Gold digger 03

Gold digger  3

Summary:

The bad luck curse is slowly getting out of hand, while the sisters do their best  to deal with it.

Gina by hunkering down to find a solution  and Brittany by shopping, something must be done about it. 

Gina surmises that she might have a solution by siphoning the curse off and injecting it in to  inert bio plasm, where it wil remain and unable to harm them. 

But  as  usual,   the best laid  plans of  geniuses and lycantropes oft go awry.

And you can read along by getting issue 3 here. http://antarcticpresslibrary.com/gdbw/gdbw03.pdf

Best way to read it, is to download Comic-rack.  http://comicrack.cyolito.com/downloads

And install Ghostscript http://ghostscript.com/download/

 

Notes:  First  appearance of  "Gravedigger"

credits : Credits: Writer \artist : Fred Perry. 

Editor : Ben Dunn.   

Review  :

This is a great issue. It may be in fact the best issue of the series thus far. 

That may not say much, considering this is issue  3, but if you  include the mini series and I do, we are at  7 now. 

And this is so far, the series at it's zenith. 

The story is interesting and gripping, the mystery the issue opens with is genuinely  intriguing.

Everybody's  personality is on display. Nobody acts out of character, there is humor  but  unlike  the previous issues, it's not forced. It's not there for a popular culture joke or a reference. The humor comes from the characters and it flows naturally from the story 

and the story is serious when it has to be and  it's humorous when  there is need for levity.

Which makes the humor work better and we, the reader take the serious parts of the  story much more serious as a result, because the humor doesn't over ride  the story  and doesn't come over as forced.

The balance between characterisation, humor, seriousness, pathos and action is pitch perfect in issue 3. 

But sadly, it's so perfect Perry couldn't keep it up for long.

The majority of the comic is concerned with the cold, in media res opening  and the mystery of the new character. Who she is and what she is doing there.

She calls her self grave digger at the end  of  issue 3 and that wont be her actual name, but its easiest to refer to her by that right now. 

Grave digger  will become a  major, major character  in this series. Even if her actual creation is a bit iffy and you need to tilt your head a bit. But comics and sciencem so you wil just have to take it as it is.

 And in this comic everything is possible. 

She is a combination of Gina and Brittany, but not quite. She, over time will get her own personality and quirks. 

Right now however, she only wants to kill Brittany and Gina whom she refers to as mother.

This is part of the curse, which is the whole reason why she was created to begin with,

like I said, comic book science.

She is a side effect of removing the curse. The original idea was to mask Gina and Brittany's presence from the curse and it would move to the bio electric protoplasm, where  it would remain trapped and harmless.

But the process released a backlash of pyschic energy, that imprinted it self on the bio plasm and gave it shape and a personality. 

Gravedigger in other words, well that would give anybody issues. 

But other then parts of Brittany and Gina's personality, she also  has  their weaknesses.  Such as Brittany's tendency to become over confident and sloppy, when she thinks her  opponent is weaker. 

Issue 3 is the most traditional comic book like in this series so far, but in this story it  works to it's strengths. 

The in media res nature and the flash backs as well as Gravediggers journey to self discovery, also  gives Perry a reason to explain the set up of the comic and tell us who everybody is. 

Issue 3 is so far the most reader friendly.  A bit late 7 issues into the series as a whole, but if this is nr 7 for you, you don't need a primer. But for any new comer issue 3  would be the first stop.   

And everybody gets some character beats to establish who they are. 

Gina is a nerdy shrimp based bucket of hormones, working on trying to figure out how to get rid of the curs.e

Brittany tries to  assuage her worries, by shopping and later issues will show her to become a  shopaholic.

She also has a ponytail this issue, which I like a lot more then the dumpy hair style she normally has in the black and white  issues. 

Even Genn gets some character beats, as he adjust to life in the  modern age  and  detects Gravediggers deception when they first meet her.

He also  briefly shifts gender again and becomes female. But not much is done with it, other then the fact that Genn has to wear Gina's clothes.

Regardless, issue 3 is a great issue. There are no subplots just  the  4 current main characters, because the story is strong enough to stand on it's own. 

Can issue 4 keep it up  ?

Transformers Stormbringer 4

 Transformers Stormbringer 4

Summary 

Thunderwing  returns  to Cybertron and makes short work of The Wreckers,  who use hit and run strategies.

They barely slow him down. 

Razorclaw and his crew arrive and stay in orbit, ready to  burn Cybertron to ashes. If it comes to that, but they are ready  to give the Autobots  an chance to take Thunderwing down. 

