No time like the present to get this started, although I won’t be doing this every week. After all, I want reading this book to be enjoyment not a chore. While this depends partly on author Alex Irvine, it also depends on me not “forcing” myself to read this just to have a blog post.
As I said in the prologue last week, these chapters are rather short compared to the usual book, so I’m going to read a number of chapters at a time, although instead of insisting on five I’ll read to the point I feel ready to stop. Again, I want to enjoy this. However, in keeping with the title, I shall read a chapter, review it to that point and see if I can guess what will happen next. Then either later in this article or in another article we’ll see if I’m right. Of course, I’ll also tell you if there is something I like or don’t like. So if you have the book, please read along.
Chapter 1
The first thing that strikes me in this chapter is the name dropping. Transformer fans will know names like Gigantion, Velocitron, and deeper fans the Hub, which could also just be a reference to the upcoming Hasbro/Discovery Kids venture. We also get Teletraan-1 and something called “DataNet”. The former apparently has a different role in the upcoming Prime cartoon, which is said to take place in the War For Cybertron continuity. The latter I hadn’t thought was a Transformer reference, but apparently it is. This makes me wonder if somebody isn’t trying to make a combined universe for the Transformers.
However, I still don’t like their version. The caste system as set-up in this book, just like in the Megatron: Origin comic, doesn’t feel right to me. It does feel like a system that’s wrong from a personal perspective, and reminds me of the Jedi Council in the Star Wars prequels and how they were made to look bad. Here, the caste system is depicted as almost Big Brother in design, and that bothers me as an Autobot system.
There’s also the character of Alpha Trion, a wise scientist in the original cartoon and a jerk scientist in the current IDW G1 universe. Here even he gets shunted into the role or archivist, albeit in charge of the office. This plus the early name dropping bugs me the same way the rebooted Battlestar Galactica does.
All that aside, Milne does a fair job starting us out. (It’s hard to judge on such a short chapter), describing the city and the look of the office Orion works in. I’m wondering if “Megatronus”, the name Megatron takes, isn’t supposed to be the Fallen from the Movieverse. That would make sense from a multiversal perspective and despite my complaint about the name dropping, none of it bothered me outside of Alpha’s new job.
Chapter 2
Something I can’t argue with is the way Milne gives identity to the characters. Alpha Trion as one of the 13, connected possibly to the 13 Primes of the Movieverse. There is an explanation here as to why Alpha Trion is pushed into the archival caste, with the name drop of Sentinel Prime (probably more related to the comics and the Megatron: Origin version than the Animated one. but it’s still different from the scientist and/or sage of his other universal identities. I’m not sure how I feel about his not only creating the “Covenant of Primus” (think the Holy Bible of the Transformers) but still writing it based on visions he has which may or may not come to pass.
Interestingly, Alpha has no love for the caste system, either, and laments the end of the Space Bridge, which here works like a mix of the Cybertron and Animated series. The question is how well he or Orion agree with “Megatronus” in the form of revolt he’s planning. Let’s see what happens in the next chapter.
Chapter 3
Apparently we’re dropping “Megatronus” in favor of “Megatron”. On the third chapter. Kind of makes that pointless, doesn’t it?
Whatever my issues with the Spartacus scenario this books wants to give Megatronus, I have to give Milne credit for writing a rather good fight scene and introducing Soundwave and Shockwave. There were a few moments that didn’t click in my head visually, but that’s more on me than him. The fight was well written.
If I do have a complaint, it’s the fact that Rumble, Laserbeak, and Ravage are referred to as “Minicons”. This is an error on Milne’s part, as the term doesn’t apply to every small Transformer partner. Minicons in both the fictions and the toy line are smaller Transformers that can actually link on certain Transformers, acting as power boosters or extra weapons. Soundwave’s cassette group (I like to call them Cassettecons, but that’s not an official term) can not connect to Soundwave to boost anything. Instead they convert to a form that Soundwave can store in his chest. They’re smaller, but that’s it. They are NOT Minicons and this is one of the times where the term is just misused.
Shockwave seems to be in keeping with his comic portrayal as a super-scientist who may well turn on Megatron and assume control of the Decepticons (when the group actually exists). This is certainly in keeping with the one-eyed robot as depicted in the Friday Night Fights here at the Spotlight.
However, I wonder about the one part about Megatron not being comfortable with lying and being deceitful, since those are aspects of Megatron we see quite often in the multiverse. However, preferring to go in guns a-blazin’ and being a top battle strategist is in keeping, so that’s accurate enough to work.
Well, that’s as many chapters as I feel like reading just now. We’ve introduced the first group of cast members, and a quick skim shows Jazz making a debut in the next chapter or so. Feel free to post any thoughts on these first three chapters without spoiling what’s coming up next.
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