Beast Wars Sourcebook #3 Options

[Magnusblitz]

Yeah, I could care less about "funny", it's just that all these personalities feel like cardboard cut-outs. I really attribute that to Ben's bland writing style, though. Nothing in here that's memorable, like say, Skyhammer from the MTMTE books...there's a profile that you could get a lot of mileage for a good story out of.

[Bass X0]

Yeah. There were a lot of complete nobodies in the G1 profile books that could really become popular if someone were to actually use them sticking to and expanding upon what their profiles in the book said.

[Jake]

I know that as this was my first actual art published in a comic on shelves ( I don't count my inks on the fan club issues) I had a blast doing these and I tried my hardest not to have any of my pics doing the squatting pose. I tried to have them in motion and since they are more organic I tried to keep them more fluid in form.

For anyone who wants to know I drew and inked Panther, Packrat, Sonar, Tazmanian Kid, Tigatron, Sandstorm, Windrazor, Scuba, Oynx Primal, and the shark bot that I dont remember the name of.

[Specimen-17]

The profiles don't even have to be "funny" they just have to be entertaining. Otherwise, why would I want to read them?

So you can understand how GRITTY and DARK the Beast Wars were underneath the humorous exterior.

[Magnusblitz]

They're not even that gritty or dark, they're just bland.

[Specimen-17]

True, but I was referencing http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20080109.html.

[Bass X0]

True, but I was referencing http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20080109.html.

First there was Ravage.

Then Grimlock.

Magnaboss 1 is composed of three Autobots turned Maximals. But they never went to Earth yet as Maximals (haven't read #4 yet though).

Prowl the Owl is a continuity mess so lets ignore him.


...who else? Lazorbeak and Buzzsaw aren't the G1 cassettes. I can't think of who else was in G1 and then in Beast Wars...

[xZAOx]

So what I'm gathering here, is that this isn't a very good series?

Don't be shy guys, just let your true feelings out.

[Bass X0]

(IMG:http://www.mariowiki.com/images/a/aa/ShyguyKart.jpg)

i like the costume and the mask.

[Suspsy]

Sorry for being so late to the party, but I finally came across a copy of #3 at an out-of-the-way comic store today.

Wow. Just . . . wow.

This is without question the worst book in the entire history of Transformers, both in terms of writing and artwork. Words cannot begin to capture the sheer atrociousness of it. It is concrete proof of the old adage that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Honestly, did no one at IDW ever take a course on how to draw realistic animals? Or perspective for that matter? Or proportions?

I didn't attempt to skim every bio, as that would've required gazing at the pages longer than my eyes could bear, but the ones I did read were bad enough. Rampage's, for example, is nothing but a summation of his creation and demise, with only a single sentence about who he is as a character. Awful.

I've been a fan of BW since that fateful evening in September 1996 when I stumbled upon the premiere episode, and I can sadly say that the Sourcebook is a true blight upon its memory. An absolute disaster. IDW needs to flush out its art department with a firehose before they attempt anything else along this line.

This post has been edited by Suspsy: Feb 3 2008, 10:13 PM

[SkullGrin]

I didn't attempt to skim every bio, as that would've required gazing at the pages longer than my eyes could bear, but the ones I did read were bad enough. Rampage's, for example, is nothing but a summation of his creation and demise, with only a single sentence about who he is as a character. Awful.

I agree. There was nothing about the twisted and tortured psych that might have been the result of what the Maximals did to his spark. Sure Rampage took pleasure in others suffering but there seemed to be a hint of knowledge that he had something wrong with himself. Also going more deeply that he seemed to feel like a captive and tortured victim at the hands of a corrupt Maximal government. Oh and of course a small band of Predacon terrorists.

For all we know he was actually fighting them for revenge and survival just as much as because he was twisted by nature. He seemed to have his own principles of justice and fairness. Another question was how much of his cruelty was just an act to scare his creators/tormentors and how much of it was genuine.

He seemed to act monsterous in the first episodes but by Transmutate we somewhat get an explaination of why he was so hateful, treacherous and deceitful. It's hard to say if he heard words of a simalir vein to Rhinox's and if some Maximals looked at him with disgust.

I mean was he just a dark and twisted creature from birth or was he a Frankenstein monster at first. Good but reviled by his creators becoming jaded and hateful/corrupt because of the predjiduces of his own people towards his creation.

I'm sure there are Maximals that would have seen him as an abomination a monster and would be afraid of him.

