#hunter o’nion

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #606 - "Still Life"

Originally posted on June 13th, 2011

Story - Mike Priest Art - Ed Pirrie Colours - John-Paul Bove Letters - Graham Thomson

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: Canonically, Hunter O’Nion died in the final main issue of All Hail Megatron. The horror of this strip comes from its suggestion that Hunter in fact survived, continuing to exist in a tortured state for years. The phrasing of Verity’s narration, which alludes to then-unseen future adventures, is reminiscent of similar narration from Simon Furman’s pseudocanonical Mosaic strip “Hail And Farewell”. Priest and Pirrie returned for another strip on this theme, which I've bumped up to tomorrow—peep below for a preview, along with Verity’s character model and some clean inks.

[kryptonitecore]

Re-Read: Transformers: Infiltration, #0-6

First things first, humans. Infiltration introduces its own crack team of teens and twenty-somethings to be the human viewpoint on the Autobot-Decepticon war, mostly centred around Verity Carlo, Hunter O’Nion, and Jimmy Pink. Now, Verity I am already familiar with courtesy of Wreckers things, but Hunter and Jimmy I don’t know from Adam.

Let’s start with Verity, my favourite of the group. I’m quite fond of Verity, and I don’t think it’s just because of Nick Roche’s version of her. I think as teenage protagonists being dropped into stories about ancient robots go, she’s an interesting one. However, while I like the concept of Verity there are some things in the writing surrounding her that I’m not a fan of. The references to Verity fearing Hunter are mostly played for jokes, but they’re a little too close together for my taste. I don’t know, it’s just the idea that a teenage girl and runaway with no support network who hitchhikes regularly being afraid of harassment is both pretty sad and pretty understandable, plus having multiple jokes about it/references to it so close together means that it’s harder to skim over those if they don’t land.

On a sort of related note, one of the things that really makes Verity stand out is her fear of rejection or abandonment, which causes her to preemptively reject connections with others, including by being hostile or sullen. I really like this, it’s a nice, distinct character trait and it makes the relationships with any Cybertronians more complex, as there is resistance and hesitation on both sides. However, with the way Verity is written I sometimes get the sense that her emotional volatility is mostly being used as a way to bond the male characters together. It happens almost immediately, where she gets annoyed over something and then Hunter and Ratchet, who have never met before, start talking about how ‘prickly’ she is. Not to preempt some of the later volumes of this series, but I think this is a habit that Furman had with Verity and, considering his track record, it kind of rubs me the wrong way.

Hunter and Jimmy are both alright, but I’m interested to see if they go anywhere. I’m particularly curious as to why Hunter is such a massive believer in the presence of mechanical aliens on Earth, considering it’s portrayed as a niche, conspiracy theory-esque idea? As in, he’s a full blown ‘drop out of work or school, sell my stuff, get in a van, and drive around trying to find proof’ kind of believer. Perhaps he’s supposed to come across as particularly gullible, but he doesn’t seem to go in for any other beliefs in the same vein. Another alternative is that he has had some kind of personal experience or connection that has convinced him, but we’ll see. I don’t know, I’m just used to the idea that people who tend to go for conspiracy theories that intensely tend to believe in multiple things. I don’t know how common it is to have one incredibly intense belief in one theory and then otherwise be completely grounded.

However, I did run into one of my repeated things with Furman’s character writing, and I think it’s that he has a sort of resting voice that he goes into? He mostly uses it in narration, but he will also sometimes use it for characters and suddenly different people with different personalities and backgrounds and interests will be talking the same way - at points I thought Verity sounded like Hunter who sounded like Jimmy who sounded like Ratchet, but I think it was all because they actually sounded like Simon Furman’s narration style. It’s not all the time, which is good, it just happens in a few scenes.

The Decepticons were not a major presence in a lot of this story. They are present as a threat, but they’re very quiet. Starscream is quite contained (by his standards), Megatron appears (and it’s a cool moment!) but he’s also speechless, and the others yell or groan - we even get an ‘ehh’ when one of them gets hurt.

There are some strengths to this comic. For example, the hilarity of the top secret Decepticon base just being… stuck out of a mountainside with an enormous purple sigil to it is incredible, as is Ratchet’s uncanny-valley-dwelling avatar who just never stops smiling and who doesn’t move his mouth when he’s supposed to talk. The idea of an infiltration protocol is also interesting and has a lot of potential for human-centric stories, so that’s valuable for the series as a whole, and the introduction of Megatron was really quite imposing, I think that artist nailed that bit and the sheer scale of him from Verity’s perspective.

