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Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories

Sunday, April 4th, 2021 12:44AM CDT

Categories: Site Articles, Editorials, Top Lists
Posted by: Kurona   Views: 126,043

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Every month now, Seibertron.com brings you a Top 5 list related to all things Transformers written by me, your fellow editor, or a guest. That's the case this month where fellow Seibertronian Kurona wrote this list. These are our opinions (just like movie or game reviews hosted by sites are still just the opinion of one person) so what matters most is what you guys think of the topic or list, and I hope to see your own lists or comments on omissions and ranking. Let's have fun! All previous lists can be found here.


Top 5 Worst IDW G1 Transformers Stories

For many years, the IDW Generation One comics have been a gift to its readership. Entertaining battles and interesting new spins on old characters are a standard of any good Transformers series; but the IDW comics stand out in particular for being aimed at an older audience than usual - hence we've been challenged with darker material, philosophical questions, political allegories and deep character studies the likes of which we have never had in the franchise before. Among all this sophistication, however, it's sometimes easy to forget that the company has unfortunately put out some very, very bad stories in its time. Let's count down what are arguably the 5 worst IDW Transformers stories!



5. Combiner Wars

As time has gone on, my opinion on this crossover has lightened up a bit as it does have quite a few good points. We have some fantastic action courtesy of a very unique style of combiner battles, we get to see Starscream's political machinations behind the scenes continue to wreak havoc on society, and this arc did provide the true beginning to the Colony Worlds story that makes the Windblade books and Till All Are One so good.

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories
Neither did most the comic, Superion


However, these are not enough to save this crossover - only enough to put it at the top of the list rather than the bottom. This was a scary event from the outset as it put interference from Hasbro at an all-new high - while IDW did advertise some of Hasbro's Universe/Generations toys before, generally it was at a much lower rate compared to the usual amount of salesmanship Transformers fans are used to and they were allowed to continue their stories with only a couple new bodies or background characters to show for it. However, Combiner Wars saw fit to shove in as many toys as it could at an alarming rate, even to the expense of interesting concepts like the Prowl-controlled Devastator getting shelved for the sake of showing off the new £150 Titan-Class toy. An attempt at focus in the storyline seems evident but we can barely keep up as the titular gestalt scuffles rage not once, not twice, but three times over the course of but a few issues when the political and religious ramifications of Cybertron coming into contact with Caminus should be at the forefront. 'Combine' that with an unprecedented amount of scripting and art errors and it's easy to see why many fans at the time took to calling this the worst arc of the post-Death of Optimus Prime era.
- Kurona


4. Infestation

This is a bit odd because it technically isn't a Transformers story - well, it is, but the actual Transformers part is just one aspect of it. The actual story is based around, as far as I can tell, two of IDW's original franchises - CVO: Covert Vampire Operations and Zombies vs. Robots. A prelude of multiversal nonsense has zombies invade multiple universes in what was at the time billed as the biggest crossover event of IDW as a company, with zombies infesting various of their licensed universes - G.I. Joe, Ghosbusters, Star Trek and, of course, Transformers. This isn't the first time IDW Transformers has done a cross-continuity crossover, but it is notable for being the only one of the two that stayed canon and had effects on the universe going forward.

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories
Kup and Cyclonus both sum up my feelings


And as one might have guessed, the two-issue segment of Infestation containing the Transformers is pretty bad! Transformers does not lend itself well to the threat of undead flesh. The whole point of zombies as a horror trope is that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to stop it; it is slowly coming for you, it will get you, and everyone who falls in its path will be added to its ranks. It's very chilling, and while in recent years Zombies in horror movies have arguably not been used to their best potential - that's a top 5 worst list all on its own - it's still very possible to make them very scary with a human element. Not with a giant-robots-from-outer-space element. You can't possibly fear for the Autobots here as the best the zombies can do is weakly slap their metal before getting kicked away or obliterated by a photon blast, and even in the story Wheeljack uses their advanced technology to make sure they can't even get to the humans beyond a small portion of Las Vegas! But even beyond that faulty premise the story does not inspire confidence. Galvatron and Prowl are both wildly out of character, very weak "it's magic, we don't have to explain it" reasoning is used for the main villain to pose a threat to Cybertronians, and a potentially interesting look at Kup's mental health following Everything in its right place (a very good Transformers story I can recommend) is pulled out of nowhere by trying too hard to link the undead to what happened in his Spotlight and resulting in a rather pointless sacrifice to stop villains we don't care about from a universe we don't care about. Maybe CVO and Zombies vs. Robots are interesting franchises, I don't know; but it really had no business being here.
- Kurona


3. 2019 IDW Reboot Series

You know what's worse than something bad? Something boring. And this series is the most boring piece of Transformers fiction I ever read. At any point that it picks up an inkling of momentum, it then shifts into an all talk issue leading to absolutely nowhere. I swear I never read a comic with so many panels of Transformers just talking while walking up or down some stairs.

Here's a shot from issue 7

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories

Now one from issue 8

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories

By 10 we at least get to see some actiOH My God STOP!

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories

And this was supposed to be a bold new era of Transformers fiction. Give me a break!
- william-james88


2. All Hail Megatron

Ah, All Hail Megatron. Now we're getting to the big leagues. For those that have only started reading IDW in the past few years, a quick history lesson - when IDW first got the license to Transformers back in 2006, the infamous and well-loved among the fandom writer Simon Furman was given full reign to create whatever story he liked with nothing to hold him back. And it was, in fact, rather interesting and a Transformers story unlike what we had seen before. Full emphasis was put on 'robots in disguise' as Autobots and Decepticons alike made sure to hide themselves from humans at all cost. Darker, more complex morals for the Autobots were introduced with an Optimus jaded by the war and implied to not have the matrix. Megatron played the long game with an infiltration protocol that had the Decepticons pervade a world's politics and society before destroying it and taking over. Lesser-used characters like Hardhead and Doubledealer became big players alongside new concepts like Sunstreaker being a Headmaster. This was no Shakespeare, but it was a great breath of fresh air for the franchise.

