I had never read IDW's Phase 1 (taking a few issues like the limited series LSotW, Drift, etc.) I had started in Phase 2 I just read the Simon Furman period at IDW and despite some rhythm problems in the "-ations" and the unfortunate implications of Arcee, I liked it a lot and would like to know what he planned to do if he had not left. I'd like to know what you think, about his period at IDW now that it's been a few years since he left.

 

I thought it set a good foundation, started a little slow but I *loved* the spotlight concept, and I was eh on the more cosmic-eventy parts (which really applies to any run). Oh yea, and good humans! It did a nice job on establishing humans I liked.

So all in all? Pretty darn positive view, just with some caveats.

 

The original plan was for a six-issue Revelation mini and then a six-issue Expansion mini. The Dead Universe story planned for those was compressed into the as-released four-issue Revelation, while the Machination stuff became Maximum Dinobots.

This Mosaic strip was written by Furman to take place after the originally planned story:



You can see how some of it sounds pretty close to what we got, and some of it less so.

 

Great, Furman reimaginated the entire TF lore and created a cohesive (but slow) interconnected story with precious art by guys like E.J. Su and Nick Roche.

One of the reasons I love it is because, unlike most TF reboots, it didn't feel like a G1 remake. For example he skipped the Ark's crash and the 4 million years nap and used parts from every previous iteration of the franchise while also adding new things. Sadly it all ended thanks to AHM.

 

Important world building. Good frame work. Baaaaad character and individual story plot. Also the Spotlights were a great idea in concept but very quickly devolved into a way for him to add key story ideas...in a series there was no guarantee someone reading an -Ation would be keeping up with.

Lots of super important things we're benefiting from but it went out when it needed to.

 

In terms of story and world-building, the Furman IDW era was good. But the art (and especially coloring) was eye-bleedingly bad most of the time. Occasionally, you'd get a guest artist for a single issue who was competent, but most of it was just awful to look at.

When I want to reread IDW, some of the Spotlight stuff, I can stand to look at, but for most of that -Ation era, I'd rather just read tfwiki, and then start reading the comics from a later point. When it comes to comics, story is more important to me than art, but holy crap... I have limits.

All that said, I'd have loved if Furman could have continued, rather than us getting All Hail Megatron. Well, now that I think about it, I'm no fan of the Costa series, either. Nothing is really worth revisiting, imo, until about Chaos Theory.

 

It was soso. The only thing i really enjoyed was the whole Shockwave and Dinibots arc, specifically Maximum Dinobots. Stormbringer was ok, but could have been a whole lot better if spread over more issues with more flashbacks.

 

I think it was due to the coloring. I mean, in Spotlight Sideswipe E.J. Su got to draw and color, and...

 

Great start. A new take, a real new take, not just rehashing the same old. Infiltration was a very good start. Hell, I like the fleshies.

It feels like he needed better editors to filter his ideas and keep him focused. The more mystical and otherworldly he got the less interesting it was. The dead universe concept wasn't very good. Stormbringer was a hot mess. And really he couldn't help but plant seed after seed after seed that he couldn't possibly follow up on.

It's worth reading infiltration. Past that, eh. All hail Megatron nukes all the foundation for EIGHTIES BUT VIOLENT and it's fuckin' awful. John barber has essentially spent the last ten years trying to retroactively knit all of Furman and ahm and assorted crap into something that makes sense, tying off or finishing up all kinds of loose threads.

 

I liked it, but take my opinion with a grain of salt because I really liked AHM too. Furman had great ideas, but the art for the most part was not the greatest. Personally, I liked didn't mind the explanation for Arcee, at least not as much as I minded that Optimus Prime was going through a leadership crisis four million years in, or that Furman started IDW's trend of really bad Primes with Nova. I liked that the humans, for once, were truly where they would have been in a conflict between extraterrestrial machines: getting the tar beat out of them. Wasn't a huge fan of the Witwicky family being so anti-Transformer or Galvatron not being Megatron, but that's a pet-peeve of mine.

All in all, I was super excited to see Transformers consistently on the shelves again, and I was glad Furman was able to implement some of his ideas from Dreamwave. I've followed Transformers since the '80s and it was fun to share with my wife and kids for the first time. Furman was the reason I gave IDW (particularly Roberts) such a pass post-2012.

So I guess, maybe 7 of 10 stars?

 

It was way better than AHM, Costa, and the current Hasbroverse era. So pretty alright.

 

Sorry, but no way was anything Furman wrote for IDW G1 better than AHM. Better than Costa sure, by spades, but not even Maximum Dinobots is as good as AHM was. Thats just nostalgia talking.

 

Nostalgia for a 10-year old comic that was HUGELY well-recieved at its time?
AHM is just an edgy G1 cartoon fanfic full of contradictions with the Furman era.

 

Furman gave us Verity and Jimmy, AHM gave us Spike. Choices, choices...  

 

I think that a lot of the Earth components of the story worked very well. Stormbringer, the Dead Universe, etc, are all examples of how poorly he handled the off planet parts of the story. Even with that, Furman did a lot of world building that was extremely important for what came later.

I understand a lot of what went wrong with the Dead Universe story was that it was super compressed to make room for All Hail Megatron, the "soft reboot" story we all love to hate. But even prior to that, whenever Furman seemed to touch off world plots he always struggled. I'm not sure giving the Dead Universe the page count he wanted would have helped.

 

Better than what we have now, some exceptions aside.

 

Literally ahm is pure nostalgia for fans who want their g1 but "for grownups with violence."

A person has every right to like it more than Furman's stuff but to state ahm is absolutely better than it... Nah.

 

I think that Furman was absolutely the right person to reimagine Transformers and form a basis for a "new" universe. The whole Infiltration Protocol stuff and the Machination was extremely good, and I at least like the concept of Galvatron and Cyclonus being their own guys.
However, his Megatron is extremely flat as a villain compared to what comes later, it doesn't feel like the infiltration stuff was utilised as best it could be, and the Dead Universe is pretty terrible. I feel like Transformers as a brand and IDW as a universe have grown beyond having any need for Furman, too.
Also, Spotlight Arcee sucks.
EJ Su's designs and art are still absolutely fantastic, even if I'm not a huge fan of the faces.

 

lol "HUGELY"? hahahaha

 

I absolutely loved it at the time and it pulled me back into Transformers as an adult. Dreamwave, by comparison, only caught my attention for a couple of issues before I lost interest. I thought (and still think) Su's art was superb - it was the first time any rendering of the Transformers had felt 'real' to me, like I could grasp how the transformations worked and actually believe in them.

As Furman went on, though, I became increasingly disillusioned with the slow pace and creaky character development - most characters simply didn't get much to do, as Furman was largely interested in building up increasingly bloated threats and getting quasi-mystical on us. Didn't care much for indestructible characters either.