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scans_dailyIn the next issue of Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, the much alluded to and dread Decepticon Justice Division finally appears.
And what an appearance they make...
Possible trigger warning: torture against robots
The first page of the issue has Tarn, leader of the DJD, discussing the illustrious career of Black Shadow, one of Megatron's Phase Sixers. Decepticons who are sent in to completely sterilize an already destabilized planet of any remaining potential resistance, and possibly all life, prior to cyberforming.
Three killed in a confrontation with the Wreckers' 11th incarnation.
Three thousand and three when taking on the 13th Autobot Battalion, personally repelling Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus in direct combat.
Three BILLION executed when fighting the entire population of Rigel IV.
Black Shadow was all but guaranteed a seat on Megatron's conclave... until he accepted half a billion shanix in exchange for blowing up a fleet of Decepticon warworlds.
Enter the DJD. Five Decepticons renamed for the first five cities to fall in the war with the Autobots.
I love the exposition of Megatron's doctrines here, after the glimpses we received of it during the pre-war issues of Transformers.
ETA: If his power is the ability to talk people to death, I see only one way for the crew of The Lost Light to survive this....
Set him against Swerve. :D
Possible trigger warning would be spoilery. I've spaced out the start of the entry below the cut to explain a little.
And what an appearance they make...
Possible trigger warning: torture against robots
The first page of the issue has Tarn, leader of the DJD, discussing the illustrious career of Black Shadow, one of Megatron's Phase Sixers. Decepticons who are sent in to completely sterilize an already destabilized planet of any remaining potential resistance, and possibly all life, prior to cyberforming.
Three killed in a confrontation with the Wreckers' 11th incarnation.
Three thousand and three when taking on the 13th Autobot Battalion, personally repelling Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus in direct combat.
Three BILLION executed when fighting the entire population of Rigel IV.
Black Shadow was all but guaranteed a seat on Megatron's conclave... until he accepted half a billion shanix in exchange for blowing up a fleet of Decepticon warworlds.
Enter the DJD. Five Decepticons renamed for the first five cities to fall in the war with the Autobots.
I love the exposition of Megatron's doctrines here, after the glimpses we received of it during the pre-war issues of Transformers.
ETA: If his power is the ability to talk people to death, I see only one way for the crew of The Lost Light to survive this....
Set him against Swerve. :D
Possible trigger warning would be spoilery. I've spaced out the start of the entry below the cut to explain a little.
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-22 10:09 pm (UTC)You see what's above? FOr me, that's to much focus on the villains. Especially when it's all about power.
They're more powerful than Transformers that can decimate planets. So where were they when Overlord went rogue. Why did they play no part when Thunderwing was ruining Cybertron? What about during the Expansion?
Why did the neutrals never establish a Cybertron government in exile?
There are enough that the heroes are arming the villains to help maintain order and they were allowed to basically send Optimus Prime into exile
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-22 10:33 pm (UTC)Megatron's " Okay, Predacons, you deal with this " re: Thunderwing might've been due to a similar busyness (the way Roberts writes, it's entirely possible they'll refer a few of their own exploits). Maybe they were going to be his fallback plan..
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-22 11:08 pm (UTC)What, having several pages of development given to them? As opposed to the many issues of the good guys? It's not like Megatron, Shockwave, and so on don't have a lot more than this group.
I dunno, I like my baddies with some development. It's not like they're even close to the focus, and without it they'd just be faces to be shot at, and it's not like we haven't had our share of rather interesting situations before. This is unlikely to just be a straitforward battle.
Heck, fighting Overlord in Last Stand of the Wreckers ended up really interesting, and he was super powerful himself.
-They're more powerful than Transformers that can decimate planets.-
Collectively, yea, not individually. So are several other bots we know.
The Lost Light has a rather interesting crew itself.
A Wreckers team vs a Phase Sixer seems to be a fight that can go either way, and a Wreckers team doesn't have Ultra-Magnus...
-So where were they when Overlord went rogue.-
Probably with no idea where he went and waiting for him to show up; remember they found *this* traitor probably centuries after he went missing, quite possibly millennia, and even maybe longer than that.
-Why did they play no part when Thunderwing was ruining Cybertron? What about during the Expansion? -
Hunting traitors and fighting Autobots. Or heck, possibly there fighting Thunderwing because we have no idea the precise forces involved. Or maybe some of them hadn't even come online yet- that was millions of years ago after all. They could've been rookies on the line who proved themselves against Thunderwing. Or they could've been on another front. When Thunderwing hit, only the forces they could bring in in time showed up.
