Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Calling it. Rubble is (snip)

Damn, [redacted] hits that hard?

"A bold new era..."

Ouch Scotty hahaha
I’d love to see Bee in a new toy I’m tellin’ ya.

So can we start taking bets this is getting cancelled for being boring and uninteresting? Honestly, I think we're done with TF comics for a while. They had their run. Put 'em to rest for now.

Alright, IDW, you've got me back on board for now; I'm intrigued enough to keep going. But, please, please inject some actual character into your characters.

I know people felt last issue was another regression in pacing, but I was satisfied with it. It was an open and shut issue that told a complete short story, one that actually had a little bit of pathos and some nice character moments.

With this book, I could handle the slowness so much better if the character voices didn't all read the same, and if they actually did things that told us about who they are.

Is Bumblebee excitable, does he get into mischief, does he have any defining character quirks? Just show me something other than him being vaguely sad. If I'm supposed to empathize with him at his lowest, I should at least have been shown, not told, what he was like at his highest.

As another example, take Prowl. He has an organic pet, that's neat. Let's see more of how he interacts emotionally with his surroundings. In the last series, we understood immediately who Prowl was because he flipped tables.

Sorry, rant over.

Dude I don’t think that was a rant at all that was a thoughtful take on it. Well put and not unreasonable at all.

Bumblebee: about to become Bumblejumper?!

Well, I liked 7 a great deal more than 6. Hernandez needs to improve fast or sit on the bench for a bit, their art is distracting when it has to sit next to the work of a legend like Griffith.

Full review later, or maybe tomorrow. Staff is stretched pretty thin so shoot me a PM if you're an active board member in good standing interested in coming on to do comics reviews.

Just in from PopCultHQ is a full six page preview of Transformers #7. Also duplicated here are the awesome alternate covers for this issue including the always incredible Guido Guidi with his Elita-1 featured Retailer Incentive Cover. As listed on the cover images, don't forget: This issue comes with a free Transformers Card Game booster pack. Check out the details and images below and be sure to share your view with the Seibertron crew in the forum!

Transformers #7
Writer: Brian Ruckley
Artists: Ángel Hernández, Andrew Griffith, Anna Malkova
Colorists: Joana Lafuente & Josh Burcham
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Cover Artist:
Christian Ward (Cover A)
Livio Ramondelli (Cover B)
Guido Guidi (Retailer Incentive Cover)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
When another body shows up, Chromia and Prowl feel the pressure to get answers. Bumblebee, meanwhile, applies for a new job—as a bodyguard. But first, he has to impress Elita-1.

I'm really digging the story so far. I agree that I would like to see more character moments for the main cast, but that can be challenging when advancing the plot. Bumblebee has been tied up in most of the major story beats, and we're seeing him react to those, not develop an independent emotional arc. By contrast, we're seeing a lot of Orion's personality, and he has been more of an observer than participant.

There are two elements in the new series that I really like: the increased presence of female Transformers and a much deeper context for the coming war. In addition to Siege toys Chromia and Greenlight, there's also mainstays Arcee and Elita-1. Add in Nautica and deep cuts like Road Rage and Flamewar, and it's clear that gender diversity is here to stay. Hopefully we'll continue to see more neuro-atypical characters like Geomotus. There is no reason that robot bodies can't be every bit as diverse as organic ones.

I was a little underwhelmed at the worldbuilding at first. I loved the moon energy elevator thing and the Cybertronian wastes, as well as the organic enclaves in the cities, but the planet still basically seems like the same one that's appeared in other media. I now feel like I was taking "worldbuilding" too literally - it's not primarily the physical structure of Cybertron that's changing, but the social and cultural structure, which in turn informs the nature of the core conflict. Issue 6 was not just a great character study of two leaders destined to lead a horrible conflict, it also rooted that coming conflict in practical systemic concerns. IDW and even other continuities have played at that with the Senate and social strata, but issues like Energon rationing and population control provide additional justifications for character choices and conflict.

I mean, at the end of the day, do you really need something more complex and less binary than good versus evil to sell kids' toys? Maybe not, but I get more sucked into the drama and personalities when there's more complexity, which deepens my relationship to the characters.

AcademyofDrX wrote:In addition to Siege toys Chromia and Greenlight, there's also mainstays Arcee and Elita-1. Add in Nautica and deep cuts like Road Rage and Flamewar, and it's clear that gender diversity is here to stay.

I think I forgot someone kinda important ...

AcademyofDrX wrote:I'm really digging the story so far. I agree that I would like to see more character moments for the main cast, but that can be challenging when advancing the plot. Bumblebee has been tied up in most of the major story beats, and we're seeing him react to those, not develop an independent emotional arc. By contrast, we're seeing a lot of Orion's personality, and he has been more of an observer than participant.

There are two elements in the new series that I really like: the increased presence of female Transformers and a much deeper context for the coming war. In addition to Siege toys Chromia and Greenlight, there's also mainstays Arcee and Elita-1. Add in Nautica and deep cuts like Road Rage and Flamewar, and it's clear that gender diversity is here to stay. Hopefully we'll continue to see more neuro-atypical characters like Geomotus. There is no reason that robot bodies can't be every bit as diverse as organic ones.

