I searched this topic and didn't find any results. We have threads like "IDW vs Marvel" and "IDW vs Dreamwave", so why not compare these two too, right?
Dreamwave never had an artist better than Geoff Senior, but they did have a hundred artists better for Transformers than Delbo, Perlin, Springer, or anyone else Marvel ever put on the book. Dreamwave also had much better colorists...too bad they didn't all get paid for their efforts. Marvel had much better letterers than Dreamwave (or IDW for that matter), for whatever that's worth. Storywise, Dreamwave only had War Within, Armada/Energon and then the rest was a lot of sub-professional garbage. So I'd have to say Marvel is the winner overall.
To this day, the Marvel versions of Ratchet, Blaster, Fort Max, Nightbeat, Scorponok, Ratbat, and Shockwave are among my top ten favorite Transformers characters ever.
This is literally why the Titan master for nightbeat bummed me out. That's not Nightbeat! (Yes, yes, I know about the swapped helmets with siren for the comics, the TM is the toy head, but Nightbeat needs his detective shades, maaaaaan)
This is a little unfair given the sheer volume of material Marvel produced vs the small amount Dreamwave did. Of course, I'm a Marvel UK fan till the day I die, so even if Dreamwave had been running for 15 years it would still be "Marvel" for me....
I haven't read much about DreamWave but from what I've seen either the UK or US comics top their stuff.
War Within is fine. Beyond that, y'know, I've read it, but nothing really resonated enough for me to retain more than the major beats. Sunstorm was doing some stuff. And there were... Micromasters? Lazarus? Dull surprise? And even War Within is pretty by-the-numbers Furman stuff. Which is what one would get from Marvel UK, so... (mimes scale-balancing hands)
Dreamwave's one saving grace was the excellent artists it fostered into the community, and then refused to pay. On top of that, it really only had a few good series (Armada/Energon, War Within, others?) so Marvel obviously wins by default, but it also managed to be fairly entertaining for most of its run. If you ever run into Pat Lee, kick that fuck riiiight in the dick.
There is no way in hell Dreamwave wins in this comparison. Like some have said, they were starting points for a lot of great talent, but the marvel comics had proven veterans on them from the start, and the backing of basically the biggest comics company in the world. Dreamwave may always have a special place for me, and can maybe be credited with revitalizing graphic interest in the brand (I mean look at how much DW art STILL finds its way onto merchandise), and had more than a few interesting ideas, but mainly, Dreamwave made it's mark on the shoulders of Marvel comics, in more ways than one.
I made this poll in mind that there could be some minor Dreamwave fans that would vote Dreamwave, guess not (except a single person).
I think a lot of that comes down to the fact that, of the two original G1 fictions, the comic is the less popular, so it's fans are more vigilant to sing it's praises, sometimes while trying to tear down the cartoon in comparison, which I can admit is not good form.
That still doesn't make any sense. Also, I think most of us Marvel G1 fans are fairly quick to tear it a new one. 3/4 of the run isn't very good. There are high *points* to Budiansky's run (Blaster, Shockwave, Ratchet, a few others), but it's by and large mediocre. Some of that has to do with the need to insert entire waves of new toys in every few issues, the art isn't great at ALL... of course, that doesn't explain Donny Finkleberg for crisssake. Furman's 20 issues at the end? While not without warts, they're pretty fucking great, and Furman laid some MAJOR groundwork that would be picked up in the entire TF mythos. Primus, Unicron, a lot of the more in-depth material for the Matrix, and turning late-line toys into great characters (Nightbeat, Thunderwing, Bludgeon). Marvel G1 is rarely even a *good* comic and I'm not sure where this over-hype or over-praise is coming from. Nobody's singing the praises of "Carwash of Doom" lol.
