This is one of my favorite covers, so I decided on a whim I would do a redraw of it after I was like: I should draw BeachComber!!!
Anyway I won't pretend it's the most creative redraw since I did semi-trace/trace stuff to recreate the background (I am not a background artist, but I didn't just wanna slap BeachComber ontop of the cover itself) I think doing redoing the background was a good learning experience though since I got to examine up-close how the details are added in ^-^
Super fun to do, so I might do some other cover redraws in the future! Just.......... Ones with less crazy backgrounds. This covers bg is beautiful but it was very time consuming to draw asjkdakjshd
Starting off strong with my top three panels from TF Skybound issue 22
Number three:
First off THE COLORS I love the warm tones of the destruction and how they even had Devastators bright green not be out of place and I live for it
Second off the entire bickering between Bruticus and Devastator makes me kick my feet they are like little kids and as someone who has younger siblings that I compete with pretty often this is pretty accurate especially when Bruticus goes "WHAT!??!"
Number two:
I can feel Magnus growing past his trauma, its still there, but he's learned how to work with it. And I love how the sun rising is like a parallel to his own rising, rising past his trauma and rising to be the hero the Autobots need, and rising as a new day
It's beautiful
And finally my number one favorite panel(s):
HE WANTS TO MAKE OPTIMUS PROUD!!! We all know how im number one dad prime fan and this is just perfect. Hes following in sparkplugs steps and the way he reaches out from the panel as a final goodbye with an almost somber face it just AUGHGHGGFF the way I audibly gasped when I saw this panel...
You never realise how massive the matrix is until theres a person by it and it really is huge
I'm gonna make a text only post about my thoughts on this issue because I need to yap so STAY TUNED
1. There's gonna be a lot of crazy emotional whiplash from me in this post.
2. Thundercracker's actions supports my headcanon that one of the few things the Seeker trio have in common is their capability to be absolutely petty. Although, silently telling the people who killed and desecrated your sibling's body that they can go fuck themselves is not really petty, and is instead a totally reasonable and justified reaction. It's the kindest thing a person can do in response to that, actually. (The headcanon on the Seeker trio is kinda long, but I hope it'll be a fun read)
3. I'm not just saying this because Starscream is my blorbo, but messing with someone's wheelchair because they "deserved it" shouldn't be made into a running gag. I know the guy blew up a hospital, but this gag is setting up a bad precedent, ya know?
4. My apologies to Trailbreaker for misreading his name and thinking that he doesn't exist.
5. Am I the only one who thinks that Cliffjumper's plan to merge together fragments of multiple people's souls into a single person is lowkey horrifying? This new mf is practically gonna be a spiritual Frankenstein's monster.
6. Megatron counts as a disability rep if he thinks he needs an animal guide to see.
Imma share my headcanon that fabric can only exist on Cybertron is they were imported in from other planets. Since, if a regular ass cloth was made locally on Cybertron, it implies the presence of organic matter on that planet. Plastic fabrics are still made of fossil fuels, and therefore still require organic materials. The holographic cape in the One movie wasn't just because it looks sick as hell, but also because the 13 Primes shouldn't be able get their hands on fabric made with organic fibres.
Ok I just fact-checked myself and it turns out fabrics made of mineral fibers does exist, but usually as construction/machinery material or used as a middle layer in clothing to provide features like thermal insulation and flame resistance. I guess their texture as a fabric isn't too comfortable for direct contact with human skin, but Transformers probably won't have this issue. Imma make a little worldbuilding tip post based on my findings on this topic.
Sorry that I forgot to include the absolute hilarity of Starscream's tunnel vision in the last issue. Bro was so locked in on Soundwave that he completely ignored the Autobots. Like, he sped past Optimus Prime and didn't even spare a glance at the big guy ( ≧∀≦)ノ
ASTROSTRAIN CAN ALSO TURN INTO A TRAIN Σ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)!!! I didn't know they can swap altforms like that in G1. I wonder if Starscream's squad took a break somewhere along their roadtrip of vengeance just so Astrotrain can scan a train, and they seriously took a moment to discuss on how to set up this bit later.
