The Energon Pub

[Rodimus Prime]

What happened on the last page?

[Kurona]

What happened on the last page?

Scorponok is revealed to be the one leading Flame etc., and the 'resus cradle' he stole from Mengel turns out to be The Magnificence.

[Rodimus Prime]

What happened on the last page?

Scorponok is revealed to be the one leading Flame etc., and the 'resus cradle' he stole from Mengel turns out to be The Magnificence.

Thank you. Other than Scorponok nothing else in that sentence is familiar to me. . But at least 1 of my favorite characters is back. Hopefully he will be written in a good way.

[Va'al]

Flamin' Magnificent
(Spoiler free-ish)

Synopsis
All sides converge on Troja Major as the race to unlock the secrets of a unique Cybertronian reaches its desperate, violent conclusion. As old secrets are revealed, Nautica must pay the ultimate price—by resorting to the ultimate currency.

Not sure Ursula looks good as a robot

Story
The other comic released today by IDW Publishing - after the onslaught of news from the weekend, still brimming my newsing cup - is the second part to this interlude arc before we return to the ship proper, with Lost Light #9 ending the stay on Troja Major and opening some proverbial cans of cyberworms, by digging into old soil.

and also death

At the end of last issue, we had split the party in two, with Velocity and Nautica dealing on one side with a more emotional issue for practical gain - and that is pretty much still the case, with some severe manipulation of grief, friendship, and overall being an asshole dragged into looking for solutions, while also enabling bad, even (self)abusive behaviour.

SADISTS I TELL YOU

On the other, we return to new!Lug and Anode, as they face one of the Clans that might finally be driving the story forwards again from before we were stuck in the Functionist universe. That old soil I mentioned? We're going back to Garrus 9, among other things, and the connections you can draw are many, except perhaps where the story ends up leading.

How about The One Perfect Summer kind of old..?

My biggest gripe about the issue, though? The overall story gets shoved forward in the conclusion, with the almost entirety of everything else ending very abruptly for the constraints of the page or the book itself. Plot revolving around any of the four characters was teased, and nothing (allow me the hyperbole) happened. We got character beats, we got some development of relations, but no plot until the last pages. More on this below.


Art

With all that said about the story as writing, I cannot fault the return of Priscilla Tramontano on art to conclude this mini-arc with visual consistency. If there is a particularly heavy reliance of the plot on the emotional side of bargains and grief, Tramontano's art excels in conveying how those operate for the characters personally, and brings the full force of the feeling to the reader - while never losing sight of the composition of the page.

Look at that transformation composition line headed forwards!

Equally, Joana Lafuente helps push what might otherwise be slower action forward, by adding the right touches of accent to the expressions and body language - while keeping coherent and consistent lighting angles, too - for a more rounded and full effect for the readers.

Smashing!

As shown in the image above, the lettering of Tom B. Long is also still at its full dynamic force, working perfectly with the art and incorporating the script nicely into the panels, without ever reducing the space unnecessarily - and rightly so. All covers have been uploaded to our database page for the issue - including the originally TAAO-intended variant by Zero B - and we're re-using the Jack Lawrence / Lafuente main variant for the thumbnail.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

Thinking back on my negative reading of Lost Light #9, I was conferring with other Seibertron.com readers, and we shared some points: the plot that deals with Nautica felt particularly exploitative, of character and reader alike; the conclusion of the issue is where the story picks up again, only to go into entirely unknown (but still anticipated, don't get me wrong) territory next month. It felt jarring, and as if we could've had more space for any of the threads seeded in the past two months.

...I mean..

The emotional tugging that was obviously present in the script is very well handled by Tramontano and Lafuente, of course, as I say above, but in this particular instance it was not enough for me to fully enjoy the book, overwhelmed by the frustration of a recurring writing device in Roberts' approach to 'overstory', if you will. Let's see how he'll Get Away with this one, next month.

. ½ out of

[Randomhero]

This is once again a red dwarf/Star Trek knock off story. This is Star Trek 5. It's freaking Star Trek 5!!! A machine(Sybock) that can literally take away your grief and pain.

Seriously a scene jumps with the corner saying "one brisk getaway later" yeah because it wasn't like the scene where they were escaping wasn't anything big. It certainly wasn't a secret cybertronian faction nobody has ever seen before under orders to track down and kill a couple characters that they were able to track and find at a bar in a heavily populated city so honestly tracking them to a space port would be nothing.

This is stupid. This is utterly stupid.

Nice to see scorponok back though. But it wasn't like it was too difficult to figure out it was him.

And the moment they said "we left Skids brain module" it was straight up: okay well skids will be back in a year or two either by the Cog faction or by that chick but Skids will be back

[Stormshot_Prime]

So it looks like the Skid's revival plot is over for a good while. With the 3 parter coming up on the Lost Light itself I doubt we'll see much of Team Rodimus.

