Transformers: More than Meets the Eye season two discussion

[Unicron]

I didn't know First Aid had a broken T-cog. When was that mentioned?

Back in issue 5(?), the second one at Delphi. Ratchet deduced First Aid's cog was malfunctioning, hence why he hadn't transformed and triggered the virus. As far as I can recall, it wasn't mentioned again after that, nor has he been shown in alt-mode till now.

I would think it would be a semi-important thing to mention that it had been fixed, what with him having been stationed at a medical facility for who knows how long with a doctor the caliber of Pharma and not having it fixed then. Seems like something that couldn't be fixed via a quick bit of surgery, and I always assumed it being fixed would be a side effect of the eventual creation of Defensor.

[zigzagger]

Again, preview's not giving me a whole lot to work with. I'm just not sure what to expect from this issue yet. The solicits made it sound promising, I suppose, but so far it's not entirely grabbing me.

Hopeful that the Megatron backstory stuff that's being alluded to here turns that all around. Roberts further retconning Megatron: Origin out of existence is a happy prospect. So, uh, I guess that means that my interest is piqued after all

Nice to have confirmation on what happened to Bluestreak and First Aid during the last story, though. Was wondering about them.


Going to have to agree with Warcry -- no one can seem to settle on what Bluestreak is supposed to look like. Some consistency in coloration would be nice as, like Warcry said, Bluestreak shares a similar design with two other characters. Don't think Rojo's more humanized art style is helping either (which I'm not digging all that much this issue, I'm sorry to say). Hell, at first glace I thought it was Prowl.

[Knightdramon]

Hopeful that the Megatron backstory stuff that's being alluded to here turns that all around. Roberts further retconning Megatron: Origin out of existence is a happy prospect. So, uh, I guess that means that my interest is piqued after all

I'd rather they retcon Autocracy out of existence than Megatron Origin. Thankfully they're adding on to Origin.

I just re-read Chaos Theory in paper form [got the TPB], and between Chaos Theory, Last Stand of the Wrecker [extras] and MTMTE Autocracy is flat out wrong.

[zigzagger]

Yeah, Megatron: Origin does lend itself better to reinterpretation. Quality aside, it left so many things undeveloped and so many things unanswered. Makes it easy to add onto it.

In my personal canon, however, Chaos Theory is the 'true' Megatron: Origin. The original has already be retconned in my eyes.

Autocracy... eh, I'd prefer IDW treat that one the same way Dreamwave sort of treated the War Within series as being loosely connected to their main continuity.

[Terome]

Rojo's coming along in leaps and bounds, that's good to see.

I'm not super swotted up on the fine details but, if anything, Roberts seems to be taking Megatron: Origin as gospel. Sure, he's wriggling in every space there is to wriggle in but Megatron is nothing but 'quiet and hardworking' in Origin. I guess Origin didn't intend for him to have a whole literary following before that moment but I'm not sure that counts as a retcon.

Agree that there's not much to go on here. Seems to be becoming the standard fare for previews. I like that these characters are getting lines. I guess Bluestreak's design will get streamlined and finalised once he's had a few outings.

[Rack 'n Ruin]

Back in issue 5(?), the second one at Delphi. Ratchet deduced First Aid's cog was malfunctioning, hence why he hadn't transformed and triggered the virus. As far as I can recall, it wasn't mentioned again after that, nor has he been shown in alt-mode till now.

I would think it would be a semi-important thing to mention that it had been fixed, what with him having been stationed at a medical facility for who knows how long with a doctor the caliber of Pharma and not having it fixed then. Seems like something that couldn't be fixed via a quick bit of surgery, and I always assumed it being fixed would be a side effect of the eventual creation of Defensor.

Ah, thanks. I'd forgotten that bit about Delphi. First Aid in alt mode could just be an art error? Or Ratchet just managed to fix it. Maybe they salvaged Ambulon's (RIP) T-cog from the corpsegun for a transplant? Would that even work?

On a side note, I'm still sad we didn't get to see Ambulon's leg mode. And he is now missing out on Combiner Wars! Poor Ambulon.

[Unicron]

On a side note, I'm still sad we didn't get to see Ambulon's leg mode. And he is now missing out on Combiner Wars! Poor Ambulon.

That's what pissed me off the most about Ambulon's death: That we never got to see the leg, even if he was just used to wedge a door open or something.
I mean they make a big deal about him having a useless alt-mode and the phrase "every shape serves a purpose" kept coming during the series. How can they not find a use for him?

[Red Dave Prime]

I'd rather they retcon Autocracy out of existence than Megatron Origin. Thankfully they're adding on to Origin.

I just re-read Chaos Theory in paper form [got the TPB], and between Chaos Theory, Last Stand of the Wrecker [extras] and MTMTE Autocracy is flat out wrong.

Just curious if you have read Monstosity or any of the new Primacy. They'll really pee you off.

