Right, moving on. Having now read up to #12... It's getting better. The second set of 6 were better than the first for me, more concerned with telling an actual story and less LOOKIT US SMASHING THESE TOYS TOGETHER!!
Still not a fan of the tryhard ultraviolence and eyerolling at the sound effects etc in the action scenes - the comic seems to be much more impressed with itself than I am with it, and really likes to pat itself on the back IMO. The art's still doing its thing and could really benefit from better layout & lines of motion in the pencilling stage (can anyone tell me what the heck Optimus' left leg is supposed to be connected to when he kicks Soundwave in #9?? I genuinely thought he'd hit him with a beam at first glance), and I'll never be a fan of the lettering. But the story is getting more focussed and the characters who are getting some actual personality are largely solid, even when they're quite different from the portrayals we're used to (except Shockwave - other characters describe him as "cold and calculating" while the actual guy on-screen is an emotive, cackling B-movie villain; sorry, that just comes off as inconsistent).
For the specifics of #12: there absolutely should have been
major effects from Cybertron being transported to Earth - as I said before, that's the entire plot of The Ultimate Doom, and I think the comic is very much expecting us to be familiar with the cartoon so it can't just hope we don't think of that - but I suppose we can assume they're happening while Shockwave is siphoning "all life" from the oceans . The
big chunk of Cybertron falling into the ocean was right at the end of the issue so hopefully there'll be consequences of that in the next, on both sides. But I agree:
without some magic solution, that should be devastating for both planets; probably an extinction-level event for Earth. It somehow won't be, of course.Damning with faint praise? eh, maybe. Let's see what the next 6 bring.