But if  it comes down to it Thunderwing and Cybertron can burn and the Autobots along with it. 

Jetfire manages to  find a  rather dubious weak link in ultra energon after scouring Bludgeon's archives  with  the Technobots. 

Optimus Prime  goes top side with an army of  reactivated  centurion drones and more or less monologues Thunderwing to  death while shooting  at him.  

Notes :

Stormbringer 4 takes place most likely during Infiltration 5 and 6. 

Review  :

And this is sadly where it all comes apart. 

Issue 4  feels rushed, as if  Furman realised after wasting too much  time  with the slow build up in issue 1, he suddenly had to conclude Stormbringer.

But sadly this is not unusual for Furman, his conclusions tend to be weak. 

The stories themselves are brilliant, but the conclusions fairly weak.  

Stormbringer 4  has two huge problems however. 

First is the "weakness" of ultra energon. 

Now a weakness for a plot device is not  inherently bad.  It has to have a weakness  otherwise the users become unstoppable, but the weakness is  so  ..ridicilous,  it's hard to believe. 

Ultra energon's weakness boils down to the more you use it, the faster it is depleted. 

...Err  isn't that the way most fuels work ?

The faster you go in a car, the faster you empty the gas tank  for instance. 

So what's so unusual about that  ?

How is that a weakness  ? It's how fuels work. 

What's even worse is that this is treated by  all  involved as some sort of revelation of the highest magnitude. As if they never ever heard of  fuel depleting it self, faster the more you use it.

And that's just plain ridicilous. 

But what's  even worse is that  after all the sturm und drang of the series and building Thunderwing up as nigh unstoppable. Optimus Prime talks him to death while,  shooting him to deplete the  ultra energon. 

And while that's all fine and dandy, if it  was depicted  interesting and dynamically.  Figuroa chose to depict it on one page and in such a boring and bland manner as possible. 

Showing close ups of Thunderwing's feet walking forward, staggering and then coming  to a  halt. 

And..and, that's it. 

As if  artist and writer  both suddenly  realised they only had  3 pages left to wrap  this comic up.  (  And they do, the scene i described is on page  20  ) So let's get on with it, who cares if its unsatisfactionary  ?

And its a shame, because until then Stormbringer was firing on all cylinders.

 We have seen what Thunderwing is capable off in issue 3  and he shoved The Wreckers aside, as if they weren't even there.

Even an army of centurion drones barely held him at bay. 

And considering the last time Thunderwing broke loose, it took two complete armies and Cybertron itself  to stop him.  So the odds were stacked against Prime and The Wreckers to begin with. 

And how do they  deal with him ? Prime talks him to death till Thunderwing's tank is empty. 

...whoo

It's as disappointing as it sounds. 

And  there were inklings of a better ending in there.

The moment the Predacons  bugged out, the Autobots should have as well  and let the Predacons  nuke Thunderwing and Cybertron  in to oblivion. 

That would not just  have been an conclusion worthy of  Thunderwing, who was nigh on unstoppable  in this  mini series. 

But would also have increased the stakes and the animosity even more. 

Cybertron would have been truly gone now. The Transformers would have become truly nomadic  and  it would have caused even more bad blood between Autobot and Decepticon.

Because it were the Decepticons  that  destroyed Cybertron once and for all. 

It might even have  caused dissention within the Decepticon ranks, with Decepticons  disagreeing with Megatron's  decision to destroy their home planet. 

It would have been an immense shift in the dynamics of the story. 

But sadly, this didn't happen and what we got was the equivalent of an empty tank. 

The Predacons are there mostly to promise a deadline and a possibility that never comes. Because they pull out all too soon  and other then a possibility of blitzing Cybertron,  they add nothing to the story.  

It's possible that Furman was planning to blitz Cybertron, but the idea was  nixed by Hasbro in a late stadium or Furman changed his mind in a late stadium. But this is all conjecture. 

What it does do however, is remind  us again  that Megatron is not to be trifled with,  nor disobeyed. 

Optimus Prime on the other hand, so far is still depicted as his usual G1 self. Troubled  self doubting,  world weary and tired of this endless war. 

This soon will thankfully change.  

Stormbringer is wildly uneven. The first issue was boring and plodding.  

Issue 2  was a return to form  and brilliant as a result. Issue 3  raised the stakes and showed us what Thunderwing is capable of.

