Support group for former DW buyers

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:49 pm

I stopped buying DW. I am so happy. It was a painful process, but I look back and have no regrets. Who's with me?

My main reason was the fact that I spent up to twelve bucks a month to put down a comic and say, "Huh? What just happened?" Brames acts like people should know what is going on because we should read online interviews and every other DW title. Furman is a better person, but still hard to understand. The art doesn't help, either. Diss Wildman all you want to, but I could tell who was hitting who in WW2, and I can't tell in Energon or the ongoing. I am very happy to have money again.

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:06 pm

Yes, at the moment I'm not spending out on DW. TWW3 is the only title I have any interest in, and I may wait for the inevitable trade paperback. There's little appeal to individual issues, because they're being written for a collection, and the collections ultimately feel as if the story could be told in far fewer pages.

I remember TF writing as being by necessity fast and punchy, told by a writer with more creative control over a complex ongoing plot. Fortunately, Titan books are supplying me with that.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:08 pm

Still collecting.

Here's where I say something nice-ish. If DW carried on making stuff on the same level as G1 vol 1 I would have quit a long time ago.

But instead they at least took some things the fans wanted on board. Put someone on G1 who actually knows something about TFs, brought out War Within written by a long time fan favourite, and saved Energon from near extinction by not making it exactly like the cartoon anymore. They also dropped their showboating MD off the art chores of the main title, and put the real new master on regular pencils.

Are Dreamwave doing as well as they could be? Nowhere near. However, as long as it doesn't go completely tits up I'm liable to stay with it till the bitter end, for no reason other than I'm a moderator on a TF message board. But reading TF comics is a bit like a job now, its other comics in my subscription that I read first and sustain my hobby with.

I do know many people who've given up on Dreamwave now after giving them many chances. The amount of people at Transforce who told me they don't read TF comics anymore was staggering. So keep reading...

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:38 pm

Still reading, but my interest is becomingly increasingly worn down, especially when I get home with my purchases on new comics day, and the TF ones are regularly by far, staggeringly far, the worst.
Talk about disappointment.
I plan to keep going with the ongoing until #11. Then if that's the absolute travesty I suspect it's going to be, I think that'll be me for that title, and I don't think I'll have any regrets, either.

However, I plan to stick with any more WW projects that come along and probably will stay with Energon due to my interest in the toys.
We'll see what happens when it changes to Cybertron. Could be another good jumping-off point (the early Energon issues, espically that interminable Outback arc, nearly saw me drop it).

Bouncelot · Post by **Bouncelot** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:45 pm

When they first came out, I didn't have the spare cash to start buying them. Now that I do, I've read reviews and seen a few scans, and I'm not impressed enough to start buying them.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:36 am

I'm sticking with Energon and War Within for the time being. That's it.

War Within is a nice little curiousity thing for me. I've always preferred "backstory" TF stuff, especially Cybertron related stuff. Makes it feel that little bit more epic, rather than "Prime leads bunch of bots clumping about Earth, tripping over annoying stubbies."

Energon's a refreshing change of pace. Okay, at times the art can be a little lacklustre, but I find the story intriguing and want to know where they're going with it. Plus the toys are cool. The (relative) lack of backstory is a good thing here, as it doesn't mean having to remember 4 million odd years worth of events. Nice, unpretentious and unique.

I dropped Gen 1 after Vol 2, on the basis that they'd had 12 issues to convince me they could hold my attention and failed miserably. Why should I keep throwing money at them in the hope that it would change? (I'm one of those folks that sticks with a comic through an entire arc, just to see how it ends and if it was going anywhere decent... buying #1 would have meant sticking around until the arc's end, which I didn't want to do).

I tried to read the first issue of Micromasters, but gave up about halfway through when it became apparant that it was an exercise in "cram in as many characters as possible." Plus I could barely work out what was going on.

The GI Joe crossover was fun for a while, but doing a second one just strikes me as milking it. Not gonna touch.

Commander Shockwav · Post by **Commander Shockwav** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 3:41 pm

Brendocon wrote:I'm sticking with Energon and War Within for the time being. That's it.

War Within is a nice little curiousity thing for me. I've always preferred "backstory" TF stuff, especially Cybertron related stuff. Makes it feel that little bit more epic, rather than "Prime leads bunch of bots clumping about Earth, tripping over annoying stubbies."

Energon's a refreshing change of pace. Okay, at times the art can be a little lacklustre, but I find the story intriguing and want to know where they're going with it. Plus the toys are cool. The (relative) lack of backstory is a good thing here, as it doesn't mean having to remember 4 million odd years worth of events. Nice, unpretentious and unique.

I dropped Gen 1 after Vol 2, on the basis that they'd had 12 issues to convince me they could hold my attention and failed miserably. Why should I keep throwing money at them in the hope that it would change? (I'm one of those folks that sticks with a comic through an entire arc, just to see how it ends and if it was going anywhere decent... buying #1 would have meant sticking around until the arc's end, which I didn't want to do).

