All Hail Megatron #16 Preview

Finally, the worse story arc in Transformers lore since the Energon cartoon is about to come to a close!

I hope they do what to the story what D.C did to his Batman story arc with the Riddler.

It needs to happen.

i'm not interested in the transformers comics but can anyone tell me why this one is so bad ?

cannonfodder4000 wrote:i'm not interested in the transformers comics but can anyone tell me why this one is so bad ?

Because it's a different take on the Transformers because at the start the Decepticons won the war and are running rough shot all over Earth and destroying every major city on the planet while what is left of the Autobots are stuck on a dead Cybertron with Optimus Prime in a coma and there is a traitor supposedly in the Autobot's midst.

IMHO the reason for much of the hatred of AHM is that takes one place one year after Revelation (which is IMO the worse Transformer comic ever written) and that a lot of the precious continuity is NOT strictly adhered too, also because it's not written by Simon Furman, who I think way too many fans think that he should be the ONE AND ONLY writer to ever write a Transformers comic. After reading Transformers: All Hail Megatron TPB vol. 1, it's IMHO far better than Furman's whole IDW output which was all over the place, had stupid subplot on top of stupid subplot on top of yet another stupid subplot, and filled with a ton of dull and disappointing action sequences.

All Hail Megatron is the first comic that I read since Miracleman that I can remember the action scenes (something I can't ever remember is a comic book fight because I've read a lot of comics over the years), and this has some of the most emotional scenes and Guido's art does something that NO one has ever done to me I was actually terrified by the Decepticons. And as far as I'm concerned Transformers: All Hail Megatron is a great series and is the best Transformers series IDW has ever put out and yes, I've read all of Furman's stuff and as it's quality ranged from good to total crap All Hail Megatron was simply a better story and more consistant.

All Hail Megatron is what you'd get if you let a 5 year old with terminal ADHD write a comic. It takes Simon Furman's brilliant and complex series and ignores most of it in favor of something that has the intellectual weight of "DECEPTICON SMASH!!!!!". The action in AHM was tedious, confusing and often pointless. The series was meant to be epic, but it fell flatter than a pancake. The pace of the comic was all over the place like a dog's breakfast and to call the storyline inconsistent is missing a perfect opportunity to use the word random. Rather than an exploration of "what would happen if the Decepticons won" it seems to be more a dadaist experiment on how juvenile the comic can be made before the majority of the audience gives up in frustration in being treated as though they have the cerebral maturity of the characters Skids and Mudflap in Revenge of the Fallen.

i have tried to like this series. With The "tion" series I was pumped for the comics every month. This one made me drop it..and fast. Bought the first trade. Immediately sold the first trade off. I didn't red the comics growing up, only the toon, other than G2 #1 I did not read a transformers comic until Dreamwave's 2nd War Within Series. I can honestly say that from the issues that I read AHM is the worst transformers experience I've ever had. So good riddance.

Cyberstrike wrote:

cannonfodder4000 wrote:i'm not interested in the transformers comics but can anyone tell me why this one is so bad ?

Because it's a different take on the Transformers because at the start the Decepticons won the war and are running rough shot all over Earth and destroying every major city on the planet while what is left of the Autobots are stuck on a dead Cybertron with Optimus Prime in a coma and there is a traitor supposedly in the Autobot's midst.

IMHO the reason for much of the hatred of AHM is that takes one place one year after Revelation (which is IMO the worse Transformer comic ever) and that a lot of the precious continuity is strictly adhered too, also because it's not written by Simon Furman, who way too many fans think he should be the ONLY writer to ever write a Transformers comic. After reading Transformers: All Hail Megatron TPB vol. 1, it's IMHO far better than Furman's whole IDW output which was all over the place, had stupid subplot on top of stupid subplot on top of yet another stupid subplot, and filled with a ton of dull and disappointing action sequences.

