Josh Perez Shares Clean Retailer Incentive Cover Art For IDW Beast Wars #3

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:What is it about the proportions of Primal that look so.. off, with this picture?

He's certainly a wide load.

TK415 wrote:Anyone know or have a guess as to what kind of animal the new predacon is?

You mean Skold? She's a turtle. A virtual redeco of Snapper.

I often see older fans ask for a straight up G1 reboot that is as close to possible to the original and I always think it would serve of no use. We already have lots of G1 reboots (like Cyberverse and Netflix's WFC) and if that's not G1 enough for you, then the original show is still there. With this first issue of Beast Wars, all that is reinforced for me. I am a huge Beast Wars fan and I never needed a remake of the first episode's opening segment. And yet, now we have one. So yeah, if you watched the first 10 minutes of the first episode of Beast Wars, very little in the comic will feel new. And the fact that it has random new characters makes that even more odd. So it's a faithful retelling, only not, which just makes it feel off. To all the Beast Wars fans out there, let me know if this scene rings a bell?



Most of the characterizations are as you'd imagine, with Optimus Primal being the one with the biggest change. He is far more of a hot head here, hoping for something exciting to happen and a shoot first kind of guy. That difference was interesting, as was seeing Megatron get the golden disk (though fans had already seen the Club's take on that in the past as well). There isn't much in terms of story beyond that since as soon as they get their beast modes, the issue just stops. What we get in terms of story is not bad at all, but it is a complete retread so that we can proceed to more stories within the exact same premise. I am pretty sure that the following issues will be different stories than what we saw (at least not as identical) but the fact that we had to go through all the motions again wasn't exciting. Especially not with this art accompanying it.



So let's get to the art. As with the story itself, it is not bad, at all. As a sequential artist, Josh Burcham is a beast (ha!), and I really liked seeing all the characters in their cybertronian bodies first. I's something I always wanted to see in the original show and it was fun guessing who is who.



All that good stuff aside, I just didn't feel this Scotty Young type art style was the right fit. It also feels very bare. The backgrounds themselves were rather bland in this comic. And the lack of detail simply does not work with the organic beast modes, some of which look terrible (especially the new Nyx character). There's a part dedicated to explaining the fur found on Primal's gorilla body and yet all we see is just black with some non contrasting flecks. It felt like the writing was at odds with the art or Burcham simply took too much on by providing every aspect of the art from "penciling" to colouring.



In the end, the issue was ok. Not great, but not bad either. Nothing new or exciting for me as a Beast Wars fan but I will definitely give it a chance since I can see how the repetition here could be a necessary evil to set up a similar premise to the show we all love. And the art is the same as the cover we have seen for months. If you were not on board then this issue won't change your mind.

I give this issue 3 gorilla hairs out of 5

Sabrblade wrote:In the spirit of fairness, the pilot episode of Beast Wars wasn't that spectacular either, with it mostly being about how Cheetor is an idjit, Rattrap is a jerk, and Optimus is a frustrated noob. And I say that as both a diehard BW fan and one whose favorite character as a child was Cheetor.

The show had to grow to get good, which I expect will be a similar case for this series.

Yes that's fair. And when this series gets good, I'll rate it as such.

It’s like, if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it.

Beast Wars is already pretty frikkin perfect, I don’t understand why we need a reboot series. Why not a sequel series that isn’t Beast Machines? That’d be rad.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:It’s like, if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it.

Beast Wars is already pretty frikkin perfect, I don’t understand why we need a reboot series. Why not a sequel series that isn’t Beast Machines? That’d be rad.

^ 100% this.

I did speculate earlier that this all sounded ominously like reruns. The fact that a cover for one of the later solicitations looks like 'The Web', but with Bat-Girl in place of Cheetor. That doesn't bode well.

I'd already pre-ordered issue one. I think I'll go to issue two before deciding to drop it, or not.

As most here have been saying for a while, this artstyle really doesn't fit with Beast Wars. That Gorilla Mode image, really hammers that home.

Not feeling the art.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Just coming in to say that, as a long time fan of Burcham's art, I really do like it. clearly I am in disagreement with most here, but I do like the art. And honestly, gorilla mode Primal to me looks good and I like it, especially the fur in the fingers when he's rubbing his arm.

I agree with you D-Max, I was just coming to say the same thing. I enjoy this art, the resemblance to Animated, one of the best entries in the franchise, makes it all the better.

william-james88 wrote:I often see older fans ask for a straight up G1 reboot that is as close to possible to the original and I always think it would serve of no use. We already have lots of G1 reboots (like Cyberverse and Netflix's WFC) and if that's not G1 enough for you, then the original show is still there. With this first issue of Beast Wars, all that is reinforced for me.

There is a huge difference however in that The original Series was left unfinished. There are so many characters not introduced, and so many time periods to explore (War on Cybertron, 20 year gap between S2 and TFTM, post Rebirth etc...). Fans don't WANT a reboot, as that has been done, and each one is a splinter, still NOT the Original Series. What fans want is a continuation.

BW was a completed story. Beginning, Middle, End and was quite satisfactory , it even got a 2 year addendum in Beast Machines while not as well liked, still extended the lives of those characters longer. Yes we still have those original 98 episodes, and TFTM. Nothing will ever take that away. But in 37 years, no matter how many split universe "takes" have been made on The Original Transformers, we still have yet to return to that original universe, and we are still waiting.

For what it's worth I actually enjoyed The Gathering/Ascending series (IDW first attempt at BW), as it was different, and wasn't a retelling of the completed show. I can understand peoples resistance to this new series.