Our team at San Diego Comic Con 2023 has sent us images of the Skybound Transformers Comics presentation at the event. We have images of the covers, concept art characters and more, but be aware that the images may contain SPOILERS of the story.
Check out the pics after the jump and share your thoughts over on the boards!
Omegax80
DWJ is interiors, various artists do the variant covers.
Wild Bill
So, is the Starscream picture interior art, or is it a cover? It seems to be in a different style than what I have seen from DWJ. If it is just a cover, it probably does not have any real story implications but if this is interior art, there could definitely be cause for concern. They did say it was for 12 -16 year olds, so it probably won't be R rated content as far as humans are concerned.
MehWave
Good on you all, but I gave Kirkman all the chances I could muster with Invincible. Knowing the kind of violence he's worked into his other projects, I'm not willing to extend him that courtesy with one of my favorite franchises. That's a burn I'm not willing to let happen.
knoted
But that's Megatron.
This is supposed to be Optimus Prime.
Even in a more gritty version of G1 Sunbow, it's hard to imagine him going full psycho aggro like that panel shows.
On top of that, seeing him punch Starscream to granular bits, the cybetronian physiological balance between the power
to dish out such damage and the resilience to withstand damage, is just waaaaay off. They're basically glass cannons.
I feel that is the sort of skewed balance, solely and deliberately shoe-horned in there to accommodate the ultra violent shock value – which directly implies.
the same is going to be applied to the GI Joe characters' power balance.
Hasbro, you sure you OK with that?
BBJazz
I'm a big comics guy, I make a comic, but I'm having a hard time getting excited about this. I really hope this doesn't end up as "G1 but gorier". Don't get me wrong- I think ultraviolence has its place in storytelling, but it should never be the point of the story.
I'll give it a fair shake and if I don't like it I don't like it.
TF Hot Rod
This I like hearing, knew as the universe grew they’d expand outward and that they need to go G1 first to get casual people in and to of course start their universe. But good ti actually hear that they will/may use non-G1 bots like Bulkhead and or are aware of bots like him.
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UndeadScottsman
Every TF comic has been heavy on robot ultaviolance, thats just a side effect of the medium being aimed at older audiences coupled with bring able to show more violence on robot characters.
Violence against humans? Depends on if it's implicit or explicit. Like, depending on the characterization of the Decepticons, if they have zero regard for organic life then they should be have zero qualms with wiping out humans en mass, but there's a difference between, say, if you want a TF to step on a human:
-Implicit would be to have the panel be from the humans perspective, looking up at the foot that's about to end them. Maybe a black panel with "squish" sound effect.
-Explicit would be showing the actual squash, or seeing the robots foot with blood and gore seeping out from under that, or seeing the aftermath.
They both accomplish the same thing narratively, but one is more for shock value and the other leaves it up to your imagination to how messed up that human just got.
Wild Bill
At least Skybound Optimus Prime is more merciful than IDW Megatron.
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Predakwon
YAY REPRINTS! All I really care about
knoted
Well, in that panel posted on their twitter, I could argue that TFTM86 Galvatron is more merciful to Starscream than Skybound Optimus Prime, apparently….
Wild Bill
Man, I hope you are right. So far Void Rivals has been really clean, not even any cursing. Hopefully it will not go off the rails.
kaijuguy19
I don't think Kirkman will take the violence that far for the Transformers comics. Just because it's a thing for many of the Skybound/Image comics doesn't mean the rest are like that. Especially if it's to draw in both the older G1 fans, and the newcomers. I mean they already confirmed that despite the traditional G1 beginning it'll eventually go into different directions in terms of story and designs to put to rest the worries of the crowd who want things from Transformers other then the Sunbow G1 content that it won't be endless sunbow G1 content for the new comic so Kirkman has a good idea about how not to do things that won't push away people so far. So while I am expecting the new series to be edgier in some areas I'm also not expecting this to be all Mortal Kombat levels of violent.
Poe Ghostal
Ugh. I had forgotten about this with Kirkman – but I shouldn't have, given the recent salience of the Invincible cartoon. Yeah, this could be a real problem for me. I guess I'm just old-fashioned in wanting something relatively bloodless. I'll still give it a few issues though.
Wild Bill
Agreed. A good story will save lousy art. I understand why they do repeat panels, but it still bothers me.
Skreeonk
Yeah, if Kirkman's obsession with gore leaks into these comics, I'll probably bow out. I'm expecting robots punching robots, I'm cool with that. DWJ does very kinetic action scenes. What I don't need to see is Starscream squeezing people like grapes between his fingers. Modern comics reliance on ultra violence for shock value is just lazy storytelling, and nothing I'm interested in. I'll be patient though and pass judgement when I have the comic in hand.
Omegax80
I'm fairly sure we've seen humans get disintegrated, but since that's always been portrayed more as a shadow, it's not in the "gruesome" category.
Humans bleed, robots break. My guess is with Kirkman's/Image's track records, we might get some more colorful and unexpected escalation in the violent aspects.
Only one way to find out.
Chip
Nice!
I see that these classic robot modes will turn into modern vehicles. The Origin toys have prepared me for this sort of weird idea.
knoted
True to some extent.
It basically happens in the Bay movies too; implied scenarios of humans squished to pulp or killed in some other gruesome manner – but it's not shown in frame.
The premise here however, is intense human / cybetronian interaction due to GI Joe in the mix.
Given Kirkman's trackrecord, I can easily see that going in the direction of his Invincible series or The Boys Diabolical animated series.
Omegax80
Realistically, if one were to smash metallic/robot panels hard enough, it would cause significant damage. Can't say it is too unrealistic or overly-violent. There were plenty of graphic moments in the original Marvel TF US and UK comics. Time Wars, Galvatron being ripped apart, that was considered graphic for it's time.
Wild Bill
Personally, I am ok with "Robot Violence" but anything regarding humans needs to stay at PG 13 at the max. I am not thrilled about them describing the Cobra Commander mini as a "horror comic" either.