So you are Johnsonning me and being flippant in an attempt to defend lazyness and immorality?

There really is no difference between an original product born out of a desire to simplify the world into easily digestible chunks of bigotry and a copy.
They are both products of lazyness and immorality.
Neither deserves the gushing credit they so often receive.
Neither has any objective aesthetical value.
And the more popular they are the more harmfull they are.

So no, there is no reason to switch the words bad and popular in my first two sentences, because there is no saving grace in a cliché being popular.
Being a marketable commodity doesn't make poison a good thing.
Alcohol abuse, Racism, selfishness and clichés are always bad.

I like hamburgers. I could eat them every day, but they are objectively bad for me.
I collect plastic toys. I like them, but they are objectively bad for the environment.
At some point as a society we are going to have to accept that what you like - what is popular - and what is good are not always the same thing.

It doesn't matter if an amoral writer creates a malicious sterotype that through clever marketing receives so much exposure that it becomes popular (Because it is the marketing, not the subjective aesthetical quality of the product that makes it popular and memorable) enough for other lazy and amoral writers to copy in the hopes that the similarity will give their "creation" a better chance at becoming popular.
It doesn't mean shit if it's popular.
Clichés are always bad.

 

Yep! Crucial to some of my favorite comic arcs--The New Order, Back From The Dead, How Ratchet Got His Hands Back, Dying of the Light, Shadowplay, Infiltration... and then to my favorite TV series, Animated. I think Beast Wars is about the only series that didn't lean heavily on a world-weary doc.

 

A few weaker interpretations:

Nautilator - Was one of the 'Cons best sad cases. Not built to perform his job properly, generally incompetent and liable to get lost. It's not the most nuanced characterisation, but it's better than 'guy who had a voice similar to Megatron's'.

The Constructicons - all individuality completely nixed. We miss Hook being the snobbish artist of the group, and Scavenger's obsession with finding useful objects. In IDW they're just goons.

Nightbeat - I prefer Furman's more traditional detective to Roberts' 'Scooby Doo if Scooby Snacks were mysteries'. The part about him questioning his beliefs was nice, but not really followed up.

Sludge - The other Dinobots came out pretty well in recent adventures, but Sludge is ... well, he just seems like a mixture of all the others. Whereas in Marvel he had a nice storyline about obsessively protecting a human woman, and even in Sunbow he was at least comically stupid.

Jazz - IDW's not done a bad job with him, all things considered, but you just can't beat Scatman Crothers' portrayal - everything else seems like a bad impression.

 

Frankly, you listed everyone I would have... especially Star Saber. I couldn't believe how upset that made some people...   Altho' I soured on Tailgate. Maybe we were supposed to, since that seems to be a near universal feeling...?

Actually, thinking again, I'll go with Magnus. I enjoy his uptight, OCD personality, and as far as the back story, I really like the idea of Magnus being a role. The one tiny think I didn't like about the Ambus reveal was the fakeout death / oh, I am a double load bearer thing. Seemed a touch pointless.

 

More like Elita-One. Airarchnid and Vigilem were pretty good villains too.

I agree the other councilors haven't done much.

 

I've loved a lot of IDW's takes on various Transformers. Whirl and Blast Off are two particular favorites. I always liked Blast Off and have really enjoyed seeing him get an actual personality beyond the few bits and pieces I could get in G1 and other places. same goes for the development the Combaticons got in TAAO. I wish TAAO had continued; I had hoped to see them all developed more. MTMTE took several characters I never thought twice about, like Whirl, and made them engaging and entertaining characters I look forward to seeing.
I'll agree that IDW's versions of rattrap and Starsaber are not my favorites though.

 

best: megs, soundwave,

worst: arcee, optimus(i dont like the cop bits), galvatron

neutral: ultra magnus, shockwave

 

I'll agree that IDW Optimus isn't... the most compelling character. Like, if they actually committed to him being a well-intentioned but terrible-decision-making jerk it'd be interesting, but as-is he just seems wishy-washy and like there's no desire to commit to any interesting plotline with him.

 

Apparently this seems to be coming into affect in First Strike. I mean Optimus Prime here isn't bad, but it's not like the Primes in different continuities have done the same. I think something needs to bite him in the tailpipe for the actions to sink in what I'm trying to say.

 

Best Orion Pax
Worst Optimus Prime

 

Since when did we go into Prime? We're discussing the comics here.

