The Energon Pub

One of the hottest topics on Seibertron.com as of late has been the new Transformers comics series known as "Ongoing" which is being published by IDW. While most Transformers fans are excited to see a new long term series, Ongoing has been controversial from the start due to both some unusual initial storylines and of course some unconvential artwork.

Since Ongoing has now officially hit the stores, the fan reaction and debate figures to continue to grow. We'd like to thank Seibertron.com member Bass XO for alerting us to a US Today article which is sure to stir the pot even further. The article's title is "Optimus Prime quits!", which is certainly not a phrase Transformers fans are used to! Below is an excerpt.

In a move that will certainly stir things up in the comic-book universe, the editors and writers at IDW Publishing have thrown Transformers fans an unexpected curveball.

The debut issue in the new Transformers ongoing series, available today, closes with the most well-known character in the series' history, Optimus Prime, resigning as leader of the Autobots. The surprising plot twist follows the previously-released news that fan-favorite Ironhide dies in this same Transformers issue.

So, why the massive story shake-ups? Series writer Mike Costa says the moves are necessary to advance storylines and push the Transformers brand in new directions.

"This first story arc is all about upheaval and change and what happens when you realize that all the tools and skills you've previously spent your life accruing are no longer effective."

Editor Andy Schmidt agrees with the need for change. "Ultimately, our book is based around a universal theme of 'transformation' and, more importantly, that real change and real transformation must first come from within."

To view the entire USA Today story, please click here!

For even more coverage of Ongoing, be sure to check out Seibertron.com's offical review as well as our exclusive interview with Mike Costa.

Seibertron.com - The Ultimate Transformers Resource!

You do realize that not everybody reads USA Today so probably didn't see their headline. So now imagine those same people that may not have read the first issue yet coming to Seibertron.com and getting a HUGE spoiler on the front page. Really guys???

Fett 526 wrote:You do realize that not everybody reads USA Today so probably didn't see their headline. So now imagine those same people that may not have read the first issue yet coming to Seibertron.com and getting a HUGE spoiler on the front page. Really guys???

The issue is out, so no need for spoiler warnings anymore. Isn't that obvious?

If anything, a headline like this might lead some people to buy it who haven't already due to the curiosity factor.

Blurrz wrote:Watch as Drift, IDW's Posterboy becomes leader of the Autobots.

Call me crazy, but I wouldn't mind seeing them go with someone "OUT THERE" sorta like Marvel did all those years ago with Grimlock.

Just as long as it isn't Wheelie or Blurr!

Delicon wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Watch as Drift, IDW's Posterboy becomes leader of the Autobots.

Call me crazy, but I wouldn't mind seeing them go with someone "OUT THERE" sorta like Marvel did all those years ago with Grimlock.

Just as long as it isn't Wheelie or Blurr!

If the AHM 15 was any clue, Prowl is going to be the one in charge now, whether or not the rest of the Autobots know it!

ponycorn wrote:If the AHM 15 was any clue, Prowl is going to be the one in charge now, whether or not the rest of the Autobots know it!

I would love to see them develop Prowl. He always had a good role in the Marvel comics but much less of one in The Sunbow cartoons. I always liked the basic character.

what's with all the spoiler?
first 3 middle page,
then 8 first page,
then the end of the issue?

do the even want us to buy the comic anymore?

I think Kup becomes the leader with Prowl and Jazz as the top lieutenants.

MYoung23 wrote:I think Kup becomes the leader with Prowl and Jazz as the top lieutenants.

Heck, I could go for that, too.

It's strange, all this crazy stuff actually makes me WANT to read this new series all the more. That's probably what they are banking on.

My Predictions:

Prowl will take charge.

Ironhide will eventually be reactivated into the Classics Ironhide.

Optimus Prime's resignation is fake. Can't see how he could resign for real without getting killed. Permanently.

My money's on Rodimus taking the lead. We've been getting hints of that for a while now.

BATTLEMASTER IIC wrote:My Predictions:

Prowl will take charge.

Ironhide will eventually be reactivated into the Classics Ironhide.

Optimus Prime's resignation is fake. Can't see how he could resign for real without getting killed. Permanently.

Hmmm, possibly. Optimus resigning might end up being one of those stories where the hero leaves, and then when things are looking grim, he'll return to save the day! But we'll see...

I agree with Fett...a spoiler warning would have been nice. Some of us have jobs and families and can't get to the LCS every Wednesday.

Shadowdodger wrote:I agree with Fett...a spoiler warning would have been nice. Some of us have jobs and families and can't get to the LCS every Wednesday.

Yea seriously.

I have the ish sitting next to me, but have not had a chance to read it yet.

But all that said, One of the problems I've had with IDW's run is the general LACK of Optimus in the storylines.

He's always around, but spends more time delegating than actually DOING anything. I always loved Prime because he was a frontline leader, but that has been Prowl's job for nearly the whole run.

And now just when he has a chance to actually do some leading (after taking a backseat to the Decepticons and Dinobots for over a year), he takes off ?!?!?!?

Varia31 wrote:BATTLEMASTER IIC wrote:
My Predictions:

Prowl will take charge.

Ironhide will eventually be reactivated into the Classics Ironhide.

Optimus Prime's resignation is fake. Can't see how he could resign for real without getting killed. Permanently.


Hmmm, possibly. Optimus resigning might end up being one of those stories where the hero leaves, and then when things are looking grim, he'll return to save the day! But we'll see...

Optimus Prime resigns!? Like he wont come back? I mean he's died and come back, whats the big deal with resignation? Wheres the true sense of loss we should be feeling? The tragedy that the leader is gone, and nothing will ever be the same again?

