TF Views

andersonh1 wrote:

JediTricks wrote:NOTHING.

HAPPENED.

AT ALL.

You sound like me when I was reading those last few issues of MTMTE before I dropped that book. I wished that the characters would stop the endless small talk and snark and do something. And not only that, but do something honest and real and believable. But it didn't happen, and I got to the point that I just didn't care any more. Sometimes dropping a book is all we can do.

But it's the opposite for me with the former RID book. I'm actually engaged in the story again and enjoying it. It's not the "Cybertron power struggle" book that I was really enjoying, and it's had a hard time changing gears, but I think it's finally going somewhere interesting again.

See, to me the difference is massive. MTMTE is a character-driven story, so as long as they're talking and interacting, I'm entertained. I care what happens and why to those people regardless of what they're doing because the drama is driven by interpersonal discovery and conflict, it's about the who rather than the what.

RID/TF is (or was) a politically-driven story, where conversations and action supported the overall theme, and this isn't doing any of it. This is reverting to standard TF operating procedure - fight a Decepticon villain on Earth for control of a MacGuffin. It is now once again a soap opera for boys and their toys, the character writing is sloppy and shallow, the action is dull and reductive when there is any at all, and it's taking up plot points that haven't mattered in years to drive its drama.

To me, this is the end of the road, I can get Transformers fighting on Earth for a thing in any number of previous media. Earth has been the focus of Transformers for far too long, it's dull, there's only so many things you can do here when your protagonists are giant alien robots.

NOTHING.

HAPPENED.

AT ALL.

Plenty of stuff happened. But, none of it was unique.

RiD has been a generic big two comic since "Dark Cybertron". The "new" stasis quo (Optimus Prime and the Autobots fighting Decepticons on Earth) is suspiciously like an old stasis quo. (I post at length about this above.) I have read this comic before. I have this before as a TF comics.

To me, this is the end of the road, I can get Transformers fighting on Earth for a thing in any number of previous media. Earth has been the focus of Transformers for far too long, it's dull, there's only so many things you can do here when your protagonists are giant alien robots.

There is plenty to do with Earth as a setting, which makes this book even worse (for not doing that stuff).


Close to dropping it myself.

Dominic wrote:

NOTHING.

HAPPENED.

AT ALL.

Plenty of stuff happened. But, none of it was unique.

Name it, what happened? Spike killed the last Mini-Constructicon, and Cosmos, Sky Lynx, and Sideswipe shot at some missiles that seemed to be no problem at all. Everything else was just moving pieces around the chessboard with no real consequence.

There is plenty to do with Earth as a setting, which makes this book even worse (for not doing that stuff).

Again, you say but you don't give example.

JediTricks wrote:See, to me the difference is massive. MTMTE is a character-driven story, so as long as they're talking and interacting, I'm entertained. I care what happens and why to those people regardless of what they're doing because the drama is driven by interpersonal discovery and conflict, it's about the who rather than the what.

I understand that, but it had gotten to the point that I didn't care about the characters of MTMTE, and I just can't believe in the current status quo with Megatron as captain and the crew yukking it up as if that's just fine. They may grumble a bit, but they ought to be doing a lot more than grumbling.

Anyway, water under the bridge. The book is what it is, and I'm glad you're still enjoying it.

This is reverting to standard TF operating procedure - fight a Decepticon villain on Earth for control of a MacGuffin. It is now once again a soap opera for boys and their toys, the character writing is sloppy and shallow, the action is dull and reductive when there is any at all, and it's taking up plot points that haven't mattered in years to drive its drama.

I'm at the point that I'm tired of the post-war landscape. It was interesting for awhile, but if we're not going to get political drama and jockeying for power and backstabbing and behind the scenes deals, and have to settle for page after page of witty banter, then I'd rather go back to out and out conflict and warfare. I could do without Prowl twirling his moustache every issue though.

Name it, what happened? Spike killed the last Mini-Constructicon, and Cosmos, Sky Lynx, and Sideswipe shot at some missiles that seemed to be no problem at all. Everything else was just moving pieces around the chessboard with no real consequence.

