Declassifying IDW and Hasbro's Comics Merge: Revolution - With John Barber, Cullen Bunn, Fico Ossio

Stuartmaximus wrote:BTW anyone know if that Optimus Prime figure can transform?
coz I couldn't see anything in the article as to whether it could or not

Ironhidensh wrote:

Stuartmaximus wrote:BTW anyone know if that Optimus Prime figure can transform?
coz I couldn't see anything in the article as to whether it could or not

........... That's just a comic book cover.

Kurona wrote:Is there a reason Scarlet's being pushed so much beyond the likes of even Snake-Eyes; as if she's the main representative of GI Joe on equal footing as Optimus? Does she have her own series in IDW's Joe books or something?

Doctor McGrath wrote:

Kurona wrote:Is there a reason Scarlet's being pushed so much beyond the likes of even Snake-Eyes; as if she's the main representative of GI Joe on equal footing as Optimus? Does she have her own series in IDW's Joe books or something?

I know little to nothing about GI Joe but I'd assume she will be the new Windblade/Arcee for that property. Gotta have a strong female lead..

Also, I know Barber said Hasbro had nothing to do with this but man...IDW just happened to brainstorm this "fresh" idea of combining properties mere months after Hasbro announces they are doing it with the movie stuff. Now that's what I call coincidence!

Kurona wrote:

Doctor McGrath wrote:

Kurona wrote:Is there a reason Scarlet's being pushed so much beyond the likes of even Snake-Eyes; as if she's the main representative of GI Joe on equal footing as Optimus? Does she have her own series in IDW's Joe books or something?

I know little to nothing about GI Joe but I'd assume she will be the new Windblade/Arcee for that property. Gotta have a strong female lead..

Also, I know Barber said Hasbro had nothing to do with this but man...IDW just happened to brainstorm this "fresh" idea of combining properties mere months after Hasbro announces they are doing it with the movie stuff. Now that's what I call coincidence!

To be fair, it's not exactly something unique happening with Hasbro. Comics have a long history of creating shared universes, and ever since Marvel's movies managed to pull it off and make it popular a ton of companies have been trying to do it regardless.

ScottyP wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:I feel like this is one of those things, were if I truly express my feelings on the matter, the annoyance, the frustration, the disappointment; I'll get taken to task for being short-sighted.

These were some of my gut feelings. Distilled into just one word, it was "dread", more specifically, it was really the fear of loss.

Counterpunch wrote:I suppose I'll just wait for the material and make up my own mind. If I'm wrong, I'll happily admit it. If the fears come to pass, someone should really be held to the fire for spoiling something great.

I think in a year's time we're going to mark down January 2012 - Sometime in the second half of 2016 as that One Perfect Summer for Transformers comics that just won't be recaptured anytime soon, and will never be duplicated. That said, I'm also going to try and keep an open mind here, and hope that the good stewardship of the brand that we've seen to date will continue. History isn't kind to Transformers in these types of situations though, so we'll have to see if this can buck the trend.

Onto some other things that are not replies to Counterpunch's excellent post. First, It'll be interesting to see how "Team MTMTE" gets shaken up (if at all), because exRID hasn't really been great for a year and Scott's stories just don't interest me. If they break up that band, there better be a damn good reason. Or hell, add Nick Roche to the team as a writer and sometimes artist and wait and see if I complain (I won't.)

A second point I wanted to bring up is my feelings towards bringing other brands in to a (currently) flourishing licensed comics property. I can't say I mind the stuff that's just really started up again like Micronauts, ROM, and even MASK being involved. A lot of circumstantial evidence in both the toyline, corporate press releases, and exRID have been pointing to that and these could be logical fits into this universe with only minimal backtracking from John "Continuity" Barber required. These could be neat if done right (stuff like Circuit Breaker or Death's Head in G1) and not as a one-off crossover brand circle jerk (Transformers vs The Avengers, most of Infestation).

Those franchises really don't bother me, not at all. I'm annoyed as hell that we have to bring GI Joe into this universe. It's like Hasbro dumped the rotting corpse of that franchise onto IDW.

