The Energon Pub

Yeah, can just see that the matrix is gonna revive Rodimus, especially thanks to that "Nothing can stop us.." dialogue over the image which obviously implies Roddy will come back as a bigger threat to Megatron's plans... IDW's way of getting Rodimus Prime into the story maybe?

I miss the -Tion mini-series. Seriously, this is beyond awful here.

WTF! They're killing off every Transformer we care about!!!

How about less time with annoying ass humans and more character development on characters like Acid Storm!!!

Oh wait, he's dead....

And so is my interest in this book until this current writer leaves!!!

I'm assuming that English is not the reviewer's first language? All I can say is next time, pause for an edit. Plenty of spelling and grammatical errors as well as homonyms in lieu of the intended word, if I recall correctly. Doing so would make for a more credible review and help reinforce good English to the younger readers of this site.

bout damn time the douschbag traitor got his come uppance and from megatron himself of all people ha

Somebody please push the reboot button. NOW.


The series is going in a direction where even the TF/GIJoe: Dark Horizon seems like a masterpiece compared to the slag Costa produces.
EDIT: Going? It went past that point.

I hate the way Rodimus looks.

Oh dear GOD.

DM, you're spot on on the 'Robots suck/humans rule' thing. I more or less lost my heart for this series when Witwicky managed to kill Scrapper with an I-beam...and no shirt. But...wow. I hate to say I can't even summon thrills for the notion of Megatron's return.

HK, IDW bringing new meaning to 'jumping the shark...ticon'

Something needs to be done quickly about where the whole IDW continuity is going. Its not too late to salvage this !!

Ive stood by IDW for a long time now but Im losing interest real fast, and I think a lot of other people are too.

Big fan of Roche's work though. Give him the reigns perhaps? Or at least another mini series.

It's Rodimus... In Space!!!!

The art is something I appreciate. Really good, kind of like Rodimus' little adventure. The storyline.. way too rushed. The anti-climactic entrance of an important character and abuse of an important relic is kinda sad..

Oilspill wrote:

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Actually I've not really been keen on any TF artist since the very dynamic work by Geoff Senior and Lee Sullivan on the old Marvel Comics (and they used to draw far better TF faces too)

I've never understood the massive love for Geoff Senior's work.

Personally, I would say that it might have something to do with:

1. Marvel UK was a weekly release. This meant shorter time frames to get stuff done.
2. Senior managed to consistently evoke energy and dynamics in his imagery despite only having quarter of the time.
3. He could really draw an awesome fight scene (just check out the fight between Galvatron and Ultra Magnus in Target: 2006 for confirmation).

lowman_x wrote:

Oilspill wrote:

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Actually I've not really been keen on any TF artist since the very dynamic work by Geoff Senior and Lee Sullivan on the old Marvel Comics (and they used to draw far better TF faces too)

I've never understood the massive love for Geoff Senior's work.

Personally, I would say that it might have something to do with:

1. Marvel UK was a weekly release. This meant shorter time frames to get stuff done.
2. Senior managed to consistently evoke energy and dynamics in his imagery despite only having quarter of the time.
3. He could really draw an awesome fight scene (just check out the fight between Galvatron and Ultra Magnus in Target: 2006 for confirmation).

Hmm I wasn't aware of the time frame thing, that's quite impressive. I think I do have the Target:2006 reprint somewhere, I remember Magnus taking a pounding, Galvatron gripping onto the top of Magnus in truck mode and then maybe a petrol station blowing up. Will check it out again, it was pretty cool.

Thanks for the info!

on the geoff senior things.

lets remember as well. there was no computer colouring in HIS day.

that stuff was all hand done and in the US marvel comic was that god awfull dot matrix colouring thing.

check out the painted stuff he did for "Deaths head : the body in question" to get a feel of what he's capable of.

i think the most sophisticated TF stuff he did was the G2 stuff and even that didnt have dreamwaves or IDWs production levels.

the blokes doing advertising now IIRC and you can see how his style has evolved on his website. like byan hitch he's moved on ALOT .

its a pity he dosnt do comic work anymore.

