IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

The modern comics universe has had such a different take on G1, one that's significantly represented by the Generations toys, so they share a forum. A modern take on a Real Cybertronian Hero. Currently starring Generations toys, IDW "The Transformers" comics, MTMTE, TF vs GI Joe, and Windblade. Oh wait, and now Skybound, wheee!
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Sparky Prime
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Sparky Prime »

Shockwave wrote:Menasor did show in CW. But, the topic was whether or not IDW was going to address the subject of Combiner personalities and Monstructor still counts as an example of when they've already done that.
I think the subject is more along the lines of exploring the combiner personalities and the effects merging has had on the individual components. We've seen a degree of this with the Constructions and Prowl in-particular, but not so much any of the other combiners.
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Dominic
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Dominic »

Flipped through today' issue at the comics shop. It looks like Barber was saving the "merged mind" dynamics. Shame on us for being impatient. (Comics require patience now.)

There are some interesting points, even stuff I would give Barber credit for (such as the idea that the merge forms are truly combinations of, and thus distinct from, the components).

But, the practical outcome of this arc
Spoiler
seems to be that Prowl is a traditional Autobot and that there is once again a Devastator consisting of 6 green construction vehicles.
The developments
Spoiler
with Prowl and his apparent change of mind
during
Spoiler
the mental conversation with
Optimus is
Spoiler
to be expected
. And, it looks like
Spoiler
Devastator is more or less
back. All that is really left is
Spoiler
some explication about Scrapper's mind being imprinted on Scoop
during the combination process. (And, this issue
Spoiler
makes me less interested in that Japanese recolour of Scoop.
)


Not terribly sorry that I have dropped this book. "Transformers: Back the Way it Was"
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Sparky Prime
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Sparky Prime »

It was nice to get a bit of an inside view of how Optimus Maximus' mind came together from the individuals. Although I wouldn't exactly say it's impatient to have wanted to see that earlier in the run and explored a bit more than it was. Not to mention, see some of that for the other characters as well. Menasor in-particular I'd have liked to see, with how the Stunticons don't really mesh together all that well. Although you wouldn't now that from this book. Or did the Enigma somehow change them? See, there is so much more they could have done with that. Speaking of which, what happened to the Enigma? Last we saw Rattrap used it to make Optimus Maximus, but there's no mention of what he did with it after that. Bit surprised
Spoiler
Swindle dies
. I was still hoping we might get to see
Spoiler
Bruticus
show up at some point in the future. Guess we still could, but not with the original 5 at this point...

Good to see some of the other colonies once again and familiar faces. It'll be interesting to see what develops out of that.
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Dominic
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Dominic »

As is typical of events, the most important (or discussion worthy) stuff happens at the end.

I want to be more excited about the colonies than I am. If Barber's current run was not so "generic comicbook", I would likely be more interested.

On a stupid fanboy level, I did
Spoiler
like seeing Knock-Out on Velocitron. No good reason, Knock-Out
is simply
Spoiler
a character that
I like. I am of two minds about the design.
Spoiler
On the one hand,
Earth-ish modes
Spoiler
for non-Earth characters do not make sense. On the other,
they are consistent with characters
Spoiler
from Velocitron.

I am not sure that
Spoiler
Swindle is dead.
Look at the scene. Rattrap
Spoiler
is the one who callls it
and he
Spoiler
has incentive to lie
beyond
Spoiler
his basic temperment.
And, being
Spoiler
badly injured
would be on-page justification for
Spoiler
rebuilding Swindle as a part of
the rumoured/anticpated
Spoiler
Bruticus.
It was nice to get a bit of an inside view of how Optimus Maximus' mind came together from the individuals. Although I wouldn't exactly say it's impatient to have wanted to see that earlier in the run and explored a bit more than it was
How many astral plane conversations does the arc really need though? The
Spoiler
scene with Optimus, Prowl et al
was the important one,
Spoiler
showing both how combiner minds work and resolving
(however abruptly)
Spoiler
questions about Prowl's motives and morals.
In terms of pacing, it makes more sense to have that one at the end.



