You shouldn't be. We can legitimately trust these guys. John Barber wrote all the Dark of the Moon comics and is generally considered a master of continuity, while James Roberts co-wrote Last Stand of the Wreckers and wrote those two really good issues of the ongoing that came out earlier this year.

And if all that wasn't enough, we've got Death of Optimus Prime as proof that they can write well.

 

Yeah, we've got two dead solid writers, and really none of the artists are too horrible, aside from that guy who did Heart of Darkness (and Carlos Magno, but I think he's just movieverse).

I think this is one "looks promising..." that'll actually fulfull that promise.

 

Ultra Magnus is almost like a bounty hunter/Federal Marshall in the IDW-verse, he travels the universe, hunting down law-breaking cybertronians. i think he'd just rather keep moving than stay in one place.

 

Excellent issue and nice way for Optimus to "die." No doubt he'll back since we have no clue where Megatron is. I enjoyed the issue because as others have already said, I felt I got my 4$ worth of TF related goodiness e.e.g I didn't read it in less than 5 to 10 mins.

With that being said, I'm definitely looking forward to both ongoing series.

 

That was really good.

I read spoilers and when I heard he left voluntarily I was afraid he did it just because he was tired of dealing with everything and was leaving the people that needed him on their own. However the reason he did this was very noble.

I have to admit, I was not sold on the BB series. Rodimus always seemed like a more interesting leader and he had Drift and Ultra Magnus with him while BB only had Prowl. However the introduction of the NAILS and the release of the Decepticons have turned things around in my mind and made his series appear just as interesting as Rodimus's.

 

I too miss Dreamwave especially since their Bumblebee becoming a leader made alot of sense. But I'm still willing to give bee a shot at the big boy chair in IDW. I liked all hail for the most part as well. Rather than #81 marvel run I'd rather see DW ongoing and a conclusion to War within the age of wrath.

 

A good read, the orion pax kup nail was pretty funny too, think that might have been a deliberate nod, not sure how I feel about Metalhawk's role but it's good to see him in fiction again (fiction that's not expensive and requires a club subscription anyway).

This was a good story for Optimus

Spoiler

knowing he's still out there as Orion Pax means he can come back into it too should he ever be needed.

I look forward to MTMTE. not sure about RID but I can always get that when the trade comes out. I'll support the british writing of transformers issue by issue though  

 

Not sure about how I feel about Optimus's non-death. However, I won't be surprised if they bring him back in about a year or two.

Anyways, I liked this issue a whole lot more than the whole entire Chaos arc which had potential but the execution was lacking.

Also, I'm more interested in Rodimus's story than Bumblebee's. Part of this has to do with me liking Rodimus more then Bumblebee. Also, I'm not feeling the whole Bumblebee as a leader thing. The other part of it has to do with the premise: wacky space adventures appeal to me more than what's going on on Cybertron. Still, I'll probably read Bumblebee's story just to see how it turns out.

 

^See I'm the opposite I'm looking forward to both new ongoings but I like Bee better than Hotrod. Blame it on the DreamWave ongoing, he was scrappy as hell in that series, come to think of it in the earlier Furman IDW he gave Skywarp a pretty clever ass whipping too. I liked Space Opera & Roddy's gig sounds like more of the same.

 

Optimus's new theme song:

*spoiler*

Spoiler

He'll show up in 36 issues with Elita-1, a 57 chevy convertable and a hawian shirt.

The Bee-Leadership thing: My take on it is it's kind of a crule joke on Bumbles BY Optimus. Prime was so willing to try anything new he just threw out "Democracy" as something to try. Problem is,,, in a TRUE direct-election system, it rarely works. People vote for who is POPULAR and have very little thought for STRATEGIC VISON. The Autobots voted for BB because everybody liked him, I have a bad feeling this will end very badly for the Bee in the future.

Starscream,,, where does he fit in now? I think if anyone is going to bring back the Decepticon Empire it will be him. I don't know why nobody's ever SERIOSULY tackled what SS would do if he ACTUALLY overthrew Megatron. He seems to elite and snobby for a good portion of the rank & file Decepticons, maybe he'll just take his Seekers and leave?

And Ratbat is the new Decepticon Al-Sharpton, "I BEEN WRONGED!!! GET ME A LAWYER!!!" I predict little more than comic relief from him, but even that could be funny.

I like the ending though, it really threw a twist into the media hype machine. Looking forward to Jan.

 

Just got around to reading this; wow, what a fantastic story! The plotting is so dense and rich - makes me really look forward to both new ongoings!!

 

Well I'm super happy about how most thing turned out.

This is what i always wanted; G1 guy doing something new and different. We have all our past favorites, with hopefully new stories.
Guys like starscream need new ways to fit in. I can't wait to see where this bring us and hope it's something new and doesn't try to back pedal by making starscream; "ratbat's second in command, trying to over throw him".

Zetca?! Zetca? who the hell is that? MAN! obscure-transformers.com got nothing on IDW.


HOWEVER!

Like Kup's story. I find the earth story just....ended BAM! Just like that...And whether you liked or hated it {That's not the point}; You can't just drop a major story part. Now over all i'm superhappy how everything has turned out. And even happier that Nick Roche is around. But anyone else feel like just saying "Oh ya and then the earth team came back to cybertron" was not the greatest move? And what's the deal with that last comic with Ironhide on GorramPrime(whatever it's name was) Where does this fit into any of it.

 

Yes i totally agree....i wish i had to say on this matter. What's Sixshot doing and think? I remember Silverbolt way back when; pull Baster out of space...now would be a good time to bring him back? NO! wait...what am i saying?! What's Blaster 'the voice of cybertron' got to say on this?!

Well B.Bee on cybertron is find. But like it's said above. I hope we focus on different leader and interesting guys and sort of get a rolling SpotLight as an over-arc-ing plot goes along.

My hope is Rodiums has wacky scifi furmen crazy adventures...maybe a decepticon with him on the crew acting as Dr. Zachary Smith. And I hope this comic leaves the classic Prime vs Decepticons alone.

 

The story of that issue is set 15 millions years in the future. Technically it can be the end of IDW comics, but it can also be retconed out of continuity in the very first issues of the new ongoings (just like that one Furman written mosaica was). Personally, I just don't care about it, and try to forget it exist, because it does nothing for me.

I like what someone said about it on the allspark.com:

 

Mike Costa is a genius..... The whole TF Fandom owes him a apology for the their criticism for the earlier issues...

 

I ain't gonna lie I thought Prime was gonna get shot when he was gave his speech to everybody... I thought that was how he was gonna "die".

 

Mike Costa didn't write this issue...

 

Exactly. Also, apology for what? Even if he did wrote this one briliant issue, it wouldn't change the fact, that he wasted two years introducing plotpoints, that went nowhere. If anything, we could call it a happy accident.