The Energon Pub

[MYoung23]

This issue was underwhelming for me.

Drift's actual debut was a complete dud. A "that's it?" moment.

I still have no idea what Megatron and Starscream are talking about and why Starscream is all of a sudden is so cryptic. Scourge is mentioned without any real context.

The best was the tension between the Seekers and the Insecticons. We find out that the Insecticons are the result of Decepticons experiments and Bombshell, Kickback and Shrapnel being the only success. The failures, AKA The Swarm, were dumped on Cybertron by the Decepticons. We get to see one of them upclose in the issue. Thundercracker looks depressed and conflicted.


There is one big continuity flub also. Kup mentions that the whole war has been about The Matrix and what it represented. But, that flies in the face of the whole Megatron: Origins series that doesnt even mention the Matrix.

Do these guys at IDW read each other's stuff?

[Tigertrack]

I always get excited when a new G1 related item comes out from IDW, so I was really excited to get this. In fact, if waiting for Friday was not enough, I had to go to the comic shop twice that day because they did not have their new shipments in at noon when I went.

Anyway, the issue was a bit disappointing. Jazz has probably had the best characterization of anybody in this whole series. We are finding out what makes him who he is. I actually like Jazz more now than I previously did. I've always been a Prowl as number 2 fan up to this point, but IDW is winning me over that Jazz deserves it.

Speaking of Prowl, I hate how he is portrayed in AHM. In previous -tion series, he was decisive, and confident about the rules, the discipline, and the Autobot leadership. However, he has yet to display any real traits that would lead one to believe he deserves to be a second in command type. And in this issue he is quite happy to just let Kupp, and Jazz take over. In fact, one wonders how Prowl ever came to his position. Well to do parents? Friends in high places? Simply doing well at the academy academically, but not showing any sort of skill in the field? I guess I should go back and look at Infilitration, but from what I remember, they probably put him there because it was a pretty cake operation.

IDW is making me hate Prowl at this point because he seems to have no passion, no commitment, and no desire. Maybe he was, besides Prime, the member who was most hurt by the total failure of the Autobots, and the 'death' of Prime. Maybe his belief in tactics, strategy, and that the Autobots command was infallible, is totally shaken, if that was indeed his character in the first place.

Tracks speaks, but one line in here, but it is a good one, because it shows Perceptor's new found bad@$$ery as a sniper. Apparently, even he has accepted the violent over the scientific approach.

Kupp- I can't believe the 200% turnaround he has had since his Spotlight. I guess it gives hope to the Optimus situation, although, recovering Optimus will be much more difficult because of the lack of resources that seemed to be available to help Kupp recoup.

The Decepticons... well it was cool to get background knowledge about the seekers, and their sameness, and belief in Starscream. And their personalities are coming out too. Cracker is unsure about the cause. Skywarp is a free spirit committed to Starscream's cause.

Insecticons...nice background info here too. But the total weakness shown by the Insecticons was off putting. They may have been biding their time, but Kickback or Shrapnel should have been able to whoop Skywarp and Thundercracker, or at the very least fight them to a stand still.

Megatron and Starscream are... confusing. The dialogue there was hard to follow. The throwing out of the name Scourge was interesting, but went no where at this point. The statement about the tapes as scramblers was cool too.

Earth seems pretty petty if the Decepticons are winning everywhere. Will we find out that there is more to Earth's possession than we believe? Wy would Megatron be here of all places? What is its significance over the others?

It was cool, but not awesome. It was nice to see NEKO in the letter's column again. Unfortunately, I would like to see more critical letters like the first.

Obviously you can tell this series is not fulfilling it all for me. I certainly enjoyed the -tion series better, and many of the Spotlights. But I think this has been established for many fans.

Drift's 1st action, Roadbuster, Ironhide, and Mirage as the traitor angle is bothering me because it seems too obvious, and bothers me that Jazz has not done more to let the others know why he trusts Mirage (apparently).

I'm stuck with the series, but I can say, I am looking forward to the wrap up.

[Chaoslock]

Drift was enough... from the news I got before this issue, I felt he will be a big new star... it's good to know that McCarthy had some sense, and not made Drift steal the whole issue.

I feel that I really don't care about the Earth stories, but I'm interested how the bots will cut themself out from this situation.

The first page with the Swarm-con picture was awesome, I thaught it will be at least a gestalt-size, and there will be a big firework between him and the bots... and on the next page it turns out to be a bit smaller.


Some of the designs are awesome, I need Perceptor and Blitzwing made as Universe toys.

