The Energon Pub

If you dont want to know the big reveals then dont read any further.


Kup defines grizzled and has alot of R. Lee Ermey in him. He is more old warrior than his grandpa persona of the G-1 cartoon.

There is a good reason why Jazz is in charge. You dont want to mess with him.

We know how the Autobots were betrayed. Someone gave up all their access codes. The Decepticons also seem to have perfected Combiner technology and the Autobots seemingly dont have it.

And the biggest reveal is that we see for the first time in the IDWverse......



Wait for it......



The Matrix....and Megatron has it. Damn.

Yeah it becomes evident that Jazz is respected among the group for more than just his "tone" and I wonder if it may be a TF:A elite guard nod, Kup does call him special ops.

Kup really stole the show this issue though, I wonder who he will start thinking is the traitor among them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Hooray New Cybertron. Even from issue #1 I just knew it, I just knew the boss was up to that. Those Decepticon towers are beautiful. It was just one page this time but my fangirl squealies were had. He looks so happy to have the matrix, I wonder what he plans to do with it, or what he will end up doing with it considering....

the SWARM!

Well, it started good, the middle of the comic was weak, and it was interesting t see Megatron having the matrix.

Good points:
- the space "battle" was actually cool.
- plot moved a bit
- Megatrons cybertronic buildings and overall art was fine

Bad points:
- anybody else waited the humans to just cry "YO JOE!"? - seriously, anybody cares what happens to them?
- every war-movie cliché character was in the issue - why does Kup have to smoke a cigar lighter?
- letters page - doesn't the IDW guys know how to answer them, just slap the letters on the page and print?


Issue Overall: 5/10 (at least there was no god-speech from Megatron) - Somebody Stop McCarthy!

Holy crap! Why didn't I get out of the house yesterday and get this?
Oh well I don't mind being spoiled. It sounds like we may get some of the answers we've all been asking about the IDW-verse during this series.

Actually, I dont think the human side has been explored enough or properly. All they have done is snapshots of what has been going on in NY along with the military. Basically, a bunch of "Cloverfield" moments.

It isnt realistic enough (well as realistic as a giant robot attack can be).

We live in an instant 24 hours cable news cycle. Megatron has been purposefully broadcasting the carnage out all over the world. Imagine 9-11 times a 1000 and thats what the amount of horror, shock and fear the US would be under especially with the President dead.

As far as the humans in this issue I think it mainly to set up the Ratbat attack which if it was put into a movie would scare the hell out of people and to set up what I think the reality is that people wouldnt just cower and take it. They are going to fight to the last man and even sacrifice millions to save billions.

So there is a " Matrix of Leadership"? Unlike in the previous stories when only some vague reference was given. So this time, it puts a lot of editorial explanation on how Nova Prime who was a previous Matrix bearer transferred the thing prior to his disappearance ( do they leave it at home in Cybertron when they make a trip offworld?) And Sentinel........did he loose it and lastly, the battle in the USSR between Optimus and Megs, why didn't Megs rip it out of Optimus then?

Jazz is as bad@ss as ever, reminds me of Solid Snake from MGS (another IDW adaptation) and "Spike" makes an appearance. Will he be a future "headmaster"?

Oh and the world seems to be contemplating on "nuking" New York City just like in Xmen 142-143 Days of Future Past........very nice nod to the Golden Age of comic book storytelling.

The Matrix was supposedly lost with Nova Prime when he went into the Expanse.

I havent a clue to how the Autobots got it back or what had happened to it.

MYoung23 wrote:The Matrix was supposedly lost with Nova Prime when he went into the Expanse.

I havent a clue to how the Autobots got it back or what had happened to it.

I dunno either, but it was made pretty clear that Optimus had it, and now Megatron does.

My inner Decepticon is squealing with glee!

Savage wrote:I dunno either, but it was made pretty clear that Optimus had it, and now Megatron does.

My inner Decepticon is squealing with glee!

The whole issue was great....but the panel with Megatron holding the Matrix with that..LOOK...on his face!

*gets the vapors and swoons like a HUGE Megatron fangirl*

So was the boss going to do something with the matrix right then and there or was he just going in to the tower to have a peek at it?

It's extra cute if he's just sneaking away to go hold it for a bit. It brings up a question though, what CAN he do with it? Furthermore will it have the same effect on Megatron as it did on Screamer in the g2 story, Rage in Heaven?

According the Optimus The Matrix is drawn to its successor. I dont think it has any effect on Megatron. He was a bad ass before Ore-13 and we know that just ups his bad ass quotient. The Matrix may be the only thing that can save Optimus. They seemingly dont have enough Energon to run a CR chamber. Jetfire's whereabouts are unknown. Perceptor is on the scene so maybe he can do something.

