Aubrey Sitterson's GI Joe - A Retrospective

So this is a bit different to my normal format of comic reviews. I decided a while ago that I wanted to give more article-based posts a go, and have been trying to figure out a way to start them off...then all the crap regarding the current IDW Hasbroverse GI Joe series started and I had a subject (hooray!) So this post is not an information piece or in depth analysis on the comics involved, but rather an overview to look at what was done well and what was done badly.

So first off I'll give you a bit of personal background. I am not a GI Joe fan, however I do have a working knowledge on the franchise due to me having to research characters etc for the various Transformers crossovers that we've had over the years. When the Revolution event was going on I made the decision to collect ALL of the Hasbroverse tie in issues and decide based on those which series I would actually continue to read. Of all of them I only decided to pass on GI Joe and MASK, I just found their one-shots to be the least interesting of the series and what I read about the issues when they started just led me to agree with that decision. However I have been collecting the TPB's for both these series (as you can see for GI Joe in the picture above). I made the same decision for First Strike to see if anything had improved (it hadn't) but I figured I would collect the Scarlett's Strike Force series due to it only being a couple of issues long. And that's all there is up to now!

You may be wondering why I am doing a "retrospective" before the series is completed, but to be honest having read issue one of SSF I can pretty much guess how the rest of the story will go, and even if I can't, this series and even storyline will be incomplete due to external issues for the series (more on this later).

So let's get this started and hope it at least makes sense! 

(PS The pictures used here are going to be random scans of "iconic" moments in the series and may not really match the content of that section)

Series Background

First things first, in case anyone reading this doesn't know about this series (and from the sales figures it is possible) I'll give you a bit of background for it.

When Hasbro and IDW decided to work their magic and create a shared universe for Hasbro's various properties under the IDW banner they decided to base it mostly around the existing Transformers comic series, and inserted the GI Joe comics into the continuity by fudging that all the events of the various comics happened in the time between the Transformers leaving Earth for the Chaos event, and returning following Dark Cybertron (a little less than two years). A few Joes started showing up as cameos for the Transformers and Rom comics, but were properly reintroduced in the Revolution event, for which they received a tie-in comic for the event and have made a few extended appearances in the other Hasbro comics including a team led by Talon in Optimus Prime having a regular role, the Joe member Countdown being a Dire Wraith and Beachhead and Grunt wanting revenge on Rom for "killing" Joe Colton in Rom's series, and various appearances from the Joes in the MASK series and finally a Joe named Mayday being a main character in the Revolutionaries series. Along with this, a solo series for GI Joe was launched and lasted for nine issues (excluding specials), which will be mostly covered in this post

Following Revolutionaries the Joes were the co-stars of the next Hasbro event, First Strike, which had them deal with a threat to Cybertron being committed by Joe Colton, their founder, then leading into the planned Scarlett's Strike Force, originally named "GI Joe: Unmasked", designed to be an amalgamation of the GI Joe and MASK series', much like how Rom and the Micronauts have now been merged as well.

Originally SFF/GI Joe: Unmasked was solicited as an ongoing series, which soon changed to an eight-part maxi-series, and then was reported as cancelled for "low sales" following issue three (before the series had even begun). And that's where we are! I will only be talking about the events and characters of the main GI Joe series, and not the event comics, or their appearances in other lines. If people would like me to, then let me know...

The Creative Team

The series has been written by Aubrey Sitterson throughout Revolution-Scarlett's Strike Force, and to put it nicely...he's a controversial figure, and this is one of the things that people blame for the decline of this series. Rather than just using ad-homonyms, I'll just post this screen-cap of one of his most controversial tweets:

Yeah...coming from the writer of a book that is about a patriotic group of military members...this wasn't taken too well. Several GI Joe fan groups refused to post about his work or support it, leading most people to attribute it to the failure of the book, as if people have no interest in following a book by someone who insults people like this, then it will affect sales, leading to IDW/Hasbro to drop the line or the writer at least.

The writing in general is clunky and filled with logic and continuity mistakes (I'll get to those later) with nothing really mattering in the storyline for the grander scheme of things.

Getting onto nicer things, let's talk about the artwork! The art credits for GI Joe: Revolution, and issues 1-4, 6-9 of the main GI Joe series go to Giannis Milogiannis with colours by Lovern Kindierski, and honestly I like the artwork, at first I was a little put off by the simplistic look, but it works pretty well. It just seems a bit out of place to have a relatively simplistic art style going next to the other Hasbroverse titles which have relatively detailed art.

Issue 5 of the main series was covered by Aaron Conley, with colours by Kindierski again. From what I can tell Conley is an alternative cover artist for the series, and I HATE his art style. The characters look ugly, they have weird proportions and all make goofy faces. That is all I will say on this matter.

First Strike: GI Joe and MASK (a two parter story to lead into the planned crossover title) had the art provided by Ilias Kyriazis with colours from Mark Roberts. This style pretty much emulates the art of the main series, but gives a few extra details, which kind of places it in a weird uncanny valley place where it seems to be trying to be simplistic like Giannis' work, but also trying to match the others titles in this universe, which kind of works, but also kind of fails.