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories
Kup once again asks the important questions



So you can probably understand why the fans who loved this little era were not appreciative when All Hail Megatron came around. Suffering sales forced IDW to bring in a whole new direction and soft-reboot for the title as Shane McCarthy took over writing duties. So what was this fresh new direction? What wellspring of new ideas came from a writer new to the series? Well, the Decepticons abandon all subtlety and take over Earth. And suddenly have technology that in previous stories was stated to be extremely rare and lost to the ages. And then the Autobots come and defeat them. Oh, and Optimus has the matrix and there's an original character who is a samurai Decepticon turned Autobot in there somewhere. Disregarding the AHM: Coda series which attempted to patch this up - and in some parts was rather good - this plays out essentially like a bland, standard, by-the-books G1 episode or action movie with a superficial gritty overlay. Little characterisation is given or focused on beyond Ironhide's newfound want for punching everyone and everything, and I constantly ask why I don't stop reading this and put on the 1986 movie instead. At least that one had the bravery to actually kill off important characters to increase tension! Oh sure, it was purely to sell toys, but it's a heck of a lot better than this! At the end of the day, this is a story that tries to pretend it's mature and gritty but instead has no new ideas, nothing important to say, no risks to take, and comes off as a watered-down version of an 80s movie whose express intent was selling toys.
- Kurona


1. Revolution

It was a little difficult for me to put this ahead of things as cynical as All Hail Megatron, as you do feel a real passion here. One of the great things about all the creative teams on the modern IDW Transformers comics is that you can feel a true love for the franchise and the series they're writing for - this isn't just a day job for them, this is something they want to do and something they adore doing. And as an aspiring writer myself, I can kind of see how they thought this could be a fun idea - much as the concept has arguably been overdone after Marvel's movies proved it could be successful, an expanded shared universe does bring in a lot of positives. You're able to explore a lot more areas of your world and universe and focus on a lot of different things at once without getting in the way of each other all the time. Your franchise can bring in a lot of different readers looking for a lot of different things. You can have some great crossovers with some entertaining team-ups and history if you really work well at it!

Transformers News: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories
No, Optimus, apparently no-one in this comic can



But it's hard to see how one could start up a shared universe worse. I'm not entirely sure how much I have to criticise this here - of the six franchises involved, four of them have no history and have either just started up a few months prior or are starting in this very book. It... the premise speaks for itself. This is probably not going to go very well. Between having to start up MASK, restart G.I. Joe and show what exactly is going on with the Transformers; Micronauts and Action Man barely get to show up at all in the crossover while ROM does show up... and acts completely out of character in the first issue by killing someone without trying to explain why (trying to explain being something he had consistently done in his own comic up until this point) to set up artificial drama and conflict in the second. As crossovers go, this is badly thought out. While the focus has to be on some group and you can't be perfect in your distribution; you should at least try and give equal focus to each party involved in the crossover and make sure to represent them correctly. Instead we got a trigger-happy moronic G.I. Joe randomly shooting at the Autobots in what is... probably the 1,673th time in this franchise humans don't understand there are good robots (despite their predecessors in the EDC making such a distinction and going about things far, far better in more interesting ways for the story), ROM being an idiot, a bulk of focus being given to MASK characters who at the end of the day don't really contribute anything to the story, and Action Man and the Micronauts only arriving at the last second to give too little joy too late. The final battle should be an awesome sight to behold - all these iconic characters people have grown up with over the years banding together for the very first time to fight a threat none of them can hope to face alone. But the actual action panels are a mess with too much happening to make out anything that's going on - not helped by the art which is decent at best, and distorts characters like Victorion and Arcee beyond recognition at worst - and even if they were good by the time you got to Issue #5 you're so exhausted from the terrible quality of the preceding issues and trying to make sense of what I can only generously call a plot that it's difficult to feel any investment or care.

I really did try to like Revolution. I really did. And you know what? I like the shared universe! The miniseries Revolutionaries alone has proven its merits, some of the books (especially Micronauts) are pretty damn good, we've got what looks to be a decent, small-scale crossover between Transformers and ROM coming up, and despite the fears many fans had; the Optimus Prime ongoing has had minimal effect on its stories by the shared universe while the other two ongoings (Till All Are One and Lost Light) go on as if it never happened. The shared universe is working out fantastically, and if any readers left because of Revolution - something I can't be surprised by and something I really can't blame you for - I absolutely urge you to pick up these ongoings you loved again, because they're still great and Revolution has not hurt them in the slightest.

But as a comic? As a story? As a crossover? As something I can pick up to read and try and enjoy and have fun and hopefully get invested in some new characters and comics? Revolution is an objective failure in almost every area, and I am sorry to say that it is the worst story in the IDW G1 continuity that at the time of writing has ever been put out.
- Kurona


Dishonourable mentions:

Dark Cybertron is yet another unfortunate example that shows IDW sadly, for whatever reason, can't make a good crossover. It wasn't awful and I would certainly recommend it to you over anything on this list, but it was a very long very boring story that, contrary to a lot of modern IDW's strengths, required you to know a lot of backstory and seemed to exist for the pure purpose of tying up loose threads from when Furman left the series. Still, it does provide some good lines, some good team-ups (Whirl and Arcee, Rodimus and Optimus), and managed three incredible twists at the end - two of which it seemed like Hasbro would never let IDW do - that paved the way for amazing stories and have not been undone since.

New Avengers/Transformers, on the other hand, is so stupendously bad it almost got a spot on this list. I decided against it as Infestation is one multi-continuity crossover enough for the list and unlike that one, this has the good grace to be non-canon to both franchises involved. But it is still a mess. Some cool ideas like Iron Man getting a bigger suit to be on-par with the Decepticons and a neat homage to Marvel Transformers #3 aside there are almost no good points to be found here; the art isn't particularly outstanding, character motivations seem to come and go (ESPECIALLY with Dr. Doom), the plot is standard and boring and almost nothing interesting comes of the team-ups. But hey, I got to mention Dr. Doom and Iron Man in a Transformers list, so I'll give it that.

Also, while the Heart of Darkness limited series is related to the Infestation event that is already on the main list, I wanted to make special mention of it here for adding terrible art to an already completely uninspired story.

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Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100342)
Posted by Supreme Convoy on April 4th, 2021 @ 1:15am CDT
A couple of years ago, I did an IDW Transformers deep dive. I remember digging the stretch of All Hail Megatron to More Than Meets the Eye.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100344)
Posted by SG Roadbuster on April 4th, 2021 @ 1:37am CDT
Infestation wasn't thaaaat bad. Nick Roche's art made it bearable at least. And the Transformers could be infected, even if the organic zombies didnt pose a devastating threat to the the mechanical ones still were.

