Read #8. Not as bad but not great. I personally found very little likeable in the issue. I think the concept is fine and I'm not as angry as others are about Spike taking out a TF with so much as a bit of liquid and blasters. This seems to be where all the fanboys are up to their panties in it. A TF getting taken out by a miserable little human? While on initially reading this thread and elsewhere online I was grossly sceptical, in the context of the story I find it believable. Spike has planned this. He knows what it is, he knows it needs to be taken down and so if he is going solo, you would expect him to be prepared and have done his research. Hence, the liquid/blaster etc.

My problem however is motivation and organic growth with the plot to get it to that point. There's a mixture of motivations underpinning his attack on the combiner. Is it revenge? Is it to protect the Autobot alliance? Is it to stop the devastation that a combiner might cause? Is it to let his hair down? Is it to prove humans are tough enough to deal with the TFs themselves? All of this is messed together in a mixing bowl of the fight without any clarity whatsoever. It is set against the backdrop of a military conversation that was tense. How does this fight fit into the context of that with it's mixed messages? Honestly, there's no character work and nuance to make it work.

Human stories can be good with TFs. However, this is a superficial attempt. It's lame and is ill-directed. It is passable as a whole b/c if you really wanted to, you could construe all the motivations together such that it means Spike did some significant on multiple fronts. That said, why solo? He trusts his men seems to be the message at the start. Again your problem however you may argue to him this is very personal. BUT again, where have you developed the character to the point where any of his actions matter or can be positively construed? Nowhere. This could've worked but what it requried was more careful character work rather than a mere few pages all in the one spot where the reader has to just accept this coming out of nowhere. Did you really expect fanboys to react otherwise? While IDW/the writer may rationalise it but there's one simple fact : Execution is piss poor.

And I say this ignoring the fact that I would much prefer reading something like the Ironhide mini where it's human free. I like reading about robots. Any story can work but you have to give it the right notes and treat it like a piece of art and work on construction. This fails on all accounts.

Add to that, there's a jarring disconnect between the cover art (style wise, very G1) and interior art. Very weird. Next issue has an awesome Combaticon cover but crikey I hope interiors reflect this. Despite how harsh I've been, this issue was actually to me more tolerable than a few of the first 6 issues.

That said, despite the balance that i've provided here I'm not hanging onto the book. Well, unless 9 blows me out my socks but I'm pretty committed to the trade path now. I have three versions of various trades plus single issues. I support them more than I should for their mediocrity and it comes to an end now.