I can't believe I'm waiting for the trade for this story, I should go out and get the floppies now.

I can't believe all the twists this story has had so far.

olokin wrote:I can't believe I'm waiting for the trade for this story, I should go out and get the floppies now.

I can't believe all the twists this story has had so far.

Think of it this way, read the story now, file the floppies neatly away in your long box and have the trade on hand later for re-reading.

ponycorn wrote:

olokin wrote:I can't believe I'm waiting for the trade for this story, I should go out and get the floppies now.

I can't believe all the twists this story has had so far.

Think of it this way, read the story now, file the floppies neatly away in your long box and have the trade on hand later for re-reading.

Yeah, that is good advice, and then you can also get all the special artwork/covers with the trade too, and not care what happens to your 'floppy'.

I don't have much to say about this issue. Sure there were some surprising moments, I guess. I think perhaps, this single issue of Jazz highlights why he deserves a spotlight (like he didn't need one before), and perhaps why he is tough enough to go toe to toe with Razorclaw in it...

I like the explanation of why Jazz met the new bots instead of Prowl. 'We each have our "Speciality"...' I like the characterization from that line about both characters.

I did not like Springer getting owned. I blame it on the whole crashing ship and being linked to it as still having him low energy, or in a daze. He is the leader of the Wreckers for a reason... Kupp's group should have no reason to be scared, they are a very talented group of bots, I think their cockiness is earned, and not just show, but they obviously underestimated Prime's Earth crew. What was cool was that with what Jazz, and Mirage did, it levels up the Earth ark crew a bit, if they can take these legends by surprise, so to speak.

And now Spike is in on the story on the human end. Did they ever call 'Daniel' Senior 'Sparkplug' or is it Spike's grandfather? Can't remember.

A good issue, Drift did nothing, but I almost see him like Ricochet/Stepper at this point except he's not a repaint.

Got the issue last night, and I really wanted to like it alot, but I cant. The series is still poorly paced, and the cutting around from Cybertron, back to the pages with Human focus (which still feel wasted and overlong) is jarring.

So far all the "human" focused pages could have been condensed down to about 6 throughout the 5 issues, and not have lost anything relative to the plot. I am not at all opposed to having humans in the series, its just so many pages are wasted on nothing featuring them that could have been far better used showing more Decepticons or Autobots.

Jazz and Mirage were quite nice in this issue, its obvious that Jazz has no issue with trusting Mirage like Ironhide does, so that makes me wonder who he believes the traitor to be, I have to think that the traitor is amongst the bots now on Cybertron, but who knows it could be a left field bot.
Anyone else think it odd that Drift seemed to be smiling when Mirage appeared?

Kup added some much needed spice into the mix, and having a slightly less angry leader bot among the team cannot be anything but good. Prowl has taken a back seat, while Jazz has really been thrust forward, and I expect we will see more of the same from this issue if McCarthy is indeed writing the Jazz Spotlight issue.

Cliffjumper's face when Jazz was challenged was fantastic, the little guy has had more characterisation in the past 2 issues (and all of 5 panels) than any other character in this series. Most of it due to Guido's fantastic art, I do not know if I would even be bothering with this series until the trade if it were not for Guido's art.

So Megatron has the Matrix, something that miraculously appears, maybe it swapped with Ore-13, Headmaster Sunstreaker and The "-tion" kids, in a matter transfer machine or some such ilk?

This issue was better than the others, and the past two have been vastly improved on the first three, but it's still such a meh series, It's almost as if McCarthy had enough story for 6 issues and was told to drag it out to 12, the exact opposite of Furman, who had enough story for 24 issues, but was forced to condense it into 4.

So overall the issue itself wasn't bad, it still moved forward, although at an alarmingly slow rate, much will have to occur in the last half of the series, so it seems like we will have a 2 paced series, the first 6 too slow, the last six, too fast.

i_amtrunks wrote:Jazz and Mirage were quite nice in this issue, its obvious that Jazz has no issue with trusting Mirage like Ironhide does, so that makes me wonder who he believes the traitor to be, I have to think that the traitor is amongst the bots now on Cybertron, but who knows it could be a left field bot.
Anyone else think it odd that Drift seemed to be smiling when Mirage appeared?

From issue #4 we know that Jazz knows something that he isn't telling Ironhide, maybe the reason why Jazz doesn't have an issue trusting Mirage. I'm not sure about Drift, I didn't notice him much in the issue, hoping that gets resolved in #6, it wasnt much of a grand debut for him in #5.

Somehow I have a feeling that Jazz is the traitor. With him being the only guy saying he knows that Mirage isn't the traitor.
I still dislike this series a bit.

That totally goes against all that my beloved Jazz stands for though...

I have a feeling this series is gonna end up more disappointing than it already is to alot of us.