by Sabrblade » Fri Feb 05, 2021 1:00 pm
- Motto: "Can't do a job halfway. What's worth doing is worth doing well, I say."
- Weapon: Saber Blade
I finally got time to talk about the first issue.
I liked it. It wasn't bad by any means.
I'm familiar with Josh Burcham's art style so I knew what to expect going it. Were this a TV show, it wouldn't be a CG cartoon like the original was, but more like a digitally-animated 2D cartoon like Justice League Unlimited, but more stylized.
As other have noted, it basically covers an abridged retelling of the events of "Theft of the Golden Disk", "Dawn of Future's Past", and the first act of the cartoon's first episode, nixing the BotCon-original ideas (e.g. – Cryotek as Megatron's mentor, Tigatron and Airazor having been alive on Cybertron before the Beast Wars, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, etc.) for a more straightforward adaptation that hews closer to only what the cartoon told us about the Golden Disk theft.
Now, while this does basically repeat what's been told before in those three works, despite the growth in media availability over the years, there are still a lot of people out there who have never watched "Theft of the Golden Disk" or never read "Dawn of Future's Past". By including a version of the theft in this issue, it provides its readers a first-hand experience with something that the cartoon only ever spoke out and which fans longed to see in the show itself instead of it supplementary material. Here, the comic opts to actually show, rather than just tell about, the theft, completing the story in full all at once.
That being said, however, while a retelling in broad strokes, this is anything but a faithful recreation of those same events. The differences lie in the details and, boy howdy, are there a ton of them.
Right off the bat, we are introduced to a Megatron who conspires with the Tripredacus Council as a direct agent of theirs, rather than a completely rogue element to the Council's agenda. Of course, Megatron betrays them when he makes off with the disk by himself, leaving them to wait and see the results of his actions, and if they can take advantage of either his success or failure. After all, they know how to play the long game.
When we cut to Maximals aboard the Axalon, we see that the ship has been redesigned a bit to better fit the new aesthetic. What was once a sleek-looking "space shoe" now better resembles what looks, to me, like a mobile space fortress. Though still a mere science vessel, its new shape gives it a more intimidating look, like it could take more punishment this time around.
Likewise, the Darksyde has been tweaked for the new aesthetic to give it a sleeker look. While more angular than before, its wings are set back a bit and splayed out more to resemble less the "space stingray" look of the original and more of a avian appearance, which also makes it look more aerodynamic. It also has a new color scheme of deep military green and blue with some red and yellow highlights. I dig it.
The interiors of both ships are also completely different. Where the original Axalon had a circular bridge, the new one has a very brightly-lit rectangular bridge with a skylight built overheard. The Darksyde, meanwhile, has no need for elevated seats over a bottomless bridge since this new bridge has a walkway and stations with no seats. In fact, the new Darksyde's bridge very much reminds me of that of the Nemesis from Transformers: Prime, complete with the same darkly-lit purple atmosphere.
Backing up to the Axalon, we're introduced to a new version of Optimus Primal. We get new versions of Optimus Prime all the time, and this is an all new Primal. Now, some have said that he feels off to them because he's more "hot-headed" and "trigger-happy", but what they've actually changed is not so much his personality, but rather his age. This is a much younger take on Optimus Primal, fresh into his captaincy of a science vessel, eager to explore the cosmos and see all kinds of exciting new places and people.
Like how Animated Optimus Prime was described as Optimus before he grew up to become the more traditional leader of the Autobots that he is in other series, this is Optimus Primal before he grows up to become the responsible, if somewhat frustrated, leader that his cartoon counterpart was. Basically, this is not Captain Sisko when he's in command of Deep Space Nine, but baseball-enthusiast Ben Sisko when he's still captain of his wresting team at Starfleet Academy. He's young, he's green, and he's ready to boldly go where no Maximal has gone before. I definitely still heard Garry Chalk's voice coming out of him, but 1980s Garry Chalk rather than 1990s Garry Chalk.
Plus, one might even say he's bolder and more confident than Animated Optimus, in that where Animated Optimus's expulsion from the Autobot Academy left him feeling regret and shame, this new Optimus Primal was kicked out of Security Forces for reasons not yet disclosed, but his reassignment to the Science Ministry seemingly hasn't phased him in the slightest. His promotion to captain of the Axalon was meant to make him fall in line and give up his outside-the-box way of thinking, but he merely sees this a kind of "one door closes, another door opens" opportunity, and he's approaching it with just as much gusto and determination as any good leader should. He may be in a boring position, but daggumit, he's gonna do his best to make the most of it that he can!
