Since this is the cover for Optimus Prime issue coming in April, does this mean Powermaster Optimus won't show up at all and Titans Return is done? No upgrades as Titan Masters in IDW for other Cybertronians like Megatron, Rodimus, Galvatron, Soundwave, Overlord, Six Shot and so on?

 

Titans Return is pretty much done and dusted, and nobody really got a new head - not permanently. Alpha Trion was taken over by a Titan Master, and Sentinel Prime turned out to be one all along, but that's about it.

Heck, Sixshot hasn't even been in the comics for years, and Galvatron was killed off just *before* Titans Return.

 

With Galvatron, I was thinking being killed off and his head chopped off, I was thinking they're gonna bring him back and become a Titan Master. I was thinking a scenario where the writers were gonna bring him back to life having Nucleon use his chopped off head as a exo suit to have Galvatron become a Titan Master or something like that.

 

Worth noting that Barber said during a Reddit AMA that he completely forgot Titan Master Galvatron was a thing; had he remembered, he would have changed how Galvs died so as to not create that expectation of him coming back as a Titan Master.

 

Honestly, why would you want them to randomly start chopping off everyone's heads just for the sake of a toyline gimmick? As far as media goes, comics are already at an incredible disadvantage when it comes to the amount of breathing room for content/character development. If they were to have shoehorned in all the characters getting new heads which are also robots that need to be developed, we'd end up with a ton of those amazingly terrible Marvel G1 intro-dumps. Then the new head upgrades would just be forgotten in a few months like the fact that Optimus Prime is now a combiner.

Obviously YMMV but I think IDW works best when it does its own thing without too much meddling from Hasbro. Maybe encourage IDW to throw in some cameos or use some of the new toy guys in places where it makes sense and is appropriate, but otherwise just let Barber, Roberts, and Scott do their thing. We don't get enough content as it is for things to get derailed every year for another 3-4 month toy tie-in event.

 

Never mind the half ass job they did with Fortress Maximus. What a let down.

It depends what you think is too much. I think Transformers works better when the media and the toys reflect each other. It makes the whole thing more fun, and it helps keep the writers from getting stagnant when they are forced to think about things in new ways. I mean, yeah, it's better when the writers can continue their storylines without being forced to jam on the brakes so they can take part in some boring crossover, but the introduction of new concepts keeps things interesting. And sometimes the best stories come when good writers are challenged to do both.

 

Agreed. Honestly, i'm getting tired of the overly serious nature of IDW. I'd like a little more fun and fantasy. Headmaster, powermasters, pretenders. Throw it all in there with flimsy reasons that barely make sense. I want it.

 

I agree to an extent, but disagree with GoLion's 'throw it all in there with flimsy reasons' approach. I'd rather the IDW writers/editors and Hasbro put their heads together on toylines that would work in fiction and in plastic. Let's be honest - a sudden rash of combiners and titan masters was never going to work well in any established fiction. And then the real pain with these gimmicks is dealing with the repercussions forever afterward - hence why Marvel writers just ended up forgetting that anyone was a pretender, headmaster, gestalt most of the time. Representing two or more characters in one body is going to get strained and painful every quickly.

Meanwhile, Barber has just introduced the Junkions, with detachable body parts - couldn't that have been a toyline? New characters with interchangeable arms, legs and heads. Roberts has Anode and Lug - one transforms into the others backpack(??). So we could have had characters with a range of transforming accessories.

 

Oh  

 

Yeah, still think it was lame how Barber killed Galvatron just now he was the first writer to use him to good effect. There was a lot more he could have done with that character.
Meanwhile Jazz, Soundwave, Arcee and others are being dragged along without really doing anything in stories where nothing really happens...
Sadness.

Meanwhile while i dont really care about Powermaster Optimus i would but like to finally see some more of Mindwipe, Skullcruncher (who apparently is a millionaire and so by rights should have some pull in Cybertronian society), Highbrow...
And for crying out loud bring Dreadwind, Darkwing and Triggerhappy back you sorry bunch, if you want a reputation as a company that makes quality comics and you want to kill characters at least have the decency to kill them off after they had some characterisation for the first time in twenty years.

 

How about the artist for IDW could just draw Optimus in his Powermaster body shell as just a upgraded body without the Titan Masters concept. Same with the others. They done it before. Like Prowl went from his G1 body to his Classics body. Magnus upgraded his body in the last issue and he's now bigger and taller.

 

I might get some hate, but I despised the way Barber wrote Galvatron. Furman is the only guy, to this day, that has written Galvatron with any type of depth (and that says a lot considering Furman).

 

I feel like there was the promise of depth threre, but nothing was really done with that. In his spotlight he was introduced as an independent thinker who always felt he was destined for some great purpose. And... Thats pretty much where it ended. Up until Barber rewrote him as the mad old barbarian warrior he never really got any more characterisatian than righthand of Nova looking for a glorious purpose.

I like the calm reasoned Galvatron of the Spotlight.
Before AOE i had imagined movie Galvatron as some Gilgamesh like ancient legendary warrior king who united The tribes of Cybertron by defeating the primes one by one in single combat.
I would like for someone to write him in a similar fashion one day.
As a not quite evil, not quite heroic, noble royal warrior figure.

Edit: so, kind of like Cybertron Scourge i guess. But less feral barbarian and more cultured and intelligent.

 

I definitely wanted to see more of Galvatron. I'm pretty mad they just killed him off.

 

Tbf he got two years. Plenty for me

 

Yeah, but 2 years in comics is with these few pages like what? 2 hours of comic?

 

That all depends on how fast you read, doesn't it? He was still the central villain for over two years, he got lots of time on page.

 

I guess it is, though others get much more. But there still is a sense that more could have been done with him.
A feeling of abandoned plotthreads and potential thrown away to make room for events and formulaic shortterm writing that can more easily fit these events in.
Same feeling as i got with Prowlastator.
And a lot of the time he got was not spent in a particular interesting way imo.
But thats kind of a common complaint i'm starting to have with IDW.

 

I think he had a good arc, from Dark Cybertron on, that ended at a logical point for him. He was the main villain constantly, and got a couple big moves and plans, but kept going until he ran completely out of allies and resources.

His time in exRiD did a good job of showing why he keeps ending up on his own, the last one standing, for all his causes.

Jazz I grant, but the other two did a fair amount.

 

Just because it has toys, it don't mean it's gonna happen in the comics.

There's clearly exceptions, but Galvatronus wasn't made out of Cyclonus, Sky Reign only shared one component with it's Toy counterpart, and only two (maybe three) characters turned into headmasters.