IDW Comics,Whats your take?

MarkHall

So we are three arcs into the main story. And we've had seven spotlights to back up the mainline.
Infiltration:
Started nicely with issue 0 introducing the human characthers and giving us are first glance at a few of the Transformers in Vechile mode. Quickly Built up steam in the following issues with some fun Violence. And nice use of the orginal G1 crew at least on the bots side.
We get glimpes at what the Cons adgenda in on earth as well as a hints a a human organisation that bots may have to content with. What I loved about this run is the fact that Starscream is a betrayer straight out of the gate. And the moment of Megs ordering the cons to stand down was great.
The run ends on a high and left me wanting more as we see Primes arrival to sort things out.

Strombringer:
This was for all the Human haters and happends just before Primes arrival on earth. It's set on a devasated Cybertron and intorduces the first of the Toy gimmicks. The use here makes a lot more sense than Preivous encounters.
We also get to meet the first of the geshalt teams but we get no Combining from them. Which I was glad to see.
The story moved a lot quicker with an appearance of the wreckers being welcomed.(Alas no Impactor.)But they appear to be hardcore and up for a fight.
We get to see inside primes head a little and know what doubts he harbours as well as seeing how far he will go to achive his goals.
And on top of this we have thunderwing going mental.I really enjoyed the scrap between him and The Wreckers and the appearance of the Preadacons to help was welcomed. I do think the fight was a little sort but it did leave me wanting a Twintwist Spotlight.

How have you guys felt about the IDW stuff so far?

Dominatorx

A vast vast improvement over DW,s g1 stories.
I still regard Stormbringer as Furmans best work to date.
The Hearts of Steel series was also very good even with the very weak ending

MarkHall

After seeing the Megs and Prime Sketches the Hearts of Steel was a big letdown.
Althou I loved Ironclad Shockwave. That Moment of him appearing from the river was amazing. Great art for that page.

Galvasean

Don't forget,

Beast Wars: the Gathering!
I thought that was one of the best comic book story arcs Ive read in a very long time. The art work was superb and we got to see obscure characters given much needed limelight. Best of all, it fits snuggly into the old G1 mythos we all love.

Escalation
For those who felt infiltration was a bit too slow paced this one really ups the anti (as its name would imply). There were some great action moments, we got to see Roller take out Blitzwing and of course the Megatron verses Optimus Prime showdown was simply epic.

Dominatorx

Galvasean wrote:

Don't forget,

Beast Wars: the Gathering!
I thought that was one of the best comic book story arcs Ive read in a very long time. The art work was superb and we got to see obscure characters given much needed limelight. Best of all, it fits snuggly into the old G1 mythos we all love.

The Spotlight falling on the tri dinosaur Magnatron wouldnt have anything to do with the love being shown .
Seriously though You are correct and i was remiss in not mentioning that outstanding book

Galvasean

What can I say when I see a carnosaur, a pterosaur and an elasmosaur battling it out with a big ol' raptor type I cant help but feel..... 'different'

constitutionus

whilst i really enjoyed the dreamwave run and it had some very promising ideas in it it wasnt untill i read the IDW run that i realised how aimless that companys run was.

theres a definite structure to the IDW books and while they read a little slow as individual issues they read very well as trades.
i get the distict feeling its still not quite up to full speed yet but all the spotlight issues are tying in nicely to the central story, without i add being a necesssity, and theres a palpable sense of the epic going on here. primes fight with megs in escalation for instance was one of the most brutal ive ever seen. thank god we seem to be back to the prime that gets his ass handed to him now and again.that was his strength as a character, not that he won all the time, but that he never stopped trying even when out matched.

the art may not be as pretty as the DW stuff but the story telling is a hell of alot better and harks back to the old marvel UK stuff. while i love dons stuff EJ has really grown on me and i hope he stick around for the long run. it certainly helps that IDW seem to go out of their way to have consistancy in their books in terms of art and i apreciate that.

i'll admit i knew sod all about IDW when they first got the liscense and was **** scared as to what they'd make of it but theyve gone far out of the way to allay my fears starting with furman being lead writer. furmans the main draw for me to transformers because i'll know i'll get the most reverential story in terms of characterisation , mythos and plot development. TBH i just dont think most other writers get TF so i dont really trust em. christ knows we couldve got garth ennis's version of em and while it wouldve sold like crazy it wouldve been a nightmare to resolve and trashed the continuity (just look what he did on xmen)
so it was a good sign to me when simon was on board. throw in the UK reprints stuff and the various minis which we never wouldve got from marvel or DW and i think IDW is playing a blinder with the brand.

