this sort of trend is very disturbing
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this sort of trend is very disturbing
I am sure that it will be yet another case of 'its in continuity because we say so and now excuse us while we go and attempt (but fail) to fix the derailed story line with a few very mediocre issues that actually do the opposite'Quote:
Originally Posted by roller
I haven't had a chance to read Bumblebee yet but I've finally caught up on #2.
Better than #1, face designs aren't as jarring and I don't think it's because we've become more tolerant of them. Story-wise, it's still not really doing much for me but I'll give it until the end of the first arc. Who am I kidding, I'll keep buying them out of habit but I have hope that once all the ground work is laid, it'll really pick up. Much like X-2 was a huge improvement after the plodding start that was the first X-men movie.
They seem to be laying and re-laying ground work for years and years already... I'd be much happier if they did comics like the good old days - start at #1 and then just go on till #80 or whenever it is that it must stop.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blink90210
that would be nice, I understand that there's the whole thing about "getting new readers" necessitating reboots and "re-laying" of ground work but I think Transformers comics are niche enough that the people buying them are like me doing it out of habit. Sure there'd be some new-comers since that AWESOME Transformers 2 movie would have made SO MANY new fans but aside from those people, it's the die-hards like us.Quote:
Originally Posted by heroic_decepticon
I have to admit that the habit is hard to break. Although I haven't enjoyed much since the first issues of AHM, I continued to get them. However I find the new Ongoing to be somewhat lame and mediocre so I am actually putting my foot down and not buying them any more unless there is a huge and consistent improvement.
The Bumblebee comic started off great so I will continue to buy that. I am also looking forward to Roche's wreckers.
It's the only series I will be picking up as issues, I have given up on the ongoing, and am waiting to see if Bumblebee is worth getting as a trade.Quote:
Originally Posted by kup
The problem is that when the licence changes hands the new company is going to want to make it's own mark. Who's to say that if TF had remained in Marvels hands that they wouldn't reboot it anyway. They keep doing it to their own properties. Sheesh look at how DC keeps rebooting it's Wildstorm sub-line.Quote:
Originally Posted by heroic_decepticon
Marvel made Transformer comics across two offices in New York and London for 10 years (1984-1994) without ever rebooting continuity. There were a few retcons made but never a whole continuity reboot. Continuity became more consistent after 1989 when Furman replaced Budiansky in writing the US comics allowing for greater fidelity between the US and UK stories.
I don't think we really had a 'real' continuity reboot until 2003 with Transformers Armada (or arguably 2000's Car Robot (RiD), but it's since been officially retconned as being in-continuity with G1, so technically Armada is the first continuity reboot that remains a reboot).
has anyone read issue 3?
Yeah I've read it.
I prefer Blurr having an Earthen based alt mode than the futuristic hover car mode he has in the Bumblebee #2 preview. Pretty much another bunch of Autobots leave Bumblebee's team, ongoing #3 actually takes place before Bumblebee #1.
Comic kinda goes... Ultra Magnus is a tool, Ultra Magnus is a tool, Autobots leave, and Witwicky makes a powerplay of sorts.
It's not a bad issue, but it really doesnt have any other feel than it's setting up future issues(which it should!)
I read it too. I thought it was a typical mediocre IDW issue in which nothing happens. I summarize it in this way:Quote:
Originally Posted by i_amtrunks
'Hey looky here it's Jetfire!'
'Magnus is a dick and leaves to do dicky things'
'Spike is cool and a rebel, man!'
Aside from that nothing else really happens and I am glad that I didn't pay to read it as its pretty crappy.
When it comes to Blurr - It's not just 'style' now but jarring art inconsistencies as Blurr has an Earth mode here but in Bumblebee #2 (which takes place at most a couple of days later) he has a Cybertronian mode - That makes no freaking sense and it shows that everyone at IDW just do whatever they want with little coordination. At least Bumblebee despite the changes to the robot design - He still transforms into a VW beetle.
Looking forward to Bumblebee 2 because despite the 'bonkers' continuity its in, the first issue was rather well written and executed. I am also very much looking forward to Wreckers.
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-...l-2010-169023/
I have a feeling that Hot Rod asked Jetfire to upgrade the cons with the combiner tech.
smart move.
