review - Megatron: Origin

If any of IDW’s Transformers fiction had to be described as having the look and feel of a comic published by Dreamwave, it would have to be the “Megatron: Origin” mini-series. Written by Eric Holmes and drawn by Alex Milne, the story is visually dense, with a narrative consisting of what feel like vignettes in Megatron’s early life rather than a deliberately paced, flowing narrative. The series is crammed with visual cameos by familiar characters, and action sequences are not always drawn in a way that conveys the events depicted in a clear manner.

The plot takes an interesting tack right off the bat by portraying the government that rules Cybertron as a corrupt one. When a senator attempts to shut down an Energon mine, the miners resist, and one particularly vocal miner is attacked and killed by the Senator’s Autobot bodyguards. And here’s where Megatron enters the picture. He fights back during the ensuing riot, and kills a guard with his bare hands, causing him to freak out at the having taken a life. Shot down by the guards quelling the riot, he later awakens in the prison shuttle, captures it, and goes underground in the city of Kaon.

Personally, I find the very idea of a young, essentially innocent Megatron a fascinating depiction of the character, because it’s so different than the present-day Decepticon leader. The idea that he’s appalled at having killed someone is just so off the wall, and yet it makes sense. Most world tyrants don’t start out as killers, and some of them probably start out with good intentions. On the other hand, I’m not sure how I feel about portraying the Autobots as corrupt murderers. I despise the trend of tearing down fictional heroes and casting them as morally equivalent to the villains. Not that I want everything to be black and white morally, but the Autobots in this story are every bit as bad as the Decepticons will later be. So why would we root for them? What makes them any better than the Decepticons? I suppose it could be argued that not all Autobots are as bad as those in the Senate and the brutal guards who put down the prison riot, but still, the story paints them in a very bad light.

Moving on, Megatron begins to participate in the illegal underground gladiatorial games in Kaon. The story never specifies just why he makes this choice, and the reader is left to infer that it’s a matter of survival in the corrupt Kaon. Over time he becomes quite numb to taking lives, and eventually revels in it as he grows to be quite proficient in the ring. This is shown to be how he begins to recruit his army, particularly with Soundwave’s help. And this too makes sense, since the Decepticon army is largely composed of thugs and killers and psychopaths. Megatron draws from the criminal elements on Cybertron and rallies them to his cause as his reputation grows. It’s a believable route for the character to take.

Ultimately, by the time the Autobots move in to arrest Megatron and break up the gladiatorial movement, it’s too late to stop it. Picture a small group of police going up against a gang of heavily armed terrorists, and you’ve got the picture here. We finally get a good look at Sentinel Prime, and he’s beaten to within an inch of his life by Megatron.

Now, when summarized like this, the story makes good sense. However, the narrative of the four-issue mini-series jumps around in Megatron’s early life. Character choices are not always explained, and one event doesn’t always follow the previous event in step-by-step fashion. That’s not to say that the story doesn’t make sense, but we aren’t given all the thought behind Megatron’s choices, or his philosophy, and it’s a wasted opportunity to get inside the character’s head. We see what lead to his rebellion and rise to power, but only bits and pieces with no narrative or motive to connect them. We don’t really get to know Megatron. We get to know facts about his rise to power, but not him.

The art is very detailed and fairly good, all things considered. Characters look more or less on model and are recognizable. My problem with the art lies with the sequential and action storytelling. It’s necessary to read most issues two or three times to work out just what is going on in some scenes. The fight between Sentinel Prime and Megatron is a good example of this, as it is difficult to tell who is getting trashed at any given moment. Sometimes the colors are a bit too shadowy and muted to really make the characters distinct from one another. And then there’s “character cameo syndrome” where characters pop up in crowd scenes and the appearance conflicts with fiction set at a later time, or characters from another continuity turn up in crowd scenes. This makes for fun Easter eggs until whiny fanboys start complaining that so and so’s appearance in story x makes the story crap because said character was seen in a crowd in Megatron Origin.

So what’s the bottom line? I think overall the story has some good ideas and Megatron’s rise to power is sound enough in concept. In practice, the story feels like it rushes through some important moments, and it turns the Autobots into corrupt and ineffective police in order to give Megatron a sympathetic origin. With some clearer art and a couple more issues to allow the story to breathe and unfold a little more naturally, the series would have been considerably improved. This isn’t IDW’s best effort, but it’s not terrible. It’s not worth knocking yourself out to collect either.