I was a little underwhelmed at the worldbuilding at first. I loved the moon energy elevator thing and the Cybertronian wastes, as well as the organic enclaves in the cities, but the planet still basically seems like the same one that's appeared in other media. I now feel like I was taking "worldbuilding" too literally - it's not primarily the physical structure of Cybertron that's changing, but the social and cultural structure, which in turn informs the nature of the core conflict. Issue 6 was not just a great character study of two leaders destined to lead a horrible conflict, it also rooted that coming conflict in practical systemic concerns. IDW and even other continuities have played at that with the Senate and social strata, but issues like Energon rationing and population control provide additional justifications for character choices and conflict.

I mean, at the end of the day, do you really need something more complex and less binary than good versus evil to sell kids' toys? Maybe not, but I get more sucked into the drama and personalities when there's more complexity, which deepens my relationship to the characters.

Sweet Christmas what a thoughtful review sheesh that makes me want to check it out even more now. Thanks!

Stargrave, did you read the IDW tf series before this?

All of it except for a few of the Dead Universe era one shots basically everything that came with the Humble bundle package offered a few months ago. I collected the old G1 comics and still have most of those even that funny 3D comic with Imperious Delirious, the G2 comic, and some of the Dreamwave books but not a lot.

AcademyofDrX wrote:I mean, at the end of the day, do you really need something more complex and less binary than good versus evil to sell kids' toys? Maybe not, but I get more sucked into the drama and personalities when there's more complexity, which deepens my relationship to the characters.

To be fair IDW doesn't seem all that interested in kids buying their TF comics, IMHO a lot, if not all of them since they got rights have been more focused towards the adult fans which seems more likely given the sad state of comic books now of days and even the Generations/Prime Wars/War for Cybertron/Siege toys seem to be aimed at older fans as well, with Cyberverse seems to be more kid friendly show and toyline.

Happy Tuesday Seibertronians! Just in from IDW's homepage we have a quick detail summary of issues #8 and #9 of IDW's Transformers!

Here's the summary for #8:

"As Megatron seeks to bring about change to Cybertron, he meets with Termagax, a living piece of Cybertronian history and founder of the Ascenticon movement. Will she set him on the path to peace, or lead him to an unrepairable rupture with the Senate?"
AVAILABLE: June 2019
CREATORS:
Brian Ruckley (Author) • Cachét Whitman (Artist) • Beth McGuire-Smith (Artist) • Anna Malkova (Cover Artist)
IMPRINT: IDW
COLOR: FC

And here's the summary for issue#9:

COMING SOON!
"Time is running out! Orion Pax, his friends, and the Autobot security forces have to get a grip on their murder investigations as their superior, Sentinel Prime, makes his return to Cybertron!"
AVAILABLE: July 2019
CREATORS:
Brian Ruckley (Author) • Cachét Whitman (Artist) • Beth McGuire-Smith (Artist) • Umi Miyao (Cover Artist)
IMPRINT: IDW
PAGE COUNT: 32
COLOR: FC
CATEGORIES: (2019) Transformers , Transformers , Upcoming Releases

Then Thanks to a few posts from IDW Manager, Creative Development / Senior Editor Tom Waltz at #Transformers on Twitter we have this nice preview page showing the introduction of the new character Termagax! Per Mr. Waltz's summary:
"In #Tranformers #8 (in stores, we finally meet the enigmatic #Termagax! Turns out she likes to talk smack about #Starscream behind his fuselage just like everyone else."

Sounds like she just may be the mother of all Decepticons, literally!
Is she the new Fallen?
Is she the new Terminus?
Will she help Megatron finally find his love for violet chest mounted iconography?

Mr. Waltz also posted this nice image of Cyclonus from issue #8 on his own Twitter account with the tag line:
"In #Transformers #8 #TheCracksBeneathYourFeet Part 2, #Cyclonus has some serious #Flamewar issues he needs to tackle. Literally."


And lastly also from Mr. Waltz's own Twitter page he's also provided a nice black and white preview image of Chromia from issue #9 with the summary:

"Join #Chromia to find out what dangers lurk in the shadows below #Cybertron in #Transformers #9."

Hopefully that means the series is gonna start to really pick up. At the moment it's meandering a bit too much. They need to focus a bit more, in my opinion.

Big Grim wrote:Hopefully that means the series is gonna start to really pick up. At the moment it's meandering a bit too much. They need to focus a bit more, in my opinion.

I agree with this, a bit more focus would help the story feel better

I have a question: is the writer brand new at this? Or has he had previous experience?

Rodimus Prime wrote:I have a question: is the writer brand new at this? Or has he had previous experience?

He has previous experience.

From IDW Publishing, we have news of a brand new Transformers ongoing book set to debut in September! Titled Transformers: Galaxies, the new series is set to explore the origins of various 'bots in the rebooted IDW continuity via story arcs that focus on one character or group- think of it as a series of extended Spotlight-style stories. Galaxies will be written by Tyler Bleszinski, and art duties will be handled by longtime Transformers artist Livio Ramondelli.






The first arc to be featured in the series will focus on the fan-favorite Constructicons (and a certain original combiner is teased) ! Long Haul, Scrapper, Mixmaster, Hook, Scavenger and Bonecrusher long ago emerged from the aftermath of the war against the Threefold Spark to help rebuild Cybertron. But what has become of them since? Find out this September when the series is released. For now, check out the images below, and let your fellow Seibertronians know what you think in the Forums!

Interesting concept, i can get behind it! Just hope the main story picks up so this can take the spot of filling in the background