Preview of IDW Transformers: Till All Are One Volume 1 TPB

The Combaticons arc (ie what this volume collects) is fantastic and really sets a milestone for the Windblade comics as the place where it gets a huge spike in quality. The previous two Windblade comic series were both fantastic too, but TAAO is where it's really getting good and imo ahead of the main RiD/Transformers/OP ongoing. Not quite MTMTE level, but what is? The only problem I really have is that it can be a bit too short due to not having as many issues to flesh things out, but with what they do have to work with, the team working on this does excellently. Highly recommend.

and I just ordered Transformers 9 and 10, MTMTE 10, and Sins of the Wreckers 2 weeks ago. Should have waited to ship this out too. I'm not getting a TPB until the one with the Revolution one-shots and holiday special come out, so it's gonna be a comic void for now

iTunes have provided us with a sneak peak at Till All Are One #6, as we rejoin the zombie titan battle, with Metroplex down, Knock out upset over some scratched paint, and Sparkstalker and Lightbright making a run for it. Check it out below!

A wave of undead TITANS has touched down on CYBERTRON! Even with the help of the massive METROPLEX, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM can only hold them off for so long. They need help from Elita-1—and they’re going to get it whether she agrees or not. The fate of CYBERTRON depends on it!

Note: Sara Pitre Durocher says that the pages are actually out of order in this preview, and should be Windblade/Sparkstalker/Knockout instead of Knockout/Windblade/Sparkstalker. We'll find out more with the full preview!

I know it's out of order, but honestly I kinda like the pacing this way, kinda makes it feel more like the situation's more dire.

In even more comics news, we have the subscription variant cover for the upcoming Transformers: Till All Are One #6, due out in a couple of weeks from IDW Publishing (short preview here). The image, from Previews World, is mirrored below though we have no indication as to who the authors are - check it out!

is it out yet?

Coming out of a field so left it's almost out of frame, site Adventures in Poor Taste have broken the seal of the preview showing for the upcoming Till All Are One #6 - out next week from IDW Publishing. You can check out some watermark-free images of the pages below, and come back for the review after its release!

A wave of undead TITANS has touched down on CYBERTRON! Even with the help of the massive METROPLEX, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM can only hold them off for so long. They need help from Elita-1—and they’re going to get it whether she agrees or not. The fate of CYBERTRON depends on it!

Bullet points:
· TITANS RETURNS continues—but can our heroes survive?!

· Despite their differences, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM team up… for the sake of CYBERTRON’s survival!

· Variant cover by Zoner!

This looks like an exciting story. I really hope TAAO #9 missing from March solicits was an oversight. I'd hate to see this series end when it's the better of the three ongoings so far.

Is anybody else kind of creeped out by this cover? It's kind of off putting. I will without a doubt be picking up this book of course, but not this particular cover. Seriously is it just me?

Excited as usual for the next issue.

But didn't Vanquish get decapitated in the Drift series?

SynchroBunny wrote:Excited as usual for the next issue.

But didn't Vanquish get decapitated in the Drift series?

There's two different Vanquishes in this universe; one's a Divisiun-born neutral, the other's a Cybertron-born Decepticon. The two writers just didn't realise the other was using the same character, basically.

Aru wrote:Is anybody else kind of creeped out by this cover? It's kind of off putting. I will without a doubt be picking up this book of course, but not this particular cover. Seriously is it just me?

If you are refering to the Windblade cover then yes, very!

padfoo wrote:

Aru wrote:Is anybody else kind of creeped out by this cover? It's kind of off putting. I will without a doubt be picking up this book of course, but not this particular cover. Seriously is it just me?

If you are refering to the Windblade cover then yes, very!

Yeah that one and ok good so it isn't just me then.

Aru wrote:Is anybody else kind of creeped out by this cover? It's kind of off putting. I will without a doubt be picking up this book of course, but not this particular cover. Seriously is it just me?

it is everything wrong with windblade. the character should not exist. and it takes just one look at that image to tell how wrong it is.

Yeaaah, that cover is uh... hm. Not something I enjoy.

Went to the artist's deviant art account (Zoner233 I believe) and this is pretty standard for what's on there. Artist likes cute girls and robots; here are the results. Art seems off to me from what I know of windblade's character, but covers are designed to sell comics. Regardless if you like the cover; the cover is eye-catching.

Yo Fort Max and co. Any of you wanna help?

So... is there a link to that Windblade version of the cover or something?

I love how uncomfortable people are with that cover and no one thinks twice about the cover with a decaptitated head.

