Windblade #2 - Combiner Wars, pt 3

[skemono]

When last we left our aerodynamic heroine, she was trying to help clean up Caminus and create a multi-planet Transformers council of worlds, where Cybertron and its colonies would have an equal voice. Meanwhile, Prowl decided to ruin things because he's kind of a jerk.


We open with the clean-up efforts on Caminus.







So Devastator starts to wreck shit. Meanwhile Mirage and the Protectobots arrive on Cybertron and barge in on Optimus to tell him about Mirage's vision.



On Caminus, Devastator smashes Superion and walks through the spacebridge to Cybertron.



Devastator responds by trying to smash the spacebridge. Starscream pulls out the Enigma of Combination to fix the Aerialbots and turn them into Superion again, but since Devastator already beat them, he turns to the Protectobots.



They turn into the combiner Defensor, and together he and Superion put down Devastator.





Writer: Mairghread Scott
Story by: Mairghread Scott & John Barber
Artist: Livio Ramondelli
Cover artist: Casey W. Coller

Comments

[q99]

Poor Prowl, he's really hitting rock bottom!

Scenes missing: Some truly epic combiner battles.


And Rook was there too.

[janegray]

Gotta say, I laughed at "consider yourselves drafted." I've seen some funny fanart on tumblr about Starscream just pulling the Enigma on everybody to make everybody a combiner.

And while I see Prowl's point and understand his concerns... Prowl, dude... "The Decepticons will never re-integrate?" Right in front of the Constrcuticons? Cold, man, cold.

[q99]

The funniest thing? See that head over First Aid's shoulder? That's Rook, he's had no lines and wasn't included even in the 'Protectobots's brief 'hey, wouldn't it be cool if we called ourselves Protectobots?' last issue, and note how there's *six* people when Starscream is talking 5.

He was a last minute addition for toy reasons, so as far as everyone can tell, Rook's just a bot who wandered too close to the Protectobots when Starscream engima'd them and got swept in ^^

-
And while I see Prowl's point and understand his concerns... Prowl, dude... "The Decepticons will never re-integrate?" Right in front of the Constrcuticons? Cold, man, cold.-

Hey, they're just in it for the devastating!

[cynic79]

It's a shame, because Rook is an excellent toy, even if he is a new addition.

This issue really was a mess from an editorial standpoint. Barber and Scott have done an admirable job with the story, but it comes off as something mandated by Hasbro purely to sell toys.

At least the toys in question are cool.

[q99]

The story's pretty enjoyable I find, but they did clearly have to rush things! I think they're working very hard to avoid delays, but even so the last CW issue got bumped back a week.

Hopefully Rook'll get more role when things are finished. Barber loves patching continuity holes, so I can see him doing something with the 'And Rook Was There Too' appearance.

[matrix_dragon]

"I just walked into the room, and now everyone groups me with you guys! And why the heck are they calling us Protectobots? What's with that?"

[q99]

They are sooo lucky he has a Protectobot mindset ^^

This series has given... examples of what just one component can do to the combined mind.

[megaspork]

The thing is, I think we have seen what effect he has on defensor. It may be why he's so literal and more Third-persony then the other combiners.
Kind of hoping he turns to be a Camien pulled into the situation if they do flesh him out. They could use it as a reason for the name and focus on protection, he basically nudged the combined mind towards "defend my home" maybe?

[q99]

Ah yea, good observation! (Though I doubt he's Camien- they hadn't started coming through to Cybertron yet, not outside representatives)

He's no Blackjack in the mix, at least.

[icon_uk]

Rook's a guy? The original UK Botcon toy Rook was definitely a female.

[q99]

A new Rook, a SWAT vehicle.

I didn't know there was a female Rook.

[icon_uk]

Ah, in this instance I was getting confused. The Botcon Europe 2002 Rook (an Autobot journalist/newscaster) was male. I was thinking of Glyph (Who WAS female, an encryption and languages specialist).

They were both Botcon Europe 2002 exclusives.

It appears that there was a female Rook though, she was one of the two Minicons of Sideways, and became the head he wore when dealing with Autobots (her partner Crosswise was Sideway's Decepticon Head, but they could combine to become another Minicon on teir own; Mirror)... For Primus' sake this is confusing!

[alexanderlucard]

The Americans get Rook while the Japanese get a classic Groove instead of a weird chestplate version. Kind of like how Japan got Wildrider and Slingshot and the states got Alpha Bravo and Off-Road.

[megaspork]

What's cute is this series is really showing how the Decepticon and Autobot Heirarchies were flip flopped to an extent. Yes Starscream is doing a lot of horrible things to gain his power... but he's eliminating threats quickly due to that.
It's like Starscream is everything Prowl wants to be, the master tactician who in his mind no one listens to because they're all in awe of their leader. The thing is though, Prime IS the competant one in their relationship instead of the anger management wreck that Megatron is.
Most of Prowl's skeevy decisions have had horrible consequences down the line, but he has his head too far up his aft to take responsibility. "It's for the greater good" he says but he's far more The Monarch than he'll ever understand.
Especially since I don't see him the type to watch the Venture Bros. XD

[janegray]

Btw, when is the regular artist of Windblade coming back? I'm dying to see G1 Starscream in the style of Sarah Stone!

[q99]

Sarah Stone is slated for the next issue.

Though I don't know if she's going to be the regular like she was in the mini. The issue after that is Corin Howell

http://comicsalliance.com/hire-this-woman-cartoonist-corin-howell/

[janegray]

Thank you!

Her art is just so beautiful! :D

[q99]

The expressions!

Corin looks like she'll be pretty good too (and I note that they do seem to be sticking to having a female artist for the book), so I'm looking forward to things.

[q99]

Actually, gotta correct myself. I thought Stone was on #3, but it's already Corin.