All Hail Megatron is the first comic that I read since Miracleman that I can remember the action scenes (something I can't ever remember is a comic book fight because I've read a lot of comics over the years), and this has some of the most emotional scenes and Guido's art does something that no ONE has ever done to me I was actually terrified by the Decepticons. And as far as I'm concerned Transformers: All Hail Megatron is a great series and is the best Transformers series IDW has ever put out and yes, I've read all of Furman's stuff.

You're certainly entitled to your oppinion, and in parts I can agree with you, but I think that your thinking why readers don't like AHM is off base. The first reason was that it took the diverse universe created in the -tion series and appeared to crumple it up and throw it out the in the waste basket. It required an additional 4 issues to explain the major progression once IDW realised how many plot holes there were (Kup and Perceptor being two of the most glaring). Now most fans were ok with the premise when it was first announced because IDW mentioned that it wouldn't be canon, then they turned around and said it would be. The Readers felt slightly betrayed by that which may or may not have coloured their oppinions. Simon Furman is a quintessential writer for TF comics, but saying readers were mad because he didn't write it is fairly narrow minded. Readers were mad because the characters were shallow, the story had more holes than a seive and there was very little development. Throw in a new character who is basically IDW power character (Drift, although no one seems to complain that Snake Eyes is overpowered...), a human story line which kinda fizzles out and changing artists mid way through? That's why readers didn't like it much.

Compare AHM to Maximum Dinobots, where Furman took 3-4 unfinished plot threads and tied them up in 5 issues, while still leaving some freaking cool action scenes and dialogue, and I think you'll see why AHM's story was lacking and drawn out.

Mkall wrote:

Cyberstrike wrote:

cannonfodder4000 wrote:i'm not interested in the transformers comics but can anyone tell me why this one is so bad ?

Because it's a different take on the Transformers because at the start the Decepticons won the war and are running rough shot all over Earth and destroying every major city on the planet while what is left of the Autobots are stuck on a dead Cybertron with Optimus Prime in a coma and there is a traitor supposedly in the Autobot's midst.

IMHO the reason for much of the hatred of AHM is that takes one place one year after Revelation (which is IMO the worse Transformer comic ever) and that a lot of the precious continuity is strictly adhered too, also because it's not written by Simon Furman, who way too many fans think he should be the ONLY writer to ever write a Transformers comic. After reading Transformers: All Hail Megatron TPB vol. 1, it's IMHO far better than Furman's whole IDW output which was all over the place, had stupid subplot on top of stupid subplot on top of yet another stupid subplot, and filled with a ton of dull and disappointing action sequences.

All Hail Megatron is the first comic that I read since Miracleman that I can remember the action scenes (something I can't ever remember is a comic book fight because I've read a lot of comics over the years), and this has some of the most emotional scenes and Guido's art does something that no ONE has ever done to me I was actually terrified by the Decepticons. And as far as I'm concerned Transformers: All Hail Megatron is a great series and is the best Transformers series IDW has ever put out and yes, I've read all of Furman's stuff.

You're certainly entitled to your oppinion, and in parts I can agree with you, but I think that your thinking why readers don't like AHM is off base. The first reason was that it took the diverse universe created in the -tion series and appeared to crumple it up and throw it out the in the waste basket. It required an additional 4 issues to explain the major progression once IDW realised how many plot holes there were (Kup and Perceptor being two of the most glaring). Now most fans were ok with the premise when it was first announced because IDW mentioned that it wouldn't be canon, then they turned around and said it would be. The Readers felt slightly betrayed by that which may or may not have coloured their oppinions. Simon Furman is a quintessential writer for TF comics, but saying readers were mad because he didn't write it is fairly narrow minded. Readers were mad because the characters were shallow, the story had more holes than a seive and there was very little development. Throw in a new character who is basically IDW power character (Drift, although no one seems to complain that Snake Eyes is overpowered...), a human story line which kinda fizzles out and changing artists mid way through? That's why readers didn't like it much.

Compare AHM to Maximum Dinobots, where Furman took 3-4 unfinished plot threads and tied them up in 5 issues, while still leaving some freaking cool action scenes and dialogue, and I think you'll see why AHM's story was lacking and drawn out.

