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IDW's Transformers Discussion (SPOILERS)
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Is Dawn of the Autobots a prequel story?
wyokid
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Dawn of the Autobots is the post-Dark Cybertron banner. It signified the season two premieres of MTMTE and RID (issues 28-33) and the four issue Windblade miniseries. After that RID is being renamed to just The Transformers and it and MTMTE will be under the banner Days of Deception. That leads right into Combiner Wars. MTMTE was supposed to have something called Elegant Chaos. I'm not sure if that's still happening though.
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
How is it the Dawn of the Autobots, then? Didn't they "dawn" millions of years ago at the start of the war on Cybertron?
wyokid
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Without getting into spoilers both RID and MTMTE have explored what it really means to be an Autobot/Decepticon and the end of Dark Cybertron has a MAJOR turning point for both sides. So basically to answer your question, story reasons.
wyokid
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Just finished rereading Infiltration. Not being plastered reading it like I did during my last rereading made it a lot more enjoyable. Overall it's an okay modernization of the 80s cartoon. It has a really weak start, the humans are pretty pointless, the action is great, Megatron actually felt like a big threat, if threw way too many characters too quickly with little development and difference between them (the 80s cartoon had that problem as well), Starscream actually felt like he could maybe beat Megatron (not saying he actually could, just that it felt like he could until they actually fought), and I felt like if you aren't knowledgeable of Transformers that this comic could probably be really bad, but since I'm not I give it an okay rating (3/5).
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Why would you ever read comics drunk?
This is my biggest gripe with the TF comics. As someone who knows very little about the TF in general, beyond the main characters, all the secondary characters are introduced WAY to quickly, not given any development time, and when they finally get a Spotlight issue you've probably forgotten anything you might've known from their previous appearances, and after reading the Spotlights forgotten what's occurred in those to expand on the character by the time they show up again. Just WAY too many pointless characters that really add nothing to the plot. Unnecessarily crowded, and it's been that way in every issue of the series.
wyokid
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Makes them easier to read. Unfortunately I don't remember much.
That's always kind of been a problem with Transformers since the whole point is to sell toys. By the 90's they finally started learning to introduce them slowly but still struggled with it. Transformers Animated and Prime were the first to do it really well. More Than Meets the Eye introduces a lot of characters too but actually bothers spending a good amount of time with them so you know who is who and how they're all different.
wyokid
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Sarah Stone's RI Primacy #2 cover!
That is one sexy cover. So glad she's staying on Windblade.
Just finished Stormbringer. As a Transformers fan it was awesome seeing he more obscure characters (really freaking weird how Primacron is referenced in almost a religious manner though) and ideas (polydermal grafting took the whole Pretender (basically a suit to make Transformers look like organic beings) idea to a very scary and kind of gross direction). Unfortunately yet again there are far too many characters so no one really gets any spotlight (due to this I'm curious if the first confrontation of Optimus and Megatron will be nearly as epic as I remember it was in my drunken state), the lack of humans from the first arc kind of makes this one feel not really important (ironically it was made without humans due to the fandom complaining about them and was even marketed as "Nothing but robots on Cybertron"), and while the action is awesome it's still missing the emotional punch needed to make them any more than just a kid smashing toys together. Optimus did give a good speech though. 2/5
Spotlight: Shockwave is the first really good issue for me. Furman changed the Dynobots into Beast Wars characters! I think the small cast (who admittedly don't get too much of a focus other than Shockwave and Grimlock) really helped that, the action was once again awesome, and Shockwave's plan shows promise. 4/5
Spotlight: Nightbeat could have been really cool had it been done as a noir story, unfortunately it wasn't and is pretty dull. All the good action (seems to be a running theme) has this all set up for later events. I get it needed to happen but it should have been more interesting. Noir ending on horror could have worked really well. 2/5
That is one sexy cover. So glad she's staying on Windblade.
