“This shouldn’t take long.”
“Really? For something that shouldn’t take long, you’re carrying an awful lot of firepower.”
“The two are connected.”
When we last saw the Scavengers they were trying to decide whether or not to sell the brain-damaged (and prone to draining himself on the floor…ew) Grimlock to the scrap-merchant, Demus, for a ridiculous amount of money. They were interrupted, not by the Decepticon Justice Division as we’d thought, but by Fortress Maximus. At the beginning of this issue we get to find out why Max was there, who he’s chasing, and what Demus has been up to.
MTMTE has given us some incredibly chilling moments in the last few years (the DJD being behind most of them) but when we find out what Demus wants Grimlock for, what he plans to do to him, it’s downright disturbing. And like anything else James Roberts writes, it makes sense on a lot of different levels.
The dialog, of course, was excellent. This issue had some of the best quotes. I’d spoil the whole issue if I listed all of them, but one of my favorites was when Fortress Maximus accused Misfire of selling “high tech” to non-Cybertronians.
Oh GET OVER IT. Hate to do you out of a JOB, but our “high tech” ain’t that high anymore. It’s just…tech. About four million years ago we stopped reaching for the stars ‘cos we needed both hands to BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER.
And Krok has a wonderful moment where he talks about how people view someone who’s damaged; I think James Roberts is making a statement about mental illness and it’s beautiful and horrific at the same time. And he does it without ever being preachy or trite. It’s lovely.
And then there’s Alex Milne; if you’ve read even one of my MTMTE reviews, you know what I think about his art. I could go on for pages and pages about the detail he pours into each panel without making it confusing or cluttered. I could be all poetic about his skill with expressions and body language in characters that are all hard lines and right angles. I could be downright boring by trying to explain how he draws mouths on G1 Cybertronians the way they were always meant to be drawn. (I’d have to throw in some words about the fabulous colors by Joana Lafuente and inks by Brian Shearer, John Livesay, and John Wycough, but dear god this paragraph has gone on long enough.)
Never mind the ending (a collection of several different endings) which was excellent. It wrapped up this arc nicely, but leaves us open for what’s to come; three more issues, and then we’ve got the milestone 50th issue. With so many amazing moments in the first 46 issues, I can’t WAIT to see what happens.
Written by: James Roberts
Pencils by: Alex Milne
Inks by: Brian Shearer, John Livesay, John Wycough, and Alex Milne
Colors by: Joana Lafuente
Letters by: Tom B. Long & Chris Moway
Editor: John Barber