Review for IDW Transformers Beast Wars 3

ZeroWolf wrote:I think you might be being a little unfair to the creators here with how quick dinobot turns, as I imagine they had someone looking over their shoulder the entire time, ordering them to adhere to a status quo. Basically they've had the plot points delivered to them and told they had to funnel the characters there. Now we'll see how long this hand holding will last but my suspicion is that hasbro had been more involved with IDW since the reboot. Before Unicron, it seemed like the crossovers got the short end of the stick but now it's the complete opposite, with the crossovers being better recieved!

The thing about the art reminds me of all the times in the past where we had similar debates, like when we got the first Previews of Animated, and GI Joe vs TF. These things are always marmite. Me? I love it, I've got no problems whatsoever as far as art is concerned. Story wise? I'm reserving full judgement for when they get out of this arc. Hopefully the creative overseers will give them more freedom to play.

ZeroWolf wrote:I think you might be being a little unfair to the creators here with how quick dinobot turns, as I imagine they had someone looking over their shoulder the entire time, ordering them to adhere to a status quo. Basically they've had the plot points delivered to them and told they had to funnel the characters there. Now we'll see how long this hand holding will last but my suspicion is that hasbro had been more involved with IDW since the reboot. Before Unicron, it seemed like the crossovers got the short end of the stick but now it's the complete opposite, with the crossovers being better recieved!

The thing about the art reminds me of all the times in the past where we had similar debates, like when we got the first Previews of Animated, and GI Joe vs TF. These things are always marmite. Me? I love it, I've got no problems whatsoever as far as art is concerned. Story wise? I'm reserving full judgement for when they get out of this arc. Hopefully the creative overseers will give them more freedom to play.

Randomhero wrote: I like this series a lot and it’s no surprise it’s another seibertron review that’s nothing more than dumping on a book because it’s the thing to do nowadays

D-Maximal_Primal wrote: In the series, he's basically angry at Megatron for "failing" and then they eject him straightaway, leading to his "pred in Maximal forces" story. Here, it's like he's been a member for a while, but he has always had an issue with how the Pred forces work

william-james88 wrote:But hey, that retail incentive cover by Josh Perez is pretty kick ass!

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Simplifying this, as shown in issue 1, just makes him a generic trope.

bluecatcinema wrote:Dinobot's turn doesn't really bother me. He was shown from the beginning of this series to be dissatisfied with his fellow Predacons' ruthlessness. What they were planning to do with Nyx was simply the last straw.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

bluecatcinema wrote:Dinobot's turn doesn't really bother me. He was shown from the beginning of this series to be dissatisfied with his fellow Predacons' ruthlessness. What they were planning to do with Nyx was simply the last straw.

Except when the opportunity arrives, Dinobot's entire thing is he is just as ruthless as the other Predacons. He IS a Predacon at his core.. This characterisation, he is WFC Jetfire. IE The defector trope.


^ This trope, is actually a thing. Dinobot was always More than this.

Also, I'm pretty sure I mentioned something about Dinobot and Nyx... Seems a bit prophetic in hindsight.

Transmit Him wrote:I thought it was absolute trash. Nyx has been captured and is being tortured. This should be the point at which we (finally) learn something about her, get in her head and actually come to care about her as a character. And yet her struggle exists only to serve Dinobot's story, as an inciting incident for his entirely inevitable exit from the Predacons. One that is significantly worse than it is in the cartoon because Burnham's take on the character is so ridiculously one-dimensional. There's no believability to this honour-obsessed stick in the mud having signed up with this group in the first place, so him lecturing them at length at how much of a better person he is doesn't read well at all. And that's even before you consider that Nyx does nothing to help in her own escape, is a damsel in distress that is saved by one of the male villains taking pity on her and that Dinobot doesn't even directly interact with her. Her survival is almost incidental to his big grandstanding character moment, which is just the same trite rubbish he's been spouting since issue 1.

Sabrblade wrote:according the interviews at the end of the issue, the decision to make this whole series a new take on the cartoon's premise seems to have come from on high at Hasbro for the sake of marketing consistency across the brand, meaning that any new Beast Wars comic couldn't have reinvented the wheel from the ground up even if they wanted to.

So, with the recycled cartoon premise having been an executive mandate, it's up to Burnham to take the story in whatever new directions he can within the confines of keeping things consistent for the brand. After all, Burnham mentioned that his original draft was "like 99% beat for beat" the same as the cartoon. Whereas the final version is riddled with tons of little differences in the details (the space battle's completely different, for one). He makes it clear that he wants to tell a new and different version of the story, but still has to adhere to what his bosses want from this series.

william-james88 wrote:Sadly, we don't have that big an interactive fanbase on these boards for the comics section. So the way I write my reviews are more heavily opinion based so that they can serve as a jumping off point (like a top 5 list). I looked for other places where this book is discussed and wow, and I thought I was harsh

Transmit Him wrote:I thought it was absolute trash. Nyx has been captured and is being tortured. This should be the point at which we (finally) learn something about her, get in her head and actually come to care about her as a character. And yet her struggle exists only to serve Dinobot's story, as an inciting incident for his entirely inevitable exit from the Predacons. One that is significantly worse than it is in the cartoon because Burnham's take on the character is so ridiculously one-dimensional. There's no believability to this honour-obsessed stick in the mud having signed up with this group in the first place, so him lecturing them at length at how much of a better person he is doesn't read well at all. And that's even before you consider that Nyx does nothing to help in her own escape, is a damsel in distress that is saved by one of the male villains taking pity on her and that Dinobot doesn't even directly interact with her. Her survival is almost incidental to his big grandstanding character moment, which is just the same trite rubbish he's been spouting since issue 1.

