The Energon Pub

C'mon this has been out for a day already and no discussion yet?

Let's hear it people! Thoughts, theories, plot points, errors, what is the happy-happs?

(I will be getting my comic at lunch today, so I'll add my 2 cents in tonight/tomorrow.)

hahah I just read it. WOW.

The whole Headmasters thing was a pretty neat idea. I think they can use this and go pretty far with it in the IDW universe.

Actually I'm liking this whole discovering of "new" technology that we as TF fans already know about, but it's neat to see hwo it fits into a different continuity, discovering it (headmasters, combiner technology)

Sixshot is quite the large bot in this.

And that page with Prime and his bots taking a shot at Sixshot is awesome, that's poster material.

Heck, even the preview cover (assuming its the next cover) for #4 of Prime BEATING THE SNOT OUT OF SIXSHOT looks great too! (Though, I bet that's just the cover. Sixshot probably brings Prime to his knees or something dramatic like that!)

This was a pretty good issue. I can't even remember issue 2 now actually.. haha.

Nemisis Prime? I wonder what he looks like (hoping it's not an exact duplicate of good boy prime.. neeeds some sort of physical modifacations)

p.s. hot rod is awesome. People may not like him, but I like what he has become/is in these different continuities.

Briggs wrote:Nemisis Prime? I wonder what he looks like (hoping it's not an exact duplicate of good boy prime.. neeeds some sort of physical modifacations)

My money's on him being a black version of Nova Prime.

oh now that's a good hypothesis. I think I'll go with that one.

Well other than one silly switching of speech bubbles on the final page (where it looks as though Galvatron is ordering someone to do something), I doubt this issue could be any better.

Roche's art suits the frenetic pace of this comic book, so much is "revealed" is this issues (but all of it was already "known". I love Su's work, but I would not be at all upset if Roche was left to finish Devastation. He draws so much emotion throughout this issue.

And Furman proves once again how well he can write, especially when writing for his favourites, Hotrod got some great lines that really sum up his IDW character, while Ratchet is Ratchet, nothing more can really be said, he character is the same as in Infiltration #0. I am very much looking forward to Furmans work on Nightbeat, and Magnus in the near future.

Sixshot was brutal, and uncaring, and was taken by surprise, but he wont be down for long, issue #4 will be quite the spectacle, if Prime struggled against Megatron, I doubt he will fare any better here.

Ironhide is really bung up, if he is still alive and the same as he was pre explosion I will be very surprised. Wheeljack did not feature much but still managed to show how great he is when used very sparingly.

As I mentioned before Hot Rod gets all the lines and all the fun, he is far different from previous incarnations, I actually think he will be liked by many people!

Sunstreaker is stuffed, I mean if he is returned to a fully functional state (something I doubt as he seems to be needed to operate all the Streaker clones) he, like Ironhide will never be the same again.

Bring on Issue #4!

-edit-
I'll do a character list (if you need it) for you when I aint at work DB.

More and more as we move along, I find myself more interested in the Hunter/Sunstreaker arc. The idea of Sunstreaker as a headmaster with Hunter as his partner down the line is somewhat appealing; I like it because Sunny's one of those characters who I don't think ever really came into his own.

His speaking appearances in the G1 cartoon were few, and he rarely opened his mouth except to comment on how beautiful he was. He spent 95% of the US Marvel comics run deactivated,and he barely appeared at all in the Dreamwave comics (where they apparently had plans to make him gay - I'm not prejudiced or anything, but we have a hard enough time reconciling gender within TF, never mind sexuality. It was a horrid idea). If I recall right, he only ever saw some real action in the later issues of the UK Marvel comics, which so many here never even saw. To add insult to injury, his original toy mold is "lost or in a state of disrepair" and will probably never be reissued.

Making him a headmaster and partnering him with a human could serve to give him something few TFs enjoy; real character growth and development. He could move from being the team's requisite narcissist to a more compassionate character who has a better understanding of humans than most - that would be the ultimate twist for the Autobot who arguably has the least amount of compassion for humans (Dinobots notwithstanding). He could become a sort of "loveable jerk" kindof character, and I wouldn't mind seeing that. Between this and him getting a new toy for next year's Classics line, 2008 may just be a great year for Sunstreaker.

i_amtrunks wrote:I'll do a character list (if you need it) for you when I aint at work DB.

No worries. I picked it up after work and did it on the way home.

Oh, and by the way, this Nemesis Prime most likely is Nova Prime. Check out that last page. Doesn't the design of the bot talking to Galvy look a lot like the Nova Prime sketches from Spotlight Optimus?

