Shane McCarthy's back writing Transformers.

Discussion in 'Transformers Comics Discussion' started by Autovolt 127, Dec 9, 2013.

  1. Cast

    Cast Roll the dice

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    I would much rather see Furman take on a 3rd on going over McCarthy. Even if it was just Grimlock and his merry band going off and taking on Bludgeon's crew.
     
  2. edgs2099

    edgs2099 Optimistically realistic. Moderator

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    Well, if it is in the current IDW-verse, Grimlock is currently a moron.
     
  3. Galvatron II

    Galvatron II I can type whatever here?

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    I like everything IDW by Furman.

    Come get me.
     
  4. Grimlock_13

    Grimlock_13 Currently facepalming at your post

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    I would honestly rank McCarthy high above Costa. I had few problems with AHM, just mainly how it was jarringly placed in the IDW continuity.

    It still seems to me that everyone's problem with Drift was that IDW advertised him as being awesome and it was a case of "YOO DUN TELL ME WUT TO LYKE!" since Drift wasn't even a major character until McCarthy was out of the picture. Rung is a bigger Mary Sue than Drift ever was.
     
  5. Bogatan

    Bogatan Well-Known Member

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    Its been a while since I loaned AHM Megatron from the library, the only lingering memories of it are generally not positive.

    -This shouldn't be part of the main IDW continuity, it felt much closer to the sunbow cartoon than any other comic I've read. It had been a stand alone series it would not have received half the criticism it got.

    -If the story (or something similar) had happened in the cartoon back in the 80s I probably would have thought it as the best thing ever, but I was 6 or 7 then, while I would have continued to have a lingering fondness for it, I would have had to admit it was a bit pap about a decade ago when I got the season boxsets.

    -I was reading LSOTW about the same time and I remember reading the first 5 or 6 pages of issue 1 of LSOTW then reading the whole of AHM issue 1 (and possibly issue 2) and realised LSOTW had told the same story, better and in about one fourth/eighth the page count.

    - I was really glad I hadn't paid to read it.

    Read as a solid block and ignoring the rest of IDW, treating its as a stand alone series, it was moderately entertaining. But paying for issues one month at a time as a follow up to the Furman run with so little happening per issue would, I think, have driven me to the same hatred many still have for it.

    So not the worst thing in the world, but I've read enough to know I wont buy a new series from McCarthy till I start hearing good things from a lot of people.
     
  6. Maglite

    Maglite Porkchop sandwiches!

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    In order for that writing strategy to work, though, the underdogs have to be likable and actually make an effort to prevail against insurmountable odds. McCarthy's Autobots are pissy, pouty, and lame. We, the readers, are completely disconnected from any attempts the Autobots might be making to do anything other than throw hissy-fits.

    I disagree. The pacing is totally off in AHM The first four issues could and should have been condensed into two issues. MTMTE lacks the pretense of being an epic. AHM takes itself way too seriously, and the primary motivations of the protagonists (especially early on) are to pout or bicker, and it's way too slow.

    I have no problem with Drift, and I don't really care about continuity issues, and I don't even really have a problem with the idea of the overarching plot itself. It's the execution that is flawed to me, with its slow pace, one-note characters, and penchant for empty melodrama.

    Humor isn't the only thing that separates MTMTE and AHM. Not by a long shot. And I think the way you compare the two as if to assert AHM's superiority is flawed. Perhaps you prefer the attempt at an epic, over-arching plot of AHM. That's fine. I think the episodic nature of MTMTE fits the series beautifully; it's like watching episodes of Star Trek. That's fine. Is one method of storytelling better than the other? No. A good story is a good story, however it's told.

    And, as for your idea of why AHM works better as a long story, MTMTE also has situations, with progressively revealed information that explains how they got there, progress towards overcoming said situation, and resolutions (not each thread ends in victory, but it doesn't have to). The big difference is that we usually get to the resolution a lot quicker, and, in my opinion, there's much more of a payoff because I'm enjoying the story all the way through and feeling compelled to turn pages, rather than being forced to trudge through the "dire" bits (which, in AHM, drag on across multiple issues).

