Goddamn when you're right, you're right. And on all cylinders SGR.

 

The art's done by Fico Ossio, the same guy who did Revolutionaries. I really enjoy his art too, even more so when it's actually paired with a good story, as was the case with Revolutionaries. Hopefully he doesn't go down with this sinking ship. I'd love to see more of him post-reboot.

 

He’s got to tweak his Transformers a little bit first.

 

Well, despite the differing opinions on this miniseries, I’m glad we can all agree that Revolutionaries was a fantastic series. I’ve been waiting for people to wake up to that.

 

yup

 

Mortred is the only good character in this dreck. He sees the flaws of the comics and points them out...   Like why Witterquick does not use his Speed Force powers properly.  

 

I agree with all of this but i've bold'd specific points i strongly agree with:
Livio's art is hard to comprehend some, if not all, of the time. (I first saw his art during Dark Cybertron since i started reading/keeping current with IDW starting with DOOP/Phase 2)
Shining Armor was really good!
My memory of Revolutionaries is fuzzy but i don't remember hating it so it must have been at least okay imo.
"Continuity Ninja" XD
First Strike was an interesting inversion of the Earth/Cybertron invasion relatioship but then...
"Oh hey; Kreiger was a wizard that's meant to be the Merlin-looking mofo from Visionaries and he's made a city appear inside Cybertron"


(Took half an hour looking for an appropriate pic due to crap internet before i remembered this one)
VvTF has legitimately made me angry when i've read anything to do with Virulina. Her smug, conniving face makes me A B S O L U T E L Y L I V I D ! ! !
Also, she killed Kup for no reason other than to be a total bitch.

I really miss TAAO.  
It was about politics mostly, which i normally cannot tolerate in the slightest, but Windblade & Co, or more accurately; the writer, made it realy engaging.

 

In hindsight I like it.

 

"You know how they liked Shining Armor?"

"Yeah it seamlessly blended the two universes while telling a good story."

"Learn nothing from that, don't split the panel-time equally, put the shocking death in the first issue, put some obscure characters in there but don't characterize them at all, remove all redeeming factors from the new group and while you're at it call Knockout's conjunx Breakdown."

 

WRITING TIP #204: If part of your plot revolves around characters having a special talent or ability, try to create as much mystery and confusion around the uses and limitations of that ability as possible. That way your audience will be kept in the dark as to what is possible and not possible within the rules of the fictional world. In your final act, in a daring twist, have the character explain (but only vaguely) how their ability works, retroactively justifying either its use or non-use at vital junctures in the plot. This way your audience will be able to go back and read the story again, armed with a new perspective!

 

I think Wittgenstein's concept of family resemblance applies here. IDW's Transformers is a clear 'relation' to G1's. You can count up the similarities between the characters and the concepts, and even if you knew nothing about Transformers, you'd conclude that they're variants of each other.

IDW Visionaries departs from Sunbow/Marvel Visionaries in so many ways that you'd be forgiven for thinking that the only thing Mags Visaggio had to go on was a list of names. They're not knights, they're not technology users, this preview is the first time anyone has mentioned the use of 'spells', and the characteristics of each of the cast might as well have been re-rolled on a D&D character sheet.

I disagree with the above criticisms of the art though - it's solid and occasionally dynamic. Could have been perfectly good with a better writer.

 

the art is passable on the humans. but it does the robotic cast no favors at all.

 

Well, full preview via Preview World:

TRANSFORMERS VS VISIONARIES #5 (FEB180438)

Direct link to PDF file here:

https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/Prevue/FEB180438

Mirrored images

 

If they had more time to explain it in prequel form, it could have worked though on the new armors. They're battle ravaged, and resources deprived. Something you would actually expect from the degradation of their previous armors to this dystopia now where they're stuck on an alien world entirely with their city. To them, what's a resources rich world as their planet was torn asunder from their years of fighting and the overuse of magic, the draining of their resources in a perpetual war.

The designs are a really good concept that speaks to that. Whether the writing fully explains that, or now with the IDW reboot, them having a chance to go back to a prequel series to build up to that, is another question. But in concept and design, it is a very good idea in how it expands on the length of their struggles and the adventures we haven't as yet read or know about. Like Leoric's visual degradation into a more primal lion humanoid design seems like some influences drawn on from the toon where he was forced to go lion and back to human repeatedly rapidly. Something that even when he was saved was remarked how he had no scratch on him as they were warned how dangerous that'd be and the physical toll it could take or might change a person.

This Leoric looks like more events like that took their toll on him physically. Which goes back to that aspect of how long they've fought on their world, and how ravaged their armors are to being pieced together from what they can into something new from the bare resources that were left after years of struggles to the point they outright lost their planet.

Personally, I like the designs and the stories untold aspect those designs evoke. It's rather disappointing though that now we won't get to see those stories that led to this armor evolution/degradation for them. Those seem like stories with rich potential and character growth. Like we're seeing the finale of a 100 issue run, without having the previous 100 issues to know how it got like this. Where they were left with this last resort that put them in this position.

 

This would be a grate cartoon.

 

You're absolutely correct. Spot on! I completely agree.

It would certainly grate on the viewers if it was turned into the cartoon.

You want an actual good Transformers and Visionaries cartoon experience, simply watch one episode of the 80s Transformers cartoon and one episode of the 80s Visionaries cartoon. You would have a far more enjoyable experience.

 

That's because the visionaries are human beans.

 

I actually like the Visionaries characters more than the TF ones.

 

So where are the transformers?