"The Dreamwave Disaster"

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Cliffjumper
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"The Dreamwave Disaster"

Post by Cliffjumper »

Essay I've written for the next update on my site, I thought I'd give it a dry run here... 'This page' refers to issue 3, p15.

'I'm sure I wasn't the only one who jumped for joy when they heard that the original Transformers were returning to the comic book medium towards the end of 2001. I'm sure I'm not the only one who drooled over those glorious posters of Optimus Prime and Megatron. And I'm also sure I'm not the only one with half-a-dozen of these comics who is rather disappointed. Last month, Dreamwave's six-part G1 mini-series finally jolted to an unsatisfying halt, with the promise of a further six-part series in 2003 rousing only a fraction of the interest the first had.

Put simply, the series was a poorly-paced mess, with some very mixed art, poor dialogue and third-hand plots. There are bright moments in the series - the first battle in San Francisco, Prime's do-or-die charge on Devastator, a terrific choice of basic character models and good showings by a couple of under-used characters, such as Trailbreaker.

But this is far outweighed by many, many failings. First of all, the story-pacing itself. I'm ignoring the Preview, as it's a waste of everyone's time, and doesn't cover anything not dealt with in the first issue. G1 #1 itself doesn't feature a single line of Transformer dialogue, and scant Transformer appearances to boot. Instead, the star of the show is the achingly terrible Lazarus. I can't say an awful lot about Lazarus that hasn't already been said by Walky [see http://www.itswalky.com/transformers/dumbass/], aside from saying he's that old horror/sci-fi cliché- the villain who thinks he can control the sleeping monsters. Lazarus' fate would seem so obvious that it would seem to be a double-bluff - maybe he's going to pull it off? But no, Dreamwave aren't that clever. Unsurprisingly, by the start of issue 3 Megatron has Lazarus literally on a leash, and by the conclusion of that book he's dead. That's not all. After precisely 24 pages of not an awful lot happening, we get a two-page newspaper facsimile telling us all the things that could have been carefully expounded over the first issue, and the preview. The latter could have been a gloriously teasing confusion of flashbacks, showing some of the scenes from Operation: Liberation, the launch and crash of the Ark II, the disbelieving reactions. Issue 1 could have moved a lot faster. But no, we get around 30 pages of a tedious cliché expounding on how great the Transformers are. I know terrorism is very early 21st Century, but that doesn't make it interesting. This is a six-issue limited series - the emphasis for such a nostalgia-driven comic should have been uncomplicated fun, showcasing everyone's favourites.

Another character cliched beyond belief is that of General Halo. Reading the story as it unfolds, Halo seems like a very interesting chap. But no, he's another mad general operating above the president with an itchy nuke-trigger finger. Oh, joy. The characterisation throughout is terrible, as is the lack of originality. Spike's spite towards Prime makes him look like a hypocrite, an accusation redoubled after he decides the Autobots are alright after all in the final issue. Dreamwave seem to have taken Optimus Prime and Megatron as simply being Professor X and Magneto, with peace/war binaries. This is reinforced by Megatron's constant attempts to persuade Prime that the humans really aren't worth saving. Incidentally, the moment Prime find his side of this tedious debate to be true seems like a horrible piece of post 9/11 populism, with a squad of firemen driving their trucks into Megatron. Also in the final issue Superion dies, saving San Francisco from a nuke. I for one found little in the series to show that he had any character, and thus felt myself caring on the same sort of level as I would if a nuke hit the moon - 'oh my. Well, at least no-one was hurt'.

