You're really, really right.

The thing with Furman is that he isn't really that great of a writer, Transformers fans often seem to just have a really warped view as to what one is. "Furmanisms", for example, would be taken as crap, lazy writing in most fandoms, in Transformers it seems to be considered a cute quirk?

I really don't get it.

...And don't even get me started on Wildman's art.

 

We have a winner here

 

Infiltration - 3/5 - All these Furman books were fine, but just kind of bland. It had some neat ideas, but so many were undermined by AHM that they're just pointless in hindsight.
Stormbringer - 3/5
Escalation - 3/5
Megatron Origin - 3/5 - I don't hate it as much as a lot of people do, mainly because this book was my introduction to IDW comics. It's still a bit of a confusing mess at times.
Spotlight: Revelation - 4/5 - I give it this because Furman's ability to condense all he wanted to tell into four Spotlights is commendable, even if the final product was horribly rushed.
All Hail Megatron - 3/5 - It's not as bad in retrospect, but it's still a pretty weak story.
Bumblebee - 2/5 - I haven't read it, but from the synopses I've read it just seems dumb.
Last Stand of the Wreckers - 5/5 - Nearly flawless.
Ironhide - 5/5 - This is easily the most underrated book that IDW's put out. Fantastic art, great characterization for Ironhide and a brilliantly-done Alpha Trion, and even begins to redeem Sunstreaker (which, sadly, was not fully taken advantage of).
Drift - 3/5 - I really don't understand the hate on this one. Yeah, it's a generic, kinda dumb story and it's probably Milne at his worst (not his fault, but the design of the Crystal City guys), but it also introduces new a alien species, Lockdown, and foundation for MTMTE.
Ongoing "For All Mankind" - 3/5 - It was alright.
Ongoing "International Incident" - 1/5 - It was crap.
Ongoing "Revenge of the Decepticons" - 3/5 - It was actually pretty good.
Ongoing "Chaos Theory" - 5/5 - I'm judging those two issues here, but they were amazing. They expanded on Megatron Origin and made Optimus an interesting character again.
Ongoing "Police Action" - 4/5 - Fixed Prowl's wonky characterization, tied up all the loose ends on Earth, and made Spike out to be the villain he should be. A well done conclusion to the mess that was Ongoing.
Ongoing "Chaos" - 2/5 - A confusing mess.
Heart of Darkness - 0/5 - Easily the worst piece of shit IDW has put out. Horrible storytelling, god-awful art. It's best to forget this crap ever happened.
The Death of Optimus Prime - 5/5 - Brilliant. Just brilliant.
More than Meets the Eye - 5/5 - Marvelous.
Robots in Disguise - 3.5/5 - It's still trying to find its feet, it seems, but if recent issues are any evidence, this book will join MTMTE in being great examples of amazing Transformers media.
Autocracy - 3/5 - Meh.

 

I'm not a regular comic reader, I'm just a fan in search of TF fiction. As such, I probably don't rate them the same way a lot of other fans do, given how I disagree with some of the consensus opinions on some books.

-ation series:
Somewhat interesting, but too sprawling. Furman is good when he is forced to be, he needs somethign to reign him in.
Spotlights:
Overall good, though some of them suffered by trying to tie the -ation storyline in, ending up with "spotlight" stories that didn't spotlight their title character very well. As standalone stories, there were several that I really liked.
Maximum Dinobots:
Ugh. At the time a lot of people were raving about it, and the buzz was part of the reason I picked up IDW in the first place. Hated this one so much that I have mentally blocked it and forgot why I hated it.
Megatron Origin:
Not bad, not stellar. Some of the artwork was annoying.
All Hail Megatron:
I would have liked it a lot better if it had been a standalone continuity as originally planned. Once they made the decision to tie it into the current Furman arc, a lot of bad compromises and plot spackle had to happen. Again, popular consensus seemed to be against this series, but I liked it for the most part, so I guess I'm just not the typical comic fan.
Last Stand of the Wreckers:
I enjoyed it. Nothing groundbreaking but nothing bad against it. Further examples of how Furman can be good when he's forced to.
Autocracy:
I enjoyed up until the whole Prime/Rodimus/Megatron fight. Note to writers: there's a fine line where "homage" can turn to "lazy writing" and "bad ripoff".
Ongoing:
I'm currently up to Chaos now. The series had its ups and downs, but it wasn't as sprawling as the -ation arc. Even if it isn't a better story, I appreciate the fine art of telling a story that has the potential to go on for awhile while still being compact and interesting. Even if it isn't any better from a story standpoint, I liked the mechanics better.
Drift:
Pointless, not a complete loss. I've been against Drift since his debut, but they're making him a better character.
Ironhide:
Not a fan. It wasn't bad just not exceptional. It's nice to see Ironhide get some attention, I missed having a spotlight issue for him. I'm just really tired of killing characters and then bringing them back. Star Trek 3 was 28 years ago, just stop.
Bumblebee:
Reminded me a little of Plight of the Bumblebee - both in characterization and artwork.

