IDW has uploaded via Issuu a 3-page preview of their new Transformers Comic Series Issue #2.
Prowl and Chromia make their first appearance, and new character Rubble faces the truth that Cybertron may not be the paradise he was dreaming of. Death is around.
Click on the bar to see the mirrored images on this news post but it if you didn’t read issue #1 it may contains heavy SPOILERS. Don’t forget to share your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
SMOG
Brainstorm is one of the more prominent Headmasters. He's not huge, but he's not exactly an obscure nobody you'd want to kill off without paying attention. And he's been pretty significant in the comics, and gotten 2 recent toys based on him.
So if you're killing off Brainstorm because you WANT to make a statement that's one thing. But if you're the new writer for the G1 TF comic, and your response is "who's Brainstorm anyway?" then it's sort of understandable that the fans would give you a skeptical look.
zmog
GizmoTron
Thing is you can know a lot about Transformers and still not know anything about Brainstorm, so I hold out faith that this guy will be fine. (Of course I also hope that this death and all future ones actually stick, but I doubt that will be true, so we'll see where this new continuity takes us.)
SMOG
Maybe? It doesn't matter. The writer should know the field he's stepping into.
Again, he's not working with original material. He's working with established characters in a 35-year-old franchise that continually builds upon itself, and has just wrapped up a significant, long-running continuity. Familiarizing himself firsthand with the state of the fiction is an obvious best-practice.
It was suggested earlier in this thread that the author intimated he wasn't really familiar with Brainstorm… which if true, would be a bit of a smoking gun.
I agree. There's a TON of research material available. The internet is rich with resources and primary sources of Transformers lore. Consequently, there's really no excuse for any author writing for a TF series to not know their stuff. We've already see that happen before with Mike Costa.
Now, IDW has brought in an author who is a published fantasy author… but this is a situation where just delivering "good writing" is not quite enough on its own. You should have a grasp of the comics medium (which is different than writing prose novels), and you have to know and respect the core material… which means you either need to already be a fan… or you need to do your research.
So we'll see where Ruckley falls on that spectrum. The jury is out, but it's still too early. We'll see if he finds a good pace and vibe in another few issues.
And THEN we'll tear him apart.
zmog
Coffee
I totally get what you mean about the dialogue being subtle, at least. I still think there are missed opportunities in the dialogue that just don't meet the mark here, but I'm with you on preferring it subtle than over the top. Especially when we just had a few series with dialogue that tended to reach obnoxious levels at points.
GizmoTron
A)I'm sure we have editorial and plenty of Hasbro mandates to keep things different.
B)No where did anyone say he wasn't familiar with those "fundamentals" and iconic traits from G1 or doesn't have plenty of research material to tell him who they were in G1. He just may not be familiar with the previous IDW continuity, which considering that continuity was heavily about turning some of the old ideas from G1 on their head I think it's fine if in this new run they just take the basics again and go in a direction that works for their new story.
Plus honestly this franchise's fiction can get a bit stale, so a fresh face with new ideas writing the comic is definitely welcome (and one issue and three preview panels isn't enough to just shout "Costa!" and dismiss him so soon as someone who thinks he's better than the franchise just yet).
AzT
Tom Waltz on Twitter
Grand Slam
I meant the victim.
Bass X0
Had to be someone.
Elanstration
Man, of course something IDW related happens and the comments devolve into chaos. I think reading through that gave me a terminal illness.
Look, IDW had a lot of crap, but it had a lot of great stuff too. Marvel and DC and every other big comic company releases their fair share of crap on a daily basis. It's called being a large media company and it's just part of the package. Just read the good stuff, you know, like everyone else does.
My personal opinion on the pages is that the art is too stilted. too clean, almost like it was traced from 3d models. Expression, movement, and dynamic posing just sort of thrown out the window. Colourist went nuts, though (not a bad thing per se)
Dinobot Snarl
Where is this in the Playstore?
YoungPrime
Okay so do you like this current book so far?
Thundershot
I don’t have a problem with killing off a main character from the previous continuity. It pulls heartstrings on some people. It’s a whole new world. Old rules don’t apply. Etc. etc.
