Surprised there's no thread yet:

So:

Thundercracker and Skywarp are a couple

Drift is soooooo amazing!!!! He's not scared of anyone, no sir!

Last few pages appears to be of an international paedophile ring, as they're discussing two year old children and marrying them. *shrugs. Yeah, it's weird, and if you read the speech bubbles in a certain order, very creepy.

'You take on one, you take on us all.' - Waiiiiit, my...grammar chip........still functions.......


EDIT: Wait a minute, maybe this is an old pic? They show the cover to next issue, and I ranted a bit about it, but I've just realised we've already seen it before. I think they used the wrong file, as that cover has been shown on the net before from IDW. Shows how much impact they have, if I don't even recognise that. :/ Either way though, my original point still stands. So little has happened in the series, that the cover in question (Ironhide standing over Mirage) could serve as the cover to ANY of the 6 issues so far, and not really look out of place. (other than issue.....2, I guess)

We're over the halfway mark now, and we've read the first trade, essentially.

And we're at pretty much the same spot now as we were in issue one. One, maybe two issues of content, but definitely not six.

It's at the stage of being laughable, honestly.

Apparently new readers are liking it, good for them. I just honestly can't see what they are liking, other than the awesome Hutch covers, and Guido's beautiful art. The story is just.........well, lacking.

D+ (that's including the art and Hutch covers. If I was just rating the story, D-)

Anyone else read it yet?

Thoughts?

It hasn't come out in the States yet, so I don't think most people had a chance to read it yet. I think it hits the States on the 2nd of this month.

It is quite a testament to McCarthy's lack of writing abilities that you spend more time talking about the cover preview to issue 7 than you do talking about this issue.

So tell me, what fantabulously awesome deed has Drift done today?

SPOILER (obviously)












Roadbuster and Ironhide are talking, when they see something strange looking at them.

It's a SWARM, which is made up of various bits and pieces of the Insecticons smooshed together.

The Autobots yell for Kup, and everyone looks a bit worried, as it's a pretty massive hulking monstrosity.

Kup tells Jazz not to worry about it. 'It's taken care of.'

Drift.

Drift stands there, not budging an inch. When the creature gets right up in his face, he's still standing there cool as a cucumber (because he's Drift, y'know), then Drift says 'Hello' to the SWARM as its staring him in the face.

Because you know, he's just that awesome like that.

THEN THE MORE AWESOME:

In an instant, without moving his body at all, he swings his sword out to the side and BEHEADS THE SWARM. ALL WITHOUT MOVING OR FLINCHING. WHAT A CHARACTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then another one appears behind Drift, OH NOES right.

WRONG.

Drift simply cocks his head to the side a little, as a shot from Perceptor playing sniper takes out the second SWARM.
But the important thing is of course, that DRIFT doesn't flinch in the face of danger. OR explosions.

DOESN'T FLINCH.

Then Cliffjumper gets to say the line that every single reader wants to say after reading that scene: 'That was so cool.'

Yes it was CJ, yes it was.

NO FLINCH NECESSARY!!!1!1111!!!!

Yup. We're not getting it till the 2nd, what with New Years and all. It'll be moved to the Comic Discussion Thread once Friday rolls around. So those who got 'em early, try to go easy, m'kay?

We have spoiler tags, KJ. "spoiler" in the brackets

Yeah, between this line and his constant lines about how AHM is "like nothing we've seen before", I'm never believing another word Shane-O-Mac utters. The man lies more than the Liar Starscream.
Can't wait till the sales drop badly enough that IDW drops him like a touchdown football.

Wow. Harsh much?

Thanks KJ!

Added the tags.

Are they necessary though, seeing as I've labelled the thread as containing spoilers?

Eh, just a precaution in case some folks think otherwise (has happened before on other topics). You could probably take them down once Friday hits.

Not really.

Here's an excerpt from Focus On Decepticons, to show how full of himself McCarthy is:

Well, it is "ambitious", but that's in the eye of the beholder...

Still, I would like to hear your reasons why, other than just:

Mainly, I like to see constructive criticism, even if it is harsh (because reality IS a harsh mistress). Saying "It sucks" isn't as understanding/constructive as saying "It sucks, because of this, this, this."

One page of the scene in question, done in deliberately low res for review purposes.

International Rich Paedophiles to the rescue!

(that is the actual text too. I haven't altered it)

Will even the Super Adventure Club be enough to stop Drift and his super awesomeness?

Ugh, and he even has that damn smirky "I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am" face going in the bottom panel.

He turned out being exactly what I feared (though expected honestly) he'd be.

