Comic review: Robots in Disguise season 2: #28 onwards

With the relaunch, and pretty much everything about the book transforming except the creators, I thought a fresh review thread was due.

So, in season two of RID the action shifts back to a familiar planet: Earth. Optimus Prime and a small team of Autobots return and find surprises immediately.

Spoilers follow

The containing Autobot cast from the previous storylines includes Prowl, Jazz, Sideswipe, Kup, Arcee and Sky Lynx. Cosmos has left the Lost Light to join this crew too and gets some on tech spec dialogue about his loneliness that rarely is covered.

There's also Decepticons, including the return of Thundercracker as seen in the previews. I was a little disappointed that there's no former 'Cons with Prime but TC may fill that role.

There's a couple of extended flashbacks in issue 1 that makes it seem like this book should have come out before Windblade #1. The order of the interlocking covers suggest so as well.

The new designs look good, and there was one particularly unexpected redesign, but I'm not sure exactly how the Autobots "scanned new alt forms" on the way...

The Thundercracker preview pages give a good sneak peak at the book's tone. This issue is much less serious than the first season.

At the same time this book feels like a continuation of the Costa ongoing. Returning to Earth this can't be helped but the new status quo feels like it will be familiar.

Human Decepticon alliance? Surely the humans know from just the badges that the cons were responsible for all the damage in AHM and then for most of the horrible Costa era things... So why he alliance? For tech?

I'm sure there will be answers and it seems that Thundercracker was bullied into it, seeing as he was glad that bumblebee was not around for the cross.

I agree with Paulbot that it feels Costa-sequel but the writing is already better and bar the screenplay the dialogue more snazzy. I like Cosmos and Skylynx being on the team, adds some difference to the very familiar lineup on Earth.

A good start, some interesting redesigns and I hope it flows better than series 1.

I gotta say, I really liked this issue, really clicked. Highlights: Sky Lynx, Thundercracker and Cosmos.

^Agreed.

I picked up both this and the latest issue of MTMTE and made the mistake of reading this issue first. For anyone who haven't picked up either issue, do yourself a favour and read MTMTE first, as it does chronologically happen first and there's a bit of a spoiler in it -- nothing majorly serious, but I felt that it would've been more enjoyable if I'd read these two issues the other way around.

I feel like it's time for the Constructicons to paint themselves red, white and black (or for Prowl to paint himself green and purple.)

I only liked Thundercracker in this issue. He is the only character that I feel stays consistent throughout this issue, let alone compared to recent history.

Not sure how we are meant to believe that the humans would ally with the cons with Galvatron doing his best G1 insane Galvy impersonation. I also don't get why Prime, the great military leader just resorts to "attack" quickly followed by "runaway" followed by "save me!"

While I see what Prowl is doing looks good to him, I feel it will come back to bite him, the writers are not as smart as Prowl thinks he is.

I am hoping that RiD can start to move forward from poorly drawn and written fights to something with a story or it's going to lose my interest, it is already waning after just two issues. It's a shame as the art is awful and some of the secondary characters are well done, yet Kup is awfully cliche...

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Originally Posted by i_amtrunks

I only liked Thundercracker in this issue. He is the only character that I feel stays consistent throughout this issue, let alone compared to recent history.

Not sure how we are meant to believe that the humans would ally with the cons with Galvatron doing his best G1 insane Galvy impersonation. I also don't get why Prime, the great military leader just resorts to "attack" quickly followed by "runaway" followed by "save me!"

I am hoping that RiD can start to move forward from poorly drawn and written fights to something with a story or it's going to lose my interest, it is already waning after just two issues. It's a shame as the art is awful and some of the secondary characters are well done, yet Kup is awfully cliche...

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I pretty much agree with everything here. I actually don't mind the art though Galvatrons alt-mode looks horrible. It's an interesting take how Prowl has embraced having the Constructicons as his personal gang - I was kinda hoping during Dark Cybertron that somehow Scrapper would come back to life like Metalhawk but this is more interesting and seeing Prowl fully intergrated into Devestator instead of just a couple of red horns on the big D's head looked really cool.

