Was this series good at all? I remember enjoying and reading the RID series before it and bought all 5 OP trades thinking it was a sequel, but it was really confusing to me and I dropped it, but bought the trades to just complete the series. Is it actually needed to complete the LL, MTMTE, RID runs? It kind of seems like it can be a stand alone?

 

There are a few things that happen in RID that continue in OP. I have most of the issues but I later lost interest. You can probably just read it as a stand alone.

 

Thanks. Do I need to read it to get closure with anything that happened in RID? I really can't remember.

 

Spoiler

Well Sideswipe is killed which was way too sad and made me cry...

Jetfire's past is discussed, Ailiron (or however you spell her name) is a big part of the series. Other than that, I can't remember much, sorry. It's been a while since I've read the series and I never finished it.

 

That spoiler was in the OP series? I thought it was RID?!? Ah damn, maybe I should pretend OP series never happened.

Is Jetfires past, being that he couldn't be a scientist bc he was a flier?

 

I remember that as the series where editing the Hasbroverse clearly took a toll on Barber.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, OP #9.

The event leading up to the spoiler take place in RID, I also pretend it never happened. Who ever wrote that had a very stupid idea and was just being mean to the fan girls.

That's right. I wish we would have seen more of Jetfire's days with the Decepticons.

 

100% agree with you on both points.

I think a Jetfire series would be awesome. They gave Drift a whole backstory from his decepticon beginning to his turn to the autobots. I'd love to see that with an older character like Skyfire/Jetfire. Especially he had a history with Starscream, we could learn more about Starscream's time at the academy and early life.

 

One thing I liked were some of the flashbacks, though the arc with Jetfire kind of fizzled out. The art was pretty good too.

 

Uhhh... The art was pretty good. That's about it.

 

That would have been a perfect series, even just a Spotlight issue.

 

Yes! Even be like Skyfire is decepticon name, Jetfire his autobot one. Which is why he changed names lol.

 

YES! Like Deadlock/Drift. You should be writing comics!

 

You won't get any arguments from me there.  

 

Like a lot of IDW stuff, it was just dreck. I didn't like the art style and the plot twists were ridiculous i.e. Onyx Prime.

 

I thought it was the weakest part of all IDW1, worse than even Dark Cybertron, and just got more frustrating the more you read.

 

I think the best thing about OP was Starscream:The Movie.

 

Ehhhh...

There were some elements I thought were interesting, and the art was pretty good. But I think Barber peaked with mid-RID and then didn't really know how to flesh out his ideas. He also kind of wrote himself into a corner once Galvatron was killed and Soundwave became loyal to Optimus. He pretty much ran out of antagonists and decided to break the IDW1 Universe in this really obnoxious way. And the concept for the Unicron arc it ultimately led into looks impressive on paper but it was a really weak ending from multiple standpoints.

 

I loved Optimus Prime, one of my favourite bits of IDW1. Love the Zama art, love the comedy stuff like Thundercracker's annual, love the twisty plot stuff with Shockwave, loved all the big picture thematic stuff that comes to a head in Unicron, etc. Optimus Prime #9 and Unicron #6 are probably the most emotionally affecting bits of Transformers fiction I've ever read.

And honestly IMO it comes off especially well compared to Lost Light running alongside it, where Roberts' writing had gone so far downhill into pointless gloomy tragedy porn and messy plotting since MTMTE's peak.

 

Zama art was cool..

The plot was basically "This is your fault Optimus Prime!", OP should have laid down some serious facts to those losers and preferably drop-kicked Aileron into the nearest sun.

I didn't feel like IDW1 as a whole gained anything after Dark Cybertron and could have easily ended at that point. (Though I did like the Galvatron RID ark).