IDW Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #44 Full Preview - SPOILERS

For a guy who has been frustrated by every thing that happens on the Lost Light Megatron is very quick to say "Lets go take a detour." Course that could be just to annoy Rodimus. Wouldn't put it past him.

Yweggo wrote:For a guy who has been frustrated by every thing that happens on the Lost Light Megatron is very quick to say "Lets go take a detour." Course that could be just to annoy Rodimus. Wouldn't put it past him.

I dunno. Megs seems to have his own sense of honor and propriety and I think rewind probably sparked something there.

Megs is strict and harsh but he very much seems fair and decent.

Yweggo wrote:For a guy who has been frustrated by every thing that happens on the Lost Light Megatron is very quick to say "Lets go take a detour." Course that could be just to annoy Rodimus. Wouldn't put it past him.

Their faces say it all.

Yweggo wrote:For a guy who has been frustrated by every thing that happens on the Lost Light Megatron is very quick to say "Lets go take a detour." Course that could be just to annoy Rodimus. Wouldn't put it past him.

Megatron smiling is never a good sign. He wants to visit for reasons of his own.

This being James Roberts, I'm sure there is still some twist to Dominus Ambus yet to be revealed. I half wonder if Ten is somehow Dominus Ambus. It would help to explain his connection with Magnus (although that could just be because of both their connections to Tyrest), and it would be epically tragic to have a polymath like Dominus reduced to a being that essentially suffers from extreme autism. As to the how, I couldn't tell you. This theory is honestly pretty out there.

quote="Optimizzy"]

Yweggo wrote:For a guy who has been frustrated by every thing that happens on the Lost Light Megatron is very quick to say "Lets go take a detour." Course that could be just to annoy Rodimus. Wouldn't put it past him.

I dunno. Megs seems to have his own sense of honor and propriety and I think rewind probably sparked something there.

Megs is strict and harsh but he very much seems fair and decent.[/quote]


or, you know, maybe just to Rewind? Remember how he was kind of nice to him?

A-hah, we are getting into Dominus material here. Hmm.....

I hope this puts some Dominus Ambus/tarn speculation to rest. Rewind is talking about him TO MEGATRON. The one person who knows without a doubt who Tarn is. Pretty sure if he was Dominus Megatron would speak up.

Honestly? I think Megatron wants to go so he can find out if Terminus is dead

MrBlack wrote:

Yweggo wrote:For a guy who has been frustrated by every thing that happens on the Lost Light Megatron is very quick to say "Lets go take a detour." Course that could be just to annoy Rodimus. Wouldn't put it past him.

Megatron smiling is never a good sign. He wants to visit for reasons of his own.

This being James Roberts, I'm sure there is still some twist to Dominus Ambus yet to be revealed. I half wonder if Ten is somehow Dominus Ambus. It would help to explain his connection with Magnus (although that could just be because of both their connections to Tyrest), and it would be epically tragic to have a polymath like Dominus reduced to a being that essentially suffers from extreme autism. As to the how, I couldn't tell you. This theory is honestly pretty out there.

There must be a reason Megs wants to go. He wouldn't just go cause of Rewind. There is something else here

Randomhero wrote:I hope this puts some Dominus Ambus/tarn speculation to rest. Rewind is talking about him TO MEGATRON. The one person who knows without a doubt who Tarn is. Pretty sure if he was Dominus Megatron would speak up.

Honestly? I think Megatron wants to go so he can find out if Terminus is dead

Naw, this is fanning the flames. Megatron konws him as Tarn, but for all we know HE does not know who's behind the mask. He only found out about the new Vos after the alternate lost light adventures, so it could be anything. Terminus would also be a cool thing for Megs

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Randomhero wrote:I hope this puts some Dominus Ambus/tarn speculation to rest. Rewind is talking about him TO MEGATRON. The one person who knows without a doubt who Tarn is. Pretty sure if he was Dominus Megatron would speak up.

