The Energon Pub

I'm starting to read the Marvel UK issues, though I've noticed that aside from the main comic itself there are a few annuals with stories considered canon; as well as the Headmasters miniseries. Any idea when I should read those? Or are they not important enough or stories told in the main comic anyway?

Some of them are important enough that you'll be... confused.. by missing them, but you'll still easily pick up the story.

Nearly all the collected volumes they print should have the annual stories inserted, though.

As for when, if you're going vintage - check TF Wiki and read the annual on the UKs "December" issue, which is roughly when the Annuals came out.

This will take time, but I should put this together at least for the parts I'm through going with just the IDW Classics UK volumes and a couple 'Best of UK' reprints.

The thing to remember about the Annuals is they came out in August to build kids' excitement for whatever featured characters Hasbro would be pushing during the holiday season. They do have some stories that fit in other places, but the ones I've read are mostly closer to your Spotlight: Hoist than something like IDW's own sporadically released Annuals.

There's an old guide over on The Allspark that I like quite a bit, but it's not perfect to me from the perspective of enjoyment. https://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/8 ... g1-comics/

I don't really think you need to interrupt the material from US #1-3, and I did 1-4 of the US run (UK #1-8) before going on to Man of Iron (UK #9-12). Chronologically, I suppose the list I linked to is right but to draw an analogy to IDW, if you read some of the Spotlights chronologically, like the Dark Prelude books, it fits but still rings a little odd.

Later in there, The Headmasters miniseries gets broken up and ehhhh again I think what's there is probably correct timewise but I don't see need to split it.

I can't comment much past "Space Pirates!" Since I'm still at the mercy of waiting for TF UK Vol. 6, but that and "Time Wars" work where they are, I'm just not certain about the stuff in between or after them.

ScottyP wrote:There's an old guide over on The Allspark that I like quite a bit, but it's not perfect to me from the perspective of enjoyment. https://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/8 ... g1-comics/

I don't really think you need to interrupt the material from US #1-3, and I did 1-4 of the US run (UK #1-8) before going on to Man of Iron (UK #9-12). Chronologically, I suppose the list I linked to is right but to draw an analogy to IDW, if you read some of the Spotlights chronologically, like the Dark Prelude books, it fits but still rings a little odd.

Later in there, The Headmasters miniseries gets broken up and ehhhh again I think what's there is probably correct timewise but I don't see need to split it.

I can't comment much past "Space Pirates!" Since I'm still at the mercy of waiting for TF UK Vol. 6, but that and "Time Wars" work where they are, I'm just not certain about the stuff in between or after them.

I'm not a fan of going chronologically myself - I remember playing/watching the Metal Gear Solid series chronologically and deeply regretting it. Going with MGS3 first might make sense since it's the first in the timeline, but it's not how it was intended and hence you miss out on a LOT of context and understanding in relation to what's going on. So my general rule is reading/watching/playing in release order, scheduling errors notwithstanding. Buuuut exact release order does get a bit hazy for older stuff, hence the thread :p

Still, the idea does seem interesting...

^ Just never do that within and around All Hail Megatron. That's a case where we should all openly embrace and appreciate the Retcon Job done over the years

ScottyP wrote:^ Just never do that within and around All Hail Megatron. That's a case where we should all openly embrace and appreciate the Retcon Job done over the years

I can be fully appreciative of retcons. The IDWverse is just a retcon of Infestation, Hunter's death and Spotlight: Arcee away from perfection

The first time I read through the Marvel G1 comics, I read EVERYTHING the hard way, on purpose.

First I read Marvel U.S. issues 1-80, along with the first G.I. Joe crossover, the Headmasters mini, and the Movie adaptation (even though it's out of continuity) between certain issues.

Then I read the five G.I. Joe issues that led up to Marvel G2, and then read all 12 issues of the G2 comics. Then Alignment, and finally "The Last Days of Optimus Prime".

Following all that, I went back to read all of the Marvel UK stuff, including the reprints of the U.S. issues that I had already read. So yes, I reread all of the above pre-G2 U.S. in my UK reading.

I read issues 1-332, then I went back and read all of the annuals (only recognizing then that some of the annuals' stories were part of the main comics storyline, which I had to mentally insert into the proper placements of what all I had already read before). After that, I read the five UK G2 issues that were published by Fleetway, and then read the UK G2 annual (which is itself another separate continuity from all other G2 fiction).

I don't recommend this to everyone. It's just what I chose to do.

As for a list, here's another one that was based on the one Scotty linked to above. The person who made it is current making additional updates to it.