The Energon Pub

[Tigertrack]

Cover looks amazing. Just never liked Shickwave's ears like that. I know they've been that way for awhile now... I think you're both right, and one of you is wrong.

Well they’ve only been that way for oh just 13 years. Not too long. I actually really love his bunny ears. They stand out a good way for me

I'm glad . I know I'm probably minority in that. Doesn't really matter to me, I guess I always preferred tha more cropped ear look. Just stood out. I think it's because we've had so many headshot focuses on Shockwave lately, and his body is totally different that it just sticks out more to me now.

[WreckerJack]

A few days ago we got to see a cover variant of Optimus Prime #19. Today we bring you a cool preview via iTunes.com. It looks as if Cyberton will be finding a new hope. Time will tell. The release date will be May 31st 2018 from IDW. Until then let us know if you will be picking up this issue.

“The Falling,” Part 4. Onyx Prime’s motivations are clear, and his scheme seems unstoppable. Heroes have fallen, and hope dwindles for the survivors. Cybertron’s last chance of salvation is in the hands of... well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?

[ZeroWolf]

It's quite interesting to see starscreams take on optimus, it's twisted but actually not far from the truth

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Interesting. This point of view hearkens back to the beginnings of IDWverse itself. Wherein Megatron: Origin portrayed the Autobots as the original villains of Cybertron and the -Ations which hammered home the point that there really was no difference between the two factions other than name.

[o.supreme]

Well I finally got caught up on this book. At least we now have an explanation of why Onyx is the way he is, and not the kind Benevolent Prime described in the Covenant of Primus. .

Also I'm glad they acknowledged "Nemesis" BWII reference yo! Poor Metrotitan though...

[Va'al]

Fellow Seibertronian Sunstar has spotted over on the website Adventures in Poor Taste! the full preview for next week's issue of IDW Publishing's ongoing Transformers comics series Optimus Prime, which we have mirrored below for your viewing convenience!

Optimus Prime #19 features the continuation of Onyx Prime's machinations in The Falling story arc, and features art by Sara Pitre Durocher and Josh Burcham. Take a look, and join us next week for a review.

“The Falling,” Part 4. Onyx Prime’s motivations are clear, and his scheme seems unstoppable. Heroes have fallen, and hope dwindles for the survivors. Cybertron’s last chance of salvation is in the hands of… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?

Bullet points:

Covers include Kei Zama (a), Casey W. Coller (b), Kei Zama (black-and-white, ri-a)

Optimus Prime #19
Writer: John Barber
Artist: Sara Pitre-Durocher
Color by: Josh Burcham
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Release Date: May 30, 2018
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

[ZeroWolf]

He's not wrong like...

[Randomhero]

I am not afraid to admit I don’t like Sarah’s art. It’s not my taste at all but the coloring really makes it great. Maybe it was just the coloring in Till all are one that really put me off. A lot of bots in one color(elita, obsidian, rattrap, etc) just made me just made me see so many flaws. That being said this looks amazing

[Va'al]

A Singular Choice
(Spoiler free-ish)

Synopsis
“The Falling,” Part 4. Onyx Prime’s motivations are clear, and his scheme seems unstoppable. Heroes have fallen, and hope dwindles for the survivors. Cybertron’s last chance of salvation is in the hands of… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?

GEE, I WONDER WHO

Story
After a whole issue of backstory, and after one of shocking revelations, we have an aftermath of an issue that tries dealing with the consequences of it all, while trying to handle the seemingly infinite cast that John Barber has been playing with for a long time now - meaning that not all have the space to get the treatment they entirely deserve, but where we do, the highlights are excellent.

Big and green, the joke was there all along

The major issue taking place within the story, for me and some of the other staff I consulted with before writing the review, is the unfortunate timing of the solicitations and Unicron FCBD book: they spoil what could've been a fairly well played, if not touching, moment in the pages of this arc, removing some of the subtlety that was attempted since early Till All Are One issues.

including some of Starscream's traits

That said, seeing Onyx Prime at the height of his threat - notwithstanding his actual identity at this stage; he is indeed still both characters, as they both exist simultaneously in the past and the present - is thrilling, even with the timeline and rhetorical headaches the story itself might be producing. On the other hand, the reveal/truth about the story is still a little.. eh.

Arcee however is great

Overall, though, and with one more issue to go before the conclusion of this narrative arc, I'm ..strangely not entirely impressed. The build-up in previous issues, including the backstory, exposition filled issue of last month, had felt so much tenser and vibrant than the current unravelling of plot and mythology, and it feels as though too much is happening at the same time for all of it to be actually final or of serious consequence. More on this below.


