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The back matter of this week's issue of IDW Publishing's Optimus Prime #9 - review coming soon, so keep an eye out for that - includes an interview with the three creators behind Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor: writers John Barber and Christos Gage, and artist Alex Milne (who will be joined by Josh Perez on colours)! We've copied below what the three have to say to support the book and new character Stardrive - check it out!

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!

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.

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.

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.

If I were to venture a guess to your query, it would probably be the apparently lack of interest the other books from other readers. Revolution has left a bad taste in readers mouths, so fans of one book could see this as "aw, man, my character is going to do ANOTHER pointless crossover". Sure, that still feels like poor logic, especially since, as you've mentioned, the book only does the heinous crime of building the universe! ...but in seriousness, it's the logic I made use of I was on the negative side of the issue.

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!

I love building a fictional universe. I do a lot of writing (not TF stories) with my brother, and I think I do more to enhance his universe than he does.

Maybe a map will be put of one of the upcoming Sourcebooks?

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!

Okay, this sounds awesome. I don't read these books primarily for action, but I very happily welcome a huge, well-done fighting scene if it's gonna be like this.

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.

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.

GI Joe presence in the Optimus Prime comic so far:

• Spike, who has been present in TF comics since 2009. Does very little except argue with Talon and make token appearances with a small group of Joes in 2-5 and 8.
• Talon, who was around in All Hail Optimus piloting one of the Chinese TF mech suit things. Argues with Spike a little, reflects on the TF involvement on Earth, and has the same issue appearances as Spike plus a tiny quick showing in 6.
• Hi-Tech, who is Dr. Bharwaney from the Costa ongoing/Bumblebee mini series. With the same small group as Spike and Talon.
• Mainframe, a "real" GI Joe character that has about the same appearance count and lack of importance here as Hi-Tech.
• Flint, a GI Joe that's been related to a Transformers character since the G1 cartoon. Quickly departs after showing up in issue 2, talks to his daughter during issues 3 and 4 (longtime IDW TF supporting character Marissa Fairborne), then barely shows up in 6 and 8.
• Chameleon, who just sorta follows Flint around.

Additionally, two of the series' issues to date feature 0 "GI Joe" presence: 1 and 9. Issue 7 has Flint only for a very short time. Maybe only a panel or two? In issue 8, they are barely present save a small appearance at the end which isn't remotely a focus point for the issue.

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.

In other news, I'm really pumped for this Rom v TF series. Salty Galactic Council alien dudes are usually indicative of a good time elsewhere

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.

Good thing that wasn't my only issue with OP if I needed consent to drop it.

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.

Your ..tone is entirely hard to follow, unless you meant to just be complaining - in which case carry on.

GI Joe being there (with the same people who were there all along, just new names) and not doing anything is not the only problem, ok. So.. is it the kissing butt? Does that include forcefully annexing a whole planet (that's colonising/invading), setting up two colonies, kill off some more people because why the heck not, and start another war (arriving in First Strike)? If so, I'm sorry for the butts you ever kiss.


As for Shining Armor - eh, I'm whelmed so far, but will be interested to see what they do.

Stardrive is a precious baby and I love her.

Found in this week's digital copies of IDW Publishing's Optimus Prime #9 (our review can be found here!), was a five page preview of the upcoming first issue of a new series featuring Cybertronians in the wider Hasbro Universe: Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor! With the Galactic Council doing their best at being the worst, the Solstar Order doing ..their thing, and new character Stardrive showing up - check it all out below, including a variant cover by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham!

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!

Yup, loving this already -- they're really taking advantage of the setting

Kurona wrote:Yup, loving this already -- they're really taking advantage of the setting

Wholeheartedly agree! This is looking great!

"And I could change into a car."

I love this... and I am surprised she turns into a car and not a jet, but i like carformers more, so we're good!

I'm loving the new Starscream design, shows he changed forms as much as he did now (Brings up the count to 8, I believe)

Synopsis
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!



Story

An entirely new series, with a different creative approach, and a mix of Transformers and Rom veterans on the writing and art teams, introducing a new character in the middle of a past world and timeline, and the meanest 'diplomats' around - if you were looking at crossovers, and how to do them, this is probably the book you were waiting for.



One of the major complaints about how IDW Publishing is handling the sudden shared universe, with all of the Hasbro licensed properties, is exactly that: its suddenness. None of the books have had a chance to establish themselves and their stories, or even their own in-worlds, before they were blown up into the wider narratives of all of the others.



