Thanks to CBR.com we have information about IDW First Strike Tie-Ins And New Ongoing Hasbro Series thar are coming this year.
Comic Book Resources released an exclusive interview with IDW Editor David Hedgecock, which reveals the tie-ins the the upcoming First Strike event. The comics are all getting a one-shot like in Revolution.
Also revealed are the conclusions of several current Hasbro series and the launch of two new series that will spin out of the events of First Strike: G.I. Joe: Unmasked and ROM & the Micronauts.
In addition, next week will see the release of the free First Strike #0, which will set the stage for the event and serve as a jump-on point for new readers.
Thanks to 2005 Boards members Danny-Boy and Thelonicon for the heads up. You can read on to see some pictures and the covers of some of the First Strike issues.
dCon
Thank you for explaining. I actually was reading their last comics series like thar because it seemed so far off the storyline that it was ok I'm still at the beginning of the FIRST IDW Robots in Disguise comic. Lemme explain
I've been collecting and reading Transformers Comics since January 1985 when I bought a first edition (it just so happens to be) Marvel Comics Transformers More Then Meets The Eye #1. And I still have that issue and every issue since except issues 59 through 70 but I do have 62 & 63 I believe. I used to draw comic strip for the funnies in the newspaper twice a month to earn money..I got paid $30 a month to draw one 3square weekday comic strip, AND one 6square weekend comic strip, each month. Just those 2. I did that from 9 to 12yo. Transformers was on its 12th issue when I started that so from 12 to 59 I collected thrm all. Then as a early teenager I collected Amazing Spider-Man 298 to 336 because I was infatuated with Todd McFarlane + Todd .McFarlanes GREYHULK comics (issue 300?) & his Ironman cover drawn comics. when Dreamwave started I picked up issue 0 while I was filling in the blanks of Transformers Marvel's like issues 6-9 & then I ended up getting a subscription ever since. So I got both of the G1 storylines from DW as well as the WWI series, then same thing with IDW. And still to this day I'm collecting every issue.
But do you remember Hurricane Irene? About 4 to 5 years ago I think or more now, we'll the comic store closed for almost 2 years due to destruction of most of it. Somehow they kept getting my comics & when they opened back up they had ALL my comics at discount. But I was so far behind I stopped reading them up to date & I'm still way behind.. So even know I'm still getting them, I actually stopped reading them somewhere around the turn of the reboot INSIDE IDWs lore. Past the A-TIONS ect. I ALSO have all the Devils Due and Dark horse comics versions. SERPENT-OR sound familiar? Too bad I missed out on the toy of him whay a bonehead I am.
Omegashark18
First Strike involves everybody, though it's primarily Transformers, G.I. Joe, and MASK.
Earth is just about to join the Cybertronian Council, but the event is interrupted by a newly resurrected Cobra lead by Baron Ironblood and his various collaborators. His objective, to exterminate all Transformers. And he launches an all out attack on Cybertron.
Now it's up to Optimus Prime and his group, G.I. Joe, and MASK to stop Ironblood and ensure Earth's place on the Council.
Setup for this event has been going on since the start of Revolutionaries.
It's going to consist of 6 main issues(plus issue #0), and tie-in one shots for Optimus Prime, G.I. Joe, MASK, Rom, Micronauts, and Revolutionaries.
dCon
No I meant details about what this story's about, what franchises are involved and when exactly to get it and anything like that. But thanks for letting me know I missed free comic book day : / lol
TeleportingBob901
I guess I didn't word it properly here. I guess what I'm trying to saying is that from my perspective I see it as either its training wheels or guides until it finds that writer that is creative with something that has nothing, and IDW giving some more faith in it to be itself. I see it where M.A.S.K. is trying to figure out how to ride a bike on it's own even though it has no idea what's it's doing, and the Transformers and G.I. Joe are the training wheels for a time until it figures it out where it can do its own thing.
Another way to look at it is that these two act as its guide to figure out what makes it different from them, and see how these two products stand on their own without anything else. I can imagine where two writers would bounce off ideas between one another on what to do with M.A.S.K. while it's crossed over with these two. In a way it needs to go back to the place it was spawned from, and it needs to see why and how Transformers and G.I. Joe can do so great on their own, and in the process find its own strengths and weaknesses and what makes it so different from them. Yes IDW needs to give it more faith to be its own thing without these two to draw in fans, and it needs a creative writer; but, I personally think it needs to go back to the place where the idea of M.A.S.K. came from to find what makes it tick when compared to the two. I think I have an idea where it can start from: "Illusion is the ultimate weapon." Okay, showcase it for me and everybody else. I would love to see what they can do with illusions.