Finally the art for Scarlett's Strike Force is covered by Nelson Daniel with colours from Ryan Hill...I don't like this artwork. It's not as bad as Conley's art, but I would describe it as inconsistent. It looks like the artist is trying to emulate the previous artists, but keeps forgetting which one he is emulating so it turns out to be a mess. If I had to give some direction for this stuff, I would say that he is good at wide shots with indistinct details, but HORRIBLE at close ups (just look at Quick Kick below!)

The Plot

Uhhhh....I honestly cannot remember the overall plot to this series, and I literally read it last night for notes! This is a bit of a problem, since in my mind, if you cannot give a basic plot for the series, as their ongoing mission, then the series is messy and confused. 

Just as an example from other IDW comics, Rom's story is that the titular character is on Earth to fight the Dire Wraiths, along the way he finds the planet to be unusual so he investigates, shenanigans ensue! In this series, the Joes just do things just so they can have an action scene.

Okay, here's an attempt to explain the plot of the series:

Following the Revolution, GI Joe are investigating criminal activities on Earth, as well as hunting aliens and remnants of Cobra, along the way they discover the "Fatal Furries" and start to investigate them (neglecting their original goal at that point) after that they discover that Cobra has reformed under the Baroness and try to stop them from stealing some Cobra-themed artefacts from museums, after failing with that they start going after random mutated beasts on Earth and go after Cobra again....That is seriously what I get out of this series!

There are other sub-plots in this series, but most of them either go nowhere and just get forgotten about or they are just nothing plots. Two interesting sub-plots in this series are that Doc Sr is a Dire Wraith, thus his daughter, Doc Jr is a hybrid. However this story is mostly ignored except for in the profile cards after issue seven.

The other interesting plot is Rock 'n Roll having his "inner eye" opened by Crystal Ball, giving him a monstrous form and prophetic dreams. The former is rendered inert by the power of friendship, and the latter was only really introduced in the First Strike tie-ins, and thus will not be resolved before the title has ended.

The Cast

Okay, the cast in this series are a bit of a mixed bag, so I think I'll separate them into two groups: The "Main Characters" and the "Background Characters" as even though there is a lot of named and established characters in this series, a lot of them do pretty much nothing. Some of them are written in character and I can see working in other lines, but a few are just unlikeable or flawed in just too many ways, especially when you know the characters they are based on.

Main Characters

First off, the leader of the Joes is Scarlett, and she is written fine here. She is a strong leader, but has doubts about herself. This is more obvious when written outside of this series, but we can see glimpses of it even here. We see her acting a bit irrational in places in the series, such as when she keeps the Baroness as an illegal prisoner or starts threatening her Joes with brig-time if they question her judgement.

The second-in-commander for the team is Roadblock, who is usually seen as a tough guy who likes to fight, but here, he has been reduced to Scarlett's assistant, whose only real story in the entire line is that he's a secret spy for Duke, a former Joe member, who only really uses this to report Scarlett's illegal entrapment of the Baroness

Rock 'n Roll is a former band groupie who acts as the team's main firearms specialist, but as mentioned above he gains some mystical abilities that give him a bit more character. In the Revolution tie-in he cripples Grand Slam when he mistakes him for a Dire Wraith, which he continues to feel guilty for throughout the series. He develops a partnership with Skywarp and they become close friends by the end of the main story.

Grand Slam is the team's weapon's designer who has been building them more laser-based weapons to help them with the newer alien threats on Earth. As mentioned above he is crippled by Rock 'n Roll at the start of the series, and that is pretty much his character...he just complains in every scene he is in...it is annoying. To be honest I was hoping his storyline would come to introduce the Exo-Suits from Transformers into the franchise again, giving him the ability to walk whilst also being protected from further harm.

Speaking of Transformers, Skywarp is a former Decepticon, who made a deal with the humans to help them if they helped to fix his faulty teleportation drive. In general Skywarp is okay, I only have two problems with him in this series, and only one is important. First is just cosmetic, why is Skywarp a generic fighter jet? The last time we saw him before joining GI Joe, he was in a Cybertronian jet mode, so obviously he rescanned an alternate mode and changed. I am fine with that, my only question is...why didn't he take on a GI Joe franchise vehicle mode? Maybe have him turn into a Cobra vehicle and have that as a source of conflict between the group and play it for laughs. DO SOMETHING WITH IT!!

The second point is more serious though...why do the Joes trust Skywarp? Now for those of you reading this that do not know, I am something of a snob on Transformers trivia and media, and in this continuity, Skywarp was a major player in the Decepticon invasion of Earth from All Hail Megatron. In fact, Skywarp claimed to kill millions of people in China alone. Now even if he was being hyperbolic, shouldn't this be an issue for his new teammates?! In another Hasbro series, More Than Meets The Eye, one of the characters, Cyclonus was on the other side of their final battle on Cybertron and even led an attack that killed most of the staff on an Autobot weapons station. During MTMTE, Cyclonus was disliked and mistrusted throughout the series, but slowly he made friends and alliances, and even proved himself to be trustworthy, over a storyline that is still going on now! Why is Skywarp already forgiven for killing a chunk of humans!?

