Review: Megatron Origins TPB (1 spoiler)

[Gutsman Heavy]

Still, he used apex armour pretty cool imo.

[GoktimusPrime]

...alas poor Bumblejumper...

[STL]

I've actually been analysing it recently. Here are some plot points that fall short imo:
- Megatron's true motivations?
- Did Megatron have a beserker rage? Did he come to accept and embrace it? Why?
- Soundwave is originally Ratbat's lieutenant. Why does he doublecross him? There's a lot of story potential and character work there.
- Starscream's loyalty. Why is he loyal of someone he's just met? Again more potential character work down the drain.
- What the hell happened w/ Clench? I know he died but why did he go from orchestrating the fights to being in one?
- Guard ships were taken by Megatron in #1 and were armed to the teeth? And neither is it that easy to take a ship without panic spreading through the ship. It's awfully convenient
- Does Megatron plan for his troops to be captured? Why? What does he see in it? He doesn't have the numbers. Or did he just manage to bail them out of it? It's too lucky for me and it makes the Autobot Command stupid. This is Kaon. The badlands. Sentinel Prime is there b/c it's so bad.
- Cassette technology, why? Rumble and Frenzy aren't even used for infiltration/spy work.
- Why continue fighting the gladitorial combat? Erecting one stadium after another? What benefit is there to Megatron? There is no underlying motivation.
- Why do Decepticons swear allegiance to him? Energon's not enough. Their desperate that's not enough. They're rebelling against an entire cybertronian society. That's a big risk. What -do- they see in him?
- How the crud does he defeat Sentinel Prime who is every bit his superior? I know how it's played out but it's so unbelievable that Sentinel Prime being hte primero bad@$$ loses that advantage.

Those are my quibbles with it. There are plenty of fanboy moments but overall it read like DWs Micromasters. Art looked lovely but too busy, some neat scenes and moments, nice resolution but no real meat, cheese, mayo and salad between the covers.

As bad as it is, it has inspired me though.

[Paulbot]

Good points

- Why continue fighting the gladitorial combat? Erecting one stadium after another? What benefit is there to Megatron? There is not underlying motivation.

Based on other TF fiction I would guess that these stadiums are disguises for Megatron's planetary engines to turn Cybertron into a gigantic space battleship... but I don't think there's anything in this story to suggest that.

[Gutsman Heavy]

I think the biggest problem with Megs origin is the 4 issue run, it it were longer it would have had far more time to get to where it ended, rather than cramming it all in a small space, basically a cluster f**k of ideas where little get to shine.

[i_amtrunks]

I think the biggest problem with Megs origin is the 4 issue run, it it were longer it would have had far more time to get to where it ended, rather than cramming it all in a small space, basically a cluster f**k of ideas where little get to shine.

It suffered from IDW's "Beast War's-itis" for sure (too much going on for 4 issues).

Art was lacklustre, I had a very hard time telling who was who, the colouring quality varied immensely, and the story jumped around a lot, I feel as though a long time passed between issues 1 and 2, and I struggled from that point on to get back into the story. From then on there are plot holes and unanswered questions about everything, from Megatrons motives to the gladiator arenas, to Soundwave to the Autobot reactions to Megatron. All unexplored or detailed.

I think Origins was a great idea, but it was executed so very poorly.

[GoktimusPrime]

yeah, good points. Furman's writing talents work better when he's writing long-running series, like G1. He can write sagas within the series (e.g.: Time Wars, Matrix Quest etc) but they're all part of the overall story arc. It seems that Furman's writing talents become more restricted and tend to falter somewhat when confined to limited mini-series runs which IDW seems insistent on (and which I personally am not a big fan of - I miss the old days when G1 just a straight 8 year run ).

- Megatron's true motivations?

Like all the would-be Decepticons he is part of a downtrodden class who feel impotent and angry. It is how many revolutions begin and empires fall.

- Did Megatron have a beserker rage? Did he come to accept and embrace it? Why?

By the traditional Norse/Old English definition of berserker, I would say no. Megatron is in full control of his rage and power when he's unleashing it upon his hapless victims.

G1 Slag is more of a true Berserker as he actually loses control of his rage so badly that he even turns on his fellow Autobots (even killing them).