The Transformers - review of first issue

Issue #1

Where to begin? Just about half the book has been made available online in the past few weeks, including the death of Ironhide, so there’s very little that’s unexpected in this first issue. Even the ending is one of those “I saw it coming” type twists. Not that it isn’t effective, and where the story goes from here is hard to predict, so in that sense it’s successful as a cliffhanger. But I wonder if IDW let too much of the story out before the issue itself was available, reducing anticipation and limiting the surprise factor. Enough pieces of the puzzle were made available that it became possible to guess how the rest of the issue would play out, and indeed it wasn’t all that different from what I had imagined would happen.

After a brief summary of events, the issue begins at a point two years after the finale of “All Hail Megatron”, which leaves time for much of the destruction caused by the Decepticons in that story to be cleaned up and repaired. For reasons that are still not entirely clear, the Autobots have not only remained in hiding on Earth during that time, but have built up their forces. The humans don’t want them, and have developed very effective weaponry to combat any Transformer they find, Autobot or Decepticon. Prime apparently believes that the Autobot presence is necessary in case the Decepticons return, a point of view with which Hot Rod disagrees vehemently. Given what happens during the story, I’d have to agree with Hot Rod’s point of view. There’s no real reason for the Autobots to be on Earth at this point. Meaning that everything that happens during this issue was unnecessary, rendering Prime’s poor judgment doubly tragic.

One of the things I don’t care for is the return of the old doubtful Optimus Prime, who is unsure of himself and his decisions. This characterization hearkens back to the old Marvel comics days where Prime constantly questioned his decisions and seemed at times unwilling to take decisive action. It may be that Hot Rod’s accusations hit home, and that the death of Ironhide hits really hard, but I’ve always preferred to see Prime portrayed as a confident leader, one who could realistically and believably inspire his troops. However, his decision to resign and to surrender to the humans is very interesting, and potentially very unwise given what happened to Sunstreaker at the hands of the Machination, and given how the humans have clearly been reverse-engineering Transformer technology for their own defense. Prime could turn out to be the latest resource in the human war against Transformers.

But resigning may well have been exactly the right thing to do. Clearly while Prime badly underestimates his human opponents, Spike has the measure of his. He’s either aware or gambles that the threat of death to Breakdown would draw out any hidden Transformers in the area. Spike outmaneuvers Prime and captures Prowl, who is then used as bait to draw in a rescue team. And incidentally, I’ve defended Prowl’s laudable respect for life that leads him to defend even a Decepticon, but as the logical tactician of the group he really should have seen this coming. His response is not typical of Prowl at all, and I may be forced to concede that it is indeed a case of bad characterization. However, the reveal that Streetwise was there with him is a nice surprise.

The art is excellent, as I’ve come to expect from Don Figeroa. There has been a lot of complaining about the new style, particularly the faces, but I’ve decided that I prefer the new look even to Don’s work from Dreamwave and earlier IDW stories. I really like the detail he’s put into the faces and joints of the robots. The colors are bright and almost cartoony in some cases, which is quite a contrast with the tone of the story itself.

So what’s the bottom line? Prime and Prowl mess up, Ironhide is killed during the rescue attempt, and Prime resigns as leader and surrenders to the humans. One would be hard pressed to argue that the pace of this issue is decompressed in any way. A lot happens and happens quickly, and that may be just what the series needs. I don’t entirely agree with the portrayal of some of the characters, or agree that they should even be where they are, but despite that the story successfully depicts a group of Autobots who don’t really know what to do now that the war is over and they are on the losing end. In searching for a purpose, they end up making things worse for themselves. I’m curious to see where things go from here. I can’t say I’m 100% enthused about the new direction, but I did enjoy it and I am interested in the story, so that’s enough to keep me reading.

Why I oppose Obamacare, part 1

I am absolutely against the health care "reform" bills going through Congress right now. We're looking at a massive expansion of government power and taxation that will put the private insurance companies out of business and leave all of us with nowhere to go except rationed public care. This is a terrible plan that's being forced on us, and about as far from genuine reform as one can get.

So, reasons to be against Obamacare, one at a time:

1. The Cost
With our federal deficit already at record levels, this bill would spend even more money that we don't have. According to this and other articles, "the legislation is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion in the first 10 years".

Where will the money to pay for this come from, particularly when we're in a recession? Does anyone seriously believe it won't add to the deficit, as Nancy Pelosi and President Obama have claimed? I don't. Find me a federal program that didn't end up costing many, many times more than the authors of the bill originally claimed. You can't do it.

