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One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

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One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby i_amtrunks » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:16 pm

Well, kind of.

While All Hail Megatron has been extended to 16 issues, this Wednesday the 24th of June will see the release of the 12th and final issue of Shane McCarthy's original story. (The next four issues will be used to expand on the original story).

It all started back on July 10th 2008, with the release of Issue #1.
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All Hail Megatron #1 set the story one year later than the events last seen in Revelations #4 (Spotlight Sideswipe) which itself would not be released until October 2008, with the events of Maximum Dinobots occurring in the interim.

All Hail Megatron was a step in a totally new direction from a writer new to Transformers comics, and divided the fandom with it's new take on the Universe that had been previously built by Simon Furman from when IDW first gained the Transformers license in 2005.

Now with the release of Issue #12 only a day away, will we finally know the full story Shane McCarthy had intended from the start.

So what are your thoughts and feelings on the series?
Did IDW get this right?
Were the old Simon Furman penned stories too complex and convoluted for the casual reader, and was there a need for a new angle?
Did Shane McCarthy's work fill you with glee or anger?

Let us know what you think about All Hail Megatron Issue #12, as well as the entire series, now that you have read the entire story.

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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Starscream6 » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:32 pm

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I really enjoyed AHM, i was really looking forward to it. Although i began to miss the Furman "tion" series. they did some things in AHM to try and tie them together but i felt it was loosely done. do i think Furman got the shaft when he was asked to step aside for something new while he was in the middle of HIS story??......yea. but AHM was new and i liked that. Im just even more eagerly awaiting whats goin to happen next in the IDW transformer'verse
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby It Is Him » Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:06 pm

Good post! I'll be watching this thread, as I've fallen behind in my Transformers trade paperback collecting and I'm curious if it's worth catching up (combination of economy :-x and the relatively negative fan feedback to the series).
Come join us at THE PUPPY THREAD

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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Darth Bombshell » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:18 pm

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All Hail Megatron has been a complete and utter failure. I had hoped that Shane would get somewhere, but those dreams had died around issue #9, and frankly they never recovered. And don't get me started on his Gary Stu. Don't forget, folks. Those next four issues don't "expand" the story. Their single solitary purpouse is to go out of their way to fix the problems Shane created when crafting his so called "story".
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby JazZeke » Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:03 pm

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Thank Primus it's over. I hope this is the last we ever see of Shane McCArthy until he takes a writing class. While he is good with characterization moments, he fails to make those moments relevant to the story. Hell, he fails to make the story relevant. Nothing happened at all in the first six issues, just the Autobots moping around and the Decepticons senselessly vandalizing Earth. And sometimes just New York, sometimes they were destroying other parts of the world, he couldn't even retain consistency with himself.

He overdid it on the spread pages, as well. Pacing was a nightmare... for a fifty dollar story, I feel like I only got thirty dollars' worth of content. There was only one moment that genuinely surprised me--Dropshot's attack--and even that doesn't make sense. (Why attack the military now?)

The only reason we're getting four more issues is to fill in the gaps left behind McCarthy's mess. DB nailed it right on the head with his Gary Stu Drift... but even worse, McCarthy said he had a reason for bringing that caharcter in, but all he's done is stand around with that disgusting smirk while Cliffjumper and Kup admired him.

I tried to like these comics when they started. I gave them a fair chance because I'm no worshiper of Furman and I'm all for bringing new blood into the writer's pool. All Hail Megatron, however, was a senseless failure and a step in the wrong direction.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Ultra Magnus » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:15 pm

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#-o

Apparently, no one that posted these horrible remarks about this story listened to the HOUR LONG interview that was made available a few weeks ago. AHM has been great. This TransFan is VERY anxious to see how they end this arc and what they are going to do to follow it up. I will proudly stand up for this series and the ambitious direction that Shane McCarthy has decided to take things. I will also say that I totally dug Simon Furman's work and look forward to seeing more.

