RyallTime is reporting that the 4-part All Hail Megatron Coda series will now become issues #13-16 of All Hail Megatron:
The series was only ever slated to be a 12-part saga, but word and sales on the book have remained so steady that the four-part “Coda” we talked about before has become AHM 13-16. Each of these four issues will contain two 11-page stories by different creative teams–a couple of which will factor into future plans in a big way–and each of these stories either wraps up elements from Shane’s 12-part story, sets up events for the future or delves into plot points that fans that early on were inconsistencies (meaning, Nick Roche will tell the story of how the Kup from his SPOTLIGHT issue became the cigar-chomping fighter in AHM).Click on the title bar to see the covers!
Spoon
With your argument, I really wish it was…
when you read AHM if you dont look in detail at the pics and just read you know soundwave is in the storey ….how? cause of how he talks….omega supreme, devastator…these are characters that talk a certain way and have personality's there own….[/QUOTE]
Hey kiddo, that's not a personality. That's ripping boring and pointless speech patterns off of a cartoon, as a cheap writer's crutch to avoid any meaningful characterisation.
Why is the way he writes Grimlock weaksauce?
And for everyone being written the same… within a culture, people do tend to talk the same, oh we might have the odd tic here and there, but essentially we talk the same. It's the way that we act, and what we're talking about that differentiates us.
The difference being that Furman used as a lazy plot device to clean the story up.
McCarthy used it as a lazy plot device to save the day.
Wait…
According to you…
Furman can't write characters, but the Dead Universe storyline had 'enough strong characters to be a show stopper'?
And as mentioned innumerable times, the truncated ending was… AHM's fault!
I care what humans look like.
If I am meant to care about a character, I'd like to be able to differentiate them from all the other characters.
And Shane relies too much on:
-Stunted speech patterns as a substitute for characterisation
-Contrived plot devices to progress the story
-Every character being a 'badasz!'
-Pointless twists
AHM needs to die. Fast.
MagnusPrimal
We'll just have to disagree. But what was depressing about IDW Prime? I thought he was finally acting like a military commander, rather than whining about the war. I was impressed when he mentioned they might not be able to save the people of Earth. Previous Primes would never have acknowledged that.
Sideswipe80
Furman's characters all sound the same. I couldn't tell any of them apart. AHM gives the characters personality. I'm tired of reading Furman's depressing Prime and hearing guys say it's about to kick off. His character writing is flat. He focuses too much on the epic stuff and forgets characterization.
MagnusPrimal
Totally disagree.
I think the bots in AHM are severely lacking in personality. And you do know Furman was shorted 2 issues on the Dead Universe story, right? He had to cut a lot of stuff out, which is probably why the ending wasn't as strong as it could have been.
The Furman version of the IDWverse had the potential to be great. The action was spread out over different planets, different characters all advanced the huge, overall plot… it was epic, or it was going to be. Now it's gone. And we're back on Earth, with the the same old bunch of bots. And Drift.
And what the heck is that thing in Kup's mouth?
ams
After purchasing every Transformers comic since 1984, including everything by Marvel, Dreamwave, IDW, and all alternate covers & incentives during that time… I can safely point to AHM as when I officially stopped caring. I've dropped everything at this point, and have no interest in how it all turns out.
Dom
Im holding out till the end of the series before final comment. Some dodgy art in places and the whole shifting continuity thing was shit. However im liking what they are doing with the characters and the interaction, just all needs to be put together.
Acteon
I'd disagree, I think Furman's writing has shown some great personality, both at Marvel and subsequently. Stormbringer was brilliantly written – with Jetfire and the Technobots being the best examples. Admittedly I wasn't so enamoured with Bludgeon this time around, but I enjoyed that series enormously.
I think a lot of what has happened recently is down to IDW's change of direction – they allowed Furman a broad canvas to tell a story about a universal conflict and then bailed halfway through. I loved the idea of various Autobots on seperate space stations, it would have allowed for some great character driven stories with a common thread binding all the different groups together. Instead IDW chose to massively shrink that universe, confine everyone to Earth and tell a stunted story. I think these Coda issues will be much needed to successfully wrap up the AHM arc.
That said, I have enjoyed much of AHM. It's a bit clunky in places, but the characterisation, particuarly with certain Decepticons (Thundercracker/Skywarp in particular) has been long overdue. At least they're trying to tie this all together with Furman's work, so it doesn't feel like a waste.
leadsled
Furman sucks ….THEEE END
when you read AHM if you dont look in detail at the pics and just read you know soundwave is in the storey ….how? cause of how he talks….omega supreme, devastator…these are characters that talk a certain way and have personality's there own….furman just writes for anybody at anytime and reuses the weirdest lamest weakest furmanisisisisims that are dumb and stupid he writes plain and strange and anybody could be exchanged for anybody else without change……except for maybe grimlock…but even the way he writes for him is weaksauce …the dinobots series was alright…but that was a read it once and toss it in the pile series….just cause you wanted to know what happend to streaker and the ding dong kids…an interesting note is that both writers wrote that hot rod saves the day in sending messages out in both series…odd timing
AHM actually has some personality to it….its a storey where the bots are who they are and it grows and moves….furmans work always starts off strong but leaves you like….oh….wow….great…. The dead universe thing could have been wicked…god knows there were enough strong characters to make that one a show stopper…but no…blah puke chunder . by the end…a total ball dropper…why ? i have no idea , other then i think Ryall is a total assclown for how hes handling this property….and that furman shortened up what could have been an epic story…..sort of…..
i love AHM and the art for the most part….do i miss Dons work?……totally , but Guido is doing not to shabby….and who cares what the humans look like…that a sub plot anyways
personally im glad there stretching it out. do i wish there was more communication between the writers? absolutly! do i wish that there wasnt conflicting information regarding megatrons origins and whats being told now ? for sure..
im not going to stop buying these comics….but i wish when i buy the odd spotlight or new title that i didnt have to shake my head after with all the different writers
MagnusPrimal
This is selling well enough to be extended?