    False. You should ask people why they think something before speaking for them. I like MTMTE better than All Fail, Megatron because MTMTE is well-written, episodic, shifts focus from the major league characters, has superior art, and yes, for how light it can be, especially in contrast to the po-faced entries of McCarthy and Costa.

    Remove the comedy, and you still would have a solid ongoing, because humor isn't driving the plot -- it's just there to make your reading experience more enjoyable. Remember, this is a franchise about giant robots who turn into shit. There's room for both darkness and light, a balance that McCarthy and Costa didn't get. Roberts does, although he leans more towards the lighter end of the spectrum (which I wholly approve of). I find there are darker and more serious elements in Roberts work...he just doesn't dwell on them as tediously as McCarthy did in AHM.

    Having dark and dire storytelling isn't charming in and of itself, particularly for a toy advertisement. Every story, regardless of tone, needs compelling characters and an interesting set-up. And frankly, AHM's characters aren't just flat, they're flat-out unlikable. AHM's characters are so unlikable I wanted to stop reading after issue 5 (had to force myself to continue, wish I hadn't). And the set-up isn't all that special. It would've been a fine set-up if there was less filler and more affect.

    And, for the record, AHM is littered with many, many attempts at humor.

    But I will agree with you on one thing: MTMTE is more fun than AHM. Not just because of its liberal use of humor, though.
     
  7. Coffee

    Coffee (╭☞ꗞᨓꗞ)╭☞

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    I'm actually nearly the same way, only thing I didn't really like was Revelation, (Which I WILL say wasn't really his fault.) and some of the Arcee origin. I liked the fact that it was being explained, but the idea was pretty disappointing when it means no more femmes. I do have hope for more now so it doesn't really bother me AS MUCH.

    But yeah, I've enjoyed Furman's work in the IDW-verse for the most part too.
     
  8. Galvatron II

    Galvatron II I can type whatever here?

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    Shit, I like Revelation too.

    I think it's just his style. I also have a weakness for Frank Miller, no matter how shit it gets.
     
  9. Stryker055

    Stryker055 Trying my best here!

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    I'd like an Earth story that's just about Spike and Thundercracker. I feel like you could make for a pretty interesting story if you deconstructed Spike's awful action hero portrayal and clearly make him the psychopath he was.
     
  10. Galvatron II

    Galvatron II I can type whatever here?

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    He was totally justified! This is a war!

    ... What? That's not how war works?

    IT'S A FUCKING WAR!
     
  11. justiceg

    justiceg Well-Known Member

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    I will say this for McCarthy: although I love love love MTMTE (my favorite sci fi comic of all time), one of the funniest if not *the* funniest issues of Transformers I've ever read is Mars Attacks vs. the Transformers, which is written by him. If that's the McCarthy I am getting for this ongoing I am sold.
     
  12. Dys

    Dys Bitter yellow dog.

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    Advertised, and written. Drift got a Spotlight where he got to save the Wreckers and Perceptor and had established guys see just how amazing he is and make him part of a new team that are totally even better than the Wreckers, he also got an Origin Miniseries where he's revealed to be part of a super special third faction of heroic warriors with super special swords, both written by the guy who created him. Rung on the other hand, is one member of a large cast, lost his head the first moment he was in any real peril and 20 issues in, is yet to have any super amazing solo adventures and his own miniseries.

    McCarthy's Drift has more in common with Thunder Clash than Rung, given how they're both mysterious, perfect heroes who nearly everyone likes, though unlike Drift, he was written as a Mary Sue for laughs.
     