I'll hold out hope Furman does something with the character...like having him sucked into a black hole.

Nah, I'd rather he be Bludgeon or Banzai-Tron fodder.

Drift: "I AM AWESOME"
*Drift explodes, Banzai-Tron stands behind him all Hokuto No Ken-like*
Banzai-Tron: "Is that so?"

That would work.

"Two years of age" could construe as "two years after legal age". :B _{But it's STILL creepy.}

I'll wait till I can read it myself and then I"ll judge Drift.

They're talking about tea. Not Marriage.
That Drift page looks ridiculous. I'm glad I'm not supporting this comic.

I must also note that they spell "feud" as "fued" twice. On the same page.

Oh Primus.

...Holy wow. I'm glad I only got suckered into two issues of this.

IDW, you're now most definitely jivetier than Dreamwave. Good job.

. . . And I sometimes wonder why I don't really read comic books anymore.

What next? Drift has to stop a million Swarm with the Matrix of Awesomeness he has in his chest?

I'm seriously going to cry.

We lost a full-on brawl between Optimus Prime and Nova Prime for THIS???

Viral and Simon are allowed to kill people with pure awesome. Drift is not.

*re-reads the panel* Ah, silly me (and some of us)! And all those lessons construed from watching various Food Network/Bizarre Foods/No Reservations episodes seemed to have slipped a bit. Must review them again.

You remember this story now?

You were 9 years old when you wrote it! It was awesome!!! So was Duran Duran!

So, just for the record, we're now at issue #6 -- that's $24 of comic, for those keeping track -- issue #6, and still NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.

Not a single thing has changed, or even threatened to change, the status quo that was established BEFORE THE SERIES EVEN BEGAN.

IDW has editors, right? Right? People look at scripts and stuff and check it before it gets drawn, right? Such concepts aren't just figments of my imagination?

I'm becoming more and more heartbroken that the wonderful *ation minis were replaced by this.

Oh my good lord. Utter face-palmage. And after I thought issue # 4 started to represent an upswing for this series...Just...just...urgh. Drift tries to Mary Sue his way into our hearts, people who don't remotely resemble real bloody people decide to hurl nukes at the problem (unpleasant DW G1 flashback), and the Swarm turns out to be zombie Insecticon Frankenstein mis-mashes. The only thing remotely salvageable is the Perceptor-as-a-sniper idea, which seems quite fitting when you think about it, but seriously. I won't be buying this book anymore if this is what we can expect in the future. Not even Guido can save a ship that has half-sunk.

Yeah finally seeing Drift "in action" has me dropping the book.

IDW changed becuase they said people were complainign about the -ation series. Well I guess we see what complaining gets you.

I wonder why Perceptor went from almost station commander to a sniper in Kup's little band.

But then I remembered this is AHM.

So anyway Drift, epic right guys? He makes this series worth it. Can't wait for more crazy ninja action!

Wow, Drift has me unimpressed so far, and I was willing to give him a chance.

That's where I draw the line. If we honestly get a Drift figure, he will be shoved to the back of my displays, desperately trying to gain attention from the other figures on my shelves. but he won't get it. Oh no.

Y'know, after reading Spotlight Blurr, I thought, ok, Shane might get it down eventually. Drift is nothing but a mary sue so far. And because of this, we no longer get Furman every month. Now we're getting one mini series. Shane, you have single-handedly killed my passion for Transformers comics.

Even if Furman is getting a bit fresh n' familiar when it comes to his writing style on Transformers, at least his stories have this thing called plot, and legitimate character development.

I am genuinely curious if we still are getting a Drift.

Universe is going on hiatus and we haven't seen or heard anything about a Drift toy from IDW in a while and NEVER from Hasbro best that I can recall.

If there IS one made... I'll clean off his ricer deco, slap on some black paint to some of his robot mode bits, give his swords to my Henkei Megatron and make a Classics Downshift out of him.


Yeah, seriously. I don't know what IDW's head honchos are smoking...
If they wanted to vary up the creative team, I wonder why they didn't ask Chris Mowry to write a G1 tale. The guy's work on Reign Of Starscream and Alliance has been very nice and I wouldn't mind seeing what he could do with the G1 universe.


Yeah, thus far all we've gotten is IDW hearsay, if the character is so spiffykeenfantabulous you'd think Hasbro would have announced it by now.

Powdered blue with a resculpted face/new head and I'll have myself a Classics Boss.

Heh, remains to be seen if the toy itself will faithfully emulate Guido's design. It looks good as is but isn't particularly toyetic.

