Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Going Backwards - Transformers: All Hail Megatron #5 review

Hi everybody, we're back with another instalment of your favorite show article: Going Backwards reviews! This week, your host Fanbot brings you thoughts on IDW's Transformers: All Hail Megatron #5. No messing around now, let's just get straight into the review...

Synopsis: ot Rod is brought back to the others and explains to Jazz how his team, lead by Kup on the Starship Trion, followed a Decepticon battle cruiser into a trap in orbit of Cybertron and were shot down when the Decepticons were able to penetrate their ship's systems. Once they crashed they expected to be followed or for the Swarm to turn up and so they hid, trying their best to conserve Energon whilst Hot Rod rigged a distress signal. His story finished, Kup and the other crew members arrive.
Outside New York, Colonel Witwicky’s son Spike arrives at the army camp. His father explains that the Decepticons are beginning to attack the rest of the country and the United Nations are getting nervous so America needs to solve this problem before the world starts to take extreme measures that could cost millions of lives. By studying Decepticon broadcasts they know Megatron is the leader and his death would leave the others directionless. Spike is to lead a team into New York and use a new weapon that was stored in the City to try to kill Megatron.
On Cybertron, Kup is unconvinced by Jazz’s leadership, but the head of Special Ops proves his worth as a rational leader by beating up Springer and Blurr. He then takes Kup to Prime.
Spike and his team try to cross the river into New York but barely get halfway before Ratbat seemingly kills all of them, leaving the Colonel broken.
Jazz explains to Kup that Prime was wounded by Devastator and is dying. Kup is able to guess what Jazz and Prowl have been keeping from the others; Megatron has the Matrix.
On Earth, Megatron gloats over his prize amongst the newly constructed buildings in New York, whilst by the river Spike has somehow survived and made it to the other side.

The Good: ART: Guido Guidi, you are slagging awesome (Casey looked good for his four pages too, but you can't beat the Gui.). The thick, bold lines, blocks of shadow, and gritty texture convey the, well, gritty, mood of the story. In contrast, sequences on Earth seem slightly smoother, as some order (of the Decepticon kind) is present. Josh's toned-down, expressive color palette enhances the artwork to new levels of beauty. COVER: Shown above, Trevor Hutchison's variant cover for the issue is pretty damn awesome, with the standoffish-looking Jazz and Kup standing as if from either sides of a duelling field. Notice that Jazz is black and Kup is white. This alludes to their (G1 cartoon) personalities. Very clever on all levels. STORY: Shane's plot is adequately believable and relatively straightforward. Shane, was going awesome up till now. See below...

The Bad: Here is where the story's reasoning goes a bit downhill. The super-weapon that just happened to be in NY and conveniently didn't get damaged in the Decepticons' totall pwning of the city? A little too convenient for it to be realistic. But then there's a whole lot of these when we read McCarthy's work. Also, the Autobots on the shuttle feel any damage inflicted on the ship as pain through their plug-in piloting system. That’s a tad daft dontcha think? An even though Megatron claimed to have conquered the entire Earth last issue. Colonel Witwicky here talks in terms of a solely American invasion, with the other world powers all ready to nuke America.

The Ugly: See above for all the uglies.

Verdict: The story starts to go downhill from here, but i still relatively believable and the art, as usual, is awesome. A well-executed issue, worth my money. Rated 8.5 out 10.

Posted by Fanbot at 4:28 pm, WEDNESDAY 14 October

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