The Energon Pub

News Credits: 972 · by **i_amtrunks** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:12 pm

So its been out for 5 days now, and I am sure many of you have read the issue, but where is the chat?

I wont go spoil the storyline, as there may be a fair few of you who were quite busy at some large transformers event to get a copy, but let's just say that Spotlight: Grimlock is a perfect lead into Maximum: Dinobots (which I was not aware of when I was reading Grimlock).

Art is decent, but does feel rushed in some places, and we are given a reason for Grimlocks terrible speech pattern: Damaged Vocal processors.
My copy (and a few other Aussies copies) all have part of a few pages clipped off by about 5-10mm, enough to be noticeable, but not enough that you do not know what the speech bubbles contain.

Spotlight Grimlock also raises some questions about the allegiances of other characters that have already been seen in the IDW Furmanverse, and it clearly shows that while AHM is going on, Furman has a nice offside battle that will have massive implications down the track.

News Credits: 3 · by **Autobot Jazz** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:09 pm

I started a thread on this a while ago, but it got deleted for some reason(did I do something wrong?) Anyway, even with the many errors and the odd style of coloring I liked the story and I can't wait for Maximum Dinobots. The Scorponok vs Grimlock was played out very niceley and I liked how the Spotlight made connections to both Spotlight's Shockwave and Ultra Magnus.

News Credits: 972 · by **i_amtrunks** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 10:05 pm

It seems that threads (and posts) created on the 25th of April may have been deleted.

This is certainly a good starting point for new fans to jump on to get into the complex IDW Furmanverse. It requires little previous knowledge to enjoy, but knowing all that we do makes it even better.

News Credits: 3 · by **Stormwolf** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:50 am

This issue was pretty solid, Grimlock and Scorponok are definately going to be a deciding factor when Megatron needs to be dealt with.

My only complaint was that the issue was way too short.

It's like only watching the first 15 minutes of a cool movie.

News Credits: 3 · by **Autobot Jazz** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 12:04 pm

i_amtrunks wrote:It seems that threads (and posts) created on the 25th of April may have been deleted.

This is certainly a good starting point for new fans to jump on to get into the complex IDW Furmanverse. It requires little previous knowledge to enjoy, but knowing all that we do makes it even better.

Good, I thought I may have done something wrong, and I actually did just start reading IDW, so I'm glad I chose this as my 1st issue to pick up.

Stormwolf wrote:This issue was pretty solid, Grimlock and Scorponok are definately going to be a deciding factor when Megatron needs to be dealt with.

My only complaint was that the issue was way too short.

It's like only watching the first 15 minutes of a cool movie.

I agree, It was way to short for my tastes, but Maximum Dinobots will probably be somewhat of a continuation of this.

News Credits: 1 · by **Mechabreaker** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:18 pm

I thought the issue was kind of confusing in some spots. All of a sudden there is a Machination mole inside Skywatch?! How come we never heard of this guy before, where did he come from? I kind of saw the whole headmaster thing with all the other dynobots coming though, so, what's going to happen? I feel that the dynobots are going to be less than willing to aide the Machination in hurting the autobots, (namely Grimlock and Sunstreaker, or Huntstreaker

, who I was expecting to see in this issue after seeing Furman's mosaic), but I guess I will have to wait until Maximum Dinobots for that.

News Credits: 972 · by **i_amtrunks** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:53 pm

I cant see the other Dinobots becoming headmasters, and I think Furman has alluded to the fact that we are done (for the moment) with -masters.

Does it really come as much of a surprise that the Machination has moles in other camps? They seem to be a very powerful and influential group...

News Credits: 1 · by **Mechabreaker** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:36 pm

i_amtrunks wrote:I cant see the other Dinobots becoming headmasters, and I think Furman has alluded to the fact that we are done (for the moment) with -masters.

Does it really come as much of a surprise that the Machination has moles in other camps? They seem to be a very powerful and influential group...