We should just be glad that a quality Transformers comic series exists, that a highly reputable company publishes it, and that genuine fans are in charge of it. These people have been doing their best to give Transformers the truly EPIC sense of scale that the old Marvel stories attempted at but never quite reached. We have(in most cases) SPECTACULAR art that does the characters justice, and we have stories that explain some of the weirdest(and most nonsensical) parts of the Transformers Mythos. :APPLAUSE:

I say to all the Nay-Sayers and Haters: HATE ON! The Numbers don't lie; the Series has been successful. It seems that Logic would dictate: If you don't like it, you shouldn't read it! But of course, if you stop buying it then there won't be ANY Transformers comics and then you'll be really satisfied, won't you? :roll:

...But, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. I, for one, will keep buying WHATEVER Transformers Comics there are as long as they keep putting them out. Period.

AHM was most definitely a great story. Mature, unpredictable, Dramatic... I don't know what more people could ask for. B-)
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Starscream6 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:19 am

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Ultra Magnus wrote:#-o

Apparently, no one that posted these horrible remarks about this story listened to the HOUR LONG interview that was made available a few weeks ago. AHM has been great. This TransFan is VERY anxious to see how they end this arc and what they are going to do to follow it up. I will proudly stand up for this series and the ambitious direction that Shane McCarthy has decided to take things. I will also say that I totally dug Simon Furman's work and look forward to seeing more.

We should just be glad that a quality Transformers comic series exists, that a highly reputable company publishes it, and that genuine fans are in charge of it. These people have been doing their best to give Transformers the truly EPIC sense of scale that the old Marvel stories attempted at but never quite reached. We have(in most cases) SPECTACULAR art that does the characters justice, and we have stories that explain some of the weirdest(and most nonsensical) parts of the Transformers Mythos. :APPLAUSE:

I say to all the Nay-Sayers and Haters: HATE ON! The Numbers don't lie; the Series has been successful. It seems that Logic would dictate: If you don't like it, you shouldn't read it! But of course, if you stop buying it then there won't be ANY Transformers comics and then you'll be really satisfied, won't you? :roll:

...But, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. I, for one, will keep buying WHATEVER Transformers Comics there are as long as they keep putting them out. Period.

AHM was most definitely a great story. Mature, unpredictable, Dramatic... I don't know what more people could ask for. B-)



all i can say is AMEN! fans are way too hard on this storyline. ok, to some it may not be perfect but what comic continuity is??!!?? my god what are you comparing it to???? i read almost ALL transformer comic series because im a fiend and i fail to see the epic failure is i keep reading about. no it wasnt what idw/furman was initially was goin for but that doesnt make it horrible. give me ANY transverse comic series and i can pick its flaws as well. If anything we saw some AMAZING Guido work and a DIFFERENT story premise. ive enjoyed Shanes attempt and I look forward to seeing whats next :APPLAUSE:
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Dead Metal » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:28 am

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Starscream6 wrote:
Ultra Magnus wrote:#-o

Apparently, no one that posted these horrible remarks about this story listened to the HOUR LONG interview that was made available a few weeks ago. AHM has been great. This TransFan is VERY anxious to see how they end this arc and what they are going to do to follow it up. I will proudly stand up for this series and the ambitious direction that Shane McCarthy has decided to take things. I will also say that I totally dug Simon Furman's work and look forward to seeing more.

We should just be glad that a quality Transformers comic series exists, that a highly reputable company publishes it, and that genuine fans are in charge of it. These people have been doing their best to give Transformers the truly EPIC sense of scale that the old Marvel stories attempted at but never quite reached. We have(in most cases) SPECTACULAR art that does the characters justice, and we have stories that explain some of the weirdest(and most nonsensical) parts of the Transformers Mythos. :APPLAUSE:

I say to all the Nay-Sayers and Haters: HATE ON! The Numbers don't lie; the Series has been successful. It seems that Logic would dictate: If you don't like it, you shouldn't read it! But of course, if you stop buying it then there won't be ANY Transformers comics and then you'll be really satisfied, won't you? :roll:

...But, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. I, for one, will keep buying WHATEVER Transformers Comics there are as long as they keep putting them out. Period.