I could see him being designated on a Maximal outpost, being treated harshly by the normal Maximals and lashing out. Then shortly afterwards reveling in the title of monsterous abomination that they probably labelled him with.

This post has been edited by SkullGrin: Feb 3 2008, 11:41 PM

[Liam Shalloo]

I know that as this was my first actual art published in a comic on shelves ( I don't count my inks on the fan club issues) I had a blast doing these and I tried my hardest not to have any of my pics doing the squatting pose. I tried to have them in motion and since they are more organic I tried to keep them more fluid in form.

For anyone who wants to know I drew and inked Panther, Packrat, Sonar, Tazmanian Kid, Tigatron, Sandstorm, Windrazor, Scuba, Oynx Primal, and the shark bot that I dont remember the name of.

funny i coloured, panther, packrat, tigatron, sandstorm and scuba (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-waspy.gif)

[mignash]

Well, Primal gets all the neccessary art for his ape, bat and Optimal forms, but nothing for his Transmetal form. Dunno if you can count that as "omitted" or not. (I really disliked them leaving out Megatron's TM form, as it's his iconic look to me).

They actually seemed to skip Optimal Optimus' gorilla mode - of course I think he only used it twice in the TV show, and they omited it from the Titanium toys, but they did skip it here.

I like the idea of Owl Prowl being Binaltech Prowl, who was Chip Chase's soul in a robot body. It explains there being 2 prowls.

I like Pather and Rhino showing up in this comic. I wish they would actually do solo stories explaining in more detail the Mutants and the Micro Playsets. Heck, how about a story where Scorponok comes back?

[The Drifter]

The advertisement blurb on the back of each issue highly touts Yee as "ZOMG consultant on the Beast Wars TV series!!1!"

What did his consultations provide to the show, exactly?

"Ya know, this episode would be a lot better if you sucked all the life out of it. Don't worry, just divert all instances of humor to Waspinator."

Dude, he was the consultant for "The Agenda".

You know, the best 3 part story in BW?

[Blot]

Nope, never watched it.

[Bass X0]

You should.

[Transfotaku]

The advertisement blurb on the back of each issue highly touts Yee as "ZOMG consultant on the Beast Wars TV series!!1!"

What did his consultations provide to the show, exactly?

"Ya know, this episode would be a lot better if you sucked all the life out of it. Don't worry, just divert all instances of humor to Waspinator."

Dude, he was the consultant for "The Agenda".

You know, the best 3 part story in BW?

Best is subjective. Especially since the Agenda is the ONLY 3 part story in BW (everything else is 2 part at most).

The best story in all of BW has to be "Code of Hero". Not only did it show a stupdendous Dinobot, but the entire reasoning behind the Golden Disk theft, why they wanted that planet in particular, and changed the course of the series forever.

Basically, Ben Yee's claim to fame is his website, BWTF. Back in the days, when G2 was dying and BW was rumored, he was one of the few people that was actually saying "Hey let's give this a try, it might be good!" and "The toys are fun still, come on people!" on ATT and all. That's about it, he was one of the few voices of support for the concept in the fandom.

[The Drifter]

OK, so in your opinion the Agenda was not among the pinnicles of that era?

To be honest, I rate Transmutate over both Agenda and COH, but that's just me. Those 5 episodes were better than anything that came before or after IMO.

[Magnusblitz]

You do know that by "consultant" all he did was provide information on the G1 background? Stuff like "there was an Ark" and "Ravage turned into a tape" and "Megatron got defeated" and stuff like that. So all he did was make sure the G1 homages fit. He didn't have anything to do with the storyline or quality of writing or direction or anything.

[Transfotaku]

OK, so in your opinion the Agenda was not among the pinnicles of that era?

To be honest, I rate Transmutate over both Agenda and COH, but that's just me. Those 5 episodes were better than anything that came before or after IMO.

Pretty much, yeah. I thought Agenda and the finale were a waste of time, honestly. There were better stories out there than them. Transmutate (even though I didn't like it, personally, I can understand and see that is is a well written episode), CoH, the two parter with the flying island wasn't bad.

See, the thing is: The BW was about characterization. We cared (or I did) about the cast because they had personalities. They had goals and flaws and worked for their own agendas while working as a whole. So when I see an ep like Agenda or the finale, where there's no character advancement (worse, the main cast is upstaged by the cameo, "Ravage the Badasssest!!!1111!") and no point to advancing the storyline (Agenda didn't offer any new plot, didn't bring in any subplots), I just got to say: Meh. Bad ep.

Agenda really just suffers from "Look at this cool crap" factor, and offers nothing substantial with it.