Jecca Mehlota (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jecca_mehlota) wrote2007-01-25 01:33 pm
jecca_mehlota) wrote2007-01-25 01:33 pm
Entry tags:
New Transformers Comics
I spent several minutes debating which icon to use. Ultra Magnus? Ratchet and Wheeljack? The twins? Obviously the twins won out. I don't feel like picking on Magnus, Ratchet's getting lots of time in the spotlight, and I miss Sunstreaker and Hunter. (Of course, I don't have Hunter in an icon.) Plus, trouble is on the way. Yes, this paragraph was entirely necessary.
The Ultra Magnus Spotlight came out last week, but I just picked it up yesterday, along with Escalation 3. I've been organizing these things by release date, so I'm going to prattle about Magnus first.
...Spoilers, obviously. Tangents abound.
I'm not going to make a joke about Magnus not being able to deal with things. So there.
Had a bit of a moment there, where I wasn't sure when this story was supposed to be taking place. Didn't Thunderwing go and try to destroy Nebulos? Then we got to the end where the epilogue (more of the conversation Magnus was seen having with Prime in issue 1 of Escalation) says it's twenty-nine stellar cycles later, so obviously this takes place way before Stormbringer did.
I like the role they have Ultra Magnus in, here. He's an Autobot, but he's not going to let other Autobots get away with things. I kind of feel the place suits him. He's not Mr. Charismatic, and I think this is a good place for him. Hopefully others do, too, so he doesn't get too much flack for it. XD
I like that Swindle's the Decepticon used, and I kind of like the ambiguity we get with Magnus letting one criminal go to have a chance at catching another. We've been told Swindle (and the other Combaticons) committed some terrible crimes, so much so that even the other Decepticons felt they were a danger (of sorts) and locked them up, and here we at least get some idea of what Swindle may have been up to before.
Nebulos. I really like the way Magnus infiltrates the building, just one realignment of his holomatter to the next, until he's all the way in. Clever, really. The throw-back to Headmasters (or possibly a set-up) is... really awesome. It'll be interesting to see if that comes up again, or if it was just a tie-in.
The ending felt... rushed to me. It's all good, Magnus getting in, being discovered, and proceeding to storm the place, even the opening of his fight with Scorponok.
Then Zarak runs in out of nowhere, gets blasted, Magnus tries to continue the fight, and Scorponok has run away all of a sudden. It's like... wait. Page constraints, I understand that, and I'm not sure what else I'd have put there, but it does feel slightly hurried to me.
Really, I suppose if I had any complaints it'd be that some of the artwork was a little... over-the-top exaggerated, but that didn't actually bother me. It was just something I noticed in a few panels.
Now the main story. Again, spoilers.
HOT ROD!
Now, okay, I know they're getting to it, but there is an unfortunately large part of me screaming, "Where are Sunstreaker and Hunter? AAARG!"
That is what I'm most concerned with right now. Fortunately, they are getting there. Ratchetneeds to stop breaking all the rules and the humans are (continuing) to take this into their own hands. Though now Ironhide's joining them, after being shot down by Optimus (and then probably Prowl, too - unless that's what we're just supposed to think. Maybe he was told to keep an eye on Ratchet). Prowl, none of your troops are listening to you.
But, yeah! Road trip! Hopefully we'll find Hunter and Sunny soon, because aarg. This is definitely my favorite angle of the story. Forget the political drama and Megatron blowing things up. (Well, don't.) Yay, humans (I love how much I love these humans)! It's really nice to not be annoyed by the human characters again. (For the most part, I just didn't like the A/E/C groups as much as I'd've liked to. They were too... I dunno. Plot-devicey? Annoying?)
The 'Cons. Really, though. I do like how Megaton's manipulating things behind the scenes. I always prefer it when the Decepticons use... y'know, deception.
Ore-13 and the mass-shifting/displacement. YES. Ha! I really, really like that little throw-in explanation.
But why is Skywarp blue? G1'S REVENGE! Nooooooooo!
The 'Bots. ...First thing I gotta say, orbital bouncing is cool and all, but I actually cracked up when Prime's trailer bounced in after they'd all converted to vehicle mode. So that's how it gets around! Now we know! XD
Now that that eternal dilemma is solved, though, what's the next universal joke?
Okay, Prowl, I lied before. Jazz listens when you tell him to use his "traction studs" (even though he does "grumble" about it, I mean, it's Jazz). Okay, so that makes one? ...Really, Optimus listens to you, too, because you are competent and it's really not your fault things are going like this (he says so himself!). But that's a different kind of listening.
