Yeah, was a pitch by Chris Ryall (IDW's editor-in-chief) and Phil Jimenez (DC artist)

Was passed over because DC was launching the New 52 at the time and the pitch was based off the pre-reboot versions of DC characters.

Here's the pitch art from Jimenez.

 

PAIN, that would have been amazing.

Hopefully maybe we could still get some crossover with a Batmobile collaboration.

 

I hope to see this from the next publisher, if there is one.

 

There will be, I don’t think we officially know but I hope they pick this up.

 

in the end, while this sounds/looks cool conceptually, given how bad most of the last decades output was from IDW and the fact that their "Events" (Chaos, Combiner Wars, Dark Cybertron, 'Hasborverse', Unicron) were particularly terrible, it's probably for the best it never came to pass.

this, on the other hand, is just tragic that it never got done. There are so many FANTASTIC concepts in here. Things often don't live up to their potential, but man this looks epic - Aquaman -vs- the Seasons and Submarauder??? c'mon!!!

I've always been way more of a marvel guy then DC, but just based on the core power levels and concepts of characters, feels like DC-vs-TF makes so much more sense. You've got characters that actually have the power levels to go toe-to-toe with the big bads (Super, WW, GL, Flash, Aquaman) plus characters who are known for their distinctive vehicles (Bats, WW)... and ideas like Brainiac and Apokolips that feel like they could be natural connections with TF concepts like Shockwave and Unicron...

arguably I'd say that one piece of art looks more exciting then anything IDW ever put out outside of All Hail Megatron (which may have failed somewhat in execution but was nothing if not ambitious in concept) –– doesn't hurt that Phil Jimenez is also a pretty fantastic artist.

 

As others have said, it could go the Dreamwave Megatron Origins route.

 

The combiner in the background made up of various Bat vehicles and Invisible Jet Seeker are my favorite bits, lol.

 

I didn’t even realize that was the Invisible Jet, that is awesome.

 

Optimus Prime as a Green Lantern is a ridiculously stupid idea and I love it, why couldn't we have gotten that crossover

 

The New 52 happened so DC cancelled it.

 

I'm still ticked that the Seacons made a minor cameo in the "Infestation" story when they would have been perfect for the elder-horror theme

 

(*sees Animated Bumblebee, Ratchet, Blitzwing, and Lugnut, Atlas from TF vs. G.I. Joe, and Prime Miko*)

AW MAN, WHAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?    

This looks SICK AF! Like it could have been the Transformers equivalent of Crisis on Infinite Earths! Slag my life sideways and upside down!

MAN! And now I got "The Sound of Silence" playing in my head.

Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk to you again... 

Last I checked, Skybound Entertainment was trying to get its mitts on the TF license back in December 2021, but there's been complete radio silence on that ever since. Chris McFeely did think out loud about the license going to Dark Horse Entertainment since they nabbed the Ghostbusters comic license, but I doubt that will lead anywhere serious...

 

I would have liked to see something like that with the Starscreams.

 

BRB, just gotta paint a lantern corps ring on my Earthrise Optimus. Thank god painting HeroQuest figs trained me for tiny jobs.

 

Source: fan artist Beni on Twitter

https://twitter.com/beni_beni136/status/1016670623693586432

 

Would not be surprised if perhaps there was some licensing issues with Paramount/Viacom.

 

Plus they'd be a real PITA to draw.

 

Oh for sure

 

As awesome a concept this is, with the downward spiral IDW has been on for the last several years this would have been mishandled in every conceivable way. I would much rather see another comic studio with competent authors get a crack at this.