Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

I know there are already two threads about this comic, but both were more about when and not what is in it. I wanted those of us who have read it to be able to discuss it, especially since this is a fairly large and important item...the origin of the ultimate bad guy!

So a short plot review (this would be considered spoilers):

It seems we have a cast system set up on Cybertron. There are workers, politicians, lackeys, etc., and the story starts out excitingly in an orbiting mining colony which happens to house many bucket headed workers, one of whom happens to be our favorite baddie Megs.

A politician (for lack of a better term) shows up to tell the workers, who are already underpaid, and malnurished, that they will no longer be needed to mine for the precious energon...and it is assumed that things are going to be automated...(which I found interesting, robots thinking automated jobs are bad...I had a hard time getting by that for some reason).

So the politician announces this and an old worker starts protesting (accent read to me like an old Ironhide accent). A huge guard (sort of Dai Atlas looking), is sent to calm, and then silence the voice... A body is relieved of its head, and more guards show up. A energy pick is thrown and hits the bearer of the bad news injuring him... massive melee, people losing lives left and right, the big soldier is taken down by none other than Megatron. He seems to be a bit spacy, almost multiple personalitied, one agressive strong side, one contemplating, quiet side...

Eventually the miners are either killed or incarcerated. They are being removed from the planet in shackles, as the politician heads back to Cybertron on a different ship.

Now here it gets more interesting. Apparently, Rumble and Frenzy were not always Soundwave's minions, because they are two for the incarcerated miners, along with Megs and others. Rumble and Frenzy start another fight, one of them bearing his pile drivers. They take the ship and fire on the other, wounding the ship, but not destroying it so they can escape to a far, desolate side of Cybertron without pursuit.

On Cybertron we see Sentinel Prime in all his snobbish, pricky glory with Prowl. SP is target practicing and does not want to be bothered with Prowl's report of the revolt, and that they are bound to check it out. SP is apparently frustrated that he is being asked to do this and that a lot lately for this oligarchy, this upper class ruling faction.

Eventually, Prowl just stops trying to get SP involved or his permission and just offers to go and check it out himself with a unit.

--I read it once and that is what I remembered, but feel free to add on or correct me, if needed.--

Some thoughts:

The art is good, but a bit confusing. Perhaps because I was looking for more familiar faces in the bots and there weren't any, that I could tell, but Megatron, Sentinel Prime, and the huge guard were all very cool designs...

The plot was good, but I've already seen people say they have not enjoyed it much...I'd like to know what else you'd like!

Sentinel Prime is really cool! From his face plate that slides down to reveal his face, to his red coloring and huge amount of weaponry. However, I found his brash attitude, and almost uncaring/cold manner toward Prowl to be hard to deal with. I guess I'm just used to Primal, and Prime, both very kind and trying to work with their troops strengths, and also treating them well....

Sentinel Prime seems like he could be a decepticon based on this first appearance and small amount of dialogue.

--I'm not sure how you can pass this one up! It's finally giving us more history on a very iconic Transformers character, while also giving us images from the past, ala War Within...

I suggest you pick it up, but hey, ultimately, it doesn't matter to me!

What did you think? Where do you think this will go next? Who else do you think will appear?

I'd pick it up if I could find it.

i've got it, and its a damn good read! doesnt sentinal prime make mention about being under staffed?

It was a tough read the first time through. After a second read I was able to pick out who said what. I am under whelmed right now. I did like how it seemed Megatron was shocked that he killed the guard. A far cry from his gladiator origin story.

I hope my comic shop has it. I am going tomorrow to check it out.

ThunderThruster wrote:i've got it, and its a damn good read! doesnt sentinal prime make mention about being under staffed?

Yeah, I think he might have mentioned it, well he said that he was tired of answering to the whims of the senate for sure, and that they were not listening to him about his needs.

Picked it up today. First comic I've purchased in 13 years.

First reading, didn't like it.

2nd reading, I understood it better.

3rd reading, I really liked it.