Randomhero wrote:I love how uncomfortable people are with that cover and no one thinks twice about the cover with a decaptitated head.

People in the western world are generally more afraid of sex then they are of violence.

you gentlemen(or ladies) have lost me. Which cover bothers you? None of it bothers me.

Sunstar wrote:you gentlemen(or ladies) have lost me. Which cover bothers you? None of it bothers me.

The RI cover with Windblade. I think people are also not noticing the giant sword in her hand. It's a cover of being surprised, of looking like she's been caught. Not a cover of a defenseless woman being jumped in an alley.

Randomhero wrote:

Sunstar wrote:you gentlemen(or ladies) have lost me. Which cover bothers you? None of it bothers me.

The RI cover with Windblade. I think people are also not noticing the giant sword in her hand. It's a cover of being surprised, of looking like she's been caught. Not a cover of a defenseless woman being jumped in an alley.

I'm not sure the sword saves it. I mean yes she is surprised but she also seems to be in danger. The sword being drawn helps that. There is just so much more here though, the pronounced breasts, the uncomfortably small hands, the cock of her hip in a weird way for this situation, and the way her arm goes up to her mouth while its agape is very evocative of those ahhhh screaming moments from films and such. It's over all fairly unpleasant and as somebody said earlier rather sexual, which seems weirdly out of place. I don't know, I mean imagine prowl or Optimus looking exactly like this with hips cocked and delicate fingers it doesn't really mesh well. I'm all for fan service, I mean if you wanted to do the women of GI JOE on a cover at like a beach party in swim suits it be stupid, cheesecake, and I'd be in on the joke. This isn't that though. Am I making any sense?

Aru wrote:

Randomhero wrote:

Sunstar wrote:you gentlemen(or ladies) have lost me. Which cover bothers you? None of it bothers me.

The RI cover with Windblade. I think people are also not noticing the giant sword in her hand. It's a cover of being surprised, of looking like she's been caught. Not a cover of a defenseless woman being jumped in an alley.

I'm not sure the sword saves it. I mean yes she is surprised but she also seems to be in danger. The sword being drawn helps that. There is just so much more here though, the pronounced breasts, the uncomfortably small hands, the cock of her hip in a weird way for this situation, and the way her arm goes up to her mouth while its agape is very evocative of those ahhhh screaming moments from films and such. It's over all fairly unpleasant and as somebody said earlier rather sexual, which seems weirdly out of place. I don't know, I mean imagine prowl or Optimus looking exactly like this with hips cocked and delicate fingers it doesn't really mesh well. I'm all for fan service, I mean if you wanted to do the women of GI JOE on a cover at like a beach party in swim suits it be stupid, cheesecake, and I'd be in on the joke. This isn't that though. Am I making any sense?

no not really. You're reading way too much into this. I've looked up other boards coverage of the preview not a single person saying "this makes me uncomfortable" some even saying "that's a cool cover"

Like I said before, there's a cover with decaptitatwd robot, no one thinks twice.

Randomhero wrote:

Aru wrote:

Randomhero wrote:

Sunstar wrote:you gentlemen(or ladies) have lost me. Which cover bothers you? None of it bothers me.

The RI cover with Windblade. I think people are also not noticing the giant sword in her hand. It's a cover of being surprised, of looking like she's been caught. Not a cover of a defenseless woman being jumped in an alley.

I'm not sure the sword saves it. I mean yes she is surprised but she also seems to be in danger. The sword being drawn helps that. There is just so much more here though, the pronounced breasts, the uncomfortably small hands, the cock of her hip in a weird way for this situation, and the way her arm goes up to her mouth while its agape is very evocative of those ahhhh screaming moments from films and such. It's over all fairly unpleasant and as somebody said earlier rather sexual, which seems weirdly out of place. I don't know, I mean imagine prowl or Optimus looking exactly like this with hips cocked and delicate fingers it doesn't really mesh well. I'm all for fan service, I mean if you wanted to do the women of GI JOE on a cover at like a beach party in swim suits it be stupid, cheesecake, and I'd be in on the joke. This isn't that though. Am I making any sense?

no not really. You're reading way too much into this. I've looked up other boards coverage of the preview not a single person saying "this makes me uncomfortable" some even saying "that's a cool cover"

Like I said before, there's a cover with decaptitatwd robot, no one thinks twice.