Issue 4  stacked the odds even more and then at the halfway point, disengaged and  crashed hard. 

And it could have been so  good.

The ending let's the side down and just fizzles out, which is as said at the start of this review, a problem with Furman. 

His endings  generally  are  rather  poor.

Off course, every freelancer wants to  keep themselves in to a  job and  keep the narrative going. But  stories to have to end some time  and a new story has to begin. 

But this has been a problem that  has plagued Furman for years, even  going way back  to the  original Transformers series. Target  2006's ending was equally terrible and fizzled out as well. 

Even worse, the Target  2006 ending left huge holes that were never addressed.

Stormbringer 4 can at least be bothered to tie in with the spotlights and Escalation, as it takes place during Infiltration. 

Jetfire and the Technobots are left behind on Cybertron, to dig further in to Bludgeon's research, Which in turn  he was ordered to do so by Megatron to find out what Shockwave was  up to. 

Project Regenesis, which talks about seeding countless planets with energon including earth. 

Remember this, it becomes important later on. 

Which prompts Prime to make a stop at earth.

All this is a clever weaving of spotlights and referring to what has  happened before.  With out making it overt and making this world feel that much more connected and  bigger.

It's only a single page  but ever so slightly redeems the  sloppy way of dealing with  Thunderwing.

 

Next : Escalation  

Transformers Spotlight 4 Sixshot

Transformers Spotlight 4

Sixshot

Summary:

Sixshot ruminates how he is  utterly alone, feared even by  the other Decepticons. Except for a small group of hanger ons whom call themselves the Terrorcons.

Except that they have disappeared. 

Sixshot  sets out to find them  and they were last spotted  on Mumu Obscura. 

There he finds  a group  that call themselves the Reapers and they have lured him  here  in an attempt to get him to join their ranks. 

Sixshot  declines. 

For now.  

Notes :

One of the first depictions of Sixshot in fiction in the west. 

First appearance of the Reapers.

This issue was released  on 20 December  2006,  along side Escaslation 2  and these 2  issues were the last  transformers comics released in  2006. 

Credits:

Writer : Simon Furman

Artist Rob Ruffulo

Colors  : Rob Ruffulo

Letters  : Robbie Robbins

Editor  : Chris Ryall and Dan Taylor.  

Review :

This is the first time Sixshot has ever appeared in  any sort of western fiction. 

He has however  appeared in Japanese manga in the  1980's and was  a major character in  the Headmasters series,  where he was a  third agent of sorts.

And a space ninja ...no, don't laugh. He killed Ultra Magnus in the process of the series,  (  SPOILERS  !! ) gotten the plans of Fortress Maximus and his weakness.  ( on a  giant floppy disc, in  2010 no less  ) Killed a  childhood friend of Chromedome,  (  don't ask  )  and  was stranded on a asteroid with Daniel and didn't kill the damn brat, instead befriended him.  ( aaargh  !  )

In the end Sixshot defected because of Daniel and saved him from Menasor  and  Battletrap. 

But  as far as the western fiction goes, Sixshot is a blank slate. 

Here however he is depicted as a weapon, a living weapon that destroys wherever he is pointed at.  Sixshot is a  phase six Decepticon, what happens  when  siege mode is engaged. 

On his own, Sixshot is capable of destroying a whole planet.

And  that's where I tend to tilt my head, because I find it a bit hard to  believe that a single Transformer, no matter how powerfull  can destroy a planet with what  we see on  panel. 

Which are  six different  alt modes and an impressive array of weaponry. 

But none of this  seems to be enough  to  actually destroy a whole planet, unless the story means laying waste to the civilisation on the planet and causing massive collateral damage.

 But otherwise  implying  he can do actual structural damage to a planet, which is what  you think of when reading the lines destroying a planet, is taking it a bit  far  and  a bit at odds with what we see on page. 

What phase six exactly is and what a phase six Decepticon does, is  never made clear though. 

Except that  it turns a  planet in to a complete and utter warzone. 

But Sixshot is a living weapon and a he is a weapon that is starting to suffer  from  overwrought  purple prose nihilism. 

Ahem, just  nihilism, proclaiming himself to be the abyss and living for destruction because with out the destruction there is nothing.  

this comic also introduces the Reapers, one of Furman's less brilliant ideas. A group of ill defined aliens, who  for  reasons even more ill defined, destroy  planets even more thoroughly  then Sixshot ever could. 

As a concept they could be interesting, but in execution they just fail. 

