TFW2005’s early Transformers comic reviews continue! Today, we review More Than Meets the Eye #19! More Than Meets the Eye #19 is out tomorrow – Wednesday, July 31st – from IDW Publishing. Check out the review on our More Than Meets the Eye #19 page of our Comics Resource Section!
SMOG
I guess that means we should ask Josh if the colours in that instance were specific and indicative, or whether they just were due to the "dark" lighting in that panel.
zmog
RAVAGEversion1
It's probably far out there, but he did resemble Tigatron's colors.
SMOG
It's still unknown… he might be a somebody, or a trivial nobody. At this point, the jury is out.
zmog
RAVAGEversion1
Who was the catbot who stole the real matrix supposed to be?
FantomLibrarian
I kind of hope the gate doesn't open to The Dead Universe (although that is seeming less and less likely). I may have said it in this thread already but I think a cool switch would be for the gate to lead back to Cybertron – Cybertron in a new primordial state as of 'Death of Optimus Prime'. Tyrest would have done all his work for nothing and it would bring the casts together in time for Dark Cybertron.
SPLIT LIP
Yeah, the story wasn't meant to include Rung, it was just meant to be a big interwoven story to get him to come out of it.
SMOG
Well, it's a form of social therapy, I guess… organized by an archivist who also had the desire to compile several accounts.
And for a number of reasons, I can see why it's a story that Roberts wanted to tell, as it ties in the pasts of several of his featured regulars, and opens up another chapter of his version of Cybertronian history. I can very easily see how this story might have been percolating in his mind without Orion Pax being in it… that said, I think he was integrated nicely, and serves as an appropriate gravitational core for these events… even if the lasting legacy of the story is the origin of Shockwave.
zmog
Hadlen_Weltall
It's been a while since I've gone out of my way to see how Hasbro's dictating things with IDW (since All Hail Generations toy commercial).
In the meantime, I think Roberts handled it perfectly considering who the subject of the story was supposed to be about.
"Let's jumpstart Rung's brain by telling him a story…. he has absolutely nothing to do with."
Star Saber
A great editor would definitely bring out the best in his team, just as much as a bad editor can drive creators from books. Just take a look at the New 52 and the number of creator exoduses. Just the same though, it's still definitely more difficult to find good creators than editors.
ss4steve
If it works the way FMA uses the "law of equivalent exchange"…. I dont want to imagine how it would be applied to Tyrest.
SPLIT LIP
The thing is, even an unpassionate editor can still edit.
It doesn't take heart and vision to spell check and realise Chromedome isn't supposed to be in one panel. It's welcome for sure, but just any editor is eaier to find than a good writer in comics, especially these days.
Yggdrasil
Wouldn't it be hilarious if Tyrest's gate ends up connecting Luna 1 to the Dead Universe.
Honestly the whole thing with Tyrest and Primus and the God gate is like something straight out of FullMetal Alchemist.
Which is not a bad thing, FMA is one my all time favourite pieces of fiction ever.
gregles
I'm not sure if this is legit or not as I don't work in the comic industry but I imagine getting a passionate and committed editor could be difficult for the same reason when forming a band its always hardest to get reliable base players and drummers. Everyone wants to be a writer, artist, front man/woman or lead guitarist and have the spotlight shone bright on their creativity while editors, base players and drummers are the largely unsung heroes who make the world go around smoothly
WilyMech
I used to read Star Trek novels but had to quit when I started seeing such obvious errors in the books using wrong words that sound the same. Fixing mistakes like spelling is an easy one but when comes to rules that MLA is harder. Such as for example when to use commas and semi-colons. Or coming to the point of compound sentences to make subject and verb agreement. It is the nuances of having an editor with OCD looking at your work and saying this does not make sense or clean up the sentence structure.
SPLIT LIP
And yet it STILL manages quiet moments, visual humour and textless splash-pages/large panels.
I don't get it.
Also editors are deffinitely easier to find than good writers. Editors fix mistakes, things you can see and isolate. Facts, basically. Writers, good ones, well their job's nowhere near as straightforward.
SMOG
If I'm recalling correctly, it wasn't that the Shadowplay story was dictated by Hasbro, but rather that Hasbro wanted them to put Optimus Prime into it. Presumably, Pax would have been absent or more peripheral, but we would have gotten a very similar story that hits most of the same plot points.
zmog
General Magnus
That´s why I dislike "big events"
WilyMech
^I think I fall in the 90%of the Authors in the proofreading department.
I like Roberts work in the sense I can reread and pick up something new. With RID it has the potential for the same complexity but it needs a good writer with imagination.
Remains in the Arc feels a bit hurried.
I had a thought about the sparks they are new but the remains Dai Atlas Circle of Light. The Legislatures are made up fallen body parts and if the sparks are forged there is no reason for Tyrest to kill them. It also means that Tyrest consider that purist state is being spark without a body.
FantomLibrarian
^ Agreed. I work in publishing with a stringent copy-editing department. I'm not a copy editor but I look through submissions and let me tell you: 90% of authors have no idea how grammar works nor how words in the English language go together!
I like Roberts' work because it's so wordy and overwritten. I've always joked with my friends that for each issue of MTMTE I could read 5 issues of RID in the same amount of time.
The revelation in the FMH podcast interview that Shadowplay was dictated by Hasbro proves that even when he's forced to shoe-horn elements into an ongoing narrative he makes it fit. I found Shadowplay to be interesting and well-written with several important plot threads that paid off much later. I think if these issues feel 'forced' or 'hurried' than I'm more than willing to accept them as is under the assumption that Dark Cybertron will be bigger and even more glorious because of it!
WilyMech
I live with someone that used to go through magazines and correct grammar errors and if you add continuity errors then you have it. Writers are hard to find as well I will give you that. I went through books that have chock full of grammar errors to many people are relying on Microsoft Office for corrections instead of proof reading what they wrote. With Transformers there is a continuity that is not always adhere to and some cases it is forgotten and details are overlooked. Plus it is easier critique someone else work than your own….