Seriously, it's just there.

I’ve got some reservations about Infiltration overall, but I’m happy to give the rest of the series a go and see how it ends up.

[malidane]

The Relationship Between the Merformers and the Humans

The relationship between the humans and the merformers has always been complicated. According to the mers, it’s been this way since the dawn of time.

—————————✧—————————

A long, long time ago, there stood two brothers. One, Unicron, was the embodiment of the sun while the other, Primus, was the embodiment of the moon. They were very close to each other, and worked in unity to keep the Earth in check.

But, as stories like this always go, Unicron became jealous of his brother’s abilities. He stole the Allspark from Primus, a vessel used to create life, and created the first human. Unicron was proud of his new creation, as he saw they were very innovative and clever, and showed it to Primus.

Primus, while proud of his brother, saw what this new life would do to the world and told his brother they couldn’t let them thrive. Unicron was enraged and resisted, claiming that Primus was jealous of his creation and wanted them gone so he could create his own version and take credit. Seeing as he couldn’t talk sense into his brother, Primus began planning how to equal out his brother’s chaotic new species.

Thus, Cymatronians, or Merformers, were born.

Where humans would destroy and replace, mers would coexist and give. They loved the world and all of its beautiful, and are very in tune with nature. Primus gave them the ability to shift into humans so that they could push for the survivor their planet without being ridiculed and pushed aside. Not wanting the humans to know of his children, he forbad them from interacting with them in their true forms.

—————————✧—————————

Fast forward to today, humans and Autobons now work together to stop the Decepticons from overthrowing them. While a lot of the humans who know about them love them and treat them like any other human, the higher ups simply want to use them as test subjects. They rebuilt the old aquarium as the new base not only because it allowed them to interact better, but because they are able to watch their every move through the cameras and glass. They haven’t dissected any of them purely on survival instinct as they know they can’t beat the Decepticons by themselves.

The Autobons do know about this. Both of the liaisons over their division, William Fowler and William Lennox (both of them part of the Navy), have told them before, though Fowler wasn’t as keen to revel information at first. They end up making a treaty that they would share certain information with the humans as long as there was no experimentation of any kind on them.

(They all suspect that when the war ends, this treaty will immediately be broken.)

When the children entered their lives, another part of the treaty was added. The mers has gotten very attached to their small companions, and became angered at the thought of them having to leave. As long as the children kept their mouths shut and worked at the base, they would be able to stay. Jimmy fixes up mechanics that help heat the tanks and keep the lights on. Verity and Hunter are both in charge of cleaning the tanks (though they’re usually clean already, the Bons aren’t savages). Jack, Sari, and Miko help learn about Cymatronian culture while they also teach them about human culture, along with Raf when he’s not helping scrub the internet of “mermen sightings”. The Witwicky brothers are being trained as Marines to help as liaisons, though Spike will sometimes help Jimmy with fixing the old building’s machines.

Every human on base has a guardian (at least the kids and the Will’s do). Lennox has Ironhide, Epps has Jazz, Jack has Arcee, Miko has Bulkhead, Raf has Ratchet, Sari has Optimus, Verity has Magnus, Spike has Bumblebee, Buster has Prowl, Sam has Smokescreen, Hunter has the Terror Twins (mainly Sunstreaker), and Jimmy has Wheeljack. Fowler technically has been assigned Optimus, but he claims he doesn’t need a guardian and Optimus already has his hands full with Sari.

—————————✧—————————

I hope you enjoyed this! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I love answering questions. Also, Cybertron(ian) was changed to Cymatron(ian) for the same reason Bots was changed to Bons. It’s another Latin word, cymatilis, meaning wave.

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #40 — Ratchet Runs Off After a Man

This is the issue where Ratchet gets Kaiju-ed and everyone has to adjust to their new normal of living with a giant doctor. Very touching story, love the part where he reenacts the King Kong Empire State scene with Cyclonus.

Also, I very much hope you all know that this is clearly a lie I’m telling, because lying is funny.

We get a quick montage of Ratchet’s life, as he had what was the last moment together with a few people who were very important to him, or at least as he knew them. Roller had come to his clinic before he and Orion Pax and the college kids left Rodion, to ask him to join them. Ratchet couldn’t, due to all the patients in the Dead End who depended on him. He looks as if he wants to say something, but instead just thanks Roller for dropping by. This would be the last time he saw Roller, as Roller disappeared during the events of that hot spot incident we saw during the ‘Elegant Chaos’ arc.