But what the hell where did Scorponok come from? Either way, I'm glad that he's there. I feellike he had a lot of story left after not seeing him like 8 years. His role makes a lot of sense considering what we've seen in MTMTE

[SureShot18]

I liked this issue quite a bit. It had some of the character stuff I love in this comic and it was entertaining. I will say that it felt like the issue ended way too abruptly though.

About that last page, I've only read MTMTE and Lost Light so it didn't have much weight besides "Oh that's Scorponok, I've heard people say that he's been gone awhile. I'd like to see him appear more in Lost Light for sure.

[Soundwave902]

My theory for Scorponok is that just before his spark extraction, Overlord invaded and let him out. Afterwards, he fights in the gladiatorial combat arena until his second-to-last bout where he realizes no-one who faces Overlord comes. Scorponok then stole Skyquake's Worldburner (taking Grimlock with him to experiment on a 0.1 Percenter) which brought him to a hub which he has maintained. After becoming brainwashed, Grimlock is shot into space aboard a Worldburner aimed at Clemency, a presumed dead world, to serve as the Infinite's protector.

[Kurona]

My theory for Scorponok is that just before his spark extraction, Overlord invaded and let him out. Afterwards, he fights in the gladiatorial combat arena until his second-to-last bout where he realizes no-one who faces Overlord comes. Scorponok then stole Skyquake's Worldburner (taking Grimlock with him to experiment on a 0.1 Percenter) which brought him to a hub which he has maintained. After becoming brainwashed, Grimlock is shot into space aboard a Worldburner aimed at Clemency, a presumed dead world, to serve as the Infinite's protector.

In the original plans for LSotW, Scorponok was originally meant to be Overlord's right-hand man -- this was axed because they wanted to keep a bigger focus on lesser-known characters.
Regardless, I've no doubt his appearance here spins off from a revamped version of those plans or at least has something to do with Garrus-9

[ArmadaPrime]

Ooohh we are BACK baby! I defy anyone to read this issue and hark on about "mtmte not being like it used to"
The reveals- both of them- on the final page are very exciting, even if I don't know too much about their backstory having only really read from DOOP onwards

I do feel that wipe-outs line on the last panel in which the main cast feature could have been given a moment to settle. A blank (non-dialogue) panel or something, just to have a beat after it. As it was, I was already reading the next scene before the emotional impact of the line hit me.

Also, given the unique nature of our new friend, this confirms the idea that the symbols reference the Guiding Hand (another one looks exactly like mortilus' face) and cements our current group as those following Adaptus, right? I do so love it when a theory comes together.
An odd choice of faction leader but then I don't know his IDW background much...

[Burn]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

[Daniel Adkins]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

WELCOME TO COMICS!

[ScottyP]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

The good part about this one is that there's very little to remember. It was one of Furman's plots that got destroyed by AHM so it wouldn't shock me to see Roberts re-explain it or thoroughly retcon it to seem different than past perception would have allowed.

[Burn]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

WELCOME TO COMICS!

I'm well aware of how comics work thank you.

I just find these Transformer comics seem to like to throw back to some small plot point from years ago and we're expected to remember them.

[Randomhero]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

WELCOME TO COMICS!

I'm well aware of how comics work thank you.

I just find these Transformer comics seem to like to throw back to some small plot point from years ago and we're expected to remember them.

Yes Scorponok certainly was just a small plot point years ago. He totally wasn't the dude who first introduced headmasters in IDW and was the mastermind behind the Machination an organization that was the behind a half the stuff going in the first 5 years of IDWs universe and wasn't the main villain in Maximum dinobots and certainty didn't play the main villain in monstrocity a couple years ago.

Such a nothing character to be forced to remember.


Real reason:
Because he's getting a new toy in a year or two and it's time to bring him back to build on it. There's your actual explanation.

[Kurona]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

The good part about this one is that there's very little to remember. It was one of Furman's plots that got destroyed by AHM so it wouldn't shock me to see Roberts re-explain it or thoroughly retcon it to seem different than past perception would have allowed.

Heck, is there anything to remember? We learned little to nothing about the Magnificence during Furman's run, nor did we see Scorponok having any interest in it; only focusing on his Headmaster stuff. This is just bringing in past elements in a new way that doesn't actually require you to remember anything but is a great nod to fans who have followed this long nonetheless. If anything, so far it's looking like a perfect example of how to bring something back.

[Va'al]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

WELCOME TO COMICS!

I'm well aware of how comics work thank you.

I just find these Transformer comics seem to like to throw back to some small plot point from years ago and we're expected to remember them.

