The Energon Pub

We've already seen the full preview for this week's IDW Transformers comic, out on Wednesday, here - but how about a double treat, with an iTunes three page preview (via the always on the ball Mariel Romero) of the next issue of Windblade? Check it out mirrored below, with Mairghread Scott on writing and Corin Howell on art!

MORE WORLDS-MORE PROBLEMS! After the events of COMBINERS WARS, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM race to recruit the lost CYBERTRONIAN colonies to the Council of Worlds-but which of them will control the fate of Cybertron?

I'm still having real trouble adjusting to Corin's art.

I'm really missing Sarah Stone's input here.

MemphisR56 wrote:I'm still having real trouble adjusting to Corin's art.

Yea, well for 1 we can PASS ON WINDBLADE at least now anyway,
esp. with (the underwhelming) "COMBINER WARS" already being
over & done. It's to bad because CW's shoulda been A Huge
Story/Saga that lasted all summer-- at least till Devy drops.
Right??
Like Prowl-astator should of been more center stage! They just
blew it; did Bruticus even appear? Like WtF!


They COULD OF dug deep into Prowl/Devastator gestalt crew dynamic.
That would of been the smart move Imo.
&/or had like A 'Menasor one-shot' or something.
A "Superion one-shot" or an ish ALL about them;
where they could of broke down the whole 'Sling Shot'-'Alpha Bravo'
fiasco. Man,,,, So unfortunate-- "COMBINER WARS" should of been A classic.

We still got Miline's 'Transformers Robots in Disguise' coming
though, time to catch up wit The Lost Light crew - THEE BEST
Transformers series ever! RID. 4Ever!

& yes, [Corin] her Art is Terrible for Transformer's- backgrounds are weak, there's little detail. Her art has an unfortunately childish narrative- aesthetically anyhow.
Keep her on 'Bat-Mite' Or put her on 'Archie', 'Scooby Doo' or something kid-friendly ya know.

Despite my thoughts about combiner wars, I'm not about to give up hope on Windblade just yet. I like her as a character and the role she's found herself stuck in.

I'm another one though that hopes Sarah Stone returns to art duties one day though I find this newcomers art less jarring then the art of gi joe vs transformers.

I actually feel a little more comfortable with this art now. It is still not Sarah Stone's art, but it looks ok for me. I don't mind the cartoonish look to it.
And I am actually looking forward to Windblade as an ongoing series. This will be the colony book, and I look forward to seeing what colonies we find and what kinds of crazy stuff can happen.
We already have Caminus, Velocitron, Eukaris, Prion and the spaceship, so we still have 8 to go! who knows what we'll find!

As much stock as we put on the writing of any good comic (and you shouldn't demand anything less than spectacular) the artwork should be even more of a consideration for such a visual medium. Just as I'd never want to see Jae Lee pencil the latest Archie comic I don't think Howell's artwork is suitable for portraying mechanical, alien cultures that are constantly embroiled in warfare and conflict.

Whether we want to admit it or not, Transformers physiology is based on adult humans of somewhat different physiques. With that said, the "little guys" such as Swerve or Tailgate share similar diminutive frames that suit their personalities (or vise versa?). When I look at this artwork I see a society of Swerves with their child-like proportions. It doesn't work and distracts from the overall (dramatic) tone of each scene.

This series has potential and I hate to see it hampered by good talent that is unfortunately, not the greatest fit for the series.

Alpha Dominus wrote:I hate to see it hampered by good talent that is unfortunately, not the greatest fit for the series.

Very well said. I don't think this art is objectively bad on any level, it's just not a great fit. Which, yes, is what you said, this is just me agreeing with you

Im not a fan of this art.

And what happened to windblade, why is she winging all the time? And the framing. First Chromia is pushing a decepticon back and then she's whispering in Windblades ear.

This person may be a fine artist but the ball is dropped here.

God that artwork is horrible, it looks like fan art taken from the darkest depths of Tumblr.

You've clearly not seen my fan art then

Maybe instead of asking the artists to change to YOUR expectations, you folks might try pulling the stick out of your collective arses and maybe understand that this book isn't supposed to be the same as the other two TF titles. Once you get past that hurdle, which I sincerely doubt many of you are even capable of, you might be able to actually just sit back and enjoy the entertainment value. It's not a priceless piece of art FFS, it's a COMIC BOOK and the entire lot of you fall WAY short of being professional art critics to begin with.

Your perspectives and priorities are beyond messed up and you all just need to enjoy it for what it is: a few minutes of escapism from your otherwise hectic, screwed up lives.

Having an opinion of someones work is fine but most of you are just pricks about it and are doing it for no other reason than the fact that you can't wrap your tiny minds around something different and that does a disservice not only to the artist but also to yourselves.

You can express disagreement with the opinions offered before your post, CrankyOldTruck, but do so without resorting to personal insults. Thank you.

Hundreds of Transformers characters over the last 3 decades and they give this fan voted boring as scrap, poor man's Mary Sue her own series.