Only two of the six reapers on display look even remotely interesting. The other four  just  look ridiculous at best or laughable at worst.

The name Reapers alone is also groan  worthy and makes them sound  like an extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeme 90's comic. 

Come to think of it, their lack of  personality and  motives or even awnsers really is a throwback  to  early 90's comics, particularly the X-men. 

Where a lot of storylines never explained anything, or just dropped a lot of plotlines, after it limped in to oblivion.   

The gauntlet is thrown down and off course willingly taken up, for what turns out to be a test of sorts. 

And the Reapers finally  tell us their reason  for  luring  Sixshot to Mumu Obscura.  ( No, don't laugh. That's the name of the planet. ) 

To recruit him in to their little nihilism club.

Yes, really. 

And what exactly is the reason to be for the Reapers  ?

An unnatural urge to destroy,  that drives them to  near madness and they banded together  and  try to banish war forever, by destroying key worlds. That are either fought over by other groups or have been places of war for millenia  to come.

They call it sterilising, I am sure the inhabitants would call it something else.  

And Sixshot's  final test is to kill  the only Decepticons that are not  too afraid of him and could charitably be called his friends, the Terrorcons. 

Whom, despite later  characterisations which suit them better, here hardly  fit the name  Terror cons. They are a bunch of meek milksops at best. 

Needless to say, Sixshot doesn't go for it.

This  issue is a misfire.

The  idea itself is not bad, but the execution is lacking and the Reapers and their  motivation not to mention their presentation are lacking and laughable. 

Sixshot himself is borderline interesting  and the empathy that  the badge  and belonging  to a group, no matter how frings or small is enough  for the time being, brings  gives him  enough depth  for  the time being. 

But it does paint the Terrorcons in a poor light, becoming nothing  more then  hangers on.

While the Reapers  come over as try hards  and Furman  tries to  hard to  sell them as edgy and kewl  and  90's comics rejects, with vapid motivations and even more vapid personalities. 

At least the art is decent and better then standard  90's  fare  though that doesn't say much. 

It still has some  Dreamwave overtones, with  strange  proportions and  Sixshot bending his knees is  downright  preposterous and looks  like it was ghosted by Pat Lee. 

Sixshot is also kind of stiff.

Stylistically  it looks better  then MD Bright's art from Spotlight Nightbeat. But Bright's  story telling is still superior  over Rob Ruffolo's  art, because at times its a bit hard to follow  the story or know what's going on.

Other then that it's  fine. 

Like most  early spotlights, this is essential reading, despite the  quality of the  story on hand. 

It lays down several  subplots that  will be featured in the main Escalation and Devastation series. 

The Reapers wont be  any better  later on though. 

 

 

The Savage Dragon 7

The Savage Dragon 7  

Summary :

Dragon and Frank ride up the elevator, heavily armed to arrest Overlord.

Frank wanted to accompany Dragon taking  Overlord down, because he wanted to go out on a high note.

Dragon thinks this a really, really bad idea. 

Dragon and Frank confront Overlord, who tells them to leave or face his wrath. 

Frank and Dragon decline, so Overlord obliterates Frank. 

Dragon is naturally pissed at this and ready to take Overlord down. 

Unfortunately  he is outclassed by Overlords armor.  

In the police  station Cyberface lies dead.  Somehow the Vicious Circle got to him and  poisoned his food. 

The police got nothing, their testimonials are now worthless.

In the Vicious Circle headquarters, things  go badly for Dragon, who is  thrown around  like a toy. 

He gets  one  good  punch in before Overlord decides to end the  game. 

Overlord  obliterates Dragon's right hand, blows a hole through Dragon's chest and then sends him flying  out of the window. 

Dragon falls  the long, long way down before he gets impaled  on the spire of a church,

seemingly dead.  

Standing in front of the broken window Overlord suggests that the next  time somebody tells them to leave or  face their wrath, to leave.

Josh Eichorn's title  : village idiot. 

Notes : All pages are splash pages or spreads, so the summary is rather short. 

Credits :

Writer\Artist: Erik Larsen 

Letters : Chris Eliopolous

Colors : Reuben Rude

Editor : Jannie Wong

Review :

This is it, the big one.

This is the second part of the climax  Erik Larsen has been  building towards  for  7 months and the mini series. 

Issue  6 was  the  conclusion of  all the  major plot points, up to this point 

and  issue 7 is the climatic confrontation with Overlord.

And Larsen pulls no punches, while taking a  leaf from Walt Simonson's book. 

