IDW comic - What the deal with Drift character ?

Discussion in 'Transformers Comics Discussion' started by Lightningsonic, May 16, 2020.

  1. Lightningsonic

    Lightningsonic Well-Known Member

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    I currently reading IDW transformer, And now i am at MTMTE, around issue 23.
    And there are 2 thing i find it quite weird about Drift:
    1, Do he relevant or not ?
    2, His character kinda not consistent.



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    1. He have 2 comic, 1 spotlight. And also one of the rare IDW original character make it to the big crow in Age of extinction, I guess he have quite number of fan huh ? Though, i get that they may just doesn't know what to do with the character (Empire of stone is pretty much make the same statement and lesson as his first origin, a very pointless comic honestly). So in all main story line, he never seem like even have any important role than just a extra.
    But then MTMTE, you would think they have something for him. being the third in command and all. But no, while like almost anyone else have their story arc, he leave no impact in the story. When he take the blame for Rodimus, then the next arc end, they bring him back off screen and never mention anything. It pretty weird when i think they make a whole new design for him.
    2. It also at MTMTE, When his character have bigger role. He start to show the sign of consistent personally. I don't see the same person who in his origin anymore. He somewhat act like Hot rod/Rodimus: Young, hot head, cocky, etc... Cyclonus is more of what i imagine what his character to be. Of course without the cold act, rudeness and not welcome any party. For example he in Rechat's arc, when he try to act tough and hide his fear of DJD like a manchild and later beg for be kill to show how scary DJD.
     
  2. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    Drift was an embarrassing Mary Sue created by Shane McCarthy because he just couldn't help himself. Nobody really liked him at all, until James Roberts got him and gave him some kind of personality that wasn't so cringe-inducing. Then he became cringe-inducing for an entirely different reason, but Tumblr liked him because he shipped well and then McCarthy got him back and tried to erase everything Roberts did because he was jealous. What results is a character that felt out of place in literally everything he was in because of how inconsistent he was, and it really stemmed from the fact that he was created with no real character or purpose in mind beyond "this is my OC do not steal."
     
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  3. Lightningsonic

    Lightningsonic Well-Known Member

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    you post give some good information. But wow ! it's super bias.
    Creator try to make the character go back to his original as he intended ? That sound understandable to me. But it is "Tried to erase everything" over jealous. But James Roberts did the same thing, suddenly it is "give him..." and it is justified ?
    And what comic James Roberts take on Drift other than MTMTE ? let see how better he make him, because in MTMTE, Drift is way more Mary Sue here while i don't see how he is Mary Sue in his origin by Shane McCarthy. Like he pretty much flawless here, he is just Rodimus, without the ass personally.
     
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  4. Agamus

    Agamus Not an Iguana

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    Note that Rewind is also in issue 22, because the bulk of it is the movie he was filming before, erm, issue 15. So everything in that issue aside from the scene of Skids showing the movie happened all the way before Overlord broke loose, and Drift won't actually be back for another 30 or 40 issues.

    His character shift was... kind of explained by a near-death experience he had just before MTMTE started, but that only patches the "flaky spiritualism" aspect, not the rest of it.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2020
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  5. TheLastBlade

    TheLastBlade Well-Known Member

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    So basically IDW shenanigans?
     
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  6. TheSuperion

    TheSuperion No am Bishoujo!

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    Tumblr ain't the only folks that liked Drift, bud. I never found him cringe-inducing in anything Roberts wrote. And the only other appearance he made after he joined the MTMTE cast was in that shitty McCarthy miniseries that is so inconsequential to anything that happened in the IDW continuity, that it's easily ignored. So you are really overstating how out of place he was in the story post Shane McCarthy. As long as he was with the Lost Light crew, his character was consistent up to the very end.
     
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  7. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    The thing is, nobody really liked McCarthy's take on the character. Even calling Drift a "character" was generous. He had no real identifiable or likable personality until James Roberts started writing him. Drift went from a blank slate cringey OC and became a devout believer who acted as a foil to Ratchet, who was far more scientific. Drift's faith was the backbone of his character in MTMTE, and gave him a personality he previously did not have.

