The Energon Pub

[primalxconvoy]

More race and gender baiting SJW nonsense from IDW, quickly going the way of Marvel. I'm sorry but Leoric is a white guy (along with Matt Trakker from MASK). These characters look NOTHING like Visionaries at all, but rather an obvious SJW political vehicle, for the white/man shaming of much loved franchises of the past. There is nothing wrong with being white. If they want ethnic minority characters, make NEW characters and NEW stories. The Visionaries are white male characters in fantasy knight armor. Deal with it. SJWs are destroying everything I hold dear at the moment. I'm boycotting all IDW publications from now on, until they decide to get rid of the identity politics. This is not Visionaries and it's not Transformers. It's sickening, forced "diversity" and no longer fun.

I get so tired of the “SJW”shield for what people really obviously want to say but don’t have the full fours peg to completely go there. Just spit out what you really want to say and drop th SJW bs.

So bascially you're calling Transcendent30 & primalxconvoy racists??(speaking of four pegs) for not liking Hasbro/IDW changing established character races for no reason other that SJW / Political nonsense.

I didn't like Baxter Stockman being white in the 1989 Turtles cartoon but I guess that makes me racists too..

No you just called them racist because if that’s what I wanted to say, rest assured I have absolutely no problem using the term when it is appropriately warranted. Close minded perhaps, but more so foolish going to bat over a franchise that was originally barely a franchise and who’s stories and characters even people who were alive to have seen it first hand barely remember without the aid of a wiki or some other outside source for reference. You see, the nuance is in the argument. To say you don’t like the change of a character because you prefer that they stay as close to the original canon as possible, just update it, is one thing and totally reasonable. When you lead off complaint about character designs being re imagined as something of a different race or gender specifically as that being the primary issue is something else all together. Because you are no longer worried about the character, it becomes solely about the race or gender of the character.

Example, they update visual design of a character, but make him still be white, but otherwise the character acts nothing like the character originally would or had, the SJW argument would go, you’d be fine with it because at least the character is still white. On the other hand, if they make a white character black, but have everything else about the character exactly like the previous incarnation, but your main hang up is the characters skin color, then your argument isn’t about characterization at all.

You Baxter example is a perfect one. In the cartoon they changed the character. Now if you were coming to it originally reading the comic, you would know he was originally black. But it really was the change of the character’s race that made 80s cartoon Baxter problematic, it was the fact he acted nothing like his comic book version. That’s the sam pie when you compare 2000s cartoon Baxter to 2011 cartoon Baxter. While both being black, 2000s is the better take on the character because he’s the best representation of the comic version, which is also why IDW Baxter is good because he too embodies the spirit of the character. It’s not about his race but his character.

I know that’s very TLDR but I hope that’s a bit more clearer so words won’t be needed to be put in my mouth.

I'm certainly not closed-minded and it was improper if you to state that. I would actually be against established characters acting out of character. I, and many others, voiced their distaste for Bay's version of Optimus Prime saying "give me your face", and the other violent it distasteful behavior displayed in the films.

[Burn]

"Sorry Burn, I didn't see your post as I was in the middle of replying already. I'll be sure to leave my post as it is because I want to get my view across, even though I know leaving it there will encourage people to respond to it!"

[ebonyleopard]

One final thing, I actually did not like the book, but the race of the characters or their genders never crossed my mind I didn’t like THE STORY. I didn’t like the characterizations of the Transformers. Neither Ironhide or Kip were behaving as previously show. In recent books. Events in the book were not explained and there’s was no transition or explanation of how we got from First Strike to this. These characters just appear out of no were and give exposition as if there was some previous history give on page that you were supposed to be referring to to understand what they were talking about. There’s little explanation of their own factions and why they were at odds with one another and why they now have a tenuous peace. We still know little about the main antagonist that started all this. Why,how are they inside Cybertron? Etc. none of that has anything to do with character races or genders because hell there are only 31charaters total to ever appear in the 13 episode anyway.

[primalxconvoy]

One final thing, I actually did not like the book, but the race of the characters or their genders never crossed my mind I didn’t like THE STORY. I didn’t like the characterizations of the Transformers. Neither Ironhide or Kip were behaving as previously show. In recent books. Events in the book were not explained and there’s was no transition or explanation of how we got from First Strike to this. These characters just appear out of no were and give exposition as if there was some previous history give on page that you were supposed to be referring to to understand what they were talking about. There’s little explanation of their own factions and why they were at odds with one another and why they now have a tenuous peace. We still know little about the main antagonist that started all this. Why,how are they inside Cybertron? Etc. none of that has anything to do with character races or genders because hell there are only 31charaters total to ever appear in the 13 episode anyway.

