New IDW Transformers Vol. 1: The World In Your Eyes (2019) TPB Listed On Amazon

I was already interested and planned to read it, but now it sounds promising. Can’t wait!

tigatron2002

honestly i think hes a better jazz figure than most fans are willing to admit.

I like him, but even I have to admit his shoulders are shit and he's got so much going go with the front and top of his car that there is a lot that can go wrong. I ended up with four copies of Jazz and they all seem to suffer in different way from all that's going on with that whole assemble.

Jazz of Staniz

The IDW reboot shows nothing of him, which is what I was referring to. Evergreen may not be a definite form of media, but a lot is using Evergreen as a base, such as Cyberverse and the Evergreen toyline, which Jazz has not appeared in either of. You said Jazz only may matter to those who value G1 (and the movies, like myself), but now even the G1-themed stuff seems to be saying goodbye to him.

The reason I mentioned MPM is because the MP stuff focuses mainly on major characters. You don't see the majority of forgettable G1 characters getting into MPM unless they're a simple retool. I use MPM to say that Jazz is only getting noticed as a major character in that, considering that PotP and the rest of the Prime Wars included basically every minor G1 character who didn't even appear in the show.

And I don't want to argue over tiny facts, but while RiD may have included Jazz only as a minor character (another problem of mine), Animated did use him a fair amount towards the end and had him planned to be part of the main cast.

I'm not sure if POTP Jazz is a factor or not but it almost seems like he was set up, first with his controversial decal and then by being repacked in just about every wave of POTP. I can still fine two of him at the BX and BBTS can't even get rid of him for $9.99. It seems like the flooded the marker with a sub par, but fun, Jazz toy than just left him hanging.

tigatron2002

essential parts are bolded, evergreen isnt media, its an artstyle, idw just ended their previous continuity where jazz was a mainstay for nearly the entirety of it, MPM is a toyline, of which recently jazz has gotten a release in POTP, studio series and MPM. furthermore, jazz was only ever essential in g1. 90s kids and 2000s kids grew up without him, the first cartoon he was in post g1 was animated and then again in rid15 and he was not a major player in either of those.

The IDW reboot shows nothing of him, which is what I was referring to. Evergreen may not be a definite form of media, but a lot is using Evergreen as a base, such as Cyberverse and the Evergreen toyline, which Jazz has not appeared in either of. You said Jazz only may matter to those who value G1 (and the movies, like myself), but now even the G1-themed stuff seems to be saying goodbye to him.

The reason I mentioned MPM is because the MP stuff focuses mainly on major characters. You don't see the majority of forgettable G1 characters getting into MPM unless they're a simple retool. I use MPM to say that Jazz is only getting noticed as a major character in that, considering that PotP and the rest of the Prime Wars included basically every minor G1 character who didn't even appear in the show.

And I don't want to argue over tiny facts, but while RiD may have included Jazz only as a minor character (another problem of mine), Animated did use him a fair amount towards the end and had him planned to be part of the main cast.

Jazz of Staniz

There is a severe lack of Jazz in recent TF media recently, and it’s making me worried.

First nothing in Evergreen, then nothing in Cyberverse, then nothing in Bumblebee, and now nothing in IDW? This is bad. Jazz has been getting shafted in everything except MPM.

I'm kind of split on MPM Jazz.

tigatron2002

jazz was in potp, he literally got a generations figure 1 year ago and he was fairly prominent in the optimus prime comics, maybe not appearing all the time, but there was an entire sub plot revolving around him

I mean major TF media. The toys don't count, since basically every minor TF and their brother were included in Prime Wars, and the IDW Comics aren't well-known to anyone besides fans and some others. I'm worried that kids are gonna grow up on movies and shows that don't include Jazz and won't see him as an essential TF character anymore.

BombSquad

Seriously. Not sure a $50 hardcover is the best way to draw in new readers.

I imagine the individual issues would be the way to draw in new readers, and the $50 hardcover is for those that really like the 12 issues and/or those that collect the nicer collections.

I’m down with this new series, hopefully it turns out alright.