Just finished Stormbringer. As a Transformers fan it was awesome seeing he more obscure characters (really freaking weird how Primacron is referenced in almost a religious manner though) and ideas (polydermal grafting took the whole Pretender (basically a suit to make Transformers look like organic beings) idea to a very scary and kind of gross direction). Unfortunately yet again there are far too many characters so no one really gets any spotlight (due to this I'm curious if the first confrontation of Optimus and Megatron will be nearly as epic as I remember it was in my drunken state), the lack of humans from the first arc kind of makes this one feel not really important (ironically it was made without humans due to the fandom complaining about them and was even marketed as "Nothing but robots on Cybertron"), and while the action is awesome it's still missing the emotional punch needed to make them any more than just a kid smashing toys together. Optimus did give a good speech though. 2/5
Spotlight: Shockwave is the first really good issue for me. Furman changed the Dynobots into Beast Wars characters! I think the small cast (who admittedly don't get too much of a focus other than Shockwave and Grimlock) really helped that, the action was once again awesome, and Shockwave's plan shows promise. 4/5
Spotlight: Nightbeat could have been really cool had it been done as a noir story, unfortunately it wasn't and is pretty dull. All the good action (seems to be a running theme) has this all set up for later events. I get it needed to happen but it should have been more interesting. Noir ending on horror could have worked really well. 2/5
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wyokid
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Huh. I just finished Primacy #2 and I'm realizing that the whole trilogy is either just going back to having the continuity be a giant mess or its not canon. There's some pretty head scratching continuity problems through the whole trilogy, but at the same time this almost seems like it could be leading into Combiner Wars due to all the Combiners present in the story. It's made even more strange once you realize John Barber is the editor.
EDIT: Finally listening to episode #100 of the Twincast podcast and John Barber was being interviewed and he said the upcoming Drift miniseries will not be tied to Combiner Wars and the More Than Meets the Eye WILL be going and telling a different story during Combiner Wars. He also mentioned Autocracy as a reference to past events so I guess that means they are canon. RID name change due to upcoming cartoon. Sales were too good to have the need for a relaunch. Barber played coy on if the cartoon is getting a tie-in comic.
Sarah Stone MTMTE #33 30th Anniversary cover
She is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists.
EDIT: Finally listening to episode #100 of the Twincast podcast and John Barber was being interviewed and he said the upcoming Drift miniseries will not be tied to Combiner Wars and the More Than Meets the Eye WILL be going and telling a different story during Combiner Wars. He also mentioned Autocracy as a reference to past events so I guess that means they are canon. RID name change due to upcoming cartoon. Sales were too good to have the need for a relaunch. Barber played coy on if the cartoon is getting a tie-in comic.
Sarah Stone MTMTE #33 30th Anniversary cover
She is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists.
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
What continuity problems are there? Haven't read it yet (downloaded #2 earlier today, will be reading Primacy #1-2 tomorrow after work, and starting the MtMtE and RiD issues).
wyokid
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In issue one Slinger is mad at Hot Rod for destroying Nyon but in Autocracy #6 Slinger was the one who convinced Hot Rod to do it, in issue two the Predacons have animal alt-modes that they get later in the first on-going (this was confirmed not to be an art mistake by Livio Ramondelli so the No Prize is that Canis Tor has that wildlife (it's probably set up for Combiner Wars)), and lastly in both issues Omega Supreme shouldn't be where he is due to the events of the Robots in Disguise Annual. The issue was pretty meh in general.
Also in the interview (just finished it) John Barber was asked about Hasbro's involvement in the comics and he said that Hasbro has little to no involvement on what stories and characters show up.
Also in the interview (just finished it) John Barber was asked about Hasbro's involvement in the comics and he said that Hasbro has little to no involvement on what stories and characters show up.
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wyokid
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MTMTE #33 hit Comixology early. Absolutely blew my mind. James Roberts has beautifully tied so much together in a way that made the sci-fi geek in me cream his pants and you know a story is good when it drops the same plot twist twice and it's just as strong each time. As far as I'm concerned Megatron continues to be the most complex and interesting character in Transformers history. I really liked that we finally started getting answers to questions that started all the way back in issue #1 (and even further than that!) and that Roberts took time to develop everything to get to the point where once secrets were revealed they hit hard. Long games are awesome. Also I so was not prepared for that silent page. 10/10
December solicitations
December solicitations
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
I meant to mention this awhile ago, but Don Figueroa's art for the first TF ongoing was fantastic. It helped a huge amount in making the characters distinctive and stand out. So far I haven't been impressed with the art on either MtMtE or RiD, though Griffith's in RiD is better than Roche's in MtMtE.
Looking forward to seeing how other artists tackle all the various characters and designs.
But yeah, Figueroa's was really good. Helped me a lot in terms of keeping track of who was who in that run.
