The Energon Pub

[Mr.MicroMaster]

That cover is hysterical I give it a . I have I feeling I just might enjoy this issue.

[o.supreme]

Covers A & C (the one used in the review) are awesome...I'll say that much Too bad Cover C is one of those *things that never happens* covers...

[Targetmaster Kup]

Well here are the sales numbers courtesy of ComiChron for November 2017:

#268 in units, #255 in sales Optimus Prime #12 sold 5,811 units
#270 in units #256 in sales Transformers Lost Light #11 sold 5,786 units
#271 in units #274 in sales Transformers First Strike #1 sold 5,730 units
#274 in units #262 in sales Optimus Prime #13 sold 5,638 units

So Lost Light is not the most popular Transformers comic, if the downward trend of Optimus Prime is matched by Lost Light. Interesting that Transformers First Strike sold so well!

[o.supreme]

That is interesting and all, like I said, I've always preferred RID/TF/Prime and TAAO as opposed to MTMTE/LL. But fans constantly rave about MTMTE/LL, and it is always winning awards...so I naturally just thought it was the most popular because its seemingly all what anybody talks about.

[Targetmaster Kup]

Interestingly, in October, First Strike #5 and #6 outsold Optimus Prime and Lost Light. So from that, it seems like people like the shared universe, and they aren't all Transformers fans!

[Deadput]

Covers A & C (the one used in the review) are awesome...I'll say that much Too bad Cover C is one of those *things that never happens* covers...

It's false advertising which is disgusting, it's not like that cover with Swerve and Anode that was posted today which we can obviously tell is non canon but that cover you mentioned? That's actual lying to make people buy the comics and they don't care if people get disappointed they were lied to since it's too late IDW got their money.

[partholon]

That is interesting and all, like I said, I've always preferred RID/TF/Prime and TAAO as opposed to MTMTE/LL. But fans constantly rave about MTMTE/LL, and it is always winning awards...so I naturally just thought it was the most popular because its seemingly all what anybody talks about.

to put it in perspective both the OP issues in that chart and LL combined are now selling LESS than when furman was kicked off the book for "low sales"

sommats gonna happen man as this cant go on.

Optimus Prime 13 is one copy away from selling the same as "zombie tramp" FFS.

[Deadput]

You know this kinda stuff could be avoided if there was only one or two comics instead of having dozens upon dozens at a time it makes it really confusing for people to understand and/or catch up.

[partholon]

Ive said since the first windblade mini that our fanbase just isnt big enough to support 3 books.

i can see IDW doing a "gi joe " on us.

i.e they'll bring furman back to try and get legacy readers to return (basically the larry hama deal) and put out a single ongoing for the
normal "IDWverse" probably done by barber.

with the odd mini series by roberts.

or something very like that.

its a pity but were not the xmen or the avengers and sooner or later the maths gets ya.

[o.supreme]

So TF books overall are on the decline then? That makes sense. I posted not too long ago that the local shop I go to (the owner now has 3 shops in the greater Sacramento area, and I've known him for 20+ years...)..isn't even stocking most IDW titles, they are special ordered for myself and a handful of others. Kind of a shame, but I get it.

I loved most of IDW's Godzilla run from 2012-216, but low sales ultimately killed it as well, but I do have to admit IDW stuck with it longer than any other publisher, I'm sure the last issues were selling less than 2000 each, and they still all got TPB after the fact... maybe Unicron really will be THE END

[partholon]

i will give IDW that.

theyve taken more chances with this franchise than Marvel EVER wouldve.

and theres no way in hell they'd be launching new books through it (like visionares etc)

they'dve cancelled ALL the books at this level. hell we woudlntve got a second book at all.

[Va'al]

The level of negativity based on some really partial and clearly not entirely attuned readings of the IDW situation, comics in general, and just dislike of certain narrative choices is really dampening my mood.

I'll come back in a couple of days to defend the comic again.

[Targetmaster Kup]

Is it maybe possible that all the Protectobots are on the ship and First Aid will save them all along with Thunderclash?

[Burn]

The level of negativity based on some really partial and clearly not entirely attuned readings of the IDW situation, comics in general, and just dislike of certain narrative choices is really dampening my mood.

I'll come back in a couple of days to defend the comic again.

Or, and stay with me here on this one, you could ... I dunno, accept that some people don't love these comics as much as you do.

