Review for IDW Transformers: Till All Are One Annual 2017 #TAAO

How come they ended TAAO? Is M. Scott leaving Transformers?

budmaloney wrote:What a great finale. That ending was very touching.

I really really wanted to Starscream to spell out that he loves her. Add some romance into the mix. Even though he didn't have to say it, it was clear imo. I sincerely hope they maintain the course and never go back to the old Starscream. It was demeaning to always see him abused by Megatron and crew. Scott's creative team from the dawn of Windblade has put significant effort in defeating evil Starscream...by making him good....and honestly I love that. This is the powerful writing that could change a perception of the character for ever. What he did in the end was for love and for the greater good.

Sunstar wrote:

budmaloney wrote:What a great finale. That ending was very touching.

I really really wanted to Starscream to spell out that he loves her. Add some romance into the mix. Even though he didn't have to say it, it was clear imo. I sincerely hope they maintain the course and never go back to the old Starscream. It was demeaning to always see him abused by Megatron and crew. Scott's creative team from the dawn of Windblade has put significant effort in defeating evil Starscream...by making him good....and honestly I love that. This is the powerful writing that could change a perception of the character for ever. What he did in the end was for love and for the greater good.

I completely agree with that.

He would not do something like that without a reason. He loved his world, he loved her. He never would have risked himself unless he had feelings for her. And it was clear she had feelings for him. Both are too Stubborn and proud to admit it. He sacrificed himself for the love of many things. I also hope they do not revert him - this is how I believe he should end up. I also feel he is scared to admit affection for anyone on the chance he'll lose it forever - its more in character for him if he doesn't spell it out. If you love someone, you'll do anything for them. I am sure he feels she'll look over his ideas and plans and execute them, because he knows she was born to create something new.

Va'al wrote:

Sunstar wrote:

budmaloney wrote:What a great finale. That ending was very touching.

I really really wanted to Starscream to spell out that he loves her. Add some romance into the mix. Even though he didn't have to say it, it was clear imo. I sincerely hope they maintain the course and never go back to the old Starscream. It was demeaning to always see him abused by Megatron and crew. Scott's creative team from the dawn of Windblade has put significant effort in defeating evil Starscream...by making him good....and honestly I love that. This is the powerful writing that could change a perception of the character for ever. What he did in the end was for love and for the greater good.

I completely agree with that.

He would not do something like that without a reason. He loved his world, he loved her. He never would have risked himself unless he had feelings for her. And it was clear she had feelings for him. Both are too Stubborn and proud to admit it. He sacrificed himself for the love of many things. I also hope they do not revert him - this is how I believe he should end up. I also feel he is scared to admit affection for anyone on the chance he'll lose it forever - its more in character for him if he doesn't spell it out. If you love someone, you'll do anything for them. I am sure he feels she'll look over his ideas and plans and execute them, because he knows she was born to create something new.

Well thought out points, and sound reasoning! However, a counterpoint: that love is not romantic, just deep respect and trust - a proper, solid friendship.

Big Grim wrote:That annual was just sublime. I missed the last four issues of TAAO and picked em up, read the whole arc until the end of the annual. That really was a damned good series. Seriously sad to see it go.

Va'al wrote:Isn't it just so good read all in one go? 10-12 plus annual? So good.

snavej wrote:'Ace-in-the-hole', they call it. Just have to hope that he doesn't make a blunder when they let him out! Winter Unicron is coming! [This time, his body will be composed mainly of illegally scanned/downloaded e-comics.]

Why did so many Decepticons join the movement in the first place? They wanted to eliminate all the corruption, etc. and make Cybertron a better place. We shouldn't be surprised if they become better characters after their LONG war.

avarathriul wrote:it was interesting but, and maybe i am a cynic but, how long until star scream returns to himself?

ZeroWolf wrote:

snavej wrote:'Ace-in-the-hole', they call it. Just have to hope that he doesn't make a blunder when they let him out! Winter Unicron is coming! [This time, his body will be composed mainly of illegally scanned/downloaded e-comics.]

Why did so many Decepticons join the movement in the first place? They wanted to eliminate all the corruption, etc. and make Cybertron a better place. We shouldn't be surprised if they become better characters after their LONG war.

