Variant Covers for IDW Optimus Prime #10, by Andrew Griffith & Andrew MacLean

That is one mess of an issue blurb. Someone fell asleep at the keyboard.

Kurona wrote:That is one mess of an issue blurb. Someone fell asleep at the keyboard.

Still better than most MTMTE and lost light blurbs that just try and be witty and uninformative

Via the usual avenue of iTunes, the three-page preview for Optimus Prime #10 has arrived. Along with the usual pages, the "A" cover for this issue has also been revealed at last. The cover by Kei Zama features Onyx Prime and Liege Maximo, two of the original Thirteen Primes, looking both menacing and mightily cool. The interior pages shown are also the familiar Kei Zama and Josh Burcham combo that readers of Optimus Prime are familiar with, however it should be noted the flashback story that Alpha Trion sets up below which will comprise the bulk of this issue is drawn and colored by another fantastic Transformers comics artist, Livio Ramondelli.









With this preview available, it looks like this chronicle of Galvatron the Barbarian's adventures will be available for you to read on August 30th, so be sure to head to your local comic shop and pick it up when it comes out!

That cover is fantastic!

I wish the inside was as nice looking as that cover. I think the colors are what's throwing me. It's personal preference but I prefer bolder colors.

Cover looks good, but is it just me or does the bigger one (who I'm guessing is Onyx Prime) bear a striking resemblance to Deathsaurus?

I miss Alpha Trion being douchey jack sparrow like. And no beard. I liked when it was just lines the evoked a beard.

grimdragon2001 wrote:Cover looks good, but is it just me or does the bigger one (who I'm guessing is Onyx Prime) bear a striking resemblance to Deathsaurus?

I'm guessing it's by design. Flame looks a great deal like Liege Maximo, Mistress of Flame has a strong resemblance to Solus, Nickel to Micronus, and here with Deathsaurus to Onyx. I think they're playing on the tribal split of either or both of the Knights of Cybertron and the Guiding Hand, with the implication that members of those groups fashioned their appearances based on a Prime.

And right now Nickel's allied with Deathsaurus; with Optimus and Alpha Trion being close together with ties to the Mistress of Flame. Something's afoot here...

Or it's a coincidence. Seriously.


Hey he's blue, silver and he gold accents...OMG SOUNDWAVE HAS THOSE COLORS! Mind blown!

Liege Maximo is all green...SO ISMOVIE SKIDS! WHATS THE CONNECTION IDW!?!?!

He's also got a beast mode and his robot mode strikes a silhouette extremely similar to that, so it's really not just colours.

grimdragon2001 wrote:Cover looks good, but is it just me or does the bigger one (who I'm guessing is Onyx Prime) bear a striking resemblance to Deathsaurus?

That's what i thought

I guarantee it's just colors.

Deathsaurus is a warborn cybertronian meaning he's more than likely constructed cold because no hotspots were ever found during the war which means he was born a decepticon. Onyx Prime is a prime and he's 9 million years old and he's being doing his own thing the entire time like making Titan masters and visiting colonies. We've seen him floating around preparing for his return Also it's the damn Aligned design for him. 4 legs and all.

Onyx Prime wants to wipe out all cybertornians and star over where as Deathsaurus cares deeply for his fellow cybertronians. There's no connection other than Burcham felt like coloring them similar. Their are only so many colors you can use especially since the aligned Primes are all one color.

Deathsaurus is Roberts character and he's not giving up him or Nickel. I know some people say Deathsaurus has a role because of a potential toy and he was a runner for Power of the Primes fan vote but so was Hound. Hound! Just because a toy gets made means nothing. Cyclonus got a toy in combiner Wars and had nothing to do with the comic event and look at Titans return's event. Four characters that actually had toys and only two of them were Titan masters while one was a mneumosurgeon and the other highjacked a Titan. IDW does what they want in their toy tie in events.

Randomhero wrote:I guarantee it's just colors.

Deathsaurus is a warborn cybertronian meaning he's more than likely constructed cold because no hotspots were ever found during the war which means he was born a decepticon. Onyx Prime is a prime and he's 9 million years old and he's being doing his own thing the entire time like making Titan masters and visiting colonies. We've seen him floating around preparing for his return Also it's the damn Aligned design for him. 4 legs and all.

Onyx Prime wants to wipe out all cybertornians and star over where as Deathsaurus cares deeply for his fellow cybertronians. There's no connection other than Burcham felt like coloring them similar. Their are only so many colors you can use especially since the aligned Primes are all one color.

Deathsaurus is Roberts character and he's not giving up him or Nickel. I know some people say Deathsaurus has a role because of a potential toy and he was a runner for Power of the Primes fan vote but so was Hound. Hound! Just because a toy gets made means nothing. Cyclonus got a toy in combiner Wars and had nothing to do with the comic event and look at Titans return's event. Four characters that actually had toys and only two of them were Titan masters while one was a mneumosurgeon and the other highjacked a Titan. IDW does what they want in their toy tie in events.

Why do you hate fun so much?

Because Im a realist. Fan theories are just that. Fan theories. And they're neve right.