The art is terrible. In places, it looks like a fan book trying to dupe the style of "More then Meets the Eye" (and I am not a huge fan of the art from that book either).
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Sparky Prime
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Sparky Prime »

Dominic wrote:I am not sure that
Spoiler
Swindle is dead.
Look at the scene. Rattrap
Spoiler
is the one who callls it
and he
Spoiler
has incentive to lie
beyond
Spoiler
his basic temperment.
And, being
Spoiler
badly injured
would be on-page justification for
Spoiler
rebuilding Swindle as a part of
the rumoured/anticpated
Spoiler
Bruticus.
I suppose, but I really don't see any incentive for
Spoiler
Rattrap to lie about Swindle being dead
. I mean, how would that benefit him? Seems to me, he'd actually benefit more from him being out of the picture as both are the shady dealer types.
How many astral plane conversations does the arc really need though? The
Spoiler
scene with Optimus, Prowl et al
was the important one,
Spoiler
showing both how combiner minds work and resolving
(however abruptly)
Spoiler
questions about Prowl's motives and morals.
In terms of pacing, it makes more sense to have that one at the end.
Who says it'd need to be told from an astral plane perspective? The book could have used a bit more focus on the characters for which this event was named for. I'd agree it makes sense to have that particular one at the end, considering Optimus is the new combiner introduced in this story, and it helped
Spoiler
Prowl understand the others finally
, but there was no reason to hold off on developing the other combiners as characters.
The art is terrible. In places, it looks like a fan book trying to dupe the style of "More then Meets the Eye" (and I am not a huge fan of the art from that book either).
I love Milne's work on MTMTE personally. Really, I'd say he's the best TF artist IDW has. And I'd have to say this issue was an improvement over Ramondelli's art, but yeah, still not the best IDW has to offer.
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Dominic
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Dominic »

Astral plain or not, how many scenes of combiner-components talking would the arc need? Barber just saved the example for the end.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Sparky Prime »

Dominic wrote:Astral plain or not, how many scenes of combiner-components talking would the arc need? Barber just saved the example for the end.
Woohoo, 1 example at the end of a 6 part storyline (counting the opening salvo) with 4 other combiners that hardly got any characterization at all... Look, I'm not saying Barber should have bogged down the whole arc with it, but at least SOME characterization for the others would have been preferred. Particularly Defensor as he was just introduced in this story, while Superion and Menasor have each only shown up once before and thus have little or no development either.
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by andersonh1 »

I'm not spoiler tagging everything. If you haven't read the book, skip my post.






Read part 6 last night. I did find the depiction of the conversation between Prowl, Optimus and the others interesting, because I can't remember the mental state of a combiner having been depicted in that way before. I hope the idea of thoughts and attitudes bleeding over from one character into another is explored a bit. Yeah, Prowl has his moment of clarity ("I finally understand" he says), but there's more story to be mined from what's happened to all these characters.

The glimpses of the different colonies were fun. Tigatron and Airrazor turn up of course, but I'm more interested in seeing Obsidian, a character I've used extensively back when I was making photocomics over on TFW2005. He's got a lot of potential as an antagonist or villain, so I hope it's not wasted.

Swindle certainly seems to be dead. Given how hard these guys are to kill, he could just be in stasis lock or otherwise incapacitated. I thought I was looking at Animated Swindle a couple of times, given the art style of the book, which felt odd.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. I think it's added some much needed new elements to IDW Transformers. The storyline building up to Combiner Wars was probably too long, but once we got to the story proper things moved along very nicely.
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Dominic »

I get the impression that Prowl is going back to "good guy spec" and any baggage the other characters have will just be ignored. (Ironhide was set right back to being "teh Ironhide" after "Dark Cybetron". And, aside form the back-written idiocy attached to the Mirage "Spotlight" issue, it is likely he is going to be a stock Autobot again. And, Sunstreaker? What about him?)

This would not annoy me so much if the characters were changing, rather than being changed back.
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Re: IDW "Combiner Wars" comic discussion and speculation

Post by Sparky Prime »

Dominic wrote:And, aside form the back-written idiocy attached to the Mirage "Spotlight" issue, it is likely he is going to be a stock Autobot again.
When has Mirage not been a stock Autobot in the IDW universe? Despite being accused of being the traitor in AHM, he's always been shown to be a loyal Autobot. Save for the Spotlight issue, which didn't actually tie into anything until now.
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