IDW Hasbro Universe: First Strike Details - New GI Joe, Tie-Ins, Covers, More

Now this is where I get a bit worried about the expanded universe - if they're joining multiple franchises into a single book for each, then that not only says bad things about how this is working out from a financial standpoint but it's likely not gonna go down well with fans of each. You were loving the Micronauts but you weren't fond of ROM's story? Too bad, he's in Micronauts now! You were kinda liking where MASK was going but you really couldn't be bothered with GI Joe? Guess what, they're the exact same team now!

And I know, detractors to the Hasbro universe would argue this is already a thing; but for the most part outside of actual crossovers every book in the Hasbro universe was allowed to be its own thing with minimal effect from the other books. You could easily read GI Joe without giving one iota of a fuck about what's happening in Lost Light, and you can have a fine time reading Optimus Prime without really needing to know what that ROM dude's up to. I just hope Transformers is popular enough as a brand on its own to not have the whole "two-franchises-in-one-book" thing happen to it. And what about Action Man?!


One thing I'm very confused about though. Why does GI Joe need to combine with any book? I thought it was the CROWN JEWEL OF THE HASBRO UNIVERSE, surely it was doing fine on its own?

Nope nope nope nope nope nope

Kurona wrote:Now this is where I get a bit worried about the expanded universe - if they're joining multiple franchises into a single book for each, then that not only says bad things about how this is working out from a financial standpoint but it's likely not gonna go down well with fans of each. You were loving the Micronauts but you weren't fond of ROM's story? Too bad, he's in Micronauts now! You were kinda liking where MASK was going but you really couldn't be bothered with GI Joe? Guess what, they're the exact same team now!

And I know, detractors to the Hasbro universe would argue this is already a thing; but for the most part outside of actual crossovers every book in the Hasbro universe was allowed to be its own thing with minimal effect from the other books. You could easily read GI Joe without giving one iota of a **** about what's happening in Lost Light, and you can have a fine time reading Optimus Prime without really needing to know what that ROM dude's up to. I just hope Transformers is popular enough as a brand on its own to not have the whole "two-franchises-in-one-book" thing happen to it. And what about Action Man?!


One thing I'm very confused about though. Why does GI Joe need to combine with any book? I thought it was the CROWN JEWEL OF THE HASBRO UNIVERSE, surely it was doing fine on its own?

I hate to say it, but Action Man will probably go with Kup and join the cast of Optimus Prime.

Maybe TAAO will be replaced by Kup of Action, a buddy comic with Kup and Action Man?

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Kurona wrote:Now this is where I get a bit worried about the expanded universe - if they're joining multiple franchises into a single book for each, then that not only says bad things about how this is working out from a financial standpoint but it's likely not gonna go down well with fans of each. You were loving the Micronauts but you weren't fond of ROM's story? Too bad, he's in Micronauts now! You were kinda liking where MASK was going but you really couldn't be bothered with GI Joe? Guess what, they're the exact same team now!

And I know, detractors to the Hasbro universe would argue this is already a thing; but for the most part outside of actual crossovers every book in the Hasbro universe was allowed to be its own thing with minimal effect from the other books. You could easily read GI Joe without giving one iota of a **** about what's happening in Lost Light, and you can have a fine time reading Optimus Prime without really needing to know what that ROM dude's up to. I just hope Transformers is popular enough as a brand on its own to not have the whole "two-franchises-in-one-book" thing happen to it. And what about Action Man?!


One thing I'm very confused about though. Why does GI Joe need to combine with any book? I thought it was the CROWN JEWEL OF THE HASBRO UNIVERSE, surely it was doing fine on its own?

I hate to say it, but Action Man will probably go with Kup and join the cast of Optimus Prime.

That's probably actually the logical thing to do. Action Man is admittedly only one person (whose book surprisingly did poorly) teamed up with a big alien robot, especially since. It makes sense (to me) for him to join the Transformers and provide a human prospective. Of course they already have plenty of characters doing that, but hey, I'm alright with the human perspective.

