Re: Deviations (IDW's themed cross-over)
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:12 pm
Full review:
In theory, it's a nice idea to take the Transformers movie and run with an alternate series of events to see what happens. If only Hot Rod hadn't gotten in the way.... Optimus Prime would have won that fight, right?
In this version of events, Kup doesn't just tell Hot Rod to stay out of the way, he grabs him to make sure that he does, so Optimus takes that last shot and kills Megatron after Megatron had fired at him. Starscream mocks his fallen leader and leads the Decepticons on a retreat using Astrotrain as a transport. It's much the same as the move plotline. The wounded Decepticons are cast out, but without Megatron to bargain for them, they are consumed by Unicron. All well and good, since this is the point where the first half of the movie featuring the older G1 characters ends, and the second half kicks off.
And I guess what I would expect from a "what if" story where Optimus survived is an exploration of what that would mean. But we dont' really get that. The book continues to follow the plotline of the movie with some changes here and there, with bad characterization of the G1 characters, and pointless rabbit trails to Quintessa and Junkion, neither of which are necessary to the plot. And all the nonsense about Hot Rod seeing the "true" timeline where Optimus died and he inherited the Matrix... what is the point? In a universe of infinite possibilities, why is one path any more valid than another? It's basically just a plot contrivance so that Hot Rod takes the Matrix at the end and is able to save Optimus from "Megascream", and using the Matrix to destroy Unicron only to die in the explosion.
It' just seems to me that if they were going to tell an alternate version of events that they should really have gone for it, and really shaken things up. The writer hews too close to the plot of the movie, with the result that the whole thing feels too much like the original. As much as I enjoy this version of the characters, it does feel like a wasted exercise.
Add to that I feel ripped off... I'm quite sure that extra dollar I paid for the book is because of all the ad space for IDW's regular Transformers series in the back. Maybe the last fifth of the book is ads... I don't know without counting pages, and I can't be bothered.
Dom said it felt like a Fun Publications comic. Yeah, I agree. That's exactly what it feels like. It should have been much better than it was.
In theory, it's a nice idea to take the Transformers movie and run with an alternate series of events to see what happens. If only Hot Rod hadn't gotten in the way.... Optimus Prime would have won that fight, right?
In this version of events, Kup doesn't just tell Hot Rod to stay out of the way, he grabs him to make sure that he does, so Optimus takes that last shot and kills Megatron after Megatron had fired at him. Starscream mocks his fallen leader and leads the Decepticons on a retreat using Astrotrain as a transport. It's much the same as the move plotline. The wounded Decepticons are cast out, but without Megatron to bargain for them, they are consumed by Unicron. All well and good, since this is the point where the first half of the movie featuring the older G1 characters ends, and the second half kicks off.
And I guess what I would expect from a "what if" story where Optimus survived is an exploration of what that would mean. But we dont' really get that. The book continues to follow the plotline of the movie with some changes here and there, with bad characterization of the G1 characters, and pointless rabbit trails to Quintessa and Junkion, neither of which are necessary to the plot. And all the nonsense about Hot Rod seeing the "true" timeline where Optimus died and he inherited the Matrix... what is the point? In a universe of infinite possibilities, why is one path any more valid than another? It's basically just a plot contrivance so that Hot Rod takes the Matrix at the end and is able to save Optimus from "Megascream", and using the Matrix to destroy Unicron only to die in the explosion.
It' just seems to me that if they were going to tell an alternate version of events that they should really have gone for it, and really shaken things up. The writer hews too close to the plot of the movie, with the result that the whole thing feels too much like the original. As much as I enjoy this version of the characters, it does feel like a wasted exercise.
Add to that I feel ripped off... I'm quite sure that extra dollar I paid for the book is because of all the ad space for IDW's regular Transformers series in the back. Maybe the last fifth of the book is ads... I don't know without counting pages, and I can't be bothered.
Dom said it felt like a Fun Publications comic. Yeah, I agree. That's exactly what it feels like. It should have been much better than it was.