Dead Universe related comics

horizon · Post by **horizon** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:30 am

Hi,

after collecting the US Marvels in the '80s'-'90's I took a long hiatus from Transformers. Only 3 weeks ago I watched the Transformer movie from 2007 for the first time!

But it brought me back as incidentally when packing for holidays I stumbled upon a box with my old Transformer comics. Re-read them all.

Did some surfin google and ended here. Suprised to see so many new comics! After reading reviews etc I decided to give it another shot. The Dead Universe thing-y triggering me most.

Could you tell me which comics (issues) I need to have all Dead Universe related stuff?

I am in the process of buying spotlights:
shockwave - nightbeat - hot rod - ultra magnus - soundwave - kup for 10 euro's. Good deal?

cheers

Post by **Blackjack** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:11 pm

The Dead Universe comics are part of the rebooted IDW universe, so they are in a separate continuity with the Marvel issues.

The IDW comics that comprise the plots about the Dead Universe:
-Spotlight Nightbeat
-Spotlight Galvatron
-Spotlight Optimus Prime
-Devastation #1-6
-the Spotlight Revelation series [Spotlight Cyclonus, Hardhead, Doubledealer, Sideswipe] (the climax of the saga)
-All Hail Megatron #14

The other plot threads discussed in the comics, however, feed off from many other comics, including the Escalation series, Infiltration, Stormbringer and the other spotlights. Did I miss any?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:17 pm

A word of warning - the Deadfurmanverse is structured totally differently to the Marvel stuff... Where the Marvel comics were structured as Beginning-Middle-End with the odd overarching plot thread, the IDW comic has the bizarre structure of beginning-backwards-beginning-middle-middle-beginning-middle-sideways-middlie-middle-beginning-middle-middle.

The comics are so intent on stamping the writer's view on various minutae such as combiners, Headmasters, Micromasters, RoboTits and making sure the Protectobots are all spread out that they forget to tell any story. Some would argue that there are a lot of good ideas in there, but then there are lots of good ideas in the original toy tech specs, and they didn't pretend to be going anywhere before ultimately failing because they were so boring everyone stopped buying them.

Try to find back issues cheap on ebay, and this means you won't spend a surprising amount of money on comics that fail to go anywhere at all. At least DW had the dignity to completely collapse, rather than use unfinished stories as part of their ongoing masterplan...

horizon · Post by **horizon** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:36 pm

hmmm.

so it might be better to get a tbp Devastation (1-6) then compared to those 6 spotlights?

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 1:03 pm

Blackjack wrote:Did I miss any?

Spotlight Arcee.

I'd also say ignore AHM #14, as bits of it in general make little sense, due to the writer misreading a previous issue and IDW lacking a single competent proofreader.

It's also shit.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 1:37 pm

horizon wrote:hmmm.

so it might be better to get a tbp Devastation (1-6) then compared to those 6 spotlights?

No, I'd say go for the Spotlights - they're the closest thing there is to structured scripts in IDW's output. Some of the dangling threads might be a bit distracting, but the minis are generally terrible - Devastation was effectively billed as an apocalyptic smackdown between the fistful of Autobots left on Earth and a serious number of big bads, from Megatron to the superpowered Galvatron to the lethal Sixshot to an army of cloned Autobots, but the Devastation of the title seemed to start and finish with Jazz losing an arm. It also features an utterly pointless subplot which makes the Autobots look stupid and completely ****s the pacing, applying the coupe de grace by basically admitting it's pointless on the last page.

The whole storyline was forcefully compacted when IDW snatched the main TF title from Furman and appointed a random intern in his place out of sheer exasperation. Some people claim that this action screwed over the fans and meant all Furman's hard work was for nought; others will point out that Furman had something like forty issues to get things done and if he hadn't dawdled around the whole situation might not have come up, and only IDW effectively swinging the axe forced what resolution we did get - Furman could have been writing for another five years and not got anywhere on the form shown.

I think it's a bad set of comics, badly planned and generally badly executed by a writer well past his prime, put out by a borderline-incompetant company who want to have their cake and eat it too in a format that seems designed to baffle new readers.

Halfshell and Inflatable Dalek are slightly more balanced than me, though. Well, either that or they've spent too much money to 'fess up as to how bad the things are.

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:00 pm

Cliffjumper wrote:Halfshell and Inflatable Dalek are slightly more balanced than me, though. Well, either that or they've spent too much money to 'fess up as to how bad the things are.

I genuinely like them. It doesn't mean I disagree with a single word you've written, but I enjoy them. Well, enjoyed them, up until the point they decided "Y'know this sprawling story you've poured money into for the past few years? Yeah, well we're going to completely botch the resolution and give you an utter turd to read instead." All under the bullshit premise of accessibility and sales figures. But then IDW have proven themselves to be incompetent and contemptuous lying bastards on many occasions, so it's hardly surprising.

So, to be fair, I've probably got far more right to be angry about it than you have. I'm just a calm and relaxed and zen person these days. Or maybe I'm resigned to the fact it's all gone thoroughly Pete Tong, am going to wait for AHM's death rattle to finish, then ignore the whole fiasco for anything other than cheap jokes.

AHM 14 is the perfect example of why the state of play is completely unsalvageable since they took Furman off it. One story is by McCarthy, designed to tie up loose ends from one of his own plot threads, yet does so by simply restating stuff we already know. And the other is by a new guy who decides to write a coda to Furman's Dead Universe stuff as a springboard, but falls short on the grounds that he seems to have barely read the DU material, so manages to contradict both it and McCarthy's stuff at the same time as we reduce the one properly decent plot thread Furman managed to "prologue to making it like the cartoon"

Hoo ****ing rah.

Springer85 · Post by **Springer85** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:06 pm

I don't understand any of IDW's Transformers work they put out so far.