ZeroWolf wrote:ScottyP also said something similar.

Sabrblade wrote:according the interviews at the end of the issue, the decision to make this whole series a new take on the cartoon's premise seems to have come from on high at Hasbro for the sake of marketing consistency across the brand, meaning that any new Beast Wars comic couldn't have reinvented the wheel from the ground up even if they wanted to.

ZeroWolf wrote:Actually I my brain fried

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Actually I my brain fried

Indeed

Probably the show's most infamous moment was when Tarantulas captured the Maximal's Cheetor in season one, episode three, "The Web."

Sabrblade wrote:"What are you doing? You'd won."
"You slipped. To defeat you in such a manner would be lacking in honor. I would not have earned the right to lead. I prefer to beat my opponents the old fashioned way—BRUTALLY!"
[The two resume fighting]
"For a Predacon, Dinobot, you have qualities I could like."
"And you, ahh, have proved to be a worthy adversary. I will have you recycled with full honors."
"Well, that's. Just. Prime!"

Bolded the important parts that this comic seems to be forgetting about Cartoon Dinobot.

Honorable or not, he was also a thuggish brute. Despite his insistence for fair combat, he was aiming to murder Optimus Primal and skewer his body for spare parts. He believed that Maximals used torture chambers. He was willing to execute the defeated, helpless Silverbolt in "Coming of the Fuzors", only sparing him when Cheetor and Rattrap stopped him, disgusted by their "defective" "Maximal sentiment". And he was even willing to go back to Megatron once his original error in planetfall was proven correct after all.

My only hope for this more "righteous Predacon" Dinobot is that he still doesn't immediately join the Maximals next issue, but rather first isolates himself as a lone wolf unaligned with either faction, kinda like when Prime Starscream struck out on his own. And in the words of Prime Dreadwing (whose arc this Dinobot also echoes, but on fast-forward), "Betraying my kind is not the same as accepting yours." Let him choose to remain with no one for at least issue 4, ultimately joining the Maximals no earlier than either the very end of that issue or in 5 or 6, after some meaningful convincing (probably on Nyx's part, since he saved her). After all, even Cartoon Dinobot was willing to go it alone at the end of "Maximal, No More" if the Maximals wouldn't take him back after his betraying them: "If you will not have me, I will fight Megatron alone."

Sabrblade wrote:"What are you doing? You'd won."
"You slipped. To defeat you in such a manner would be lacking in honor. I would not have earned the right to lead. I prefer to beat my opponents the old fashioned way—BRUTALLY!"
[The two resume fighting]
"For a Predacon, Dinobot, you have qualities I could like."
"And you, ahh, have proved to be a worthy adversary. I will have you recycled with full honors."
"Well, that's. Just. Prime!"

Bolded the important parts that this comic seems to be forgetting about Cartoon Dinobot.

Megatron: Oh, Well I suppose this was bound to happen eventually. All brilliant leaders are tested.
Dinobot: If strength was all that was required of a leader, [product placement] would be in charge.

ZeroWolf wrote: I wonder what else they have insisted upon.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:One exchange did give me a genuine laugh in the book though, that I had forgotten about.

Megatron: Oh, Well I suppose this was bound to happen eventually. All brilliant leaders are tested.
Dinobot: If strength was all that was required of a leader, [product placement] would be in charge.

That's how it read to me anyway. It was so forced and trite, Skold's altmode in the scene might as well have been the pepsi logo...

Sabrblade wrote:I think he was also jabbing at Skold, too, noting just how far removed she was from ever being fit for leadership.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote: I wonder what else they have insisted upon.

Sadly, not the standards of old...

JazZeke wrote:Surely you jest. "The Gathering" was simply setup. A decent setup, but still just setup. And "The Ascending," which should have been when things got good, squandered every bit of potential for this series with another Furman slaughterfest.

Sabrblade wrote:Plus that cover art is purely nostalgia-bating false advertisement.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Plus that cover art is purely nostalgia-bating false advertisement.

Indeed. The other factor that was a gut punch, back in the day. I had zero interest in the BW 2 and Neo cast before that book, during and after. The real waste was the previously toy-only designs. Debuting as generic cameos and nothing more.

JazZeke wrote:Not sure I like the idea of a snarky internal computer, either. When you think about it, it doesn't make much sense for the Maximals and Predacons to have secondary AIs for internal computers. I know the show featured that too, but I figured it was a convention for the audience's benefit, just about as literal as the time Dinobot flattened himself into a tree cartoon-style.

Sabrblade wrote:"Writing for the trade" has done no favors for the pacing of this series.