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[Va'al]

Issue 49 of The Transformers will be released next week, with More Than Meets the Eye catching up later in the month - but the latter's writer James Roberts has opened up the letters page again in occasion of the 50th issue, through a special email address.

If you would like to feature in this landmark issue of one the most acclaimed Transformers comic book series, just follow the instructions below, and hurry: the deadline for submission is this Sunday 17th January!

In next month's issue, in celebration of MTMTE reaching its half century, we're resurrecting the letters page.

This is an invitation to get your name in print and to share with other readers your thoughts on the last four years - favourite issues, stories, characters, character moments, you name it. Best of all would be an insight into what MTMTE means to you.

There's no word limit as such, but the shorter your correspondence, the more we can fit in - and we reserve the right to edit letters for space. You don't have to give your actual name, but we need some kind of identifier - your twitter handle, for example.

But listen -- time is of the essence. You only have until Sunday night to send something through...!

A special email has been set up - mtmte50[at]gmail[dot]com - so that your letters are immediately recognised as being intended for publication in issue 50. Sending something to that address indicates that the message is 'For Publication'. After Monday, once the pages have been finalised, the email account will be cancelled.

We can't promise to print every letter, but we'll squeeze in as many as we can.

Feel free to spread the word beyond Twitter to TF sites etc.

If you're moved to write, thank you. MTMTE would be nothing without its fans, and this is a chance to recognise and celebrate that.

Cheers,

James

[Microraptor]

If a link would be provided that'd be swell.

[Va'al]

If a link would be provided that'd be swell.

A special email has been set up - mtmte50[at]gmail[dot]com - so that your letters are immediately recognised as being intended for publication in issue 50. Sending something to that address indicates that the message is 'For Publication'. After Monday, once the pages have been finalised, the email account will be cancelled.

[Microraptor]

Yeah. I figured that part out, but apparently my email "violates the delivery restrictions". So, Crap.

[ScottyP]

Edit: Nevermind

[Microraptor]

Edit: Nevermind

Hmm?

[Va'al]

Yeah. I figured that part out, but apparently my email "violates the delivery restrictions". So, Crap.

Did you include an attachment? What account are you using?

[Microraptor]

Yeah. I figured that part out, but apparently my email "violates the delivery restrictions". So, Crap.

Did you include an attachment? What account are you using?

An attachment you say? What is this mystic accouterment Va'al-sempai?

[Va'al]

Yeah. I figured that part out, but apparently my email "violates the delivery restrictions". So, Crap.

Did you include an attachment? What account are you using?

An attachment you say? What is this mystic accouterment Va'al-sempai?

Just trying to figure out what you did to upset Roberts.

[jogunwarrior]

Spent some time typing something all out, editing it, reworded it, then summed all of that up with one simple sentence instead.

[Va'al]

I am seriously tempted to just write

...why?

It can be read, interpreted, and answered in a variety of ways.

[Microraptor]

Yeah. I figured that part out, but apparently my email "violates the delivery restrictions". So, Crap.

Did you include an attachment? What account are you using?

An attachment you say? What is this mystic accouterment Va'al-sempai?

Just trying to figure out what you did to upset Roberts.

I'm innocent I swear.

[ScottyP]

Edit: Nevermind

Hmm?

I misinterpreted your first post in the thread, and once I figured that out I just edited my post to take out the pointless advice within, that's all

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Just sent my letter. Told him how good a job he is doing and how this comic is what hooked me on comics. Plus I asked for Rook to join the crew with the protectobots and told him how much I look forward to seeing Defensor in MTMTE

[Va'al]

Once again thanks to Seibertron.com member and podcaster ScottyP, we have been notified of the regular iTunes three page preview - and it’s for the big, landmark issue #50, starting the Dying of the Light arc! As writer James Roberts confirms on Twitter, there are pages 4-6, rather than 1-3, but take a look nonetheless below.

THE DYING OF THE LIGHT—PART 1! Since joining the Lost Light, MEGATRON has rejected everything that once made him the most feared and hated Cybertronian of all time. But penitence has a price, and before the ex-Decepticon can find true redemption he must first confront his darkest legacy—the Decepticon Justice Division.

[Quint]

Megatron: Rumbled. Speaking of which...

You know, it's lovely to see that, even after starting a war and millions of years of being a genocidal tyrant, Megatron has maintained a playful sense of humour...

(FFS, this better be a trick or a <ahem> long con.)

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Well, Dunno what to make of it yet. Cannot wait for what 10 days though?

[ZeroWolf]

Megatron: Rumbled. Speaking of which...

You know, it's lovely to see that, even after starting a war and millions of years of being a genocidal tyrant, Megatron has maintained a playful sense of humour...

(FFS, this better be a trick or a <ahem> long con.)

