The Energon Pub

News Credits: 6 · Thu Mar 17, 2016 1:53 pm

Also, I would have supported any alternate history that would have gotten us Galvalock, Dragonus, Surdge, and an army of Swoops.

Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:14 pm

Caelus wrote:Also, I would have supported any alternate history that would have gotten us Galvalock, Dragonus, Surdge, and an army of Swoops.

WANT.

Let's just have an ongoing book set in some kind of G1 toon offshoot continuity where the Autobots and Decepticons have their toon personalities/histories and have permanently allied against a Unicron faction made up of every hardass in the franchise serving Unicron.

More or less something post-Headmasters with some late run Japanese, Machine Wars, and G2 influences in a timeline where Unicron has resurfaced as the big threat and the Beast Wars have been derailed.

Open with Galvalock and the Dino-Sweeps killing Cryotek, the Tripredacus, and Magnaboss. Late run G1 continues with Laser Optimus leading a ragtag group that includes Overlord, Dai Atlas, and a middle aged Daniel Witwicky. Maybe Ginrai running around in a Machine Wars Optimus body or General Optimus Prime body or something.

Transformers: Generation Three! ;-)

The great thing about TFs is, if you can imagine it, it has its own continuity somewhere.

Thu Mar 17, 2016 3:38 pm

I don't even know where to start. To start, I wish this could have been a bigger issue; some of the details needed fleshing out.

But everyone felt . . . off. Unicron arrives and Starscream goes out to meet him? I doubt it. Although, I like the idea of Megascream. Really, let's get on that Hasbro.

I loved how Krannix was saved and got to go on the adventure but the whole Quintesson thing felt rushed and unnecessary. Magnus, Springer, Arcee, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, and Optimus Prime all deserved better. I hate being like this . . . I'm not one of those trukk not munkey sorts . . . I've liked all of the Transformers that we've had, even the sheer slowness of the Cybertron trilogy. And nonsensicalness of the Bayformers. But somehow, I wish we could have had different. Optimus lived only to die in the end to give rise to Rodimus and save Cybertron. And the Rodimus who came behind Optimus learned to be strong and self assured, not the whiny wimp.

Each of us has our own interpretation and sometimes multiple interpretations . . . I just wonder "what if" differently.

Thu Mar 17, 2016 4:06 pm

I have to agree with ScottyP's review of this. Magnus and Hot Rod's characterization is abysmal. And as much as I despise the term, the whole thing feels worse than 3rd rate fan wank.

News Credits: 54 · Thu Mar 17, 2016 4:38 pm

I actually went and read it and well Jontron says it best.

Jesus Christ that was awful that story with the Beast in it is better then this.

I would rather read kiss players and I'm speaking as a Christian here.

News Credits: 10 · Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:01 pm

I really wanted to like this book. In the end, I left it on the shelf.

I don't want to be too harsh, but it really seemed like a bastardization of a "What If?" rather than a well thought out extropalation (sp) of what might happen had Prime not taken those fatal shots in TM: TM.

It almost seems the author took potshots at all the characters either he doesn't really enjoy - he seems to hate Ultra Magnus as much as he seems to hate Hot Rod. Neither of whom did I feel were in the story in the way they were in the original source material. Megatron dying I suppose is a conceit of the story, but not really of the genre - Optimus could have survived and Megatron could have still become Galvatron - pretty easily.

Anyway, as much as I dislike reading on the rack, I didn't trust the concept enough to plunk down the money - and I saved a few bucks in so doing.

News Credits: 25 · Fri Mar 18, 2016 4:26 am

ScottyP wrote:
Seibertron wrote:That was an awesome read and made me feel much better about my disappointments after reading the book. Great idea for a "what if" but ultimately it turned out to be a very poorly executed concept as a final product. Bummer ... here's hoping that they can learn from this!

Great article, Scott.
Thanks! I was worried I got carried away and no one would read all of it.

I read, and enjoyed it. I just wish I had read it before I tossed 5 perfectly good dollars in the trash.

News Credits: 656 · Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:01 am

My apologies for sitting on the sidelines of this conversation, but the editorial was all the thoughts I had to put out there and it's been way fun reading everyone else's views on it. There are some very thoughtful points of disagreement with some of the things I put forth, and it's been fun to digest those and challenge my own thoughts over again with many of them. Y'all rock!

Seibertron wrote:Microfiche archives

Now that's something I hadn't heard in a loooong time. A long time. I should get over to NC State's new insane robot powered library to see what they have, assuming they even moved their massive microfilm/microfiche/slideshow catalog over there.

News Credits: 149 · Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:31 am

Well, read the comic this morning and I gotta say, it was bloody awful.

As has been mentioned previously, this felt massively rushed, with appalling characterisation (or rather a lack thereof) and was all round a bit of a waste of time. And where did "Megascream" get the ability to absorb other Cons to increase his size? I wouldn't have minded if this was an ability that previous minions of Unicron (G1) had shown, but it came from nowhere, and proved utterly useless as Prime survived a punch for GiantScream. Then Hotrod rushes in unleashes the power of the Matrix, destroying Unicron, himself and Scream. Uh, pardon? Yet Prime survives?

Sweeping one shuttles contents of characters under the rug was annoying too.

It was rushed. And would have been better served as a 3 or 4 issue mini series. At least in my opinion.

Tue Mar 29, 2016 4:09 pm

Caelus wrote:I feel like the original draft for this story was maybe 4 issues long and it was forced down to a single over-sized comic.

Well most of Marvel's What If... and a good portion of DC's Elseworlds stories were often one issue stories, not always of course, and since Deviations is an homage to them, it makes sense that IDW would do them as a one-shots.