...by the FEMALE Autobots, as opposed to the other ones for whom backtalk and defiance would bother you less? LOL Okay Boomer. Also, no, for the most part they're NOT war machines. That's the whole point of this story (obviously, as it happens during PEACETIME) as well as IDW1 (what do you do once the war is over? They're sentient, so even the MTOs weren't JUST war machines.) Also FYI when you complain about fiction being a vehicle for the creators' convictions, that's just because they're including morality, beliefs, and convictions that aren't YOURS (Such as the notion of "female equality" you seem to find so objectionable). It's the privilege of those who agree with the prevailing viewpoint to only see dissenters as "political"
I find it laughable that writers expect readers to believe transformers of all things is comparable to real life issues.... It’s not even subtle or make a different spin. It’s just basically what marvel and dc are doing: same shit different franchise.
I tire of modern comic writers need to hamfistedly push their real life issues into stories with no subtlety. It's so on the nose it's hard to enjoy the stories as any kind of fun fantasy escapism. I also don't find it fun if I feel I'm being lectured to on someones morality, convictions and beliefs endlessly.
It's a slow buildup. Like, really freaking slow. I think that it's enjoyable, though, for the most part. The world building is strong, and the concepts are cool. It's way better if you binge it though. The pacing isn't really good as an ongoing book, it's written for trade form. Galaxies actually gives the Constructs cons personalities, so there is that.
I feel the world building could have been better earlier on. Like, if the comic hadn't jumped right into the murder mystery - if we'd gotten "life on Cybertron" for maybe the first three or five issues before Brainstorm's murder, where we just get to see Bumblebee and Rubble living their lives with others while planting the seeds for what's to come. There's a lot of potential for world building there while still telling the story, or the prelude to the story I guess, that I think was squandered. I wanted to see more of this Cybertron. After all, we got well-acquainted with IDW1's gilded dystopia over the years as it was built up, I'd have liked to see more of this more decent, less corrupt Cybertron before it all comes crashing down. But on the other hand, most of the IDW1 Pre-War world building was done well after the continuity got it's start, built upon by other writers over years. IDW2 will probably be the same, if it lasts long enough.
I appreciate this opinion because it is interesting and fresh even if I think the worldbuilding has satisfied me. Personally I love slice-of-life coziness before the tension builds up but I swear, most of the complaints that this continuity has garnered are in regards to the lack of action and the lack of tackling the murder mystery quickly and NOT breaking into war by issue 8... I don't understand why people want to rush this series so bad. I think they're under the impression that this would become a space opera or something if the war kickstarted quickly but, in reality, the moment the war starts we're probably going to see our protagonists wind up on Earth because this is, at the end of the day, a very elaborate toy ad for a series with robots that turn into cars and Earth vehicles. And then they'll just complain about Earth and humans as usual.
I'm going to offer my perspective: I was looking forward to this series (down to the slice-of-life coziness) and I was even hoping that it would take took its time before getting to the war stuff so, I fall right into the category of people who should be all over this comic, but I'm not and that has a lot to do with how the story is structured and how it provides information. See, the thing is that the comic is not actually moving at a slow place when you look at what events have taken place and in what amount of issues: by issue one, we've had the first murder in untold years and by issue two, we've had an assassination attempt on Megatron. The problem is that it feels that way because it's not told in an engaging way. The murder mystery is not treated as a murder mystery; we don't see the detectives gathering clues, trying to put them together, the coroner's examining the body, etc. The audience is effectively being told by the story to just sit back and wait for the conclusion. They're not getting pulled along for the ride by getting to engage with the clues or follow the detectives' methods of solving crimes as the case unfolds. The same problem applies to the political drama which is not treated like a political drama: we're not told sufficiently enough about either side to know what their ideology is or what they pretend their ideology is. We're left waiting for the comic to fill in the blanks because we're playing catch-up from a mile away. The comic also has a problem with knowing what to prioritize when it comes to its world-building: we're kept in dark about stuff where it would only benefit the story if we knew about it - see political drama above. Additionally, it relies on tell rather a combination of the two that leans towards show but remembers to include tell as well. I'm just going to be lazy and quote myself: As a more personal side note, I find it boring how everybody has already been placed into their respective factions already. Now, given the toyline, I expect everybody would have gotten their right badges by the time the war broke out but don't we see them mingle more before the war? Like, instead of Windblade and Bumblebee, it's Bumblebee and Skywarp. You don't even need to change Windblade's personality because she's already acting like a sort of Skywarp with the casual violence she displays towards innocent aliens in the first issue, the way she reacts poorly to criticism and her unsafe flying. We don't really see "interfactional" mingling outside of the usual suspects (ex. Megatron and Optimus) As a final note, I have heard that the comic has apparently improved since the last issue that I read so, I might be picking it up again.