I'd say Heart of Darkness belongs on this list more than Infestation.

I'll give Revolution credit for the sheer ambition of trying cram everything into the toybox. The real turd though was First Strike. Started off as a decent enough "Supervillains invade Cybertron" plot with a side order of Scarlet's relationship to Joe Colton. But then the book shits the bed by bringing in Visionaries.

Tf vs Visionaries, there's another absolute stinker of a book. Probly deserves to be here more than All Hail Megatron.

(BTW, i don't hate crossovers, Revolutionaries and Tf vs Rom were both astounding reads)
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100347)
Posted by starfish on April 4th, 2021 @ 3:13am CDT
Spotlight Arcee. Insensitive, stupid, pointless and dumb.

As well as being another piece of evidence showing how Furman struggles to write female characters (following the prior lows of Space Pirates and Prime’s Rib), I believe it’s the only IDW issue to be so bad that it prompted another writer to publicly slag it off.

Thankfully a lot of it was later retconned; no other single issue was more idiotic and ill-advised than that one.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100348)
Posted by angtre on April 4th, 2021 @ 4:07am CDT
"Infestation" wasn't so bad, at least it continued the Galvatron's return plot. Speaking of that, "Heart of Darkness" was a real stinker.

"All Hail Megatron" was bad, as most stories set in its aftermath, apart from "Chaos Theory" (awesome title btw, given the imminent "Chaos" event - yet another stinker IMHO).

"Combiner Wars" wasn't so bad given its toy-selling premises, yet I don't share the appreciation towards the following "Windblade" comics, which pale in comparison to other comic books from the same age.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100350)
Posted by lowman_x on April 4th, 2021 @ 5:32am CDT
I would put the 2019 reboot series at number 1. I mean, it's the reason I stopped collecting Transformers comics and I've been collecting them since the Marvel UK/US days. I skipped a few of the crossover/miniseries events, but I never gave up on the main books. But this? No. I gave it 24 issues and ~2 years. I'll wait for the inevitable reboot and see how I feel.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100351)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 4th, 2021 @ 5:45am CDT
Having now read all of these via the Part work, I can't fault this list. Yes, Heart of Darkness was terrible. But top five? Not really. Which just goes to show how bad the tailend of IDWverse was. Personally I like to think IDWverse ended at Last Stand of the Wreckers IE on a high, and just throw everything else post-Death of Optimus Prime, into the bin. Alongside AHM and the Costa Run.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100357)
Posted by ausbot on April 4th, 2021 @ 6:52am CDT
Most if idws run has been horrible, I've only liked last stand of the wreckers, Furmans 84 series, but there focus on relationships instead of the war put me off.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100359)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 4th, 2021 @ 6:58am CDT
Last Stand of The Wreckers and the Furman run (Megatron: Origin to Maximum Dinobots) I'd say hold up really well. The rest, doesn't. Especially latter elements that humanise the Transformers far too much IE heavy emphasis on relationships and the sexuality of Alien Robots. Clearly more fans grew up with Kiss Players than you would imagine, I guess.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100363)
Posted by Moody magpie on April 4th, 2021 @ 7:33am CDT
You know the 2019 reboot was bad, when I found more enjoyment in the My Little Pony crossover than this! Also Heart of Darkness should've been in this list.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100364)
Posted by Quantum Surge on April 4th, 2021 @ 8:30am CDT
These pieces of IDW fiction, as well as Heart of Darkness and aspects of Dark Cybertron that weren't criticized like Megatron's sudden turn to the Autobots, is why I don't like the IDW continuity as much as it has that "couldn't make up its mind" feel to it on top of the art-style being bad in some parts.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100367)
Posted by Nexus Knight on April 4th, 2021 @ 9:34am CDT
william-james88 wrote: As such, with my only ground rule being that it has to be from the main IDW G1 continuity (and hence no Deviations, Hearts of Steel, Dawn of the Predacus etc.),


Soooo, technically, a version of Hearts of Steel exist in the 2005 IDWverse. The X-Files one-shot crossover isn't, but the original series and the Infestation 2 both do exist in this time-line (for those that don't know how that worked, short of it was Shockwave crashed some lookalikes on Prehistoric Earth and used them as a wargames experiment).
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100368)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on April 4th, 2021 @ 9:35am CDT
I also think the 2019 reboot should be #1. The story itself might be worth telling, but the pacing is horrible. Personally, I didn't think AHM was that bad. I would replace it with the Unicron miniseries. That was crap. Especially the ending. Yeah, most of James roberts's work should be on this list as well. But I gotta disagree with Dark Cybertron being bad. It was my favorite story from the latter soft reboot, especially with how Shockwave came full circle.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100373)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 4th, 2021 @ 10:07am CDT
Yep, Unicron was probably the most botched character introduction from IDWverse to date. To me, the only thing worth reading regarding AHM is the Prowl/Kup Coda. That's about it.

Also, if we were to include the secondary books, Deviations would easily be No.1.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100375)
Posted by starfish on April 4th, 2021 @ 10:35am CDT
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Last Stand of The Wreckers and the Furman run (Megatron: Origin to Maximum Dinobots) I'd say hold up really well. The rest, doesn't. Especially latter elements that humanise the Transformers far too much IE heavy emphasis on relationships and the sexuality of Alien Robots. Clearly more fans grew up with Kiss Players than you would imagine, I guess.


Writer James Roberts (the only writer to win an industry award for their Transformers work) grew up on the U.K. G1 comics.

There’s a world of difference between the focus on love and relationships in the IDW run, and the smutty innuendoes of Kiss Players. But of course you know that, and are fatuously comparing the two for some cheap point scoring.

Next you’ll be comparing Romeo & Juliet to the American Pie films... I mean, both works focus on teenage relationships, after all...
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100383)
Posted by Gauntlet101010 on April 4th, 2021 @ 11:32am CDT
Was the Avengers crossover rendered non-canon? I seem to recall a Seeker died in that and remained dead for the rest of the series. Even if the Avengers just stopped existing it seems like the events still happened.

