Post by cyberstrike on Jan 29, 2012 16:21:46 GMT -5
This is a review of The Transformers vol. 3: The Revenge of the Decepticons TPB which collects The Transformers (ongoing) #13-18.
The Highlights/Spoilers:
Rodimus takes the Autobot Matrix of Leadership from Starscream and then Megatron blasts Rodimus and the Matrix into space.
Megatron has an AWESOME all new body and I would love to see that design get turned into a toy.
Bumblebee is badly wounded by a human assassin with a gun based on Megatron's old body.
Starscream tries to make an offer for Thundercracker to rejoin the Decepticons and when he refuses Starscream nearly kills him.
Brawn beats up Starscream and could take him prisoner but has to help Thundercracker.
Optimus Prime shoots Soundwave in the head.
Jazz kills a human cop.
Optimus Prime gets mad and challenges Megatron to a one-on-one fight but he has ordered Jetfire to drop a Skywatch satellite on the Decepticons in an attempt to kill Megatron. Megatron takes a wounded Optimus Prime back to Omega Supreme (who is currently the base for the Autobots and Skywatch) and he surrenders.
Later in custody Megatron tells Optimus Prime that Spike Whitwicky has executed Scrapper in cold blood and while Optimus tells Megatron that he doesn't believe him, Prime none the less orders Prowl to secretly investigate this.
Overall: The story of Megatron's revival and his plan to get revenge on Earth is a bit of a stretch and while some might think it's a retcon I don't think it is a retcon but it's not one of Megatron's better revenge plans and this is probably the weakest part of the story. I do love seeing some of the second-string characters like Brawn and Thundercracker get some screen time.
Optimus Prime finally losing his temper and becoming a badass is always great because it's side of him we don't usually get to see much of in any media (especially the G1 Optimus Prime). Optimus Prime shooting Soundwave in the head* and Jazz killing a cop at the end of the same issue was a truly shocking ending. While some fans say this ruins Jazz's character and/or was out of character for him, given that his character is a special operations agent and the situation he was in his actions are completely understandable but I wouldn't say that they were justifiable.
*And according to Shockwave, Soundwave was in stasis-lock and could be repaired but that was before Optimus Prime ordered Jetfire to drop a satelite on the Decepticons.
The art is a mixed bag #13 was drawn by Nick Roche who continues to be my least favorite IDW artist and Don Figueroa shows he can't draw humans worth a damn and seems to have to trouble with some of his own redesigns. While Alex Milne is best artist of this bunch he makes Figueroa's redesigns work better than Figueroa does and he can draw humans as well.
Final Thoughts: A fairly good story even with a weak revenge plot but it does have great character moments and it does explain some things like what happened to all of the Ore-13 the Decepticons had and it lays some of the groundwork for the upcoming Chaos storyline/event with some OK art at the start and some great art at the end. I give it a 4 out 5.
The Highlights/Spoilers:
Rodimus takes the Autobot Matrix of Leadership from Starscream and then Megatron blasts Rodimus and the Matrix into space.
Megatron has an AWESOME all new body and I would love to see that design get turned into a toy.
Bumblebee is badly wounded by a human assassin with a gun based on Megatron's old body.
Starscream tries to make an offer for Thundercracker to rejoin the Decepticons and when he refuses Starscream nearly kills him.
Brawn beats up Starscream and could take him prisoner but has to help Thundercracker.
Optimus Prime shoots Soundwave in the head.
Jazz kills a human cop.
Optimus Prime gets mad and challenges Megatron to a one-on-one fight but he has ordered Jetfire to drop a Skywatch satellite on the Decepticons in an attempt to kill Megatron. Megatron takes a wounded Optimus Prime back to Omega Supreme (who is currently the base for the Autobots and Skywatch) and he surrenders.
Later in custody Megatron tells Optimus Prime that Spike Whitwicky has executed Scrapper in cold blood and while Optimus tells Megatron that he doesn't believe him, Prime none the less orders Prowl to secretly investigate this.
Overall: The story of Megatron's revival and his plan to get revenge on Earth is a bit of a stretch and while some might think it's a retcon I don't think it is a retcon but it's not one of Megatron's better revenge plans and this is probably the weakest part of the story. I do love seeing some of the second-string characters like Brawn and Thundercracker get some screen time.
Optimus Prime finally losing his temper and becoming a badass is always great because it's side of him we don't usually get to see much of in any media (especially the G1 Optimus Prime). Optimus Prime shooting Soundwave in the head* and Jazz killing a cop at the end of the same issue was a truly shocking ending. While some fans say this ruins Jazz's character and/or was out of character for him, given that his character is a special operations agent and the situation he was in his actions are completely understandable but I wouldn't say that they were justifiable.
*And according to Shockwave, Soundwave was in stasis-lock and could be repaired but that was before Optimus Prime ordered Jetfire to drop a satelite on the Decepticons.
The art is a mixed bag #13 was drawn by Nick Roche who continues to be my least favorite IDW artist and Don Figueroa shows he can't draw humans worth a damn and seems to have to trouble with some of his own redesigns. While Alex Milne is best artist of this bunch he makes Figueroa's redesigns work better than Figueroa does and he can draw humans as well.
Final Thoughts: A fairly good story even with a weak revenge plot but it does have great character moments and it does explain some things like what happened to all of the Ore-13 the Decepticons had and it lays some of the groundwork for the upcoming Chaos storyline/event with some OK art at the start and some great art at the end. I give it a 4 out 5.