Honestly? I think Megatron wants to go so he can find out if Terminus is dead

Naw, this is fanning the flames. Megatron konws him as Tarn, but for all we know HE does not know who's behind the mask. He only found out about the new Vos after the alternate lost light adventures, so it could be anything. Terminus would also be a cool thing for Megs

Megatron knows exactly who Tarn is. They're his personal kill squad, he created them. He didn't know about the new Vos because he's been absent from them since he came back after the Costa era, that's why their shrine has his -ation mode and not his stealth bomber mode.

It's like I've speculated before, there's only been one Tarn. The one we know is the first incarnation of Tarn and the original. While the DJD are a cast that replaces members and takes on the name of the previous, there's only ever been one Tarn. He has survived the entire life span of the justice division. It's why he's the leader of them and they follow his strict democratic form of leadership.

Randomhero wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Randomhero wrote:I hope this puts some Dominus Ambus/tarn speculation to rest. Rewind is talking about him TO MEGATRON. The one person who knows without a doubt who Tarn is. Pretty sure if he was Dominus Megatron would speak up.

Honestly? I think Megatron wants to go so he can find out if Terminus is dead

Naw, this is fanning the flames. Megatron konws him as Tarn, but for all we know HE does not know who's behind the mask. He only found out about the new Vos after the alternate lost light adventures, so it could be anything. Terminus would also be a cool thing for Megs

Megatron knows exactly who Tarn is. They're his personal kill squad, he created them. He didn't know about the new Vos because he's been absent from them since he came back after the Costa era, that's why their shrine has his -ation mode and not his stealth bomber mode.

It's like I've speculated before, there's only been one Tarn. The one we know is the first incarnation of Tarn and the original. While the DJD are a cast that replaces members and takes on the name of the previous, there's only ever been one Tarn. He has survived the entire life span of the justice division. It's why he's the leader of them and they follow his strict democratic form of leadership.

don't forget: the justice division may not be as old as we think. It could be only 2 or 3 millions years old, so we don't really know the origin time. Also, they may be the justice division, but they seem very independent and for all we know, it's like Megs not knowing all his undercover agents. plus, we have never had proof that all of them are the same as the originals. for all we know they have changed several times

Good point by Minimus Ambus in the last panel.

Personally I think the only original members are Tarn and maybe Helex. Tesarus had shown to be very uncomfortable with the performance reviews so for me, that shows he's not a veteran member. We know Vos has had multiple iterations. Three that we know of: one with hooks for feet and hands, agent 113 and the current one. kaon is still mystery but he's very adjusted with the DJD lifestyle. I think Helex has been around the second longest due Megatron being fully aware of his signature "forcing bots to eat their brains". Same with Tarn. Megatron has full knowledge of Tarn's transformation addiction and his flashbacks of being rebuilt by Lobe and standing with Megatron. Also the fact he has a first edition of Towards peace. With all that I do believe the Tarn we know is one of the founding members of the DJD. Seeing how Tarn runs a very strict unit and from what we've seen happens when a leader is taken out (stranded on an asteroid, cannabinolizing each other) it makes sense that he's always been there making sure their reputation stands.

I am led to believe that the Vos with hooks for hands and feet WAS Agent 113. That would explain how he has only been around a few years and that one apparently disappeared right around the time Agent 113 says he has been compromised.

Two notes, I think that agent 113 is the Vos with hooks for hands and feet considering megatron made the off comment "how could he fire a gun with those claws of his". Also the 10 plushie that minimus has, is adorable.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Two notes, I think that agent 113 is the Vos with hooks for hands and feet considering megatron made the off comment "how could he fire a gun with those claws of his". Also the 10 plushie that minimus has, is adorable.

Holy cow, Ten! Nice catch!

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Two notes, I think that agent 113 is the Vos with hooks for hands and feet considering megatron made the off comment "how could he fire a gun with those claws of his". Also the 10 plushie that minimus has, is adorable.

