All Hail Megatron Issues 1 to 6 (Vol 1)

[Hereticpoo]

Fair enough! Restecpa

I'm fighting the good fight, so to speak. I enjoyed Furman's run on IDW, particularly his use of characters who are rarely seen, or new takes on familiar characters. I was getting into the story. I enjoyed the off-the-wall idea of Sunstreaker as a Headmaster, for instance. I believe this is one of the few stories to give Sunstreaker a significant role. Man, for a guy who barely appeared in G1 comics or the cartoon, he sure is popular

I do not enjoy my story being ganked away from me so I can (essentially) read the G1 cartoon, but with blood and humans dying. I question some of the plot holes, such as the claimed "1 year later" (Devastation showed the Decepticons under immediate attack... so what have they been doing?), and how come in issue 4 Megatron claimed that the Earth had been conquered. Was the conquest of the rest of the world not important enough to show on page? In any case by issue 5 it is implied that the rest of the world was still unconquered. Oh yeah, how come various Decepticon dudes have reformatted into body forms that transform into outdated Earth vehicles and technology compared to their previous body forms?

I'm also not enjoying Guido's pencils in AHM. I much preferred his work in Spotlight: Galvatron.

So, along with continuity issues and and comments made by the powers that be that have irked me, I do not like AHM and do not support it.

I also get the feeling on this forum that I should support it because the author is Australian. I enjoy going against the grain

[roller]

I wonder if the Dead universe is still kicking around in AHM at all

[kup]

Last weekend I bought almost all the issues of AHM and borrowed Issue 1 from Zed (couldn't find that one). I have read them all in one go and I have just finished reading this whole thread which I have been avoiding since the first issue was released due to spoilers.

I will begin with the positives and then I will get on with my general comments.

The series overall reads fast, is enjoyable and does enthuse me to continue reading. This is primarily due to the Autobot's situation and dilemma with an unknown traitor among them as their situation is indeed dire and I want to see where it all leads.

The brief dynamic with Megatron praising Starscream was a bit unusual and cought me off guard but I welcomed it as it was a rare moment to see something like that in TF stories and realistically speaking, Starscream would not have such a high rank among the Decepticons if Megatron did not respect him as a soldier to some degree.

There is also nothing more awesome than Kup smoking a cigar!

Before I begin with the rest of my views, with all due respect to Mr McCarthy, this series reads as something that was conceived to be in a continuity of its own and I don't see how this was meant to be within the 'tion' continuity all along. It reads more like there was a conscious decision not take into account the Furman stories and only after much of the AHM story outline was finalized was the decision made to shoe horn it into the rest of the IDW continuity.

There is also something else that caught me by surprise. Up to this point the marketing push (covers, posters, etc) gave the impression that this new series was about Megatron having absolute rule of Earth with the Autobots completely defeated (Prime's head on a spike). I was surprised when the book was mostly about Megatron just getting started in his conquest of Earth with the Autobots exiled on Cybertron. I know that 'reader deception' is all too common in modern day comics as STL pointed out earlier in the thread, but this kind of annoyed me. Regardless it was a minor annoyance and not something too deterring but I thought that I should mention it.

My following comments are not necessarily bad but it is a bit of a let down for me as I am one who likes more variety in my Transformers. It feels that AHM was either written to appeal to G1 cartoon only fans that are only familiar with the first 3 years of Transformers or that the writer is a cartoon only fan himself. This is particularly noticeable coming after Furman's portion of the IDW continuity which makes a considerable effort to show us a wide variety of characters stretching from G1 to G2 while AHM only concentrates on '84-'86 characters and makes no references to later ones (that I have noticed).

The issues so far also read as a more refined and violent G1 cartoon episode as the Decepticon characterizations are much less complex than the ones we saw in Furman's stories and more of your stereotypical cartoon bad guys all smiling and laughing at the destruction they cause. Naturally they have an evil plan to conquer the world and that appears to be the whole scope of their endeavors which is unlike Furman's side of the continuity in which Earth becomes a pivotal front in the overall galaxy expanding war effort.

Yeah, the Furman stories were indeed becoming too convoluted and the last few issues have felt very rushed and unfocused but AHM is the extreme opposite with a much more simplified story and G1 cartoon like villains with stereotypical villain type goals and methods. I personally preferred Furman's overall approach as it made the Transformers a mysterious alien force on Earth and part of a much greater war. The Decepticons were also more focused in the larger picture of achieving victory than enjoying mindless destruction and some of them like Sixshot, showed different sides to them reminding us that there were different sides to the Decepticons than just purely evil villains; this helped to add more depth to them and the overall story.

The Irony given that this series was marketed as being focused on the Decepticons is that what keeps AHM interesting is actually the Autobots as their situation and characterizations are much more refined and believable than that of the Decepticons. The Autobots are in a dire situation and despite them being good guys, they are on the edge, specially when they are sure that they have a traitor among them; this gives them a lot of story possibilities and depth which is a huge contrast to the Decepticons which are all 'HaHa, we are evil!'.

While reading this thread I found myself mostly agreeing with FFN (has the world exploded yet? ) and Lord_Zed in their assessments of All Hail Megatron.

In conclusion, AHM is a simpler, more visual and faster to read than Furman's stories but they also feel 'lesser' and a bit of a step down in its story telling from what we have gotten before from IDW primarily due to the much more simplified form of cartoon like story telling and characterization. Even though it is still enjoyable to some degree and I look forward to more issues (I want to see what happens to the Autobots) but I also have a feeling that I already know where the overall story is heading and how it will conclude because of the heavily cartoon inspired Decepticons,. Hopefully I am wrong in that and there is room for surprises.

[FFN]

I wonder if the Dead universe is still kicking around in AHM at all

Nah, I'd expect that to be OVER -- FINISHED!

IDW evidently NEVER DID WANT Furman's story TO LIVE FOREVER and decided that it was SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENTS. If they have so little faith in their writers that they hover over the stories like LIKE SOME PREDATORY BIRD, yanking it halfway through when sales start to dip, then WHAT CHANCE DO WE HAVE?

[GoktimusPrime]

There is also nothing more awesome than Kup smoking a cigar!

..other than romanticising smoking to impressionable youthes who might be reading the book. (-_-) But then again, it's not lit. Maybe he just likes to hold it there like Popeye - I remember seeing one episode of Popeye where he tells his nephews that he doesn't really smoke pipe and just holds it there (it was one of those community service messages at the end of the ep - and knowing's half the battle! ).


...heh, I had a lecturer at uni who looked a lot like Popeye. ;D

[Golden Phoenix]

..other than romanticising smoking to impressionable youthes who might be reading the book. (-_-) But then again, it's not lit.

Maybe he has the same reason as Bender.
"They make me look cool"

[kup]

Maybe he he has the same reason as Bender.
"They make me look cool"

I say you are right and it works!

..other than romanticising smoking to impressionable youthes who might be reading the book. (-_-)

I feel like smoking a cigar now!

[Lord_Zed]

The things Kup will do to impress the "in crowd", sure is a sucker for peer presure.

But how do we know it's a Cigar if he never lights it? Maybe it's a Decepticons finger.

[Golden Phoenix]

But how do we know it's a Cigar if he never lights it? Maybe it's a Decepticons finger.

Well the crazies have to manifest somewhere

[kup]

The things Kup will do to impress the "in crowd", sure is a sucker for peer presure.

But how do we know it's a Cigar if he never lights it? Maybe it's a Decepticons finger.

lol for a moment I thought you meant me