I know that sounds harsh, but as someone that's never been able to admit to being much of a Joe fan, that's exactly what it looks like. I don't care about the characters, I don't care about the fiction, and I don't want them in what's been the "main" Transformers continuity for me for years. A lot of those characters are freaking attention magnets. Hope you're ready for four pages per twenty page book of Duke, Cobra Commander, Zartan, Baroness, Scarlet, Snake Eyes, and Roadblock and Destro and others if they're going to be any kind of fixture in this overall universe, because that's what you're gonna get. Gotta get Bumblebee back in to hang out with POOP GI Joe Paratrooper Steve or whoever other boring military guy character is even though he's super dead so we can have our A-Listers interacting and Protect the Brands

I don't blame IDW for that, it's just a shortsighted Hasbro mandate. If you're into GI Joe and excited for that, I think that's wonderful. That franchise just isn't for me and I think it would have been better left out to it's own pasture to survive or advance on its own.

Blegh, I got going on a rant and that probably mostly came out with a tone I didn't intend. Screw it, here's another way of putting it a bit shorter and wittier:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cyberpath wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

They used the knock-off. :\

StarfireDelta wrote:Everybody wants to be Marvel. We shouldn't be surprised, but the success rate of other companies that have tried to jump on that particular bandwagon has not been terribly impressive so far. Similarly, every games company wants its World of Warcraft, but there's only one World of Warcraft. Lightning doesn't tend to strike twice. So we'll see how well this does. I just hope it doesn't spoil the good thing we've had going with Transformers comics for the last few years.

Which reminds me, I seriously need to get caught up...

ADDENDUM: I echo the sentiments of Insurgent, personally. I have no interest in Hasbro's other properties, with the exception of My Little Pony. And I really don't want to see a Transformers/MLP crossover. Not a serious one, with lasting repercussions for both franchises, anyways. Fortunately, MLP is set in a completely fictional fantasy world, rather than a fictional version of the real world, so that doesn't seem likely. Still the prospect of another giant crossover with titles that don't interest me is what cooled my interest in the Sonic the Hedgehog comics last year in the run up to their second MegaMan crossover and I haven't read them now for over a year now. I'm rather worried about the same happening with Transformers.

Windsweeper wrote:I always thought Rom was a Marvel character

Windsweeper wrote:I always thought Rom was a Marvel character

RevTibe wrote:

Windsweeper wrote:I always thought Rom was a Marvel character

Last time I checked, the situation was that the rights to Rom the character are owned by Hasbro (although they took a winding road to reach them!), but the rights to the villains and setting remain with Marvel. It's comparable to how the Transformers featured in Marvel comics while the rights remained with Hasbro, but some of the Marvel comics characters, like Circuit Breaker, wound up being Marvel's property.

Not sure if IDW have mentioned how that situation's being handled.

Kurona wrote:Basically the way it works is the rights to ROM's character itself was owned by the company that created them; then eventually Hasbro got ahold of them. However... as there was nothing to ROM itself, not even a back-of-the-box blurb, when Marvel came around to creating their series around him, they basically made everything up. So it's less accurate to say Marvel owns ROM's villains, and more to say that Marvel owns literally everything about ROM rather than ROM himself. So... yeah. Pretty funny situation with the rights.

1984forever wrote:Transformers has this rich history with characters and places that have never been fully explored, but yet IDW feels that somehow it's not enough. So now it's another crossover with GI Joe, this time with Mask and Rom and etc thrown in. Maybe if the IDW writers stop using the same characters all the time they wouldn't be so bored with Transformers.

At this point I am hoping that readership on these titles drops low enough so it's no longer profitable for Idw to put out Transformers. Let some other company get a crack at it.

But Autobots and M.A.S.K. both have transforming technology—is there already a connection there? Ryall responds, “That’s an excellent question that I’m going to say will be answered within the pages of the Revolution event series.”

Naturally I had to ask if they were aware of my theory, as seen on Nerdist News, that the marketing for the new Transformers movie is hinting at ROM. The answers were…interesting.

“I got a lot of e-mails after that article got out there,” says Gage. “I think it’s pretty close to the original ROM logo.”

“It worried me,” says Ryall. “I want there to be a ROM movie, but I would like it to just sort of be a new continuity, not something that’s tacked on.”

Sabrblade wrote:I'm not gonna cry foul on this just yet, but I'm still very wary of Revolution coming out smoothly. And I weep for the potential mess this might cause for the Wiki.

Ironhidensh wrote:G.I. Joe is the one that already has established history. A well established history without the Transformers. Asking that we accept the G.I. Joe universe has exsisted without ever mentioning or interacting with the Transformers is simply to big a suspension of belief, for me at least. I honestly think G.I. Joe should simply be rebooted.

Sabrblade wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:G.I. Joe is the one that already has established history. A well established history without the Transformers. Asking that we accept the G.I. Joe universe has exsisted without ever mentioning or interacting with the Transformers is simply to big a suspension of belief, for me at least. I honestly think G.I. Joe should simply be rebooted.

