That's the way entertainment marketing works though. It's like a backdoor pilot on TV; a more popular show is used to try and make a spinoff happen. Transformers is a more popular franchise, thus its destiny is to lead in new concepts. If Star Wars or Marvel was part of this Hasbroverse thing, they would be using Star Wars and Marvel in the same way.

 

They should have at least left the 80s 'stash for the reboot.

 

That's a blanket statement that is only true sometimes. The Star Wars launch had no springboard with other Marvel books, it relied on it's existing fanbase and marketing. IDW will be publishing Sonic next year, there won't be another book to springboard off of. I can't think of any licensed property that needed to springboard off another to launch. IDW went somewhere around 10 years without whoring Transformers, it's not like the last year or so was some unexpected explosion of popularity, so I don't think it was ever the properties destiny.

People being upset with the whoring have a legitimate gripe. They're feelings are at least as legitimate as those that like it.

 

That word was a swypo. It's INCREDIBLY difficult to post messages at this site, via mobile (although in other ways, it's easier than other sites). Simply replace the term with "popular".

Anyway, I don't agree. The idea is that a rebooted franchise, with changes that seem jarring has been inserted into an established franchise. The parallels make sense.

 

Earlier on this thread, someone was saying how much they disliked the Thundercats reboot for ruining some of the characters. So it just goes to show: there's no way to please everyone.

They could do that, but they could also retool the character any number of other ways. We don't even know what the deal is with Leoric this time - they might be doing exactly what you say.

Yeah - whenever people wonder out loud how a reboot like this could possibly be a good idea, you have to ask yourself: what else is there to do? A new property? An expensive license? Both would be incredibly risky for a small company like IDW. Relaunching Visionaries in this way might be the equivalent of buying a cheap non-roadworthy vehicle, fixing it up and jumpstarting it with another car.

 

It's true that you can't please everyone, but I'm sure most would agree, including those against Thundercats, that the Thundercats reboot was handled a lot better than the MASK and Visionaries ones.

As for "young Leoric", I doubt we could move from a black character to a white one in one lifetime. There's obviously room for generations of a characters, or inheriting roles later on.

 

I'd just like to point out, we don't even know that this Leoric will be younger. He may be just as wise and experienced a leader as the original. Only now he's a black-coded alien instead of a white-coded alien.

 

The problem there is that a franchise like Sonic is still relatively current and still has games and media being produced in the present day. Visionaries cannot say the same, even though it has its own fanbase. Also Hasbro is trying for a common universe with TFs, Visionaries, et al, which is the other reason TFs are being used to reintroduce Visionaries.

And while no one is saying your complaints aren't legitimate, your hyperbolic reliance on describing this as "whoring" is one of the bigger things undercutting your argument. I'm here to discuss the Visionaries reboot, these kinds of histrionics aren't part of that.

See above for why Transformers is being used to try and backdoor a Visionaries reboot. Textbook marketing + common universe concept for several franchises. It's hardly going to ruin the TF comicverse forever, unless you're taking it way too seriously. Frankly I can easily ignore whatever impact the new Visionaries has regarding TFs, because I personally don't need TFs around to make me like Visionaries. So I'll reserve judgment until we see how they handle the writing and characterization.

 

Whoring is exactly what is going on, sorry if you don't like the word. It's a concise summation of the situation. You write a paragraph to explain they are using transformers to boost the potential of visionaries, I get it done with a word in a sentence. I know what's going on and why, and so does everyone else, my problem is it isn't working. Your textbook marketing hasn't worked for the whole shared universe, the titles tanked. I know IDW has to play the hand they were dealt in regards to hasbro IP, but why double down on a strategy that isn't very effective. This reboot isn't a slam dunk, it's a Hail Mary. The only way I can excuse this direction is if they are desperate for sales or people's jobs are on the line.

Please remember that to the best of our knowledge IDW pushed for the shared comic universe not hasbro.

The visionaries reboot is part of struggling shared universe. It's going to be hard to discuss the reboot in a vacuum, especially since it's vs transformers. I just can't get too excited about cool redesigns or the potential of new/better characterizations for something that has little shot at surviving in any meaningful form.

 

Exactly, and as written before (excuse the repetition), I
think using a new, alternate universe for Transformers to "crossover" into the other franchises would have been a better direction to go. Ask of the fun of a crossover, coupled with interest in new concepts all round, with a "take it or leave it" approach if it tanks. No contamination to the core TF universe if it goes t1ts-up, either.