Quick Kick is an extremely arrogant and sociopathic character in this storyline. His main goal in this series to that he wants to prove that he's better than Snake Eyes, which he shows when about half of issue eight of the series is given to them having a sparring match and Quick Kick wins (by doing some stupid Dragonball style weighted clothes shit). Following that he continues to be arrogant and flaunts his win, until Storm Shadow appears and knocks him out, leading to him now being obsessed with proving that he's better than HIM instead. It's just an endless cycle with him!

Doc, Jr. is the daughter of the original Doc, and is the team's medic. She is revealed to be a natural born Human-Dire Wraith hybrid, but as mentioned above, nothing really happens with that knowledge. She appears to have a mutual attraction with Rock 'n Roll, but I doubt that will be resolved before the end of the series.

Shipwreck runs the Lemuria (formerly the Decepticon warship Nemesis) and also acts as the base's cook, which usually consists of algae and other horrible ingredients. He has gained weight before this series, most likely due to him being more of a behind the scenes character in this series.

Duke appears in the series as a background "villain" for the team as he relieves Scarlett of her illegal prisoners and ends up losing them to Cobra, essentially allowing the new Cobra forces to be formed under a new leader.

Salvo is the first of the new "international" recruits for the team and comes from Samao. She is overweight and likes to use big laser guns instead of traditional weapons. This character caused a bit of controversy in the GI Joe fanbase as she is a reimagining of the 90's character of the same name, however it is not that she is a reimagining that is the problem...it's the given reasons by Sitterson that was the problem. Basically he said that the original character looked like a white supremacist and that he was "problematic" for his looks. Now if he hadn't of said that, and just said this was a new character who just took on the codename, as has happened in the other Hasbro series recently, then no-one would have cared. He just caused a "controversy" for the hell of it. (link to archive of the tweets in question: Here)

Spitfire is the second new recruit, who is a British footballer with a past in the RAF. He uses a flight suit, somewhat akin to Marvel's Vulture and Falcon from the Movies, and doesn't do much else. 

In general I'm fine with Spitfire as a character, but my main issue with him is how he is introduced...it just felt clunky. He gets introduced in an aside scene where he is shown to be a footballer and famous, then again when he gets rid of an IED, then he is just randomly there to save Duke when the Dreadnoks are about to kill him, then he gets invited onto the team.

Would you like me to tell you an easier way for him to have been introduced into the series? Make him an agent for the Action Man Programme...say he was assigned to Duke's team to retrieve Baroness, and have him develop as a character that way, impressing Scarlett to the point that she applies for him to have an official placement on the team with the Action Man Programme. Simple. WHY DIDN'T THAT HAPPEN?!

Okay, onto villains now, there's not many that do much, so don't worry:

Baroness starts off as being an illegal prisoner on the Lemuria, who gets found out about by Roadblock, who informs Duke, and he escorts her to a proper jail After the Dreadnoks rescue her she gets named the new Cobra Commander and basically just orders the others around. She's an okay character and it's a pity we wont see a real resolution to her story here.

Crystal Ball is the mystical expert for the Cobra team and is responsible for Rock getting his own mystical powers and appears to be pulling the strings of the series, despite not really having a position of power of the group.

The Dreadnoks are a biker group led by Zarana and Zandar, who pretty much act as the main "muscle" of this series for the Joes to deal with. They appear to die at the end of the first storyline, but end up alive and well by the end of issue eight...weird

And finally, the VENOM members are brought in as new troops in the First Strike tie in comics, which was literally just so there was SOMETHING MASK related in the crossover, otherwise there was nothing! They end up arrested at the end, and Baroness has no interest in freeing them....yay....

Background Characters

And now for the fun part of the series, the slew of random characters that appear for some important looking reason, only to basically do nothing!

Wild Bill was introduced as a member of Scarlett's team to investigate the Dire Wraiths on Bikini Atoll, but is revealed to be one himself, he dies after a short fight.

Doc, Sr. is the father of the newer Doc, and is in fact a Dire Wraith, he is a friendly one however as he jumped in front of debris from an explosion to protect Grand Slam. He's apparently still alive, but we haven't seen or heard from him since issue 4....I think they dissected him...

Helix and Snake Eyes are two experienced Joes, they go on a solo mission or two to discover the weaknesses to the Fatal Furries, and get sent to the Brig in issue 8, never to be seen from again

Dial Tone is reduced to a receptionist...seriously every scene with her is just her giving a memo to someone else!

Cover Girl likes cars....yup!

Lady Jaye uses electrified staffs to fight with, and Gung-Ho might be gay, he also hates shirts and has laser-powered knuckle dusters

Lifeline is the backup doctor for the team. Stretcher appears to be a nature conservationist.  Deep Six does stuff in the water, Spirit is a tracker and Tunnel Rat seems to use explosives I think? Lift-Ticket appears just to fly the others to the Arctic in SSF, and Matt Trakker joins the team as totally not Gung-Ho's replacement in SSF too.

