Denyer wrote:What would anyone else still here like to read / see?
Good comics would be nice.
I know that's flippant, but modern Transformers comics have never been able to sustain even an average level of quality for very long. Roberts had a good run for the first few years of MTMTE, but after he burned through his initial burst of good ideas (around Dark Cybertron) the quality of that book became quite a bit more uneven. And that's still the longest sustained run of "good" that IDW has managed to produce. It's really hard to invest in something, either with time or money, when I know it's going to turn into a pumpkin within a few years.
I know it's not a fair comparison considering the level of talent involved, but I've read about two decades' worth of X-Men books over the last couple years. And while the quality has swung around a lot between "great" and "forgettable", I can count the "why am I reading this crap?" moments on one hand. But with Transformers it seems like it's the genuinely good moments that are the big outlier. But this isn't the Dreamwave days. Transformers is a genuinely huge franchise post-2007. The godawful Bay movies routinely outperform far better DC and Marvel films at the box office. They should be able to attract the level of talent that it would take to put together a sustained run of good comics (and in turn recover some of those lost sales).
On a story level? It would be nice if them being Transformers actually mattered. And I don't mean on a metaphysical level, like Furman's Primus/Unicron story from the 80s, or a cultural level like some of Roberts' work has touched on. The comics have never been great about using the characters' alt modes to their full potential. Neither have the shows, for that matter! But when I think about how effective even unarmed alt-modes can be in the TF video games, it leaves me wanting so much more from the fiction. I'd also love to see the aspect of them as Robots in
Disguise get some play -- alt-modes should serve a stealth function, and not just against human eyes. Any time your heroes reveal themselves outside of their base, they should be worried that the parked car across the street is a Decepticon spy just waiting for a chance to shoot them in the back.
Because if transforming isn't a big deal, then why are they telling this story using Transformers?
Denyer wrote:Personally I'd still like to see the continuity hinted at in Infiltration and a hard science fiction war type setup, but it's hard to imagine another reboot making a go of that.
I think Transformers is a franchise that's just ripe for the picking when it comes to a hard sci-fi reinvention. Alien robots with unfathomably long lifespans who've destroyed their homeworld in an endless war and have now brought it to Earth actually sounds like a very "down to earth" story pitch, all things considered, but every version of the story that I've ever paid attention to has always chosen to steer it more towards the fantasy side of the spectrum.
Red Dave Prime wrote:Anyway, for me the big mish mash of Hasbro universe killed this for me. Mixing with one property maybe might have worked for a limited time but to make it the norm with so many things was just idiotic.
This was the last nail in the coffin for me as well. I like G.I. Joe but don't really have any interest in seeing the two franchises cross-pollinate. I think it ruins both of them, but particularly the Joes because it's impossible to tell a traditional G.I. Joe story while alien robots are bulldozing the White House. And I neither know nor care even a bit about any of the other properties they've shoehorned in.
Red Dave Prime wrote:In a way, the opening to the original Bay movie with Blackout using not just brute force but electronic manipulation to take down a whole military base is something I would like to see expanded.
Yeah, this is something that I'd like to see emphasized more as well. Transformers are
machines but the stories rarely ever emphasize that. They should have all sort of mechanical tricks up their sleeves, especially after fighting a war for so long.
Red Dave Prime wrote:And please, no matrix. Ditch the hubris of the mythology. Its not bad, but a real fresh take (maybe even, whisper it, one which stands on its own and doesnt constantly nod to old characters and events) would bring me back on board. We've had nostalga, twice in fact. Now its time to move on.
I like the mythology, but yes. It's been overdone, and even stories that don't mimic the G1 Primus/Unicron stuff still feel the need to create their own mythology from whole cloth. I've heard enough about gods and secret hidden histories and The Thirteen Primes to last a lifetime. Just give me robots fighting each other, none of this "greater threat from our secret past" nonsense.
Skyquake87 wrote:It makes me sad...and a bit worried that comics will die off in the next decade. I mean there's digital, but if the Dandy can't make a go of that, is there much hope?
I honestly can't fathom how anything that sells less than 10,000 copies could possibly be commercially viable. That's only around $40,000 in sales (with the shops and distributors taking a big chunk) coming in to pay the writer, artists, editor, printers, shipping, marketing, and who knows how many other little bits of overhead. And I can't imagine they're raking in much on advertising, not when newspapers with circulation in the hundreds of thousands are struggling to scrape by. Meanwhile sales keep dropping and the companies seem to have no idea how to transform their businesses to make a profit in today's world.
But on the other hand, you have to wonder if Marvel and DC are even expected to make a profit anymore, or if Disney and WB see them as more of a marketing expense that's only needed anymore to draw eyes to their infinitely more profitable TV and movie divisions.