My concern is that we’ll only be seeing characters who have current toys and characters who were popular in the previous continuity. We’ve got Elita-1 and Cyclones coming up in a few issues… No breakout characters like Vroom or Doubleheader or Roadblock.
I hope to be proven wrong.
YoungPrime
Hmmm……I like that terminology!
Hell, I've done that with 95% of the Movie figures I have purchased that looked good enough IMO to fit into my CHUG collection under my own story. A lot were place holders but that was some 8 years ago and most are just low grades of fodder now. Bludgeon, Voyager Mindwipe and Terrodive still stand tall though.
YoungPrime
There isn't one but some of our early reluctance to this new book is clearly a slight against him in some way.
YoungPrime
I was thinking the same thing…. Which will only lead to other's giving the "Open your mind and let old IDW go" lecture causing silly arguments that won't lead anywhere.
IMO they could've killed Pyra Magna and I would've bought the first issue (both digital and physical comic) by now.
Focksbot
OK.
1) All I said was that I liked the character dynamics set up between Prowl, Chromia and Windblade.
2) I don't know who coined this term the 'Blank Canvas effect', but it sounds like some cod-psychological mumbo jumbo made up by carping fans to pathologise other fans. A more appropriate concept here is indeterminacy – that is, in any narrative, a reader or viewer is always filling in the gaps, because there are hundreds of things that a text doesn't have the space to convey. In a written narrative, for example, we don't know what the characters actually look like, but we tend to visualise them nevertheless. Early on in a story, there's so little we know about the characters or the situation that it's inevitable that we start speculating about motivations and context.
This is a core aspect of the way people interact with texts. It certainly isn't particular to fans of The Last Jedi. And any fan who claims their relationship to the text is wholly objective and based on exactly what is there in the text is simply wrong.
Focksbot
But you have no substance in anything you've said – it's complete gibberish. Almost everything you've posted in this thread is a blunt and simplistic opinion, rudely expressed, with no attempt at rationale, evidence or basic reason. Has it occurred to you at any point to try to engage in a civilised, intelligent manner?
Starscream Gaga
I mean you're asking me to go way off topic and its pretty hypocritical when the post I was replying to had no substance, but in short;
-Starscream wasn't a messiah and knew he wasn't a messiah. He was taking advantage of a prophecy and tricking people into following him by relating himself to it. Deceiving them, if you will, in order to elevate his position. Basically 100% of Starscream's personality.
-Not actually sure what you're trying to say with Soundwave, but his personality revolved around his loyalty to what th Decepticon cause stood for; equality among Cybertronians and protection from the rest of the universe. His eventual allegiance with Optimus didn't happen overnight either, but was a part of a longstanding character arc which began with Megatron's defection. Soundwave being loyal to the Decepticon cause more-so then any individual Decepticon leader, once again, has been a part of most versions of G1 Soundwave.
-Shockwave was never misunderstood. That's a clear and basic complete fallacy to his IDW character. He was a senator, yes, but there was no misunderstanding when he lost his emotions and changed methods. Shockwave being emotionless is his defining trait.
-Trypticon was a massive threat in his first appearances, despite them not being great comics.
If what you're looking for is just a complete regurgitation of the G1 story you will never get it in any modern comic ever. Characters cannot remain static for 427 issues. That does not create stories. For the most part IDW writers worked the characters G1 personalities into the new setting. There are of course some outliers, such as Star Saber or Galvatron, but none of the characters you're listing actually fit that bill.
It actually appears that it is you who do not understand the characters, not so much IDW.
BlackHawkOmega
If it was a generic, the death would be less impactful. I seriously doubt people would given this much of a crap if it were random Cybertronian.
And that's not 'executed well'. That's called 'bad writing'. Brainstorm's death is THE caveat that starts this series; I bet this death will mean more than anything in Lost Light/MTMTE.
Remember how Skids died, and it stopped mattering after 2 issues?
Big Smoke
How about you put some substances in your statement. All I've been doing is spitting truth and calling IDW out on their shit and here you guys are trying to discredit my points just because of the x amount of year y'all invested in their series that hardly went anywhere. The Decepticon characters (outside of Barricade) that you said I was incorrect on should've been completely different characters entirely.