The plot is wildly inconsistent. At least 17 Autobots escaped a spaceship exploding in the atmosphere without any noticeable damage. Around half of these, including someone the size of Superion, go unfound by either the US government or Lazarus, and appear to be scattered rather nonchalantly around the North pole. At end end of issue 3, Halo drops a nuke on the warring factions. It knocks the Autobots into a wall, and damages the Decepticons to the extent that they recover before the Autobots and are able to get to San Francisco. The problem with a devastating cliff-hanger is that you have to find a plausible way to get out of it the next issue. Again, Dreamwave fail miserably. Then you've got a guy like Larry, who knows all Halo's past misdeeds. Does Halo have him quietly killed? No. Does he post him to some faraway outpost in Alaska? No. He gets him to work as a janitor in his HQ. Genius. Then you've got Grimlock. The Dreamwave team firstly lift something done in a first season episode ["War of the Dinobots"] then does nothing interesting whatsoever with it. It wouldn't be uncharitable to suggest that the latest of the release of Issues 5 & 6 were because the Dreamwave hacks were reworking the last two issues to bleed a second series from the line, leaving the Grimlock plot thread dangling. More inconsistencies ring out - Superion isn't knocked down into the individual Aerialbots by the explosion of the Ark II, or Operation Cleanup, but a few missiles from Starscream & Co. do the job. Now, I've hesitated to name Chris Saccarini as the offender for the turgid story as I'm really questioning whether he was so much a writer as a scripter. His work on Armada [at least the two issues that have reached me so far] has been impressive, and shown a good grasp of narrative structure. I honestly think Pat Lee had total control over just about every aspect of this series, and would even suggest that to some extent his art came first, with Saccarini left to fit his dialogue around it.

Pat Lee's art itself is often less than stellar. He frequently uses near-identical frames to express something simple. For an example, check out this page from issue 3. I really cannot imagine a writer handing in a page of plot that reads: -

PAGE 15

Five equal landscape panels

OPEN ON: Arctic landscape


DISPLAY LETT; Nearby...
FRAME 1: SUNSTREAKER, SIDESWIPE, JAZZ, OPTIMUS PRIME, MIRAGE, TRAILBREAKER and WHEELJACK driving towards in car mode.


FRAME 2: Getting closer

FRAME 3: Getting closer

FRAME 4: Getting closer, transforming

FRAME 5: Getting closer, robot modes
OPTIMUS PRIME: No...

Can you really see any self-respecting writer sitting down and scripting that? No. I think it's much more likely that Saccarini submitted a brief synopsis to Lee, who then went away and drew the issue, and Saccarini then had to script around the pencils. Some of Lee's art is also deformed and ugly, especially considering the age of computers, where it's possible for Lee to draw on any sized canvas, scan the image and resize it to the frame size required. The fight scenes are often indistinct and undynamic, most notably issue 3's conclusion, where both sides appear to shuffle up to each other and pose. At other times it's difficult to tell what's actually going on. A prime example of this would be the conclusion of issue 4, where Devastator defeats Superion [with a little help] and is standing unopposed over the city. The final splash was so badly drawn that most online forums saw considerable debate as to what exactly Devastator was staring up at, with suggestions such as Omega Supreme, Jetfire and the Dinobots. But no, he'd been roaring in triumph. Once someone's pointed that out, and we've seen the start of Issue 5, this seems quite blatant, but the fact there was such an animated debate suggests that Lee needs to take a course in visual storytelling.

There were a number of other things which irked me about the Dreamwave series I'll run through briefly. The commercialism of the project was deeply irritating. Okay, so Dreamwave need to make money. Does this really justify 6 different covers for issue 1, three for issues 2 and five and two for the other three issues? No. Much of this, especially the new reprint covers, reeked of bleeding money from completists. Now, the argument often given is that Marvel were often just as bad. No, no they weren't. Marvel tended to make 2 covers of first issues or other event issues, and they were often of a limited edition variety - to give the example of X-Men Alpha, a number of limited edition holofoil covers were released. When these had been sold and demand was still there, a version featuring the same art work printed on the normal paper was issued. When this too sold out, a second printing was done. This differed from the non-holofoil release by having "2nd printing" written in the white information box on page 1. Few X-Men fans feel the need to buy the 2nd & 3rd copies. The argument that Dreamwave are a small company that needs money seems a little weak when you consider that 3 generous printings had sold out on Issue 1, and two of Issue 2, before these new variants were made available. On top of this, the alternate covers tended to feature characters that didn't appear in the whole series, let alone in the issues they adorned - even the recent trend for irrelevant covers shown by New X-Men is nowhere near as misleading. The posters and lithographs seemed to have priority over the actual series, leading to the last two parts arriving unacceptably late. The final insult which came to light recently was that the trade of the series will include an exclusive Preview of the second Generation 1 mini, which may force some fans to buy some of the material within for the umpteenth time.

