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John, Christos—does this series mark the first time that Rom and the Transformers meet? We
saw them together in IDW’s Revolution event, but this story is set 200 years in the past!
CNG: Yes, this is the first time Rom has met a Transformer. As we begin the miniseries, the Solstar Order and the Cybertronians are aware of each other's existence, but until this story they have
stayed in their own territories. But the end of the Wraith War—which led to the Dire Wraiths fleeing throughout the universe—has changed things!
JB: It's also the first time the Dire Wraiths meet the Decepticons. We've never seen what happens when a Wraith takes over a Cybertronian body before... and the results aren't pretty.
Stardrive is a unique character for a crossover like this—a Transformer that’s also part of the Solstar Order. How does this conflict affect her personality?
CNG: The interesting thing about Stardrive is that she has never met another Transformer before this miniseries. She has only been given the Solstar Order's take on them: that Cybertronians are destructive machine monsters that rampage through world destroying organic life. She's told that
she's "better" because she was raised differently, but it's unmistakable that she's been brought up to feel there's something wrong with her. Now, for the first time, she's actually meeting beings of her own species—and they're from opposite factions, so she's more torn and confused than ever!
JB: Stardrive's been an outsider her whole life, and when she meets other Cybertronians, she doesn't expect to feel even more alone. She's not part of their war; she doesn't want to be destructive
like they've actually become.
Working with Alex Milne on this—did you approach it any differently than previous projects? Were the scripts very specific or did you give him a lot of leeway on the art?
CNG: We worked plot-first and I think it was the right approach. John told me Alex loves to add detail, and boy, does he! We'd give him a four-panel page and he'd turn it into a nine-panel page chock-full of aliens (all different species) and sci-fi tech. I love it! I grew up on George Perez so Alex's stuff is right up my alley!
JB: Alex had an amazing run on More Than Meets the Eye for so many years, where he started out as a fantastic artist and only got better. I'd seen a lot of his sketches and his conceptual work as that
series went on, so I definitely wanted to make sure he had the opportunity to design this series—new worlds, new characters, new aliens, new space ships. It's not even just a visual thing—Alex thinks this stuff through from top to bottom, and that definitely shows through in the comic.
Alex, your art on this story is just on another level—crazy amounts of detail and panel-heavy layouts! Can you tell us a bit about how you approached the art for this project?
AM: The script for the book is written in a plot style—it leaves me with a lot of options on how to approach it. Unlike past scripts I've worked on that have had full dialogue and descriptions for the
panels, here it's all up to me, so I'm not worrying about trying to fit a lot of different actions into one panel. It's a very interesting creative freedom I feel working on this book. It pushes me to try different things and to see what I can come up with not just in the art but in the storytelling as well. It's a nice change for me!
YoungPrime wrote:Okay, how do they expect us to take these crossovers and spinoffs seriously when many of us are barely hanging on to what's going with the status of Ongoing Transformer books on their own????!
-OP is just a lame crossover gateway to G.I.Joe and other crap most don't care about with OP kissing the butt humans every episode while his Autobots continue to grow doubt for him (still haven't felt the need to buy issue #6).
-LL is just okay but clearly losing its luster making characters like Cyclonus and Tailgate into Melrose Place couples.
TAAO was just starting to get better but who cares since they're still cancelled it.
By the end of this year I might not be reading anything by IDW if this greedy cluelessness for creating more random books continues.
Kurona wrote:I really don't get dismissing this comic for the reasons you've stated. I don't want to come off as a an overly-obsessive and defensive fangirl, but I simply don't understand where you're coming from.
Kurona wrote:Nexus Knight wrote:Okay, now I want to see a galactic map showing the different space governments in the Hasbro Universe and their relation to each other.
So do I. If there's any one thing the Hasbro universe has done right - though imo it's done more than a few things right - it's the fantastic worldbuilding. And already this book is looking to expand on that!
Va'al wrote:
Working with Alex Milne on this—did you approach it any differently than previous projects? Were the scripts very specific or did you give him a lot of leeway on the art?
CNG: We worked plot-first and I think it was the right approach. John told me Alex loves to add detail, and boy, does he! We'd give him a four-panel page and he'd turn it into a nine-panel page chock-full of aliens (all different species) and sci-fi tech. I love it! I grew up on George Perez so Alex's stuff is right up my alley!
Well you are.Kurona wrote:YoungPrime wrote:Okay, how do they expect us to take these crossovers and spinoffs seriously when many of us are barely hanging on to what's going with the status of Ongoing Transformer books on their own????!
-OP is just a lame crossover gateway to G.I.Joe and other crap most don't care about with OP kissing the butt humans every episode while his Autobots continue to grow doubt for him (still haven't felt the need to buy issue #6).
