TF Views

I read Lewis's copy last night (or maybe early this morning....I dunno. I was punched up on Neuro-Fusion energy drink and the downer that compliments it....)

Rage of the Dinobots #1:
This first issue feels like mostly set-up for the premise and the plot. It is similar to "Reign of Starscream" in this regard, thought "Rage of the Dinobots" actually get a bit more done. There is potential for this to be a "journey to and back form the dark side" story. The art is not great, but I have seen much worse. And, Slag's new official name is "Slug". Despite the change, I get the feeling that some fans will be either huffy or lazy about using the new name. (I will be lazy.) Grade: C


Dom
-might pick up the compilation, but wants to at least flip through the next issue....

Slug? Ummm....

Slag got his name originally because he used fire as a weapon. "The vitreous mass left as a residue by the smelting of metallic ore" is one definition of the word. Like so many characters, the name had meaning. My guess is that the current writers are avoiding slag, probably at Hasbro's direction, since it's slang for "a coarse or dissipated girl or woman", according to the same dictionary that gave me the first definition. How that word came to mean that, I have no idea.

Regardless, naming the character "Slug" makes no sense. I get that they're going for something as similar as they think they can get away with, but unless the Dinobot formerly known as Slag is now really slow or lazy or shrivels up when salt is poured on him, it's a weird choice of replacement names.

Dominic wrote: Rage of the Dinobots #1:
This first issue feels like mostly set-up for the premise and the plot. It is similar to "Reign of Starscream" in this regard, thought "Rage of the Dinobots" actually get a bit more done. There is potential for this to be a "journey to and back form the dark side" story. The art is not great, but I have seen much worse.

As someone who hasn’t played Fall of Cybertron and doesn’t watch TFPrime, I was pretty outside the target audience for this book when I read it. I still reserve the right to be disappointed with it. A lot of it came across as the stock ‘look how cool the Dinobots are’ stuff we’ve read many times before, down to the exact same ‘We’re separate from the Autobots because we’re different from them, but we’re still a team on our own, and even though our bad attitudes make us squabble we’re actually close-knit battle brothers’ rhetoric. There’s very little new here, save for the aside explanation of these Dinobots somehow having gotten their dinosaur modes while still on Cybertron, and that origin possibly being tied to the new Predacons due to debut in TFPrime. Whatevs. ‘Ser-Ket’ is a really, really, dumb name. The art looks like ass, the guy apparently having technical skill at drawing straight lines, but not much in the way of proportions, consistent detailing, distinctive silhouettes, or even sizes. Plus the coloring looks really lazy and awful. It was only curiosity that got me to pick up this first issue, and I don’t think I’ll be buying any more.

And, Slag's new official name is "Slug". Despite the change, I get the feeling that some fans will be either huffy or lazy about using the new name. (I will be lazy.)

Technically, ‘Slug’ is just the name of the triceratops Dinobot in this series (FoC/TFPrime) and has nothing to do with other Triceratrops Dinobots in other continuities. The one from Animated was named ‘Snarl’, and the Geewun version is presumably still named ‘Slag’ until further notice (last time he showed up was, I think, Maximum Dinobots. Though a parallel version in Re-G1 might be forthcoming and would likely still be named ‘Slag’).

andersonh1 wrote:Slug? Ummm....

Slag got his name originally because he used fire as a weapon. "The vitreous mass left as a residue by the smelting of metallic ore" is one definition of the word. Like so many characters, the name had meaning. My guess is that the current writers are avoiding slag, probably at Hasbro's direction, since it's slang for "a coarse or dissipated girl or woman", according to the same dictionary that gave me the first definition. How that word came to mean that, I have no idea.

You gotta keep up with the news, man. Hasbro quit using ‘Slag’ as the name for the Dinobot (and to a lesser extent, as a stock TF ‘swear’ word, supplanting it with ‘Scrap’) a few years ago after some folks alerted them to the fact that the word is a well-worn piece of extremely offensive slang/profanity over in England, akin to ‘Whore’ or ‘Slut’ as a thing to call a woman. A similar thing happened with a PCC guy who would’ve been named ‘Spastic’ originally; these are apparently extremely not-nice words over there.

Regardless, naming the character "Slug" makes no sense. I get that they're going for something as similar as they think they can get away with, but unless the Dinobot formerly known as Slag is now really slow or lazy or shrivels up when salt is poured on him, it's a weird choice of replacement names.