Nexus Knight wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Kurona wrote:Now this is where I get a bit worried about the expanded universe - if they're joining multiple franchises into a single book for each, then that not only says bad things about how this is working out from a financial standpoint but it's likely not gonna go down well with fans of each. You were loving the Micronauts but you weren't fond of ROM's story? Too bad, he's in Micronauts now! You were kinda liking where MASK was going but you really couldn't be bothered with GI Joe? Guess what, they're the exact same team now!

And I know, detractors to the Hasbro universe would argue this is already a thing; but for the most part outside of actual crossovers every book in the Hasbro universe was allowed to be its own thing with minimal effect from the other books. You could easily read GI Joe without giving one iota of a **** about what's happening in Lost Light, and you can have a fine time reading Optimus Prime without really needing to know what that ROM dude's up to. I just hope Transformers is popular enough as a brand on its own to not have the whole "two-franchises-in-one-book" thing happen to it. And what about Action Man?!


One thing I'm very confused about though. Why does GI Joe need to combine with any book? I thought it was the CROWN JEWEL OF THE HASBRO UNIVERSE, surely it was doing fine on its own?

I hate to say it, but Action Man will probably go with Kup and join the cast of Optimus Prime.

That's probably actually the logical thing to do. Action Man is admittedly only one person (whose book surprisingly did poorly) teamed up with a big alien robot, especially since. It makes sense (to me) for him to join the Transformers and provide a human prospective. Of course they already have plenty of characters doing that, but hey, I'm alright with the human perspective.

Action Man was always intended to be a 4-issue miniseries.

Daniel Adkins wrote:Action Man was always intended to be a 4-issue miniseries.

The series takes place immediately before the Revolution event in which it takes part; unfortunately, due to poor sales, "Action Man: Revolution" also happened to be the last issue of Action Man, with the series ending after a single four-issue arc.

This implies it was actually supposed to go on longer than the four issues. To be fair, though, I'm getting this off the IDW Hasbro Wiki (the offshoot of TFwiki, for those that don't know) on Action Man's comic page.

Nexus Knight wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:Action Man was always intended to be a 4-issue miniseries.

The series takes place immediately before the Revolution event in which it takes part; unfortunately, due to poor sales, "Action Man: Revolution" also happened to be the last issue of Action Man, with the series ending after a single four-issue arc.

This implies it was actually supposed to go on longer than the four issues. To be fair, though, I'm getting this off the IDW Hasbro Wiki (the offshoot of TFwiki, for those that don't know) on Action Man's comic page.

As one of the admins who helped write that article, that was what we assumed at the time. I conducted an interview with John Barber at NC Comicon Oak City 2017, and he confirmed that it was only supposed to be a miniseries. But thanks for reminding me to fix that.

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Nexus Knight wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:Action Man was always intended to be a 4-issue miniseries.

The series takes place immediately before the Revolution event in which it takes part; unfortunately, due to poor sales, "Action Man: Revolution" also happened to be the last issue of Action Man, with the series ending after a single four-issue arc.

This implies it was actually supposed to go on longer than the four issues. To be fair, though, I'm getting this off the IDW Hasbro Wiki (the offshoot of TFwiki, for those that don't know) on Action Man's comic page.

As one of the admins who helped write that article, that was what we assumed at the time. I conducted an interview with John Barber at NC Comicon Oak City 2017, and he confirmed that it was only supposed to be a miniseries. But thanks for reminding me to fix that.

My apologies if it seemed I insulted your intel, I didn't know that. But anything help!

Shoot, I was really starting to get into ROM since the IDA digital sale. He was one of those rare conduits into the wider galactic side of the transformers universe, and I always really like the concept of multi-species coalitions with their own gimmick like the Solstar Order or the Green lantern corps. It'll be a shame if he ends up stuck in a completely different universe or shrunk down with the micronauts.

Kurona wrote:One thing I'm very confused about though. Why does GI Joe need to combine with any book? I thought it was the CROWN JEWEL OF THE HASBRO UNIVERSE, surely it was doing fine on its own?

Came here to say just that!

Daniel Adkins wrote:As one of the admins who helped write that article, that was what we assumed at the time. I conducted an interview with John Barber at NC Comicon Oak City 2017, and he confirmed that it was only supposed to be a miniseries. But thanks for reminding me to fix that.

