Comic Review: Transformers: Autocracy

[i_amtrunks]

I dislike Megatron Origin enough to consider it "Decepticon propaganda" that may have stretched some truths. Yes. That should cover some of those inconsistencies. (Actually depending how this series turns out the same might be said for this one.)

Interesting idea. Would be even more interesting if the old adage of "the victor's write the history books" is taken into consideration... eventual Decepticon victory then?

I wonder what IDW have to say regarding this big kerfuffle in their timeline, and which history should be regarded as correct. Sure there will always be inconsistencies in large fictional worlds especially when so many different writers are used over a period of several years, but since they keep soft-rebooting the story but try (bar AHM) to retain what has come before you would think it would be in their best interests to sort out this mess and get their backstory all sorted out.

Easiest fix? Retcon so that Origins never happened/ was propaganda. That also gets rid of the some big problems that series cause regarding character histories and the whole gender problem that has been ignored since.

[Sky Shadow]

Sure there will always be inconsistencies in large fictional worlds especially when so many different writers are used over a period of several years, but since they keep soft-rebooting the story but try (bar AHM) to retain what has come before you would think it would be in their best interests to sort out this mess and get their backstory all sorted out.

Geez, Trunks - what is it with fans' "fascination with 'canon'" (Denton Tipton, 2010.) Considering IDW's last attempt to align their cluster#*@% of a continuity was the punctuation-and-logic-free Transformers: Continuum, I hope next time they'll get someone capable like James Roberts to sort it all out. A James Roberts history of the IDW universe would be fantastic.

I've almost never reread an IDW comic, so I've probably forgotten most of the mistakes since they've been spread over the past six years. But surely reading all the contradictions in those IDW Collection volumes in order must make people's brains hurt.

[i_amtrunks]

Geez, Trunks - what is it with fans' "fascination with 'canon'" (Denton Tipton, 2010.)

All that mild aspergers/ocd that every man and his dog is getting diagnosed with!

A James Roberts history of the IDW universe would be fantastic

It would be nice, he did a great job fixing up the Movie verse stuff.

[griffin]

I like Decepticon 'terror' cells being supported by local citizens. It's seems an acceptable response when your ruling class is led by someone like Zeta Prime and the police/armed forces (like Orion Pax and Whirl) are using extreme force on their prisoners. The Decepticons seem the side to root for. Surely the writers actually don't want us to be for Zeta Prime's plan?

That's why I'm not much of a fan of IDW's view on Gen1 - after they had Megatron fighting for the worker class, writing a people's manifesto like Lenin, and now the Decepticons are the ones the readers are being made out to be the more honourable side... it's creating sympathy for terrorists - and IDW are fooling themselves if they think they can create a "friendly" Decepticon ideology, compared to the Autobot image that they have now corrupted.

Compare it to the Sunbow Autobots, or even the Marvel Autobots... there was no question that the Autobots were the good guys back then, and the Decepticons were only supported by the greedy, corrupt and misguided.

[Sharky]

i tend to agree.. the autobots...and orion in particular really look like they should be on the con side... they are darker and it really does not seem like the pax we have seen before.. they way they portray Zeta Prime he is very megatron like.. even on the cover he looks sinister...



i do like some of the art in the book like soundwave... i could almost imagine G1 Soundwaves voice as well in the below panel...



i will keep reading it as it does draw me in an have me wodering where this is leading...

[griffin]

Maybe they are following Bay's example of corrupting the "heroic, noble, compassionate" Optimus Prime.
I remember how proud Peter Cullen was at each BotCon, playing Optimus Prime, even in the first movie - because of how pure a hero that character was, especially to kids. But then after Optimus was made out to be a callous, merciless, bloodthirsty Autobot in the second movie, Peter Cullen didn't boast about that at the following BotCon. It was so obvious that he had trouble claiming this title of a universally recognised "pure hero" after what Bay did to the character in TF2 (and TF3).
IDW are now doing the same with the "Autobot brand", making it difficult to show support for a side that should be the "hero" side.
At least Marvel would create renegade Autobot characters whenever they wanted to look at a scenario of "evil Autobots".
Before IDW, Bay and even Animated, I don't think it was ever an acceptable concept to have corrupted or elitist Autobots?

[Sky Shadow]

Before IDW, Bay and even Animated, I don't think it was ever an acceptable concept to have corrupted or elitist Autobots?

