IDW's Dead Universe? And where should I start, to catch up? (spoilers)

[Paulbot]

No Beast Wars in IDW. You know that famous reveal at the end of Beast Wars series 2? Can't happen in the IDW Universe as that crash never happened in IDW.

Instead the Spotlight comic is based on Marvel's origin for Shockwave and the Dinobots with a few Beast Wars touches added (Earth seeded with Energon, CR chambers, the need for the Grimlock and co to wrap themselves in organic beast modes to avoid statis lock).

The G1 Transformers in IDW are on Earth because of the Energon that was planted here by Shockwave. It drives the plot of the first 18 issues or so.

They could do a new take in which case your idea might work but it's unlikely IDW will do anything but make more comics set in the original BW cartoon continuity.

[Verno]

No Ark? Heavens, they have given the G1-verse a reboot haven't they.

More comics in the BW cartoon continuity? Yes please. But I'm sure IDW have better things to be doing with their time, 2012 will be a busy year for them.

[Golden Phoenix]

No Ark? Heavens, they have given the G1-verse a reboot haven't they.

Well there is still the Ark.....just multiple Arks....

The first Ark was the ship that Nova Prime and Galvatron took to explore the Dead Universe.

The Autobots also have lots of ships called the Ark in their fleet. They just have a number after it. I think Ark-17 was the ship that rescued Kup

[Verno]

These IDW people seem to be enjoying rewriting the G1 story from the start, and doing it in terms that reference previously written fiction, but twisting it to their own designs.

I guess that was the only way to avoid being hamstrung by that which has come before, by working outside of established canons, yet still being recognizable as G1.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, it's their own new continuity... but even then they still managed to screw things up... *cough*AHM*cough*

[Cat]

These IDW people seem to be enjoying rewriting the G1 story from the start, and doing it in terms that reference previously written fiction, but twisting it to their own designs.

I guess that was the only way to avoid being hamstrung by that which has come before, by working outside of established canons, yet still being recognizable as G1.

I wouldn't really say they're trying rewrite G1.

Sure, AHM is an exception, but it's certainly the exception, rather than the norm.

They've definitely added a lot to it. Some bits you may like, some you may dislike. I personally loved the more set Autobot command structure that existed in the -Ations. That got abandoned for AHM and beyond, but I thought it was a very logical way for a large army to act, and much better than what we'd seen previously. Same with the 6-stage Decepticon strategy, the way Autobots were assigned, etc etc.

Are you familiar with Marvel Comics Ultimate imprint at all? I'd say that's more what they've done (again, especially during the -Ations).

[Seraphim Prime]

These IDW people seem to be enjoying rewriting the G1 story from the start, and doing it in terms that reference previously written fiction, but twisting it to their own designs.

I guess that was the only way to avoid being hamstrung by that which has come before, by working outside of established canons, yet still being recognizable as G1.

Simon Furman was brought in to set the universe up, and pilot the first few years of stories, and basically his remit from IDW was, "Clean slate. What would happen if you started writing Transformers in 2005?" And Infiltration was his answer - Cybertron is a burned out husk and stores of true Energon are depleted, with a war of attrition being played out across various worlds with small Decepticon Infilitration teams trying strip down the planets for resources, and small Autobot teams fighting to stop them, all coordinated by Optimus from his Orbital Command Hub, and fought according to intergalactic accords and conventions. Optimus only gets involved on Earth due to the discovery of Ore-13 - Shockwave's only (known) successful attempt to create new Energon by seeding various different planets - basically turning Earth into the most import planet, resource wide, in the universe.

[Hursticon]

Simon Furman was brought in to set the universe up, and pilot the first few years of stories, and basically his remit from IDW was, "Clean slate. What would happen if you started writing Transformers in 2005?" And Infiltration was his answer - Cybertron is a burned out husk and stores of true Energon are depleted, with a war of attrition being played out across various worlds with small Decepticon Infilitration teams trying strip down the planets for resources, and small Autobot teams fighting to stop them, all coordinated by Optimus from his Orbital Command Hub, and fought according to intergalactic accords and conventions. Optimus only gets involved on Earth due to the discovery of Ore-13 - Shockwave's only (known) successful attempt to create new Energon by seeding various different planets - basically turning Earth into the most import planet, resource wide, in the universe.

Now this sounds quite excellent, so why was Furman taken away from the helm?

[Paulbot]

Now this sounds quite excellent, so why was Furman taken away from the helm?

Here's what AHM's author had to say on this board about it...

I was brought in by IDW because they were looking for a new take on the franchise/continuity as sales on the book were dropping to an all time low. This doesn't mean that what was out there was bad, it just meant that for whatever reason it wasn't catching people's interest and IDW wanted something that would.

[Hursticon]

Here's what AHM's author had to say on this board about it...

Hmm... See, this seems baffling to me as all I ever seem to hear/read is that the Furman IDW stuff was a far and away more coherent narrative and quite a bit better received, at least compared to what came after...
Oh well, we'll just have to see how they go from the upcoming re-re-reboot eh?

Cheers for the clarification Paulbot.