President-prime wrote: I felt that in the IDW comics, Optimus Prime had taken a backseat to being the hero and awesome warrior that we know and respect. He's willing to sacrifice himself for others, and is revered in battle.
President-prime wrote:In BW Neo, when he shows up, he beats the crap out of everyone. That's a feared warrior. Right now, Optimus Prime is only a name.
I pulled the two most relevant points from your post because I think they speak the loudest.
And there's nothing wrong with your views. Opinions are fine, and you are free to have them
It seems what you want is the the icon. The infallible. The hero that prevailed no matter what. He is good, he is rightous, he stands for every man, America, and apple pie.
Which is fine. That got us through a great part of the 20th century and moved nations and inspired real life heroes as well of generations of young imaginations.
Unfortunately, the time of the larger than life, unattainably perfect character that could conquer all and do it without compromising his values is over (and honestly, I blame my generation for it. Generation X got a little upity there for a bit) .
Media (print and visual) has followed what the masses want. The masses called for flawed heroes that we could better identify with. The masses asked that the heroes not be perfect because we are not perfect. We can empathize a little more with someone who is not always right, but tries his best to be and is less god-like.
And it gives us, and writers, more of a chance to delve into and explore social/political issues that would just be impossible of the hero was infallible. Which helps us identify with the hero (or the villian) more.
Do you think in the 1980's a comic book could really deal with social injustice from the villian's point of view? (Answer: no)
Show intimate relationships between two characters that share a gender pronoun? (Answer: absolutely no)
A female character take role of hero and not need the male to come save her at the end? (Answer: no!)
Show the hero in anything less than a perfect light? (Answer: briefly maybe)
Again, there's nothing wrong with liking that kind of hero. Absolutely nothing. The icon can be a wonderful thing. But our global society has changed and we want a different kind if hero as a whole.
Do I think that Optimus is no longer a good example of a hero? I think he is a hero because he is doing what he thinks is right. Same as Megatron did, same as Soundwave is doing, and same as Galvatron is doing. All are heroes at least to themselves (even though Galvatron is not a hero on this story).
The hero now doesn't just beat the crap out of everyone bad. Partly because right and wrong are not so simple, and people who were heroes in the past forced their will on others by just beating the crap out of their enemies and forcing others to do what they felt was right ... even if that was not what the others wanted. Which is the whole point of this issue.
Our history is riddled with people who forcefully took over other cultures/countries because they thought they were protecting them. But those cultures/countries didn't need/want peotected. And it isn't anyone's right, no matter how right they are, to force their will on someone else who doesn't want it.
