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For some reason, My comic shop keeps giving me the andrew wildman covers.. and I have to say, I really like them. It'd be nice to see him do a whole issue. Magnus has so much more character on this cover then Dons style and much as I applaud his attempt for a change its fair to say that it just aint working. Swindle aside, too many of his faces show no real character.

Anyway, cracking onto this issue and I cant shake the feeling of dullness. It kinda reminds me of when Furman was building up the appearance of Scorponok - even though it was obvious ages ago who the big giant head was. Its the same here - its been clear that swindle would, erm, swindle Rodimus but it seems so by the numbers. Hot rod just comes across as stupid to fall for it. Having said that, when swindle does reveal his intentions its done very well. If they were brave enough IDW could easily do a mini run with swindle leading an outlaw band of transformers reeking havoc on earth and other planets.

Art is good with some nice touches (thunderwing in the background, Breakdown being reclaimed by the other stunticons, swindles face as he reveals he isnt rods pal after all). and a nice big splash for Menasor combining. But as said in other threads, the huge panels during the conversation between Prime and Spike really feel like padding.

And that conversation, while well enough written, doesnt really work for me. I'm just not getting Primes decision, he seems to be risking a lot just to see if his troops can grow without him.

Whatever about Furmans work, I used to look forward to the next issue. Not that this is bad, but its just not grabbing me.

your point?

Red Dave Prime wrote:The million years thing is more than a bit stupid.

Actually, has anything in the IDW continuity flat-out said that the war has been going on for millions of years? I can't remember anything, but my memory of the IDW stuff isn't that great. Or is it just an assumption that we've imported from the older versions of the G1 story?

'Four million years' worked in the 80s, but almost none of the characters were actually that old. Aside from Shockwave and Alpha Trion's gang in the cartoon and Xaaron in the comics, I don't think there were many characters who were explicitly stated to have spent all that time functional -- everyone else was either sleeping on the Ark, explicitly built afterwards, or introduced ambiguously enough that we really have no idea how old they are.

But if we're supposed to accept that, in the IDW-verse, these same characters have been fighting the same war for millions of years, doing the same jobs and fighting against the same people, that's a whole different kettle of fish.

Warcry wrote:Actually, has anything in the IDW continuity flat-out said that the war has been going on for millions of years?

Mmm, not really. Nothing specific, anyway.

In Spotlight: Nightbeat, Nightbeat claims that Ark 1 launched "six-point two million meta-cycles" before the current era (not sure what those figures equate to). Likewise, I didn't get the impression of any kind of war happening in Spotlight: Galvatron where said launch is shown.

Though, take in mind that I'm referencing the Furman stuff. No telling how much of it is relevant nowadays.

Hmm, in G2 comics, Optimus explained that the Transformers were more than simple machines because they felt a need to go beyond a pre-programmed set of responses and reactions... they were a species that could grow and learn, and evolve. This new Ongoing is just taking the easiest shortcut for everything: and it's just another side of the fact that IDW is aiming at coping the naivete of the old cartoon (or new movies).

Spotlight Shockwave is set roughly 600,000 years ago, when the war definitely was raging.

Whether it's millions or thousands of years, it doesn't make sense and it never has. In any incarnation of the franchise, the Transformers assume present day alt modes and interact with present day humans - there's no reason for them to have crashed on earth so long ago. I can only assume Denny O'Neil, Jim Shooter or Bob Budiansky was fascinated by the eruption of Mount St. Helens and had been hankering to tie it into the waking up of some ancient alien race. Which is kind of fair enough, but then why have a Cybertron that hasn't really changed in all that time?

While G1 got saddled with this, it's equally bizarre that later fictions have forced these millennia long gaps into their chronology. The movie-verse Autobots all arrive on earth in the present day, but the Sun Harvester, the Allspark and Megatron all arrive thousands of years ago. Since the Allspark and Megatron don't get discovered until less than a century ago, you're once again stuck with thousands of years in which the war wages without incident and nobody really develops.

Then in animated they say the Great War was millions of years ago, when a few decades could do the job just as well. Tomfoolery I tell you!

Watched the '86 movie again last night and found out an interesting coincident. When Hot Rod asked Wreck-Gar about how does he learn to talk like that, Wreck-Gar showed him the TV showing earth program. Guess robot by watching a TV can learn a lot.

The problem with that is that is that is a different plot line. Which, sadly, goes for about all of IDWs output. Hint boys: get a new writer, thats fine, but jesus H christ make him know what the readers have paid good ****ing money for.

Can't find reaction thread for this, so here's my thoughts at:

http://comicbookrevolution.net/index.ph ... &Itemid=96

Are you actually looking?

This is your all purpose Transformers #6 reaction and discussion thread.

On sale April 28.

Preview @ Comics Continuum.

Possible I'll be getting 3 IDW comics come thursday - LSOTW and Prowl didnt come in last week cause Mums went to Iceland (and set off a volcano...)

:|:|

Guess which face relates to which comic?

