Rodimus Prime wrote:Was John Barber even considered?
Based on what? He can definitely write better than Roberts. (I base that on reading MTMTE and its concurrent ongoing up to the Titans Return story.)william-james88 wrote:Rodimus Prime wrote:Was John Barber even considered?
I doubt it. I believe there is a stigma with Barber being associated with mandated books.
Rodimus Prime wrote:Based on what? He can definitely write better than Roberts. (I base that on reading MTMTE and its concurrent ongoing up to the Titans Return story.)william-james88 wrote:Rodimus Prime wrote:Was John Barber even considered?
I doubt it. I believe there is a stigma with Barber being associated with mandated books.
william-james88 wrote:Rodimus Prime wrote:Based on what? He can definitely write better than Roberts. (I base that on reading MTMTE and its concurrent ongoing up to the Titans Return story.)william-james88 wrote:Rodimus Prime wrote:Was John Barber even considered?
I doubt it. I believe there is a stigma with Barber being associated with mandated books.
Based on the fact that the books he works on are the ones that have to accomodate changes in design to suit toys and spotlight particular characters. I am not talking about my own opinion, just stating why fans may prefer Roberts solely on the fact that he writing is not as dictated by Hasbro. Kinda like how people preffer writer directors over a director just doing someone else's script. Or how people preffer singer songwriters over singers who sing songs written for them or cover artists.
Exactly. I started by reading MTMTE, and picked up the other series much later, simply because MTMTE was getting such good reviews. By the time I finished both series, I found that I was anticipating what Starscream, Windblade and Bee were going to do much more than what was happening on the Lost Light. And that's including me being a Rodimus fanboy. (I think Rodimus could be written much better than he was in MTMTE.)Va'al wrote:People who like Roberts but not Barber out any reason other than 'it's not Hasbro mandated' are missing out on some truly excellent stuff.
Rodimus Prime wrote:Exactly. I started by reading MTMTE, and picked up the other series much later, simply because MTMTE was getting such good reviews. By the time I finished both series, I found that I was anticipating what Starscream, Windblade and Bee were going to do much more than what was happening on the Lost Light. And that's including me being a Rodimus fanboy. (I think Rodimus could be written much better than he was in MTMTE.)Va'al wrote:People who like Roberts but not Barber out any reason other than 'it's not Hasbro mandated' are missing out on some truly excellent stuff.
But just how much of the story does Hasbro meddle in? Or do they just give them specifics regarding designs?
Va'al wrote:People who like Roberts but not Barber out any reason other than 'it's not Hasbro mandated' are missing out on some truly excellent stuff.
Va'al wrote:They do and they don't. There's PR responses and direct responses, and there is a lot of freedom with how certain characters or plotlines can develop - but also Hasbro can just ask for 'can this character be in the story somehow' and that's where Rook gets one panel, Alpha Bravo another, and you'll end up with issues like Combiner Hunters where everyone happens to have a new deco for some in-story reason and totally not a box set exclusive to an event.
william-james88 wrote:But those are mostly harmless examples. The one I find quite egregious so far was the sudden importance of Scoop. Scoop? Why, where? How is he suddenly the new voice of a religion?
Oh right, he has a toy coming out.
Or other things like how Rattrap, a character which so far only existed many years after the war ended, is now interacting with g1 characters and quite prominant.
Exactly! I couldn't have said it better. And the only reason Roberts gets away with his shortcomings for as long as he does is because of the talented people around him who cover up for him, either intentionally or unintentionally simply by trying to do the best they can.Daniel Adkins wrote:Personally, I think Barber excels in one area that Roberts lacks: versatility. Barber can write grand narratives, he can write personal stories, he can write action, he can write comedy, he can write drama, he can write sci-fi, he can write superheroes, and he can mix and match any elements between the extremes. Roberts has his style and his schtick, and it works... for a time. Barber, meanwhile, has less of a distinct style because he knows how to switch things up for whatever he’s writing.
Return to Transformers Cartoons and Comics Forum
Registered users: Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Google Feedfetcher, Majestic-12 [Bot], Sabrblade, william-james88