AHM was most definitely a great story. Mature, unpredictable, Dramatic... I don't know what more people could ask for. B-)



all i can say is AMEN! fans are way too hard on this storyline. ok, to some it may not be perfect but what comic continuity is??!!?? my god what are you comparing it to???? i read almost ALL transformer comic series because im a fiend and i fail to see the epic failure is i keep reading about. no it wasnt what idw/furman was initially was goin for but that doesnt make it horrible. give me ANY transverse comic series and i can pick its flaws as well. If anything we saw some AMAZING Guido work and a DIFFERENT story premise. ive enjoyed Shanes attempt and I look forward to seeing whats next :APPLAUSE:

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Quality, mature, success, story and no plotholes in a post regarding AHM?
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The only good thing about AHM was the art and that's it.
And these are the sales figures for the comics:
http://tfarchive.com/comics/idw/sales.php

Yea AHM was more successful then the previous stuff :roll:
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby 8 bit » Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:26 am

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It Is Him wrote:Good post! I'll be watching this thread, as I've fallen behind in my Transformers trade paperback collecting and I'm curious if it's worth catching up (combination of economy :-x and the relatively negative fan feedback to the series).

I'm in the same boat. I never purchased the Volume 1 TPB which contained the first six issues—mostly because I heard nothing happens. Volume 2 will be out in late Sept; then I'll decide whether or not this series is worth it for me.
Dead Metal wrote:The only good thing about AHM was the art and that's it.

...and if nothing else, I may purchase it for this reason.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Orin_Thomas » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:31 am

Absolutely completely totally and utterly hated it. Tried to give it a chance. Even listened to that entire interview posted the other day. Have had a standing subscription to Transformers since the days of Furman and the UK comic. All Hail Megatron has been the first time I've seriously considered dropping the subscription (and I stayed subscribed back when the UK comic went fricking black and white!). I buy the comics, I buy the trades and I even buy the big hardback Premiere Editions. I've loved Transformers in all its previous incarnations. Some of them have been a bit rubbish - but what drove me nuts about All Hail Megatron was that up until that point there seemed to be something amazing going on with the current Transformers comic. Rich storytelling of a sort that you rarely see in comics - comparable to Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan or Gaiman's Sandman. Then AHM came along and took a nuanced and complex storyline and reduced it back to being a comic book about kids toys.

I'll give the comic another six months. If this is truly the way forward for Transformers in comic form, good luck to Chris Ryall and Shane McCarthy. If they take Transformers to new heights by taking away the complexity and nuance - good for them. For a little while at least, before Shane McCarthy came along, it was something more than a comic book about kids toys.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Matrix. » Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:59 am

Orin_Thomas wrote: Rich storytelling of a sort that you rarely see in comics - comparable to Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan or Gaiman's Sandman. Then AHM came along and took a nuanced and complex storyline and reduced it back to being a comic book about kids toys.



Complexity and nuance? Comparing it to Gaiman's Sandman?

Transformers has never been in their league. Not ever. It's a trash comic that's amusing to read for action sequences and light sci-fi, but it's not that good.

Complexity? Certainly. But nuance? It had all the subtlety of a freight train with alliteration written all over it in blood.

I've personally been luke warm with AHM - initial issues made me groan, later issues looked promising, and then it dips again. Subtle background character interaction in the artwork is nice, though it ultimate fails to elaborate on this within dialogue and story, rendering it useless.

Bring on the Nick Roche. He wrote easily the best issue IDW have put out so far.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Darth Bombshell » Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:37 am

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Ultra Magnus wrote:I say to all the Nay-Sayers and Haters: HATE ON! The Numbers don't lie; the Series has been successful. It seems that Logic would dictate: If you don't like it, you shouldn't read it! But of course, if you stop buying it then there won't be ANY Transformers comics and then you'll be really satisfied, won't you? :roll:


Star Wars: Episode 1 made something in the realm of $430 million during its theatrical run. Yet many people, fans and critics alike, consider it to be a weak movie. Just because something makes a lot of money doesn't mean it's successful. Most movies that make #1 at the box office aren't able to maintain it, simply because they're not popular enough to be successful.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Primus C-00 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:37 am

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What an interesting year.

