IDW 2014 Sneak Peek - Transformers: Windblade And Age Of Extinction

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by SilverOptimus, Dec 25, 2013.

  1. MasterZero

    MasterZero Taking a Break

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    Don't forget about Armada Starscream.
     
  2. C888

    C888 Well-Known Member

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    It was a mostly a joke. It'd be hilarious in my mind if the other parts were true though.
     
  3. CelticMutt

    CelticMutt Baka Mitai

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    There are times when I wonder if RedAlertRescue isn't the second coming of Raksha or something. It would explain the irrational hatred of anything innovative.


    Note: I do not mean I think they're literally the same person.
     
  4. Antimatter

    Antimatter Well-Known Member

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    I wish Windblade didn't have the geisha/kabuki aesthetic. I voted for a female transformer because, frankly, the only things keeping female transformers from showing up more often as far as I can tell are a belief in gender roles and a lack of imagination.
    The design choice wasn't the fault of the fans' vote, as evidenced by alternate design schemes shown at the same time of her reveal, including a centurion based design. I think it was an unfortunate/debatablyoffensive choice, depending on how stereotypical you want to call it.

    Anyway, I hope Windblade's comic is good, that she has an interesting and compelling personality, and that her toy is good. If not, I'm still gonna try to support female transformers, because representation is important and female transformers usually have unorthodox body types, which requires some imagination on the part of the designers.
     
  5. Da_Razorsaw

    Da_Razorsaw Highwire ownz j00

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    There is nothing geisha-like about it. It's kabuki, pure and simple. The makeup worn by a geisha has no markings.
     
  6. calvin0

    calvin0 Well-Known Member

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    wait, so... we are back to female cybertronian being a super rare race?
     
  7. Negativedark

    Negativedark Stealth Gesalt

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    Honestly the explination for why Arcee is a fembot veers right into Voodoo Shark territory.
     
  8. Hooper_X

    Hooper_X hit dogs holler

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    so i heard you guys have strong opinions about Windblade.

    I am hoping beyond hope her SECRET THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING FOREVER is a Magic Reset Button for Arcee's awful fucking joke of an "origin" - she's the only female Transformer because she was forcibly reassigned by a mad scientist? That's fucked up and grotesque, and if the Windblade book can somehow retcon that, even if it's literally "Oh we all left and used a Magic Mind Eraser so you forgot we exist" I don't care. That Arcee backstory is probably one of the worst things in the 30-year history of Transformers fiction.

    As a character? Well, we'll see. But seriously, she can't be any worse than IDW Arcee.
     
  9. YoungPrime

    YoungPrime Herald Of Primus

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    Mairghread Scott.....Hmmm..

    Well I just did a Google on her previous work but I'll still give this a try in spite of that TF Prime mess. It's clear she's looking to step in the grown folks arena with James Roberts since Barber is constantly slumping.

    So I guess we'll see. BUT...if there's any hints of this character being half as annoying as Barber has made Arcee I'll just skim through them at the comic book store if that!
     
  10. Da_Razorsaw

    Da_Razorsaw Highwire ownz j00

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    Yeah, uh.

    Mairghread Scott wrote some of the best episodes of Prime.

    Her work is easily as "grown up" as James Roberts'.

    But I guess it should be expected, as stuff like the Rodpod and My First Blaster are so mature and all.
     
  11. MasterZero

    MasterZero Taking a Break

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    Yeah, but that's stuff not as annoying as "MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!" Arcee.

    Sorry. I mean, "MY PARTNERS ARE DEAD!" Arcee.
     
  12. Stryker055

    Stryker055 Trying my best here!

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    Yep. I'm hype.
     
  13. kaijuguy19

    kaijuguy19 Keyblade Wielder

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    Seeing as how Windblade may now get her own miniseries I wonder if this means we'll be getting her earlier then we think or that she'll just come with her own spotlight issue with her toy at the end of next year?
     
  14. Sockie

    Sockie Veteran

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    A lot more likely it's a one-shot than a miniseries.
     
  15. YoungPrime

    YoungPrime Herald Of Primus

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    Yeah well that's your opinion.
    The point was that I'm willing to give this book a try in spite of her resume being that I didn't care for any of it.

    Besides, if that show was so great then Hasbro/Hub wouldn't have canned it and given her more episodes to write.

    Again this is clearly a step up from that Prime: Dinobot comic that nobody really spoke about, so lets try not to go back in forth about insignificant comics and shows and focus on the "Ongoing" stories...
     
  16. Yggdrasil

    Yggdrasil Banned

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    Let's not even get started on the "FUCK YOU ULTRA MAGNUS I'M GOING TO THROW THAT GRENADE IN A CONFIDED SPACE BECAUSE I HATE YOU! AND FUCK YOU TOO COMMON SENCE!" followed by a baby hissy fit because he has to listen to his superior officer and deserting.

    Scott single-handedly made Prime Wheeljack one of the worst characters in the show.

    I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt with Windblade but I'm not getting my hopes up.
     
  17. YoungPrime

    YoungPrime Herald Of Primus

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    The RodPod and "My first blaster" are cool though so just disregard that.
     