The sad truth is Furman hasn't delivered a good a Transformers comic since Transformers: Generation 2 ended.

None of his Dreamwave and IDW output has delivered anything remotely as good as Transfromers: Generation 2, and while he's had a few good moments at IDW (like Stormbringer and Transformers: Spotlights on Optimus Prime, Sixshot, Galvatron, and Arcee) the rest of his work there has been very disappointing and very anti-climatic (which is has always been a major weakness of his) like Starscream turning Sixshot off (which just about killed my interest in IDW's Transformers because Furman had built Sixshot up to be a real bad ass), the Optimus Prime vs. Nemesis Prime fight because Nemesis Prime was quite frankly just an uninspired Darth Vader type villain and a total waste.
I didn't find crap like the Machination (and I generally liked the Headmasters, Targetmasters, and Powermasters) but this felt forced and was just plain stupid and Skywatch (ooh a secret government agency that knows about the Transformers on Earth) interesting they were dull and waste the whole techno-babble in Revelation about the Dead Universe seemed to ripped out of episode of Star Trek.

I hate to say it but IMHO Simon Furman's best days are behind him and The Transformers comics have long needed some new writers anyway.

A Spike Witwicky story... The worst storyline in AHM , and they give him a Coda issue, too... And as I see from the preview, this will be as bad as the AHM issues.
IDW comics before AHM used actual realistic-character humans, while AHM used the most cliché characters. The only comics that were worse than AHM was the Avengers crossover, but at least that was just a sidestory, and last only four issues.

I was actually terrified by the Decepticons.

Terrified by decepticons? You'll need to re-read the Infiltration. Megatron shooting a hole through Starscream point-blank ring a bell?

Let me chime in on the support of AHM.

I do enjoy Furman's work, as many of you guys know. Heck, I even spend long amounts of time animating Furman's work (War Within animated). That said, his recent IDW stuff has gotten... bloated. He knows "so" much about Transformers, that at many times, it takes a "true believer" Transformer fan to "get" what's going on.

Take for example his Beast Wars series. For some reason, the man felt that readers would "get" why there were lots of characters that looked the same, but had different names (Japanese characters vs. USA characters), and in doing so, gave no characterization to any of the characters whatsoever.

Most of his IDW work has felt like he was writing the Cybertronian cold war, which is nice and fine... except that most people read the comic to watch these giant war machines actually have wars.

The "hidden war" aspect of Transformers can only stretch credibility for so long. Eventually, "someone" is going to make a fuss over the giant robots.

And so, you have All Hail Megatron... the attempt to go balls to the wall with the action, telling a story of the humans trying to fight for their planet without the Autobots. And in that, we get some great characterization of the Decepticons. Bombshell comes off as creepy. Thundercracker finally does more than quietly questioning, Starscream adds some depth to his character past the "I shall rule" mentality.

And Megatron? We realize that he has a brain that exists past the "I will conquer everyone" mentality. He is, actually, trying to install in new Cybertronian government, and realizes that the brute force of the Decepticons are the only way he will be able to achieve his goals.

It is a tale of what happens AFTER an army wins... and how the win, itself, can end up as a loss.

Was AHM perfect? No. But it sure as hell does not deserve the bitch slap I've seen a lot of the fans give it.

Black Bumblebee wrote:Was AHM perfect? No. But it sure as hell does not deserve the bitch slap I've seen a lot of the fans give it.

I agree totally with Black Bumblebee. AHM seems to be a subject in the fan community where the vocal minority are either advocating AHM's total destruction or heaping unconditional praise on it. I enjoyed AHM despite its flaws. I do like the premise of the storyline. I also like many of the characterizations such as Megatron and Starscream being a twisted mentor/apprentice relationship. I felt that the Decepticons were given more depth in AHM than the Autobots.

Black Bumblebee wrote:Bombshell comes off as creepy. Thundercracker finally does more than quietly questioning, Starscream adds some depth to his character past the "I shall rule" mentality.