[MYoung23]

I think Prowl represents the bureaucrat, the middle management guy, a stickler for rules and procedure. Those kinds of characters are usually portrayed as being the douchebag the rank and file dont necessarily like but is needed and ultimately not as bad as he is percieved.

In his appearance in Megatron Origins he was like an assistant to Sentinel Prime. I take it not everyone in the Cybertron Security Forces was a warrior.

[ponycorn]

All Hail Megatron Reaction - Overall score NOT ENOUGH!

RE The Autotraitor:
BIG NEWS from the cover for #7 - Ironhide is pointing his finger *at the autobot traitor?* and Mirage, Cliffjumper, Tracks and Sunstreaker are all looking on in shock...

RE: Grand Debuts
Drift finally got a bit of one, but Sniper Perceptor totally took his thunder away. When did Percepter become scary? Right around AHM#6 that's when!

RE The Swarm:
They were bigger than I thought they'd be, I was expecting scraplets sized creatures. We get some background info on the IDW Insecticons, but not enough. "We spit out how many of those things out, and what; only three were any good." Is not enough of an origin story.

RE The Seekers Forms:
"We pay homage to our commanders form" is not enough of a backstory. Why do they? Why the change to F15s?

RE How gorgeous Megatron is:
Not enough pictures of him in the sunshine, in the pouring rain, in the shadows, in the middle of smashing a tank with one fist... Seriously, Guido Guidi is out to kill fangirls such as me. Seems like each issue of AHM comes with multiple heart failures.

RE The State of the Decepticons:
I'm worried about the Decepticons. Skywarp is getting unsure of himself, Thundercracker is going in to depression, Starscream won't hardly even hang out with those two. Megatron is going off by himself always staring dreamly off in to the sky. Blitzwing barely knows where the Boss is anymore... Boys! Pull yourselves together.

[Calvatron]

Well, i like this issue a lot more than the previous ones. If some of this background issue had peeked through earlier in the series i might not have gotten so pissed off until issue #5. I'm really liking getting the know the characters as we are. Seeing thundercracker looking confused and depressed without a scary bot giving him orders is cool. And while i don't really like this Kup, the idea of the autobots being so far into the war they don't know what makes them all the same 'good' without the decepticons is pretty revealing. Just wish the dialogue had a better flow to it.

I thought the whole starscream/Megatron discussion points out some really interesting stuff about the decepticon war. What's megatron to do? If he keeps destroying the universe he'll get bored and eventually his less thug-like and more devious troops will wake up and leave him. If he builds a new empire and tries to rule his thug troops will rebel because he's become a symbol of order. But i do think he has a plan, he's just pissed because starscreams pointing out weaknesses and Megatron can't exactly tell screamer that he does have a next move without ruining his advantage.

I do have one little nit-pick that bugs me. We were told we'd get some info about the choice of alt-forms for the TF after we complained about the seekers being f-15's again. We see that the seekers (at least the original 3) follow their leader as some overt show of loyalty (at least for show, probably not that real) so we know why Thundercracker and Skywarp are F-15's. But that leaves the real question unanswered: Why is Starscream and F-15? I'd like atleast a line later down the line to the effect of, "I love beating them with their own outdated designs, just makes it that much more fun." Some little nod. I feel like i got and answer, walked out of the room and went, "wait a minute..." oh well, can't win em all, at least I feel like there's really something going on in this story now. 6-double sized issues would really have fixed the pacing problems. It warrents the page space, but the time wait is killing it due to its introspection heavy style.

[Dead Metal]

The only good thing about this issue was Preceptor being scary and the convo we got from that. The Insecticons and the swarm bots.

Drift sucks hard.

[i_amtrunks]

Drift sucks hard.

Agreed. And the art on that page was not the clearest action shot I've ever seen. Perceptor and Mirage both had better "cool" moments.

It's taken half of the run to almost fully setup the events to take place in the second half, the writing is still poor and the pacing terrible, the writing in the Megatron and Starscream pages was painful to read, it took me several attempts before I felt confident enough to know what was going on between the two.
I think the crappy layout did not help, having a very 'meh' "action shot" of Megatron surrounded by a dozen smaller frames just doesn't work, and they go and throw two of them into the one issue.

This kind of read how a "Lost" comic would, all the conjecture by the characters almost feels like you are being let in on what's going on, but it isn't it's just conjecture by characters that are for the now (in terms of story) as in the dark as you are.

I'm guessing that the second Prime whom Megatron killed is the Zeta Prime that got a passing mention in Spotlight: Blurr, so at the least AHm ties into that, and Megatron Origins.

