Review of IDW First Strike #6 (Final Issue) #HasbroFirstStrike

This, at most, should have been a smaller Transformers/GI Joe event.

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.

Is it just me, or is this not available on digital as of yet? It usually shows up in my books an hour or two after midnight, but nothing yet.

A quick glance at Amazon shows it's out on Comixology, but maybe once you get in to the app it isn't?

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

So the character reveal, is that some Visionaries guy?

Continuing in the Hasbro Universe wide First Strike event, we have M.A.S.K. First Strike #1 coming out this Wednesday, November 1st. Below is the summary of the comic followed by the 5 page preview, courtesy of CBR. Enjoy!

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

This art is horrendous!

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 It evokes the cartoons and old marvel comics without going too far in that direction as to seem outdated.

I just....I don't get it. Why does the GI Joe books look this way? I'm sorry, I'm not usually critical of artist teams because I personally know what goes into drawing comics and stuff, but come on. If this is the Crown Jewel of the Hasbro Universe, they have GOT to get their top talent on this book instead of it looking like a high school kid is getting his first opportunity here. There's no reason this should look this amateurish.

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.

i thought this was supposed to be mask not gi joe

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!

Warning - The entirety of this story contains spoilers for First Strike.

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.

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.

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 . Honestly that's fine though. I have not read all of First Strike yet (I have to get #5 and #6 and a few of the crossovers). I hope that Unicron is his own planet, and not Earth.....

He’s not Earth

Anyone else think unicron has been hiding out as Antilla? He clearly had an ecosystem before he woke up and shattered his outer shell as you can se trees. And as he's hungry, first port of call i to eat lv117 with a time displaced optinus on it.

Insurgent wrote:Anyone else think unicron has been hiding out as Antilla? He clearly had an ecosystem before he woke up and shattered his outer shell as you can se trees. And as he's hungry, first port of call i to eat lv117 with a time displaced optinus on it.

This isn't IDW continuity based, at least not purely, but the SDCC Titan Force box insert might support this very subtly. Look where Unicron's facing:

The final preview of the final coda, which is really a tie-in, and second part of a larger tie-in story started in the Optimus Prime tie-in, for First Strike is up in full preview courtesy of IDW Publishing and comics entertainment website Adventures in Poor Taste. Transformers: First Strike #1, a one shot despite the numbering, will be released next week, and you can view the opening pages below - make sure to head back here once it's out to read our review and join the conversation!

Continued from Optimus Prime: First Strike! When a bounty hunter drags one of their own into the wilds of Cybertron, the Revolutionaries join forces with Arcee and pursue! But in the midst of war, can humans and Cybertronians put aside their differences, or has the invasion of Cybertron doomed any chance at peace?

Bullet points:

· Tying into the events of First Strike–A Hasbro Comic Book Event!

· The second part of the Optimus Prime and the Revolutionaries story–continued from last month’s Optimus Prime: First Strike #1!

· Variant cover by Humberto Ramos!

Transformers: First Strike #1
Writer: John Barber
Artist: Priscilla Tramontano
Cover: Sara Pitre-Durocher
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Release Date: November 8, 2017

Insurgent wrote:Anyone else think unicron has been hiding out as Antilla? He clearly had an ecosystem before he woke up and shattered his outer shell as you can se trees. And as he's hungry, first port of call i to eat lv117 with a time displaced optinus on it.

ok so I finally got all caught up except for the last crossover (Transfornmer First Strike) which comes out next week.)

I could be completely off because I don't really get some of these stories, but it seemed to me that Unicron was actually Prysmos...??

o.supreme wrote:

Insurgent wrote:Anyone else think unicron has been hiding out as Antilla? He clearly had an ecosystem before he woke up and shattered his outer shell as you can se trees. And as he's hungry, first port of call i to eat lv117 with a time displaced optinus on it.

ok so I finally got all caught up except for the last crossover (Transfornmer First Strike) which comes out next week.)

I could be completely off because I don't really get some of these stories, but it seemed to me that Unicron was actually Prysmos...??

