Transformers Spotlight: Prowl

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zigzagger
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Transformers Spotlight: Prowl

Post by zigzagger »

This is your all purpose Transformers Spotlight: Prowl reaction and discussion thread.

Out April 21st.

Preview @ Comics Continuum.

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Commander Shockwav
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Post by Commander Shockwav »

When I first heard this was being written, I wasn't keen on it. I mean, it just seemed like a bad idea to try and appease a fan base that has never known, and never will know, appeasement.

Nevertheless, I have to say I was surprised about how it turned out. Not that it's this great work, or that it stands out amongst the better spotlights, but it wasn't anywhere near the disaster I thought it would be.

For one, E.J. is at his best with this. I haven't been the biggest fan of Su's style, but this sucker is mellow. I mean, cool mellow. It's stylin, the colors by Dalhouse are stlyin, and I really appreciated the different style of presentation from Roche's manic style featured in LSOTW this month. It's nice to have a mix of artistic presentations. Many an E.J. fan will appreciate this issue solely for his visuals.

And Costa actually does a decent job with the seemingly insurmountable task of writing this. One thing has become increasingly clear to me about Mike. His strong suit is character pieces. He can fashion a good story with competent dialogue out of a very poor premise and make it readable and enjoyable.

For example, I liked the way he used this tale to contrast Prowl's skeptical and critical analysis of mankind with Thundercracker's newly acquired fond view of humanity. Whereas Thundercracker's story featured the noble elements of humanity, Prowl's spotlight focuses on what's wrong with mankind, and the destructive capabilities we possess as a race. The irony of these contrasting perspectives is not lost on me, given the factions to which they belong.

Granted, Prowl stays true to his Autobot roots by stories end, and doesn't "go Decepticon" on us, as some of us were hoping. But the door is still left open that Prowl can "dabble in the dark side", if you will, and have good reason to do so based on his experience as a "cop" in the police force weeding out rogue elements of a "swarm"-like society.

This is not a story of action, like LSOTW, but again, one of character building. I appreciate this, to be honest, provided there's Rochert's LSOTW to maintain that even keel.

Give it a "B-". Not great, but not lousy either. Certainly, Su's masterful work makes me more accepting of this issue happening in the first place.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Good to see the textless preview didn't lie, the comic really does open with a full page of some police cars doing nothing. couldn't they fit the text in a smaller art panel?
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Post by Warcry »

If it had a different character in the starring role, or if it had happened in a different continuity, I might have actually enjoyed this. Taken on its' own merits it was a well-written and believable story, but as a part of the overall continuity it just completely falls flat.

Optimus Prime flat-out isn't the same character I read about in Stormbringer or Escalation. It's not a matter of "character development", either -- he's absolutely unrecognizable, and in fact he's the complete antithesis of the Prime that we were originally introduced to. Costa tries to paper over this by having Prime pout about how some parts of Earth got trashed and some humans died, but it falls completely flat when you realize that the war has seen entire populated worlds glassed, and frequently enough that the Decepticons have dedicated units that just do that. Earth got lucky compared to Nebulos or Varas Centralus, Gorlam Prime and probably dozens or even hundreds of other planets we've never even heard of.

He's also completely abandoning the military structure of the Autobot army, even though he himself admits that their off-world forces are still basically fighting for their lives against the remaining Decepticons. And not only does he not do anything to help them, he's actively tried to draw other Autobots to Earth, sapping vital resources from the war effort. Taken at face value, it's such a disgusting betrayal of everything the Autobots stand for that I'm at a loss for words.

And then we have Prowl himself. He spends most of the comic pointing out in exacting detail why humans suck, but by the end of the book he's joined the "humans are awesome" club that Prime and Thundercracker have formed. With a different character I could have bought it, but with Prowl...nah, not buying it.

