"World, Shut Your Mouth, Part 3 - Predestination: A Beginner's Guide"

[arbre_rieur]

Some pages from TRANSFORMERS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE #30...

"Because why stop at 16 regular characters?" -- James Roberts

SIX MONTHS AGO:









And in the present day sequences of the issue:



"Something unavoidable," as it turns out, is that the ship's encountered a mystery in space: A dead copy of Rodimus floating in the vacuum...

Comments

[matrix_dragon]

Whirls avatar remains one of the most awesome things ever in Transformers.

[q99]

Note how she's braiding her hair- with two fingers together, like claws.

Whirl used to be a watchmaker. She's kinda re-learning dexterity with her holo-avatar there!

[doc_destructo]

Where can *I* get an Early-Early Warning System?

[crinos]

Rodimus Prime: running this organization into the fucking ground since 1986.

[bj_l]

That's not Rodimus Prime. It's just Hot Rod, who is now called Rodimus for trademark reasons.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

He was sort of promoted after getting the Matrix back; more than Hot Rod, less than Prime (though he seems to aspire to that, and have a stronger affinity for the Matrix than Optimus).

Funny thing is, in this continuity, I think it was Swindle who coined the name "Rodimus Prime."

[matrix_dragon]

Yep, Swindle came up with the name during his scam in the early issues of the previous ongoing. After being utterly humiliated by that mess, Rodimus left Earth and went after the Decepticons, stealing back the Matrix and finding evidence that Galvatron was up to something bad back on Cybertron. At which point Optimus decided he'd earned the right to a Prime-styled name.

IDW Rodimus is interesting. Really, he's not ready to be leading a ship like the Lost Light. Back in his Hot Rod days, he was burned so badly by his first time commanding a team that he actually became a solo operative for a long time, because that way he's the only person that would suffer if he made a mistake. He's gotten over that, but ever since then, his ego, combined with what I think is a pretty severe case of Primus apotheosis (A Cybertronian Personality Disorder built around an obsessive need to emulate Optimus) has been getting him into trouble.

His heart's in the right place, and he does care for the 'bots under his command, but he just assumes he's a natural, that it'll all work out and he can handle, because he's just that good. And because of that, he keeps making mistakes. Mistakes that led to Optimus putting MEGATRON of all people in a position of authority on the Lost Light.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I think that, compared to every other Han Solo-personality out there, the writers have done an excellent job playing up the flaws/calling out their main character who always shoots from the hip in a meaningful way.

When was the last time Wolverine or Hal Jordon called out by other characters for their actions, beyond the token 'getting chewed out by the chief'?

[q99]

In-universe, he tried Rodimus Prime, but backed off and settled with Rodimus :)

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ack! What about the hand?! What about the hand?!

[matrix_dragon]

The corpse lacks the numbers from the crisis vote Rodimus called just before Dark Cybertron, briefly leading Nightbeat to the theory that the body is from the past. However, based off the discussion with Ratchet, Rodimus had removed the numbers from his own hand.

He's in the middle of explaining his reason/using the chance to insult Megatron when the Lost Lights random disappearances kick into high gear and everyone becomes rather distracted.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ah, right. What was that vote about again?

[q99]

"Whether to kick Rodimus from his job for bringing Overlord on board."

[skemono]

I kinda like how Rodimus thinks here. "So, this is my corpse from the future, is it? Well then I'll just cut off my own arm! In your face, future corpse!"

[coldfury]

I really expected Megatron to be put out by this solution, but to have him sit there and logically consider the ramifications of Rodimus' proposed course of action just cracked me up.

I really don't know why I'm not buying this comic. I think it's the fear of trying to pick up an entire continuity on the go, even though I read about the book on TF Wiki obsessively at this point.

[icon_uk]

I was in much the same boat, but I bought the trades and haven't regretted it for a moment. The characters, interplay and humour are terrific, even if you're not familiar with the ENTIRE TF milieu

[misanthr0pe]

If I were to start reading this, where do you recommend starting from?

[skemono]

Some people have already discussed that here. The Death of Optimus Prime one-shot seems a good point to start (and is included in the first More Than Meets the Eye trade), and then branch into the first issues of More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise.

[q99]

-I really expected Megatron to be put out by this solution, but to have him sit there and logically consider the ramifications of Rodimus' proposed course of action just cracked me up.
-

"Ok, everyone promise not to do that!"

-
I really don't know why I'm not buying this comic. I think it's the fear of trying to pick up an entire continuity on the go, even though I read about the book on TF Wiki obsessively at this point.-

Honestly? I find the difficulty of jumping into a story mid-way is highly overrated as long as they catch you up occasionally- which this one does.

[mrstatham]

This. It also helps that IDW keep most of their trades for their bigger properties in print, so you can start at the beginning really quite easily. It's the same with their GI Joe stuff - I recently started reading the Cobra side of things from the beginning, despite being a bit concerned at how much things branch out roundabout the time of the Cobra Commander mini-event, but they've handled it pretty well in terms of allowing readers to stick to one series.

[draganoche]

I hope this mean that Rod will stand out more this season. Before he seemed to just be there to be either jokey or kind of ineffectual most of the time but contrasting him with Megs should be interesting.

[q99]

The thing about Rodimus is he's jokey and overly sure of themselves, but he often pulls off fairly crazy stunts, like how he took down the Sparkeater.

Megatron's more disciplined approach is definitely a nice counterpoint.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Also, that speech Prime makes Megatron give is freakin' epic and long overdue

[dragontail]

I've been reading Transformers comics for 30 years, and I honestly believe that flashback sequence between Prime and Megatron to be the three greatest pages of official TF fic ever written. Just sums the both of them, their politics, their relationship and their dynamic (Megs is smart, but Prime is smarter) so simply, eloquently and beautifully.