Full Preview of IDW First Strike #6 #HasbroFirstStrike
Friday, October 20th, 2017 3:00pm CDT
Category: Comic Book NewsPosted by: Va'al Views: 16,764
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First Strike #6
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a) • Freddie E. Williams II (c)
War for the Core! Deep within Cybertron, the ultimate weapon to kill all Transformers is about to be activated! Meanwhile, Elita One plans to stop the weapon—by killing every human on Cybertron! Either way, looks like some species on Cybertron is going down unless Optimus Prime and Scarlett can save the day…
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
- The Hasbro comic book crossover event of 2017 is here!
- The wild ride ends here! Who will live? Who will die? What will happen to Cybertron?
- Expect both a satisfying conclusion and the start of a whole new era!
- Variant covers by Jay Fosgitt, Davide Fabbri, and Leonardo Manco!
Credit(s): Newsarama
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Posted by Randomhero on October 20th, 2017 @ 3:52pm CDT

Posted by steve2275 on October 20th, 2017 @ 6:52pm CDT
Posted by Randomhero on October 20th, 2017 @ 10:19pm CDT
Posted by ScottyP on October 23rd, 2017 @ 10:10am CDT
^_^
Posted by Va'al on October 25th, 2017 @ 5:03am CDT
(Spoiler free-ish)
Synopsis
War for the Core! Deep within Cybertron, the ultimate weapon to kill all Transformers is about to be activated! Meanwhile, Elita One plans to stop the weapon—by killing every human on Cybertron! Either way, looks like some species on Cybertron is going down unless Optimus Prime and Scarlett can save the day…
Story
And so, the final issue of the second multi-franchise crossover of Hasbro properties from IDW Publishing comes to a close, with some definite repercussions on the satellite stories it spurred - and a distinct flavouring of corporate mandate that taints an otherwise not-that-bad story, if a little by the numbers in the overall plotting. Read on for some specifics!
The issue does conclude pretty much as expected the bigger of the various threads set up by Mairghread Scott and David Rodriguez, with Scarlett and Joe Colton facing off against each other as the rest of the cast sort of feel accessory to the main showdown - but the sustained action sequence is very pleasing, as we've seen before from Scott, and the interactions make it perhaps more poignant than expected.
The coda story, which I mention this early as it picks up the main event of the issue and the arc, is probably the real treasure of the event and the actions of Colton and his band of villainous misfits - and it wonderfully built to fit previously explored and teased moments across the Transformers books in particular - including some from before IDW's presence.
The consequences, then, are varied, but they suffer from the sudden inclusion of property management and company announcements seen in the news cycle until now - see my opening comments - only really allowing the writers to do a lot with what little creative liberties they had in terms of ramifications and character storylines (can't remove all the players from future books, and got to introduce the new ones at some points)
Art
The artwork by Max Dunbar, with colours by Ander Zarate, is on par with the previous issue's efforts - even though some expressions, Colton especially, sometimes suffer from bizarre angles - and there is one particularly well-executed sequence that highlights really well one of the major themes running through the event, and which we've touched in previous reviews too.
The coda story, on the other hand, brings veteran James Raiz together with David Garcia Cruz - and oh my, do they deliver on something which doesn't really need that much of an introduction, but still do it beautifully. The script only acts as voice-over for this tiny scene, but the payoff is big indeed.
Tom B. Long handles the lettering throughout the book magnificently, with the positioning of the script and effects making sure points are heard and jokes land, and in a long action sequence that is never to be underestimated. All the cover variants can be seen, with credit, in our Comics Database, plus you can enjoy the one by Alex Ronald as thumbnail for this piece, too.
Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead
There have been flaws in this event, from editorial (typos included, especially when it comes to Kreiger's name) and company perspectives, that I feel have held back a lot of what the writing team could've done having seen their previous efforts. As I mentioned above, what they were able to do was good in the limits of what they could do, and it's a shame that some of the repercussions were a bizarre, sudden introduction to the next chapter in the IDWverse as this book shows...
The book was able to keep together a fairly big cast of assorted properties, and I was glad to see some of them sidelined to allow for the main story to be told. I really appreciated the parallels between Colton and Optimus Prime, and both of their failings are something I'd like to see revisited soon. And while I am intrigued by the beginnings of the next two major players, the blight of these books (like Revolutionaries, some of the tie-ins, and more before them) confirms itself to be the marketing machine: we knew who both of them were, and we knew it would happen eventually. I wanted to enjoy it much more.