Art
Sara Pitre Durocher takes over from Kei Zama in this issue, and brings her signature style along to another look at Starscream still hung up on the ending of Till All Are One (for a little while, at least). And after the Ramondelli break last issue, this shift works out really well, even in the stark difference between the heaviness of the lines, and the softer (but clear) direction this month.

also, the flashbacks are glorious

Of course, the effect is also helped by Josh Burcham, who does some pretty amazing stuff, bringing the darker, muted tones of his regular colouring style on this series to the cleaner, sleeker art style of Pitre Durocher, without losing the continuity with previous issues or watering the art itself down for the sake of visual coherence.

..I just really wanted to show this panel off

There are several instances in this issue where the font-mastery and balloon placing of letterer Tom B Long ensures that the humour or pacing of the interaction hits its mark, and by several, I mean a lot. Seriously - a lot. And they all land.

Casey Coller continues to perform excellence, with colourist John Paul Bove, as the variant cover that features all the major players (thumbnail). And as we had already seen previously, but you can do so again in our database entry (warning. there be spoilers) here, Kei Zama and Bove also deliver a fantastically creepy Shockwave-centric main cover too.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

If my opening statement seemed unfair to the script, it's fair to also say that the focus on the characters that are explored is very well.. focused, and explored. There are some misgivings about Devastator and Starscream's behaviours, and my general feelings about the reveal are still not overly positively thrilled, but I'm enjoying the story moving forward even with those speedbumps.

Aileron also has some Seriously Good Moments

Still, even with all of that, the issue is stunning to look at, and having now had three different art teams for the past three months is working out surprisingly well - which bodes even better for the increased frequency schedule that is supposed to take place after this month, to arrive at the final conclusion of it all alongside Unicron. I'll still shake my fists at IDW's schedules, though.

. ½ out of

[AlphaBass]

Came in to see Starscream's figuratively smoldering remains after Shockwave roasted him by calling him a fool.

[Shot Put]

I noticed a mistake in the review: there's two more issues in this arc, not one.

[snavej]

So, in issue 18 Shockwave kills Optimus by throwing him off a building. However, during the hunt for Galvatron, Optimus is shown to have very powerful flight capabilities. What the fudge?!

[D-Maximal_Primal]

So, in issue 18 Shockwave kills Optimus by throwing him off a building. However, during the hunt for Galvatron, Optimus is shown to have very powerful flight capabilities. What the fudge?!

In the hunt for Galvatron, Optimus had the time to get a jetpack while Arcee and Cosmos chased and distracted Galvatron and Astrotrain.

In issue 18, Optimus is badly wounded and in enemy hands, with no jetpack. And he was absorbed into a small singularity/black hole, not hitting the ground

[Sunstar]

So, in issue 18 Shockwave kills Optimus by throwing him off a building. However, during the hunt for Galvatron, Optimus is shown to have very powerful flight capabilities. What the fudge?!

In the hunt for Galvatron, Optimus had the time to get a jetpack while Arcee and Cosmos chased and distracted Galvatron and Astrotrain.

In issue 18, Optimus is badly wounded and in enemy hands, with no jetpack. And he was absorbed into a small singularity/black hole, not hitting the ground

And that is HOW it happened.

It was also seen in G1 where the decepticons fell into the magma, they fell and did not take flight. Chances are Oh **** is the first reaction before jumping into flight, a short distance probably is harder to recover from than a long drop. If Starscream fell 40 feet, he might just fall. But if it was 400 after the inital Oh ****, he probably would fire his thrusters and correct himself.

Also, if you are falling head first, and you've got thruster feet -or any downward facing source of thrust, then you are likely to hit the ground faster if you fired them. If you are falling backward - recovery might be harder due to the abnormal perspective (you may not be aware of where the ground is.) falling feet or belly first chances of recovery are likely higher.

Optimus prime fell backward into a singularity (black-hole.) Black holes are said to be able to alter one's experience to time. the closer to the event horizon, the slower things appear from the outside. Being that this is a small singularity, then the effects might be minimal, but possibly enough that elapsed time for prime may not be enough for him to react to fly. Autobots are inherently non fliers, so even if he had a jetpack in subspace, the time it may take to retrieve it would be too long for such a short distance.

[snavej]

How is it a 'black hole' when it doesn't consume the entire planet? It's something else, like a portal. The use of the wrong term is just IDW 'bigging itself up'.

[Randomhero]

How is it a 'black hole' when it doesn't consume the entire planet? It's something else, like a portal. The use of the wrong term is just IDW 'bigging itself up'.

It’s an artificial black hole. It’s not a natural one that doesn’t follow the same physics as a regular black hole.