Why would it be a trick? Megatron has grown immensely since becoming an autobot, I love him like this and hope that this doesn't change for years yet. They want an evil Megatron? Bring bw megs into the comics

Sigh I really need to find the money so I can get this series again.

[Quint]

Megatron: Rumbled. Speaking of which...

You know, it's lovely to see that, even after starting a war and millions of years of being a genocidal tyrant, Megatron has maintained a playful sense of humour...

(FFS, this better be a trick or a <ahem> long con.)

Why would it be a trick? Megatron has grown immensely since becoming an autobot, I love him like this and hope that this doesn't change for years yet. They want an evil Megatron? Bring bw megs into the comics

Sigh I really need to find the money so I can get this series again.

It hasn't been earned, due to the sheer scale of the atrocities he's committed and the very narrow time frame this spontaneous, Road to Damascus-style turnaround occurred within. Compare this to the delicious malevolence of Chaos Theory... Verisimilitude and all that...

It's either bad planning (a franchise imperative shoe-horned in), bad writing or, hopefully, the plot is more complex than it otherwise seems. Perhaps Megatron does want to meet the Knights but for ulterior motives that also involve Brainstorm's briefcase.

I like Megatron's quips as much as the next person, in their own right, yet the character change doesn't ring true. Nonetheless, I'm especially enjoying how he has ostensibly supplanted Rodimus as the bona fide captain outright (senior crew members such as Magnus, Rung et al defer to Megs, his battlefield expertise is in stark contrast to the sloppy tactics employed by Rodders etc).

It would also explain why he's lowering himself by explaining his feelings to lesser beings so frequently <insert Futurama quote here >

Imagine the devastation it would cause if it is revealed he has been insidiously using them this whole time. It would also add some meaning to Rodimus' stunted growth as a character.

[ZeroWolf]

But they have also been changing his origins to show that he never started off wanting that kind of future, yet he was forced into it by way of circumstances. You can see this in the flashback that tarn has sorta when he's talking to black shadow. I don't think it was a franchise thing as the only other megs to do this was in prime, where he disbanded the decepticons because of what unicron did to him.

Now you may like that ending of sorts where megs reveals his true colours but I would just face palm as that would be a true cop out and unlike Roberts, who is far too smart for such a disappointing twist.

As to what he wants the briefcase for, well I'm wondering if he wants to find the 'third' option for cybertron, one where the planet is freed from the influences of the corruption of groups like functionists but without the loss of life and all the violence that the decepticons caused.

If they went that route, then megatron would be similar to one of my all time favourite video game protagonists/antagonists Kain from the legacy of Kain series.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I cannot see them undoing the past 2 years of Megatrons character development. Roberts has worked too hard and it has been shown that Megs has legitimate reasons for everything and he now feels the impact of what his life has brought, and he feels it strongly. I think he is good for good now

[Va'al]

Given what D-Max and ZeroWolf have just said, we also have the field shot on the Necrobot world, and the announcement in #49 about his turn to non-violence - renouncing his gun, as he wrote in Towards Peace. (Nicely mirrored by the losing of the walking stick - gun as tool to prop him up - with his holomatter avatar on Swearth, too.)

To set him up against Tarn, with the latter as a follower of Megatron the warrior, all of this may have actually been necessary. It would not be a clever ruse, this far in.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

The Necroworld image is to me the biggest impact on Megatron, with the issue 38 realization that the universe would be better without him coming in second

[Quint]

I think we're all somewhat partisan towards potential plots that we prefer. Which is fair enough.

Nonetheless, I maintain that a damascene conversion - precipitated by a single Autobot's death after millions of years of slaughtering them, remember - is either, as above, unlikely, weak plotting or story writing. However praising Robert's writing for being so complex that he wouldn't throw a twist in is a little contradictory lol. The title is called More Than Meets The Eye, after all.

Anyway, It's just speculation of future developments (yes, based on somewhat homogeneous character voices). Time will tell.

Edit to add: From a PR / commercial point of view, Megatron's defection garnered headlines (even being mentioned in the UK Guardian very recently too). In the same way that Batman survived or Superman was resurrected or whatever, it's perhaps inevitable that Megatron will once again 'change' to court attention and revenue. This is likely just building up to a pay day and the only thing up for debate is the nature of his betrayal. Despite my criticism above, I hope it's Roberts that sees this through.

[Va'al]

This is likely just building up to a pay day and the only thing up for debate is the nature of his betrayal. Despite my criticism above, I hope it's Roberts that sees this through.

Alas, I am inclined to agree on the first part of that, and minus the 'alas' I agree on the second too!

Barber is a good egg too, and I don't expect him to change the direction any time soon. Cannot necessarily say the same of higher IDW or their connection with the franchise. But we'll see!