And Megatron? We realize that he has a brain that exists past the "I will conquer everyone" mentality. He is, actually, trying to install in new Cybertronian government, and realizes that the brute force of the Decepticons are the only way he will be able to achieve his goals.

This puts it perfectly. People often criticize AHM for being low on the characterization but I just don't see it when one note characters like Starscream and Megatron are given treatment like in AHM.

Now just to go off topic momentarily, can anyone explain to me why every Cybertronian in the IDW comics speak with Earth slang and such? I specifically ask about the IDW comics because it's the most recent Transformers read of mine. Simon Furman is revered but despite my appreciation for his plotting, which I think is great, I find his dialogue...mediocre at best and it's partly due to the poorly conceived dialogue. He and most other writers in the IDW comics I've read do the same thing where the dialogue given to Cybertronians seem out of place. I can understand those who have gone to Earth picking up slang and such but not characters who haven't gone to the planet.

Chaoslock wrote:A Spike Witwicky story... The worst storyline in AHM , and they give him a Coda issue, too... And as I see from the preview, this will be as bad as the AHM issues.
IDW comics before AHM used actual realistic-character humans, while AHM used the most cliché characters. The only comics that were worse than AHM was the Avengers crossover, but at least that was just a sidestory, and last only four issues.

I was actually terrified by the Decepticons.

Terrified by decepticons? You'll need to re-read the Infiltration. Megatron shooting a hole through Starscream point-blank ring a bell?

Ooh, Megatron blowing a hole in Starscream for what the 8 millionth time in Transformers lore and how is that is supposed to scare me? After 25 years of reading and watching Optimus Prime, Megatron, Galvatron, Unicron, Primus, or anybody else for that matter shooting, blowing holes, disintegrating, smashing him with moon bolas, or whatever else you can think of for someone to do to poor old Starscream in any media has lost a lot of its impact on me.

Personally I loved seeing the Decepticons as actually threats to humanity for once, like Astrotrain looking to kill people in a NYC subway tunnel or Megatron standing in front of the smoking remains of Air Force One which are more frightening than to me than anything in Infiltration or the rest of Furman's run for that matter.

Convotron wrote:Now just to go off topic momentarily, can anyone explain to me why every Cybertronian in the IDW comics speak with Earth slang and such? I specifically ask about the IDW comics because it's the most recent Transformers read of mine. Simon Furman is revered but despite my appreciation for his plotting, which I think is great, I find his dialogue...mediocre at best and it's partly due to the poorly conceived dialogue. He and most other writers in the IDW comics I've read do the same thing where the dialogue given to Cybertronians seem out of place. I can understand those who have gone to Earth picking up slang and such but not characters who haven't gone to the planet.

My guess (and that is what it is a GUESS) is they learn Earth slang by talking to other Transformers that have been to Earth and they just pick it up.

Cyberstrike wrote:Starscream turning Sixshot off (which just about killed my interest in IDW's Transformers because Furman had built Sixshot up to be a real bad ass)

True, and since Sixshot was basically a walking WMD, if he didn't tow the line, he was basically unstoppable. You're saying it would be a good idea to having him running around without some means of control?

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Cyberstrike wrote:Starscream turning Sixshot off (which just about killed my interest in IDW's Transformers because Furman had built Sixshot up to be a real bad ass)

True, and since Sixshot was basically a walking WMD, if he didn't tow the line, he was basically unstoppable. You're saying it would be a good idea to having him running around without some means of control?

Yeah, I'll grant you that the code thing was probably a more realistic but IMHO it's also a very anti-climatic ending to Sixshot.

Remember Sixshot was not unstoppable he had his limits, I just checked Transformers: Devastation TPB and during the fight Hardhead and Optimus Prime cracked his "unbreakable" armor. If two Autobots can crack his armor it's safe to assume that while very tough he had a breaking point and if Megatron is supposed to be the most powerful of all the Decepticons he could at least in theory been able to destroy Sixshot with his own fusion cannon and/or with the combined firepower with other Decepticons.