It seems that IDW is constantly "setting up" for later issues. Just leaves me wondering when the real action is going to happen. :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by i_amtrunks
I thought he was backward engineering the badges that prevented humans getting more than a 6 mile radius of a TF location, that is until I saw the size of the ones Bee and his team were wearing.Quote:
Originally Posted by JustOwen
If Hotrod has combiner tech, then wouldn't the constructicons be a better option, especially since they'd probably end up joining with the Stunitcons
With the exception of the humans, who are crap as usual, I actually think this is brilliant. Here we have Ultra Magnus, a detective with no sense of humour who does things by the book (I can hear Robert Stack's 'Unsolved Mysteries' voice as I read this), who's sent to investigate the death of Ironhide and the defection of Optimus Prime. And so for once we actually get someone who questions the fact that a Transformer other than Optimus Prime has died, not just accept it as a normal case of Furmanesque cannon fodder.
And to prove how wrong I was, out comes a cover for Ongoing #6 :DQuote:
Originally Posted by i_amtrunks
be warned there are also spoilers for the entire Wreckers comic...
I also don't understand why IDW has a need to spoil the reader 3-5 issues ahead with ill thought out press announcements and covers.Quote:
Originally Posted by i_amtrunks
It'd be smarter if he assembled a gestalt team comprised of both Autobots and Decepticons. That way it would keep the gestalt loyal to the Autobot-Decepticon alliance and prevent betrayal to either side. It would be neat to see a gestalt made up of a mish-mash of Stunticons, Combaticons, Protectobots, Aerialbots etc., à la Scramble City and just like the way we used to play with them as kids. ;DQuote:
Originally Posted by JustOwen
However I imagine that one problem with this is that a combined Autobot-Decepticon gestalt mind would be hideously unstable. Gestalt minds can be unstable enough as they are, even when solely comprised of members of their own team; e.g.: Devastator (each Constructicon is too self-interested to sufficiently cooperate, causing much confusion in Devastator's mind), Menasor (all the Stunticons hate Motormaster) etc. -- the animosity and distrust between the Autobot and Decepticon members of a mixed team could potentially drive the gestalt insane and potentially leave them with another Monstructor on their hands. Heh, that would be kinda cool actually... but I can see why Hot Rod & Co. would be hesitant against creating an Autobot-Decepticon gestalt.
Perhaps Jetfire could install three buttons on the gestalt's back that shuts it down when they're all pressed! :p :D
I agree with i_amtrunks: I like Ultra Magnus here. Strictly professional. :) And even though I'm not fond of the hybrid moofie-neo-G1 art style, I must admit that I fangasmed over seeing Ultra Magnus transform. ;D
Issue 4 is the best issue of this series yet IMHO and I enjoyed it's Spotlight type take on Thundercracker while it still developed the subplots. Keep up the good work IDW.
I think you're over thinking it there. They could still do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
+1. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot
I quite enjoyed this issue. (^_^)
#4: the Andy Wildman cover is so pretty. Plus, Voyager Sea Spray was in it!
The new one comes out tomorrow. I'm waiting with baited breath.
got the new issue
ok so spoilers:
ultra magnus assembles the a team i mean "a team" to gather the betrayers
saw it coming
swindle betrays autobot betrayers
saw it coming
the optimus prime speech was nice
so yeah
i hope the next issue makes up for this months
sigh do they have to come out month by month?
Well, a few people saw that coming - and congrats to those peeps.
I dont know if it is because Last Stand fo the Wreckers is so good it makes all other TF comics look terrible, but ongoing is pretty much on it's last legs for me.
A whole issue of nothing, a last page "reveal" that if you didn't guess was coming about 2 issues ago, you certainly figured it out by the cover, and art that still needs characters to be captioned or name dropped to tell who they are just dont cut it.
And all you have to do is look at the other main series being released at the time to see how a comic should be done...
SPOILERS AHOY
It was kinda like an issue filled with tense dialogues. Then: "Stunticons Combine!" The End.
Reminds me of the way Randall describes the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in Clerks II. ;)
(note: video link not suitable for children)
YEAH! TAKE THAT LOTR! it*insert some swears here* because STAR WARS ROCKS AND CAN KICK LOTR'S *insert some extra swears here* and so on lolQuote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
God I love the art in this series.
Also can anyone else imagine Ultra Magnus being voiced by Samuel L Jackson in Mace Windu mode?
I hadn't thought of that... but it might just work! I gotta try it next time I'm reading the comic out loud in character voices. ;)
Just finished reading No 6 which is supposedly the last issue of this 'Ongoing' series - At least of this section.
Overall it was a pretty crappy story with a lot of nonsensical character moments and super cheesy dialog.
Like AHM the story here can easily be summarized in one page as several issues have nothing of interest in them. Although I read the last few issues just a few days apart, I found myself forgetting everything I had read in the previous issue because there was nothing really in them that was memorable.
