Transformers!

comics rock. talk about them here. now. or just go to the "corn" section and wack off. i'll understand. i'll just sit here and read my spider-man comics.

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anarky
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Re: Transformers!

Post by anarky »

What I was getting at earlier, without the keyboard: More Than Meets the Eye in particular requires very little background (aside from maybe Death of Optimus Prime, which is in the first paperback). It wouldn't hurt to read Last Stand of the Wreckers and Chaos Theory, but they're not required.

The main characters are new, so obscure they never got fleshed out (seriously, Swerve was in one episode for one scene, and Tailgate for some reason didn't even get that much exposure; neither were in the original comic at all), or so vastly different from earlier incarnations (like Ultra Magnus, who is such a strict by-the-book law enforcer that he has to exercise restraint to not arrest guys for having their Autobot sigils crooked, or Cyclonus, is an ancient Cybertronian warrior and mystic of sorts). All the wildly varying personalities are tossed together in a ship looking for quasi-mythical ancients (older than Cyclonus, even) called the Knights of Cybertron, who Rodimus (not Rodimus Prime; he's a version of Hot Rod who's so cocky and arrogant that he takes to calling himself Rodimus without being a Prime) and Drift (a new Decepticon-turned-Autobot who was only introduced a year or so earlier) believe can usher in a new Golden Age on Cybertron. And then they run into dangerous (and sometimes ridiculous) situations.

Robots in Disguise takes a lot of new twists that I'm surprised Hasbro let them get away with (how the Decepticons re-create Devastator after Scrapper was killed on Earth in the previous IDW series is a major doozy). It's set on Cybertron, post-war. (Moving to Earth post-Dark Cybertron, with a slightly different cast.) But it involves a lot more established characters, so I don't think it's as easily-accessible as More Than Meets the Eye.

I've only read half the Dark Cybertron crossover, but it's really decompressed in a way the two series normally aren't.

The Dreamwave stuff is mostly awful. And it can't be continued or reprinted because of something to do with Dreamwave's bankruptcy. It was actually getting decent toward the end, and the War Within miniseries are great it you can find them.

The original series... you literally left as it got good. #1-4 are weak; not awful (okay, #1 is awful), then it becomes really good (sometimes bordering on great) for about two years. Then it bounces around between really good and "what the fuck are you thinking writing this shit, Bob?" until #55. #56 is when Furman takes over, and it quickly (I'd put the firm start around #60) turns into this huge sci-fi epic and is probably one of the best comics of all time up until the conclusion at #80.
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anarky
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Re: Transformers!

Post by anarky »

Why the fuck does Google show an inordinate amount of Rule 34 images for Rung?

Goddammit, I just wanted a simple, basic picture, not Skids analyzing him from the inside. I can't unsee that shit. :mad:
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Tom Foolery
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Re: Transformers!

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I did not realize TF vs GIJoe was an ongoing.
I'm reluctant to buy TF:Angry Birds. I have no interest in Angry Birds shit and would only be getting it to be a TF completist.
Drift is getting another mini.
No idea when Punishment is set or what it's about, but it's Ramondelli art.
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Re: Transformers!

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Punishment's set on Cybertron, post-Dark Cybertron. I think after the current RiD story (or just before, since Prime's on Cybertron).

I read some minor spoilers; it sounds quite good. Want more info or to just go in cold?

On the Joe/TF front, I read Scioli's comments at the SDCC panel, and he sounds like a pompous fucktard. The guy was actually bragging about how great he is, and how he outlined the first five years or stories because he's awesome and it will last. I really wanted to inflict violence upon him. I think we should put aside our differences with Rob Liefeld and kick Scioli's nuts as a unified group.
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Re: Transformers!

Post by anarky »

Interview about Combiner Wars

Not the best interview ever, but it talks a little about what kicks the "war" off, and it actually sounds really interesting. Some Windblade spoilers, but not major (and I'm the only one who hasn't read it).

The big takeaway: RiD is apparently dropping the "RiD" part of the title and will just be considered "the main" Transformers book, and Windblade II is an ongoing because someone at Hasbro and/or IDW really wants her to happen.
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Re: Transformers!

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Beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.
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Re: Transformers!

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Hey, Rollo, since you're the only other one here!

Something occurred to me, a pretty big hole in the IDW-verse TF comics.

Why the hell doesn't the Decepticon Justice Division attack Cybertron?

They're after all Decepticon deserters, even those who "deserted" after the war ended. Cybertron is led by fucking Starscream, who publicly renounced his faction when he took office. Many other prominent former Decepticons are around, notably Sky-Byte and Fat Tankor, both of whom went NAIL long before the war ended. Squawkbox, Tall Tankor, and Swindle are also confirmed NAILs (and you know they fucking have to have Swindle on their list anyway).

How does Tarn not have a huge robot boner for just wasting them all at once? Number of foes? Feh. They fucking killed Black Shadow with hardly any effort, and he was a fucking Phase Sixer!!
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Re: Transformers!