That is not what John Barber and Christos Gage have done here. Starting from the Solstar order itself, with the Wraith Wars alluded to and slightly explained, the Galactic Council working against everyone while wearing silly hats, we get to find so much foundation to the world of Rom and the Knights that we were perhaps still missing from his main series. Plus, plenty of Transformers cameos, of course.



And then, of course, we have newcomer Stardrive - a Cybertronian raised to fear her race by the Order, made to become part of the Order though never fully accepted by the others, especially the younger cadets, a new perspective on a story that Transformers fans know a lot about, 4 million years of in fact, and finally ask: was the universe right all along?


Art

Alex Milne is on art, and that will make a lot of readers happy. What particularly please me, however, is the approach to the art, as explained in a recent interview: they work plot first, meaning that Milne has pretty much the entire say on how everything in the book looks, no dialogue is fully pre-planned - and I'll admit, it shows, wonderfully so.



The colour side of things is handled by Josh Perez, reunited with Milne linework beyond covers, and the shiny-ness of the Solstar Order is something that suits both of them well - alongside some seriously impressive shifts in tones and hues, juxtaposing Stardrive's childlike innocence with the horrors of the Wraith and Cybertronian Wars.



Tom B. Long is clearly also having plenty of fun with the lettering in the book, as plenty of old sound-words return to grace the panels unencumbered by walls of dialogue and squeezed spaces. Enjoy the

The thumnbnailed cover is the variant by David Lafuente and Lovern Kindzierski, spotlighting something that doesn't happen in the story, really, but sets the tone for sure. Plenty more - including Roche/Burcham, Villanelli/Alexakis, Milne/Perez, can be found in our Comics Database entry!

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

The world-building in this book, born out of both visual and writing teams, is fantastic. Truly admirable how starting from a Transformers base allows for so much to create about the wider universe, give us enough to understand Rom and his world without exposition dumps, and viceversa, give Rom fans just enough about Transformers to make Stardrive's situation fully understandable - if a little standard, narrative wise.



There are puns - Sata and Auxin, above all - and Gundam references, points out ScottyP; there are allusions to diplomacy, treaties, peace-keeping, and wars; there is more Starscream (basic Starscream, argues Kurona, but Starscream nonetheless); there are oddles of alien races and designs dotted across the entire issue. It may still be a baby knight on its first mission, much like Auxin, but this mini-series is bound to shine.

I'll be honest. I haven't been a fan of Barber. Too many humans and I haven't liked how he handled Prowl and Thundercracker.

That said I did enjoy this issue. I was pleasantly surprised. I found Stardrive and Rom likeable.

It was also cool seeing Starscream and Ultra Magnus especially in a story set during the war. For the first time I'm looking forward to the next issue of a Barber written comic.

To round off the review for IDW Publishing's first issue of Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor, we have some character designs of robot characters - you know, our side of the vs equation - courtesy of arist Alex Milne on Twitter. Specifically, we get a look at 200 years ago (so still in the Aubotot-Decepticon war) Starscream and Bumblebee, plus new character Stardrive. Check them out!

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.

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?

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?

Think about it. Their tires are practical because their roads are metal which would require an enormomous amount of traction.

While no doubt a coincidence it was touched on in all hail Megatron when they were driving on cybertron they were having problems driving because their tires were meant for earth terrain and not cybertron.

I really liked the story. I think it's fun and like I've said before I enjoy cross overs. Not just because it has transformers but most crossovers. In my opinion they do less harm than what some say they do and I enjoy interactions with characters you wouldn't think would.

I really enjoyed the easer eggs of the Chinese transformers online game. The cons that get killed are not generics but characters in that game.


For anyone wondering Stardrive is Camien. John has come out and said that's where she's from and her blue energon is meant to reveal that.

I think Stardrive looks like a mix of Lost Light Drift and Chromedome, but as a Camien in this picture.

Bee's Girlfriend wrote:I think Stardrive looks like a mix of Lost Light Drift and Chromedome, but as a Camien in this picture.

In other words, the current generic Alex design

Honestly I'm just thankful she doesn't have window boobs like almost every female transformer he designed in more than meets the eye. Seriously, if go back to the story that introduced firestar every female transformer except the hulk looking one has the same torso. It was annoying

I'm liking the look of this. Might just have to pick it up!