That just about seems to sum the Dreamwave mini-series up. Thankfully, the DW team chose to make their own continuity for their little extortion piece, which means Transformers fans won't have to acknowledge it. Expect this one to rot with the Ladybird books and Choose-Your-Own Adventure series. It deserves it.'
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Post by RID Scourge »

You forgot to mention that nothing was done about the threat of nuclear fallout. You don't detonate a nuke over an area of land without reprocussions. You should also mention that they said they'd double up on their issues to catch up, but they haven't done it with Armada yet.

Otherwise, it looks like you've said exactly what needs to be said.
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Post by The Green Knight »

"Dreamwave"... sounds more like a nightmare.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

If anyone posts at DW's own board, could they please put a link up for me? :)
Oh, and I've spelt Hallo's name wrong throughout. Ooops.


Paladin, I was trying largely to concentrate on the G1 series, but I will mention that among their other broken promises before I upload it.
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Post by Hound »

Ok, I'm not trying to insult your site or this messege board but you ought to try to get this printed in something that will give it more exposure. For example Wizard. I don't know whether "Magic Words" would be able to print the entire essay but hopefully enough to get the people to second guess their opinions of DW's quality of work. It might even hurt DW enough to get them to rethink their marketing strategies and emphasis on story for further TF minis. I like the essay and it's well written, I like how you acknowledge what you liked about the series before going into your rant about it's failures. If this suggestion doesn't appeal to you I wonder if you'd agree to let someone else submit it. I'd suggest posting at DW's site but I doubt it would get the objectivity there that it deserves. You should definitly have it posted at the other TF messege boards. It's objective criticism like this that needs as much exposure as it can get. I'd actually like to see this as an update to the main page and also on any other site that was willing to post it. I have nothing against DW personally, I've purchased some of their comics and even enjoyed some of them, but I think that most people blindly enjoy the series only because it has Transformers in it and not for it's actual quality. I think if it was intelligently pointed out to people that the series is low quality that they would tend to agree and that would eventually hurt DW as far as sales are concerned. I would hope that DW would take that into consideration and try to improve their work and change their marketing strategy.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Thank you very much Hound... other TF boards? I'll certainly consider Transfans, though Seibertron would involve an infringement of personal believe... Wizard? Hmm. Certainly worth considering. Is there a feedback address at Dreamwwave's site? I haven't been in a while... I get the pop-ups for Flash 6 until the PC crashes...

All that said, Pat's got his money, whereas I'm operating on a patchwork of free website providers and am holding up trades because I can't afford envelopes... I'm not sure at would care for what I hav3e to say, fragile egos and all that...
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Post by Hound »

Oh I don't care what Pat Lee thinks. If you want to get through to him the best place to hit him is in the wallet and the best way to do that is through the fans.

I meant the DW messege board...

linked here: http://www.xsorbit2.com/users/dreamwave ... ard=tfdisc
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Zath
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Post by Zath »

If I remember right, the original marvel comic book had some huge problems until Simon Furman came in.

This was Dreamwave's first shot at TF's... who's to say that things wont improve with the second volume?

Simon Furman will be consulting on the second volume btw and it will be Pat Lee's last direct involvment with the TF's. You can check a post in the news section for the synopsis and a link to a preview of the first issue...