It's an all splash pages issue. 

This means that  the  issue reads  quite  fast,  despite the dense opening page, but the repercussions of this issue wil be felt  far and wide.  It's an issue  that has the most  impact on the  run, it's story beats  and stylistic choices will be referred to again and again. 

In an  uncharacteristic move, Frank decided  to  go along with Dragon to apprehend  Overlord  and just the two of them. Which seems like  bad planning on Frank's part

Dragon seems to agree with me, he think sits a really bad  plan.  

Upon confronting Overlord,  he muhahahahaha's in their face and suggest  they leave.  When they don't ..off course, Overlord blows Frank up. 

I repeat  that, he blows Frank up  ! 

Remember when I said that  this comic isn't afraid to  shake up the status  quo  ?

Well here is  your first  big example of that. 

The rest of the issue is Dragon getting  absolutely destroyed by Overlord, before he blows his hand off. Blows a hole through Dragon's chest and then tosses Dragon out of  the  building, only to be impaled on a spike.

...Ouch.  

As if things aren't bad enough, the Visceous Circle somehow got to Cyberface  and he lies dead in his cell. 

There isn't much  to say  about issue 7 to be honest. It's wall to wall action with splash pages and spreadsheets, which this time  actually have  some meaning. It's a stylistic choice, instead of trying to look "kewl".

But that means issue 7  is a breezy read through and there isn't a whole lot to talk about  in terms of subplots. Other then showing that Overlord is indeed all that and more because he also, somehow got to Cyberface, who lies dead in his cell.  ( Which as  subplots go is rather perfunctory, as we'll will find out.)

It is however a mayor shake  up and game changer. At this point in time Dragon's  healing abilities were still unknown and it was unknown, if he could have survived this  or recover from this. 

The series was in fact so  new, that it might have been possible for Larsen to kill Dragon out right and focus on the recently departed Freak Force. 

This may seem unlikely now, but  not so much  23  years ago when this issue was released. 

Frank's death is about as shocking and unexpected as dragon's ignominious defeat  and while his decision  to accompany Dragon, to arrest Overlord without any  back up,  is as  Dragon said a very bad idea and comes totally out of left field.  

His reasoning to do so, does have a bit of logical merit, if barley. Frank's career is over  and he wanted to go out with a bang, taking out Overlord himself. 

Still, doesn't make it any less of a bad idea though. 

But there is a sting to this tale, however we will get there in due time. 

Right now things are at their bleakest  and have never been as bleak before in this comic.

And it would take a  while before things look as bleak, as they do here again. 

Issue 7  is a springboard for the next batch of  storylines, that will carry us in to and around issue 16.

So will Dragon survive  in  issue 8  ?  *

(*Spoiler, course he does. This series is still ongoing you know ? )

   

 

Transformers Stormbringer 3

Transformers Stormbringer 3

Summary  :

Thunderwing is let loose upon Nebulos and demolishes everything in it's way. Not even the infiltration unit on Nebulos can stand in it's way, they are swept aside. 

The Wreckers arrive on cybertron and take out  bludgeon and his disciples  rescuing  Jetfire and the Technobots  in the nick of time.  

But they are not out of  the fire yet, Thunderwing has returned.  

Notes: Stormbringer  3 is  issue  9 in the underlying sub numbering. 

This issue was released in September  2006.

This issue ties directly in to, Infiltration 4.

Credits:

Writer : Simon Furman 

Artist : Don Figueroa

Colors: Josh Burcham

Letters : Robbie Robbins

Editor : Chris Ryall  And Dan Taylor 

Review :

Where Stormbringer 1 and 2 are all slow build up and ominous portents  and  building up tension.

Stormbringer 3 is all sound and fury and it's all the better for it.

Because this time around, we don't get vague hints  or flashbacks  as to what  Thunderwing is capable off. We actually get to see it in all its destructive glory  and it's a breath taking sight to behold. 

Thunderwing takes out Nebulos, like it isn't even there, reducing  the city we have glimpsed in Stormbringer 2, to such much  burning  ruins.  

The actual  reason  for  Thunderwing and by extension Bludgeon doing all this, although its  accompanied by the  now standard  purple prose, remains vague. 

Bludgeon exposits that  hey will send Thunderwing from Nebulos to another planet and then another and another, turning every planet Thunderwing encounters in to a funeral pyre, setting the heavens  alight and from this  pyre a new Cybertron will arise.

This wil apparently  appease the spirits of the planet.