Megatron is an amoral sadist. He doesn't seem to take pleasure from killing but sees it as a means to an end. Much like a Sith Lord.

- Does Megatron plan for his troops to be captured? Why? What does he see in it? He doesn't have the numbers. Or did he just manage to bail them out of it? It's too lucky for me and it makes the Autobot Command stupid. This is Kaon. The badlands. Sentinel Prime is there b/c it's so bad.

In G1 Optimus Prime was the Autobots' first military leader. The first soldier to lead the Autobots, and thus pushed back the Decepticon hordes and gave hope to the Autobots for the first time since the rise of the Decepticons. The Autobots were led by the Autobot Council of Elders, specifically by a Councillor known as Traachon (in this story we have senators). With Councillors basically giving orders to the Autobot army, the Autobots were easily crushed by the Decepticons (led by Trannis) and of course, Sentinel Prime was slain in battle, passing the Matrix onto Optimus Prime. It wasn't until Councillor Xaaron was able to convince Councillor Traachon to veto himself out of office and allow Optimus Prime to assume supreme leadership of the Autobots that the Autobots were able to effectively counter the Decepticons - repelling them from Iacon and liberating previously conquered Autobot city-states.

In Megatron: Origins, the Autobots do seem to be controlled by the Senate, rather than military command. Sentinel Prime takes his orders from the Senate who prove to be ill-prepared for the rise of Megatron and the Decepticons. The whole Soundwave/Ratbat thing didn't help things much for the Autobots either.

- Why do Decepticons swear allegiance to him? Energon's not enough. Their desperate that's not enough. They're rebelling against an entire cybertronian society. That's a big risk. What -do- they see in him?

They're terribly desperate and disenfranchised. They see Megatron and his Decepticon cause as the means to liberate themselves from their impotent status in society. Beast Wars Megatron did the same thing. We see the same thing happening with terrorist and some government and religious organisations in real life (both past and present).

- How the crud does he defeat Sentinel Prime who is every bit his superior? I know how it's played out but it's so unbelievable that Sentinel Prime being hte primero bad@$$ loses that advantage.

He clearly underestimated his opponent. It is very possible for a seemingly inferior opponent to defeat a superior foe. That's why I believe that one of the biggest mistakes (and a very common mistake) that I see amongst martial artists is the assumption that your opponent is not significantly better than you are (one of my ongoing pet peeves) (-_-)

Just look at the Vietnam War.

[STL]

yeah, good points. Furman's writing talents work better when he's writing long-running series, like G1.

It was actually a different writer who did the series... an Eric Holmes I believe. I think Furman could've done a better job with this. I think anyone could've tbh.

While I do see the validity of the points your trying to make Gok, I think most of those are gap filling explanations. It's not even implied. There is no structuring between the plot elements. There is no development. Really, without diverse G1 history as you referred to - most of those interpretations would be meaningless. Heck, you wouldn't even have been able to arrive at them. It just goes to show how hole-ridden the entire story was.

[kup]

STL i s correct. Eric Homes wrote Megatron Origin from a concept originally developed for Dreamwave.

[Lord_Zed]

Kup wrote
STL i s correct. Eric Homes wrote Megatron Origin from a concept originally developed for Dreamwave.

Something that bugs me about the Megatron origin, is that it still doesn't readly fit with any of the exsisting universes to well other than The IDW one. Perhaps one of the reasons I'm critical of the series is it falls short of the heights reched by The War Within series which in my mind was the best take on early Cybertron that we've seen.

Particularly I prefer The War Withins depiction of Ratbat and yes Sentinel Prime. Although the idea of making Ratbat a senator was novel, they didn't really flesh him out that well, or why he go confined to a tape or bat or whatever I was very confused. And I know Sentinel Prime was never actualy seen in War Within but he sure seemed to comand more respect. The way the autobots all talk about Sentinel Prime implies he fought the Decpeticons with them for a long time before he finally fell at the hands of Megatron. Megatron Origins Sentinel Prime appears to go up against Megs once and get terminated, some mighty leader he was. In fact what we see of Sentinel Prime does little to convince me he was a particularly effective autobot leader, and certainly wouldn't command the respect of Autobots like Grimlock. Come to think of it where was Grimlock? he needs a new Origin now that it seems he wasn't a Gladiator. I hope Furman does something a little different with Grimlock.