How about an interesting Transformer like Prowl, Countdown or Repugnus?

And she's a bot with hair? C'mon! I so wish Marvel or Dreamwave still had the licence.

And I'll take Corin's art any day over Livio or Wildman!

Windsweeper wrote:Hundreds of Transformers characters over the last 3 decades and they give this fan voted boring as scrap, poor man's Mary Sue her own series.

How about an interesting Transformer like Prowl, Countdown or Repugnus?

And she's a bot with hair? C'mon! I so wish Marvel or Dreamwave still had the licence.

And I'll take Corin's art any day over Livio or Wildman!

Well, I liked the fan created character. And I like how they have brought her front and center. She keeps up a good role, as expected since other people, like those who created her, voted with the hopes she'd be an excellent addition. And with her role, IDW has the ability to add so many more stories, and I like how her ongoing is now the colony centered ongoing.
As for an "interesting character", The Transformers is almost completely "Transformers: Prowl" so to speak, and More Than Meets The Eye is all about the almost unknown and forgotten. And I really like that.
And the only female transformer in IDW to have "hair" so far is Firestar, and she is not in this comic. And it actually kinda works. Just cause we're dealing with robots doesn't mean we cannot explore diversity and new designs.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Windsweeper wrote:Hundreds of Transformers characters over the last 3 decades and they give this fan voted boring as scrap, poor man's Mary Sue her own series.

How about an interesting Transformer like Prowl, Countdown or Repugnus?

And she's a bot with hair? C'mon! I so wish Marvel or Dreamwave still had the licence.

And I'll take Corin's art any day over Livio or Wildman!

Well, I liked the fan created character. And I like how they have brought her front and center. She keeps up a good role, as expected since other people, like those who created her, voted with the hopes she'd be an excellent addition. And with her role, IDW has the ability to add so many more stories, and I like how her ongoing is now the colony centered ongoing.
As for an "interesting character", The Transformers is almost completely "Transformers: Prowl" so to speak, and More Than Meets The Eye is all about the almost unknown and forgotten. And I really like that.
And the only female transformer in IDW to have "hair" so far is Firestar, and she is not in this comic. And it actually kinda works. Just cause we're dealing with robots doesn't mean we cannot explore diversity and new designs.

Hear hear! I agree. I love it when new things are added in to the franchise, even more so when us, the fans, had some say in her development. You may call her a Mary sue but she'll have years of character development ahead, the likes of which we've already seen.

Also with her incursion in the new animated series, I don't think Windblade is going anywhere

As for the comment about hair; well its not like other bots haven't had hair before look at Alpha Trion from G1

ZeroWolf wrote:
Also with her incursion in the new animated series, I don't think Windblade is going anywhere

As for the comment about hair; well its not like other bots haven't had hair before look at Alpha Trion from G1

I completely agree with Windblade going nowhere anytime soon
And yes. Before a single person thinks about complaining about hair, look at Alpha Trion, Wreck-gar or scourge.

Even as a kid I thought the facial hair on Alpha Trion and Wreck Gar looked stupid. Alpha Trion is a horrible cliché. I've always hated him.
There's diversity and there's slaggin stupidity.
I really am getting fed up with this bloody franchise.

What's wrong with the franchise though? Everything seems to be going right for it. Yes there's some creative decisions I don't like but overall those are minor blips.

While we have still only seen the iTunes three-page preview for next week's Transformers: Windblade #4, the IDW Publishing Facebook page have revealed a previously unseen incentive variant cover featuring the main character herself - check it out below!

TRANSFORMERS: Windblade #4 out next week

RI Cover Art: Naoto Tsushima, Colors: Jet Enter
IDW Publishing's photo.

gorgeous me thinks

Absolutely love it. Needs to be made into a poster.

Very nice, windblade is very photogenic. ...For a drawing of a toy

After last week's initial epilogue of the Combiner Wars event in The Transformers #42, IDW Publishing picks up the other strands of the stories from Cybertron and the Council of Worlds in Windblade #4! Check out a full preview below, now that ComicBookResources have posted their exclusive, and head back here later this week for the Seibertron.com review.

Transformers: Windblade #4—Combiner Wars Epilogue
Mairghread Scott (w) • Corin Howell (a) • Priscilla Tramontano (c)
MORE WORLDS—MORE PROBLEMS! After the events of COMBINERS WARS, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM race to recruit the lost CYBERTRONIAN colonies to the Council of Worlds—but which of them will control the fate of Cybertron?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
The COMBINER WARS are over, but the fallout has just begun!
A new universe opens to the TRANSFORMER—will a new CYBERTRONIAN EMPIRE follow?
Featuring the art debut of new TRANSFORMERS superstar Corin Howell!
Variant Cover by Naoto Tsushima!

Good old Knockout. Stylin' and profilin'.

Love Knockout, glad he is back doing his thing.

We know about 4 colonies right?
Caminus
Velocitron
Eukaris
Onyx

What is the fifth one Starscream mentioned?