Or, y'know, Dynobots.  

This was an excellent graphic novel, which reminded me why I love this continuity and have since before the Barber/Roberts era.   It was Furman at his best, and while I've liked a lot of his work, it's mostly when it isn't human-centric. 

This was that.   Non-human centric.   Even Hunter, who was Sunstreaker's Headmaster, had very little panel time.   And what time he did have was tied into Skorponok's plans for the Dynobots.   

This had everything I remember Furman being so good with: the twists, the turns, the characterization that sharpened when he focused solely on the Cybertronian aspect. And the conclusion is as heart wrenching as I remember.   Amazing, amazing, amazing!

It also helps that Hot Rod gets totaled, because that's always hilarious.   

Yes, I know that the art is spotty in some places, and I know that this is backstory that is told in Fall of Cybertron - or the basics are - but it's a quick, easy read, and I loved it.  It's all about how the Lightning Strike Coalition Force became the Dinobots.   

So let me go over the negatives first.   Yes, the art is spotty in some places, but it fits in with a comic version of the Prime series, although a bit more stylized.   I happen to like it for the most part, and even the fact that some spots aren't as impressive as others doesn't detract from the story for me.   In addition, the coloring is fantastic: when the Dinobots go through the Sea of Rust, a desert with interference and rust that makes the spot deadly, it looks gritty and disgusting and like it is dangerous.   I like a lot about the art.

No, this doesn't add too much that's pivotal.   It does, however, add a bit of layers to the Dinobots.  I find the Dinobots sexy anyway, so... Not only that, there are various origins story for the Dinobots.   In G1 they were designed, cold constructed and given a Spark by Wheeljack, Perceptor and Ratchet.   In the IDW-Verse they were the Dynobots, who had vehicle alt modes, that wouldn't survive on ancient Earth so they got the strongest beast modes alive or extinct.   Dinosaurs.   

In the Aligned continuity, however, the Lightning Strike Coalition Force, led by Grimlock, was captured by Shockwave who preformed horrendous experiments on his Autobot prisoners.   Shockwave, the Decepticon scientist, wanted to create the strongest Cybertronian possible.   He cuts up Grimlock's team, and stitches them back together - metaphorically speaking - based on dinosaurs.   Not only that, most Autobots consider the Dinobots and others who were experimented on by Shockwave to be abominations.   Did I mention that broken characters make me swoon?

So when Grimlock says this: "I knew they'd follow me.   We are bound together by what happened to us.   A shared nightmare.  Not that we talk about it.   We don't talk about what it's like getting your circuits ripped out.  What it's like to hope for death."  Not only that, they start to ask the same questions the Autobots ask: are they merely the beasts that they turn into now, or are they more?   Grimlock answers that pretty definitively when Ultra Magnus' ship goes down and he insists that the Autobot commander might still be alive.   Grimlock insists they go after Magnus despite the other Dinobots protests, and he convinces them by saying this, and then just going: "Most 'bots did write us off when we got our new forms.   Acted like we were less than them.  Hard to fight for people like that.   Any of you can take our ship and get out of here...  Or you can stay with me and prove to those sorry rust-sacks that we're more Autobot than they'll ever be." 

Now, this is where this origin story interests me, because Grimlock is smart, very smart.   Except for when he's in alt mode.   Robot?   Smart.   Dinosaur/beast form?   Not so much.   Same with all the other Dinobots.   But he has a sense of honor and duty to all Autobots, and that's pretty unique to this universe.   That he has always had that sense of duty to planet and fellow Cybertronians.   It also makes what Shockwave did to him and his team all the more tragic.   And while them getting recaptured by Shockwave via his protege, Ser-ket, could be seen as not really pivotal - they've been captured by Shockwave before, and in the end, he manages to lessen Grimlock's intelligence a bit but not do much more - I find that it's the little spots, the spots where you can peek in at the Dinobots vulnerability and true strength and honor, that makes this worth reading.   Rereading even.   I'd forgotten that the Dinobots were fleshed out quite as much as they were in this. 

And while it's not as pivotal as Regeneration One or Dark Cyberton, the two current comics I've read most recently, it's just... fun.   Fun especially for someone who finds the Dinobots swoon-worthy.   I actually recommend this for Dinobot fans as a character study in the Aligned-verse rather than anything action based.  This makes me hope that the Dinobots come into play in the new Transformers cartoon that may be a sequel to Prime. 

Why four and a half stars when the last volume garnered a flat four?   Well, I didn't feel as much of the insane plots and metaphysical shit flying around, like in issue zero in which Rodimus becomes Rodimus Prime.   Or how Grimlock is resurrected.   Volume two had some really good plot twists I didn't see coming, but this took it a step further, partly because all those things - the grand, sweeping plans including and/or messed up by wonky science - just weren't there.   And I gotta admit, I love the craziness of those zany plots.   They just totally make Furman's work better!   

