Continuity glitches in AHM, courtesy of the TFwiki. There was some discussion of this topic in the Continuum preview thread, but since it was off-topic, and I was interested in discussing it, I started this thread. So... discuss if you're so inclined. Because the war had been won at this point. The situation changed, so the strategy changed with it. First off, just because a segment of the military is aware of the existence of the Transformers doesn't mean they know anything in great detail about them. Some aerial news footage and a view from an aerial jet flyby aren't a lot of information. No one saw anything up close and personal in Devastation, so while the knowledge is out there, there's not much to go on. It's conceivable that an aggressive attempt to contain the information like the one that the FBI agent mentions could be successful in the very structured and compartmentalized world of the military. To narrow in on the street scene and the 'movie' comment, the initial exchange only lasts a minute before the Cons start shooting. The humans are surprised, and these aren't the robots from the news footage, even assuming the individuals on the street saw that footage, which they may or may not have. Jetfire was wrong. Ok yeah, it's a genuine discrepancy between Furman's work and AHM. There's a little dialogue to try and smooth it over, but it could have been handled better. To be fair, there is a mention in issue 4, the first issue to focus at length on the Autobots, that signals won't carry in the atmosphere. And Jazz doesn't say that the storms have stopped, just that they aren't as bad. The Swarm are wild mutant things anyway. If the environment doesn't kill the Autobots, it's not likely to kill them. Not that they'd complain. Agreed... this did come out of nowhere. He does? I recall he had a small amount, nowhere near enough to get his ship up and running again. Maybe I need to go back and re-read, but I don't remember anything about a ship full of energon. But... both Autobots and Decepticons have been on Earth for a full year since Devastation. Plenty of time for both sides to mine some Ore-13 and refine it if needed. That's the problem when things are made up as they go along. The real world explanation is of course a return to characters who act much as they did in the old cartoon. It's an appeal to nostalgia. Storywise, it doesn't fit with what we read before. There could be a reason for it, some injury or something, but if so it ought to have been addressed. Had I written the story, I'd have kept Soundwave's speech patterns normal. The same for Omega Supreme. At the end of Devastation, Megatron had on Earth with him Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Astrotrain and Blitzwing. Soundwave was on Earth, and so were Ratbat and Ravage. Most of the major s1 and s2 characters from the cartoon were already in place when Furman was writing. Admittedly, AHM sets the command structure up as it was in the cartoon, but many of the characters were already in place. That's true, and their presence is missed. But with no Autobots on Earth for them to interact with, I'm not sure where they would have fit in the plot. I'm not quite sure where this one is going. The fact that prior continuity is overtly scarce in the first half of the story is meaningless. AHM is a 12 issue series, and continuity plays an important part in it.
I believe only the Decepticons had access to the veins of Ore-13 that Starscream had discovered, while the Autobots found out about it via Bludgeon's documents, and they seem to have avoided the stuff entirely. Of course, I believe McCarthy said early on that he was not going to refer to the stuff anyway. There is a real-world explanation for this, though. Most likely the first six or so issues were planned out (and most likely written) before certain questionable editorial decisions about this comic and its continuity were made. Later issues tried to take complaints about the continuity into account (which, as seen by how Sunstreaker was handled, wasn't entirely successful). The point the article was making is that much of these attempted links to Furman's stuff is rather abrupt and sudden after six issues of them being a non-factor.
I had something to say but Anderson nailed everything but the thing with Bombshell. Seeing how the Insecticons were made in AHM, I always seen it as a prototype. But any expiation to the form changes like the F-15 (AHM), Starscream's Pretender form in Spotlight Blur. And the addition of Zeta Prime? Also I'm not quite understanding the part about the Matrix. The war was really about that thing? I read that book twice and it never came off that way LOL!
Ugh...why do you guy still read this crap. IDW has made one terrible editiorial decision after another. Why continue to pay $3.99 for something that isn't even entertaining at this point?
The trade paper backs have been worth my time and money, and it has flaws just like all other Transformer fiction, be it comics, movies and TV shows yet i'm still entertained. Go figure. Transformers has never done anything perfectly, flaws have always existed, I suppose its part of the charm.
yeah what he said. beats buying a toy a second time just cause its a different color. thats what i think is silly - anyway...
It's hardly "crap". Flawed from time to time and in various ways, yes, but what shared work of fiction isn't? And I enjoy it quite a bit, or else I wouldn't buy it and discuss it here and elsewhere.
