Established some time in the book's past, relevant to current events, but not seen by the reader. It isn't becoming any clearer to me why they chose this starting point when all the important stuff isn't happening or has already happened. If Cyclonus' and Quake's relationship is so important, why not give them a few pages of conversation in a previous issue. Add a few issues before this one and include a conversation between the two that tells us who they are, hints at the war so when everyone goes "oh hey Quake" in #3 people who don't rant about the books on forums already know who that is. And when the Autobots decide to pick a fight with Cyclonus now, it maybe seems a little less triggerhappy and it is slightly better that it's not actually drawn because again, someone new to the franchise (which isn't this the point of ending three brilliant series, to sell one new one to different people) at least knows who is off panel. This book should simultaneously be going slower and doing a lot more. Was so excited for Chromia to be an important character from the beginning too. Even despite my disappointment I kinda like Rubble but while I'll keep buying until my collection matches the first volume, I don't get the right energy from this book. As in, any at all. Personality ticks might not be the high point of MTMTE, but it isn't Roberts being unoriginal either. It isn't artists unironically framing the action so it doesn't appear either.
People who keep asking for Marvel to get the IP back apparently haven't read the comics in the past half-decade or so. The Marvel that you grew up with is dead. It would be even worse for modern Marvel to get the rights back. Current year Marvel is little more than an IP holding farm for Disney, as well as a way to keep Ike Perlmutter out of everybody else’s business. Part of the problem is that they no longer pay for quality writing or editing. They just pay fanboys, YA authors, and / or Internet weirdos the minimum amount that they can get away with. To put it into perspective: in China alone Avengers Endgame earned several times over the costs of maintaining the "Hello Work" program that is Marvel Comics.
There's absolutely no sense here that the writer is interested in grabbing people's attention in the first few pages. He's just letting the story trundle along.
Another problem is that back in the 80's, one issue of a comic would give you a pretty packed story. Now that one issue would be spread out over 3-4 issues. Decompressed storytelling has been a thing since the late 90's, I think. So even if Marvel brought them back and put Furman on the books, it'd be like Regeneration One where it took forever to get to the point...
That seems to be Disney’s business model. Cheap, mass produced crap for mass consumption. Go to any Disney store and it’s rows upon rows of product. All of it is made in a sweatshop somewhere. It’s the same with marvel. Cheaply made product that has been dumbed down so everyone can “read”it. I just don’t see IDW making anything better.
I won’t blame Disney on this. Marvel and DC both started “writing for the trade” around the same time. Long before Disney bought Marvel.
