TF Views

"More than Meets the Eye" was effectively put on hold for 6 months for "Dark Cybertron"

Didn't the book start going bi-weekly or something during that time period?

RiD and MtMtE were both folded in to "Dark Cybertron". They kept their individual schedules while their normal arcs were suspended.

Transformers #36
It occurred to me that in some ways we have here the IDW equivalent of the G1 season three status quo, or portions of it at least. The Decepticons serve under Galvatron, we have the presence of the EDC and Marissa Fairborne, Spike is an adult, and we’re in the 21st century on a more technologically advanced Earth, which got that way due to Transformers and their technology. The similarities end there of course, with the absence of Rodimus Prime, Magnus, Kup, and all the other characters associated with that season. And humans are not Autobot allies, so there are plenty of differences as well, including the presence of Gabriel “G.B” Blackrock, which is a nod to Marvel Transformers. But the parallels with the original tv series stood out at me for the first time while reading this issue. It definitely contributes to giving this series a more traditional feel compared with MTMTE, and I think that’s what I’m in the mood for at the moment when it comes to Transformers fiction.

The book opens with a meeting between Soundwave and Thundercracker, in which Soundwave tries to recruit the still independent TC back into the Decepticon ranks. He claims that they’re done with the fighting and killing and are planning on constructive purposes going forward. Thundercracker agrees to think about it, but he’s not really buying Soundwave’s sales pitch. At this point I’m not sure where his character arc might go. I don’t see him staying on Earth with his dog and writing bad screenplays forever.

The remainder of the issue sees Spike pursued both by Prowl and the Constructicons as well as Galvatron’s Decepticons. Spike is searching for the cause of the second Transformers incursion on Earth, which he is convinced that Blackrock knows about. The events of Spotlight Shockwave are referenced as the first time Transformers ever arrived on Earth, along with the seeding of Ore-13 for energy, so once again Barber is integrating those early Furman storylines into his plot (as evidenced by Jimmy Pink’s continued presence), or at least using them to remind us that it’s still the same continuity, and that the continued long-term interaction between Earth and the Transformers has had a lasting impact on both, and that continues to the present day.

And, amazingly enough, we have Transformers that actually transform in this series. Spike and Jimmy are captured by Rumble and Frenzy disguised as motorcycles. The Constructicons attempt to blend in and surround Spike, though since he knows them the attempt is ineffective. But the disguises did allow them to get into downtown without any fuss. In the end, Spike is captured by Prowl, who rather than kill him (though he admits the day is still young) tells Spike that he’s wanted to say something to him for years. To Spike’s great surprise, Prowl says “I forgive you.” Yeah, that’s not an out of character moment masking some Prowl scheme. Still, I admit I wasn’t expecting it, and the surprise statement makes an effective cliffhanger for the end of the issue since I’m left wondering what Prowl is up to.

Issue 36:

At this point, I might dislike Barber more than Prowl does.

This issue combines the worst of the big two style writing of the last few months with shity sci-fi cliches. In this case,

Spoiler

the idiotic "McGuffin from space is a foundational relic of human civilization" schtick comes up.

Barber arguably addresses this in a conversation between Spike and Jimmy, so it may not be his fault. But, regardless of who is to blame, it is an exceptionaly stupid plot-point in a book that used to be better, from a company that should know better in a franchise loaded with examples of how and why it is a stupid idea.

Thundercracker being written as an emotionally vulnerable teenage girl finally broke me this issue. The scene where he hands Soundwave his (obviously) bad fanfic and Soundwave is trying to nicely ask if it is "any good"..... Way too meta and not too clever there Barber. Give me the straight up gay space robots of "More than Meets the Eye". In that book, the lunacy and emo stuff is at least funny.

And, Barber managed to screw up a basic detail.....while trying to write something cool and tech-thriller-y.

Spoiler

Prowl manages to track Spike because Generally Witwicky emailed Spike. Spike opened, but did not read, the emails.

That is simply not how email investigation works, especially transcontinental email. Prowl could trace the messages back to a specific machine. But, unless Witwicky put some kind of read receipt on the messages (which would be really stupid in context), it would be impossible to track where the messages went.

Never mind that Witwicky probably would have used Tor or something similar. And, Barber would probably know about Tor given all of the news relating to Snowden and SilkRoad over the last few years. Right?

Grade: F
Done. Just have to remember to drop the book next time I go to the comic shop. (I am half-tempted to stick around for the sake of morbid curiosity, just to see how badly of the tracks this book I used to like can go.)

Harsh! Tell us what you really think, Dom.

The

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email

thing really annoyed me because

Spoiler

I have some background in digital investigation. I am not explert but

it contradicted enough of what I know on first reading.

I immediately started parsing the dialogue, and it did not make sense. The more I stepped back from

Spoiler

the technical side as I understand it,

the less sense it made because

Spoiler

email

simply does not work that way. And, if Barber is going to assume that a given system might work that way, he should be smart enough to consider obvious counter-measures.

The best/worst part is, even if you don't have any background in it, if you just stop and think for less than a minute about how e-mail and receiving/checking it works (as I did after you told me about this plot point) you realize how flat-out wrong 'tracking' it to a specific location would be. It's absurd.

I can be done *if* the sender wants to. This requires the use of an email service that allows for tracking in the first place. (It would work similar to FaceBook messenger. Actually, I think Outlook has an option for this.) Alternatively, there are third party services that one can use alongside a regular email to do the same thing. But, that is an even more deliberative step that General Witwicky would not have taken. \

Any "alien tech" reasoning that somebody might say would work as an explanation would cut both ways, because Witwicky would have had access to it as well, and his "Tor" (anonomizing) would have incorporated it.


I was actually thinking about the combiner McGuffin yesterday. Why does IDW even need the stupid thing? Why does combining have to be magical, rather than just a technological upgrade? (This actually goes back to earlier in Barber's run. But, it is really annoying me at the moment.)

Dom wrote:I was actually thinking about the combiner McGuffin yesterday. Why does IDW even need the stupid thing? Why does combining have to be magical, rather than just a technological upgrade? (This actually goes back to earlier in Barber's run. But, it is really annoying me at the moment.)

Wait, is that what they're doing? Because combination HAS been a technological thing in IDWTF up until this point. Monstructor, Devastator, hell, Swindle built the Stunticons into a Combiner on Earth WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS, no problem. How are they doing this now?

...especially with Prowlistator apparently still running around without issues.

I'm not sad I stopped reading this series.

I have not heard of Tor, so I don't know what that is or what it does. As such, I wouldn't assume anyone else has either. And, in a world where identity thieves can get all sorts of information from almost anyone just by them accessing the internet, it's not going to be that much of a stretch for me to believe that Prowl could find Spike by him logging into his email. In fact, if Prowl was really looking that hard, it's reasonable to assume that he would have all of Spike's known communication and electronic operations (credit/debit cards, cell phones, etc) monitored anyway.

I think the implication here is that, while combiners can be accomplished technologically, the matrix of combination (or whatever it's called), is needed for the mental stability of the merged form. The fact that the others were created without that is why the previous ones have all been mentally insane (including the merged form of Prowlistator).