Ok, I thought that was probably where that was going. And as vague as certain things are in the first half of the story when it comes to who the traitor is, and why he did what he did, I can understand where you're coming from.
I can't think of any major fiction off the top of my head that has this many problems in such a short space of time. Something like the x-men I can take this level of screw up, they have what 50 years of history to look back at now? IDW's "G1" transformers universe is at what now, at a guess I don't think they have gone beyond 50 issues, for the editor and the writter not to know the full back story at fankly a very early point is stupid and for them just to ignor it as they seem to be doing when almost every mistake or recon could have been written around with no more effort than they have tried to put in to covering up the mess is just unforgivable.
I can think of many shared works of fiction with continuity issues. Many far worse than anything from IDW. The problems I've seen with their stories are minor. All the stuff prior to AHM fits together pretty well and is a decent reboot of the G1 universe with good use of the old ideas. AHM doesn't fit seamlessly, but it's a good story and attempts were made to mesh it with what came before. It's hardly the disaster you're making it out to be. Continuum is the first really major mistake-filled book that IDW have produced, and while it's disappointing it doesn't ruin all the other product that the company has produced. In my opinion, IDW has outperformed both Marvel and Dreamwave when it comes to quality of storytelling, and I'm very pleased with just about all the comics I've purchased from them. Do you read the comics? And if so, why, since you find so much fault with them?
Not to mention many stories involving time travel and parallel universes. Once you tread into those, the continuity turns to crap. What about the Beast Wars Sourcebooks? Dreamwave, sure. But Marvel, no way. And I don't think I feel that way only due to nostalgia as I didn't read the comics during the 80s. -- I was wondering if you guys were able to see today's Shortpacked!? Wonder what's that about. -airfox
Ah, I haven't read those so I can't comment, and that's also why I hadn't thought of them I'm sure. I've heard bad things though.
What fiction has thia many problems in the space of 2 or 3 years and only 50ish issues? Please point me at it. I do read it mainly cos I'm a TF addict I loved simons work, I felt the way they cut it short was awful, I read AMH to start with as it was meant to be this great new thing from them, I gave it til the end as well I like the end of a story. With things like the spot light kup and prowl's story showing us how good TF comics can be I am hoping against all the odd that the new on going will be far better than the garbage AHM was, I'm giving it 3 issues then I am dumping TF comics if it doesn't improve. As for out doing marvel, you are joking right??? For there time and what they are they are classics, I have issue with some the things marvel did but I do not recall them having to rewite any major events or drop a years worth of charicter devlopment just cos there editor was clueless and there new writter had no idea what the back story was til after he'd started writting it.
I've found in going back and reading old issues that I really don't enjoy much earlier than about the final issues of "Matrix Quest". The art is hit and miss, and the dialogue and characters are very dated in the way they're written. I used to enjoy Marvel G1, but I really don't any more. The nostalgia filter doesn't help. I like Marvel from Matrix Quest on. G2 is pretty strong. But I think Dreamwave improved on Marvel, and IDW has improved on Dreamwave's material.
This is exactly why I only buy trade paperbacks, so I can read the story in one long stretch without missing or forgetting anything between "issues". It's not "good" or "great" by any means, but it's entertaining enough in TPB form for me to stay interested so far.
Ah I think I know why, your talking about US marvel here aren't you? Go get the the UK only stories in TPB if you can, nothing put out as yet comes close to them. Also thinking about the stories from that point onwards they are basically the ones IDW are re telling, sure G2 cons are now dead universe TF's and its thunderwing that burnt out cybertron so all the TF have to leave not the attack by unicron/death of primus but I think they are pretty close now i look at it.
After reading all 16 issues did the promise we got to explain the sudden change in alt. modes for the Decepticons ever come through? I specifically remember in issue 1 that the alt. mode changes (The seekers being F-15s, Astrotrain being a steam locomotive again, etc) would be addressed later in the series, but I read no such explaination.
True, I haven't ready much of the UK Transformers material. I've seen various "Best of UK" volumes and omnibus editions, so my opinion my change at some point if I ever purchase and read them.
He's making fun of Andy Schmidt's writing style and spelling mistakes (which, to be fair, was probably the letterer's fault) in Continuum, by pretending Schmidt sent him a letter about his previous Shortpacked on Continuum. Apparently Tformers thought Schmidt REALLY sent him a message and posted it as news. It was later retracted.
