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ScottyP wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:You say most misused optimus...is that even worse then what they did in the latter days of IDW 1?

He spends this issue talking to Termagax while the big ol' cool battle scene happens instead of participating in it. I don't care how important that talk is to him, no Optimus should ever do that. He doesn't seem to give one crap that some of his soldiers are out there probably dying and I mean, wow, unless the point is that he's just not any better or much different from Sentinel then I don't get it.

Oh Bullshit no he doesn’t spend the issue inside while the battle is going on. Optimus shows up over halfway through the issue and the battle doesn’t even kick off till page 22/23 spread out of 24 pages. and it’s only the beginning! This is once again a shining example of the staff, mainly you due to this review just trying to find stuff to dislike and is reaching to a point of just being sad.

You just don’t want to enjoy this series. You ignored blatant problems with roberts books and gave them perfect scores acknowledging the problems but admitting not caring about them which should have been a the last time you ever shoulda have been allowed to review comics personally because thats a bad reviewer there and you’re just looking for stuff to criticize with this series because you don’t want to like it.

He spends his time BEFORE the battle truly kicks off full force trying to talk sense into Termagax and convince her that while she refuses to join a side, she running out of options and he has his second I command with him helming the battle. Someone who is regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in cybertoanian history. Something that’s establish Optimus is not. The same second in command that refused to let him meet megatron and volunteered to go instead due to his safety and importance when he wanted to talk peace but he is here at this time during this due to how important this situation is. We don’t know Optimus’s war history because it hasn’t been explored other then he was present during the war the threefold spark. Where he’s at currently is where he should be. Trying to convince the most important person there aside from himself(because he’s a prime) to get involved and hey, guess what? Spoiler: he does.

You wanna complain Optimus isn’t there on the battlefield and that “no Optimus should do that” but that Roberts who you’ve always held in such a high regard showed Optimus sitting in a bubble surrounded by monitors watching and coordinating battles. But no Optimus should do that…unless it’s written by a writer you like. But again, MTMTE/LL. see the issues and flaws, doesn’t care because bias and likes the series.

Now, I’m not big into comics, or even reading this series (still making my way through IDW1), but I’ve been keeping an eye on the reviews and have seen many of the responses readers have had. It seems to me that there’s a good chance these pre-/early war story arcs will be much better in retrospect, when one isn’t limited to one issue a month, and when more of the seeds planted here have paid off. To borrow a phrase from ScottyP’s Beast Wars review, the approach here could very well be "writing for the trade" (I could be using that entirely wrong).
As I said before, I’m not finished with IDW1 yet, but so far it seems like MtMtE was much more focused on the stories within individual issues and small story arcs (often underdeveloping some of the longer-term stuff). On the other hand, IDW2 looks like it places heavy emphasis on world-building and planting seeds for later plots. So it would make sense that each series appeals to a largely different audience.
I could be wrong, though.

Hydrargyrus wrote:Now, I’m not big into comics, or even reading this series (still making my way through IDW1), but I’ve been keeping an eye on the reviews and have seen many of the responses readers have had. It seems to me that there’s a good chance these pre-/early war story arcs will be much better in retrospect, when one isn’t limited to one issue a month, and when more of the seeds planted here have paid off. To borrow a phrase from ScottyP’s Beast Wars review, the approach here could very well be "writing for the trade" (I could be using that entirely wrong).
As I said before, I’m not finished with IDW1 yet, but so far it seems like MtMtE was much more focused on the stories within individual issues and small story arcs (often underdeveloping some of the longer-term stuff). On the other hand, IDW2 looks like it places heavy emphasis on world-building and planting seeds for later plots. So it would make sense that each series appeals to a largely different audience.
I could be wrong, though.