Windsweeper II
When i read the revolutions MASK stories, i thought MASK had a lot of potential.
Sadly nobody seemed to have any intrest in exploiting that potential.
The only thing i saw them being intrested in was using MASK comics to showcase GI Joe characters.
MASK doesnt need Transformers or GI Joe. It just needs IDW to give it a creative, caring writer and believe in the property.
Same goes for all the other properties: none of them need the fanfavs of another property to steal the spotlight in a weird attempt to draw fans of the one property to the other.
All they need is for IDW to believe in them and give them writers that want to tell a story.
TeleportingBob901
I think my main problem with M.A.S.K. is that it has no identity to stand out, and this coming from me who only watched two episodes of the 1985 cartoon. I just have this gut feeling it's going to be the same thing over and over again as I attempt to watch more episodes of it. Because when you boil M.A.S.K. down it's just G.I. Joe mashed together with Transformer; that's it. It has nothing to stand on, and it's mindlessly doing things without a clue why these two products were popular in the first place. So in a way it's needs Transformers and G.I. Joe to stay up until it finds its own identity. So until then it has to be in a crossover with the two things it spawned from. Maybe I'll give M.A.S.K. a shot and see where it goes from before First Strike starts.
Because I do see some potential with M.A.S.K. as it's own thing; it just needs the right writer and a very creative mind to work with very little material. Heck I see potential in Miles Mayhem as the most scummy guy on Earth if someone expands on that character along with the others; not only can he be the master manipulator and use his guys as mere chess pieces, but he can get under anybody's skin and mess with them. Such as taking advantage of a person's compassion or when they're in their most vulnerable state. I don't know just anything to make M.A.S.K. something because I don't think DC comics back in the 80's could figure out how to write this. So I do see where the writers in IDW would have trouble with writing something for this undead product.
This is just my optimistic thoughts on M.A.S.K. and what's going to happen after First Strike ends with them crossing over with Sitterson's G.I. Joe. Food for thought, I guess.
Thelonicon
Actually the third Devil's Due crossover involved Serpent O.R. coming to Cybertron and taking control of the Decepticons to wreck stuff. Although I concede it is the first IDW continuity instance of humans on Cybertron (although we did have Verity on Garrus-9).
If you've never read the Devil's Due crossover books, they are a lot of fun as their own self-contained microcontinuity and are part of the current Comixology sale here miniseries 1&2 and here miniseries 3&4. (Note: Vol. 1 of these collections contain the old Marvel G1 and G2 crossover issues so they are completely unrelated.)
Danny-Boy
Well, Free Comic Book Day was May 6, no, it's not FCBD next week. I imagine the zero issue will basically be a prelude that recaps recent events/sets up the events of First Strike for any new readers.
EXACTLY! We've never seen a story with humans on Cybertron, let alone where a bona fide supervillain tries to invade the planet. This is brand new territory, never before explored in IDW. To me, that's exciting!
And "copy Scioli's book?" The setup, context, and tone is completely different. Scioli's TF vs Joe was a throwback to 80s comics that reinvented characters from the toys up and took things to their most awesomely ridiculous extreme. This is just a straight forward modern event comic.
As for how Cobra is around now, it seems pretty clear that Baron Ironblood is just rebranding his Red Shadows/IRON Army guys into a single force as the new Cobra.
Windsweeper II
Is that true? Where did you see that?
Its not that its ridiculous, but supposedly Cobra was dead. Where did he get the resources from all of a sudden?
And also, this just seems like they just wanna copy Scioli's book.
And it's yet another great invasion. If IDW wants action packed stories really there are other ways to get them.
Plus, Cybertron stories used to be free of humans. Not anymore.
Nemesis Scar
TBH that's actually pretty subdued compared to his BAF incarnation. "Screaming insanity" and "utter ruthlessness" were his calling cards.
dCon
So what's this FREE #0 about is free comic book day next week? If any one can give me a few details that be great because I have to call my comic in advance for stuff like that. Thank.you
Lucas35
I do not understand who said that Revolution has damaged Transformers. You are not required to read the other titles to understand the comics of Transformers, maybe Revolutionaries that you would be forced to read and this is practically a comic of Transformers because of the 4 main characters 3 are characters of Transformers (and the writer is Jon Barber).
Danny-Boy
I don't see why the idea of Baron Ironblood invading Cybertron is so ridiculous. This is a guy with an army of cyborg ninjas, ancient Cybertronian tech, and a cabal of villains who have had experience fighting Cybertronians on his side.
Murasame
That should be half a book and they're killed by Ex-Decepticons.
Susha
@TCJJ Theres also an omnibus idw for all the dreamwave era which is much cheaper than finding them all singularly.