We have the franchise moving in three directions. Two of which, AHM and RoTF, being poorly executed cluster-f***s, log jamming G1 references down our throat succeed, and the innovative refreshing take and direction gets cancelled.

Quite literally disenfranchising.

=;
He's got some pretty far-out powers to go along with them, too, including teleportation, the projection of trippy telepathic visions and illusions, and the ability to groove on the language of 98% of all known species. To uses his powers to the fullest, though, he's gotta be feelin' good vibrations; bad karma can seriously harsh his mellow, y'know?
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby MYoung23 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:31 am

Primus C-00 wrote:What an interesting year.

We have the franchise moving in three directions. Two of which, AHM and RoTF, being poorly executed cluster-f***s, log jamming G1 references down our throat succeed, and the innovative refreshing take and direction gets cancelled.

Quite literally disenfranchising.

=;


Animated was "innovative and refreshing" the way the Black Eyed Peas make innovative and refreshing music.

I'll take 2 1/2 of Michael Bay over 30 something episodes of Jay Leno chins, the worst version of Optimus Prime ever along with Spongebob and Patrick Star playing the roles of Transformers.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Primus C-00 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:12 pm

Motto: "" [An] Aquarius wants to share enlightenment with other species through righteous hands-on interaction, and he's gotta do what his heart wants, even if the Man ain't copacetic with it.""
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MYoung23 wrote:I'll take... the worst version of Optimus Prime ever along with Spongebob and Patrick Star playing the roles of Transformers.


You'll like RotF then.

:grin:
He's got some pretty far-out powers to go along with them, too, including teleportation, the projection of trippy telepathic visions and illusions, and the ability to groove on the language of 98% of all known species. To uses his powers to the fullest, though, he's gotta be feelin' good vibrations; bad karma can seriously harsh his mellow, y'know?
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Skids » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:04 pm

Primus C-00 wrote:
MYoung23 wrote:I'll take... the worst version of Optimus Prime ever along with Spongebob and Patrick Star playing the roles of Transformers.


You'll like RotF then.

:grin:


LMAO.

I don't think you could have put that any better.

As for AHM, I'm still trying to catch up. But I liked what I read. The movements of the Decepticons were pretty slow, but it was cool to see a story where the Decepticons had "won" and some of the atypical characterizations of certain characters like Perceptor. (Also, the "George Peppard"-like Kup was funny to see...)

ROTF. It's bad enough that the worst Transformers-related media since Beast Machines got the greenlight for a sequel, but 2 1/2 hours of a typical Michael Bay film that more or less could have taken the Transformers out and still have been the same film is just ridiculous. And it's true. No matter what you think of the designs, those movies have the worst characterization of Optimus Prime ever. For some reason, Prime using "Decepticon"-style tactics to fight his enemies without (some kind of) context doesn't strike me as particularly "Prime".

I'm sad to see Animated go; it just might have been the best animated Transformers show since Victory as far as storytelling went... and that's before you get to all the cool voice acting. It was enough to trump the weird character designs, because everything else about that show made a lot of sense.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Chaoslock » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:50 pm

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Thanks Primus it will end... (and even more thanks if Shane McCarthy will be put into a corner to write movie critics instead of ruining any more transformers stuff)

Bad dialogues, unnecessary human storyline, worse dialogues, characters turned upside down, even worse speeches and weak turns in the story... I wonder if any writer can repair the hole that was punched in the IDWverse with the hastened end of Revelation and the ruin that is AHM.

Opinion:
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby NightFall » Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:59 pm

Really, I didn't know so many didn't like the series, but I like it. Maybe I should go re-read the series again. Sometimes I don't remember the plot-holes. I sure like how Starscream and Megatron, were talking to each other. I like how different the Decepticons were in the series, like ThunderCracker, you saw what tormented him, etc. (I hope ThunderCracker isn't dead :( The new ones will fill those plot holes so I'm happy for more.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Devastron » Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:21 pm

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I enjoyed AHM for the most part. I think it was slow in the middle but picked up considerably at the end. I have some mixed feelings on the very end but thats pretty much where it was all leading to.