I don't think so. It's like when you read over a sentence with bad grammar or is worded poorly you go back and realize why the sentence set off your confusion. Suddenly the flaw are obvious.I don't doubt that other people at other boards feel different I mean it's a huge world out there so why wouldn't there be? I mean there do seem to be plenty of people noticing it here though.
I don't think the decapitated head is relatable though. It's an issue about a large battle and it's within that wheel house to have an example of death or even violence. More so than that it's done tastefully and violence/death is not always done so. You can fail at that in an even more spectacular way than I believe the Windblade one does. The somber colors compliment the titans head as it lays on the ground and the figures standing around convey the size and the weight of the Titans falling on Cybertron. The cover expresses the book very well and with taste. It's a false equivalencey to say that just because one piece of art is handling something more complex and doing it well that another one can't fail or express something extremely uncomfortable while attempting something simpler.
Again what if it was Optimus or Prowl in that exact same posistion wouldn't that seem super off? It would seem super off to me. It's just a hypersexualized piece about a situation of danger and it's hard to not take that as anything other than off.

Dat silly anime face (tiny mouth) on the Windblade cover...

I see a curvy robot lady, with a sword. You're looking too deep into this.

Synopsis
A wave of undead TITANS has touched down on CYBERTRON! Even with the help of the massive METROPLEX, WINDBLADE and STARSCREAM can only hold them off for so long. They need help from Elita-1—and they’re going to get it whether she agrees or not. The fate of CYBERTRON depends on it!



Story

With the weird time shifts of IDW's release schedules - seriously, even continuity has nothing on them - we're still working in the aftermath of Titans Return, and really quite heavily so. Said aftermath continues to provide an excellent backdrop to the evolving dynamics of the Council, and the whatonearthisgoingon-ness of Elita-1 and her Titan Carcer. How? Read on...



An issue which rolls much faster than the previous one, which was more focused on build-up than resolution, we start to see the direct consequence of having called all major players into play, and Elita One still unwilling to lend a hand - because something is up with Carcer, as everyone knows by now.



Though there is plenty of character building in the various scenes across the issue, and Windblade, Ironhide, Starscream, and even Metroplex get a good dose, the one that stood out the most was Obsidian, this time round. We've seen him loving his tiny 'gotcha' screens, being imposing and menacing and lurking and looming - we get to see a very different side of him, now that he's next to his First. She's probably worse things than him.



Mairghread Scott has also been able to do some subtle characterisation of the various names and faces that appear in group shots - keep an eye out for all of them as you dodge lasers, blasters, missiles. I have some further thoughts on the issue in terms of plot, but more on that below, of course.

Art

There is a lot happening all at once. It's a giant battle with giant Titans, occurring both in space and on Cybertron. It's a big canvas. Sara Pitre Durocher fills it masterfully, using panels, action layouts, character interactions and page breaks to convey the sheer scale of the event and of its impact upon Starscream's current rule, along with the Council.



And if crowd and battle scenes weren't hard enough for lineart, colourist Joana Lafuente blends her skill with equal mastery, and makes individuals in a crowd stand out, from the guards around Ironhide, to the Titans attacking, to the faces appearing between convicts, citizens, dwellers and ex-colonists. That, and we still have some excellent space scenes, too.



Tom B. Long, still on letters as we've come to expect, still delivers (as we've also come to expect) in fonts, captions, and interplaying the two and more into a coherent part of the visual storytelling. Metroplex's speech-style is still one of the highlights of this book, and so very nice to look at. We also then have Pitre Durocher on main cover, with a similar, echoing variant by Priscilla Tramontano (thumbnailed), plus a continuation of fan artist spotlights with Zoner taking a turn on RI.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

Diplomacy also means strategy. Leadership also means compromise. Both definitely mean tough choices, and the unique mix of Windblade and Starscream's takes on the current situation at hand brings out a definitely intriguing and potentially incredibly consequential storyline revolving yes around Carcer, but also Metroplex, but even more also - and particularly - Elita-1.



As I said above, I like Obsidian's 'new' side, I like his interaction with Elita, I like that Windblade and Starscream are collaborating on a difficult task, I like that we have a side-support from Chromia, I like that we have everyone - and I mean everyone - in the issue (Check out ScottyP's spoilery character roster in our database!). I like that I have no idea where this is going. I can only think of other Titans, past storylines, speculate, and mostly, just wait for the evil to unfold. Join me?

It's honestly amazing how good TAAO has gotten. It deserves to be an ongoing so much; the few issues it gets right now do not do it justice.

