IDW Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #1 Review

Convoy wrote:A rating too high to post, huh?

Va'al wrote:Someone pointed out elsewhere that this comic is getting a lot of good buzz from comics readers that are not strictly part of either fandom - which is excellent news for the writers, publisher and franchises, to be honest!

It might be one of those gateway series into the Transformers/G.I. Joe published universes, and that can only mean well for future ventures.

SPACE WAR I! Earth makes contact with an alien race - and G.I. JOE is on the front lines of first contact! But when the Transformers arrive, well, let's just say you've never seen TRANSFORMERS or G.I. JOE like this! Visionary comic book maker Tom Scioli (with Transformers fan-favorite John Barber in tow) combine two of the biggest names in entertainment into the surprise breakout hit of 2014!

Visionary comic book maker Tom Scioli (with Transformers fan-favorite John Barber in tow) combine two of the biggest names in entertainment into the surprise breakout hit of 2014!

gothsaurus wrote:I think you have to be an older fan to really appreciate these... having read comics for a good 35 years, I can recognize that this art is homaging a different era of comics... and see it as the tongue-in-cheek, funny project it is.

But for younger or casual fans, it would look really childish and odd. Maybe after reading the trade paperbacks of all the 80s TF comics and the excellent UK series you could warm up to it and see the humor?

DanaCornZine wrote:This is seriously hideous in appearance. I like the idea that we see how some people got their injuries and modifications but I can't get past this artwork that looks like it's done by someone that has no concept of proportions, depth, and straight lines. Sadly, I've been sitting comics out for a few years because the price tag is too steep.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Visionary comic book maker Tom Scioli (with Transformers fan-favorite John Barber in tow) combine two of the biggest names in entertainment into the surprise breakout hit of 2014!

This is the big hit? What happened to everyone loving Windblade?!

Transformers VS G.I. JOE #2
Tom Scioli & John Barber (w) • Scioli (a & c)
BOOTS ON THE GROUND! The war has begun—and no bars will be held! SCARLETT’s forces go head-to-head with MEGATRON’s hordes—and the most off-beat adventure in comic book history hits a new level of dangerous alliances, deadly invasions, and devastating betrayals!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
The comic book event of the millennium!
One world was never enough for this war!
Cosmic action as you like it!
Connecting Variant Cover by Tom Scioli

Transformers VS G.I. JOE #3
Tom Scioli & John Barber (w) • Scioli (a & c)
CYBERTRON INFESTED! The Transformers’ homeworld is crawling with tiny green invaders from the planet Earth—the G.I. JOE team! Also this issue—Funeral for a Friend. Many AUTOBOTS and G.I. JOE soldiers have fallen in the line of duty—but you've never seen a send-off like this!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
WAKE THE DEAD!!! In 3-D!!!
Not actually in 3-D—but you will not believe your eyes! Guaranteed!
The biggest thing ever gets bigger!
Interconnected Variant Cover by Tom Scioli!

Optimizzy wrote:oh man. I just cant like this art. sorry.

I'm sure there are people who do...for whatever reason, but it is, in a word, ugly.

I guess it has nostalgic value...it reminds me of the pictures I drew in 5th grade.

Flashwave wrote:For that matter, why is the purple cyclops calling himself SOUNDwave

Siger wrote:What the hell is up with the size? If Starscream transformed, he'd be 20x bigger than those jets falling into the sea. Same goes for Soundwave, they are all Godzilla sized?

THE WAR AT HOME! But whose home—and whose war?! Interstellar war has never been so cosmic! The G.I. JOE team faces the TRANSFORMERS—on Earth and Cybertron. Plus—just in time for Halloween… meet the OCTOBER GUARD!

Transformers VS G.I. JOE #4
Tom Scioli & John Barber (w) • Scioli (a & c)
THE WAR AT HOME! But whose home—and whose war?! Interstellar war has never been so cosmic! The G.I. JOE team faces the TRANSFORMERS—on Earth and Cybertron. Plus—just in time for Halloween… meet the OCTOBER GUARD!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
The biggest crossover the cosmos has ever faced JUST KEEPS GETTING BIGGER!!!
Ask your retailer about the Tom Scioli connecting variant cover! Connects with the variants for #2 & #3 creating one big piece!

ComicsAlliance: The amazing thing about Transformers vs. G.I. Joe for me as a reader is that it doesn’t feel like it should exist, and I mean that in the best way possible. It has this feeling that there’s no way this book should’ve been approved, because it’s so wild, raw and energetic. How did you get that feeling to come across in this comic?