  13. Max Rawhide

    Max Rawhide Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' ... uh, never mind

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    The only thing I liked about McCarthy's contribution was the implied similarity between Megatron and Communism (Lenin/Stalin). But outside of the covers for AHM and some vague references in the Drift series, there never came much from this. Not until Roberts wrote for the ongoing and we got the whole exposition with Megatron writing a treaty on peaceful protest and reforms, and discarding them for a more violent solution.


    No, he wasn't and no he didn't.

    In the -ation series Sunstreaker was a lowranking member of the group. There was no indication that he was a unit commander or had any other ranking position. Sunstreaker was clearly outranked by Prowl and everyone else he came in contact with. In the Sideswipe issue Sideswipe refers to Sunstreaker as his training officer (a drill sergeant?). Not a team commander. (When Hot Rod arrives on Earth he clashes with Prowl because both are unitcommanders -- Sunstreaker never clashes and is clearly in a low ranking position.)

    Then we have AHM in which Sunstreaker is suddenly set up as the traitor which doesn't work. To correct a few of the many flaws in AHM they expand the series with three additional issues (each containing two short stories). One of which is a Sunstreaker story and in this it is suddenly revealed through Sunstreaker's memories that he was an amazing succesful unit commander. Nevermind that this conflicts with his previous portrayal in the -ations series and nevermind that his entire personality makes him ill suited for a command position.
     
  14. Dys

    Dys Bitter yellow dog.

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    Lets not forget that he's spent a lot of time in the hands of a Decepticon having unspeakable things done to his body and mind so he can be used as a hub for a small army of drones. They either kept his access codes to everything active all that time, you know, despite the fact he'd clearly been compromised, or just gave him a whole new set, despite being a prime candidate for PTSD.

    AHM's big reveal requires the Autobots to be incredibly incompetent when it comes to security. The basic premise of the Autobots being defeated in one fell swoop would only have worked with what was set up before if the information used to take down the Autobots was extracted from Optimus Prime himself... Heck, it could have explained why he was so horribly damaged that he was near death.
     
  15. Rob

    Rob Prowl Fan

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    Issue 14 of all hail Megatron shows him LEADING a unit and requesting direct contact to Optimus Prime.
     
  16. theosteve

    theosteve Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely the biggest plot hole of AHM is assuming Sunstreaker would have access to top level security info. Doesn't make much sense. But one major plot contrivance does not a continuity mess make, nor make the story terrible. The Dark Cybertron already relies on worse plot contrivances, and has perpetuated a number of retcons, but People aren't writing that one off. Like it or not, such retcons are part of the superhero comic genre, and both superhero comics and the pulp stories that are part of the comics lineage typically rely heavily on plot contrivances. They were in the -Ation series, and they are in the two current ongoings.

    I would agree that MtMtE is the head of the IDE-verse class. But I haven't found any of them to be bad overall. Costa's run was lackluster, but had a number of redeeming points. And Mcarthy's was pretty decent I don't think it deserves the scorn.
     
  17. Dys

    Dys Bitter yellow dog.

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    That's kind of his point, Sunstreaker needed to be promoted by retcon (and have some of Furman's work rewritten to make Hunter a villain) in order for his level of access and his betrayal to make any sort of sense.
     
  18. Cast

    Cast Roll the dice

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    Hey we can and have argued the fact AHM doesn't fit into the established IDW universe at that point (it didn't) but forget all that, comic companys pull that kind of cluster fuck all the damn time these days.

    Lets instead focus on how badly written it was within its self. Badly paced, clearly wrote himself into a corner with how out matched the autobots then were, so pull out Omega Supreme, then Prime goes from at deaths door nothing we can do to save him to fighting fit read to lead the counter strike with no explanation. Really AHM came across as little more than fanfiction. Might have been an okay what if story with better editing but that's as far as i'd go.
     
  19. JazzIsBack

    JazzIsBack Well-Known Member

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    Fixed
     
  20. theosteve

    theosteve Well-Known Member

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    What's the Mary Sue references? I'm not familiar with that.