I tried to read the first issue of Micromasters, but gave up about halfway through when it became apparant that it was an exercise in "cram in as many characters as possible." Plus I could barely work out what was going on.

The GI Joe crossover was fun for a while, but doing a second one just strikes me as milking it. Not gonna touch.

You should have tagged along for the Sunstorm Saga at least. Most TF fans, even some of the overly critical ones, enjoyed this series more than Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

Personally, I thought Vol. 1 was okay, War and Peace was fantastic, and the Sunstorm Saga was very good. But you know what they say, tastes vary like the winds.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 3:58 pm

There are enough god-complex villains in other comics, really... not like Sunstorm was anything remotely original... he makes life tough for a few characters briefly, and then -whoosh- on with the story at the pace of an elderly zebra...

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 4:36 pm

I dropped off buying DW months ago.

Read 'em in the shop or sponge them off a particularly gullible friend, that's my motto!

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 4:48 pm

Word to Karl! Take advantage of them in the shops, and leave 'em on the stands! Also my policy with women.... oh, wait, those were mannequins. Dang it, it happened again!

I'm glad to see someone else went through the, "Here I am, home from the comic store, and I will now read my comics... and what the F***? I spent money on this s***?" Not to mention what spidey (I think it was spidey) said about it feeling like a job.

I remember I stopped buying comics entirely for a while when they cancelled G2, because it was the best title I read every month. Now I think about spending nine to twelve bucks a month on DW and it makes me angry. I could be buying Astonishing X-men, Avengers Disassembled, Harley & Ivy...

Energon was good, though. My favorite of the series but still too hard to follow. Maybe i'll pick them up again in a year or so. Though if there are many of me out there, there may be no DW in a year...

Post by **Denyer** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 4:57 pm

sprunkner wrote:I could be buying Astonishing X-men, Avengers Disassembled, Harley & Ivy...

Or you could be working your way through at least a dozen classic graphic novels a year... Hellboy, the Authority, Sandman, StormWatch, TransMet, Titan TF reprints... even more if you buy TPBs and original issues from eBay rather than comic stores...

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:05 pm

The only worthwhile thinhg about the Sunstorm arc IMO was the art. The rest of it just built on the problems of vol 2.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:36 pm

I buy G1, TWW, and (covers face)MM.

I buy G1 because it is G1 TF in comics. 'Nuff said. I'm not going to say that the Sunstorm saga was good or that his character wasn't a derivitive of The Fallen from TWW2, but it's wasn't and it was, respectively. But, c'mon people! I suffered through Ethan Zachary and Donny Finkelberg! I bought the Car Wash of Doom and thought Buster's girlfriend was hot! I know the Mechanic! It can get a WHOLE lot worse than the DW convulted, confusing storylines that aren't very good. Look on the bright side: at leat Pat Lee isn't drawing it! If make a Starsky and Hutch comic book starring Optimus Prime and Prowl, I WILL BUY IT.

I buy TWW because backstory rules. It doesn't care what toys just came out. It's there just because fans like it. And it's written by the definitive TF scribe. Can't go wrong with that. Except if you're called The Dark Ages. Then you're kinda lame.

I buy MM because I am a masochist who likes to throw away money. I didn't like Micromasters before. Now that they're all pissy and their differences barely noticable except for palette changes, I don't like them any more. However, there WAS an exceptionally busty looking Shockers on page 5 of MM 2, so I guess that's a plus in the mag's favor.

Anyway, in closing, as long as you don't touch the Energon, you'll be fine. The only way for Energon to be cool is to, as previously stated, tone down the busyiness of the artwork, and to plop some G1 characters in. It worked for Beast Wars and Armada.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:00 pm

i buy it all, some of it i enjoy, some of it i now only purchase oit of morbid curiosity.

Commander Shockwav · Post by **Commander Shockwav** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:34 pm

I buy it all as well. Some of it because it is good stuff, the rest because I'm hoping it becomes good.

Case in point: Micromasters. Issue two was ridiculously pathetic, yet I'm licking my chops in eager anticipation for the third issue. Solely based on a hope and a prayer it will go somewhere.

With this strategy, sometimes you win, and sometimes you become the biggest sucker in the world.

But I'll take my chances.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:50 pm

my only issue with this 'strategy' is that by persisting no matter what gets churned out i rob myself of my power as consumer...

Post by **snarl** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 12:25 am

I buy owt since g1 v2 issue 3.

I then go to BFs, read a bit...

Then I curse under my breath.

Then I openly slate several of those responsible.

Then I calmly place the remaining comics down, lay on the floor and talk about top of the pops.

SHE'S IN FASHION, OH, OH, OH.

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Support group for former DW buyers

Have you stopped buying DW entirely?