The Energon Pub

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:57 pm

Pretty sure that's the "upgraded" Shazraella.

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:13 pm

Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:16 pm

Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:20 pm

Daniel Adkins wrote:
Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

I count two! One in #3 one in #4.

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:23 pm

Va'al wrote:
Daniel Adkins wrote:
Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

I count two! One in #3 one in #4.

Oh shoot, you're right! I'll be honest, I thought you guys were looking at the MASK characters for a second. In my defense, one of them was hidden in the corner of the art.

Well that's egg on my face.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 7:24 pm

TAAO dies in 2 issues, LL has let me down tremendously, and then there is this scrap. in my opinion, ROM has done nothing for the story so far for me. He has made things annoying and not fun. His upcoming crossover with transformers, away from the main story, looks good, but otherwise he has been scrap.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 2:20 am

Daniel Adkins wrote:
Va'al wrote:
Daniel Adkins wrote:
Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

I count two! One in #3 one in #4.

Oh shoot, you're right! I'll be honest, I thought you guys were looking at the MASK characters for a second. In my defense, one of them was hidden in the corner of the art.

Well that's egg on my face.

Naah, don't worry. *hands over napkin*

News Credits: 149 · by **Big Grim** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 5:51 am

Destro Vs Fat Tankor? Hah. Pound him into a silverstreaked puddle FT!

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 9:08 am

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:TAAO dies in 2 issues, LL has let me down tremendously, and then there is this scrap. in my opinion, ROM has done nothing for the story so far for me. He has made things annoying and not fun. His upcoming crossover with transformers, away from the main story, looks good, but otherwise he has been scrap.

Rom is the greatest hero of our time and I WILL NOT STAND FOR SUCH SLANDER!

Also, I found this checklist for the First Strike event, as well as the upcoming titles. https://twitter.com/HasbroUPodcast/stat ... 9988284417

Nothing all that new apart from a mysterious "Classified" title that will be launching in December. Hopefully it's a revamped Revolutionaries, because that book is currently my favorite and I'm sad its ending.

EDIT: That checklist came from this preview for First Strike #0 (coming out tomorrow) on Bleeding Cool. https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/06/13 ... -december/ Don't click on it if you don't want spoilers though.

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 10:49 am

Well if we're talking purely about ROM's appearances in Transformers stories, aside from what amounted to a cameo in Revolutionaries his only appearance has been in Revolution so far, and... and yeah. No-one was portrayed well in that awful thing, and ROM's no exception.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 11:07 am

Because some websites are more equal than others, Bleeding Cool have a full preview available for IDW Publishing's First Strike #0 comic, which is out this Wednesda for free and which kickstarts the whole event that will affect the Hasbro Universe in the comics - in spite of the regular IDW schedule and storylines, and straight up spoiling Revolutionaries. Also included in the preview is a checklist for all the comics taking part in the crossover, including a 'classified' title launching in December.

Fellow Seibertronian Daniel Adkins, also part of the Hasbro Universe Action and Adventure Podcast, has done some digging and figured out who the missing series might be about: the long-rumoured Visionaries. Check out the checklist and preview below!

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 11:27 am

"So that's what happened to Blitzwing"

News Credits: 18 · by **leokearon** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 11:32 am

Still waiting for Zoids to come back

News Credits: 650 · by **ScottyP** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 12:39 pm

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't "toss out Revolution's main inciting conflict, drone on about Onyx's MacGuffin, and get set for the fourth doom-crisis to hit Cybertron in the past year."

The unexpected nature of the apparent crux of First Strike's high level plot would be good, if only said plot actually was. This looks bad and I can't imagine anyone reading this preview and going "wow, better go put in my subs!"

leokearon wrote:Still waiting for Zoids to come back

Maybe they'll make a return with Grimlock and MP3. And Brandon.

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 2:06 pm

From everything we've seen, it looks like Revolutionaries was designed to flow right into First Strike. And if since we're getting Visionaries after the event and General Blitz is talking about magic, I love the idea that the Talisman has a connection to the magical light. It certainly lines up when you consider that the individual Visionaries all have animal motifs, so tying them into Onyx in the same way Micronus was tied into the Micronauts works.

by **ricemazter** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 5:28 pm

ScottyP wrote:I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't "toss out Revolution's main inciting conflict, drone on about Onyx's MacGuffin, and get set for the fourth doom-crisis to hit Cybertron in the past year."