Looking forward to seeing how other artists tackle all the various characters and designs.
But yeah, Figueroa's was really good. Helped me a lot in terms of keeping track of who was who in that run.
wyokid
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It's funny you say because the fandom hated it. I didn't, but the fandom didn't like it due to how complex Figueroa's designs for the characters were. It reminded the fandom of Bayformers too much (which he also did art for on the comics).
Alex Milne is the main artist for MTMTE. Roche only did #1 and #6. Milne improves as it goes along. I think a big problem is that early on there's a lot of people and most of them are red (lol). Both of those change as it goes along. Windblade has great art from the start though. Really glad Sarah Stone is staying for the on-going.
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Yeah, and I can understand that from the old school fans, but at the same time, that's kind of similar to our argument regarding the Star Trek reboot films, in the sense of holding too closely to the old school designs (even when it doesn't make sense to since it's a new continuity).
But I absolutely HATE the old school approach when it comes to Bumblebee. Ugh. His old school design (they mimicked it in the Bumblebee mini series that I read awhile back) just gets on my nerves. I'm sure the purists love it, but my god it's atrocious.
And hating Figueroa's art for being "too complex" (even if it was reminiscent of the Bayformers look) is dumb. I mean, I get it in the sense that it's too close to the Bayformers films look. However, I will say this for the Bayformers films: they went out of their way to ensure the designs and transformation scenes made sense and were actually possible. The films may have sucked, but the designs and transformation sequences were spot on, and that's one thing about the films I actually really appreciated.
Now, I can understand where the G1 fans are coming from, in terms of wanting the old-school look for the characters. But at the same time, holding so closely to those "older" looks prevents a necessary evolution for the looks. I get the idea of wanting to take an old school "purist" approach for the G1 lines and whatnot, but let the IDW continuity experiment and try new things. I really liked Figueroa's work. It probably has a negative backlash from the G1 purists. I get it. And that's fine for the G1 books and styles. But don't **** all over them trying something new with the newer stuff is all I'm saying. I know TF fans can be very anathema and "keep your hands off my G1". I get it, especially in regards to the Bayformers looks from the films. While I appreciate their opinions on certain stuff, it can be too rigid in regards to doing new things, as you said. There is definitely a fine line for that stuff.
wyokid
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He gets a new look in Robots In Disguise.
I do love the VW though lol. There's one pretty cheap near me. I'm so thinking about it.
I agree. I really enjoyed Figueroa's art. Especially Megatron. That was a really cool design.
Dude, just wait. Most G1 purists hate IDW's TF comics because of these books (except vs GI Joe because that's like MADE for them). Besides some major story changes they introduced gender and a whole bunch of other stuff. I think I may have said this already but them introducing Windblade and the other females upset Simon Furman because he thinks they should be genderless and he and Mairghread Scott, who is the first female TF comic writer, got into it.
DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Furman might have a point about them being gender less if the TF weren't blatantly male anyway. But they are, so he doesn't.
wyokid
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
They even act like dudes. What woman would continue billions of years of war?
Well, feminazis, obviously.
Also, it's millions of years, not billions, you n00b. 4 million years to be exact!
Anyway, so I've read the first two arcs of both MtMtE and RiD. It's a major improvement over ALL the previous stuff.
MtMtE is a cool space opera adventure with decent humor throughout. Looking forward to seeing how that continues.
RiD is far more serious in tone, but also interesting. I like the political machinations and the challenge of rebuilding their society and infrastructure, all compounded by the three factions (Autobots, Decepticons, and Nails).
Each issue is pretty packed with story and dialogue, as well. These 22 page books take almost twice as long to read as your average comic, and that's a really good thing. I also like that there seems to be a generally smaller main cast in each book. Makes keeping track of who is who a lot easier.
I like that they have the two different titles with very different tones. Kind of bummed that they're going to end that and go back to a single title with various mini-series.
Admittedly, I'm not a fan of the Spotlights or mini-series overall. They just break the flow of the overall story and seem tacked on and largely unnecessary. Hoping some of the newer mini-series improve on that.
But yeah, I do see what you were saying, wyo. The two ongoings are a major improvement over the earlier stuff. It was admittedly quite a chore getting through the first 6 years worth of material to get to the current stuff, but glad I did since it helps explain a lot of the motivations of the characters and previous events that even the modern stories are built on.
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