I liked a lot of the IDW stuff, even the relationships. Different strokes, I guess. I think I disliked Titans Return the most. It just stopped everything to shoehorn in a story that didn't fit in and didn't seem to advance anything. At least Combiner Wars seem to flow out of the plot somewhat, Titans Return just happened and ended.

I also didn't like anything with Optimus Prime on Earth after the shared universe started. Humans hating Prime and teaming up with Decepticons after AHM ... it just made no sense to me. But that wasn't just one storyline.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100385)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 4th, 2021 @ 12:25pm CDT
Gauntlet101010 wrote:Was the Avengers crossover rendered non-canon? I seem to recall a Seeker died in that and remained dead for the rest of the series. Even if the Avengers just stopped existing it seems like the events still happened.



Well it happened to be this story that Megatron officially adopted his Earth altmode. Ramjet was the Seeker you're thinking of. But he died due to betraying the Decepticons within the crossover, in his spotlight that followed on. Unfortunately this story has too much connective tissue to be non-canon.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100400)
Posted by Palo_zfogs on April 4th, 2021 @ 1:55pm CDT
Despite being quite enjoyed with reading All Hail Megatron, I can definitely understand why it's on the list. As I do also very much enjoyed the arcs from Infiltration to Revelations and find the transitions to be slightly jarring with its much different tone. I'll say that I do find the next few rebranded arcs like "...For all Mankind." onwards to be much worse as I don't find them be that interesting at all until Orion Pax's origins and Chaos. (Though, that arc could've been much better without the split storyline.)

I find Dark Cybertron to be a worthy Transformers event, there was a whole lot of crazy stuffs going on. The only thing that absolutely bothered me was the different change in art styles from various artist to artist in between. It's nothing new but still, it did broke the immersion for me. Also, don't get me wrong, most of the artist were pretty good.

Infestation wasn't too bad either as it was a fun read as I like its dark tone. But yeah, I can see that the comic didn't achieve the "infestation" aspect very well unlike Rom vs. Transformers which absolutely nailed it.

And Yep, Combiner Wars... I definitely agree that it just sucked. Despite its Machinima counterpart being quite bad, I find that much more entertaining than the comics. A lot of elements in the story are just things that I don't care about. I've only read through the arc just because I don't want to miss out on the whole ongoing stories. Though I'll say the one thing I've actually enjoyed in CW was the epilogue with Prowl and Prime going berserk with each other. That was pretty amusing.

Revolution.., I just don't like that one. I've never really cared for the whole shared universe or the other franchises so it's just another arc to slog through. Worse, it spawned multiple crossover titles that I'll have to force myself to read but at that point, I just stopped bothering to care to. Though I'll give it some credit, for spawning the gem that is Rom vs. Transformers.

I have not read the 2019 reboot, but based on the comments and some of the previews I've read, they do look absolutely boring and not appetizing to read unlike certain titles of the first IDW continuity.

But yeah, if I were to rank my personal (and very subjective) worst 5 IDW Transformers titles (excluding Deviations and the 2019 reboot), it would be:

5. The Transformers (2009).

The first two arc just weren't that exciting with the whole human relations thing and territorial politics between countries. Not to mentioned the art direction to mirror the movieverse really felt out of place.

It starts to get pretty interesting with Space Opera and then Chaos. But I didn't like the direction with the split storylines, especially with Police Action. Would've been cool if all the energy is focused on making the event on Cybertron much more crazier. Also, another factor on why I didn't enjoy the Chaos event that much was that I'm not actually that big of a fan of Livio Ramondelli's artworks. It actually took quite some time for me to get used to his artworks.

4. New Avengers/Transformers.

As mentioned, I don't care much for this kind of crossovers. I've read it once, and it's something that I would not want to read again. Also, it's flat out not memorable either.

3. Combiner Wars

Reasons already mentioned at the fourth paragraph.

2. Revolution and (most of its) spawns

Also going have to lump all these together - Revolutionaries, First Strike and Transformers vs. Visionaries. Aside from not caring about these kinds of crossovers, I don't find them to be exciting or great Transformers stories in any way either. And with TF vs. Visionaries being an extremely mediocre story, it doesn't help this case one bit.

1. Heart of Darkness.

As much as I dislike Revolutions and some of its spawns. This just takes the cake. The whole plot felt like an absolutely disappointing continuation to Revelations. Galvatron really feels out of character, he's just not himself. Not mention the art styles made the whole problem feel much worse tenfold. Oh god, the art style...one of the worst art styles I've seen in this IDW continuity.

So yeah, that's my two cents.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100402)
Posted by Quantum Surge on April 4th, 2021 @ 2:06pm CDT
Since some of you guys mentioned Deviations, let me say that it's my least favorite Transformers-related anything of all time. Far more than stuff like the Machinima Prime Wars and Kiss Players. It's nothing more but a fan fiction of someone who is still mad that Optimus Prime died in the 86 movie, yet instead of changing the story more by having, oh IDK, the Autobots in the shuttle win and interrogate the Cons while the story gets entirely different, it just has Optimus survive and dismisses the 86 Autobots.

I came up with an alternate storyline to go along with that shuttle fight comment: The Autobots don't die immediately and instead decide to keep the Cons with them so as to warn the Autobots of their arrival at Autobot City. Prime and his team ready themselves while then taking down the Decepticons that showed up. Afterwards they keep them locked up and are led to believe that the war is over...until Optimus senses an impending danger from the Matrix. The Cons come up with a plan to escape while the new group of Autobots are in charge, but Galvatron and his army (who would be separate characters in this universe) take on the Autobots and threaten them of Unicron's arrival to Cybertron. This would force the Autobots to make a temporary alliance with the Decepticons and make their way to Unicron, even if they deal with the arguments made between the two factions.

What I wrote may not be 100% perfect but at least it's more than just "Optimus Prime lives and to hell with the 86 movie guys AND HOT ROD RUINED MY CHILDHOOD". Oh and the writer's letter at the end of the comic kind of made me want to throw up. Very insulting.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100406)
Posted by o.supreme on April 4th, 2021 @ 2:19pm CDT
ok , so I have to super careful with this, as I am not really a fan of IDW. I purchased and read every single issue of the 13 year run, most of them are forgettable, but it wasn't until I purged myself of nearly all my comic-book collection in early 2020, that I could finally put it all behind me.