From the way you've been replying I'm guessing you're not a fan of this series

As far as decepticons go though, I would say that some joined because they wanted to fight, especially when you look at characterisation of them, only a few believed in the ideals that they were originally fighting for

snavej wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:
As far as decepticons go though, I would say that some joined because they wanted to fight, especially when you look at characterisation of them, only a few believed in the ideals that they were originally fighting for

Some parts of the series I liked, others not: shades of grey! Decepticons can see shades of grey too. Don't underestimate them. They say that they're only interested in fighting but they're clever enough to survive Autobot tricks and traps, so they must have considerable brainpower. QED.

Sunstar wrote:

snavej wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:
As far as decepticons go though, I would say that some joined because they wanted to fight, especially when you look at characterisation of them, only a few believed in the ideals that they were originally fighting for

Some parts of the series I liked, others not: shades of grey! Decepticons can see shades of grey too. Don't underestimate them. They say that they're only interested in fighting but they're clever enough to survive Autobot tricks and traps, so they must have considerable brainpower. QED.

I am going to interject here this may get a bit long winded.

Shades of grey and characterisation of Decepticons AND Autobots:

As far as I have read and viewed (adding G1 cartoons into my frame of thinking) Especially in the realms of the Cartoons – it struck me as a propaganda story where they say who you should like who you should hate because one is good one is evil end of story - then goes to show how the bad guys are terrible, dysfunctional and are barely tolerating each other and how the good guys are nearly weak, powerless and overall swell, great to work for guys.

The comics and Cartoons show that the Autobots are just as wanting to fight the cons as the cons are wanting to fight the Autobots - maybe even more on an aggressive level than the Decepticons were. Heck, the Autobots went as far as including chips in the Decepticon's heads to detonate as soon as a con steps out of line” - with no trial. If that is not barbaric or evil, I don't know what is. Some cons were still stuck in their ways, Starscream did attempt to manipulate things in his favour, and he's no saint, But ultimately he did drop the badge, he did attempt to do things more or less right, if he was straddling some hefty shades of grey. There were still Autobots who were more than willing to fight and kill Decepticons because Decepticons exist. Some of the Decepticons may have felt the same way, but they had far more self control than lets say Arcee did.

Only a few Autobots also believed in the ideals they joined for. They are not perfectly good, and the Decepticons are not perfectly evil. Both sides lost track of what they were fighting for and ended up continuing the fight because they hated the other side.

Decepticons are not dysfunctional. They are a group that have chosen to live by the survival of the fittest ideal. The strongest leads, the rest fall into form behind. Their way of promotion may more or less be designed because Megatron was a gladiator, and that is a great way of ensuring the best are in power.

Starscream being second to Megatron indicated that he was strong. Maybe his strength was more mental power. I think he was extremely clever and cunning to manipulate others and Megatron – making them believe that he was weaker or stupid. But if he was stupid, he'd never have lasted at the rank he was at. The cartoons really dumb him down, but he's not as stupid as they like to portray – not for his position.

The Decepticons, had they been as dysfunctional as portrayed, they would not have lasted long into the war.

Many shades of grey all around, most straddle fairly dark shades of it on both sides.

TL:DR: I will not believe that the Autobots are the good guys simply because they are as aggressive if not more about wiping out (into extinction) the Decepticons, and many are unwilling to stop fighting them - even in peacetime.

Sunstar wrote:I only chose her because of what she did with that badgeless - it seemed brutal.

G1 had more than enough suggestions that the bots were the aggressors Basically off topic - so using spoiler tag

My points being (G1 cartoon based)

Autobots fired the first shots at the Decepticons – Starscream only meant to bury the ark's entrance.
Autobots attempted to keep the Decepticons on Earth.
Autobots took fuel from the humans and never left to go back to Cybertronian
Autobots continuously keep the Decepticons away from energy (and as a result starving them forcing them to take action)

The Decepticons may have attacked human built stuff, but the humans attacked the Decepticons and they defended themselves. The Autobots swooped in, drove them off and said the “Decepticons are bad, but we are good.”

Decepticons and Autobots unite to fight off unicron. Bots are victorious, Decepticons exiled to starve to death on Charr - and they wonder why they rise up to fight the Autobots.

