Transformers: Robots in Disguise Season One #1-22

Comics, cartoons, movies and fan stuff.
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nhy3888
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Post by nhy3888 »

So a low rent politician gets a frosty reception at a pub; is Starscream Nigel farage?

Will he be apologizing for his dull-witted underlings clumsy and somewhat offensive utterances on foreign aid next? I fully expect Starscreams answer to the power outages and a 'Dark Cybertron' to be a three day week.

It's politics, but it's the type of pantomime politics that is played out in the tabloids. Mind, Barber does have a good eye for a soap opera reveal.
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Post by Paul053 »

And then probably when he thinks he has everything, something happens and he looses everything. Again.

Speak about the new toy, I though Starscream is just going to have a Armada re-release.
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Transformers: Robots In Disguise #21

Post by zigzagger »

Transformers: Robots In Disguise #21 full preview @ Tformers.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Note to Barber:

This is what happens when you write a story centered around familiar characters instead of impenetrable schemes and politics -- it's actually interesting.

More of this, please.
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Post by Denyer »

Veering off into fights as padding, though.
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Post by Knightdramon »

First and possibly only time I'm not looking at any previews...possibly because there might be spoilers from the MTMTE storyline...
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Monologue doesnt seem too obtrusive this time but still much more rambly than it needs to be (my common complaint with RiD)

@ Knightdramon - doesnt seem to be any spoilers to MTMTE - nor any indication that Ravage is suffering from an upset tummy. If anything, given that panel from MTMTE #20, the battle here looks a little odd but I guess we need to see the full picture.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Aw, poor old RID. Delayed for two weeks and no one seemed to notice.


Still, out now and reeeeeeeeeeeead:













Wow, RID really is just marking time till the crossover starts isn't it (and probably has been since that issue ended with Shockwave actually beginning his attack... what, three, four months ago)? Some nice moments in the present day stuff, Needlenose is lovely, but otherwise extensive flashbacks to things wot we already seen were pretty much completely pointless, and at worst slightly insulting to the inteligence of the reader.

I think why Soundwave doesn't like Shockwave could have been easily covered in a paragraph, and we really didn't need such overt dot joining (Shockwave rejoined the Decepticons following LSOTW? No shit Sherlock). And giving over a splash page to Soundwave just standing there was an impressive, Dreawaveish, waste of space.

And if Barber really is going to be anal about continuity and not discard any bad ideas, he should have remembered Headmaster was emphatically found in an Autobot/Decepticon battlefield, the "First civil war" retcon doesn't work.

It also has to be said, for an issue sold on "Shockwave Vs. Soundwave" it turning out to be "Soundwave Vs. Unkillable Dreadwing before he and Shockwave have a chat" is a bit of a let down.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

I thought it was an alright read actually. True, it doesn't reveal too much and is unnecessary padding, but it was entertaining and there was some nice touches - Megatron on a huge podium talking to Bludgeon explains that odd size difference vibe when that scene originally occurred (is it from spotlight soundwave or spotlight shockwave? Think its soundwave)

The headmaster thing is odd, because the reaction to scorponoks troops was definitely that this was unseen and new tech. Maybe the ancient headmasters are more like minicons or something?

One of the better issues of recent Rid in my opinion, even if that is slightly damning praise at the same time.
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Post by Terome »

Wow, I guess I might have known better but that certainly was a collection of addresses to very specific points that most sane people would have forgotten about. I have to admit that certain fastidious parts of my brain did get a dopamine jolt at things like the Headmaster retcon and the two Bombshells but I'm not convinced that any of it was a noble or necessary exercise.

And yeah, the waste on that last page is appalling. It was entirely at odds with the flat, workmanlike tone throughout. To me, it said, 'We've tied up some loose ends that people were moaning about a few years ago and straightened out Soundwave's characterisation NOW LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED, YEHHHHH! That's not how you start a party! That's how you introduce a scientific paper on a mildly contentious issue.
Though wouldn't it be great if, in all future scientific literature, a big picture of Soundwave looking determined was printed after the introduction. SOUNDWAVE KNOWS WHAT TO DO WITH THESE ORGANIC POLYMERS, AMIRITE?!