Agreed. It feels more like the natural continuation of RiD (which I always preferred to MTMTE) rather than Windblade Vol 3.

They should have clearly labeled this as part of Titans Return.

Nik Hero wrote:They should have clearly labeled this as part of Titans Return.

It is, in the blurb/synopsis of last issue. The fact that it's not happening before Revolution is entirely IDW's scheduling fault. They're.. not very good at keeping schedules to schedule.

o.supreme wrote:Agreed. It feels more like the natural continuation of RiD (which I always preferred to MTMTE) rather than Windblade Vol 3.

To be fair, Windblade's books have all been about Cybertron and it's relations with other planets. So in that sense, Windblade has always felt like a continuation of the political side of things with Starscream and such in pre-Dark Cybertron RiD while post-Dark Cybertron RiD feels like a continuation of the whole Orion Pax thing in pre-Dark Cybertron RiD.

True. I guess what I'm getting at is I've pretty much preferred any TF story that wasn't MTMTE since the whole MTMTE/RiD era in the last 5 years. I know its a fan favorite, but I tend to enjoy more the stuff going on with Cybertron, and Optimus Prime (which were once the same, now are separate stories)

Dr Va'al wrote:

Nik Hero wrote:They should have clearly labeled this as part of Titans Return.

It is, in the blurb/synopsis of last issue. The fact that it's not happening before Revolution is entirely IDW's scheduling fault. They're.. not very good at keeping schedules to schedule.

I bet it would have sold more with the label on the front.

Dr Va'al wrote:

Nik Hero wrote:They should have clearly labeled this as part of Titans Return.

It is, in the blurb/synopsis of last issue. The fact that it's not happening before Revolution is entirely IDW's scheduling fault. They're.. not very good at keeping schedules to schedule.

Va'al, I checked out the database like you suggested, and I was surprised to see Slammer listed among the characters. I've studied every panel and can't see Slammer anywhere, unless he's got a robot mode that has hithertofore been unseen in the last 30 years.

Bounti76 wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Nik Hero wrote:They should have clearly labeled this as part of Titans Return.

It is, in the blurb/synopsis of last issue. The fact that it's not happening before Revolution is entirely IDW's scheduling fault. They're.. not very good at keeping schedules to schedule.

Va'al, I checked out the database like you suggested, and I was surprised to see Slammer listed among the characters. I've studied every panel and can't see Slammer anywhere, unless he's got a robot mode that has hithertofore been unseen in the last 30 years.

ScottyP suggests that one of the guards - the one you see shouting at people, I believe - is in fact slammer, mostly due to the presence of Metroplex in the story. I cannot confirm or deny either way, but it's worth considering as an option!

Fellow Seibertronian Bounti76 has found an update on IDW writer Mairghread Scott's blog, concerning the lack of a Transformers: Till All Are One in the March 2017 solicitations (which you can find here). Apparently, this is just a scheduled one month break, and not a cancellation or delay. Read more about it below!

Noticed there was no TAAO issue in the March solicitations; it's not cancelled, is it? D:

Nope. We’re just taking a month off for Sara to catch up. Unlike our characters (or like them, depending on how you define it) she is not a machine.

Dr Va'al wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Nik Hero wrote:They should have clearly labeled this as part of Titans Return.

It is, in the blurb/synopsis of last issue. The fact that it's not happening before Revolution is entirely IDW's scheduling fault. They're.. not very good at keeping schedules to schedule.

Va'al, I checked out the database like you suggested, and I was surprised to see Slammer listed among the characters. I've studied every panel and can't see Slammer anywhere, unless he's got a robot mode that has hithertofore been unseen in the last 30 years.

ScottyP suggests that one of the guards - the one you see shouting at people, I believe - is in fact slammer, mostly due to the presence of Metroplex in the story. I cannot confirm or deny either way, but it's worth considering as an option!

That's fair. Considering we have such obscure characters as Greenlight, Lancer, Moonracer and the Devisen twins in this story, I wouldn't put it past Scott to slip Slammer into one of the issues. Though given that TAAO generally hews close to 'bots classic color schemes and Slammer's color scheme has always been white-on-white, and this bot's is predominantly gray.....eh, if it is Slammer, maybe Scott, Pitre-DuRocher and LaFuente are taking creative liberties with him, since he's never appeared in robot form before.

Like I said weeks ago, probably just taking the month off. If it was canceled IDW would announce it.