At this point I think those three minis can be somewhat ret conned out. Despite being edited by Captain Continuity they seem to only pay lip service and characters and events are re-shaped to suit the whim of the writer.

[Auntie Slag]

Has this been delayed? I thought it was out today as the preview is usually dished a week beforehand... but I received the Forbidden Planet Comic Wednesday announcement and MTMTE didn't feature. RID certainly did though, with a very interesting cover including Galvatron, Rhinox and Alpha Trion!

[zigzagger]

Has this been delayed?

Issue's out the 29th.

To be honest, I'm starting not to like this alternating release schedule thing IDW has going on at the moment.

While it's pretty cool every other month when we get two issues of MTMTE just two weeks apart, it makes for an agonizing, month and a half wait when it's RID's turn.

Okay, 'agonizing' is a bit melodramatic. I'm just super impatient

[zigzagger]

Full preview is now up @ Comicosity.

[Skyquake87]

Hmm...not come out this week, so next week..?

[MikeB]

It's out, I have it. Want to read it again before commenting in case I'm letting my inner fanboy get in the way of reality...

[britbot]

It's out today, or at least it is on comixology

[inflatable dalek]

OUT NOW AND READ.













SPOILER BIATCHES.










Interestingly, Roberts has just this second mentioned on Twitter that he's probably going to write something about the thought process behind this issue as the immediate fan reaction has been so strong (though not having had chance to browse other forums as yet I don't know in what way).

So, an issue that on the face of it seems to be deliberately ignoring last month's cliffhanger, but instead has decided to focus on an ethical dilemma.

It's an interesting and difficult question and the comic is quite smart in that we know the extent to which the found body is bad news before the rest of the characters.

Poor First Aid, he does everything that a doctor should do (well, almost, I was surprised that the idea of just stabilising the patient until they could get them to a secure facility would have been the most sensible option, restoring an unknown to full health seems pointlessly dangerous. That's something that could have been covered in one line easily enough so it was surprising, unless I missed it, that it wasn't adressed as Roberts is normally good at that), even when he realises it's a member of the DJD and is reticent to donate his own fuel because of those Pharma issues he still helps Trailcutter do it, and it completely bites him on the ass.

It's a difficult issue (and perhaps the way it could be read as "Letting your enemies die is the best bet" is what's causing the fuss?) and both sides of the argument are well handled. I do think Bluestreak is the one who actually comes off worse in not responding to First Aid's call for help just because he's a bit of a dick, and I certainly didn't feel as if just because it was the wrong choice this time that it would be the case everytime (and of course, doctor's have no choice in the matter anyway).

To counter that, we have serious medical malpractice in the flashbacks. The parallel to the Autobot's decision in the present is clear, not fixing Vos would have been by far the best option despite it being against all medical ethics, but in the past a similar pragmatic "For the common good" decision to mess with Megatron (which you could argue, if it not for Rung interfering before it took hold, would have prevented four million years of war) does nothing but make things worse in the long run.

That's hugely interesting and thoughtful, it's not a case of "**** your enemy", nor "Help them no matter what", both characters in both time frames make their choices based on what they think is right and things end up pretty screwed up as a result. There's some serious depth there and no easy answers. Wonderful.

Amidst all that, we also get:

An explanation for why Megatron was barely capable of speaking in sentences in Megatron: Origin (presumably he was still suffering from what Trepan did to him).

Megatron having a friend in everyone's favourite Peter Davison Doctor Who story, Terminus. Start your "Terminus is Tarn!" speculation now.

The DJD actually having had a rough time of it in their fight with the ALL and the various other parties that seem to have joined in. A nice counter to the claims they were too tough in the flashbacks.

So all the other new crewmembers were just floating in space after all.

Trailcutter's death seemed to be determined to be a "So, people think I do too many fake outs? Lets kill this muther in the most lethal way possible then!" reaction from Roberts.

Though... with all the speculation Agent 113 is in the DJD, is Kaon one of our boys and the entire thing was an elaborate trick to fool Vos?


And that cliffhanger... so, is that past Brainstorm mucking about because the Institute were involved in messing up Megatron's head... or is time travel involved? The later seems more likely considering what we know about the briefcase, but nothing can be certain here.

If it is time travel, them presumably the third part of the Shadowplay trilogy will see our characters mucking about in the past of Cybertron?

[Red Dave Prime]

I really enjoyed this issue - some general gasp moments. For a bit I thought we were going to get the identity of Agent 113 in Vos but that looks less likely.

Interesting times ahead...

[Terome]

Thought this was excellent. Nothing too flashy, just solid comics-making the whole way through. I agree that the Trailcutter bit was probably reflexive but it was still effective.

And holy damn, Trepan and Froid are a lot more scary than the Superjail hijinx of the DJD.

Rojo does fine work throughout. He's warmed right up.

I do think that those long passages from Towards Peace might be unnecessary and probably best left to the imagination.