I hadn't noticed that!...why does he look at the toy when he says he can guess what happened to him???

There are at least three panels in one page showing the 10 toy or Minimus fiddling with it.

I didn't even notice this was Sakamoto doing the art at first, its so similar to Alex

Randomhero wrote:I didn't even notice this was Sakamoto doing the art at first, its so similar to Alex

They are very similar, and i like that they are keeping consistent style. however, you can just see that Sakamoto is doing it a teensy bit more expressively and cartoony. not bad at all, just a slight difference

My favorite Transformers comic artist, is Corin Howell. I just LOVE her style! :3

We were going to wait until our review on Wednesday, but the official IDW Publishing Facebook page has just posted the upcoming Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #44 RI cover by Agnes Garbowska - and it's worth checking out for the 'aawww' 'chuckle' 'heh' and other random noises factor. Take a look below!

Love these covers. they are so gosh darned cute!

...wow. Um, yeah. This is funny, cute....and unusual all in one package. Cool, though. I like it.

Cmdr. Trailblazer wrote:...wow. Um, yeah. This is funny, cute....and unusual all in one package. Cool, though. I like it.

Doesn't that basically sum up MTMTE?

Nexus Knight wrote:

Cmdr. Trailblazer wrote:...wow. Um, yeah. This is funny, cute....and unusual all in one package. Cool, though. I like it.

Doesn't that basically sum up MTMTE?

In as many words yes, so much so

Um, kawaii? What's up wit Megs?

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Nexus Knight wrote:

Cmdr. Trailblazer wrote:...wow. Um, yeah. This is funny, cute....and unusual all in one package. Cool, though. I like it.

Doesn't that basically sum up MTMTE?

In as many words yes, so much so

That's what I thought when I made the post.

Cmdr. Trailblazer wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Nexus Knight wrote:

Cmdr. Trailblazer wrote:...wow. Um, yeah. This is funny, cute....and unusual all in one package. Cool, though. I like it.

Doesn't that basically sum up MTMTE?

In as many words yes, so much so

That's what I thought when I made the post.

Glad we're on the same page commander

So kawaiiiiiiiiiiiii! ( up yours you %$#$% to "if the shoe fits" if you take issue at the word kawaii)

fenrir72 wrote:So kawaiiiiiiiiiiiii! ( up yours you %$#$% to "if the shoe fits" if you take issue at the word kawaii)

I sure won't, here's my previous comment:

SillySpringer wrote:Um, kawaii? What's up wit Megs?

I love using the word kawaii, even if I'm confused.

My theory on Megatron's sudden desire to go questing is that he only wants to make it appear that he is doing it to piss Rodimus off. He is actually doing it to delay the Lost Light from finding the Knights of Cybertron. He is afraid of what the Knights' judgment will be. If he is guilty, then he will probably be destroyed or separated from the crew he is growing to like. It would also mean he really is the irredeemable monster everyone has said he is. If he is innocent, then he wavered from his ideals for nothing.

I also still want to know what he is going to do with the briefcase. He obviously has something planned that involves time travel.

Also, I now need to make a little Ten plush to stick inside the cockpit of my CW Ultra Magnus. Is anyone good with autocad so I can just 3D print one?

Crosscheck wrote:My theory on Megatron's sudden desire to go questing is that he only wants to make it appear that he is doing it to piss Rodimus off. He is actually doing it to delay the Lost Light from finding the Knights of Cybertron. He is afraid of what the Knights' judgment will be. If he is guilty, then he will probably be destroyed or separated from the crew he is growing to like. It would also mean he really is the irredeemable monster everyone has said he is. If he is innocent, then he wavered from his ideals for nothing.

I also still want to know what he is going to do with the briefcase. He obviously has something planned that involves time travel.

Also, I now need to make a little Ten plush to stick inside the cockpit of my CW Ultra Magnus. Is anyone good with autocad so I can just 3D print one?

What if all this is leading to Megatron becoming Terminus and he goes back in time to be his own mentor under a different name?

