Transformers - ongoing series

[Gomess]

I would like to see a TF series with a *big* human cast (Energon couldn't really hold my attention 'cos of the animation style). Watched some Masterforce last night, really missed some of the things it did. The episode where Wilder tries to convince his old gangster friend to join the Decepticons with him, in particular. I used to get bored by human drama in TF, but now if anything I'm bored with the robot drama. =/

[Onslaught Six]

Not that many have had three kids though. Armada started with three and moved up to five partway through

Actually, they kept meaning to write Billy and Fred out, but they just kept...forgetting.

[Dominic]

There are two problems with human characters in TF.

The first is that most of them are worthless. Even "Last Stand of the Wreckers" had this problem. Aside form a thematically complimentry name, Verity did not bring much to the table. And, they justified her presence by having her do the idiot kid thing of "sneaking off with the heroes to have an adventure".

The second problem with human characters is that many fans pitch fits at their mere presence in a story, even if the human characters are necessary. Complaints about the humans can over-shadow legitimate discussion of the comic/cartoon in question.


Dom
-and do not dare to point out that the humans might have a point in killing TFs. Oh no.

[Gomess]

Complaints about the humans can over-shadow legitimate discussion of the comic/cartoon in question.

Example...? Granted, I haven't actually seen all of them, but even the live-action movies didn't suffer from this kind of discourse whenever I've discussed them. Sam and Mikaela were just characters, like Bonecrusher or Jazz or whoever. Maybe I don't talk to the right people? I honestly don't think I've *ever* met a TF fan who HATES DA HUMAN CHARACTERS OMG

[Dominic]

Yeah, you ain't going to the right forums.

I see it with the comics, and to a less extent the cartoons. More fans than you might want to think about never quite outgrew the stage they were at when they were 8 or so, and get mad when TF is not simply "giant robots doing stuff cuz robots and stuff am awsum!" They also need, like little kids, to see the good guys doing stuff because the bad guys are not as good. "Infiltration" took more than its share of heat for the former, AHM took heat for the latter.



Dom
-and of course, the Marvel comic...

[Shockwave]

I can see how the complaints with Infiltration might come across that way buuuuuuut... there is a hell of a lot more human stuff happening in those six issues and not much robots. And it's not cool human stuff like what we've gotten with the ongoing it's boring as shit stupid human stuff. Way too drawn out. So the complaint isn't "too many humans" it's "Alright, we get it, there's humans, get to the damned robots already!"

[Gomess]

Heh, so weird. All the kids I knew preferred the Decepticons to the Autobots. We acknowledged the Autobots as necessary, but the Decepticons were so much cooler! ...to paraphrase Clouder from Masterforce. =p

Mm, I guess it's understandable to want to keep TF "the same as it was when we were kids", except for the "we" part. It needs to be appropriate to today's kids. But I realise that's a common complaint about the franchise as a whole, particularly from smarks like Dom and myself.

[Dominic]

The problem is that that "just getting to robots" assumes that TF can only be a showcase for giant robots, and that a writer cannot try something experimental or (*horror*) marginally sophisticated. I can only imagineh howling and bitching that would ensue if Furman's famous initial run on the US comics happened in modern times.

I am unsure why giant robots and intelligent/creative plotting need to be exclusive from one another.

Similarly, I do not understand why Hasbro grown human characters are without merit. (It almost seems to be a necessity.)

"Ah, what the hell, Grimlock is leader again? Fuck this shit. I want Prime back because Prime is supposed to be the leader!"

Or, you could write your own complaint about any number of other plot-points.

"Bludgeon sucks. If they do not bring back Megatron soon, I might just save myself a dollar a month."

Oh, hey, here is a good one!

Bring back Budiansky and Trimpe, or maybe Macchio. They are the only one's who can properly write "Transformers"!

Dom
-never thought Gomess would use a pro-wrestling term, ever.

[Gomess]

never thought Gomess would use a pro-wrestling term, ever.

Oh it's true. It's damn true.

[Shockwave]

Infiltration # 4,5,6: Yeah, more of the same stuff. Nothing really happens until issue 5. I mean seriously? Ratchet and some kids get chased around by Decepticons for 4 straight issues? I'm sorry, but that's four wasted issues. At most, that chase should have been wrapped by the end of issue 0. Issue 5 Starscream has broken the protocol to mine Ore 13, the pure Energon that was seeded by Shockwave millions of years ago (of course we didn't know this at this point). Megatron shows up at the end of issue 4 and spends the next two issues kicking every Earthbound Decepticon's ass. The Autobots just sit by eating popcorn and even when the Decepticons notice they're like "whoawhoawhoa, we don't wanna get involved we're just here to watch". And the Decepticons let them! In sumation, this really shouldn't have been stretched out to the seven issue arc that it was. I can't help wondering if IDW told Furman to stretch it out so that they could split it up into three ~six issue arcs.

Grade: D-. Way more stretched out than it should have been.