Agreed. Something like All Hail Megatron would have most definitely caught the Joes' attention. A billion people died in it, for crying out loud. That they didn't even raise an eyebrow at it if they're supposed to be in the same universe is beyond baffling.

Starting in September, IDW Publishing is truly opening up its toy box. The San Diego-based publisher announced the "Revolution" event earlier this month, pairing its many licensed Hasbro action properties -- Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Micronauts, ROM and Action Man -- into one shared universe, combining multiple long-running properties in comics for the first time.

CBR has the first full look at a video featuring multiple "Revolution" creators and editors, including John Barber, Brandon Easton, Aubrey Sitterson, Chris Ryall, Christos Gage, David Hedgecock and Cullen Bunn discussing the impending Hasbro crossover, along with a look at art from the upcoming event.

Dr Va'al wrote:Stuff on MASK.
http://www.newsarama.com/29710-idw-s-m- ... -show.html

Today sees the release of IDW’s Action Man #1, which kickstarts a Hasbro expanded universe that brings together several of their other properties including The Transformers, G.I. Joe, Micronauts, M.A.S.K and more. Sadly, My Little Pony is not part of it. To celebrate the comic’s release, we caught up with the man who is spearheading this series – John Barber.

Barber is a man who has been hailed as ‘The God of Continuity’, and has previously worked with Marvel before jumping to IDW and writing for Transformers – both the Michael Bay movie tie-ins and IDW’s on-going series. But now he’s moving into a slightly less known territory of Action Man. So, why use him over more established characters?

“Well, it goes without saying that Action Man is the biggest character in the Hasbro stable,” Barber jokes. “No, I love Action Man, but I kid. [He’s] got a great set of fans, don’t get me wrong, but this comic is really about introducing the character to readers while honoring his history. The lead-up to Revolution is part of the DNA of the book Paulo Villanelli and John-Paul Bove put together. We’re not going to hit you over the head with it on page one, but Action Man is really the first book we’ve launched post-plans about the shared universe—I guess Rom #0 was the first, but Action Man was in that book in preview form, anyway. And Action Man absolutely plays a key role in Revolution—in fact he’s the first character you see in Revolution #1—but we’ll start to see these characters interacting in most of the comics leading up to Revolution (I say “most” as Micronauts is in another universe and More Than Meets the Eye is in deep space so we’re not cramming anything in that isn’t organic to the story).”

Is it going to be difficult to bring in characters from G.I. Joe, Transformers, etc?

“In a way, even though you don’t have to be reading Transformers,” he claims. “Revolution grows from the events in the Transformers comic Andrew Griffith and I do. Optimus Prime has declared Earth is under his protection, whether it wants to be or not. And for a lot of people, “not” is the answer. So when something starts going wrong with Ore-13—a substance Transformers can convert to energon, their food—signs point to the Transformers.”

He adds: “Action Man is one of the first discoverers of how bad things are with the Ore-13 crystals, and his actions cause G.I. Joe to be called in. Meanwhile, Rom’s been running around killing these shape-shifting aliens called Dire Wraiths, and the Transformers and G.I. Joe don’t know what to do with him—they don’t know what he’s up to, but Rom knows who the Cybertronians are. As the story goes on, the Micronauts enter the scene in a big way (no pun intended), and M.A.S.K. is formed… there’s a lot of moving parts, but Cullen Bunn—who’s co-writing the Revolution event with me—and Fico Ossio—who’s doing the amazing art—and I are making sure the story is clear and that everybody has a legitimate point of view and desires.”

......

IDW is no stranger to the world of crossovers, having brought Green Lantern to the world of Star Trek and countless team-ups between Transformers and G.I. Joe. There have also been connecting comics like Infestation, which tied together their on-going comics for Ghostbusters and Transformers but never saw the characters interact.

“IDW’s done really cool, really fun stories where they put together some great characters, like Star Trek/Green Lantern. And Tom Scioli (and slightly me, but Tom deserves all the credit) did absolutely amazing stuff on Transformers ss. G.I. Joe,” Barber says. “Then there have been line-wide stories like Infestation and Conspiracy where there’s a central spine and tie-in comics from different series, but the characters from one series don’t necessarily interact with each other—just with the central spine. I love those stories, but they’re very self-contained – that’s got advantages, of course. Transformers vs. G.I. Joe wouldn’t have the personality or impact it had if ten comics tied into it. But I think with the right project, it’s really great to have an event with big consequences in the comics crossing over.”

