People keep talking about this reboot for the IDW comic but no news or solicits even though we have solicits for next year. I feel like Hasbro doesn't know what to do.

 

We've heard plenty of rumors that the new comics will most likely be tied in to Cyberverse and/or the WFC toyline. I'm willing to bet they want to focus all the attention first on the Unicron event and finishing out strong (if very, very late) with the current continuity before drumming up hype for the new one.

 

Personally, I think it's been planned, but they're awaiting approval from Hasbro before they say anything at all. It could easily be they want to make sure everything ties in as tight as possible to avoid any issues such as when Titans Return came in, when it's nowhere near like the toyline suggested.

Also, as mentioned above, it could be they're waiting for all the old stuff to be finished before ringing in the new.

 

Yeah, I 100% expect it's because they want there to be a gap between the end of one continuity and the start of the next so it feels less like a "reboot" and more like, just, a new series of Transformers comics. If they let there be a fallow season between them, there'll be more impact for the start of the new one.

Though I will say that any suggestion that it's going to be WFC-based is pure speculation based on Hasbro's "brand alignment" in recent years. We don't know anything for sure.

 

I feel it's worth mentioning that the fans really overestimate how much influence Hasbro exerts over the comics. Having spoken with many creators who have worked for IDW, Hasbro just wants the books to be good to help boost the brand image and maybe throw in a few toys for promotional purposes. But really, IDW is given a lot of free reign in what they do.

 

Another thing worth considering is that they're still planning/tweaking in an effort to get a perfect product before releasing anything.

A lot of stuff for Transformers is "ending" right now. Cyberverse is new, with no continuity ties with anything that came before it. The Bee movie is technically the "last" Bayverse-compatible movie. IDW's run is ending, and even the CHUG line is getting sort of a palate-cleaner with Siege with a whole new look and style.

Unlike prior lines, Cyberverse and Siege actually didn't get the same kind of build up prior to release. I suspect that this overall lack of marketing is part of the "surprise" factor that Hasbro is trying to accomplish.

The last 15 years of Transformers have given us a lot. There've been a lot of surprises so far that reflect this development. This is up to and including a lot of IDW references in Cyberverse and Siege taking some interesting design choices with it's armor-up cross-play patterns that pulls a lot from the latter Generations Titans/PoTP sublines.

In that vein, my guess is that Siege and Cyberverse and whatever new movies that go forward from here on out will more or less cherry pick the best bits from each of the most recent continuities, combine that with the long-standing items, and turn that into a new "core" that each individual line can build off of. In other words, rather than being silly like Aligned and trying to force everything to integrate, I suspect each individual "segment" of Transformers will all refer back to a core set of ideas. That way, movie fans and comic fans and toy fans will each have a basic understanding of the brand and can cross-communicate with each other.

This sort of brand unity probably requires more fact checking. Coupled with the interesting surprises we've seen in other parts of the brand, I'm thinking that Hasbro and IDW are making sure that everything is properly integrated and clean and pushing certain brand ideas forward so it doesn't turn into an Aligned style mess AND attempts to catch more market share this time around.

 

I asked John Barber about what's next at New York Comic Con last month. I asked him if we'd get any news at the show and his response was essentially that there wouldn't be any announcements until after the remainder of the OP, LL and Unicron that were released. So based on that the earliest we'll hear something is the end of next week.

I'm hoping for an interview with him someplace like CBR that is titled something like "IDW is ending the current Transformers Continuity this week. We talk to the Editor in Chief about what's next". For clarity, I have no idea if such a thing will show up but hope springs eternal.

 

Don't worry, them not talking about it is not a sign of planning. They clearly planned the end well in advanced, so there's no reason to think they didn't plan what comes next.


This isn't like DC's nu52 where they just suddenly dropped it on the writers and where it was added on to an event never planned to be the end, they've had this in the works likely for a year+.

 

I think it would be nice to get some information. Does not have to be much, maybe a picture or something. So, let's wait until the end of the month. Then everything is finished.