Lmao look at Mr. Self Awareness over here
Thundercracker really did just go: Bro you were too crazy dawg we had to put you down
Ngl, my mental state is at a state where I wish I'm so unhinged that everyone collectively decides to put me down. Because, to me, getting politely ignored is worse than getting insulted. Like, I need feedback ((ヾ(≧皿≦ﾒ)ﾉ)) What specific aspect of me is too much for you? Do I need to up the ante to be worthy of a reaction? Even calling me disgusting would be better than complete silence (｡-｀へ´-｡) Don't worry, I'm not going to really fight back if I get insulted, I just like receiving notifications as proof that someone out there thought of me, and I'm worth the effort to be hated (///∇///) When everyone around you have treated you like an unwanted creature they're forced to interact with, you just start fantasizing for one of them to despise you enough that you're worth the effort to be killed, ya know? I'm not the kind who likes to ragebait though. Ragebaiting feels like begging, and that is beneath me. I want my killer to hate me as a person, to thoroughly analyse my pure authentic self, and despises it enough to wipe me off from this world (*^▽^)/★*☆♪
One of the reasons I'm so attached to Starscream is because we're both pathetic af. Although, I might be even more pathetic considering that I'm self-aware yet deeply fantasizes about people just saying it to my face. I just can't motivate myself to give a shit about my own well-being without external input, which is why I tend to look up to narcissistic characters, because they can care about themselves. Unfortunately, personalised cruelty is the only form of love I'm willing to give to myself.
Btw yes, the two previous paragraphs are likely a part of a feedback loop that is making things worse me. No, I'm not going to exit it peacefully now that I'm aware of it. I'm going to see if I can up the ante until I destroy myself so spectacularly that no one can ignore me anymore. Look, I desire to be hated because I can no longer see kindness given towards me as anything more than a ploy to shoo me away, so if I stop hating myself, who else is going to care about me?
The "go fuck yourself" look lololololol XD
Inside me are two wolves:
One wolf says that Starscream not having control over his own mobility is narratively ironic considering that his entire thing is trying to take control over his own destiny to the point of controlling & manipulating others
The other wolf says that messing with someone's wheelchair is never funny even if it happens to a guy who once blew up a hospital. Like, Starscream is already the most pathetic mf in the universe, DWJ don't need to reach for such a low hanging fruit and make people pushing away his wheelchair into a running gag.
Aaaaaand the 2nd wolf is winning ngl. I just don't want it to be a precedent that messing with someone's wheelchair is okay if they've done something to deserve it, since what counts as "deserving it" is dangerously subjective.
Lmao Thundercracker really did just go: Screw you guys, I'm going home. Like, bro even ignored the Autobots too
One of my headcanons on the Seeker trio is that they all have the capability to be absolutely petty. However, the way they express their pettiness is different: Starscream prefers to lash out verbally, Skywarp prefers to do so physically with a mean "prank", while Thundercracker prefers to sulk. They can follow up or add to these methods with other means, like Starscream wanting to murder his target too, but they're known for their main methods. If they're all ticked off against a common target, that target will want to hide in an underground bunker for the foreseeable future. This is pre-war though.
After Starscream joined the Decepticons, Skywarp and Thundercracker joined the faction too, but their relationship starts to fall apart. What happened specifically was that when Starscream told his siblings what happened after Genvo died in his arms, Skywarp joined the Decepticons without hesitation and dragged Thundercracker in too. Skywarp may have acted like he totally cool with joining the war and had always wanted some real action in his life, but he actually wanted to keep the trio together so they all could survive the war. Tensions and energon scarcity issues have gotten bad enough that Skywarp got a feeling that if Skywarp and Thundercracker try to survive as a neutral duo during a planet-wide war without Starscream, they would not live for very long.