Yes Scorponok certainly was just a small plot point years ago. He totally wasn't the dude who first introduced headmasters in IDW and was the mastermind behind the Machination an organization that was the behind a half the stuff going in the first 5 years of IDWs universe and wasn't the main villain in Maximum dinobots and certainty didn't play the main villain in monstrocity a couple years ago.

Such a nothing character to be forced to remember.


Real reason:
Because he's getting a new toy in a year or two and it's time to bring him back to build on it. There's your actual explanation.

All of that happened, at the latest, in 2009. That's 8 years ago.
Burn's complaint here is legitimate, and I don't understand why people are so annoyed about it.

I share the exact same thoughts as him on this issue, and I've been conductin research with non-TF readers to confirm my suspicions - and lo! if you weren't in at the ground floor, you simply don't care for most 'twists' or 'reveals'. I understand this is how comics work, I know IDW TF is not the only narrative that does it, but

It's A Legitimate Complaint.

[ricemazter]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

WELCOME TO COMICS!

I'm well aware of how comics work thank you.

I just find these Transformer comics seem to like to throw back to some small plot point from years ago and we're expected to remember them.

Yes Scorponok certainly was just a small plot point years ago. He totally wasn't the dude who first introduced headmasters in IDW and was the mastermind behind the Machination an organization that was the behind a half the stuff going in the first 5 years of IDWs universe and wasn't the main villain in Maximum dinobots and certainty didn't play the main villain in monstrocity a couple years ago.

Such a nothing character to be forced to remember.


Real reason:
Because he's getting a new toy in a year or two and it's time to bring him back to build on it. There's your actual explanation.

Well, since AHM happened and forced everything Furman had built up to that point on the back burner, I can't blame anyone who doesn't remember him or care. (Even the whole introduction of headmasters thing has been retconned) I'd wager a sizeable portion of readers have only been reading since the beginning of phase 2, so they might only remember Scorponok from Monstrosity.

I haven't read the last two issues, but isn't this the second in a row that has ended on the reveal of a somewhat well known character we haven't seen in years being revealed as a big gasp moment?

[Kurona]

Nah. Flame showed up last issue as a sort-of-kind-of gasp moment, but only a few pages before the end and in a way that there was more going on to gasp about than just his being there. Instead, last issue ended on the revelation that Nautica had Skids' brain.

[ScottyP]

Not to mention Flame and Scorponok are miles apart on a scale of being recognizable to the average TF reader, even for Marvel UK fans that would more readily even know who the hell Flame is.

Wrestling analogy: LL 8 had Sandman return at the end, LL 9 had Kevin Nash show up.

If that doesn't register, Marvel analogy: LL 8 had Mr. Sinister show up, LL 9 had Juggernaut

[Kurona]

Ooh, this game is fun!

Doctor Who analogy:-

LL8 had the Macra, LL9 had The Rani.


Either way, yeah, I totally get ya. Anyone who only read post-DOOP - heck, that's where I recommend to start reading - will have no clue who this is unless they're at least Level 2 of Transformers nerdery. I'm really looking forward to him running into Rodimus, Ultra Magnus and Grimlock again though Now, where the hell is Sixshot?

[Rodimus Prime]

So once again I am expected to remember stuff that happened years ago?

WELCOME TO COMICS!

I'm well aware of how comics work thank you.

I just find these Transformer comics seem to like to throw back to some small plot point from years ago and we're expected to remember them.

Yes Scorponok certainly was just a small plot point years ago. He totally wasn't the dude who first introduced headmasters in IDW and was the mastermind behind the Machination an organization that was the behind a half the stuff going in the first 5 years of IDWs universe and wasn't the main villain in Maximum dinobots and certainty didn't play the main villain in monstrocity a couple years ago.

Such a nothing character to be forced to remember.

That's not what Burn was talking about. Of course it's easy to remember Scorponok. But like Va'al said, the last time he was in IDW was nearly a decade ago. That's a long time in the comics world and we can't be expected to remember every little detail regarding the character, especially if the last main story he was in got just kinda pushed to the side by AHM. So just because you remember better than others, doesn't mean you should be condescending.

Real reason:
Because he's getting a new toy in a year or two and it's time to bring him back to build on it. There's your actual explanation.

I agree with this 100%.

I would love to see a Maximus-Scorponok story.

And yes, where is Sixshot?

[ScottyP]

And yes, where is Sixshot?

With the Throttlebots set to return in Optimus Prime #13, I imagine we'll get at least some hint of this soon!

[Chibi Starscream]

I just started reading this and I'm really enjoying it.

[ArmadaPrime]

Very much agree with Rod that a max/scorp story would be delightful
Those two as faction leaders makes me nostalgic for the good old days of... reading marvel TBPs in the local library, over a decade after the issues were first published