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Cheep cheep cheep cheep!

I re-read All Hail Megatron today. I've always hated it as a decompressed mess that starts out completely contradicting pretty much everything that came before, then sorta realizes halfway through that it is following up on previous stories and tries to fix things. I kinda figured A) decompression is probably because it was changed from six to twelve issues at the last second, B) everything else McCarthy has written has been excellent, C) the "errors" are likely due to sloppiness on the editor's part by not correcting discrepancies in the script from a writer unfamiliar with this universe, and D) those errors have actually led to some amazing retcons by the current team (Reflector's apparent return from the dead being a particular doozy).

Reading it at one time, it's actually quite good. It really fits in with IDW's characterization of Megatron as the idealist on a crusade to bring justice and equality to the Transformers, but whose actions have gone way the hell off the rails.
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Re: Transformers!

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Solicits for Windblade Returns #1: Combiner Wars show Devastator. With the image most definitely doctored over his right leg (originally Scrapper, currently Hook). But no need for alteration to preserve surprises when the image shows Devastator's shoulders are clearly made from a crane and the head doesn't have Prowl's "crest."

On the one hand, curious how the hell that's going to happen. On the other hand, goddammit, it looks like Hasbro's exerting more control finally.
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Re: Transformers!

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Or, on second thought, classic-styled variant cover with Scrapper intentionally blocked out to draw attention to Devastator's original G1 configuration (because no one will see the image, not wonder why a leg is removed, and then not notice Hook's up top again) and spark months of "how the hell is Scrapper back, and where's Prowl?" speculation.
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Re: Transformers!

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If anyone else is here, newly-released cover art from later in the crossover shows Hook is still clearly a leg, and that Devastator still has Prowl's head crest. This configuration is simply too awesome to fuck with. :mabs:
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Re: Transformers!

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Why is Prowl part of Devastator?
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Re: Transformers!

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You want spoilers? I can tell you, but it's seriously one of the best comics currently, probably ever, and I'd recommend reading it.
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Re: Transformers!

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'K, not on the phone anymore, so here's the Reader's Digest version in spoiler tags. Some stuff will seem extraneous at first but make sense later on.

In this version, Combiners are extremely rare. The first was created by the pre-war mad scientist Jhiaxus, from the six Cybertronians called the Decepticon Pretender Monsters in the original series. Monstructor was, however, completely insane because his six component minds didn't work together. Jhiaxus left Cybertron without working out the kinks. When the war started, Megatron was obsessed with the idea of having his own Combiner, and tasked Shockwave, who was a student of Jhiaxus, to build one.

Flash forward a few million years. The Decepticons create an army of Insecticons. Only three are sane enough to actually join their ranks, and one of these, Bombshell, is a brilliant scientist who builds on the work of Jhiaxus and Shockwave to turn the Constructicons into a Combiner, Devastator. When the Decepticons almost beat the Autobots, Devastator attacks New York, and a douchey soldier named Spike Witwicky is especially pissed that he killed one of his buddies.

The Autobots regroup and win, and the few Transformers left on Earth are in hiding. The Autobots, under the command of Bumblebee and Prowl, join with an elite military force led by Spike. (I should mention Prowl is extremely cunning, with plots inside of plots inside of plots at any given time.) Spike, however, uses the info he gets from the Autobots to track down Scrapper, hiding in shovel mode in a parking lot, and kill him. When the Autobots learn of this, they consider it cold-blooded murder, and Prowl is especially pissed at Spike. The Autobots leave Earth, coincidentally at the time Megatron plans another "final assault" on Cybertron... which kind of runs into a plot from Galvatron (a separate character in IDW, who pre-dates the war). In the end, the Decepticons are beaten and the war ends.

Megatron is MIA, but secretly communicating with some of the Decepticons in the city of Iacon. He has Bombshell take control of Prowl's mind, then reconfigure Devastator so that Hook becomes a leg, replacing Scrapper, and the head can be any Transformer rebuilt with a compatible design--Prowl and himself being the two confirmed. When the plot comes to light, mind-controlled Prowl forms Devastator. Bombshell is killed, though, and Prowl seizes upon the shared hatred of Spike Witwicky to form a tight bond with the Constructicons, controlling Devastator.

After the battle, the Constructicons defect from what remains of the Decepticon army to follow Prowl, saying they've seen how dark it is inside his mind, and they like it.


It might sound a little goofy like that, but the beauty is the way this series completely defies the expected over and over.
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Re: Transformers!

Post by Tom Foolery »

One of the more awesome things about the current IDW-verse books is that the War is over and the concepts of Autobot and Decepticon have become moot.

Yeah the Autobots "won" and the Decepticons "lost" but Starscream is the duly elected leader of Cybertron. Megatron is now an Autobot and Captain of the Lost Light vessel. Alliances are constantly shifting.

It's fantastic.
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