Spoiler free ahead, I have many thoughts about this one, but the key points for me were:

Nosebleeds??? Interesting.

Skywarp all tied up... Interesting.

Prowl once again showing he is waaaay ahead of everyone, but still not as clever as he could be... Interesting.

Humans show their cards... Interesting.

Ancient Cybertron and A.T. have more to show... Interesting. Also I have a feeling we are going to get more characterisation for Nova and Galvatron now that we should have gotten prior to Dark Cybertron.

Soundwave making a bigger play than anticipated, that would have needed to be setup prior to Dark Cybertron and I am guessing required the knowledge that Prowl would be too smart for his own good... Very Interesting.

In all, the best RiD issue for a looooong time.

"Only five of me are halfwits."

"Yeah, everybody's sure of that."

"Did you just issue me an order, Spacebus?"

Some great lines this month.

The flashnacks (and the fact they took up half the issue) are what made this stronger. It was also good to see that the humans are not quite as hairbrained as they were portrayed. Still idiots, but they had their reasons and own desires in the deal.

Prowl also has humans and human nature correct. The planet would be far better off if we were wiped out! :D

Btw, from the last issue, did anyone else notice Shiragami Junko (aka Kelly) being one of the hapless humans fleeing from Prowlastator's attack? ;) I think there's also a red sports car in that panel too (don't have the issue in front of me right now) :p

And am I the only one who thinks that Griffith makes Marissa Fairborn look ugly? It's as if she has Jay Leno's chin and Janice from the Muppets' mouth. :o

Everyone seems to have assumed it's Alpha Trion whose signal they've been picked up.... Hunter O'Nion?

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Originally Posted by snaketales

Everyone seems to have assumed it's Alpha Trion whose signal they've been picked up.... Hunter O'Nion?

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Finally got around to reading #30 and my guess is it's gonna be a not quite as dead as we were led to believe Scrapper that the humans have. And #30 was all about giving Prowl one last go as part of Devastator. That's my guess.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Btw, from the last issue, did anyone else notice Shiragami Junko (aka Kelly) being one of the hapless humans fleeing from Prowlastator's attack? ;) I think there's also a red sports car in that panel too (don't have the issue in front of me right now) :p

And am I the only one who thinks that Griffith makes Marissa Fairborn look ugly? It's as if she has Jay Leno's chin and Janice from the Muppets' mouth. :o

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I find some panels she looks fine and then others the mouth and chin are way off. Reminds me of Don Fig's work on human faces.

#31 is a slow burner, all taking place in and around the Human base in Bikini Atol.

Some nice one liners here from Thundercracker and Jetfire, the humans are rightfully freaking out and there are a few twists (one being the lack of a twist in regards to a character reveal) to boot.

Sadly the preview pages are all a waste of space as they drivel about Jazz killing one dangerous human, then he still references it in comic as well.

Wasted pages aside, we get some nice background and explanation to Soundwave's behaviour and reasoning which is nice and once again it is shown that prime is incredibly lucky to have survived the Cybertronian war, he just pile drives in and hopes for the best.

Prowl's endgame should be interesting, I am sure he knows of the spy but as yet do not see how it will benefit him.

Not much happens, but the potential for links to the future stories are a plenty in this issue.

The art baffles me, it is not great this issue, Prowl's head bar gets smaller, his chest gets massive and Galvatron is a different size and shape in every panel.

Yeah, I'm still not a fan of the art in this series. Arcee's body proportions warp something chronic between panels too. :eek: And you could park Sky Lynx on General Witwicky's chin. ;) The drawing of Metroplex looked amateur (although no where near as amateur as the artwork in TF vs. GI Joe), and his transformation into city mode was just terrible. Looked more like he was falling apart and his pieces just collapsed into the form of a village. :rolleyes:

So, the payoff issue (I am sick of these 5 issue storylines, wish they would mix it up a bit, and be damned with the trades, or do some 2-3 issue stories every now and again).