Off topic: hey, another NC guy! Raleigh resident myself, always nice to see more folks from the state here!

On topic: intentions aside, Action Man did really poorly from the physical monthly sales perspective. I don't even think 4 cracked the top 300 :/

It's a shame too as it was a pretty decent mini. For the most part it was pretty standard (the whole 'the actually well-trained and experienced people don't trust this daredevil newcomer but it turns out the latter is in fact correct and justified' thing has been done to death), but the characters were likeable and it pulled off a few legitimately well-done and surprising twists while having the expanded universe thing play into character motivations without being overly-intrusive. I honestly think Micronauts aside it was the best of all five new Hasbro books.

I still think ROM has been the best ongoing, because Micronauts hit some major pacing problems once they got to Earth, but Action Man is such a solid standalone story that I will always recommend the trade to people. I'd certainly love to see another series or mini after Revolutionaries and First Strike.

The only good thing so far from the "expanded universe" thing is Action Man and Kup. That is my one jewel from the mess of the past almost year

But Rom is there. Rom improves anything by at least 20%.

From Vince Brusio of Previews World, we have some more information about the upcoming IDW Publishing Hasbro Universe event First Strike - which will apparently change the concept of shared universe even further - courtesy of an interview with the two writers Mairghread Scott and David Rodriguez! The full piece can be read here, but some relevant snippets (such as who is directly involved, and what is the role played by Joe Colton in it all) are copied below - check them out, and beware that some spoilers for current stories are present!

Vince Brusio: What core idea helped to first strike sparks for this story? How did the concept of this Hasbro crossover first begin, and then grow to the point where it took two writers to make it all fit?

Mairghread Scott: The core concept is two-fold: IDW and Hasbro very much wanted G.I. Joe on Cybertron – a fight so big it dragged all the other Hasbro brands into it, and that idea is super-fun! The two franchises have a long history together and it’s definitely something I was interested in exploring. But I wanted to bring a second, more personal, layer to the story and so we hit on our central theme. Scarlett, the head of G.I. Joe is now being pitted against her own mentor, Joe Colton, who seems to be hell-bent on dragging Earth into an interplanetary war!

So it’s not just a question of saving the Transformers, or saving all of Earth, it’s also a question of saving one man in the midst of this who means the world to you. Is it really Colton doing this? Could he be brainwashed or coerced? If not, can he be redeemed? That balance is one we’re really striving for in this book. Big action, but with a big heart behind it.

David Rodriguez: It gives the entire story a great, emotional core. We’re all for piles of ninjas (so many ninjas) and explosions, but having this conflict that the series pivots on grounds it in stakes that are relatable on a human level. And to make matters more interesting, Colton is not a supervillain with a grandiose or cartoonish plan. He is thoughtful, tactical and incredibly dangerous. He’s spent years planning and assembling the execution of this mission. And Scarlett knows that Colton would not have pulled the trigger unless he knew he had a reasonable shot at pulling this off. So even though the Transformers think the humans pose little to no threat to Cybertron, the reality is that the entire planet is in very real and immediate danger.

[...]

Mairghread Scott: Well, fighting global genocide should never take away from petty squabbling. Naturally our primary heroes (Scarlett and her team from G.I. Joe, Matt and Gloria from MASK, Soundwave and Optimus from Transformers) get along fairly well, they’re not without conflict. Lady Jaye throws a lot of shade at people and Soundwave is not a fan of humans, but his character is weirdly adorable. (He’s really trying to be respectful of these vastly inferior, squishable things but…ugh.)

On the bad guys’ side, keeping competing minds like Storm Shadow from GI Joe and Shazraella from Micronauts (who gets a big upgrade in our story) together is a tall order. Miles Mayhem totally lives up to his name and it’s a joy to write whenever he gets cut down a peg. But they’re not the only people causing trouble. Elita One ends up throwing a wrench in everyone’s works when she steamrolls in with her own agenda. Let’s just say she makes Starscream seem like an upright citizen.