As for the villains, we have waves of Red Shadow ninjas, Cobranarchists, Dire Wraiths and Fatal Furries as the generic villain cannon-fodder for the earlier issues, with Vipers introduced following the switch to SSF

Dr Mindbender makes a cameo at the end of the Joe series along with Destro, who is strangely on Earth, despite him being on Cybertron during the First Strike event, and is even detained there afterwards. Maybe one of them is a Dire Wraith. Along with Destro, Cesspool is shown as a businessman who works with Cobra, and two new troops are introduced to not do much, Croc Master and Raptor.

Scrap-Iron is brought in to show how the VENOM member's vehicles have been upgraded, whilst Firefly robs the various museums to steal the Cobra artefacts for Baroness to use for her next scheme.

Oddly, the believed to be dead Male Storm Shadow appears at the end of the MASK portion of the First Strike tie-ins just to sucker-punch Quick Kick, then he leaves...I bet this plot will go nowhere too. (This is especially odd since we already have a popular female Storm Shadow in this continuity!)

My Conclusion

Hooray! You made it through my babbling! Now what do I think about this series on the whole? Well...it's a train-wreck! The characters are mostly either unlikeable or just there to be there, and they completely ignore the whole concept of a shared universe. They do not involve anyone from outside their own series in anything.

Just as one example, early in the series Grand Slam and Doc, Sr. are working on a scanner to detect Dire Wraiths. Why don't they ask Rom for help with this? He is known to them, and would even trust them to just copy the Analyzer part of his weapon. The only issue would be that he would probably kill the two Docs for being Wraiths, but even then only Doc, Sr. knew about that at this point in the story.

Other things that would be simple would be my Action Man link for Spitfire, mentioned above, or even just reference other events happening in the world during these events (like the Junkion attack on the world leaders at Autobot City!?!?)

If the writer had of been more professional, or even cared about the product like the other creators in IDW's roster seem to, then this series could have worked, but instead it was doomed to failure from the early days. If I was to choose a successor for the writer's position for this series or whatever comes next for GI Joe, then I would say John Barber of Revolutionaries and Optimus Prime would do great. He has experience with both the Joes and Transformers, and would make this series work fine, if not make it a great series.

So that's my blog on this matter, let me know what you think and give me more topics to discuss in the future!

Byeeee!

IDW - Lost Light #13

Title: Sardines

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte with Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Fort Max and the rest of the Luna-1 crew arrive on Necroworld and find the Decepticons there having overrun the place, killing most of the Autobot residents and ransacking the planet. Outrigger is chased by Fangry whilst he is doing his travel blog, but the blogger is saved by Fort Max, whilst Cerebros and Red Alert kill the other Decepticons, rescuing some Autobots, like Scrounge, along the way.

After a while they locate Kaput's work station and find out that Tailgate was locked inside an isolation chamber under the ground, they hook Beak up to the monitors to use his x-ray optics to see inside, and they are horrified...

Far away from there, Team Rodimus are starting to get stir-crazy from the cramped conditions inside the dead Decepticon, Skip, with Swerve and Anode passing the time by having a prank war.

Swerve manages to convince Velocity to tell Anode that she has a vestigial sentient head in her ass, only for Swerve to laugh at her panic.

Meanwhile in the midsection of the shuttle, the Autobots are relaxing and having some down time, whilst Drift annoys Ratchet by staring at his "aura" again, but Drift just explains that Ratchet looks off today, as Ratchet's hands begin to shake again...

In the recharge suite, Swerve is resting when he wakes up and catches Anode trying to spray him with magnetizing spray, so he'll stick to the recharge slot. Suddenly however the slab overheats and the sprinklers are set off, drenching the both of them. Ten enters the suite, looking disappointed in his boss, but Swerve suddenly feels very weak and starts collapsing.

Swerve is taken to see Ratchet, where he discovers a bomb in Swerve's head, which is connected to his vocal synthesizer, and is counting down to zero every time he speaks, leaving him with just 400 words left. Swerve starts to panic however when Ratchet turns totally grey, as if he had just died!

Back in the midsection, Ultra Magnus comes to sit next to Cyclonus, who has been sitting by the window since they set off, as Magnus wants to work on planning his paperwork for when they reach Cyberutopia, and also plans to work on a book he is writing on the terms of peace so another war doesn't happen. Cyclonus begins to open up with Magnus about how he is unsure what to do on Cyberutopia as he always wanted to be there with Tailgate, but their relationship has been ended by Tailgate. Magnus leaves, since he doesn't do well with emotions, and heads somewhere else to continue his work.

Ratchet returns to the midsection where Drift tells him that his aura is no longer there, further implying that he is indeed somehow dead!

In the cockpit of the shuttle, Roller is reporting Chromedome and Rewind to Rodimus for "canoodling" inside his truck mode. Rodimus however doesn't care since the tracker they had on the Lost Light has vanished. Suddenly a voice comes from nowhere, which Rodimus at first believes is Skip speaking to them, but it is instead Fort Max, reporting his findings from Necroworld to him...much to Rodimus' distress...

Back in the Midsection, Swerve sparingly tells Anode to go speak to Magnus, when suddenly she is magnetically attracted to the larger robot. Swerve explains, sacrificing most of his remaining words in the process, that he left the spray can for her to find AFTER he filled the sprinklers with the magnetizing spray and coated himself in the repellent for the spray.

