Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were a reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
So at this point I’m only harping on where the book fails to match the game it’s supposedly based on more on principle than anything else. I can understand a certain level of deviation from the final script since the writer may only see an earlier draft. This happens all the time with movies and both novels and comic adaptations. However, this book has gone beyond it, grabbing bits of other mediums (just as Bumblebee’s lack of speech from the movies as well as the All-Spark launch) to create an original universe and based on that, the book’s been pretty good.
In this installment of Chapter By Chapter, the book deviates from the first cutscene in the Decepticon campaign, just as last time it deviated from the Autobot campaign (Bumblebee already on the team, Optimus already Prime) but how well does it tell its own story?
First off I have to say that I really like Alex Irvine’s Starscream. Most G1-style Starscreams tend to follow the cartoon version, a scheming coward with an overinflated* ego and not much brains. Here, Starscream is rather smart, cunning, and not afraid of Megatron. He believes in Megatron’s cause, but may not think Megatron knows what he’s doing. He’s competent, intelligent, and makes both a good foil for Megatron (“treachery keeps the wits sharp”, as another Megatron would say) and the perfect second in command for him. I do love this Starscream, I have to admit.
(*Grammar question for you, kids. Grammar check claims that this should be written “a overinflated ego”. However, in the explanation it says that vowel sounds start with “an” and consonant sounds start with “a”. How are they pronouncing “overinflated”?)
The best part isn’t just the intellectual sparring with Megatron, but with Sentinel Prime. In this chapter we learn Sentinel is still alive and Starscream talked Megatron into keeping him around as a potential bargaining chip in the future. See, strategy. If Megatron is right, it’s because it’s his vision for Cybertron, flawed as I personally find it.
Yes, here we learn what Megatron’s vision is, and it kind of feels like he’s trying to steer it a bit more towards Megatron’s comments in the game, it still feels off-kilter. He does think himself the best one to organize chaos, while casting off the caste system in favor of individualism. As you’ll recall, individualism over the caste system was the only thing Optimus and Megatron had in common. Optimus believed in caste by choice, while Megatron wants to…I’m not sure. See what you think in this passage from Ch. 16
The idealism of Orion Pax–or Optimus Prime; whatever he was called, it changed nothing about his essential nature–would have destroyed Cybertron just as effectively as the Guild and caste paralysis destroying it. Megatron envisioned a different Cybertron, a powerful Cybertron once again exerting its influence across the stars, spreading to recover first contact with and then control over the lost worlds. . . and to do that, strong leadership was required. Individual self-determination meant nothing if all it led to was chaos. With Megatron in the lead as Prime, Cybertronians would find the galaxy theirs for the taking. And they would take it.
It feels a bit contradictory if you think about it. Megatron is all about self-determination, and that still requires good leaders (insert Congress/President/Governor joke here), but he wants to do it by force.
The story then turns its attention to Dark Energon, a sort of anti-Energon that is said to be born of Unicron. Now Irvine’s take on Unicron, as being expelled “from the body of the planet Cybertron”, leads to new questions. Much as the recent Transformers: Prime cartoon, mostly like not written in coordination with the book, Dark Energon comes from Unicron, and we’re told here than (Light?) Energon comes from Primus…somehow. The nature of Primus, and Unicron by association, sounds a bit different from the version usually heard, based on Simon Furman’s concept that Unicron and Primus are gods from the beginning of time, trapped inside separate planets in the natural realms due to a long story. (Furman’s specialty, actually.) That could be interesting.
I like the scenes with Alpha Trion telling the Autobots about Dark Energon more for the fleshing out (pardon the expression) of the characters. Prowl has a better personality than I’ve seen in years, thanks to the comics, mostly Furman, writing a rather poor Prowl. Here he’s serious, but still has a good nature to him. He actually laughs at a joke Jazz makes, along with Ironhide. Between Starscream and Prowl, I like Irvine’s take. Unfortunately, Bumblebee (who as any BW reader knows is my favorite Transformer) get the short end of the stick the movie and the Hub’s cartoon give him. I much prefer the original cartoon, comic, or the game’s portrayal. (Johnny Yong Bosch does an excellent job in the cutscenes I’ve seen thus far.)
So we end with the Autobots coming up with a strategy to beat Dark Energon (or at least wait it out), when Starscream calls. What is he up to now? Could he actually be willing to switch sides, or is this all part of his game? Perhaps we’ll find out next time when I find time to read more of this book. It may be a bad video game adaptation, but it’s a pretty good story on its own.
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