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Just in from our troops who were at the #SDCC2019 IDW Panel is an update on their upcoming Transformers projects. The panel was hosted by David Mariotte with panelists Tyler Bleszinski, Sam Maggs, Michael Kelly, Erik Burnham, Livio Ramondelli and Brandon Easton.

Click on the video below which starts just a few minutes into the panel for the full run down but here are some of the highlights:

-The panel started off with Transformers Galaxies and where the 12 issue series will take fans.
-The team of IDW Transformers includes Brian Ruckley, Angel Hernandez, Anna Malkova, and Bethany McGuire-Smith.
-David discusses the new direction for IDW Transformers.
-Third arc will start in issue #13. A few covers are shown. As stated there will be "Lots of cop, drama action along with political intrigue."
-Michael states "Giving Cybertron a rebirth before the events that lead to the war was really important." He wants the planet to feel like a character in its own right.
-Livio covers of the Constructicons Rising and mention of "Devastation" being on its way.
-#1 Casey Colier cover and Nick Roche cover both with colors by Josh Burcham.
-#2 and #3 Andrew Griffith cover.
-Alex Milne cover with Josh Perez.

-The Constructicons will span issues 1-4.

-Issues 5-6 will focus on Cliffjumper and will be by Kate Leth and Cohen Edenfield.

-Issue 7-9 will focus on Arcee and Greenlight and will be by Sam Maggs.
Per Sam the Arcee and Greenlight arc will focus on the next Cybertronian born after Rubble, and how being born into war forces individuals to choose sides.
-She states there will be a focus on the challenges of being a young person making up their own mind and finding their own path.
-Beyond stating she has a personal love of cults and is interested in the character Heretech she can't say too much about where the story will go.


-Issue 10-12 will focus in Ultra Magnus and will be by Brandon Easton.
Per Brandon the challenge is to not spoil anything from the other titles coming before his and mentions he is a big fan of Robert Stack who voiced Magnus in the 1986 animated movie.
-He mentions loving how Magnus as a character always seems like power kept in check by ideals.
-He states Magnus's story will take place off world and will have to do with Magnus accepting society as it has become and not as it once was.


-35 years of Ghostbusters and Transformers!
Ghosts of Cybertron written by Erik Burnham with Dan Shoening. Erik states his favorite character to write is Starscream.
-States he had trouble finding Ectotron's voice until he thought of David Hyde Pierce.
-States he doesn't want to say too much and spoil anything and has been done with the title for three months now.

-The panel then goes over the various exclusives available at the con from IDW such as the Ghostbusters Optimus Prime cover to be signed by Erik at the convention, an exclusive cover with the Ghostbusters Ectotron and Optimus all doing the Ghostbusters dance.
-Also featured is an exclusive cover of Transformers vs. Star Trek with cover by Derek Charm, Transformers vs. GI Joe limited edition hardcover signed by Tom Scioli, and a special edition cover of the Go-Bots.

-Also mentioned is Transformers '84! A new series by Simon Furman, Guido Guidi, John Paul Bove that weaves the gaps between the US G1 comic book and the UK G1 comic book! Any fans of the classic comic are sure to be chomping at the bit for this one.

For any GI Joe or Rom fans there's some new titles on the way for them as well and are discussed at the tail end of the video.

Enjoy the view and share your thoughts wiht the Seibertron crew in the forums. Don't forget to stay tuned to Seibertron for all your #SDCC2019 news!

Well, considering what a dud "Bold New Era" turned out to be, I'm very skeptical. I was looking to TF'84 very much, but even that's cooled off a bit. Still gonna check it out, but not as enthusiastic about it.

Yeah, everything I've seen thus far of this new series looks frightfully boring. And between that and the rumours circulating that a certain lying, fraudulent thief who will remain nameless here is now (allegedly) working with IDW on their upcoming Addams' Family comic, I'm not giving them a single penny of my money.