The three of them balance each other out. Starscream is the nerd who's really good at calculating things and other technical mumbo-jumbo, but he can be stupidly impulsive to gain attention and easily gets tunnel vision. Thundercracker is the creative one with a lot of potential and just as a big of a spark, but he can be so open-minded to the point of naivete, and his tastes can get pretty freaky. Skywarp, is, well he isn't confident that being able to read the room count as a form of intelligence. He can read a person well enough to prank them, and figure out how to catch anyone off guard, but he doesn't feel that these abilities counts as a talent compared to what his siblings have. Maybe he's the dumb brute to balance out this three way scale the trio have.
Plus, regardless of how annoying Starscream can be for the trio, Skywarp also got a bad feeling that he shouldn't leave him alone with Megatron with no one else to look out for him.
Skywarp's hunch was right. Megatron made Starscream into his "2nd-in-command", but never let him actually command anything and has been using Starscream as his personal weapon. The trio is technically still together in the Decepticons, but Starscream has been socially isolated from everyone else, causing him to slowly drift away from his siblings.
Megatron probably sensed Starscream's desire to prove himself and thought that he could direct it into serving him personally. Skywarp got a feeling that this will backfire in his face someday, as Megatron has no idea how big Starscream's ego can get.
Despite all of these, at least Starscream and Skywarp both agreed to not let Thundercracker know what kind of crowd he's truly in. Although, weirdly enough, Thundercracker seems to be cool with the whole "the strong should have power over the weak" thing the Decepticons got going on. Maybe he interpreted it in the nicest way possible as he usually does. Skywarp personally doesn't care about the philosophy Megatron intends to impose over the whole planet, but he does like that it causes the people in the Decepticons to appreciate a funny prank. Starscream seemed to have taken this philosophy to heart though, in a "to preserve his sanity and be able to sleep at night" kind of way. Maybe he's spouting the same nonsense he's telling himself to Thundercracker and the other Decepticons so that he won't be alone in believing that they're the good guys. While Starscream keeps the morale up, Skywarp pulls Thundercracker away from the gruesome stuff that may make him second-guess his allegiance to the Decepticons. Even teleporting him away if Skywarp has to, even if it's really energon-intensive for him carry anything with him on top of a full-body teleport.
With Skywarp and Starscream out of the picture, Thundercracker eventually came to the realisation that his siblings have scammed him about the Decepticons' true level of brutality. Ever since he joined the Decepticons, Thundercracker has seen people get killed right in front of his optics. He himself have snuffed out the sparks of multiple warriors. And yet, he only very recently found out that Commander Shockwave's favourite past time is torturing prisoners of war, and everyone else in his faction is totally fine with committing a massacre on innocent civillians that can't hardly hurt them back. His siblings have treated him like a damn sparkling yet again.
Now that Starscream has lost his patience and practically confessesed the atrocity he and Soundwave committed onto Skywarp, Thundercracker is officially fed up with everyone. They can all go fuck themselves.