Reading this after Maximum Dinobots #1 was a mistake, the superior script and the help of having 3 years of backstory really makes that issue a superior read.

I still think the marketing on this comic was out, if AHM was set in an alternate Universe I may be more accepting of it. As someone on an Aussie board pointed out, the concept of AHM is great, showing what would happen to the Autobots and Decepticons when one side has seemingly won the war once and for all, the writer's lack of ability really hurts the comic.

[ponycorn]

The second Prime is probably a reference to Optimus Prime, who Megatron thinks that he killed, probably thinks he killed him with his bare hands too, though the Boss tends to exaggerate.

[Dead Metal]

The second Prime is probably a reference to Optimus Prime, who Megatron thinks that he killed, probably thinks he killed him with his bare hands too, though the Boss tends to exaggerate.

Kup says Megatron killed two Primes and almost a third, the third is Optimus Prime.

I think the dialogue between Megatron and Starscream is a poor attempt at having a dramatic and poetic way of saying:
"Megatron now that you defeated Optimus Prime and the Autobots we Decepticons will get board and realize that we no longer need you. We will betray you once we finished with this.

It just makes me sad that the REAL story was cut short for this.

[Tigertrack]

The second Prime is probably a reference to Optimus Prime, who Megatron thinks that he killed, probably thinks he killed him with his bare hands too, though the Boss tends to exaggerate.

Kup says Megatron killed two Primes and almost a third, the third is Optimus Prime.

I think the dialogue between Megatron and Starscream is a poor attempt at having a dramatic and poetic way of saying:
"Megatron now that you defeated Optimus Prime and the Autobots we Decepticons will get board and realize that we no longer need you. We will betray you once we finished with this.

It just makes me sad that the REAL story was cut short for this.

Yeah, it is sort of a 'What if' type isn't it? And it is nice to try to understand what the Cons will do when they have won, but while winning Earth is obviously pivotal, won't they still have other places to conquer? I would imagine it's like that Twilight Zone (which one, right) where you get whatever you want and then get to reap the consequences of what you thought would be your happy ending, but the end is actually twisted and unhappy.

[Dead Metal]

The second Prime is probably a reference to Optimus Prime, who Megatron thinks that he killed, probably thinks he killed him with his bare hands too, though the Boss tends to exaggerate.

Kup says Megatron killed two Primes and almost a third, the third is Optimus Prime.

I think the dialogue between Megatron and Starscream is a poor attempt at having a dramatic and poetic way of saying:
"Megatron now that you defeated Optimus Prime and the Autobots we Decepticons will get board and realize that we no longer need you. We will betray you once we finished with this.

It just makes me sad that the REAL story was cut short for this.

Yeah, it is sort of a 'What if' type isn't it? And it is nice to try to understand what the Cons will do when they have won, but while winning Earth is obviously pivotal, won't they still have other places to conquer? I would imagine it's like that Twilight Zone (which one, right) where you get whatever you want and then get to reap the consequences of what you thought would be your happy ending, but the end is actually twisted and unhappy.

Yea it's probably like that.

I think Megatron said he wanted Earth to be the new home for "The Empire".
And Starscream said that They have now beaten the only real threat they ever had, refereeing to the Autobots.


I actually think this was supposed to be a "What if..." story but somehow ended up as the actual in universe thing.
Best would be if Simon would do something in Max Dinos to make it impossible that AHM ever happened, like kill off Megatron.
Didn't he even state that Galvatron would kill Megatron and take his place eventually?

[trence5]

The second Prime is probably a reference to Optimus Prime, who Megatron thinks that he killed, probably thinks he killed him with his bare hands too, though the Boss tends to exaggerate.

Kup says Megatron killed two Primes and almost a third, the third is Optimus Prime.

Yeah, ponycorn, in the Blurr SP Kupp and Optimus, then just a low rankin' liuetenant, was on a mission to warn Zeta Prime (WTF did he come from anyways ). And we do know from both DW's War Within and Megatron Origins, that Megatron killed Sentinel who must be Zeta Prime's predecessor.

[Firebird]

The only good thing about this issue was Preceptor being scary and the convo we got from that.

That conversation was the best thing about the series so far.

The thing I didn't understand was why was Roadbuster so scared of the single Swarm bot? And yet Drift is effortlessly able to kill the thing off. Isn't Roadbuster like twice the size of Drift in the last issue?

[trence5]

The only good thing about this issue was Preceptor being scary and the convo we got from that.