If they really wanted to shock fans, then they should have KILLED HIM PERMANENTLY! Something like Unicron coming up to him, eating his Matrix/Soul, and then stomps his carcass into raw energon, and then he eats the energon. And then something kills Unicron, and the Matrix/Allspark collapses in on itself, and all the transformers suddenly have no way of returning from the dead - EVER, the stakes would REALLY be high then, and injury in battle would actually mean something, THE POSSIBILITY OF REAL DEATH. But maybe thats not their intention...

So resignation does not shock me, they may as well have said "Optimus Prime threw a hissy fit and said 'screw you guys, I'm going home'", doesn't mean I wont buy this comic, because all my whinging aside, it's still a Transformers comic willing to take risks, albeit, underwhelming ones. Oh and the art is weird, but I don't hate it.

Whats a bet they'll make Rodimus Prime the new leader? Season 3 all over again! Brooding, self-doubting whiny loser of a leader! Something the kids can REALLY look up to "Hey look he's really like me after all! He has REAL feelings, he's not some cold emotionless ROBOT that I can't relate to! But he validates my waning masculinity by carrying a big freakin' gun!" <-- I sure hope I'm horribly wrong...

i have a feeling hot rod/rodimus will end up as the new leader. it seems to be heavily foreshadowed in this first issue. i doubt optimus is gone for much more than an arch or two. to be honest ironhide's death is kind of shocking, but it's been done before(the first transformers movie) and with kup around he's kind of redundant anyway. no real need for more than one old fart robot in a book where a lot of characters already need more story time. i kind of hope this whole human versus transformers thing is cleared up by the end of the first arch, but so far this seems more interesting than most of the idw stuff. and the art style, while not my favorite, (ironically that's don's work on the dreamwave stuff), is pretty interesting. kind of classics style meets movie style. hopefully the series will get to a direct autobot vs. decepticon type storyline by the next couple archs, and stay clear of the terrible infiltration and the other -tions storylines.

rpetras wrote:

Shadowdodger wrote:I agree with Fett...a spoiler warning would have been nice. Some of us have jobs and families and can't get to the LCS every Wednesday.

Yea seriously.

I have the ish sitting next to me, but have not had a chance to read it yet.

I apologize, but I stand by my personal decision as the cat was beyond out of the bag by that time.

Here's what you would have seen had you gone to IDW's main page the same day. This is not a link to their main Ongoing page, or even their main Transformers page, but their main page period.

IDW wanted the secret to be out by now, so it was portrayed as such here, also. It wasn't some "lone wolf" decision that I made, more the norm than the exception.

Ironhide dead, Prowl taking a 180 turn, Prime resigns, this ongoing gets better and better... and it's just the first issue.

Still, after seeing the third issues cover, I hope it will be Ultra Magnus taking the lead of the bots.

I'm of the opinion that this is a political move by Optimus Prime, so that the Autobots can repair their relations with the human race. He wants both humans and Autobots to recover from the Great War, and he believes that Megatron is out of the picture, so he decides to remove the other war leader, himself, from the equation as well. This symbolic gesture allows someone new to become the public face of the Autobots, so that they can get a fresh start with the humans.

He could also have personal reasons for this; the two years of being unable to help the human race in their rebuilding had to have driven him insane with guilt, so he probably wants to assuage his conscience at the same time. Ironhide's death (which he could believe is his fault for not considering this option before) probably didn't help. This could explain the panel on the main website page, with Optimus looking like he's surrendering to the humans.

Granted, I haven't read the issue, so I could just be blowing steam here.

So IDW is sollowing the standard pattern of Transformers comics. So what? Throughout comic history, Optimus is always taken out of commission or injured or just not frakkin' there! Marvel did it three times, Dreamwave had Op injured for the full length of their ongoing (the month after they went under was to be "Optimus Prime Month"), even the IDW run started with Prime as a distant authority figure not to be bothered with the small matters of us humans. He up and left again to confer with Omega Supreme during a battle. And he spent half of All Hail Megatron nearly dead with no explaination as to how he miraculously recovered.

Optimus being gone is nothing new. And certainly not newsworthy.

zodconvoy wrote:So IDW is sollowing the standard pattern of Transformers comics. So what? Throughout comic history, Optimus is always taken out of commission or injured or just not frakkin' there! Marvel did it three times, Dreamwave had Op injured for the full length of their ongoing (the month after they went under was to be "Optimus Prime Month"), even the IDW run started with Prime as a distant authority figure not to be bothered with the small matters of us humans. He up and left again to confer with Omega Supreme during a battle. And he spent half of All Hail Megatron nearly dead with no explaination as to how he miraculously recovered.

Optimus being gone is nothing new. And certainly not newsworthy.

Don't forget his stance at the start of "The War Within" which was we should leave Cybertron, it's not worth saving.

I think this became much bigger news because of it being a first issue, and this being the first ongoing Transformers comic in many years.

Really? USA Today has nothing better to report on than on a comic book? Talk about a slow news day!

SentinelA wrote:Really? USA Today has nothing better to report on than on a comic book? Talk about a slow news day!

Call it personal bias, but considering some of the crap called "news" these days, I think it's a pretty refreshing change.

Besides that, the Transformers brand is a huge draw these days, in all forms of media. I think as fans we take for granted how "cool" Transformers is in the public eye as we speak.

Delicon wrote:Editor Andy Schmidt agrees with the need for change. "Ultimately, our book is based around a universal theme of 'transformation' and, more importantly, that real change and real transformation must first come from within."

You know, it sounds like they're either going for "The War Within" which wouldn't be bad, or "Beast machines" which would royally suck.