Later, he informed Pharma that he was leaving for Earth later that day, which I’ll go ahead and say, was a bit of a dick move to not say something sooner. Ratchet leaves in the middle of the conversation, not catching Pharma asking if he should take the assignment to Delphi that Prowl offered him. We, of course, know how that turned out for Pharma.

Later still, Ratchet drops off Hunter O’Nion off at his home, then quickly leaves, saying that he doesn’t want to keep him from settling in. Hunter is disappointed by the suddenness of his departure, but at least nothing bad will ever happen to this young man again.

Yep. Nothing bad happened to Hunter O’Nion.

He’s perfectly fine, and also alive.

Anyway, each of these scenes are labeled as being unsuccessful, though in what exactly we don’t know yet. In the present, we see the Lost Light parked on the planet of Scarvix, still recharging its quantum engines from that whole thing with Brainstorm’s time adventure. Inside, Tailgate is being a menace, having apparently stolen the Back to the Future hoverboard and riding it down the halls while also wielding a fishing pole. Swerve is busy inside Swerve’s, making a drinking glass tower while he abuses his employee. Ratchet watches this injustice happen and doesn’t say a goddamned thing.

Tailgate whips into the bar and hits the less obvious of the two targets in the room.

Ratchet was the only patron of the bar today, and it’s not just because of there being shore leave, or it being No-Fun-Allowed week. See, Swerve never planned for there to be any real competition to his bar, and now Mirage, who is likely much cooler and well-liked than Swerve, has opened his own establishment, and everybody loves it, especially after the whole “Brainstorm poisoned everyone” thing.

Swerve is extra touchy as a result, and threatens to ban Tailgate from the bar forever for the grave sin of thinking that Mirage’s “Visages” might be a good time. Tailgate ignores this, asking for a six-pack of space beer for his fishing date with Getaway. Tailgate then explains the game they’re going to be playing, which involves some inconsiderate handling of Legislator corpses, right in front of Ten.

Ten is banished to work the front door, for the grave sin of having sat down for a second. Walking to his post reveals that someone has graffitied his back.

Love how Tailgate still refuses to use Whirl’s name. And I don’t think pointing out how Dominus Ambus could have done more for Cybertronian society to make up for being such a nasty little creep to his own subordinates is a bad thing, Swerve.

Apparently Swerve isn’t the only bitch on this ship in a foul mood, as Ultra Magnus has apparently been interrogating folks about a missing datapad and demanding that Swerve treat Ten with basic decency. I would personally like for Union Magnus to put Swerve in the brig for his shitty boss crimes, but we don’t have time for that right now, because Ratchet just realized he’s late for something.

It’s the goddamned court case for Brainstorm’s time crimes.

Yes, for once we’re actually using due process, as the “Lost Light Internal Legal Affairs Committee”— L.L.I.L.A.C., like the room’s paint job— consists of Xaaron, who I’m sure is thrilled to finally be able to do something, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, and Megatron, who has apparently decided he’s not going to attend. What he could possibly be doing instead is beyond me, it’s not like he’s got any sort of social life on this fucking ship. There’s also a public gallery, made up of folks who were involved in some way in the events of the time travel nonsense. Chromedome is acting as Brainstorm’s defense, I guess because no one else wanted to.

Brainstorm immediately makes things difficult for himself, asking why Rewind wasn’t also put in prison to await trial, seeing as he’s the one who actually shot Babytron. Ultra Magnus reminds him that Rewind had a whole thing with the DJD the day before all the time travel, and that the little man was traumatized to the point where they could excuse him shooting an infant, especially since Whirl fixed that oopsie pretty quick.

Rodimus cuts in here, bringing up Brainstorm’s face plate— that’s right, the man’s basically naked for his trial— and after a little futzing around, manages to get it to show off the hidden Decepticon badge on the inside. Brainstorm is pretty cavalier about it, which seems to piss Nautica the hell off, as she storms out, leaving the wrench she squeezed out of shape behind. I’m not sure why exactly she’s so upset about this, seeing as she wasn’t even around for the war. Brainstorm then goes on to explain why exactly he’s a Decepticon.

Of course, L.L.I.L.A.C. has their doubts, considering what happened on the quantum duplicate Lost Light was caused by that Brainstorm deciding he wanted them to come get Overlord. The current Brainstorm, however, has a theory on why exactly that happened, making a bad joke as he explains that he’s actually a horrendous double agent, and needed to show the DJD that he was on the up and up, by giving them one of their most elusive List members.