Crosscheck wrote:My theory on Megatron's sudden desire to go questing is that he only wants to make it appear that he is doing it to piss Rodimus off. He is actually doing it to delay the Lost Light from finding the Knights of Cybertron. He is afraid of what the Knights' judgment will be. If he is guilty, then he will probably be destroyed or separated from the crew he is growing to like. It would also mean he really is the irredeemable monster everyone has said he is. If he is innocent, then he wavered from his ideals for nothing.

I also still want to know what he is going to do with the briefcase. He obviously has something planned that involves time travel.

Also, I now need to make a little Ten plush to stick inside the cockpit of my CW Ultra Magnus. Is anyone good with autocad so I can just 3D print one?

Okay:
1. Ten reminds me of Groot. Just sayin.
2. I may be able to come up with a design. I have had some experience with CAD.

Review will be late due to offscreen life. Sorry.

With our charming and prestigious Comics Editor and News Administrator Va'al otherwise indisposed, it's fallen on me to take up the reigns for this week's review of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye #44. As warned already, this one will be spoiler heavy throughout, because there's no way I can adequately review this thing if I'm trying to not tell you things about it. Since some of the text gets front paged, I'm just typing up things to delay the start of the actual review. This is your Swerve recap. Need a review with no spoilers? Here it is: stop reading my stupid words and go buy this. Now. Stop, really, and go spend $4 right the hell now on this book. I'm serious, if you want to read this issue (you do), and you read this review beforehand, you will regret it. Don't have regrets, the internet can wait.



So with all that out of the way, let me tell you what author James Roberts has done here. This is an issue about the value of life, dogma, love, hope, expectation, and consequences. Oh, and Transformers, I suppose. Strap in your feelings, we're going for a ride.



We'll start with Rodimus, like you do when writing about MTMTE. We're joined on the first page with Rewind attempting to tell Rodimus a story, this time about the mysterious, legendary Necrobot. Rodimus, naturally, seems to not care. There are more important things that can be done, like get attention for being The Best Guy because he's carved a map to Cyberutopia on a table. Forget this side-quest, The Best Captain has done a thing, so naturally, we have to follow up on this.



Only this doesn't go to plan for him, as Megatron, The Other Captain, thinks one more little side quest isn't such a big deal. Under the guise of continuing to be very, almost unusually, caring about Rewind, off they go to look for the Necrobot. Why do they do this?



Well that's something, isn't it? So off they go, eventually landing on the Necrobot's planet. Without going into too much plot summary (much of the above was in the previews anyhow), and without spoiling too much of the absolutely stunning art by Hayato Sakamoto, colored by Joana Lafuente in images, there are some other themes and points worth serious note.

First, the buddy cop duo that never was/is likely never to be: Nightbeat and the Necrobot.



At the start of this issue, we know positively very extremely little about the Necrobot. Within the confines of this one single comic, we learn a gigantic ton about him. The Necrobot, through his interaction with Nightbeat, is wholly fleshed out as a character. The storytelling here is simply marvelous, touching on Nightbeat's expectations that maybe, just maybe there's something more to the ideas of religious dogma, or supernatural powers existing in the universe. It turns out that the Necrobot doesn't live up to this, he's really just a guy (I told you there would be spoilers) named Censere. Censere tells him, in my favorite panel of the book, that he should still hope anyhow if he wants to. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Oh, and his cape. I want one. Just go read it, you'll see what I mean.

Next, but not last, it's time to reflect on the latest goings on in my favorite romance in fiction these days: Chromedome and Rewind.



As a guideline, I'm never much into fictional romance. Love is a fickle thing and it's extremely hard to make a compelling story about it without falling into, literally, a gillion tropes, cliches, and stretches of cringe-worthy dialogue. Roberts continues to utterly avoid all of this and provide a story about two souls on a journey that deeply care about one another to their core. I should also point out that this is yet more consistent, meaningful, and impacting character development that's handled in just the fewest of pages. It doesn't take a lot of time to be satisfying, and this is where I point out that the lettering of Tom B. Long really helps in setting the dialogue's tone appropriately. The voices in your head won't emphasize the wrong words, which can't always be said in comics.