Posted by Kurona on October 25th, 2017 @ 5:40am CDT
Action Man and ROM have nothing to do with what's going on, and the involvement of MASK and Micronauts is so minuscule as to be laughable. There was no reason to make this a big 'all-involved' event like Revolution.
That's the only coherent thought I can get about this right now, but in general I can't say I was a fan. I was a bigger supporter of the shared Hasbroverse but it's getting harder and harder to be optimistic about it each week.
Posted by Bounti76 on October 25th, 2017 @ 5:56am CDT
Posted by ScottyP on October 25th, 2017 @ 7:55am CDT
As far as the issue itself, I can't put my full thoughts down yet because spoilers. I will say that the first 20 pages was complete "meh, s'ok" with one moment so hilariously cheesy, vapid, and overdone that I felt secondhand embarrassment for the creative team, as they were probably told to put it in there. I just imagine the writers laughing while a Suit says "We demand to be taken seriously!"
The last four pages though? <3
Posted by Targetmaster Kup on October 28th, 2017 @ 5:48pm CDT
Posted by william-james88 on October 29th, 2017 @ 9:56pm CDT
V.E.N.O.M.’s showdown with the G.I. Joe team continues as transforming vehicles, robotic ninjas and explosions threaten to bring the mission to a deadly end!
Tying into the events of First Strike—A Hasbro Comic Book Event!
The second part of G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K.’s story—continued from last month’s G.I. Joe: First Strike #1!
Variant cover by Humberto Ramos!
STORY BY
Aubrey Sitterson
ART BY
Ilias Kyriazis
COLORS BY
Mark Roberts
LETTERS BY
Gilberto Lazcano
COVER BY
Drew Johnson, Ilias Kyriazis, and Whilce Portacio
PUBLISHER
IDW Publishing







Posted by Targetmaster Kup on October 30th, 2017 @ 10:37am CDT
Posted by ricemazter on October 30th, 2017 @ 11:29am CDT
Nik Hero wrote:This art is horrendous!
Really? I kind of like it. It evokes the cartoons and old marvel comics without going too far in that direction as to seem outdated.
Posted by ebonyleopard on October 30th, 2017 @ 9:05pm CDT
Posted by ebonyleopard on October 30th, 2017 @ 9:07pm CDT
ricemazter wrote:Nik Hero wrote:This art is horrendous!
Really? I kind of like it. It evokes the cartoons and old marvel comics without going too far in that direction as to seem outdated.
Nah man. Jim Shooter would have never allowed art like this get out of the office with the Marvel header on it.
Posted by Ultra Markus on October 31st, 2017 @ 12:04am CDT

Posted by Va'al on October 31st, 2017 @ 3:23am CDT
Ultra Markus wrote:i thought this was supposed to be mask not gi joe
GI Joe and MASK are a two-part story, like Rom and Micronauts. The cast is the same for both parts, and features the two titles involved!
Posted by Va'al on October 31st, 2017 @ 12:40pm CDT
This month saw the end of the Hasbro and IDW Publishing controlled crossover event First Strike, which pitted against each other every franchise part of the current Hasbro Universe - GI Joe, Transformers, Rom, Micronauts, MASK - and revealed in-story two new directions for the IDWverse hereafter: Unicron and Visionaries. We knew they were both coming, of course, given previous material about them both (see here and here), but now IGN also brings us an interview with editor David Hedgecock on the new status quo and the series springing from First Strike's aftermath: Transformers vs Visionaries, Scarlett's Strike Force, Rom & The Micronauts.
Noteworthy: some of the material covered in the interview, which you can read in full here, was already hinted at and talked around with the Twincast podcast episode 170, which you can find here. Go back and listen, then find some relevant snippets below!
IGN: Unicron is a character who’s been off the table for a pretty long time now, much to the chagrin of his fans. What made now the right time to finally put Unicron back into play? Did Unicron’s “appearance” in Transformers: The Last Knight play a role in that decision?
Hedgecock: We’ve talked about Unicron for a few years now. Its taken that long to get all the players and storylines onto the table in a way that made sense to use him. We’re (almost) there now, and I’m freaking out!
Unicron’s appearance in the movie is entirely unrelated. We knew he was coming in the comics long before we knew anything about the movie. However, there is always synergy with Hasbro’s strategic vision for the Transformers brand.
[...]
IGN: Unicron’s arrival obviously wasn't the only big development in First Strike #6. How will the fallout of this crossover impact the line going forward? What can readers expect from the new wave of Hasbro shared universe comic books?
Hedgecock: FIRST STRIKE was our chance to really explore what it meant for all these different properties to inhabit the same universe. Coming out of the event, the titles are all going to focus on their own stories for a while. The TRANSFORMERS titles in particular are going to focus on just TRANSFORMERS characters for a good, long time.
While we’ve created some interesting mash-ups for the new season of stories, those mash-ups in and of themselves are enough. In 2018, each book will be separate and distinct, and we won’t see much crossover.
Posted by Kurona on October 31st, 2017 @ 12:42pm CDT
Coming out of the event, the titles are all going to focus on their own stories for a while. The TRANSFORMERS titles in particular are going to focus on just TRANSFORMERS characters for a good, long time.
While we’ve created some interesting mash-ups for the new season of stories, those mash-ups in and of themselves are enough. In 2018, each book will be separate and distinct, and we won’t see much crossover.
Thank god.
Posted by o.supreme on October 31st, 2017 @ 1:27pm CDT
Kurona wrote:Thank god.
I agree with this. However it's kind of ironic that Unicron is a big enough threat for the entire Hasbroverse, yet they wont be involved

Posted by Randomhero on October 31st, 2017 @ 2:19pm CDT