Ultar Mgsuna— Rodimus has been fidgeting with the name plates this whole time— asks for any final statements. Brainstorm, deciding that shutting up isn’t on his schedule for today, decides to let everyone know that he very much doesn’t appreciate being bullied into taking the blame for something that he didn’t even personally do, quantum duplication bullshit be damned. Plus, it’s not like the DJD were exactly faultless, considering they were the ones who did the actual murder.

Perceptor, this isn’t how courtrooms work, sit down.

Magnus, after taking a moment to marvel at how out of order this court is, informs Brainstorm that a committee decision has been reached; Brainstorm can’t be held responsible for the deaths on the alternate Lost Light, for reasons Brainstorm already stated, and the fact that he’s a Decepticon can’t really be charged, as merely being a part of the faction isn’t actually a crime, and it would also mean that Ravage would have to be put in jail, and also that Megatron’s deal would have to be opened back up, which nobody really wants to deal with. However, attempted murder is still a crime, and as punishment, Brainstorm’s time machine will be destroyed, and he’ll be chaperoned in his lab at all times, as well as be forced to cease all communication with his Decepticon handler.

Brainstorm is very surprised that his actions haven’t earned him a booting off the ship, but states that the Lost Light is his home, and he’s glad to be able to stay. This moment gives Ratchet pause, as he’s taken back to the last time something like this happened, and the results of that decision.

After the trial, Magnus goes a-banging on Megatron’s door, to question him about the datapad from earlier, and also the whole “not being at the trial” thing, but that feels like more of an afterthought. Megatron says that he’s been busy, but we don’t get any resolution on what exactly he’s been up to, because it’s time to go get shitfaced.

In “Visages”, we see Getaway and Tailgate having a drink, as Tailgate regales him with his time travel escapades. Getaway decides that now would be a good time to practice his negging, as he not-so-subtly implies that Cyclonus has been talking shit behind Tailgate’s back, even telling folks about Tailgate being a crybaby bitch while he was dying of cybercrosis. Tailgate is very hurt by this, having thought he could trust Cyclonus with that sort of vulnerability. So hurt, in fact, he forgets that Cyclonus just straight up doesn’t talk to people without provocation, unless it’s Tailgate himself. Why exactly Getaway is acting like such a shitbird will be better understood later, but for now, it looks like he’s doing this to have Tailgate all to himself.

Tailgate complains of a headache as Getaway pours him another drink and swears him to secrecy on what he’s told Tailgate about Cyclonus. Ratchet walks by, not having caught this conversation, asking to borrow Tailgate’s hoverboard.

Smash cut to said hoverboard having been put in a quarantine tube, as Ratchet goes down the list of all the folks he needs to check for the super-scraplets that have apparently infested it. Though it seems like there’s a hidden motive to these checkups, as he’s only invited his friends to them. He chews Rodimus out for being inconsistent with his punishments, saying he was too hard on Drift. He reminds Nautica that Brainstorm is an M.T.O., and would have been destroyed if his plan had worked, making it a selfless act to try to make the galaxy better. He tells Rung to do his fucking job and check on Hoist, after his fucking roommate got super-murdered by an office chair, and also tells him to talk to someone himself. He tells Skids to go check on Rung. He tells Swerve to invite Megatron out, in an attempt to get some business back at his bar. He checks in on Magnus, who reveals that he doesn’t feel respected, showing off the tiny figure of Minimus Ambus he found outside his office. He’s taken it as an insulting comment on his true self.

Later, First Aid calls Ratchet out on being a weirdo who can’t talk to people without having to build up an entire false scenario first. Ratchet doesn’t really acknowledge it, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have had time to do it before Tailgate comes flying in.

Tailgate apparently got himself a new board, courtesy of Ten, who even went so far as to put a sick decal on it, of Tailgate opening a Matrix. Ratchet recognizes the art style, and decides he’s got someone else to talk to before the day is done.

Ratchet finds himself down in the boiler rooms, knocking on a vent door labeled 10. Inside is— you guessed it— Ten, who invites him to come down the vent and enter his home, which he’s decorated all by himself.

Notice how Swerve is nowhere to be fucking found on this mural.

Ten also builds models from scratch— he’d have to, I doubt Flame Toys ships to outer space— and he’s made several members of the crew by this point.

Shane McCarthy slipped Roberts a twenty to set up this slowburn between his OC and Ratchet all the way back in MTMTE #4, I’m fucking telling you.

Ratchet stops thinking about his crush long enough to realize he completely missed the Magnus-centric display off to the side. It’s got Ultra Magnus, his office, his alt mode, Minimus Ambus and his alt, and the irreducible Minimus, though no alt counterpart is present for that one. That would be spoilers~ Ten’s model of himself is over there as well. When asked if Ten likes Ultra Magnus, he acts like a giddy schoolgirl.

