No noses? No problem! Zombiebots? Sure, why not. A confusing new canon that allows loose and contradictory material? And now a new sequel show with an entirely different art style that takes place way in the future!
Dominic wrote:In any case, Prime found the Star Saber along with the husk of an ancient Cybertronian. Previous iterations of the McGuffin are hand-waved as legends.
Any mention of the guy 'named' fucking Star Saber? Or is he handwaved away as well?
One thing that Irvine gets points for is that Velocitron was not an Edenic planet before Prime showed up. The world was far from perfect, which is a contrast to the genre-cliche where a perfect planet is destroyed by a conflict that the main characters brought with them.
It will never be as cool as our thing, where Dirt Boss was like this drug lord mafioso robot who was rigging the races. Crumplezone was his muscle.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
Which is just wrong. Because, as to my understanding, Star Saber is 'supposed' to be that Young Brash Dick Who Is In Command type. Goes into things without thinking, etc. I might be confusing him with someone else though.
Reading Wiki indicates that Nexus Prime has the Star Saber built into him somehow. And then somehow Vector Prime and Alpha Trion cut him up with it. This is a dumb fucking book.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
It sounds like Irvine might be trying to reconcile contrary editorial mandates. I managed to read all of this week's comics last night, so tonight I can get back to "Exiles".
Dom
-almost dreading then Liege Maximo shows up....
The Autobots leave Veloctron on the brink of civil war. It is pretty clearly stated that Prime and his crew did not cause the conflict, but their presence may have accelerated it. Optimus is consistently the point of view character, but Override is neatly shown to be a leader without Irvine going in to tedious detail like "Override did this, and then she did...."
If I did not skip ahead and read some other reviews, I would be more engaged with figuring out which Autobot is the traitor. But, that is really a tertiary question.
Okay, I am ~100 or so pages in. (I have not really been counting.)
Junkion is portrayed as being a bit rougher than it was in the movie. The Junkions are....nasty but approachable. Many of the sillier elements of the characters are kept intact, but the reasons given for the silliness is may detract from the humour for some people. Irvine is doing a good job acknowleding how "lost colonies" of TFs tend to be very gimmick focused and offering some reasoning for the hows and whys.
However, in contrast to the (sensible) uncertainty Prime has about other robots that the Autobots meet on their journey, there is no doubt about the magical Matrix.
The Matrix as Magical McGuffin is getting more tiresome. I do not blame Irvine for this as it is probably the result of an editorial mandate. But, if there is one thing about Hasbro's "Alligned" setting that I am going to complain about, it is over-use of the Matrix as an all-purpose McGuffin that does what the writer needs it to do more or less as needed. (Yeah, I know that phrasing sucks. But, it nicely sums up the Matrix as presented here.)
Dominic wrote:However, in contrast to the (sensible) uncertainty Prime has about other robots that the Autobots meet on their journey, there is no doubt about the magical Matrix.
The Matrix as Magical McGuffin is getting more tiresome. I do not blame Irvine for this as it is probably the result of an editorial mandate. But, if there is one thing about Hasbro's "Alligned" setting that I am going to complain about, it is over-use of the Matrix as an all-purpose McGuffin that does what the writer needs it to do more or less as needed. (Yeah, I know that phrasing sucks. But, it nicely sums up the Matrix as presented here.)
That, and maybe we've been spoiled by Costa's (in my opinion) extremely good handling of the Matrix over in IDW's comics over the past couple years.
Yeah, when Six and I were going over the Wiki entries for some of this stuff a couple weeks back, I couldn't believe how fanfic-y some of it got. *Especially* the bits that actually involve the Thirteen. Nexus Prime is pretty much every horrible fan-character from every franchise ever (and I possibly mean that literally, due to the hilariously retarded nature of the character, which I totally called mere minutes before actually reading and confirming it).
If by "extremeley good handling" you mean "Costa did not use it that much", I agree. And, yeah, when he did use it, it was much better than most anything else we have seen over the years.
Spoiled my ass. We grew the fuck up. Furman did not. The fan club is run by people who did not. Costa could write....and he pitched too high.
Okay, back to the book.
One plot thread is that the Autobots are looking for the Star Saber. The pattern seems to be that they land on a planet, and find a piece.....kinda like an 8-bit video game. (And, this is a novel sold in legitimate book stores....and not in the kids' section!)
The piece of the saber recovered on Junk...is discovered by Prime mere moments before being fed in to a furnace. Prime's successful recovery of it involves him grappling with an irate Junkion on a conveyor belt that is bringing him ever closer to the furnace..... I swear to god that I am not making this crap up.
Still, all things considered, it is suprisingly readable for what it is.
Dom
-still not going to recomment it or nothin' though.
Overused tropes and situations are not inherently bad, especially if an attempt is made to ramp it up, or to set the stage for a later encounter. Unfortunately I doubt that'll come to pass, for obvious reasons, but yeah.
Just look at some of the old 90s All Japan Pro Wrestling matches. Those guys were playing off finishes to matches they were in 'half a decade ago.'
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
Read a little more yesterday:
Axer's origin involves him getting a power set that reconciles him as G1/RiD Axer. It is written a bit more stream of conciousness than I would like. But, my biggest problem is the fact that it ties in with the fan-wank club's take on the character. Characterization-wise, Irvine does a good job or presenting Axer as a regular guy who is no angel, but is not a complete monster.