Speaking of Toyetic, said "swarm" that Drift lops the head off on the sample page... Am I the only one seeing Transmetal 2 Scourge in Insecticon colors with a new head?

Yeah, I was just going to post about that, I see TM2 Scourge there too, probably why I like the swarms design.

If Drift still gets a toy, he'll be Nitrous Prime for me, either new character or upgrade of Cybertron Override. (but male, like Nitro Convoy.... Maybe.)

I'm really trying to decide if I want this issue, I may still get it to say I gave it six issues, plenty of time for a story to get going. But then I just think I'm still supporting this when I want the -ation series back.

Nobody at Hasbro has officially commented on the Drift toy, to the best of my knowledge, but my super secret inside sources tell me that the response was along the lines of "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

The plans were probably all in his head from the start.

I'm strangely... intriqued by the, ahem, tart reactions. Certainly a stark contrast compared to when Drift was first introduced in SDCC08.

Kinda like how people never have anything good to say about their hometown, yet when they're at a concert and the band mentions the town by name, the crowd goes nuts hollering and cheering.

Hey, a once - or "winning the state/province/country megamillions jackpot lottery" - in a lifetime opportunity. :3

At this point, Shane has certainly left a unique mark in TF history. I'll have to take a read for myself before giving my opinion/readjusting my expectation.

Probably just a case of "event high". You're there, they're announcing thing after thing with great hype and "you'll love this"-ness, and from afar Drift did look kinda cool (the excessive amount of swords and the ricer deco kind of ruin that though) so there was that whole "he looks cool" reaction not unlike a new Hasbro toy, plus there was the whole toy lie, so.

Now that people see he's nothing but a Marysueninjatron... it's pretty normal that they're less receptive of his presence.

That was pretty awesome.

Randy

See, I don't get why Kup of all people would recruit Drift. Even if he's that skilled, he's quite definitely a showboating jackass, who lets an unknown enemy get close enough to tongue-kiss him before dispatching it.

Detour, you are right on the money. Reign of Starscream was one of the nicest character pieces I've read in a long time. Nothing in those books seemed awkward or out of place, the characters were well written, and the entire series actually had a moving plot that lead to things that seem likely to have some future affect on the franchise. The way Starscream was written, just so true to his core character but at the same time revealing a lot of the reasoning and internal workings that we hadn't seen, is something I'd like to applied to the G1 comics.

Now that just isn't fair. AHM may suck (I'm not reading it, but hoooo boy is that Drift page bad), but the Animated and Movie comics are great. And worse then DW? AHM may be plodding a feature a Mary Sue, but that isn't close to this!

My expression when reading AHM is one of dull surprise.

True, but there was curiosity...

I'm also a little tired of seeing Mary Sue/Gary Stu being thrown almost practically nilly-willy, even if some - okay, most - people claim it's true, and I won't fault readers for coming to that conclusion.

If you say so, but it just looks forced, unneeded and executed for no other reason than for Shane-O-Mac to show off his shiny fancharacter. As good as Guido's art may be, it still reads like a twelve-year old doing a fanfic and showing how awesome his original character is as he easily dispatches opponents before they even realize it.


Because everything about Kup's team has to be omgbadass rather than practical.
See, Shane-O-Mac won't be able to use Perceptor as a tactician with long-range support, no. He's the lone sniper because that's so much more "awesome".
In the same vein, Drift has to be the badass ninja who kills stuff while barely even moving at all.


From what I heard, Mowry doesn't want to do a G1 tale because he fears the fan backlash. Probably due to reading AHM reaction threads...
But what Chris Mowry needs to realize is he is a good writer while Shane-O-Mac is not, therefore he shouldn't have to worry.


Now, now, regardless of how dull the art was, at least during the course of six issues the plot actually went somewhere. We're still where we were six issues ago with AHM.

Okay, now that my geek-rage has settled a bit, I read the issue again. And still, I can't muster anything but a frustrated sigh. Everything is derivative here. Everything is hackneyed and derivative. Furman may recycle a lot of tropes from his own stories, but this is mass-recycling from Transformers fiction and GENERAL science fiction on the whole. We've seen the Insecticon/demon/zombie hordes before. We've seen the Quest for the Holy Matrix before. We've seen BIG BOMB MAYBE KILL ROBOTS before. The one thing I think is sorta neat is the Perceptor as a sniper bit, since Perceptor always did seem well-armed and having the power of MAGNIFICATION, he'd be ideal for sniping. But that's that.

Also, why does Roadbuster look marshmellow-y?