I like the fact there's going to be a reason for Megatron's hatred of the Autobots, instead of a black and white good vs evil kind of thing, which doesn't make sense with TF, except at a Primus/Unicron level.

I'm really liking how the story set itself up. It also took me a while to realize that Rumble and Frenzy are the two robots Megatron escaped with.

Likewise, I'm also happy that the Autubots are finally given some blame in all of this. The idea that a large portion of Cybertron suddenly decided to rebel in a world that was supposedly a utopia at the time made no sense. The idea of a random rebellion made no sense to me.

Also, it seems that "Autobots" were never really Autobots until the war starts. That insignia seems to be the symbol for the entire race, or at least the Cybertronian government.

I'm really liking the idea that the transformers that later become the autobots don't become 'good' until the decepticons rebel.

This comic rocks as much as War Within. I guess that we'll be seeing Megatron gathering some followers through gladiatorial combat next.

It doesn't sound like a Utopia to me (although it seems in other continuities it might have been--to me it has not been explored much until now). The government may be corrupt, and is certainly into making many rules and having them enforced by an understaffed but brutal military force, that is starting to question the value of, and whims of the ruling body.

Like I said before, it seems like Sentinel Prime might fit in better on the other side right now.

I'd be interested to see how the gladiatorial idea fits in--it will probably be something to do for those in Kaon--something to train and work for, because there is not much else to do in Kaon (notice the 'strip bar'? ). At this point I'm sympatehtic to the outsourced workers. I'm sure that they will start gathering the dregs in because of where they are, and we will find out, some are more pure of heart than others, some don't seem to fit in at all, and may end up heading back to the 'normal' robot society.

I am very interested to see how Megatron goes about changing. Does he change because he gets his chips rattled to often when fighting? Does he just grow to dislike the situation so much that he decides something needs to be done? If so he would seem a bit more noble than portrayed in the past. Maybe it's not much of a change at all, maybe he was just being a thinker rather than a fighter, biding his time...it sure would have been nice to see some inner thought dialogue for him as things were happening...

tigertracks 24 wrote:Maybe it's not much of a change at all, maybe he was just being a thinker rather than a fighter, biding his time...it sure would have been nice to see some inner thought dialogue for him as things were happening...

I think that Megatron was just a average Joe like all the other workers in the mine. He completely freaked out when he killed the Dai Atlas look alike, so I guess that he's still pretty much a nice guy at this point in the story.

I've also noticed something else, most of the miners were of a buckethead design whereas the guards and such are of a sleeker more refined design. They are probably constructed in different parts of Cybertron (the bucketheads come from a poor area I guess).

The same can be seen with Prowl and Bluestreak, they came from the same city in War Within.

This leads me to believe that certain designs are like ethnic backgrounds to the TF's and the Bucketheads are the dregs of society.

Stormwolf wrote:

tigertracks 24 wrote:Maybe it's not much of a change at all, maybe he was just being a thinker rather than a fighter, biding his time...it sure would have been nice to see some inner thought dialogue for him as things were happening...

I think that Megatron was just a average Joe like all the other workers in the mine. He completely freaked out when he killed the Dai Atlas look alike, so I guess that he's still pretty much a nice guy at this point in the story.

I've also noticed something else, most of the miners were of a buckethead design whereas the guards and such are of a sleeker more refined design. They are probably constructed in different parts of Cybertron (the bucketheads come from a poor area I guess).

The same can be seen with Prowl and Bluestreak, they came from the same city in War Within.

This leads me to believe that certain designs are like ethnic backgrounds to the TF's and the Bucketheads are the dregs of society.

thats a damned interesting point about the ethnic backgrounds, it would make alot of sense!

ThunderThruster wrote:

Stormwolf wrote:

tigertracks 24 wrote:Maybe it's not much of a change at all, maybe he was just being a thinker rather than a fighter, biding his time...it sure would have been nice to see some inner thought dialogue for him as things were happening...

I think that Megatron was just a average Joe like all the other workers in the mine. He completely freaked out when he killed the Dai Atlas look alike, so I guess that he's still pretty much a nice guy at this point in the story.