It is nice to see Jazz continuing to appear and actually say things (he's not getting much), but poor Wheeljack is just getting left out again. Well, he'll always have Escalation 2 to remember, right?
I do understand they only have so many pages, I just kind of wish 'Jack'd do a little more than just be there.
I complain about Wheeljack not getting much, but Ironhide doesn't say much, either. Thing is, that doesn't bother me as much. With him, I think it's more of an intentional silence, and I think we've been getting a pretty good grasp on his character so far. With Wheeljack it feels more like they don't really know what they're doing with him yet or something. I mean his, what, one line in the Infiltration run - at the end after Megatron's appearance ("We'll be back!") - just seemed like a tag on. Oh, hey, we've kind of forgotten to have this guy do anything, so now he's just going to say something completely random. Woot.
...I keep picking on Prowl. I do this because I like him. I only pick on characters I like. (If Ratchet would stop being awesome for like, two minutes, I'd lay into him, too.) I do really like the 'meeting' he and Prime have on pages 12 and 13. We see a lot of 'Prowl having no idea what's really going on and being unable to run things as smoothly as he'd like to,' so it's nice to see him in areas he can handle well.
Prime. Prime is not '80s Prime, and I am completely okay with this. I rather like this Optimus. (I really, really like how we're seeing Prime rely on his troops for info and not just going with whatever the heck is there/whoever is in the room.)
Had a bit of a start there at the end, mostly because at initial glance I thought we had Hot Rod and (Double)Dealer as well as Nightbeat, and the foreboding levels skyrocketed. Then I looked again (and then I actually read the dialogue) and no, it's Hardhead. But man. At least with Dealer we can pretty much guess he's always working for the Decepticons. With Nightbeat it's just... well, one of these days the apparent brainwashing's going to rear its head. Still, better just the one, even if it may only just be for now.
Initially I was happy to see Hot Rod (referring more to the Spotlight, here) because I thought he/Rodimus was an interesting character in season 3 of G1 - I've not been able to read the older comics, so I can't speak for those - and hey, it's always fun to see characters you like. (I know we didn't see that much of Hot Rod in the cartoons, but I like to think we at least got a basic idea of his personality.) This guy, I like him. It's not just because I liked G1 Rodimus. I like this Hot Rod, too. He's kind of crazy. (Hoo-hah!)
Also, I think the conversation Nightbeat ends in this issue is the same one we see him having in his Spotlight.
...I am loving this series more with every issue. When does issue 4 come out? I want to see what happens next!
... Apparently the Ultra Magnus and Skywarp two-pack is out. ARG TARGET. Why are you not in my state? I suppose I should be grateful it's at least in my country. In theory, I have someone out of state who is willing to look for and buy me one. Yay.
The Ultra Magnus Spotlight came out last week, but I just picked it up yesterday, along with Escalation 3. I've been organizing these things by release date, so I'm going to prattle about Magnus first.
...Spoilers, obviously. Tangents abound.
I'm not going to make a joke about Magnus not being able to deal with things. So there.
Had a bit of a moment there, where I wasn't sure when this story was supposed to be taking place. Didn't Thunderwing go and try to destroy Nebulos? Then we got to the end where the epilogue (more of the conversation Magnus was seen having with Prime in issue 1 of Escalation) says it's twenty-nine stellar cycles later, so obviously this takes place way before Stormbringer did.
I like the role they have Ultra Magnus in, here. He's an Autobot, but he's not going to let other Autobots get away with things. I kind of feel the place suits him. He's not Mr. Charismatic, and I think this is a good place for him. Hopefully others do, too, so he doesn't get too much flack for it. XD
I like that Swindle's the Decepticon used, and I kind of like the ambiguity we get with Magnus letting one criminal go to have a chance at catching another. We've been told Swindle (and the other Combaticons) committed some terrible crimes, so much so that even the other Decepticons felt they were a danger (of sorts) and locked them up, and here we at least get some idea of what Swindle may have been up to before.
Nebulos. I really like the way Magnus infiltrates the building, just one realignment of his holomatter to the next, until he's all the way in. Clever, really. The throw-back to Headmasters (or possibly a set-up) is... really awesome. It'll be interesting to see if that comes up again, or if it was just a tie-in.
The ending felt... rushed to me. It's all good, Magnus getting in, being discovered, and proceeding to storm the place, even the opening of his fight with Scorponok.
Then Zarak runs in out of nowhere, gets blasted, Magnus tries to continue the fight, and Scorponok has run away all of a sudden. It's like... wait. Page constraints, I understand that, and I'm not sure what else I'd have put there, but it does feel slightly hurried to me.