Ratchet also notices the missing datapad that had Magnus so angry. Turns out Ten was trying to do a little trade, having left the figure of Minimus in exchange for the datapad. Ratchet violates Magnus’s privacy by reading the contents of the datapad, finding some personal writing. Ratchet, not wanting Magnus’s frustration over having his personal effects messed with to hurt Ten, writes a little note on the datapad before he has Ten hand it back over to the rightful owner.

Later on, it would seem that Minimus is feeling more at ease, having left his Magnus armor at home as he enters Swerve’s, with Ten by his side. In the background, Skids marvels at a model of the Lost Light Rung’s put together. When they go to sit at the bar, Swerve tries to make a scene, furious that Ten would try to act like a person. When Minimus threatens to move their hangout to “Visages”, Swerve reveals that he invited Megatron to “Visages” earlier, and the poetry reading he did there emptied it out real quick. Minimus says something that implies that his datapad contains his attempts at poetry, and in turn, self-understanding.

We get a full reading of Ratchet’s message to Magnus, as scenes of reconciliation, relationships built on lies, stagnation, destruction of a life’s work, and theft for unknown purposes play out.

Well that’s not ominous at all.

When First Aid enters Ratchet’s room, he finds only a phone, to be used if the new CMO should need him. Ratchet, having finally decided that he needs to be the one to finally right the wrongs of the past, has left the Lost Light, setting out with his custom model of Drift, to find the real deal and bring him home.

Shane McCarthy just keeps fucking winning.

[optimistpax]

[ID: two panels from the IDW transformer comic infiltration. The first panel is of an ambulance pulling up in front of Verity Carlo and Hunter O’Nion. The second is a smiling headshot of Ratchet’s holoform. End ID]

I can’t believe Ratchet’s boring holoform design is from issue ZERO of the 2005 run and it did not get updated ONCE

[microwave-radiation]

Hunter O’Nion: Wow! What an interesting and meaningful experience, to be mentally bonded to another lifeform! I feel a deep sense of connection to this entity who I consider a friend

Sunstreaker: I hate you and I hope you die 

[artsy-hobbitses]

on the topic of the writers doing some characters dirty, I noticed unicorns writer kinda wrote all humans but Marissa, rather overly negative, and just unlikeable, and lets not even get into the crime they did to poor adorable nerdy Spike, what will you be doing with those guys?

I sort of liked some of the earlier humans like Hunter O’nion and VerityCarlo! But yeah, I have no idea why they did what they did to poor Spike, which okay, on the one hand I am honestly glad for more off-earth Cybertronian shenangians with well-written Cybertronian characters for FUCKING ONCE but wow the humans got a shit deal out of this :’D  I actually legitimately do not know yet! I really do want to keep Marissa Faireborn because her entire thing with Thundercracker is cute af, but it’s trying to figure out where she fits in an AU where they’re all humans on earth that’s a bit ???? right now.  Wheels are spinning! We’ll see how it goes. 

[thelastgherkin]

Nobody in history’s ever wanted to look more like Hunter O’Nion, but if you want to buck the trend - ALIEN DEATHRAY cosplay shirts, now available in my store.

[brandxspandex]

Could you writer Ironhide/Sunstreaker (IDW)?

Sunstreaker’s brief symbiosis with Hunter O’Nion had causeda number of unwelcome human concepts to filter through into his brain; one ofthose concepts was the idea of a purgatory, a place entered following deaththat was neither a pit of eternal torment nor a paradise of eternal happiness.A person entering purgatory didn’t face torture, but they did face hardship,which they had to endure in order to purify them of their sins so that theycould be redeemed and eventually leave purgatory and enter paradise for therest of eternity.

Lying broken and alone at the bottom of a pit amongstInsecticon corpses on a dead and abandoned Cybertron with the thoughts of whathe had done running endlessly through his head had made Sunstreaker think hewas in what the humans called Hell, condemned to suffer for all eternity forhis sins. It wasn’t like that wasn’t where he deserved to end up, after what hehad done and all the suffering and death he was responsible for. Yet it turnedout that this wasn’t his eternal fate after all, as he had been plucked fromthis pit of corpses and whisked away to have his damage tended to by a legend. Now,out of the pit but still on a dead Cybertron, not so utterly broken but withhis legs still non-functional, Sunstreaker felt more like he was in purgatory.

