TF Views

Dom, actually read it before you say it sucks. I understand your conceptual objections, but a "bad" premise doesn't necessarily equal bad execution. Look at Firefly. It's "western in space" which sounds like it should suck fantastically, but it kicks huge amounts of ass. Have you ever seen ads for a movie that you thought would suck and then you see it and it actually kicks ass? I'm just saying keep an open mind. Don't get me wrong, you make legitimate concerns, but don't let those concerns cause you to have a preset bias towards hating it before you've even read it.

As for smaller comic companies having cross overs, they have smaller distributions and therefore smaller reader/fan base. So if a title is doing poorly, it's easier for them to try to drum up support for it by crossing over with their more popular books. Most of the time it probably doesn't do any wonders for the story, but from a business standpoint it makes sense. Larger companies like Marvel and DC could conceptually get away from crossover books, having a larger established long time reader/fan base. Therefore, smaller companies need to do it more often to keep interest and sales of their various titles afloat.

I see where you are coming from on that. I will read it before reviewing it. But, idiotic premise aside, this is such a transparent and clumsy money grab.

IDW is having their in-house zombie book cross-over with 4 licensed properties, despite there being no call for such a cross-over and the cross-over making no sense. IDW admits that the Joe cross-over is a stretch. Aside from the Trek book, none fo the cross-overs are written by the regular creative teams. Abnett will bring in readers for this...maybe. (I know plenty of Abnett fans who avoid certain projects that just look bad.)

This book is a bad idea on so many levels. All it is likely to succeed at is setting the precedent that theorectically isolated properties can be dragged into intrusive "events" or cross-overs. Did you read comics, especially Marvel during the 90? Apparently IDW did not, because they have not learned the lessons.


In other news, I bailed on a class early tonight, so I might be able to happily read my Bendis "New Avengers" tonight.


Dom
-now, to file a complaint with a Dean.

I didn't read comics in the 90's. The only thing I read back then was G2 and some Trek stuff. I avoided cape and tights books on the premise that most had been around so long that there would be no point in trying to backtrack and get caught up on a story that's potentially 40+ years old. I mean, I like Superman, but when Action Comics, the first book that had the character (and arguably his primary book) is up to issue 890something, getting back issues is problematic at best if not downright impossible and at the very least EXTREMELY expensive in some cases. So yeah, unless it was a Trek or TF book that was starting at the time I didn't really bother. Oh and I hated Spawn. And still do. And McFarlane.

Consider yourself lucky for having missed comics in the 90s. "90s Marvel" is (rightly) a short-hand term for "damned near unreadably bad comics". There were some good bits in the 90s. But, pretty much every main book at Marvel had a solid run of terrible writing and art. "Hulk" and "Thor" had some fo the more memorable bad moments, "Spiderman" had what most consider to be the worst, and most damaging, run. (Marvel editors have since gone on record regarding the "Spiderman" run.)

None of the major comics that I know of follow the "For Better or Worse" model of strict linear story-telling. "Spawn", for all its flaws, comes the closest. Generally, on need only catch up on ~10 years worth of comics. And, that is an extremely high estimate. Realistically, one need only read 2 or 3 years worth.


Dom
-managed to crash before reading anything other than "Transformers" last night.

Is it strange that I feel as though I'm just waiting for IDW to lose the Transformers license and TF comics to go away for a while? Is it strange that I'm kind of looking forward to that?

Mako Crab wrote:Is it strange that I feel as though I'm just waiting for IDW to lose the Transformers license and TF comics to go away for a while? Is it strange that I'm kind of looking forward to that?

It's not going to happen. Unlike Dreamwave, IDW is actually a competant company. Well, I mean, in terms of their quality of work? That's debatable no matter what you think. But they pay their employees and artists and appear to make enough to continue making the books.

Even if IDW lost the license, or the contract expired, Hasbro would turn right around and sell it to someone else. Or they'd go ahead and get crazy and start their own comics division or something stupid like that. Hasbro knows they can get some degree of money from TF comics, so they'll continue to make them no matter what they have to do until it stops being profitable.

Anyway, I've no problem with what they're doing. Well, the main book's kind of ehhn, and this crossover is kind of WTF, but everything else is pretty good. I'm glad McCarthy is still writing and stuff, y'know?

I am really into the ongoing actually. It is damned good series. I was skeptical of Costa at first. (Never trust a man whose last name ends in a vowel....like the audible "e" at the end of "Guglieme".) But, damn, that is a good book, even without Figueroa's art.

That said, I think I can see the first part of Crab'sw post. This kind of cross-over, and some of IDW's other recent moves, smack of desperation.


Dom
-is skipping movie comics....

New Avengers #5:
While the pacing is not bad at a page by page level, it is hard to say if there is much going on besides Bendis moving the pieces around. And, it is not entirely clear why or where those pieces are boing moved. The text story in the back focuses on the "Cap 'n Criminals" era, following the first major shake-up of the Avengers roster. (This was the first time that none of the original Avengers were in the book. Bendis makes some in-context reference to what were likely real-world complaints about that.) All in all, not a bad issue. But, nothing really demands this book be read.
Grade: C


GI Joe Origins #20:
IDW's Cobra focused books tend to be more interesting than the regular Joe-focused books. While costa plays up the Cobra-cult angle over in the "Cobra" series, this arc plays up the practical selection and recruiting angle. It does not necessarily over-write Max Brooks's paint by numbers effort in the last issue of "Hearts and Minds", but it is much more interesting. Like msot current "GI Joe", this issue is not necessarily kid friendly, which may not be good in the long run.
Grade: C


Dom
-is extremely tired.

Currently the most interesting thing about TF ongoing for me is Thundercracker. Nothing else is really grabbing my attention.

I actually like the direction this taking. It's putting the Transformers into a situation that we haven't seen before which is one where the attitude "Decepticon! FIRE!!" doesn't work anymore and they're all having to find different ways of dealing with it. I do like the Thundercracker bit. It's the story I've always wanted to see.