The Energon Pub

I loved the Dreamwave series and am looking to get back into Transformers Comics. If someone could answer a few Q about IDWs series It would be appreciated!

-Does IDW take any story lines from Dreamwave?
-Does it follow any other previous continuity or is it a reboot of sorts?
-What should I read first?
-Are the Spotlight issues stand alone or do they tie into other stories?

Thank you!

as far as i know IDW hasnt taken any story kines from DW!

yes its a reboot of sorts

as they dont tie into each other, it doesnt really matter whether you read W or IDW first, but as IDW is still on going it'll be easier to get your hands on!

the spotlight isues are standalone pieces but do tie into the main story arc!

ThunderThruster wrote:as far as i know IDW hasnt taken any story kines from DW!

yes its a reboot of sorts

as they dont tie into each other, it doesnt really matter whether you read W or IDW first, but as IDW is still on going it'll be easier to get your hands on!

the spotlight isues are standalone pieces but do tie into the main story arc!

Awesome! That was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks

glad i could help!

my atempt to write out a reading order

cromatic order i tried
megetron origin
spotlight blaster
spotlight shockwave
spotlight soundwave
spotlight ultra magnus

infiltration
stormbringer
spotlight nightbeat
spotlight sixshot
spotlight hot rod
escalation
spotlight ramjet
spotlight kup
spotlight galvatron
soptlight optimus prime
devestation

reading order
infiltration
stormbringer
spotlight shockwave
spotlight nightbeat
spotlight hot rod
spotlight sixshot
spotlight ultra magnus
spotlight soundwave
spotlight kup
escalation
spotlight ramjet
spotlight galvatron
spotlight optimus prime
devestartion
megetron origin

IDW tells superior story arcs.

DW had better single issues.

and the next arc is "all hail megatron" which i think takes place after devestation. (i can always be wrong)

i finaly got all of "war within" (minus v3#2)so yeay. now im all cought up, unless i ever get in the mood for marvel comics.

shadowsfm wrote:and the next arc is "all hail megatron" which i think takes place after devestation. (i can always be wrong)

i finaly got all of "war within" (minus v3#2)so yeay. now im all cought up, unless i ever get in the mood for marvel comics.

What exactly "All Hail Megatron" is is yet unknown.
Theories are that it's the:
- follow on to Devastation (doubtful)
- A series that ties directly into the IDW Furmanverse, but is set either on another planet or in the future
- An "Evolutions" style 4 part Summer story that will not tie into the main IDW Furmanverse.

IMO: Dreamwave had the best art. I really liked its covers. It also unleashed Don Figueroa on mainstream comic readers.

olokin wrote:IMO: Dreamwave had the best art. I really liked its covers. It also unleashed Don Figueroa on mainstream comic readers.

Arguable, although many of Dreamwave's TF artists are already doing TF work for IDW anyway.

olokin wrote:IMO: Dreamwave had the best art. I really liked its covers. It also unleashed Don Figueroa on mainstream comic readers.

I vehemently disagree. Dreamwave had a "house style" that forced its artists to ape Pat Lee's bulky, booby, perception-lacking "style". IDW has most of the same artists as IDW, but allows them to draw accroding to their own styles, which has allowed artists like Figueroa and Guidi to grow and flourish.

JazZeke wrote:

olokin wrote:IMO: Dreamwave had the best art. I really liked its covers. It also unleashed Don Figueroa on mainstream comic readers.

I vehemently disagree. Dreamwave had a "house style" that forced its artists to ape Pat Lee's bulky, booby, perception-lacking "style". IDW has most of the same artists as IDW, but allows them to draw accroding to their own styles, which has allowed artists like Figueroa and Guidi to grow and flourish.

Could not agree with JZ more.

DW art had a tendency to make me skim over the art since it was very much "same old poses". And since the DW layout and script were fairly pedestrian as well, it made for almost painful comics.

CP and JZ are spot on

I've never understood all the hating on Dreamwave. Their Transformers/G.I. Joe WWII scenario rated as nothing less than superb; its dark art style and effective focus on a few characters make for my own favorite TF TPB. And I knew nothing of G.I. Joe. War Within? Also solid. I even enjoyed the main line comics, which featured more than a few original twists on familiar characters.

Ultimately, Dreamwave sold at a time when only a limited fanbase would buy the comics, so they wrote them accordingly. IDW knew it could anticipate a resurgence of interest in the TF universe, and I believe their more complete re-imagining of that universe works out well. Previous posters have brought up some legitimate reasons for preferring IDW, but I personally am glad to have the DW stuff, too.

agreed that DW did indeed produce some good works!

DW had some awesome ideas I'll give them that, I think IDW though has cracked things open and just throttled it into high gear, supremely.

I think the thing about me for Dreamwave is that it all seems so pointless now. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the stories when they were out(I did), but since they're gone now and aren't going to be finished means there's not much point in reading something that ultimately has no bearing on anything else, and also it ended at a point where you could really tell things were starting to become good, so maybe that's another reason why it's a kick in the pants.