  18. YoungPrime

    YoungPrime Herald Of Primus

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    Drift....there version of WJ was drift with a touch of Wolverine.

    Between Bayformers and Prime I'd say they must've hated the real Wheeljack. But since most real Wheeljack fans hated those place holder characters I guess the feeling is mutual.
     
  19. Spark Extractor

    Spark Extractor Well-Known Member

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    There, fixed that for you!

    =)
     
  20. SMOG

    SMOG Vocabchampion ArgueTitan

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    Good post. I agree with you on so much of what you say here, and it's a shame that some people may lack the intellectual curiosity or good graces to recognize some of your points.

    However, I do find the Furman Arcee origin to be EXTREMELY contentious and wrong-headed. Yes, he did address the question of gender/fembots, but his answer was not only offensive on many levels, but also nonsensical even within its own self-contained logic.

    I think the problem here is that there is a broad misunderstanding that those who "want Fembots at all costs" are somehow more progressive, feminist and egalitarian than those who do not, and I think that's both an unfair characterization and misses a lot of the nuance of the gender question entirely. If I were to declare "those in favour of typical fembots are just a bunch of immature nerds looking for excuses to write sexy fanfics" it would be a similarly unfair distortion.

    The truth of the matter is that I think "ungendered" Transformers actually provides a much MORE forward-thinking, challenging and freeing potential in storytelling and progressive thought. Its not about cutting women out... it's about challenging the ideas of what "male" and "female" supposedly needs to be, and casting them into appropriate abstraction.

    Wow, that's really extremely rude. *unimpressed*

    Interestingly, it was Furman's "-tion" series that brought us to this sorry state with Arcee...

    When I refer to the last 2 years of IDW, in fairness I'm really just referring to MTMTE. Barber's RID really hasn't impressed me all that much, while Roberts' work on MTMTE has been some of the most intelligent and critically acclaimed writing in the history of the franchise.

    I think that both Infiltration,etc and AHM had their flaws, but Furman's initial run was mostly pretty good, and you and I might be in the minority together as apologists for McCarthy's All Hail Megatron. But in my opinion, and even in view of his personal writing quirks and foibles, James Roberts eclipses them both.

    Making the case that "fembots have always existed in various TF continuities" doesn't really carry that much weight in this instance, since every version of Transformers brings new developments to the table, and fembots have always been conspicuous for being a rather POOR handling of gender in science fiction... even aside from the understandable void of explanations of TF biological function (it did begin as a kids' toy series after all).

    In IDW the notion of TFs being "genderless" was a rather pointed feature of this continuity. Ironically, it was Furman who simultaneously confirmed the absence of gender, while still introducing it in as clumsy and insensitive a way as possible. I tend to look at it as Furman giving us something that was ripe with conceptually fascinating potential to explore social constructions... but by accident. Unfortunately he used it to fall into reactionary and somewhat stupid tropes.

    I often say I profess the "genderless alien" philosophy, but that's not entirely true. I think I'm open to the idea of gender in Transformers, but I am pretty firm in keeping that very separate from biological sexes and their attendant physiological and sociological constructions. As emptythreat suggests above, the simple choice of a pronoun is probably the most salient and fascinating starting point for exploring gender in asexual alien machines... not more "ninja lady" or "feral warrior" stereotypes, which in their way are almost as limiting as nurses, secretaries and damsels in distress.

    I agree that the make-up design is kabuki-inspired, though discordant since the make-up reflects a masculine[/B] kabuki style, while the "hair" very pointedly looks like a courtesan's or well-appointed lady. The problem really is that it's a weird mishmash of "sexy-facepaint-ninja-lady" cliches that are completely imbricated with fetishized and exoticized orientalist stereotypes... and which are also a bit too literal and direct as far as Transformer designs go. Even if Windblade were a male character, the kabuki motif feels a bit hamfisted and rather uninspired from an interpretive design perspective.

    This is a personal evaluation of course. I have also never much liked Pretender shells, so your mileage may vary. I speak mainly on the part of certain purist sensibilities I suppose... but I'm not the first person to have pointed out that Windblade looks like bad fan-art.

    Y'know... I do kind of agree with you here. IDW Arcee has been badly done since day one, and Barber's recent handling has been pretty consistently awful, even if he's made no allusions to her objectionable origins. At this point, a "reset button" approach to Arcee would be welcome to me as well.

    But I still hope it would change things in favour of more complex and imaginative understandings of Transformer culture, and take us away from gender stereotypes, rather than just lapsing into "fembots, just because". Because I think that would also be a regression... and intellectual dishonesty that really does just take us right back to the level of 22-minute animated commercials for kiddie toys.

    I've been on the verge of dumping RID because of Barber's writing over the last year. Nothing Scott has said in person has inspired any confidence in me at all. Something about her grates on me. However, her Dinobot stuff has been (from the bit I've seen)... tolerable? Occasionally interesting? I'm willing to give her a shot. With Windblade it will be an uphill battle, since I'm already predisposed against the character, but I'm certainly willing to be pleasantly surprised.

    zmog