In the cockpit, Cyclonus is informed by Rodimus that Tailgate seems to have died in a spontaneous spark combustion explosion, vaporizing him in the process. He tries to console him by assuring him that it would have been a quick and painless death, but Cyclonus angrily screams in pain, for the entire shuttle to hear.

Cyclonus stalks out of the cockpit in anger, just as Lug manages to fling Anode off of Magnus, sending her flying into Cyclonus, causing him to try and kill her with his sword out of rage. Swerve shouts for her to move, despite him using the last of his words, and Rewind is accidentally slashed in the fuel line instead. Velocity immediately starts working on him, as Chromedome goes after Cyclonus, claiming that he did it on purpose because he is jealous of him and Rewind, unaware of what just happened with Tailgate. Ratchet tries to get between the two fighters, but Chromedome is able to punch right through him, as he is now intangible.

Nearby, Anodes thanks Swerve for warning her about the sword, despite it costing him his last few words of life. Swerve acknowledges the thanks, but suddenly realizes that Anode knows about the bomb somehow, to which she admits to having had Whirl plant the FAKE bomb and timer in his head when he was asleep, and only pretended to fall for his other pranks. The evil genius!

Whirl breaks up the fight and asks Cyclonus if something happened to Tailgate, to which the hardened warrior is reduced to collapsing in his frenemy's arms in grief.

Suddenly Ratchet notices that he is sinking through the floor of the ship, as Roller notices that the ship is getting smaller. Rodimus realises that the Mass Displacement Override is failing, and everyone starts to panic as they are about to be crushed. Drift is trying to keep Ratchet from falling out of the shuttle, and Chromedome is further panicking that Rewind's wound isn't getting any better, all whilst Swerve is furious with Anode for messing with his head.

All of this stops however when Ten starts talking and tells them that they need to do exactly what he tells them to do so they can save themselves and the universe itself!

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Drift - Car

Ratchet - Ambulance Turned Grey and Intangible 

Velocity - Race Car

Swerve - Van

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug Accidentally Slashed by Cyclonus' Sword

Brainstorm - Jet

Nautica - Submarine

Rung - Photonic Crystal Generator

Nightbeat - Car

Fortress Maximus - Tank

Cerebros - Truck

Red Alert - Emergency Vehicle

Scrounge - Wheel

Kaput Dead

Megatron - Tank (Voice Recording)

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Voice Recording)

Skids - Van (Name on Statue) Dead

Tailgate - Car (Mentioned) Seemingly died from Spontaneous Spark Combustion

Pyro - Truck (Mentioned) Dead

Getaway - Car (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Skip - Space Shuttle Dead, Body used by Team Rodimus

Fangry - Winged Wolf Knocked Out by Fortress Maximus

Rapidfire - SUV Killed by Red Alert

Disappeared Decepticons Killed by Red Alert and Cerebros 

Deathsaurus' Troops Several Dead on Necroworld Battlefield

Zooka (Mentioned) Dead

Guncons (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned) Dead

Killmaster (Mentioned) Trapped in Pocket Dimension

Nautilator - Lobster (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Anode - Bi-Plane

Lug - Backpack Equipment

Roller - Truck

Cyclonus - Jet

Ten

Outrigger - Crane

Beak - Bird

Primus (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Necrobot (Mentioned) Dead

Other

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Black Block Consortia (Mentioned)