It's like for the passed year I've been saying Slugslinger is the final titans return figure and everyone would gang up and say "NO HES NOT! WE STILL HAVETHE. REVEAL OF HIS WAVEMATES!" Well they revealed his wave this week or last and yeah it's a bunch of already released figures to fill up thatcase box. Yes there's an Arcee that's "suppose to be released post hascon" but I'll bet right now she and Magnus will be an online retailer figure like groove, slingshot and wild rider.

Anyway what I'm getting at is I'm not hating fun but I'm looking at all sides and I go with the explanation that makes most logic.

a cover with liege Maximo and onyx prime was made and josh was to color it and said "hey there's no real pictures of onyx prime, what colors should I use for him?" And I guarantee john or Guzman said "go ahead and get creative" or "livio colored him blue with gold accents so go with that"

Or there's even this idea: the colorist screwed up. Heres onyx prime from the annual



It's possible Burcham just screwed up and didn't realize that was Onyx Prime and thought it was Deathsaurus or he didn't realize onyx prime had shown up already and just went with whatever he wanted.

That has happened. Perez thought the Necrotitan was metrotitan and kept coloring him like that all throughout Dark Cybertron instead coloring him properly.

Burcham has said that he colored the cover based on Ramondelli's interiors. https://twitter.com/jcburcham/status/898314173091782656

That cover is beautiful. And I look forward to some more background on the Primes, seeing as how that is where everything is heading and we have some rogues on the loose.

Randomhero wrote:Because Im a realist. Fan theories are just that. Fan theories. And they're neve right.

Like when I said two years ago that IDW was going to go there with Unicron.

I snipped out the rest of your post but it had very fair points and was a good read!

A cute little bit of news for fans of IDW's designs today -- artist Andrew Griffith today tweeted some concept art for Soundwave as he appeared in Robots in Diguise - later simply rechristened 'Transformers' - and as he currently appears in the Optimus Prime comic. Specifically, this concept art concerns Soundwave's new alternate mode as a communications truck, and shows how Griffith envisioned Rumble and Frenzy in their new bike forms deploying for him. In another tweet, Griffith also specifies the type of truck Soundwave is supposed to be -- a three-axle communications-heavy Stryker vehicle! Check out the design below and tell us what you think in the forums!

I really like this and I think it would be a cool option for him if there were ever a series where the Decepticons are only military vehicles...cause you know Decepticons and all.


Or maybe just a military Transformers spinoff where all the Transformers are a military vehicle of some type...not necessarily all of them being vehicles with guns but just vehicles used by the military in general.

Also it's pretty clever on how Soundwave's deployment gimmick works here.

Looks like this inspired the design for that upcoming activity book.

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Looks like this inspired the design for that upcoming activity book.

Transformers-My-Busy-Book-001.jpg

That just looks like a regular SUV like Animated Soundwave and some other versions of him are.

Looks like Universe (Classics 2.0) Ultra Class Onslaught.

Here's a larger preview of Optimus Prime #10: https://www.newsarama.com/36121-in-memo ... eview.html

Nik Hero wrote:Here's a larger preview of Optimus Prime #10: https://www.newsarama.com/36121-in-memo ... eview.html

Warning: There are big spoilers to Galvatron's origin in that preview!

Courtesy of fellow Seibertronian Nik Hero, and via Newsarama, we have the full preview for next week's flashback heavy issue of Optimus Prime from IDW Publishing! Check it all out below, and beware of some fairly significant story spoilers for Galvatron, and some of the other characters that immediately show up.

Optimus Prime #10
John Barber (w) • Livio Ramondelli & Kei Zama (a) • Kei Zama (c)
THE RETURN OF GALVATRON THE BARBARIAN! Optimus Prime meets with Alpha Trion, the ancient sage, who reveals a tale of Cybertron's earliest days, when the original Thirteen Primes united the world. But even then, the warrior known as Galvatron was a wild card... shaping the future in unexpected ways.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
· Leads directly into this month’s First Strike event!
· Variant cover by Andrew MacLean!

Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM kill him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Randomhero wrote:Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM killed him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Yeah that was cool, and there's an interesting piece of history to be revealed and built up. Who knew. #spoilers

Tigertrack wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM killed him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Yeah that was cool, and there's an interesting piece of history to be revealed and built up. Who knew. #spoilers

Wait, who's who in this preview? I'm confused.

ricemazter wrote:

Tigertrack wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM killed him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Yeah that was cool, and there's an interesting piece of history to be revealed and built up. Who knew. #spoilers

Wait, who's who in this preview? I'm confused.

Yeah, tell me about it... Livio's craptastic art strikes again!

I think the big guy is Megatronus

The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

Yeah, Livio's come a long way since Chaos. Not an artstyle I enjoy, but it's at the point where it's fine now imo.

"Septimus Prime..." Goodness, they really need some better Prime names, even if he is a fake prime.

But this looks to be really cool. Arcee and Galvatron. Huh.

This gon' be good

Kurona wrote:Yeah, Livio's come a long way since Chaos. Not an artstyle I enjoy, but it's at the point where it's fine now imo.