That being said, naturally a "worst" list would be too long to count, but a "best" list I'm not sure if I could even come up with 5 titles or mini-series to fill that conversation.

I do take exception to All Hail Megatron being on this list though, just my opinion, it was the single best thing about IDW in it's entire 13 year run. It was The only series that held any real interest for me, and I eagerly looked forward to each month (Issues 1-12 btw, furmans useless coda was not needed). But I get it. I'm a fan of AHM, because it was different from the dull-as-dishwater stories furman had churned out up to that point, and the closest thing to the classic animated series we would ever get. *Stormbringer I seem to recall was relatively decent also, but I digress... Also while AHM obviously has a large contingent of fans that don't care for it, it is nice to see some actual support for it in the comments I've seen so far.

Combiner Wars was a missed opportunity. I envisioned it being written similar to how DW wrote the Micromasters 4 part series (basically an entire series dedicated to the various Combiner Teams), unfortunately they were just blunt instruments used by the main characters, and a shameless way to promote Windblade and Victorion. Hopefully someday the Combiners will get their due (The toys were great, but decent portrayals in modern fiction are still to be written).

All that being said, despite the shady behind-the-scenes goings on at DW, that world-building had the best foundation for Transformers in Comics I've ever read, and it is a true shame it didn't last. Of course, it died the hero, and IDW lives on to be the villain.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100426)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on April 4th, 2021 @ 5:48pm CDT
I forgot to mention in my other post Til All Are One. You want to talk about missed opportunity? That was a huge letdown. I was looking forward to an in-depth story about the Combaticons and being a combiner team in general and got...that trash. It's not the worst, but bad enough.

And roberts getting an industry award is not an indication of the quality of his work but moreso the low level of the bar the industry set for him. My opinion only, of course.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100428)
Posted by starfish on April 4th, 2021 @ 6:19pm CDT
The most damning thing about the current reboot is that very few people are really talking about it any more. So many fans have just switched off. Say what you like about ‘Heart of Darkness’ or the Mike Costa run, but at least people cared enough to be angry about them!

There used to be a buzz around Transformers comics - excitement, arguments, mixed emotions, for good or ill.

The current ongoing, however, is just so fun-sappingly beige that people can barely muster the enthusiasm to get so worked up about it. Just shrugs all round, and that’s probably all it deserves.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100431)
Posted by Gauntlet101010 on April 4th, 2021 @ 6:38pm CDT
Quantum Surge wrote:Since some of you guys mentioned Deviations, let me say that it's my least favorite Transformers-related anything of all time.

OMG, so true. It didn't help that Hot Rod didn't interfere in the fight in the Marvel run and Prime still died.

It's a bit of a missed opportunity to make Prime Wars Starscream (and his limbs) too. It wouldn't have saved the story, but it woulda made the toy a little more appealing to me. The timing just wasn't right for that.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100436)
Posted by o.supreme on April 4th, 2021 @ 8:29pm CDT
starfish wrote:The most damning thing about the current reboot is that very few people are really talking about it any more. So many fans have just switched off.


Can you blame them? Although Transformers fans may be prone to complaining, they are nothing if not dedicated. I mean I know LL had its contingent of fans but...After 13 years of basically a "chore" I think so many like myself saw the end as Freedom to jump off if nothing else. It's sad because I've not set foot in a Comic Book store since November 2018, and I feel a great weight has been lifted. For the longest time I envisioned perhaps how The Autobots would save the day and thwart Unicron. Yet when he basically destroyed everything in that universe, I felt nothing.

The reboot could have been absolutely amazing, or meh, Or horrible, and I wouldn't know or care. From all indications, it isn't great, so I'm glad I made the right choice. It's odd because for the longest time I was into Transformers Animation, until Prime ended in 2013. I wondered if there would ever be a Toyline as great as the original Transformers. Now that I have been back into Generations since 2015. I wonder if there will ever again be a decent Transformers Comic.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100439)
Posted by Stormshot_Prime on April 4th, 2021 @ 8:39pm CDT
Can’t believe Heart of Darkness didn’t make this list! Only redeemable part of that story were the alien crab pirates if you ask me.

I really do love the later IDW stuff, but Combiner Wars and Titans Return absolutely ravaged the ongoing plots. The way the didn’t bother touching Power of the Primes. It did not help when the later comics had to cram 50 issues of plot into 25 because of early cancellations for the 2019 series... it’s like they’re allergic to satisfying endings. I’m still aghast that after all the crossovers and plot relevance, that Lost Light pretty much did not connect back to the main series.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100443)
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on April 4th, 2021 @ 8:52pm CDT
Hmm, not a list I am particularly hot on. Some missed points and such.

My list would go as:

5) Avengers vs TFs: so random, only tangentially involved, also bad art, and a nonsensical story honestly. It was just not good.

4) Revolution: it was rushed, it did not flow, forced conflict, poor art, and I just didn't care about any of it. Only thing I ended up caring for from the shared universe was Action Man/Kup. outside that, wasted potential.

3) Heart of Darkness: worst art of TFs ever, no doubt. Plus some writing and editorial goofs made it bad.

2) Spotlight Arcee: insensitive, really bad concept, and ridiculous. Nothing else need be said.

1) TF vs Visionaries: Killing Kup, a crucial character in IDW, in such a fashion and then bragging about it, and proceeding to make a pretty bad story even after that? That one was the worst. Only followup it ever got was a brief mention in Unicron #4 I think? Outside that, everyone dropped visionaries and tried to pretend it didn't happen.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100444)
Posted by william-james88 on April 4th, 2021 @ 8:52pm CDT
o.supreme wrote:ok , so I have to super careful with this, as I am not really a fan of IDW. I purchased and read every single issue of the 13 year run, most of them are forgettable, but it wasn't until I purged myself of nearly all my comic-book collection in early 2020, that I could finally put it all behind me.

That being said, naturally a "worst" list would be too long to count, but a "best" list I'm not sure if I could even come up with 5 titles or mini-series to fill that conversation.