David Rodriguez: The twins (Skyburst and Stormclash) might be my new favorites. I wasn't really familiar with them before the series, but after researching them and seeing them in action in the story I am totally smitten. They have so much energy in their designs and personality that its hard not to enjoy every panel that they're on. But what is great about the human characters is that they hold their own in every scene. Any normal person would be dwarfed (in every sense) by the Transformers, but there really isn't anything “normal” about Scarlett and her team. They rise to the occasion and stand shoulder to shoulder with their robot allies. (Well, metaphorically. In the literal sense they sometimes stand on their shoulders. But that's purely tactical). The other duo that caught me by surprise are Stormshadow and Shaz. They need to have their own, buddy-villain, spin-off after this is said and done. Luckily vans and talking animals are easy to come by.

Might wanna put that in spoiler tags, Va'al, considering it spoils the identity of Baron Ironblood.

Daniel Adkins wrote:Might wanna put that in spoiler tags, Va'al, considering it spoils the identity of Baron Ironblood.

Was already spoiled in previous news, and the tags don't show up on the front page due to formatting! It's.. frustrating, but I did warn against them in the write-up.

ugggghhhh, another crossover "mega-event" that de-rails the books i actually care about for 3-6 months and forces in characters that I just can't bring myself to care about.

IDW, please stop trying to be Marvel.

at least they're leaving Lost Light alone. RIP TAAO

Friggin' sweet, more of Elita One! She quickly became one of my faves in TAAO.

Courtesy of Newsarama, we have some more covers for the First Strike comics event happening with IDW Publishing as of this August/September, featuring a number of Hasbro Universe franchises - namely, G.I. Joe, Transformers, and M.A.S.K.. Check out the covers for issues #3 and #4 below!

First Strike #3—Cover A: Freddie E. Williams II—SPOTLIGHT
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a) • Freddie E. Williams II (c)
Secrets revealed! G.I. Joe, the Autobots and M.A.S.K. make their way to Cybertron to stop the siege and encounter the COBRA leader, but all is not as it seems! Will their arrival help—or just bring more disaster?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/13/17

First Strike #3—Cover B: Max Dunbar
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a & c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/13/17

First Strike #3—Cover C: Alex Ronald
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a) • Alex Ronald (c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/13/17

First Strike #3—Cover D: Rob Duenas


Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a) • Rob Duenas (c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/13/17

*Retailer incentives:
Order 10 copies, get one free “Cartoon Noir” variant cover by Jay Fosgitt!
Order 25 copies, get on free variant cover by Davide Fabbri!
Order 50 copies, get one free variant cover by Leonardo Manco!
Order 50 copies of both issues #3 and #4 and get one free variant cover of issue #3 by Whilce Portacio!

Bullet points:
· The Hasbro comic book event of 2017 continues!
· G.I. Joe strikes back! So, I guess you could call this issue “SECOND STRIKE!”

First Strike #4—Cover A: Freddie E. Williams II—SPOTLIGHT
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a) • Freddie E. Williams II (c)
Captured by Transformers! Even with the Autobots on their side, G.I. Joe is in trouble! Starscream doesn’t trust anyone, much less armed humans who show up during Cybertron’s darkest hour and he’ll do anything he can to keep G.I. Joe under control—including let COBRA get even closer to their goal!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/27/17

First Strike #4—Cover B: Max Dunbar
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a & c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/27/17

First Strike #4—Cover C: Alex Ronald
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a) • Alex Ronald (c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/27/17

First Strike #4—Cover D: Rob Duenas
Mairghread Scott & David Rodriguez (w) • Max Dunbar (a) • Rob Duenas (c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 9/27/17

*Retailer incentives:
Order 10 copies, get one free “Cartoon Noir” variant cover by Jay Fosgitt!
Order 25 copies, get on free variant cover by Davide Fabbri!
Order 50 copies, get one free variant cover by Leonardo Manco!
Order 50 copies of both issues #3 and #4 and get one free variant cover of issue #3 by Whilce Portacio!

