And I kind of love him for this.   This has also rekindled my interest in Barricade/Bumblebee.   

And because someone asked, I am... not invested in BL.  I may or may not update my reading here, although it would just be date read. 

It's become clear that BL is an echo chamber: politics is applauded, so long as you're coming from it from one point of view.   Nuance be damned, and the fact that Jews are being shouldered out of progressive movements be damned. 

I am too tired, and too cynical, for this hypocrisy; I am politically homeless, and I'm well aware of the fact that people only want confirmation bias at this point.   So, I'm on Twitter because Jewish Twitter is the best Twitter. 

If BL allowed me to connect with Jewish readers, I'd love to rejoin.  But to be honest, without strong Jewish voices here?   I'm feeling isolated, particularly since it stings to see politics that silence Jewish voices here. 

I also have gotten past the point of caring if this loses me all my followers.   We're .02 percent of the world population, and if Jewish history has taught me anything, it's that it's hard to trust the rest of the world to take care of us.   I thought this was over with, but seeing Jew hating politicians being treated with kids gloves is really hitting home that, I don't know, not that I don't want there to be no Jews where I am, but I'm more comfortable when openly Jewish Jews congregate in a place.  I feel safer.  

Between the Women's March, and the Squad, and seeing much more support to people who aren't Jews who get racism thrown at them, I'm sick of the demands that I show solidarity to individuals who don't show me any solidarity at all. 

That being said, damn, I understand why Megatron, like Trump, was able to fleece so many people.   Politics just makes one cynical, and people like a strong leader. 

He's still not at Roberts level, or hasn't reached the heights of Barber or Scott at their best, but he's winning me over.   It's more tense, it's better, it's not all fucking Rubble - who still annoys the crap out of me*, and Barricade is alive again.  Took a while to get there, but I'm glad I stuck out the first couple issues which I, quite frankly, hated after the MTMtE and LL runs.   (And yes, RiD, OP, TAAO, and all the one shots and trilogies were pretty damn good too.)

Look, this hasn't reached five star level - not even at issue six, which I've read.   (I'm still a month behind on reviews!)    But it's getting better. 

*look, if I want to see through anyone's eyes, it's not a baby OC, okay?   

There are a couple things happening here: it's not all about Rubble, the plot twists are better, and I was reminded that favorite characters can come back.   Yaaaas.   Barricade.   Mmm. 

He doesn't show up in this, but it didn't matter.   The possibility of seeing him again is all I need, thank you very much. 

The art gets better, and Ruckley seems to be saying 'I was just setting everything up in issue one and two.'   I think this might be a bad idea for comics though; even setup needs to fascinate me to buy issue #2, unless I really, really want this series not to suck.   Ahem, yes, like with this.  I'm glad I stuck it out, but if I hated issue one?   Well, I'd have never moved onto issue two.   Ruckley, I suspect, has more wiggle room in a fantasy novel, especially as an established writer.   First of all, convention can call for slower writing - he does epic fantasy, so many of those books are humungous - and he isn't selling it chapter by chapter.   If he were, I think he'd find the need to hook people immediately. 

I'm now seeing that he can write well, even if he's no James Roberts, aka the man I judge all writing by.   (I imagine he'd be shocked, maybe even embraced if he knew this, but, yeah, it's true.)   So I'm hoping this continues to be amazing.

I'm really, really not fond of this issue.   

Rubble is still annoying, and I don't see where this is going. 

Buuuuut, the 1:10 variant is just amazingly gorgeous. 

So I am not a happy girl right now.   I wanted to like this, but it was not as good as the last two series, it tells the story through a new character that I do not like, and oddly enough keeps some aspects of the old series, which only makes me compare them more.   So yeah.   I will give it some time, and hell, probably keep buying it because at least it's something, but I will grumble and keep the ratings low unless this really shapes up.  

The art is good, so two stars instead of one.