The unexpected nature of the apparent crux of First Strike's high level plot would be good, if only said plot actually was. This looks bad and I can't imagine anyone reading this preview and going "wow, better go put in my subs!"

leokearon wrote:Still waiting for Zoids to come back
Maybe they'll make a return with Grimlock and MP3. And Brandon.

What was Revolution's inciting conflict and how are they throwing it out? Not criticizing, I never bothered to read revolution.

News Credits: 131 · by **no-one** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 6:46 pm

I need a clean version of this for my phone wallpaper stat!

But for the time being, this will make due.

News Credits: 650 · by **ScottyP** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 8:10 pm

ricemazter wrote:
ScottyP wrote:I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't "toss out Revolution's main inciting conflict, drone on about Onyx's MacGuffin, and get set for the fourth doom-crisis to hit Cybertron in the past year."

The unexpected nature of the apparent crux of First Strike's high level plot would be good, if only said plot actually was. This looks bad and I can't imagine anyone reading this preview and going "wow, better go put in my subs!"

leokearon wrote:Still waiting for Zoids to come back
Maybe they'll make a return with Grimlock and MP3. And Brandon.

What was Revolution's inciting conflict and how are they throwing it out? Not critzicizing, I never bothered to read revolution.

Rom killed Joe Colton. Snowball started down the hill from there.

Slightly longer version with important context: Rom killed a Dire Wraith that had taken over the body of Joe Colton, meaning he was dead already.

This throws out that idea which cheapens it for me, and also makes me less interested in the Joe side of things. This is because the way Rev presented the Joes, which then progressed through the new book, was as a smaller group of characters without too much continuity baggage to go dig into.

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 8:28 pm

Is there really much continuity baggage with Colton that wasn't made clear in Revolution/Revolutionaries? He's the original G.I. Joe and former head of the G.I. Joe team. That's all you really need to know. Hell, Colton only showed up with the third Joe series, while Scarlett has been there since day one.

News Credits: 11 · by **Targetmaster Kup** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 12:38 pm

None of my local comic shops got this!

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 1:27 pm

You can get it for free here http://www.idwpublishing.com/product/first-strike-0/

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:16 pm

Blitzwing, you deserved so much more than to only show up in awful crossover events getting tortured

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:37 pm

Gotta love everyone saying something is awful before its even come out.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:19 pm

Daniel Adkins wrote:Gotta love everyone saying something is awful before its even come out.

Revolution was bad, basically everything involved with the transformers since the hasbro universe kicked off has been crap. It's annoying and the universe should really have not been done, or at least given another full year or 2 before they even attempted it.

News Credits: 16 · by **Daniel Adkins** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:34 pm

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:
Daniel Adkins wrote:Gotta love everyone saying something is awful before its even come out.

Revolution was bad, basically everything involved with the transformers since the hasbro universe kicked off has been crap. It's annoying and the universe should really have not been done, or at least given another full year or 2 before they even attempted it.

Well you might be able to guess my feelings on the Hasbro Universe based on my signature, but I'm gonna have to disagree with you. Revolution was a fun, bombastic event that had the feel of what we all did when we were little kids, mixing our toys up. It had problems here and there, but it was overall solid. Revolutionaries has been a fantastic title since the beginning and has really helped to flesh out the universe. Optimus Prime has been really solid and enjoyable, while Lost Light has just been more of the mediocrity that started to show towards the end of MTMTE Season 2. And of course, TAAO continued to prove to be incredible with really great character driven stories.
And with the exception of MASK (which is utter garbage) the rest of the Hasbro Universe line has been pretty solid. ROM is great, Micronauts is fun (even if poorly paced at times), and G.I. Joe is really fun, going for more sci-fi action than the realistic military stuff that always put me off from Joe.
What specifically about First Strike looks so awful to you?