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IDW's Transformers: Robots in Disguise Ongoing #16 hits retailers on Wednesday, and as always we have preview to whet your appetite. Be sure to pick up or download the full copy, but for now enjoy the sneak peek below. Full issue review coming early next week.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #16
John Barber (w) • Andrew Griffith (a) • Griffith, Casey Coller (c)
FINAL BATTLE! The leadership of Cybertron will be decided once and for all! It’s all-out war against the forces of MEGATRON! Will the Autobots wrest control from their attackers—or will the DECEPTICON flag fly over Cybertron forever? Heroes will fall, and nothing will stay the same.
*2 regular covers will be shipped in a 1-to-1 ratio

FC • 32 pages • $3.99


*Variant Covers:
Marcelo Matere variant cover!

Bullet points:
The soul-shattering conclusion to the story began in RID #1!
The beginning of a powerful new direction—if anybody survives this issue!
Heroes will fall—and one shall lead!

Wow, Ironhide can jump pretty high I am kinda interested in this, but Metalhawk really turns me off of this. Watch, he'll die a Martyr and never get what's coming to him

So Rumble is red again.

And in his United tank body.

I am okay with both these things.

Blurrz wrote:I hope Turmoil gets it

Me too, but not before metalhawk. Sad when I'm rooting for the heroes to die before the merciless villians

What, Starscream?! WHAT IS THE THING WITH OPPORTUNISTS?!

I look forward to this. Was anyone else really turned on when Arcee threatened to tear out Rumble's Spark with her teeth? Or am I just a really sad specimen?

Nemesis Maximo wrote: ...Was anyone else really turned on when Arcee threatened to tear out Rumble's Spark with her teeth? Or am I just a really sad specimen?

It's not just you. That was actually pretty damn hot.

I feel like the only person who likes Metalhawk.

And Turmoil.

;-;

Personally, I can't stand Bumblebee, but it's in that sort of 'OH GOD I LOVE HATING YOU' hateboner way.

HK, FOREVER ALOOOOOOONE

hellkitty wrote:I feel like the only person who likes Metalhawk.

I quite like Metalhawk too, actually!
I'm a fan of all the neutrals, really, as they're relatively new characters, and offer some perspective on the story.

But I'm not feeling this issue from the preview.
Which is a shame, as I really enjoyed RiD up to Megatron's return.

I know that I'll probably say this until Takara Tomy makes a Masterpiece version of Wheeljack, reissues Masterpiece Grimlock, makes a Masterpiece Skyfire, reissues both Chromedome and MegaZarak, and reissues most of the Masterforce/Victory/Zone figures... But I like Metalhawk as well. Same with Arcee. Because the whole unaligned aspect is the only thing that helps make the franchise interesting to me. ^^;

Oh, and I wonder if Bumblebee will sacrifice himself and later return as Goldbug. :p

Im not a fan of how Ironhide is somehow now omnipotent. We all know he exists past the war ending, and now that means hes somehow super Ironhide and can jump up and punch devastator?

I don't think Ironhide necessarily has super powers. I think Sludge hit him with his tail like a baseball for a home run on Devy.

Synopsis
FINAL BATTLE! The leadership of Cybertron will be decided once and for all! It’s all-out war against the forces of MEGATRON! Will the Autobots wrest control from their attackers—or will the DECEPTICON flag fly over Cybertron forever? Heroes will fall, and nothing will stay the same.





Story

Everyone's fighting, robots are fighting, there is some fighting and some more fighting too. So far, mostly fighting. And talking. But no Shockwave. Superion's gone, Prowlestator is on a rampage, things look bad for most characters. Did I mention fighting?



Apparently, this is supposed to be the conclusion to the first story-arc, started in issue 1, after the split from MTMTE. And I guess it does do that, after a fashion. There is a sense of closure for some of the storyline's aspects that started with the series' inception, but not really that much, and some aspects of the plot are just left hanging, in my opinion.



Bumblebee's voice is the narrative thread running through the entirety of the issue, in the usual Barber caption commentary. I understand the need for something other than pure action sequences, but having the little boxes showing up all over gives me the impression of trying to fit too much into one arc/issue/volume.



Mind you, the writing in the captions is good, but some of the scenes in the issue really didn't do it for me. Either too silly, or predictable, I feel. There are some good points, though, like the legacy of other Cybertronians we've seen so far, and a little resolution, plus a set-up for a promising expansion of the setting for the series in the near future. And a good, if not entirely surprising, conclusion, too.


Art

The artwork, on the other hand, is gorgeous. While I have still some concerns with some of the characters' faces, I really enjoyed the details that Griffith, Shearer and Ketcham added to each of the players in the battle: damage, scarring, cracks, creaks, and so on and so forth – no one is as clean as after a Hollywood movie battle scene, and that is an excellent thing.



There are some amazing soundwords too, and the lettering for them is brilliant. Lee has really put himself into these! Additionally, Perez' colours, especially in some of the bigger resolution moments – which I will not spoil for anyone – are gorgeous. And I love the tones of the last pages, especially in the final panel.



So yes, the art-colour-lettering jobs definitely bring up the issue a notch, allowing it, in my judgement, to pass. They're not just aesthetically pleasing, they're well done, and convey exactly what this type of situation would entail in a physical scenario.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

I wasn't a fan of this one, I have to admit. There was the same sense of prolongued fighting as the previous issue, and it tried inserting some tension relief with secondary characters like Swindle and the Dinobots, which may or may not have entirely worked. The conclusion is not entirely unexpected, but pleasing enough, though!



