Review: Megatron Origins TPB (1 spoiler)

[Lord_Zed]

Afraid I must also register my dissapointment about that series. I found it to poorly ploted, and to cramped to follow easily. Kup pointed out the confusion with Inferno and Grapple when the spaceliner got shot down, on its own I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, but there were just to many confusing moments, and the whole thing just felt vauge, like the writter was afraid of meshing out the continuity. The whole things feels ethereal and cloudlike with to many unanswered questions, Inferno and Grapple, What happened with Senator Ratbat? and why? Did sentinel Prime die? How did Megatron organise the whole afair??? All in all reading it becomes a chore. Though I must admit I really did like Issue 2.


I figure Starscreams guns were designed to be concealed from high level security, though I did find the ease with which they escaped a bit much, would have prefered if Soundwave had played a bigger part helping them from the outside.

[Paulbot]

If I recall correctly Soundwave turned on Ratbat, extracted his spark, and enslaved him in the cassette form we're familar with.

[TheDirtyDigger]

If I recall correctly Soundwave turned on Ratbat, extracted his spark, and enslaved him in the cassette form we're familar with.

Yep and Sentinel Prime died which I was sorta glad of coz he was a right a-hole imo.

[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.