Well he *could* be named after a lump of cast-off, excess metal; indeed a ‘slug’ could even be a cooled form of some ‘slag’. He could also be named after the unit of ammunition, especially if this one has a more gunslinger-y persona, or something.

There’s very little new here,

Welcome to TF Prime!

He could also be named after the unit of ammunition, especially if this one has a more gunslinger-y persona, or something.

I hope that's what they were going for.

I've both read this and played FoC. This seems to be the missing part of the story from the game. Sort of. The one inconsistency is that Sludge is there with a dinosaur alt mode. In the game, Shockwave modified them after they'd been separated from Sludge, he never got a dino alt mode and wasn't really "in" the game in any sort of playable sense. He was only seen by Jazz for about two seconds in the insecticon catacombs.

But, I'm assuming this is the story of the mission that took them away from their security checkpoints in the first place and lead to them getting captured and modded by Shockwave.

Yeah, this issue is set up and as Prowl said, there's really nothing new here, but I would say that the whole "We Dinobots stick together" schtick is the defining trait of the team. I mean, what would you want to see? The Dinobots openly fighting with the other Autobots? Openly fighting with each other? That would suck worse than the "stick together" schtick. I dunno, I'll still get the remaining issues of this, but I'm not expecting to be wowed by it.

EDIT: I totally still call him "Slag".

Shockwave wrote:I've both read this and played FoC. This seems to be the missing part of the story from the game. Sort of. The one inconsistency is that Sludge is there with a dinosaur alt mode. In the game, Shockwave modified them after they'd been separated from Sludge, he never got a dino alt mode and wasn't really "in" the game in any sort of playable sense. He was only seen by Jazz for about two seconds in the insecticon catacombs.

But, I'm assuming this is the story of the mission that took them away from their security checkpoints in the first place and lead to them getting captured and modded by Shockwave.

Wait, haven’t they all already been modified, having dinosaur modes and all? Or…how many times do the Dinobots get ‘modified’ in the game?

I was under the impression this took place after whatever happens in the game, with most of Cybertron evacuating and gone now. But again, I should stress that I haven’t played FoC at all.

Yeah, this issue is set up and as Prowl said, there's really nothing new here, but I would say that the whole "We Dinobots stick together" schtick is the defining trait of the team. I mean, what would you want to see? The Dinobots openly fighting with the other Autobots? Openly fighting with each other? That would suck worse than the "stick together" schtick. I dunno, I'll still get the remaining issues of this, but I'm not expecting to be wowed by it.

I dunno, maybe they could at least present it a different way than a running monologue from Grimlock set against a battle we’ve just been dropped into at the beginning of a story? Because I swear I’ve seen this same set-up for the Dinobots in a comic at least three times already. Or maybe if the general execution was just better I would be okay with it, but as-is it’s saddled with the same problem all of TF Prime has, which is just being ‘Generic Transformers’ stories with nothing to make it stand out from any of the other mediocre TF stories we’ve ever gotten.

EDIT: I totally still call him "Slag".

I ain’t worrying about it since I’m unlikely to have to refer to the character that often. Especially since Hasbro seems to have forgotten how to make toys of Dinobots that aren’t Grimlock.

They get modified once, by Shockwave. They did not have Dinosaur alt modes before that. And Sludge wasn't with them when they got modified so his inclusion with a Dino mode puts the timeline into question. This could be taking place after, I'll have to wait for future issues to tell.

As far as I can tell and seen discussed elsewhere, this story does take place after the Ark and Nemesis left Cybertron and most of the inhabitants evacuated.

Shockwave wrote:They get modified once, by Shockwave. They did not have Dinosaur alt modes before that. And Sludge wasn't with them when they got modified so his inclusion with a Dino mode puts the timeline into question. This could be taking place after, I'll have to wait for future issues to tell.

Exactly. So what I'm saying is that this story can't be leading up to them getting modified into having Dino Modes by Shockwave since they already have Dino Modes so this story at least takes place after that happens.

I suppose I was just thrown off by the inclusion of Sludge. In the game, Jazz takes one long look at him and moves on, it's never shown if anyone ever went back for him. And there were only ever 4 Dinobots shown after that. I guess it's really not a good sign that there's already a majoy continuity error right out the gate. Transformers comics are stupid.