Unicron is near a Black Hole. You can see it in the panel where the message reaches him (fair enough you haven't read First Strike yet). Antilla is floating around a Black Hole in IDW. If anything, I would say Unicron was the cause of Prysmos destruction before he went to slumber.

Insurgent wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

Insurgent wrote:Anyone else think unicron has been hiding out as Antilla? He clearly had an ecosystem before he woke up and shattered his outer shell as you can se trees. And as he's hungry, first port of call i to eat lv117 with a time displaced optinus on it.

ok so I finally got all caught up except for the last crossover (Transfornmer First Strike) which comes out next week.)

I could be completely off because I don't really get some of these stories, but it seemed to me that Unicron was actually Prysmos...??

Unicron is near a Black Hole. You can see it in the panel where the message reaches him (fair enough you haven't read First Strike yet). Antilla is floating around a Black Hole in IDW. If anything, I would say Unicron was the cause of Prysmos destruction before he went to slumber.

I just wanna see an issue of Unicron eating LV-117 and a time hoping Optimus. He was jumping around in RID #10 and went to a future where the planet was being sucked up and Jhiaxus saying you don’t know true chaos. That story never plot never really came back and what happened to LV-117 wasn’t relevant to dark Cybertron. That’s gotta come back.

^Absolutely agreed with the above. I'm sure if time/page space allows, it will be visited.

I came in here to throw out a little PSA. If you haven't read First Strike 6 yet, I strongly recommend waiting until Wednesday for Transformers First Strike. It helps a little with this one part. A little, but the part I'm referring to needs all the help it can get.

Synopses

With Cybertron under siege by Baron Ironblood's forces, Optimus Prime and Arcee defend their homeland! Caught in the middle is the human/Transformer team known as the Revolutionaries—and one of them has a secret that puts everyone at risk!

and

When a bounty hunter drags one of their own into the wilds of Cybertron, the Revolutionaries join forces with Arcee and pursue! But in the midst of war, can humans and Cybertronians put aside their differences, or has the invasion of Cybertron doomed any chance at peace?



Story

This review is not late, this is just ..strategy, in keeping with IDW's approach to releases. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Also, this is the first fully double review for two comics that form a single story that I've done in a while, and for good reason: Optimus Prime and Transformers, the one-shots that mark the Cybertronian tie-ins to the First Strike event, are better seen as a coherent story (with some downsides), and is essentially the coda to the end of Revolutionaries.



There are really two macro-story-threads running through the books, in the shadow (or light) of the events taking place on Cybertron during Ironblood/Colton's attack, and they both coalesce in the character of Centurion/Mike Power - perhaps one of the best 'retcons' we've seen in the TFverse at the hands of John Continuity Barber - and his sibling from another spark if you will, GB Blackrock/Sovereign.



If on one side they allow for a better exploration of the idea of hybrids, something that keeps coming up in this IDWverse of recent, and the identity of Centurion (complete with some time-hopping and merged memories), and the setting up of Kreiger's real identity and/or motives, on the other it lets down on the specific plot at hand that holds up the story proper.



There are more thoughts on these two issues in the latest episode of the Twincast Podcast, but one more point I wanted to make refers to the developing interest between Arcee and one young Ian Noble (definitely not the boyfriend of Doctor X) - which not only does not feel forced, it segues nicely from later developments of Arcee's character in both OP ongoing series and Sins of the Wreckers, of all things.


Art

Working on the first part are Transformers veterans Guido Guidi and John Wycough, and I have to unfortunately admit, that the inks of the latter on the pencils of the former do not complement the visuals well, at all - as I had also noted in a previous issue on the same lines. Which is a shame, as there is some nice panelwork, and Thomas Teyowisonte Deer's colours are very well placed in providing a continuity with the Revolutionaries aesthetic.



Taken by itself, Priscilla Tramontano and Joana Lafuente's art for the second issue is better overall, and it does fit the way in which the script sets up the characters, but there are inconsistencies throughout the book and the two styles (Guidi and Tramontano) don't really pair up well for the story as a whole. Still, the colours are nicely in sync, even taken side by side.