Grimlock was a totalitarian Autobot leader back in the eighties - remember he wanted Goldbug and Blaster brought in dead or alive for refusing to harm humans and being 'traitors', used live children as bait and tortured Blaster. Jazz gave Sparkplug Witwicky a heart attack by firing a flamethrower to stop him from getting away in the original limited series. 'Perchance To Dream' was all about Galvatron finding the Autobots with 'dark sides' to use as his new army. And similarly, there have almost always been 'good' Decepticons. Catilla, Carnivac, Manta Ray, Leadfoot, etc. in the comics; Skyfire, Blitzwing and Octane in the cartoon. I like it when there are shades of grey in Transformers - "Autobots are good and Decepticons are evil" is just emulating racism.

[griffin]

I agree, the shades of grey can make it interesting, especially when they have the occasional character switching sides (from their toy allegiance... it isn't too creative if they switch sides to their toy allegiance).
Thundercracker in IDW is a good example of this, following on from the original toy Bio, in that he constantly questions his allegiance.
And as mentioned, the Marvel universe had quite a few characters that would sit on the fence or jump over it completely.
It was just never a case of wholesale changing of Autobot or Decepticon ideologies, like IDW have done. We have Autobots that are portrayed as elitist snobs, and the Decepticons portrayed as the hard-done-by worker class. As a mob, it is easy to paint this sort of changed scenario, but looking at each individual Gen1 character that we know, they don't fit in with that "grand setting". Evaluate the purpose and character of all the various Autobots and Decepticons you can think of... which ideology would each of those characters you can name support or oppose? You'd expect most Autobots (as individuals) would be the ones fighting for the workers, while most Decepticons (as individuals) would be the ones securing their power as the elite, to rule over others. Just reading their Bios, it is impossible to think any Decepticon would ever fight for the rights of others, even if it was for their own benefit.
And we are being faced with an Autobot regime that are essentially all like Animated Sentinel Prime - jerks that no one would see as a hero.
I like the old way that we had heroes that were not doubted or questioned. Like how Peter Cullen described Optimus Prime - a pure hero.


The Grimlock and Dinobots I'll grant were "vigilante" type heroes, with Grimlock going too far when he became leader... but he still redeemed himself, remembering that he doesn't act as he should.

Jazz - wasn't familiar with how fragile humans are, as the fire lasso would have just contained a normal bot without harming them. He wasn't intentionally aiming to hurt Sparkplug.

Perchance to Dream - Each of those Autobots acted according to their bios, or in an heroic manner. Ironhide saved lives by killing a terrorist that the police would have killed anyway. Wheeljack thought about turning on Jetfire (just after he became an Autobot), but didn't. Sunstreaker did endanger humans, but they were the military, and that's their job to defend their country - he didn't endanger civilians. Prowl is logic-driven like Shockwave, so knew that calling off a chase would just allow them to keep causing chaos and casualties in the future. And Silverbolt's fear and embarrassment clouded his judgement, but when he regained himself, he didn't intentionally cause chaos.


Of the Decepticons you listed, only Carnivac was a Decepticon as a toy, so having the others starting out that way is just a (weak) plot device in just one media... The toys themselves (their bios) don't reflect that, so doesn't have as much weighting to me as does Carnivac's transition. His transition was more of a surprise, or at least, required more thought by the writer to pull off.

(I do read the IDW stuff, when it comes out in TPB, I just like the older comics more, that easily had you cheering/supporting "the good guys", without wondering who really are the good guys.)

[Sky Shadow]

Keep in mind that the 'Autobot elite' stories are set in the distant past - we know that the Autobots will become the good guys, and in some ways presumably this story is going to begin to pave the road on which 'our' Autobots will eventually redeem their faction's good name. The Autobots in charge are corrupt before Optimus Prime comes along - this makes Optimus better - he's much less of a hero if he's yet another in a line of great Autobot leaders - in this, he makes a difference.

Megatron is a 'working class' robot - this in in keeping with his Marvel origins. For him to gain the power he desires he can't just suddenly join the aristocracy - he has to start a revolution and get the 'people' behind him. I don't think anyone thinks that Soundwave and the other Decepticons are insurgents out of the goodness of their own fuel pumps - they see that Megatron is the bot to stand beside if they want a share of his power.

Flint Dille (who wrote this comic) was incidentally the first person to write a Decepticon (toy) that truly defected in Five Faces of Darkness Part 5 (Blitzwing, whose 'outcast' character was sadly replaced by Octane for the rest of Season 3 because the latter had a toy on the shelf.) I loved that episode as a kid and I have faith in what Dille is doing in Autocracy.

[griffin]

Indeed... I do look forward to seeing how it is played out, if this is ever released in print form.
I guess the message they are making is that power corrupts, and in this instance, it had corrupted both sides - first the Autobot hierarchy, then Megatron.