The money will come from two sources: cuts to Medicare, and higher taxes and fees. The taxes will supposedly be levied only on "the rich", but the country can only go to that particular well so often. The truth of the matter is, the cost will be passed on to us in the middle class, as it always is. We'll be paying for this trillion dollar government program.

2. Taxes

Just for starters, how about a 69% increase in capital gains taxes?

House Democrats are funding their new entitlement with a 5.4% surtax on incomes above $500,000 for individuals and above $1 million for joint filers. The surcharge is intended to snag the greatest number of taxpayers to raise some $460.5 billion, and so the House has written it to apply to modified adjusted gross income. That means it includes both capital gains and dividends.

That surtax takes effect on January 1, 2011, or the day the Bush tax rates of 2001 and 2003 expire. Today’s capital gains tax rate of 15% would bounce back to 20% because of the Bush repeal and then to 25.4% with the surtax. That’s a 69% increase, overnight. The last time investors were hit with anything comparable was 1986, when the capital gains rate jumped to 28% from 20%, a 40% increase, as part of the Reagan tax reform that lowered incometax rates.

There's more. Much more.

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

Even if you're a big government, soak the rich kind of person, can you possibly justify this level of new taxation and penalties in the midst of a recession? Can we afford to have business hit this hard when they're already struggling?

Oh, and just today, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid(D) announced a possible Medicare payroll tax increase. One more cost for businesses.

Part 2 to follow soon.

An odd mix, isn't it?

The blog, I mean. I switch back and forth between comic reviews, Doctor Who and political topics. It's a strange mix. But all of the above interest me at the moment. I like to review the various comics I read, and I like to comment on the insane people running our government right now.

I always figure that after a day of immersing myself in the news that my hobbies should be my outlet, my bit of escapism to let my mind rest from serious issues. I like entertainment that's about as far from reality as one can get, hence Doctor Who and Transformers.

So yeah, odd mix. But I enjoy it, and it's my blog, so it works for me.

Transformers Continuum review

Given that IDW is about to start a new ongoing monthly Transformers series, and given that they’ve published a good number of Transformers comics in the past four years, it makes sense to offer readers a book like Continuum. This one-shot comic does two things. It sums up “the story so far…” including events from the various mini-series and spotlights, as well as All Hail Megatron. It also contains a list of all the various mini-series and spotlights in chronological order according, so the new reader (or long time reader for that matter) can accurately place any given story within the fictional history of the Transformers since IDW took over the property.

The book itself is comprised of art from all the various series combined with summaries of events. The art is recycled, but there’s nothing wrong with that given the context of the book as a “historical document” and story summary. The copy itself is new, and it’s here that the book starts to stumble a bit, given that some of the ‘facts’ presented within the summaries conflict with what was seen in the actual comics.

I haven't read every comic published by IDW, but I've read enough to know when some facts have been changed or left out, and it's puzzling. It's not just one or two things, but multiple contradictions with past stories, such as saying that the final battle with Thunderwing took place on Nebulon, when it was actually on Cybertron. There's no mention of Jimmy Pink at all, just Hunter and Verity (though Jimmy makes a cameo in one panel, unidentified). Skywatch and the Machination are confused to the point that the Machination is never even mentioned, and Skywatch is blamed for the kidnapping of Hunter and Sunstreaker. The Autobots are said to believe that both are dead. The book is riddled with errors like this, and it's hard to understand.

I want to be kind here, but I have to be blunt: either author Andy Schmidt made a ton of mistakes while doing his research, or else we're getting some blantant history revisionism here. Either way, I don't really care for the end result.

In short, I appreciate what’s been attempted with Continuum. IDW have built up a lot of continuity and story in a few short years, and it’s bound to be daunting to the new reader. This brief summary of major story points and characters is a good idea, which will hopefully draw in some new readers. On the other hand, it’s a disappointment to the long-time reader like myself when so much of what's in Continuum is wrong. It doesn’t jibe with what’s already been published. IDW gets credit for a good idea, but it looks like they botched the execution. I hate to say that, but sadly it's the case.

All Hail Megatron volume 2 TPB

Volume 2 trade paperback, originally issues 7-12

“All Hail Megatron” volume 2 collects the second half of the series into a single book. Like the first collection, this greatly improves the pacing of the story by avoiding a month’s break between chapters. The book collects covers in the back along with a few character sketches. I’m very quickly becoming a fan of the trade paperback format, though I doubt it will lead me to abandon monthly books. Without the monthly books succeeding, there won’t be any trade paperbacks.

