Author's Reflections- Comic #380

#380

 

I had a few ideas for what was to come next in the comic but I definitely wanted to take a break from the long drawn out storylines. I thought yet another truce between Optimus and Megatron would be the best way to set up for some downtime for the characters. Besides, Optimus attempting to heed Primus’ warning and keep peace worked well for the character and for the overall story at this point.

 

Primus dumping Hot Rod out of the Plot Hole was really just put in as an afterthought in order to reach full ten panel comic but it really was needed because otherwise Hot Rod would have just shown back up in the comic with no explanation how he got there after being pulled away by Primus in the previous comic. It’s not that it would have been a huge deal since many many other things have happened in much dumber ways but despite my constant aspirations to not take it too seriously I really do like things to make a degree of sense.

Author's Reflections- Comic #379

#379

 

I considered leaving Hot Rod unconscious for awhile but he makes a good foil for Optimus so I knew I needed to bring him back into the comic to truly bring everything back to normal. This comic isn’t particularly funny or great but I do like that Optimus attempted to be completely honest with Hot Rod, contrary to his typical inept excuses and fibs. Primus grabbing Hot Rod through a Plot Hole was completely unnecessary but since Optimus had learned a little bit of a lesson during this storyline I thought Hot Rod needed to do the same to some extent. I was very proud of the shot of Primus’ hand around Hot Rod since I took them as separate pictures to simulate the size difference between the two characters and spliced them together. Its nothing amazing but for someone who isn’t that great at photoshopping or editing with special effects I was elated by the outcome. I’ve included those pictures after this commentary just to show how I was doing the low budget photo shopping.

 

 

Author's Reflections- Comics #376-378

 

#376

 

 

#377

 

#378

#376-378

 

With everything else getting back to normal after the big storyline I figured I may as well bring Megatron and Shockwave back together and make the Decepticons whole again. I should have taken more time to spell out that Primus restored Megatron’s spark to his body when he retroactively did it for everyone else but there were way too many story strands to keep track of in my brain at this point. I probably rushed through Megatron and Shockwave’s reconciliation but I really just wanted to move on.

 

Something to point out is the peanut gallery panel in Comic #377. They address Cliffjumper admitting that he was the one who let Ultra Magnus, Springer and Kup out of the Dinobots’ closet when in reality that would have been completely overwritten by Primus sending Optimus back in time before Bugbite and Mini-Megs had fired their universe-ending firepower at each other. It was something I didn’t even realize I had done until much later but since it wasn’t a huge deal going forward it doesn’t bother me too much. I mean, Primus wouldn’t have really needed to ‘retroactively’ put the sparks back in the Transformers’ bodies at all for the same reason. They’re just some small oversights that can be ignored since the comic is extremely silly to begin with.

Author's Reflections- Comic #375

#375

 

Not a whole lot happens here, I knew there were still several things that needed tying up from the story and I didn’t want to waste any time segueing into them. There was no remarkable dialogue but the comic serves its purpose.