I guess you're right about the mole thing, but it was just all of a sudden like "I'm a mole working for the Machination and this is my first and very brief appearance" kind of thing, I don't know, I'm just thinking randomly, the artwork was nice I've always liked Matere's artwork ever since I picked up Spotlight: Soundwave. But At least now we have "Maximum Dinobots" to look forward to, so I already can't wait.

News Credits: 2 · by **Moonbase2** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:01 pm

I'm ok with the story, but very disappointed in the art and the inconsistent coloring. Isn't this guy's art usually better than this? Felt like a rough draft.

Anyway, enough complaining. Actually, one more thing. I think there was another goof with a speech bubble. Plus the cutoff on that one page. Meh. It was a bit sloppy.

News Credits: 972 · by **i_amtrunks** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:57 pm

Moonbase2 wrote:I'm ok with the story, but very disappointed in the art and the inconsistent coloring. Isn't this guy's art usually better than this? Felt like a rough draft.

Anyway, enough complaining. Actually, one more thing. I think there was another goof with a speech bubble. Plus the cutoff on that one page. Meh. It was a bit sloppy.

So it seems the page cut-off was not just a limited error...

And I am sure you are right about the speech bubble too. It may seem like such a minor mistake, but it really throws me out for a second when there is a wrong speech bubble.

News Credits: 2 · by **Moonbase2** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:55 pm

i_amtrunks wrote:
Moonbase2 wrote:I'm ok with the story, but very disappointed in the art and the inconsistent coloring. Isn't this guy's art usually better than this? Felt like a rough draft.

Anyway, enough complaining. Actually, one more thing. I think there was another goof with a speech bubble. Plus the cutoff on that one page. Meh. It was a bit sloppy.

So it seems the page cut-off was not just a limited error...

And I am sure you are right about the speech bubble too. It may seem like such a minor mistake, but it really throws me out for a second when there is a wrong speech bubble.

Two goofs in one issue, and I can't stand when the coloring is not consistent in the same issue. Sometimes it's lush, then it looks like it came out of the 80s or something, then back again. And I know the artist has more talent than I'll ever hope to possess, but it seemed very rushed. But I prefer clean lines. At least the story was all right.

News Credits: 4 · by **jazzrules** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:57 am

I'm a bit "meh" about this issue. It was ok, but nothing really stood out to make it one of my favourites. In fact, I think it sits towards the bottom of my favourites pile. Mine also had the cutoff page, so I think it probably is the same in every copy.

Having said all that, I reckon that Maximum Dinobots will see Grimlock v all the other dinos, during which Grimmy will help them snap out of the control of whichever organisation is eventually controlling them.

News Credits: 3 · by **Stormwolf** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:25 am

jazzrules wrote:I'm a bit "meh" about this issue. It was ok, but nothing really stood out to make it one of my favourites. In fact, I think it sits towards the bottom of my favourites pile. Mine also had the cutoff page, so I think it probably is the same in every copy.

The coloring was done by 3 people and the editing was a complete rushjob. They'll probably fix it in the trade.

Kalel Prime made a review on it in his video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c74bMpGKcjk

He's got some really good points if you ask me.

News Credits: 60 · by **fenrir72** » Thu May 01, 2008 12:16 pm

Art............sloppy, story:interesting. Overall IDW continues to shaft us fans. First the Megatron series and now this, I mean well it was Stormbringer and the Ascending/Gathering that were more of the stable of their products.

Nearly all other TF related stuff seems to be rushed.

News Credits: 1 · by **Mechabreaker** » Thu May 01, 2008 2:32 pm

fenrir72 wrote:Art............sloppy, story:interesting. Overall IDW continues to shaft us fans. First the Megatron series and now this, I mean well it was Stormbringer and the Ascending/Gathering that were more of the stable of their products.

Nearly all other TF related stuff seems to be rushed.

The art wasn't sloppy, the coloring was. Josh Burcham should have done the coloring, I've always liked his work.