As for people complaining about the lack of originality or how it destroyed the Furmanverse, I think you need to take a closer look at those comics. Furman is recycling the same things he always uses, Matrix (good and evil), Galvatron, Scorponok and Grimlock. These are the things he ALWAYS uses. Now the only hints at the next series is Galvatron returning, AGAIN.

And don't peg me as a Furman hater. I loved his work at Marvel and the War Within stuff. Maximum Dinobots was very good, although the art left something to be desired. I am just tired of seeing magical powers and godlike beings thrust into EVERY Transformer story. I just want to see them at war for awhile without Unicrons, Matrixs, Evil Primes or Dead Universes. That is what AHM gave me and I was glad for it.

Dead Metal wrote:
And these are the sales figures for the comics:
http://tfarchive.com/comics/idw/sales.php

Yea AHM was more successful then the previous stuff :roll:


Yeah, actually it was. Take an actual closer look at that list, purely the G1 stuff, excluding movie adaptions, reprints and BW comics.

Infiltration started off really big, as to be expected with the launch of a new series. Its last issue pulled 25,000, pretty respectable. From there we went to Stormbringer, which lost readers rapidly, finishing with 17,500. We could chalk this up to it being radically different from Infiltration, although I recall most people demanding an all TF only book like Stormbringer.

The wheels really started to come off in Escalation which started at 20,000 and ended at around 14,500. Interestingly enough this is where the first seeds of the Dead Universe and Nemesis Prime were placed in the -ation series.

Then we have Megatron: Origin, another sort of one off miniseries. It pretty much maintained the audience Escalation ended with at areound 14,000.

Then we moved to Devastation which saw another decline, hovering in the 13,000s.

The decline becomes brutal when we move to the Revelations Spotlights. Perhaps you can blame it on poor advertising, a rushed storyline or what have you, but the sales numbers are brutal, never breaking 11,000. Its a decline that is evident throughout the whole Spotlight line.

Then we have Maximum Dinobots which never broke into the 5 digit mark. Thats definitely not good.

The AHM starts up and, for the first time, an IDW TF comic manages to bring in a greater audience than its predecessor series and hold it, hovering in the 11,000-12,000 range. That is a makred improvement from the Spotlights, Revelations and Maximum Dinobots. So yes actually, AHM was more successful than its predecessors.

The line needed a shot in the arm and some new blood and thats what AHM delivered. Was it perfect? Hardly. I'd definitely say it could have been told in 8-10 issues as the middle became very thin and a bit dull. All in all though it was a solid series that I think breathed some new life into the entire line.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Jeysie » Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:18 pm

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Devastron wrote:The AHM starts up and, for the first time, an IDW TF comic manages to bring in a greater audience than its predecessor series and hold it, hovering in the 11,000-12,000 range. That is a makred improvement from the Spotlights, Revelations and Maximum Dinobots. So yes actually, AHM was more successful than its predecessors.

I don't buy that at all. Revelation did "poorly" because the Spotlights have always sold consistently in the 9-10K range, and many comic outlets were unaware that it was supposed to be the continuation of the -ations instead of just four more "normal" spotlights. (In fact, many readers had a hard time knowing that!) And Maximum Dinobots sufferered from distribution problems for the first few issues, coupled with the same lack of clear advertising as Revelation. Additionally, AHM followed pretty much the same curve as Devastation: starting out around 15K and dropping to 11-12K.

All signs to me seem to show that what actually happened is that 11-12K is simply the baseline market for TF G1 comics at the moment, and the -ations continuing as planned probably would have sold in exactly the same range. AHM didn't increase sales at all, it just continued the same sales IDW had already been getting, thus trashing a good continuity for no net result whatsoever.

Which brings me to my thoughts on AHM, which I might as well just port over from ongoing convos I've been having on another TF forum:

***

I mean, let me put it this way. I'm a new TF fan myself. I came in from the '07 movie, so I had no nostalgia or love of Furman or anything that already existed.