As for the multiple covers.... Dreamwave is a relatively small company and needs extra revenues to keep publishing these books, and multiple covers do provide them with it. Nobody forces you to buy any of the extra covers.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Originally posted by Zath
If I remember right, the original marvel comic book had some huge problems until Simon Furman came in.
Neither here nor there. Before the mid-70s revamp, most people will say X-Men was pretty poor... Does that excuse, say, Joe Casey putting together a bad run? How does unfamiliarity with the material excuse bad art and overcomplicated plots? Dreamwave dug their own grave. Because they made a wildly over-complicated series, complete with needless build up, we're meant to give them leeway? They are professionals. They took our money for this thing. I've paid Dreamwave around £20, and I'm towards the bottom of the scale. I'm more than entitled to criticise them.

This was Dreamwave's first shot at TF's... who's to say that things wont improve with the second volume?
So what if it does? It doesn't change that they've made a terrible comic after giving in to pure greed.

Simon Furman will be consulting on the second volume btw and it will be Pat Lee's last direct involvment with the TF's. You can check a post in the news section for the synopsis and a link to a preview of the first issue...
And...? Again, this doesn't change anything I've said. If the best answer Dreamwave can come up with is to transfer Furman to everything they get wrong, doesn't that seem lazy?

As for the multiple covers.... Dreamwave is a relatively small company and needs extra revenues to keep publishing these books, and multiple covers do provide them with it. Nobody forces you to buy any of the extra covers.


Lithographs? T-shirts? Posters? If they were such a small company, they shouldn't sign up for such a big job. Maybe if some of their other books were actually popular, they wouldn't have too. Maybe if their books had characters in them, they'd be more popular.
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Post by Zath »

Neither here nor there. Before the mid-70s revamp, most people will say X-Men was pretty poor... Does that excuse, say, Joe Casey putting together a bad run? How does unfamiliarity with the material excuse bad art and overcomplicated plots? Dreamwave dug their own grave. Because they made a wildly over-complicated series, complete with needless build up, we're meant to give them leeway? They are professionals. They took our money for this thing. I've paid Dreamwave around £20, and I'm towards the bottom of the scale. I'm more than entitled to criticise them.


You are expecting them to get it right on the first try... isnt that a bit unrealistic? When you did your website for the first time, was the design great? Was the navigation easy? Or did it take a while to get it right? You do have a right to criticise them, however you seem to want things to be instantly great.
And...? Again, this doesn't change anything I've said. If the best answer Dreamwave can come up with is to transfer Furman to everything they get wrong, doesn't that seem lazy?


No, it just proves to show that they are trying to improve by getting someone who already has experience with the series.
Lithographs? T-shirts? Posters? If they were such a small company, they shouldn't sign up for such a big job.


That's like saying... let's leave the OS market to Microsoft. Dreamwave is trying to create opportunities to get a recognition , can you blame them?
Maybe if some of their other books were actually popular, they wouldn't have too. Maybe if their books had characters in them, they'd be more popular.


How many characters in the Marvel comics became instantly popular? How many from DC? Yes they might not have extremely popular characters at the moment, but if they keep developing them... you never know.
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Post by Redstreak »

That was one long essay.

Forces me to wonder what you're gonna think when War Within is all done.

But I do think that the real positive is the artwork...if DW has had one redeeming quality, that's it...otherwise they need to go back and start over again...
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Originally posted by Zath
You are expecting them to get it right on the first try... isnt that a bit unrealistic? When you did your website for the first time, was the design great? Was the navigation easy? Or did it take a while to get it right? You do have a right to criticise them, however you seem to want things to be instantly great.
Dreamwave didn't get it right because their approach to it was wrong. They made a mess of what should have been easy. I wasn't expecting Target 2006, I was expecting a fun runaround. They failed miserably. Oh, and my first website had no navigation problems whatsoever, as it was based on my writing skills rather than gimmicks. If Dreamwave had concentrated on doing a deent story instead of bringing in needless cliches like Rook/Lazarus, Hallo and the whole nuke obsession, then they might have done well. But they didn't.