Bounti76 wrote:That's fair. Considering we have such obscure characters as Greenlight, Lancer, Moonracer and the Devisen twins in this story, I wouldn't put it past Scott to slip Slammer into one of the issues. Though given that TAAO generally hews close to 'bots classic color schemes and Slammer's color scheme has always been white-on-white, and this bot's is predominantly gray.....eh, if it is Slammer, maybe Scott, Pitre-DuRocher and LaFuente are taking creative liberties with him, since he's never appeared in robot form before.

It's a case of me having fun with it for one, but also making the most educated guess that I can. If it comes out 'officially' that it's just a generic 'bot, I'll take it out of there pronto

I did say educated guess and you were right to say that Slammer never had a robot mode. However, in the spoopy world of third party Transformers, the Iron Factory Generations Metroplex upgrade set came with a Slammer that has a bot mode that's at least a little like the one drawn in the book:


On another note, very glad to see that this is continuing on in April, and also glad they just skipped March instead of throwing out a solicitation that might not make it in.

I'm less concerned about skipping a month and once again we have ANOTHER artist that can't keep up. Guess that's what happens when you pull people from tumblr and deviantart. Be great if we could see the return of some artist who actually have experience in drawing monthly comics.

Yeah it's a shame that we're still using humans that have lives and the such. How dare they.

Dr Va'al wrote:Yeah it's a shame that we're still using humans that have lives and the such. How dare they.

Nothing stopped Mark bagley frrom drawing 111 issues of ultimate Spider man in the span of 7 years. That's almost 2 issues a month continuiously through out his whole time on the book. Same with Charlie adlard on walking dead for 13 years. WD got delayed a couple times but never a point of slipping an actual solicitation. I'm just saying if you can't meet the monthly deadline then don't commit to it. That's why Sarah stone isn't drawing for Transformers anymore, she did great work but couldn't do the monthly deadline and drawing comics isn't a hobby it's a job.when you can't do it, a new artist comes in that can do it because when you miss a month, sales get smaller. I know, I've actually drawn comics and just had to turn down a story in a self published this month because my day job is in the way. I didn't tell the creator "gimme a few months I can do it" I said "I thought I could but I can't, if you want I can do a story for the next one"

Honestly I'd rather see some verterans on this book like dan khanna, Robbie musso or Emiliano Santalucia because those are artist that can draw good transformers comics on timely basis.

Randomhero wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:Yeah it's a shame that we're still using humans that have lives and the such. How dare they.

Honestly I'd rather see some verterans on this book like dan khanna, Robbie musso or Emiliano Santalucia because those are artist that can draw good transformers comics on timely basis.

I'd rather we gave creators a chance to continue their own work, rather than drive them to burnouts and having to turn down work. I'm sure you also know that artists are pretty much all work for hire at IDW, and that this is not their only job.

We (readers and editors) gave Nick Roche a chance with Sins of the Wreckers. Happy to do the same for Sara Pitre Durocher. And much happier IDW did this than their usual -whoops, let's just publish two weeks late because the writers are too slow to get their work over to the artists.

EDIT: Image have been doing the couple of months hiatus for a while now, and none of their sales have been affected. It's a model I really do quite like: one monthly issue for five months, one month is the TPB, one month break, repeat.

Between the idea that a TF packaging art director was picked up by IDW because of social media (and iirc, Sarah Stone wasn't either), the comparison with select artists who weren't drawing a robot for every character, and the comparisons with (great) artists who've never done more than 6 TF issues back-to-back on a given run, I don't know where to start. Misplaced assumptions abound.

Count me as another glad they're going this route with the schedule as opposed to sliding releases back a week several times in a row to even it out. Many of the fill-in artists IDW brings in are fantastic, but there's always something to be said for keeping the ongoing artist in the chair when it means consistent trades and minimized continuity oversights in designs and details.

personally Id rather have consistency in release dates. im fine giving people a shot but if they cant keep up than they cant keep up. Its one of my biggest worries with Kei Zama, got total faith, shes great artist but this is her first go and we have now had one artist stop because she couldnt do it and another now that apprently needs a break. when that happens then maybe TAAO needs to go to a revolving art team like Lost Light. I know some people are being very harsh at Jack Lawrence not because of his art but because hes not Milne while Milne even admitting that all the delays the past 5 years on MTMTE were his fault. yeah he had an injury and i respect and understand that but he has admitted that couldnt keep up sometimes and a filler artist came in.

Biggest reason i miss the Spotlights. they were an easy way to get new artists and see if they can handle it

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I WAS gonna get the comic today but the car had a problem and we had to stop at the service station.