Revolution

[Sparky Prime]

The point of this is to combine and simplify things in a way that casual readers will buy in for. "Doctor Who" is not the business model they should be trying for.

Assuming that some things do not count, especially if counting them adds baggage, is the easiest way to go. But, it requires writers and fans to move the hell on.

I'd have to agree with Shockwave... Discarding events from each story to force them to fit as one shared universe all along complicates things more so than having everything count and then shared after this storyline.

[Dominic]

One of the points of reboots (cue the derp-ate about "not a reboot") is to simplify things and discard old content. Trying to keep and cram too much together causes problems (as was the case with "Batman" and "Green Lantern" post "Flashpoint").


I am currently reading "Road to Revolution" now. It reprints TF and Joe comics from the last decade or so. Barber tries to dress it up. But, most of the notation is primarily meant to push compilations of the various series. One of the comics is the first post-"Dark Cybertron" issue of "Robots in Disguise", which of course broke the timeline (by having 2008's "All Hail Megatron" coincide with 2011's "Occupy", for no reason other than to be faux-current.)

[Sparky Prime]

One of the points of reboots (cue the derp-ate about "not a reboot") is to simplify things and discard old content. Trying to keep and cram too much together causes problems (as was the case with "Batman" and "Green Lantern" post "Flashpoint").

It's not trying to simplify things and discarding old content for the purposes of a reboot though (by IDW's own insistence that it's not intended as a reboot). It's discarding content for the purpose of forcing storylines that weren't originally intended to be part of the same continuity as if they'd been part of the same continuity all along, using the TF universe as the template for the other storylines to conform to. It's not simplifying things, it's how they decided to make a square peg fit a round hole.

[Dominic]

I flipped through this week's issue. (I have not bought it yet, as I have not even read the first issue and related one-shots). Snake Eyes shows up, which likely implies that "Agent of Cobra" is off the table. This smells more and more like a reboot.

[Shockwave]

What a Goddamned mess. This is the stupidest thing in comics I've heard about in a long time. And that includes One More Day, the Clone Saga and all of DC's antics. I mean seriously, I get that IDW wants to have all of their books in one shared setting just like every other damned comic company on the planet, but this is the dumbest way to do it. Seriously, it would have been SO much easier to just say "Before ___ everything was separate, after ____ everything is together". That way, readers to have to try to figure what counts and what doesn't and writers are free to reference everything that came before without causing problems. Now it's just going to be a big fucking mess for both readers AND writers. See this, Dom? THIS is what makes people go insane.

TL:DR: Someone got their DC in my IDW. And I am NOT happy about that.

[Sparky Prime]

This smells more and more like a reboot.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/01/id ... o-universe

But IDW editor-in-chief Chris Ryall insists this isn’t a reboot.

To some degree there’s a revision of history. It would be presumptuous to say that in our very first issue of Transformers we seeded the way for this event that will eventually include ROM and Micronauts.

[Dominic]

Adding and dropping stuff after the fact is what if not a reboot? (Precise definitions are well and good. But, not if they are used to obscure what something is.) "Revolution" is a reboot. Just call it what it is.

TL:DR: Someone got their DC in my IDW. And I am NOT happy about that.

That is a huge over-sell.

"Revolution" is only half done. Most reboots, or whatever IDW wants us to think this is, fuzz history a bit. The problem with post-"Flashpoint" DC is that DC did not have a plan for what they were doing, either generally or for specific titles. Marvel had ambiguity after "Secret Wars". But, it is not a problem for most titles. (It would be a problem for fewer titles if Marvel stopped referencing the 8 month time gap.)

It looks like some of my favorite Joe comics are getting fuzzed out. But, that does not make "Revolution" inherently bad.

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" had all manner of ambiguity at the end. Silver Age Superman was appearing well after Crisis ended. When the Byrne reboot dropped in 1986, some post-Crisis (by publication date) stories that were meant to count had to be discounted. (On a related note.....Hawkman.) But, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was ambitious for what it was and when it was published. DC was publishing great comics in the mid to late 80s.

In contrast, "Zero Hour" had a very cleanly defined ending (complete with a time-table at the end of the last issue). But, damn if it ain't a boring exercise in moving pieces around a board. Who remembers "Damage" and "Gunfire"? "Bloodpack"?

[Sparky Prime]

Adding and dropping stuff after the fact is what if not a reboot? (Precise definitions are well and good. But, not if they are used to obscure what something is.) "Revolution" is a reboot. Just call it what it is.

A reboot disregards the established continuity in order to restart or refresh the story. But IDW isn't starting over here. They're combining different continuities that were never meant to be part of the same continuity, thus dropping some stuff (especially in the case of GI Joe) in order to force it to work, but at the same time they're also trying to keep as much of the established continuity as possible (particularly when it comes to the Transformers storyline, which as far as I can tell isn't having any of its continuity dropped). It's not a reboot, it's forcing different continuities that don't work together to work as one.

[andersonh1]

I agree with Sparky, it sounds more like a series of retcons than a true reboot. A reboot brings to mind going back and starting over, while Revolution is keeping some pretty big chunks of already-published material.

[Shockwave]

TL:DR: Someone got their DC in my IDW. And I am NOT happy about that.

That is a huge over-sell.

That's exactly what it is though. Even in the case of DC, one could argue that there was a point or a reason for doing it (usually the headache of trying fit together pieces that were never meant to fit together in the first place). There's literally no point or reason for what IDW is doing short of "DC did it, so we should too!" Which is bullshit. I expect this crap from the big two which is largely why I haven't bought anything from them in ages. I liked the fact that Transformers was isolated and more or less immune to this kind of nonsense. But nope! Not anymore! No TF needs to be muddled in with a bunch of other confounded crap because... reasons. I'll see how much or how bad things get after this, but I may have to drop IDW completely. This kind of bullshit should not be rewarded.