The lettering continuity is no issue at all, as not only it's the same letterer on both, but we're talking once more about Tom B. Long, and I've spent many a word praising his work on the IDW books. I do not need to add much, just enjoy it, will you? All the cover variants can be seen, with credit, in our Comics Database here and here, plus you can enjoy the one by Guido Guidi as thumbnail for this review, too.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

These two books, and their story were inevitably hindered again by the issues in IDW's release and scheduling, meaning that the two books would've prepared more for the ending of First Strike (Kreiger in particular, a big name in both Revolutionaries and Centurion's personal story here), set a parallel stage, and been made less redundant (OP in particular) if they had come out when they were supposed to rather than when they did. I cannot ignore that, I'm afraid; though it doesn't reflect on the creative teams, it does impact the enjoyment of the story.



When I started this, I pointed out that the tie-in is essentially a Revolutionaries story - and I stand by that, with the disclaimer that they are probably the best executed actually tying-in of all the books of this ilk, and not just the final issues of the previous series, or the prologues to the next one (looking at all of you, GI Joe, MASK, Rom, Micronauts). It uses the characters well, and setting the action as parallel to the main First Strike story allows to fill in some blanks left by that story, too, along with having some truly excellent interactions that fit well every single character in the book, Arcee above all.

It's been a while since we last heard anything about the Hasbro Universe crossover from IDW Publishing, First Strike, but this week brings us at last the collected trade paperbacks for its two main components: First Strike proper (now with added Transformers and GI Joe brand logos adorning the title) and First Strike Champions!

The former, whose preview you can check out below, collects the six regular issues plus introductory issue #0, and is theoretically out this Wednesday. Written by Mairghread Scott and David A. Rodriguez and with art by Max Dunbar and Ander Zarate, it brings together the different franchises of GI Joe, Transformers, MASK, Micronauts, and ROM the Spaceknight by pitting them against each other. Again.

A Hasbro Comic Book Event of epic proportions! The TRANSFORMERS are under attack from COBRA, G.I. JOE’s greatest enemy! As Earth joins the intergalactic community, a massive explosion threatens the peace! A new COBRA—led by the worst villains to ever tangle with G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K.:Mobile Armored Strike Kommand, and the Transformers—is invading Cybertron, and only Scarlett, Optimus Prime, the Joes, and the Autobots can save two worlds! It’s a race to the finish as good fights evil! Will our heroes win, or will Cobra DESTROY ALL TRANSFORMERS?!?

The other collected trade paperback out this week from IDW Publishing, is the corollary to the main First Strike crossover event, with the multiple tie-in stories from the franchises involved in the Hasbro Universe, under the title of First Strike Champions!

Check out the preview below, showing the opening of Micronauts - and the later encounter with Rom, Dire Wraiths and Solstar Order - as the rest of the book includes GI Joe and MASK, and Optimus Prime and Transformers/Revolutionaries (including Action Man) by different teams of artists and writers! Join the discussion in the Energon Pub, of course, and let us know if you'll pick up these books after all.

Your favorite characters—Rom, the Autobots, Micronauts, G.I. Joe, and more—get to shine in standalone stories setting up the ultimate Hasbro comic book event! First, with Cybertron under siege from Baron Ironblood, it’s up to Optimus Prime and Arcee to defend their homeland, and the Revolutionaries team is caught in the middle! Then, back on Earth, Rom finds himself teaming up with the world’s smallest heroes, the Micronauts! Can they prevent catastrophe, or is it already too late? And, with the team divided, G.I. Joe must confront dangers both in space and Earthside. Looks like they’ll need some help from M.A.S.K.:Mobile Armored Strike Kommand!

I bet First Strike will read pretty darn well as a trade. Too bad the content with the last gasp crumbles of foreshadowing for the abrupt ending is in an entirely different TPB.

ScottyP wrote:I bet First Strike will read pretty darn well as a trade. Too bad the content with the last gasp crumbles of foreshadowing for the abrupt ending is in an entirely different TPB.

Yeah, to anyone reading these, Champions then First Strike proper is probably the best way to approach the story.