That's a valid point, and I'm sure it's part of the reason we've had the debate above. Do you think this was also a factor in the other crossover stories; hurried out the gate and injected far too soon into the main TF stories?

What about rebooting all of the shared universe? Would people be happier if some mcguffin was used to separate it and/or make it "all a dream" and then reintroduce the various franchises in a manner and style that was more acceptable to the various different viewpoints here (including yours)?

[ricemazter]

One final thing, I actually did not like the book, but the race of the characters or their genders never crossed my mind I didn’t like THE STORY. I didn’t like the characterizations of the Transformers. Neither Ironhide or Kip were behaving as previously show. In recent books. Events in the book were not explained and there’s was no transition or explanation of how we got from First Strike to this. These characters just appear out of no were and give exposition as if there was some previous history give on page that you were supposed to be referring to to understand what they were talking about. There’s little explanation of their own factions and why they were at odds with one another and why they now have a tenuous peace. We still know little about the main antagonist that started all this. Why,how are they inside Cybertron? Etc. none of that has anything to do with character races or genders because hell there are only 31charaters total to ever appear in the 13 episode anyway.

That's a valid point, and I'm sure it's part of the reason we've had the debate above. Do you think this was also a factor in the other crossover stories; hurried out the gate and injected far too soon into the main TF stories?

What about rebooting all of the shared universe? Would people be happier if some mcguffin was used to separate it and/or make it "all a dream" and then reintroduce the various franchises in a manner and style that was more acceptable to the various different viewpoints here (including yours)?

I don't know if that's sarcasm or not, but I think a reboot is a terrible idea. There's still potential in all of this, and rebooting things would just find ourselves starting from square 1 while IDW just rushes to catch up again.

On another note, I finally read the issue (bummed a copy off a friend), and this was a mess. Like someone else said, the issue doesn't explain anything at all. I don't have a clear picture of who the visionaries are, why they're here, or what Merklynn' s deal is. For instance He says magic's power is waning and society was turning away from it towards technology. Which society? Who and why? Were the visionaries turning away from magic? This issue doesn't specify. I didn't really have any interest in the visionaries before and nothing in this issue changes that. Leoric and Virulena, without any backstory, are just stock characters where the latter comes off as completely unreasonable. Kup's characterization doesn't bother me, but Ironhide's does, his sudden anger after being kind of wistful and pro-cooperation for the past couple years is jarring.

Don't get me started on Kup's death. It was insulting. Like, he just dies? Without accomplishing anything and just for shock value at the end of issue 1? After everything, that's it? Then editorial has the nerve to pass it off as some kind of heavy, somber thing that had a lot of weight behind it. Give me a break.

Also, completely ignoring race and gender issues that I couldn't care less about, can we talk about how boring the visual design is of the visionaries? The art is good; I like ossio' s lines, but there really isn't anything that separates the look of new prysmos from any other location on Cybertron. Aside from a few torches on the wall, most everything is shiny marble or metal. Nothing about the characters themselves says knights, no-technology, or magical aside from a couple of them wearing fur. They all use energy weapons out of Tron. IMO, it would have been much cooler if they took a middle ages castle fortress and plopped it in the middle of Cybertron. Then, at least, it would provide an entertaining contrast with the giant robots. Imagine for a second a scene with knights on horseback in the middle of a stone castle courtyard with a moat surrounded by technological spires. Further imagine those knights in pitch battle with space cars and robots. What we actually have is boring.

I know all this sounds really harsh, in my head I'm using an even tone of voice, but I just don't see any appeal to this beyond nostalgia.

[ebonyleopard]

One final thing, I actually did not like the book, but the race of the characters or their genders never crossed my mind I didn’t like THE STORY. I didn’t like the characterizations of the Transformers. Neither Ironhide or Kip were behaving as previously show. In recent books. Events in the book were not explained and there’s was no transition or explanation of how we got from First Strike to this. These characters just appear out of no were and give exposition as if there was some previous history give on page that you were supposed to be referring to to understand what they were talking about. There’s little explanation of their own factions and why they were at odds with one another and why they now have a tenuous peace. We still know little about the main antagonist that started all this. Why,how are they inside Cybertron? Etc. none of that has anything to do with character races or genders because hell there are only 31charaters total to ever appear in the 13 episode anyway.

That's a valid point, and I'm sure it's part of the reason we've had the debate above. Do you think this was also a factor in the other crossover stories; hurried out the gate and injected far too soon into the main TF stories?

What about rebooting all of the shared universe? Would people be happier if some mcguffin was used to separate it and/or make it "all a dream" and then reintroduce the various franchises in a manner and style that was more acceptable to the various different viewpoints here (including yours)?

