Transformers Continuum preview at BZZURKK

That's a fugly cover, even if it is painted. Disembodied Head Witwicky and falling over Soundwave for the FAIL.

Definite skip for me, since I think this is kind of pointless anyway.

I was about to note that Megatron Origin is apparently now the stuff of legend, perhaps even fabricated, but then they treat everything that way, even Stormbringer.

The cover isn't all that at all. But you can't argue it doesn't do what it's advertised to do.

Yeah... they're going over-vague with everything from the look of it. I wonder if this is a buffer against future continuity goofs or if the writter just couldn't figure out how to summarize decently?

On top of that oddness the exposition, (and that's all there is here of course: exposition) is very clunky and poorly phrased in places. As someone very dedicated to aesthetics in writting the narative is NOT smooth flowing writting, it just seems really awkward in places.

I'm curious about this just to see what if any retcons sneek in, but I gotta say this preview doesn't fill me with confidence. Instead of organizing and defining their history and continuity, this looks like it's gonna be a vague, awkwardly written comic-length recap page.

It's kind of absurd. Basically, everything pre-AHM seems to be vague and the stuff of legend.

I like the design on young Optimus in one of the pages.

Other than that, it looks like a big shrug for anyone who's actually read the IDW fiction up until now. I was hoping for something that would be both expository and useful, like a timeline, mini character profiles, something like that. I'd be willing to buy a Guide to the IDWverse that was done well, even now.

I was wondering where exactly that came from, since I don't remember it. It's an interesting deviation, though... In Megatron Origins, we see a guy from the back who looks to be Optimus in what's basically his War Within body with a different head, whereas this one looks to be based on G1 Crosshairs, which is actually a neat idea.

This.

What's the point of this book exactly? I have all the issues that every image we just saw came from, what is my motivation to get this?

I believe it's from the Blurr Spotlight.

YOUR motiviation is probably nil, but the motivation of a new reader whose attention has been attracted by a new number one and the fact that the book is now an ongoing is likely quite high.

Why not take the time to do it in a format that would be useful to both new and long-time readers, rather than in what looks like a generic summary issue that would be better served as either a special addition in the back of the first ongoing issue or as a cheap giveaway? (Seriously, $3.99 for a plain summary and recycled art? Even if I were a newbie, I'd consider that a waste of money.)

No argument here, but then, even Marvel do it, for this sort of price, no less! "Sagas", they call 'em. In fact, I'd say IDW's copping the idea off them.

On Thunderwing: "What he planned to do remained a mystery."

Um... it was explicitly stated in the story that upon his return he was just a mindless puppet of Bludgeon, and later Jhiaxus.

*wonders why IDW couldn't have kept doing the things that initially made her read their monthly story, instead of little by little dropping those to emulate the things that made her not read other companies' monthly stories*

Is this the comic that's supposed to be the blend between G1 and Movie style designs?

It is. http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_(G1)#...mics_continuity

Correctamundo!

Yes, this was Guido's design for a "young" Optimus that I used in Spotlight Blurr.

No, that's still just Don's new approach for the ongoing (wich is simply called "Transformers" I believe). This thing is some sort of summary of the IDW TF storylines so far.

If the comic is 32 pages and no ads, there has to be some kind of new material, bios, or something.

They just covered a bunch of events in six pages. If the rest of the timeline is covered so briefly/quickly, there's no way it can stretch to 32 pages.

I wouldn't say that until I see the -Ations, Shockwave's page doesn't treat it like legend. I'm curious how it treats the Spotlights and I wonder if pages 2 and 3 cover Nova.

I'll definitely flip through it, but I doubt I'll buy it since I already own the comics.

Its basically paying $3.99 for some tfwiki pages. And I expect the tfwiki to be much more informative than this issue could ever be.

This would be a pretty good summary if it was maybe coming from the perspective of a character who doesn't know any better. As it stands, these events should not be at all mysterious because they have been covered in some detail already. Needs Improvement.

More crap.

I... don't understand this at all!

It's so vague as to be useless to either newcomers or people who love continuity and want to fill in gaps.

This is the sort of thing that one expects as a special feature in the back of a UK Annual.

--Boltax.

Echoed. Who's the market, anyway.

The Wiki is far better written than those preview pages to boot. What's with the repetitive use of 'It is believed'? Clunky exposition ahoy! I wonder who wrote this? Schmidt?

Also, the whole 'We don't really know how Optimus became leader of the Autobots' bit is a touch incredulous sounding.

Eh, I don't need this in any case, so I won't be buying it.

