November IDW Transformers comics - Days of Deception

[griffin]

Following on from the Dawn of the Autobots story-arc that finishes in October, the Days of Deception (not Decepticon) begins in November, and this months Previews catalogue gives us some info and comic covers.
(mirrored here for just the Transformers products (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/idw-transformers-solicitations-for-november-2014-181002/))

November will also be the start of the next Drift story by Australian Shane McCarthy, as well as the start of the Transformers Angry Birds comic (shudder)... plus the final issue of the Primacy story.

PROBABLE SPOILERS BELOW... so beware.

Actually, to give a bit of a buffer before the quoted issue details, a related news item.

The start of a new Transformers story-arc by IDW in November managed to get them the cover of this months Previews magazine (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/sarah-stone-previews-september-catalog-cover-181007/)... so if you are a big fan of Sarah Stone (who did the Windblade comic art), see if your local comic shop has a copy of Previews to sell, or check out her twitter for a clean copy (https://twitter.com/fayren/status/502156660089946112).
The art shouldn't be anything spoiler-ish if you are keeping up with the released issues of MTMTE and Primacy.


Transformers #35
(W) John Barber (A/CA) Andrew Griffith
Days of Deception begins! PROWL and the CONSTRUCTICONS hunt the world's deadliest game-three humans with a history of fighting CYBERTRONIANS! Lines are drawn as human and machine alike are drawn into-the ONYX INTERFACE!

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #35
(W) James Roberts (A) Alex Milne (CA) Nick Roche
Days of Deception begins with... PEACE AND HAPPINESS! To be honest, there's not much we can say about this issue without giving away the life-changing events of last issue. What we can say is this: everything's fine. There's no conflict, no sadness, no angst. Why is this a problem?

Transformers: Primacy #4 (of 4)
(W) Chris Metzen, Flint Dille (A/CA) Livio Ramondelli
END OF THE ROAD! The final secrets of war for CYBERTRON are revealed! Everything has been leading to this-war has engulfed OPTIMUS PRIME'S world, and MEGATRON stands on the verge of triumph! But can any survive the battle of the titans?!

Drift: Empire of Stone #1
(W) Shane McCarthy (A/CA) Guido Guidi
DRIFT RETURNS! Last year, TRANSFORMERS readers were shocked when DRIFT left the AUTOBOTS in disgrace... and now he's alone, on a mission to clean up the darkest depths of the galaxy-until RATCHET shows up to try to bring him home!

Transformers Angry Birds #1
(W) John Barber (A) Marcelo Ferreira, Livio Ramondelli (CA) Marcelo Ferreira
You got TRANSFORMERS in my Angry Birds! No, you got Angry Birds in my TRANSFORMERS! ERGH, OOF, MPPHH!!! Hey! Waitaminit! This is actually pretty great! That's right, comic lovers, two of your favorite IDW comics have morphed into one amazing new comic! When the TRANSFORMERS lose their powerful ALLSPARK, it ends up on Piggie Island and the world of Angry Birds turns robotic! Prepare to meet... the AUTOBIRDS and DECEPTIHOGS!

Transformers Robots in Disguise Trade Paperback Volume 6
(W) John Barber (A) Andrew Griffith, Casey W. Coller (CA) Casey W. Coller
The AUTOBOTS return to Earth-with OPTIMUS PRIME in command! But what brought them back-and what terrifying secret do the humans hold? Plus, GALVATRON is on Earth as well, with a plan to reshape it as he once did with Cybertron. A bold new era begins here!

Also out for November (I think) is the Comic store version of this year's BotCon comic... with a LOT better cover than the convention version.
It still features the convention toys, but drawn in a homage to the 1986 Movie (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/diamond-cover-and-solicit-for-transformers-timelines-pirates-vs-knights-181004/).
A smaller and duller copy was tweeted by BotCon (https://twitter.com/BotCon/status/502166968443879424)... but I like the brighter version in the other link.

[griffin]

A small update of the November items (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/idw-transformers-november-2014-solicitations-info-drift-angry-birds-primacy-more-181144/), with some comments and sample pages from the Angry Birds comic.

[Lordy]

Why are they doing another cross over already? Let MTMTE and RiD get on with their storylines

[i_amtrunks]

I'm worried about the Drift mini and where it will fit into the MtMtE timeline.

