:(

[Yaya]

I have to say, I'm a bit depressed now about where we are with TF comics.

Shockwave is dead and Regeneration really IS over. I'm having withdrawals. I could have sworn Simon would make that big inevitable announcement that "Regenerations is now a regular series!" or "Stay tuned for Volume 2 of Regenerations!" Instead, he went and killed almost everyone, slamming the door shut on the Marvel run in a way that makes me hurt, and flipped us a bird as he stormed out of the studio shouting "It never ends.....NOT". Okay, maybe he didn't do that last part, but feels like Hasbro mandate sure as hell did. Hurts. Hurts like when Optimus died in the movie and all the widdle iddy biddy kids cried.

The only thing that's keeping my chin up is Megatron on the Lost Light. So there's definitely something to look forward to, no denying that.

Still, feels like a lull.

[Computron]

Yea but Shockwave died the quintessential comic book death. He will be back.

I'm actually optimistic at this point. MTMTE is coming back and I actually feel hopeful about RiD. I can't explain it but I feel Barber will have a better go of things going forwards. Just gut feeling though.

Plus we never know what is coming down the pipeline. TF comics have been in far worse straits than it is now.

[Best First]

i don't buy this Hasbro mandate stuff either.

"Oh, how can we ever kill of the original marvel series?"

"Give it an extended revival?"

Plus you know, the last panel implies that it never *snip*

[Yaya]

I would have thought that too. But what's strange to me is that G.I.Joe's Marvel run was given the ongoing treatment and sales of Regenerations was as good as the other two main TF titles. Yet no announcement was forthcoming and that final issue was pretty conclusive in it's tone.

Just not what I expected is all.

[bumblemusprime]

I think that was Simon, dude. The guy got to create the whole IDW verse. He's done all sorts of other stuff, and I just don't think he was interested in continuing his twenty-year-old work ad infinitum.

That said, he needs to keep doing stuff with IDW.

[Best First]

i struggle a bit with the suprise.

This has been consistently touted as a 20 issue conclusion to what went before.

So it being a 20 issue conclusion to what went before...

...should not be a suprise.

What people want to happen is an entirely different matter entirely.

[Shanti418]

Yeah, I never put much stock in ReGen continuing after 100 either. Especially when the sales were average at best.

As far as the regular series, I'm excited about MTMTE. Even more excited after seeing the preview, which features Rung psychoanalyzing Megatron.

RiD, I'm honestly thinking about dropping. Nothing - On Earth! With Prime! References Costa canon! - excites me about it.

[Yaya]

[Metal Vendetta]

i don't buy this Hasbro mandate stuff either.

"Oh, how can we ever kill of the original marvel series?"

"Give it an extended revival?"

Yeah, that all feels a bit tinfoil-hatty to me. I don't think it's unreasonable for Hasbro to expect some kind of consistency across the brand - when Bumblebee was all over the toy shelves thanks to the Bayverse movies IDW gave him a four-issue series and made him the leader of the Autobots. Similarly, I expect Grimlock and the Dinobots to be prominently featured across the comics when the new movie comes out. I don't think that there's a concerted effort to drag everything into the "Aligned" universe at all, since neither the movies nor the IDWverse are part of it and Hasbro don't seem to be getting rid of those - they may have some influence on which characters are featured (or shoehorned) into a story but that's about all.

[Auntie Slag]

Two TF comics on the go, that's great isn't it? And while I don't buy RID, with the latest Thundercracker-centred issue it looks like Barber is having fun playing around a little. I'm willing to hope he can change. Alex Milne for example, drew like Pat Lee's lovechild on the Megatron Origin 4-parter (all these balloon TF's with indistinguishable art and not so much as a nod to the physics of how things move)... and now he's my favourite Transformers artist full of detail, clean lines and character.

Both writers were aware they had to work towards the game changing, nothing-will-ever-be-the-same-again Dark Cybertron, but now that dodgy piece of chocolate sponge in white custard is over, are they completely free to write how they want?

[Shanti418]

Yeah, I try to not look TOO closely at the previews, and I'm all for a TF comic that doesn't have to be serious or a TF comic that focuses on the hopes and dreams of characters, but I looked at Thundercracker writing a screenplay and all I saw was Skullgrin trying to be a movie star. Which is not a good thing.

[Yaya]

Wait a minute. Did you just say "Thundercracker is a screenwriter"?

[bumblemusprime]

Having read the preview... it was pretty funny. I'll give it a chance.

[Metal Vendetta]

I read the preview out to a couple of screenwriters and they thought it was hilarious. I thought it was a good start to the new series and a good way to accommodate Barber's habit of giving the main character of each issue a stupid voiceover. In fact the lady human even calls it out as a hacky way to write a screenplay so maybe he's learnt that lesson.

[Best First]

Yup. It's worth it for the name "Josh Boyfriend" alone.