No, it just proves to show that they are trying to improve by getting someone who already has experience with the series.
And why are they trying to improve? Because they're not up to it, they've ****ed up big-time and could well lose a lot of money because of it.
That's like saying... let's leave the OS market to Microsoft. Dreamwave is trying to create opportunities to get a recognition , can you blame them?
No, they're trying to make money while a trend lasts. They're BAR, walking in with big names and expecting it all to be easy, and finding out they haven't got what it takes.

How many characters in the Marvel comics became instantly popular? How many from DC? Yes they might not have extremely popular characters at the moment, but if they keep developing them... you never know.
DC? Couldn't tell ya... Marvel? Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, The Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, the Hulk, Storm, Nightcrawler, Death's Head 2, Shadowcat, Cabel, Gambit, Chamber, War Machine, Darkhawk, Alpha Flight, the Vision... Innumerable others if I could be bthered to flick through my comic collection plucking names out.
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Post by Nevermore »

Originally posted by Quicksilver
Dreamwave didn't get it right because their approach to it was wrong. They made a mess of what should have been easy. I wasn't expecting Target 2006, I was expecting a fun runaround.


I think that's more or less what we got. ;)
If Dreamwave had concentrated on doing a deent story instead of bringing in needless cliches like Rook/Lazarus, Hallo and the whole nuke obsession, then they might have done well. But they didn't.
You want me to list up all the cliches your beloved god Simon Furman (who is a good writer, but still) and especially Bob "he-wasn't-that-bad-in-your-eyes" Budiansky came up with back in the old days? "Cliffjumper is ready to kick Decepti-butts with his glass-gas gun just like I did back on our homeworld Cybertron! I got my name because I like to some very dramtic stunts in battle, just like the day when... wait, you just wanted to hear if I'm all right, Prime, didn't you?" :D
And why are they trying to improve? Because they're not up to it, they've ****ed up big-time and could well lose a lot of money because of it.
The latter is justifiable. All comic book companys sell their stuff primarily to get your money, not because they want you to read a good story. ;)
DC? Couldn't tell ya... Marvel? [...] Cabel [...] Alpha Flight
Wasn't Cable originally done by Rob "I don't know what anatomy or backgrounds are, but I can do funny swipes and really impressive poses, killer heroes with big guns, huge muscles and shrinkheads, flimsy girls with tits up to their necks, and I even want to try and write my own stories" Liefeld? ;)
And Alpha Flight... Weren't they all dorks until Byrne got his clutches on them?


Awriiiiight... Want me to be nitpicky?

[exaggeration mode]
On to "The War Within" #1...
First: The issue starts off in the middle of the war. Shouldn't it tell the story from the start? We were promised that TWW would tell how the war started, but nooooo, they cheat us and give us only tiny chunks of the backstory along the way!
Second: Optimus Prime. Who is this jerk? Optimus Prime was a brave, righteous leader, not a wimp. This guy (why didn't they make a big deal of not telling us his pre-Prime name? Just call him "Orion Pax" and get on with it!) is Hot Rod for fools. Furman ruthlessly rewrites the one character all fans know like he were their best friend!
The assassins? Just how stupid is Megatron? First rule for an evil overlord: If you want to get something done the right way, do it yourself. But noooo, he sends out some third-class idiots to assassin the new Prime who is surrounded by some of his finest warriors. Riiiiight.
Megatron. Where does he come from? How did he become leader of the Decepticons? Shouldn't this series answer such questions?