I've also noticed something else, most of the miners were of a buckethead design whereas the guards and such are of a sleeker more refined design. They are probably constructed in different parts of Cybertron (the bucketheads come from a poor area I guess).

The same can be seen with Prowl and Bluestreak, they came from the same city in War Within.

This leads me to believe that certain designs are like ethnic backgrounds to the TF's and the Bucketheads are the dregs of society.

thats a damned interesting point about the ethnic backgrounds, it would make alot of sense!

I thought it was a bit more like social and economic classes than ethnicity.

Wow, I can't wait for mine! It all sounds really interesting, I wonder if how Megatron and Starscream will meet too, and how Soundwave meets his minons? Very cool indeed.

Sounds cool. I also want to know how screamer and megs meet.

Me too. I also wish I could slagging find a copy.

This is one of the single best TF books IDW has put out. I'm loving the fact that the Deceps are having their start as members of the lower class who are fed up of being exploited by the higher-ups. I cannot wait for more!

I just picked it up and can not wait to read it

I like the story, but I find the art difficult to follow. I'm going to have to reread it at least once. I completely missed Rumble and Frenzy.

Their names aren't mentioned, but if you pay close attention, it's pretty obvious who they are.

Origins is one of those stories that requires a 2nd and 3rd reading to really understand. A lot of subtle references.

The art kinda confused me as well, but I think I got it figured out, except one. The dude with the Senator who was addressing the mine workers; was that Dai-Atlas or King Atlas or whatever he goes by now? I dunno...I am hoping that this will jive with Furman's origin of Megs, with the gladiatorial side of it. But with Megatron already apparently a wanted criminal for the hijacking of the prison ship and the other stuff with the Senator...and then there is Sentinel Prime....in the War Within, they said that Sentinel Prime tried to preach to Megatron rather than physically battle him...in this he is like super-armed....doesn't sound like the same guy...I realize this is a different universe or whatever but Furman is till in charge of it as far as I know....still I am interested to read more, so I guess that means I liked it....

justynnbailey wrote: The dude with the Senator who was addressing the mine workers; was that Dai-Atlas or King Atlas or whatever he goes by now? I dunno...I am hoping that this will jive with Furman's ..

I can't say for sure, but I'd have to say no. He is not exactly Dai Atlas--a similar drawing no doubt, sort of reminds me of a Guardian, but smaller, sleeker...in fact I suppose you could say he kind of looks like Metalhawk too, from what I remember.

I'm sure the gladiator side will get in there, it may not be exactly as he had been originally introduced, but what is in the IDW verse?

Haven't got a hold of it yet but from what I've read here they've made Megs in to a sort of robo-Lenin? I can go with that.

I just picked it up.

I think the issue shows that the Transformers had some sort of a democratic/socialist government. A 'senate' implies leaders that are elected while the mines were clearly government controlled. This is backed by how the one robot says that they will re-assign the workers to new jobs and homes. The fact that Sentinal Prime was the leader but still had to answer to the 'Senate' in some way reminds me of a Greek city state.

It also shows to me that just like in the civilizations of today when you have such a large and layered government a bureaucracy develops and with that the possibility or inevitability of corruption.

In regards to robot designs I think it was more about class than ethnicity. The mine robots looked liked they did because they were designed to work in the mines. If you look at what the Autobots said about the mine workers their comments denote a snobbery based on class rather than any ethnic prejudices.

When Furman did World Within he changed the Autobot-Decepticon War dymanic from the ethnic derived tones of G-1 to more of a war of ideas in which the Transformers chose sides based on what they believed in.

With IDW they seem to be laying the roots of a class struggle and rebellion that had some merit but eventually gets currupted into something perverse and evil. I forgot who said it but someone said that most people become evil by trying to do something they believe is right and good.

MYoung23 wrote:....With IDW they seem to be laying the roots of a class struggle and rebellion that had some merit but eventually gets currupted into something perverse and evil. I forgot who said it but someone said that most people become evil by trying to do something they believe is right and good.

Yes, QFT.