Who painted that cover in Photoshop, by the way?

Wow.

That was some weaksauce right there.

IDW, your book sucks. You're not likely to attract THAT many new readers. Hell, AHM #1 sold less than Devastation #1, and it tried to hook new fans every bit as much as this new ongoing did. If you want sales on an adless recap thing, you need to make it appeal to the people who already buy your books. This type of incredibly vague summaries of legends and myth isn't going to cut it.

At least it has some kind of page design that works about a million times better than the IDW Beast Wars Sourcebook...

Not sure of the name... but I think it's in the credits on the link.

Why does Spike look like Keanu Reeves?

The cover's by Ken Christiansen, he's covered the cover on his blog:

http://badflipblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/tr...m-cover-01.html
http://badflipblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/tr...m-cover-02.html
http://badflipblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/tr...m-cover-03.html
http://badflipblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/tr...m-cover-04.html
http://badflipblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/tr...ver-detail.html




Also I think the Spotlight Blurr Optimus is one of the better pre-prime versions of him we've seen.

concept artist for the movie video game stuff so..thats neat

I do like Bumblebee retaining his eighties G1 body on the cover despite his IDW body being completely different (and much less liked). I assume this is the artist not knowing his subject rather than personal preference (he had Spike wearing his cartoon hat in his original sketches).

I think its a bit of both. He has a strong fondness for the 'classic' style and tries to evoke that in alot of his movie work. He seems to be drawing what he knows best.

This looks... well, it looks really pathetic to me. A big chunk of the backstory of the IDW-verse has now been turned into "legend" and hs thus basically been opened up to any kind of re-interpretation Costa or any other writer/editor desires. Fantastic. Also, no mention of Nova Prime and the Ark-1? Didn't that happen WAAAY before even Megatron: Origins and the Great War? That was the impression I was under. Hopefully they'll explain it when they get to the section on Revelation, but I don't have very high hopes for how it'll be handled.

Very dissapointing. Not sure I'll pick it up, and now even less likely to pick up the ongoing at all... ug.

And what's with the faces over at IDW lately? They look terrible in Don's new style and look almost as ugly on this cover...

Well, there are quite a few more pages, so I don't think we can complain about what's not been mentioned yet.

At least there's a pedigree behind it, but it's still pretty bad.

He was shooting for Drew Struzan style, but this is just overcrowded and cluttered. And kind of goofy looking, particularly that Soundwave bit.

Yeah, can someone explain to me when the hell, in IDW fiction, Soundwave, Ravage and Laserbeak chased after 80s altmodes Prowl and Ratchet?

Seriously, it's like IDW, at this point, is deliberately trying to piss as much as they can on their pre-AHM continuity.

Aren't the Marvel Sagas normally free?

And this looks............well, it's a bit less than I expected.

Still, can't be worse than the pre-AHM one.

Yeah, what character is writing this if they don't know both Megatron's past and they don't know when Optimus became Prime?


I gotta agree, I really like that Young Optimus design.


The preview pages are numbered 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, and it's seems to be going chronological, so Nova should be pages 2 and 3.

Off the top of my head, some are (Moon Knight), some aren't (Astonishing X-Men, Runaways, Squadron Supreme) some are printed as backups in the first issues of new titles (Punisher).

Ah ha. I seem to have missed that page numbering. I guess I'll have to retract some of my above statement, at least for now. Still... scared of how they'll handle the Ark-1, though.

I wish this is what the movie designs looked like.

Why is this a problem? The pre-war and Megatron: Origin era IS incredibly vague at this point. Stuff has to be interpreted in the first place to be reinterpreted.

One, the immediate pre-war era in-universe can't be "legend" because lots of TFs still alive today lived through it.

Two, IDW has increasingly shown that re-interpretation to them lately means "blatantly retconning/rewriting" rather than just filling in gaps.

The comment about the Seekers seems to be a retcon too. Maybe not directly, but there's definitely no indication in Megatron Origin that the Seekers were anything special, beyond having the ability to fly.

maybe its just BELIEVED that they were maybe once perhaps but not definitely sure but its entirely possible that they coulda been but nobody really knows cuz it all may or may not have happened even though we all experienced the same story that they were once noble

There's another preview page up at Comics continuum, apparently the Autobots fought Thunderwing on Nebulos... IDW really needs to hire people who are prepared to actually read their comics before writing about them, mistakes like this are unforgivable.

Oh, Wednesday's Shortpacked! will be glorious.

(Okay, every day's Shortpacked! is glorious, but you know what I mean.)
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