Frankly I would prefer they just tell the stories without the need to do it on the backs of the Transformers universe directly. Like you could have done this story without the need to have Cybertron directly involved or any of the main characters from the main books involved. If you just gotta have TFs in it, the. Pull some not used characters in and have them interact with these Visionaries on another plant, thus expanding the Hasbro universe. Right now Cybertron is becoming for IDW what New York is to Marvel. Everything happens there and this it makes the universe feel very small. Hell you could have had Six Shot still out there phase siding stuff and have him the reason for their planets destruction and they end up having to flee and run into, I don’t know, the Tecnobots or some other Garrus 9 rejects. Either way you just can not start off a book implanting a organic populated city into the core of a robotic planet. How does that even work? How are they breathing?

[primalxconvoy]

One final thing, I actually did not like the book, but the race of the characters or their genders never crossed my mind I didn’t like THE STORY. I didn’t like the characterizations of the Transformers. Neither Ironhide or Kip were behaving as previously show. In recent books. Events in the book were not explained and there’s was no transition or explanation of how we got from First Strike to this. These characters just appear out of no were and give exposition as if there was some previous history give on page that you were supposed to be referring to to understand what they were talking about. There’s little explanation of their own factions and why they were at odds with one another and why they now have a tenuous peace. We still know little about the main antagonist that started all this. Why,how are they inside Cybertron? Etc. none of that has anything to do with character races or genders because hell there are only 31charaters total to ever appear in the 13 episode anyway.

That's a valid point, and I'm sure it's part of the reason we've had the debate above. Do you think this was also a factor in the other crossover stories; hurried out the gate and injected far too soon into the main TF stories?

What about rebooting all of the shared universe? Would people be happier if some mcguffin was used to separate it and/or make it "all a dream" and then reintroduce the various franchises in a manner and style that was more acceptable to the various different viewpoints here (including yours)?

Frankly I would prefer they just tell the stories without the need to do it on the backs of the Transformers universe directly. Like you could have done this story without the need to have Cybertron directly involved or any of the main characters from the main books involved. If you just gotta have TFs in it, the. Pull some not used characters in and have them interact with these Visionaries on another plant, thus expanding the Hasbro universe. Right now Cybertron is becoming for IDW what New York is to Marvel. Everything happens there and this it makes the universe feel very small. Hell you could have had Six Shot still out there phase siding stuff and have him the reason for their planets destruction and they end up having to flee and run into, I don’t know, the Tecnobots or some other Garrus 9 rejects. Either way you just can not start off a book implanting a organic populated city into the core of a robotic planet. How does that even work? How are they breathing?

That reminds me of the "family drama" that is star wars. It's one thing to have the Skywalker/solo family throughout the plot, by why did Anakin have to make c3p0 and know r2d2? It's akin also to the new Aliens film, where instead of having the Aliens actually being alien beings, we find that they were created by an Android out of human beings and black goo...

It's all a bit incestuous.

[ebonyleopard]

One final thing, I actually did not like the book, but the race of the characters or their genders never crossed my mind I didn’t like THE STORY. I didn’t like the characterizations of the Transformers. Neither Ironhide or Kip were behaving as previously show. In recent books. Events in the book were not explained and there’s was no transition or explanation of how we got from First Strike to this. These characters just appear out of no were and give exposition as if there was some previous history give on page that you were supposed to be referring to to understand what they were talking about. There’s little explanation of their own factions and why they were at odds with one another and why they now have a tenuous peace. We still know little about the main antagonist that started all this. Why,how are they inside Cybertron? Etc. none of that has anything to do with character races or genders because hell there are only 31charaters total to ever appear in the 13 episode anyway.

That's a valid point, and I'm sure it's part of the reason we've had the debate above. Do you think this was also a factor in the other crossover stories; hurried out the gate and injected far too soon into the main TF stories?

What about rebooting all of the shared universe? Would people be happier if some mcguffin was used to separate it and/or make it "all a dream" and then reintroduce the various franchises in a manner and style that was more acceptable to the various different viewpoints here (including yours)?

I don't know if that's sarcasm or not, but I think a reboot is a terrible idea. There's still potential in all of this, and rebooting things would just find ourselves starting from square 1 while IDW just rushes to catch up again.

On another note, I finally read the issue (bummed a copy off a friend), and this was a mess. Like someone else said, the issue doesn't explain anything at all. I don't have a clear picture of who the visionaries are, why they're here, or what Merklynn' s deal is. For instance He says magic's power is waning and society was turning away from it towards technology. Which society? Who and why? Were the visionaries turning away from magic? This issue doesn't specify. I didn't really have any interest in the visionaries before and nothing in this issue changes that. Leoric and Virulena, without any backstory, are just stock characters where the latter comes off as completely unreasonable. Kup's characterization doesn't bother me, but Ironhide's does, his sudden anger after being kind of wistful and pro-cooperation for the past couple years is jarring.

