#and I started reading the idw comics back when they started publishing

[krystaldeath]

Happy 2024 have these things I made in the last half hour of 2023

[blueberry-lemon]

An introductory guide to getting into Sonic the Hedgehog...

…if you're a grown-ass adult who is busy and doesn't want to play a bunch of video games but thinks the characters look sorta cool.

If you've ever been curious about Sonic as a series but haven't known where to start, I have some recommendations! I think Sonic is a cool and still somewhat unique thing because it takes cartoony characters (like a Mickey Mouse or Felix the Cat) and lets them jump around in cool action sequences through the lens of a shonen anime. It's colorful and usually pretty light-hearted, and I think the character designs are pretty iconic.

There's two handy places you can start without prior context, to see if it's something you'd be into...

Getting Started: If You Wanna Read Something

The IDW Sonic Comics

There were years of different Sonic comics back in the '90s and early 2000's, but the franchise got a complete reboot and fresh start with IDW Publishing in 2018. If you're looking for the most straight-forward way to get into this world of characters, I think this is a great start. You don't need any prior knowledge whatsoever to crack open issue 1 and get started. All you need to know is "Sonic and his friends protect the world by fighting against an evil scientist named Dr. Eggman, who they just recently defeated after he briefly took over the world."

I love these comics and I feel that the writers and artists who work on it have a really good sense for this series. Reading issues 1 through 12 will get you the first major story arc. If you like it so far, I highly suggest reading up through issue 32, when another major story arc concludes. After that, the world's your oyster! Unlike the tangled web of Marvel or DC comics, IDW Sonic has a very simple and linear reading order. You pretty much just read the issues in order, and occasionally there are spinoff stories that are optional to read.

Getting Started: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic Mania Adventures

Maybe comics aren't your thing and you want something even quicker. These are a series of animated shorts that are lovely. Conveniently, they've been compiled together by Sega into one little video right here.

It's a great intro to some of the main characters, and combines cartoon slapstick with some amazing action sequences.

There's also a nice little epilogue short.

Sonic CD's intro cutscene

If I had to pick a single 1-and-a-half minute clip to embody what I like about this series, it would be this very simple intro movie that plays before Sonic CD. Check it out!

Sonic Origins/Sonic Origins Plus Cutscenes

In 2022, Sega released a compilation of the classic Genesis games on modern consoles. In it, they added a few animated cutscenes. You can watch those cutscenes, plus the Sonic CD intro and the Sonic Mania Adventures episodes, all compiled into one handy Youtube video.

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Read Something

The Archie Sonic Comics

You might have heard that Sonic had a comic series published by Archie Comics from 1992 to 2016. This was a vast, overarching series that wrote an original story by weaving together ideas from the different Sonic cartoons and games. It went through several different writers, many different artists, and obviously spanned over multiple eras of pop culture.

It's pretty cool! The fact that it was so long-running, and the fact that Sega wasn't very strict with what the writers could do, led to a lot of buckwild lore, new characters, and plot developments. That said, it's also pretty bizarre, complicated, corny, and cringey at times. There is a stretch in the middle that is pretty infamous among fans.

You have a few options for jumping in.

Option A: You can start at the very beginning and read all of it. If you do this, it is going to be like a One Piece / Homestuck / etc. kind of undertaking, and you're going to be pushing through the good and the bad of huge genre and tone shifts. That's your call!

Option B: You can brush up on the main characters on a wiki and then start at Issue 160, when Ian Flynn (who now does a lot of work on IDW Sonic) became the lead writer. More specifically, you can jump in at the start of a new story arc by starting at Issue 175.

Option C: You can start at Issue 252, when there is a universe-altering event that essentially retcons all of the characters and plot threads from the previous writers and starts completely fresh. Easier to keep track of and you won't have to worry about all the previous plot and lore.

If you want something you can read in a single sitting, you should instead read Sonic: Mega Drive, a short-lived miniseries published by Archie that follows "Classic Sonic" characters (aka, the same vibe and art style of Sonic Origins, Sonic Mania Adventures, etc.) It's really great!

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA) aka "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie" (1996)

This is, essentially, a 1-hour Sonic anime movie. You can watch it in Japanese or in English. I adore it. It makes up its own lore and continuity so you don't need to know anything before going in, besides generally knowing a one-sentence synopsis of who Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik are. It's action-packed, well-animated, and has great music. Enjoy! Sonic X If you're enjoying what you've seen so far, and you want something much, much longer...there's an official 78-episode anime adaptation of Sonic called Sonic X. It's an original story that loosely pulls together some ideas from a few of the games. It's mostly intended for a younger audience, but I hear if you watch it in the original uncut Japanese, it feels a little less "for kids."

Other Ways To Get Into Sonic

There's some great video essays on Youtube about the series!

Professional animator Dan Floyd did an in-depth video looking at the highs and lows of Sonic character animation in the games starting from Sonic 1 up through Sonic Forces.

Super Bunnyhop plays through the first level of a bunch of Sonic games to compare how the mechanics, physics, and level design feel throughout the games' history.

