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Randomhero wrote:

Their decision they said was due to low orders. That’s their statement whether you want to believe it or not but you weren’t part of the discussion or decision at IDW.

I'm sure the low orders had quite a bit to do with. Many Joe fans I know were extremely vocal in their boycotting the IDW titles until the writer was removed/fired.

We have a number of new comics previews for you this week, from all across the IDW Hasbro Universe. And we're starting with the first issue of the new combined series, that also takes place after the Revolution and First Strike events, featuring two franchises for the price of one - Rom & The Micronauts #1!

This first issue sets the ground for the collaboration and wider stage of the cosmic battles - but very much set on Earth so far - of the Solstar order and the Micronauts, facing the triple threat of Dire Wraiths, The Absence, and Baron Karza. Check it out below, and let us know if you'll branch out with this new series!

Rom & The Micronauts #1
Christos Gage (w) • Paolo Villanelli (a) • Richard Wentworth (c)
Baron Karza and D’rge, the Dire Wraith sorcerer, have joined forces to carry forward their equally malignant goals—Karza desires to conquer all of Microspace (again), while the Wraiths seek to awaken their Wraith God and conquer Earth! Now it’s up to Rom and the Micronauts to form their own alliance in order to stop the evil domination of two worlds! Christos Gage (Amazing Spider-Man, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Paolo Villanelli (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) team up to bring us this all-new adventure!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
An all-new Hasbro team-up event featuring your favorite Solstar Knight and the tiniest heroes around!
Written and illustrated by fan-favorite creators—writer Christos Gage and artist Paolo Villanelli!
Variant covers by Jeffrey Veregge, and Guy Dorian & Sal Buscema!

Coming at us from previous source of comics news Adventures in Poor Taste!, we have a full preview of the first of three issues of the shortly lived series that will be the continuation of GI Joe in the post-First Strike Hasbro Universe from IDW Publishing - Scarlett's Strike Force #1!

You can check out full synopsis, pages, cover and more below, including the significant sass that belongs all the Skywarp (who else) and let us know what you think in the Energon Pub discussion boards.

Scarlett’s Strike Force #1
Aubrey Sitterson (w) • Nelson Daniel (a & c)
They’ve fought back invasions from home and afar—now, they’re back on Earth, and ready to take on the wildest, weirdest threats out there! It’s Scarlett’s G.I. Joe team, the Strike Force, against a brand-new Cobra Commander, a revitalized Cobra, and everyone else trying to conquer Earth… or destroy it! Aubrey Sitterson (G.I. Joe, Street Fighter x G.I. Joe) is joined by superstar artist Nelson Daniel (Clue, Dungeons & Dragons) in The Best Action Comic Ever!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
Featuring all-stars of the Hasbro line as M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand and the Transformers join G.I. Joe in the fight against Cobra!

Is Thundercracker the same size as the humans in those pages?

looks fun, too bad it is only three issues

Yeah, Scioli proved that this can work. I won’t be picking it up beacause-

1) it’s called Scarlett’s strike force instead of G.I. Joe

2) It’s got a small “superhero comic book” type cast. I don’t like reading about the same group of characters issue after issue unless it’s an actual superhero team, like Justice League or Fantastic Four.

Who drew this ****?

TulioDude wrote:Is Thundercracker the same size as the humans in those pages?

That's Skywarp, not Thundercracker, but yes Skywarp is the same size as the humans due to Spectrum's ray.

avarathriul wrote:looks fun, too bad it is only three issues

What do you mean? It's supposed to be an eight issue mini- Oh. Ohhhh. God dang you, Sitterson. RIP GI Joe/M.A.S.K.

Nexus Knight wrote:

avarathriul wrote:looks fun, too bad it is only three issues

What do you mean? It's supposed to be an eight issue mini- Oh. Ohhhh. God dang you, Sitterson. RIP GI Joe/M.A.S.K.

It really is too bad. I had absolutely no interest in GI Joe until I picked up the first strike crossover issues, and realized how insanely fun it was compared to the other recent IDW titles.