    Basically, nobody liked Drift until Roberts got his hands on him. McCarthy, rather spitefully, took a character people quite liked and more or less had him denounce his faith as stupid and wanted to be an edgy badass again. It was hilariously petty that he got very obviously upset that someone took his OC and did him better than he did.

    But he wasn't always with the Lost Light, that's the thing.

    You can choose to ignore what McCarthy wrote, but it still happened.

    Also, Drift was cringe-inducing just like almost everyone on the Lost Light was by the end: he was overly verbose and felt like he was missing his own voice, instead being a mouthpiece of Roberts' jokes and long-winded pontificating which felt more like an analysis of the character rather than natural, "human" dialogue.

    Pretty much.

    IDW had this annoying problem where it had such a gargantuan cast plucked from all corners of the brand and every writer still fought over the same few characters, meaning said character would noticeably shift under different pens to fill different roles. It's why I ended up disliking MTMTE/LL, because the characters felt less like the characters and more like Roberts' version of them. (same thing happened under a lot of other writers, too, but I only really read MTMTE/LL) Again, Roberts' version of Drift was an absolute improvement over what he was before, but it begs the question of why choose that character if you're just going to more or less make up someone completely different?

    The only writer who I felt really avoided this (usually) was Nick Roche, who was honestly too good for IDW IMO.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2020
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  8. Not Blitzwing

    Not Blitzwing Well-Known Member

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    Off-topic, but what are your thoughts on Sins of the Wreckers & Requiem of the Wreckers.
     
  9. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    I haven't read Requiem, but I thought Sins was pretty good.

    I think one of the only downsides of those books is how over "robot gore" I am, but that's something I grew to dislike over the years.
     
  10. Lightningsonic

    Lightningsonic Well-Known Member

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    Well, that still bias though. Despite both change the character in his liking. But one is destroyed while the other is justified ? Doesn't that pretty much base on your liking one over another ? Despite even you
    Not to mention he is at fault to make thing inconsistent in the fist place

    Which one is better is opinion. (Empire of stone, as i said in the first place, is a pointless comic. I would agree McCarthy's work on that one isn't good) But put your preference aside, McCarthy is more justified try to keep his idea of the character stay to what he design to.


    Which one is better is another topic. All just your preference and opinion. Because my preference is different than your, i like old Drift better. (There, someone did like McCarthy's Drift, checkmate. And judge from the fact he get figure, pre-MTMTE, which is McCarthy version, I am not alone.)
    With what i learn about his character from Transformer: Drift 2010 (again, By MCcarthy) and 22 issue of MTMTE. I failed to see how MTMTE's Drift is better. That even you
    doesn't seen to think MTMTE's Drift is that good.

    And, if you just doesn't like a character to begin with, even his "improvement" then why even bitter when the creator want his character stay as he want ? that just so strange to me how he get that much hate, well diskike, from...everyone. I mean, Pre-MTMTE, aside from his own mini comic, he not even around that much (or i just didn't read enough ?) His role isn't bigger than a cameo. They are not shoving him to your throat ? if you bother to learn more about him, it is by choice. Then why the hate ?
     
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  11. Insurgent

    Insurgent The Amazing Tango Mysterio

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    Well, I'm going against the grain on this one. I much prefer Drift in McCarthy's hands than Roberts. I don't get how he is a Gary Sue. He turns up in AHM, he cuts an Insecticon head off and he does some fighting. It's no different to what most of the Wreckers in that story do. It's not like everyone is asking where is Drift or screaming "DRIFT!" every time they're on screen (*coughFinncough*)As for his spotlight and mini series, well, again, I don't understand. Ok, I admittedly don't remember his spotlight, but his original mini series, it was the story of a young man trying to figure out where he fits in the world, trying to find something to believe in, some faith that will give him meaning, that won't betray him and leave him for dead like the Autobots and Decepticons have. And as it's his series, it is going to be all about him.