Finally, the least obvious (until the end, that is) featured story in the issue. Who is this issue about, really?



The renaissance of Megatron is continued here, and he's always there in this one, just off to the side, sometimes being snarky, but then... well, I'm not going to post the last two page spread because it's incredible. With the last sentence of this book, any emotions I had to spend were spent. Sometimes consequences aren't as material as you want them to be. Instead, they end up being something more, something worse - true guilt.



This one's an embodiment of Samwise Gamgee's very famous lines from Tolkien's The Two Towers, but everyone knows those, I think. Is this the best comic I've ever read? Probably. As I said at the start, go buy this. Maybe buy one for a friend too.



Bonus! James Roberts' soundtrack suggestions for this issue:

• The Smiths - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
• A Camp - Song for the Leftovers

Wow a perfect score for a book with quite a bit of continuity errors? Well okay then.

Honestly this was okay. I don't have a problem with the Necrobot and like I said before I didn't mind the reveal of 113 especially since he wasn't a very big deal to the IDW verse unless you read bullets and over hyped yourself about it.

The issue was fine, nothing mind blowing and pretty predictable. Last two pages were great, it was what I expected but had weight which is good.

It's an average issue. Collected as volume 8 I think this is the second lowest collection next to Remain in Light. Two good opening issues followed by a real "meh" red dwarf fanfic with transformers, then an over meta issue that isn't going to read well due to relying on the Swerve recaps that are not included in the previous trades when it was used and ends on a pretty average issue.

I thought it was an amazing issue. It really did speak volumes for Megatron and Nightbeat, plus chromedome and rewind. And I did not notice any real continuity errors, so I fail to see where that is coming from. This was both an explanatory read and an emotional one, and I for one am touched. Megatron has really grown on me, like a lot

Yeah, I'm curious about continuity errors. I didn't notice any, then again, the impact of the story would have distracted me from them. All I know of is a footnote error which JR acknowledged on Twitter, so I'm sure that'll get taken care of in the trade.

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, I'm curious about continuity errors. I didn't notice any, then again, the impact of the story would have distracted me from them. All I know of is a footnote error which JR acknowledged on Twitter, so I'm sure that'll get taken care of in the trade.

I caught them while reading. Someone listed them on the issues page at tfwiki. They're sound

Randomhero wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, I'm curious about continuity errors. I didn't notice any, then again, the impact of the story would have distracted me from them. All I know of is a footnote error which JR acknowledged on Twitter, so I'm sure that'll get taken care of in the trade.

I caught them while reading. Someone listed them on the issues page at tfwiki. They're sound

From that page on TF Wiki, here are the errors:

• The Necrobot introduces himself as "Censere", but when Nightbeat speaks his name during their farewell, he calls him "Censerre", with an extra "r". It's not clear which is the error.
• When Nightbeat talks about his death, the footnote states he died in Spotlight: Nightbeat, rather than Spotlight: Hardhead.
• Dominus Ambus's name is described as being "three from the bottom" on the monolith, but the art shows it being on the bottom line.

So a typo, a footnote issue that the author's noted, and something pretty much inconsequential.

Just ... weird.

Why was Rodimus drawn as a fembot from the waist down?

I believe that MTMTE is aimed at the LGBT portion of the fandom and Hasbro knows this which is why MTMTE is never included as a pack in comic with the toys.

Since the MTMTE is not intended for me I will be dropping the book before #50. There won't be much to see after #50 since the book seems to be collapsing in on itself anyway.

Is that grass in the Autobot graveyard? Are those graves on Cybertron or another world? We need to know! [Personally, I think that it would be much more economical to recycle Autobots for their parts than to bury them uselessly, especially during wartime.]

