Comics are awesome.

[Onslaught Six]

What, zombie Transformers don't work? We all read that Kup issue. Hell, I'd say that's why Roche's drawing it.

I might buy the eventual trade of this, and it's good that it's at least being contained within its own mini-series books as opposed to contaminating the main books. I took a read through some of my old Shadowman books, and damn it, going to the next issue to see some stupid unrelated crossover happening is a bitch. (Or even, in the case of the one crossover, a *relevant* one! The entire thing was the fighting between Shadowman and Master Daque! And most of it doesn't even take place in Shadowman's comic!)

That said, I hope this doesn't become the norm. Please, IDW: Make this a one-time thing.

[138 Scourge]

What, zombie Transformers don't work? We all read that Kup issue. Hell, I'd say that's why Roche's drawing it.

Nah, that's all well and good. Not only the Kup issue, but that kickass episode with the Dweller in Darkness? Yeah, zombie Transformers are just fine.

But this appears to be Transformers vs. Zombies. Like, human zombies versus Transformers. And I guess other zombie robots.

It's the human-zombie thing infecting robots that seems crazy to me. But I think it's crazy in the good way.

So how would a trade of this work, y'think? Like, the whole thing in one book? That'd be...between eight and ten issues, I think. That'd be a decent-sized book, but it'd be nice to have the whole thing in one volume.

[Shockwave]

I'm in. I like robots. I like Zombies. I especially like seeing continuities crossover so really for me, there's nothing here that I don't like.

As for organics infecting technology, those bioneural gelpacks on Voyager caught an organic virus once so it's not impossible for organics to affect technology.

Also, veering off topic slightly (it is still about comics) but does anyone here buy individual issues to keep mint and then buy the trades to read? Or vice versa? Right now, I generally stick to individual issues, but if I have said issues in a trade, I'll read that instead of the individual ones in the interest of keeping them in better condition.

[Dominic]

That cross-over is gonna blow. Mark my words. Why the hell do we need "vapid trend story....but now with Transformers"? I am pretty sure zombies stopped being "cool", (as if they were not completely retarded to begin with), when "Star Wars" did a zombie book.

The worst part is that most Trekkies and Joe fans are going to actively dislike this series. The fact it is going to happen in context is *not* going to help it. The Joe segment is pretty much being set up to fail, (and it damned well should), by the lack of a known creator team.

I really want to be happy about Abnett writing TF again. But, between the utterly retarded premise, and the fact that I *know* Abnett is not above idiot hackery to make a quick buck, I have no reason to expect this to be anything other than a train-wreck.

I am curious as to how/why Marvel let this happen. As far as I know, Abnett's contract with them is exclusive, but for GW being grandfathered in.

I am also more than a bit annoyed that Abnett has time to write this crap, but has still not finished "Prospero Burns".


As far as Trekkie's question goes, I tend to buy both compilations and single issues. I am more interested in keeping the compilations in good shape, as they are easier to store/display. And, they tend to look better on shelves. Of course, money and space make this prohibitive, meaning when I purge, I often dispose of redundant copies of things unless they *really* warrant multiple copies.


Dom
-wonders if this will be worse than "Countdown".

[Onslaught Six]

So I read that this is in canon for everything. Now *that's* a dumb move.

Also, it's going to end up with Galvatron becoming supra-powerful with Zombie Energy or something retarded like that. I'm sure Scourge is already making a mess in his pants.

[Shockwave]

Yes, but the "train wreck" is the whole point of a story like this. It's basically the AM Thundercracker of comics. It's so fantastically awful that it's awesome. The premise is so ridiculous that, quite frankly, if I get anything less than a train wreck, I'm going to be really disappointed. I mean, let's face it, "Zombie robot apacolypse" isn't exactly Shakespear over here.

My reading the compilations vs. the individual issues comes from having the UK issues of TF. I'd rather get greasy fingerprints on the Titan compilation than the original issues so I've pretty much taken that approach with all of my comics.

[Onslaught Six]

Honestly, I've only ever read trades in any serious capacity. The only book I ever considered buying floppies of was Atomic Robo, and that seems to be going pretty damn well without my help.

As for the trainwreck appeal...see, I can understand that. I *like* that. But only if it's an *isolated* trainwreck. I like AM Thundy because he's an obscure powerup that will *never ever* be used. If AM Thundy ever actually turns up in, say, IDW's main comic, I will be flat-out pissed.

I didn't mind this thing when I thought it was going to be isolated--in fact, I embraced it. But this'll actually *affect* the main book? Yeah. Fuck that. That means IDW is falling into the same trappings as other comics companies and it's starting to piss me off.

