The Energon Pub

IDW's Chris Ryall has always been open to the fans. After coming back from a busy weekend at New York New York Comicon, Ryall has set up a thread in the IDW forums to answer fan questions. He has already answered a few and in doing so has revealed some new information about the Transformers and New Avengers Crossover and other stuff. Here is the new information about the big crossover:

- It will take place before Marvel's Civil War.

- The Avengers line-up will include old guard members like Iron Man (when he was likable!) and Captain America (before he surrendered!), along with Spider-Man (still in the red and blues, not back in black), Wolverine, Ms. Marvel and Luke Cage, and even some lesser-seens like the Falcon.

- There is a threat on Latverian/Symkarian border that could potentially bring about war.

- Marvel's will be assigning one of their colorists to the project

- Only Marvel artist will be doing the covers.

- It's set in-continuity to place it in the IDW timeline, but it's still a standalone thing that probably won't be felt in the regular comics (techincally, where it takes place, it's already happened...). IDW might vaguely refer to it (and certainly it impacts one TF not appearing in future stories of our books).

- The bots will pretty much be the same ones in both Infiltration and Escalation.

Information about Beast Wars:

- Beast Wars books are planned for August. The title is "The Ascending."

- Beast Wars profile books planned for August.

To keep track of what Ryall reveals and to ask your own questions click here.

Shouldn't it be "Beast Wars: The AscenSION"?

The crossover sounds amazing. Of course, this might happen...

Hotrod wrote:It's set in-continuity to place it in the IDW timeline, but it's still a standalone thing that probably won't be felt in the regular comics (techincally, where it takes place, it's already happened...). IDW might vaguely refer to it (and certainly it impacts one TF not appearing in future stories of our books).

Oh, that's not good. Not good at all...

Hotrod wrote:- Beast Wars books are planned for August. The title is "The Ascending."

- Beast Wars profile books planned for August.

Like I'm gonna believe that. These things have been bounced around more times than a hockey puck. Call me pessimistic, but I'm waiting for them to announce another "new" release date.

Chris Ryall wrote:- It's set in-continuity to place it in the IDW timeline, but it's still a standalone thing that probably won't be felt in the regular comics (techincally, where it takes place, it's already happened...). IDW might vaguely refer to it (and certainly it impacts one TF not appearing in future stories of our books).

Maybe this means an Autobot is going to die? Maybe Gears and Spider man are gonna hang out for old times sakes? If anyone is planned to die, you know it'll be skids. Marvel has always hated him.

I like them bringing back Beast Wars.

YAY! More Beast Wars!

Wheelie could die.

Down_Shift wrote:Maybe this means an Autobot is going to die? Maybe Gears and Spider man are gonna hang out for old times sakes? If anyone is planned to die, you know it'll be skids. Marvel has always hated him.

Powermaster Jazz wrote:Wheelie could die.

'Cept none of those Autobots has been in Infiltration or Escalation. Heck, given his usual life expectancy in the G.I. JOE crossovers, they'll probably cap the 'Bee.

Jaw Crusher wrote:

Down_Shift wrote:Maybe this means an Autobot is going to die? Maybe Gears and Spider man are gonna hang out for old times sakes? If anyone is planned to die, you know it'll be skids. Marvel has always hated him.

Powermaster Jazz wrote:Wheelie could die.

'Cept none of those Autobots has been in Infiltration or Escalation. Heck, given his usual life expectancy in the G.I. JOE crossovers, they'll probably cap the 'Bee.

That's why I chose Gears or Skids. Neither of them are in the series and they said that it will impact someone who would not be in futures stories. Maybe it's not what I'm thinking though.

Down_Shift wrote:

Jaw Crusher wrote:

Down_Shift wrote:Maybe this means an Autobot is going to die? Maybe Gears and Spider man are gonna hang out for old times sakes? If anyone is planned to die, you know it'll be skids. Marvel has always hated him.

Powermaster Jazz wrote:Wheelie could die.

'Cept none of those Autobots has been in Infiltration or Escalation. Heck, given his usual life expectancy in the G.I. JOE crossovers, they'll probably cap the 'Bee.

That's why I chose Gears or Skids. Neither of them are in the series and they said that it will impact someone who would not be in futures stories. Maybe it's not what I'm thinking though.

Actually, the answer can be found here: http://tformers.com/Ryall-Answers-Fans-Questions-On-TFAvengers-Crossover/7231/news.html

Yay for August!

Jaw Crusher wrote:Actually, the answer can be found here: http://tformers.com/Ryall-Answers-Fans-Questions-On-TFAvengers-Crossover/7231/news.html

Problem is, that doesn't solve anything. All of the 'cons active in Infiltration have proven (at least as of Escalation #1) to still be around.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Jaw Crusher wrote:Actually, the answer can be found here: http://tformers.com/Ryall-Answers-Fans-Questions-On-TFAvengers-Crossover/7231/news.html

Problem is, that doesn't solve anything. All of the 'cons active in Infiltration have proven (at least as of Escalation #1) to still be around.