All in all it just draws a line under the biggest problem Costa has as a writer. If something from past continuity doesn't fit in with his idea of who a character should be, he just ignores it. And so Prime is an indecisive hippie instead of a pragmatic warrior. Prowl goes from being the hard-ass CO who handed Ratchet his head for going out on half-cocked adventures to basically being...well, Ratchet. And we get Hot Rod in the Ongoing acting like a naive idiot who learned absolutely nothing from the Doubledealer fiasco. If Costa was starting a new continuity from scratch all of that would be OK, but he's not. He's supposed to be continuing a story that's been going on for five or six years now, but when I read his stuff, I'm not reading about the same characters I met back in Infiltration.
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Post by Denyer »

Mmm. I like the art, but I'm not interested in a character rewrite that exists to plug holes in AHM and the ongoing. This may the first spotlight I don't buy.

And yes, why the buggering hell would Prime be gathering Autobots on Earth when there's (allegedly, based on tell-not-show in AHM, then more tell-not-show later) chaos across the rest of the galaxy? Any time characters have to act stupid to service a plot, it's bad writing, whatever the technical skills of the author.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I fully agree with Warcry about the Autobot's change of heart over their atitude to Earth being complete bobbins. Sure, I've little doubt the intent whaen all this started was that such a change would eventually happen but it's been handled so badly (by Furman as well, he had three years to work towards it and failed because the human characters- the ones whose interaction with Prime and the others should have shown them the value of these other lifeforms- were all tits) it seems ludicrous.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Post by Terome »

Although I think that it is madness, at this point, to peer back into the pre-Revelations stuff for any kind of character motivation or themes to apply to the non-Rocherts material, it's worth pointing out that the Autobots in Infiltration hadn't even figured out human facial expressions and had several layers of policy to prevent them from coming into direct contact with the species they were watching over to prevent any empathy developing.

But then, if that were relevant, one would have to ponder why on Earth Prowl couldn't have used his holomatter thingy to good use rather than go right out and transform with everyone watching.

Also, yes, this was a bit stupid. Su is rocking the socks of all the shod people of Earth, though. Shame that some of his best work goes onto the poorer scripts.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I do like the way Shockwav gets completely different comics to everyone else... considering how early the reviews come out, could he be an IDW stooge?
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Post by Terome »

What a twist!
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Post by MeGrimlock »

Denyer wrote:And yes, why the buggering hell would Prime be gathering Autobots on Earth when there's (allegedly, based on tell-not-show in AHM, then more tell-not-show later) chaos across the rest of the galaxy?
Oh, at very last. I was wondering if I was the only one asking myself this question (but surely I missed many discussions about this)
Any time characters have to act stupid to service a plot, it's bad writing, whatever the technical skills of the author.
I completely agree, and the same goes for Warcry's final thoughts. It's what I was trying to point out in the thread about Ongoing 4, but evidently my english failed me :(
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Really like the art on this one. In a way it points out the flaws in Dons approach to the ongoing. Altough Su has been stylistic with his character designs, they still very closely resemble what the other artisits are doing - except don. Bit silly as Don is the main lead artist (by my understanding)

The story itself is ok. I think its trying to show Prime trying to mould the autobots from an army into a civilisation but its a bit muddled (and the way he doesnt just tell his troops that they're in a stand down phase is silly if thats what it is)

More confusing is Prowls reasoning. I just cant grasp where he changes his ideals. To me, his intial reasoning of 1 cybertron = 1 million humans makes them more valuable is fair enough. Just because he is set free to do his own thing surely wouldnt make him consider 1=1 and thats that? Is he now just going to save anything? At least his witnessing of the humans execeuting a downed decepticon explained why he intervened in Ongoing.

Like the ongoing, this seems to have an idea of what it wants to achieve but isnt quite sure how to get there.
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Post by minimus-minor »

Sorry for coming in late. Why do I always get in late for the damn forums?

Anyway, here's my views on Prowl: http://comicbookrevolution.net/index.ph ... &Itemid=96

In summary: a pretty good issue, some nice character development, but a tad unprofessional, and Costa wouldn't need this is he'd portrtayed Prowl right in the first place :down:!
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Bluestreak75
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Post by Bluestreak75 »

This took a few reads to actually understand and like what I was reading.I think its Prowl to a tee really,nothing fancy just a logical story relating to how Prowl sees his situation and that of the humans
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