Notes

• Oh hey! Alex Milne is back for this issue. That was a nice surprise!
• Hey...didn't Outrigger and Beak leave for (presumably) Cybertron at the end of the Titans Return tie-ins? Why are they a part of the Luna-1 crew here?
• Red Alert was trying to locate the origin point of the Last Will message from Rodimus and his crew back in the Titans Return tie-in. Looks like he did it at last!!
• So...apparently after Rodimus and his group left Necroworld, Fangry and the other Decepticons went wild and killed most of the Autobots/Neutrals on the planet...good to know the Necrobots hard work of rescuing all those missing people will end up being pointless now!
• OMG! Scrounge!! He was last seen plunged into a viewscreen in Spotlight: Metroplex, seemingly killed by Sixshot, looks like he was rescued instead. Now we can have him join the main cast of the comic huzzah!!
• The Necrobot's cap is shown to be an actual live feed of sorts to the Benzene Cluster rather than just a printing. I think with all the mentions lately we'll be getting out season finale there before long...
• Fort Max now has Rodimus' contact information and knowledge on who has survived in his group...will he pass this information on to Optimus and the others who haven't even mentioned the seemingly betrayed and dead crew of his friends since they seemingly died....
• The prank war that is going on as the main plot for this issue began when Swerve made Anode complete a survey after waking up from stasis in issue 1...this issue goes to show us how petty she is...
• Lug seems to get annoyed when the imaginary second head on Anode is referred to as male...why? Pretty much every natural born Cybertronian from Cybertron are male, including Anode originally before her transition, so a conjoined twin would likely have been male too.
• Skip is shown to have at least four main compartments in his vehicle mode, the engine room (being doubled up as a med-bay), a midsection (doubled as a mess hall), the dead locker (fitted with a recharge slab) and the cockpit (doubled up as Rodimus' quarters). This goes to show us that Transformers do become fully functional and fitted vehicles in their alternate modes, which when scaled up (through mass displacement for example) can be used as a full-on vehicle
• Rung and Roller are shown resting in their alternate modes in the midsection. Rung makes sense since he turns into a very slender object that can be stored pretty much anywhere, but Roller turns into a giant truck...does he just want to take up all the space in the ship?!
• Brainstorm is shown to have rebuilt his Early Early Warning Device, this time with famous voices doing quotes, though Nautica mis-attributes them to others who just sound like the actually famous Cybertronians.
• It's subtle, but Ratchet is shown getting a bit fainter in colour in each of his scenes before the full-on depigmentation.
• Cyclonus is shown with the same scratch markings he was making on himself at the end of issue 7, when he was upset with Tailgate "dumping" him
• Lug appears to be reporting something to Rung in a background shot in this issue...is she going to be his assistant or something?
• Swerve tells Ten to get either Velocity or Ratchet to help him, he goes straight to Ratchet. This is a nice little nod to Ratchet being shown as one of his "favourites" in the past.
• The process of Cybertronians turning grey when they die is named as "Aggressive Depigmentation" here.
• Yes...this is the issue where the "canoodling" meme began. In case you aren't familiar with the term, canoodling refers to sexualized touching or even making love...I'm assuming this is just referring to touching here, since robots do not have sexual organs. That...or they were building canoes in his trailer? I dunno....
• Also...EW!!! You were messing around INSIDE ROLLER'S BODY!!! You sick fucks!!
• Rodimus is concerned that the Lost Light's signal has vanished. This likely is due to them being in the "Warren" network of space-tunnels
• So apparently Tailgate died when his spark exploded inside the isolation chamber. I'm just going to say this now...I do not for a moment believe he is actually dead. He's going to return in the finale or with the Scavengers next issue.
• Ten...can....talk? Swerve had better hope he doesn't tell anyone his secrets!!!

Sig Pub - Robots in Disguise 28

Notes

• This month's screen-cap comic is the episode "Defrosted", so it looks like it is following Season Three's releases now.
• According to the personality quiz, I am Strongarm
• The contest prizes say that the Last Knight toys are Legion class, but from the picture and description it is clearly Deluxe class.

Features

Make a Door Hanger - Destroy the cover to make a door hanger!

Which Autobot are you? - Take a quiz to see who you are!

Battle of the Bots - Profiles for Grimlock and Crustacion

Sideswipe is so Cool - Colour in a picture of Sideswipe and do a puzzle!

Spot the Stunticon - Locate the five Stunticons in he picture!

Drift Low-down - A profile on Drift and a bunch of puzzles related to him

Bumblebee Poster - A pull-out poster of Bumblebee with his Decepticon Hunter

Fixit's Tech Puzzles - Do a bunch of puzzles curtesy of Fixit

Comic Investigator - Answer some questions about this month's comic.

Puzzling Prizes - Do some puzzles the enter a contest for some "Legion class toys"

Decepticon Detective - Answer questions about some Decepticons!

Transformers Post - Send Fixit your pictures and possibly scare me with them!

Join the Dots - Do a "join the dots" puzzle of Starscream's head.

IDW - Rom and the Micronauts #2

Title: Microspace Knight

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colourist: Alessandra Alexakis

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editors: Carlos Guzman & David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

In Microspace, an energy depleted Rom fights off a swarm of Reptos, when he discovers that they have been turned into Dire Wraiths. He tries to take them out, but in his weakened state he is overwhelmed. Before he can be defeated however, the Micronauts arrive and fight off the Repto-Wraiths, ultimately letting them escape so they can take Rom back to their ship for healing.

In their ship's med-bay Rom is placed on a rejuvenator unit and slowly healed. In the meanwhile he tells the Micronauts all he learned about Karza's plan during the Enerchange with him. The Wraith's god, The Presence, is in another dimension, but is stuck sleeping for several millennia to come, regardless on how much energy is fed to her, however the Entropy Cloud inside Microspace is able to warp time, allowing her to wake up much earlier. They determine that the Wraiths must be using another portal to send the Entropy Cloud to The Presence, so they hook up Rom's Analyzer to the ship to detect them.

Later, Acroyear takes Rom to see Larissa to learn about Enerchanging to help in the battle, but he notices that Acroyear and Phen have a bit of sexual tension between them. He brings it up with Acroyear, which he confirms, but knows nothing can happen due to him being mostly mechanical now, and also looking monstrous under the mask. Rom can relate due to him being stuck in his armour too, and misses being intimate with Livia as he used to be, but assures him that if they both love each other then looks or disabilities shouldn't matter

In the lab, Larissa explains the process of Enerchanging to Rom, and begins teaching him simple weapon summoning skills, and plans to show him more advanced processes in the future. Larissa confides in him that she is worried about using a powerful Centaur form that she shows him in battle, because it reminds her of one of her father, Baron Karza's, forms. Rom however assures her that she is nothing like her father and should give herself more credit.

