IDW Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #47 Review
Wednesday, November 25th, 2015 1:36AM CST
Categories: Comic Book News, Reviews, Site ArticlesPosted by: D-Maximal_Primal Views: 43,246
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Spoiler-Free-ish (or how much it can be)
Synopsis
FRIENDSHIP ISN'T MAGIC! TAILGATE has a choice to make—and if he had any idea what was at stake, he'd think twice before making it. The crew is ripped apart as MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE begins the sprint towards its shocking 50th issue!
Summary
For the sake of this review (and the reviewer), there will be no written summary of the book, as it is impossible to say anything without giving something away. There really is no way to make this non-spoilery. Expect pain, gut-punching, emotions, sadness, anger, love, manipulation, politics, post-war statuses, naivety, loyalty, and giant transforming robots.
However, this can be said: Roberts knows how to surprise us and keep us entertained. If you were just starting to nod off, this will snap you awake all too quickly. [Va'al says: And make sure you are ready to squirm uncomfortably at one side of the main plot, as Getaway ..gets away with a lot of morally dubious actions. The emotions in this issue run rampant, and they teeter on the brink of pure anger at times.]
Art
Artwork this week is covered by Brendan Cahill, and he really has been making some good art. With issue 40, we saw just how good he has become and how well he fits the artists for MTMTE, but it is in this issue where he really shines. His art is simply amazing and nothing is left out, no little detail. He does a fantastic job of covering all the bases and making this a great piece of art.
As usual, Joana Lafuente adds all the colors, keeping Cahill's art in keeping with the string of artists that have worked on the series so far (along Milne) and Tom B. Long brings all the magnificent lettering. This issue continues the trends of great art and magnificent artistic team. There really is nothing else to be said there.
Thoughts (SPOILERISH AHEAD!!!)
Speaking as a grown man who loves transformers and who loves a grand story: I cried this issue. Reading through this made this fan break down in tears. There are great characters, great individual stories, and a larger story that may have gone overlooked for a while that has been 2 years in the making. And it all just exploded. In a very emotional way that no one could ever have anticipated.
In a way, the opening of Sins of the Wreckers overshadows this story despite how strong and how big they both were. There was a lot of thought going into this story for some time, and it came crashing in in ways that no one could really imagine. And there are Wreckers connections that cannot be coincidence either.
In conclusion: tears, sorrow, triumph, and understanding all take center stage here. In the words of ScottyP: Crushing. This is one of the best issues to date, and that is saying something considering some of the arcs that we have already got. This is a must have, and the race to Issue 50 has begun in an all out sprint.
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Posted by Bounti76 on November 25th, 2015 @ 1:44am CST
Posted by Crosscheck on November 25th, 2015 @ 2:42am CST
Actively fighting back tears right now.
I don't know why I am surprised at Getaway's machinations. He works for Prowl. This seems exactly like something Prowl would do.
Posted by Randomhero on November 25th, 2015 @ 8:06am CST
Posted by CombaticonsCombine? on November 25th, 2015 @ 8:07am CST
Also, if Cyclonus dies from these wounds, would it be a case of 'Breaking the Cutie?'
Posted by Genericon #378 on November 25th, 2015 @ 8:25am CST
Posted by Henry921 on November 25th, 2015 @ 9:22am CST
Er, I mean
GETAWAY!
Posted by Ironhidensh on November 25th, 2015 @ 9:35am CST
OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was a hell of a lot of really, really good story packed into one regular issue.
Posted by Syn_13 on November 25th, 2015 @ 1:42pm CST
Did Tailgate go all Super Saiyan at the end? What was that all about?
Posted by Towline on November 25th, 2015 @ 2:46pm CST
Posted by ebonyleopard on November 25th, 2015 @ 5:59pm CST
I don't know (when I post this) we've gotten past the Spoiler page count number yet, but I'll say this. While I STILL want a modern Getaway toy, I seriously don't think I can ever look at the character the same way again, because saying he's a Rustbag isn't even totally fitting the description. He and Atomizer..man....
BTW, the Whirl avatar cover, is best cover.