Oh, and it looks like we got confirmation that Scorponok's the "head" (chuckle) of the Machination. Well, as close as a grumbled "scrp-nck" gets, anyway.

Darth Bombshell wrote:Oh, and by the way, this Nemesis Prime most likely is Nova Prime. Check out that last page. Doesn't the design of the bot talking to Galvy look a lot like the Nova Prime sketches from Spotlight Optimus?

I'm going to ahve to give the final page a better look as all I could see of Nova/Nemesis Prime was a fist and a bit of arm, the rest was Galvatron...

Darth Bombshell wrote:Oh, and it looks like we got confirmation that Scorponok's the "head" (chuckle) of the Machination. Well, as close as a grumbled "scrp-nck" gets, anyway.

Yeah more Furman Subtlety, just like the reporter from K-IDW or whatever it was!

i_amtrunks wrote:I'm going to ahve to give the final page a better look as all I could see of Nova/Nemesis Prime was a fist and a bit of arm, the rest was Galvatron...

There's also one of the wings that forms the back of his vehicle mode. I think that's the biggest tipoff towards confirming who he actually is.

i_amtrunks wrote:Yeah more Furman Subtlety, just like the reporter from K-IDW or whatever it was!

Yeah, that's something I really didn't like to be honest. I know this series has had its fair share of easter eggs, but of the most part they weren't really that noticable. But this really was the first one that stood out like a sore thumb (not even the similarly named auto mechanics place from "Escalation" did that.)

i didnt even notice that scorponok reference in my first read. need to start paying better attention.

I guess it's pretty obvious Hunter is going to be Sunstreaker's new head, or at least seems pretty plausible. Never thought about that until reading your post.

Sunstreaker is obviously beat up pretty hard, and Hunter was going on about how he wanted to know everything Sunstreaker knows.. etc.. so that seems like a good way of prepping himself up to be Sunstreaker's new head . Though that Headmaster armor looks a bit different then normal Streakers head.

Briggs wrote:I guess it's pretty obvious Hunter is going to be Sunstreaker's new head, or at least seems pretty plausible. Never thought about that until reading your post.

Sunstreaker is obviously beat up pretty hard, and Hunter was going on about how he wanted to know everything Sunstreaker knows.. etc.. so that seems like a good way of prepping himself up to be Sunstreaker's new head . Though that Headmaster armor looks a bit different then normal Streakers head.

I dont think that Hunter will be Sunstreaker's new head just yet, I think he will be taking a clones body until Sunstreaker is "saved". Sunstreaker is still needed to do alot of the work and possibly the transforming of the clone bodies, so until Wheeljack can find a way to work all the parts from Sunstreakers head into his body Hunter will have to pilot a clone.

The main thing that stuck out to me is how much more I like Roche's art than Su's. Su has a firm grasp of the technical aspect of the Transformers, but I've felt his art was too rigid and thin. Nick Roche's art is expressive and playful. He loves to use different angles and action poses and his faces are second to none. He even managed to give Wheeljack expression, and three-quarters of his face is masked.

The scene with Hot Rod laughing at the Headmasters, up to and including Wheeljack launching his gyro-inhibitor shell, was my favorite scene in the entire IDW-verse to date. It combined action, drama, and comedy all in one, and it really lent insight to Hot Rod's character, both as a leader (remember, he outranks Prowl), and just his cool attitude when faced with crisis. Plus, the frame of him pointing at Wheeljack was chock full of win.

Su is a competent artist, but Roche is so much more expressive with his faces. I don't see Su pulling off the expressions with nearly the accuracy that Roche did, especially Ratchet's hologram and the Hunter and Sunstreaker scenes. And Hot Rod. Nick Roche made me really appreciate Hot Rod in this issue almost as much as I have Springer and Kup for the past 20 years.

Hats off to Nick Roche. He and Don Figueroa are my top two favorite Transformers artists of all time.

I just finished reading this issue and WOW! I was totally blown away. So much happened in this one and I can't wait for issue 4 to come out. Looks like we get to see the Reapers make their first move next issue, and I really want to see how the Dead Universe stuff is going to tie into the overall picture.

I agree with the Nemesis Prime theories in the thread so far that it is Nova Prime.

In regards to Hunter and Sunstreaker I think that after Hot Rod and Wheeljack save Ironhide and get him to a safe location they will go after Sunstreaker and run into Hunter putting up a fight. Something will happen in regards to Sunstreaker not being able to survive and Wheeljack will "download" Sunstreaker into Hunter's exosuit in order to save him.