Don't get me started on Kup's death. It was insulting. Like, he just dies? Without accomplishing anything and just for shock value at the end of issue 1? After everything, that's it? Then editorial has the nerve to pass it off as some kind of heavy, somber thing that had a lot of weight behind it. Give me a break.

Also, completely ignoring race and gender issues that I couldn't care less about, can we talk about how boring the visual design is of the visionaries? The art is good; I like ossio' s lines, but there really isn't anything that separates the look of new prysmos from any other location on Cybertron. Aside from a few torches on the wall, most everything is shiny marble or metal. Nothing about the characters themselves says knights, no-technology, or magical aside from a couple of them wearing fur. They all use energy weapons out of Tron. IMO, it would have been much cooler if they took a middle ages castle fortress and plopped it in the middle of Cybertron. Then, at least, it would provide an entertaining contrast with the giant robots. Imagine for a second a scene with knights on horseback in the middle of a stone castle courtyard with a moat surrounded by technological spires. Further imagine those knights in pitch battle with space cars and robots. What we actually have is boring.

I know all this sounds really harsh, in my head I'm using an even tone of voice, but I just don't see any appeal to this beyond nostalgia.

Agree fully. Visionaries is literally a property with as close of a clean slate as possible. You’re basically got a name and they make hologram animals that’s considered magic. I told 5e artist on twitter, while I generally liked his character designs, if it weren’t for the fact the title had Visionaries in it, I’d have no idea what the character was supposed to be from. The Who they are didn’t matter since I didn’t remember anything about the property to begin with. They just visually don’t scream magic users. We only know that because they told us.

And frankly the logic makes no sense. You kill an ambassador of the plant in front of the head security of the planet, when he leader of the plant knows they are there and you think you’d get away with not just pissing of the giant robots who have other gianter robots who could crush your whole underground city with one step of their foot? Or make a cave in burying you all? They aren’t even clever villains.

There are a lot of reasons to have issues with this issue that aren’t superficial.

[Burn]

What would have made more sense is if they'd had the Visionaries and accompanying city and Talisman appear on Earth.

Threaten Earth.

Cybertron has been threatened in recent times, and will be again soon.

You could keep the TF cast small, use G.I. Joe as the main characters to play off against the Visionaries.

But no, can't do that. There's a **** tonne of Transformers they can pop off, and we can't possibly do anything to jeopardise "the crown jewel of the Hasbro universe" or whatever bullshit tag they've attached to G.I. Joe.

[Coptur]

More race and gender baiting SJW nonsense from IDW, quickly going the way of Marvel. I'm sorry but Leoric is a white guy (along with Matt Trakker from MASK). These characters look NOTHING like Visionaries at all, but rather an obvious SJW political vehicle, for the white/man shaming of much loved franchises of the past. There is nothing wrong with being white. If they want ethnic minority characters, make NEW characters and NEW stories. The Visionaries are white male characters in fantasy knight armor. Deal with it. SJWs are destroying everything I hold dear at the moment. I'm boycotting all IDW publications from now on, until they decide to get rid of the identity politics. This is not Visionaries and it's not Transformers. It's sickening, forced "diversity" and no longer fun.

I get so tired of the “SJW”shield for what people really obviously want to say but don’t have the full fours peg to completely go there. Just spit out what you really want to say and drop th SJW bs.

So bascially you're calling Transcendent30 & primalxconvoy racists??(speaking of four pegs) for not liking Hasbro/IDW changing established character races for no reason other that SJW / Political nonsense.

I didn't like Baxter Stockman being white in the 1989 Turtles cartoon but I guess that makes me racists too..

No you just called them racist because if that’s what I wanted to say, rest assured I have absolutely no problem using the term when it is appropriately warranted. Close minded perhaps, but more so foolish going to bat over a franchise that was originally barely a franchise and who’s stories and characters even people who were alive to have seen it first hand barely remember without the aid of a wiki or some other outside source for reference. You see, the nuance is in the argument. To say you don’t like the change of a character because you prefer that they stay as close to the original canon as possible, just update it, is one thing and totally reasonable. When you lead off complaint about character designs being re imagined as something of a different race or gender specifically as that being the primary issue is something else all together. Because you are no longer worried about the character, it becomes solely about the race or gender of the character.

Example, they update visual design of a character, but make him still be white, but otherwise the character acts nothing like the character originally would or had, the SJW argument would go, you’d be fine with it because at least the character is still white. On the other hand, if they make a white character black, but have everything else about the character exactly like the previous incarnation, but your main hang up is the characters skin color, then your argument isn’t about characterization at all.