[Dominic]

O6 nailed it. This is IDW's piss-poor attempt to cash in on a dying trend. (Again, zombies stopped being kewl when SW jumped on the band wagon. And, the idea was *never* good unto itself.) Even if IDW''s editors think this is a good idea, I am at a loss for how the various license owners would be on board for it.

I seriously doubt that zombie fanboys are going to start picking up any of the main books consistently as a result of this idotic cross-over. If nothing else, the TF and "GI Joe" chapters are not even written by the regular creative teams. Abnett fans may follow him in for a few issues. But, they will follow him right back out. (And, they may not even follow him in to begin with.) Joe fans are *not* going to like this.

In fact, having this story as part of continuity is exactly the kind of thing they are likely to complain about. Trek fans may well riot. IDW might not even get a sudden spike in sales.


As far as back issues go, it is hard enough to get them in good condition that it is just easier to have a consistent run in compilation form.


Dom
-will it be worse than "Countdown"? Stay tuned!

[Shockwave]

I dunno, as O6 pointed out, Galvy and the post 86 movie Cons have had the whole "zombie" think going on from the start and that was at least 2 years ago. And let's face it, none of them has had much effect on the main book. Ooh Galvy knocked around Sideswipe in one issue and Cyke bullied a couple of Autobot pretenders but other than that they haven't really done much and I expect that this will just tie into that. In fact, the concept of them coming from a "dead" universe means they could have come from whatever universe has the zombie virus to begin with. Long story short: I don't really see this having a lasting impact on the main book.

[138 Scourge]

I'm sure Scourge is already making a mess in his pants.

Hey, it happens to everyone now and again. Now what's this about some comics?

Now with the obligatory dumbass joke outta the way...

Okay, like Shocky said, Galvatron's already crazy powered-up with extradimensional energy, so if he gets zombie-powered or whatever, no real big difference. But if this zombie infection can pass to machines in this story, then maybe he winds up as zombie Galvatron? Now that I could kind of get behind.

As for the licensed books having this in canon, I don't see that being that big of a problem. In Star Trek, later on, Kirk might say something like "Spock, remember when we found that planet with the monsters that looked like crazy dead people?" They don't need to know they're extradimensional, just that there's a planet with some crazy-ass monsters runnning around. The Ghostbusters probably have extradimensional undead threats showing up all the time, no biggie for them. The Transformers crossover...a little more of a stretch, I'm wary of otherdimensional stuff in my giant robots, but it's not like "Robot Zombies from Dimension X" is that much of a stretch from "Cars that are Space Robots". And the G.I. Joe crossover...yeah, that's gonna be a mess. Of course, I like Cobra-La, so space zombies doesn't seem so unreasonable in that context.

Do I think this crossover might be half-decent? Why yes, yes I do. The idea is just ridiculous, but the thing is to make the idea work out well and be entertaining. Things like "What if the Punisher was a Frankenstein?" sound outright stupid when put like that, but the execution was pretty much rad. Or from an earlier Punisher comic: "What if the Punisher fought Barbarian Aliens while wearing an artificial Venom suit?" Again, could've been pants-on-head retarded, but it worked out REALLY well. It occurs to me that the "WildCATS/Aliens" crossover was in canon, and that seemed to work out okay. Well, not for the people in Stormwatch, they mostly died, but it was an in-continuity crossover that didn't negatively affect either franchise.

I mean, let's face it, "Zombie robot apacolypse" isn't exactly Shakespear over here.

Shakespeare had a hell of a way with a turn of phrase and all, but his stories were made for the average chump of his time, and were full of dirty jokes and fight scenes. So it's like, when I watched the DiCaprio/Danes "Romeo and Juliet", I'm okay with it because Shakespeare would've damn well had gunfights and exploding gas stations if he'd had guns, gas stations, or explosions to work with. So if zombie robots were a concept back then, then Shakespeare may well have made really well-written zombie robot plays.

O6 nailed it. This is IDW's piss-poor attempt to cash in on a dying trend. (

Heh, a dying zombie trend. Trying to resurrect it, are they?

Now, everything I've said to defend this thing is on pure entertainment value. As for sales? Yeah, Dom's probably right on this one. The bulk of the G.I. Joe audience is probably gonna avoid this thing because Space Zombies aren't hard-edged gritty realism like Cobra stealing the parts for a damn teleporter or weather machine. No idea how the Trek fans or Ghostbusters comic audience are gonna react, and as for the Transformers audience? Man, Nick Roche is drawing this, I don't think sales there will be a problem. It's probably a good idea to make it a bunch of mini-series, so people don't drop the main books, but this seems like a weird-ass idea from a financial perspective.