I would like to know is how they reconcile the separation of Sunstreaker's spark which gives him life and his head where apparently his consciousness resides. Is his body in some kind of life support or is it in storage? And where is the spark of the Transformer head that is behind the Machination?

I liked how they did Sixshot. He looked like a big kid stomping through Lego World without any regard for anything but his prey.

What is with the chubby the Reapers have with Sixshot? Im sure they passed several inhabited worlds to get to Earth. Speaking of the Reapers how have they gone under the Transformers radar especially Megatron's. The Decepticons have an empire and you would think that Megatron wouldnt think too kindly to some yahoos destroying planets he could get resources from.

Lastly, between the Autobots, Decepticons, Machination and Reapers what on Earth interests Nemesis Prime so much that they are stepping up their plans?

MYoung23 wrote:Lastly, between the Autobots, Decepticons, Machination and Reapers what on Earth interests Nemesis Prime so much that they are stepping up their plans?

Ore-13. We already know it's got great powers, and considering that Nova/Nemesis, Galvatron and the rest are technically dead, they might need it to get reborn or something.

Plus they have Thunderwing, and we all know what happened the last time he dipped into that stash.

Just got this today and I must say it's pretty good. Not sure whether I like the look of the humans, there's some points where I feel they look too cartoony. And then the penultimate page with all the 'Bots - great idea, shame that Hardhead and Nightbeat were virtually cut off and also Jazz's head looks more like Beachcomber in my opinion.

MYoung23 wrote:In regards to Hunter and Sunstreaker I think that after Hot Rod and Wheeljack save Ironhide and get him to a safe location they will go after Sunstreaker and run into Hunter putting up a fight. Something will happen in regards to Sunstreaker not being able to survive and Wheeljack will "download" Sunstreaker into Hunter's exosuit in order to save him.

Sounds very plausible to me, and it would almost be a nod to some very early Marvel G1 stories .

MYoung23 wrote:What is with the chubby the Reapers have with Sixshot? Im sure they passed several inhabited worlds to get to Earth. Speaking of the Reapers how have they gone under the Transformers radar especially Megatron's. The Decepticons have an empire and you would think that Megatron wouldnt think too kindly to some yahoos destroying planets he could get resources from.

Lastly, between the Autobots, Decepticons, Machination and Reapers what on Earth interests Nemesis Prime so much that they are stepping up their plans?

I thought the Decepticons do know of the Reapers, but I am not 100% sure, I will have to read Spotlight: Sixshot again to make sure. I know that they know of the Reapers post Sixshot's Spotlight...
The Reapers may also have not had contact with any planets that the Decepticon's have been corrupting (although the fact that the Decepticon method is to cause war would make it likely that the Reapers have been drawn to those planets at some stage). I guess it's all too hazy at the moment.

Must agree with DB, the Dead Universe "attack" is all for Ore-13. Who would've thought that Shockwave's efforts would all culminate in this?

It is absolutely killing me to have just moved to a small town with no comic book store. I'm expecting this and Ramjet in the mail this week.

i_amtrunks wrote:

MYoung23 wrote:In regards to Hunter and Sunstreaker I think that after Hot Rod and Wheeljack save Ironhide and get him to a safe location they will go after Sunstreaker and run into Hunter putting up a fight. Something will happen in regards to Sunstreaker not being able to survive and Wheeljack will "download" Sunstreaker into Hunter's exosuit in order to save him.

Sounds very plausible to me, and it would almost be a nod to some very early Marvel G1 stories .

MYoung23 wrote:What is with the chubby the Reapers have with Sixshot? Im sure they passed several inhabited worlds to get to Earth. Speaking of the Reapers how have they gone under the Transformers radar especially Megatron's. The Decepticons have an empire and you would think that Megatron wouldnt think too kindly to some yahoos destroying planets he could get resources from.

Lastly, between the Autobots, Decepticons, Machination and Reapers what on Earth interests Nemesis Prime so much that they are stepping up their plans?

I thought the Decepticons do know of the Reapers, but I am not 100% sure, I will have to read Spotlight: Sixshot again to make sure. I know that they know of the Reapers post Sixshot's Spotlight...
The Reapers may also have not had contact with any planets that the Decepticon's have been corrupting (although the fact that the Decepticon method is to cause war would make it likely that the Reapers have been drawn to those planets at some stage). I guess it's all too hazy at the moment.

Must agree with DB, the Dead Universe "attack" is all for Ore-13. Who would've thought that Shockwave's efforts would all culminate in this?

Sixshot mentions the Repears as being "urban legends." OK, fine but after he and the Terrorcons encounter them you would think such a threat would force Megatron to take some action. Unless of course Megatron has prioritized Earth beyond everything else.

