IDW Revolution Issue #4 (of 5) Review

The art for the Transformers in the 'main' Revolution books is a poor fit for the characters. The plot should be fun, but isn't. It's too busy taking itself seriously to be fun.

There are so many characters that none are a focus. Not one. Who is this story about, really?

The dire wraiths don't feel like a serious threat, especially now that they're all out in the open sort of? They're hard to follow, and I blame that on something else: the layouts. These books are legitimately hard for me to follow. There's so little plot but it's spread over the pages in such a helter skelter way that it sometimes takes re-reads to figure out what the hell is happening in what order.

I'm very interested to see how 2 and 3 sold compared to the first issue, which sold a big mess of copies for IDW. Then again, with the brands involved it might just sell by default.

I'd like to be positive about something though now. TAAO was good. Real good. Character building, actual peril, teases that make me want to read on, visceral imagery, things happen in reasonable order, and it moved some overarching plots along while giving nice context to others. I thought Tsushima towed an excellent line and never went into "sexy" territory, at least not to me. Scott knows the character so well at this point and this was a great spotlight on her. Though I do have to say that they need to give her penchant for self-sacrifice a rest for a little while. That just happened in the TR one shot.

Finally, TF Revolution was also good and I wish the main Rev books were more like that. Josh Boyfriend saves the world, and Thundercracker helps too.

By the way, everyone saying this - I know that's the purpose Revolution is for, and it's supposed to be able to be a jumping-on point for every series involved... but please, Primus above, do not recommend anyone interested in the IDWverse to start with Revolution.
I've read everything of IDW from Death of Optimus Prime onwards - aside from the Autocracy/Primacy/Monstrosity stuff, and the side prose stories - and Revolution is bar none the lowest point it has ever gotten.
I'm not gonna act like modern IDW has been a perfect run. Dark Cybertron was a bit of a bore for what it was and annoying to slog through just to continue the otherwise excellent two series involved. Combiner Wars was frustrating as all heck and interrupted so much just because Hasbro decided to shove their advertising full-force into a series which was benefiting from having that in minimum supply. All Hail Optimus was... not as good as it could have been.
But y'know what? All the problems of those pale in comparison to Revolution. I'd read Dark Cybertron as many times as I could in 24 hours before looking at Revolution. I'd ask for a thousand other to-sell-toys fueled arcs like Combiner Wars - which up until now, was the worst point of modern IDW - before wanting something like Revolution to happen again.

Revolution is a generic mess of an Avengers wannabe which, while perhaps fueled by good intentions, is nowhere near the incredible heights IDW has shown us Transformers fiction can reach. Tell anyone interested to start with MTMTE, to start with Windblade; for god's sake tell them to read Combiner Wars but don't get them to start with Revolution. Because I honestly can't think of a bigger way to turn someone off the comics.

ScottyP wrote:

Kurona wrote:and the side prose stories

There are only a couple of these and they are really good! I recommend them.

They really are! I agree!

Well to be fair Revolution really isn't a TF series, despite involving the TF's. I felt the same way about previous crossovers. Anyone remember Infestattion 1 & 2? Though those were less fueled by toy brands, they were ok...but still suffered from trying to jam too much together. Not EVERYTHING deserves or needs a crossover.

Nexus Knight wrote:I'll start off my opinion with this- I love shared universes. My brother ad I are amateur writers, working on a shared universe of superhero stories together. And I absolutely love Transformers and the idea of them existing in the same universe as other big people.

And I thought Revolution was a great idea, but it should've been a little longer. I don't think five issues was enough to push a brand new universe together. I am not a comic book expert, so I'm not actually sure about that fact, but hey, this is a free site able to freely share POVs.

This is how I think it should be view (just IMO)- This is the first big crossover event Transformers has had on this scale. True, there has been other crossovers, but not putting them in a comic book universe with other major comic book characters. I don't think it's too fair to get all spiteful and hope this never happens again. This was the Hasbroverse's first major event. True, it didn't do too well, but if we're not asses about it, maybe all the writers can go back and see where they did wrong. I prefer to look at the positive side of things and hope things can get better.

I do agree. Was a bit angry and... honestly stretching for words when I wrote that; all I really wanted to mean by it is that Revolution is nowhere near the quality IDW has reached before and hence it's not a good starting point at all.
I do think an idea like this has potential, but... they just didn't do well this time around.

ScottyP wrote:

Kurona wrote:Oh believe me, I've every intention of getting to them... if I can find out how

Signal to Noise is in v4 of the trade: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers-M?tag=seibertron075-21& ... 613776918/

The Sound of Breaking Glass is in v5: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers-M?tag=seibertron075-21& ... 613778023/

Oh I more meant like, the stuff with Sandstorm and Bludgeon.

The end of IDW's massive franchise crossover event is almost in sight, but there are still a couple of side-books to consider and left to enter the stage - this week, it's the turn of G.I. Joe! Check out the full preview of the event tie-in one-shot below, and expect a review some point this week too, from our resident staff Joexpert.

G.I. JOE: Revolution #1
Aubrey Sitterson (w) • Giannis Milogiannis (a) • Aaron Conley (c)
G.I. JOE IS BACK! Thanks to the events of REVOLUTION, the G.I. Joe team led by Scarlett returns to the fray, leading the charge against invading TRANSFORMERS and other aliens. But when a US military defense base goes dark, Scarlett has reason to suspect that these enemy forces may have infiltrated G.I. Joe. It’s up to her, Roadblock, Rock ‘n Roll, Quick Kick, Wild Bill, and Shipwreck to move in and root out any traitors before the facility falls into the wrong hands!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
G.I. JOE returns to the fray!
A key one-shot connected to the world of REVOLUTION!
Variant cover by Ken Christiansen, part of a 13-part connected cover!

Big Grim wrote:I'm honestly so far from caring anymore. Revolution has been a bloody mess.

it kinda has. I think this would have been better executed if it were split between 2 events 1 event to introduce GiJoe and Mask, and a second event to bring in Rom, Micronauts, and Action Man

SG Roadbuster wrote:it kinda has. I think this would have been better executed if it were split between 2 events 1 event to introduce GiJoe and Mask, and a second event to bring in Rom, Micronauts, and Action Man

Kurona wrote:But yeah... Revolution I think would have been far better if it only had Transformers crossing over with one other property, or maybe two. Throwing this many fictional properties into one basket sounds awesome at first but it suffers from a severe lack of focus at it's fundamental base, especially as all of these bar Transformers and G.I. Joe are literally just starting out.

For sure. I think if they'd taken the time to re-establish G.I. Joe and perhaps introduce M.A.S.K. first, that woulda helped. Perhaps Action Man too. The terrestrial assets. Get them running, let us see how they would work in the world with Cybertronians in it. THEN bring in the likes of ROM and Micronaughts. And give their comics time to establish themselves, though I hear that Micronaughts has managed to do so before being dropped into Revolution.

As it is, far too much is being brought in, in most cases from NOWHERE and are all being crammed together. Too much, too fast with little time to establish anything. And it has suffered. Big time.

The sooner this series ends and we get back to our normal schedule, the better!