Still, Dreamwave gave us a few things: Ultra Magnus without armor(for good or bad), Cybertronian forms(which are still being used more or less), a rekindled interest in Transformers(for me especially), a bunch of cool Easter Eggs, and probably the only rendition of Sunstorm we'll ever see. They also attempted to do something interesting by giving us Micromasters, but that didn't turn out so well .

I hope the same thing doesn't happen to IDW, cause I'm really starting to enjoy the Universe their creating, and it's also kinda exciting cause they use a lot of characters in places you'd never guess. I got Megatron Origins today, and it was really cool .

Dreamwave stories were truly awful "fan-boyz geewunner" stuff (save for parts of "The War Within") and really should be struck from the official TF comics record!
The art was OK in parts, but generally pretty poor.

IDW rocks in both story content and artwork.

Of course, the only truly definitive TF comics story you'll ever need is the UK Marvel comic of the 1980s, but that's a different story....

Magnus' Mate wrote:Dreamwave stories were truly awful "fan-boyz geewunner" stuff (save for parts of "The War Within") and really should be struck from the official TF comics record!
The art was OK in parts, but generally pretty poor.

IDW rocks in both story content and artwork.

Of course, the only truly definitive TF comics story you'll ever need is the UK Marvel comic of the 1980s, but that's a different story....

me doth think the man protests too much!
i for one cant think of a single bably drawn page in a DW comic! admittedly IDW stuff is far superior, but dont you think that your being overly harsh on DW!

I don't see what was wrong with Dreamwave catering to people who were into G1, after all Dreamwave's comic book series came out around the boom of when 80s nostalgia hit the high streets in 2001/2002.

That reminds me though. What's wrong with being a G1 fan? It's sometimes treated like a cardinal sin here. It's my favourite series out of all of them, so does that make me some kind of ignorant "geewunner" too, just because of that?

Optimus Convoy wrote:I don't see what was wrong with Dreamwave catering to people who were into G1, after all Dreamwave's comic book series came out around the boom of when 80s nostalgia hit the high streets in 2001/2002.

That reminds me though. What's wrong with being a G1 fan? It's sometimes treated like a cardinal sin here. It's my favourite series out of all of them, so does that make me some kind of ignorant "geewunner" too, just because of that?

Nope, I'm a G1-only fan too. I think the "geewunner" phrase began to describe people who wet themselves at references to Nightbird, refuse to accept anything TF-related made after 1986 exists, genuinely think seasons 1-2 of the cartoon had better stories than season 3 etc etc.

As for the other poster, I may have been a bit harsh on the artwork of Dreamwave. There was some good stuff. I guess its the stories I hate so much and its hard to detach the art sometimes (though Pat Lee's heavily stylised drawings are, IMO, rubbish).

Constant quoting of Transformers: The Movie and lots of nudge-nudge-aren't-we-clever-winks to your readers does not a good story make!

Magnus' Mate wrote:Constant quoting of Transformers: The Movie and lots of nudge-nudge-aren't-we-clever-winks to your readers does not a good story make!

I can't think of that many instances where they directly quoted the '86 movie, but too many quotes bug the heck out of me! Hearing a line now and then is ok, but I prefer to let the movie be remembered as something good from the past, and to move on, cause that's why I'm reading IDW(and why I read Dreamwave), for new stories featuring cool characters I already know with new insights, not a retread of what's already been done.

I for one miss on what couldve been

ThunderThruster wrote:i for one cant think of a single bably drawn page in a DW comic!

I'm not hating on DW here but I can think of a few. Pretty much the entire issue of "War and Peace" where Optimus meets Hot Rod, Kup et al (issue 4?). On one page there's a panel of Arcee's head (one of the bottom two panels, I think) that looks horrendous. Also, in issue 5 or 6 of the first volume (during the city battle), there's a panel of Optimus in cab mode where not only does he look typically curvy and marshmallowed but also the side of his cab has no window, meaning his side looks more like a red box than a cab! O, and the entire Micromasters series...

There were some other things about DW's artwork that I didn't like, such as Devastator being incredibly huge. Given the size-shifting concept prevalent within Transformers fiction and discussion, though, one can chalk this up to artistic variation rather than poor work.

Of course, sometimes IDW have printed some bad artwork, and there's been a fair few spelling or printing errors (most notably in the mainline books). The Sixshot spotlight wasn't great, either, and while I love Roche's work, his Jimmy and Verity didn't come close to Su's (though, oddly, I loved Roche's rendition of Ratchet's avatar). Generally, though, I think IDW's artists do some great work, particularly Su and Roche (and that fellow who pencilled Devastation #4; I've forgotten his name!).

Leonardo wrote: The Sixshot spotlight wasn't great, either, and while I love Roche's work, his Jimmy and Verity didn't come close to Su's (though, oddly, I loved Roche's rendition of Ratchet's avatar). Generally, though, I think IDW's artists do some great work, particularly Su and Roche (and that fellow who pencilled Devastation #4; I've forgotten his name!).

That'd be Robby Musso. Not to be confused with Rob Ruffalo who was in charge of Spotlight: Sixshot.

Musso also worked on Spotlight Ultra Magnus and Ramjet.