Didn't see a Comics thread for it, so please move that there...

Released Febuary 9, 2011.

Preview here: http://www.mtv.com/geek/comics/issues/?id=803

Picked it up today. Still feels a bit paint-by-numbers and have trouble getting into it. The whole Megatron/Autobots confrontation seemed really... lacking. (Maybe because it seems like we're slipping into Magnus playing the same role he did in TFTM, at least).

And they're really trying to sell us on Thundercracker being a powerful 'bot, up there with being one of the more powerful Decepticons overall, apparently. I suppose that's not a bad thing... just still hard to get used to, I suppose, after years and years of him being another generic Decepticon grunt.

This ongoing comic continues to be uninspiring, I see.

I remember 8 years ago, when I was complaining about how bad the art was on the main TF title, and Don Figueroa should totally take over. Flash forward to today, and he's the artist I'm happy is being taken off the main title. So.

What the hell happened?

I don't know, but I'd take Don over his replacement any microsecond of my existence.

Characters have faces AND do more than stand perfectly still when they're having conversations. For me, that's already a big improvement over the career-worst art the formerly big name Transformer artists have produced on this series thus far. I don't even like Milne in general, Figueroa and Guidi were just that bad here.

The coloring's still pretty lackluster, and those stupid photoshopped symbols are somehow getting worse.

Yes, but sometimes, shoddy writing ends up not leaving a lot for an artist to figure out as far as scenery/action goes.

Milne's crap will suffer even more crapness from the same pitfalls.

Especially when he misinterprets "pressing his point" as "walking away" when the very next panel still describes the character facing the same other character as he gets shot in the goddamn face.

I'm liking Megatron's new form more and more. Also Brawn's pummelling of Starscream.

So when does Optimus get his smashing new body?

Michael Bay happened, with 2 movies of skeletal terminator monsters, which designs apparently Don prefers.

TC as a powerfull bot was something I already brought up in the Kim Jong Il story already, and people hushed me saying BB is just sweet-talking TC. Well, apparently I was right. He is supposed be a guy even Starscream wants on his side. You know, I am too tired to even do a facepalm.

How long does Costa's contract last? Are we stuck with this boring, drawn-out storyline for another year?

Sounds positively dull.

Honestly I think this is Alex Milne's best work, ever. I didn't even know it was him. I could always understand what was happening and the mouths had sides rather than just blackness pouring out the sides of his mouth. With a non-Perez colorist on his artwork, all the bots were the colors they're supposed to be rather than just blue bots with differently colored highlights.

The story felt like filler, perhaps Costa is familiar with Milne's older work and was writing to his strengths with pretty direct actions.

Overall, 3/5.
Milne rolling over and having art that I first thought was Don, then thought was Su, that's unprecedented, but the but watching new reports of events and then watching the same events is pointless in a comic that already has a recap page.

have the autobots forgotten that many of them can simply blend in with everyday vehicles and vanish into society? I thought being able to take advantage of that was the main reason the book brought back the whole Human Xenophobia thing (well, and because it's a logical for humans to retain a grudge post-AHM).

I agree.

So, no 'mouth split up to the ears' vampire grins? Finally, Milne has dropped that annoying aspect of drawing TF faces for good?

Frankly I always would have liked his art, if not for this aspect and the tendency to create too gundam-y looking generics (see Megatron Origin or the Drift TPB).

Seems like Costa is secured as a writer for at least one more year, though. Of course, maybe dwindling sales will make IDW reconsider things.

Did Chris Ryall ever seriously answer the question why he gave Furman the boot? Apart from generic "things change" answers? Were the sales on Devastation that bad?

I must, with perhaps a begrudging twinge, third this!

According to the numbers here: http://www.tfarchive.com/comics/idw/sales.php

IDWVERSE: DEVASTATION
148 - OCT07/#1 - 15,704
161 - OCT07/#2 - 13,854
164 - NOV07/#3 - 13,334
146 - JAN08/#4 - 13,604
146 - FEB08/#5 - 13,185
149 - FEB08/#6 - 12,666

Not bad, especially since All Hail Megatron started at the same number (15,703) and dwindled to under 12,000 by issue #6.

Here's my own list of numbers for the Ongoing taken from the same source:

133 - NOV09/#1 - 15,220
162 - DEC09/#2 - 12,516
140 - JAN10/#3 - 12,609
126 - FEB10/#4 - 12,221
150 - MAR10/#5 - 11,994
136 - APR10/#6 - 12,171
142 - MAY10/#7 - 11,932
147 - JUN10/#8 - 12,360
148 - JUL10/#9 - 12,369
141 - AUG10/#10 - 11,951
169 - SEP10/#11 - 11,582
159 - OCT10/#12 - 11,166
157 - NOV10/#13 - 10,998
178 - DEC10/#14 - 10,573
129 - JAN11/#15 - 10,159

So it seems the ongoing was holding pretty steady around 12,000 until issue #11, when it's been dropping around 400 readers every month.

16 issues on a single comic is pretty much considered a long time in the modern industry.

#80 in a four issue limited series!

I cannot really see any increase in sales in AHM, so they'd have had probably the same sales numbers if they'd have released the next 'Ion" series as 6 issues and not compressed in spotlights, IMHO. Well, what's done is done.