Exactly, stuff happened. The issue is working as set-up for....the next event, not too long after the last event ended.

It is all generic stuff, but stuff happened.

Again, you say but you don't give example.

The problem is that IDW has truncated so many Earth focused arcs that they would have to spend a year or so just getting things in order. Costa's run was Earth focused, and it got truncated (because "boo hoo he does not respect Transformers"). Furman's run got truncated. Many of the threads from those runs of comics are lost though.

There is potential with the Blackrock Industries angle. But, the question is if IDW will follow through (or be able to suspend it) before "Combiner Wars".

It was interesting for awhile, but if we're not going to get political drama and jockeying for power and backstabbing and behind the scenes deals, and have to settle for page after page of witty banter, then I'd rather go back to out and out conflict and warfare. I could do without Prowl twirling his moustache every issue though.

It is hard to do much with a post-war setting when the book both exists in an editorial vacuum *and* is drifting from one even to another.

"The war is over" is too big for IDW to just casually throw away. Having a war that carried on for millions of years simply end for a year or two and then restart would be stupid.

Changing direction would be one thing. But, I have zero interest in staying with the book as it changes back to what it was.

Even "More than Meets the Eye" is likely to get pulled in to "generic comic event" ("Combiner Wars" in this case).

The big events are easier to tolerate when they are avoidable. "Axis" is a stupid concept. But, I have managed to avoid "Axis" because it is not crossing over with any of the books that I am reading. ("Superior Iron Man" is following from "Axis". But, I do not really need to know or care about "Axis" to follow "Superior Iron Man" beyond just buying in on the idea that Tony Stark is kind of an asshole in the current book. Tom Taylor is reason enough to be reading that book to begin with.)

With "Transformers", there are only two ongoing book (and the odd mini-series) at any given time, making the events harder to avoid. ("Robots in Disguise" barely cleared "Dark Cybertron" before the set-up for "Combiner Wars".)

It does not help that "Transformers" consists of Optimus and some Autobots fighting some Decepticons on Earth. We have been here. We have done this.

I guess that dropping the sub-title ("Robots in Disguise") and shortening the book's title to "Transformers" (a generic title) is appropriate.

Dominic wrote:

Name it, what happened? Spike killed the last Mini-Constructicon, and Cosmos, Sky Lynx, and Sideswipe shot at some missiles that seemed to be no problem at all. Everything else was just moving pieces around the chessboard with no real consequence.

Exactly, stuff happened. The issue is working as set-up for....the next event, not too long after the last event ended.

It is all generic stuff, but stuff happened.

"A thing happened" isn't stuff, it's one thing and I already disqualified it since it wasn't happening to the protagonists or antagonists directly.

Again, you say but you don't give example.

The problem is that IDW has truncated so many Earth focused arcs that they would have to spend a year or so just getting things in order. Costa's run was Earth focused, and it got truncated (because "boo hoo he does not respect Transformers"). Furman's run got truncated. Many of the threads from those runs of comics are lost though.

There is potential with the Blackrock Industries angle. But, the question is if IDW will follow through (or be able to suspend it) before "Combiner Wars". [/quote]So gaze backwards, take focus away from the actual Transformers again and fill in blanks on old stories that have been forgotten, that's the plan?

It is hard to do much with a post-war setting when the book both exists in an editorial vacuum *and* is drifting from one even to another.

It wasn't in an editorial vacuum or drifting until Hasbro stepped in and demanded these events. There was an idea with this book and it's been derailed.

"The war is over" is too big for IDW to just casually throw away. Having a war that carried on for millions of years simply end for a year or two and then restart would be stupid.

Changing direction would be one thing. But, I have zero interest in staying with the book as it changes back to what it was.

Says the guy whose example of Earth stuff is all going back to what it was.

Even "More than Meets the Eye" is likely to get pulled in to "generic comic event" ("Combiner Wars" in this case).