Ironhide’s situation was actually rather similar topurgatory, given that he had arrived here following his death and been taskedwith the ordeal of fighting his way through the Insecticon swarm by a figuremany regarded as divine, although the redemption and purity Ironhide wasfighting for was less for himself and more for their very world. Sunstreaker onthe other hand very much needed to redeem himself, and though he wasn’t in hismost functional state, he was willing to do whatever it took to get whatevermeasure of redemption was on offer. So he gave Ironhide any help he was ableto, and steadily the state of Cybertron started to improve.

As he watched Cybertron gradually get better, Sunstreakerstarted to feel himself get a bit better, and just as much of the improvedstate of Cybertron was thanks to Ironhide’s efforts, the same could be said ofhis own state of mind. After all the time spent alone with only the agony ofhis own guilt-ridden thoughts and horrifying memories, having someone elsearound to talk to, especially someone as affable as Ironhide, was anoverwhelming relief. Ironhide asked Sunstreaker a lot of questions in an effortto fill in the enormous gap in his memories, and Sunstreaker latched onto theopportunity to talk to Ironhide whenever he could, as it provided thedistraction he desperately needed from his painful thoughts. Ironhide’s warmpresence and kind and encouraging words were such a stark contrast against thehellish experience that Ironhide himself had pulled Sunstreaker out of, andbeing around him helped steadily numb the memories of that awful time.

Eventually Sunstreaker and Ironhide’s partnership evolvedinto a little family of sorts after they adopted Bob into their fold, andSunstreaker found his spark fuller than it had been in quite some time. Bob’saffection was simple and genuine, and even in his semi-functional state Sunstreakercould offer him the kind of care he’d never had before. Being there for someoneelse made Sunstreaker feel good, like it justified the fact he was no longersuffering at the bottom that pit. Caring for Bob, being with Ironhide, and steadilyfixing their broken world all helped do wonders for Sunstreaker’s psyche, andSunstreaker found himself thinking that he could actually be content like this,with just the three of them on their mostly empty planet. Sunstreaker felthappier being with Ironhide every day, and he was starting to think that he wassomeone he could spend his life with, while he had no intent of ever giving upon Bob. When they were together, it felt like their purgatory could one day becomea paradise.

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #470 - "Contempt"

Originally posted on April 1st, 2010

Story - Mike Priest Art, Letters - HdE

deviantART | Seibertron | BotTalk

wada sez: Indiana featured in early IDW material from Furman. This strip is loaded with dramatic irony considering Sunstreaker’s eventual relationship with Hunter O’Nion. Some little titbits from the deviantART comments on this one. From HdE: “Well, it was borne out of me asking Mike if he could give me something I could really play around with. Like everything else I do, there's things I like and things I'm not so keen on. So I'll keep the things I liked for the next effort. Textures are my new thing. I think I'll be using them more. LOTS more!” And from Priest: “I wanna give HdE particular props on the "womb to tomb" panel. It was his suggestion that the artist should be painting a picture of Sunstreaker, which makes absolute sense and works beautifully with Sunstreaker's narration in that panel.” Clean inks below.

[kryptonitecore]

Re-Read: Maximum Dinobots, #1-5

A whole mini-series with art by Nick Roche! I found this one a bit dull the first time around, but I enjoyed it more on the second go. I think the more expressive art style really lifts this, both with facial expressions and the way fight scenes are drawn.

I also thought this series did a lot for Hunter O’Nion, who I’ve been very lukewarm on up until this point. I warmed to him more in the few pages of him interacting with Sunstreaker than all of his other appearances so far. In all honesty, I think this mini-series has a few nice character moments: ‘No offence, but… I’m a serial ‘me’’ is a nice, semi-humorous moment for Sunstreaker, as are Grimlock’s moments of sentimentality towards his team and attempts to resolve things with them peacefully. I also like that Swoop is the one who rejects Grimlock, as my impression has that been he’s one of the least rebellious Dinobots normally, so it implies this conflict is more serious. 

On the other hand… my main complaint is the one I always have with anything written by Furman: the tone of the dialogue. Sometimes it just comes across too formal or stilted. Swoop’s speech to Grimlock is a notable example, ‘I can’t forgive or forget what you did - however much it might be in keeping with the general anarchic ethos of being a Dynobot’. This just seems odd in the middle of a heated, sudden confrontation. It feels more like a formal complaint in writing. I also feel that Furman’s writing is stronger on some characters than others and that it falls into some broad archetypes: rough and ready, semi-comedic characters who chase their own specific wants (Rodimus, Dinobots, Hardhead) and melodramatic mad scientist characters (Shockwave, Scorponok) tend to be more strongly characterised, whereas others are a lot more blank.