Really, I suppose if I had any complaints it'd be that some of the artwork was a little... over-the-top exaggerated, but that didn't actually bother me. It was just something I noticed in a few panels.
Now the main story. Again, spoilers.
HOT ROD!
Now, okay, I know they're getting to it, but there is an unfortunately large part of me screaming, "Where are Sunstreaker and Hunter? AAARG!"
That is what I'm most concerned with right now. Fortunately, they are getting there. Ratchet
But, yeah! Road trip! Hopefully we'll find Hunter and Sunny soon, because aarg. This is definitely my favorite angle of the story. Forget the political drama and Megatron blowing things up. (Well, don't.) Yay, humans (I love how much I love these humans)! It's really nice to not be annoyed by the human characters again. (For the most part, I just didn't like the A/E/C groups as much as I'd've liked to. They were too... I dunno. Plot-devicey? Annoying?)
The 'Cons. Really, though. I do like how Megaton's manipulating things behind the scenes. I always prefer it when the Decepticons use... y'know, deception.
Ore-13 and the mass-shifting/displacement. YES. Ha! I really, really like that little throw-in explanation.
But why is Skywarp blue? G1'S REVENGE! Nooooooooo!
The 'Bots. ...First thing I gotta say, orbital bouncing is cool and all, but I actually cracked up when Prime's trailer bounced in after they'd all converted to vehicle mode. So that's how it gets around! Now we know! XD
Now that that eternal dilemma is solved, though, what's the next universal joke?
Okay, Prowl, I lied before. Jazz listens when you tell him to use his "traction studs" (even though he does "grumble" about it, I mean, it's Jazz). Okay, so that makes one? ...Really, Optimus listens to you, too, because you are competent and it's really not your fault things are going like this (he says so himself!). But that's a different kind of listening.
It is nice to see Jazz continuing to appear and actually say things (he's not getting much), but poor Wheeljack is just getting left out again. Well, he'll always have Escalation 2 to remember, right?
I do understand they only have so many pages, I just kind of wish 'Jack'd do a little more than just be there.
I complain about Wheeljack not getting much, but Ironhide doesn't say much, either. Thing is, that doesn't bother me as much. With him, I think it's more of an intentional silence, and I think we've been getting a pretty good grasp on his character so far. With Wheeljack it feels more like they don't really know what they're doing with him yet or something. I mean his, what, one line in the Infiltration run - at the end after Megatron's appearance ("We'll be back!") - just seemed like a tag on. Oh, hey, we've kind of forgotten to have this guy do anything, so now he's just going to say something completely random. Woot.
...I keep picking on Prowl. I do this because I like him. I only pick on characters I like. (If Ratchet would stop being awesome for like, two minutes, I'd lay into him, too.) I do really like the 'meeting' he and Prime have on pages 12 and 13. We see a lot of 'Prowl having no idea what's really going on and being unable to run things as smoothly as he'd like to,' so it's nice to see him in areas he can handle well.
Prime. Prime is not '80s Prime, and I am completely okay with this. I rather like this Optimus. (I really, really like how we're seeing Prime rely on his troops for info and not just going with whatever the heck is there/whoever is in the room.)
Had a bit of a start there at the end, mostly because at initial glance I thought we had Hot Rod and (Double)Dealer as well as Nightbeat, and the foreboding levels skyrocketed. Then I looked again (and then I actually read the dialogue) and no, it's Hardhead. But man. At least with Dealer we can pretty much guess he's always working for the Decepticons. With Nightbeat it's just... well, one of these days the apparent brainwashing's going to rear its head. Still, better just the one, even if it may only just be for now.
Initially I was happy to see Hot Rod (referring more to the Spotlight, here) because I thought he/Rodimus was an interesting character in season 3 of G1 - I've not been able to read the older comics, so I can't speak for those - and hey, it's always fun to see characters you like. (I know we didn't see that much of Hot Rod in the cartoons, but I like to think we at least got a basic idea of his personality.) This guy, I like him. It's not just because I liked G1 Rodimus. I like this Hot Rod, too. He's kind of crazy. (Hoo-hah!)
Also, I think the conversation Nightbeat ends in this issue is the same one we see him having in his Spotlight.
...I am loving this series more with every issue. When does issue 4 come out? I want to see what happens next!
... Apparently the Ultra Magnus and Skywarp two-pack is out. ARG TARGET. Why are you not in my state? I suppose I should be grateful it's at least in my country. In theory, I have someone out of state who is willing to look for and buy me one. Yay.