More explanation of what I'm talking about (spoilers):
It almost felt like I had skipped an issue while reading this one! Wait, Beachcomber suddenly brought Jetfire, who seems cool with Optimus now? All the Aerialbots have been woken up? All the fight goes out of Astrotrain practically instantly and he's already asking to die? This issue felt like things were happening super quickly, giving it a feeling of being oddly short. Yet at the same time, I thought the pacing in moments like the conversation between Shredhead and Cliffjumper kind of felt like exposition (although I enjoyed what they spoke about and like seeing an insight into Shredhead's personality. All we had seen of them before was violence).
Given how little the characters who form combiners are characterized in this story so far, I don't know how I feel about all the Aerialbots suddenly being woken up like this. While in this issue they seem to have their G1 personalities kinda, that's five new characters suddenly introduced! We already have people like Trailbreaker around who have had practically no characterization at all... is this really a good idea? It's nice to see them interact with caring Optimus I guess, but this feels like it might not be the best idea. The fact that the Autobots had the energy to even wake them all also felt like a very sudden turn to me.
I think I've already discussed before how Starscream having no subjectivity and calling Megatron "Master" are takes on his character I really don't like. Love him or hate him, Starscream is a character who normally makes choices, whether he's under Megatron's power or not. And because this series particularly has Starscream's whole mind being controlled in this way, he's been so shaped by Megatron in a way that almost seems irreversible.
Okay, now the big thing I mentioned:
This was the thing that I disliked most—DWJ, you're the one who created this totally new, interesting characterization for Astrotrain, so I thought you had a story to tell! To me, this would be like if suddenly an interesting Autobot like Elita-1 or Beachcomber were turned into a bubbling energon stain on the ground and DWJ was like, "Well that character was only in the story to show that the Autobots have different takes on how to fight in the War." It's funny, too, because whenever I saw fans being worried for Astrotrain's sake I thought to myself, "He'd only 'die' in the way Starscream 'died' when he was pushed off that cliff. DWJ clearly has a long arc planned for the character since he has the most depth of the Decepticons so far," and I was so wrong XD
It's too bad, too, because there are character details I like, like how Soundwave enjoyed the cruel execution so much and probably had Astrotrain completely obliterated so there was not any chance that Megatron would ever know there was even a hint of collusion near the beginning. But this approach makes me feel like cool character beats and references aren't part of a clear overarching story (and there's not many issues of DWJ's run left).
Oh well, they/them Omega Supreme confirmed at least, FTW
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