Predictability's a bitch, innit?

So much was riding on this final issue. Would it surprise us? Would Costa throw us any curveballs? Unfortunately, no. Pretty much everything I figured would happen, happened. Which is not a good thing, IMO.

For the unindoctrinated new reader who lacks a strong familiarity with prior TF storylines of times past, it might be right up their alley, a nice introductory six issue miniseries featuring the classic generic "Prime Saves the Day" moment to bring them up to speed regarding what the Transformers universe has been about the past twenty years.

But for the well-informed TF fan who has come to expect more from his TF comic experience, for the fan who has read every TF issue from three different publishers spanning almost three decades, well, I find myself again in disappointment territory, to say the least.

I would describe this first arc like so many a TF story these past few years. Mediocre with a smattering of excellence here and there that finally ends in an underwhelming fashion.

Like Infiltration, this series suffered from being two to three issues too long. It will read better as a trade, but why should that be a saving grace? LSOTW reads just fine issue to issue without sacrificing character development. Why should this not be the case for the main TF title?

What's there to like? Swindle, Thundercracker, and Ultra Magnus all shine in this series, and their moments I found to be the most enjoyable in the series. Thankfully, their involvement in this arc helps to blunt the brain-numbing effect the two most annoying characters of this series have on the reader: Spike Witwicky and Optimus Prime.

Seriously, Prime has lost his mojo. I've been annoyed at Prime before for, well, being Prime. And I've accepted him and loved him for it. But his unencumbered talk-to-the-hand passive-agressivity in this series is taken to new nausea-inducing heights, especially in this issue. If I were an Autobot, I'd do exactly what Hot Rod did at the end. Speak nary a word, steal a ship, and get as far away from Optimus as possible.

Don's art is again fantastic, and the battle scenes with Menasor did not disappoint.

So yeah, overall, I'm disappointed. I think having seen the covers of upcoming issues posted around the web really hurt my experience. I don't think the story would have been quite as predictable. I avoid the solicits, and still the covers were enough to spoil whatever surprises might have been present.

As a series, I would say it wasn't bad. Issue #4 was fantastic and the others weren't bad. But I was hoping for some curveballs and surprises to conclude this arc, and didn't get any. I was hoping that by the end of this issue, I wouldn't be able to wait for the next.

But you know what? I can wait.

Give this issue a "B-", and the series a "C+" thus far.

@Commander Shockwav, this is a very nice review. True, I was very disappointed after finishing the last issue. The character development on Thundercracker is fun, but has he gone too far at the end? And to me, feels like Costa has made the three biggest Autobot leaders through the entire TF universe become three cry babies. Prime still cries after Ironhide's death and totally lost. Ultra Magnus is cocky in the beginning at trying to arrest people (bots) but down the road, his ship got stolen and stock on earth. Hot Rod cries for this is not supposed to be without saying why he really wants and needs to leave. Actually Hot Rod is totally right. This is not supposed to be the end of this mini series. I can't wait for the next issue to see if the guy who ask you to guess he still functions can wake everybody up.

Much better than I expected but still trips itself up. The Menasor character was nicely done and it was refreshing to see a super villian who is his own weakness. Kudos as well to bumblebees standing up to magnus - somewhat undoing the crap that was the bumblebee mini. Thundercrackers noble ideals could lead somewhere if they're brave enough. A showdown with Megatron would be quite interesting. And Swindle still looks like the con most deserving of attention. Glad he got away.

But the trips up glare. Rodimus seems to have such a messed up character that I cant see how it relates in any way to the Hot Rod in Furmanverse, AHM... hell, even the first issue of the ongoing.

Prime also irks. I'm not really sure what Costa is trying to do with him. He makes a heroic return and then ****s off again.

So first arc of the ongoing down and it still feels like the series is waiting to kick off. In and around it we've had a terrible Bumblebee Mini, an ok Prowl Spotlight, a somewhat promising start to Ironhide and a fantastic LSOTW. Take that last title out of the list and it looks worryingly mundane. And thats one thing a comic about giant shape-shifting robots shouls never be.

Recently purchased this one, set after All Hail Megatron, and I must say, i love some of the designs in it - i love the cross between g1 and movie style - bumblebee inparticular looks awesome, part of me wishes this was the direction they went with the movies

picked up the tpb, was moderately impressed and at the same time crushingly disappointed. Seems to be a lot of "let's run away" "let's not" "okay then" type dialogue and it gets quite tiring after a while. I also could have done with someone offing Hot Rod as every panel he opens his mouth I hated him more and more. Having said that, I did kind of like Prime's dialogue bits with Spike, Ultra Magnus being a complete prick and Menasor. Menasor is awesome.

Just finished the TPB, Loved Thundercracker and Swindle, hated almost everyone else. Anyone gonna put money down on Rodimus buggering off to claim the matrix? I've enjoyed IDW Hot Rod ever since his Spotlight issue, but now he's probably my least favorite character along with Spike...