How a new Cybertron will arise isn't exactly clear. 

Will  they rebuild it, will the planet respond to the destruction around it  and will it rise from the ashes ?

What's more, Bludgeon apparently doesn't wholly subscribe to this  idea, as it is.  Because he seems distinctly  irreverent  to  Thunderwing, referring to him  as  their  little weapon of mass destruction.

Not exactly a way you'd expect  a harbinger of  apocalypse to be referred to. 

We also get a look at Bludegon's pretender shell or grafting process as it's called here.

Off course, it  has shades of his original  G1  pretender shell, which is what Bludgeon is  best known for. Few people actually know that the  interior  robot is a bit  of a brick on  legs and not half as memorable as his  pretender shell.   

Bludgeon is set up to rival Thunderwing, unfortunately this whole subplot absolutely goes nowhere. It's even curtailed in this issue. 

When The Wreckers come crashing in Bludgeon, has already bonded with his  pretender shell and looking very imposing and about to  unleash hell on The Wreckers.

Before it all comes crashing down a few pages later.

the shell has not been aligned yet and the psychic shell destroyed Bludgeon's mind and that's the end of that. 

This is such a poor ending of that subplot. It just doesn't fizzle out, it limps and then slips and breaks it's neck. 

You wonder why Furman even bothered with it.

The shell might as wel stayed  in it's tube  and never even be activated. It would have saved us the bother of this anticlimax.

But to add further insult to injury, this whole  set up  was merely  there to get Bludgeon in his  pretender shell and use him as a glorified  guard later down the line. 

Why bother I wonder.  Why not use a different here to for unseen character. 

This subplot is just a waste of time for everybody involved and once again shows that Furman has problems with writing a satisfying conclusion, even in an ongoing narrative. 

Speaking of The Wreckers,  I might not have mentioned it the last time, but it was the  SOS send by Afterburner and Nosecone before the Calabi Yau went kablooey, that  actually set the  majority of the story in motion and got Prime and The Wreckers here  on Cybertron. 

Their introduction is suitably impressive, but you can't help but feel that against Thunderwing they are hopelessly  outclassed.

We  also  get to see Optimus Prime in action, for the first  time in the IDW series. Even though he doesn't get to do much, the action beats are satisfying and you get the feeling that The Wreckers are a well oiled  professional machine who knows what they are doing. 

However The Wreckers action pales in comparison, to the destruction Thunderwing brings to Nebulos. 

Back on Nebulos, the Decepticons  decide to try their luck, for all the good it does to them. 

It also brings a single moment of humor, that actually works. 

None of the Decepticons  are willing to  tell Megatron they actually  ran  from  Thunderwing. 

When it comes down to facing Thunderwing  or telling Megatron they disobeyed a direct order, they are more willing  to  face Thunderwing.

Which is quite telling  about Megatron's personality and paints him  as a nigh on unstoppable  avatar  of destruction on par with Thunderwing.

Later depictions of Megatron are at odds with this, but right now Megatron has rarely been more impressive, more sinister and more unstoppable. 

Darkwing and Dreadwind also get  some  personality strokes, which echo  their  G1  partnership. They make it look like they did their best and then bug out.  

Needless to say, Thunderwing waltzes through the Decepticons as if they aren't even there.

Speaking of Megatron, we get to see Megatron in these pages as it overlaps with Infiltration  4. 

This is  the conversation Megatron had, when Verity walked in on him  and when he proceeded to disregard her as not even worth his  time and effort.

Megatron instructs Razorclaw to  curtail Thunderwing, even if that means  burning entire worlds to the ground, especially Cybertron. 

Megatron does this with out emotion or relish or histronics. He coldly condemns his own world and possibly other worlds, to destruction if necessary. 

Painting his personality again as cold, detached and pragmatic, unlike Prime who seems to be more involved and handwringing. Which is business as usual for Prime.  

Stormbringer 3 is a great issue.

 The misstep with Bludgeon not withstanding. 

It selle us the threat of Thunderwing, his destructive capabilities. The feeling that The Wreckers are hopelessly outclassed and they know it.

It overlaps with Infiltration 4  without  beating us over the head with it, it allows us  to draw our own conclusions.

And as such doesn't beat it's own chest. with look at how clever I are. 

Issue 3 reinforces Megatron's cold personality.

 All in all after a weak start, Stormbringer hits its stride for a second time with issue 3 and is one of the very best single issues in  IDW's early run.

Pity, it couldn't last.