Even if they did a reboot - which would suck because this was pretty glorious. And as for anything in this franchise, you can pick and choose what you love and dislike. I sure as heck love this <3

Sunstar wrote:I love hte route they went with Starscream though, because it was along the lines of what I was thinking he could or would do. Its not far off the mark of my writing anyway.

snavej wrote:Actually, jail is no defence against magic.

Transformers: Till All Are One, Vol. 3
Mairghread Scott (w) • Sara Pitre-Durocher (a & c)
The fate of Cybertron lies in the hands of Starscream and Windblade as each tries to win allies and support in order to gain control over the Council of Worlds. After the costly victory against the Titans, Iacon is in shambles and Starscream finds himself on shakier ground than ever. The key to his political (and likely literal) survival rests in the outcome of a very unlikely event: the trial of the Council's first official war criminal—Chromia of Caminus! Collects issues #9–12 and the 2017 Annual.
TPB • FC • $17.99 • 144 pages • ISBN: 978-1-68405-086-4

Nathaniel Prime wrote:Wow, I have never really read any of the IDW comics, only the first issue of All Hail Megatron and the Shockwave Spotlight, but dang if I want to start buying these now, they're incredible! Who knew "Autobot Starscream" would be such a good character from just these scraps of a comic! I was in love with these comics, and now my love has jumped to a totally new level! Can't wait for the Unicron finale!

Nathaniel Prime wrote:Wow, I have never really read any of the IDW comics, only the first issue of All Hail Megatron and the Shockwave Spotlight, but dang if I want to start buying these now, they're incredible! Who knew "Autobot Starscream" would be such a good character from just these scraps of a comic! I was in love with these comics, and now my love has jumped to a totally new level! Can't wait for the Unicron finale!

Flashwave wrote:

Nathaniel Prime wrote:Wow, I have never really read any of the IDW comics, only the first issue of All Hail Megatron and the Shockwave Spotlight, but dang if I want to start buying these now, they're incredible! Who knew "Autobot Starscream" would be such a good character from just these scraps of a comic! I was in love with these comics, and now my love has jumped to a totally new level! Can't wait for the Unicron finale!

Scott did a good job with Starscream, keeping him a smarmy self centered con with delusions of granduer and still making a chsracter you almost want to support. The finale to his arc was kinda eh in how it was handled, but it really drove home a very interesting point about Starscream, and the nature of Cybertronians, and how they see their body image.

Since you mentioned the Spotlights, I reccomend "Jazz" (especially with Predaking coming soon) and "Prowl". Prowl's Art Style is either you love it or hste it, but its a great one shot story for Prowl. "Cliffjumper" too

Also, the Wreckers. Moreso the first than rhe second, but both are awesome

Randomhero wrote:

Flashwave wrote:

Nathaniel Prime wrote:Wow, I have never really read any of the IDW comics, only the first issue of All Hail Megatron and the Shockwave Spotlight, but dang if I want to start buying these now, they're incredible! Who knew "Autobot Starscream" would be such a good character from just these scraps of a comic! I was in love with these comics, and now my love has jumped to a totally new level! Can't wait for the Unicron finale!

Scott did a good job with Starscream, keeping him a smarmy self centered con with delusions of granduer and still making a chsracter you almost want to support. The finale to his arc was kinda eh in how it was handled, but it really drove home a very interesting point about Starscream, and the nature of Cybertronians, and how they see their body image.

Since you mentioned the Spotlights, I reccomend "Jazz" (especially with Predaking coming soon) and "Prowl". Prowl's Art Style is either you love it or hste it, but its a great one shot story for Prowl. "Cliffjumper" too

Also, the Wreckers. Moreso the first than rhe second, but both are awesome

The art is great in Prowl is great the story however is regarded as one of the most hated and controversial stories in IDW due to it trying to justify Prowls change in character in the ongoing. The writer says it was never intended to be a spotlight and was to be a flashback in the second to last volume of the ongoing ‘police action’. It feels like a shoehorned excuse personally. I don’t mind the spotlight but I know a lot of people hated it and accused Schmidt and Costa trying to appease the crowds that like prowl from Spotlight Iup and All hail megatron 15 but backlashed when the story came out and didn’t do actually do anything.

It was handled a lot better by Barber in RID with prowl admitting he tried to change but just couldn’t adjust due to the erratic nature of humans and fellow cybertronians.