That conversation was the best thing about the series so far.

The thing I didn't understand was why was Roadbuster so scared of the single Swarm bot? And yet Drift is effortlessly able to kill the thing off. Isn't Roadbuster like twice the size of Drift in the last issue?

Springer was bigger than Jazz - but look what happened in the previous issue. Point is size isn't, on rare occasions, everything.

[ponycorn]

The second Prime is probably a reference to Optimus Prime, who Megatron thinks that he killed, probably thinks he killed him with his bare hands too, though the Boss tends to exaggerate.

Kup says Megatron killed two Primes and almost a third, the third is Optimus Prime.

Yeah, ponycorn, in the Blurr SP Kupp and Optimus, then just a low rankin' liuetenant, was on a mission to warn Zeta Prime (WTF did he come from anyways ). And we do know from both DW's War Within and Megatron Origins, that Megatron killed Sentinel who must be Zeta Prime's predecessor.

I'm being a bit agnostic about Zeta Prime, until I see more proof of him I don't believe in him. WTF did he come from - seconded.

[Dead Metal]

The only good thing about this issue was Preceptor being scary and the convo we got from that.

That conversation was the best thing about the series so far.

The thing I didn't understand was why was Roadbuster so scared of the single Swarm bot? And yet Drift is effortlessly able to kill the thing off. Isn't Roadbuster like twice the size of Drift in the last issue?

Yes but hwat you're forgetting is this, Roadbuster is a real TF character while Drift is McCartney's super awesome fan (Marry Sue)-character.

[Tigertrack]

The only good thing about this issue was Preceptor being scary and the convo we got from that.

That conversation was the best thing about the series so far.

The thing I didn't understand was why was Roadbuster so scared of the single Swarm bot? And yet Drift is effortlessly able to kill the thing off. Isn't Roadbuster like twice the size of Drift in the last issue?

I think it has more to do with the fact that one member of 'The SWarm' usually scouts and brings the others. I would imagine that is why he is quite animated. He wants to get the scouts taken care of, before they bring more... I assume based on prior experience that he and Kupp's group has had with them.

[Leonardo]

I quite liked the fact that things seem be moving forward now but I'm still not a big fan of this series. I'd have preferred the dialogue between Megatron and Starscream to have been included in issue #1 / #2 and then have the Decepitcon internal conflicts explored from then on, rather than have to wait six months before getting any indication of it.

I'm not really sure why Drift has been created. Isn't there still a plethora of already-existing Autobots that haven't been used? Couldn't Macarthy just have used one of them instead?

Also, notice in the summary / recap on the inside cover that the word "feud" is spelt correctly but inside the comic, when Kup is speaking, it is spelt "fued" twice on the same page!

[Tigertrack]

I'm not really sure why Drift has been created. Isn't there still a plethora of already-existing Autobots that haven't been used? Couldn't Macarthy just have used one of them instead?

Agreed. I think Springer could have sliced that guys head off just as easily, and said something cool like, "Quit buggin' us..." or something as he did it. Or had Roadbuster jump high and just land on him, squash him, and look at the bug bits stuck to his foot or something.

I think perhaps Springer is a little more wrecked from the crash than we are being let on to know. After all he had to do a lot to keep it upright, and a more controlled crash.

[nolga supreme]

Is this series part of the regular line or a stand alone like hearts of steel?

It seems like they have made some changes that are quiet significant.

nk

[Tigertrack]

Is this series part of the regular line or a stand alone like hearts of steel?

It seems like they have made some changes that are quiet significant.

nk

It is 'in continuity' as they say. So no it is not an Elseworld's, or What If type, it is in the normal timeline.

[Chaoslock]

Is this series part of the regular line or a stand alone like hearts of steel?

It seems like they have made some changes that are quiet significant.

nk

It is 'in continuity' as they say. So no it is not an Elseworld's, or What If type, it is in the normal timeline.

So they say... But I hope it will be taken out of the continuity, like Megatron:Origin (and said Origin will be put back into continuity)

[Tigertrack]

Is this series part of the regular line or a stand alone like hearts of steel?

It seems like they have made some changes that are quiet significant.

nk

It is 'in continuity' as they say. So no it is not an Elseworld's, or What If type, it is in the normal timeline.

So they say... But I hope it will be taken out of the continuity, like Megatron:Origin (and said Origin will be put back into continuity)

I have never heard that Megatron Origins has been taken out of continuity.

[Chaoslock]

I have never heard that Megatron Origins has been taken out of continuity.

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