I'm five volumes into the IDW Collection trades - All Hail Megatron - and obviously the plan is/was to continue with those. But now that they've shifted into this shared Hasbro-verse thing I'm questioning if I should bail.
The concept of the shared continuity alone is what automatically, completely turns me away. Of course I'm aware that all sorts of factors go into determining whether or not I personally LIKE something, so I'm not asking "is it good or bad?". I'm wondering is it different?
How has becoming part of a greater pantheon of titles effected the IDW Continuity?

 

I'm not caught up with Lost Light and Optimus Prime, but... I like the IDW universe. It's had it's ups and downs (the Costa era wasn't that interesting compared to the Roberts/Barber era, for example, and Furman's run had some really good and really bad ideas), but for the most part, I love it. All Hail Megatron was a love letter to the original cartoon, and while I wouldn't call it perfect, I'd definitely call it lots of fun. I like how James Roberts and John Barber are exploring a post-war Cybertron, with characters like Bumblebee, Starscream, Prowl, and Metalhawk each trying to rebuild their society their own way on Cybertron, with Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Drift, Ratchet, and others setting off to find a new life elsewhere. I really like the way the story has progressed, with Optimus Prime choosing to reclaim his title and make an effort to help out with a post-war society than reject his responsibilities, and Megatron becoming an Autobot in an effort to redeem himself. Heck, I used to dislike the Autobot Headmasters because what I saw of the Headmasters series seemed to portray them as so perfect and unstoppable, but now, we have Chromedome as a memory surgeon who's only able to keep going on for the sake of his lover, Brainstorm as an amoral scientist and eccentric, egotistical genius, and Hardhead as a soldier who has resigned himself to his duty. I love how they're tackling Cybertronian politics before the war, how they've fixed Arcee's character ever since Dark Cybertron, how we have Autobots doing questionable things, just... I really love IDW. I'm sorry if others don't, and they have the right not to like it if they disagree with the stories, they don't like the characters, or whatever. I myself just really love what they've done with their universe.

 

It really hasn't.

So you're into AHM, you've seen human organizations like the Machination, Skywatch, whatever. Both main TF books stay OFF Earth for a very long time, and when they return, they revisit the idea of the Earth Defense Force including Marissa Faireborne.

What basically happens when GI Joe is rolled in is that all the dumb human organizations working with/against the bots on Earth are replaced by Joe. For my tastes, it's been handled very well, and I MUCH prefer having GI FUCKING JOE over Skywatch or Machination or all the dumb earth orgs used prior. It's way more fun having Mainframe and Flint than some generic whatever dudes and dudettes. But we haven't really seen anything from MASK or Rom or whatever in "Optimus Prime" so far, just Joe. And again, I think it's been done very well. If they're doing Earth based stories featuring humans and their military, I'm much happier with it being actual Gi Joe.

MTMTE/Lost Light is still in space and isn't affected in any way to date. The MTMTE revolution one-shot is the only example of crossover and even then it was handled in a very satirical fashion.

Til All Are One hasn't been affected by things in the slightest.

They've gone so far as to create a book dedicated to the idea of the crossover, which is Revolutionaries, and even that is doing its own story. It's the only real book playing with all the toys at once.

Now obviously, this could change, but the Revolution stuff itself was all handled separately from the main books. I'm sure we'll end up with some big line-wide crossover event down the road and like you, that's a HUGE turnoff to me. It's a big reason why I've largely given up on Marvel and DC. Right now, the outlook is positive that books will all continue to be allowed to do their own thing.

 

Thanks a lot, that basically puts me at ease.

 

Yeah, the only functional effects of the shared universe on the Transformers stories are that G.I. Joe are the new de facto 'human military organisation who interact with the Autobots', and that a few Transformers have been shuffled off into other books (Skywarp is in the G.I. Joe comic, Kup is in the Revolutionaries team-up comic).

Otherwise it's just business as usual.

 

I'll be honest and say I don't like Star Saber as the religious nut. However, I will admit it has given me an interesting idea for a fic involving him and a redemption arc I have planned, but it involves him meeting his Victory counterpart first. Just my  

 

*raises hand*

 

I preferred Dreamwave and it's season 2.5 kinda sorta storylines. The art was better too in the ongoing(Don Fig!!). But I like IDW very much. It's had it's highs(MTMTE) and it's lows(AHM) but it's been mostly satisfying if not a tad bit disappointing at times.

 

Likewise, but.. having seen the series, Victory Star Saber isn't that interesting of a character to begin with, so I'm not overly sore.

I also feel making Dai Atlas a kinda ineffective religious leader was something of a waste.

 

He was pretty effective!

Until he effected Starsaber's sword!

 

'Ineffective' in the 'largely retreated to a colony that was isolationist until circumstances force them open'.

 

I'm being silly. =)

 

I don't like it much. The Transformers to me seemed to change their looks every 6 issues or so, Prowl turned into a schemer rather than the good guy, the art overall isn't that good in my eye, the stories are too grim, I could go on.

All I want from a Transformers comic is a G-1-styled set of characters, stories that are not super-grim or heavy, but are fun, and show the Autobots as good, the Decepticons as bad. Some of the Marvel stories from the 80's accomplished this, but Andy Wildman's art turned me off with the way-too-human look of the characters. I essentially want a continuation of the G1 series. Add Metalhawk, Star Saber, the Pretenders, etc., which wouldn't hurt at all. This is why I write a fanfic - so I can continue G1 my way.