You Baxter example is a perfect one. In the cartoon they changed the character. Now if you were coming to it originally reading the comic, you would know he was originally black. But it really was the change of the character’s race that made 80s cartoon Baxter problematic, it was the fact he acted nothing like his comic book version. That’s the sam pie when you compare 2000s cartoon Baxter to 2011 cartoon Baxter. While both being black, 2000s is the better take on the character because he’s the best representation of the comic version, which is also why IDW Baxter is good because he too embodies the spirit of the character. It’s not about his race but his character.

I know that’s very TLDR but I hope that’s a bit more clearer so words won’t be needed to be put in my mouth.

I'll have to disagree with the first sentence.

primalxconvoy covered some of my other responses quite well so I don't need to repeat them.

I could draw this out but i'm happy to move on.


Yay Transformers!!!

i might pm to discuss further

[ZeroWolf]

What would have made more sense is if they'd had the Visionaries and accompanying city and Talisman appear on Earth.

Threaten Earth.

Cybertron has been threatened in recent times, and will be again soon.

You could keep the TF cast small, use G.I. Joe as the main characters to play off against the Visionaries.

But no, can't do that. There's a **** tonne of Transformers they can pop off, and we can't possibly do anything to jeopardise "the crown jewel of the Hasbro universe" or whatever bullshit tag they've attached to G.I. Joe.

Why does the GI Joe comics carry that title anyway? Is that franchise really that much bigger or more valuable? They really missed a trick as they could of moved this to earth and have them deliver the message that Unicron is coming as he devoured their planet. If they wanted to mix things up they could say that the darkling lords worship him as a god and that he provided their hologram magic in the first place.

[Va'al]

What would have made more sense is if they'd had the Visionaries and accompanying city and Talisman appear on Earth.

Threaten Earth.

Cybertron has been threatened in recent times, and will be again soon.

You could keep the TF cast small, use G.I. Joe as the main characters to play off against the Visionaries.

But no, can't do that. There's a **** tonne of Transformers they can pop off, and we can't possibly do anything to jeopardise "the crown jewel of the Hasbro universe" or whatever bullshit tag they've attached to G.I. Joe.

Why does the GI Joe comics carry that title anyway? Is that franchise really that much bigger or more valuable? They really missed a trick as they could of moved this to earth and have them deliver the message that Unicron is coming as he devoured their planet. If they wanted to mix things up they could say that the darkling lords worship him as a god and that he provided their hologram magic in the first place.

It doesn't any more, the new tag was The Best Action Comic Ever (for Scarlett's Strike Force), and both were a tongue in cheek marketing thing in collaboration with the creators. It didn't really mean anything more than that.

As for complaints (Ebonyleopard, I think) of not getting enough info on the Visionaries: I didn't see it that way at all, nor do I feel the need to have all the information given to me (especially not in the first issue of five). This is where my confidence in Visaggio and Ossio still lies, in that we'll get something more compelling as the mini-series continues.

[ricemazter]

What would have made more sense is if they'd had the Visionaries and accompanying city and Talisman appear on Earth.

Threaten Earth.

Cybertron has been threatened in recent times, and will be again soon.

You could keep the TF cast small, use G.I. Joe as the main characters to play off against the Visionaries.

But no, can't do that. There's a **** tonne of Transformers they can pop off, and we can't possibly do anything to jeopardise "the crown jewel of the Hasbro universe" or whatever bullshit tag they've attached to G.I. Joe.

Why does the GI Joe comics carry that title anyway? Is that franchise really that much bigger or more valuable? They really missed a trick as they could of moved this to earth and have them deliver the message that Unicron is coming as he devoured their planet. If they wanted to mix things up they could say that the darkling lords worship him as a god and that he provided their hologram magic in the first place.

It doesn't any more, the new tag was The Best Action Comic Ever (for Scarlett's Strike Force), and both were a tongue in cheek marketing thing in collaboration with the creators. It didn't really mean anything more than that.

As for complaints (Ebonyleopard, I think) of not getting enough info on the Visionaries: I didn't see it that way at all, nor do I feel the need to have all the information given to me (especially not in the first issue of five). This is where my confidence in Visaggio and Ossio still lies, in that we'll get something more compelling as the mini-series continues.

I think it's less not having info on the Visionaries and more the first issue doesn't give us a clear picture of who they are beyond "this side likes fighting and this side wants peace" or any hook that makes us (at least me) interested in finding out the former.