hopefully the movie will bring in more readers and ensure the books are around for a good long time to come. the one thing i really like at the moment is unlike alot of books i really have no clue whats going to happen next and thats a good thing


P.S it also doesnt hurt that chris ryall and co are really interactive with the fans over at their boards. it creates a real sense of comunity ala the stans soapboxes of yesteryear over at marvel. quite amazing to see him actually acto on stuff you say to him online when he asks us what we'd like done. alot of comic companies could learn from this hands on approach. at least one of the posters got a gig out of it

Belle Ende

constitutionus wrote:

whilst i really enjoyed the dreamwave run and it had some very promising ideas in it it wasnt untill i read the IDW run that i realised how aimless that companys run was.

Promising ideas? Doubtful. Certainly the execution from Mick/Lee was very shoddy.

constitutionus wrote:

it also doesnt hurt that chris ryall and co are really interactive with the fans over at their boards. it creates a real sense of comunity ala the stans soapboxes of yesteryear over at marvel. quite amazing to see him actually acto on stuff you say to him online when he asks us what we'd like done. alot of comic companies could learn from this hands on approach. at least one of the posters got a gig out of it

Yeah, that's a real point of kudos for the IDW management. Hands-on interaction with the TF messageboard fans.

constitutionus

well the ongoing series seemed to be shaping up to be a realtime tie in to the 86 movie what with the autobots building metroplex and being in 2004 it was a nice touch and couldve worked out very well if pat lee wasnt screwing everyone over on the business front. i always had a feeling after their version of the movie it would go off on its own direction with maybe major plot diversions from the movie storyline we all know thrown in .thats a pretty audacious year long storyline for newbies to attempt.

and i liked what they were doing with scourge what with emphasings the difference between him as a unicronian creation and normal TFs that were captured before by the government types. and indeed making the EDC look actually respectable as a concept instead of cringe inducing


dont get me wrong i vastly prefer furman but mick wasnt that bad. he was really good with dialogue, ironhide in particular, had a good knack of showing off various TFs abilities that we dont see that often anymore and he handled the dinos and shockwave brilliantly as characters whilst working in a good blend of cartoon and comic mythos. the story was really starting to come together towards the end but got cut off in the equivelant of issue 6 of the G2 series. when you dont get to see the whole story alot of tales can look crap.

and hey energon and war within were shaping up nicely when it all went under. energon in particular is one storyline i'd love to see finished. milne did some lovely work in that and furman was 2 or 3 issues away from the payoff in both .

MarkHall

I did have such hopes for the DW stuff. But alas other than the art it never really lived up to its potential.
The Gi joe crossover being the best thing to come out of it.

Of the Spotlights IDW have released My faves have been Kup,Shockwave and Nightbeat
Kup was just a great story about a poor suffering Kup and highlighted Nick Roches skill with words as well as his Art. Got 2 Nice styles for the POV of the story. And even thou it ends on a bit of a bummer its great to see Springer make a bad call. I also loved the idea of Kup vesus a Zombot Horde.

Shockwave was a great book to kick off the Spotlights. Add a lot to the ongoing story and gave us a Dynobots vs shockwave scrap. I just couldn't believe the page where Shockwave uses Sludge as a weapon. That was just amazingly drawn. Plus Furman nails Shockwave in that tale. And who can you not love Grimlocks contingiecy plan.

Nightbeat a minor characther back in the day that I loved. The story was top notch. I know the art gets a lot of flack and in places it suffered and there was Nightbeats head issue. But the tail was a nice mystery which looks like it'll lead up to something big and fun. I will say I did like the colouring in this book.Very Noir. It is just a shame the art was such a letdown.

Sixshot. Didn't really feel this book. Certain things just didn't Gel with it.
I Like the idea of the cons having a Scorched earth weapon. But I think trypticon would have fit this roll a lot better but thats just my taughts.

Ultra Magnus.
Again a fun book I liked the concept of Bounty hunter Magnus and seeing him doing Jobs for both sides was nice. It was very well drawn I loved the Swindle design. I think I was hoping for more of a scrap between him and the final Oppostion.