It delivers. Some big changes are upon the Comics verse from the ramifications of this issue, and gladly, they are not all earth based. Prowl's "master plan" was good, without being great, but I tire of it seeming like every carefully planned action of his seems to backfire, in some form or another, I get that he being morally grey and doing what needs to be done drives most of these stories together, but there needs to be a shake up of action/reaction. When we return to Earth in a few months I hope we get some sort of fallout from his actions here from the other bots. Personally I think it may tie heavily into combiner wars.

Art was fantastic, there were some snappy lines of dialogue and the last page reveal is a good one that once again utilises some of the worst comics from IDW's past and makes them useful and relevant!

Also I much prefer this sane, sensible Galvatron.

I was so glad about one of the turns of events this issue. Although apparently Prowl isn't good on the individual Constructicons' names. (Great editing, Guzman.) And... what colours are Jazz and the Constructicons supposed to be now?

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

I was so glad about one of the turns of events this issue. Although apparently Prowl isn't good on the individual Constructicons' names. (Great editing, Guzman.) And... what colours are Jazz and the Constructicons supposed to be now?

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that is there nano carbonfibre tube stealth colouring.

like most issues of RID i felt this was average, the thundercracker stuff is getting boring, the art ia all over the place.

it really makees me want to Read MTMTE more..

prowl feels like he is doing a lot of whinging...atleast i hope we get to see a showdown with spike sometime soon now that Galvatron has set it up well

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Originally Posted by Sharky

prowl feels like he is doing a lot of whinging...atleast i hope we get to see a showdown with spike sometime soon now that Galvatron has set it up well

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A nice one and done in a dozen or so issues would be nice, especially if it ends with Spike left as a mish mash pile of ooze and bone. The less time spent with him the better, I don't care at all if Barber wants to "fix" him as a character, he had his time in the sun, now it's time to be rid of him.

I will admit that I am glad we are going back to Cybertron, if Starscream is written much the same as he was in the Windblade mini, he could actually be interesting for a change.

I thought this was one of the best RID issues I have read. A nice shout out to the animated movie poster in one panel, Galvatron killing his human ally was cool, the ship getting blasted was great and overall it was very good. I REALLY hope that Ramjet and Thrust turn out to be alive and being duplicated somehow rather than dead and just being cloned. Thrusts death that didn't even happen on panel in Spotlight Prowl really annoyed me as I thought such a long standing character deserved better than that.

Prowl continues to grow in arrogance - a far more interesting character than Thundercracker at the moment

I like both Prowl and Thundercracker for different reasons, but I especially like Thundercracker because IDW is now finally, after almost 30 years, portraying Thundercracker in a manner that is accurate to his original 1984 bio! :eek: It ends a nearly 3 decade long drought where Thundercracker had so much potential to be an interesting character (as a morally conflicted Decepticon), but it had just never been exploited by TF writers before. I made a joke about this once in a photocomic that I made 10 years ago. :p ;)
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I like Prowl too. It's pretty cool to have morally dubious Autobots like him and Whirl in the story, but let's face it, IDW Prowl is nothing like how G1 Prowl was originally described in his G1 bio. ;) IMO it's easy to take a character, effectively disregard its original specs, and then scratch-make a new character out of it; but it's more challenging and satisfying to see a cool character created from being faithful to the source material. Or when writers switch bios around, like how IDW Swerve's persona is arguably more similar to G1 Hubcap than G1 Swerve (although IDW Swerve isn't quite as deceitful as Hubcap, and he can be unfocused like G1 Swerve :p).