I completely agree with you in regards to the murder mystery but I'll have to disagree with you on the politics. The ideaologies have been made rather clear from issue 12 and onwards though only in regards to the Autobots and Ascenticons- the Reversionists ideaologies are not so clear yet. Also Starscream is an Autobot right now which is kind of amusing.
I don’t agree with everything here, but it’s absolutely true that the story isn’t engaging. I wouldn’t recommend the series to anyone like I have with Robert’s and Roche’s work. That being said, the last issue (15, I think?) was a move in the right direction.
That is my point. The political conflict has featured prominently in the series from the very first issue but it's not until issue twelve that the audience are given the information that helps clarify the ideologies. There is no reason for them to be drip-fed that kind of information especially since, as previously mentioned, it is one of the three primary storylines.
My question is, how could that be effectively done within a 22-page format without coming across as a BRUTAL infodump? They're trying to reveal that information 'naturally'... it might not be the best execution of that, but I see why they did it this way. (Also, the information drip-feed retroactively makes seemingly mundane things seem much more significant. My favorite example is the reveal of Exarchon's nature in issue 15 and what that could mean in terms of Cyclonus' "hallucinations" and his belief that Exarchon isn't truly dead.) I agree they probably could (and should) have shared more, earlier, but I don't think it's possible to accurately convey all that information upfront. I mean, think about how difficult it would be to explain the major political parties, and their platforms, for any given country to somebody who was completely unfamiliar with their politics or economies. Now imagine trying to do that while you tell a story.
Reminds me of the gripes people had about the Star Wars prequel: you know what people love an entire story to be about? Boring political maneuvering. The problem with politics in comics is its fragging boring as slag. It leads to a bunch of exposition laden stories with minimal action. You can usually explain the politics of a story in a line or two "the peace-loving Autobots vs. the warlike Decepticons". The point of that isn't to be simplistic, because you can always retcon or expand upon that later - The point is expedience. Nobody wants to read your muddled ideological treatise. Suck me in with some bright colors, then go deep. Don't expect me to wade through over a years worth of issues of boring nonsense to maybe, possibly, one day, get to something entertaining.
I don't think it's a matter of a lack of action. Comics are a bad medium for pure mindless action anyway, you need a lot of character beats and setup and payoff to make splash pages of violence anything but a slog to get through. Action in MtMtE (early on, at least) and the Wreckers stuff only worked because you loved the characters and didn't want to see them hurt. You were actually hoping that action didn't happen most of the time. I think the new series has a lack of plot, it's not just slow, it's next to nonexistent. There's a lot of elements in play but nothing is really happening with them, and the character stuff is just broad and pointless. Most of the characters are just cyphers, they don't have a psychology of their own and the ones that get any kind of color at all are just cartoonish personality types. Nothing feels pointed or consequential. It's why so many people dropped the book almost immediately, there's just nothing to it. Sure it's pre-war so there's not as much stuff going on but the world they're in and the stakes are nowhere near as well drawn as something like Chaos Theory or Shadowplay. The best comparison I can think of would be if Game of Thrones didn't start with Ned Stark's ascension to Hand of the King and the mystery of the true heir to set up all the conflict that followed, and instead was just about a bunch of unrelated groups hanging out in Westeros waiting for something interesting to happen because they were all waiting for a war for some ill defined reason
IMO, the new stuff is more creative in terms of environments, but how cool was the classic stuff which spotlighted our love of storytelling youthfulness. I'm of course referring to Transformers and GI Joe crossovers --- remember those funnies??