-LL is just okay but clearly losing its luster making characters like Cyclonus and Tailgate into Melrose Place couples.
TAAO was just starting to get better but who cares since they're still cancelled it.
By the end of this year I might not be reading anything by IDW if this greedy cluelessness for creating more random books continues.
OP is barely affected at all by the nature of the Hasbroverse. Revolution hasn't directly caused any effects in its ongoing story, the extent of other franchises in the book goes as far as an in-universe re-branding (literally just calling EDC GI Joe and having GI Joe stickers on some of the military vehicles; the GI Joe team itself mostly consisting of IDW Transformers-original characters), and the story itself is one of if not the best handling of the relationship between Cybertronians and Humans ever done. It continues to be as interesting as it was before Revolution if not more if you don't dismiss it for the expanded Hasbro universe which has little to no bearing on Optimus Prime as a book itself.
Lost Light, admittedly, is in a bit of a rough spot right now. Dissolution was a very odd and polarising storyline that was not as good at hiding Roberts' writing flaws as pretty much any of his previous work -- it's easily been the worst storyline of MTMTE/LL aside from Dark Cybertron even if there's still a fair few elements to like about it.
TAAO is still incredible whether or not it's being cancelled. I don't even understand the mentality of dismissing it as a narrative storyline because it's being cancelled. I'm really not sure what you're trying to say here. TAAO is amazing no matter its real-world business status -- its real-world business status, by the way, includes getting a conclusion which the writer has stated is unfolding in the way she wants it to. Its cancellation simply means that she's not writing stories she didn't want to beyond the one ongoing right now.
And even if this wasn't all true; even if TAAO and OP weren't incredible, even if there wasn't any hope for LL... I fail to see what this has to do with Shining Armour? It's its own little side story based a few centuries ago as its own individual narrative with a fair bit of worldbuilding and - most importantly - is completely non-intrusive to the current ongoing comics. If you were reading Optimus Prime or Micronauts or GI Joe (though god help you if you were reading GI Joe), you don't need to pause this to read it or stick it in the middle of your reading list. Much like Drift: Empire of Stone, it's just extra context and extra stories that aren't necessary to continue reading an already ongoing story. Hell, it's less intrusive than Drift: Empire of Stone since that took place sometime during the last quarter of MTMTE!
I really don't get dismissing this comic for the reasons you've stated. I don't want to come off as a an overly-obsessive and defensive fangirl, but I simply don't understand where you're coming from.
Look, I'm not saying "you have to conform and like the current direction of IDW", but I do think talking down about the Optimus Prime series because GI Joe is present is a weak premise.
YoungPrime wrote:Kurona wrote:YoungPrime wrote:-OP is just a lame crossover gateway to G.I.Joe and other crap most don't care about with OP kissing the butt humans every episode while his Autobots continue to grow doubt for him (still haven't felt the need to buy issue #6).
I really don't get dismissing this comic for the reasons you've stated. I don't want to come off as a an overly-obsessive and defensive fangirl, but I simply don't understand where you're coming from.
Well you are.
I made my issues with these crossovers and the ongoing TF books clear.
G.I.Joe has been in at almost every episode of OP so far and I just don't care about its overall premise. Maybe the 2 upcoming stories about "Galvatron The Barbarian" will be a breath of fresh air but then it's back to Autobots catering to stupid humans and lame "villains of the week" plots. If so then I'll pass!!!
And I didn't say that I don't care that TAAO was just starting to get good I was stating that IDW doesn't seem to care that many of us have acknowledged it's improvement. The sarcasm wasn't that hard to follow.
Meet the universe's only Cybertronian Solstar Knight! Hundreds of years ago, Rom discovered Stardrive, the sole survivor of a doomed space probe. Stardrive committed herself to protecting the galaxy from the Dire Wraiths... but when the Decepticon called Starscream makes a deadly deal, Rom and the Transformers are forced into a collision course... with Stardrive caught between two worlds!
Kurona wrote:Yup, loving this already -- they're really taking advantage of the setting
Since ROM vs Transformers 1 is out today, let me share some fun stuff with you. We will start with Bee
Here is the design for my boy Starscream in ROM vs Transformers He's so much fun to draw
My design for Stardrive. Only some slight modifications were made to her head crest for her look in the comic.
Kurona wrote:I loved these designs a lot in the comic -- though one thing that confused me is the strange bolts on the tires of both Bumblebee and Stardrive. Was that just a thing for Cybertronians a few centuries ago? Was Tracks trying to spread his new fashion?
Bee's Girlfriend wrote:I think Stardrive looks like a mix of Lost Light Drift and Chromedome, but as a Camien in this picture.
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