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Post by Jaymz on Dec 11, 2008 0:25:50 GMT
The retailer incentive cover is great. And the comic is a good read too, following on from the previous Furman stuff and even acknowledging events from All Hail Megatron. Usual high standard of art from Nick!
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 11, 2008 21:08:34 GMT
Objective acquired. Impressions from a reader not following the plot of the IDW universe:
Plus point: Didn't waste as many pages as G2 #1 doing splash images of Dinobots killing random Decepticons.
Minus point: by cramming it into just a couple of pages, it wasn't so easy to see what's going on in the battle - though I get the impression most of the Deceps were trying to hide in holes in the ground.
Minus point: I wince every time I read the awful contrived term 'Dynobot'. The good ship 'Skyfire' brought a lesser cringe.
Plus point: Ultra Magnus, Scorponok, the Sunstreakers and Megatron all look great on page 5.
Plus point: Nick is very good at doing 2-d images on sloped screens: Grimlock on page 5, some human on page 9.
Minus point: ugly dinosaur modes and stylised cartoony humans.
Plus point: Fleet of Sunstreaker clones on page 10.
Stonking great plus point: the entirety of page 11 (the real Sunstreaker enters).
Plus point: The look of Dante/Zarak's Headmaster armour.
Plus point: More Sunstreaker clones.
Plus point: Hot Rod has finally realised his car mode was inferior to Tracks and has copied his look - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Next issue: a homage to Dinobot Hunt Part 4, or something new?
Martin
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Dec 14, 2008 13:22:18 GMT
I just got this hand-delivered by Steve Bax (you should give him your money!), and OH WOW. Whereas I spent AHM being annoyed because it wasn't delivering what it promised, Max Dinos does deliver and moves faster and with plot crammed in than I expected.
Stand-out moments include:
* Sunstreaker-Hunter and their whole dynamic. (Other characters would become more hume-friendly from this but Sunny's having none of it!)
* Awesome new-look Dinobots.
* The Machination's army of repaints, and seeing Grimlock eat his way through them.
* Joshua Red actually has NOTICED things keep going wrong! He has a brain!
* That little bit in page 3 where Slag can be seen murdering the Decepticons who've surrendered.
That three-page opening is great stuff, it should be said, telling you everything you need to know about the Dinobots.
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Post by legios on Dec 14, 2008 22:07:57 GMT
So, "Maximum Dinobots" opens - marking Simon Furman's return to writing chores and Nick Roches' return to art duties. And it isn't too bad as far as opening issues go. There is a great deal of filling-in of back story from previous IDW series. A lot of the meat of the issues is in fact summarising plot-elements from "Transformers: Devastation" and "Spotlight: Grimlock" and laying out the status quo. One the bright side this should make things fairly accessible for those who haven't been reading previous IDW series - most of what you need to know about the set-up is introduced in this issue. The down-side is there is quite a bit of "as you know, Bob" going on, with characters standing around explaining the plot either to themselves, like Grimlock or to random subordinates who presumably already have some idea, cf. Dante. It is a bit of a cliche, but it gets the job done and fortunately is seasoned with a couple of good fight scenes.
The first one fight sequence, I would agree, isn't entirely easy to follow on the page but I think that may be partly intentional. I suspect that it is intended to evoke something of the confusion and disorientation of the Decepticon troops as the Dinobots hit them with a sudden onslaught of brutal violence. I zipped through it getting more of a sense of the emotional tenor of the engagement rather than its dynamics. I certainly couldn't reconstruct in my head how the fight unfolded from what is on the page, but I thought it did a good job of giving a sense of how the Dinobots operated and their approach to the war. The second fight scene I was much more satisfying on that level. I thought it was nicely choreagraphed, and after "Devastation" and "Revelation" it was fun to see a battle where the rays and beams took a back seat to some old-fashioned thumping. (Also good to see that Grimlock understands the importance of using ones head in a fight....).
This issue scored quite well in the characterisation stakes as well. Sunstreaker and Hunter' interactions were quite fun to read, and I thought that the human supporting cast were quite well established. The Skywatch leader was nicely portrayed as intelligent and decisive - a rarity when dealing with intelligence community types in comics it sometimes seems - and Dante seems to be intended for the "thoughtful Bond villian" kind of slot. The characterisation isn't terribly subtle - but this is a comic with the Dinobots in it, and Grimlock tearing into clones of Sunstreaker with great abandon, subtle would be somewhat lost.