Is anyone else praying for a Sixshot and Thunderwing brawl as well as a Megatron and Galvatron throwdown?

MYoung23 wrote:Sixshot mentions the Repears as being "urban legends." OK, fine but after he and the Terrorcons encounter them you would think such a threat would force Megatron to take some action. Unless of course Megatron has prioritized Earth beyond everything else.

The start of "Devastation" pretty much makes it clear that Megs has giving Prime and co. their comeuppance above everything else, which is why he sent for Sixshot (who, as we've seen, is clearly not the "robot in disguise" type) in the first place. Given the state of Megs' mind at present, I doubt he'd care very much if someone told him Unicron was standing right next to him. (Yeah, I know Unicron isn't involved in this, but it's the only real analogy I can come up with.)

MYoung23 wrote:Is anyone else praying for a Sixshot and Thunderwing brawl as well as a Megatron and Galvatron throwdown?

I'm not too sure about Sixshot/Thunderwing. Megs/Galvy, though, is pretty much a given, most likely by the end of Devastation.

So - this issues was good - but it was just setting the scene for the next few issues which I can't wait for.

Looks like we are going to see what the IDW's universe Galvatron is really like as it seems to me from reading last panel that he has been sent to Earth to stop the Repears from doing their thing. Now that is exciting!

Anyone else wondered how the Dead universe Transformers know what is going on on Earth? I mean sure Nightbeat is their "agent" but he is only on the Autobot side, how do they know what is going on with the Decepticons, or even the Reapers for that matter?

The Dead Universe must have eyes on both sides. The Dead Universe may not know about the Reapers they may be reacting to the presence of Sixshot on Earth and what that means for a planet.

Nemesis Prime talked about their "revivification" which is the "Renewal of life; restoration of life" so therefore something on Earth is going to be the means of the Dead Universe's ends.

People have speculated that this means is Ore-13. I want to see how Ore-13 is supposed to get them from their unlife state back to the living.

Also, Nemesis Prime is giving Galvatron some discretion on who he kills that to me implies he will be actively going to confront some Transformers. If he is indeed their for the Ore-13 why not drop in while the Autobot/Decepticon and then Reaper smackdown begins grab the Ore-13 and be out without a fuss.

Also, Galvatron left most of the Autobots alive when he jacked Thunderwing's body from and Hound relayed the incident as an emergency but there seems to have been no real reaction from the Autobots.

One would think when an unfactioned Transformer shows lays waste to an entire garrison of Autobots after seemingly coming back to life to steal an entity dangerous enough to have the Autobots and Decepticons put aside their war there would be more of an upraor amongst the Autobots.

Call me crazy but it seems that with the Decepticons knowing about the Reapers and the Autobots knowing that someone who cant seem to be killed has taken Thunderwing who knows where and for who knows what that both sides would have greater priorities than Ore-13.

Is Ore-13 such a balance tipper that both sides have ignored threats that could be their greatest challenges outside of each other?

MYoung23 wrote:Is Ore-13 such a balance tipper that both sides have ignored threats that could be their greatest challenges outside of each other?

To put it simply, yes.

The power it bestows on it's user is immense, handing it out amongst an army would enable them to wipe the opposition of the face of the Universe.

Got to agree with you on Galvatron and his stealing of Thunderwing, I was expecting some of the SPotlights to deal with it, but all we have had is Ramjet, and we know Blaster an Arcee will not be dealing with it either...

You know, I hadn't really noticed that the lack of reaction from the Autobots regarding the theft of Thunderwing. I suppose I got too caught up in the story to consider the logic behind it but I too think there should have been a greater reaction. Of course, we've seen Prime relay information to Prowl (re: Shockwave and Soundwave) without seeing him relay it to all the other Autobots, so maybe Prime (and even Prowl) have contingency plans arranged 'off-screen'.

I liked this issue, by the by. After re-reading it it doesn't seem to have quite the same impact as the previous two but the last page sets up the 'impending doom' nicely. Shame about the speech bubbles. O, and the K-IDW reference. Not only did it stick out like a sore thumb but when Ratchet's registration contains the letters "IDW" it means they've used the same [weak] gag twice in one issue.

The head of Machination still doesn't have to be Scorponok. It could be a transformed carapace modelled after Scorponok (i.e. a Nebulan or human in head mode). If Sunstreaker had seen it he might have naturally assumed it was Scorponok rather than realising it was a Headmaster partner in an exo-suit.

Blozor, do we know that Hot Rod outranks Prowl? I thought the suggestion was that they were of the same rank.