For me, there isn't enough interaction between these characters that establishes anything about them except what I mentioned, so I don't have any people I'd like to see more of. We don't have any information on the premise beyond "these guys use ill defined magic that is toxic to transformers," which we already knew thanks to First Strike. Everything else, vague references to a destroyed world, prior conflict etc, isn't expanded on here beyond what we learned in first strike, so there's no real hook there either.

The one hook, for me, that the book may have had was the unique presence of a society that shuns technology surrounded by robots, but that isn't reflected in the visuals or the way the characters conduct themselves. So far, they just use a different flavor of energy.

I wouldn't even know about the animal or hologram theme were it not for my own research.

I'm sure the writer is perfectly serviceable, but the problem with comics is that each individual issue needs to carry the reader to the next. These things are expensive.

What draws other people to this? Am I missing something?

[Va'al]

I personally, despite all the flaws and the badness of the execution (heh), do want to find out more exactly for those reasons: we haven't been told who is what or why, and who is the pipe-smoker talking to Virulina, why is Merklynn evil (is he evil?), why did the factions split into two, and how does Merklynn fit.

That was my hook, anyway.

[Sunstar]

I'm not hooked enough to buy it. There is a comics website I read them on. If I find in later issues it was simply due to a slow start, I'll order back issues.

I'm a bit distressed about Kup though, really? Like that? I heave heard of ignominious deaths before, but Kup Deserved Better - and that's coming from a hard core Con-fan. It felt pointless - and maybe that was the point. Makes me glad Starscream is safely in prison - with the way they are killing off characters these days - makes me wonder how much longer the series will last. At least with the ROM Crossover, more or less some "Red Shirts" were sacrificed - and I genuinely enjoyed that story and Stardrive as well - I'm not interested enough to buy the ROM comics, but I would not be opposed to reading copies at a later date. I feel if any sacrifice was to be made it should have been some "nobodies".

As for the race swapping - I have no opinion on that. My experience with visionaries from before is that I know they exist - I have vague recollection of a cartoon - but I don't think I ever watched it. It never interested me then, and does not interest me now.

The colours, and I agree with Va'al's impression on that, was nice, but the faces - I really could not get over the faces - robots or otherwise. I guess, I got used to Sara's (I enjoyed her art immensely.)

Cybertron is almost always under catastrophic attack these days - I kinda wish they would get to have a bit of a breather - I hope the can eradicate their infestation of magical fleshies. The only Catastropic event I am really caring about is the Unicron one.

I have to admit, that now that TAAO is complete, and the character I follow is largely written out (here's hoping for a comback) - my interest in the series has diminished some. So I can identify to those who find popping off of characters, here, there and everywhere, as disappointing.

There are the other books I do follow and collect. I NEED to get the dinobots ones - one of these days. Anyway droning on...

:3

[Coptur]

I personally, despite all the flaws and the badness of the execution (heh), do want to find out more exactly for those reasons: we haven't been told who is what or why, and who is the pipe-smoker talking to Virulina, why is Merklynn evil (is he evil?), why did the factions split into two, and how does Merklynn fit.

That was my hook, anyway.

I think that was the Darkling Lord Cindarr (Gorilla Totem w/Destruction Magic)

[Va'al]

I personally, despite all the flaws and the badness of the execution (heh), do want to find out more exactly for those reasons: we haven't been told who is what or why, and who is the pipe-smoker talking to Virulina, why is Merklynn evil (is he evil?), why did the factions split into two, and how does Merklynn fit.

That was my hook, anyway.

I think that was the Darkling Lord Cindarr (Gorilla Totem w/Destruction Magic)

Sure, okay, I'm not doubting that - but I do want to know why he's playing CSM in the story!

[Va'al]

We've just received news from IDW Publishing, via a press release, that their debut for the latest Hasbro universe crossover event Transformers vs Visionaries has performed exceedingly well (surprising what the minimum amount of marketing can do to a book, huh?) in sales, and will see a second print run to be released with the second issue, later this month.

Our review, which you can see here, was less than complimentary on the whole, but if it has made this big an impact on readers, I'm glad someone out there is picking up what Visaggio, Ossio, Cruz, and Lazcano have been laying down! Read more below, and check out the new, accurate but spoilerrific cover will be for the reprint.

Transformers vs. Visionaries #1 Sells Out
at Distributor
Second Printing of the Critically Hailed Debut Coming Soon

San Diego, CA (January 5, 2018) – The Transformers robots may have met their match in the recently launched series TRANSFORMERS VS. VISIONARIES. After teasing their arrival throughout the latter half of 2017, the Visionaries have officially entered the shared Hasbro comic book universe and are taking on the Transformers Robots in Disguise. The debut shocked fans with a dramatic cliffhanger and garnered widespread acclaim, resulting in a sold-out issue at the distributor level and a second printing ordered.