 

LSOTW was written by Nick Roche and James Roberts, not Furman.

 

My mistake - doesn't help my impression of Furman though  

 

When Simon got taken off of the IDW TF G-1 comic,this is when it got awful.

 

 

I'm not even gonna try.

 

Just read All Hail Megatron. I thought it was a great series. All the Cybertron scenes with the Autobots were really fun to read. The Decepticon only scenes weren't that great, but they weren't bad either.
4/5

 

100% disagree. As I said before, Simon Furman has great ideas, but without a tight editor pulling him in and actually making each issue GO SOMEWHERE, we get the sprawling mess that we did with the -ation series.

Seriously - take a look back at Escalation or Devastation. Read as TPB they're OK (Furman himself has written about the nature of 'writing for the trade') - as single issues, each chapter is a disaster; no discernible beginning-middle-end (even issues that form part of a larger arc should still stand on their own), terrible pacing, characters floundering without much to do etc.

Put another way - in 1986, Furman wrote the fantastic "Dinobot Hunt" in the equivalent number of pages as TWO regular US issues. If he'd been writing it in 2006, it would've been a "SIX-PART EPIC" and no more the better for it, I promise you.

Or, in the reverse, "Escalation", "Devastation" etc - 1980s pacing - would've been 2-4 part stories. Which is what they should've been all along.

I won't claim that everything that followed Furman's run was universally better. It's had some patches where it was far worse, but I'd say more where it was better (often significantly).

 

I'm not too familiar with what was going on behind the scenes in the early days of IDW's TF run, but could it be possible that it was IDW's choice to have Furman write 6 issue mini-series as opposed to an ongoing with the option of doing smaller stories?

If you look at his stories outside of the ''ation" minis, there are a ton of great things he did. Specifically talking about Stormbringer and the Spotlights here, I think his world building was excellent in those. And like I already said earlier, Devastation picked up the pace greatly, and Revelations was packed full of story and should have been stretched out longer.

 

You are right, in that IDW - or rather, the comic book industry fearful that readers react badly whenever they pick up a comic with a number higher than #6 on the cover (unless it's one of the heavyhitters from Marvel/DC) - dictated that the series must run as consecutive mini-series (even though, if you look carefully, those issues also have an "ongoing" issue number as well e.g. Escalation #1 is actually also numbered #11). I don't think this excuses the decompression, however - if Furman was told that "Escalation" must be six issues, but he only had plot for three, there were two options:
1) Pad things out to fill six issues
2) Throw in even more great characterisation, plot twists and turns etc
He chose 1), and this is what's frustrating to me.

You're right as well - many of Furman's spotlights were really good, but this reinforces my point: He HAD to contain himself to 22 pages and tell a story in and of itself - when Furman has limitations, mandates and control on him, he writes great stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Furman fan, but I think a lot of the adulation he receives for the -ation series is misplaced. There's also a perception amongst fans that IDW denied him telling his full story, and if he had, somehow things would be terrific. Except... readers were leaving the title in DROVES (I think tfarchive.com has some sales figures on their sites). If the -ation saga was bringing in the readers (and dosh) then trust me, IDW would've kept Furman on his pedestal. Sadly, the readers - and money - were disappearing, so IDW had to try their soft reboot.