I was wondering if the novels and comics maintain a continuity between them, or do they basically ignore each other? Do they make up a Star Wars-like Expanded Universe type situation? And can anyone tell me what the novels and comic series are? I'm a complete noob when it comes to movie related EU. Thanks!
they are canon (in ym opinion) but other people sasy they arent, even if they arent they can help you to explain few Poitns of the films aslo for comics we Have Transformers Defiance (which expliasn the pre-war Plot and The war began) Transformers Offical Prequel (abou the arrival of megatron, the otehr cons and bumblebee to earth) Transformers Reing of Starscream (So yo ucan see whathappened to Scremaer after T1) Transformers Allaince (What Happened before ROTF) Transformers Nefarious (i Sitll odnt get tthe whole plot lol) Tales fo the fallen (they focus on certiasn character bee, Arcee, ravage, fallen, jetfire and sideswipe showing what they did before, After or during the films) Novels: Ghost of yesterdays the veiled threat (i dotn knwo the plot of both novels has i enver read them)
To answer your question as to if they maintain consistency, for the most part the novels and comics don't seem to be consistent with each other. For instance -- the 07 movie novel stated that Barricade was killed, yet in The Veiled Threat and post-07 Movie comics, Barricade is very much alive.
You can outright ignore the adaptation comics and novels as they are based on early script revisions, so those are kind of out on their own. As for the novels and comics that serve as prequels/inbetweens/etc. those all basically flow together, especially the comics. There's some gray areas with the Alliance comic book and The Veiled Threat novel as they're supposed to take place roughly around the same time, but after reading both I didn't notice too many major clashes.
I keep the comics/novels separate from the movies because not everyone will see the movie AND read the comics/novels. In my opinion, ROTF has its own explanation (albeit subtle) regarding Barricade's disappearance - Optimus mentions that the Autobots and NEST had several encounters with Decepticons since the events of the first film, and I concluded that Barricade was among them, whereas the comics blatantly show Ironhide running him off the interstate into a concrete pillar, killing him. Plus, Megatron has a different reaction to The Fallen's death in the comics (and the novel, if I'm not mistaken) compared to the movie. I'd say the comics aren't 100% consistent with the films, but a few questions about the films are answered more thoroughly in them.
No, For example we have the IDW Movie prequel and the Defiance ROTF prequel that contradict Cyberetron's past. Also Defiance shows the Fallen as some guy trapped in another dimension. In the IDW version there are 13 Primes not 7 in the movie, 11 died one survived and trapped the Fallen. Ghost of Yesterdays has the Nemesis and the Ark under Prime and Starscream while it has been shown and supported by Hasbro the Nemesis is the ship commanded by the Fallen. Defiance and The Veiled Threat are different representations of Decepticons infiltrating Earth and NEST dealing with them. In The Veiled Threat NEST is more international GI Joe-ish with different members from countries like Japan etc . ROTF does present NEST as a US-British team with some international backing or they wouldn't get troops to China. Course there is also The Real Effing Deal viral videos which shows a small toy tank Decepticon, a scooter Decepticon and a bi-plane RC toy who could be movie Ransack. These could be some of those encounters mentioned in ROTF. Course this is in continuity with the Sector 7 ARG as Robo Warrior (Simmons) mentions Leo's contact Agent X is a girl (Rebecca Howard ex-Sector 7 scientist who made their weapons, and studied Allspark mutations under Project Maximum Shunt. Replacing the original Agent X.)
okay thanks guys. If they aren't consistent with each other or the movies for the most part, I'm gonna give them a pass.
I'd at least read the comics even if they're not as well connected to the movies as they could've been. They're still a pretty decent read and with far less human stuff than the novels, or at least better handled human stuff than in the actual movies. And the BayFormer comics are some of the better works IDW have put out (not including Last Stand of the Wreckers, which was top banana great above the lot).
thast true btu that ebcuase IDW Had an early Script, nto the fina lscript Aslo hasbro sayed there were 13 orignal tf in moveiverse but only 7 of them were prime
Kay thats oy udescicion, stil lcanon ro not htey cna help you explain some things like hwo ebe lsot his voice (i nteh ist and 2nd film)