For people who know, has all the GI Joe stuff been this great since the relaunch? If so, it's criminal what's happening to this book.

Out this week from IDW Publishing is a collected trade paperback from the Hasbro Universe comics - the second volume of the reinvention of the Mobile Armor Strike Kommand: MASK volume 2 - The Rise of V.E.N.O.M.! The adventures of the team are currently merged in the continuation of the GI Joe story after the First Strike event, in Scarlett's Strike Force, so we have no idea what will happen to either group once the latter reaches issue #3 - but in the meantime, you can find out more about the book in our database entry, and check out a preview for the opening pages below!

M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand, Vol. 2: Rise of V.E.N.O.M.
Brandon Easton, David Rodriguez (w) • Juan Samu, Drew Moss, Andrew Griffith (a) • Marcelo Perez Dalannays (c)
M.A.S.K. is a team of heroes that streaks into the dangerous, unstable landscape of dark wars, high intrigue, and non-stop action where they'll encounter the nearly unstoppable threat of Miles Mayhem and his black ops squadron known as V.E.N.O.M.

THE ORIGIN OF V.E.N.O.M.! As the M.A.S.K. team constructs a new headquarters in Miami, Matt Trakker goes on a solo mission to identify new recruits. Along the way, Trakker crosses paths with Dr. Mindbender, who instructs him on the art of leadership and manipulation. But Trakker quickly uncovers Mindbender's twisted goals and learns the true history of his former teammates who became members of V.E.N.O.M. Collects issues #6–10 and the 2017 Annual.
TPB • FC • $19.99 • 144 pages • ISBN: 978-1-68405-048-2

Bullet points:
Winner of two 2017 Glyph Awards: Best Male Character and Fan Award For Best Work!
Advance solicited for January release!

Courtesy this time not of iTunes but directly the IDW Publishing website, we have a three-page preview for a couple of upcoming comics in the Hasbro Universe, both featuring Transformers in some way! First up is the second of the three issues of the short-lived Scarlett's Strike Force series, a continuation of the MASK and GI Joe teams, with Skywarp for added salt. Check out below blurb and preview, and join the discussion in the Energon Pub!

AVAILABLE: January 2018
CREATORS:
Aubrey Sitterson (Author) • Nelson Daniel (Artist) • Khary Randolph (Cover Artist) • Nelson Daniel (Cover Artist)

Savage jungles, dinosaur fights, magic rituals, Kung-Fu, monster trucks, giant robots, weird science, strange villains and more—and it’s only the second issue! Roadblock’s team continues its hunt for the brand-new Cobra Commander as trouble brews inside of G.I. Joe’s underwater base. By Aubrey Sitterson (G.I. Joe, Street Fighter x G.I. Joe) and Nelson Daniel (Clue, Dungeons & Dragons). No wonder people are calling it The Best Action Comic Ever!

Dinoriders? Now this is the comeback I have been waiting for.

Mediocre graphics in that comic, that vehicle they have looks so out of scale it almost looks like fanart done by a 5 year old.

Beautiful cover. And yeah, the vehicle is pretty ridiculous.

^ That's all I need from this though. I don't need or want tacticool military 'Murica freedom serious time. They're fighting dinosaurs. A large vehicle isn't running my suspension of disbelief into the pavement any further.

I am not sure which is worse here: The writing or the art?

e

ScottyP wrote:^ That's all I need from this though. I don't need or want tacticool military 'Murica freedom serious time. They're fighting dinosaurs. A large vehicle isn't running my suspension of disbelief into the pavement any further.

What, you don't want to see The General* driven through an undeveloped rain forest like it ain't no Thang?











*look it up if you don't know, as Lego joker says "it's probably worth the google"

Count the straight white men. More SJW political stupidity from a discredited comic house IDW. Boycott IDW. Please someone bring back real comics with real heroes and stories. Not just token minorities and women "empowering" about and signaling their own virtue. Nothing wrong with women and minorities, but they have to be realistic in their portrayal. You cant just edit out all the white men, and replace them with minorities because "WHITE MEN CAUSE RAPE AND RACISM". Grow the heck up. Also...that artwork is so bad. I couldn't be forced to read this crap for anything.