    Empire of Stone, while I agree it was just a side story that doesn't have any impact on the overall story of MTMTE (same could be said about Sins and Requiem of the Wreckers to be honest), McCarthy didn't just turn him back into his own version because he was upset. He took the characterisation Roberts had for him and tried to blend it with his own version. I'm not saying there isn't some roll back, but he doesn't erase it, he builds upon it, makes mention that Drift is a bit more outgoing because he's trying to fit in with the crew better. Since he's no longer with the crew, he doesn't need to do that as much, though there is still some of it in the story. Rather than erasing what has been done to his character, he adds some layers to him instead.


    McCarthy has said in interviews, Drift was never meant to be a major part of AHM or someone important. He didn't want him to be front and centre, he was just meant to be a nice little addition to the G1 mythos, his own little stamp on the bigger franchise, something plenty of other writers have done over the years. It was Hasbro and IDW that pushed him in the marketing as hard as it was.


    In comparison to how Roberts wrote him, he was someone who was super religious and had the same personality as the other 'quirky' people in the crew. To me, he lost his uniqueness, that searching for belief and redemption of his time as a con. To me, he just became dull in MTMTE, to the point I don't even remember him doing anything important other than
    his relationship with Ratchet (which I also have issues with).


    I know I'm in the vast minority on this, but I will always defend McCarthy's Drift. Perfect? No, there are issues, but to me at least, he's far better than the majority give him credit for.
     
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  12. raindance773

    raindance773 Well-Known Member

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    Wait a second! Didn't Roberts make a ton of Mary Sue characters because he couldn't help himself? One of which he wrote as the literal deity of the Transformers?

    Rung, Nautica, Velocity, Ten, the DJD, Dominus Ambus, Minimus Ambus, Pharma, Lug, Anode....

    Not only that, Roberts made a living of hijacking pre-existing characters and giving them new personalities (that surprisingly all sound a lot like him), to the point they are almost OCs.

    Why the double standard?

    I liked Drift's initial inception. He's like Windblade 1.0, and got a lot of the same grief as people give her, and as her star has risen to prominence, his has kind of dimmed a bit. But, he was really IDW's first attempt (and Hasbro's) to make a legitimately new character who would crack into the top echelon of the lore. They originally envisioned him being up there with Bee, Grimlock, OP, Soundwave, Starscream, and Megatron. He didn't quite get there, but Windblade has. The whole samurai honor code thing was really cool to me. I even liked the part where he was part of the Circle of Light and how he was terrified of the DJD because of his defection. I really enjoyed him in AHM, but I am apparently one of the only people who like that arc. I loved how he paired up with the S1 'bots under Jazz while working with Kup.

    As been said by others, my major complaint was that Roberts incessant need to pair him with another character romantically. First with Hot Rod, then Ratchet. I didn't care for that as a whole, as Roberts seemed to try to pair off his entire cast. But, neither here nor there I suppose.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 25, 2020
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  13. TheSuperion

    TheSuperion No am Bishoujo!

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    You have no idea what the term "Mary Sue" actually means.

    Mary Sue - Wikipedia

    "A Mary Sue is a generic name for any fictional character who is so competent or perfect that this appears absurd, even in the context of the fictional setting. Mary Sues are often an author's self-insertion or wish fulfillment.[1] They may excel at tasks that should not be possible for them,[2] or they may upstage the protagonist of a fictional setting, such as by saving them. They may disregard previously established aspects of the fiction such as characterization and natural laws. Mary Sue is a type of stock character."

    Explain how any of this applies to any of Robert's OCs. Rung had not only completely forgotten that he was Primus, but he spent a lot of early issues being a literal punching bag, owing to his extremely weak physical form and complete lack of combat ability. Nautica was highly intelligent but also had very poor social skills, though she got better at the latter as time went on. (FYI: I'm pretty sure she was meant to be on the autism spectrum.) Velocity was just a female medic. It's not like she ever displaced the previous medics characters in the comics by being ridiculously over-competent compared to First Aid, Ambulon, or Ratchet. Ten was.... basically a child, whose most notable trait was his serious empathy despite his difficulty communicating his feelings.

