IDW Transformers ongoing [spoilers]

[kup]

I seem to have missed out on the first issue so it seems to be a long wait to the paperback before I read it but if reader reviews deteriorates before then I may give it a miss altogether.

[i_amtrunks]

After reading the first issue, I find myself even more disappointed than I thought I would be.

It felt stale, everything I read I have read before elsewhere, and often done better. The artwork is jarring, but tolerable if you can block out each characters face.

Glad I borrowed a copy and didnt pay for it.

[GoktimusPrime]

The thing that really bugs me about the art is the lack of visual continuity. Is there any reason why they all suddenly look different (and why they still look like that in flashbacks too)?? I don't really like it when characters just suddenly start looking different for no apparent reason. We had it before in AHM when guys like Prowl and Sideswipe suddenly started looking like their Universe toy versions (so did Sunstreaker, but it's since been explained), as well as the Decepticon jets suddenly looking like their Masterpiece moulds and transforming into F15s, which feels like a downgrade from their former F22 forms. (-_-) And again, no apparent reason, but at least when they had flashbacks they were still in their old forms - so there's no direct contradiction, just an unexplained time gap during which apparently some of them changed forms.

Now I might be able to accept that during the 2 years since AHM and this new series that the Transformers might have all changed their appearance, but as I said, it doesn't make sense that they still have this hybrid movie appearance when they have flashbacks back to the AHM period or even long before then (such as the flashback with Optimus Prime and Ironhide back on Cybertron back when Prime was still a rookie officer). Gah!

Now I know that this kind of unexplained cosmetic change is nothing new to Transformers; it's happened since G1 started (e.g.: shift from toy-accurate to show-like art); but I guess the difference is that in G1 they shifted from one kind of G1 style (toy-accurate) to another kind of G1 style (show-models), so they feel more cross-compatible to me. But here they've shifted from a neo-G1 style to a hybrid movie style which doesn't feel as compatible. Purely just my personal taste of course.

But yeah, from a visual continuity POV it doesn't make sense to me. :/

[Lord_Zed]

Suddenly changing art style has always been a part of Transformers. in the old UK comic characters would change colour, gain or loose visors, eyes, teeth and all sorts of other things depending on the visual style of the artist, so yeah I'm used to that. Not a huge fan of this sudden change though, particularly prominent is Hot Rod who has been through at leas 4 changes so far, even discounting the style changes.

Anyways I read the issue, and looks to me like yet another Transformers re-boot, but this time with a little more continuity to keep us loudmouthed complaining Transfans happy. Although to be honest it's a bit late in the day and I tire of constant rehash.


Anyways I can sum up what I thought below, beware possible spoilerage.

On the like side of things:
* Humans fear and hate Transformers (and well they should).
* Non Geewun characters have returned from hiatus (yay)
* Knocking of a classic G1 character in issue one (yeah it was no surprise thanks to the preview, but at least it shows they have the will to kill off cast members)

Dislike
* Spike, he's a huge prat. Sure he doesn't like TF's which is a nice change, but he is the cliched, wise cracking, man of action. Shessh now that IDW has both licences they should have just borrowed Flint from GI Joe. Bizarre to say it, but I miss Verity now.
* Those damn teeth!!!!!!
* Prowl acting out of character, or at least completely at odds with his last appearance in the AHM Coda.
* Prime reverted to compassionate hippie self. Well not quite but he is channelling the old Marvel Prime a bit. I can't understand why the autobots are staying on earth, to protect earth from some presumed decepticon threat. And by doing so coming into conflict with humans and if anything increasing the chance of tragedy.

Things that make me go huh?

*The War is over, what? when did this happen? And why? cause Megatron got shot? AHM implied that all over the galaxy the Autobots had been wiped out and the Decepticons had been victorious. Do I smell another ret-con. how can Prime worry so much about earth when all over the galaxy the Deceps have been wiping out life everywhere?

*Which brings me to the new transformer arrivals, where did they come from? What happened to the Autobots being driven to the brink of destruction?

Oh well what can I say? Transformer comics have become just like their namesake, just when you think you know what's going on, they transform into something completely different.

[Gutsman Heavy]

IDW have stated that they wont be enforcing a house style on the new book, so who ever works on it can draw the characters as they want to, so if Don does it we get skelly-bots, and if (hypothetically) Guido Guidi does it we'll get classic bots etc.

The Bumblebee & Wreckers mini series will be in continuity but will have a different art style.

[Sky Shadow]

And the letters page claims "Hopefully, you found this issue accessible and fun, too". What exactly was fun about twenty-four pages of angst?

I've been thinking about this, and I'm now sure that one of the reasons IDW has to keep rebooting the series every six months or every year is that the comics aren't accessible (or fun). Even I find them hard going and I have a degree in English literature and twenty-five years of immersion in Transformers lore. I know that one of the reasons for this is that these days comics are 'written for the trade', that is, it's not about the individual issues, but how they all fit together when they're published as a trade paperback. Except that this is stupid. Firstly, I buy comics monthly. As one of the people who does this, I assume I'm in some way supporting the comic's future – presumably there can't even be a trade paperback if the comic goes under due to no one reading it on a month-to-month basis. I want to be able to read and enjoy them one by one, but I can't, because I can never remember exactly what happened in the previous issue. And now I realise that the reason I can't do that is because nothing of note ever did happen in the previous issue. Which is also the reason I can't enjoy the comic I'm actually reading either - because nothing interesting is happening there either. And the vicious cycle continues.