The fact is, we have Transformers comics. We have original stories. We have new perspectives on old concepts. We have great art, we've got dedicated veteran writers and dedicated new writers pooling ideas and passing the torch from one guy to the next. I can see why Bay largely ignores the fandom when conceptualizing his version of Transformers: no matter how hard the production teams work this fandom is next to impossible to please.


Not this fan.

By the numbers, AHM was a great series. Totally G1 focused, Dark, Serious, Focused on the Robots and not the humans, the Disguise thing playing a huge role in the "Deception" part of the Decepticon character, The bad guys truly won for the fist time and of course the good guys do the classic hero thing and battle back against impossible odds, Humans are afraid of the Autobots, Omega Supreme versus Devastator for the first time in years, Spike and Sparkplug are not a couple of dorks running around in Work Boots and Hard-hats, a brand new, [if BW Dinobot-esque]character in Drift, Perceptor growing some ballbearings and leaving the Lab for the Battlefield, Sunstreaker as the traitor and NOT Mirage? Drama, Action, Plot, Fresh perspective. What more do you people want?


I loved the series and IDW will continue to get my money. I'm happy they continue to put out comics despite the constant Glitching and Moaning of the audience they're trying so hard to please. There's a reason Simon Furman keeps coming back, that's because he's a writer and we're not. All of you nay-sayers need to get jobs as comic writers and do your own thing first before tearing down someone else's work. Period.


When does #16 come out again?

Ultra Magnus wrote:
When does #16 come out again?

Today.

Transformers fans in general are impossible to please. Be it toys, live action movies, cartoon series, comic books, we all have this utopian dream of what Transformers should be, and everything seems to fall short.

AHM had enjoyable parts, and very hard to swallow/frustrating parts. So did the -tion series. So did Stormbringer, War Within. Even the infallible Don Figueroa is now getting criticized by a community that for the most part, really enjoyed the hell out of his design of generation one characters, classic, or updated, or brand new.

I don't have Cyberstrike's passion for AHM, but I also do not have the overwhelming hatred against it. To me it's another piece of Transformers fiction that adds a new layer to characters, and lore, whether you want to accept it or not, is up to you.

Perceptor in AHM is a converted sniper, who still dabbles in Scietific evaluation. Perceptor in Animated is a Stephen Hawking talking genius creator/inventor/scientist. Perceptor in the G1 toon was a scientist/creator/and warrior.

It's just more for us to love or hate. I think it sucks whenever we get in those periods of time with no cartoon, or no comic book--to love or hate. I like my fiction, even if the toys are the main reason I like Transformers. Without it, I enjoy Transformers a lot less, and return to what I have to try to relive what helps me to really enjoy my hobby.

tigertracks 24 wrote:Even the infallible Don Figueroa is now getting criticized by a community that for the most part, really enjoyed the hell out of his design of generation one characters, classic, or updated, or brand new.

Maybe it's cause his new latest designs look like someone took a G1 and movie figure, put them in a blender, hit puree, then threw the result onto paper.

Just saying.

While I agree with Black Bumblebee that knee-jerk slagging the series because it did something off-canon is a little...counterproductive (as someone else said, hey, at least we have a comic series, right?!), I have to say after reading this final issue, my verdict on the whole thing is....Meh.

I liked the original twelve issues, myself. I defended them vigorously here and other places. And while the coda had a few really good moments, it was more uneven and brought up even MORE unanswered plot points. What about the whole Cyclonus/Galvatron story in 14? What was that all about? How does that build or even at all connect with the AHM story arc? Maybe I'm dumb, but if I can't figure that one out, I bet more than one other reader is also a bit...fuzzy on that point.

As for this issue, honestly, getting Figueroa and having him draw 8 pages of HUMANS?!? COME ON!!!!! And the sexy nurse stereotype--oh look, TF is getting fanservice now. Gagsville. As for the second story, as a story it was great, but.... as the last story in a 16 issue arc, how the hell does it complete anything? Again, I could be a little dim from sniffing all these dry-erase board markers, so if any of y'all could explain it to me, much appreciated.