Tom Scioli: I don’t know how you would get to that point with any kind of comic. Just from my perspective, I’ve been doing comics for such a long time and in such a way that’s very different from the normal career path for comics, so I don’t know how you replicate that. I don’t know how many other people are out there that would be able to have that mix of discipline and self-destructive chaotic impulse to get that. I don’t know, John? Do you have any perspective?

John Barber: To one degree or another, when you’re working on something that’s company-owned, you have to forget about that when you’re working on it, and I think that degree varies. The whole idea was to make something kind of weird, that went out the window at some point. There was probably a minute early on where Michael Kelly, the guy we work with at Hasbro as their Director of Global Publishing, called and he was like, “This isn’t exactly what we talked about.” He loves the book, but at some point, the idea was going to be safer. It’s not like there’s anything unsafe about this, either, but you want to be able to point at it and say “here are these two things that we put together to make one thing,” and I don’t think you can do that with our book. I think that’s what makes it interesting.

TS: I didn’t really know how it was going to turn out either. It’s a project where it’s like “yeah, what would this thing be?” I know that when we first talked about in the beginning, we had that very basic idea of a Jack Kirby take on this sort of thing, but when you sit down to actually make it, all these other opportunities open up. All these other creative things take over, and it outgrows that initial idea. But then it sort of comes back to it. Early on, I thought I wanted to do something more serious than just a straight Jack Kirby rip-roaring adventure, but then it turned into that kind of rip-roaring adventure.

[...]

CA: Along those same lines, I’m a much bigger fan of Joe than Transformers, so most of the Transformers comics that I’ve read have been crossovers with G.I. Joe, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that was structured like this, with the Joes going to Cybertron. Was that just an obvious thing that you’d never seen?

JB: That was there from the beginning. 100% of this comic is Tom at this point, and I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I expect that one day, Tom will just stop emailing me.

TS: [Laughs] I’ll just send you the finish comic.

JB: Right. But every other Transformers/G.I. Joe comic, at least every one that I read, tried to drag Transformers to a realistic level and throw that into the G.I. Joe world. I thought the idea of blowing up G.I. Joe and making them science-fiction, having them live in the Transformers’ world, was there. If anything, Cybertron was the one thing I really wanted to do. But it obviously came out much cooler in the comic than I would’ve thought of.

Transformers vs G.I. JOE #5
Tom Scioli & John Barber (w) • Scioli (a & c)
IT GETS CRAZIER! The biggest space battle ever grows to universal proportions! Will the G.I. JOE team and the AUTOBOTS make peace—before COBRA and the DECEPTICONS end the war… the bad way?!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Rated X wrote:I just don't understand why people like this stuff. You don't see any "He-Man vs. Thundercats" or "Powerpuff Girls vs. My Little Pony" comics ?

Lord Manhammer '74 wrote:

Rated X wrote:I just don't understand why people like this stuff. You don't see any "He-Man vs. Thundercats" or "Powerpuff Girls vs. My Little Pony" comics ?

And the fact you don't see any is a crime in and of itself.

dragons wrote:

Lord Manhammer '74 wrote:

Rated X wrote:I just don't understand why people like this stuff. You don't see any "He-Man vs. Thundercats" or "Powerpuff Girls vs. My Little Pony" comics ?

And the fact you don't see any is a crime in and of itself.

[img][IMG]http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj615/Silverager1969/436.jpg[/img]

morphobots wrote:I believe he's saying one thing that really bugs him is the human/robot scale in the art.

Darth Jumpy wrote:I thought this issue could have used some more focus. I get that it is this series' style to have an entire story encapsulated on one or two pages, but it seems like they kept on skipping the climaxes to the stories. Like the stories that were presented in this issue shows the set up, and then skips right to the aftermath. The Joes fight Blackarachnia, and then it skips to Fort Max being fine. The Joes have to fight their mind controlled pets, but then it is later said in the issue that everyone is fine. Grimlock and Hot Rod fight, and the next scene Grimlock is somewhere else entirely. There are a ton of moments like that in this chapter. I usually enjoy this series, but this was by far the weakest issue. There are even some events that I did not get even after reading the commentary.

Transformers vs G.I. JOE #6

Tom Scioli & John Barber (w) • Scioli (a & c)

THE SMASH HIT OF 2014 BECOMES THE GREATEST COMIC OF 2015! If you thought the war between G.I. JOE and the TRANSFORMERS was out of control before… well, brothers and sisters—wait’ll you get a load of issue 6!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
Heroes fall, but heroism triumphs!
One small step for the G.I. JOE team—one giant fall for the TRANSFORMERS!
Variant Cover by Antonio Fusso!