Transformers IDW Discussion

I can't be the only one who reads More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise here, especially when you've got this amazing one eyed mofo running around.◊

But really, these are some great comics, they are much better written than the previous IDW run. Not to mention some great characters and characterizations given to some of the lesser known bots.

edited 1st Aug '13 6:58:26 PM by Coheed

I'm so so on them. I don't care for some of the plot points, but I will say I do enjoy many of the characters. Whirl, of course, is a favorite.

Am I the only one who is hoping that Star Saber will do a Heel–Face Turn at some point?

I don't really see it happening, but with this who knows.

http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2015/02/27/windblade-returns-in-transformers-combiner-wars/

I have the feeling that in general TF-comics as a whole are underrated by the majority of comic-readers. Which is sad because MTMTE is really good but gets little to no recognition from comic-readers who are not TF-fans.

More than Meets the Eye is a pretty great book that I definitely look forward to reading each month. It also quickly made Nautica one of my favorite Transformers when the weird alternate reality/other crew is dead Lost Light story happened.

When MTMTE started, I loved it. I've since soured on it after several storylines I didn't like and the way the past of Cybertron is constantly revealed to not only be sordid, but constantly influencing the present, even though it was millions of years and a cosmic war ago. And the constant "witty banter" used to be fun, but is now highly annoying.

Trying to convince me that Megatron can be redeemed was the last straw. I'm pretty much done with the book at this point.

Now the other Transformers series, the former RID, is marginally better and at least keeps me entertained every month, so it's still on my pull list. I still prefer Furman's storylines or even All Hail Megatron to the current post-war environment, which I feel hasn't worked well at all. I'm hoping Combiner Wars will liven things up.

There's a part of me that's inclined to think that the idea of a 'millions year long war' might be inherently a problem with more modern-day transformers attempts in and of itself.

I tend to agree. And remember that when the 4 million year figure originated in the old 1984 cartoon, everyone was largely in stasis for the majority of that time. Even back then, it wasn't as though the war itself was raging for all those years.

Yeah, it worked when it came off as everyone involved in the war getting frozen and the war was in stasis for the bulk of those millions of years.

At this point, though, I think that the millions years war aspect is probably a case of it being holdover from the original incarnation of the franchise and nobody really thinking about just how long even 1 million years is.

The Marvel comics had the war continue on Cybertron over that same time period, quite a few characters had been fighting that whole time.

This is a good deal. It's given me a good opportunity to get finally reading MTMTE.

I actually started reading with Dark Cybertron where I found myself curious about the whole shindig of Starscream, of all people, being put in charge (I continue to wonder how he's managed to hold onto the position so well, especially after Dark Cybertron itself).

I do feel inclined to look into the stuff from MTMTE that pre-dates it eventually, though.

Except, ya know, most of the characters. There were only about a dozen bots on each side on the Ark.

Shockwave, his seekers, the female autobots, alpha trion, they had all been duking it out for 4 million years. As did presumably everyone that showed up in later seasons, like Omega Supreme, etc... That's always been a part of the plot. The multi million war thing.

edited 12th Mar '15 7:50:30 PM by CobraPrime

Not really. The fact that the Transformers were buried for millions of years was the main thing, everything else grew out of that and not in a particularly well thought out way.

Mostly it seems like the war was pretty much on hold the entire time, with Shockwave guarding over an energy depleted Cybertron. There are still far more Transformers on the Ark then we ever know to be active on Cybertron at that time, especially considering the Decepticon generics from early episodes.

The idea that the unexplained reinforcements came from Cybertron is at first glance the simplest, but various things contradict that. You can get around it, but at that point you are already in fanon. FWIW the Coneheads were in a draft of a Beast Wars Episode which would have seen them on the Decepticons spaceship.

And in fact that's exactly how it goes down in the comics.

I think the comic tried to handwave it be saying the war actually wasn't a perpetual state of conflict. After ditching Cybertron, the battles would only be fought after decades and decades of preparation, then everyone would go back, lick their wounds, and prepare for the next one a few hundred years later. When he's captured, Megatron even says something along the lines that the current state of frequent battles around the time of the Earth invasion is an abnormal escalation from how the two sides usually did things.

Still, decades and decades is pretty much nothing in light of several million years of war.

But I suppose an effort at trying to explain it is better than nothing.

If you guys think 4 million years are long, the Ammonites have been going at it a lot longer. They're at war with their enemies for 16 million years.

And they made even less progress in their war until Whirl came along.

So, any thoughts on the theory that Roller is Tarn?

I can't say I've thought much about the theory or Tarn's true identity, but I can definitely see where the people positing that theory are coming from and I wouldn't be surprised if they're right.

With the reveal that there now is a Functionist universe on mtmte I wonder if its opening the door to having Megatron Put on a Bus. He's got one of the suitcases that created the timeline and what better exit for him than to go back back to what was his Start of Darkness - fighting the Functionists only this time without falling off the deep end and turning into a worse monster.

edited 11th May '15 12:45:47 PM by Ghilz

I don't know about being put on a bus, but something along those lines is my current leading theory as to what Megatron would possibly do with that briefcase.

Yes, this is late but...Unicron's finally making an appearance in the IDW G1 Transformers comics.

When was the last time Unicron was defeated?