There are some loose ends still to tie up (and where is Shockwave?!), but there are some excellent scenes in terms of artwork, colouring and page-span. There were ups, and as I said, this may lead into something a lot better, but for now, I'm a little disappointed. Here's hoping for better with the next arc.

Disappointing to hear, but not surprising. I'm tempted not to pick it up but I do want to know what happens. I think the need to fix Costa's mess has really hurt this. I wish they just dropped some of it instead of trying so hard to make it fit. hopefully the next ark can finally try to put these old plot points to rest and move on to new stuff. I still have some faith that Barber can pull this off.

sabrigami wrote:Disappointing to hear, but not surprising. I'm tempted not to pick it up but I do want to know what happens. I think the need to fix Costa's mess has really hurt this. I wish they just dropped some of it instead of trying so hard to make it fit. hopefully the next ark can finally try to put these old plot points to rest and move on to new stuff. I still have some faith that Barber can pull this off.

Yeah, that is the general feeling among the couple of reviewers I've spoken to.
Hopefully, as you say, after this issue Barber will be able to do his own stuff - but it would've been nice if he had started doing it already, rather than feeling the need to sew on continuity patches.

Va'al wrote:

sabrigami wrote:Disappointing to hear, but not surprising. I'm tempted not to pick it up but I do want to know what happens. I think the need to fix Costa's mess has really hurt this. I wish they just dropped some of it instead of trying so hard to make it fit. hopefully the next ark can finally try to put these old plot points to rest and move on to new stuff. I still have some faith that Barber can pull this off.

Yeah, that is the general feeling among the couple of reviewers I've spoken to.
Hopefully, as you say, after this issue Barber will be able to do his own stuff - but it would've been nice if he had started doing it already, rather than feeling the need to sew on continuity patches.

I agree, but I also believe that Costa's ( and even McCarthy's) run needed the patches. The comics have been so riddled with continuity holes since Furman's run was cancelled.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:I agree, but I also believe that Costa's ( and even McCarthy's) run needed the patches. The comics have been so riddled with continuity holes since Furman's run was cancelled.

That is true. But it could have been done without having to sacrifice originality, I believe.
Or at least, I would've liked to see Barber do it.

However, we are now finally back to the end of All Hail Megatron, as if the Costa run never happened! (Except for the references.)

Costa's run is the most unappreciated in all of Transformers. Mike Costa is a great writer who tried to insert realism into the Transformers story. Blame Andy Schmit for all the continuity errors as he was a really bad at that as an editor. Now, we have John Barber who is great at continuity. Mike's run had characters make *gasp* mistakes and was really decompressed. But hey, what do I know. I have loved Transformers all my life and his run ranks up there.

Its loads better than Dreamwave.

I'll copy and paste what sums up my thoughts about Costa's run from the IDW boards.

* Good, interesting ideas with terrible execution

* ZERO subplots or development for future mysteries/questions/narrative

* Absolutely decompressed storytelling - even compared to other writers like Bendis - i've done the stats.

And I'm a big fan of War Within so I suppose we just don't agree.

I didnt mind the stories for costas run. I just hated the artwork when they changed them all to look more realistic. Figueroas wierd bayverse look. Horrible. Much better art now

burning_sirius wrote:Costa's run is the most unappreciated in all of Transformers. Mike Costa is a great writer who tried to insert realism into the Transformers story. Blame Andy Schmit for all the continuity errors as he was a really bad at that as an editor. Now, we have John Barber who is great at continuity. Mike's run had characters make *gasp* mistakes and was really decompressed. But hey, what do I know. I have loved Transformers all my life and his run ranks up there.

You bring up some valid points. I don't hate Costa's writing (in fact I think he does a pretty decent job with G.I. joe), I just don't think it does the Transformers justice. What I didn't like was how he had to screw with Prowl's scheming ways - it was just too indecisive for my taste.

Characters like Starscream or Bumblebee acting out of character is IDWs idea of "fresh and new"? Now Barber is depicting Dirge as a heroic Autobot instead of a creep. It seems like Shane is the only dude at IDW that can write an authentic Transformers story.

What do you mean by 'out of character' and 'authentic', exactly?

I like what Barber has been doing with the Cybertronians, making sure that binaries are (finally) blurred out - Metalhawk stands for that, and makes some really good points throughout this issue.

I like seeing a more human side to Starscream. He wanted Decepticons to win, but wanted to do it through a political manner rather than by force. Sounds crazy but people often forget Megatron wants peace through tyranny and no more war, its all idealogical, and really, Starscream was trying to do it his way. Its unique for his character, not out of character.

A very interesting issue. I personally liked Starscream's arc in this. I'm also happy that Metalhawk was finally taken care of. Hated that guy. It was really satisfying to see SS betray him in the end. Now, I guess if history repeats itself, it's only a matter of time before the neutrals' civilization is run into the ground via SS shining leadership skills . it's also only a matter of time before they go begging the outcast bots and cons for help too. they are really the only set of experienced guns between them and inevitable trouble.

I do agree that some points really seemed a bit meh. Prowl was handled a bit to quick and easy for my tastes .Being forced into being a combiner and ripping himself off of said combiner sure didn't seem to make him worse for wear. We also never got any real insight as to what Meg's REAL plan was (if he ever really had an idea).

I'd give it a 4. the ending, as I said, really left me in a nice place. I'm looking forward to seeing where this heads.

I also have a question. I'm a bit unsure whether I should be using spoiler tags or not in this thread. do I need to? A lot of the posts tend to mark spoilers even though they are in threads that I would assume to be spoilerific (like this one).

*edited to add spoiler tags