Transformers 81? Andrew Wildman Shares His Thoughts

Yes, please!
Continue G1 #81 or if not possible continuit the DW stories...
Everything will be better that what IDW is releasing at this time.

90% of the Transformers comic readers, except for the movie-verse comics, are the ones that are looking for some G1 nostalgia!
DW got the (most of) the characters right and an interesting story. IDW just cannot seem to get the characters right next to making up an intersting story. Or they are just hellbent on getting 'their' G1 version sold. I have news for you: It is not!
I enjoy the comics and I will keep buying them, don't worry... but it is just not 'it'.

However long the continuation will run, just let it end with Megatron and Ratchet crashing together. This way the Classics comic still fits...

Angelus wrote:Yes, please!
Continue G1 #81 or if not possible continuit the DW stories...
Everything will be better that what IDW is releasing at this time.

90% of the Transformers comic readers, except for the movie-verse comics, are the ones that are looking for some G1 nostalgia!
DW got the (most of) the characters right and an interesting story. IDW just cannot seem to get the characters right next to making up an intersting story. Or they are just hellbent on getting 'their' G1 version sold. I have news for you: It is not!
I enjoy the comics and I will keep buying them, don't worry... but it is just not 'it'.

However long the continuation will run, just let it end with Megatron and Ratchet crashing together. This way the Classics comic still fits...

I love the current IDW G1 comics a lot more than the Marvel series and all of Furman's IDW crappy run. Because Costa is actually taking the book in new and exciting directions. I don't to see IDW waste resources, time, money for a creator ego driven and glorified nostigla book that would suck not only itself but would make the Marvel series suck as well.

Cyberstrike wrote:

Angelus wrote:Yes, please!
Continue G1 #81 or if not possible continuit the DW stories...
Everything will be better that what IDW is releasing at this time.

90% of the Transformers comic readers, except for the movie-verse comics, are the ones that are looking for some G1 nostalgia!
DW got the (most of) the characters right and an interesting story. IDW just cannot seem to get the characters right next to making up an intersting story. Or they are just hellbent on getting 'their' G1 version sold. I have news for you: It is not!
I enjoy the comics and I will keep buying them, don't worry... but it is just not 'it'.

However long the continuation will run, just let it end with Megatron and Ratchet crashing together. This way the Classics comic still fits...

I love the current IDW G1 comics a lot more than the Marvel series and all of Furman's IDW crappy run. Because Costa is actually taking the book in new and exciting directions. I don't to see IDW waste resources, time, money for a creator ego driven and glorified nostigla book that would suck not only itself but would make the Marvel series suck as well.

The pre=AHM was a new and exciting direction. Now... it's not. And rather dumb, too.

Quite surprising! In another forum where I also am the member, a lot of the controlling freaks errrrr staff members immediately shout you down when you voice disappointment with IDWs botched job on the G1 story arc.

IDW just seem to be at a loss in steering G1.Heck, they can't even keep a standard look on the 'bots. But the Marvel arc, for all its fault to me was the golden age of TF story telling (okay the Furman years)as Budiansky admitted he got already burnt out on the last days of his scripts.

Though this also quite disappointing that you have to recycle previous successful concepts instead of trying something new.

Am I contradicting myself? A bit. In a sense like how DC and to some extent Marvel has to reboot their storyline back to pre-Crisis setting while Marvel has to resort to killing icons left and right to get people to notice (ehem Fantastic Four, Captain America to name a few) but I hope you get my point.

It looks like the actual air/atmosphere of the 80s really fostered creativity and not the rubbish field, bad lingo cr@p we all are experiencing today.

moritron wrote:marvel's transformers was a mess when it ended, the idw continuity is getting bad as well. they should reboot the ongoing, and have it continue the dreamwave storyline. the dreamwave story was just getting good when they closed shop. idw always claimed they couldn't use marvel or dreamwave stuff, but if they can use marvel, they should be able to use dreamwave.

I've always gotten the impression that it's more to do with they don't want to than they can't. Can't say I blame them ... I'd probably want to leave my own mark as well instead of continuing someone else's stuff.

fenrir72 wrote:Quite surprising! In another forum where I also am the member, a lot of the controlling freaks errrrr staff members immediately shout you down when you voice disappointment with IDWs botched job on the G1 story arc.

IDW just seem to be at a loss in steering G1.Heck, they can't even keep a standard look on the 'bots. But the Marvel arc, for all its fault to me was the golden age of TF story telling (okay the Furman years)as Budiansky admitted he got already burnt out on the last days of his scripts.