I do take exception to All Hail Megatron being on this list though, just my opinion, it was the single best thing about IDW in it's entire 13 year run. It was The only series that held any real interest for me, and I eagerly looked forward to each month (Issues 1-12 btw, furmans useless coda was not needed). But I get it. I'm a fan of AHM, because it was different from the dull-as-dishwater stories furman had churned out up to that point, and the closest thing to the classic animated series we would ever get. *Stormbringer I seem to recall was relatively decent also, but I digress... Also while AHM obviously has a large contingent of fans that don't care for it, it is nice to see some actual support for it in the comments I've seen so far.

Combiner Wars was a missed opportunity. I envisioned it being written similar to how DW wrote the Micromasters 4 part series (basically an entire series dedicated to the various Combiner Teams), unfortunately they were just blunt instruments used by the main characters, and a shameless way to promote Windblade and Victorion. Hopefully someday the Combiners will get their due (The toys were great, but decent portrayals in modern fiction are still to be written).

All that being said, despite the shady behind-the-scenes goings on at DW, that world-building had the best foundation for Transformers in Comics I've ever read, and it is a true shame it didn't last. Of course, it died the hero, and IDW lives on to be the villain.


Great post, Omega, I really love it. I'll admit, I too find most of the IDW stuff simply not memorable prior to Death of Optimus Prime (which itself is also not memorable). It just feels like a slog. I did like the Roberts stuff though. I jut liked the way the story was told, emphasis on dialogue rather than narration. And Alex Milne's art is awesome.
But back to the prior stuff, I did find it forgettable and jut boring. Which is why I don't find Heart of Darkness to be such a bad offender. I remember the bad art (someone wrote about that too, I agree), but it just melted with the rest of the blandness before and after. So while I didn't write this list, I can see where Kurona may have been coming from.

And I definitely get what she meant with All Hail Megatron. And what's funny is we all like it and hate it for the same reason. Your reason for liking it is the same reason Kurona doesn't like it. It boils down to being just another episode of the 80s show. And I agree. The bad guys are bad and the good guys come in at the end to save the day. And there isn't much more to it. I really disliked it for this same reason and it's all due to the hype it was given, at least for me. This seemed like a big event, something worth reading. So I did. And the first issue makes it seem like all is truly lost. Optimus is not only destroyed but the matrix is gone too.
But by the end, the stakes which seemed huge at first are the same stakes of any G1 episode. Optimus is fine just in time and just owns the bad guys. And the matrix being gone? Big woop, just like the big woop ass this decepticons are getting.
It just felt so childish and low stakes afterall, like a G1 episode.
So that's my criticism of that event.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100458)
Posted by BeastProwl on April 5th, 2021 @ 2:02am CDT
I'm smack dab in the middle of the Revolution crossover event, and I couldn't agree more. Its pretty bad. Ide been doing a marathon, reading all the comics for the first time, and Revolution popped up and kneecapped me. Now its like Im forcing my way through tar and sludge.

Also, personal opinions: Autocracy Trilogy is awful. And anything involving Sentinel Prime and Nova/Nemesis Prime is absolutely boring.

I also dislike Spotlight Megatron quite a bit as well. It drags and meanders on and on. Its seriously just several pages of Megatron kicking the crap out of Starscream while showing off the cool new toy you can buy for just 9.99!

Dark Cybertron was boring as well, but it had a lot of really good plot elements in it so Im fine with it. Love IDW shockwave, and love Arcee finally coming out the other side of her....whatever her arc was. Then she just goes on and keeps acting like a psycho.

Also Prowl being so far gone that no one knows hes being controlled was hilarious to see. Prowl getting his in general was just great.

Oh, and about Galvatron? Whatever that story was that was centered around him building an army? I dont remember the name of it. But that one was g a r b a g e. Full stop. Terrible artwork, and pointless exploration of a character with a lot of potential to be an antihero thats later squandered when his personality just completely freaking changes from crazy antihero to wasteland warrior. Like what even was that?

Nowhere to really put this since its not centric to any one story in particular (though its mostly a feature of MTMTE) but I also dont like how every single robot is suddenly just....in or forming relationships. Aside this, MTMTE is probably the best story run with the coolest concepts and ideas, most charming characters, and best written villains imo. Which I fully admit as someone who has Last Stand as his favorite comic. Like. Ever.

Chromedome and Rewind were just adorable. I got on board for Cyclonus and Tailgate with time cuz they developed in a great way.
Then just....suddenly everyone is in a relationship left and right. Im here to read about war between alien robots, not to have their sexuality and relationship status crammed down my throat. It gets old after a while. They're robots. Machines. Alien machines. That turn into cars and shoot eachother with all kinds of weird ass guns and stuff. I aint come here for all this.

Plus, MTMTE kinda ruined Rodimus for me too, just as an aside. Do not like his characterization in it.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100459)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 5th, 2021 @ 3:09am CDT
MTMTE ruined a lot of established characters. Ultra Magnus, for example. Went from 'Judge Dredd of Transformers', to the neurotic comic relief trope.

Someone I once spoke to, in a bid to rationalise it. Said they equated MTMTE/LL as a separate continuity. That's why the characterisations of what came before didn't apply. Because it was its own thing. She even threw in Auto-Megatron with that too. Which she vehemently hated.

The Primacy Trilogy was just awful artwork, with a completely forgettable story. Not as bad as the rest on this list.

As for the Spotlights, I like to think they ended with Sideswipe. There were a couple of duds, points to Mirage, Optimus Prime ("One Punching" a Gestalt was too much). But on the whole, the side series was great at world building.
Those that came later were literally trading on the name. Without real substance.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100473)
Posted by AcademyofDrX on April 5th, 2021 @ 8:55am CDT
I love the 2019 reboot. I was going to take issue with the post dropping long shots of talking out of context, but I have to grant that it's slower-paced and has less combat per issue than your average book. But this is an extensive Cybertronian society, something we only got glimpses of in lines like Till All Are One.

Let's face it, most Transformers characterization is best summarized as "how do you feel about war" and "how do you feel about how that guy feels about war." 2019 has some of the most fully-fledged characters because while violence and power still drive the day, there are other perspectives large and small influencing the world.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100474)
Posted by starfish on April 5th, 2021 @ 9:05am CDT
AcademyofDrX wrote:I love the 2019 reboot. I was going to take issue with the post dropping long shots of talking out of context, but I have to grant that it's slower-paced and has less combat per issue than your average book. But this is an extensive Cybertronian society, something we only got glimpses of in lines like Till All Are One.