Don't want to lose Ratchet from the Lost Light for any period of time.

[Ploughmans Lunch]

There's about six months worth of time between the end of Dark Cybertron and Dawn of the Autobots. My guess is it takes place then.

Also angry birds tf doesn't impact any other stories so yeh

[Paulbot]

Days of Deception doesn't appear to be a crossover, but a banner/theme across the titles, like Dawn of the Autobots. There's been nothing to say the books are crossing over at all, just like the Dawn of the Autobots branded books didn't (despite my comic shop insisting Dawn was a crossover and I had to buy all the books!).

The next actual crossover is the RID/Windblade Combiner Wars crossover.

[griffin]

An interview with Shane McCarthy (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=56820), on the Drift mini-series, gives some insight into where and when the story is set, and shows some artwork as well.

I was going to link to the TFW news page, but the comments are about 95% negative towards him... with particular attention to his comments about not liking Movie Drift being a racial stereotype (Asian), despite Shane himself designing his Drift with Japanese motifs (samurai character, theme and swords), Japanese writing on the car, and even giving him a name that has a Japanese origin.

Wait and see how it is written before judging it, but it has Guido Guidi doing art, so at the very least the comic will look good.

[FruitBuyer]

An interview with Shane McCarthy (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=56820), on the Drift mini-series, gives some insight into where and when the story is set, and shows some artwork as well.

I was going to link to the TFW news page, but the comments are about 95% negative towards him... with particular attention to his comments about not liking Movie Drift being a racial stereotype (Asian), despite Shane himself designing his Drift with Japanese motifs (samurai character, theme and swords), Japanese writing on the car, and even giving him a name that has a Japanese origin.

Wait and see how it is written before judging it, but it has Guido Guidi doing art, so at the very least the comic will look good.

Not to mention the way he has Drift dispatch the insecticons, which is completely how anime/manga does it with the whole "end up on the other side with his sword drawn and his enemy dead". He may not be a japanese stereotype but he created Drift as an anime-stereotype.

I'll be reading it but I don't have high hopes. AHM bored me and the blatant shift from Furman's style really grated my continuity knickers. I'll still read it but I don't expect much; like you said it's Guido's art that I'm wanting it for.

[Sky Shadow]

Reading that interview made me want to stab out my eyes with a katana.

[kup]

What a shame, Drift was becoming an interesting character and I was looking forward to his new story arc

For those who may say 'give it a chance, it might be good' - Well that's like saying the same about Michael Bay TF movies.

[Ploughmans Lunch]

I was really happy to give Shane a go, and I still am (because hey, there's no changing that Empire of Stone has been written/drawn/made/will be released), but the interview does dampen my enthusiasm (given he's not read what has happened before, really, so there's a likelyhood he is going to fudge with things).

As for the Michael Bay comparison- probably fair, but Bay made a considerable financial gain in spite of (fairly legit) criticism, so he had no reason to change. McCarthy was bought on to increase IDW Transformers sales, which he sorta... didn't? On top of that he's been pretty critically lambasted so maybe this time he'll do better.

Maybe.

Maybe...?

[kup]

Yep, the first few question answers alone cast doubt. He goes on that Drift is this super duper dude who is just misunderstood because he is too awesome and was never happy which is not really what has been happening.

The tragic part of him being 'booted out of the autobots' was because he was actually happy there, specially with Rodimus. He had found a place to belong.

[i_amtrunks]

Nice to know IDW do not learn from their mistakes. The last time they hired McCarthy to write something when he had not read a single issue prior it screwed up things so bad that Barber is still trying to patch up all the holes and we got Spike Witwicky...

So they bring him in to work on"his" character who after much work as becoming interesting and multi-dimensional, when he cannot even be bothered to read 25 or so comic issues to ensure we get a sliver of consistency!

I'm hoping Barber has been more than a little hands on, to save himself a plethora of work down the line trying to fix everything wrong with this mini.

I was looking forward to a Ratchet/Drift story done by Guido but now I am uncertain about it.

[Lord_Zed]

Funny how he mentions the cliched but well voiced movie Drift. Maybe if Drift hadn't been so bland that would have transferred over to the bay film, but that's crazy talk on both counts.

