IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

The modern comics universe has had such a different take on G1, one that's significantly represented by the Generations toys, so they share a forum. A modern take on a Real Cybertronian Hero. Currently starring Generations toys, IDW "The Transformers" comics, MTMTE, TF vs GI Joe, and Windblade. Oh wait, and now Skybound, wheee!
User avatar
Sparky Prime
Supreme-Class
Posts: 5225
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:12 am

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Sparky Prime »

Dominic wrote:Thundercracker surviving is a classic example of fanboys looking for a way out and bad writing rewarding them. Somebody at IDW wanted Thundercracker back (maybe Costa, maybe someone higher up), and the slightest ambiguity was the way he was brought back. Piss poor writing. (And, again, I like Costa's run. But, I will call a spade a spade.)
Thundercracker was likely always meant to survive, given Costa had probably started working on his run by that point and the (not so slight) ambiguity of the scene in AHM. I'd agree AHM was poorly written, but that doesn't mean that ambiguity wasn't deliberate, especially seeing as Thundercracker showed up again only a few issues into Costa's run. It was a classic fake out to make you think Thundercracker was dead while clearly and obviously leaving the door open.
There is not way that most of the characters can remember a multiversal buggerization without that having an impact on the comic for years. And, carrying that much baggage (from nascent or largely failed runs) would defeat the purpose of the reboot.
Except, again, it's not supposed to be a reboot according to IDW themselves. Ryall says as much in the interview and that they don't want to loose the history of these characters that fans have been reading for years.
User avatar
Dominic
Supreme-Class
Posts: 9331
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Dominic »

Are you talking about the video from yesterday? In that same video, IDW staff were talking about how "Revolution" is going to distill the characters down to basics. That does not sound like carrying history over.
User avatar
Shockwave
Supreme-Class
Posts: 6205
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:10 pm
Location: Sacramento, CA

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Shockwave »

Dom, I think you're way overthinking this. I think everyone will just remember their own stuff and then just be in a shared setting after. Trying to do anything else is just going to be a convoluted mess that, quite frankly, would maybe be enough to push me out of TF comics.

Also, I think Thundercracker was intentionally left ambiguous. They had plans for him later and didn't want to kill him, but they wanted to have another Decepticon address what he had done and the decision that he had made. Really, that was the only way to do it. Calling a spade a spade is one thing, but this is calling a spade a rake. Sure, they're both garden tools, but they have very different uses.
User avatar
Sparky Prime
Supreme-Class
Posts: 5225
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:12 am

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Sparky Prime »

Dominic wrote:Are you talking about the video from yesterday? In that same video, IDW staff were talking about how "Revolution" is going to distill the characters down to basics. That does not sound like carrying history over.
What video from yesterday? No, I'm talking about the interview Jedi posted to start this topic. The first thing they talk about is how Chris Ryall says this isn't a reboot:
“We didn’t want this to be what fans have seen from so many others, which is a reboot or a relaunch where you’re asked to forget about all these characters and stories you’ve been following for years,” Ryall says. “It’s just now everybody will be acknowledging each other in a much greater way than ever before.”
And on IDW's website they say the same thing:
This is not a reboot—rather, the Revolution series takes many of the building blocks of what has come before from IDW and builds on them anew, bringing all these elements together in an epic event that results in an all-new status quo for all involved. Everything fans have enjoyed up to this point remains intact as part of this ongoing continuity. The ramifications of Revolution will extend well beyond the event, as all of these iconic characters will henceforth exist in the same universe, altering the scope of IDW editorial in all the Hasbro series from this moment onward.
User avatar
Dominic
Supreme-Class
Posts: 9331
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Dominic »

There was a video floating around on FaceBook yesterday.

Also, I think Thundercracker was intentionally left ambiguous. They had plans for him later and didn't want to kill him, but they wanted to have another Decepticon address what he had done and the decision that he had made. Really, that was the only way to do it. Calling a spade a spade is one thing, but this is calling a spade a rake. Sure, they're both garden tools, but they have very different uses.
Even assuming that is the case with Thundercracker, I refuse to believe that Sunstreaker coming back was anything other than a dumb ass-pulled mandate. (Ditto for Kup in "Dark Cybertron".)
User avatar
Shockwave
Supreme-Class
Posts: 6205
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:10 pm
Location: Sacramento, CA

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Shockwave »

Dominic wrote:There was a video floating around on FaceBook yesterday.