About the art: Let's start with the cover. Compare it to the cover of Armada #1... Whooops.
Then we have these drawn black-edged characters pasted on much softer, painted backdrops. Looks very odd to me.
On page 7, Thundercracker's and Skywarp's names get confused (or their color schemes, depending on your point of view). Dolts.
On the same page, the last panel is one of those "What the hell is going on here?" scenes. Only on third thought you realise that the 'Bots are looking at the destroyed city from inside their shuttle.
Same with the battle between Optimus Prime and the assassins. Some panels do a good job of making you wonder what exactly is supposed to be going on.
[/exaggeration mode]

I could go on with it, proceed through issue 2... But it wouldn't be much fun for me. You can find something wrong with every comic, even with brilliant stuff like Transmetropolitan. But that's not the point. While it's true that Dreamwave's G1 mini is far from being a new "Watchmen", it's not half as bad as you want us to believe. I've read enough really bad comics (Spider-Man's Mackie/Byrne era a few years ago, the "Heroes Reborn" stuff by Rob Liefeld, DC's "Day of Judgement" mini), but the G1 mini is none of them. ;)
So...
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:D

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Post by Hound »

Originally posted by Nevermore
I think that's more or less what we got. ;)

I disagree
You want me to list up all the cliches your beloved god Simon Furman (who is a good writer, but still) and especially Bob "he-wasn't-that-bad-in-your-eyes" Budiansky came up with back in the old days? "Cliffjumper is ready to kick Decepti-butts with his glass-gas gun just like I did back on our homeworld Cybertron! I got my name because I like to some very dramtic stunts in battle, just like the day when... wait, you just wanted to hear if I'm all right, Prime, didn't you?" :D

Doesn't make the G1 mini any better
The latter is justifiable. All comic book companys sell their stuff primarily to get your money, not because they want you to read a good story. ;)

Doesn't make the G1 mini any better
Wasn't Cable originally done by Rob "I don't know what anatomy or backgrounds are, but I can do funny swipes and really impressive poses, killer heroes with big guns, huge muscles and shrinkheads, flimsy girls with tits up to their necks, and I even want to try and write my own stories" Liefeld? ;)
And Alpha Flight... Weren't they all dorks until Byrne got his clutches on them?

Actually Byrne created Alpha Flight, read up...
Awriiiiight... Want me to be nitpicky?

[exaggeration mode]
On to "The War Within" #1...
First: The issue starts off in the middle of the war. Shouldn't it tell the story from the start? We were promised that TWW would tell how the war started, but nooooo, they cheat us and give us only tiny chunks of the backstory along the way!
Second: Optimus Prime. Who is this jerk? Optimus Prime was a brave, righteous leader, not a wimp. This guy (why didn't they make a big deal of not telling us his pre-Prime name? Just call him "Orion Pax" and get on with it!) is Hot Rod for fools. Furman ruthlessly rewrites the one character all fans know like he were their best friend!
The assassins? Just how stupid is Megatron? First rule for an evil overlord: If you want to get something done the right way, do it yourself. But noooo, he sends out some third-class idiots to assassin the new Prime who is surrounded by some of his finest warriors. Riiiiight.
Megatron. Where does he come from? How did he become leader of the Decepticons? Shouldn't this series answer such questions?

About the art: Let's start with the cover. Compare it to the cover of Armada #1... Whooops.
Then we have these drawn black-edged characters pasted on much softer, painted backdrops. Looks very odd to me.
On page 7, Thundercracker's and Skywarp's names get confused (or their color schemes, depending on your point of view). Dolts.
On the same page, the last panel is one of those "What the hell is going on here?" scenes. Only on third thought you realise that the 'Bots are looking at the destroyed city from inside their shuttle.
Same with the battle between Optimus Prime and the assassins. Some panels do a good job of making you wonder what exactly is supposed to be going on.
[/exaggeration mode]

Doesn't make the G1 mini any better
I could go on with it, proceed through issue 2... But it wouldn't be much fun for me. You can find something wrong with every comic, even with brilliant stuff like Transmetropolitan. But that's not the point. While it's true that Dreamwave's G1 mini is far from being a new "Watchmen", it's not half as bad as you want us to believe. I've read enough really bad comics (Spider-Man's Mackie/Byrne era a few years ago, the "Heroes Reborn" stuff by Rob Liefeld, DC's "Day of Judgement" mini), but the G1 mini is none of them. ;)
So...