Stargrave wrote:With the current series being where it’s at where would each of you see a cool upswing?

Say you’re the new writer taking the title in a bold new direction, where do you take us?

All perspectives welcome totally just making conversation.

OK, here is mine:

Hasbro seems to be really into the pre-war and post-war eras of Cybertron so I would propose a pair of 12-16 issue maxi-series to set up the status quo.

The first would be called Transformers: Genesis this would be a basic origin story of the Transformers from Primus, Unicron, the 13 Primes, The Titans, how the war starts and ends with Optimus Prime and Megatron crashing on Earth and being awaken in 1984 and would end with the Autobots proving to the humans that they're allies and can be trusted and setting up the next series.

Transformers: Apocalypse this series would jump the series into 2020 with the Autobots, Humans, and Nebulans forming an intergalactic alliance to destroy the Decepticons once and for and all. But Megatron tricks the Alliance into a massive space battle and uses a weapon that keeps all of the hero's ships from escaping and destroys a star and wipes out most of the Autobot massive fleet including command ship that has Optimus Prime, Grimlock, Bumblebee, Prowl, Fortress Maximus, Rodimus Prime, Silverbolt, Ratchet, Scattershot, Blaster, Metalhawk, Ginrai, Star Saber, Windblade, Acree, Elita-1, Chromia, Ultra Magnus, Ironhide, Alpha Trion, Vector Prime, Sentinel Prime, and pretty much every major Autobot leader except for Hot Spot who escapes with others via the space bridge to Earth all the while Megatron and the Decepticons conquer the galaxy.

Now that the Decepticons have won the war ruling the galaxy begins and this is where the story would be broken up into 3 ongoing series:

The Transformers which is the core title and is set on Cybertron. Megatron has won but now has to deal with the ambitions for his throne of the usual suspects Starscream, Shockwave, Scorponok, Thunderwing, and Galvatron. While a young Autobot named Orion Pax begins building a Cybertron Autobot Resistance. But the real here's the real question: is Megatron the real leader of the Decepticons or is someone else leading the Decepticons from the shadows? It's Nemesis Prime and Rodimus Unicornus.


The second title is: Transformers: Earthforce The Decepticons have discovered that Earth is rich in raw Energon but it's so raw that it shorts them out and Megatron sends Shockwave and Starscream to Earth to head up mining energon and Shockwave comes up with a devious plan they will train the people of Earth to mine the Energon for them but it's physically demanding work and takes a lot of high tech skills to mine this stuff but if they offer the humans the training and healthcare they might be able to sell them this. As mentioned above Hot Spot who escaped the Apocalypse is now on Earth and is building a new Earth Autobot Resistance and to add more problems some of the humans love the Decepticon's plans and some hate it and how far will some the Earthforce and can Hot Spot deal with making tough decisions when he's at the heart a search and rescue bot not a guerilla warrior.


The third title is: Transformers: Masterforce and is set on Nebulos and deals with Galvatron, Overlord, and Scorponok and the Decepticon Head/Power/Target/Micro Masters and the Pretenders ruling a world that some of the Nebulans see the Transformers as gods and this series Hound and Highbrow arrive and try to put together an Autobot Nebulos Resistance force and Hound is mostly the POV character having been an Autobot scout on Earth Hound finds himself on a planet that he has a basic knowledge of a tourist and this sets up the world of Nebulos.


Each title would for at least one year be a stand-alone series without having to read the other two and for the most part the Autobots on Earth don't know that are any Autobots on Cybertron and Nebulos and the same with the others. This would change with a three part crossover in the each series respective Annuals called The Signal that has the Autobots Resistance on Cybertron picking up a signal from deep space and we learn the the Autobot command ship has survived and is on it's way back to Cybertron with some new allies and technology and this would lead into the big crossover called The Siege of Cybertron which would run between the 25th issue of each series, where Optimus Prime and company return and help the Resistance Forces on Cybertron, Earth, and Nebulos take back control of the planets.


