sol magnus wrote:Man, there's some straight up negativity coming from this forum.
While I don't expect glowing reviews (since many also complain about the toys themselves), some of us are enjoying the series. Does it suffer from a lack of action, as we are accustomed to? Maybe. It's not like there aren't plenty of talking heads issues in the previous continuity - but none of them straight laid out how we get started in the war, either. All of that is scattershot across the continuity.
While I don't buy just whatever because it has a Transformers logo on it, I think the criticisms are excessive. But hey, opinions are like a-holes.
My main problem comes down to 3 things with this story, which previous stories handled much better in at least 1 of them, usually more:
1) Art. art is one of the most important things for me. I want to be visually entertained. That is why the first half of LL, Heart of Darkness, and IDW 2009-2011 ongoing are not good for me, but MTMTE, the BW comics, and Windblade volume 1 are among my favorites: the art is spotless and fantastic and pulls you in. The art of this series, now 9 issues in, has been incredibly spotty and the main artist has shown a regression in quality. What you see on a glance is exactly what you get, and if you look longer, it doesn't get any better or more interesting
2) Character development. this is another one that I am struggling with here. Bumblebee's personality has been all over the map between series lately and then this series as well. The only characters I feel that have had any sort of characterization shown past talking heads is Prowl and Cyclonus. The rest are either really straight forward or anything we know about them comes from some words. MTMTE was guilty of a lot of text, but there was great art and character development to back that up. This one doesn't have that yet.
3) Plot Progression. Have some plot, plant seeds, have some grow quick, have others cultivate in a long term but interesting fashion. This book's biggest moments were the death of Brainstorm (a now beloved character), the death of Rubble (unexpected, violent, and actually had some nice leadup), and Cyclonus and his ghosts. That's it. 9 issues and nothing. I know it's unfair to compare, but MTMTE had put out a great intro, a thriller sparkeater, a hostage crisis, a medical emergency, a fearsome hit squad of thugs, a now beloved squad of cons who caught attention from the moment they were on page, and started a great 3 part pre-war story. The beginning of IDW also had some good stuff: Infiltration was done and half of Escalation was too, and that had the 3 big things above. Heck, Stormbringer did in 4 issues what almost all of the crossovers later in the series couldn't do, and that was deliver a great looking, reading, and immersing story.
In short, one of these 3 needs to pick up, cause 3 is amazing, 2 is really good, 1 is at least interesting, but having none of the 3 makes for a difficult to keep in it story, to me at least
