War Within is out, go get it!!! (Spoilers)

[Blitzwing]

Well since there seem to be no spoilers in the other thread, I decided to make a new one.

THE WAR WITHIN IS AWESOME!!!!!!

Sentinal Prime gets his name mentioned which is already a tribute to the original G1 comic.

We get a beautiful shot of Iacon with plenty of life in the sky and on land.

Bluestreak and Prime have a conversation in which we learn that Prime is basically a secratary that keeps track of Activity around Cybertron and that he doesn't know what it's like on the battlefields.

Next scene we already have our first casualty, as Overhaul is shown being blasted through the chest by enemy fire. Next we see Ironhide, Kup, Skids, Wheeljack and Grimlock. The new bodies all look like supped up versions of their old selves. Grimlocks appears to be a high-ranking General in the Autobot army.

Bumblebee and Trailbreaker radio in for help from a building filled with neutral Transformers who refuse to join any war. The building is destroyed by Skywarp and Thundercracker just after Bumblebee and Trailbreaker vacate.
(Small Nitpick): Thundercracker is black and Skywarp is blue. They could have had different colors back on Cybertron, but it would have been nice if they kept their old colors.

We get a shot of Grimlock, Wheeljack, Skids, Kup and Ironhide in their vehicle modes. All look very nice, and Wheeljack loos like he did in MTMTE.

Prime has a conversation with the high Autobot Council about becoming the new leader. He tells them that he thinks Cybertron isn't worth fighting for. Also, in the viewscreens in the middle of the spread, we see Cybertronian Letters. If you unscramble the Letters, they say 'Until All Are One'. Very Cool!

Next scene has a zoom-out from a closeup of Prowl where he talks about the Helix Gardens, a place that was once his home city. Turns out he and Jazz are meeting up with Grimlock and several other Autobots. They agree that if the council chooses the wrong Prime, they'll take control of the Autobots themselves.

Guardian robots are seen outside of the building Prime and the Council are in. As he tells them about his plans to leave Cybertron, we see pictures of Starscream, Ravage and Shockwave (who has the same body that we are all used to).

Inside, the Autobots all gather to see Optimus Prime introduced as the New Autobot Leader. When Prime gets the Matrix, his body grows like when Hotrod turned into Rodimus Prime in TF:TM. Three Decepticons break into the Autobot Base. An Autobot is sliced in half! We haven't seen that happen in any Dreamwave comics up till now. Skids tries to stop them, but gets his arm chopped off for his trouble.

Grimlock, Bumblebee, Kup, Hound and Jazz all join in the fight, but they pull back because they want to see what Prime is made of. Prime beats the living **** out of them and demands that the only survivor talk. He says that the Autobot's defeat is inevitable as blue blood oozes from his head.

We see Tracks in a cameo appearance congratulating Optimus Prime. As the other Autobots congratulate him, he announces that he plans to evacuate Cybertron. Grimlock, Hound and Bumblebee look VERY pissed off at his decision.

Within Cybertron we see Megatron who simply says, 'Optimus Prime... come to me!'. This scene was very similar to the last scene of Armada #1 where we get our first glimpse of Armada Megatron.

This issue was absolutely fantastic! There is a lot of subplots going on here, and all the characters both look and act like badasses. There is way more violence in this issue than anything other TF related comic that G1 has produced yet. I give this issue a 5/5 for story and a 5/5 for art... 10 stars baby!

Also... there's a preview for The War Within #2 that says it will reveal the terrifying truth behind the Decepticons and that after this issue, everything we thought we knew about Transformers will be challenged. It might seem like simple hype, but if it's anything like issue #1, it will be great.

[BigMaki]

I loved how everyone had a completely new look, yet almost all of them were immediately recognizable. Hound looked awesome, Skids looked awesome and I loved the windscreen in front of Ironhide's face! So many characters showed up, but the story kept as a cohesive whole and never confusing. It was just a terrific, great looking read.

A few nitpicks (though not many):
I wonder why Kup and Blurr had vehicle modes that differed from ther "normal" vehicle modes? It's not like they were reformatted for earth later on or anything...