This is what I would do if I was in total 100% control of IDW's Transformers comics and please note that is rough draft that I banged out in 30 minutes and is why I didn't explain a lot of details. This is also what I was kind of hoping for the All-New IDW Transformers Universe. You get your origin story and TF lore, epic space battles, your topical social/political/religious stories, your ultra grimdark and hopeful stories, world building on 3 different planets, mystery, intrigue, second and third string characters getting the spotlight, and giant alien robots beating the crap out of each other.

I don't like the idea of anyone not Megatron "secretly" leading the Decepticons. It's Megatron, man.

sol magnus wrote:I don't like the idea of anyone not Megatron "secretly" leading the Decepticons. It's Megatron, man.

I can live with it, Megatron varies in intelligence from depiction anyway. I mean Beast Wars Megatron is a far better leader.

ZeroWolf wrote:

sol magnus wrote:I don't like the idea of anyone not Megatron "secretly" leading the Decepticons. It's Megatron, man.

I can live with it, Megatron varies in intelligence from depiction anyway. I mean Beast Wars Megatron is a far better leader.

We all have our opinions.

sol magnus wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

sol magnus wrote:I don't like the idea of anyone not Megatron "secretly" leading the Decepticons. It's Megatron, man.

I can live with it, Megatron varies in intelligence from depiction anyway. I mean Beast Wars Megatron is a far better leader.

We all have our opinions.

My opinion does come with the caveat that I don't care about toon G1 I mean I love Animated Megatron because he was an intimidating presence whose only Autobot equal seemed to be Ultra Magnus with Prime having to work up his way to that level.

There's a dynamic I would have liked to have seen in the comics at some point, a very green Optimus versus top of his game Megatron and watching Op develop as a character till the final fight where Megatron acknowledges him as the one and only threat to his cause now.

sol magnus wrote:I don't like the idea of anyone not Megatron "secretly" leading the Decepticons. It's Megatron, man.

Maybe Megatron does lead but he's not aware that Nemesis Prime and Nemesis Rodimus are in the shadows causing trouble with and/or for Razorclaw, Onslaught, Motormaster, Snap Trap, Hun-Grr, and their respective teams. Also Megatron hates Nemesis Prime a LOT more that he hates Optimus Prime and if he destroyed a star system to try to kill Optimus Prime, now imagine what he would do kill Nemesis Prime.

In the two spin-offs Megatron is not actively leading the Deceptions on Earth and Nebulos it's Shockwave and Galvatron (or so Galvatron thinks) respectfully.

I was trying to avoid a major Decepticon power struggle because that has been done to death in the various cartoons and Marvel and previous IDW comics.

Or maybe Earth could be completely unimportant, as per the initial Furman run of IDWverse? It was just one of many battlefields. Completely unremarkable. That always seemed to make the most sense to me, given the Great War has ran in most fiction for millions of years. Of which Earth was only populated by humanity for the smallest fraction of that.

I'd like a Future book, minus any G1 characters. The Takara series had their own issues but I did like the idea that the leadership/hierarchy changed and evolved as the years went by. It is completely asinine to suggest anyone from the leaders to the front line troops there at the beginning of a millennia spanning conflict would still be alive for the duration.

Stargrave wrote:-Michael states "Giving Cybertron a rebirth before the events that lead to the war was really important." He wants the planet to feel like a character in its own right.

That reminds me of a quote giving the idea behind the last reboot of Robocop. I'm paraphrasing, but the lead actor talked up how interesting it would be to focus more on Murphy...

I'm a bit excited at the prospect of a cliffjumper and Magnus based stories. Magnus has become one of my favorites in the past few years

Stargrave wrote:
-Michael states "Giving Cybertron a rebirth before the events that lead to the war was really important." He wants the planet to feel like a character in its own right.

Hey, maybe they'll have a full-on planet-forming Primus this time!