Hotrod. One of the more fun books.With two stories for the price of one. I loved both tales and its nice to see why Hot Cruise is the way he is. Its a nice tale of redemtion that may come back to bite him on the ass. Plus the art was top notch stuff I love the whole MI moments.

Belle Ende

constitutionus wrote:

well the ongoing series seemed to be shaping up to be a realtime tie in to the 86 movie what with the autobots building metroplex and being in 2004 it was a nice touch

Harping back to the cartoon (of which I have the DVDs) was an all-too-frequent lazy crutch of Mick's. Furthermore, the cartoon is honestly pretty subpar to begin with, and to be leeching off it with 'kewl' nods and more substantial lifts shows a distinct lack of taste and imagination.

constitutionus wrote:

and couldve worked out very well if pat lee wasnt screwing everyone over on the business front.

Always 'just about to turn the corner'. I heard that excuse from fans about DWG1v1, and about DWG1v2, and for each issue of DWG1 ongoing. Enough is enough. No corner was being turned. No significant upturn in storytelling was forthcoming (especially so, given the utterly dreadful notion of femmebots/Unicron on the horizon in the [thankfully] unpublished issue #11).

The only big upturn that happened was in art - exchanging Pat Lee's pencils for Donald Figueroa's. (And even then, Don's very nice robot models couldn't hide his poor human figures and rather static panel work. Very good, but not very great. A big step up from Pat Lee's contorted awkward bulbous wrecks though.)

constitutionus wrote:

i always had a feeling after their version of the movie it would go off on its own direction with maybe major plot diversions from the movie storyline we all know thrown in .thats a pretty audacious year long storyline for newbies to attempt.

After so many issues and opportunities, still always 'just around the corner', eh? The fact that they chose a quasi-retread of the movie in the first place is bromidic. The only audacious, reckless thing Mick/Lee did was to sell the idea (and succeed in selling) of this rehash to a swarm of canon-starved willing TF fans whose bar for quality was so low given the time that had elapsed between Marvel's G2 effort and then. Hey - it even got them a few number-one selling issues - for an indie publisher, no less!

I remain convinced that had Dreamwave not gone assunder, the car crash that was the DWG1 serial would not have resolved into something innovative and triumphant, but would very likely have knotted further and further into a ever-more hideous pile-up, albeit a somewhat pretty one (courtesy of Figueroa, if he stayed on instead of Spaziante).

constitutionus wrote:

mick wasnt that bad. he was really good with dialogue, ironhide in particular, had a good knack of showing off various TFs abilities that we dont see that often anymore and he handled the dinos and shockwave brilliantly as characters whilst working in a good blend of cartoon and comic mythos.

Mick _was_ that bad. He was crap. He was like a bad fanfic writer who got incredibly lucky. Why defend his paltry writing 'abilities' when his comprehensive array of no-talents far outweigh them? He was all about the 'kewl' ridiculous nods, and never really about anything of substance. Writing in dumb from-the-toy fanboy moments like Magnus bursting from his outer form and Smokescreen rubbing his rubsigns to reveal his true Autobot insignia. UGH! Awful, awful, awful. Turning Sunstorm and Jetfire into pro-wrestlers (Stone Cold Steve Austin's "Stunner" ludicrous wrestling move, anyone?), not well pacing the terrible volume 2 so Shockwave has to blather on forever in the last issue, wholesale xeroxing of Megatron being thrown into space, the whole of Micromasters, plugging plot points on messageboards and not in strip panels, Prime and Magnus as brothers (that's especially lazy, lame and trite), inconsistent and hammy characterisations aplenty, wasting four or five issues on a fruitless Sunstorm plot, ret-con after ret-con over Sarracini, 'Nightbird' - yet another stupid fanboy moment, and the subtle-as-a-sledgehammer "TR8R1" licence plate (arguably Don's fault), to name but a few. On and on and on and on. Bilge after bilge.

constitutionus wrote:

the story was really starting to come together towards the end but got cut off in the equivelant of issue 6 of the G2 series. when you dont get to see the whole story alot of tales can look crap.

Nope. Going nowhere good, and they had plenty of chances over the course of Dreamwave G1 vol1+vol2+vol3+the miscellaneous specials to prove their prowess in creating a fresh, deep, and entralling g1 yarn. They failed miserably.

.
Thank goodness for IDW.