IDW Magnetron was a very poor and simplicistic execution of the trope. Baby's writer first Magneto, basically. Unless they can up their writing game they should stay away from attempting it because equaling or comparing their Emotron to Magneto is just ridiculous given how well Magneto was written at times.

Now just get rid of Windblade and make Chromia not a flip-flopping quirky quipper, and this could actually be good.

Or not, because they're already throwing around terms like "diversity" in the synopsis. I pray that's not the sort of "diversity" that Chris Ryall keeps pushing for (and then insulting fans after he ruins their franchise. Sorry G.I. Joe fans, you really didn't deserve that).

GoLion

Having a competent writer at the helm can do wonders for an underwhelming character. Look at what a modicum of characterization did for Drift. Drift sucked for a few years but Roberts made him interesting. I'm sure the same can be done for Windblade.

Debatable. I always liked Drift, though I admit Roberts improved him (at least to begin with). Windblade hasn't had a single good incarnation (so far) though, so I'm highly skeptical.

Irv Gotti

So in other words, for Megatron to be done right, you need 80’s Megatron: an Out-of-the-Blue Villain Leads Mass Revolt / Takeover during Golden Age / Peaceful Utopian period. There’s a one small problem with that…It’s Not and Never is the way history works. Ever. Successful Tyrants do not flourish during / come out of periods of peace and prosperity. Full Stop. History does not work this way, and neither do well written narratives.

Narratives used during the 80’s died off badly as soon as that latch-key generation took a middle school/ high school history course and paid any attention. 80’s style white hat good guy vs black hat bad guy films and stories make about as much sense as the original Red Dawn or it’s even more nonsensical remake. It’s how even a cursory understanding of history goes a long way to explain why films like Platoon killed Rambo, and why GI Joe has limped on as a zombie corpse of a franchise once everyone actually started realizing what the “The Leader of the Free World” was actually doing in Latin America, further punctuated by why our “Real American Heroes” were really doing being stationed throughout the Middle East. It’s why once everyone started comprehending the lyrics to Springsteen’s Born In the USA, they stopped cheering and dancing to it while waving their US flags and USA towels, giving way to the very depressing 90’s. It’s Mourning in America, again.

Megatron as a Revolutionary Gone Wrong is not an incorrect interpretation by any means, it’s an Evolution, often written by the very people who loved the character during their childhood in the 80s. IDW’s Megatron is the Megatron many Gen Xers, like myself imagined as they matured out of the 80’s. Its the best developed character in Transformers and one the best characterized antagonist in comics since Magneto of X-Men fame.

Any good versus evil narrative is only as good as it’s antagonist; it’s why Die Hard is a classic, and Commando remains forgotten in an attic or slowly decomposing in some landfill along with all the other VHS tapes. James Robert’s take on Megs is, simply put, a Megatron for Grown Ups.

My hope is this series really does give us a delightfully complex villain in Megatron, although the narrative displayed in 80’s Marvel run of Evil Rising out of peace bent on domination, being hinted at here does not fill me with confidence, and we may see an “Infinite Flashpoints across Multiple Secret Cybertrons” reboot to try save the license which will not bode well for IDW as a whole. After all, there are several reasons why Transformers never seems to take hold as a long term comic book while other comics titles do…but that’s an entire topic best left for another thread.

I think you're missing the point – the point is that IDW Megatron had quite a flip-flop after Dark Cybertron, and for as much as I like Autobot Megatron, there are dozens of issues for why it doesn't work as well as it should – after all, you can't just undo a tyrannical, evil character in a matter of days after four million years of war.
Nobody is asking for a black-and-white interpretation. This is about having a character who is actually a bad guy and not just suddenly let off for most of his crimes.

GoLion

I don't think their pairing off had much to do with ending that IDW1. I think it had a lot more to do with poor sales.

I think that's indicative of a bigger problem though. Why were the sales poor? Perhaps because readers lost interest as character relationships continued to just devote into everyone being gay for each other or whatever. Not every relationship needs to be romantic… unless it's the past two or three years of IDW. I think that slowly devolving storytelling over the years is what ultimately hurt the sales in the end.