More likely it'll be Windblade ongoing that will get sucked in, I doubt MTMTE's story could support that premise as easily.

With "Transformers", there are only two ongoing book (and the odd mini-series) at any given time, making the events harder to avoid. ("Robots in Disguise" barely cleared "Dark Cybertron" before the set-up for "Combiner Wars".)

Dark Cybertron was a train wreck, it was timed wrong and had plotting misfires throughout. Less of that, please.

"A thing happened" isn't stuff, it's one thing and I already disqualified it since it wasn't happening to the protagonists or antagonists directly.

It is setting up for something that will happen to them directly. You know this. Comics are written for trades.

So gaze backwards, take focus away from the actual Transformers again and fill in blanks on old stories that have been forgotten, that's the plan?

It is the only way to do Earth-focused stories. I am not saying that IDW should have moved the focus back back to Earth. But, if they want to focus on Earth, anything they do there should probably follow from what happened before. Unfortunately, they have already had two Earth-focused arcs truncated, so a certain amount of clean-up is going to be necessary.

It wasn't in an editorial vacuum or drifting until Hasbro stepped in and demanded these events. There was an idea with this book and it's been derailed.

"Transformers" has always existed in an editorial vacuum. That is the nature of licensed books. Barring something like an "Infestation" type event, "Transformers" generally stands on its own, just like "Star Trek" comics stand on their own.

Hasbro is probably expecting certain characters to show up. But, as seen during "Dark Cybertron", Hasbro is probably not too picky about the hows and whys on page. Hasbro was probably fine with Tankorr or Jhiaxus showing up on page and likely did not fret too much about what those characters did on page.

Marvel G1 dealt with Hasbro (at a time when Hasbro would have been at least as restrictive) and did not spend time looking backwards or resetting to stasis quo. IDW is following Hasbro's lead while making the TF comics as generic as possible.

Blame for this rests primarily with IDW, not Hasbro.

The real problem is that the book has no ideas at this point. Barber is just coasting from one event to the next, and he has nothing else to say.

More likely it'll be Windblade ongoing that will get sucked in, I doubt MTMTE's story could support that premise as easily.

"More than Meets the Eye" is getting the "Days of Deception" banner, which likely sets up for it getting sucked in to "Combiner Wars".

"More than Meets the Eye" was effectively put on hold for 6 months for "Dark Cybertron". Roberts used that as a chance to retool the crew a bit. But, it is not hard to see how much of the current arc follows from the pre-"Dark Cybertron" content. The same will likely happen with "Combiner Wars".

And, as I said above, it would be easier to tolerate if it could be avoided and/or it did not completely dominate so much of the comics.

Dominic wrote:

"A thing happened" isn't stuff, it's one thing and I already disqualified it since it wasn't happening to the protagonists or antagonists directly.

It is setting up for something that will happen to them directly. You know this. Comics are written for trades.

That's unacceptably decompressed, even for comics.

So gaze backwards, take focus away from the actual Transformers again and fill in blanks on old stories that have been forgotten, that's the plan?

It is the only way to do Earth-focused stories. I am not saying that IDW should have moved the focus back back to Earth. But, if they want to focus on Earth, anything they do there should probably follow from what happened before. Unfortunately, they have already had two Earth-focused arcs truncated, so a certain amount of clean-up is going to be necessary.

That's backwards thinking. They don't NEED to do Earth stories.

I am not saying they need to do Earth focused stories. But, if they are, they have to do the clean up first.

That's unacceptably decompressed, even for comics.

Few comics worth reading are going to be compressed.

Dominic wrote:Few comics worth reading are going to be compressed.

Eh, not really. One of the things I really enjoyed about Daredevil by Mark Waid when I was reading it was how Waid had so many done-in-one or done-in-two storylines, with a lot packed into each issue. There were longer plots going on in the background, and one really long overarching plot in the distant background. There were layers of story, but I also didn't have to wait six months to get through a single storyline. There was frequent closure. To me, that's the way that serialized comics should be written. There should be a lot less decompression and a lot more payoff, more often.