#33 is back on track, by which I mean it is the best issue of RiD so far. It's unashamedly a toy tie-in in the best eighties-Furmany way, and a character who's been out of action for a couple of years is befuddled to have reawoken in this bizarrely random universe of Generations figures. There are some nice character bits, even though in part this is a setup for the upcoming big toy/comic tie-in (and explains at least one thing that half the toy fandom was whining about in a truly endearing way.) And Stone's art is rad. Hopefully this is the way of things to come in this title, and judging from the cover of next issue, yet another random toy is on his way - it will be interesting to see if he's his usual self, or has dark designs as RiD Tankor #3.

So, who'd have thought it would be Screamer who can see the threat a long way off and be able to pull everything needed together to start a pre-emotive response.

This was very well written, although I am still not used to the manner of Wheeljacks speech, but that's more due to me hearing his G1 voice when I read him than anything else.

I wonder if a prowl has set up this "insider" like he did with Soundwave, to try and scare Starscream? It seems both are playing a long game, and whilst I know a Starscream only truly cares about being in power, hearing him talking about never letting Cybertron fall is awesome. The characters in other prominent positions will set up some good plays later on. Also interesting that Windblade comes across as a smarter, more decisive and compassionate character than she did in her own mini. Is it the writing, or growth / learning from her character?

As Skyshadow said, the art is brilliant, I know some dislike the style and the eyes can be a little weird with pupils, but the style and colouring is top notch.

Easily one of the best RiD issues, and no surprise since it is a Wheeljacks based issue and those have always been Barber's most cohesive and fluent issues.

I know it is a set up issue, getting pieces in place for the upcoming event but it was a good lengthy read, lead by character interactions, with information drip fed and plenty of foreshadowing.

Great issue for reasons aforementioned by others. Found some grammatical and typographical errors; I hope that IDW will correct these for the TPB. (-_-)

Just read today's issue. I'm not sure what's going on with Prowl, any suggestions?

Otherwise it seems like a pretty standard 'shoe-horn plot points and coincidences into everyone's backstory' kind of issue. Hopefully Rhinox shows up again.

Now if Prime tells Prowl, there'll be no worries, if Alpha talks him out of it, I can see Prowl using it as a flimsy excuse to do what he wants to do.

Prowl has the potential to be the most interesting TF character in ages (not that he already wasn't). Great setup issue, and I loved Livio's work more than I did in Primacy. He is one busy boy.

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Originally Posted by i_amtrunks

Now if Prime tells Prowl, there'll be no worries, if Alpha talks him out of it, I can see Prowl using it as a flimsy excuse to do what he wants to do.

Prowl has the potential to be the most interesting TF character in ages (not that he already wasn't). Great setup issue, and I loved Livio's work more than I did in Primacy. He is one busy boy.

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I can see him potentially being the antithesis of MTMTE's Megatron. Prowl seems like he could eventually adopt a 'peace through tyranny' approach. He believes he knows best, he's smart, headstrong and willing to disregard superiors to achieve his objectives.

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Originally Posted by Jinto

Just read today's issue. I'm not sure what's going on with Prowl, any suggestions?

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He's an evil sod with no moral compass? ;) Even Prowl knows this when he spoke about how nobody noticed any difference in him when he was under Bombshell's control.

I do like how the IDW comics are blurring the lines between good and evil between Autobots and Decepticons -- i.e. portraying the Autobots and Decepticons are merely political factions and not "races" where members are somehow 'genetically disposed' towards moral conduct. We have morally inconsiderate Autobots like Prowl and Whirl, and more morally considerate Decepticons like Cyclonus and Thundercracker (and arguably Megatron too). Now if only they'd do away with the whole blue-eye/red-eye thing... or maybe keeping it can also make its own point as well; that we can have evil blue-eyed Autobots and good red-eyed Decepticons. <shrugs> :o

Hrmmm, a good setup issue with two really annoying characters featuring, yet not bothering me as much as I ever would have thought.