Why not five stars then?   Because, as I said before, Roberts and Barber do it with a little more: a little more flair, a little more humor, and it makes a little more sense to me in the end.   Just enough so that I enjoy them a bit more than Furman's work now, and thus the docking of a half star.   

But, really, if you're in for convoluted plots, with a writer who understands the G1 characters?   Furman is your go-to guy.   

Bludgeon vs. Rodimus Prime?   Rodimus going through time?  Grimlock cowing and leading a primordial army?   How do you not enjoy this?  It's fun, plain and simple, and I'm only happy that the Dinobots had a hefty role in this, and a significant one once again.  Very exciting!  

That being said, I will most definitely read the next volume.   I hope the science gets weirder, the plots get even more convoluted, and the characters are as magnificently in character as they are here.

PS - also hoping Galvatron gets his ass handed to him after what he did to Magnus.   Boo, Galvatron, boo!

PPS - Optimus Prime: "...the being we know as Galvatron.  Deep in my spark, I know... he is Megatron reborn."

Also, one of the Dinobots says of Grimlock: "Except we'd know.   If he was dead, that is.  We'd just know.  It's-"

The same thing as Optimus Prime has with Megatron, who is part of Prime and Prime dies a little when Megatron does?   Now try to convince me that the Dinobots aren't having orgies off panel. 

Forgive me.   This book has fucked my mind so thoroughly, this review may not be as cohesive as mine usually are.   What will you find in this book?   Impassioned speeches? Check.  Sexy poses?   Check.   Mindfuckery?   Check.   Plot twists I didn't see coming and that had my head spinning?   Check.  Megatron coming back from the dead - again?   Check.   (It's not a spoiler; he's on the cover.)

Prowl's plans come together in the black room, a place that sounds creepy and is, in fact, creepier than it sounds.   Trust me.   Wheeljack found out the hard way. 

Poor Wheeljack!   When he gets there, he finds out exactly what Prowl's been up to, and who his allies are - amongst them, the assassin, Arcee.   It's been a big question worrying away at me - what happens when Bee figures out what Prowl is up to?   Well, it's not good.   It is, in fact, far worse than I expected, and it leaves Bee feeling guilty.   Prowl is... not Prowl, you see.   He's exactly like Prowl, but under Bombshell's control.    And right before Megatron further's his own plans by using Prowl, subsuming his identity and consciousness to become the final part of Devastator, Prowl asks Bee 'how could you have not seen it wasn't me?'  

Ouch.   That's gotta hurt, and I hope that comes into play later; I want to see them confront each other about this. 

Also, here's where emotional-rollar-coaster comes into play.   How do you not get frustrated and upset in a 'I want to scream' way when Prowl seems to betray them?  How do you stay mad when you find out what really happens?   And how do I feel now?   Sad, I guess.   Sad, there's an aftertaste of betrayal lingering on my tongue, and angry and turned on and confused.   Because part of me thinks Prowl could have taken control given what happens at the end, and part of me thinks not.   Overall, though?   Mostly sad for everyone in this volume. 

Also, Starscream does something evil at the end.   God, he's such a dick.   Such a sexy, sexy dick.   (Yes, I know how that sounds, and I don't care.)  Also, I felt so bad for him when everyone abandoned him.   Then he turned out to be a dick, and exiled, like, everyone from Iacon.   See?   Dick.

1. Reread all the Bay-verse novels before the movie.   Read the DotM novelization which I didn't finish after being disgusted with the movie - I hear the ending is different, and according to some friends in the fandom back when I was involved in it, better.  

2. Reread the Robocop novelization before the movie - done

3. Finish, read, or reread at least 75% of the Transformers graphic novels and books I have. 

4. Find more books with technosexual characters.   Read those.   

5. Read a couple books on paleontology, and dinosaurs.  Serious, well researched books.

6.   Get at least 50% of my Dinobots dinoporn done.   (I want to get dinporn for each kind of Dinobot, and for, y'know... Dinobot.   Five Dinobots+Dinobot=six which I keep wanting to type in as sex.)

7.   Burn Katy Evans books.   Because I will when I'm done.   To spare other people from those shitfests.   Plus, there's only one way to show my feels about those books.  

8.   Buy all the new Transformers books and comics that come out.  Especially Regeneration One graphic novels.  I cheated by checking out a comic.  I know what happens to Grimlock, and it's amazingly awesomely orgasmic for me.   

9. Read or reread 500+ books.   

10.   Read more sciency books on robots, which will turn out to be my erotica.   

11.   Use the library more.   

12.  Read more fiction with robots. 

13.  Most important - don't let reading get in the way of me doing at least a hundred dollars of art a day.

14. Read all my books in French, including graphic novels/books on the way.