The problem with later IDW-1 was quite a few things. Barber was handling too many characters and too many plots and characters and plots were getting dropped along the way to make room for other characters and plots and he was putting toy tie ins in the books. Something he’s said was an option and not a hasbro mandate. He tried to back peddle a little here and there and while sometimes it would work sometimes it just didn’t. With roberts he was more character focused then anything with the plot playing on the back burner and wouldn’t self edit and it hit him in the end. He was given over a year to wrap up lost light. Most writers don’t get that but was given 12-14 issues to wrap up his story and he just refused to change the story to be more streamlined and it fell apart with the end. Characters and plots sprawling 6 years are introduced and dropped sometimes in one or two pages instead of reworking them to flow. Roberts had no problems spending issues over issues retconning other writers work to make his stories make sense but couldn’t do it to his own stuff. I like the original IDW verse a lot. 13 years of reading it from start to finish and as whole it’s the best transformer fiction the franchise has ever had and longest running but it’s not perfect nor should it have been expected to have been but they could have done better and handled it better. John could have been more focused on the stories he was telling with RID/TF/OP and James should have had an editor later who should have stepped in more and actually been an editor instead of just a credit on the inside of the book because that’s all that was. Only time he really had to go against his plan was being asked to put Megatron in the book. That and he was as writing it like a Tv series and not a comic book. He even referred to post dark Cybertron as season two. Comics are not written like shows. They’re written like comics and James wanted to make a transformers show and the structure did not always work. I would love to see James do a show though! I think him handling characters on a transformers cartoon would be exceptionally amazing.

I really enjoy this new IDW verse a lot obviously. I remember years ago when it kicked off I said in the first review when it came out it’s pretty good but opened with a line that said “before earth” and I was pulled out by it because that line really implied it’s only a matter of time before it hits the status quo of traveling to earth. 35 issues later and the war has been kicked off finally, reasons for the factions have been explained, liens are drawn and it really is implying that going to earth isn’t in the cards for this universe anytime soon and I dig that a lot. This series is not predictable at all. It’s established that there’s so much that’s happened to the transformers before the war especially with this whole exarchon character that’s been built up as the worst thing that’s ever happened.


The original IDW verse had to spend issues upon issue dealing with flashbacks and back peddling to establish lore. This new universe isn’t dealing with that because they’re doing it now instead of later

I tried giving this a shot when it 1st started, but after 5 or so issues I gave up, it was boring as hell. I suspected at the time it might be better to read it through TPBs. I'm probably still going to do that.

James Roberts is a mediocre comic book writer.

IDW-1 being the "best Transformers fiction the franchise has ever had" is a matter of opinion and 1 I don't share. It's probably in the top 10, maybe even top 6. But considering ALL the continuities and fiction from the last 37 years, it's not something I am eager to revisit as certain others.

You’ve made your point quite eloquently there, RH. Thanks for the response.
I remember, years ago, due to my tendency to see things in absolutes, I was confused about the general consensus on the quality of writing in MtMtE/LL and asked about it on the boards here. With the help of a very kind user who took the time to respond to my silly question, I came to largely the same conclusion.
Steering back on topic, I suppose a lot of this comes back to the idea that different things will bother readers different amounts. So while one reader might be able to look past the flaws of a series and really enjoy it, those same flaws might detract from the story too much for another.
One of first IDW comics I read was the Dark Cybertron arc, and, because I prefer more scientific believability in stories, I was put off of TF comics for a while. Shockwave’s plan was just too over-the-top. When I read the same arc again years later, after having read the stories leading up to it, I appreciated the meetup between the casts much more and paid less attention to the specifics of Shockwave’s plan. So I guess something similar might occur for readers if these new comics, where reading them in a different way makes them more appealing.

You mention that it doesn’t look like Earth will show up for a while here. Is there any indication that the Ark or something like it will show up soon? Or is Cybertron looking like it will be habitable for a while longer?

I hope that doesn't happen for a long time either. There's a lot of potential in telling stories that take place on Cybertron, the Transformers having been at war for millions of years before arriving on Earth. Honestly, the whole crashing on Earth story is getting pretty boring by now. NO MORE HUMANS.

The battle continues in the Sea of Rust with tomorrow's release of Transformers #36 from IDW Publishing. The "Lord of Misrule" story arc wraps up in this issue, with the solicitation teasing the contents as follows:

(W) Brian Ruckley (A) Anna Malkova (CA) Red Powell
"Sea of Rust", part three! The Autobots are outnumbered and surrounded in Termagax's base with Decepticons on one side and the most deadly Cybertronian environment on the other. With an incredibly powerful artifact on the line--one that could turn the tide of the war in their favor--can the Autobots withstand the siege?

Check out the preview below and if you'd like, you can pick this issue up tomorrow at your local comic shop, through a licensed digital comics retailer, or via the Seibertron.com eBay store.

It's 'Howl's Moving Castle'!

09/12/2021 [Edit] If the rumours are true, IDW will lose the rights to TF comics in 2022 and the 'Bold New Era' will end. Someone else will have to come up with a 'Bolder Newer Era'!