Later still, the Micronauts and Rom arrive at the location the Analyzer has led them to, where they come across a Hornetroid that has been infected with a Wraith. Acroyear goes in for a close attack, and gets caught in it's pincers, however the group soon subdue the monster and Rom destroys it with his Neuatralizer.

Afterwards the team locate the portal, situated on top of a Wraith-infected asteroid. The team decide to take Acroyear back to the ship for some healing so they can fight at full strength, however Acroyear attacks Phen and starts sprouting Wraith-matter, revealing that he was infected by the Hornetroid, leaving Rom to conjure a sword of his own, and promises to end his misery....

Characters

Micronaut

Larissa

Phenolo-Phi

Acroyear Infected with Wraith-Matter

Biotron

Microtron

Oziron Rael (Mentioned) Now a Time Traveler

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia (Flashback Only)

Orphion (Flashback Only)

Maur (Flashback Only)

Butin (Flashback Only)

Q'b (Flashback Only)

Dire Wraith

Wraith Hornetroid Killed by Rom

Wraith Asteroid

Repto Wraiths

The Presence (Flashback Only)

Scylla (Flashback Only)

Wraith Sorcerer (Flashback Only)

Wraith Soldiers (Flashback Only)

Other Microspace

Possible Future Larissa (Flashback Only)

Baron Karza (Mentioned)

Other

Elonians (Flashback Only)

Rom's Family (Mentioned) Dead

Notes

• The Reptos are mentioned as scorning individuality. This would explain why most times we've seen them, they've been in swarms
• I assume that the Micronauts entered Microspace through one of the permanent space bridges created by the Time Travelers. I mention it here because it's not clear in the comic itself.
• It's mentioned that the Entropy Cloud is not quite gone yet, but it is lessening, and will currently take 1.4 years to destroy the Microspace. That might sound bad, but considering it was imminent destruction before now, it is getting better!
• And we finally get a full explanation of Karza's plan! He plans to send the Entropy Cloud into the Presence's dimension to speed up her awakening, which in turn removes it from Microspace allowing it to be saved from it's effects.
• So apparently people from outside of Microspace can learn how to Enerchange as well! Granted it takes organic beings years of training, but it is possible. And supposedly robots can download a code to learn to do it...GIVE IT TO THE AUTOBOTS!!!
• Larissa's centaur form was previously seen with her potential future self in the Micronauts Annual, but as she mentions here, she doesn't like to use it due to her father using a similar form, and worries that she'll end up like him.
• The Micronaut's ship changes appearance a couple of times in this issue...I'm just gunna pretend that it's a shape-shifting ship just so I don't get a continuity headache.
• You might be wondering how the Wraiths can now infect Micronauts despite the First Strike issues implying that they are incompatible, but it's logical to assume that Karza has shared samples of their biology with the Wraiths, which has allowed them to bond better with them.
• Oh no! Acroyear has been infected with Wraith-taint! I wonder if this will end up being removed, or even used to fix his appearance?

IDW - Optimus Prime #15

Title: The Falling Part 1: Surfeit of Primes

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Kei Zama

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Assistant Editor: David Mariotte

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The Mistress of Flame, having come to speak with Alpha Trion, recounts her mission to Antilla, and reveals that when there, she saw Onyx Prime, and a giant mountain-sized eyeball. One of her crew, Magrada was killed there. and recounts how Praesida was killed by Onyx years later when on Caminus, telling her that Onyx was after her and her friends.

Scoop, now dismissive of believing in "gods" after his experience with Starscream being the "Chosen One" scoffs at the Mistress' story, having been invited there by Alpha Trion as he was the one who unearthed the Dark Cybertron prophecy. Trion suggests that the two of them could learn something from each other, but Mistress has to leave, however she does suggest to Scoop that perhaps his anger is better aimed towards the one who actually betrayed him, rather than the Primes.

The Mistress leaves and heads towards the space bridge where she meets with Windblade, in preparation for a visit from Optimus.

On Earth, Optimus officially opens up an Ore-13 mine along with Marissa and the President with human and Cybertronian workers to help with the rebuilding of Cybertron, whilst also providing jobs for the people of Earth. Some humans are protesting the event as they still hate Cybertronians, and even feel that Joe Colton and his crew (which includes several known terrorists mind you) should be freed.

On Autobot City, above the mine, Arcee hangs out with Aileron, and discusses the new Protoforms on Cybertron, with Arcee looking forward to seeing them develop and hopefully living in peace. The two are interrupted when they notice Slide screaming about Optimus again, and almost spills the cover-up of Frenzy and Rumble smuggling weapons in front of Arcee.

Optimus returns to the city with the first shipment of Ore-13, where Optimus is a bit annoyed with the protestors and is flippant with Pyra when she asks how it went, with him even joking about Pyra being happy they "got the humans to do their bidding", just as Marissa berates him for the poor joke.

Optimus is about to head back to Cybertron, when Aileron arrives dragging Slide with her to explain her attitude to Optimus. She begins to explain things, but Optimus has to leave, but reminds her that they have lost a lot of innocent life in the war, and they should celebrate their lives instead of having them stagnate their own lives. Pyra suggests that Slide and the other Colonists go to the Ore-13 mines to learn what they are trying to do on Earth.