He has, and I don't enjoy it as much either, but he does do great work, I just think most of his great work is in other franchises, but I appreciate that he has a style and look all his own, he embraces it, and does well with it.

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

Tigertrack wrote:

Kurona wrote:Yeah, Livio's come a long way since Chaos. Not an artstyle I enjoy, but it's at the point where it's fine now imo.

He has, and I don't enjoy it as much either, but he does do great work, I just think most of his great work is in other franchises, but I appreciate that he has a style and look all his own, he embraces it, and does well with it.

The styli itself is fine but he still needs to spend time keeping characters on some semblance of model and recognizability. You shouldn't need to guess or TFWiki look up who you are looking at in an issue. Especially when he tries to add cameos.

Ebonyleopard wrote:

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

The one Galvatron has an axe, the other carries two swords. One of the alternate covers shows Galvatron and Arcee, and as mentioned before by RH, Arcee has said recently that she has a brother killed before her eyes.

The issue will provide more 'solid' evidence, as well...

It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts).

Except thats wasn't really much of a twist when you go back a realize there were about half a dozen clues of Tarn's identity. Some people even figured it out about 2 years before Dying of The Light but were quickly told "NO ITS ROLLER BECAUSE COOL!!"

Ebonyleopard wrote:

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

Because one is wielding swords the other an axe. Arcee has also been drawn in very similar poses with her swords and throughout the second season of RID/TF there's an obvious kinship between the two. Arcee threatened to kill Galvatron many times but never really went through with it and by the end of TF and through out Optimus Prime she has shown some deep emotions for the death of Galvatron.

She knew Galvatron was her brother but the question is why didn't Galvatron? At first I thought John is retconning this but like I said there's hints of something between the two for the passed three years and it's John. He makes long term plans

Tigertrack wrote:

Ebonyleopard wrote:

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

The one Galvatron has an axe, the other carries two swords. One of the alternate covers shows Galvatron and Arcee, and as mentioned before by RH, Arcee has said recently that she has a brother killed before her eyes.

The issue will provide more 'solid' evidence, as well...

You have to admit, the evidence for it being Arcee is a lot stronger than for it not being her. I didn't even notice the sword-wielding until you mentioned it.

In any case, this issue will be great setup for Power of the Primes. I'm looking forward to seeing Onyx Prime and more of Liege Maximo.

Has anybody notice notice Megatronus's pose is a little bit like this pic

https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/or ... gatron.png

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

What do you mean about their treatment of Milne?

ricemazter wrote:

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

What do you mean about their treatment of Milne?

It probably means somebody thinks Alex Milne was "let go" from drawing main transformers books and doesn't bother ever listening to the artist's they love. There's never been a full blown reason why Milne isn't on lost light. He was suppose to trade off story arcs with Jack but it never happened. When news came out about the change in artists Milne made the remark he didn't even know but was fine and blamed himself for him being unreliable to make deadlines. He openly admits he couldn't keep up on a monthly book.

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

Livio gets work because he has a great relationship with the IDW staff and he's reliable and came make deadlines. While I'm not a fan of his work I will commend him on his passion. Plenty of artists and writers run with their tails between their legs for getting $#+% on by fandoms and never come back, Livio actually tries and has improved his art with every issue.

And I know there's plenty that will always say "I'll take a delayed book with better art over this" well this is a company and they need reliable artists to make the deadlines to keep it up.

Also IDW isn't cheap. They pay their people quite well and also have to pay for the licenses they have. Hasbro isn't giving them all their IP, they have to pay for them.

Back in 2005 Dreamwave owed Hasbro $500,000 in licensing fees alone for less than year so you can imagine 12 years later what IDW has to pay. Cheap? Not even.

Randomhero wrote:She knew Galvatron was her brother but the question is why didn't Galvatron? At first I thought John is retconning this but like I said there's hints of something between the two for the passed three years and it's John. He makes long term plans

Who says he didn't know? All of their interactions were pretty chummy, as though they already both knew each other, and Galvatron did have that line about "brotherhood" back in #42 of exRiD...

Randomhero wrote:Also IDW isn't cheap. They pay their people quiet well and also have to pay for the licenses they have. Hasbro isn't giving them all their IP, they have to pay for them.

Back in 2005 Dreamwave owed Hasbro $500,000 in licensing fees alone for less than year so you can imagine 12 years later what IDW has to pay. Cheap? Not even.

Maybe they should drop some licenses instead of raising the risks of becoming bankrupt.

Instead of having (simplify) 100 mediocre comics maybe have 20-30 really good ones, that way IDW gets to cheap out less and actually maybe pay off any debts.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Also IDW isn't cheap. They pay their people quiet well and also have to pay for the licenses they have. Hasbro isn't giving them all their IP, they have to pay for them.

Back in 2005 Dreamwave owed Hasbro $500,000 in licensing fees alone for less than year so you can imagine 12 years later what IDW has to pay. Cheap? Not even.

Maybe they should drop some licenses instead of raising the risks of becoming bankrupt.

Instead of having (simplify) 100 mediocre comics maybe have 20-30 really good ones, that way IDW gets to cheap out less and actually maybe pay off any debts.

That's... not how it works.