Doesn't make the G1 mini any better

Get the picture...?
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Post by Ultimate Weapon »

Well said Cliffy yet you let your personal bias come into play to often in your remarks. Please do not compare or make a reference to any or all Marvel titles or the company itself. Marvel is the main reason why the industry suffers so much. Again you point out DW failures as opposed to Marvels with multiple covers, need I mention X-men #1= 5 covers, Spiderman #1= 13 covers:eek: . I'm not defending the ****e that DW puts out but don't mention Marvel you may lose some credibilty as most have been burned by this company.
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Post by Computron »

That is a top notch piece of work Quicky, really great essay, I wish I could write like that ;)

I really do think you should contemplate sending it into something like Wizard (or The Axalon ;) )
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Originally posted by Nevermore
I think that's more or less what we got. ;)
I vastly disagree, for reasons stated above and elsewhere... what I don't need is someone just going "yes we did" without backing that up to any extent whatsoever...

You want me to list up all the cliches your beloved god Simon Furman (who is a good writer, but still) and especially Bob "he-wasn't-that-bad-in-your-eyes" Budiansky came up with back in the old days? "Cliffjumper is ready to kick Decepti-butts with his glass-gas gun just like I did back on our homeworld Cybertron! I got my name because I like to some very dramtic stunts in battle, just like the day when... wait, you just wanted to hear if I'm all right, Prime, didn't you?" :D
no, because the quality or otherwise of the Marvel line has bugger-all to do with Dreamwave, does it? Because someone else messes up is no reason to make it okay for you to mess up too, does it? By that logic, Alex Yoong isn't a bad F1 driver, because, bloody hell, look at Taki Inoue...
Wasn't Cable originally done by Rob "I don't know what anatomy or backgrounds are, but I can do funny swipes and really impressive poses, killer heroes with big guns, huge muscles and shrinkheads, flimsy girls with tits up to their necks, and I even want to try and write my own stories" Liefeld? ;)
And Alpha Flight... Weren't they all dorks until Byrne got his clutches on them?
Yes, let's take the piss out of Liefield's art rather than look at why I posted Cable. I was asked for immediately successful/popular Marvel characters. Cable is one such, turning a dying book around in 14 issues so it could be relaunched as a mega-hit. That's a successful impact. And again, you've missed the point with Alpha Flight, so popular after a two-issue stint in X-Men they got their own book almost straight away. And this was the 1980s, so it wasn't a controlled launch. And yes, Uncanny X-Men 121-122 was Claremont/Byrne. So they were dorks for absolutely no time whatsoever according to you, seeing as Byrne, who IIRC was Canadian, had apparently long had the idea of a Canadian super-team, so had actually taken on the full gestation of the team. It's easy to get a comic book character to be popular straight away. The key is to have them still popular in two years' time...

I'm not saying that the G1 mini is the worst comic ever - it's towards the bottom rung of my collection, but I do tend to cull disliked issues fairly frequently - but basically I didn't like it. And I care about this, I want a decent Transformers comic. If you guys are content to sit back with your overdrawn, badly plotted min-series, I'm not going to stop you. But something better could be done, I love Transformers, and I'm just saying how it wasn't done well. Seeing as no-one has actually argued anything that's actually particularly worthy of my attention, I'm inclined to think I did pretty well.
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Claypool
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Post by Claypool »

wait until you get Armada #3 and #4......hahahaahh, you'll be writting a second essay in no time
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never again
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Post by never again »

one of my main gripes with the series was some size exaggerations, especially devestator and superion. the average window on a construction vehicle is not twenty times bigger than the average office window.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I find it incredibly telling that no-one, but no-one has actually defended the series to date, instead adding excuses, picking on minor points and slagging off series not mentioned in the essays. Looks like another win for me...
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