I did like Spotlight: Kup, because I got the feeling that it was a self contained story and I do like the art on most of the comics.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:15 pm

Halfshell wrote:So, to be fair, I've probably got far more right to be angry about it than you have.

I have an internet connection, that's a right to be angry right there.

No, I think I bought Infiltration and The Storm Within new, got Infiltration off ebay for about £3 and then everything else free. And I still feel ripped off... I could've been downloading random Gundam episodes I'm never, ever going to watch in that time, dammit.

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:21 pm

Springer85 wrote:I don't understand any of IDW's Transformers work they put out so far.

I wouldn't worry. It seems the current writing team don't either.

Cliffjumper wrote:I could've been downloading random Gundam episodes I'm never, ever going to watch in that time, dammit.

Have you watched Firefly yet?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:12 pm

Nope - it's Sar's, and she hasn't watched it yet. And I'm not going to chance it after the Indiana Jones thing.

Rurudyne · Post by **Rurudyne** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 7:21 pm

Cliffjumper, with respect to "RoboTits" (post #3) would a better term be groping rather than "stamping"?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:37 pm

The comics are so intent on groping the writer's view on various minutae such as combiners, Headmasters, Micromasters, RoboTits and making sure the Protectobots are all spread out that they forget to tell any story.

Nope, that's bollocks.

Rurudyne · Post by **Rurudyne** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:24 pm

I didn't mean all of it. [/innocence]

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:24 pm

Most of the Dead Universe stuff is pretty good on its own merits (though making the Spotlights so interconnected was I think a mistake in terms of accessibility that's not a problem coming to them after the fact with the knowledge it's basically one big arc).

Most of the stuff published in the last year varies from "enjoyable but throwaway" through to "DEAR GOD WHY, MAKE IT STOP YOU BASTARDS".

horizon · Post by **horizon** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:26 am

So.... the IDW publications are rather poor then?

Just yesterday I read US Marvel 76-80 for the first time! I never knew they written those! In the Dutch translations back then they ended when Optimus Prime blew up Unicron.
76-80 do feel forced to me and not needed in anyway. Ofcourse, Andy Wildman's art is still awesome (though I wonder what happened to him when he drew Megatron/Ratchet at the end of 69 and at he beginning of 70, a huge improvement in detail etc. And his Optimus Prime in 80 lacks a bit.

How do the Dreamwave publications hold up? Storywise/Art.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:47 am

horizon wrote:So.... the IDW publications are rather poor then?

Poor recently but some good stuff in the first couple of years. though it does mean the pay offs to the ongoing plots are underwhelming.

76-80 do feel forced to me and not needed in anyway. Ofcourse, Andy Wildman's art is still awesome (though I wonder what happened to him when he drew Megatron/Ratchet at the end of 69 and at he beginning of 70, a huge improvement in detail etc. And his Optimus Prime in 80 lacks a bit.

It is a striking difference isn't it? Baskerville coming in on ink duties could well have made a big difference (and I suspect a certain poster will be along in a sec with his 20000 word essay on how Wildman sucked without the Baskman), but there really does seem to be something different in the printing process, the opening to 70 seems much less spotty, for lack of a better word.

horizon · Post by **horizon** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:16 am

Yeah, I know what you mean. Issue 70 is in my opinion also one of the best in the whole serie. From the whole matrix search (minus the wild west crap) through scream and defearing Unicron the comic was at its high point. Excellent way to finish it imo.

Springer85 · Post by **Springer85** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:26 am

Just yesterday I read US Marvel 76-80 for the first time! I never knew they written those! In the Dutch translations back then they ended when Optimus Prime blew up Unicron.

Yeah, I had the same. I thought the series ended too with 75 (or 32 in The Netherlands

)

76-80 do feel forced to me and not needed in anyway.

From what I have read (don't know exactly where), The Transformers by Marvel was supposed to end at 75, but cancellation was halted at like the last second. So a script probably needed to be written fast too. I don't like the last part of that Transformer series. I never understood the concept of non-transforming Transformers. Though it was nice to see how Bludgeon became the Decepticon leader

How do the Dreamwave publications hold up? Storywise/Art.

To be honest, I liked them. I'm probably one of the few though. It had pretty simple stories that were easy enough to follow.

Pat Lee's Art is alright, but Don Figuroa's art is awesome

Post by **Blackjack** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:05 pm

Springer85 wrote:From what I have read (don't know exactly where), The Transformers by Marvel was supposed to end at 75, but cancellation was halted at like the last second. So a script probably needed to be written fast too. I don't like the last part of that Transformer series. I never understood the concept of non-transforming Transformers. Though it was nice to see how Bludgeon became the Decepticon leader

It's to sell off the Action Master gimmick. Still, I'd prefer Marvel comics over AHM any day, though.

To be honest, I liked them. I'm probably one of the few though. It had pretty simple stories that were easy enough to follow.

Pat Lee's Art is alright, but Don Figuroa's art is awesome

War Within was a very good read, nice art and okay story, though to Matrix-centric for my tasting. Never read the first Mini-Series, but read the second one (Shockwave takes over Cybertron, yadda yadda yadda). The ideas were okay, had they been handled properly. While AHM suffers from plot stagnancy, Dreamwave's plots jump all over the place, hopping from one cool idea to the next that would require us to re-read it numerous times. Pat Lee's art is okay... in posters. He can't do action poses that tell a good story. In fact, if it wasn't because of the colourists, the art would look as ugly as hell.

The Armada series was okay, I guess, but the reprints I have all have their artwork... smudged, sort of. The final payoff to Armada was disappointing though.

Also, Dreamwave went bankrupt halfway through, so Transformers: Energon, War Within III and the ongoing was unfinished.