Immediately introduced with Primal is the new take on Rhinox, who spars with him both physically and verbally. The two exchange some snappy banter that shows how both have good senses of humor as well as a sort of mentor-mentee relationship. Rhinox is depicted as very much Primal's senior in age and advises him all throughout this issue. It's made clear that the two have a strong mutual respect for one another, even though Rhinox does sort of wish that Primal would adjust more to his new position of responsibility like Maximal Command wishes, but seems to subtly agree with him that Maximal Command is full of stick-in-the-muds who frown upon "unconventional lines of thinking".
Their little sparing match is just full of character and nicely sprinkled with some carefully woven exposition that provides us with background info on Optimus, what Maximal Command thinks of him, the purpose of the Axalon's deep-space missions. All of this undoubtedly sets up for things that will surely come back in play further down the line as the series progresses.
Soon, the Maximals get a call from Cybertron and it's Ironhide! That's a nice surprise! He informs them of the recent theft of an "artifact" that is "rumored to contain sensitive information." Notice that he doesn't tell them that it's a Golden Disk or what kind of information it contains. And later, when Tarantulas gains access to the Darksyde's Transwarp Drive, Megatron gives him the coordinates for their destination, but is equally coy about their specifics. And later on, when Megatron tells Tarantulas what is on the disk, he only mentions the part about it leading an energon-rich planet, and remains vague on what else the disk may hold.
Anyone who has watched the cartoon knows what Megatron's ultimate reason for stealing the Golden Disk was, but with all the obscured details leading us on in this version, I can't help but wonder if it all could instead just be a red herring for something completely different and unexpected for the series direction to go in.
Anyway, the story continues to play as expected with a chase through space, time, and a crash-landing on some organic planet. Though, since the Axalon is only lightly armed in this version, Nyx (being the ship's pilot), has to improvise with dealing with the Predacon ship. In other words, she RAMS it! (as a last resort, of course) When the ships go down, they each crash in completely different environements from where they landed in the cartoon. Instead of a cliff overlooking a canyon river, the Axalon lands atop a the elevated edge of a vast, green forest.
And rather than on top of a volcanic lava pit, the Darksyde touches down at the base of a sandy rock formation surrounded by a range of similar structures. This provides some very different forms of natural cover for the two ships compared to what they each had to work with in their cartoon surroundings. I can easily see the Preds installing tons of auto-guns within the rock walls of their natural neighbor, upping the level of security that was had by their cartoon counterparts.
Something else of notice in regards to the art is how several of the characters' Cybertronian forms are colored like their original toy decos, which then changed to their cartoon decos after they received their beast-moded bodies. Terrorsaur and Tarantulas stand out as the most obvious examples with the former's blue head and the latter's gray head becoming red and purple, respectively.
Though, a term that this comic uses incorrectly as a carryover from the older IDW Beast Wars comics is the use of "techno-organic" to describe the material that makes up their new beast modes. That term, as originally used on Beast Machines (where it was just "Technorganic"), is supposed to refer to a molecular blending of the organic with the technological as a distinctly different concept from what was used in Beast Wars. It's not right for it to be used in this case, as the Beast Wars bodies of the Maximals and Predacons are not techno-organic.
As far as the rest of the comic's characters are concerned, I'll echo what others have said about Megatron being pretty spot on with his vocabulary and inflections. Rattrap mostly feels like himself, but does have room for improvement. Dinobot's honorable nature is on point and sets up his eventual defection to the Maximals (which the author notes in his interview at the end of the issue will NOT be executed the same as it was in the show, meaning there's no telling how it will play out whenever it does happen). But right now, he's still with the Predacons.
Terrorsaur and Tarantulas feel like themselves, but we don't get much of Scorponok and Skold to really get a feel for them. Likewise, while Cheetor and Nyx are present aboard the Axalon's bridge with the others, the chase scene doesn't afford other of them much character time to really get a feel for how they're going to be either. The most we get from Nyx is that Rattrap is wary of her unconventional piloting maneuvers, and that she's really astonished by her new wings when she first gets her bat mode. As for Cheetor, he gets the least attention, so I guess we'll just have to wait on his time to shine later.
All in all, I enjoyed. I'll admit, there's not that much to it so far, but it's only the first part of the opening story. And the first episode of the cartoon wasn't much to write home about either, since the show's greatness didn't really reach its full potential until much later down the line. There's a reason some regard the first season as a slog to get through, so we'll just have to wait and see where this series goes from here.
"When there's gold feathers, punch behind you!!"Shadowman wrote:This is Sabrblade we're talking about. His ability to store trivial information about TV shows is downright superhuman.
Caelus wrote:My wife pointed out something interesting about the prehistoric Predacons. I said that everyone was complaining because transforming for them mostly consisted of them just standing up-right. She essentially said, 'So? That's what our ancestors did.'
. Also seeing Ironhide did raise an eyebrow. I'm glad they haven't abandoned the idea of using non show characters entirely, and not just going to make up new ones. Once they got to Earth, I actually found the art of the Maximal beast modes to be a bit laughable. Not trying to be mean, I am being fully serious.
