That's not true. There was sub-numbering on all of the -ation and Stormbringer issues that labeled it as an ongoing. The problem was when AHM came out it was suppsoed to continue that numbering but be so many issues ahead with MD and other books filling in the gaps. After the first issues of AHM came out Ryall stated it was a mistake not to include the sub-numbering but all the continuing issues would. We know how that turned out.

In my opinion the biggest problem with AHM was that it completely cut off the IDW TF world. No matter what happens in AHM we know that Pretender Tech isn't that important, Gestalt Tech is easy to reproduce, the Dead Universe wasn't a serious threat, Sunstreaker and Hot Rod end up on Cybertron. That's it.

Simon's Stories weren't A to B to C clear cut simple stuff they were part of this gigantic world he was crafting. I loved, LOVED how Nightbeat eventually finished off in Revelations.

I was up and down on the -ation stuff since it came out. Hated Infiltration, loved Escalation, disappointed in Devastation, loved Revelations... for what it was. A recent re-read of the entire line allowed me to see how big this universe would have been.

AHM cut it off at the knees. Up til AHM Megatron had a reason to be on Earth now? He's taking over the planet... and it might have something to do with the Matrix? *yaaawn*

 

I'm being outright confrontational with those who disagree with me??? :huh Ok, I must be reading my posts differently than everybody else because they sure didn't sound confrontational to me.

On an unrelated note, what is with the massive slow down and the 200+ members online all at the same time? Seriously was there some late breaking news unveiled that I'm not aware of? It makes it rather frustrating to read threads and stuff. Don't tell me the April Fool's Virus has infected our servers. *Shakes head*

 

I wouldn't say confrontational as much as overly aggressive in stating your opinion. But you know what? That just means that you are passionate about stuff you like and it actually makes for a good thread with honest to god debate.

I don't believe in your idea of not comparing old to new but I'm not saying YOU can't do it if that's what YOU want to do just as I ask that you don't have to like that I think it's okay to compare.

I think because I follow regular comics that have 40+ year histories, that this seems logical to me. I've added and dropped X-men so many times over the course of my collecting days just by what's going on that this just seems normal with all comics.

As for the comic at hand, I really hate to say this but I really think IDW needs to handle the TF book like Devil's Due did the first GIJoe book. Have a main ongoing. You can change up the cast from arc to arc but it's a single ongoing. Then have backup and mini-series and so forth to go in-depth. They had the awesome Frontline book with perhaps the best Beachhead story ever, something you would never see in the main series. They also had the Declassified books for origins of Scarlett, Snake-Eyes, and the first team. But you also didn't need to buy Frontline to know what was going on in the regular book.

Man I miss the first DD Joe book. America's Elite just killed it and lost them the license.

 

A fair number of people don't like Infiltration due to its human-centric storyline and how slowly it moved. I love it because of this:

That's what I like to see. Great Furman dialogue there.

 

Well, the IDW panel at BotCon should be lots of fun!

(I miss Verity...   )

 

Not really. Mostly you get different interpretations of the story and characters.

It's always better to do it yourself if you know that another writer won't follow through on things.

 

Old comics, fave run was Matrix Quest. I didn't like it back as a kid because it had few fave characters but in retrospect the pacing was snappy and the dialogue breezy.

New comics, DW's G1 vol 3, ish 1-6. Fave characters, gorgeous art and every issue had great cliffhangers that made you couldn't wait for the next ish.

 

I think Marvel US and UK had some gems - Wrath of Gaurdian/Grimlock was a classic, the Cybertron Redux storyline, Prime & Megs back on Cybertron, and the Matrix Quest/All Fall Down issues were great, and I don't think anyone since has bettered them.

I didn't care for G2 much.

The main problem with recent lines seems to be a lack of commitment. The producers at IDW need to plot something long term and stick to it - I thought that's where we were headed with Furman's IDW work, and the only reason I stuck with the first couple of frankly painful -ation arcs. Then it all got dumped.

I have enjoyed some of the AHM arc - the Autobots on Cybertron, some of the Decepticon in-house clashes, but it's hanging very loosely and the last issue was bloody awful in places, especially the humans/Soundwave pages which were a travesty. Again, no one seems to have sat down and really thought things through, and I don't think it'll be resolved in 2 issues. We were promised something awesome by McCarthy, and IDW just haven't delivered. So far the spotlights have been by far the best of their output in my opinion.

 

I didn't follow it. What was wrong with America's Elite?

Yeah, what happened there exactly?
Soundwave picked up Rumble? Got all sad and started crying (or something) which makes the phones work again. (???!!???)

One or two panels of narrative can really help a lot at times.

 

I actually loved G2 the most out of everything. The whole story was just so dark and different. Also, the Autobots were so out of character that it made it even more interesting. Prime was a self-doubting wuss, Blades was a hardass, Hound was a pussy who wouldn't even fire a gun, Sideswipe was hardcore. It was just cool to see them actually reacting to a battle that has gone on for millions of years and actually take a toll.