So Drift is a good guy with a troubled past, who laughs in the face of adversity, ummm that only reminds me of almost every action hero ever.




So they bring him in to work on"his" character who after much work as becoming interesting and multi-dimensional, when he cannot even be bothered to read 25 or so comic issues to ensure we get a sliver of consistency!


Hey he mentions that Drift used to be a crazy hippy and now he's not, so I guess he skimmed a few issues.

I guess Drift just wasn't meant to have depth. Maybe if it does well they'll make All hail Megatron 2. Megatron's been getting a bit too interesting for his own good lately. :p

[Paulbot]

I find it odd that he bad mouths all the movies, and yet the sudden shift to outright war and carnage in AHM seemed to me to be a reflection of that Bay style. Big explosions, death, square jawed action hero.

[Lord_Zed]

I find it odd that he bad mouths all the movies, and yet the sudden shift to outright war and carnage in AHM seemed to me to be a reflection of that Bay style. Big explosions, death, square jawed action hero.

This rings true, even in it's pacing AHM felt like a big screen movie, with lots of full page spreads, and focus on the action it felt like a comic trying to be a movie (which was the norm for a for years there). If Roberts wrote AHM it would probably be 2 issues tops, given his style makes more traditional use of the medium.

[kup]

I just hope this isn't a sign that they want to change stuff around again. Since they have McCarthy back wouldn't surprise me if they invite back Costa too (although he did seem to hate Transformers).

The McCarthy/Costa era is like the lowest point of the whole IDW run. I would say that McCarthy is better than Costa but they are both really crap. I agree with Trunks, there has to be some political aspect we don't see to have McCarthy back - He sucks way too hard.

Could it be possible given that Hasbro is so out of touch these days that they think he is what fans want? Weird that Hasbro had Drift in the movie at all given all the numerous other characters/namseslaps they could have used (and McCarthy wasn't even happy about that).

[griffin]

A preview of #35 of the Transformers comic (http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/idw-transformers-35-full-preview/31631/), which used to be known as Robots in Disguise (the one that isn't set on the Lost Light).
Should be out this week.

[FruitBuyer]

Good to see Jimmy Pink. Barber's eye for tying in continuity makes me happy inside.

[griffin]

Next week has thre Transformers comics come out (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/diamond-comics-shipping-list-for-26-november-2014-181532/), including the first issue of the Angry Birds comic and the new Drift mini-series Empire of Stone.

Some itunes previews...

Empire of Stone #1 (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/transformers-drift-empire-of-stone-1-itunes-preview-181539/)

MTMTE #35 (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/more-than-meets-the-eye-35-preview-181536/)

GIJoe Vs The Transformers #4 (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/transformers-vs-gi-joe-issue-4-ibooks-preview-181531/) should also be out next week, but wasn't on the list above.

[FruitBuyer]

The three pages make a strong case for Guido's art being the only good thing about the series.

I can't help but think about McCrappy spewing so much vitriol over the movies where his "writing" isn't any better. At least the Bay-movies don't pretend to be deep or profound.

[griffin]

A preview of the Angry Birds comic (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/angry-birds-transformers-1-preview-181544/), which is due out this week.

[griffin]

Full previews of MTMTE #35 (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye-35-full-preview-181556/) and Drift #1 (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/comics-16/transformers-drift-empire-of-stone-1-full-preview-181555/). These should be out this week at comic shops.

[FruitBuyer]

Looks like the Rewind/Ambus scene is from an alternate universe, likely one without Megatron's uprising. Bet the moral of the story that in the long term, Cybertron is better for it or something.

No comment on the Drift preview. It's just getting worse and worse with each preview.

[i_amtrunks]

Looks like the Rewind/Ambus scene is from an alternate universe, likely one without Megatron's uprising. Bet the moral of the story that in the long term, Cybertron is better for it or something.

I was thinking pre-Megatron during the "Golden Age".


No comment on the Drift preview. It's just getting worse and worse with each preview.

The art is shinier than the regen 1 art...

[FruitBuyer]

I was thinking pre-Megatron during the "Golden Age".



The art is shinier than the regen 1 art...

Look at the last panel on the last page.

[Sky Shadow]

So many Easter egg cameos...