Hopefully they'll maintain this concept: a series of one-shots, set (ambiguously -- with just enough differences to establish plausible deniability) in previously-established Transformers Universes. It wouldn't have to always be G1. You could even use the year number to signify which one! So, Transformers 1996 would be Beast-era; 99 would be Beast Machines; 2002 would be Armada; etc. And they could really flip the script by expanding on under-utilized versions of the media. So for example, Transformers 2002 could be set in the Armada game universe, which would be significantly different than the show or comics.
Having mulled over it a bit, I don’t see why having the Ark as a honeytrap adds anything to our understanding of the original comics at all. Prime always felt remorse that everyone wasn’t wiped out in the Ark crash; there are many stories where, wracked with guilt, he laments the fact that the war was spread to Earth due to his actions. In fact, the Ark being a sly ruse (rather than a life-or-death mission with the fate of Cybertron in the balance) actually lessens the stakes, I think, rather than raises them. The reveal that Cybertron was never in any real danger rather cheapens the whole thing. It also makes very little tactical sense, when you think about it. “Hey, let’s sacrifice a shipful of our best people in order to take out a shipful of their best people!” Sacrificing a bishop to take a queen makes tactical sense; both sides losing a queen doesn’t significantly alter the odds in anyone’s favour. If anything, we know that the Decepticons can rally around pretty much any leader with a bit of charisma, whereas the Autobots fall to pieces without a Prime. Did Prime never think to himself, “Holy cow, maybe taking most of the best Transformers out of the picture and having a new status quo of Magnus/Impactor versus Trannis/Straxus might not actually move the needle in our favour?” I mean, wow, the more you think about it, the more Prime’s plan just unravels.
Also the US and UK stories were in continuity with each other occasionally but stopped really trying about the time Furman was writing both. There were some that connect but even then it's more often messy. The US stories very occasionally confirmed something in the UK strips but was never beholden to it. Case in point: the Micromasters were introduced as a new technology in the UK stories and appeared without fanfare as if they had always been around in Marvel US.
Optimus Prime died (twice) and came back a couple of issues later. Starscream died and came back. The Dinobots were offline and came back. And Ratchet. And Megatron. And Jazz, Bumblebee... I don't think the Clones being "killed" here causes a continuity problem later given everything that has come before.
I'm just trying to imagine the rage that would have happened if the internet existed back in the mid 80s. "They got the origin of Goldbug wrong! Where's GI Joe?" (or, just as reasonably to the alternative, "Where's Wreck-Gar?")
Even if U.K. fans had been aware of the existence of the GI Joe crossover (99.9% weren’t), let me tell you, we would NOT have been lamenting ditching that series and getting the Volcano arc in its place. When they did eventually print the crossover, sales nosedived - British fans voted with their wallets, we didn’t need the internet to guage our opinion... Those U.K. letters pages, especially around the time it moved back to being a black-and-white comic, were sometimes extremely vociferous. There was a lot of anger, even without the internet...
This was great fun! Visually, it’s what I wanted Regeneration One to be - an actual retro style mimicking (and improving on) the original comics. Story was simple but sweet, shining a light on, and recontextualizing, the Marvel run.
Loved the art and I enjoyed the story. Furman and Guidi are such an awesome team, I hope we get more of these one shots or even a new on-going from them.
Yes, I remember reading complaints about the black and white stories on the letter pages. I actually didn’t mind hide. I did mind the G.I. Joe crossover as it was out of place and I wasn’t a fan of G.I. Joe back then. I still brought every issue from when I started and every back issue I could find.
Not exactly. Roadhandler did say they downsized to conserve energy. Maybe it's because I read the UK comic but I got the impression it was a recent development. I certainly didn't feel it contradicted the UK comic. I think we'd have broken the internet when Unicron arrived 15 years earlier and Furman ignored his own UK stories such as two Megatrons and Earthforce.
Yeah, exactly this. Of all the weird continuity bits in TF84, the presence of the Micromasters is one of the easiest to wave away. The letters pages actually addressed the Unicron stuff pretty well. In the US, issue #65 stated "The movie is only one possible version of Unicron’s attack on Cybertron … The comic is not leading up to the movie, 2005 in the comic will be completely different." In the UK it was also heavily implied that the movie (and the comics set in its aftermath) were an 'alternate future' (as per the letters pages in UK#97 and UK#156), which child-me definitely felt was a satisfactory explanation at the time (watching Back to the Future Part 2 definitely helped cement the idea of parallel universes in my young head!) As for the Earthforce stuff, people wrote in about the continuity issues all the time. Marvel UK's response basically boiled down to 'wait and see, it'll all make sense down the line, we promise!' (UK#287: "This will be resolved very soon"; UK#290: "Things have got a bit out of synch. But that, hopefully, should be resolved as we go on … All your questions will be answered"). Of course, by the time people began to realise that such explanations were not going to happen, the Earthforce strips were cancelled! The later issues of the UK comic were read by a vanishingly small number of loyal readers (hence the cancellation and the reason why those issues are so expensive on the secondary market). I doubt there were enough people who still cared at that point to kick up a stink!
So, what we're saying, regarding the difference between complaints nowadays, and the complaints back in the day about the black and white strips and other problems, is what's really missing from IDW is actually having a Dreadwind on staff? "Listen up, humes. I've got a lot of letters recently from our loyal readers saying that they don't like Ultra Magnus turning out to be a little micromaster bloke with a moustache, they don't like Star Saber being a crazed religious psycho, they don't like Megatron being an Autobot, and some of you don't even agree that Anode and Lug are the greatest characters in the whole of the TF multiverse. Hi-Test even tells me that some of you feel that Lost Light has jumped the Jawbreaker .... Overbite... let's not start all that again. As far as that slip-up with Misfire and Flywheels and the Necrobot thing, rest assured, Stubbie Roberts is simmering gently on the VVH at this moment. Anyway, to all of you disgruntled fleshling readers who wrote in, supplying your return address on a stamped addressed envelope in order to receive your Special Teams mini-toy, to express displeasure about the recent stories, I'll say the exact same thing. The DJD now knows where you live."
Are you sure you weren’t on the staff at Marvel UK back in the day? You got the tone absolutely spot on! This is genius!
IDW could have a LOT of fun with bringing back this kinda letters page format. Whirl, Thundercracker, Starscream and Rodimus could've been great answerers.
Finally got around to reading my copy. Delightful tale, much better than the other dreck being published.
Read it, loved it, want more. This team worked amazingly together and the end product shows. So much better than the main comic. Also, Flywheels, P/CP, and clones - Oh my!!