(I want to know if I cooked with this headcanon or if I don't know what I'm talking about. I predicted that Skywarp likes pranks and acting non-chalant based on vibes alone before reading his wiki entry in TFWiki, so I want to know if I'm on a streak)
(About the non-chalant thing, I headcanon that it's a mechanism Skywarp developed to balance out Starscream's and Thundercracker's passionate personalities. Skywarp is perfectly capable of freaking tf out himself, but he has a reputation to uphold, and he doesn't want the people he cares about to see him like that)
Ah, I misread "TrailB" as "TrailS" in the last issue. No wonder I couldn't find shit on him on the wiki. Sorry for claiming that Trailbreaker doesn't exist y'all. A quick skim of the top of his bio also implies that he would feel particularly sad if someone thought that he wasn't an existing character due to a misread of his name. I'm sorry dude (^-^;
Aw, don't feel bad Optimus, the two Combiners are super likely to accidentally hit the dam(n) wall anyway and cause it to leak. (Also, it's super funny that Carly and Spike had left their town in Optimus' hands for a day, max, and it got fucking flooded lmaoooo)
I know what Cliffjumper wants to do is supposed to be a good thing for the Autobots on Cybertron, but it's kinda horrifying to create a singular new person using a fragments of multiple dead people's souls. That's like, a spiritual Frankenstein's monster. I know that they all very likely didn't want to die in the first place and prefered to be alive, but as proven by how "well" the Autobots had handled Skywarp, Jetfire, and Ultra Magnus, who each went through some seriously traumatising shit, I don't think the Autobots are equipped to handle the possible existential crisis that this new fella is gonna experience when they are resurrected. God, I hope there will be an existential or an identity crisis of some sort (／▽＼) Preferrably both. The other end of the spectrum, where this mf somehow processes the circumstances of their existence/identity and deadpanly think to themselves "...Ok, what am I supposed to do with this information from this point forward?" will be super funny too. All I want is for this stuff to be acknowledged, ya know?
Is- is Spike homeless now, too? I get that he's supportive of Carly, but- actually, I take that back. It's perfectly fine if Spike's so supportive that he's willing to live a "van life" with Carly. I actually headcanon that to this day, he still holds some mixed difficult feelings towards Optimus and the Autobots in general after what happened to his dad. He probably never stepped foot inside of the Ark after what happened, in fear of ending up in the very same room where his dad died. He's friendly with the Autobots, sure, but he isn't comfortable hanging around them for too long. That is probably why he likes hanging around Beachcomber.
Oh hey Megatron has finally joined the plot. I guess he's the 3rd visually impaired rep in the cast (the 1st being Jetfire, who's completely blind, and the 2nd being Starscream, who has lost one eye). I know that he's using a seeing guide animal literally, but the fact that he thinks he needs one means that he counts as having a vision disability.
There is a lot going on in this issue, from everything going to shit for the Autobots and a clearer showcase of characters like Elita, Shockwave, and Astrotrain.
The cover art for this issue is unsubtle in the best way possible. No wonder I keep seeing it floating around the Internet. I don't usually like cover art all that much since I feel hurt after getting baited by them so many times before (I'll never forgive that one IDW Shattered Glass issue for teasing Starscream's ghost talking to Soundwave, but what actually happened was Soundwave just heard Starscream's screams in the background and there's a panel visually representing Starscream's ghost, but is not really his ghost, SINCE THAT SERIES GOT CUT OFF BEFORE STARSCREAM GOT A CHANCE TO EVEN COME BACK AS A GHOST)
"We'll take good care of you, buddy" my ass. JETFIRE NOOOOOOOOOO. Rachet, you better fix him up after this (ToT) If the Autobots can leave the bottom of the ocean, somehow...
Huh, I think this is the first I've ever seen Shockwave's alt mode. I'm new here, but even I have heard of the alt modes of some of the more obscure characters. It's crazy that the alt mode of someone as popular as Shockwave isn't more well known (maybe it changes a lot between continuities, idk?). I didn't know that he's a gun like Megatron. It's funny how the powerful controlling characters has alt modes that are known to be helpless tools, while the underdogs have alt modes known to represent the freedom to travel.
DWJ YOU'RE KILLING OFF THE ONLY MEDIC TOO?!!!!!!! The way Rachet asked Cliff for help even though he himself is the only Autobot who can actually do that is so heart-wrenching... (I guess Shockwave may count as a medic too, given his expertise, although, he follows the exact opposite of "do no harm" lmao)
I swear to Primus if the humans at the dam turn against the Autobots later, they're getting their veteran's discounts revoked.
So, Astrotrain is the kind of brute who has an honour code, huh? Like, he's reluctant to kill those he considers beneath him, but will do it quickly if he must. He does believe that it's the natural order for a stronger species to crush a weaker species in its path, but he's not cruel about it. Very cool. I hope Megatron won't kill him when that amputee reunites with the 'cons.
