Transformers - ongoing series

[Shockwave]

Swoop wasn't killed, he fell into a lake and was knocked offline. The Autobots searched but couldn't find him. A human, Dr. Morris found him and built a machine to control him and that sparked the Dinobot Hunt.

I've typically been one of Furman's biggest supporters. Sure, he's had some misses, but I remain a fan to this day. Although I'm more of a fan of his earlier stuff. I don't think he necessarily got lazy, I think he just had an idea with Unicron that he just couldn't let go and kept trying to tell and the fandom got sick of it. Pure and simple. That's not lazy, that's failure.

[Sydew]

There really are writers that just lose it, that ability to create great stories. Either they dry up the well of creativity they have or just figure they already made their bed and lie in it. That's what I believe happened to Furman. Now is this something that will happen to Costa? I really don't know, but I do believe that if it happens to him it won't be for the time being, I doubt it will happen before he finishes this story of TF.

[Onslaught Six]

Furman did started knocking them down before IDW told him to get crackin'. He did not even show all 6 of the stages.

Don't pull that card again, Dom. I'm convinced Furman was *never* going to do that. The phases and all that crap was only there to show that Megs was going to break it.

I've typically been one of Furman's biggest supporters. Sure, he's had some misses, but I remain a fan to this day. Although I'm more of a fan of his earlier stuff. I don't think he necessarily got lazy, I think he just had an idea with Unicron that he just couldn't let go and kept trying to tell and the fandom got sick of it. Pure and simple. That's not lazy, that's failure.

There is also the strong possibility that these kind of things were pushed onto Furman again and again. I'm sure he didn't particularly want to write Armada Unicron into the story (although Galvatron and the boys were certainly his, or some other DW crackpot's, idea, and probably wouldn't have shown up if not for Furman being the writer) and for all we know he never wanted to do BW in the first place. (Seriously, what a bad move. He wrote all of one episode of the series, and even most of that surely was planned by Bob 'n' Larry.)

[Dominic]

That fact that Furman did not even bother to fully show the status quo of a brand new series shows how lazy he has gotten.

You are probably right in saying that he had no particular need to write the "Armada" comic. But, I was complaining about him puffing up his work on those first two forgettable issues.

Now is this something that will happen to Costa? I really don't know, but I do believe that if it happens to him it won't be for the time being, I doubt it will happen before he finishes this story of TF.

True enough. But, plenty of writers also dodge the bullet entirely. Costa might also be one of those guys.

Dom
-so, Costa has 5 years of comics planned? Damn.

[Shockwave]

Fully showing all six stages would have been boring. It's too much build up. Nobody wants to read about the status quo, even if it's the status quo about giant shapeshifting robots. I mean nobody wants to see the boring day in the life of Starscream. Where he gets up, has some energon, runs himself through a carwash (or what ever a walking jet uses to shower) then goes to the command center to harass Megatron for a while. The interesting story is where something other than the status quo happens which is why most stories start there and are about the unusual events that shake up the status quo.

[Dominic]

Call me crazy, but I am thinking that an all new status quo about giant robots would be pretty interesting. The 6 stages would have been plenty interesting.

Dom
-but, at least Furman did not get to use Unicron.

[Shockwave]

As it was, the two or three stages we got felt like too much build up. I read the -ation books waiting for some sort of big payoff. It was all just build up and it was too much of it. Devastation where the status quo was abandoned is finally where it actually started to get interesting and was a read beyond simply "here's more characters about to stuff".

[Dominic]

It would take more writing that Furman was willing to do. But, false-flag attacks can make for good stories.


Dom
-but Sixshot is so much cooler.

[Shockwave]

Or maybe he just didn't want to bore the shit out of his audience. I mean, calling him lazy is borderline to attacking him personally. Again, I'm not going to assume he's lazy just because he either A: has an idea that kept getting cancelled, or 2: didn't want to bore the shit out of everyone by showing the day to day mundanities of the mighty Decepticon Empire.

Like O6 said, I think we've already hashed this debate out and the end result was that you wanted to see more of the set up while the rest of us were tired of waiting, IIRC.

So yeah, all of that and all I mean is that calling Furman lazy is a weak argument at best and an awfully huge assumption.

[Sparky Prime]

As it was, the two or three stages we got felt like too much build up.

Yeah, I remember a lot of fans were complaining about how slow the story was as a result of the build up, and were dropping the title because they wanted more action out of it. I'd agree with you and O6, Furman wasn't being lazy for not showing all 6 stages of the Infiltration Protocol. The story needed to pick up the pace, and it makes sense that Furman would build up the protocol to make it a big deal for when Megatron abandoned it to step things up.