Lots of pieces being moved, good to have two big players that we have seen a whole lot go for a bit, leaving things open for business as it were. Cosmos continues to grow brighter with excellent writing and Sideswipe and Kup get a few good lines each. I enjoy Skylynx more and more too.

Spoilers (a bit) but Prowl seems to have someone in his noggin'. I'm thinking it has something to do with Devestator or the hive mind trying to integrate with him. Not sure if it means that the Constructicons are influencing him/controlling him, or Prowl is holding them at bay or if Prowl is playing or using them to further his needs and is trying to look like he isn't in control.

I am hoping that the next month or so of issues results in the squishing of the younger Witwicky, seeing more of Jimmy Pink and getting some Devestator vs. Galvatron fights.

Also more table flipping.

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Originally Posted by i_amtrunks

Also more table flipping.

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^agree :)
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The last few issues are the most lines I've ever seen Cosmos have in comics ever - he can be a funny weird little dude :D

Liked issue #35 - for some reason I always like to see Sideswipe use his jetpack - I was really dissapointed that the MP SS didn't come with one. The Constructicons have really fallen into being Prowls posse big time. Can't wait to see them smoosh Spike!

I'm looking forward to seeing what TC does with what he discovered on the island...

The solicits for April ruin any "suspense" you may have about the outcome of the next few issues.

Galvatron and Arcee have a good bit of page time, and it throws a wrinkle into things that I quite like. I see we still have Prowl saying Scrapper all the time and I am unsure of if anything he said to Spike was true or not.

It was kinda interesting to see that Scoop nicked the Enigma of Combination and hightailed it back to Cybertron to give it to Screamer. I was wondering why Scoop had fallen in with Galvatrons crew - it had felt very shoehorned in, in that since they had the Constructicons aligning with Prowl and Megs co-captianing an Autobot ship that they had better have at least one Autobot joining the other team. But now with the whole "Scoop believing Starscream is the chosen one" thing it makes more sense that he did it just to get something for Screamer rather than suddenly believing Con doctrine.

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

It was kinda interesting to see that Scoop nicked the Enigma of Combination and hightailed it back to Cybertron to give it to Screamer. I was wondering why Scoop had fallen in with Galvatrons crew - it had felt very shoehorned in, in that since they had the Constructicons aligning with Prowl and Megs co-captianing an Autobot ship that they had better have at least one Autobot joining the other team. But now with the whole "Scoop believing Starscream is the chosen one" thing it makes more sense that he did it just to get something for Screamer rather than suddenly believing Con doctrine.

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it's interesting, he believe that Scream is the chosen one, but (seems to) have no respect for Starscream at all...

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Originally Posted by prjkt

it's interesting, he believe that Scream is the chosen one, but (seems to) have no respect for Starscream at all...

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I think it's because he's more loyal to whatever divine forces that he believes in that chose Starscream. So I guess from Scoop's POV, Starscream is merely a conduit through which some higher power operates. It's interesting how Scoop and Star Sabre are both religious nutters in the IDWverse, but nutty in entirely different ways.

I like how this issue kept on playing around with the whole mass-shifting gimmick. I also loved this line...
"I'd've loved this in 1991, but living in a John Woo movie is still pretty nice..." - G.B. Blackrock
^a reference to another time when Blackrock witnessed an epic battle of titans. ;)

Aw man I haaaate Ramondelli's art style. *sulks*

:p

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Originally Posted by Jinto

Aw man I haaaate Ramondelli's art style. *sulks*

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I agree. Everything's so... chunky. No where near as bad as Pat Lee though, but still... every time I look at Marissa Fairborne's face I keep thinking, "dat chin." :p

I don't mind ramondellis art style, but for this issue, I wish we had a regular ongoing artist on board. His style does not suit Windblade and I think a different artist would do a superior job highlighting the differences between Cybertronians and Camians.

Having Swindle be the main narrator was interesting, as was the motivation... Get rich quick. What a lovely way to start the war.