Latebrus-K wrote:

Stargrave wrote:
-Michael states "Giving Cybertron a rebirth before the events that lead to the war was really important." He wants the planet to feel like a character in its own right.

Hey, maybe they'll have a full-on planet-forming Primus this time!

They sorta did... Just that Primus was hiding in plain sight and one Cybertron transformed... Just not the main one

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I'm a bit excited at the prospect of a cliffjumper and Magnus based stories. Magnus has become one of my favorites in the past few years

I'm not aware about this but i really wanna read it.
so far this comics isn't for me, even sixshot like this wasn't my taste, he was so powerful in the old idwverse, i'm disappointed.
I won't buy the trade.

Just in from iTunes is the three page preview for Transformers #10! Did someone order Six Shot? Six Shot anyone? Surely a phase sixer (or what was formerly known as such in the canon) means some next level destruction is about to take place. Like, one, two...yeah, that's six times the normal destruction. The title is slated to his August 7th, no word yet on if it will also include a bonus pack of the Transformers Trading Card Game.

Enjoy the images and as always share your views with the Seibertron crew in the forums, and stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

Publisher Description
"Fear spreads through Cybertron, leading more and more citizens into the waiting arms of the Ascenticon movement—making Bumblebee’s new job as part of the Guard much more difficult. Meanwhile, Chromia and Windblade follow-up on a lead, but digging up the dirt will put them face-to-face with a new foe..."

Sterile lines delivered by dullards walking and talking about the boring plot of this series.

Anyways looking forward to Galaxies with hope that it can salvage this thing.

I was reading it wondering if it would have said more without the dialogue at all. I mean, I try not to be negative but yawn.

Looks to be another boring issue

Is that beast wars Megatron I see marching there? In his pre-beast wars body of course

The solicit for this issue seems to be what actually happened in the last issue.

You know, aside from the general dullness this comic seems to be exuding, I wonder if part of the problem is that the comic is still being used as a toy-selling vehicle to some degree. Like, all the named characters are either based on existing toys or have precious little effort put into their design. I feel like Hasbro/IDW have put the cart before the horse; wouldn't it be better to create the comic fairly independently, and then if it sells well make toys of the characters people want?

Black Hat wrote:You know, aside from the general dullness this comic seems to be exuding, I wonder if part of the problem is that the comic is still being used as a toy-selling vehicle to some degree. Like, all the named characters are either based on existing toys or have precious little effort put into their design. I feel like Hasbro/IDW have put the cart before the horse; wouldn't it be better to create the comic fairly independently, and then if it sells well make toys of the characters people want?

Nah, cause half the cast are not tpys or are old toys. Granted, Rubble was made to die, but that Elita One has more in common with her Botcon figure than the one she got LAST YEAR. Sox Shot is not an old release per se, but he's not on shelves, Brainstprm wasnt drawn from eithrr of his two recent figures, and there's Froid.

The problem is entirely due to pacing and editting. Different Characters would still be giving the same lines.

The sad part is I really liked that panel with Megs and Bee, it shows Bee's guilt and either gives Megatron a bit of humanity bore his descent into villiany, or shows an early image of him twisting the knife in Bee's spark, but I suspect the former at play.

That's how it should be but I think hasbro has taken the reigns a lot more and thus we've lost the creative freedom IDW had in 2005

sol magnus wrote:The solicit for this issue seems to be what actually happened in the last issue.

Yeah, apparently the solicitations for 9 and 10 were swapped, so we are getting this issue what we were promised last issue.

Also, I really want Megatron to be sincere here.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

sol magnus wrote:The solicit for this issue seems to be what actually happened in the last issue.

Yeah, apparently the solicitations for 9 and 10 were swapped, so we are getting this issue what we were promised last issue.

Also, I really want Megatron to be sincere here.

Which should mean Sentinel Prime, Starscream and Nautica show up this issue.