[Targetmaster Kup]

Now that we are almost at the end of the year, let's look how much the TRansformer Comic Book Sales have decreased over this year, not counting December yet:

JANUARY
200 181 Optimus Prime 2* $3.99 IDW 9,258
207 192 Optimus Prime 3* $3.99 IDW 8,274

FEBRUARY
211 194 Optimus Prime 4* $3.99 IDW 7,600
214 197 Transformers Lost Light 2* $3.99 IDW 7,534
231 207 Transformers Lost Light 3* $3.99 IDW 6,770
242 223 Transformers Till All Are One 7 $3.99 IDW 6,426

MARCH (Rom #7 outsold all Transformers titles this month!)
234 226 Optimus Prime 5* $3.99 IDW 7,274
248 237 Transformers Lost Light 4* $3.99 IDW 6,702
251 163 Transformers Annual 2017 1 $7.99 IDW 6,396
257 260 Transformers Till All Are One 8 $3.99 IDW 6,253

MAY
267 249 Optimus Prime 7* $3.99 IDW 6,605
268 248 Transformers Lost Light 5* $3.99 IDW 6,594
276 273 Transformers Till All Are One 9 $3.99 IDW 6,147
279 276 Transformers Till All Are One 10 $3.99 IDW 6,081

JUNE
256 243 Optimus Prime 8* $3.99 IDW 6,799
264 253 Transformers Lost Light 6* $3.99 IDW 6,502
270 255 Transformers Lost Light 7* $3.99 IDW 6,298
289 204 Transformers Salvation 1 $7.99 IDW 5,128

JULY
214 200 Rom Vs. Transformers Shining Armor 1 $3.99 IDW 8,624
240 229 Optimus Prime 9* $3.99 IDW 7,231
244 237 Transformers Lost Light 8* $3.99 IDW 6,950
263 257 Transformers Till All Are One 11 $3.99 IDW 6,060

AUGUST
195 175 First Strike 1 $3.99 IDW 10,611
222 203 First Strike 2 $3.99 IDW 9,105
281 252 Optimus Prime 10* $3.99 IDW 6,117
287 278 Transformers Till All Are One 12 $3.99 IDW 5,912 <-- CANCELLED HERE!
296 261 Rom Vs. Transformers Shining Armor 2* $3.99 IDW 5,769

SEPTEMBER
228 230 First Strike 3 $3.99 IDW 6,949
232 235 First Strike 4 $3.99 IDW 6,706
239 234 Transformers Lost Light 9* $3.99 IDW 6,112
262 244 Rom Vs. Transformers Shining Armor 3* $3.99 IDW 5,351
268 272 G.I. Joe First Strike 1 $3.99 IDW 5,196

OCTOBER
244 253 First Strike 5 $3.99 IDW 6,237
251 258 First Strike 6 $3.99 IDW 6,054
254 239 Transformers Lost Light 10* $3.99 IDW 5,977

285 274 Rom Vs. Transformers Shining Armor 4* $3.99 IDW 4,857
253 238 Optimus Prime 11* $3.99 IDW 6,010
265 261 Optimus Prime First Strike 1* $3.99 IDW 5,384
298 305 Rom First Strike 1 $3.99 IDW 4,376

NOVEMBER <-- ALL TITLES BELOW SELLING LESS THAN TAAO WHEN IT WAS CANCELLED!
268 255 Optimus Prime 12 $3.99 IDW 5,811
270 256 Transformers Lost Light 11 $3.99 IDW 5,786
271 274 Transformers First Strike 1 $3.99 IDW 5,730
274 262 Optimus Prime 13 $3.99 IDW 5,638

We've gone from 9,*** people buying these books down to 5,***, losing almost 4,*** readers. If they wanted to soft reboot or cancel TAAO when it was below 6,000, OP & LL must be ending soon or being soft rebooted.

[Deadput]

This is just me but I have never seen Transformer comics books where I live besides a couple volumes at chapters/indigo here in Canada.

Transformer's comics are not small by any means but their not a huge thing either.

I've read IDW stuff since the All hail Megatron stuff and I've gone back and tried to read most of the older stuff, I loved IDW but it's just not getting my attention anymore, for example MTMTE/Lost Light has too many unanswered mysteries and most of the ones that get answered have awful conclusions, it also has a lot of wasted potential in characters, we don't see other members of the ship that often and any new characters that get made tend to be bland Oc's that could have been filled by an established character and not necessarily a g1 guy either like I would love to see an IDW Nu-Rid character or IDW movie Blackout.


I'm just waiting for Nitro Zeus personally since he's my fave Decepticon in the franchise but that's just me. (Although he'll probably get a couple panels and then die and be forgotten)

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Is it possible that all of this is just a dream in Getaway's head that Sunder is using on him, while slowly killing him?

I can totally see this happening, and I hope that is what will happen. It also totally fits as something Roberts would do

[Ironhidensh]

I'm kinda with Va'all. There is not liking the direction (me, dmax) then there is just being hateful and mean (many others). I want to share more thoughts and discuss, but the digital atmosphere here feels a bit toxic.



One thing I just can't get over, is when did Starsaber become phase sixer on Super roids powerful?

[Targetmaster Kup]

Is it possible that all of this is just a dream in Getaway's head that Sunder is using on him, while slowly killing him?