Optimus soon on Cybertron and presents the Ore-13 to the Council of Worlds to use as they please amongst Cybertron and the colonies. The Mistress approaches Optimus to ask him about his past vision on Earth, just after the annexation, but before they can talk the sky suddenly goes dark...

Scoop visits Starscream in his cell, but before they can really do anything Bumblebee's "ghost" tells Starscream that there's a giant eye in the sky!!

Onyx Prime addresses the Council, presenting Liege Maximo as his prisoner to be judged for his crimes, along with anyone else who works against Cybertron. Optimus addressed himself as the defender of Cybertron and it's allies and demands Onyx to speak with him. Onyx agrees, especially since he holds Optimus, as the "Arisen", responsible for Cybertron's fall!

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime/"The Arisen" - Truck Cab

Alpha Trion - Shuttle

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Arcee - Sports Car

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Dust Up - Sports Car

Jumpstream - Sports Car

Skyburst - Helicopter

Stormclash - Helicopter

"Getout" - Dragster Car

Bumblebee - Car ("Ghost" Only)

Autobot Colonist Recruits

Slide - Rear of Oil Tanker

Roulette - Muscle Car

Midnight Express - Bullet Train

Bump - Armadillo

Gimlet - Lobster

Oiler - Front of Oil Tanker (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

United Cybertron

Starscream - Fighter Jet In Jail

Scoop - Front End Loader

Iaconian Civilians

Beast Horde

Onyx Prime

"Optimus Primal" (Flashback Only)

"Beast Megatron" (Flashback Only)

Other Beasts (Flashback Only)

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Mistress of Flame/Former Matriarch of Incaendium

Liege Maximo Captured by Onyx Prime

Rum-Maj

Wreck-Gar Still Just a Head

Airazor - Eagle

Moonracer - Sports Car

Knock Out - Sports Car

Elita One

Strika - Battle Tank

Fireshot - Part of Jet

Vanquish - Part of Jet

Cybertronian Miners

Sharkticons - Sharks

Praesidia (Flashback Only) Seemingly Killed by Onyx Prime

Magrada (Flashback Only) Seemingly Decapitated by Onyx Prime

Former Mistress of Flame (Mentioned) Dead

The Thirteen Primes (Mentioned)

Primus (Mentioned) 

New Protoforms (Mentioned)

Protoform Sideswipe (Mentioned)

Sterling - Car (Mentioned) Dead

Nova Prime - Truck (Mentioned) Dead

Metalhawk - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

The Old Senate (Mentioned) Defunct

Human

Marissa Faireborn

Madame President

Flint

Chameleon 

Human Miners

Human Protestors 

Joe Colton (Mentioned) Jailed on Cybertron

The Iron Ring (Mentioned) Jailed on Cybertron 

Other

The Solstar Order (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue is set after the Till All Are One Annual, as it features Starscream in jail and Windblade as the leader of the planet. This also means that this issue is set about a month after issue 14 as that was the period of time spent in the Annual
• Okay I know it looks bad, but we don't actually see Onyx kill Magrada here, maybe he was trying to save her from a ninja or something? I just think he may be a secret "good guy".
• So....Caminus' star started to die as Mistress of Flame returned to the colony following the mission to Antilla, and the previous Mistress died as well...does anyone else think she was involved with these "events" too?
• Also...are we going to learn Mistress' real name soon?
• Amongst the Beast Horde are Optimus Primal and Beast Megatron, considering the formers role in the new Power of the Primes toy line, I think they'll get properly introduced in this storyline.
• So...a giant mountain sized eye? I wonder if that is related in some way to Unicron? Well it's either that, or the Triptych Mask is much bigger than expected...
• So the Mistress and Windblade are on better terms now, following their last meeting where the former slapped the latter for heresy.
• In the Ore-13 mine on Earth, one of the workers appears to be Skram, but he died by Sandstorm's hands in Punishment. So I am renaming him Getout here, which was a member of the Maximal Command Security Force that was seemingly based on him.
• Awwww...Arcee looks actually happy when talking to Aileron about the new Protoforms and the new Sideswipe.
• Why is Elita on Cybertron with the Council of Worlds representatives? She's not one of them, and at least Strika is there to represent Carcer.
• Hey...Starscream's cell sure looks quite nice...almost like a hotel room (in fact most hotel rooms I stay in are comparatively smaller than his cell!)
• The hologram of Starscream's "true self" appears to be able to move, as it's in a totally different pose to what it was in the Annual.
• Oh cool! Onyx Prime has captured Liege Maximo...guess someone should call Chromia and her crew and let them know they can come home now huh?
• Onyx appears to confirm that Optimus is the thirteenth Prime "The Arisen", unless he just refers to him as that because he knows that others believe him to be it.
• It's mentioned in this issue about "the last time Liege Maximo attacked Cybertron"....when did this happen? The only thing Maximo has done really is escape from jail, and evade further capture since the end of the Titan Swarm attack.
• Windblade off-handedly jokes that Optimus has annexed the Solstar Order...considering the apparent events of the upcoming Darkest Hour storyline including Unicron attacking Elonia, the HQ of the Solstar Order...maybe he should?