Plus, certain characters from THAT shared universe could always pop up in the classics universe. Coupled with that, the classic characters could then be introduced, rather slowly and carefully, into the classics TF universe, especially if they meet their alternate universe twins. It would be like that great Energon/G1 crossover DW did.

 

Hold on! You haven't even seen how the Visionaries one has been handled yet!

Also, what on earth does being black have to do with the character arc you described in your previous post?

 

True, we can't say w what will happen to this iteration. As for the relationship to bring black, I was replying to another post that perhaps suggested that Leo-black could eventually become Classics Leoric. I stated that I doubled that could happen.

 

That's the beginning of a circular debate, because you can then ask "If it doesn't matter if he's black or white, then why change him in the first place?"

Let me short-circuit this debate right here and condense it down to one post:

TRADITIONALIST want a new comic based on the old characters as they remember them, as the nostalgia of seeing their heroes as they were in new adventures holds a charm they value.
MODERNIST don't care about the nostalgia, either out of indifference or not being around at that time, and see the value in creating heroic minority characters.

Neither side is right or wrong. And all you have to do is vote with your wallet. If TRADITIONALISTS want nostalgia-driven Hasbro titles, start a letter campaign to IDW for "MASK Classic" and "Visionaries Classic"...and then buy the crap out of it if it happens.

 

Clearly you can make something of a point without resorting to overblown vulgarity or fanboy hysterics as before, which frankly spoke more volumes to your misogyny than whatever stake you think you have in the Visionaries reboot.

At the end of the day, comic books and toys exist to make money first, and to please fans second. If after all this time a very obviously understandable marketing decision still bums you out that much, there's nothing anyone can do for you.

 

kinda like what IDW did with the "Mars Attacks: Transformers" book. instead of contaminating the real story with the crossover, it happened in a one off vaccum.

i'd be ok with a shared universe, if it was conceptualized that way from the get-go. establish a Universe that has Transformers, Gijoe, Monopoly, Visionaries, Stretch Armstrong, and Strawberry Shortcake in it from the very beginning. rather than forcing all of this extraneous crap into successful sub-franchise that's been running for 12 years

 

Thing is, I'm only suggesting that due to the train-wreck that IDW created with the current stories. If they had handled it better, we wouldn't need a separate universe...

 

I'm mostly traditionalist. I wouldn't want the IDW comics to keep some of the more goofy and ridiculous aspects from the 80s, but having a white man be the main character isn't at all goofy or ridiculous. I would have accepted the redesigns as completely new characters and not replacements for the original characters. I'll agree that there was a lack of black people in the original toyline and cartoon - that's why new black characters need to be created with new names; not new black characters with the names of the original characters. I read Boatformer even wanted the original toy characters to have a gender swap for when they appeared in the cartoon (which I find ridiculous and disrespectful, even if the toyline was short-lived) instead of creating new female characters like they did.

 

See, IDW, and Boatformer too - this right here is how adding racial diversity to long running existing properties should be handled. See how none of the original three have been changed so as not to alienate existing fans, but now with the addition of a new character to fulfil a specific required role?

I have no idea who this new character is other than what I see in this image, and that her name is Bliss. I don't know if she will be a permanent addition or a single episode character.



There was a character named Bunny who was the fourth Powerpuff Girl, who has the same purple clothes and eyes, but since they have different names, its easy to accept Bliss as a new and separate character, rather than Bunny is now black. That's another positive in my book despite not knowing about Bunny before today. I think she was a single episode character.

 

Even though I would've preferred that Bunny came back since I saw her debut episode, I have no real issues with Bliss, only that...maybe that she's too tall? But I guess there's a reason for it.

That being said, cartoons aside there's also precedents in Anime with Saint Seiya and the sequel called Saint Seiya Omega with fans rejecting the newer designs that Toei decided to shove in for not fitting with the original aesthetics of the Cloths.

Guess which one is Omega?

 

i don't want to "hate-on" a franchise that some love but my problem is that i don't see many of these newly shared transformer universe titles being at all successful. i admit to knowing nothing about the visionairies (sp) but , like action man, these franchises aren't strong enough to succeed alone. it sucks that they have to use a critical favorite to pimp these new and totally effed-up renditions of existing continuities (i love g.i. joe but the new title doesn't really fit in with transformers let alone the revamped g.i. joe). however, i feel this too will pass and idw's tf universe will endure AND CONTINUE TO BE REPRINTED IN IDW'S TF: THE IDW COLLECTION OF HARD COVERED VOLUMES.