If from what i understand ure more or less at Escalation you have the best reads from idw ahead of you. It stops at dark cybertron mostly (so up to volumes 5 of RID and MTMTE).
Just couple of headers to get the right storylines.
– try and read spotlight sixshot and galvatron before International Incident arc.
– heart of darkness, chaos arc is wierd but fun, better than police action and are worth reading
– dont miss on the monstrosity arc and all 'past' storyarcs, the first was written by Metzen
– build it up for LSTotW, spotlight kup is a must and spotlight drift helps place it in the timeline and jump right into MTMTE, use RID to fill in gaps
If id done it this way id be less angry nerd about it.
Gl
Susha
The omnibus are smaller than the hardback AHM as u can see from the pic. And much cheaper. Also the omnibus spotlight has them all. View attachment 27741176 View attachment 27741175
Dont expect it to get anyeasier to keep up once u .. caught up… going back to the original point…
A new crossover after rev olutionaries just finished is too much imo
TCJJ
Thanks for the advice but I prefer physical and I like my books separated out so I usually just go for the trades, though that isn't always the best option.
I actually got a second-hand copy of Stormbringer off of AbeBooks (sometimes they have more second-hand stuff and better prices than Amazon). The Spotlights have definitely got hard to get in recent years though, definitely. I might buy the giant omnibuses eventually but the hardback All Hail Megatron complete trade is already cumbersome enough to read, unfortunately.
I do have some in digital form but digital just kind of bothers me. I'm not sure if I really have the space but I have lots of books regardless. I've got Last Stand of the Wreckers sitting there ready to go too. Just need to start working on buying the first IDW ongoing series and the like. I should probably have read all the Spotlights in-between but the way they're all linked together is just really confusing if you're not following a guide or paying strict attention or whatever. I believe I did get Ultra Magnus though, but I only own a few physical ones and bought a few of the more important ones I was missing digitally because the physical copies seem impossible to find.
I always tend to wait for trades though because single issues are really expensive here. Maybe I'll eventually go to singles digitally and then get a physical trade but I'm not sure I want to do that when I could just wait.
I guess I should probably get Infestation at some point too but bleh, I'm really not a fan of big team-up comics (other than Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a bit different).
Susha
I've undergone your quest a couple years ago.. or more. I really got back into tf when falling upon Sins of the Wreckers.
To be honest I'd already stumbled onto some All hail megatron single comics moving back to london. But being used to the italian market
I largely preferred bundles, however I ended up keeping up to date with the upcoming stuff (MTMTE and RID) via single issues.
As to backtracking IDW have produced different bundles spreading stories around. Some of the spotlights are particularly hard to find, like kup galvatron, and UM and I still don't have a physical copy of Stormbringer.
So my advice to you.
1 consider digital format. Its also cool to have zoom inns on each panel. If you don't have space, and like the way it reads its a great solution and its easier to find everything without inflated prices for products that are hard to find in physical format.
2 If u like physical format, its cheaper to buy bundles as they come out (not immediately) but with time if u don't get them it will cost more.
check out the IDW PHASE 1 OMNIBUS and IDW SPOTLIGHT OMNIBUS, cheepest version but with all the first material which otherwise is a pain to find now.
SG Roadbuster
so it looks like Lost Light is being left alone. YAY!
Bumblebee2000
Man I need to be clearer in my wording, I thought I was trying to say that. Apparently not giving it a reread. Thanks for filling in there.
Still annoyed though, it is a fun series. My loyalty lies with LL but I can't say I've enjoyed it as I have Revolutionaries or the series it is supposed to be. At least Season 2 was good when not held up next to Season 1. Suppose it wouldn't be so bad if Optimus Prime could keep a hold of my interest. Or Till All Are One was still going. If Archie hadn't done whatever it has to Sonic. Action Man ended before I found out about it, even if I pick up the TPB that is all there is. He isn't even getting a First Strike spin off. I've not looked at the covers properly, maybe he has shown up on one but I'm thinking Revolutionaries might kill him off. My local comic shop will think I've died and all with the frequence I'll be there soon. I don't mind saving some money but all my regulars are slipping away or slipping down, as are potential replacements. What am I supposed to do, leave my comfort zone?
I'll pick up ROM Vs TF and maybe Micronauts WoK but they won't have dedicated series for me to follow pretty soon. Not touching MASK and no crossover has convinced me GI Joe is worth picking up. I don't want this crossover to alienate me but this isn't what I signed up for.
Most of that isn't aimed at you in particular Danny, I was just going to apologize for messing up the last post and all of a sudden a paragraph had written itself.