Right, I'm re-reading the IDW stuff...

[Brendocon]

and this is brilliant, isn't it?

Having read Emvee's of Devastation #1 on Friday night, I've done Infiltration, the first batch of Spotlights and Stormbringer this afternoon. And I just can't believe how layered it is. It's all there, all mapped out and planned well before hand.

Concurrent events, teases... the Megatron/Bludgeon exchange at the end of the Shockwave spotlight... Ultra Magnus referring to Scorponok's plans as machinations, whilst the Zarak building logo is in a similar font to the big M... everything that I didn't get or that washed over me at the time is now crystal clear and makes perfect sense.

It's so layered and mapped out. It's genius. I love it.

And Stormbringer is still The Business. Especially now I understand wtf is happening in it.

... just thought I'd share.

[Hound]

Im going to re read the lot again tonight

[Denyer]

****ing postal strike.

[Brendocon]

Huge points to Devastation for opening with about three pages of solid exposition which explains exactly what the hell was actually going on in Infiltration.

Though admittedly I probably could have gotten it if I'd just re-read it after Escalation...

[Best First]

i assume we are entirely igniring Megs: Origins in this topic yah?

[Brendocon]

Entirely.

[spiderfrommars]

****ing postal strike.

Yeah.

[Hound]

What is the actual running order then? I cant remember when certain spotlights should fit in

[Best First]

Entirely.

Woo hoo!

In that case, hell yeah.

[Brendocon]

What is the actual running order then? I cant remember when certain spotlights should fit in

Publication order was:

Infiltration (Preview)
Infiltration (Part 1)
Infiltration (Part 2)
Infiltration (Part 3)
Infiltration (Part 4)
Infiltration (Part 5)
Infiltration (Part 6)
Stormbringer (Part 1)
Stormbringer (Part 2)
Stormbringer (Part 3)
Spotlight: Shockwave
Stormbringer (Part 4)
Spotlight: Nightbeat
Spotlight: Hot Rod
Escalation (Part 1)
Spotlight: Sixshot
Escalation (Part 2)
Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
Escalation (Part 3)
Escalation (Part 4)
Spotlight: Soundwave
Escalation (Part 5)
Spotlight: Kup
Escalation (Part 6)
Spotlight: Galvatron
Spotlight: Optimus Prime
Devastation (Part 1)

Am thrashing out some form of chronological order atm... goes something like:

Spotlight: Shockwave
Spotlight: Soundwave
Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
Prelude to Infiltration, Infiltration (Part 1), Infiltration (Part 2)
Infiltration (Part 3), Stormbringer (Part 1)
Infiltration (Part 4), Stormbringer (Part 2)
Infiltration (Part 5), Stormbringer (Part 3), Stormbringer (Part 4)
Infiltration (Part 6)
Spotlight: Nightbeat, Spotlight: Hot Rod, Spotlight: Sixshot
Escalation (Parts 1 to 6)
Spotlight: Kup
Spotlight: Optimus Prime, Spotlight: Galvatron
Devastation

Some bits don't have a precise time on them. Obviously stuff like Ultra Magnus happens over two time periods - the bulk of the stuff is on Nebulos, though, which puts it prior to Stormbringer (and, due to the presence of Scorponok, before the Machination's formation); whilst the latter arrest of Swindle happens during Escalation #1.

The ending of Nightbeat is between the close of Stormbringer and the beginning of Escalation. Hot Rod... uhm... some point prior to Escalation. Sixshot can occur any time prior to the close of Escalation.

Galvatron happens during Optimus Prime, as Sideswipe's attempt to ring Prime is foiled by Oppy being off visiting Omega Supreme.

Kup is presumably just prior to the Oppy P Spotlight, as it has a snatch of dialogue re the old codger's condition.

The placement of Stormbringer alongside Infiltration is helped by the communications between Ironhide/Prime and Megatron/Razorclaw.

[Yaya]

and this is brilliant, isn't it?

Having read Emvee's of Devastation #1 on Friday night, I've done Infiltration, the first batch of Spotlights and Stormbringer this afternoon. And I just can't believe how layered it is. It's all there, all mapped out and planned well before hand.

I've been thinking about going back and re-reading them all myself.

The six month gaps are detracting from us experiencing the story like we really could by making us forget things such as what you mentioned.

[Hound]

and this is brilliant, isn't it?

Having read Emvee's of Devastation #1 on Friday night, I've done Infiltration, the first batch of Spotlights and Stormbringer this afternoon. And I just can't believe how layered it is. It's all there, all mapped out and planned well before hand.

I've been thinking about going back and re-reading them all myself.

The six month gaps are detracting from us experiencing the story like we really could by making us forget things such as what you mentioned.

I disagree. The 6 month gap, whilst frustrating, has helped give us the Spotlights and Stormbringer which has enriched the ongoing story.

If Furman was having to rush an issue out every month then maybe the story wouldnt fit so intricately together and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[BB Shockwave]

Yeah, that's what I like in Simon's storytelling - he starts threads that sometime seem just unimportant and later you look back and say "man how couldn't I see this coming!" The whole story is all mapped out and planned from the start... something that was so sorely missing from DW's Mad Brick G1.

Thing is, after reading Simon's work since I was a toddler (relatively speaking) I can pretty much guess where he's going, so some of the twists weren't that big surprises (like Scorpy being behind the you-know-what...) but he still manages to surprise me at times.

It's this grand planning why I'm so sad we never saw the conclusion to DW's TWW 3 and Energon - especially the latter was heading to a very interesting ending and transcendence to the Cybertron comic would have been genius, at least the way I think it was planned to happen... guess we'll never know.

Though Marvel US/UK is still 'the' G1 continuity for me, IDW as a whole is more cohesive now, thanks to it being mainly written by one writer. That's why I dislike the Megs Origin so much, as it pretty much messes up a very crucial point in IDW's TF history...

[Denyer]

The 6 month gap, whilst frustrating, has helped give us the Spotlights and Stormbringer which has enriched the ongoing story.

I'm not finding it frustrating, but the series is written as an ongoing and doesn't have quite enough closure or resolution within the six-issue arcs to function as minis (mind you, compared to a lot of other modern comics, it's not doing anything unusual.)

But the main problem I'd forsee is that by now the spotlights (eg, the last two) are being used to fill in current events, rather than as spotlights... either all of the dead universe stuff is going to be recapped (boring those who've read the spotlights) or readers will be clueless when it shows up in the main title.

[Brendocon]

Yeah, the two most recent Spotlights don't really feel like Spotlights.

They cover the same storyline, occur pretty much simultaneously, and chronologically fit where they've been published.

Overall, I don't mind the gap (hee hee) between the minis too much as the material published in the main continuity has averaged over one a month regardless. Yeah, it breaks up the flow a bit, but the flipside of the aforementioned spotlight gripe is that it's filled in things a bit.

Would have been happier if the Megatron mini had been good... or felt like part of the continuity... or replaced with something tied into the main story. Maybe a Roche-penned mini or something.

Not to worry. Devastation is here now. With any luck IDW will stop plugging the gaps with gash like Hearts of Steel, Avengers crossovers and Megatron, and give us a heap of in-continuity Spotlights to tide us over to Revelation.

[Guest]

I'm hoping the 5th (but more likely 7th) arc will be a 4-issue Stormbringer type, focusing on some off-world/past event, rather than a 6-issue ~ion.

Or would that just be Megatron: Origin.

[Brendocon]

Part of me hopes that Expansion will be all flashbacky to the events surrounding the launch of Ark-1 and what happened in the dead universe.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

I found all the names confusing