Pretty sure errors would be dock if it was by costa and Schmidt...just saying

One error I actually noticed is nightbeat saying the Necrobot Is the oldest he's met yet he's met Alpha Trion- a thirteen-, Galvatron and nova prime. Not to mention Omega Supreme and a Titan, both of which were considered the oldest cybertronians in existence. Metroplex is believed to know the guiding hand and the Knights to which he won't speak of because the current generation is unworthy.

ScottyP wrote:

Randomhero wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, I'm curious about continuity errors. I didn't notice any, then again, the impact of the story would have distracted me from them. All I know of is a footnote error which JR acknowledged on Twitter, so I'm sure that'll get taken care of in the trade.

I caught them while reading. Someone listed them on the issues page at tfwiki. They're sound

From that page on TF Wiki, here are the errors:

• The Necrobot introduces himself as "Censere", but when Nightbeat speaks his name during their farewell, he calls him "Censerre", with an extra "r". It's not clear which is the error.
• When Nightbeat talks about his death, the footnote states he died in Spotlight: Nightbeat, rather than Spotlight: Hardhead.
• Dominus Ambus's name is described as being "three from the bottom" on the monolith, but the art shows it being on the bottom line.

So a typo, a footnote issue that the author's noted, and something pretty much inconsequential.

Yeah, there are no real continuity errors present. That thing about Nightbeat eh, he may not consider them meeting considering he never spoke to several or may not know the age of the rest. (Like he does not know A3 is a thirteen, only a very few do). So what Nightbeat says is really no continuity error.
And I would not totally agree with that writers comment. Roberts and Barber (considering they co-edit each others work) have been extraordinary with continuity. couple hiccups (but when is there not) but they really have done tons for the continuity of the IDW run

1984forever wrote:I believe that MTMTE is aimed at the LGBT portion of the fandom and Hasbro knows this which is why MTMTE is never included as a pack in comic with the toys.

Since the MTMTE is not intended for me I will be dropping the book before #50. There won't be much to see after #50 since the book seems to be collapsing in on itself anyway.

I agree whole heartily.

Transformers & the Combiner series seems to be putting it on thick at times as well. But I've mostly kept up with the MtMtE side of things.

It would have been been better for the writer(s) to have kept the stories on the level as their more highly acclaimed. (Rewind's woven tale for Rung & Remain in the Light to name two popular story arcs for example. No romance necessary. Just very good storytelling.)

Ratchet's farewell issue to the Lost Light was my own official last.

1984forever wrote:Just ... weird.

Why was Rodimus drawn as a fembot from the waist down?

I believe that MTMTE is aimed at the LGBT portion of the fandom and Hasbro knows this which is why MTMTE is never included as a pack in comic with the toys.

Since the MTMTE is not intended for me I will be dropping the book before #50. There won't be much to see after #50 since the book seems to be collapsing in on itself anyway.

I fail to see how it is collapsing in on itself. #38 made headlines on social media when it finally came out, and the Autobot Megatron has received so much attention. If anything it is doing amazing and is by far my favorite comic ever.
As for the comment about LGBT, I have never gotten that feel. Yes, Domey and Rewind have a relationship, but it has never panned out to be anything similar to human relationships. others have been mentioned, but considering this is not humans, completely different rules apply. And Rodimus has maintained that design since issue 1, so I fail to see how it is feminine. That is how Roche originally drew him, and all others have simply followed.
And #22 was a pack-in comic (Skids).

snavej wrote:Is that grass in the Autobot graveyard? Are those graves on Cybertron or another world? We need to know! [Personally, I think that it would be much more economical to recycle Autobots for their parts than to bury them uselessly, especially during wartime.]

It's just symbolic. It isn't actually in the story. more it is symbolizing the fact that we learn so much about the dead and how some peoples actions have lead them to discover an almost magical place concerning the deceased

what a good issue. I think im going to get this one signed by Roberts when he is in Charlotte. I loved it.