Galvasean

You know at the time I thought Dreamwave was amazing. But now after reading a fair bit of IDW (not to mention most of Marvel's G2) I can see them for the hacks the were. Same way in the beginning I thought Pat Lee's artwork was outstanding until I saw the likes of Don Figueroa, Matere and now Nick Roche and E.J. Su. Heck, even Guidi and Ng are better than Lee on their good days.

professor kaos

Galvasean wrote:

You know at the time I thought Dreamwave was amazing. But now after reading a fair bit of IDW (not to mention most of Marvel's G2) I can see them for the hacks the were. Same way in the beginning I thought Pat Lee's artwork was outstanding until I saw the likes of Don Figueroa, Matere and now Nick Roche and E.J. Su. Heck, even Guidi and Ng are better than Lee on their good days.

I'm in absolute agreement, I think it was just the fact that we finally had a transformers comic for the first time in ages that we were kept happy, despite Pat lee drawing Prime with boobs:rolleyes:
It soon deteriorated into a mess, Micromaster series, what was the point? . They just couldn't give Simon Furman the job of writing their flagship title (G1), and that worked out for the best. His gritty, refreshing take over on IDW is absolutly great, issue 5 of Escalation really had me worried about the continuing knack of knocking off Prime in all series, but the pay off in issue 6 was fantastic. I like the constant slow build, along with all the little bits and future plots being referenced in the spotlights( Banzai-tron, Nightbeats Brain surgery, Shockwave and the Dinobots), ,all leading to bigger things on the horizon. As for the head of The Machination?
I'm guessing Scorponok , then maybe Galvatron, but I hope it really pays off, whoever it's revealed to be.
Oh and James Raiz art is fantastic too.:D

MarkHall

Scorponok is the most common Theory at the moment.
I don't think its Galvy as he was about in the Nightbeat spot.

I was kind hoping it'd be soundwave but his Spotlight ended that line of thinking.

I am looking forward to an army of Sunstreakers running around.
And really can't wait to see Hound and Sideswipe in action.

Galvasean

Im guessin that 'Sunstreaker' army (headmasters?) will be decimated by the Reapers (see Spotlight Sixshot)

The main thing Im bothered about by IDW is that the Shockwave and hot Rod Spotlights sold out in a matter of minutes, damnit and Nick Roche just happens to be my faveourite artist too!

Ger_Hankey

Galvasean wrote:

Im guessin that 'Sunstreaker' army (headmasters?) will be decimated by the Reapers (see Spotlight Sixshot)

The main thing Im bothered about by IDW is that the Shockwave and hot Rod Spotlights sold out in a matter of minutes, damnit and Nick Roche just happens to be my faveourite artist too!

Dublin City Comic Con is on in November and apparently Nick Roche is on the guest list.
What I really like about the IDW comics is the variety of artists they use, and the different styles that brings into the comics. A big complaint about the DW comics was the apparent "house style" that seemed to run through the title. Nice to look at at first, but these things get old very fast.
Don Figeroa is a great TF artist, and its great that IDW have him, but its good to see some fresh takes on the TFs too.
On a related note, Titan comics UK version of the Transformers comic is out next month. Its mostly reprinted IDW stuff, but they are putting in their own stories too. The first one is drawn by Geoff Senior, my favourite TF artist ever (I'm showing my age now!!!).
Titan were asking for some fan art for the first couple of issues on another website a couple of months ago; I submitted some stuff and they said they are going to use it - yay me!!

constitutionus

check out simons blog. theres at least two pages of geoff senior goodness up there from the new UK comic for fans to check out

Ger_Hankey

constitutionus wrote:

check out simons blog. theres at least two pages of geoff senior goodness up there from the new UK comic for fans to check out

Geoffs stuff looks even better than it used to now its coloured using todays techniques...

Galvasean

Picked up the Spotlight TPB, so i finally read the Shockwave (outstanding!) and Hot Rod (bit predictable but good) spotlights.
Also got the movie adaptation TPB but that aint gettin read til the movie has been seen at least twice.

MarkHall

Galvasean wrote:

Im guessin that 'Sunstreaker' army (headmasters?) will be decimated by the Reapers (see Spotlight Sixshot)

The main thing Im bothered about by IDW is that the Shockwave and hot Rod Spotlights sold out in a matter of minutes, damnit and Nick Roche just happens to be my faveourite artist too!

