Ironhide mini-series

[Dominic]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... disp=table

If there is one thing I still like about "War Within" it is that it set the precedent for the character models to be be changed. Note how Prime combined elements of "war Withing" and "Classics".

Story wise, this looks to be a flash-back to the early years.

Dom
-thought Ironhide's death was a stunt with no ramifications actually.

[andersonh1]

-thought Ironhide's death was a stunt with no ramifications actually.

Storywise, it's used as the defining moment that causes Prime to abdicate and turn himself in to the humans, leading to the break-up of the Autobots into various factions. Guilt over Ironhide's death also plays a part in Spike's changing attitude towards Autobots in general. It may well have been a publicity stunt, but it has been used to good effect in the narrative.

I'm still debating this mini-series. I'll give it a shot, but it better be higher quality than the Bumblebee mini-series was.

[Onslaught Six]

I get the feeling Windcharger is thrown in specifically since he's captured in the ongoing.

"Alone? That's suicide."
"Don't worry, I don't die in this continuity yet."

Coller's art is good. It's not spectacular or mindblowing, but it's more than adequate, at the least.

If I have one problem with changing character models, it's that sometimes I just plain have no idea who some guys are supposed to be. Who're the big Decepticons behind Soundwave? Also, I recognize the guy with the green face but have no idea who it is. It can't be Groove, he's not green.

[Dominic]

Coller's done enough covers that I think he deserves a series at this point. (The fact he is local, meaning autographs are a real possibility, does not hurt either.)

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

Oh, I'm not knocking it at all. It's well done enough that I didn't even know most of the AHM covers were him and not Guidi.

[andersonh1]

Ironhide #1

I wasn’t sure whether or not I was going to buy this series at first. As much as I like the character of Ironhide, he’s dead in the monthly series, which meant that this mini-series looked like a story set in the past. I didn’t know how relevant it would be to the main plot, or how interesting it would be since the fate of characters in the story wasn’t in doubt. But I took a chance, and the issue surprised me with a few curveballs.

After an opening page set on present-day Cybertron, the story does indeed shift to the past, millions of years ago not long after Optimus becomes Prime. There’s a firefight in the streets of a Cybertronian city to keep the Decepticons from advancing and taking the city. A number of characters make appearances, and it’s established that Ironhide is Prime’s bodyguard.

The Autobots win the fight, and celebrate afterwards. In a possible nod to War Within, an assassin attempts to kill Prime, and Ironhide throws himself in front of the shot,

Spoiler

taking a hit almost identical to the one he took in ongoing #1. And then he wakes up on present day Cybertron, thanking Ratchet for patching him up, and wondering where everyone is. The next issue promo shows him fighting the Swarm.

So what in the world is going on here? I don’t really know… it could be any number of things. There are all sorts of possibilities here, and I don’t really have enough clues to make a guess at this point. Time travel? The Ironhide on Earth was a fake? Alternate universe? Hopefully it’s more creative than any of these standard sci-fi options, but there’s no way to know. In the meantime, I’m intrigued by this story twist that I was not expecting.

I’m glad I bought the issue.

Overall: Not what I expected, story-wise, and in a good way. My ambivalence about the series helped me avoid spoilers, leaving me pleasantly surprised when I actually read the book. Casey Coller’s art is very good as well. I’d recommend the series.

[Dominic]

It could be a "life flashing before his eyes" thing. And, when yo say "present" is it "present relative to this particular series" or "or present relative to the main book"?

Him fighting the Swarm means nothing, as the Swarm had been around for a while.


Dom
-needs to wrap up finals and read some comics.

[andersonh1]

It could be a "life flashing before his eyes" thing. And, when yo say "present" is it "present relative to this particular series" or "or present relative to the main book"?

Him fighting the Swarm means nothing, as the Swarm had been around for a while.

I don't have the book in front of me, but I'm pretty sure that the book says "present day" on the splash page. I'm assuming it is present day relative to the ongoing series, but it's certainly possible that it's not. It could be set during All Hail Megatron for all I know. That would be a fun way for Costa to mess with the reader's mind.

[BWprowl]

The last page of the comic shows Ironhide on the barren, 'modern' Cybertron, and the caption claims it's "Today". I take that to mean that it somehow takes place during the Ongoing, but it really could be anything. Only time will tell.

I quite liked this issue. It was almost all flashback, with the 'real' story apparently starting up in the next issue, but I have a feeling that snippets of this story set in the past are going to be important. Ironhide's parallel chest shots certainly seem ominous.

I also enjoyed seeing a younger, greener Optimus Prime. He's a lot less jaded than he seems in the Ongoing, though you can see shades of that personality starting to develop. It's a unique take on a long-established character.

While the results have been mixed so far, I rather approve of IDW's current design of the ongoing book with character-focused mini-series weaving in and out of it. It lets the brand keep a constant focal point, but they can mess around with other ideas at the same time. While it would run the risk of making IDW's TF even more like the Big 2, I wouldn't mind seeing a whole 'Universe' of TF books grow out of this model.

[Dominic]

You know what the best part of those abstract type question Prowl brings up is? We can talk about the book even if we all have not read it. (So sue me. I needed to sleep before coming to work this morning.)

I can see what you are saying about having the ongoing paired with related mini-series. But, part of me wonders if that, combined with the tone/content of the books, makes the franchise less accessible. AHM is not something a kid could just pick up and read, even if they had the whole thing in front of them. Hell, it was written over the heads of some adults. The same could be said, arguably more so, of Costa's run. (Yeah, seeing Prime admit that that TFs are mentally stunted is interesting. But, will kids or parents get it?) I was going through some comics I got doubles of, and looking to pass the on to a kid. I flinched with "Wreckers", but passed them along anyway. Even that is pushing it though.

The franchise is plenty accessible. But, are the comics? And, does having more than one related book, (instead of several unrelated), make this worse?


Dom
-needs to read "Ironhide" with an eye towards figuring out the setting.