Scripted by Eisner-nominated writer Magdalene Visaggio (Kim & Kim) with art by fan-favorite Fico Ossio (Revolution), colors by David Garcia Cruz, and letters by Gilberto Lazcano, this hotly anticipated debut is a can’t-miss, pivotal issue, instantly earning its place in any Transformers and Visionaries fan’s essential collection. It’s the perfect jumping on point for new readers to join in the fun and adventure while also providing longtime fans with some exciting developments in the ongoing saga.

After their home planet of Cybertron is invaded, the Transformers bots encounter unwelcome guests... Refugees from another world, the Visionaries’ startling magical abilities could make them powerful allies… or dangerous enemies. It all starts here with the death of a beloved character!

"It's been amazing seeing the outpouring of love for the story Mags, Fico, and the team have created, as well as the outpouring of love for the dearly departed Kup," said IDW Associate Editor, David Mariotte. "And things are only just getting started. There'll be more action, excitement, and drama to come."

A second printing of the debut issue of Transformers vs. Visionaries #1 (cover art featured here) will arrive on January 31, 2018, the same day issue #2 goes on sale.

[Scrounge1984]

Huh... well that is unexpected, although I do wonder how this will affect the comic with a now larger audience.

[Burn]

As for complaints (Ebonyleopard, I think) of not getting enough info on the Visionaries: I didn't see it that way at all, nor do I feel the need to have all the information given to me (especially not in the first issue of five). This is where my confidence in Visaggio and Ossio still lies, in that we'll get something more compelling as the mini-series continues.

So basically, they launch a comic featuring a franchise that hasn't been touched in a decade or two, isn't that well known, but they launch it with the assumption the majority of people will know the characters, so they're targeting existing fans of a virtually dead franchise, on the back of a popular franchise.

But it comes back to the point, we've been dumped into the middle of a story. The fact we have to wait and HOPE that there's some type of flashback to explain how the city and the rest of the Visionaries came to be, to me, doesn't sit well.

And then to say it sold out ... yeah, probably didn't do a large run to begin with.

[DeathReviews]

I remember the Visionaries - well, I've been around for a LONG time of course. They could bring the toys back and make them cooler. Hologram technology has to have advanced somewhat since the 80s with those 2.5-D 'holograms' they used for the figures. The premise of the cartoon show tie-in wasn't bad. A world that used a lot of technology suddenly underwent some kind of change, where all the tech on Prysmos suddenly stopped working and only magic 'worked'. They called it the ending of 'the age of technology'. How exactly that worked was not explained (d'oy), but the premise was that suddenly technology was impotent, and magic was the only way to get power and privilege.

Though in the original iteration, all the Visionaries looked a LOT different than portrayed in this comic. Merklyn was not some young hip-hop punker dude, he was more a traditional 'wizard', with a white beard and a red robe, and was a powerful figure since he had a lot of magic (reason also not really explained). And voiced by the same guy who did the Kingpin in the Spider-Man animated series of the 90s. And Cin-Darr was voiced by Peter Cullen, while Cravex was voiced by 80s Starscream's voice actor. A lot of the old Transformer voice talent was there, because the same studios that worked on the Transformers worked on Visionaries too.

The premise can work for a tie-in with these comics - if the Visionaries carry the curious 'technology doesn't work around us for... reasons' mojo. It would mean all of Cybertron would be in trouble because they ARE technology. But I'd like to finally hear some kind of explanation for it...

[ScottyP]

And then to say it sold out ... yeah, probably didn't do a large run to begin with.

Bingo! If they printed 5 copies (two of them for my stupid multicover order ugh) and three are still on the shelf at my LCS, it would still be "sold out" at the distributor level.

I guess I'm just upset that it seems folks may be willing to shell out for this crap while the comics with cool Transformers stories keep having sales declines.

[ebonyleopard]

I'm not hooked enough to buy it. There is a comics website I read them on. If I find in later issues it was simply due to a slow start, I'll order back issues.

I'm a bit distressed about Kup though, really? Like that? I heave heard of ignominious deaths before, but Kup Deserved Better - and that's coming from a hard core Con-fan. It felt pointless - and maybe that was the point. Makes me glad Starscream is safely in prison - with the way they are killing off characters these days - makes me wonder how much longer the series will last. At least with the ROM Crossover, more or less some "Red Shirts" were sacrificed - and I genuinely enjoyed that story and Stardrive as well - I'm not interested enough to buy the ROM comics, but I would not be opposed to reading copies at a later date. I feel if any sacrifice was to be made it should have been some "nobodies".

As for the race swapping - I have no opinion on that. My experience with visionaries from before is that I know they exist - I have vague recollection of a cartoon - but I don't think I ever watched it. It never interested me then, and does not interest me now.