Also, I think Thundercracker was intentionally left ambiguous. They had plans for him later and didn't want to kill him, but they wanted to have another Decepticon address what he had done and the decision that he had made. Really, that was the only way to do it. Calling a spade a spade is one thing, but this is calling a spade a rake. Sure, they're both garden tools, but they have very different uses.
Even assuming that is the case with Thundercracker, I refuse to believe that Sunstreaker coming back was anything other than a dumb ass-pulled mandate. (Ditto for Kup in "Dark Cybertron".)
You know, now that you say it like that, I can't help wondering if all three were planned well in advance. Skywarp's shot is intentionally not seen connecting, Sunstreaker's return establishes that Transformers can live for extended periods of time even after having suffered extreme damage, even to their heads and Kup, well, Kup just went back in time, he didn't actually die. He was just stuck in the Dead Universe until the other found him. And that was probably planned well in advance also as a way of revealing Prowl's nefarious machinations.

I dunno, I'm probably wrong about that, and I'm willing to agree with you about Sunstreaker, but the other two were so obsiously meant for other stories down the line that we knew at the time they weren't dead.
User avatar
Dominic
Supreme-Class
Posts: 9331
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Dominic »

I dunno, I'm probably wrong about that, and I'm willing to agree with you about Sunstreaker, but the other two were so obsiously meant for other stories down the line that we knew at the time they weren't dead.

You might not be wrong.


Thundercracker: The "return" was quick enough. And, if we account for "Hail and Well Met" (a one page story by Furman), we have to assume that McCarthy and Costa were working, if only in part, from notes that built on Furman's run. Maybe Thundercracker's death in AHM was set up to allow for him to come back later.

Kup: Kup was so clumsily handled that I do not think that the plan matters. Kup's arc was an ongoing thing that was resolved in a dumb cross-over that involves other licenses and cannot be reprinted if the TF license ever leaves IDW. Then, he just happens to find his way back from another universe, but during a stupid banner event. My guess is that IDW wanted to drop the Kup angle, and then they wanted to do it again.

Sunstreaker: Ironhide was killed off for a planned raising, in the same series that Sunstreaker came back in. There may well have been a legitimate reason for bringing back Sunstreaker. But, it never came through. (Costa's run ended with Sunstreaker finding his way home, and everybody was happy to see a 1984 character return.) As much as I liked that run over all, I am not giving IDW this one.
User avatar
Onslaught Six
Supreme-Class
Posts: 7023
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:49 am
Location: In front of my computer.
Contact:

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Onslaught Six »

Of those three, Sunstreaker is the one I think is most likely to be intended to stick. McCarthy's words over the years have been dodgy about Thundercracker's intended fate, which--me reading into it--says that his intent was for Skywarp to kill Thundercracker, but he left it ambiguous either because McCarthy knows it's comics, and someone will try to raise Thundercracker anyway, or there was editorial mandate not to kill Thundercracker--either because Costa specifically wanted to use him or just to have that in their back pocket. Either way, I think the intent was for a death there.

Sunstreaker got a Big Important Death Scene, and the last page of the main series is his Headmaster partner being pulled off life support. The fact that he came back at all is insane to me, and even worse is the fact that since it happened he has done 100% positively fuck god damn all. He was on the Last Light for like two years! I know MTMTE has its own cast that it was focusing on, but Sunstreaker's just as broken inside as, for example, Chromedome, and I would have loved to see Roberts' take. I still haven't properly caught up on CW (I just sort of skipped over it?) but didn't he end up in the Prime combiner for no reason? And then what happened to him after that? Nothing of importance! Stupid!
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
Image
User avatar
Dominic
Supreme-Class
Posts: 9331
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Re: IDW merging Transformers with Joe, other Hasbro comics

Post by Dominic »

There is a possibility that Costa meant to use Sunstreaker to compliment Ironhide.

Costa's run, and the related "Ironhide" series, was focused on change and progress. There might have been thematic value in pairing off the guy who had been changed and damaged with the guy who just lost a life-time's worth of learning and change (and who was wrestling with that). But, nothing came of it. Costa's run may have been truncated. It may not have been. (I tend to think it was.) Sunstreaker, Ironhide et al show up on Earth, and the Autobots are back to mid-80s nostalgia-spec.

There may have been a legitimate reason to bring Sunstreaker back. But, nothing came of it, making Sunstreaker's return pointless.

Since coming back from the dead, Sunstreaker's biggest moment was pushing the stupid combiner. Over-all, Sunstreaker is a good example of why dead needs to mean dead, even if there might be a good reason to bring a character back.
Post Reply