It’s difficult to review these comics without falling back on the “this happens and then that happens” type of plot summary. There’s not much point in a recap like that, since someone could simply read the wiki summary or the books themselves if they want to know what happened. Some discussion of events is inevitable, but I’m going to try and stick with broader ideas and themes.

But so much of the story hinges on the actions of one character and what’s happened to him that I have to focus on his story at first. That character is, of course, Sunstreaker. As the story reveals early in volume 2, it was he who was both directly and indirectly responsible for the Decepticons winning the war. For all the talk of “All Hail Megatron” ignoring or contradicting some of what came before it, so much of what happens in the story does so because Sunstreaker was captured along with Hunter O’Nion and forcibly converted into a Headmaster by Scorponok and the Machination. Sunstreaker was tortured, humiliated and taken apart to be used as a weapon against his fellow Autobots. For an individual as proud and vain as he was, it was a deeply disturbing experience. And though his body was restored, the events continued to haunt him, causing him to turn his back on Hunter.

Enter Bombshell, created by Megatron to take advantage of the captured Hunter and the Headmaster components integrated into the human. Had Sunstreaker not abandoned him, it’s possible that Hunter would not have been captured and used against the Autobots. Had Sunstreaker been able to heal and come to terms with his experiences, he might not have made the stupid mistake of trusting Starscream. The Autobots’ entire defense network is compromised thanks to Hunter’s unique nature, and the Autobot group under Prime is defeated thanks to Sunstreaker’s desire to lash out and gain revenge on humanity for what one small group of them did to him. Had Sunstreaker been able to stand firm on principle, much of what happened would not have happened, and the Decepticons would not have won. It’s little wonder that Sunstreaker is essentially driven to suicide by Insecticon, telling Ironhide that he wants to die. Watching Ironhide beat up Mirage when he was the guilty party seems to have been the final straw.

What brought down the Autobots? It can essentially be boiled down to one individual who chose revenge over a higher moral principle and couldn’t rise above the admittedly terrible events he had lived through. It’s been made clear that the Autobots in IDW’s continuity are not the noble characters that we’ve seen in the past, and that there isn’t a lot of difference between them and the Decepticons when it comes to the way the two groups fight the war. The Autobots are willing to endure “acceptable losses” for the purpose of fighting the greater war. Even Optimus Prime has been shown as less than concerned with individual life up to this point. All of that begins to change as the Autobots debate whether or not they are worthy of surviving at all, and Optimus Prime begins to “grow a conscience” as Megatron later terms it. It very much seems that the break from the war and the enforced period of inactivity has caused at least some of the Autobots to rethink who they are and what methods they should be employing. Had Prime or any of the other Autobots thought Hunter worthy of protection, they might have been able to prevent what happened, so in that sense they all share the blame with Sunstreaker. It’s good to see Prime beginning to grow beyond that at the end of the story, and his leadership is certain to influence the others under his command.

It goes without saying that the lack of concern for individual life is a flaw that most, if not all Decepticons share. This is most apparent in their treatment of humanity as they kill tens of thousands in their assault on New York and other areas around the Earth. But it’s also apparent with the creation of the Swarm. Megatron knew beforehand that the experiment designed to produce a genius like Bombshell was likely to produce thousands of failures before any success was achieved, and yet he proceeded anyway, much to Thundercracker’s displeasure. “Our own kind!” he shouts at Megatron, before walking away in disgust. This lack of regard for even fellow Decepticon life leads the Decepticons to turn on each other far more easily than the Autobots do, which is why Ironhide’s attack on Mirage is so shocking. We expect fratricidal behavior from Decepticons, but not from Autobots. It’s realistic but at the same time disappointing to see that under the right circumstances, even a stalwart like Ironhide can crack.

The contrast with fellow Decepticons’ behavior is also why Thundercracker’s anger at the treatment of the failed Insecticon experiments stands out, since he appears to be the only one to aspire to a higher standard of treatment when it comes to the others who follow the same cause that he follows. The fact that even Megatron as leader and standard-bearer cannot live up to Thundercracker’s ideals is a great disappointment to him, setting up his actions in the middle and end of the story as he quickly grows dissatisfied with the casual slaughter of humans and as he prevents the mass destruction of many more with the nuclear bomb. “All Hail Megatron” presents the reader with possibly the best use of Thundercracker we’ve seen, as he goes from being the other half of the “Thundercracker and Skywarp” pair to an idealistic individual who is perfectly willing to commit immoral actions, but only up to a point and for certain reasons. He’s still a villain, but a villain with standards, which makes him far more interesting than he’s been in the past. The potential was always there, and it’s good to finally see it tapped.