The colours, and I agree with Va'al's impression on that, was nice, but the faces - I really could not get over the faces - robots or otherwise. I guess, I got used to Sara's (I enjoyed her art immensely.)

Cybertron is almost always under catastrophic attack these days - I kinda wish they would get to have a bit of a breather - I hope the can eradicate their infestation of magical fleshies. The only Catastropic event I am really caring about is the Unicron one.

I have to admit, that now that TAAO is complete, and the character I follow is largely written out (here's hoping for a comback) - my interest in the series has diminished some. So I can identify to those who find popping off of characters, here, there and everywhere, as disappointing.

There are the other books I do follow and collect. I NEED to get the dinobots ones - one of these days. Anyway droning on...

:3

There is a bit of a bitter taste of "We lost TAOO, for this?"

[Sunstar]

I'm not hooked enough to buy it. There is a comics website I read them on. If I find in later issues it was simply due to a slow start, I'll order back issues.

I'm a bit distressed about Kup though, really? Like that? I heave heard of ignominious deaths before, but Kup Deserved Better - and that's coming from a hard core Con-fan. It felt pointless - and maybe that was the point. Makes me glad Starscream is safely in prison - with the way they are killing off characters these days - makes me wonder how much longer the series will last. At least with the ROM Crossover, more or less some "Red Shirts" were sacrificed - and I genuinely enjoyed that story and Stardrive as well - I'm not interested enough to buy the ROM comics, but I would not be opposed to reading copies at a later date. I feel if any sacrifice was to be made it should have been some "nobodies".

As for the race swapping - I have no opinion on that. My experience with visionaries from before is that I know they exist - I have vague recollection of a cartoon - but I don't think I ever watched it. It never interested me then, and does not interest me now.

The colours, and I agree with Va'al's impression on that, was nice, but the faces - I really could not get over the faces - robots or otherwise. I guess, I got used to Sara's (I enjoyed her art immensely.)

Cybertron is almost always under catastrophic attack these days - I kinda wish they would get to have a bit of a breather - I hope the can eradicate their infestation of magical fleshies. The only Catastropic event I am really caring about is the Unicron one.

I have to admit, that now that TAAO is complete, and the character I follow is largely written out (here's hoping for a comback) - my interest in the series has diminished some. So I can identify to those who find popping off of characters, here, there and everywhere, as disappointing.

There are the other books I do follow and collect. I NEED to get the dinobots ones - one of these days. Anyway droning on...

:3

There is a bit of a bitter taste of "We lost TAOO, for this?"

I will admit there will be with me specifically as I am a hardcore fan of Starscream, so unless he is in a series, I'm not overly into it as much as I may be. So I am not going to deny your impression. As far as visionaries go - I have no knowledge of the series, although I did browse through the wiki to try to get some sort of idea of what its about. We did not necessarily loose TAAO for this, I'd be more inclined to say we lost ROM vs Transformers for this... Then again, that had a Strong Starscream presence.

I am a mad Starscream addict. And I need my fix

[Carnivius_Prime]

Though in the original iteration, all the Visionaries looked a LOT different than portrayed in this comic. Merklyn was not some young hip-hop punker dude, he was more a traditional 'wizard', with a white beard and a red robe, and was a powerful figure since he had a lot of magic (reason also not really explained). And voiced by the same guy who did the Kingpin in the Spider-Man animated series of the 90s. And Cin-Darr was voiced by Peter Cullen, while Cravex was voiced by 80s Starscream's voice actor. A lot of the old Transformer voice talent was there, because the same studios that worked on the Transformers worked on Visionaries too.

I love the old Visionaries. Despite it being a very brief cartoon series I far, far preferred it over Transformers or GI Joe by the same folk (both of those shows I never really care for, vastly preferring their Marvel comic equivalent). I loved the medieval-sci-fi style, designs, writing and humour in it and the series is one of my most watched DVDs ever. Weirdly I didn't get to have many of the toys as a kid. I had Cryotek and a while ago I had Arzon too. And I tried to get one of those recent Leorics from that recent IDW pack but the single version that Kapow (by splitting the set) did was the first (and at time I was looking) only figure from that pack to sell out.

Nothing about IDW's Visionaries works for me at all (least of all the unrecognisable redesigns of several characters), never mind the fact I've not really enjoyed this whole concept about merging all the Hasbro properties into a big crossover thing. Ok I'm not a big fan of IDW's Transformers to begin with but I'd have much preferred these franchises all be kept seperate so you could at least pick and choose which one you'd like to follow without needing to know how events in the others affect it in such a big way. I still picked up this comic (not bought, read in shop) out of curiosity and yeah. Not for me. I won't be reading more.