What I mean is do you prefer the first season/ phase of the first IDW TF comics or this current run?

 

I've tried to read the IDW 2019 comic a good three times. I have all the issues because I feel bad cancelling subscriptions at my LCS. But I just cannot seem to get anywhere with it. It's so slow.

IDW1, in both phases, had some terrible and great stuff, but I think it was only the Mike Costa run where I actually stopped reading, and even then the stories were quite readable; I just thought they were bad.

 

Read the TPB's the single issues are like watching paint dry without the fresh smell.

 

IDW1's, easily.

 

Phase one had some of the worst TF fiction ever... But it also had LSotW, first "season" of MTMtE, etc. Probably the highest highs our humble robots in disguise will ever see.

 

First time's the charm  

 

So we are up to 28 issues of IDW 2 including Galaxies. Comparing them to the first 28 issues from IDW1 including the Spotlight issues and IDW1 is the clear winner. There's a lot more variety to be had with IDW1.

 

I stopped buying the singles of the new series a fair few issues ago, so it has to be IDW1.
It's just more interesting, with better art, no tedious politics or gender nonsense, and less new characters I don't care about.

IDW2 feels like all the things that put me off the ending of IDW1.... but at least it doesn't have any crossovers so it has that going for it!

 

While IDW2 isn't finished, I think it's best to compare the series to IDW1's Simon Furman run of the comics from 2005-2008.
IDW1 had a bit of a slow beginning, but threw you right into the action, with a car chase that was a little too long, but still had entertaining dialogue and artwork. It also did a better job showing who everyone was, the humans, Autobots and Decepticons.
IDW2 at the beginning focused too much on world building, which isn't bad, but it lacked the interesting characters or decent artwork. The plot moved along way too long, which caused me to drop it after the 5th issue. Comic books should grab the reader very early on, to make them consistent readers, this comic fails at it.

 

The current run of IDW reminds me too much of Dreamwave’s run. There’s definitely some stuff going on, it’s just a little hard for me to care.

 

Gunna have to go with the majority opinion so far. I really want to like the new series, but I'm finding it harder and harder to convince myself to buy each issue. It just doesn't feel like it's got any distinctive characters or momentum.

 

It feels like they got a mandate to make a story for Siege, but not too much story so they don't interfere with the Netflix series in development hell

 

Well for one thing, IDW1ph1 has a story, characters, a plot that progresses, and things that mean something to the overall impact of events.

IDW2 has shit like killing an IDW1 character and never really making it mean anything one way or another. Or Bumblebee becoming a double agent and never making it mean anything one way or another. Or a ton of characters doing nothing for stretches of time and never making it mean anything one way or another.

I bailed out on IDW2 early. I still keep up on threads here to keep appraised of the events going on in it ("events" feels like too strong a word) so I'm not just some ass on the internet blindly hating something. But like Bass XO said, we have 28 issues of it so far. And what do we honestly have to show for it? It feels more like this shit that could have happened in the background of a good TF comic and somehow got a publication.

 

Furman can be hit and miss, but you can't say that little is happening in his stories. So, IDW 1 Phase 1.

 

You know who I liked and hated that he was gone? Hunter O'Nyon. Hm maybe I'll start rereading the old books. But this time in physical Form  

 

Hoontear got done dirty. I do wish that Jimmy and Verity had more of a presence in the later events that took place on earth. Would have been neat to see them interact since they had effectively chosen opposite sides in the Cybertronian/Earth conflict.

 

To me hunters death was a big middle finger from McCarthy to all of us that enjoyed the -“Ations” and didn’t understand where his story fit in.

Oh and yes. IDW1 hands down. IDW 2 blows.

 

First run of IDW. It started out a little slow bit went big over the years. Lost light was also one of my favorites as well.

 

You made me think of another problem with IDW2, the story assumes you know the world of the Transformers and their characters. Unless you read IDW1, you wouldn't know who Brainstorm is, to the audience he's probably some random grunt or throwaway character. They keep mentioning characters and concepts a person unfamiliar with the universe wouldn't know.
Another problem this series has while more of a nitpick, is being set on Cybertron. I like the setting of Cybertron, but there are alot of Cybetronian slang terms used, like "meta-cycles."
They mention in the first issue:

• Prowl (who doesn't even appear until later on.)
• Brainstorm (if you never read MTMTE or LL you wouldn't know who he is.)
• Energon (the thing the Transformers live off of.)

 

IDW1 phase one is a completed story with a beginning, middle, and end. IDW2 has not even finshed it's first arc??? So I will reserve any judgement until I can say both have concluded. That being said, IDW2 is already setting itself up for a more coherent narrative than IDW1. A few of the Furman era stories were fun but almost everything after All Hail Megatron was awful and a lot of plots were completely dropped. You could tell IDW1 in it's earliest stages had no real plan for where they wanted the story to go or what they wanted to do with it and that's why it suffered.