So how does Revolution differ? “This is going to have big repercussions,” Barber answers. “The individual titles will all maintain their own identities, their own stories, their own styles—but the canvass they’ll take place in will be this big, unified world, which I think is a ton of fun. It’s really great to have the ability to move characters between books and have these characters interact.”

.....

Barber has been hailed by fans as ‘The God of Continuity’, which makes him the perfect man to take on something like Revolution – as it not only brings together these characters but does so without compromising the stories already told. Is ‘The God of Continuity’ a fitting moniker?

“I don’t know about that,” he says laughing. “When I came on to Transformers, I sort of approached it as an archeologist. I dug in and read everything and took notes and thought about things and tried to see what resonated and what I could build on. I think I got too into the woods with that in places, but it created the worldview I have on some of the characters. Like, I looked at how Soundwave or Prowl were handled, and they were both written really differently by different writers over the years, and I thought through—what would make somebody be like that? What if they really did act all those different ways, what’s their deal? And that led to—I hope—richer characters.”

.....

Barber has written for two different types of Transformers – the IDW on-going series and the comic tie-ins for Michael Bay’s live action movies. “I did the movie tie-in comics first, so a lot of it was just learning how to write, and how to write Transformers,” he recalls. “I think philosophically, there’s a part of me where I wanted to have the high-octane non-stop action of the Bay movies in a comic, and another part that wanted to explore the world in a different way. The Rising Storm series was me trying to write a Michael Bay story in a comic; the Foundation series—which was the first time I worked with Andrew Griffith!—was meant to have a different tone. That was a thing I was thinking about a lot, then. And when Andrew and I came on to the IDW Universe series, it was more about our take on Transformers. We respected the past, but we weren’t operating under, or really reacting to, anybody else’s style. I talked to James Roberts, who was starting writing the other series, and we bounced ideas around and tried to figure out where we could intersect and how we could keep a different feel between the books but still feel coherent.”

But the real question is: who would win in a fight between Bay’s Optimus Prime and IDW’s Optimus Prime…?

“The Bay Prime is more vicious, but I think Optimus in the Transformers comic is more tactical in his thinking at this point, and he’s not exactly a pushover,” he says. “I think the comic book one wins.”

When Revolution was announced earlier this month, there was a large vocal outrage from fans who felt that this ‘cash in’ was going to ruin the stories they’d liked in G.I. Joe: Real American Hero and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. IDW editor Chris Ryall spent a long time on Twitter answering fan queries and concerns, and told them all to trust the process.

“I used to edit Wolverine. I’m used to the internet reaction being negative,” Barber jokes.

But one has to wonder, did that level of negativity have some effect on the plans for Revolution?

“Nope. The plan is the plan and the plan is awesome,” Barber emphatically states. “I mean, there’s pressure, of course – Cullen and Fico and editor David Hedgecock and colorist Sebastian Cheng and I all feel a lot of pressure to not let people down, and to do justice to the characters, and to build a strong foundation to this world. Telling a story has it’s own pressure! A nice pressure, I’m not complaining – it’s great! But I don’t feel any additional pressure based on anybody’s initial reactions.”

One of the big things promised coming from Revolution is that things will change. Big things. Groundbreaking things. So what can we expect?

“Transformers is going to change – the grand, over-arcing story I’ve been telling is still totally in place, now with cooler pieces making Earth a richer, more interesting place,” Barber says. “But the actual title will have a couple big changes.”

He adds: “Micronauts will be on Earth – which is huge (pun completely intended this time); Rom will have new relations to Transformers and G.I. Joe; G.I. Joe will have a big, new mission coming out of Revolution; Action Man will have a pretty interesting remit and goal; and M.A.S.K. will exist, which it doesn’t now. I mean, it’ll do a lot more than just exist! But M.A.S.K. is born in this crossover.”

1984forever wrote:Speaking as a human being in the IDWverse, if the Earth was just attacked by aliens, and one of those aliens offered protection against further attacks by his kind, why would we refuse?

1984forever wrote:Speaking as a human being in the IDWverse, if the Earth was just attacked by aliens, and one of those aliens offered protection against further attacks by his kind, why would we refuse?

PREVIEWSworld: Tell us what you’re on point to do for Revolution. What creative chores have you accepted?

Fico Ossio: I´m doing pencils and ink. And I get to do the characters redesigns, for all the G.I. Joes. And I´m having the first crack at the M.A.S.K. vehicles, which is awesome. I used to own all the toys.

I took some liberties with the Transformers, as well as Action Man. It does all serve the purpose to have them all stand together and have a cohesive look.