There are also some… intriguing moments. Shockwave’s alt-mode just hovering down a suburban street in Portland, Oregon, is certainly memorable. We also have a Eugenesis reference, courtesy of Roche, and after a quick art change a Ravage that looks like he fell into acid. All I can say is that Jimmy is a braver child than I was, because if I saw that clambering through my wall I would have teleported out of that room.

I would say I had very low expectations going in, but this had more to offer than I remembered. Plenty of my typical objections to Furman’s writing still apply, though. This is making me wish there was more Sunstreaker later in IDW1, though. It also, retroactively, makes Spotlight: Ultra Magnus relevant, though it’s a shame it took quite so long for that to happen. At this point, I think you can tell Furman is tying things up a bit more in preparation for other writers to take over.

[nicecream]

cybertronian names are definitely my number one niche transformers interest. i really appreciate that part where the galactic council were talking about getaway and they were like “cybertronians have such funny names”... i love how cybertronians misinterpret eachother’s names by meaning (chromedome mistaking getaway in skids’ memory as ‘the need to escape’, galvatron calling astrotrain ‘spacebus’) but human names are phonetic to them (misfire thinking mp3′s name was empathy)...also i’m losing my mind over how hunter o’nion and rodimus of nyon have essentially the same last name

[nakklepiggy]

oh no

now i have to draw rung horrifically plugged into that huge drill like hunter o’nion during all hail megatron

[thanksjro]

All Hail Megatron #15: Dang Bro, That Sure is a Redeemable Dude Right There

So, before we get into Season 2 of MTMTE, I thought it would be prudent to take a gander at all the stuff Megatron’s gotten done in the IDW publications. Y’know, for plot reasons. And also because of this little nugget of info I found forever ago:

Of course, just jumping straight into the 15th issue of a run isn’t going to give me a proper understanding of what happens narratively, so here is a very brief rundown of the events of AHM #1-14.

First thing I see- cover with Megatron holding the American flag in one hand and Optimus Prime’s head on a fucking pike in the other.

Shane McCarthy wrote several issues of this run. So expect some Empire of Stone vibes.

2009 Josh Burcham appears to not know how to color black people’s skin. I have no idea if he’s improved on this deficiency in his skills, but a person can hope.

Megatron kills a literal skyscraper’s worth of people. (was that allowed in 2009? I thought we were still being weird about that sort of thing back then, with 9/11 and all.)

A fighter pilot looks at a photograph of his significant other. This is how you know he’s going to die.

Megatron slaps a plane so hard it explodes, and then laughs about it. While all this is happening, Optimus is fucking dying on Cybertron. This makes Jazz very upset.

What seems like the entire goddamn US military is called in to deal with this intergalactic terrorist attack.

The Decepticons destroy all the bridges and tunnels connected to NYC.

Los Angeles and San Diego are also under attack.

Estimated 200K people dead. This is issue #3.

Megatron holds all of NYC hostage.

The Decepticons annihilate a destroyer-class warship.

San Francisco and Washington D.C. are overtaken.

Air Force One has been destroyed.

Megatron acts like an asshole to Starscream.

The Decepticons attack all of the United States.

The President of the United States is dead.

Megatron ripped the Matrix out of Optimus’ chest.

The shit that’s happening to America is also happening at all the other Autobot outposts.

This is also about the time that Overlord starts his terrorizing of Garrus 9.

Megatron says that the destruction of those weaker than himself is a “reward”.

Megatron doesn’t believe in the sanctity of life.

Beijing and Israel are destroyed by the Decepticons.

Megatron commissioned the Insecticons as beings of pure torment, for reasons.

Megatron commissions Bombshell to do some really fucked up shit to Hunter O’Nion.

Megatron waits around for Starscream to Starscream it up, then beats the everloving shit out of his employees.

Megatron doesn’t believe in an academic approach to warfare, for some reason.

Megatron’s totally cool with NYC getting nuked.

Megatron was planning on reprogramming his troops into being nice fellas once he beat the Autobots.

Megatron believes in ownership in those beneath him. He’s completely convinced that anyone in the Decepticon forces is essentially his property.

Megatron knees Optimus below the belt. That’s just poor sportsmanship.

The only reason Megatron survives a gunshot to the face is that he messed with Starscream’s head earlier in the day.

Thundercracker caught a nuclear bomb, tossed it into the stratosphere, and shot it. I don’t think he realizes that the fallout is still going to spread across the globe.

The Matrix is still in Decepticon hands.

Starscream’s head is in a friggin’ dark-ass place.

