So you rather have pointless filler that takes up more than half the story? Because that's basically what it was. And something like that scene could easily be retained as something going on in the background while the important stuff is in the foreground.Onslaught Six wrote:I think the length of the series was fine--if it were six issues, we wouldn't have gotten awesome things like Reflector pulling humans apart and then being disappointed that they don't go back together.
If your characters suddenly completely change their appearance (meaning in form rather than artistic style), your audience is going to be left wondering when and why they did that. Especially when some of these characters have passed up their modern forms for something not even in service anymore. McCarthy said they would explain that (for the Seekers at least) but then never did. For the upcoming series, we don't really know anything yet seeing as how it isn't even out yet, so I'd wait to pass judgment on that until actually reading the thing (but at least Figueroa's art is awesome as always).Anyway, a *lot* of the stuff the Wiki guys complain about are kinda pointless, and definitely aren't the fault of AHM entirely--for example, the entire section on redesigns. Now we've got *another* series coming with stupidly pointless redesigns, and these ones don't even look cool. Others include AHM not picking up on threads left in Furman's stories, which isn't surprising to me.
The points Furman used in his stories that McCarthy ignores is also a significant oversight for continuity. I don't mind that they ignored something like the Magnificence (as I thought it was a lame MacGuffin and that one at least wasn't really very significant to the overall story) but something like the Ultra Energon really should have been addressed (among several other significant points in the continuity). The Energon was the only reason Megatron took a personal interest in the planet in the first place and made it a top priority for it to be conquered (as evidence by Megatron breaking their own rules). Using Earth to allow the Decepticons to just run amok to "savor" the victory over the Autobots is a complete waste. Especially since humans on their own don't offer a real threat, thus aren't really a challenge and as we see don't offer much fun to the Decepticons as they begin to turn on each other. We know they've been conquering other planets across the universe. Certainly one of them would be a better choice to "savor" the victory while they could actually utilize Earth for the Ultra Energon. It just doesn't make sense with how intelligent Megatron is to waste a resource by ignoring it like he does in AHM.
Perhaps the editor should share in some of the blame but a great deal still falls on the writer. The writer must also be aware of the established continuity in order to make their story work with a continuing story in the first place because it isn't the editors job to completely rewrite the story if it doesn't.If anything, though, most of this can't be blamed on McCarthy--he had a story to tell, and he told it. It's Tipton, the editor, who's to blame for this. He's the guy who's supposed to make sure what everyone writes meshes together--that's what an editor does.
Also, as a point of interest, McCarthy himself said in an interview:
So as a writer who claims to have read everything IDW has put out on the subject and doesn't want to "spit" on the work the previous writer(s) had developed up to that point, why is it exactly that so much of the stories he wrote doesn't mesh with the established continuity?I read everything that had been put out by IDW and there's no disrespect of what Simon's done coming from me. I grew up reading Simon's books and still have those big format TF comics in my back room. There's no way I'm going to spit on anything that man's done.