I can totally see this happening, and I hope that is what will happen. It also totally fits as something Roberts would do

Especially with them already finding Cyber-Utopia. It could be a false news memory loop?

[Stormshot_Prime]

Is it possible that all of this is just a dream in Getaway's head that Sunder is using on him, while slowly killing him?

I can totally see this happening, and I hope that is what will happen. It also totally fits as something Roberts would do

Especially with them already finding Cyber-Utopia. It could be a false news memory loop?

ESPECIALLY considering how the Cyberutopia we see in the end of this comic looks NOTHING like the Cyberutopia Skids found through Tyrest’s portal. Here, it’s one planet, covered in large solid continental masses, while the Cyberutopia that Skids saw had a bunch of rings across the surface. Not to mention there were 5 whole planets, while in LL12 there’s the just the one.

Of course, one of the two could be Cyberutopia while the other isn’t, but I don’t think this discrepancy is unintentional. Hopefully.

[Va'al]

The level of negativity based on some really partial and clearly not entirely attuned readings of the IDW situation, comics in general, and just dislike of certain narrative choices is really dampening my mood.

I'll come back in a couple of days to defend the comic again.

Or, and stay with me here on this one, you could ... I dunno, accept that some people don't love these comics as much as you do.

I said I didn't like it!

But some of the accusations just feel spiteful and unfounded to me, is all.

[not_a_bot]

I just made an account (finally, after months of lurking) to comment on this, because one really important bit told in this issue has not been adressed as of yet.
Meaning, all this talking about who´s dead and how the wrong guy won, but nobody ever mentioned that Getaway is right now stuck in a time loop?

Can I back up this theory?

It is all there: simply look at page three, second panel. See what he´s dong there. Now go to page 21, panel three.

Not sure what this means about most of the other things happening in the book, but this makes one thing clear: what we see in the end is not Cyberutopia. Rather, it is what Getaway expects Cyberutopia to look like. Or even what Sunder thinks that Getaway expects Cyberutopia to look like. Even that one is mentioned in the form of Froid (almost) criticising Getaway. Not even Froid and (probably) Sunder do no longer condone what Getaway is doing at this point.

Not sure I like this better then the alternative of everyone being dead and Getaway having won, though.

[ricemazter]

Is it possible that all of this is just a dream in Getaway's head that Sunder is using on him, while slowly killing him?

I can totally see this happening, and I hope that is what will happen. It also totally fits as something Roberts would do

Especially with them already finding Cyber-Utopia. It could be a false news memory loop?

It's probably not Cyber-Utopia. That would be too easy, and Roberts likes playing with expectations too much.

[CaptainMagic]

It's interesting to me that everyone assumes all the other Protectobots are dead. I might have missed some confirmation of that; I only read the issue once. As far as I could tell, the panel where Defensor gets taken out just looks like any other forcible de-combination. Which is still crappy, but at least there's precedent that all combiners usually have some kind of eject button on them where the whole thing falls apart.

Also, about Mirage. It occurred to me this morning that I think this might have been a really fitting end for a different Mirage. Specifically other, more original-bio-centric Mirages for whom coming from wealth and aristocracy is their central character flaw. That could have been a really cool moment where Mirage (a bot of wealth and influence) tries to throw his weight up against Star Saber (a bot of power and influence) and finds out that his perceived importance isn't nearly as great as he hoped at the end of a sword. And this Star Saber is perfect for that role. Where every Star Saber has a ton of power and influence, this one let it go to his head and is basically playing the part of like a corrupt arch-bishop strolling in to fix the town and force it to adhere to his vision.

The problem is with Mirage. His wealthy background is not really a problem (or even all that apparent) in IDW. The closest we get is that his bar is snobby and he sides with the "bad guys" at first, but neither of those are a direct product of an aristocratic mindset, and one isn't even a bad thing. and he only sides with the Lost Light at first because he assumes that all of his friends can't be wrong. If anything, that's the opposite of the mindset they're trying to play with here. So, the end result looks like a guy getting butchered while trying to save his friends rather than an arrogant jerk finally getting what's coming to him.

Basically, I don't know if I see actual continuity problems in this issue. I think what I see is pieces of continuity being deliberately chosen or ignored in favor of what seems coolest or most fitting for this story and the end product not meshing together very well. I also don't see writer's fatigue or an angry child spitefully smashing toys so we can't play with them. I see the opposite. I think Roberts got over-excited on this (and most of his arcs) and tried to put the awesome-huge-explosions-space-battle-it's-so-awesome-you-guys-don't-even-know that he saw in his head on paper and the end result is really confusing and tough to enjoy.

[LE0KING]

Or they could use the very obvious opening Roberts left them. The quantum jump left them arriving five minutes before they left, now they jump back and arrive ten minutes before they leave and stop Getaway.