On the whole, I'm glad it exists and I'm glad I read it. It certainly has given us fodder for some very...spirited dicussions, which is always better than dead silence or having the Frenzy/Rumble argument again. But the coda, as a 'coda' was a bad idea.

To answer (perhaps) the great and exalted Convotron's question about why all TFs speak so...weirdly: Furman. Love him or hate him, but he has been around so long he's really set the standard, for good or ill, for the type of dialogue we get. I agree with the main point. The general 'rule' in fantasy novels when they use seemingly out-of-verse slang is pretty lame, but here it is: it's an idiomatic *translation* of what was said. So that elf didn't make a penis joke, but he made a sexual joke of some sort we really wouldn't understand so instead we get something we *can* understand.

Or you could be all hardcore like me and have Starscream speak exactly like an ESL learner. And get SLAMMED for it.

HK, yay, fandom.

I'm big fan of the actual Decepticon portions of AHM, but man were they killing it with all the humans. And all the Autobots. For a series that was supposed to be about the Decepticon's finally winning, there was a whole lot of non-Decepticons in it.
Now, I know that other stuff was needed for the overall story, so, fine.
The Coda parts haven't been all that impressive to me personally.
I guess my main complaint with a series that I really enjoyed was that it seemed terribly inefficient in it's use of page space, until/unless Autobots were involved. In the third issue we had two seperate Astrotrain attacks that were essentially the same panels (I understand the purpose was to show ruthlessness or whatever) and the story just dragged on when it probably could have moved more quickly to fit in more action.
That being said, I did like the actual use of characters, like how Thundercracker and Skywarp actually had lines of dialogue instead of just being shown in fight panels, I liked how Soundwave basically stood around rather than be the figure on whom the story was going to turn (Like Megatron-Origins), I liked that SS was a character instead of just a coward or traitor (big SS fan by the way, so....). Characters were good, but those were realyl kind of the only ones come to think of it. Megatron of AHM was sort of like the Origins portrayal, which was great IMO.

Overall, I wasn't greatly impressed but I'm no HATERZ!!. Yes, I am a fan of the -ation series and would have liked to have seen where it would have gone if it hadn't been cut short but I went into AHM with an open mind and a willingness to see how it went and, OVERALL it wasn't too bad though there were some things that I wasn't too fussed about...

Firstly, when I heard about AHM I was under the impression that it wasn't canon and that it was something like an extended "what if...?" series. Then it was canon.

Secondly, I liked the art (despite the HUGE mass-displacement issues... hey, I "believe" in mass-displacement but some of it was ridiculous) but, I have to admit, I felt like I was watching the G1 cartoon and, design-wise, I think it was a step backward from the work that EJ had done. There were times where all I could think of was "Universe toy advertisement" and, throughout the -ation series, that never even occurred to me.

Thirdly, the glaring plot holes (which many people have complained about and pointed out). You know the one that bugs me the most? Why the HELL would the Seekers revert back to F-15s? That was something that McCarthy specifically said would be explained... and it wasn't. (If it was explained and I missed it can someone tell me the reason for the downgrading of alt-mode and I will retract that statement.)

Fourthly, the #*$%ing WITWICKYS!!! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! Etc... "Yeah, let's chuck in an 80s throwback and we'll make him a hardcore marine and make him all cocky and stuff. Oh, and he'll have daddy issues!"

Fifthly, the way that Prime ended up making a miraculous recovery right at the end to save the day.

There were good parts such as the characterisation between Megatron and Starscream. It was also a cool idea with how the Insecticons were created (and the subsequent swarm on Cybertron) though I couldn't figure out where it fit in with the continuity (which was another issue with this series).

Though, overall, I enjoyed AHM the fact that it tried to shoehorn itself into place and then tried to cover up the major cracks afterwards didn't sit too well. I think, personally, that it should have been a "what if...?" G1 story (especially with the art) and not a direct follow-on from the -ation series.


With that all said, I'm really looking forward to the new on-going and seeing how that turns out. I would also like to state that I'm a fan of Don's redesigns though I think a like revision on the faces and Prime's head may need to be in order down the track...