Posted by ebonyleopard on November 25th, 2015 @ 6:04pm CST
Posted by CaptainMagic on November 25th, 2015 @ 6:18pm CST
This is the first issue of MTMTE that I seriously considered not buying. I don't mind that romance has become a more and more prominent part of this book, it certainly adds something interesting to the universe that I personally would have never thought to explore, but I did not want an entire issue dedicated solely to a love triangle squabble. Therefore, when the whole relationship dynamic took such an abrupt turn into such a completely different direction, I actually sat back in my chair and applauded my monitor. I felt very silly. There are so many things to like about where this issue winds up, and I love that Cyclonus and Whirl get to spend some time in the spotlight being exactly who we love them for being. I love that Cyclonus gets to be the bot that makes me say "Poor Megatron" out loud. I even love his big gesture at the end, and I don't really think he needs to die for this to be an important moment. In fact, I could see it being more interesting if he survives, because Getaway and co. have some pretty serious stuff to pay for and Cyclonus is always fun to see carrying a grudge.
What I did not love is Tailgate's bizarre explosion on the last page. I suddenly found myself ripped out of my state of perfect enjoyment and sent crashing back into the feeling of "this is dumb, I don't like this" that I was so very afraid I would have throughout the whole issue. Maybe there is some huge payoff later on. Maybe Tailgate has some great destiny to fulfill. Maybe he's Primus reincarnated. Maybe none of that matters because it completely ruined the amazing emotional build up that I was experiencing through the entire second half of this book.
Posted by Brakethrough on November 25th, 2015 @ 9:54pm CST
Posted by Noideaforaname on November 25th, 2015 @ 9:59pm CST
Glad to see that Getaway wasn't interested in romance with Tailgate, though his scheme seems a tad faulty. I mean, Tailgate going after Megatron with mnemo-needles and a Ravage-detecting wrench raises all kinds of red flags.
Posted by Flashwave on November 25th, 2015 @ 10:05pm CST
I was not humongously fond of the romantic stories for the romance, but I enjoy the spelunking in Cybertronian culture. And I must say, I feel really sorry for Cyclonus for, losing. But I think considering he was the one who gave Tailgate the unfiltered view of the War, it was cool that he was the one to rescue Tailgate, in a bass-ackwards way, it feels full circle.
The last panel felt cheap to me. And I know what they are getting at: When Cyclonus first got the sword, Whirl commented on the power of it, and that it was ultimately coming from his spark. His Spark is what saved Tailgate, so Tailgate's spark has Cyclonus' power. Dying Cyclonus, kaboom. But it felt cheap. And we coulda done it without the Rainbows and Unicorns outside the ship
Posted by Quint on November 25th, 2015 @ 11:50pm CST
I was so very wrong.
Can't wait for the next issue, particularly as the solicitations are tantalisingly vague.
Posted by Va'al on November 26th, 2015 @ 1:55am CST
James Roberts
@jroberts332
Forgive me, but... MTMTE #47 has just beaten the Dark Knight Returns III to the top of the iBooks chart.
Posted by Windsweeper on November 26th, 2015 @ 4:54am CST
Posted by Ironhidensh on November 26th, 2015 @ 7:37am CST
Windsweeper wrote:Great issue but God I hate Tailgate!
This is a strong point. As much as I love mtmte, I hate the character of Tailgate. I have held out hope something better was coming for him, and hopefully this is it.
Also, don't write Getaway off as an evil bastard just yet. War, in real life, changes people fundamentally. Combat veterns don't look at the world the same as you and I do. If you spend time talking and, most importantly, listening to them, without making it political, you start to realize that. You also learn its something you will never, ever understand without living it. I believe Roberts is trying to reflect that reality in his book. What Getaway is doing is horrible to you and I, but not to him.
Posted by Va'al on November 27th, 2015 @ 2:03am CST
Ironhidensh wrote:What Getaway is doing is horrible to you and I, but not to him.
Which is reason to understand the motives, but not accept, endorse, approve of, or change my opinion of the character. In fact, it strengthens the reasons to finally condemn the conflict Cybertron has seen for too long, and a good prevention of future ones (as the one that seems about to happen in The Transformers).
Does he need sympathy? Probably, at some point. Help? Most definitely, right now.
Posted by ctrlFrequency on November 28th, 2015 @ 9:05am CST
Though I'm kind if tired of the romance thing, especially given the situation of the Lost Light (war's over, close quarters, crazy adventures), it makes sense, and I don't object to it, and quite frankly Cyclonus and Tailgate HAD to be adressed, I just wish they had done it at a different time.
