“Do these look like rubber duckies to you idiots? I asked for…rubber…duckies!”
Transformers: All Hail Megatron #2
IDW Publishing (August, 2008)
WRITER: Shane McCarthy
ARTIST: Guido Guidi
COLORIST: Josh Burcham
SELECTED COVER ART: Trevor Hutchison
LETTERER: Chris Mowry
EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton
A dinner party for his wife is interrupted when Colonel Witwicky is called in to deal with the giant robots. One of the pilots survived and is being hunted by Ravage. He and a civilian are rescued by other civilians. Meanwhile, the army moves in on Central Park, so Soundwave releases Frenzy, who in this continuity is always creating his sonic field and causing nightmare visions in everyone, even himself. The squad sent in is destroyed, and then Megatron ups the ante by having the Constructicons combine into Devastator and go after the underground subway tunnels by flooding them.
What they got right: I still like the concept and in this case the devastation makes a bit more sense. The art is very good.
What they got wrong: I’m beginning to see why some fans have trouble with this miniseries. The big problems are adaptation and continuation. Why can the Constructicons transform now when in IDW continuity the only combiner team went crazy and nobody had the technology? No, I didn’t agree with that decision but if you’re going to toss it out explain it. Soundwave talks more like his G1 cartoon counterpart. Frenzy is constantly torturing himself with his own powers? That’s rather cruel on the writer’s part. And I know writers can’t decide if Ravage is a jaguar or a panther (I lean towards panther) but where is our airman getting “dog” from? He’s supposed to be some form of feline! And why bother using the Witwickys if you’re going to turn them into a military family? Yes, Marvel’s Sparkplug (he’s never called that here) served in Korea, but no version of Spike or Sam were ever soldiers and Dreamwave Buster only joined up after the destruction of Ark II. And yet Sparkplug is here and we’ll see Spike re-imagined as one later. (And we’ll see he’s a horrible person but that’s not necessarily in Shane’s lap past this story.)
Recommendation: I remember enjoying this series more when it first came out. I think I was caught up by the concept. While the story isn’t bad thus far I’m seeing more flaws than I did last time. Still mildly recommended for the concept though.
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