Where do IDW get this really bad writers from? I also hated the ever morphing art. At one point Spike looked like he was midway turning into the Hulk.
The only thing that I will remember vividly from this series is the super cheesy dialog between Prime and Spike - That was clearly supposed to be a character defining moment that becomes the 'climax' of the series. Unfortunately all it left me with was a sense of 'WTF?' at how ridiculous it was.
Thank God I didn't pay to read most of this series.
I'd like to know the answer to that question too :DQuote:
Originally Posted by kup
I'd just like to echo the sentiment that the only high so far in this series have been Ultra Magnus and Swindle (that and the more detailed robot aesthetic, which I absolutely dig).
It reminds me of Infiltration really - it isn't very snappy either in terms of characters or action, it just sort of plods along.
It also seems to be going back over a lot of ground covered in Dreamwave's v2 and v3 G1 comics (War and Peace and their Ongoing).
It's interesting the dual reaction that I've had to this and LSOTW - Ongoing drew me in with the art and wanting to find out what happened post AHM Coda, whereas initially I didn't really care about the nobodies in LSOTW reenacting The Dirty Dozen. My views on the matter have swapped now, and I find LSOTW utterly compelling and this sort of drab - to be hones what keeps me coming back, apart from the hope that it'll turn around, is the aesthetic. It might not work well on humans but it's given us some fantastic panels of robot combat.
Of course it's not helped by the Bumblebee miniseries creative team just wading in and ignoring continuity. They decided to use BBs G1 body despite him having had the hood lights on shoulder and bonnet on chest look since IDW started their run, and they made Blurr back into the simpering comedic relief that he was in the G1 cartoon (as opposed to the cocksure, self confident, calm and slightly arrogant Blurr we've had thus far in IDW he's back to not pausing for sentences and being a hyperactive spaz).
Character inconsistency within the same continuity is something that I personally find very jarring. Whoever is supposed to maintain fluidity between the different series and writers is certainly not doing their job.Quote:
Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark
That would be the editor's job.... Do they even have one?Quote:
Originally Posted by kup
What I find really pathetic about Ongoing, more so than the character inconsistencies is how it is very clear that the super cheesy 'WTF?' dialogue is supposed to be deep and meaningful but it just comes off as some bizarre parody.Quote:
Originally Posted by liegeprime
Who are these writers? They need to Transform too if they ever hope to write a half decent story.
Yeah, it's kind of like the second and third Matrix films - they've gone way over the top trying to shove meaning and poignancy into everything.Quote:
Originally Posted by kup
I went and read the first issue.
Despite all the negative reviews, I approached it with an open mind. It didn't work, as I found it to be rather blah, particularly in comparison with a certain other IDW Transformers comic out at the same time (*coughLastStandOfTheWreckerscough*).
First off, the stated aims of this issue were to be accessible and fun. I can't comment on the first one, as I'm not unfamiliar with the IDW continuity (although I do wonder why they stuck name tags on them, instead of introducing the robots in dialogue), but fun it really wasn't. It was basically an entire issue of angst over how the human hate the Transformers and how Optimus is a crap leader etc. Not really fun, and it didn't convince me to read on beyond it.
Second, I don't feel really connected with the characters. Emotionless art aside, there's nothing that made me like a character, or really get a sense of what they stood for, or their personality. The only feelings I had were annoyance at Hot Rod suddenly becoming a rebel. While the oldest IDW comics I've properly read were the Devastation ones, I can't recall Hot Rod being like this before. Was he like this in AHM? Why does Optimus pull a BSOD after Ironhide's death? I thought he was the leader of the Autobots. He should be able to deal with that without going all depressive about it.
Third, the art. Yes, the movie/G1 hybrids don't exactly work, Hot Rod's 'NOOOOOOO' face after Ironhide gets offed says that loud and clear. While detail is nice, it's excessive here. Give me the 'liquid metal' faces from previous comics anyday.
Fourth, why is it always the humans hating all Transformers? At least someone ought to have noticed that the ones with the vaguely human face symbol are trying to help them. It's really overused.
Finally, there seems to be a disconnect between Andy Schmidt's declarations of the comic being for all ages and the actual comic. His comments at the end indicate he's trying to get a younger audience beyond the geeks who buy the comics. The very next issue features Spike leaving the house of a well-endowed woman in her underwear. Okay, Marvel had Circuit Breaker's stripperific costume, but it's not really comparable, considering how superpowered females in comics tend to be flying panty shots anyway.
Overall, I found it to be rather disappointing, which is a shame as I was looking forward to the main series, most likely because it would be better than AHM.