I actually liked this issue. Stuff is happening, Brawn is wailing on someone, artwork isn't cringeworthy like it has been, everything doesn't feel horribly decompressed.

Megatron being more concerned about killing humans than the Autobots felt a little forced. Understandable, but still forced, I would honestly expect him to take them both out with abandon. Especially since he's apparantly pretty powerful right now.

Magnus continuing to be a nonthreat to anyone since Maximum Dinobots days is disappointing. I know they don't want to take the spotlight away from Prime, but once in a while it would be nice to see Magnus actually kicking some aft.

I hope there's more Autobots on their way from the transport disaster then just those shown. Jetfire, Broadside, Smokescreen, and Wheeljack.

I simply laughed when TC mentioned "Well, Skywarp shot me in the face point-blank and I am still here because I am such a badass". No, TC, you are here because the editor has been fast asleep until now. Insult to injury is that a panel later, he is easily taken out by a few blasts of Starscream.

Oh, and Brawn is back for revenge on Starscream for that shoulder-business in 1986.

Megatron honestly makes no sense. He shows up to kill the humans HE weaponized with his own body-part-guns, then trashes the Autobots but doesn't kill them, saying he is there for revenge on the humans. Come again? Why did you arm them then, in the first place? So they can shoot you in the face again?

Also, is Megatron's new body is made with Rheanium, or how come his is impervious to concentraded fire from 6 autobots? Even in Escalation, when powered by Ore-13 he could be damaged by such concentrated fire.

Overall, although a lot of action happens in this one, I just cannot care anymore. The whole thing is boring.

Oh, and hard to follow art there, but in the news-cast, did Ultra Magnus just step on that reporter girl in that panel? Way to go, Magnus. You should read your UK comics someday. Cindy wouldn't like you the way you are now...

So this issue has been out for a while now and can't even generate 2 pages worth of discussion. Just sad.

*edit*

Crap! Okay, so. . . yeah. Guess I gave it the 2-page bump. But it was dead in the water! Dead in the water!

Just wait, in a couple years, some jerk will come along and necro-thread it like they've been doing with other books.

Still, this is an omen.

Probably because the story is incredibly paint-by-numbers and predictable. "Next issue, the Decepticons attack!" And yeah, next issue is... well, Decepticons attacking.

I mean, that can be good if done right, with lots of build up, like the last issue of LSOTW. But there's no sense of build up or anything. Here, we literally saw one issue of the Decepticons at their base, in full-on dire straits, killing their own for energon, then one issue of OH LOOK MEGATRON IS BACK and then they're invading again.

I guess at this point it'd be futile to ask whatever happened to those planets where the Cons got to Phase VI and straight-out conquered. They just got... abandoned because Megatron got shot in the face?

Well, duh. That's exactly what happened in World War II, according to Mike Costa. The Nazis had conquered the world, and then Hitler died so they all surrendered. Read a book sometime.

That is hilarious... And knowing the level of education in some US schools, sadly quite possibly true in some cases.

While I am not saying IDW should have the license taken away, because we are nowhere as bad as that (I'd say that if they started reprinting Kiss Players, maybe...), there is certainly quite a lot of call for "new blood" in the TF writer franchise. Heck, old blood too. Don't IDW bigwigs read their own forums? They can see how much interest stuff like Wreckers generated, while the discussion in the Ongoing threads is about art and continuity errors and the story is just... not mentioned because it's so bland.

I'll still be buying these comics right to the bitter end, and it will be bitter. Mainly because they feature G1 characters. If the same stories were told but with movie characters instead in the movieverse then I wouldn't bother with them.

With every story arc, I keep thinking the same thing though - this current arc isn't that good but hopefully the next one will be.

It's probably for the best that they don't pay attention to their forums, whenever they do what people ask for it's like wishing on a cursed monkey paw, they completely misinterpret what people want and make things worse. Just look at Continuum, people ask for a definitive chronology of the IDW's timeline, something to lay out the reading order of the books which IDW take to mean 'The continuity is too confusing, please drop things, wipe things from history and completely rewrite events', the same goes for things like giving us Spotlight:Prowl which explains why Prowl became a generic good guy but not why it was necessary to strip him of his personality in the first place, dropping Furman from their g1 universe altogether when people said they were getting a little tired of him writing every title, bringing the even more unpopular Shane McCarthy back when people complain about Mike Costa and so on.

They dropped Furman because of that? WOW. That's some major silliness.

I am trying to forget Continuum... Brr.

They dropped Furman because of what they claimed were poor sales.

Of course, then Andy Schmidt admitted the sales were nowhere near as bad as originally suggested by Doubledealer Denton, so who knows what the reason was.

Yeah, the sales of the Ongoing or AHM were pretty much the same as the Furman stories. Sure, AHM #1 sold very well... and Ongoing #1 too, but then so do all first issues of new comics/story arcs/minis. I mean... Ultimatum #1 sold incredibly well, yes, but remember what followed.

Anyone have an extra copy of this one? Or can pick one up at their store? I can't find it anywhere and I'm getting close to a year behind because of it.

Issue 16 is when the ongoing started to get a bit better