they’ll need to navigate thanks to his experience travelling the planet with the now near mythical Metroplex.
They do get into a fight with some “Slicers”, that releases Rack and Ruin and starts a conversation about how such unimportant ‘Con prisoners are considered an equal swap for Ratchet.
Of course, there turns out to be a trick when they get to the Bludgeon led Decepticon group, they actually really wanted Alpha Trion, as a way of getting to Metroplex.
Which is very straightforward. Ratchet has been kidnapped by the Decepticons, who want to swap him for a mysterious prisoner being transported in Pax’s trailer (who turns out to be prisoners, Rack and Ruin before they were joined together). Pax is to go with Nightbeat. Who apparently is a crack hostage negotiator. I dread to think what the second-best hostage negotiator is like as he clearly has no patience for difficult to deal with people as his rapidly loses his rag with their other team member, Alpha Trion shows. An expert in the rust spots they’ll need to navigate thanks to his experience travelling the planet with the now near mythical Metroplex.
They do get into a fight with some “Slicers”, that releases Rack and Ruin and starts a conversation about how such unimportant ‘Con prisoners are considered an equal swap for Ratchet.
Of course, there turns out to be a trick when they get to the Bludgeon led Decepticon group, they actually really wanted Alpha Trion, as a way of getting to Metroplex.
Turns out most MegaPrime fics have one author.
Pax manages to cause a diversion with violence and hidden weapons that lets everyone, a turning out to be helpful Rack and Ruin as well, escape. But he winds up tied to an orbital craft and fired into the air to crash into the nearest random city, as just some grandstanding from Bludgeon.
Luckily, despite taking down a passenger shuttle on the way, Pax is able to use a super-fast transformation (sorry, “Instantaneous conversion”) trick that Rack and Ruin told him was a kink of theirs (that ultimately ruined their cogs) to escape his bonds, enter the cockpit and crash the ship harmlessly into the wilderness.
Which leaves him relieved, but determined to get his faceplate back after the damage his loving lips have taken. With a bit of wreckage making do for now…
Luckily, despite taking down a passenger shuttle on the way, Pax is able to use a super-fast transformation (sorry, “Instantaneous conversion”) trick that Rack and Ruin told him was a kink of theirs (that ultimately ruined their cogs) to escape his bonds, enter the cockpit and crash the ship harmlessly into the wilderness.
Which leaves him relieved, but determined to get his faceplate back after the damage his loving lips have taken. With a bit of wreckage making do for now…
He's actually seen every international dub of that film, he's such a fan.
That’s comfortably the most direct and least layered issue in a long time. There are a couple of interesting side points (that the Autobot logo is a much more ancient image of “The First Face”, that has often been rallied around by Cybertronians in times of crisis, though I don’t think there’s ever another mention of why it became such a totem). It’s also nice to see Pax being very good with people and effectively getting Rack and Ruin, treated with such contempt no one can even remember the name of the now dead third triplet, on side by being the first ever person to take an interest in them.
There’s also some interesting stuff on Pax’s attitude to the Decepticons, that he did use to sympathise with Megatron, but no more, because he thinks they’re now heading to a better world, slowly, under Zeta.
There’s also some interesting stuff on Pax’s attitude to the Decepticons, that he did use to sympathise with Megatron, but no more, because he thinks they’re now heading to a better world, slowly, under Zeta.
Wait till Bludgeon tells Megatron about Pax being strapped to a big thrusting missile.
Which, frankly, continues to show what a terrible judge of character and the situation he is, but also, his commitment to fixing things within the system even if that system is corrupt and slow, is something you’d think he’d have grown out of after some of the other events we’ve seen. But perhaps he’s not that fast a learner, and John Barber in particular is going to have a lot to say about this.
There’s also rather a hilarious moment of Bludgeon admitting Megatron sometimes talks about Pax when he’s tired… and revealing what he says would make both of them uncomfortable. Something to feed the shippers well.
Perhaps the biggest sign of the slightness of the issue is the titular “Omega’s conundrum”, basically Schrodinger’s Cat, isn’t referring to something like whether Metroplex does or does not really exist, but that Pax has hidden lots of guns in his trailer so that when it looks empty, it’s not.
The only other thing to really note is that bringing in Nightbeat and Bludgeon could seem like Roberts is just indulging his Marvel UK fanboy tendencies on a comic that otherwise isn’t of huge interest to him, but they (along with Alpha Trion, the talk of Metroplex, the shuttle Pax crashed into and a not happy with all the gratuitous violence against civilians Thundercracker) are all actually seeds for those stories that will take us into the anniversary year.
There’s also rather a hilarious moment of Bludgeon admitting Megatron sometimes talks about Pax when he’s tired… and revealing what he says would make both of them uncomfortable. Something to feed the shippers well.
Perhaps the biggest sign of the slightness of the issue is the titular “Omega’s conundrum”, basically Schrodinger’s Cat, isn’t referring to something like whether Metroplex does or does not really exist, but that Pax has hidden lots of guns in his trailer so that when it looks empty, it’s not.
The only other thing to really note is that bringing in Nightbeat and Bludgeon could seem like Roberts is just indulging his Marvel UK fanboy tendencies on a comic that otherwise isn’t of huge interest to him, but they (along with Alpha Trion, the talk of Metroplex, the shuttle Pax crashed into and a not happy with all the gratuitous violence against civilians Thundercracker) are all actually seeds for those stories that will take us into the anniversary year.
"And let us never speak of this new look again"
Though Rack and Ruin absolutely are an indulgence.
All of which can sound like I’m down on this issue, but after some of the more complicated and involved stories we’ve had recently, a light breather is actually very welcome and well timed. It rattles along, it’s gone some fun lines, and does its job of making sure the kid who gets the toy comes away with a solid idea of who Orion Pax is (and why they’re not quite Optimus Prime yet).
The art by one-time interior artist Steve Kurth (with inks by Juan Castro) is pleasingly old school and clearly very influenced by Andrew Wildman as well.
So, probably not a story to go out of your way to read, but a nice enough bit of fluff.
Next week, 2012 ends with a return to be big ideas and narrative structure tricks, as Tailgate gets to show what a good bomb disposal guy he is.
ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ISSUE 12
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
All of which can sound like I’m down on this issue, but after some of the more complicated and involved stories we’ve had recently, a light breather is actually very welcome and well timed. It rattles along, it’s gone some fun lines, and does its job of making sure the kid who gets the toy comes away with a solid idea of who Orion Pax is (and why they’re not quite Optimus Prime yet).
The art by one-time interior artist Steve Kurth (with inks by Juan Castro) is pleasingly old school and clearly very influenced by Andrew Wildman as well.
So, probably not a story to go out of your way to read, but a nice enough bit of fluff.
Next week, 2012 ends with a return to be big ideas and narrative structure tricks, as Tailgate gets to show what a good bomb disposal guy he is.
ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ISSUE 12
2012
COMMENT
KO-FI
