Whirl always provides great dialog. This is a great example of his enthusiasm for fighting. Even though he wouldn’t be in the fight, he apparently likes to watch fighting just as much. The only time he’s been more excited was right before the crew dropped down to Temptoria to go battle some ‘Cons.
Fight? Pretty please?
It was simply the logical next step.
I have been a fan of Transformers from the beginning – all the way back in 1984. Actually, it was probably before then because I remember getting some transforming robots during a trip to Japan when I was very young. I think they were Go-Bots, but you know, basically the same idea.
I didn’t stick around much after G1 as I had other things in my life at the time, but years later, I started to feel nostalgic. I was thrilled when I heard that there were big-budget movies coming to the theater. So far, I have enjoyed all of the movies because I’m not expecting them to be G1, but I do appreciate any G1 nods that I see.
It wasn’t until they were filming Dark of the Moon at Kennedy Space Center that I dove back in. I was at work on the last day of filming and got an email saying that Bumblebee and Optimus Prime were going to be available for photos! I made my way over there as fast as I could and met Bee and Prime. It was a great day.
I just happened to be wearing that shirt. It must have been fate.
That night I bought my first Transformers in almost 20 years and I haven’t stopped.
When I dove back in, I dove in hard. I got every toy that I could find and looked for all the information that I could find about what has happened in Transformers while I was away. During that searching, I came across the IDW comics. I think it was in the middle of the Transformers continuing series, right before the Chaos story arc that ultimately led into the split into MTMTE and RiD.
So there you have it, I got into MTMTE because I have spent 30 years working my way toward it.
It’s a pretty recent development in MTMTE, but I’m really liking the relationship between Brainstorm and Perceptor. Brainstorm is the brilliant yet arrogant weapons engineer and is a huge fan of Perceptor.
He’s such a fan, he has a microscope modeled after Perceptor.
Perceptor, on the other hand, alternate between annoyed and horrified by Brainstorm and his shenanigans.
I have a feeling that this isn’t the first time this type of exchange has taken place.
Still, when it comes down to it, Perceptor won’t let his feelings toward Brainstorm get in the way of siding with him on important decisions.
You can tell it physically hurt Perceptor to say this.
I’m looking forward to seeing some teaming up of these two genius ‘bots.
Even though he was around before MTMTE, my favorite Design is Fortress Maximus. He’s not flashy. He’s not funny-looking. He’s a pretty straight-forward bruising hulk of an Autobot and that’s why I like him.
It’s not going to be a good day for those ‘Cons.
He was left in such a sad state in Last Stand of the Wreckers after being tortured by Overlord. It was great to see him get some redemption on Overlord himself and not just other ‘bots on the crew that share the same colors.
Payback!
Now, he is the new Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, a position formerly held, and defined, by Ultra Magnus. He’s currently taking care of Luna 1 with Red Alert. Considering the symbols on the other side of Luna 1 and how they might play into the cryptic message the Skids received after going through Tyrest’s space bridge portal, I’m sure we’ll be seeing Max again.
Obviously, there should be more Hoist. I mean he’s barely been in the comic. At least he got his own Spotlight comic. That’s more than some other ‘bots can say!
Skids got the shoulder gun idea from me.
But I’m really missing Drift. Unlike so many others, he didn’t get killed off; he just got banished. That means that it won’t take too much of a leap to bring him back to the crew. Here’s an idea:
In the prose story at the end of issue 21 – the one where the stop Tyrest and his Killswitch – Drift to Rodimus that he needed to take the blame for Overlord because Rodimus is too important. Drift mentioned his vision that something is coming and it won’t be able to be stopped unless they find the Knights of Cybertron. Enter the Dark Cybertron story. While everyone else is busy with the Necrotitan, Metroplex or in the Dead Universe, Drift keeps searching for the Knights. When all seems lost, he shows up, Great Sword in hand and the Knights of Cybertron in tow and unties with everyone else to stop Shockwave, Nova Prime and their crew.