Also out this week with IDW Publishing, alongside Transformers vs Visionaries #2, is the second issue out of three (unfortunately) of the follow-up to the series focusing on GI Joe and MASK - with a little Dire Wraith thrown in for good measure - Scarlett's Strike Force!

The full preview below is courtesy of entertainment and comics website Multiversity Comics, take a look, and join us on Wednesday here at Seibertron.com for a special feature on this week's comics. And as always, join the discussion in the Energon Pub.

Written by Aubrey Sitterson
Illustrated by Nelson Daniel
Colored by Ryan Hill
Lettered by Taylor Esposito

Savage jungles, dinosaur fights, magic rituals, Kung-Fu, monster trucks, giant robots, weird science, strange villains and more—and it’s only the second issue! Roadblock’s team continues its hunt for the brand-new Cobra Commander as trouble brews inside of G.I. Joe’s underwater base. By Aubrey Sitterson (G.I. Joe, Street Fighter x G.I. Joe) and Nelson Daniel (Clue, Dungeons & Dragons). No wonder people are calling it The Best Action Comic Ever!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:

· Featuring all-stars of the Hasbro line as M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand and the Transformers join G.I. Joe in the fight against Cobra!

· Variant cover by Vasilis Lolos!

Two comics arrive from IDW Publishing this week that feature Transformers, in the form of Scarlett's Strike Force #2, which is the topic of this review, and Transformers vs. Visionaries #2. These reviews will both be pretty spoiler heavy, as this is meant to assist with comparisons and contrasts with the other book whose review is meant to be read before or after this as a companion piece. You can find that review, for the lastest chapter of Transformers vs. Visionaries, by clicking or tapping on over to this link.

I found myself quite enjoying one of this week's entries in the IDW Hasbro Universe, and really not enjoying the other at all. Which will Scarlett's Strike Force #2 be? Read on to find out!


This is one ridiculous, completely unbelievable, out of this world comic. There are fights against dinosaurs, a caveman that appears from out of nowhere that said dinosaurs kinda listen to, villains turning people into snake people, theories about perpetual energy, impractical military vehicles, a tag team consisting of a guy that controls birds of prey and another that has a full grown pet crocodile, and Skywarp making a phone call. There are only 20 pages, so you're probably thinking there's no way that could all work together in a coherent, meaningful way. If so, you'd be wrong - this is one very fun comic.


Something super important to me for serial comics, movies, or really any story that has an out-of-this-world backdrop like this one does, is that the story never gets so far removed from being relatable that it loses meaning. Scarlett's Strike Force 2 accomplishes this through leveraging its characters and their interactions at every turn. Seen above are Raptor and Croc Master, a pair of campy and downright weird Cobra villains. Some stories would end things right then and there, allowing you to fill in all the blanks. This one doesn't by giving the two very human dialogue, with this bickering working to make them credible as members of this wacky iteration of Cobra but also as characters worthy of the page space they occupy. They still fight Joes together, but they're also given an element that makes you feel like they're still real. This is a distinct difference between some other lesser villains such as, say, Cravex and Cindarr, who I couldn't tell you anything about other than they are Darkling Lords with beards. I think. Maybe goatees.


Another case of this book successfully using charm to ground a story with an insane premise is found in Destro. Destro is, I think, a guy made of metal, at least somewhat. The point is that he's a walking impossibility, he should not and logically could not exist in real life, and that's completely fine of course. He's working for a Cobra Commander in Baroness that seems to have gone loony during her time locked up in Lemuria/The Nemesis. She's having Cobranarchists turned into snake people (seriously), which presumably is leveraged by Crystal Ball's physic powers and their T'mup with Dire Wraiths.

Pretty stupid, right? Destro agrees.

Having him frame what the reader views, with this skepticism right there on the page, gives Scarlett's Strike Force some honesty in its insanity. No fruit is thrown to resolve anything. Like Polly, Destro throws shade to get his point across.