 

Hasbro likely never planned anything. It's IDW who decided their universe is too much of a cluttered mess, especially with the tons of crossovers and spinoffs, none of them turned out to be good enough to warrant an ongoing series eventually (so I assume financially they were busts).
I frankly yearn for something I always hated back in the Marvel comics days - more Hasbro control. IDW should be reined in a lot and not allow this much departure in a mainly toy-funded comic to veer off from the toyline it is supposed to support. I liked MTMTE early on but both that and RID eventually ended up with a cast made up majorly of characters one writer imported from his own fanfiction or created on the fly, or in the other case, characters based on super obscure toys (Aleiron, Slide, Gimlet) - which could be good if they had interesting personalities (after all Nightbeat or Bludgeon started out like this too) but they didn't really...
Another weird thing was how IDW barely seems to support the ongoing other media. RID had a super short comic that fizzled out fast, AoE and TLK did not even have comic adaptations or spinoffs, and the Bumblebee movie had a prequel that seems to be totally unrelated to the upcoming movie and just an excuse for the new editor in chief to write James Bond knockoffs. Cyberverse has been out for months now too, and no comics seem to be planned.

If Chris Ryall or whoever is still running things, is so unable to get things together, I feel Hasbro needs to step in and provide some guidelines. Even if we end up with mandatory toy-release related cameos like we had with Rhinox, Waspinator, Crosscut and the like.

I feel Cyberverse is kinda doing this, integrating things from many sources into one continuity - we have had characters and plot points from everything from Marvel G1 comics through WFC games and IDW comics in there so far. I agree it is a much better idea than Aligned, and I still find it ridiculous that the Walky-run TFwiki still has combined entries for WFC-Prime-RID characters with the same name for example, pretending they are the same character... (Kinda wish we had a different alternate wiki to use, but the only one I know is rather unupdated)

 

So they are letting their Transformers comics rest for six months, whats wrong with that picture?

Do they have the license? has Hasbro said "wrap up, get lost"?

 

It's still too early for news or solicits, the current continuity isn't even properly over yet. Patience is in order, perhaps IDW is actually thinking about their next move before crapping out something half-cooked, but maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

 

I'm not expecting anything until Optimus Prime 25 hits, or at the earliest, when Unicron 6 hits (tomorrow). But I could be wrong.

Lost Light's ending has me worried there isn't a new continuity in place after all. But I'm not so worried I think the sky is falling yet. It's just a nagging feeling.

 

Aileron is based on a toy? I thought she was an OC colored to homage Crasher from the Go-Bots?

 

This has been discussed to death.

No, despite frantic, fervent wishes from some and some weird need for someone once a month to pull a chicken little, IDW does have the license still as far as anyone knows. They're wrapping up nearly 15 years of storytelling and have a bunch of new series/toylines to contend with. Hasbro has clearly stated that they desire to have a lot more cross promotion going forward, which has become all the more important given the collapse of Toys R Us. As most people have posited, they're likely planning still and seeing what worked and what didn't with IDW before integrating it into the next phase.

There's precedent for this. Cyberverse has named Windblade a Cityspeaker. She's from Caminus. So is Chromia. There's a lot of deference to IDW's use of the colony worlds. Even if IDW arguably failed in executing on the stories at some point, most of the background and world building in Cyberverse appears to be directly or indirectly related to IDW's run on the comics. Ergo, it would be silly for Hasbro to vent IDW now, especially if the rumors hold that the next comics are designed to cross-promote Cyberverse and Siege, the latter of which will likely be designed for the older audience while Cyberverse is for younger kids.

 

Will Unicron arrive tomorrow? There are still no spoilers out there.

 

I think the simplest reason is that they don't want to hype the finale and the new series at the same time.

They don't want to scare off people from the finale by hyping them for the next thing.
They don't want to undercut the new series by comparing it to the high-stakes finale of the current era.

If you think about TV shows, you don't see ads for the next season of a show BEFORE the season finale of the current season airs. At least not usually.

 

A number of companies have their solicits for next year out.

 

I mean, to be fair though...IDW only really shows solicits for like two or three months in advance. My guess is the reboot won't start until at least Q3 next year.

 

Yeah. Q2 at the earliest, I'd bet.

At least it's coming back. Hopefully they've learned a little from Version 1 and can deliver a slightly more polished product this time around.