Its a very good sign that Both actually sold out from IDW. It means we can expect more from Nick in the future.
I am looking forward to his Transformers Uk story. Issue 3 Megatron.
Nick has an Exhibition on in Belfast over the summer.
http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/product.aspx?ProductID=11222

constitutionus

spotlight galvatron is out tomorrow (out in states now ) which should be good. im looking forward to see what his new story is gonna be seeing as he's not a remade version of megs anymore.

and the new megatron origin series is really good! arts a bit muddled in parts but script is loaded with potential.

EDIT. god damn fecking diamond ****ed up the scheduling and pushed back the release till next week so it should hit the same time as marvels new avengers/transformers no 1. lot of pissed off people on the IDW boards.

MarkHall

Yeah But it's worth the wait.

This week they did release a larger glosssy reprinting of 3 Transformer stories. ITs a very nice Format for a book but no real reason to buy it.

spooydermot

constitutionus wrote:

spotlight galvatron is out tomorrow (out in states now ) which should be good. im looking forward to see what his new story is gonna be seeing as he's not a remade version of megs anymore.

and the new megatron origin series is really good! arts a bit muddled in parts but script is loaded with potential.

EDIT. god damn fecking diamond ****ed up the scheduling and pushed back the release till next week so it should hit the same time as marvels new avengers/transformers no 1. lot of pissed off people on the IDW boards.

So Galvatron next week? cool - can't say I'm too psyched about the Avengers crossover, kinda hating Marvel at the mo

MarkHall

A great Nick cover for Devastation #2

Too Many Sunstreakers.Really enjoying Nicks work.

IDW Solicts for october.
Lots of Robots here.

Really wish I had of know about this before.

THE TRANSFORMERS PREMIERE EDITION, VOL. 1 HC

Written by Simon Furman, art by E.J. Su, Don Figueroa, Nick Roche, MD Bright, Rob Ruffolo and Robby Musso and a cover by Figueroa.

To get the full story to date of the Transformers' "IDW-verse," look no further than The Transformers: Premiere Edition. At just over 500 pages of non-stop Œbot action, if you only buy one Transformers book ever, this is the one you need! Journey from Cybertron to Earth and back as the Transformers' legendary war spans the galaxy in a quest to return peace to their home planet, and restore harmony between all mechanoids. But while the noble Autobots seek their freedom, the Decepticons await with treacherous plans of their own. Including Infiltration, Stormbringer, a collection of Spotlights (Shockwave, Nightbeat, Hot Rod, Sixshot, Ultra Magnus), and the latest chapter, Escalation. Each book comes with a tip-in plate signed by Furman, Su and Figueroa.

I REally am sorry I didn't know of this before getting the other trades as I would have so Bought that. I love the silly oversized Books.

MarkHall

Galvatron was a bit quick but some nice plot momevent involved. The only real flaw I have is the Cop out on why Gavly didn't kill all who opposed him.
But we may see a good reason for his little rebellion later. Here's hoping.

Loved the take on Sideswipe and enjoyed seeing Hound as a Prowl Lite. Plus the bonus pages of characther profile shoots is a nice touch.

Galvasean

Gotta say im impressed with this new take on Galvatron. Can't wait for Devastation

constitutionus

i quite liked the reason he didnt kill everyone. it fits his personality in terms of resenting authority. i know thats kinda up in the air as he's a totally "new" character but i cant see any big bad in TF liking being at the beck and call of another character.

and god damn that nick cover! really looking forward to devastation. cant see sunstreaker being happy at a legion of lookalikes. too much of a blow to the ego which is a nice indication that furmans paying attention to his character. could be alot of side stuff in this designed solely to piss streaker off in which case i predict a hell of a smack down down the road

P.S i think megatron origin 2 is out tomorrow and the prime spotlight is due soon , happy days !

MarkHall

http://enewsi.com/news.php?catid=261&itemid=11481
Interview with Simon furman Lots of Spoilers here.
Some good things coming.

Thundercracker

I like these comics, I got the movie adaptation and the prequel and they are really really good, I got into IDW originally when they remade the original 1977 Dawn of the Dead film in comic book form. Infiltration was a good series alright but never really got me moving much, although I did like the fact that First Aid was featured a lot.

Galvasean

Thundercracker wrote:

although I did like the fact that First Aid was featured a lot.

Eh.. Ratchet?

I see everyone's favourite third tier Decepticon Jet is getting his own Spotlight... Ramjet!

MarkHall

Yeah. It's a nice Grunt characther to see being played with.
Can't think what kind of characther he'll be as most of the other incarnations of Ramjet have been thugs or Psychopaths.