I loved the -ations, because after watching the G1 cartoon and reading the Marvel comics and finding them both rather cheesy and 80s (the former in a fun way, the latter in a not-so-fun way), and having been burned by the confusingness and... comic-booky-ness of trying to get into the usual ongoings of other comic companies, I was very pleasantly surprised by the -ations.

They took what I thought sounded like an interesting fictional verse and were handling it in a thoughtful, mature way that I hadn't come across in the other series/continuities yet that I tried after the Movie. The backlog of issues was managable, the plotline coherent and well-thought-out, the setting intriguing, the character reinventions interesting.

And with a lot of unique elements as well: the Infiltration protocols, the Autobots' different attitudes towards humanity, the presence of two major Earth organizations as more factions in the fight, the importance of disguise and political intrigue, the Dead Universe and the hints at a different origin for the TFs, the Matrix not being important, the start of the Great War being due to a revolution, lots of interestingly reinvented characters, Starscream and Megatron having a different dynamic, etc. While it still wasn't a fully "serious" scifi take on the TFverse, it's as close as we've gotten so far.

But very little of AHM feels unique to me. Not only does it actively undo almost all of the new stuff that the -ations added, it recycles both plots that have been done before in TF, and cliches from the genre in general. It feels like the G1 cartoon made "darker and edgier", with the same mindless action, cartoonish artwork, and cliche, disjointed storytelling. But it lacks the light-heartedness that made the cartoon enjoyable despite its flaws. If AHM had been what I'd first read of IDW's TF comics, I would have dismissed it as stereotypical superhero comic book pablum, just with giant robots, and given it a pass.

***

I can think of a great number of ways that the overall premise could have been done better and also tied in more strongly to the existing storyline. I mean, think about it: the Cons conquering and razing a planet was the entire point of Sixshot, the facsimilies, and the Infiltration Protocols to begin with! Why not write a Decepticons-winning premise off that existing structure? Furthermore, the massive presence of Ore-13 was a perfect excuse for the Cons to simply conquer Earth instead of trashing it. On top of that, if they could have some of the Con scientists busy refining said Ore to remove its downsides (instead of on pointless mindless drone army plans), that would give an equally perfect excuse as to what advantage gave the Cons the upper hand (instead of the ridiculous ambush thing). And then we've got Skywatch, who was designed from the get-go to find ways to fight these Cybertronians, and could have become interesting players in the resistance. And then there's the Machination, who could be an interesting side-faction, or at least Skywatch could discover them, shut them down, and incorporate their discoveries into their own efforts. (Picture government black ops Headmaster clones fighting against the Decepticons.)

And that's stuff that an amateur fanficcer who doesn't think she's all that great a writer can think of off the top of her head. A pro ought to be doing this way better than I can.

Or, the tl;dr version - there already was a perfect, well-constructed and foreshadowed setup for AHM's overall premise. But McCarthy threw that all out in favor of his own (IMHO cliche, contradictory, and overall inferior) personal setup.

I think that's what disappoints me the most about AHM... it was an intriguing idea that could have been really good and grown organically out of the existing storyline up until that point. Instead we got this mess.

***

I think that last paragraph sums up my thoughts entirely. This series could have been so good... an intelligent continuation of the existing continuity that was an interesting look at the Decepticons having conquered the galaxy. It could have been a look into their psychology as they deal with running things with an iron fist, while the Autobots and the citizens of the various destroyed/subjugated planets have to form a resistance to free themselves from the Cons' control. Instead we got a brainless cliched action B-movie pretending to be deep in places, whose few bright spots are overshadowed by its overall lousy handling.

For the first time ever in anything I've fangirled, I find myself wishing part of a universe's canon would get retconned out of continuity so we don't have to deal with the character derailment and continuity-erasing that this series brought about.

Especially the character derailment. I could spend a lot of time ranting about the crap changes that happened to Perceptor and Hunter, two of my favorite characters, for instance.

</walloftext>
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby i_amtrunks » Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:54 pm

After reading #12, I can honestly say that I am far far far from impressed with the new direction IDW decided to go with when letting McCarthy join the writing staff.