Chances are you're not following this book just for the Joes, as there's the Decepticon Seeker, Skywarp, still helping the team out while they try to work on how to not work on fixing his teleportation abilities. No one's told Matt Trakker about this, and he gets a few moments reminding you why he was one of the parts of the trainwreck M.A.S.K. re-launch attempt that was worth salvaging. Initially, I was concerned this interaction would be it for Skywarp in this issue, and if it were it would continue a status quo that has been brought up and never resolved for 13-ish issues prior to this one. By the end this was alleviated, as Skywarp calls Duke to channel his bottled up frustration into making a deal - I won't go full on spoiler here so that you can experience it for yourself if you so choose, but suffice it to say that I found it to be a smart twist that made me really want to root for Skywarp. Writer Aubrey Sitterson has taken the base "G1" character, honored developments made to him by John Barber, Shane McCarthy, and others, then built on it in clever ways. He doesn't treat the Transformers property as a burden, prop, or distraction in this "G.I. Joe" book, he treats it as a tool and makes full use of it.


The art is a bit of a mixed bag, at least on the surface. Out of context, some of it looks less than great. Within the context of the book (where it actually matters!), Nelson Daniel's lines are fluid, expressive, and well suited for the heavy action focus of the story. Some parts feel like they're channeling early-mid 90s Geoff Senior a little, and while I wouldn't take that comparison too far, it is made as a compliment to the choice made to keep the focus on where it's intended to be. Ryan Hill's colors, though very orange heavy throughout, help distinguish scenes from one another well, with the cold, steely interior of Lemuria contrasting vividly with both the characters within it and with the red, dark, underground feeling of Crystal Ball's P.I.T. For the record, I'm not sure it's actually called the P.I.T., I've been reading Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: The Quintessential Collection and it's rubbing off. Speaking of Scioli, Taylor Esposito handles the lettering work well, and although there aren't too many speech bubbles to navigate there are plenty of fun sound effects throughout that assist with the action sequences.

The covers aren't bad, though I would like to actually see some Baroness Commander channeling the Dino Riders sometime, which is seen on the cover by Harvey Tolibao used in this news story's thumbnail. As always, you can find images of all of the covers and full credits for the issue in our Vector Sigma Database page for Scarlett's Strike Force #2, but do note it does contain a character appearance list that may be considered as spoiler-laden!


This isn't a story without its flaws - the setting sprawls a bit and some parts feel unfocused, with the actual focus on action making for a sometimes-too-quick turn through pages - but the character work that is seen and the dialogue that is presented all feel like they should be there. The introduction of a new character (at least, new to me) in Friday is handled well, with this unintelligible caveman more memorable already than most of the Spectral Knights over in Transformers vs. Visionaries. As fellow comics reviewer/fellow site admin Va'al pointed out to me while we pondered how to go about these reviews, Sitterson had fun with the toybox he was given and I think it shows. There's intriguing development throughout, and Skywarp's call to Duke at the end feels significant not just because of what it is, but because of what it does.

What exactly does it do? It makes me want to read more, and it's a shame there's only one more issue of this book to go.

So cancelled after three issues? How will it be collected?

ZeroWolf wrote:So cancelled after three issues? How will it be collected?

No factual idea, but with Micronauts, MASK, and Rom having Omnibus style editions announced while Joe has not, I assume it will be collected with GI Joe 1-9 in a larger format TPB.

ScottyP wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:So cancelled after three issues? How will it be collected?

No factual idea, but with Micronauts, MASK, and Rom having Omnibus style editions announced while Joe has not, I assume it will be collected with GI Joe 1-9 in a larger format TPB.

Seems a shame as I love off the wall crazy ideas like this.

ScottyP wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:So cancelled after three issues? How will it be collected?

No factual idea, but with Micronauts, MASK, and Rom having Omnibus style editions announced while Joe has not, I assume it will be collected with GI Joe 1-9 in a larger format TPB.

The Scarlett's Strike Force TPB will collect all three issues, plus the First Strike two-part tie-in.

I've said it once, I'll say it again: this series getting canned is a damn crime.