The Energon Pub

So, in my ongoing effort to catch up on all things IDW Transformers, this last weekend I read Megatron Origin.

Being caught up on the main titles, I'm now a little confused. Has this been retconned out?

Ironhidensh wrote:So, in my ongoing effort to catch up on all things IDW Transformers, this last weekend I read Megatron Origin.

Being caught up on the main titles, I'm now a little confused. Has this been retconned out?

Retconned? More or less likely. Truncated? Verily! The story lacks imho in character development, as in 2 issues to make this what should have been a 6 issue limited series.

If IDW got Furman to helm it, may have made more sense.......and the drama.

Not at all. It's simply been expanded on and explored more with the current titles. All the past stuff in the current comics are set before Origins, showing how he lead up to the revolt in the mine.

Insurgent wrote:Not at all. It's simply been expanded on and explored more with the current titles. All the past stuff in the current comics are set before Origins, showing how he lead up to the revolt in the mine.

Sure. Back story of the back story. What's missing if your read the #4 issue mini series,something is really missing in between issues 2 and 3. And, it's been confirmed that the series was indeed TRUNCATED i.e "shortened".

From tfwiki

"It should be noted, that - as revealed by Eric Holmes himself - Megatron: Origin has been written and was originally intended to be a story set in the Dreamwave Transformers Generation 1 continuity. However, Dreamwave's bankruptcy put an end to this plan. After IDW decided to have the comic written and drawn, the original script which was 6 issues long, has been truncated to 4 issues. Missing scenes would have featured a 'mentor' character whom Megatron meets and bonds with before he becomes a gladiator."

Really makes me wonder why people didn't even picked the jarring gap in the plot/story progression.

Oh, sorry, that 'not at all' was in reference to it being retconned out. Even when I read it the first time, I got the sense there was a chunk of story missing.

I'd have preferred that if DW/Pat Lee paid the dues, the #6 issues would have been completed, then start a follow up limited series again like War Within , War Within#2 The Dark Ages then War ......with Furman in the helm. So like Megatron:Origins , Megatron:Origins #2 .....but all water under the bridge as IDW has their own "style"

I guess it just seems to me that the Megatron in origins doesn't really mesh well with the Megatron we've seen in flashbacks in th ongoing series.

Ironhidensh wrote:I guess it just seems to me that the Megatron in origins doesn't really mesh well with the Megatron we've seen in flashbacks in th ongoing series.

It's a very...incomplete story. On its own it doesn't read terribly well, although it does have value as one of the first looks we had at where Megatron came from.

Subsequent stories have added a lot to Origins, and paint a much more complete picture when read together. The flashbacks in Chaos Theory and MTMTE fill in a lot of the gaps in Megatron's character progression. The single issue of RiD devoted to Soundwave also fills in quite a bit regarding the strength of Megatron's convictions and the details of the Senate's destruction.

The one thing we don't have, which might be most critical to understanding the character, is more detail regarding his transition from reluctant murderer to bloodthirsty gladiator. James Roberts has done a great job showing us why Megatron snapped at C-12 (Whirl's beating, the failed Shadowplay, the loss of Terminus), as well as what drove him to create the Decepticon movement, but we've seen little of what led him to embrace life as a gladiator and eventual warlord. It seems like that was the bulk of the material excised from the original Origins pitch, and no one else has yet sought to tackle that part of Megatron's life.

Bottom line, I think it meshes well with the other material, there is just an awful lot of Megatron's story that is still missing.

I got into IDW late and this was my first IDW TF comic, since it was at the beginning of the 1st volume of the Collections.

When I first read it I enjoyed the world around Megatron more-so than Megatron himself. That's not to say I disliked it, I just felt Megatron's character development to be rushed in places. 4 issues really wasn't enough, particularly since the two Megatrons at the beginning and the end of the comic are vastly different. It's not a lot of time, page wise, to change a character, albeit the story is meant to be set over many years.

Nonetheless, I loved IDW's depiction of Cybertron and seeing the early days of big names like Starscream and Soundwave. I just felt that there was a lot more that needed to be said, but otherwise I loved that Megatron had more substance to him than this power-hungry despot I was used to from G1.

What I will say though is that Megatron Origins is a lot better when going back to reading it after his development by Roberts. It doesn't necessarily retcon things, but you have to look at Origins as an abridged version of Megatron's genesis, fleshed out by scenes in MTMTE and Chaos Theory. Put it all together and it's pretty enjoyable. At least it is for me, anyway.

I get the feeling that Megs had to rush the development of both himself and the Decepticon movement. We knew that the Autobots were watching. He wanted to avoid pre-emptive arrests. Despite his haste, he was nearly too late. Luckily for him, his allies saved the day.

Yeah Megatron Origins bored me. I wish it would get rereleased with the completed story even if Skybound has to hire Furman to do it.