After buying every TF comic since Dreamwave brought them back to the shelves 8-9 years ago I have given up buying them based solely on Costa's crap story lines. This really does make me angry because I truly want to support IDW and TF comics in any itteration [they are the only TF media since BW that doesn't have to pull it's punches for the kids] but there are so many things wrong with the writing I just can't justify spending any more money on this drivel.

The Legend wrote:After buying every TF comic since Dreamwave brought them back to the shelves 8-9 years ago I have given up buying them based solely on Costa's crap story lines. This really does make me angry because I truly want to support IDW and TF comics in any itteration [they are the only TF media since BW that doesn't have to pull it's punches for the kids] but there are so many things wrong with the writing I just can't justify spending any more money on this drivel.

I know that people classify me as a IDW-hater (mostly on the IDW boards, naturally), so let me say that this is my opinion, too. I liked IDW's prior storyline and series (even Beast Wars, which I've poked enough holes into so as to make it swiss cheese, is something I read and enjoy), so it's really sad for me to see how badly things have gotten. Out of IDW's total TF output this past year, Last Stand of the Wreckers has been the only thing I've read and enjoyed, and that's mostly because it's essentially a "by the fans, for the fans" book. If IDW would look at the success of that, and work the ongoing around that formula, it would make a load of difference.

I have been umming and ahhing over whether I would continue collecting the IDW TF stuff for s while now.

This is sad because I have been collecting the TF comics since the UK Marvel stuff when I was 6 years old and collected it until the bitter end.

I was excited when I discovered the ONLY STORE in my home town that decided to get in the G2 comics back in the early 90s (though I missed half of the 12 issue run because that same store didn't see a need to get all of them in). I felt it was a bit of a bummer when Derek Yaniger was replaced with the artist who tried to badly follow his style but I still persisted in trying to track down each issue from month to month (which was fruitless half the time) because it was still a good story. I said a little "Hell yeah!" because Geoff Senior worked on the final issue of G2 then felt sad because, once again, it had been taken away from me.

I watched and enjoyed Beast Wars despite not being able to see much of it because I was in school when they showed it on TV here. We never got Beast Machines (or, at least, I never found it on TV). I didn't enjoy any of the new iterations (RID, Unicron Trilogy) so let it all slide.

When I heard Dreamwave had picked up the rights I was practically salivating because I have always been a bigger fan of the comics than I am of the cartoons. Despite Pat Lee drawing Prime with a tiny head and massive whitewashed window frames I enjoyed it. (This was also despite the fact that I felt like I was missing some considerable backstory somewhere between volume 1 and 2.) I was, once again, disappointed when that was cancelled eventually due to ineptitude.

Then IDW came along and called for a reboot of the franchise. A re-imagining if you will. The -ation series got me gripped and I couldn't wait for each issue. The months-long wait between volumes was a killer but I managed it. Why did I like it so much? Because it took what I knew and remembered of the Transformers, skewed it a little, matured it and then gave it to us with heaped slatherings of awesome art. It worked and it worked well.

Then the -ation series were... "cancelled". The powers that be called for a shake up. They called for something new. Something to excite the fan base again. What did we get? We got All Hail Megatron. Sure, the premise was new. What if the Decepticons won? Wow... you know what? This might actually be good! Take the characters and plotlines we have now and fast forward a year into the future. And the Cons have whooped ass and the Bots are on the ropes. Holy crap, this is so awesome... no... wait... what's the opposite of awesome? Crap? No, not that far gone. Disappointing. Yeah, that's the word. Pretty disappointing. Let's take a pretty cool idea and then screw the pooch by turning the whole thing back into a bad copy of the original cartoon. Previous plot work essentially ignored, plotholes patched up worse than my attempts at putty filling, characters became 2 dimensional and cliched. The artwork (which is an important thing for me being an art teacher and all) took a huge step backwards and we ended up with, essentially, the G1 cartoon in high glossy paper format (art wise). For me it's been a downhill slide from that point on, really.