Roberts is free to indulge the love stories all he wants, just space it, add in some more action, it's more fun that way(action , action, action... awww romance! ) I feel like we've been in holding patterns too long. We all know something big is building, but the building is not as much fun as I would like
It was an emotional roller-coaster issue, I will give that. I actually like that they'really revisiting the whole animosity towards Megatron thing. It is expected that there would be such strong emotion towards him... and the crew seems a little too accepting of him. If I had gone through their war... despite my attempts, I could not get over my hatred towards the person who encouraged the killing of my family, friends, and planet, and did so with sadistic ferver, no matter how repentant he seemed.
All in all, I think, the romance aspect was good story, bad timing, but logically placed as a catalyst. Thus making me mixed in emotions about it.
Darn mixed emotions.
Posted by DeadCaL on November 29th, 2015 @ 4:46pm CST
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on November 29th, 2015 @ 9:12pm CST
1) Primus, that happened! I was not expecting any of this to happen! this was MTMTE's version of the transformers 45, all hell broke loose in ways we could not have seen coming!
2) GETAWAY IS AN ASS!! Primus this issue made me hate him so much. I can understand it, but Primus I just can't like him or Atomizer after this.
3) I think that Tailgate, being stuck on Cybertron for 6 million years, has some sort of godly gift given to him (or given from Cyclonus during he rebirth), and it begins to show when he panics, hence the eyes. In this case, he is just so overcome with emotion that he releases this energy as a wave, which will revive Cyclonus (who to me did die) as well as Trailcutter, as the next comic has a dead friend returning, and Trailcutter is dead and on board, so that is what I think of that.
4) Cyclonus is a badass! He just knocked Megs and Ravage out in like 4 panels!! This guy does not mess around and really does care for others. The lines of our classic good and bad are soooooooo blurred here it isn't funny.
Those are my thoughts. Now we just gotta wait for the next one impatiently.
Posted by Susha on December 1st, 2015 @ 4:25pm CST
Shuttershock wrote:Counterpunch wrote:...and now frankly, as much as I enjoy this series, I have had enough of the romance angle.
I feel like we have moved from rock opera to soap opera.
Maybe it's just me.
Or in the spirit of what I'm saying, "It isn't you, it's me."
It's not just you.
It's especially grating if you don't buy into the romance angle that season 2 seems to be actively courting.
Then again, I REALLY don't like Tailgate's capering for attention post-Dark Cybertron, so most of the storylines involving him feel forced, if only to appeal to the "OMG so cute" fans.
yes I am utterly shocked... I must be reading the wrong comic, unless I'm the only fan that thinks that cyclonus had a place in this comic and tailgate, should have sent his cv to something more like Dr House or whatever.... Cyclonus had so much to say as a character whicle tailgate is just a cut and paste of cat/panda motivationals cliches
but honestly, aside from the romance which I asume is subjective, I agree with most who say that it would be unrealistic to have such a plot (maybe less inplausible after last month.. ) to me it feels in place in a highschool context, but nobody who survived beyond their 20th birthday is so naive. Further justifying this bad plot is just sand castles, why would a young bot (much less involved in the consequences of war than the bots that hate megatron) take such a task with such little preoccupations for his own health and future. The only way thats a good plot line is if u already had 3 bottles of JD and the light is off so u cant read...
Not to meantion the fact that the plan involves KILLING and that is totally OK for Tailgate, who until now hasn't killed anyone (tyrest?).. which totally contradicts his nature (as depicted so far), which is the central point of this issues plot...
I think for once i'll take UM advice, cos; 'I can't deal with this now....'
just pfff
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on December 1st, 2015 @ 4:42pm CST
Susha wrote:Shuttershock wrote:Counterpunch wrote:...and now frankly, as much as I enjoy this series, I have had enough of the romance angle.
I feel like we have moved from rock opera to soap opera.
Maybe it's just me.
Or in the spirit of what I'm saying, "It isn't you, it's me."
It's not just you.
It's especially grating if you don't buy into the romance angle that season 2 seems to be actively courting.
