Spotlight:

[Shockwave]

I wouldn't say it's aimless. He definately was going somewhere with it, just taking too long to get there.

[Dominic]

I do not think Furman had a plan beyond "wowwee, big TF fight with cosmic-y type stuff happening".

All he was doing was moving pieces around in preparation for that.

Dom

[Shockwave]

Oh that's what you meant. Yeah ok, fair enough. I think the real problem with Furman's recent work is that he thinks TOO big. It's always some big epic, multi-issue story arc that has to span like, 8 volumes. I don't mind epic writing, I actually do enjoy it, I just wish he didn't spend so much time on inferrence and faux suspense building.

[andersonh1]

I don't see that the stories were aimless at all. Characters had goals and beliefs, and acted accordingly, so they were clearly working towards their goals. That implies direction. Plot points were introduced, and many were resolved long before Revelation and Maximum Dinobots. You might have a problem with Furman's pace, but he clearly had a direction and goal in mind.

Even the 'big, cosmic-y stuff' had a basis in Nemesis Prime's goals of remaking the Universe to conform to Cybertronian life. It wasn't just big events for no reason other than to have big events.

[Dominic]

It was not the pace. It was the content. Furman was just writing the same faux-epics over and over and over and over.

Furman had a direction, but no real destination beyond "wowee, Transformers are kewl when I write them".

Thankfully, he seems to be pulling back from this. But, the "-ation" books did not seem to have any larger goal beyond "make it to the next event".

Dom

[Shockwave]

For me, it's the opposite, it's the pacing not the content. Epic stuff is just fine, and actually I really enjoy it, but it's the constant suspense building that gets on my nerves a bit. It's like Lost: You can only build suspense for so long before everyone looses interest.

I actually liked "Revelation" for the fact that it was just all of the suspense coming to fruition. It was just stuff finally happening and questions being answered.

[andersonh1]

It was not the pace. It was the content. Furman was just writing the same faux-epics over and over and over and over.

I don't get where you're going here. You've got a galaxy-wide civil war, which is pretty much a given when it comes to G1 Transformers. Given that starting point, he brought some interesting new ideas to the table, such as the planned, phased infiltration protocols and the strong emphasis on disguise with not just alt modes, but simulated humans used for disguise or political infiltration and destabilization. You've got the history of the first Ark and the Transformers on board which gave us a Galvatron who wasn't Megatron in a new form. And so on... it hardly seems like the same "faux-epic" to me. It seems very much as if Furman took the familiar G1 concept and tried to do something different with it, and I think he succeeded very well.

Furman had a direction, but no real destination beyond "wowee, Transformers are kewl when I write them".

See above. What exactly should he have been writing? What would have taken his stories to a level beyond "kewl" in your view?

Thankfully, he seems to be pulling back from this. But, the "-ation" books did not seem to have any larger goal beyond "make it to the next event".

Or "tell a good story while moving towards the long term goals".

[Dominic]

Here is a perfect example of what went wrong.

infiltration protocols and the strong emphasis on disguise with not just alt modes, but simulated humans used for disguise or political infiltration and destabilization

As others have pointed out, Furman did not even finish establishing the status quo, (such as by showing a complete "Infiltration"), before he was ready to blow it up.

I agree he added new twists to old ideas, but in terms of having anything to say, much of his first few years at IDW seemed to resemble a child playing in a sandbox. He moved stuff around, just to set up for knocking it all over. In his case, (not unlike small children I know), he was not even patient enough to finish setting things up. (He started upsetting the status quo *before* IDW likely pulled the plug on him, so we cannot blame Ryall for this.)

It almost felt like he wanted to use Unicron, but was not allowed to. Maybe there was an editorial mandate.

of the first Ark and the Transformers on board which gave us a Galvatron who wasn't Megatron in a new form.

IDW Galvatron and Cyclonus are as stereotypically Furman as it gets. They are over-powered, over-angsted.....and not much else.


Furman, like most writers, needs an editor. I do not *hate* Furman, or even his work. But, he has slipped in recent years. The problem is that he gets a pass. Passable, or even terrible, work by him is lauded by many Transfans. Some of this is likely habit. Some of it may be that we, as a whole, have low expectations, so it is easy to wow us. Furman is not made of stone, and (like most of us), he is instinctively lazy.

Based on having read a tremendous amount of Furman over the years, I get the feeling he writes best with an active editor, (like Rob Tokar is known to have been), or with limited scope (as seen in "Spotlights" or various old UK stories).

Putting aside the usual suspects I bash on, there were writers I liked as a kid who are on my avoid list now. It took John Ostrander about 3 months to destroy my faith in him. And, Larry Hama (a former favorite of mine), is now on my "drop title if he starts writing it" list.


Dom
-really, read the end of "Star Wars: Republic".

[andersonh1]

As others have pointed out, Furman did not even finish establishing the status quo, (such as by showing a complete "Infiltration"), before he was ready to blow it up.

But was he ever going to get all the way through the phases with Earth? I doubt that was ever in the cards... there has to be something recognizable as present-day Earth in the long term for the stories to work. Even with the massive destruction in AHM, Earth was still mostly intact. Without the familiar to ground things in, at least in one little corner of the story, Transformers loses something.

We saw a phase six planet, in Spotlight Sixshot and in Stormbringer. Both were ravaged, with full-scale Transformer warfare going on in Stormbringer. Were we ever going to see that situation on Earth? I doubt it. So I don't think this is a valid complaint. Earth was always going to be the exception to the rule.

I agree he added new twists to old ideas, but in terms of having anything to say, much of his first few years at IDW seemed to resemble a child playing in a sandbox. He moved stuff around, just to set up for knocking it all over.

He was rebuilding the universe from the ground up. And what is a plot except setting up the pieces (plot threads and characters) only to knock them down (resolve the plots in various ways)?

It almost felt like he wanted to use Unicron, but was not allowed to. Maybe there was an editorial mandate.

Furman himself has said that he was burned out on Unicron. I have no problem taking him at his word... why rewrite the same plot yet again? He had just had to use the character for a year and a half worth of stories at Dreamwave.

IDW Galvatron and Cyclonus are as stereotypically Furman as it gets. They are over-powered, over-angsted.....and not much else.

So were Jhiaxus, Nova Prime and Grindcore, at least as much as we saw them. There's a good plot reason for them being the way they are. I wouldn't expect a character like Galvatron to be anything other than over-powered though... like Megatron and Prime, he's in the big leagues in terms of Transformers characters.

Furman, like most writers, needs an editor. I do not *hate* Furman, or even his work. But, he has slipped in recent years. The problem is that he gets a pass. Passable, or even terrible, work by him is lauded by many Transfans. Some of this is likely habit. Some of it may be that we, as a whole, have low expectations, so it is easy to wow us. Furman is not made of stone, and (like most of us), he is instinctively lazy.

Considering his new ideas and output over the three years he wrote the comics (almost all of them), I'd hardly attribute laziness to him. Indeed he seems to have approached the project with quite a bit of enthusiasm.

And all of this doesn't really answer the question "What should he have done differently?" You've described what you see as his shortcomings, but how should he have done things differently? Apart from written with tighter editorial control. What should the editor have demanded of him? And is it really the editor's job to direct the creative output of the writer? I'm not sure that's what an editor actually does.

[Onslaught Six]

Answering for Dom, I'd say not trying to come up with some entity or group that overshadows the Autobot/Decepticon war. I at least liked that about ROTF--I was afraid that there'd be a cliche "The Autobots and Decepticons have to team up against the common omnipowerful threat!" bit again.