They centralized the team into a core group and everyone else was "reserve". There were only 7 main members. Of course Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow were 2 and the General was now Joe Colton. It wasn't until a few arcs in where we saw more than the main group and by that time, it was just a boring story. if you didn't care about the main 7, you lost interest quickly and thus readership dropped.

 

Shame about "America's Elite".
I really liked how DD handled the Joe\Transformers crossovers.

They were good fun.

 

Actually, those were. I think the time travel one was my favorite.

 

Yeah.

I loved Infiltration for its pacing and humans. And I loved that line, though I preferred:

Really, Infiltration was brilliant. Usually Furman does tend to write characters all the same, but Infiltration was full of character; Bumblebee was a pragmatic smart arse, Ratchet wanted to be a hero, Prowl was a hard arse and Megatron was just awesome. That's not even starting on the human characters.

 

I'm a spunky independent woman! I'm quirky hot but still approachable to geek guys and I have a soft inner weakness!

urghhhh

 

I think it should be the other way around. Less long term planning, more immediate results.

The problem with modern comics is the TPB format so by default writers spread the plot accordingly. The you have the editors telling telling the writers to write for long terms, compounding the problem when TF essentially is about giant robots bashing the hell out of each other, the plot is thin as it is. Then you have the nature of the license which is generally short term. Publishers can't even wrap things up in time.

I say write self contain mini series, then build on that. Marvel zombies 1 and 2 was good in that the 1st could have been left as a standalone yet had room to expand into a decent sequel that was MZ2.

 

The thing with the Human characters though was everone whinged constantly about the pressence of the Humans, so IDW removed them then there is an uproar about how they were removed.

Maybe its us to blame for messing up with their palns and them wanting to please everyone.....and in the end please no-one.

or something like that.


Also I got the War Within omnibus, since I hadn't read it before and I've yet to find out what all the fuss was about. I'm only like a third into it though.

 

Yeah, and the human characters were well done, too.
I remember that I was really into the story and when Verity and crew came across Megatron and he just looked at her I just thought "she is so screwed".

The first part of IDW's arc may have moved slow overall, but as a story from the human point of view I think it worked quite well.

 

Heeeey, how you doin'?

 

I agree with the sentiment, but not the specifics. I wouldn't mind if Jimmy and Verity stuck around. I wouldn't mind if they died. What a lot of us mind is that they kind of vanished. We haven't seen V & J for about a year now. Last time we saw them, they went from "fully alive" to "dead" to "perhaps we can revive them, maybe." There was a setup, and no payoff.

I thought the first few years of IDW's Transformers was the best era in all TF comics. The art was amazing, the stories were, well, just as good as the good stuff that came before it, and it truly felt like a big, believable universe.

IDW's Transformers wasn't exactly Road to Perdition, but I feel it has more real-world believability than even the Michael Bay series. It also helped that the TF's truly seemed to have some kind of hierarchy, and a real plan to take over civilizations.

It wasn't perfect. I really hated Furman's style of introducing, introducing, introducing...

It's one thing to build up a complex mythology. It's rather annoying when plot threads are introduced without conclusion. For an example, Senator Holt has made, like, 1 appearance each miniseries. Then he vanished.

I disliked Furman's inability to write endings, but I tolerated it. The comics were good enough that I wanted to stick around and see what happens next.

Furman and McCarthy also made similar mistakes, which I call the "Lost" mistake. Keep in mind that I stopped watching Lost midway through Season 3. Essentially, it felt like I was watching a magic show where the tricks had no payoff. A bunny goes into a hat. An elephant disappears into smoke. A woman is locked in a box.

And the magic show goes on, with no repercussions. The bunny is never pulled out of the hat. The elephant never comes back. The woman stays in the box, happily waving at the audience. The magician then sets up trick after trick after trick, and does not follow up. He does, however, repeatedly promise, "For my NEXT trick...JUST WAIT TILL YOU SEE WHAT I HAVE IN MIND!" Then he takes out some doves, tantalizes you with what he might do with them later, locks them in a box, and continues with his infinite setup.

I gave up on Lost because of this. I'm told that this kind of nonsense stops after season 3, but I didn't care anymore. I loved the TF universe and Furman's stories too much to quit the -ation series because of it. But in hindsight, Furman really needed to pull a bunny out of a damn hat now and then. Same with McCarthy. Even worse, we know AHM is 12 issues. At best, it'll be 2 whopping issues of nothing but bunnies being pulled out of hats.

Bear with me for another paragraph. For the opposite effect, I call it the "House" principle. Each episode of House is fully intended to be a complete story. Each episode has a beginning and an end. House's season-long arcs are just as rewarding as stuff you might find on 24 or BSG, but individual episodes are not sacrificed so that 10 episodes later you get some grand payoff. No, with House, almost every episode pulls a bunny out of its hat. All comic book companies need to make their books more like House, less like Lost.