i love cyclonus as the 'warrior poet of old' guy. he will recite the cyber-iliad to you with tears in his eyes. also, maybe cry about it. and i genuinely love that the series is never less than earnest about it.

3 38
2022-09-20

this issue seems like classic filler, except of course for the part where it implicitly sets up swerve's entire arc. which is early mtmte in a nutshell.

0 13
2022-09-20

payoff two: reversing the cause and effect of whirl's guilt induced good deed just has SUCH a different impact. making it a 'hold on a second now' twist stops it feeling trite, despite the in universe events being the same either way, and makes it work better imo.

0 12
2022-09-20

payoff one: cyclonus saving tailgate with an impromptu fastball special, so now you get why tailgate was so determined to save cyclonus, and give him something, despite him being a dick.

yeet the minibot.

4 12
2022-09-20

now THIS dynamic. this one's such a long haul for the comic, and man, i eat it up. these two are so good. and they will be so good all the way through. long after i cool on cyclonus and tailgate i will be SO invested in these two.

0 14
2022-09-20

not sure how well the pseudo-cinematography works tbh. But this is seeding a relationship which... it’s wild to think was originally only planned to go as far as RiL.

Like, til he sat down to write its last issue.

0 10
2022-09-20

this feels like the moment the nonlinear storytelling was built for: the reversing of the 'whirl ain't so bad really' moment's cause and effect is what this issue builds to.

0 10
2022-09-20

swerve is god's perfect schmuck. i do love the payoff being 'he was just being a dumbass', only for us to find out this is a bit of a misdirect and what happened to the others is a lot more pertinent.

0 13
2022-09-20

'god i can't believe my husband worries so much' *immediately does insane shit as an unarmed noncombatant*

i love him.

0 16
2022-09-20

i LOVE this. tailgate committing so hard to the bit he won't give up faced with a bomb, and his sneaky use of rewind being the trivia guy who loves to explain shit to make it work. it's that very weird tailgate combo of anxiety and arrogance that makes him neat!

0 17
2022-09-20

one of the more horrifying LSotW concepts returns! (I should have kept a tally for Last Stand s1 callbacks.)

Rewind's little aside is pretty funny, especially as it turns out Rewind actually wasn't around for a chunk of the war and is a noncombatant.

0 9
2022-09-20

this is an interesting moment. it is the bit where it seems to totally commit to them as romantic, at first glance... but there is a very technical plausible deniability left in by using a made up replacement for 'husband', even one as blatant as conjunx.

1 11
2022-09-20

this was once going to be verrry important. skipping ahead for the second, but they really work to emphasize his camera is on.

1 8
2022-09-20

i wonder why tailgate is so nervous- must be that he's used to easy kills with little fleshy organics.

i love the framing with them teeeny in the back, makes it feel like a splash page using less real estate, by conveying scale.

0 7
2022-09-20

first timeskip! the black guttering used works better for visual clarity than just rounded corners here, but it does always look slightly jarring to me? ah well.

love me some gratuitous robogore. ah swerve. bless.

0 11
2022-09-20

oh look it's 's namesake!

i love the idea everyone wants rewind around to record what they do. he's like your midtier youtuber friend you want to put you in a vid. lmao

1 18
2022-09-20

i love the image of him doing this. at least someone's having fun on this roadtrip from hell.

2 19
2022-09-20

this is perfect. the title at the very end. the fact the reveal is restrained to the last page. no further explanation is needed, it immediately just coheres. 'an intimate beheading'. that this wasn't PLANNED fucking floors me.

3 35
2022-09-15

this is a bit of a 'ignoring bits of other canon' moment, though not unreconcilable as a bit of dramatic irony.

but autocracy did come out like. recently. so a bit odd. otoh autocracy makes VERY little sense itself in the timeline, so.

0 10
2022-09-15

oh no. :(

(seriously, they get you attached to this guy, and these two, SO fast. this legit makes me FUCKING SAD.)

3 20
2022-09-15