With the Expansion, that was a Dead Universe thing, the Decepticons weren't really involved with that anyway. If Megatron and Starscream wasn't in, no surprise that the DJD wasn't either.
Here's a question for you: What do you think Omega Supreme was doing during those time? Metroplex? The Dinobots? Arcee? Ultra Magnus? I mean, we can assume most of them were involved, but it wasn't point out, "Hey, they're right there!" because the battle against Thunderwing wasn't about that.
The Transformers in IDW are explicitly spread around dozens/hundreds of worlds, and we don't follow every front or close to it, most of the time we follow small numbers of key known bots fighting over important objectives, but we do get plenty of glimpses elsewhere. We know Decepticons in the DJD, possibly when they weren't assembled for official duty, were involved in quite a few fights because one of them kept shooting Autobots in the symbols to pass messages to Red Alert and other medics working for Springer.
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-22 11:43 pm (UTC)And the thing is I never get the feel that Magnus or Arcee or the Dinobots are that dangerous. Shockwave took out the Dinos alone.
And this are doesn't say to me it took the collective DJD to beat Black Shadow. I don't see any particular injuries on them. This looks to me like they were toying with him. Like he was such a minor threat each could say my turn, my turn and tear him apart so someone else could get a piece.
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 12:45 am (UTC)Dinobots being on Earth was well post-Thunderwing's original rampage, and I think ditto Omega. Dunno when Metroplex started hiding with Alpha Tron.
We only know a few there when Thunderwing hit the first time- Optimus, Megatron, and the bots in the army aren't identified. The second time he was activated, there were around 10 Decepticons and Autobots per side period, mostly Wreckers and Predacons- even most of the mainstays weren't there.
-And the thing is I never get the feel that Magnus or Arcee or the Dinobots are that dangerous. Shockwave took out the Dinos alone.-
The Dinos were handicapped by the energon that kept them in beast forms, remember? Once the organic covering was gone the energon did the rest, he didn't actually have to beat them.
Shockwave, Magnus, they're Megatron/Prime level, and Grimlock's pretty close to that. And Overlord, another Phase Sixer, didn't think he could take on Megatron until he had his blindspot removed, which says some on where they rate in comparison to each other. We also know, of course, that 6 Wreckers, several fairly new to the team, did defeat Overlord. The Wreckers are one of the Autobot's beat squads, but I'd say the Dinobots are definitely more-so.
Arcee almost killed Galvatron (another Megatron/Prime level), considers taking on 5 Constructicons at once easy, was *the* most powerful inmate in Garrus-9 when it was attacked by Decepticons at one point... really, IDW Arcee is scary.
-And this are doesn't say to me it took the collective DJD to beat Black Shadow. I don't see any particular injuries on them. This looks to me like they were toying with him. Like he was such a minor threat each could say my turn, my turn and tear him apart so someone else could get a piece.
-
That's really not saying much. This is after the fight, after they've captured him. He's restrained, looks to be missing his legs...
Fortress Maximus could be killed by a Genericon if he's restrained and crippled.
This is not the fight itself. All we know about the fight itself is the DJD won.
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 01:36 am (UTC)Remember, Sixshot and Overlord had one installed, it makes sense to think the same was done with Black Shadow.
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 01:40 am (UTC)Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 12:53 am (UTC)Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-22 11:46 pm (UTC)What, a couple of pages that give them names and motivation? That's too much? Would you rather they just be formless blobs that get punched?
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 12:08 am (UTC)Basically I don't care if the villains are a threat to the heroes, in fact I prefer they not be, I just care that they're a threat to those the hero has to protect, or their loved ones, or their goals.
There's this saying 'you don't win a war by dying for your country, you win a war by making the other guy die for his.' Comic writers spend to much time trying to give the heroes the win by dying for their 'country' and this reads to me like just the sort of setup for a heroic sacrifice victory
and they never give the culture to the average characters, got to give it to the walking weapons so they seem to have depth.
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 12:50 am (UTC)You need to read the back issues of this series- They spend a lot of time on Rung, Autobot psychiatrist.
Tailgate, an ancient cybertronian scientist also gets a large role. Skids is a theoratician. Swerve runs a bar.
The second story arc is about a medical facility and is mostly dealt with by medics, including Ratchet who's hands barely work, using medicine, not gun.
More than likely, the DJD aren't going to be a direct threat to Hot Rod and his mission... they're going to be a threat to Drift, his Decepticon-defector buddy who he won't want to see get a Black Shadow treatment.
Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 03:16 pm (UTC)Re: I haven't been reading these books, but...
Date: 2012-07-23 04:15 pm (UTC)