#taao 12

[shadow200200]

I can't describe my emotions after reading the full preview of TAAO #12

[eraberry]

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW FUCKING GORGEOUS STARSCREAM IS???!?! HOLY BAJEEZUS MAN.

Can you just…change your frame again and look like this forever?? cuz damn…

[metalhawk]

[starscream7799]

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” i aM DYING FROM THIS.

This entire comic is destroying me, but it’s so sweet at the end and I can’t believe this sndsmnsdms.

I love it so much.

[sparkbutt]

mscott's thoughts on audience reactions to TAAO 12, from the reddit AMA that just concluded

[mscottwrites]

My New Comics out today: TAAO 12 and First Strike #1

Hey Comic Fans,

I have two big books out today. TAAO 12 and First Strike 1, an ending and a beginning, and I want to say a little about each.

First Strike #1 written by David Rodriguez and I, with art by Max Dunbar and Anders Zarate with letters by Tom B. Long. This has been in the works for a while and while you read issue 1, David and I are writing the final issue. This story means a lot to me as it was finally my chance to write Scarlett of G.I. Joe, one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. So here’s the secret about First Strike. It is this huge action event, but David and I have hidden a really great personal Scarlett story in the middle. I hope you’ll try it and discover this cool new side of the IDW Hasbroverse we’re building where all the toys get to play together. Also Max and Anders and Tom just are killing it on art, while David writes some of the funniest dialogue out there.

On to TAAO, wow, what do I even say. There’s still the annual to come but since I’ve already written it, it really feels like I’m saying goodbye to this franchise. This issue 12 wraps up a lot of what I have been building towards with Windblade and Starscream and I hope the resolution of this part of their story is satisfying. There’s more to come in the Annual, but this was a very special issue to me and I hope you enjoy it.

As always I couldn’t have done any of this without my amazing team. Sara, I have had no greater collaborator in my career so far. You don’t just draw the pictures you bring them to life in ways I could never imagine. Your passion for these characters is in every micro expression and every small gesture. I hope to someday collaborate with you again. Joanna, your work is a visual essay on why coloring is so important. The way you use light to paint these characters is incredible. I am so proud to have worked with you. Tom, every choom and rah is unique and jumps off the page. I’ve envied you since Combiner Wars and you still impress me every issue. Priscilla, your covers have been amazing and your colors on the early issues helped us define this book's unique look. Thank you. John and Carlos, thank you for letting me take Windblade and Starscream on this journey, I am so grateful for this opportunity.

To my fans, I hope you can take the message of this book to heart, seek your truth and be your best self.

Be Well, Mairghread

[starscreamwastaken]

I want to know in what way all of these people touched his spark. Some I can see, like Bee, Wheeljack, Metalhawk. But I want to know what the others were. What did they say? What did they do? What precise moment did they dig all the way through the shell and touch his spark in a way that mattered SO MUCH it left a remnant behind. I mean, there are a few odd ones there. Like Jetfire, and even Optimus is a little strange to me. I can almost understand Shockwave and Rattrap and Elita one (Shockwave above all of them, honestly. Don't ask me to explain, I can't words it) I want to know what they did. I REALLY want to know what they did.

[snippywizard-art]

[Text from image and the rest of the conversation]

WB: Starscream...

STSC: What you have seen while trespassing into my mind... do you think that is all I went through? That it all can be fixed by a new BODY?! This was not me, what you have forged there, out of my spark, will NEVER be me! This is ME, always been me - I dont want that pretty frame who I am not.

WB: I am sorry that I’ve looked into your memories without your permission. But, I want you to know, that you have my... our support.

Artist’s note (several to the topic of TAAO 12 and Starscream’s character ending).... it’s long and very critical to the original writing

[I apologize in advance if my wording sounds aggressive and very direct and for grammar errors, English is not my first language]

TAAO ended for me with a rather bitter note concerning Starscream's character arc ending.

I had no issues with this ongoing positive development until this very issue. It showed him being  confronted by his greatest fear, his abuser. what i hoped would happen is him, after being physically separated and under people's support (and Bee's therapy), that he had a chance to finally fight back, to cut down (or smaller steps) to pave a better way of recovery by defeating him ON HIS OWN. but what was shown is him being almost killed (again by his abuser) and stepped into dirt (acting too passive) just to be heroically rescued by someone who wasn’t even part of his life until few years. To be magically rescued/forged/fixed as a ‘better self’. That was bullshit. [Here's you but better and never will be.] 'Hello Starscream, it’s nice to meet you'  crap

For me, this fixed one will never Starscream. Starscream is a cold-constructed survivor, abuse and war survivor, who fought his way to through all this.

Instead of being shown that he has grown his own strength, to somehow slowly make peace with himself, the comic presented [and interfered by someone else], him ~a magical transformation~ free of trauma/abuse/mental illness. For me, basically erasing what he IS.

Starscream deserves to be accepted and sympathy who he is (and not that new sympathetic self who is likeable for everyone)

[As additional point which are affecting the subject of being cold-constructed are the similarities to CC and being POC, (I’m one so it’s quite personal), but I don’t have the right words to explain that further and I’m tired by now.]

[I am speaking with my own experience and as someone who greatly relates to Starscream, this was salt to a closing wound. Mscott meant this probably as good intention, but for me the interpretation of it, horribly backfired, written too fast, left out important steps of development.

It left me with a rather bad taste.

Some other may have other interpretations/perspective/ about that metaphorical aspect and the ending and that’s okay but I hope/know that other people share the same view as me]

Artist note 2, comic related:

With this comic (I planned drawing out the rest of the dialogue but I don’t want to spend too much time on this) basically I drew what I imagined if a slower, better pace had been taken.

I doubt he immediately becomes instantly ~good~ (or pure spark whatever) just by glimpsing this other self. Recovery doesn’t happen in an instant and it’s a long road. He still has to fight the consequences of the abuse, making peace with his paranoid, aggressive defensive etc self.

/i have no hate against his new design (maybe a bit of altering his helmet due recognizable design traits, but that’s sth cooompletely else)

 Thanks for reading, this is probably the last instance with what I address my problem (of several, but this is the most heaviest one) to the last issue of TAAO.