Transformers: All Hail Megatron #5
Writer: Shane McCarthy
Artist: Guido Guidi and Casey Coller
(covers by Casey Coller and Trevor Hutchison)
Synopsis: Hot Rod recalls to the others how he and his team crashed on Cybertron. As he finishes, the rest of his team lead by Kup appear. On Earth, Sparkplug greets his son, Spike, and briefs him on a mission he's to undertake to somehow attack Megatron (the specifics are vague). Kup and Jazz briefly butt heads but Jazz shows him who da man (er, bot). He tells Kup he has something to show him... On Earth, Spike's team float down a river when Ratbat appears and apparently kills them all. Sparkplug is horrified that his son is dead... On Cybertron, Jazz shows Kup Optimus Prime's wounded body. He also tells Kup they have an Autobot traitor in their midst... we also discover that Megatron has stolen the Matrix from Prime! On Earth, Sparkplug laments the loss of his son. Elsewhere, in a river in New York, someone emerges from the depths (any guesses? :)
Comments: Another Autobot issue. Another mixed bag issue too... some parts of this were good--like when Springer challenges Jazz, who promptly kicks his butt! Hah! The human story actually got a tad bit more interesting--at least it's more personal when Sparkplug has to potentially sacrifice his son (even though I don't know why they had to be Sparkplug and Spike, when new characters could've taken the slots. It's not like we have to have them in every TF incarnation!) Megatron beat up Prime and stold his Matrix--how many times have they done this plot now? At least twice, for sure (remember the G2 comic? And Shockwave did it in the early Marvel ones too). Maybe Prime should store it in a vault or something? The Autobots have a traitor and there's this new character there called Drift (shown in Kup's group but not mentioned by name). Either it's the worst foreshadowing ever--or maybe he's intended to be a red herring? But I can see him being the traitor--the fans would be angry if it turned out to be Wheeljack (for example) so why not invent a new character then he can take the fall without any fans being too attached to him. Another plot thing here--the Autobots can interface with their ship's systems? Since when? It's a cool idea--and logical since they're machines too--but it seems to serve no real function here, other then being cool and science fiction-y. Kup sure recovered from his stretch on that planet where he was insane quickly, didn't he? (see Spotlight Kup). Despite some plot developments, this story still seems to be suffering from being stretched out too much for the content in it. This story, whatever it's ultimate conclusion, is clearly a six issue story (tops) and we're being forced to buy twelve issues instead so IDW can pad it out with unnecessary content.
I speculate that someone at IDW noticed Furman's comics weren't selling good enough and decided to use this story proposal as a springboard for a new direction/writer. What they failed to realize was that the readers are tired of long involved epic storylines not necessarily Furman himself. If I have to pay around $5 an issue (Canada) then I'd like something worth reading every month, not a "wait for it! We're getting there" piece of a puzzle. I like storylines too but I like them to go somewhere and IDW's stuff is just starting to annoy me. I want some real payoff, dammit!
Mildly recommended.