If megaton can use space bride technology to siphon the dark matter of a black hole to power himself up from his eyes than a small stable black hole can exist on Cybertron.

It’s also a comic book about giant alien robots fighting where prime once opened the matrix and reformatted an entire planet into a primordial state sooooo yeah. Maybe not try to base it too much in reality.

[ZeroWolf]

Hey some scientists can't agree on black holes anyway

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Hey some scientists can't agree on black holes anyway

They are still gravity based...

[ZeroWolf]

What about the ones who don't think they exist? Plus as randomhero pointed out this isn't a natural black hole but an artificial one so which is all it needs to be otherwise we start picking apart everything.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Plus as randomhero pointed out this isn't a natural black hole but an artificial one so which is all it needs to be otherwise we start picking apart everything.

Scrolling back, I see the issue here. It's language. A "Black Hole" and a "Singularity" are not interchangeable terms. They can in fact refer to different things.

A singularity, in many examples, is the central point of a Black Hole. Within the gravity well, not part of it. Therefore a Singularity can exist without causing calamitous damage to Cybertron itself.

What about the ones who don't think they exist?

Most likely the same kind of people that deny evolution and think the Earth is flat...

[BombshellDaBug]

Came in to see Starscream's figuratively smoldering remains after Shockwave roasted him by calling him a fool.

Literally my favorite part of the issue.

[ZeroWolf]

Plus as randomhero pointed out this isn't a natural black hole but an artificial one so which is all it needs to be otherwise we start picking apart everything.

Scrolling back, I see the issue here. It's language. A "Black Hole" and a "Singularity" are not interchangeable terms. They can in fact refer to different things.

A singularity, in many examples, is the central point of a Black Hole. Within the gravity well, not part of it. Therefore a Singularity can exist without causing calamitous damage to Cybertron itself.

What about the ones who don't think they exist?

Most likely the same kind of people that deny evolution and think the Earth is flat...

The sad thing is the amount who believe in things like that are on the rise and their theories are getting stupider.

[Sunstar]

Plus as randomhero pointed out this isn't a natural black hole but an artificial one so which is all it needs to be otherwise we start picking apart everything.

Scrolling back, I see the issue here. It's language. A "Black Hole" and a "Singularity" are not interchangeable terms. They can in fact refer to different things.

A singularity, in many examples, is the central point of a Black Hole. Within the gravity well, not part of it. Therefore a Singularity can exist without causing calamitous damage to Cybertron itself.

What about the ones who don't think they exist?

Most likely the same kind of people that deny evolution and think the Earth is flat...

I'll have to re-read up on that. If I am mistaken, then I will be soon corrected.

[KorsO]

Hello all.

Quite the long Hiatus. Just manage to catch up and read Optimus issues 17-19. Re-read all 3 copies twice.

Not sure if I'm in the minority here.
But having Shockwave being the big revelation throughout a big significant portion of IDW Cybertron history (the era of the 13 Primes) was really quite a ...
Huge Letdown for me.

When I reached the panels, I was like, what really? All that 'Cybertronian myth yet cool different era history exposition' build up in multiple books is due to the machinations of one bot, Shockwave? I was (waiting for years) expecting more actually. New reveals and different character arcs from that time to play their crucial roles in the makings and consequences of that era... Not Shockwave. I honestly felt that reveal kinda cheapen out the lore.

I was quite content actually of Shockwave's current development, from being Jhiaxus's student, to a rebelious Senator seeding plans for a better Cybertron, getting caught and was subject to direct shadowplay & empurata by the then senate, turned to cold calculative intellect ruled by cold logic, derived from that conducted secret cruel experiments on bots, life and worlds alike in the name of science, conjured up an elaborate plan spanning eons in the making of alternate source of energy ultimately for the use of fulfilling his dark cybertron prophecy deeming life is chaos thus it should not exists, and ultimately at the very last moment saved by Orion Pax/Optimus by overcoming his millions of years shadowplay conditioning, where in the end sacrificing himself to save the universe. That was a beyond Epic character Arc.

This Shockwave being alive transported back in time and taking Onyx's prime mantle orchastrating the bulk of Cybertron history is just feels like an easy cop out of more layered and complex rich new revelations.

At this point, Boo John Barber. Had so much hope.

Hope Roberts will end his run with a bang. Not going half arsed since its ending.

Sorry folks. Just my honest two cents ...

Anyone else is of like impression ?

[Va'al]

I agree on the letdown, and was still holding on to the possibility of it all being a Liege Maximo ruse/projection/illusion. Alas, no.

Don't get me wrong, I like how it's being written, but I don't think this was the story that I wanted - nor the one that I cared to see developed. Shockwave (and Bumblebee) were gone. Megatron is still gone. That was fine.