JazZeke wrote:Yeah, the comic was **** in the most fundamental aspects like pacing and creativeness. That moment where Optimus was walking around in perfect health just four pages after Ratchet said he might not even pull through just disgusted me.
william-james88 wrote:JazZeke wrote:Yeah, the comic was **** in the most fundamental aspects like pacing and creativeness. That moment where Optimus was walking around in perfect health just four pages after Ratchet said he might not even pull through just disgusted me.
Oh ok, so I didnt miss something and I am not the only one to think so, thanks!
I was really dissapointed. It seemed interesting at first when it looks like they will have to figure this out without having Prime. But no, at the last minute they just get down to earth with Prime and Omega Freaken Supreme and just beat the Decepitcons like at the end of any G1 episode. No sweat.
Dr Va'al wrote:But then there was the Costa run. Which was just bad all round, art (they ruined Figueroa), story, characters, and pacing. Then Last Stand of the Wreckers and Chaos Theory came in, and things felt better again, so Death of Optimus Prime could happen.
JazZeke wrote:Dr Va'al wrote:But then there was the Costa run. Which was just bad all round, art (they ruined Figueroa), story, characters, and pacing. Then Last Stand of the Wreckers and Chaos Theory came in, and things felt better again, so Death of Optimus Prime could happen.
Yeah to this day I can't decide who was worse, Costa or McCarthy. I actually dropped the title after Costa's first arc, and I had never done that before. This is coming from the guy who bought every issue of Micromasters. Friggin' Micromasters. But every issue of Costa's writing left me viscerally angry at the end.
And then after his run ended he burned what little goodwill the fandom had left for him in that interview, remember that? He shoved his foot so deep in his mouth that even Chris Ryall publically condemned him. It was hilarious.
william-james88 wrote:Wow, I missed out on a lot. But now I know that if I want to read some good stuff, I can read the initial Simon Furman IDW stories. Will keep an eye out for those if ever comixology has a sale.
PS: Does someone have a link to the interview that was referenced above?
Having written a total of 35 issues of Transformers, Mike Costa, interviewing with the The Underbase Podcast, proudly stated how honored and how “really cool” it is to know that only Transformers legends Simon Furman and Bob Budiansky have written more issues of this timeless comic than he has.
– “Transformers are toys. They are toys. That’s why they’re giant robots that turn in to cars. They’re toys. There’s no reason a robot would turn in to a car, they’re toys. I guess you could come up with reasons for it – a lot of writers have – it’s just so strange.”
– “Cars and trucks in a comic book aren’t expressive – there’s no character to a car.”
– “My job as a writer is to understand why characters are doing certain things – beyond why they are doing things in a certain moment – to who they are as people, but that’s where questions start getting really confusing, because these ‘things’ aren’t people.”
“They don’t get hungry, they don’t get tired, they don’t have women, they don’t have relationships that they value, because they don’t have females that they can love, maybe brotherly love but how, they don’t have parents?”
– “Transformers fans read Transformers comics, and only Transformers comics. They are isolated from the rest of the comic book world.”
– In the comic book community, Transformers are not looked upon favorably. They are looked upon as being silly and “not-serious” comics. GI Joe is taken seriously. “GI Joe still has respectability, while Transformers does not.”
– “I don’t think these books will be number 1 again. They target their market, and their market is shrinking, and there’s a lot of people in that market that are unpleasant.”
Dr Va'al wrote:You're using later knowledge, and hindsight, to disprove points that were made before those points needed to be disproved, though. I dunno, it feels like not much of an argument if you're pointing out the flaws in his comic by showing how a different comic is doing things differently. (And can we please stop eating out of Roberts' hand?)
william-james88 wrote:Dr Va'al wrote:You're using later knowledge, and hindsight, to disprove points that were made before those points needed to be disproved, though. I dunno, it feels like not much of an argument if you're pointing out the flaws in his comic by showing how a different comic is doing things differently. (And can we please stop eating out of Roberts' hand?)
I would love to know if you always felt this way about Roberts or if our opinion of him has slowly been changing, because I remember you beign very enthusiastic about him and his work when I first started at Seibertron. At least that was my impression. Or did he change?
In any case, I will postpone this discussion for later. But I did want to answer about me using later knowledge. I wasnt arguing, or trying to argue.
My whole point was looking at the past through today and realizing that there was an answer to what was seen as ploblematic. Like writing relationships or not knowing how to write the characters as people. A way has been found since, showing that if the writer really did want to change the TF comic landscape for the better, he could have.
Dr Va'al wrote:Roberts-wise: I like his writing, but it's the myth surrounding him that I grow tired of. As if he's not just one of the writers on three plus one books that IDW brings out, MTMTE is the only series that gets attention, and the others are seen as 'oh yeah, those other ones' at best of times. As I said, I do like his work, a lot. I really do. I just feel like we should stop idolising him. (That, and The Smiths and Morrissey are not that good. There, I said it. )
william-james88 wrote:*snip*
william-james88 wrote:I just remember something else I idnt get about All Hail Megatron. The big deal with how Optimus couldnt help them, aside from being practically dead was that the matrix had been stolen by the Dcepticons. I remember going "Holy ****!", this is big, what are the autobots goig to do now in this different situation?
Nothing. Nothing changed. Optimus can still lead, he isnt less powerful without it, the Decepticons are not more powerful with it, there was no disadvantage (or advantage gained) due to the Matrix being stolen. That made that whole plot really trivial to the point where it was uneccesary to even mention.
If I missed something, let me know.
Dr Va'al wrote:The point about the end of AHM, and the Costa run, which I always found extremely amusing, is that once DoOP had settled, we had basically ignored the entirety of the Costa run...
JazZeke wrote:Dr Va'al wrote:The point about the end of AHM, and the Costa run, which I always found extremely amusing, is that once DoOP had settled, we had basically ignored the entirety of the Costa run...
Well yeah, that's because nothing of real importance happened during the Costa run. It even opened with all the characters having sat on their asses for years. The Autobots were in hiding on Earth for reasons nobody could really explain, and the Decepticons, who had decimated the Autobot forces and reigned supreme across the galaxy in All Hail Megatron, were somehow suddenly a beaten-down force just because Megatron was in a coma.
JazZeke wrote: were somehow suddenly a beaten-down force just because Megatron was in a coma.
william-james88 wrote:JazZeke wrote: were somehow suddenly a beaten-down force just because Megatron was in a coma.
Sounds like the reverse of the opening for AHM
JazZeke wrote:Optimus was beaten, sure, but like 90% of Autobots were supposedly killed.
Off-camera.
And what would have been a thrilling twist in the story was sidelined in favor of seven issues of the characters twiddling their thumbs afterwards.
william-james88 wrote:JazZeke wrote:Optimus was beaten, sure, but like 90% of Autobots were supposedly killed.
You see, I totally didnt catch that. Maybe because all the autobots I knew were still alive. Was that retconned later? Because from reading MTMTE there are tons of autobots out there, even the Turbomasters are still alive.
Off-camera.
Just like how destructive Megatron was on Earth anywhere but New York... nice
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