I doubt that would happen because then what would the Lost Light do afterward with the Knight Quest over?
Sports cars don’t have snow tires.
The cover of issue #14 – Overlord with a HUGE evil grin.
This is not good.
There was certainly a hint of things to come back when Red Alert found him in the basement, but it wasn’t until this cover that I knew everyone was screwed. Within the comic, as soon as Chromedome let slip that Megatron was still alive, that was it. That was the turning point when Overlord stopped feeling sorry for himself and started to turn the tables on Domey.
Oh scrap!
Even then there was still hope that Chromedome might be able to get out, keeping Overlord trapped in the slow cell. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Once he got out and taunted Chromedome, that was it.
Overlord is the Gingerbread Man.
Hoist, duh!
All that and I’m green and have a towline.
I have always liked Hoist, but this part where Hoist describes himself after taking offense to Swerve not thinking much of him is what really locked it in. That describes me perfectly, right down to the job – just a normal maintenance engineer. It’s funny because I pretty much already wrote this for my About Me page for this blog.
Brainstorm’s Briefcase – what’s in it?
Ultra Magnus seems to think it can save the day:
Apparently it repels sparkeaters:
Maybe it’s a doomsday device:
All we know for sure is that he’s very sensitive about it:
My theory? I think it’s his lunch.
It took me a while to figure this one out since I pretty much go with the flow. As it is, this isn’t so much a change of opinion as it is a new concept that I have grown to like: Conjunx Endura or relationships in general.
In the vast history of Transformers, interpersonal relationships between bots is usually of a professional nature in that we generally only see them as part of a military-type unit. Sure, it got touched on in G1 in those couple of episodes when we met Elita-One, Chromia, Firestar and Moonracer and it was hinted at in pretty much any scene Acree was in with Springer or Hot Rod in the movie or Season 3, and got played up WAY too much in Beast Wars with the whole Silverbolt and Blackarachnia courtship. Still, the relationships didn’t get as much attention as it has in MTMTE. I think that has to do with the fact that a lot of people tend to think of these bots as male and these relationships are shown between two bots that are identified as male and that brings up connotations of homosexuality. Primus, I can’t believe I’m writing about this, but I already started so I guess i have to finish. Anyway, while humans identify bots as having a gender, they technically do not and since there is no gender and thus no sexual relations, there are neither homosexual nor heterosexual relationships between Cybertronians. These conjunx endura relationships are more like a best friend relationship.
Obviously the most popular of these relationships (and the one that I think sparked the most controversy) is between Chromedome and Rewind.
While it may have been controversial at one point, I think everyone came to accept it and it was their relationship that made Rewind’s death so tragic. We’ve seen countless bots die over the course of the many series but there haven’t been many that have had the effect that Rewind’s did on the fandom.
Other relationships that have driven great stories include the evolution of Cyclonus and Tailgate:
Another relationship on the Lost Light that never had much of the spotlight in the comic was between Rodimus and Drift:
Rodimus even explained their relationship in the most recent issue, Issue #26 (Dark Cybertron #8) when we was explaining to Orion Pax how he felt guilty for letting Drift take the blame for Overlord. He simply mentioned that he let his best friend take the blame. Of course we all know that was Drift.
I think this is what makes this particular comic great and really stand out above almost any other Transformers fiction. Sure, we all love the giant alien transforming robot battles and we always will, but there’s only so many ways to depict warring factions battling each other. Once these additional layers are added to the characters, the possibilities become endless and it keeps the fandom ravenously waiting for the next issue (and toy).
I’m disappointed with the Circle of Light. The crew winds up on Luna 1 and manages to rescue what was left of the Circle and then they react like this:
Where did they get all those wrenches?
Talk about gratitude! If it weren’t for all those dysfunctional, cracked-in-the-head bots on the Lost Light, every single one of the Circle would have been melted down and used for raw material to build more Legislators. Then they go and act all holier-than-thou like this! I think even Drift would have been disappointed had he been there.