Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus
I'm a well read grad student who's bluntly honest about all things, although I try to be most honest about myself.
Currently reading
This would have been...
A five star review, no questions asked, oh, a year or so ago. None.
In fact, I think it was: I think I read it last year at Readercon - so about a year ago - and adored it. Then came More Than Meets the Eye, particularly the storyline with Overlord. Then came this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LBFR90f6rg
And now? This whole coddling Hot Rod, and acting like he isn't so reckless that he makes a crappy leader? Not liking it at all. Now to be fair, a lot doesn't involve Hot Rod, and the art is just so amazing I could weep at how beautiful it is. The story is a fascinating period in Cybertronian history when the Matrix of Leadership has faded into a myth, the lineage of Primes corrupted, beyond saving it seems.
A young officer, Orion Pax, will change that all as he comes up against the Decepticons and realizes that he's been working against himself, against the causes he believes in, because he believed in the authority of Zeta Prime. And true, it takes Megatron's tyrannical impulses showing through and Hot Rod's reckless behavior to show him the way, but it doesn't make me like Megatron - or Hot Rod - anymore as sympathetic characters. (Megatron is fascinating, layered, funny, cruel, and hot; Hot Rod is just a big back of metal dicks.)
And as much as I'm not as compelled by Optimus Prime as others - and I have theories about why that is, by the way - I'll take him over Hot Rod any day of the week. Overall? This is a worthwhile storyline. And although it takes place at the beginning, I suspect it's much more compelling if you've read some IDW continuity first. Not just because it has some in-jokes, but because it also seriously references stuff that happens in the future of this universe. It's impossible to appreciate that without being familiar with this continuity.
Then again, if you don't care about that and just want to see the beginnings of the Decepticon/Autobot rift, then this is the volume for you.
Also, Shockwave's cannon. So. Fucking. Hot.
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