The Energon Pub

Just got some emails from Chris Ryall asking about getting my account reactivated (which I did) and asked him some questions about TF stories in 2008, not really expecting him to say of course. But this is what I asked.

Q: By the way, not really knowing that I might get an answer, but any BIG Transformer stories or news this year coming up?

A: Biiig things for the TFs this year, yeah, something no one knows about yet.

Q: The dead universe? Or is it the story that goes WAY back in the TF History?

A: Neither one, actually. Although we're also going to do the TF origins this year, too. That one will be called "The Thirteen."

So there you go, I know its not much, but there will be a BIG story coming! He gave a link about it though.

http://idwpublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2858

Front paged and Credited Grifter!

The Fallen's full name is 'I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up'.

Doesn't it seem likely that the "Swear Allegiance" campaign is advertising a sequel to "Megatron Origin"? After all, the stylized Decepticon symbol is reminiscent of the one emblazoned by the Decepticons as a means of (in Megatron's words) "sending a message" in the Megatron Origin series. (See, e.g., Megatron Origin TPB at 56, 72.) It also is tied to the advertising of Megatron Origin itself: ("Before allegiance, rank and function—before war—a civilian will become a warrior, a warrior will become a leader.") Whereas Megatron Origin was "before allegiance," this series will come when Cybertronians are required to take sides and take up arms. And it’s not as though Megatron Origin brought a tremendous amount of closure -- it’s ripe for a sequel set in Cybertron's ancient past.

Hard to say whether this is one of the projects Furman refers to on his blog. This wouldn't quite go back to "a time before anything we've seen so far in the new IDW/TF-verse," as it would post-date Megatron Origin, but it could "underpin the entire Infiltration[etc.] continuity." It could also tie into his project spinning out of Spotlight: Grimlock, as we see Grimlock in the arena in Megatron Origin, and we know of Furman's interest in the Grimlock/Megatron dynamic from other incarnations of the Transformers (e.g., War Within), but its not obvious how the Grimlock spotlight would "open[] the door" for a Megatron Origin sequel set in the past, other than through flashbacks. Always possible.

On a different note, I am quite interested in what Furman's going to do with Arcee in the upcoming spotlight. He's dropped enough hints, though, that it seems fairly obvious that Arcee's "female" persona (whatever that means in a world of robots) is going to be the result of some kind of experimentation by Nova Prime (who, incidentally, is featured on the cover that IDW has revealed) and Jhiaxus. As Furman notes on his blog, "Arcee, Combiners, and Micromasters all have a common point of origin, in terms of forcing the evolution of the Cybertronian race." (We know that the Monstructor combiners were the product of experimentation to find an improved form of Transformer, and we also know of a connection between Micromasters and Nova Prime courtesy of Spotlight: Nightbeat and Spotlight: Galvatron.)

Looks to be a revealing 2008.