Let's face it, most Transformers characterization is best summarized as "how do you feel about war" and "how do you feel about how that guy feels about war." 2019 has some of the most fully-fledged characters because while violence and power still drive the day, there are other perspectives large and small influencing the world.


It’s not the lack of combat that’s the problem, per se - it’s the lack of emotion. Characters making speeches and proclaiming stuff at each other, with all the wit and verve of people reading the washing machine instructions. It’s not just the slow pace, it’s the fact that everything’s just so dry and flavourless.

Compared to most other comics, the current IDW books have very few exclamation marks in the dialogue, most sentences end in a simple period. If the characters within the book can’t get excited about what’s going on, then why should the readers?
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100475)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 5th, 2021 @ 9:14am CDT
Added to that, the fact this wasn't a full reboot at all. Some characters rely heavily on the familiarity of the previous continuity. This shouldn't be the case. In a vacuum, the death of Brainstorm - the instigating factor of the first arc- is meaningless to the reader. Just a generic victim, akin to procedural Cop shows.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100481)
Posted by Bleak5170 on April 5th, 2021 @ 11:20am CDT
lowman_x wrote:I would put the 2019 reboot series at number 1. I mean, it's the reason I stopped collecting Transformers comics and I've been collecting them since the Marvel UK/US days. I skipped a few of the crossover/miniseries events, but I never gave up on the main books. But this? No. I gave it 24 issues and ~2 years. I'll wait for the inevitable reboot and see how I feel.


This. I love TF comics and this is the worst I've ever read by far. I absolutely hate it.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100497)
Posted by Whirlkick on April 5th, 2021 @ 12:53pm CDT
I'm on my first read through of the entire IDW series, so it's all quite fresh in my mind. I'm currently up to Robots in Disguise Vol 1. I love that they have their FoC designs!

I defo loved everything that came before AHM, so I didn't like it when they all of a sudden switched from the Spotlights and Maximum Dinobots and all that they were establishing, to something totally different. It's like a year on, the Autobots totally lost everything, and somehow everyone goes from using 21st century vehicles to vehicles from the '80s. The Seekers went from F-22s to their G1 jets, I don't get that. If they were going to do AHM, they should've let the Decepticons succeed with their infiltration, activate Siege mode and BOOM, AHM happens. That would've been much better. AHM was also a bit too dark, like it felt gratuitous at times. I thought Mirage was going to become a 'Con after what Ironhide did but they didn't deliver there. Overall, I liked AHM as its own thing, and the ramifications it had were cool because it gave us the Transformers series which was great, it's just that it should've come later on.

The art in Galvatron's recruitment drive series was awful :lol:

Overall, I think there have been more hits than misses so far, but I'm not looking forward to all of that weird shite in Lost Light, with relationships and that BS. I prefer that slightly gritty tone that the rest of the series has.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100498)
Posted by william-james88 on April 5th, 2021 @ 12:56pm CDT
Whirlkick wrote:I'm on my first read through of the entire IDW series, so it's all quite fresh in my mind. I'm currently up to Robots in Disguise Vol 1. I love that they have their FoC designs!

I defo loved everything that came before AHM, so I didn't like it when they all of a sudden switched from the Spotlights and Maximum Dinobots and all that they were establishing, to something totally different. It's like a year on, the Autobots totally lost everything, and somehow everyone goes from using 21st century vehicles to vehicles from the '80s. The Seekers went from F-22s to their G1 jets, I don't get that. If they were going to do AHM, they should've let the Decepticons succeed with their infiltration, activate Siege mode and BOOM, AHM happens. That would've been much better. AHM was also a bit too dark, like it felt gratuitous at times. I thought Mirage was going to become a 'Con after what Ironhide did but they didn't deliver there. Overall, I liked AHM as its own thing, and the ramifications it had were cool because it gave us the Transformers series which was great, it's just that it should've come later on.

The art in Galvatron's recruitment drive series was awful :lol:

Overall, I think there have been more hits than misses so far, but I'm not looking forward to all of that weird shite in Lost Light, with relationships and that BS. I prefer that slightly gritty tone that the rest of the series has.


Dont you worry, More Than Meets The Eye will be super dark as well at times.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100501)
Posted by TulioDude on April 5th, 2021 @ 1:33pm CDT
I would make a special mention to some movie tie-ins between ROTF and DOTM.
I have not read them all personally,but some of the present day stories,introduced some characters and concepts that didn't have an impact.
I don't personally like Carlos Magno drawings.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100502)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 5th, 2021 @ 1:39pm CDT
william-james88 wrote:
Whirlkick wrote:I'm on my first read through of the entire IDW series, so it's all quite fresh in my mind. I'm currently up to Robots in Disguise Vol 1. I love that they have their FoC designs!

I defo loved everything that came before AHM, so I didn't like it when they all of a sudden switched from the Spotlights and Maximum Dinobots and all that they were establishing, to something totally different. It's like a year on, the Autobots totally lost everything, and somehow everyone goes from using 21st century vehicles to vehicles from the '80s. The Seekers went from F-22s to their G1 jets, I don't get that. If they were going to do AHM, they should've let the Decepticons succeed with their infiltration, activate Siege mode and BOOM, AHM happens. That would've been much better. AHM was also a bit too dark, like it felt gratuitous at times. I thought Mirage was going to become a 'Con after what Ironhide did but they didn't deliver there. Overall, I liked AHM as its own thing, and the ramifications it had were cool because it gave us the Transformers series which was great, it's just that it should've come later on.

The art in Galvatron's recruitment drive series was awful :lol:

Overall, I think there have been more hits than misses so far, but I'm not looking forward to all of that weird shite in Lost Light, with relationships and that BS. I prefer that slightly gritty tone that the rest of the series has.


Dont you worry, More Than Meets The Eye will be super dark as well at times.


Offset by the distracting level of chibi-like art. It verged on being a Skottie Young book at times.

Also yes, that was one of the worst things about AHM, how everyone's design was downgraded. In particular, the Seekers looked really cool in the -Ations. Which was a real shame in hindsight.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100540)
Posted by Tuned Agent on April 5th, 2021 @ 7:28pm CDT
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
Whirlkick wrote:Overall, I think there have been more hits than misses so far, but I'm not looking forward to all of that weird shite in Lost Light, with relationships and that BS. I prefer that slightly gritty tone that the rest of the series has.