I've hung on, hoping like all buggery that Costa and co would drag this behemoth back to the surface but I just feel like I'm reading regurgitated plotlines from here, there and everywhere. Oh wow, enemy countries have Transformers as weapons of mass destruction? Yeah, think I saw that in DW's first series. Bumblebee gets his ass handed to him and he bulks himself up? Yeah, UK Marvel did that with Goldbug. A fan favourite dies and is then miraculously brought back? Hmmm... pretty sure Marvel do that with Jean Grey every couple of years (though they do explain it better) and Prime dies all the time. Optimus Prime has a crisis of faith and leaves his troops to go wallow in self-pity, cut himself and write poetry? Yep, Marvel UK did it when they introduced the Predacons in issue 98 (I think). Mind you, at least Costa followed the continuity before him and kept Spike and didn't ignore what he was following on from. (Though, to be honest, can't we kill him off?? Do we really need Spike? Really?!)

Don't get me wrong, there have been glimmers of coolness along the way, Last Stand of the Wreckers being one of them, but I think this is where I get off this ride, folks. I might stick around for the zombie thing but otherwise, I think this is where I call it quits before Transformers calls it quits on me.

Well, I haven't ran out to buy this issue yet...I WAS trying to maybe make myself NOT buy #13 - you know, to make a statement and what not. It's Veteran's Day so I'm not working. It's snowing outside. I have a monster cold I'm trying desperately to fight off in one day - the cold is winning, unfortunately. Based on what I've read here, now I'm just curious to see just HOW bad #13 is - plus if I have to sit at home all day instead of go to the mall or do something fun, I might as well read it.

polystyleneman wrote:I'm assuming that English is not the reviewer's first language? All I can say is next time, pause for an edit. Plenty of spelling and grammatical errors as well as homonyms in lieu of the intended word, if I recall correctly. Doing so would make for a more credible review and help reinforce good English to the younger readers of this site.

Sorry - this just made me laugh! Thanks for that - hahahahaha *cough!* hahahahaha!!!! This WAS supposed to be funny.....right....?

So, let me pose this question - If Mike Costa quits/gets fired/retires/calls in sick for a year, who would you want to replace him as the writer?

Oh, and I don't believe for a second that Bumblebee is really destroyed - he's just about to become another soldier in Alpha Trion's Army of Undead!

polystyleneman wrote:I'm assuming that English is not the reviewer's first language? All I can say is next time, pause for an edit. Plenty of spelling and grammatical errors as well as homonyms in lieu of the intended word, if I recall correctly. Doing so would make for a more credible review and help reinforce good English to the younger readers of this site.

I believe the part about the grammar, as I was too tired to and had no time to go through it again before it had to be posted.
I'm pretty certain the last few paragraphs are the worst in term of grammar. But the spelling I would say is spot on, except for like maybe using the wrong word for a grammatical structure, and I'm not sure if I spelled "cerebro shell" correctly.

If you mean with bad spelling the British spelling I used, like colour, then the joke's on you.

However should I ever do one of these again, I hope I don't have to write the review at night time during the week.


But now just a general question to you guys. Was the review, apart from the above mentioned things, good? Was it informative, not informative enough, too informative, too dry, to unfunny, where the jokes too stupid, was the "unedited" page too much or was the review totally wrong?

just interested what I did good or what I should change for any future review, if I ever do one again that is.

Thanks.

Stormer wrote:So, let me pose this question - If Mike Costa quits/gets fired/retires/calls in sick for a year, who would you want to replace him as the writer?

Roche, Furman, me, just about anyone who has some respect for the characters and the reader.

The Legend wrote:

Stormer wrote:So, let me pose this question - If Mike Costa quits/gets fired/retires/calls in sick for a year, who would you want to replace him as the writer?

Roche, Furman, me, just about anyone who has some respect for the characters and the reader.

Seriously, the comic has come to a point where gay slash fan fiction about Optimus Prime and Megatron is more respectable to the characters.

The Legend wrote:

Stormer wrote:So, let me pose this question - If Mike Costa quits/gets fired/retires/calls in sick for a year, who would you want to replace him as the writer?

Roche, Furman, me, just about anyone who has some respect for the characters and the reader.

Roche would be good for short runs I think - LSOTW was great, but can he keep it up for a whole ongoing series? What the H. Maybe we'll get to see what he's got.

Furman? Hmmmm. As much as I loved the Marvel stuff - ok, even some of the newer stuff, do you think he has a few more spectacular stories in that brain of his? The respect and knowledge is certainly there.

The Legend - Ok, let's see what ya got!