I do like Nick Roche's artwork in this issue. He brings a bit of energy and fluidity to the scenes that need it - the loose style is well suited to the battle sequences, and brings a good sense of urgency to proceedings. (Also, I did get a good laugh out of the little joke on page 21). I might not have conciously noticed the thing about the screens if you hadn't mentioned it Martin, but the fact that the images are aligned to the plane of the screens and not that of the page is an impressive piece of attention to detail. I'm less keen on the look of the human characters - but that is just a matter of taste - they are of a piece with the rest of the art and work very well in context. They just aren't entirely my cup of tea. That said, it is nice to see cartoon-influenced human characters in a modern Transformers comic that are actually influenced by modern animation, rather than trying to emulate the look of animation from twenty-years ago. I'd much rather have Nick Roche's contemporary aesthetic to someone attempting to homage a dated look.
Overall, I'd say that this issue does a fairly good job - it has to prime the pump with a fairly sizeable amount of information in order to get the story under way and it does it fairly effectively. The opposition and the villian have both been firmly established by the end of the issue and the various plot strands are off and running - as they should be in a mini-series really. Artwork and writing are both up to par. I'd say that "Maximum Dinobots" shows a lot of promise - now that the setup is over and done with it should be able to get motoring with its plot - and "Revelation" showed that Furman can thrive when he has to get his plot done in 88 pages or so. There is only one sticking point for me, and that is price. The price increase has hit, with this issues costing me Three Earth Pounds - a sizeable amount for 22 pages of story of any quality. I do want to see where this story goes, but I'm not sure that I wouldn't be better off hanging fire for the trade considering the high cost of the single issues.
(Miscellaneous Side Notes:
1: Apparently Grimlock, stranded on Earth with no working space-ship was able to travel from the Southern US, all the way to New Zealand... I like to imagine that he travelled most of the way by swimming, followed by taking a stroll across the touristy (and very flat) section of the South Island all without being noticed....probably better qualifying him for the Autobot Special Forces than any of the stuff we actually see in the comic!
2: If only I'd known that there was a shuttle belonging to Dinobots buried in the Franz Josef Glacier years back. I could have got myself a souvenier.
3. Grimlock apparently knows that Megatron and a Decepticon army are about to take Earth by storm - an impressive feat considering this is not something he could have learned in any previous appearance, and he is apparently without viable extraplanetary communications. Whilst I appreciate Furman's efforts to relate his work to whatever another writer might be planning for the flagship series it seems a bit of a non-sequiter in context.
4. Dynobot just sounds silly, and certainly fails to engender the correct amount of fear. It the Dinobots must (and according to all recent Transformers comics it appears they must) have always worked together since time immemorial, then they really need to have had a completely different name before they became, well Dino Bots.)
Karl
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Dec 14, 2008 22:35:31 GMT
1: Apparently Grimlock, stranded on Earth with no working space-ship was able to travel from the Southern US, all the way to New Zealand... He orbital-bounced in his Spotlight cos his ship was there. Spotlight again - Scorpy told him that Megs was there and had plans. |
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Post by legios on Dec 14, 2008 22:59:55 GMT
1: Apparently Grimlock, stranded on Earth with no working space-ship was able to travel from the Southern US, all the way to New Zealand... He orbital-bounced in his Spotlight cos his ship was there. Spotlight again - Scorpy told him that Megs was there and had plans. Ah that explains that. It has been quite a long time since "Spotlight: Grimlock" came out so a lot of the details have faded from my mind. I might stick with the mental image of Grimlock tip-toeing from barn to barn though - it amuses me more than teleportation..... Karl |
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Dec 14, 2008 23:35:20 GMT
Especially if he was doing it behind serious-faced Skywatch agents that were looking for him, and making a "ssshhh!" gesture at the readers.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Dec 15, 2008 11:39:03 GMT
Dynobots is indeed a stupid name I really wish they hadn't bothered with. I didn't mind the recap stuff - it's been so long since we've been with these characters I needed it.
Anyway an excellent #1 that seems to be setting things up well. Hopefully the quality will continue. Looked gorgeous too.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 16, 2008 13:41:01 GMT
Arrived just now courtesy of Mr Bax.
Awesome issue, the complete antithesis of All Hail Megatron. Things happened and the story advanced and has some direction, and we don't allude to events off panel constantly.
Great art from Nick as ever.
Andy
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2008 16:08:53 GMT
Fantastic issue, and the art was just great.
Spent far too long browsing the tiny "alien" images on Grimlock's screens, with a big cheesy grin on my face.
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 19, 2008 11:18:24 GMT
Many thanks to Steve Bax for the freebie copy. Many dark thoughts to Royal Mail for dropping it in a few puddles.
Fun tosh. I won't be picking up following issues due to cost but I shall be picking up the trade! I look forward to it.
-Ralph
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