A weak series, by a weak writer really should have come as no surprise, this series wasted a year to tell a story that was told more or less over 40 minutes back in the mid 80's.

After giving everyone but Kup, Ironhide, Drift and Perceptor bugger all time he threw in some quick glances at a few other characters who would end up having a greater impact on the story than the characters he focused on in earlier issues. All the deaths in the series felt cheap, and forced, as though McCarthy felt that they needed to happen to give the series some kind of impact and it failed.
One death in particular felt like a total smack in the face of all that Furman had written beforehand, and it was wasted.

IDW is on thin ice with me, and I will not be buying another McCarthy penned book, each one I have read hacks away at a little more of the story and detailed universe that was written before he joined the IDW ranks.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Kenny28 » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:33 am

I've actually been out of the comics loop for the last year or so and just recently had a two day jam of reading EVERYTHING I've missed since escalation....

Wasn't bad. I think it was a dick move to just cancel Furman's stuff and make way for this "NEWER, ALL...UM...DIFFERENT TRANSFORMERS!" thing....that said, I guess not having to wait month-to-month for all the issues made it alot more bearable to read. The human characters were...quite varying in their quality. Some of the first lines they had were just awful really. Drift wasn't too bad and I kinda liked that quick joke about Perceptor becoming "just another guy with a gun" (the HELL was up with that anyways? Cripes...). And I actually liked the portrayal of the Decepticons in this one. I've always liked the Decepticons but it's nice to see a bit of depth to them for once.

Holy crap, was that a terrible final issue though. Awful, awful crap. Thank god for those extra issues.

Really bad time-skip too...liked the mystery at first but...in hindsight, it wasn't a good thing.

I'm pretty shocked at those sale numbers though. I thought the movie would've boosted things a bit for all the series in general.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby Cyberstrike » Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:31 am

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Having read all of Marvel US and Dreamwave'sTransformers comics in single issues and pretty much all of Marvel UK (I got every one of Titan's TPBs, except for Earthforce) and IDW's Transformers comics in TPB form I most admit I enjoyed All Hail Megatron vol. 1 more than any of Furman's arcs. I felt Furman was dialing it in and just piled on pointless sub-plots on top of pointless sub-plots that to me all ended very anti-climatically (which is a major weakness with a lot of Furman's Transformers stories in general). I felt All Hail Megatron was a fresh action-packed shot in the arm. I enjoyed All Hail Megatron a lot more than Devastation and Revelation both of which were dull, boring, predicable, and totally forgettable.

I highly recommend All Hail Megatron vol. 1 over all of Furman's IDW stuff. I think too many Transfans generally won't accept any other writer(s) on Transformers than Furman even if those writer(s) stories were 1,000 times better than Furman's stories. It's the same with Larry Hamma on G.I. Joe.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby SkyRaider » Sat Aug 01, 2009 1:06 pm

Cyberstrike wrote:I felt All Hail Megatron was a fresh action-packed shot in the arm. I enjoyed All Hail Megatron a lot more than Devastation and Revelation both of which were dull, boring, predicable, and totally forgettable.


I put AHM Megatron in the same boat as the other two. It was better (which doesnt say much), but as the series progressed I didnt feel like I was reading the same story at all as the focus shifted on characters way too much.

I have no desire to re-read this series, and to me that the best indication that it wasnt any good.
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Re: One year later, All Hail Megatron comes to an end

Postby william-james88 » Wed Aug 24, 2016 7:47 am

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Sorry to resurrect a thread but I preferred doing that instead of just starting a new thread to ask a question related to this story.

I read it a couple of years ago when I got it in the first Transformers Humble Bundle and since i had not read any previous TF comics, nothing really seemed out of place. I wasn't overly impressed by any of it though it felt very formulaic. Megatron tries to take over the world, the autobots are out of resources but at the last minute they rally up and Optimus saves the day.
Feels like a typical comic book.

The one issue I did have was the whole Optimus coming back and saving the day. How did he come back to full health? We see him in the begining heavily damaged, practically dead. And then he's fine. Was it explained how he got better and why it was at that time that he did get better (and not before or after)? Just felt very convinient.
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