Tell me any issue number of a Marvel US or UK comic and I can almost certainly tell you what happened in that issue off the top of my head. Sure, something 'wacky' may have happened, like 'the Decepticons ran an evil car wash' or 'the Decepticons ran an evil island resort' or 'the Decepticons ran an evil charitable organisation', but something happened every issue. Actually, a whole bunch of stuff happened every issue - each Transformers comic was an actual fully formed story with a beginning, middle and end, and that story then fit into a greater tapestry. Even if it was in the middle of a big story arc, each issue was still about something. A kid could pick up any issue off the newsstand and actually enjoy it. But ask me what happened in issue #3 of All Hail Megatron (or issue #9 or #10 or pretty much any issue of AHM for that matter) or in any issue of Infiltration or Escalation or... that other one (Desperation?) and I have absolutely no idea. Don't get me wrong, I love story arcs. But within the story arc, each issue has to have an individual story or it's just wasting my time. And to be fair, it's not just IDW - it was as bad or worse with Dreamwave... and we know what happened to them. In my opinion, decompression is killing Transformers comics. But a bit of fun and some real storytelling could bring them back to life. I have all my fingers crossed for The Last Stand Of The Wreckers. (Help me Nick Roche! You're my only hope.)

[kup]

I've been thinking about this, and I'm now sure that one of the reasons IDW has to keep rebooting the series every six months or every year is that the comics aren't accessible (or fun). Even I find them hard going and I have a degree in English literature and twenty-five years of immersion in Transformers lore. I know that one of the reasons for this is that these days comics are 'written for the trade', that is, it's not about the individual issues, but how they all fit together when they're published as a trade paperback. Except that this is stupid. Firstly, I buy comics monthly. As one of the people who does this, I assume I'm in some way supporting the comic's future – presumably there can't even be a trade paperback if the comic goes under due to no one reading it on a month-to-month basis. I want to be able to read and enjoy them one by one, but I can't, because I can never remember exactly what happened in the previous issue. And now I realise that the reason I can't do that is because nothing of note ever did happen in the previous issue. Which is also the reason I can't enjoy the comic I'm actually reading either - because nothing interesting is happening there either. And the vicious cycle continues.

Tell me any issue number of a Marvel US or UK comic and I can almost certainly tell you what happened in that issue off the top of my head. Sure, something 'wacky' may have happened, like 'the Decepticons ran an evil car wash' or 'the Decepticons ran an evil island resort' or 'the Decepticons ran an evil charitable organisation', but something happened every issue. Actually, a whole bunch of stuff happened every issue - each Transformers comic was an actual fully formed story with a beginning, middle and end, and that story then fit into a greater tapestry. Even if it was in the middle of a big story arc, each issue was still about something. A kid could pick up any issue off the newsstand and actually enjoy it. But ask me what happened in issue #3 of All Hail Megatron (or issue #9 or #10 or pretty much any issue of AHM for that matter) or in any issue of Infiltration or Escalation or... that other one (Desperation?) and I have absolutely no idea. Don't get me wrong, I love story arcs. But within the story arc, each issue has to have an individual story or it's just wasting my time. And to be fair, it's not just IDW - it was as bad or worse with Dreamwave... and we know what happened to them. In my opinion, decompression is killing Transformers comics. But a bit of fun and some real storytelling could bring them back to life. I have all my fingers crossed for The Last Stand Of The Wreckers. (Help me Nick Roche! You're my only hope.)

I couldn't agree with this more.

[Lord_Zed]

I think part of the problem is all comics these days aspire to be more like pen and paper movies, or tv series than comics. It's all big splash panels and art, while the story often feels pruned to fit the visuals. Before the 2000's comics In my opinion always felt more filling, they had thought bubbles, explanation boxes and footnotes to help comunicate the story to the reader, even the panels themselves were often part of the story. Sure it all became a bit cliche, but it's stuff like that that makes comics unique compared to novels and film.

They should go back to drawing on the unique strengths of the mediums rather than making them more like another medium.

Anyways that's my rant done, back to the new TF series.

[Sky Shadow]

It's all big splash panels and art, while the story often feels pruned to fit the visuals. Before the 2000's comics In my opinion always felt more filling, they had thought bubbles, explanation boxes and footnotes to help comunicate the story to the reader, even the panels themselves were often part of the story. Sure it all became a bit cliche, but it's stuff like that that makes comics unique compared to novels and film.

I agree with this too - I think another of the problems with modern comics is that artists a) realised that they could get more money from selling full splash pages of art to the original comic art market than what they'd get for pages of grid-like panels and b) would rather draw one 'kewl' splash page of a robot in action than have to draw a six-to-nine panel page full of storytelling and backgrounds. And at the same time, writers thought "well then why bother writing a detailed story with exposition, conflict, subplots, rising action, a climax, falling action and a dénouement when we can just script a decompressed issue of nothingness with massive panels and splash page after splash page?"

[GoktimusPrime]

Very well said Sky Shadow. The great thing with the old Marvel G1/G2 comics was that we did get individual stories in each issue and a story arc! Take the Matrix Quest for example, each part is a contained story, i.e.:
Part 1: Detective mystery
Part 2: Wild west frontier with vampires!
Part 3: An Autobot's quest for personal vengeance
Part 4: Thriller/horror
Part 5: All out action aboard the Ark as the Matrix completes its journey to the dark side
...yet collectively they all form a single story arc (which had beginnings from issues long before the saga even started! (e.g. Deathbringer)). These issues can be easily read and enjoyed either on their own or all together. For example, you could pick up any of these issues without ever having read a Transformer comic before and still follow the story and enjoy it.

That's something I find sorely lacking in Transformers comics these days.