Terminus is great and not at all what I was expecting. I had in mind a much more boring sensei type during the gladiator days for some reason. It's a good move to give Megatron such an emotional reason to act like a crazy person - it was the bitter advice of a dying friend who was the only one who believed in him during a dark time. What would Terminus think if he saw what the persona he advocated would do? I reckon that is the main reason why Tarn won't be Terminus - his advice and his way was for a different time and a different context, which is why Megatron erased his memory from existence.

And of course Trailcutter's panic bubble was being set up as a locked room from which there was no escape. Blindsided me again - I genuinely thought he was safe when it went up. Nice callback to the leg guns too. Those things sure are handy.

How great are Mainframe and Bluestreak? Pair of jerks!

[Denyer]

Great stuff. Works whether or not TC is in the usual comics revolving door, but in the authorial position I'd probably have it stick. The buzz of conversation seems to focus on the lack of certainty.

I do think that those long passages from Towards Peace might be unnecessary and probably best left to the imagination.

I'm in the group that wants to see more of it. Not necessarily full prose, but getting a good chunk of that conveys much more of a sense of personality than soundbytes (which're a horribly modern affliction, attention spans are shrinking, buggy whip manufacturers should unite against these horseless carriages, yadda yadda).

[Unicron]

I do think that those long passages from Towards Peace might be unnecessary and probably best left to the imagination.

I could be wrong, but I think part of the reason for that was to show that Trepan had scratched the surface and deleted little bits of it before he was stopped.

I might be wrong, and I've been trying to figure out how to explain what makes me think this, but I feel like there's some screwy with the chronology around the events involving the alternate Lost Light and Offsted.

There was the DJD assault on the ALL, which I feel like was a while ago (I keep wanting to say it was around the time of Overlord's rampage on our LL, which I don't think it could be now because of Kaon's appearance in Remain in Light, which had to be before the ALL attack and the events on Offsted. So the DJD must have burnt a lot of time getting to and preparing to attack the ALL).
And there was the fight between the Galactic Council, the Black Block Consortia and others (presumably the DJD were involved) which was recent enough to leave a rather injured Vos and Kaon on the planet, but far enough back that the non-Cybertronians weren't around to be run into by the Rodpod. And while the non-Cybertronians are gone, the DJD is still nearby since Kaon called for a beam out, yet there was no sign of them still being around during Megatron and Co.'s wacky adventure on the wrecked ship.

I suppose the other DJD aren't around and left Vos and Kaon to rot, so we might get Kaon's explanation of events. Could be interesting to see how they differ from alternate Rewind's.

[Warcry]

I'll believe that Trailbreaker is dead when First Aid or Ratchet say so, and not a moment sooner. What the comic showed was vague at best, and I find it hard to believe Roberts would have gone to such lengths to show how sympathetic he was to Megatron just to kill him. Given the book's track record...

It's a difficult issue (and perhaps the way it could be read as "Letting your enemies die is the best bet" is what's causing the fuss?) and both sides of the argument are well handled. I do think Bluestreak is the one who actually comes off worse in not responding to First Aid's call for help just because he's a bit of a dick, and I certainly didn't feel as if just because it was the wrong choice this time that it would be the case everytime (and of course, doctor's have no choice in the matter anyway).

Wait...you mean most people don't think that?

Seriously though, I found the initial bits of story to be quite heavy-handed, with Bluestreak and his "What faction is he? Do we know what side he's on? Where's his badge?" coming off as a bit strawmanesque. The later discussion between First Aid and Trailbreaker was a lot better-handled IMO, and surprised me because I would have expected to see the two characters on opposite sides of it. The reasons why they felt the way they did made perfect sense to me though.

To counter that, we have serious medical malpractice in the flashbacks. The parallel to the Autobot's decision in the present is clear, not fixing Vos would have been by far the best option despite it being against all medical ethics, but in the past a similar pragmatic "For the common good" decision to mess with Megatron (which you could argue, if it not for Rung interfering before it took hold, would have prevented four million years of war) does nothing but make things worse in the long run.

Actually...quite the opposite IMO. Even if Trepan didn't have a chance to make wholesale changes to Megatron's psyche, he violated him in the most personal way possible. Being victimized like that by your own government would tend to radicalize even someone as peaceful as Megatron was in the flashbacks. On top of what Whirl did...well, it'd be hard to argue that this wasn't yet another big push down the road to cartoonish supervillainy for Megs.

If Trepan had kept his needles to himself, Megatron might have become a totally different person.

The DJD actually having had a rough time of it in their fight with the ALL and the various other parties that seem to have joined in. A nice counter to the claims they were too tough in the flashbacks.

Did they? I got the impression the aliens gave them more trouble than the Lost Light did.

I might be wrong, and I've been trying to figure out how to explain what makes me think this, but I feel like there's some screwy with the chronology around the events involving the alternate Lost Light and Offsted.

The timelines left me scratching my head, too.