 

In my opinion, Prowl and Ultra Magnus are two of the worst.

 

I like how they made prowl a dick but i do hat ehim. Its a love hate relationship

 

They should.

 

Best

- Starscream. Because his characterization has gotten more depth. Great idea with the "figment" Bumblebee (however, I would have preferred, if it had remained one).

- Thundercracker. He became a friend of humanity, a dog-lover and "screenwriter"...and a friend to Marissa Fairborn. Love his development/characterisation (even if I still have to get used to it sometimes).

- Skywarp has (unfortunately) still not very much of a evelopment/characterisation, but better than nothing (I never thought he'd ever work together with humans).

- Megatron. His change was / is interesting, although sometimes I still have the feeling that everything went a little too fast (too "easy") ?

- Shockwave. I was never really a fan of him, but IDW had this really good idea with a background story of him, and for the very first time, I found this character interesting (and as senator Shockwave likeable and unforgotten).

Worst

- Ultra Magnus. Not a bad idea with the "uniform", but for me it still feels like two different characters. Since the revelation, every time I see "Ultra Magnus" now, I only see Minimus. I wish they had kept the "real" Magnus.

- Arcee. Same here. I think her "introduction"/ her story, is actually no bad idea, but I think, they should have introduced a completely new character.

- Elita One. Mixed feelings. On the one hand, I like her new "style", on the other hand I find her characterisation a bit tooo "harsh".

- I do not like (IDW´s) Rattrap's characterisation at all. It´s a long time ago, and I did not see much of BW at the time, but somehow I remember him quite...differently ?!

- Sunstorm. What a pity. I know, he is/was, just a side character in IDW, but I loved his story and characterization in Dreamwave. And IDW...?! Hm, seemed to have no interest in him. Good enough for a quick action scene and a rather trivial death.

 

Best
- Soundwave trying to re-establish the original goals of the Decepticon cause
- Shockwave getting an actual backstory
- Rodimus' maturation in MTMTE Season 1
- Prowl as an amoral 'ends-justify-the-means' logical strategist - There's no way that the Autobots would have survived a four million year long war without at least a few people like this in positions of power
- Starscream as politician and ruler of Cybertron
- Arcee getting more depth beyond 'bloodthirsty killing machine'
- Galvatron, despite having a VERY convoluted history, getting some depth beyond 'crazy and evil'
- Bumblebee as a leader and politician in his own right, as well as (currently) council to Starscream

Neutral
- Thundercracker - Very nice to see something done with his doubts about the Decepticon cause but the way it's been handled, by turning him into a joke character, has been bad.
- Megatron - I still think it broke suspension of disbelief in that he was forgiven WAY too fast by the main cast in-universe; it would be like if Hitler survived and Churchill forgave him a few seconds after WWII ended. However, Megatron did get some excellent character moments out of the resulting stories.

Worst
- Rattrap - Magnifies all of the BW character's negative traits and downplays his good ones
- Rodimus' flanderization in MTMTE Season 2 and continued idiocy in Lost Light
- Cyclonus, Star Saber, cosplay Ultra Magnus, Spinister, and any other cases that are - literally or figuratively - original characters dressed up as canon characters
- The DJD - Three non-characters and three one-note characters, alongside one actually developed character whose main plotline was resolved in a disappointing manner. At least most of them died.

 

i've ALWAYS loved ratchet- probably, due to both idw's continuity and marvel's; he is tough but nice with a good sense of humor and , marvel-wise-. he was the only autobot left after shockwave's slaughter and he stood up to the challenge. i loved how he used his laser med-gear to fight megatron and his big cannon. i'd like to see more of him in future idw tf tales.

 

Why? It´s just a bunch of numbers and one liners written in the back of the toy packages. Those should not be the measure for characterization.

 

I’ve always been a massive fan of IDW First Aid, Thundercracker, cosmos and Soundwave.

While I could go into the detail with Soundwave, let’s talk about the other three.

First Aid has gone from a 1 dimensional “Oh look at me I’m a pacifist” character in the show to an analytical, yet dorky medic with a bunch of shining moments.

Thundercracker turned from “the other Starscream guy” to an impressively important character. His loving personality, his friendship with buster and Marissa, and overall his character in general is REALLY SOLID.

And cosmos, while used less than the two above, still has his shining moments as the under appreciated hero, and his relationship with Soundwave is all the better

 

Swerve.

Spike.

Too sleepy atm to expound.