Bullet points:
· The Hasbro comic book crossover event of 2017 is here!
· Time is running out! It’s G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K. vs. the Transformers vs. the other Transformers vs. COBRA!
· We’re in the home-stretch! It wouldn’t be hard to envision what is coming down the line! No tricks, no illusions, no holograms! So pony up because it is about to get wild! Okay, maybe not everything is part of the shared line, but some exciting stuff is! It’ll be a whole new status quo with all-new books!

[/quote]

...Huh. Maybe we were wrong about Baron Ironblood's identity.

BUT HEY LOOK GUYS, THE SOLSTAR ORDER! Nikomi, Q'b, and Blob Guy are here to help save Cybertron!

the max Dunbar cover......is that Antagony?

Pretty sure that's the "upgraded" Shazraella.

Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

I count two! One in #3 one in #4.

Va'al wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

I count two! One in #3 one in #4.

Oh shoot, you're right! I'll be honest, I thought you guys were looking at the MASK characters for a second. In my defense, one of them was hidden in the corner of the art.

Well that's egg on my face.

TAAO dies in 2 issues, LL has let me down tremendously, and then there is this scrap. in my opinion, ROM has done nothing for the story so far for me. He has made things annoying and not fun. His upcoming crossover with transformers, away from the main story, looks good, but otherwise he has been scrap.

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Kurona wrote:Fat Tankor seems to be featuring heavily in these covers. I really hope he doesn't die.

...There aren't any Tankors on these covers.

I count two! One in #3 one in #4.

Oh shoot, you're right! I'll be honest, I thought you guys were looking at the MASK characters for a second. In my defense, one of them was hidden in the corner of the art.

Well that's egg on my face.

Naah, don't worry. *hands over napkin*

Destro Vs Fat Tankor? Hah. Pound him into a silverstreaked puddle FT!

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:TAAO dies in 2 issues, LL has let me down tremendously, and then there is this scrap. in my opinion, ROM has done nothing for the story so far for me. He has made things annoying and not fun. His upcoming crossover with transformers, away from the main story, looks good, but otherwise he has been scrap.

Rom is the greatest hero of our time and I WILL NOT STAND FOR SUCH SLANDER!

Also, I found this checklist for the First Strike event, as well as the upcoming titles. https://twitter.com/HasbroUPodcast/stat ... 9988284417

Nothing all that new apart from a mysterious "Classified" title that will be launching in December. Hopefully it's a revamped Revolutionaries, because that book is currently my favorite and I'm sad its ending.

EDIT: That checklist came from this preview for First Strike #0 (coming out tomorrow) on Bleeding Cool. https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/06/13 ... -december/ Don't click on it if you don't want spoilers though.

Well if we're talking purely about ROM's appearances in Transformers stories, aside from what amounted to a cameo in Revolutionaries his only appearance has been in Revolution so far, and... and yeah. No-one was portrayed well in that awful thing, and ROM's no exception.

Because some websites are more equal than others, Bleeding Cool have a full preview available for IDW Publishing's First Strike #0 comic, which is out this Wednesda for free and which kickstarts the whole event that will affect the Hasbro Universe in the comics - in spite of the regular IDW schedule and storylines, and straight up spoiling Revolutionaries. Also included in the preview is a checklist for all the comics taking part in the crossover, including a 'classified' title launching in December.

Fellow Seibertronian Daniel Adkins, also part of the Hasbro Universe Action and Adventure Podcast, has done some digging and figured out who the missing series might be about: the long-rumoured Visionaries. Check out the checklist and preview below!

"So that's what happened to Blitzwing"

Still waiting for Zoids to come back

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't "toss out Revolution's main inciting conflict, drone on about Onyx's MacGuffin, and get set for the fourth doom-crisis to hit Cybertron in the past year."

The unexpected nature of the apparent crux of First Strike's high level plot would be good, if only said plot actually was. This looks bad and I can't imagine anyone reading this preview and going "wow, better go put in my subs!"

leokearon wrote:Still waiting for Zoids to come back

Maybe they'll make a return with Grimlock and MP3. And Brandon.

From everything we've seen, it looks like Revolutionaries was designed to flow right into First Strike. And if since we're getting Visionaries after the event and General Blitz is talking about magic, I love the idea that the Talisman has a connection to the magical light. It certainly lines up when you consider that the individual Visionaries all have animal motifs, so tying them into Onyx in the same way Micronus was tied into the Micronauts works.