The other major plot thread running through the story, which comes to a head in volume 2, concerns the plans and actions of the post-war, victorious Megatron. Having finally obtained the long-sought victory over the Autobots, Megatron rather suddenly finds himself faced with having to tame the monster he’s created in the form of the Decepticon army. As that army had formed and as the war had dragged on, Megatron had led them more and more in the direction of doing anything to win. In theory, all Decepticons should have been much more like Thundercracker in terms of outlook, rather than brutal, bloodthirsty murdering thugs. Megatron is fully aware that without a common enemy in the form of the Autobots that they will turn on him and each other at some point, and he rightly knows that Starscream will be the leader of that coup attempt, as usual. The attack on Earth is a delaying action for the most part, giving his army something to keep them occupied while he waits for the inevitable uprising, so he can cull the Decepticons who don’t meet his ideals. Interestingly, he spends no small amount of time trying to convince Starscream to live up to his supposed higher ideals, and even telling him that he will one day succeed in taking leadership from Megatron. Starscream, interestingly, claims to act because of what he sees as the failed leadership of Megatron, who was able to win the war but had no clear plan for victory after that.

That leads to the themes of leadership and focus that pervade the story, and the contrast between Optimus Prime and Megatron. For most of the story, the Autobots are falling apart despite the capable presence of Prowl and Jazz, and later Kup. It’s only when Optimus Prime is finally repaired and among them again that the Autobots rally. He is able to inspire and motivate them even in the most hopeless of situations. Megatron on the other hand had offered the Decepticons a philosophy to aspire to, but in the end it turns out to be hollow, and Megatron has to lead as he always has, by being powerful enough to fend off all challengers to his position. He simply is incapable of inspiring his followers in the same way that Optimus Prime does. Megatron needs an enemy to focus his troops against, to force them to band together against the common foe. When that foe is the clearly inferior humanity, it’s not enough. The hollowness of the Decepticon cause is readily apparent for all with the intelligence to see it, like Thundercracker. The Autobots recognize their flaws and begin the process to change, led by Prime’s example. The Decepticons fragment and turn on each other as their flaws are exposed, and the one guy who tries to live up to his ideals is punished for it.

The basic story and premise are good, but as detailed above, what makes this story so strong are the underlying moral and philosophical dilemmas. Taken together with volume 1, “All Hail Megatron” is one of the stronger Transformers stories I’ve read. It has something to say, and it makes very good use of the characters, including some whose potential has never really been exploited before. It’s well worth a read.

So, the health care 'reform' bill passed the House...

... but will it pass the Senate? Especially a bill that passed with such a close margin? Several pundits I've read say no, the bill is dead in its current form. Let's hope so.

Even if not, where do we go from here?
- The bill could die in the Senate
- Something could pass in the Senate, and not get out of reconciliation in a form that would attract enough votes
- if something did get out, the President would certainly sign it

If things go that far, there are going to be legal challenges on the constitutionality of the new law, in particular the purchase mandates. If the public really is as against this bill as they seem to be, the Democrats will hopefully pay a price in the midterms next fall, and a Republican majority could repeal the law.

The fight's not over. Not by a long shot. I feel like I did after Obama got elected. My first thought was "Ok, time to fight this."

Robert Gibbs is clueless

From this article about today's healthcare debate:

"And a summer of angry town hall confrontations and tea party demonstrations, the White House says, is poisoning the debate on the issues.

"Imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11," Gibbs said. "Imagine just a few years ago, had somebody walked around with images of Hitler.""

Uh... they did. Guess he missed all the "Bushitler" signs.

They're killing Ironhide? In the first issue?

This bites. Big time. So much for being enthusiastic about the series. Now I'm just hoping the rest of the stories justify killing off one of my favorite characters.

I doubt it.

All Hail Megatron TPB vol. 1

originally issues 1-6

“All Hail Megatron” begins with a simple premise, as detailed in the forward by author Shane McCarthy. The Decepticons have finally won the war. There’s no one to stop them from running rampant throughout the galaxy and doing whatever they want. It’s like the old cartoon episode “Megatron’s Master Plan” part 2, only without the sanitized nature of the old cartoon that made sure that no one died and nothing was permanently destroyed. AHM contains plenty of destruction and death, though a lot of it still happens off panel or is implied rather than shown, so it’s no R-rated bloodbath.