Megatron's big reveal at the end. Felt tacked on, though I loved his new (or old?) look.

The Decepticon that oozed blue "blood" near the end? I got the feeling he was one of those assassins that kill themselves if captured...

Blitzwing's covered everything else well enough. I'd give it a 10, also. Just terrific. Now, if they could go ahead and make a toyline with these figures NOW, life would be good (even if I'm broke!)

Also! I loved the Omega Supremes guarding the city in that one panel....

[Transfan]

DAMN you Americans(and apparantly some Canadians)for getting your comics a day before Winnipeg,Manitoba Canada:mad: j/k

Tomorrow is a big day for me than, War Within #1,plus(hopefully) some more Transformers TPBs and who knows maybe even a DVD or two:D

[Reflector]

Loved it. Classic Furman style: "voice-overs" spilling onto the panels before/after the speaker is seen, real Transformers playing background filler roles, decent bit of setting narration. Characters were kept true - Grimlock's generally badass; Prowl's still a sissy; Skywarp and Thundercracker prate on as they murder helpless neutrals; Jazz still has his moustache. (What?) And Bluestreak gets the most characterization he's ever had - he's a salesman! - but we had to sacrifice Kup, Bumblebee, and the other filler 'Bots for this issue.

Oh, two other little neat things I noticed. On the first Iacon overview spread, the long string of characters on the upper left reads "Transformers" in Kana. There are also symbols that vaguely resemble the Maximal and Vehicon emblems. Second, in the Chamber of the Ancients, you may notice that the platform Optimus stands on and/or receives the Matrix from is shaped like... the Matrix! Neato.

Originally posted by BigMaki
I wonder why Kup and Blurr had vehicle modes that differed from ther "normal" vehicle modes? It's not like they were reformatted for earth later on or anything...

I was thinking the same on Kup (similarly, why did he need a redesigned robot mode), but where did you see Blurr?

EDIT: Ha! Just discovered another little hidden message... When Prime bats away the gun-former Decepticon, you can see "Microman" written on his right leg in Kana. Super cool!

[BigMaki]

Originally posted by Reflector
I was thinking the same on Kup (similarly, why did he need a redesigned robot mode), but where did you see Blurr?

Sorry, Kup's vehicle mode looked so much like Blurr's, I guess I got confused. I thought Skids was Blurr, but read the issue again and realized who it was...

I love Ravage's new look on the preview page near the end of the book, too!

[Blitzwing]

Forgot to mention the fact that Megatron, Shrapnel and Runamuck make cameo appearances when Grimlock & Co are shown in their vehicle modes.

Also, in the scene with Optimus Prime and Bluestreak, we see a Diagnostic Drone and in a later scene, Optimus visits the 'Oracle Tank'. Both are nice shout-outs to Beast Machines.

[RID Scourge]

Originally posted by Blitzwing
(Small Nitpick): Thundercracker is black and Skywarp is blue. They could have had different colors back on Cybertron, but it would have been nice if they kept their old colors.

Actually, that was an error on the artist's part. In their first veiws, it seems that the black one addresses the other plane as Thundercracker, who then answers with "And?" Then, the names get screwed up.

[Blacksword]

Also there were a whole bunch of those little floating two armed droids form Beast Machines. The Chamber of the ancients definitely had a BM feel to it. Itworked out fairly well though. I'm sad to see no Emirate Xaaron though. I would have paid good money to see his alt mode. Good story but divergent form th UK's version of the past (though we were told it was a stand alone continuity). It took me a couple reads to get over this. But a great first issue.

[nmathew]

Let me say that I am extremely pleased with the issue.

My only complaint is that I thought there were a few too many frames in the action sequences, and that made them a bit hard to follow. Of course, I don't read any other comics, so that may just be inexperience.

[Shrapnel Clone]

It's great! I wonder if we see more Decepticon alt modes next issue, I've always wondered about how Shrapnel would look on Cybertron....

The assassin indeed appears to release some kind of acid to destroy his head (and all the data within it).

