5 Good Things About All Hail Megatron

Every two weeks, Seibertron.com brings you a Top 5 list related to all things Transformers written by a Seibertron staff member. These are my opinions (just like movie or game reviews hosted by sites are still just the opinion of one person) so what matters most is what you guys think of the topic or list, and I hope to see your own lists or comments on omissions and ranking. Let's have fun! All previous lists can be found here.

5 Good Things about All Hail Megatron

10 years. It's been 10 years since IDW's All Hail Megatron started, and it's amazing to think it was that long ago - it seems like only yesterday people were deriding it for taking away from a unique story, having very bad and basic writing; and in general being one of if not the worst thing to come out of the continuity so far. Yes, it wouldn't be a stretch to say a sizeable amount of IDW Transformers fans don't like this story. But we all know the criticisms - we all know why it garners such hatred, whatever your opinion on the story. So as the story reaches such a milestone this year, how about we look at the positives? It is my personal philosophy that no matter how bad a story, no matter how bad the writing or the characters or anything else is; you can find something decent in there. It may be a very worn out needle in an enormous mound of haystacks, but everything has some good points. Which is why today, to coincide with the recently released trade paper back, I'm counting down the top 5 good things to come out of All Hail Megatron!

5. These panels.



They're funny. I really have nothing else to say; while I don't usually enjoy the direction of making Decepticons evil for the sake of evil, I just really like these panels and think they're hilarious. ... onto number 4!

4. Deluge

I did say something about a very worn out needle, right? Yes, this isn't an amazing thing or anything that will really save the story; but when the comic focuses so much on characters from Season 1 or 2 of the cartoon, it's very refreshing to see someone this bizarrely obscure show up.



You'd think the comic would have gone with Shockwave or a Cassette or even an oddly intelligent Thrust for the role of Mad Decepticon Scientist, but instead we get someone dredged up from the Generation 2 toyline who was had never been used in official fiction before; far before writers like Roberts and Barber started using the likes of Tailgate, Skyfall or Roulette. Not too much to comment on, just an awesome little cameo.

3. Frenzy

Let's leave aside the arguments of which one is Rumble and which one is Frenzy - the comic calls the blue one Frenzy, so I'm calling the blue one Frenzy for this article. Though there is a reason the arguments over which one is which is so prominent for them; that being that not a lot else stands out about Soundwave's twin cassettes. They're generally just little grunts that do some chip damage and crack some jokes; and occasionally one of them pulls out some piledrivers - though the second one isn't seen doing much of anything most the time. For a few pages, this comic changed that.



When the order is given, the tiny Decepticon lets loose a shrill cry that brings everyone in the area of effect into an insanity-inducing nightmare - including himself. So for a couple images we get these rather frightening images of Frenzy going on a bloodlust-induced rampage against helpless soldiers. Not bad for the little sometimes-blue sometimes-red assistant of Soundwave.

2. The Covers

I will be the first to admit that I am not the greatest art critique in the world. I'm a story and characters person; when it comes to the actual lineart and colours of a comic the best I can say half the time is "this doesn't look good" or "this is friggin' awesome". But you know what? These covers are friggin' awesome.

From Communist-esque propaganda to Megatron standing triumphant with Prime's head on a pike to a homage to the well-revered Batman comic The Killing Joke; All Hail Megatron went out of its way to give you some damn good art before you even opened up an issue and they all managed to convey a single message - Megatron and the Decepticons here, they have won, oh ****. Nothing much else to say aside from asking you to look at the examples below and urging you to search around the net for more of AHM's covers because they're really, really good.









1. Thundercracker

Modern IDW readers know Thundercracker as a former Decepticon who has grown used to living on Earth; having possibly the closest relationship with humans of any of the Transformers and wanting to stay out of the war as much as possible - though sometimes helping out the Autobots when he feels he must - to focus on of all things writing screenplays and looking after his dog. He's a wonderful person, and it's fantastic to see him be such a unique and fun character in the franchise once later writers got a hold of him. So it might surprise some people that this is the story the seed of that characterisation was planted.



Before All Hail Megatron, Simon Furman - rather ironically - wrote Thundercracker among other Decepticons much as he was in the Generation 1 cartoon. A personality-less mook who done the grunt work for Starscream and Megatron; no character traits to speak of, nothing really worth remarking on. All Hail Megatron surprisingly changed this. At a few points in the story we see him very dissatisfied with how Megatron is handling things; how extreme his methods are - the creation of the Insecticons, and the dishonour in slaughtering humanity. And at the very end of the comic, when Megatron's forces retreat and prepare to drop a nuclear bomb on America; Thundercracker throws his faction off and catches the nuke, flies it into space and detonates it - before Skywarp shoots him down for his betrayal. It would take some time for him to develop into the dog-loving dorky scriptwriter we know now, but it was wonderful to for once see this character get any sort of characterisation and for it to go in such a heroic direction without him completely becoming an Autobot. This easily makes him the best part - and the best character - of All Hail Megatron.