November IDW comics

The Transformers releases are getting bigger and bigger from IDW each month. In November, there are 9 different issues PLUS 11 variant versions... for anyone who is a collector of all Transformers comics.
(I was a completist years ago when we just had two different issues in a month, with an odd variant cover maybe twice a year)

The various covers and details can be seen here.

The nine comics for November are...

Dark Cybertron spotlight (chapter 1 of 12)
MTMTE #23 Dark Cybertron part 2 (chapter 2 of 12)
RID #23 Dark Cybertron part 3 (chapter 3 of 12)

Beast Hunters #7 (of 8)

Regeneration 1 #96

MTMTE #1 (100 penny edition)
RID #1 (100 penny edition)

MTMTE Vol 5
Best of UK Vol 5

Well not really 9 issues there.... 2 are trades (which you might already have in single issues), 2 are straight reprints, and one's a sepcial crossover kicking off issue.

The number of variant covers though is ridiculous. (But keep bringing me the Geoff Senior ReGen covers 'cause that's the only reason I'm buying them)

I've been buying MTMTE physically and RID digitally, so not sure what to do with the crossover. Roberts' name on the RID books means maybe I'll buy both. Would have been nice if it'd been like Chaos and you skip every second part of the crossover.

So from the covers - is Starscream getting rebuilt in his Armada form, or is it some kind of parrallel universe crossover thing?

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

So from the covers - is Starscream getting rebuilt in his Armada form, or is it some kind of parrallel universe crossover thing?

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Rebuilt. He dropped a mention of it a few times in the Spotlight: Starscream issue of RID last month.

Variant covers are getting ridiculous, but I see it as a cost recovery measure. They are making only digital issue sales once as you get all covers with them. I think it is overkill with each month getting more and more covers. Ruins the whole point as anything more than a money spinner, but it will jade the customers sooner rather than later.

I agree with you on the crossover too Paulbot, something like Chaos where you could skip the crap issues, at least this way we still get a proper MTMtE story every second month while dealing with the bleed over from RID.

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Originally Posted by i_amtrunks

I agree with you on the crossover too Paulbot, something like Chaos where you could skip the crap issues, at least this way we still get a proper MTMtE story every second month while dealing with the bleed over from RID.

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Nah it doesn't look like we get "proper MTMTE story" during this crossover, since Roberts and Barber are co-writers on both books, and Brainstorm and Ratchet on RID's cover. Hopefully it's a good story. I'm not much of a fan of RID, but if MTMTE touches can raise it a bit, without dropping MTMTE's quality down, that would be good.

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Originally Posted by i_amtrunks

Rebuilt. He dropped a mention of it a few times in the Spotlight: Starscream issue of RID last month.

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And the resulting form is not at all surprising. I like the toys being based on the comic designs (like Megatron, Bumblebee, Swerve) but I find the habit of shoe-horning new toys into the current comics (well RID mostly...) annoying. The WFC/FOC designs were kind of acceptable, but after Goldbug, Scoop and now Armada Starscream, are a bit too close to being a "comic meant to sell toys" that they don't need to be.

It looks like there is a working relationship between Hasbro and IDW, and I got that impression quite strongly at BotCon this year, with the fairly significant "Hasbro Publishing" department of Hasbro, and Hasbro's involvement at the IDW tour.

Having IDW comics in a lot of retail toys, and a lot of toys being promoted in the comics, sells each other's product to a different audience... so I think they both will try to make it last.

But to me, having Armada version of Starscream could still have made sense even if they didn't have a toy coming... as IDW appear to be trying to bring in all different series/eras into this one story universe of theirs (several Beast Wars characters, an RID character, several JP Gen1 characters, Gen2 characters, and something from all years/gimmicks of Gen1... and now Armada) - other series/eras are bound to be drawn in eventually as well, in this "one universe".

(that's my perception at least)