Oh my god I just realised how funny it is that although Spike might not be able to become an astronaut like his late brother, he still got to ride a space shuttle, at a younger age than Jimmy too, and will probably survive the flight as well.
I guess no one can rival Shockwave's cup size now, huh.
I see the key difference between Elita & Arcee now. While they'll do anything for the people they care about, Arcee is willing to extend her scope to include the people that others care about. Elita, don't. That was why she was willing to ditch the other Autobots to Shockwave, despite knowing full well what that 'con can do to them, and how much Optimus cares about them. Arcee will jump in without hesitation to save a stranger from a species she's never encountered before just because Optimus is worried about them, while Elita likely knows and has fought alongside Cliffjumper and Jazz before, but she didn't really check if they're truly deadweight nor if they'll fit on Optimus's truck bed with the guy she just saved. Cliff & Jazz weren't even fully unconscious, just beaten up. Despite that, Elita only took a quick glance at them and decided that they're goners. Having stricter limitations on who you want to care about isn't inherently evil, especially in the middle of war, where saving another risks killing you both, but damn girl, that's cold.
Both Soundwave & Shockwave don't really have facial expressions, with Shockwave being even more limited in that aspect, but Shockwave is more emotionally expressive than Soundwave is. You can feel his cruel glee from his lines and body language. Meanwhile, Soundwave is more reserved, almost gentle sometimes.
I really hope that Shockwave is into necromancy, because I kinda want Rachet back. Not just because he's the only actual medic (that I know of, so far), but because he's so real. He stole Megatron's detached arm when Optimus & him were evacuating the Autobots out of the Arc, which has gotta be purely out of spite against the 'cons, cause there's no way Rachet could've known that Optimus is going to lose an arm later and got the arm that happens to matches Optimus' size and missing side. (Hol' up, I just remembered him predicting that Slicer is going to need his arm repaired in Shattered Glass... Is predicting someone else's injuries something he can just do canonically?! (ToT) Aw man I really thought that he had such a strong beef against Megatron that he'll just steal that guy's detached arm when given the opportunity) (Can the reason he took Megatron's arm be due to BOTH clairvoyance and just because he's that petty against the 'cons?), and he calls out Optimus when the big guy impulsively drained the matrix for the hospital, since Optimus not only risked his own life, but also the Autobots' ability to survive the war and protect the human species that Optimus cares so much about. I also want to see if Rachet is friends with Elita, or if he has beef with her. They could be friends since they're both on the same side, the more serious realists among the 'bots, and close to Optimus. However, Rachet might also dislike Elita, because despite their similarities, Elita will easily ditch those she doesn't particularly care about, unlike the medic who'll at least assess the situation to the best of his ability before deciding if someone can't be saved.
Ya know, for a species that achieved intergalactic travel and has a life-span of millions of years, it's kinda disappointing that they somehow managed their planet's resources so badly that they resorted to taking resources from other planets to sustain themselves (not disappointing in a way that affects narrative enjoyment, but in a "I guess y'all aren't that better from humans, huh" kind of way) Like, I know the war fucked everything up, but you'd think that someone would've looked into reusable energy sources to overcome the dwindling energon supply. The comic showed that they can turn other energy sources into energon. So, hear me out here, someone mentioned a "new dawn for Cybertron", so that means the planet orbits a star, and these space-faring species never got around to build an equivalent of a dyson swarm to harness its power? I know it's the Decepticons who are running the planet rn, but they do have smart people in their ranks. I guess their might-makes-right mentality makes them lean towards the short-term gains and glory from subjugating other planets, instead of studying what they already have for long-term gains.
Astrotrain, are you sure that Spike will "hold on" during the crash when you just told the kid that he's going to be tortured if he safely reaches the intended destination?