Then there’s some stuff setting up Galvatron and Cyclonus’ whole deal, but who cares about that? On to issue #15!

Motherfucker, that’s a Radiohead song-

The proper story of AHM ended with issue #12, and the issues after were split into two separate stories, written by two separate teams, which detailed events taking place after the main story was resolved. A series of epilogue scenes, if you will. We’ll only be looking at the first story, because it’s the only one that’s relevant to what I’m doing here.

Our official writer for “Everything in it’s Right Place” is Nick Roche, who we’ve run into several times over our journey through IDW. A majority of the story beats will be attributed to him, of course, seeing as Roberts was, at the time, only mentioned as assisting, and also not employed by the publishing company.

Our story opens with Prowl getting socked in the face by Springer, because he’s upset that his grandpa has gone AWOL. Perceptor’s also missing, but this isn’t about him. Prowl, whose shins are looking especially shiny today, lets Springer know that they’ve “got Kup back.”

See, once upon a time, Kup was stuck on a little planet called Tsiehshi, where Shockwave was growing one of his ores. Kup became addicted to the… thrall, I guess, of the crystals, and it drove him mad, making him hallucinate that he was being attacked by ghosts. What was actually happening was he was violently murdering his rescuers with his bare hands. When the Autobots finally managed to get him off the planet, he got shipped to Kimia, where the smartest boy in all the galaxy, Brainstorm, could work his science on him.

Guess they don’t call him Brainstorm for noth-

I’m so sorry.

Springer very much dislikes the fact that some dweebs in a lab are poking around in his Pap-pap thinking meat. He’s even less thrilled when he finds out how exactly they fixed said thinking meat.

Kup’s now a Pretender. The Stormbringer miniseries covered this process, and let’s just say, Springer’s got every right to be concerned, considering that the last time someone tried something like this, Cybertron was made completely uninhabitable. They’ve made breakthroughs, however, as Prowl keeps saying. He says it a lot, actually.

This is because Prowl is a bastard, and is also using the Pretender tech to make Kup into something for his own agenda. Which, I hopefully shouldn’t have to tell you, is kind of a shitty thing to do.

Springer is shown footage of Kup kicking some ass, and notices that he’s got something in his mouth. This is his vape rig, full of medicinal marijuana.

Dammit, Prowl, let me make a weed joke! This is because you’re a cop, isn’t it?

Prowl continues to be a complete and utter fucker in his internal monologue until Springer asks to see Grandpa. They head to the lab to find Kup in pieces, though it’s completely medically sound in this case. Kup has a minor absolutely-horrific hallucination, but he’s okay once he gets his cy-gar back.

We get a flashback to Prowl making sure Perceptor put the nasty, nasty bad-time programming into Kup’s head, because he’s sick of losing the war, and a single old man will surely turn the tides. Or, at least, it will when he’s damn charismatic and folks listen to him way more than they do Prowl.

Back in the present, Springer asks that Kup not be told what happened on Tsiehshi, because it’s kind of a major bummer. Prowl reflects on how only the cool kids get paid attention to, and assumes that the Decepticons are a much more organized machine. Clearly he hasn’t heard about how Overlord lives his life.

Anyway, so Kup is now a mouthpiece for Prowl, and he doesn’t even know it. That’s pretty fucked.

So, what have we learned from this experience? Well, even though Roberts didn’t personally assist on the actual Megatron-related portions of AHM, we can see where the character was, and I think that’s far more important than deconstructing Prowl’s whole deal at the moment.

God, I don’t know that redeeming this bastard’s going to be possible, James, but somehow I think you already knew that, given how you’ve written the guy in the past.

Yeah, you fuckin’ thought I forgot about Literally Hitler Megatron, didn’t you?

Well I didn’t.

[belfrygargoyles]

WAIT WHAT THE FUCK ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO HUNTER O’NION?????? WHAT WAS HIS FATE????

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #410 - "Up Is Down, Black Is White"

Originally posted on August 20th, 2009

Story - Matt Marshall Art - Bryan Sevilla

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: This strip seems intended to help justify the jarring twist in All Hail Megatron where it turned out Sunstreaker betrayed the Autobots as a result of his hatred of humanity... when it was he who had perhaps the closest bond to a human of all, with Hunter O’Nion. Sunstreaker appears in his body from that series, based on his Universe toy. I’m not sure when the strip is supposed to take place, and I’m not sure why Snarler was chosen, because historically his profiles have characterised him as a selfish thief. Marshall’s remastered version of this strip from his Tales From The Matrix Keeper zine is included below.