Transformers - Escalation

My memory of Escalation from my initial read was of a flawed but entertaining step in the right direction after the troubled Infiltration, with the main plot only really faltering when Devastation began. I was wrong; Escalation is such a disaster it's hard to know where to start.

Maybe with the good bits; it won't take long. I think every Autobot involved gets some sort of show-off moment and their characterisations generally ring true, though I'm not sure where Bumblebee's gone. I think that might be about it really. 

The problem is that Furman has plainly been hurt by the moderate reception to Infiltration and just throws everything he can think of at the story without outright alienating the people who did like it. There's government plants, facsimile constructs, internal friction, robot fights, foreshadowing of more villains, Spotlight follow ups and more thrown in. There are also fake outs, contrivances, obvious gestures and plain idiocy. 

Handling things in turn, the human trio of Verity,  Hunter and a still personality free Jimmy (no, reminding us he's a mechanic doesn't count ). At the start of the mini they're being packed off and while only the naive would expect this to be followed through the way they're kept in the mix is disappointing - would the Machination really factor Hunter, found by coincidence in Sunstreaker when he was captured, into their plans in such a last minute fashion? It's another one of those kids' comic moments when in the real world Furman is occasionally trying to capture they'd have guinea pigs for the Headmaster process all worked out and leave the kid to fry in the fake Lamborghini. 

Verity manages the feat of being even more obnoxious and whiny than in the first arc and while she and Jimmy get to show a little resourcefulness in locating the Machinations front garage really the contrived need to again send them in to investigate while a pair of Autobots watch on is not only repetitive but is another Saturday morning cartoon trope, moving the series further away from serious sci-fi aspirations. 

Another comes from the silly antics at the Russian border. Firstly Russia borders the obviously made-up state of Brasnya now; it's an obvious Chechnya analogue and you have to wonder why it's been renamed - is Chechnya a key market for IDW? Were they worried they'd be sued? Saturday morning cartoon, might as well have used Carbombya for all it does for the mood. Anyway, there's an insane moment where Megatron changes his alt-mode to a handgun and gets his cloned minion to fire him at an oil pipeline - why not get Blitzwing to do it, or said minion to set explosives? Because then there would be no energy signature for the Autobots to somehow magically monitor, that's why. Saturday morning cartoon. 

Sure, there are some hints that Ore-15 has brought out some arrogance in Megatron and that he might be having trouble letting go of direct control of the Earth operation, so this might be deliberate. If it is,  it's really not a welcome development to have him continuing the rapid character decay from the end of Infiltration. The rest of the Decepticons here make little impression, being largely thugs with a special skill each, which is the downside of having most of the big guns tied up elsewhere. It's perhaps as simple as the Infiltration Protocols working better as an abstract principle rather than actually being carried out. The idea of Decepticons unbalancing countries and agitating disputes falls down a bit when it involves a group of them zapping over to commit simple sabotage. 

The Machination, apart from being the same old tired group trying to use alien tech for their own ends (wonder how that'll work out for them? Well, right?) are dumb, something which spreads to the Autobots - both the abduction of Sunstreaker and the lockup fight with Jazz and Wheeljack make the Autobots look stupid rather than the Machination look fearsome. 

The appearance of Hot Rod, Nightbeat and Hardhead on Earth meanwhile really feels like a sop to the fans rather than a genuine attempt to mix up the status quo. All three are respectably used but it just feels a bit forced that Prime calls in reinforcements while leaving three Autobots back at base to have their own adventures. Optimus himself naturally manages to die for a few pages,  and while Furman doesn't insult us by dragging it out for long it hardly yells brave new world, something not helped by a succession of cheap devices - twice characters have to escape exploding buildings against the clock while too much of the plot hinges on coincidental timing.

E. J. Su's art is something of a disappointment; it might just be coming off the back of Nick Roche, but it's all very unimaginative and staid. There's just no real feeling to any of it, with the action scenes being particularly flat and unexciting. The wintry setting and muddled choreography (what are the soldiers doing for most of this?) do him few favours but it's a very adequate,  perfunctory job with the use of patterned backgrounds in the Optimus/Megatron fight looking more like a timesaving measure than a bold stylistic choice. In short,  it doesn't look like E. J. enjoyed drawing this at all.

Furman for his part still doesn't seem to have learnt that having this many plot threads covered concurrently actually slows the pace and undermines any excitement. Even when read as a single block Escalation inches along in  a frustrating, stuttering fashion and the decision to add even more to the mix with the pretentious interludes foreshadowing the involvement of Scorponok and Skywatch in the main plot is downright worrying. 

Oh, and Optimus asking Ironhide to recap the plot of the first issue at the start of the second even though he knows exactly what's happened? Fucking. Hell.

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