Dont you worry, More Than Meets The Eye will be super dark as well at times.


Offset by the distracting level of chibi-like art. It verged on being a Skottie Young book at times.

What chibi-like art?
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100605)
Posted by hausjam on April 6th, 2021 @ 11:40am CDT
I am going to go with whichever one featured the dumbass idea of turning Megatron into an autobot. That alone made Transformers comics the laughing stock of the universe.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100614)
Posted by starfish on April 6th, 2021 @ 12:39pm CDT
hausjam wrote:I am going to go with whichever one featured the dumbass idea of turning Megatron into an autobot. That alone made Transformers comics the laughing stock of the universe.


I dunno, toy franchise tie-in comics aren’t that well regarded by the general public, anyway. Telling people that you’re a grown adult who still reads comics based on kids toys is likely to result in mirth, whatever the plot line!

I get that the move was unpopular with many purists, but having a villain find redemption is not in itself a terrible idea. It’s happened (and been done well) in lots of other media with no problems. Vader turned on the Emperor in Star Wars, Godzilla helped defeat King Ghidorah, Jaws and Pussy Galore end up helping Bond, Crais and Scorpius in Farscape, Damar on Deep Space Nine and so on.

I mean, the execution may not have been to everyone’s tastes, I get that; but saying that the underlying concept is merely a ‘dumbass idea’ is itself pretty dumbass.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2100615)
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on April 6th, 2021 @ 12:48pm CDT
Tuned Agent wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
Whirlkick wrote:Overall, I think there have been more hits than misses so far, but I'm not looking forward to all of that weird shite in Lost Light, with relationships and that BS. I prefer that slightly gritty tone that the rest of the series has.


Dont you worry, More Than Meets The Eye will be super dark as well at times.


Offset by the distracting level of chibi-like art. It verged on being a Skottie Young book at times.

What chibi-like art?


Swerve and Tailgate in particular. But it did veer into the overly exaggerated features from the rest, on occasion.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2101060)
Posted by william-james88 on April 9th, 2021 @ 9:26am CDT
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
Whirlkick wrote:Overall, I think there have been more hits than misses so far, but I'm not looking forward to all of that weird shite in Lost Light, with relationships and that BS. I prefer that slightly gritty tone that the rest of the series has.


Dont you worry, More Than Meets The Eye will be super dark as well at times.


Offset by the distracting level of chibi-like art. It verged on being a Skottie Young book at times.

What chibi-like art?


Swerve and Tailgate in particular. But it did veer into the overly exaggerated features from the rest, on occasion.


For my money, Casey Coller and Alex Milne are the greatest TF artists of all time.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2101512)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on April 12th, 2021 @ 6:31pm CDT
I just remembered pregnant Scorponok... :SICK: :SICK: :SICK:
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2101514)
Posted by Quantum Surge on April 12th, 2021 @ 6:43pm CDT
Rodimus Prime wrote:I just remembered pregnant Scorponok... :SICK: :SICK: :SICK:

I remember laughing at that out loud back when a former friend told me about it.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2101697)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on April 13th, 2021 @ 7:31pm CDT
Quantum Surge wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:I just remembered pregnant Scorponok... :SICK: :SICK: :SICK:

I remember laughing at that out loud back when a former friend told me about it.
Yeah, Furman made him a great character back in the day, in both Marvel and IDW. And that hack roberts just used him for a macguffin for a story line that was garbage to begin with. And he turned the most bad ass character ever into a blubbering mess. Hopefully he's never allowed around TF comics ever again.
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2101876)
Posted by ScottyP on April 15th, 2021 @ 6:31pm CDT
Not sure how I missed this list when it was posted (well, I do know, I've been busy as all hell) but I mostly like it. All Hail Megatron is the only good story on the list proper. The tail-end of the IDW 1 Furman run reads fine now, but at the time it was really dragging and losing itself. AHM gave TF comics a big jolt in the arm and while it took some weird continuity hand-waving and its momentum eventually stalled out, it was such a big box of fun at the time that I didn't care. Still don't. I enjoyed it and most of McCarthy's stuff to be honest.

Dark Cybertron is a case where following it bi-weekly was kinda meh, but when collected and read in the full context of RiD and MTMTE collected (and even IDW 1 on the whole), it's really good. Hindsight helped it so very much.

The only real notable absence has already been pointed out:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:1) TF vs Visionaries: Killing Kup, a crucial character in IDW, in such a fashion and then bragging about it, and proceeding to make a pretty bad story even after that? That one was the worst. Only followup it ever got was a brief mention in Unicron #4 I think? Outside that, everyone dropped visionaries and tried to pretend it didn't happen.
:APPLAUSE:
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2102072)
Posted by Evil Eye on April 17th, 2021 @ 10:59am CDT
william-james88 wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
Whirlkick wrote:Overall, I think there have been more hits than misses so far, but I'm not looking forward to all of that weird shite in Lost Light, with relationships and that BS. I prefer that slightly gritty tone that the rest of the series has.


Dont you worry, More Than Meets The Eye will be super dark as well at times.


Offset by the distracting level of chibi-like art. It verged on being a Skottie Young book at times.

What chibi-like art?


Swerve and Tailgate in particular. But it did veer into the overly exaggerated features from the rest, on occasion.


For my money, Casey Coller and Alex Milne are the greatest TF artists of all time.

I'm not massively familiar with IDW as I've only read bits of it (and from my understanding of how it went, especially the end, that's not likely to change unfortunately) but I am a HUGE fan of Kei Zama's art, what I've seen of it. It's like a slightly more manga-esque, refined version of Derek Yaniger's work.

...We could probably start a whole separate topic on the subject of TF artists, to be honest. :lol:
Re: Top 5 Worst IDW Transformers Stories (2173271)
Posted by snavej on November 7th, 2023 @ 7:57am CST
TFs vs. Terminator. Just a cash grab. TFs are obviously superior. This is no contest.

TFs & Star Trek. The Enterprise turns into a robot. This would be hugely disruptive. The crew would have to evacuate. They would have to take out all their valuables. It's simply not practical.

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Transformers Podcast: Twincast / Podcast #345 - The Roast
Twincast / Podcast #345:
"The Roast"
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Posted: Saturday, March 9th, 2024

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