Simon Furman about Transformer "genetics"

[BB Shockwave]

I asked S. Furman a question on his blog that has always bugged me since G2 and he was kind enough to reply and even coined a name for the TF genetic material, CNA !

My question:

Btw a question for you, Simon… I know, it’s “ancient history” now but it always bugged me, and since you’ll address the question of ‘gender’ in transformers physiology, I felt it’d be the best place to ask. In Marvel’s G2 Issue #9. after examining the remains of a colony devoured by the Swarm, Perceptor and assorted Autobot scientists state that the Swarm’s left-behind material has “genetic sequence and cellular configuration” identical to that of the Cybertronians. I was puzzled by this, seeing as cells and DNA would have meant the TFs had organic elements, but I always thought it was more akin to them having “nano-cells” made up of miniature machines.

Simon's answer:

BB Shockwave, the Transformers are machines, yes, but they have elements that resemble or mimic organic lifeforms. So, yeah, nano-cells and CNA (my cyber-equivalent of DNA) and Cydraulics, etc.

I find this "mimicking organic lifeforms" bit pretty interesting. That gives a lot of space for artifical evolution for the TFs, even raises the idea that they perhaps took insight from organic races when perfecting themselves with new 'organs'. And I really like the term CNA... Cyberibonucleic Acid, I guess? Now I wish I'd become a geneticists, erm... ceneticist not a zoologist.

Oh and is it just me or it's simply great that Furman now has a blog and answers our day-to-day questions? Back when reading Marvel I wish I could have sent him mail... (our hungarian TF comics editors were, put it simply, idiots...)

[Shanti418]

That IS pretty sweet that he answers questions. And your question was a good one.

[BB Shockwave]

That IS pretty sweet that he answers questions. And your question was a good one.

It has been bugging me for so long I kind of came up with an explanation myself - good to know it was close to what Simon intended.

I don't want to turn his blog into a Marvel Q/A, but I plan to ask him some questions about other G1/2 stuff later. For example, me being the big sentimentalist, always hoped that the same way the Swarm consumed and later reformed OP, it also resurrected the regular TFs (not Jhiaxus' forces) it consumed not much prior to its contact with the Matrix... meaning guys like Slag, Ramjet, etc... Though i'm sure Simon didn't gave much tought at the time whom he killed off, seeing as he know G2 was cancelled anyway.

[Shanti418]

Where do you think religion fits into this new IDW continuity? I mean, I loved the touches of it in Marvel US, from Primus to Bludgeon's Metallenko, or whatever it was called. It hasn't really been touched on in this new continuity, IIRC.

Also, what about the UK characters that had no toys? Xaaron and Impactor and the like. Will we ever see them again? Or with Furman having carte blanche to use whoever he likes, will he stick to the hundreds of TFs that ARE more familiar to the public, or at least had toys at some point?

[The Last Autobot]

to Bludgeon's Metallenko, or whatever it was called.

Metallikato

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Metallikato

[Shanti418]

to Bludgeon's Metallenko, or whatever it was called.

Metallikato

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Metallikato

Cool. I just didn't want to look it up. Had I known there would be a picture with a humorous caption waiting for me, I would have done it myself ages ago.

[sprunkner]

Metallikato requires "Fools!" to be spoken before most sentences.

[BB Shockwave]

Metallikato must be quite a rare and truly forbidden martial art, because Bludgeon simply couldn't resist telling everyone he ever attacked that he's a master of Metallikato.

Also read Bludgeon's entry in WikiTF about his 'arcane code of honor':

"Arcane", of course, is code for "bloodthirsty, murderous, sadistic, and subject to the whims of the guy holding the sword."

Generally, that site has some pretty funny captions. Wonder who's editing it. For example:

Venom has shown no evidence in any fiction of a desire to eat your brains.

Back to religion... The closest thing we got was the afore-mentioned skull-faced samurai and his cult, who pretty much worshipped THunderwing as a god, or rather, a vengeful spirit sent by "IDW TF god" (Primus maybe?) to punish them for their civil war which devastated Cybertron. Kinda like the Spectre in DC.

Interestingly though, while Iguanus, Bomb-Burst and the rest truly seemed to believe in that, Bludgeon often talked about Thunderwing as a revived puppet, a tool, a means to an end. But he also firmly believed that TW destroying other worlds would have empowered and restored Cybertron. Judging by the reactions of Jetfire, Optimus and even Soundwave (in his spotlight), such religious beliefs are deemed myths or stupidity by current Cybertronian standards.

In OP Spotlight, we saw that each Prime houses the Matrix and that a Matrix-bearer must uphold certain ideals, showed by OP's frowning upon what Nova Prime did. Also, from what OP retells in the first pages, it's pretty certain that the Primes were not only political but perhaps religious figureheads too in ancient times, representing an ideal for the whole race (which in Marvel-verse would've pretty much meant the ideal Primus intended his children to be).

Off-topic again, but do you think we'll ever see the Quintessons in IDW? Simon was never too keen on using them, but he did write a storyline for them in the unfinished TWW 3. which would've been (from what I gather from previews, interviews and the (at-the-time canon) UG) them having enslaved the TF race one time in the past, wiping their memories and using them for labour (kinda like the Voyager episode Workforce). Later they were somehow routed and the TF's memories erased with help of the Council (but this was more of Mad Brick's storyline with Megs uncovering some Council secret).

[Sunyavadin]

I'm glad I found this. The "CNA" reference in Spotlight Arcee had me cringing, with a distinct sense of pain emanating from every bit of scientific knowledge in my brain.
However, explaining that they have nanotech cells inside them, functioning like organic cells, but constructed from different constituent molecules, that sort of works. It also explains the point of cryo-regen which had me baffled.

It'd be nice to see a pseudoscientific explanation of Cybertronian abiogenesis to accompany this, as it seems less likely the new continuity is going with the creationist approach of G1 where God/Primus/Flying Spaghetti Monster did it.

[BB Shockwave]

I'm hoping IDW will do their version of MTMTE - or at least, reprint it and edit some of the entries that would be really out of place in the IDW universe (Arcee, Starscream, Soundwave) or were just plain stupid (khm... Carnivac... khm...)

[Sunyavadin]

Actually, I'd like to see something similar, I remeber the old A-Z in the G1 comics, you could do a single regular sized issue for each story arc with a page for every transformer who appeared in that story, and pages explaining various concepts mentioned such as Spark Cores, Orbital Bounces, Facsimiles, Infiltration stages, etc...