The Transformers (IDW, formerly "Robots in Disguise")

[Tigermegatron]

While I haven't bought a IDW TF comic since december 2011. Choas & the all hail bumblebee comics were so awful,they turned me off to IDW TF comics.

I have been reading the 7 page previews on-line. Thus Far nothing impresses me & not enought to reel me back in. similar to the 2011 Choas comics,their's too many words & conversations in the 2012 MTMTE & Rid preview pages. I need action,fight scenes & violence in my TF comics.

I was thinking about buying the TPB's for MTMTE & RID,But I don't think i'm going to. maybe in january 2013,I might buy the TPB's volumes 1 & 2 of MTMTE & Rid.

I'm confident that simon furman's re-generation series will be awesome & i'll be buying this by the TPB volumes.

I gotta know,how did ultra magnus appear in MTMTE issue #7 on cybertron. I thought Ultra magnus joined Rodimus on his ship/space adventure in the RID comic.

[BWprowl]

I gotta know,how did ultra magnus appear in MTMTE issue #7 on cybertron. I thought Ultra magnus joined Rodimus on his ship/space adventure in the RID comic.

He...didn't? MTMTE is the Rodimus/space adventure comic, and that is indeed the one Magnus regularly appears in. RID is the one that takes place on Cybertron with Bumblebee and Metalhawk and Wheeljack and Prowl and all them. Yes, the titles are confusing and easily mixed up and would probably make slightly more sense if they were flipped around.

Anyway Dom, you were right, that's Prowl and Streetwise on the last page, not Ratchet and First Aid. I confused one pair of a primarily white red-crested 1984 Autobot and a similarly-altmode'd Protectobot with another such pair. And you talk about the art in MTMTE.

[Onslaught Six]

their's too many words & conversations in the 2012 MTMTE & Rid preview pages. I need action,fight scenes & violence in my TF comics.

If I just wanted to watch robots punch each other, I'd like the Michael Bay movies a hell of a lot more.

That said, there's plenty of violence in these. They just tend to happen towards the *end* of an issue.

[Dominic]

I am personally still missing Costa. Hell, at this point, I would settle for more of him calling out the fandom for being retards. But, Barber will do for now.

Metalhawk is not supposed to be a nice guy. He is supposed to be an opponent for BB, and to a lesser extent to Starscream. If he was more agreeable, he would not be useful in this comic.

And, it makes sense that he is going to oppose BB and the others, simply on principle.

As for First-Aid and Streetwise, they have completely different robot modes and different colour mapping. Ditto for Prowl and Ratchet.


Dom

[BWprowl]

I am personally still missing Costa. Hell, at this point, I would settle for more of him calling out the fandom for being retards. But, Barber will do for now.

Sorry, Costa’s the new Skir, we probably won’t be seeing him back on the book ever again. It disappoints me too, but I think it pays here to remember that our tastes in TF fiction are not even close to what the majority wants.

Metalhawk is not supposed to be a nice guy. He is supposed to be an opponent for BB, and to a lesser extent to Starscream. If he was more agreeable, he would not be useful in this comic.

I get that he’s going to run contrary to Bumblebee and the others, and that’s fine. That creates interesting political tension and makes that element of this book work. What doesn’t work is when he’s a contrarian asshole for no reason in ways that actively sabotage the unity he’s allegedly working towards (him butting into Bee’s welcoming diplomacy in that second issue was totally uncalled for, and didn’t advance his stated goals one bit), or him taking it beyond political opposition and just *following Bumblebee around* being a dickbag to him, or him selfishly deciding that all his talk about treating everyone fairly regardless of faction/alignment doesn’t matter anymore in the case of Turmoil just because he doesn’t like him. All that just makes him look like a selfish, shallow, contrary asshole, and makes it pretty hard to sympathize with his arm of the population (the neutrals). It makes it seem less like he has a legitimate stake or purpose in the matters, and more like he’s just there to oppose the other characters’ decisions whenever the plot calls for it.

As for First-Aid and Streetwise, they have completely different robot modes and different colour mapping. Ditto for Prowl and Ratchet.

Prowl and Ratchet are both primarily white, boxy guys with red forehead-crests (keep in mind only the upper body and heads are visible in this particular shot), they look pretty damn alike at a glance. First-Aid and Streetwise are both mostly-white little guys with combiner-peg-heads, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what any of the Protectobots’ specific robot modes looked like anyway (I really can’t tell the Aerialbots apart either, save Air Raid since he’s the only black one). This is one my big beefs with the G1 style in general, in that everyone’s just made up of the same dozen or so mix-and-matched elements, and like 75% of the Autobots are all some combination of red, white, and black. It’s one reason I was one of the only people not bugged by the team members switching locations in Costa’s run, since I could hardly tell any of those guys apart in the first place.

[Onslaught Six]

Prowl has a point on the similarities between, uh, Prowl and Ratchet. Once I was photoshopping a cover together of some dudes for a story, and intended to use a photo of a Ratchet toy head. (This was around 2007.) I ended up accidentally using an Alternators Prowl head.

Also, depending on which incarnation of Ratchet you're most familiar with, you might think his helmet should be white. I think Ratchet, and I think, "Red helmet," because of the comics (and it makes him more distinctive--the only other well-known guy with a red helmet I can think of is cartoon Red Alert) while Prowl obviously thinks of Ratchet and thinks "White helmet."

[Shockwave]

I always think of Ratchet with the red helmet too.

Anyways, yeah again I agree with Prowl, Metalhawk is being a dick beyond just "I politically disagree with you". It's like he's personally out to get Bumblebee or something. Having said that, I can kinda excuse the attitude towards Turmoil on the basis that it would be like the difference between giving amnesty to former nazis while not giving amnesty to Hitler himself.

[Tigermegatron]

I Yes, the titles are confusing and easily mixed up and would probably make slightly more sense if they were flipped around.

I just think part of IDW's TF thing is to create confusion.

[Dominic]

Or, IDW could just have one bi-weekly series, or two books with clearly differentiated names. I really hope that IDW does not solve this problem with the compilations they way they did with "GI Joe". I might be willing to buy MtMtE and RiD in one bound volume. But, I will not be happy about it.

As for Prowl and Ratchet, both characters have distinct character models. Prowl has a car hood on his chest, and usually has doors on his shoulders. Ratchet has a windscreen, and more prominent red.

Sorry, Costa’s the new Skir, we probably won’t be seeing him back on the book ever again. It disappoints me too, but I think it pays here to remember that our tastes in TF fiction are not even close to what the majority wants.

Yeah, funny how the guys who pitch "higher" are the ones that the fandom tends to get the most upset by. But, ya know, if the a writer stays within a genre, preferably in the same brand, and does not write to high, then it is okay.

I will forever admire Costa for having the cojones to call out the fantards....on a podcast aimed at that same fan base.


Dom
-still has not read "Smoke and Mirrors".

[Onslaught Six]

They already did separate ones for the first trades of RID and MTMTE, didn't they?

And what Prowl originally said: You can only see their heads!