ScottyP wrote:I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't "toss out Revolution's main inciting conflict, drone on about Onyx's MacGuffin, and get set for the fourth doom-crisis to hit Cybertron in the past year."

The unexpected nature of the apparent crux of First Strike's high level plot would be good, if only said plot actually was. This looks bad and I can't imagine anyone reading this preview and going "wow, better go put in my subs!"

leokearon wrote:Still waiting for Zoids to come back

Maybe they'll make a return with Grimlock and MP3. And Brandon.

What was Revolution's inciting conflict and how are they throwing it out? Not criticizing, I never bothered to read revolution.

I need a clean version of this for my phone wallpaper stat!



But for the time being, this will make due.

ricemazter wrote:

ScottyP wrote:I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't "toss out Revolution's main inciting conflict, drone on about Onyx's MacGuffin, and get set for the fourth doom-crisis to hit Cybertron in the past year."

The unexpected nature of the apparent crux of First Strike's high level plot would be good, if only said plot actually was. This looks bad and I can't imagine anyone reading this preview and going "wow, better go put in my subs!"

leokearon wrote:Still waiting for Zoids to come back

Maybe they'll make a return with Grimlock and MP3. And Brandon.

What was Revolution's inciting conflict and how are they throwing it out? Not critzicizing, I never bothered to read revolution.

Rom killed Joe Colton. Snowball started down the hill from there.

Slightly longer version with important context: Rom killed a Dire Wraith that had taken over the body of Joe Colton, meaning he was dead already.

This throws out that idea which cheapens it for me, and also makes me less interested in the Joe side of things. This is because the way Rev presented the Joes, which then progressed through the new book, was as a smaller group of characters without too much continuity baggage to go dig into.

Is there really much continuity baggage with Colton that wasn't made clear in Revolution/Revolutionaries? He's the original G.I. Joe and former head of the G.I. Joe team. That's all you really need to know. Hell, Colton only showed up with the third Joe series, while Scarlett has been there since day one.

None of my local comic shops got this!

You can get it for free here http://www.idwpublishing.com/product/first-strike-0/

Blitzwing, you deserved so much more than to only show up in awful crossover events getting tortured

Gotta love everyone saying something is awful before its even come out.

Daniel Adkins wrote:Gotta love everyone saying something is awful before its even come out.

Revolution was bad, basically everything involved with the transformers since the hasbro universe kicked off has been crap. It's annoying and the universe should really have not been done, or at least given another full year or 2 before they even attempted it.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:Gotta love everyone saying something is awful before its even come out.

Revolution was bad, basically everything involved with the transformers since the hasbro universe kicked off has been crap. It's annoying and the universe should really have not been done, or at least given another full year or 2 before they even attempted it.

Well you might be able to guess my feelings on the Hasbro Universe based on my signature, but I'm gonna have to disagree with you. Revolution was a fun, bombastic event that had the feel of what we all did when we were little kids, mixing our toys up. It had problems here and there, but it was overall solid. Revolutionaries has been a fantastic title since the beginning and has really helped to flesh out the universe. Optimus Prime has been really solid and enjoyable, while Lost Light has just been more of the mediocrity that started to show towards the end of MTMTE Season 2. And of course, TAAO continued to prove to be incredible with really great character driven stories.
And with the exception of MASK (which is utter garbage) the rest of the Hasbro Universe line has been pretty solid. ROM is great, Micronauts is fun (even if poorly paced at times), and G.I. Joe is really fun, going for more sci-fi action than the realistic military stuff that always put me off from Joe.
What specifically about First Strike looks so awful to you?

Personally speaking I thought Revolution was the worst story IDW's main Transformers continuity has ever put out. Yes, even above All Hail Megatron. Yes, possibly even above Transformers/Avengers. It's thankfully not as bad a comic as, say, Dreamwave; but it's still pretty dire.

