Transformers - ongoing series

[138 Scourge]

Or, if you do get a start to finish story, there is no reason to expect it to be worthwhile. (I am looking at "Marvel Adventures" here.)

That's just sad. Didn't used to be that way. Regardless of the length, writers should know how to tell a good story and work within their limits. Every now and then I'll read a really good one-page story in the TF Mosaics, so it can be done. Complaining that 22 pages isn't enough to tell a good story is like a chef blaming his ingredients for the crappy meal he made.

Dom's just doomsaying. I could come up with at least a dozen really good single-issue stories that came out this year if I had the time and inclination. It can be done.

Plus, like, a comic can be written to be like an episode of Breaking Bad, or like that. Wherein the entire story's not getting told over an episode, or hell, even a season. But if you watch just one episode of Breaking Bad, odds are good that you'll feel like you got a complete story out of it. Yes, the larger plot of the season is unresolved in that episode, but there was a reason for that episode. Whereas a lot of the comics that Dom's defending will get to, say, the first commercial break in their twenty-two pages.

[Dominic]

Keep in the mind the pacing requirements of comics though. Look at movie adaptations. Even competent adaptations (rare enough as they are) tend to be overly compressed and/or flat in places. Giffen grids can work some times. But, they are also visually boring.


Dom
-would rather read 20 issues of decompressed Bendis than a single issue of something by a hack.

[Onslaught Six]

Back on topic, I guess: DoOP looks pretty awesome, visually, and it's got some neat stuff going on. I think I'll buy it!

[BWprowl]

Back on topic, I guess: DoOP looks pretty awesome, visually, and it's got some neat stuff going on. I think I'll buy it!

Heh, Doop. Anyway, this is out today, yeah? Guess I’ll pick it up after work. Haven’t seen any preview things or anything, is this gonna be a ‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?’ type deal for Optimus Prime? I could get behind that.

Incidentally, that last ish easily could’ve been called ‘Whatever Happened to the Robots in Disguise?’. I’d like to see more explorative, hypothetical stories in my Transformers. Spotlight: Mirage was a good step in that direction, but everyone hates that one because BLARGHCONTINUITY, so we probably won’t see anything else like it soon.

EDIT: Oh, and Spotlight Mirage, and a lot of the other Spotlights, just happen to be good examples of comic stories that were confined to single issues, and still totally worked. Spotlight Kup, man...

[Dominic]

Ya know, the first time that I read "Spotlight: Mirage", I figured "okay, IDW Mirage has some interesting dreams and he might be a bit nutty". (If othing else, would one guy with a cloaking system really make that much difference? It looks like Mirage was being Miraty Stu in his dream....)

Dom
-going to the comic store after a (very hectic) extra day at work.

[Onslaught Six]

From what I'm seeing, it's not like that at all. Well, maybe it is. It starts off seeming like it might be that way but then it isn't.

[Shockwave]

I always took that as his subconsious exploring the idea of having joined the Decepticons rather than the Autobots.

[andersonh1]

The Death of Optimus Prime

Spoilers if you haven't read it yet...

They did what I thought they might, and hoped they'd go for:

Spoiler

Prime doesn't literally die. Thank goodness, since that's been done to death. He quits and leaves Cybertron, after the returning civilians take exception to both Autobot and Decepticon presence on the planet, blaming both for being warmongers who destroyed the place

. They do play with the possibility in the first few pages before settling down and confirming what's actually happened.

In a lot of ways, this is a setup issue for the two new ongoing series (of course) as much as it is it's own story. Still, pretty good "this is the new status quo" story, in my opinion. Oh, and Sideswipe shows up in his Generation 2 colors. Nice!

[Dominic]

So, yeah, Mirage is a raving crazy-ass. He needs to medicated. No two ways around it.


Anyway,

"The Death of Optimus Prime":
The quotes are deliberate. I am just going to type this whole thing in a spoiler tag.

Spoiler

Nothing about the end of "Chaos" is meaningfully explained. A bunch of stuff happened. It was an event and set up for a new direction. The characters got past it and we should to.

So, what now?

IDW back-pedaled on the numbering. A banner across the top says "celebrating 125 issues....", but there is no actual number on the cover. And, as far as I know, "The Death of Optimus Prime" was billed as a oneshot, so the numbers were not as gimmicked to hell as they could have been. Leading up to this, some of us speculated that "The Death of Optimus Prime" was metaphoric. Others considered IDW's comments about Prime's death would lasting as long as the Human Torch's to imply that it was a literal death that would not really matter.

As it turns out, it is both.

Prime was missing, and presumed dead, for several weeks and he came back to a radically altered Cybertron. The planet itself was changed by the events of "Chaos" and refugees are swarming back. There are some throw away lines establishing "hard" numbers about the population. These paper over earlier discrepencies. ("Move along kids....")

The Decepticons are freed. But, the really interesting stuff happens with a new Autobot schism. Bumblebee and Prowl are looking forward and want to build a new future. Rodimus, Drift and Magnus want to recreate a golden age. (Bumblebee explicitly calls this "golden age" a myth. This makes me curious enough to write to IDW and ask if Roberts or Barber has read any Ralph Peters.)

As an aside, I kind of like the (presumably deliberate) irony of having 2 iconic members of the 1984 cast taking the progressive role while 2 1986 characters and a post-UT addition to the cast (being pretty emblamatic of change in the hobby) taking the regressive side.

My gut feeling is that the Rodimus focused book is intended to keep the interest of people who just want big robots and adventures. I could be wrong. But, "travelling the stars looking for mythical figures" strikes me as a vehicle for picaresque adventures more than anything else. On the other hand, the BB focused series is (I am guessing) likely to be more idea driven and focused on the difficulties of rebuiling a broken state/planet.

I am in for both books. What can I say? I am intrigued.

Artwise, this is an improvement over recent issues of the comic if only because it is possible to tell what the hell is going on panel by panel. But, I am not a fan of Roche's newer style. It looks too sloppy for my liking.

Grade: A
IDW "Transformers" seems to be published on the "52" principle of lowing expectations, and then delivering something better than what people might reasonably expect. I am just dreading the inevitable "Countdown" principle.

Sideswipe shows up in his Generation 2 colors. Nice!

And, he has the bandolier. I am trying not to let that re-open wounds from BotCon 2010.....



Bonus review of the back cover: The back cover is an ad for a hardcover compilation of "Infestation". The release of this *hardcover* is clearly intended to whore for the sequel. No joke. IDW is publishing a hardcover of a shitty event....to hype the sequel to the shitty event.

Grade: F (I am not so much grading the ad as I am the decisions and ethics behind it.)


Dom
-kind of offended by the ad.

[Dominic]

And correct me if I am wrong, but weren't Roche or Roberts in on a fanfic graphic novella where a G2 coloured Sideswipe showed up in much the same role as here?

it woudl have been released at a UK convention, ~10 years ago.

Dom
-notes that it is not wholly clear who survived the last issue either....gonna assume everybody made it.