I shall write to the heads of all the major journals and suggest this.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Red Dave Prime wrote:I thought it was an alright read actually. True, it doesn't reveal too much and is unnecessary padding, but it was entertaining and there was some nice touches
All the individual bits were certainly readable, and the Memento style structure to the flashbacks was nicely done, it's just none of it was very interesting or relevant.

I mean, take the Ratbat bit. There was nothing in there that you weren't either told directly back when the series started or couldn't easily be inferred by anyone who isn't terminally dim (which the issue seems to think is what most of the readers are). Even from a character point of view there's no value to it because what's the point in exploring in more detail someone who's been dead nearly two years (at least with the equally intended to get fans going "Yay!" appearance of Nightbeat in Shadowplay he at lease expositioned new information about the rise of the cons and discovered the plot)?

If the issue was at a loose end and wanted to go all continuity mad, how about exploring the implications of what's been happening in MTMTE? Half the cast kneeling over in terrible pain should have put the cat amongst the pigeons, especially as the last time something like that happened it turned out to be Megatron behind it. They should all be shitting themselves.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Post by Summerhayes »

I think it's telling that where Roberts had to squeeze an issue's worth of ideas into a prose story to be ready in time for Dark Cybertron, Barber is treading water waiting for it.
Still, a nice portrayal of Soundwave and Megatron with the standard IDW Shockwave doing his same old thing.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Wow, is this the least talked about issue of either ongoing since they launched?
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

It's not a bad issue by any stretch but I guess the delay plus the dread about Dark Cybertron plus the rather slight content equals little to get one's teeth sunk into.

Nice bit of joined-up thinking on Megatron's part though - he had good reason to not trust Bludgeon. Not only was we a loon, he was a known lackey of Shockwave. It was a trap!

And we're explicitly told that the rainbow Kryptonite was the plan all along for Regenesis. Pretty lucky then that the several thousand year nap didn't mess any of that up!
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Post by Knightdramon »

inflatable dalek wrote:Wow, is this the least talked about issue of either ongoing since they launched?
Hmmm. Even unintentionally, RID will get compared with MTMTE a lot, since they are running side to side.

Compared to MTMTE spectacular "season" finale, with an extra text story wrapping even more loose ends up, this one continues to pad the storytime until Dark Cybertron comes along. It was not the Shockwave versus Soundwave issue we were told about, the fight in the beginning makes no sense, Ravage tried to be funny too little, too late, some of the throaway lines were too confusing, and best of all, the story in the issue [Shockwave vs Soundwave] *might* happen next issue, or even not at all!

And the whole Soundwave loves Megatron angle did come out of nowhere, seeing as he had his own agenda whilst undertaking the shadowing mission early on [SL: Soundwave] and even Megatron doesn't trust him [SL: Megatron]. Hmm...
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Knightdramon wrote: And the whole Soundwave loves Megatron angle did come out of nowhere, seeing as he had his own agenda whilst undertaking the shadowing mission early on [SL: Soundwave] and even Megatron doesn't trust him [SL: Megatron]. Hmm...
Was just thinking this today after re-reading the physical comic. Soundwave in IDW is actually really all over the place.

In Megatron Origins he is a somewhat monosylabic arms dealer who looks to be manipulating Megatron and his rogues to his own end. His small cameo in Autocracy is very much the animated cartoon character. Skip forward to how furman presented him (my favourite version btw) and he is, as you say, working his own personnel agenda. Move to AHM and we are back to very much the cartoon version. Now he is a Megatron loyalist even though most recently Roche made it clear that Megatron doesnt see him as completely on the level.
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Post by Knightdramon »

Sadly 3/4 of the "big four" are all over the place.

Soundwave and Starscream especially suffer because each writer tackles them differently depending on the premises of the story. Much like Soundwave discussed here, Starscream goes from scheming to loyal/heroic [Infiltration to Devastation], then back to scheming, then loyal again [AHM], only to go back to scheming almost immediately [first Costa written Coda], then non-existent/even puny in Ongoing, where his most memorable moment was shooting Thundercracker in the back and being Brawn's bitch, then back to mostly all over the place in RID.