The story remains in continuity with Simon Furman’s earlier storylines, and yet it consciously goes back to long-standing character groupings and reverts many characters to their original G1 designs. It’s a “back to basics” appeal to nostalgia, apparently in an attempt to halt the downward slope of comic sales throughout the “-ation” series of stories. The Transformers alter appearance and alternate mode often enough that the change is not implausible, but it is certainly jarring to have read three years of comics that were trying to bring Transformers into the present day, only to go all the way back to the 80s with many of the designs. A few characters retain their IDW designs, and a few adopt the Classics/Universe designs, so it’s not all retro. But it’s clear that the overall approach came from a mindset that believed that IDW’s problems stemmed from straying too far from what the nostalgia crowd wanted. I don’t agree with that, but that’s obviously what dictated the approach.

So the story presents the reader with more familiar and traditional character designs and character groupings. Starscream, Soundwave and the rest of the usual cast of characters surround Megatron. Many of the Autobots are who we would expect to find together from the 84-85 cast, such as Ironhide, Prowl and Jazz. The Constructicons and Insecticons are thrown into the mix for the first time as well. That’s fine, and I can accept that the characters have gathered together as they have and altered their forms as well, given that a year has passed since “Devastation”. The Decepticons have set a wide ranging attack in motion both on Earth and elsewhere in the galaxy, and according to Megatron have broken the back of the Autobot “resistance” as he terms it. They openly reveal themselves and attack New York, killing thousands and trashing the city. They cut it off from the outside and establish it as a base of operations from which they attack other areas around the Earth. But in an interesting turn of events, they find victory less than satisfactory. The forces of Earth are not a challenge to the Decepticons, who slaughter them en masse without much of an effort. Cracks begin to show in the unity of the Decepticons, and Starscream openly asks Megatron “What’s next?”

The Autobots are trapped on Cybertron, and Optimus Prime is near-death with Ratchet trying to keep him alive and repair him. Many of the Autobots are in an obviously damaged state, with missing limbs and holes in their armor. Morale is terrible, and there is a traitor in the mix who sold them out to the Decepticons. Jazz and Prowl keep the secret of the loss of the Matrix from the rest of the Autobots. Like the Decepticons, the Autobots are slowly going stir-crazy, though in their case apart from low morale it’s simply because there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. Cybertron is not a hospitable environment, though in keeping with the end of Stormbringer the environment is recovering from the damage that the planet had taken. The Autobots are able to survive unprotected on the surface when a year ago the Technobots had all sorts of problems.

The plot unfolds very deliberately and naturally. We don’t see all the destruction and attempts to fight back in a single issue. Rather, it is ongoing throughout three or four chapters. The characters gradually go downhill rather than take sudden left turns, which feels much more natural. Ironhide takes a swing at Prowl, setting up his eventual beatdown of Mirage as his frustrations grow. Starscream abandons the battle and banters with Megatron about what’s next now that they’ve won. I’ve read numerous complaints about the slow pace of the story from those who read it month to month, but in compiled form everything feels just about right.

Characterization is the key to this story’s success. I doubt we’ve ever seen the Decepticons interacting in quite the same way that they interact here, and the same is true of the Autobots. They react to the situations they’re placed in according to their individual temperaments and beliefs, meaning that the characters drive the plot as much as they’re carried along by it. Some characters are changed beyond recognition, like Perceptor. The story takes a few risks with the characters and they pay off. The characters that get lines and express opinions become more three-dimensional as a result. We get characters just standing around “chewing the fat” as well as discussing the overall situation.

The human side of the story works better than I expected it to. I held off for a long time on buying the trade paperback because it seemed like there was a lot of human-centered story there that I just wasn’t interested in. But those portions of the plot are quite gripping at times as the military are rapidly outmaneuvered and beaten by the Decepticons, and General Witwicky takes hit after hit to his plans and morale. Yes, the Witwickys are introduced as a military family, with Spike apparently a commando or black ops type of soldier. There’s no sign of Hunter, Jimmy or Verity, though I know Hunter turns up later on and plays a key role in the story.

The art is strong, as is to be expected from Guido Guidi, who’s been drawing these characters for some time now. Many of the characters are very reminiscent of the old cartoon, but that’s probably deliberate as well.

It’s only the first half of the story, but I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit, and that’s the bottom line, isn’t it? It may not mesh perfectly with all of Furman’s stories, but it does work with them and build on them in most areas, while at the same time going off in its own direction and trying to appeal to nostalgia. “All Hail Megatron” is a solid effort at a direction change for IDW and a good story that uses the characters well.

Rush Limbaugh on Fox News Sunday

See the video of the entire interview here.