I wouldn’t call the last two issues great. Better than the previous issues yes, but not what I can call great. And even if IDW1 wasn’t selling well at the end, it still had to be selling better than IDW2. Nothing makes me drop a comic faster than it being utterly tedious and a chore to read, which is what this comic is. If it wasn’t Transformers, I’d have dropped it after two issues. As it is, I’m going to continue reading it just because it’s Transformers and not because it’s any good. It’s not a case “they changed it so it sucks”, it’s more “they changed it and now it’s boring and pointless”. A preview should entice a reader into wanting to buy the comic, not turning them away from it. Nothing happens in this preview.
Spending money and/or time on something you don’t like or enjoy “just because” strikes me as a pretty bizarre decision.
...I will say this in favor of the preview: Sideswipe appears to be the first instance of a character's personality being shown to us rather than explicitly told in this reboot. It's... clunky, to be sure, but him gushing over the weapons he's got while Windblade looks on with disinterest says far more than if someone else introduced him and started saying "yeah he's a gun nut" like they pretty much did with Quake. That aside, though, this reboot still feels so utterly sterile and lifeless and it's baffling that it's remained this stagnant for this long. You'd think with slow burns like this the author would take time to build the world before tearing it down with the dawn of the war, but we somehow still know so little about our cast of characters or the world they inhabit. Transformers can be bad and dumb, but one thing it should never be is boring, and, well... unfortunately, here we are.
This. This is why I've forced myself to sit through the worst movies, cartoons, and comics the franchise has to offer. Can't call myself Lorekeeper if I don't know the lore, even the bad lore.
I have to agree here. I'll actually listen to someone that has criticisms/dislikes if they actually have consumed the media they are criticizing/disliking. If someone says, "This new series is shit", but hasn't read it, how does anyone take anything they say seriously?
I haven’t read the series yet...but the one liners here to describe how it’s boring is why I’m here...but seriously I probably will read this series at some point...just kinda scared to buy knowing how quick idw will change directions if it’s not going good...I have the entire idw original run...and I’m sorry but furmans stuff doesn’t gel with McCarthy...and the costa stuff before MTMTE and RID...you really have to stretch your imagination to even pretend it all fits together...I like the MTMTE and RID books, don’t like how the rest doesn’t actually fit...wish I didn’t have the furman, costa, McCarthy stuff...so to avoid such a thing in the future...i’ll wait to pick this series up later and cheaper...I honestly don’t feel like I’m missing anything
It's my understanding that is just the comic book industry at large. At least as far as major publishers go. If a title isn't meeting whatever expectations the publisher has for it, they'll reboot, change creative staff, or cancel it outright. As you say, whenever IDW Vol. 1 changed writers, it clearly didn't gel with what had come before and what would come after and I was always surprised (and grateful by the time of the Barber/Roberts Era) on their insistence on maintaining a singular continuity.
I hated LL at the end, but honestly at this point I'm inclined to agree. Even if they're still written as obnoxious British Sitcom tropes, at least they'd breathe some life into this continuity.