[joempn]

little nitpick: if they retained bumbebee's & wheeljacks form like they did in the More than Meets the eye cartonn, why didnt they do that to the jets? Ya know when they were those pyramid things?

BTW: where was runamuck.

joe

[Zath]

Read it and i'm impressed, this was a much better first issue than the G1 series. And I enjoyed how they havent portrayed Grimlock as a dumb bot.

Cant wait to read issue 2.

[Blitzwing]

Originally posted by joempn


BTW: where was runamuck.

In the frame where Grimlock, Skids, Kup, Wheeljack and Ironhide are driving away from an explosion, you can see three Decepticons in the sky. The first two look like Megatron and Shrapnel, and the third is a White Decepticon that looks a lot like Runamuck in my opinion.

[Luda-Chris]

Originally posted by BigMaki
Sorry, Kup's vehicle mode looked so much like Blurr's, I guess I got confused. I thought Skids was Blurr, but read the issue again and realized who it was...

You had me excited for a second

[Capt]

Originally posted by Reflector
EDIT: Ha! Just discovered another little hidden message... When Prime bats away the gun-former Decepticon, you can see "Microman" written on his right leg in Kana. Super cool!

it's also mirrored...
although, they've tried to be fancy...
the ku is...way off as is the ma
personally (having not actually seen it) I would have also thought that Microman would be (in romaji) maikuroman
</nitpick>
you may have noticed the rather obvious Japanese Transformers logo on the 2nd pages though, just to the left of the jet...


the 3 'cons in the explosion pic..
Shrapnel - check
Runamuck - passable
Megatron - no chance

Legs make it look more like Hun-Grr to me, chest is more like Astrotrain, I think...


finally..bleeding blue?
I'd hae to say that's meant to be obviously energon...

[Shrapnel Clone]

Originally posted by Capt
finally..bleeding blue?
I'd hae to say that's meant to be obviously energon...

I'd still say it is some kind of acid (rather be dead than captured).

[Capt]

yeah...on the decpeticon
but on the autobot on the next page, that's not acid...

[Osku]

Nice issue, not entirely impressed, but very nice for issue 1.

About cover. Everyone else got only a half of Ironhide´s face?

[radarhead]

The Con quite clearly comits suicide, and that is most definetly some kind of corrosive mixture oozing out as it melts his head!.

Also if you look to the right of the cons face frame by frame while Prime is holding him you can see soem kind of little square thing which the con seems to be reaching for to bite, in the final frame you see that he has bitten it and and is pulling/pulled some kind of release or something.
Or maybe Im just reading to much into it, but I am very sure you can see what I mean if you look at the last image of the crap oozing out of his head and follow it backwards, remeber the right side of his face just to the right of his mouth ( or in his mouth if your looking at the final frame).

[Nevermore]

Bought it today on the first day of a major German comic convention. Very nice book. A "present" for all fans, no doubt.

Originally posted by joempn
little nitpick: if they retained bumbebee's & wheeljacks form like they did in the More than Meets the eye cartonn, why didnt they do that to the jets? Ya know when they were those pyramid things?

The Seekers (is this possibly the first "official" mention of this term?) are actually based on the "pyramid" design from MTMTE, they just have a lot more details now.
Minor complaints: It's never mentioned what was the original name of the Autobot who later becomes Optimus Prime. Did Furman try to avoid calling him "Orion Pax"? And if so: Why?
I wonder of Bluestreak's colours are meant to be some kind of inside joke as well... There's not a single blue spot on him.
Kup also got the "face behind window" design Ironhide uses... And it seems like the "window" serves as some sort of shield.
Also worth mentioning:
Jazz: "You are the man!" That's good, old Jazz.
Prowl's "helmet horns" almost look like a policeman's cap. Only instead of a police badge, he has an Autobot logo.
Tracks also shows up on page 6. And the second panel of page 6 features a TF's vehicle mode I think I have seen before, but I can't tell who it is at the moment.
An the inscription on the walls of the "chamber of the ancients" reads "Till all are one" just like in the movie, not "until".

A great, no, a VERY great book.

- Torsten