Gay slash fan-fic - though may be fun to read - isn't exactly what I was probing for. (ha! probing!)

Who else?

Dead Metal wrote:But the spelling I would say is spot on

Dead Metal wrote:But now just a general question to you guys. Was the review, apart from the above mentioned things, good? Was it informative, not informative enough, too informative, too dry, to unfunny, where the jokes too stupid, was the "unedited" page too much or was the review totally wrong?

just interested what I did good or what I should change for any future review, if I ever do one again that is.

At a glance the only spelling error I really saw was "pre-view" should be "preview". There were several others that just looked like typos, like "wreak" should be "wreck" and "becasue" is clearly a typo. But if I was writing the review I would have made many a typo myself, in fact I made several in this post before correcting them. And as you say you wrote it late at night, so I think those comments regarding English as a first language were a bit unnecessary.

Besides, clearly a lot of effort was put into the review. There were heaps of handy pics and also the "typical & unedited page of ongoing" was pretty hilarious. So IMO, a couple of typos or some dodgy grammar is not worth complaining about when we get an otherwise excellent review for the unbeatable price of SFA.

I'd still think I've gotten more entertainment out of reading the review than I would get from reading the comic

Oilspill wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:But the spelling I would say is spot on

Dead Metal wrote:But now just a general question to you guys. Was the review, apart from the above mentioned things, good? Was it informative, not informative enough, too informative, too dry, to unfunny, where the jokes too stupid, was the "unedited" page too much or was the review totally wrong?

just interested what I did good or what I should change for any future review, if I ever do one again that is.

At a glance the only spelling error I really saw was "pre-view" should be "preview". There were several others that just looked like typos, like "wreak" should be "wreck" and "becasue" is clearly a typo. But if I was writing the review I would have made many a typo myself, in fact I made several in this post before correcting them. And as you say you wrote it late at night, so I think those comments regarding English as a first language were a bit unnecessary.

Besides, clearly a lot of effort was put into the review. There were heaps of handy pics and also the "typical & unedited page of ongoing" was pretty hilarious. So IMO, a couple of typos or some dodgy grammar is not worth complaining about when we get an otherwise excellent review for the unbeatable price of SFA.

I'd still think I've gotten more entertainment out of reading the review than I would get from reading the comic

Damn, I typed stuff like that? Seriously that's just wrong, I hate this dodgy spell checking system of open office, yea that stuff shouldn't happen.

Glad you liked the review, I if I had more time I would rewrite a few of the ongoing issues like that

OK I've got a bit of spare time right now, I'm revising this review, also that caption should be "Out of the dark, into the light" not night.

At least I got the Metalocalypse one right

Oh but he's half right with English not being my first language, I did grow up bilingual.

Dead Metal wrote:But now just a general question to you guys. Was the review, apart from the above mentioned things, good? Was it informative, not informative enough, too informative, too dry, to unfunny, where the jokes too stupid, was the "unedited" page too much or was the review totally wrong?

just interested what I did good or what I should change for any future review, if I ever do one again that is.

I'm not really sure what I want to say. I mean, my opinion on the issue was so obviously slanted in one direction that I was pretty unlikely to change it on account of anything anyone else said, so in that respect, I'd have to say that it was all right.

Dead Metal wrote:Seriously, the comic has come to a point where gay slash fan fiction about Optimus Prime and Megatron is more respectable to the characters.

It's a sad fact that, as jokey and stupid as this sounds, it's actually a pretty fair account of the situation.

Dead Metal wrote:But now just a general question to you guys. Was the review, apart from the above mentioned things, good? Was it informative, not informative enough, too informative, too dry, to unfunny, where the jokes too stupid, was the "unedited" page too much or was the review totally wrong?

just interested what I did good or what I should change for any future review, if I ever do one again that is.

Thanks.

I wanted to wait until I read #13 before I read your review. Before reading the review, I concluded that this story wasn't half bad. There were some hokey things in there, but this isn't a bad story by any stretch.

Upon reading your review, I could tell it must have been a-late-night-almost-asleep accomplishment, but I did find it entertaining. I found it fair - aside from the occasional bitter opinion - and an honest assessment of the quality of both the story and the art. Thank you very much for a fun read. Hope you get to do more! (just wait til morning...)