Megatron thankfully only evolves, doesn't devolve at all since Infiltration to today. More and more layers are added with each arc, thankfully none contradicting the others to the extent of Soundwave and Starscream.

Shockwave is the exception, in that he was barely written before in the IDW universe, and with his backstory explained in such detail in MTMTE and RID, every action so far makes sense and can't be off-character.
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Post by Warcry »

Warcry wrote:Note to Barber:

This is what happens when you write a story centered around familiar characters instead of impenetrable schemes and politics -- it's actually interesting.

More of this, please.
Having read the full issue, I rescind my praise of the preview.

I mean, really? Needlenose just decides to tell everyone what to do, so everyone stops fighting and just sits down and behaves or something? Even Ravage and the other tapes, who were clearly on Soundwave's side and wanted to go after Shockwave? Even Astrotrain and Blitzwing, who wanted to march on Iacon and kill everyone? Because Needlenose told them to? Really?

Apparently there are two Bombshells now? Because that stupid plot line really needed to be revisited, it was keeping so many people up at night.

The flashbacks didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know, and the plot, such as it was, didn't progress one bit. I apparently haven't read RiD since #15 (Did I read the issue with Scoop? I honestly can't remember.), and it doesn't seem like anything has happened in those six months. That's a whole TPB's worth of material spent on basically nothing, just keeping things in stasis until it was time for the big crossover.

Re: Shockwave, this isn't a gripe about this issue per se but more about how IDW, Hasbro and even Dreamwave have all handled him over the last decade. He's the Decepticons' military operations commander, a tactical genius and military leader. He is not a scientist, or at least he wasn't in the 80s when he was actually well-written and interesting. He seems to have had a total personality transplant in modern media, with no recognizable motivations or attitudes and nothing but his typical vocal patterns seeming at all Shockwave like.

So I guess what I'm asking is...why? I don't remember him personally doing anything scientific in the old cartoons or comics, so I have no idea where this characterization came from. Is it just because he's smart? Because people can't fathom the idea of someone using Spock-like logic and not being the science guy? It's just completely baffling to me. If any of the main Decepticons needed to be remade as a scientist then it should have been Starscream, who actually has a history of it in some of the original media and could pull it off without being a tired stereotype.
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Post by Terome »

Warcry wrote:
So I guess what I'm asking is...why? I don't remember him personally doing anything scientific in the old cartoons or comics, so I have no idea where this characterization came from. Is it just because he's smart? Because people can't fathom the idea of someone using Spock-like logic and not being the science guy? It's just completely baffling to me. If any of the main Decepticons needed to be remade as a scientist then it should have been Starscream, who actually has a history of it in some of the original media and could pull it off without being a tired stereotype.
I'm not too fussed about that - it's a handy archetype to have on the belt and it wouldn't suit Starscream or Soundwave as well as Shockwave. I do prefer 'military tactician' as a flavour but that isn't a job that comes up very often in Transformers. I can't think of a single instance where intricate, complicated military tactics have ever played a role or needed to be described.

Also, consider the brief of Spotlight: Shockwave. There was need of a self-interested, sciencey type of guy who wasn't Starscream to set up some plot elements on ancient Earth. Preferrably one who could give the Dinobots a run for their money. He'd also have to be high-profile enough to justify being the first such Spotlight. Other than a wacky choice like Bugly, the only other character who could fit that description is Soundwave. That would have been okay but would have excluded his standard alt-mode and his standard role as a spy / information guy and have taken him out of the story for an indeterminate span.

With hindsight it probably would have done to have Thunderwing in Shockwave's role, Trypticon in Thunderwing's and to have split Starscream into Heroic Starscream, Sneaky Soundwave and Villainous Shockwave (I still reckon Starscream should have died in Infiltration). But even so that wouldn't have improved much and everything would have been mucked about by later editors and writers. Denyer's policy of ignoring everything pre-DOOP (excluding Wreckers) is probably the best way of staying sane and interested.
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Post by Knightdramon »

To be honest, almost everybody who's described as a "military strategist" ends up doing NOTHING of that sort.

Onslaught, Razorclaw, Shockwave etc. Onslaught and Razorclaw are too much involved and in the field for that. Military strategists in real life aren't as, or even at all, involved in actual battles.
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