More than Meets the Eye (IDW ongoing comic)

[Onslaught Six]

Was it you or Scourge who hadn't seen Momento?

[BWprowl]

Was it you or Scourge who hadn't seen Momento?

I haven't seen Memento or Momento. I think Scourge saw at least one of those, and that's why he liked Skids.

[Onslaught Six]

Checked Wiki, proper spelling is Memento. Yeah, Skids is pretty much exactly that guy. Go watch the movie (I'm sure Netflix has it. And I know that the Internet does) and then reread Skids' bits. Pretty similar.

[Dominic]

Really, so Skids is also a rip off of a movie character? ("Just like __________, but now with Transformers!")

Skids is just so damned wacky and wild and whimsical. But, as Prowl points out, so is everybody else. And, yeah, I am probably wrong about Drift in this case. But, damn, this book just sucks.


Dom

[Shockwave]

I haven't seen Memento either. And I don't read Deadpool so really no frame of referrence there either. Yes, there is a fair amount of comedy in this book, but I really don't think that's a bad thing. It's actually nice to see the TFs acting a bit goofy sometimes. I mean, where is it written that they have to be as serious as Prowl all the time?

[Onslaught Six]

In Dom's rulebook.

And I don't know if Memento is the frame of reference for Skids or not, but he certainly reads a little similarly. The main character in Memento is looking for the dude who killed his wife but he has some kind of amnesia that makes him forget recent memories, so he gets important information tattooed onto him so he can remember it (so he has a huge tattoo of "JOHN G KILLED YOUR WIFE" on his chest, just like how Skids had the giant note written in the back of his spaceship) and he narrates the movie throughout. It's similar enough that maybe Roberts is riffing on the movie, but he hasn't been given significant motivation yet so it doesn't matter.

I have to wonder how long Roberts expects to be on the book, although I would assume a two-year rule is in effect, which would mean the end turn of his run would start right as the Movie 4 hype machine would start rolling, and thus the brand would be expected to reset again.

[BWprowl]

I haven't seen Memento either. And I don't read Deadpool so really no frame of referrence there either. Yes, there is a fair amount of comedy in this book, but I really don't think that's a bad thing. It's actually nice to see the TFs acting a bit goofy sometimes. I mean, where is it written that they have to be as serious as Prowl all the time?

I don't mind funnier, light-hearted stuff (I'm loving Kamen Rider Fourze, have you seen that show?). Hell, I actually think Swerve works pretty well, enjoyable jackass that he is. Ditto for Ratchet and the aforementioned tiny beer scene, stuff like that works. With Skids, it's more like he comes off less like the doofus he really is and more like we're supposed to think all his random, half-retarded, so-crazy-awesome-it-works antics are cool and, well, awesome. And to me that just comes off as obnoxious instead. Some of this stuff might be amusing if it were, like, me and my friends bs-ing around in an role-playing game or something (honestly, you should see the sort of shit we get up to in Dark Heresy), but in a comic book story, it comes off as forced and annoying.

Like I said though, this book seems to be finding its balance, and I'm warming to it a bit more. Unlike Dom, who just seems to find new issues with every...issue. But come on, they should know better than to try and get fun anywhere near Dom.

Dom, you know I kid. I kid because I love.

[138 Scourge]

Yeah, I read Skid's internal monologue more as Guy Pearce's kind of subdued narration in "Memento" than Deadpool's "I'm WACKY!" nonsense. After Prowl brought it up, I could see where he was coming from with it. Particularly the "Let's Dance!" line. The total amnesiac thing strikes me as taking Skid's absent-mindedness and running off the end of the earth with it. And it seemed more to me that Skids totally forgot that he had the handgun because he wasn't looking at it at the time. But I haven't read the third or fourth issues yet, so he might have gotten more obnoxious in there, I dunno.

[Dominic]

I am less concerned with how long Roberts is going to be on the book than I am with what he is doing on the book. So far, we are getting a drawn out picaresque...and not much else.

it is unlikely that both ongoing books will continue once movie 4 hype starts. If we assume the movie comes out in 2014, then movie hype will start in fall of 2013. In theory, IDW could cancel "ReGeneration 1" before it reaches issue 100. But, if sales on that are higher than one of the modern IDW books, then it would make sense to cancel one of the two books that are set in the same setting.


Dom
-would point out that Barber started on movie comics....

[BWprowl]

But I haven't read the third or fourth issues yet, so he might have gotten more obnoxious in there, I dunno.

Eh, if anything he actually gets better. He’s definitely dialed back a bit in #3, and he doesn’t show up at all (besides the background) in #4. Oh, I still find him as aggravating and annoying in #3, but that’s just residue from his debut, he doesn’t even have the narration boxes promoting him here. So I will admit that it’s just that first appearance that really fueled my hate for the character.

Conversely, while when Skids first showed up in #2 and I went on a rant about how much I hated him and Dom was the one who went ‘Eh, he’s not really that bad’, now Dom’s the one going on about how horrible Skids (and the book in general) is while I just go ‘Eh, maybe it’s just me’. I can only assume he saw some fans posting (as I expected they would) about totally awesome and the best character in Transformers Skids is, and how Roberts is a brilliant writer and totally ‘gets it’ and what the hell is this Barber guy doing in RID Transformers shouldn’t have sociopolitical ramifications driving their actions! And yeah, that probably set him off on Roberts’s book in general, and Skids in particular, and especially how much some fans are enjoying it.

I am less concerned with how long Roberts is going to be on the book than I am with what he is doing on the book. So far, we are getting a drawn out picaresque...and not much else.

Eh, I'll disagree a bit. While he definitely took his sweet time in the first few issues bringing in characters and spending time on their quotable quirks (particularly in #1, now that is the wrong way to do a first issue. It is nothing but character introductions! It's that splash page from Marvel G1 #1 stretched out into 22 pages!), he definitely feels like he's found his footing and is moving along somewhere with this issue, particularly with Tailgate and Cyclonus, though Ratchet's got some interesting stuff going on as well.