Then again, I REALLY don't like Tailgate's capering for attention post-Dark Cybertron, so most of the storylines involving him feel forced, if only to appeal to the "OMG so cute" fans.
yes I am utterly shocked... I must be reading the wrong comic, unless I'm the only fan that thinks that cyclonus had a place in this comic and tailgate, should have sent his cv to something more like Dr House or whatever.... Cyclonus had so much to say as a character whicle tailgate is just a cut and paste of cat/panda motivationals cliches
but honestly, aside from the romance which I asume is subjective, I agree with most who say that it would be unrealistic to have such a plot (maybe less inplausible after last month.. ) to me it feels in place in a highschool context, but nobody who survived beyond their 20th birthday is so naive. Further justifying this bad plot is just sand castles, why would a young bot (much less involved in the consequences of war than the bots that hate megatron) take such a task with such little preoccupations for his own health and future. The only way thats a good plot line is if u already had 3 bottles of JD and the light is off so u cant read...
Not to meantion the fact that the plan involves KILLING is totally OK for Tailgate, who until now hasn't killed anyone (tyrest?)..
just pfff
I think you may have misread somethings. Tailgate wasn't going to kill Megs, and he has been educated enough on the war to Realize just how bad he is (issue 4 I believe is his history lesson). He thought he was changing his memory via mnemosurgery, and Ravage was not supposed to be there and Megs wasn't supposed to wake up since he was recharging. It can make sense, especially considering Tailgate is naive and really no one knew a thing and regretted it until Whirl did
Posted by Susha on December 1st, 2015 @ 4:45pm CST
i dunno, it kinda feels more like a plot twist pertinet to Brenda's and Donna's character from Beverlly Hills 92010 rather than something from Apocalypse now or.. tfs...
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on December 1st, 2015 @ 4:49pm CST
Susha wrote:ops, yep, forgot about the memory thing,...
i dunno, it kinda feels more like a plot twist pertinet to Brenda's and Donna's character from Beverlly Hills 92010 rather than something from Apocalypse now or.. tfs...
At the same time though, this whole book is supposed to be different. And this is more of consequences of war rather than all out war, so things are more slimey, less understandable and more shady
Posted by Susha on December 1st, 2015 @ 6:49pm CST
Cyclonus has been a favorite for me since his argument with whirl, and Roberts is the man.
I suppose we've already been graced when cyclonus didn't push whirl in the smelting pool, so it was a long time coming anyway. Still it seemed to me that cyclonus still had something interesting to say for the series (intending their character/story was still evolving), while other characters, like whirl or skids, have become more static and just repeat their usual gags. Having to kill someone off it made more sense (to my eyes) to kill off someone who can't add much more to the story being told.
namely, cyclonus narrative still neatly fits in the wider story of the 'robot apartheid' and his motives for being an autobot are still at 'honor and duty'
even so, of late i've been more intrigued and surprised by Barber than Roberts, which at first had me suspect some1 was ghostwriting for Barber, but now... i'm just confused.. which is usually when I remember cyclonus is off the list.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on December 1st, 2015 @ 6:56pm CST
Posted by ctrlFrequency on December 1st, 2015 @ 7:05pm CST
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on December 1st, 2015 @ 7:19pm CST
Posted by Susha on December 1st, 2015 @ 9:35pm CST
ctrlFrequency wrote:No one ever stays dead on the TF fiction. ... EVER!
well, for one Cy-kill (megatron origin) sure looks out of pheonix down's pots.
Posted by ctrlFrequency on December 1st, 2015 @ 11:44pm CST
D-Maximus_Prime wrote:He's right. Anyone can die at anytime and then come back to life at any time
He's a she
Susha wrote:well, for one Cy-kill (megatron origin) sure looks out of pheonix down's pots.
Give them time, someone at some point will bring him back.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on December 1st, 2015 @ 11:50pm CST
ctrlFrequency wrote:D-Maximus_Prime wrote:He's right. Anyone can die at anytime and then come back to life at any time
He's a she
Sorry! Force of habit.
Posted by ctrlFrequency on December 2nd, 2015 @ 12:01am CST
D-Maximus_Prime wrote:ctrlFrequency wrote:D-Maximus_Prime wrote:He's right. Anyone can die at anytime and then come back to life at any time
He's a she
Sorry! Force of habit.
I know, I know... not that my avatar helps the matter!