Despite that, I kind of love the expanded universe - they've handled it and the crossing over material pretty well so far with only a few outstanding annoyances like Skywarp in GI Joe. The only title affected by it in any way is OP, which so far is only affected by it in extremely minor ways beyond the loss of Skywarp and Kup (who weren't big players to begin with and I much prefer Kup in Revolutionaries anyway), and along with TAAO that ongoing has managed to beat all expectations this year. Lost Light, I'll give you, this hasn't been a particularly good arc (in fact unless we count Dark Cybertron, it might just be the worst in MTMTE/LL's run), but that's nothing to do with the expanded universe.

That said, I'm not looking forward to First Strike as it's looking to be how to do a crossover in the worst possible way. I'm not really able to sum up my thoughts on why this is at the moment aside from the fact that they really shouldn't be following in Marvel's footsteps and doing another huge event comic this quickly no matter how good it is (especially with, apparently, a THIRD huge event crossover planned for 2018). I just wanted to say that as someone who actually enjoys the Hasbroverse for what it is, how it's proven itself in Revolutionaries, how it's shown to not be intrusive in the slightest with OP and the potential it has and as someone who has enjoyed all three Transformers comics this year to varying degrees (four if we count Revolutionaries), I'm not looking forward to First Strike, nor did I enjoy Revolution in the slightest nor do I support the constant yearly event crossovers no matter how much I ardently defend the Hasbroverse. It's getting to a point of frustration and being hard to follow. And I really, really, REALLY do not like that Transformers readers are being forced to care about 5 entirely different franchises which have barely had a chance to live yet. It would be one thing if they'd been around for 3 or 4 years before another crossover happened and we'd gotten a chance to get used to them and the universe; but these are just coming at us so hard and fast it's difficult to accept this as anything but a forced sales push.

And I'm not just saying this as someone who loves Transformers and wants the other franchises to just go away and not interfere in my sacred temple of alien robots. This isn't good for any of the comics involved. Since most only just started in late 2015, they're barely getting any time to develop as their own thing before getting pushed into crossover hell and huge, all-encompassing important events. Even if the comics are good - and a fair majority are better than a lot of people give them credit for - whatever unique identities they have are quickly washed away into a tide of big, important all-encompassing You Must Read This It Is Huge events rather than being allowed to evolve and grow as their own thing. This isn't good for anyone whether they're a Transformers fan, a ROM fan, or someone from outside who just wants to read a decent fucking comic. Optimus Prime, Action Man and Micronauts are all comics I really want to recommend to my friends who don't know their Shockwaves from their Bumblebees, but exactly how enticing is it going to be when the reading order I give them involves so many crossovers that they have to read to know what the bleedin' hell is going on? It's not exciting to get into a new comic and only four issues in having to get involved in a huge crossover involving 5 other comics which you might not have even heard of. And it's not fun having to do the same thing twelve issues later either!

I have to honest, most of my problems here stem from the fact that it's happening so soon. If this crossover was happening in 2021 instead of now, I'd be far, FAR more excited for it! You know why? Because by that point, all these comics would have had time to breathe. I would have had time to read and appreciate ROM, GI Joe etc. on their own as their own individual stories without crossovers interrupting every few issues. I would have grown to love them and the unique identities they had developed. And I would be really friggin' excited to see all those unique identities collaborate together on something truly special that doesn't come around often.



I remember watching a review not so long ago of the Superman vs. Spiderman comic. One of the things specifically brought up in that review due to the comic apparently being a very good example of it was how to do a fight scene. A bad fight scene has just punch after punch after punch with no breaks; where everything is huge and exaggerated and it just gets boring quickly. With Superman vs. Spiderman, you see the wind-up and THEN the punch. You're allowed to see what gives these hits weight, and because they're spaced out much more they hence have the impact they're supposed to have and feel much more important than if they were just one after another.
And I feel the same should be applied to how you treat crossovers. We have to let the comics develop on their own to know WHY them having an event together is important; why it's so significant that this ROM character is fighting this GI Joe character or why we should care about this MASK character working with Optimus Prime. The wind-up, and then the punch. But right now that does not seem to be the Hasbroverse's policy. Its policy is punch, punch, punch, punch, punch.