Man, I miss Furman's IDW universe. I'm very close to dropping the IDW stuff, and I never thought that would happen.
VAwitch
Am glad they're addressing HTH Kup got all better.
Bumblethumper
I hate how generic and lifeless the human stuff in the comics gets. And it always jars with me when they throw in anime formulas into the mix when everything else is trying to be super realistic with all the gears and pistons and rivets carefully drawn in.
The old Marvel comics had the opposite problem. Most of it was drawn by superhero specialists, and there wasn't any robot specialists in those days. Most of the bots just looked like fleshy humans with metallic gleams drawn on wearing box suits. And yet I miss it. The actual human characters could be so much more expressive and compelling.
I've basically stopped getting IDW comics. It was getting harder and harder to find them at my local comic shop, and AHM dragged on so long that I eventually missed a few issues and lost interest. The last few issues I got I never got around to reading anyway, just couldn't get into it.
Omnius
I dropped the IDWverse altogether when my AHM #1-6 sub ran out. It just wasn't doing anything for me, with the bad pacing and reversion to one-dimensional character archetypes. Oh, and Drift.
Shockscream
I enjoyed the first All Hail Megatron TPB and will buy the rest — but I'd have bought them anyway as I am a completist and I have the other IDWs in TPB. However, dispite my like of the series, it did have some flaws in terms of pacing and, yes, human art. For a full opinion on the series, I shall wait for the second TPB and the now-renamed Coda.
Opticron Primal
I bet that's what they're aiming for with the reboot. Sucks that they need to bail out of the current stuff like that.
SPLIT LIP
I agree. When I first read the AHM TPB, I honestly couldn't tell why this guy who was chased by Ravage all of a sudden had a son, then died, only to turn out to be Spike. Like WTF? Only after re-reading those pages did I catch that it was different people, they just looked SO similar.
Maybe when AHM is done they can drop all these almost trivial subplots and just have one story, with maybe other, more meaningful plots for bigger characters.
Digilaut
Exactly. But what you see in most superhero stuff is..once a robot pops up, he is just as unimaginative as a human is in a Transformers comic. Like I said, it's two very different roads in illustration, so it's hard to be able to draw them both perfectly (or at least up to quality). I do think it hampers the TF comics though.
Thundershot
Don's the same way. His robots look superb, but his humans need work… Not that I could do better, but look at Marvel and DC for comparison…
Digilaut
The art problem isn't limited to this book either. I see it with Alex Milne's stuff too. Super-complicated bots that look wicked, but in high contrast, plain looking generic humans. Some even with unrealistic anime haircuts and what-not.
I do think bigass robots is kind of a niche in the comicsworld that not many people are experienced drawing with. Alot of the comics are of course superhero stuff, and then some more non-robotic stuff, so if you are able to continually draw quality robots such as Transformers, theoretically you would be able to get inside this part of the market relatively fast. Unfortunately in alot of instances it also seems true that these people have practiced so much time on robots, but much less on human characters or backgrounds, so these become lacking…which becomes visible very fast seeing as human characters are pretty much essential in the Transformers franchise (or at least take up some good space and time).
It seems for Transformers one would have to be an expert in both robotics and humans, which for alot of illustrators can be two worlds just as far apart as modern art and a renaissance painting. Getting both sides equally right in quality is a feat not mastered by many…so in the end, I guess it is better to have someone who draws Transformers better than humans..but it's still a big shame. Especially when your whole story revolves around human interaction..
Because it sells good doesn't mean it's good. Not that I really care, I fricking love Bayformers, that sold very well too and isn't top quality to many people, either. The fact that it sells good means alot of people DO like it, so more power to them.
edit: whoops, forgot this would end up a double-post.
Digilaut
Maybe because this way, instead of one coda with one cover, IDW can release 3 issues, all with 3 different covers so all cover collectors can buy the same issues all over again, thus boosting sales?
This is something that is starting to slightly tick me off with IDW..seems a cheap way to boost sales to me. Just release additional covers, some which look better than the regular covers..or some have materials applied to them that makes them cooler (like matte/shiny differences), and you can sell the same book at least twice.
statuesorbust
I am with you on that. I would like to see an on-going instead of all the miniseries…
I agree on the art with some. The bots look great but, people are sub-par (in fact in some cases below). With that said, I think the story is solid with a few continuity issues but, hopefully those get worked out soon…
My only gripe is the human art. Everything is top notch. I think I also read somewhere that this has been the best selling series so far… So I don't think it can be as bad as some are making it out to be… Just my humble opinion…