Ever since the announcement of the end of the current line of IDW Transformers comics with the Unicron miniseries, a question that has been on the minds of fans is “what next”? We’ve had a taster of what is in store with projects including the Bumblebee “Win if you dare” one shot and the Star Trek vs Transformers miniseires around the corner, but those are but side stories. So far, we’ve heard very little of what IDW intends to do on the main comic series.
Today, we’ve got a bit more of a hint. Talking to ICv2, IDW president Greg Goldstein mentions when asked about “what’s coming up that you’re excited about for the rest of the year or early next year”, he responds in part with “Our Transformers reboot for 2019 is going to be great.”
So there you have it, right from the mouth of the president and publisher of IDW itself. We’re going to be seeing new Transformers comics from the publisher, indeed, a whole new continuity by the sounds of things, in 2019. We’d imagine it’ll be an early 2019 launch – potentially as early as January 2019 to ride what is hopefully going to be a positive wave generated by December’s Bumblebee movie.
All things considered, the most likely venue for us to find out more is going to be the New York Comic Con in early October – watch this space.
Datsun87
No, just a G1 and movie fan (blasphemous I know) who thinks that molds like RotF leader Prime, MP-10 Prime, or MP-3/11 Starscream have been retooled and repainted so many times that it would be legitimately entertaining to see an entire story line centered around them fighting each other.
G.B. Blackrock
And even they were too much.
Optimus Prime23
Windsweeper II
Some obscure nobody who wants all other TF characters dead, so the comics are all about her and Bumblebee.
Windsweeper II
Are you Kurona?
scrapmetaru
It was an example of the concept.
scrapmetaru
Hopefully there won't be like twenty intrinsically linked series, mini-series, and canned-series, topped with an event a month. That, not "eSsJeWs", is why comics are failing now.
Now, that does not mean no crossovers or shared universe. It means the MASK title that spins off from a Transformer corpse seen in a random TF issue should not be a vital read to understand events in the TF book/books after that point.
GoldDeadEnd
Found her Twitter. I haven't frequented the comics forum much, but it seemed like people here did appreciate the ambitious aspects of the IDWverse? Seems like she seized on a short thread to get on a pedestal. In doing so, she tweets that none of the posters here are asking for obscure characters for any other reason than to justify a figure's place on their shelf, and that it wasn't because any of the characters were their favorite toy or had a funny line in a show. Really assumes a lot (and maybe I was put off by the Technobots getting red-shirted because they are my favorite Autobot combiner and the only one I had. Nice thesis, man!). I find the concepts IDW introduced fascinating and look forward to getting the collections. But I think the depth introduced in the continuity can coexist with not taking characters off the table to service a kill-count.
Greebtron
They were going to be in Sitterson's Joe run, but at the eleventh hour – after the outlines had been approved – Hasbro came back and said they had lost the rights to the characters. So the finished issues swapped out kaiju-sized Fatal Fluffies.
It should be noted that, as Buzz Dixon tells it, the toyline was cancelled before the additional 8 episodes were fully written. Which is why they went as horrific as they did. So Hasbro was 100% done with this property by mid-1986. No wonder they lost it.
G.B. Blackrock
Wait, does someone else own Inhumanoids now?
G.B. Blackrock
Is it possible you misunderstood the criticism? I'm pretty sure the OP meant any new characters in the "fan created characters" banner. Rung, for example. (Actually, wouldn't Drift be in this category? He was created by IDW, not by "fans.")
After all, a significant number of IDW creators have been TF fans for a long time before they were doing official TF work.
But you are, of course, correct about this.
AlienRadio
I think it's reasonable to expect new writing talent, I think Roberts is ready to draw a line under his work, and move on. creator owned work can be more rewarding, and he made a name for himself, he can pitch whatever he wants, someone will want to publish it. Phase 2 is Barber's Baby, he did the reconstruction work that looked at what had been done well and tried to build a cohesive narrative, furman's decision to decide to consciously break from previous transformers tropes (galvatron and megatron as seperate characters, sunstreaker as headmaster, not just focusing on a g1 cartoon season 1 cast rehash) was a big help in establishing it as it's own world, and Barber took that and just extended the scope, ending it with the inclusion of a character Furman had decided he didn't want to rehash. I think it's generally agreed Barber is a better Editor than writer so his new position is not going to give him time to write much, so new talent working within his framework it will have to be…
Omegax80
My head now hurts. I have to go lie down.
Shepard Prime
I'd read that if they made it GoT-style.
The House of the Primes has gone corrupt while a powerless Optimus deals with red tape, The House of the Seekers led by Starscream wants total power while being motivated to take down the Primes (rightfully given the corruption) with The House of Bee representing the commoners/NAILs, eventually leading Bumblebee to spark a revolution against both one he once called friend and the other a known narcissist that must be put down else he'll lead Cybertron to ruin. lol
Greebtron
I'd imagine that GI Joe (Outside of ReJoeneration One), Rom, Micronauts, MASK and Visionaries wouldn't have comics until their respective films were ready. Jem is different as it's basically IDW (mainly John Barber) pushing to do something with it, because ever since the movie disaster, Hasbro clearly only want to do the barest minimum to keep the rights and not have a property go walkabout like Inhumanoids did.
Datsun87
Lies and slander. Cybertron could easily be populated exclusively with repaints and retools of Optimus, Bee, and the Seekers. In fact those could very well be their factions.
Omegax80
Apparently a cosplaying anime/manga lover on twitter.
In other words:
No one important.
GoldDeadEnd
Who is Kurona?