First Strike #6

[history79]

Comments

[scorntx]

"My God... he's become evil!
...
... I mean, evil-er."

It's not an absolutely out-of-nowhere twist, but it is the kind that only comes with a bit of "oh, yeah, makes sense now" and if you read the backnatter.
It probably would've made more sense if Kreiger had actually said or done anything IMPORTANT in this series, rather than just rambling about how Shazraella can't be trusted.
("It's in the back-matter!" "NOBODY READS THE BACKMATTER!")

And it really does grind the plot to a halt to set up Visionaries.
Like, Colton's desire to Kill All Cybertronians is just forgotten because he's screwed over by a jerkass wizard.
Optimus' struggle with Starscream and Elita, not touched on.
The fact that the day was supposed to be about Earth and Cybertron pretending they didn't hate one another for five minutes.

Instead we get Scarlett and Matt Trakker exchanging quips like everything's resolved. THE END.

(still interested in Visionaries, though. Even though it does look like more of IDW's "let's hate the giant robots".
But once it gets past that, the remaining five issues before it gets cancelled will hopefully be interesting.)

[q99]

They won in the sense that not everyone's dead, but yea, this wasn't a victory.

[matrix_dragon]

Honestly, even having enjoyed Revolutionaries, the Kreiger reveal still wasn't really foreshadowed that well. That said, knowing that detail now, and going back and looking, I have a pretty good theory about how it all comes together, but it still means that the main plot of First Strike stumbled at the end.

Colton surrendering I can understand, in that he was teleported away from his objective, which turned out to be an alien plot using him anyway. I get the feeling we're not done with him though. I'm guessing Optimus and his problems with the backstabbing, lying murderer... and Starscream... will be followed up in his own comic. Mayhem being in prison on Cybertron explains why VENOM is sticking with Cobra in the upcoming series (Which is good, as the MASK comic was terrible and that part of the setting needs repairs now). The really curious part for me is the mystery of how the Visionaries are connected to the Dire Wraiths and Cybertron, and the fact I can't help but feel like Cybertron was contacting Unicron for HELP

Overall, I'm looking forward to the upcoming comics.

[q99]

-I'm guessing Optimus and his problems with the backstabbing, lying murderer... and Starscream... will be followed up in his own comic.-

Optimus should be in a lot of political trouble on this one, he crossed the council pretty hard with his actions.

[matrix_dragon]

Oh definitely, and more than a few of them have been looking for an excuse with him for a long time. I'm hoping it means he manages to rise to the occasion and be Optimus Prime, god damn badass, but IDW's always struggled with doing that with him.

[q99]

I find it interesting that Elita was the most pissed, and even Windblade was unhappy, while Starscream more just went along with it.

And my though? This is good for Optimus. He's going to lose his political position of effectively speaking for Earth... but he just handed that job over to Marissa, Earth doesn't *need* him to speak for it and as a member the defense will be permanent whether or not he's personally there.

When was Optimus most happy in IDW? I'd say, when he went around as Orion Pax after handing things off to Bumblebee and Rodimus.

He always gets lots of criticism when he's in politics because he's not a natural there, which he and others have commented on. He's gotten better at it but it's not something he enjoys, but he'd not drop the responsibility when he needs to be there. Do something heroic that gets him out of the job when he doesn't need to be there....? That's not necessarily bad for Optimus.

[jcgamer78]

I was wondering how/when IDW was going to throw the Visionaries in to the mix.

Also, it's pretty funny to see Roadblock crack wise about rhyming. I mean it's not like Kreiger was threatening to turn somebody's eyeballs inside out.

[beyondthefringe]

In trying to explain this one to my better half, I was all like "So all the Hasbro bad guys teamed up to try to kill the Transformers, and it turns out they were being led by the original G.I. Joe, and then one of them turned out to secretly be an evil space wizard from yet another toy line, this one really obscure..."

Yeah. It really does sound like a kid knocking his action figures together in the backyard.

Y'know, sometimes it feels no one would even have cared or remembered about Rom or the Micronauts if it hadn't been for the comic books. I'm boggled that people care that much about the Visionaries.

[lieut_kettch]

THREE SUNS ALIGN, POUR FORTH THEIR LIGHT, AND FILL THE ARCHER'S BOW WITH MIGHT!

[remial]

The arrows turn, the swords rebel, let nothing pierce this mortal shell!

[lieut_kettch]

By nature’s hand, by craft, by art, what once was one NOW FLY APART!

[penguinzero]

Sheathe these feet in the driving gale; make swift these legs, o'er land I sail!

[icon_uk]

"By what creeps, what crawls, by what does not,
Let all that grows, recede and rot!"

[remial]

as dumb as the Merklynn reveal was, I think we can probably agree it is still better than Hydra-Cap

[jlbarnett]

MASK was IDWs least successful comic, the big twist of MASK was it was all created at a villainous plot, but some of the heroes got wise and broke away to do the right thing. So, with the utter failure of that plot, they seemingly proceed to duplicate it for their next series, a series about characters much less successful franchise than MASK was