TF Views

Dominic wrote:How many did it actually save?

They don't tell us exactly. We just see a big crowd of survivors materialize on Earth along with Metroplex. The implication is that they managed to save a majority of the population.

Maybe it is a round-about reference? Maybe Barber just gave a couple of filler characters recognizable names? it probably does not matter.

I still it begs questioning, filler characters or not, if it matters or not... In-story why would they share the same names as Optimus and Megatron?

The implication from Blur's dialogue implies that everyone was saved. Except

Spoiler

himself

. Shockwave's remark about Optimus Primal and Beast Megatron implies that they are working for him rather than under Unicron's thrall as apparently the rest of the Eukarians seemed to be. It should be noted that I have read issue 4, but not issue three since my comic shop apparently either missed it or didn't pull it.

Shockwave wrote:Shockwave's remark about Optimus Primal and Beast Megatron implies that they are working for him rather than under Unicron's thrall as apparently the rest of the Eukarians seemed to be.

There's several different groups of beast-formers. The Eukarians were created from the hot spot on their Titan, Chela. Most of them were killed when Unicron ate their planet. I think only Tigatron and Airazor survived, having been on Cybertron as part of the Council of Worlds. Then we've got two groups that were on ancient Cybertron during the era of the Primes, the Maximal army that now serves Unicron (that left with Onyx/Shockwave on the Nemesis), as well as some "true" beast-formers, like Rhinox. Primal and B.Megatron might be "true" beast-formers as well but I'm not sure on them, since we also saw them shed their shells in the previous issue... Which might mean there are two of them.

Bump and Slide are Eukarians that are on Earth (at least as of Optimus Prime #23). Slide got killed by Slag (I refuse to call him Slug) but Bump is still there.

Shockwave wrote:Bump and Slide are Eukarians that are on Earth (at least as of Optimus Prime #23). Slide got killed by Slag (I refuse to call him Slug) but Bump is still there.

Oh, right, forgot about them. But Slide is from Devisiun. Gimlet was the one from Eukaris that was killed by Slag.

IDW completely arsed up BW, which is pretty impressive considering that the beast-era media was initially the cleanest TF content. But, IDW had to keep picking the scab...

Oh that's right, it was Gimlet. Sparky, you have a VERY good memory, I just read this a few days ago and already forgot who was who lol.

Shockwave wrote:Oh that's right, it was Gimlet. Sparky, you have a VERY good memory, I just read this a few days ago and already forgot who was who lol.

Well considering I'd forgotten about them until you pointed them out...

Dominic wrote:IDW completely arsed up BW, which is pretty impressive considering that the beast-era media was initially the cleanest TF content. But, IDW had to keep picking the scab...

Yeah, I do wish IDW handled BW better than they have. Like you say, it was initially the cleanest of TF content (and arguably the original cartoon still is). Not to mention the popularity of those characters within the fandom. It's disappointing how they've used some of those characters as nothing more than cannon fodder.

It is not just a question of using the characters as cannon fodder. It is a question of IDW not doing anything good with "Beast Wars" in the 10+ years they had the license. At this point, I have to remind myself that BW was good 20+ years ago, because it has been so long since the characters have shown up in anything worth while.

Between Fun Publications and IDW, BW is arguably one of the weakest parts of TF by percentages of content released.



I picked up "Optimus Prime" 22 and 23 over the weekend. Standard tie-in issues. If somebody were reading "Optimus Prime" but did not want to buy in for the main event, they would either have to just push through the last few issues or assume that some other stuff happened off panel. Barber seems to be using these issues to tie off long-running plot threads.

Dominic wrote:It is not just a question of using the characters as cannon fodder. It is a question of IDW not doing anything good with "Beast Wars" in the 10+ years they had the license. At this point, I have to remind myself that BW was good 20+ years ago, because it has been so long since the characters have shown up in anything worth while.

I'd have to disagree with you. "The Gathering" was something good IDW did with BW. It had a lot of potential to tell future stories, and possibly even tie up a few loose ends from the cartoon. Unfortunately, Furman completely wasted that potential with "The Ascending". But, I have to wonder if IDW directed him to wrap it up, since they didn't seem all that interested in doing an ongoing BW title.

Between Fun Publications and IDW, BW is arguably one of the weakest parts of TF by percentages of content released.

I think part of it is that BW was so self contained in the first place. Not that there aren't other avenues they could explore, but it's hard to put something in that setting with out stepping on the story of the cartoon, which set the bar so high in the first place.

I picked up "Optimus Prime" 22 and 23 over the weekend. Standard tie-in issues. If somebody were reading "Optimus Prime" but did not want to buy in for the main event, they would either have to just push through the last few issues or assume that some other stuff happened off panel. Barber seems to be using these issues to tie off long-running plot threads.

Some of this is actually setting up for the Unicron event. Remember, issue 22 had been delayed and takes place before Elonia was destroyed in Unicron #0.