I might disagree with members here about their opinions, but you guys are also more than welcome to disagree with me ... so long as everything stays civil. I would never shout someone down if I disagreed with them.

As for IDW, I feel guilty being this blunt ... but I've never been a fan of their approach. I buy the books every month, but I do it just to support having Transformers comics. The writing has been sub-par (though I feel that way about most comics I've flipped through over the past decade). The redesigns have been completely unnecessary. I get tired of seeing Transformers change bodies like X-Men change outfits. I read all of their books every month but have no idea what's going on. I'm just not into these stories. I read them just to read them ... with the slight hope that somehow all will be made right at some point. Where's "Crisis on Infinite Cybertrons" when you need it?

Something's wrong when I look forward more to reading through the old Marvel UK comics for the first time, including the recycled Marvel US books, than I do reading the IDW books (it's fun reading the books in the order in which the UK received them, even though I'm grew up on the Marvel US books). I've read straight through issue 90 or something through issue 201. I'm waiting to find a good deal on issue 202 so that I can continue forward with the next 30 or so books that I own.

The main Transformers comic book should tie-in with some form of a toyline. I've read that the Marvel G1 writers hated having to introduce new characters every issue, but as a consumer of Transformers products, I think that's how this brand is best served in comic book form. At a minimum, the characters in the comics should reflect their most recent look as a toy. IDW's Bumblebee should have his Hasbro Classics body. Optimus Prime should have his Classics body. Drift's toy is a perfect example of the comics and toys working together. Jazz should have his RTS body now. I'd like to see Hasbro and IDW work together on some level to figure out how to work this out so it benefits both of them.

I don't like that the Transformers comics have not directly promoted the toys pretty much since the end of the Marvel G1 comics. G2 didn't, and I was disappointed. Dreamwave didn't, but it gave us so much fan-wank that I didn't care (other than strongly disliking some of the poor artwork from them), and IDW doesn't promote the toys directly either which I think is a huge mistake. There's just something really awesome about holding a physical representation of a character that you follow in a comic book. Somehow that got lost with the Transformers. I wish everyone would stop treating the Transformers comic book like its not there to promote a toy.

The sole purpose of the comics should be to promote the toys, and it should be up to the very talented people behind the books to figure out how to weave the promotion of those toys into a coherent story that is entertaining and enjoyable.

On a sidenote, I keep thinking that it'd be awesome to have a mini-comic strip here on Seibertron.com that appeared monthly or weekly (depending on the format). I started Seibertron.com 11 years ago because I wanted to showcase my Transformers artwork. I never got around to that part of it but it's still something I'd like to accomplish with this site. If I ever did a comic now, I think I would try to do it the way I think these comics should be done ... to promote the toys. I think I'd even go so far as to style the artwork off the toys themselves, to the best of my ability. If a character hasn't received a toy yet under the Classics line, I wouldn't include them or if I had to include them they'd have their old bodies with the assumption that they'd get a future update. Fun plot twists could be ongoing stories like Grimlock dealing with his Dinobots being kept as Decepticon prisoners at an unknown location (which would eliminate the need to do Dinobots until Hasbro makes more hopefully). Trailbreaker, Huffer, and Gears could be deactivated patients of Ratchet. Octane and Astrotrain could be on a quest to find Blitzwing who was lost in a battle with the Autobots on another planet. Wreck-Gar could be stranded with some Earthbound Autobots trying to get back to Planet Junk to reunited with his fellow Junkions. Galvatron and Megatron could be two separate characters, with Galvatron plotting to gain control over the Decepticons ... or I could go for the classic idea of a future Galvatron coming to the present. A fun current story would be to do something with Rumble/Frenzy and Windcharger since they're current figures.

Just something I keep tossin' around in my head every time I pick up a Transformers comic I dislike.

fenrir72 wrote:The saving grace was Last Stand of the Wreckers, though that imho was like a microcosm with their kill all the unknown characters theme.......reminded me of the World War II themed suicide squad movie by Telly Savalas and Ernest Borgnine (forgot it's title)

The Dirty Dozen.

I wonder if those knocking the late Marvel run have read the UK run or just the US run? The UK run had a hell of a lot of extra material that bridged what was released in the US so it made a lot more sense. Plus they were fantastic reads on their own.
I'd support Simon and Andy continuing what they started even as a webcomic. It would make me hapier if it was drawn and coloured in the same style as the Marvel run, I'm not a huge fan of modern comics trying to make every pannel look like a work of art at the expense of carrying stories and conveying action.