I was thinking the same thing. Oh well, I don't want to spoil it anyways.

[quote="Hotrod"]Beast Wars books are planned for August. The title is "The Ascending."[quote]This is sooo awesome!More beast wars comics!!

In contiuity with the IDW comics? How the heck with THAT work??? I hope it'll be some inter-dimensional rift or something, because it would be completely LAME to have these super-beings running around in the IDWTFU and not make any signifigant impact expect for this one instance. Plus I think it would demean the contunuity, in a way..

JazZeke wrote:In contiuity with the IDW comics? How the heck with THAT work??? I hope it'll be some inter-dimensional rift or something, because it would be completely LAME to have these super-beings running around in the IDWTFU and not make any signifigant impact expect for this one instance. Plus I think it would demean the contunuity, in a way..

As mentioned above having it "in continuity" causes serious problems. I like how Josh Blaylock handled Devils Due's GI Joe/Transformers crossovers: set it in its own alternate continuity. This saves several headaches. And stoywise it made sense: if Decepticons existed in the GI Joe world, then they would be fighting them instead of Cobra since they're the bigger threat.

Having Transformers exist in Marvel means that IDW's continuity has to be filled with Marvel superheroes which would be odd.

And don't get me started on Death's Head and how Circuit Breaker fits in the Marvel Universe and now IDW... might as well throw in Doc Brown, Marty, & the DeLorean to fix this time paradox.

Once again, don't get me wrong. I love New Avengers. I love Transformers. I love the idea of a crossover... just don't muddle with continuity

yay Iron Man. Now I'm getting a copy for sure.

Good news about some more BW. If well written and drawn like "The Gathering", it'll be worth the read.

And profile books rule!

So, it's actually happening? Man, this is HUGE news, and I'm gonna have to get it for sure. Four or six issues? And I think I read a spoiler for Civil War #7, dang it. Oh well, I won't know the exact details till I eventually read it, so it's not all bad.

And more Beast Wars is good. I hope they do some deeper characterizations than the original mini-series, but at least most if not all the pieces are in play, so it'll be fun to see where it goes.

Cant wait to see how Wolverine can regen having his head torn off by an evil giant robot...

Ryall wrote:We're planning an oversize HC that collects Infiltration, Stormbringer and Escalation (and maybe the first round of Spotlights).

When they do the BW Profile books I do hope they show Cybertron modes as well. That's what kept me reading The Gathering. I'm notoriously "Trukk not Munkee" and seeing Magmatron and Lio Convoy with Cybertron modes was the most exciting part of the series, for me anyways. Not to say that the story wasn't good, but showing vehicle alt modes and their robot modes before the were made "Beasties" was a stroke of genious. (A little Canadian humor there for ya:wink:)

Down_Shift wrote:When they do the BW Profile books I do hope they show Cybertron modes as well. That's what kept me reading The Gathering. I'm notoriously "Trukk not Munkee" and seeing Magmatron and Lio Convoy with Cybertron modes was the most exciting part of the series, for me anyways. Not to say that the story wasn't good, but showing vehicle alt modes and their robot modes before the were made "Beasties" was a stroke of genious. (A little Canadian humor there for ya:wink:)

Yeah. Personally, there's one question I'm wondering about. I remember back when this series was meant to be coming out at the end of last year that, because of time restrictions, there wasn't enough time to write into the book mention of the show cast's pre-Beast Wars vehicle forms as shown in the "Dawn of Future's Past" comic.

Now, there's obviously been a bit of a change in that area, so I've got to wonder if there's been a reversal on that decision...

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Down_Shift wrote:When they do the BW Profile books I do hope they show Cybertron modes as well. That's what kept me reading The Gathering. I'm notoriously "Trukk not Munkee" and seeing Magmatron and Lio Convoy with Cybertron modes was the most exciting part of the series, for me anyways. Not to say that the story wasn't good, but showing vehicle alt modes and their robot modes before the were made "Beasties" was a stroke of genious. (A little Canadian humor there for ya:wink:)

Yeah. Personally, there's one question I'm wondering about. I remember back when this series was meant to be coming out at the end of last year that, because of time restrictions, there wasn't enough time to write into the book mention of the show cast's pre-Beast Wars vehicle forms as shown in the "Dawn of Future's Past" comic.

Now, there's obviously been a bit of a change in that area, so I've got to wonder if there's been a reversal on that decision...

I could see them doing dual pages (like the gave the pretenders in the MTMTE books) one for the beast mode/bot look and one for Cybertron Alt/bot look with all the profile, Strengths and Weaknesses all crammed in between. Crammed it s a bad choice of word. Laid out nicely, but spread out between the two.