Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #29 - "World, Shut Your Mouth, Part 2: Words Hang in the Air"

[arbre_rieur]

"It's Lost in space. It's Star Trek meets Dark Star, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It's Justice League International as re-imagined by Stephen Moffat; it's Arrested Development with alt modes." -- James Roberts











What happens after that, we don't know yet because that's where the flashback portions of the issue end.

In the present day portions:

Comments

[icon_uk]

Oh gods but I love this series.

Starscream (still gloriously aware of what an SOB he is) making his equivalent of Shakespeares "Friends, Romans, Countrymen..." speech, and finding it backfiring so completely and spectacularly is wonderful.

Megatron as an Autobot is perhaps the most amazing thing any Transformers series has done, and I look forward to seeing where this is going, and then they throw in silliness like the numbered key for what are clearly "significant plot developments of the future"

[crinos]

Yeah, Starscream is just so full of shit its awesome.

I mean, most times I hate Smug Snakes, I mean they're designed to be hated, but Starscream just hams it up so much he crosses the line twice and becomes awesome.

[janegray]

So I've been getting into TF lately, mostly because a friend introduced me to the Prime cartoon and I found it very entertaining. But I'm still not sure how the comics work.

I get that it's a completely separated continuity that has nothing to do with cartoons/movies/games/whatever. Also, I heard that it was a reboot, so it has nothing to do with the old G1 comics either.

Let's say that a completely new potential fans wants to read the story from the beginning. Is that beginning MTMTE #1? Or are there previous series? Spin-offs?

[kd_the_movie]

I believe that the IDW continuity started in 2005 and really kicked off with the All Hail Megatron storyarc....

[q99]

AHM Is a big event, but doesn't really 'kick it off'. It is one of several possible entry points.

[q99]

Ok, two main answers. There's the beginning-beginning of IDW continuity, which has been ongoing for awhile and starts with infiltration by Simon Furman Guide.

But really, here you can start with the last issue of the prior ongoing, 'The Death of Optimus Prime,' which spins directly into MTMTE #1 and Robots in Disguise #1, which are sister books (Death of... is in the first Robots in Disguise collection).


You probably won't get lost just reading MTMTE from number 1, though.

[dragontail]

Even though I'm a long-time TF reader and Furman's kick off to this run was superb, I'd recommend any new reader start from "The Death of Optimus Prime". It's a clean entry point, and most everything you need to know gets relayed as MTMTE rolls on.

[q99]

Yea. You can go back to other stuff if you want later, but it's a really good place to get in.

[kamino_neko]

You're probably best off starting with MTMTE and RID #1. There's several years of stuff before it, and it's all over the place, in most ways. The continuity gets dragged around by a few different desires - Furman has his ideas, then someone wanted to make it closer to existing G1, then someone who's on record as not liking the franchise took over, then it began the runup to the current status-quo. So, a) there's a lot, b) the quality is all over the place, and c) the continuity is all over the place.

[beyondthefringe]

I started with MTMTE and RID, thanks to this very board, and I had no problem getting into the storylines and characters. Someday I might go back and read what came before, but honestly, you're right. It's a great place to start for newcomers, and the storytelling has been pretty good all around. (Though I was bored and confused by parts of Dark Cybertron, glad that's over.)

[thistleburr]

You can pick it up starting with MTMTE volume 1. That's what I did, and it worked very well for me! MTMTE volumes 1-5 function very well on their own.

[thezmage]

Both MTMTE and RiD are on sale at comixology starting right now.

[icon_uk]

Meant to ask. is Rodimus still on board? Can't imagine he'd be too happy being on a shop captained by Megatron... which is just why this series might put him there

[q99]

I don't believe so.

[the_phantom]

Yes. By the end of this comic you see he is on board the ship...

[coldfury]

Actually, this is a bit of a spoiler, so uh, be warned? (Are there comment spoiler tags?)


I believe the answer to your question is found on the last page of this issue, in a sense, as Rodimus is contained within the coffin that they're speculating over.

[icon_uk]

Thanks.

Spoiler tags are not available on Dreamwidth, but it is possible to black out information if a black font is used in the format you view the comm in (as I imagine most, but not all, do)

Blacking out spoilery information - Use the following format, replacing the [ with < and the ] with >

[span style="background-color: #000000;"]Insert spoilery information here[/span]

It just changes the background to black for the text in the middle.

[coldfury]

Thanks!

[skemono]

it is possible to black out information if a black font is used in the format you view the comm in (as I imagine most, but not all, do)

You can also use the span tag to control the text color, forcing it to be the same color as the background, so that won't be a concern. Then you can use whatever color you like:
<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #000000">Insert spoilery information here</span>

[icon_uk]

Thanks, I thought there was a way of doing that, but couldn't recall what it was... though now I want to know how you managed to include the < and > brackets without it actually triggering the desired effect! :)

[skemono]

There are escape codes for certain characters, where you enter an ampersand, the escape code, and a semi-colon to create the desired character. The angle brackets are lt (for "less than") and gt (for "greater than").

So &lt; creates <, and &gt; creates >.

[sir_razorback]

"Star Trek meets Dark Star" is the perfect description of this universe. ANyways, in regards to the box, some speculation on my part;

There's a feeling of 'old' around that coffin, and you see Rodimus alive and well 6 months past, in relative time. I'm thinking maybe it's either timelost from the future, or leaked in from another reality. Any way you look at it, going to be interesting. I really liked the bit with Trailbreaker, too. Megatron's really trying to be better, and so far doing a good job of it. Giving Trailbreaker a purpose instead of tossing him n the brig was awesome.

Icon, I gotta bookmark this idea. thanks for pointing it out!

[doctor_spanky]

It's really weird to see Hasbro toys talking about "class apartheid and senatorial piety."

(not to diminish the writing which is really compelling)

[q99]

Yea, they've done the work to build it up.

[starwolf_oakley]

IDW does a good job looking at some of the "deeper motivations" of these characters. Issue 22 of one of these series (don't remember which one) had Optimus Prime and Megatron talking. Megatron calling Prime out on sponsoring a system that used slavery if that's what you were "built" for.

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3526918.html

As I said at the time, any Noble Ideas that Megatron had over slavery being wrong were supplanted by "KillKillKill."

[q99]

- Issue 22 of one of these series (don't remember which one)-

Just the 'Transformers' ongoing, no subtitle. The one that started after All Hail Megatron.

-As I said at the time, any Noble Ideas that Megatron had over slavery being wrong were supplanted by "KillKillKill."-

I like how recent events had others pointing out how he brought up the revolutionary-against-a-corrupt-system thing on rare occasion when it sounded nice but forgot about it for 98% of the war when he was just focused on being in charge and crushing his enemies.