    Dominus Ambus existed only as Rewind's former love interest, and got killed off in a shocking twist before he could ever re-unite with Rewind. Minimus Ambus.... did you miss his entire arc across the comics? Pharma and the DJD were sadistic villains who were brutally killed off at the end of their arcs. And finally, Lug and Anode may have gotten a lot of focus in the first half of season 3, owing to Roberts' not realizing that his comic was gonna be canceled until halfway through the season, but in order for them to be Mary Sues, they would have had to have done some extraordinary things that made them outshine the rest of the cast. Which they really didn't. They were just the latest additions to an already sizeable team that always had to work together in order to solve problems.

    You can complain all you want about how "annoying" and "quirky" Roberts' writing got by the end, but that has nothing to do with being a Mary Sue. All of Roberts' characters had flaws. None of them were close to being perfect. Drift as written by Shane McCarthy, on the other hand.... he was the Transformers equivalent of every edgy anime ninja OC ever. A generic brooding badass who never had any serious difficulties, and as an autobot was practically an object of worship by anyone he saved. (The first pages of Empire of Stone #1 are probably the most glaring example of that. Just go back and read them, and you'll see what I mean.)
     
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  14. raindance773

    raindance773 Well-Known Member

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    I
    I know what a Mary Sue character is and I would argue that Rung is indeed one (and Roberts' versions of Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus and Megatron and most of his OCs). He's so incredibly perfect that he is able to save the entire Cybertronian race at the end of Lost Light... and then all new Cybertronians look like him. And that is AFTER his head is blown off in MTMtE S1, which was previously stated to be a killer for Transformers in IDW due to the Rossum's Trinity thing (which Roberts introduced in MTMtE #3). Tarn, his Mary Sue of a Decepticon, is so perfectly powered he is able to take down not one (Black Shadow), not two (Overlord with the chain saw decapitation), but three Decepticons (Heratech) who were members of the Warriors Elite, and that's not counting how Roberts overpowered him against Scorponok, Shockwave, AND Grimlock, all of whom Roberts went out of his way to say were "once in a generation" Point One Percenters. As for Lug and Anode, they are this supposedly shockingly cute couple inserted into an already crowded cast and then proceed to outshine everyone else with the sheer amount of their screen time. With the possible exception of Ambulon, because he is bisected, I would argue Roberts put all of his characters on pedestals that outshown the established Transformers. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I would stay the sheer number of characters he introduced or repurposed was uncontrolled and unnecessary.

    IMO, and using your own definition, Roberts' OC were all a form of wish fulfilment. He wanted his own Autobot leader, so he took Hot Rod, and made him the immature Rodimus (subtle difference from the immature but learning Rodimus Prime), to the point that he took another established leader (Star Saber) and made him a religious zealot. Same for Cyclonus. He wanted his own version of Ultra Magnus, so he effectively killed off the established character, and made his own in MA. He wanted his redeem Megatron, so he invented a personality for him that was an utter break from everything previously established in IDW. Velocity and Nautica are also other examples, and people said it when it was happening, of being too schoolgirl nerd cute.

    I can already tell we are not going to agree about how good (or not good) Roberts' run with Transformers was.
     
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  15. Dotanuki

    Dotanuki Member

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    Oh, what a coinsidance. I was just in the middle of the drifft adventure of phase 1 IDW comics. it was enjoyable, he was a decepticon but later on he realised that Megatron lied to them and used them so he turned to the outobot side. I enjoyed it so far. :) 
     
  16. Lightningsonic

    Lightningsonic Well-Known Member

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    Wow, you should put a spoiler code on that, man !
    Though, i at the first season and i still think Rung without that, still Mary Sue. Yes, he is week but his role never a warrior. His personally is too good. Have lager than life experiment, friendly, mature attitude. Honestly, too likable. Weak physic but brave to deal with any patients who not a lot will even dare to approach
     
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  17. Swerve

    Swerve Well-Known Member

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    Nope, that's Trailbreaker ;) 
     
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  18. raindance773

    raindance773 Well-Known Member

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    That book came out over three years ago. I think it's past time for spoiler tags.
     
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  19. Haywired

    Haywired Hakunamatatacon

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    This is sooo going to my sig. Thank you.
     
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  20. raindance773

    raindance773 Well-Known Member

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    I am honored. Thank you!
     
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