Love to read a reply by IDW on this...

Cyberstrike wrote:And when I don't care for something, I don't buy it. It's that simple.

Which is the reason I stopped buying IDW's Ongoing earlier this year after over 20 years of buying every G1 related comic released.

Cyberstrike wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:

Cyberstrike wrote:

Angelus wrote:Yes, please!
Continue G1 #81 or if not possible continuit the DW stories...
Everything will be better that what IDW is releasing at this time.

90% of the Transformers comic readers, except for the movie-verse comics, are the ones that are looking for some G1 nostalgia!
DW got the (most of) the characters right and an interesting story. IDW just cannot seem to get the characters right next to making up an intersting story. Or they are just hellbent on getting 'their' G1 version sold. I have news for you: It is not!
I enjoy the comics and I will keep buying them, don't worry... but it is just not 'it'.

However long the continuation will run, just let it end with Megatron and Ratchet crashing together. This way the Classics comic still fits...

I love the current IDW G1 comics a lot more than the Marvel series and all of Furman's IDW crappy run. Because Costa is actually taking the book in new and exciting directions. I don't to see IDW waste resources, time, money for a creator ego driven and glorified nostalgia book that would suck not only itself but would make the Marvel series suck as well.

The pre=AHM was a new and exciting direction. Now... it's not. And rather dumb, too.

Nope. All of Furman's Pre-AHM was glorified mash-up of past incarnations that made zero sense to me like Nemesis Prime merging universes and the Autobots speaking in Star Trek-esque technobabble and everything else was IMHO pure 100% crap especially the kids, The Reapers, Ore-13, The Darkness, a dead Cybertron, The Dead Universe, The Dynobots, Sunstreaker as a headmaster, The Machination, Skywatch, and you get the idea.

The only 2 good things were Galvatron not being an insane jacked-up future version of Megatron and Sixshot.

After reading all the Furman IDW TPBs I found myself actually HATING The Transformers as a whole and comics in general as well. So I went into a two-year self-imposed exile from comics as well.

It wasn't until I read All Hail Megatron TPB vol. 1 when I got through with it I couldn't wait to see what happened next and it was thrilling being able to feel that sensation again and it's the same with ongoing. It was All Hail Megatron that made me fall in love with The Transformers and comics in general again. Because McCarty and Costa actually make me CARE about the characters and what is going to happen to them and that is something Furman has NEVER made me feel ever.

Yeah I've enjoyed Furman's work but it's in the past with Marvel US/UK he hasn't written a decent Transformers story since G2 #12. I don't remember anything out of WWI other than the Fallen being introduced in one of the series and if weren't for The Revenge of the Fallen I doubt I would even remember it. I got all the Marvel US comics and all but one of the Titan TPBs (If anyone out there got a copy of the Titan The Transformers: Earthforce TPB they don't want PM me and we'll talk) in easy reach so if I need a Furman fix I can get one not have to waste my money and my time on this cheap KO crappy work he did at DW and IDW.

IMHO Furman's day is over, he needs to leave the franchise for good. Now I love Peter David's writing but I don't want him being the only guy to write The Incredible Hulk until the day that he dies, because it denies others to show different takes on the characters which might even be better than his take and the same with Furman. IMHO if The Transformers are to have a future in comics then IMHO Furman needs to go and stay GONE, because he's at best now a nostalgia act and at worse he comes off as a crappy one-trick pony kind of writer.


So in closing: with Shane McCarthy and Mike Costa I get emotionally involved with the characters and actually want to read the book, with Furman I don't care for the characters and I don't want to read the book. And when I don't care for something, I don't buy it. It's that simple.

What, are you kidding me? It was fresh-it was a different take on the same old, same old. The Great War was epic. We got explanations for gender! I loved the kids! It was cool to see Earth not as the frontline of the Great War but a backwater until Ore-13. I'm glad Unicron and Primus weren't involved. The designs were updates but still G1.

I don't know what the problem with the 'Dynobots' were. Don't care either. Sunstreaker as a Headmaster was an interesting take on his character, too. Most vain of the Ark crew having to share a mind, heh.

AHM took that, trashed it and now we either have no explanation for what happened or moronic ones. I haven't bought any of those books and don't intend to. My gain, your loss.