Redemption

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 3:21 pm

Dinobots: Fury Road came out today.

It's great fun. It builds on Punishment in a logical way, does some fine work on Slag/Slug's character though does leave the mystic side of him by the wayside. The stakes are low but interesting, the new characters are worthwhile and it does a good job of mapping out Cybertron beyond Iacon. We've got actual locations now and Livio does good work in demarcating them.

Some of the fights are hard to follow and there's nothing for Snarl and Sludge to do as usual (though Snarl has become Silent Bob at some point) but this is enjoyable stuff. I've come across a couple of former monsters in my time who seem to divide their time between drinking themselves silly and running off to do marginally heroic stuff under the radar so for me the emotional core of the story is solid. I do like Bludgeon popping up to do mad shit too.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 9:00 pm

I actually really liked this. More than I thought I'd care about.

Decent story, Slag finally gets some more characterisation beyond "tricerratops. angry. flames" and Snarl gets some more unique treatment, being the "silent one" instead of "not swoop or slag"

Not sure how I feel about the fluctuating power levels of the Dinobots...Slag is brought down by Barricade earlier on.

Overall, greatly enjoyed this [and Punishment before it], as they do escape the confines of the regular comic's narrative. Thus far

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 11:52 pm

Life is so much easier if you stop worrying about power levels and just go with the flow, man.

The active hot spot is a huge deal - especially in light of the Council of Worlds opening up the way for new characters. We can now introduce characters from a) the population of NAILs, b) the colonies c) new-borns from the hot spot or d) a war-fighting Autobot or Decepticon we just hadn't seen before.

Ten years on from now, IDW is going to be 50% original characters, 50% mainline toys.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:35 pm

John Barber is really good at the one shot isn't he?

I really liked this, it was fast and fun and just the right side of silly (did anyone else feel the portrayal of Bludgeon was poking gentle fun at Megatron before Dark Cybertron? Coming out of the wilderness with a completely ridiculous plan and rubbish monsters before being given short shift).

Is Strafe a new toy or is that just a bit of fun rather than anything more cynical?

Looks like all our (my) theories about the Spark field from Elegant Chaos being the one Hot Rod was born in were wrong. Though I wouldn't be surprised if that was at least the intention when Roberts wrote it, this is an interesting place to take the idea.

I guess we'll be getting at least one more of these to make a trade (unless they stick Combiner Hunters in there as well? It does follow up on that somewhat) and I for one am looking forward to it.

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:20 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:John Barber is really good at the one shot isn't he?

Indeed he is. I'm of the opinion that the limit of a one shot works to his strengths and stops him from sprawling in too many directions.

But this is good fun. Its shameless in its debt to Fury Road (Barber acknowledges this himself) but that no harm in that kind of thing every now and again. Art was good as well although I had to reread the bit where Strafe became the dinobot ( kinda thought it was snarl or sludge at first) Would have liked Bludgeon to be dealt with to be honest, I think he's a bit of a mess of a character given the history after Furman but thats a personal gripe.

Not sure if this would link that well with combiner hunters - thats not a livio piece and I get the feeling that this would work better if its a trilogy done by him (certainly it would really jar that redemption and punishment are far longer and done in one style and than CH is done in a more simple style and is much shorter and, imo, simpler in concpet.)

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 12:01 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:
Looks like all our (my) theories about the Spark field from Elegant Chaos being the one Hot Rod was born in were wrong. Though I wouldn't be surprised if that was at least the intention when Roberts wrote it, this is an interesting place to take the idea.

I guess we'll be getting at least one more of these to make a trade (unless they stick Combiner Hunters in there as well? It does follow up on that somewhat) and I for one am looking forward to it.

Unless I am missing something, why does it invalidate Hot Rod's birth? I thought it was heavily hinted that Hot Rod's spark was sent to Nyon by Roller before the field died down in Elegant Chaos.

Are there instances of a field re-igniting?

I was under the impression that this came out in a paper edition as well, probably wrong though. This and the Sandstorm story would make great TPB.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 8:21 pm

They wiki says the field was from the Pax/Outliers issue, I assumed it was the one they saved, does another get mentioned in that issue or is it a wiki mistake?

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 8:32 pm

Yes, and I am afraid I still do not understand the puzzling...

The field in Alyon in Elegant Chaos is heavily hinted to be the one Hot Rod was born out of.

Which may or may not be exactly the same field in Alyon that we see now.

But in your original post it reads as if you believe that the Redemption field somehow invalidates Hot Rod's origin theory.

Which returns me to my original query of, why would it throw our theory out the window?

Reads as if we're both confusing each other

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 8:56 pm

Yes, it seems pretty straightforward to me - the 'Primus hand' field has fired back up again. We saw the hot spots starting again way back in that Wheeljack issue of RID, we just didn't know what we were looking at then.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:47 am

Just finished Redemption.

Barricade:

I generally enjoyed it. It had a good, bleak feel to it, with the glimmers of hope mentioned by others above. I sincerely hope Barber and Ramondelli get to do a third one shot in this vein (surely the ending of Redemption is set up for one?). In fact, I'd be very happy to see this style of story continue in the long term, with one or two "side story" one shots being released each year.

I will probably have to re-read it sometime, as some of the art did confuse me. Can anybody explain some things for me please?

* It looks like Slug (getting used to that name now) destroys the lorry load of sparks with his flame-y morning breath. But then they continue as if nothing of the sort had happened. What am I missing?

* What exactly went down during the Bludgeon fight? I get the slicing of the lorry and the lorry flipping. Then Swift or Strafe (can't tell which) gets involved and something happens. No idea what...

* Also, page 4 panel 3: Looks absolutely nothing like Streetwise and Groove. Tsk.

Generally , though, very enjoyable.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 3:52 pm

Here's to a third one! Redemption comes after a punishment but what comes after a redemption? Atonement? Rehabilitation? Going on a no-fly list?

The spark-destroying bit was a flashback to the war - note Grimlock in the background.

Bludgeon executes Barricade and then he chucks Strafe into the monster juice. Then he gets pushed off the cliff by Swift. I think?

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 4:02 pm

Ah, thanks. Totally missed it was a flashback. Was there a clear signifier I missed (other than Grimmers)?

Apparently I also completely missed Trypticon. Man, I must've been tired/distracted last night!

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 10:34 pm

Rack 'n Ruin wrote:Ah, thanks. Totally missed it was a flashback. Was there a clear signifier I missed (other than Grimmers)?

Not immediately obvious, but Slag transforms into the organic "monstrosity" triceratops instead of the robotic, red-horned one he is in present day. Can't remember about the black robot head or not.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 8:24 am

Purely anecdotal, but Irish comic shop Big Bang Comics tweeted that this only sold to people with preorders, they didn't shift a single copy on the shelf. They (rather bravely for a shop doing a Wreckers signing in November, though as I learnt of this from Nick Roche retweeting and taking it as a challlenge in good spirits) ended the tweet by saying Transformers comic sales are slowing down. Though I don't know if that has been the case with the regular comic as well or if it's an assumption made from just this one.

If it's the latter I'd say it's more likely the case casual buyers aren't interested in a more expensive one off, which is a shame and might mean we don't get a third after all if that's a general trend rather than just an Irish thing.

Red Dave Prime · Post by **Red Dave Prime** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 10:08 am

Hey! I'm buying as much as I can dammit!

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:43 pm

I don't know if that one shop really tells us much about anything.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 8:53 pm

Terome wrote:I don't know if that one shop really tells us much about anything.

Oh sure, hence me saying it's anecdotal. It's more the surprise they'd come out and say it, do comic shops usually tweet when a book sells badly?