Liam Triforce has a great deep dive on the franchise's music.

You can play The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a murder-mystery-party themed visual novel put out by Sega. It's nice and short, so you can finish it in an afternoon.

If you haven't seen them already, you can check out the live-action/animated hybrid films Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 featuring Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, they're pretty good. That Sonic Prime cartoon that's currently on Netflix is pretty good too.

This may sound strange, but honestly you might enjoy poring over the sprite sheets from the old games. In particular, I really like the sprite animations from the GBA games, like Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle.

Sega is pretty lax about allowing noncommercial fan games, so there's at least a hundred different Sonic fan games out there by hobbyist developers. Check out the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and the Sonic Fan Games HQ.

You can watch LPs or cutscene compilations of the games on Youtube! If you watch Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes, you'll get a crash course on most of the characters.

And finally, of course...you can play the games if you want to! There's a number of them that are available on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation if you don't have access to older consoles.

There's a lot of different angles to come at Sonic as a franchise, and lots of different entry points. Have fun!

[ihatebrainstorm]

Hey! I'm sorry if these seems random but as a somewhat transformers fan, I was wondering where to start with the comics? Just curious

oooo okey well there's a lot of ways to start I think?

For IDW1 (The first IDW timeline of transformer comics AKA the one most ppl really talk about): There's two primary ways to enter I think?

Some people are specifically interested in the later MTMTE and Lost Light storyline which occurs during the IDW1 Transformers Phase 2 & 3 (post-Cybertron war) eras of comics and will only read that.

However if you wanted to start from the very beginning of the timeline in chronological order, you'd want to use a reading guide to get you through it (because it'll hop between different storylines/issues a lot) This is the one I used back when I first started reading: https://comicbookreadingorders.com/other/transformers-idw-reading-order/ (I don't think it's complete tho? So ehh u might have to cross reference with a different reading guide)

IDW2 I'll be honest I haven't read at all yet, and I have no clue what happens in it, but I guess it's similar to the reading guide strategy?

Skybound/Energon Universe Transformers is the newest line of comics after IDW lost the Transformers IP publishing license, and has only just begun a couple months ago. Currently they only have a single line of comics simply called "Transformers" (beginning with Transformers #1) Although online it might be called Transformers (2023 comics), Skybound Transformers, Energon Universe Transformers, or Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers. [EDIT: This version is meant to run side by side/ is in the same universe as some other Skybound comics like their new Void Rivals run- Technically the first cameo of any transformers from Skybound occurred in Void Rivals #1, but so far I don't believe there's anything actually crossing the two storylines together? Might change in the future tho]

There's a few other comics I think that are tie ins for shows such as TFP I believe? And some of the movies? But I've never read or touched any of them before, so I have no clue how to get into them apologies ;v;

[davidmariottecomics]

Goodbye IDW! Hello Something New!

Hi there! 

After seven years and some change, today, 12/22/2023, is my last day at IDW Publishing. It's for good reasons. Things just timed out that my last day could be the last work day of the year for IDW and in the new year, I'll be starting a new job elsewhere. I'll still be in comics and once I can talk about the new gig, I'm really stoked to be letting you all know. So, today, I want to say my goodbye to IDW. 

But first, before I get to that, I did have something else notable happen this week. I sent my last tweet!  I'm officially shutting down my Twitter at the end of the year and if you see a Twitter account claiming to be me after January 1st, it's an imposter. If you'd like to keep up with me, however, I've got good news! There are lots of other ways to find me still. Here are a few! 

Check out and bookmark my website! Get access to my blog, plus lots of behind the scenes stuff and new projects at my Patreon!  Subscribe to a newsletter version of my blog for free at Buttondown!  Follow my blog on Tumblr!  Keep up with my main socials: Bluesky and Instagram (I'm @davidmariotte at both)! 

Okay, with that out of the way, let's talk about it. This is not my first time saying goodbye. In fact, almost exactly a year ago, I said my farewells to Transformers, one of the hallmarks of my IDW run. I don't want to revisit that too much, so if you want to read about my early days at IDW or that part of my career or a big list of thank yous to my collaborators, you can! And while I've had significant runs with other books, most notably Sonic the Hedgehog which with January's Sonic: Fang the Hunter #1 will mark 100 issues of Sonic at IDW under my editorial eye, or my personally exciting, if shorter runs on stuff like Godzilla, Samurai Jack, the Hasbro Action books, Canto, Scarenthood, The Kill Lock, The October Faction, Wynonna Earp, Brynmore, Atomic Robo, or literally so many other books, I don't want this to just be a retrospective on the work. In fact, I'm largely not interested in talking about the past when I say goodbye this time. 

IDW has afforded me a lot. They've helped me find my place in the industry. They let me do some writing. They let me do a lot of editing. I learned various other skills both through directly on the course of the job and through my own interest because of what I was doing and seeing there. I have made true lifelong friendships. And I have made comics. So leaving feels weird. I'm very bummed to be leaving a place that really has been my home (and for the past couple of years, has quite literally been mostly at my home) for so long. But I am even more excited about what's to come. On my side, I can't announce it just yet, but watch this space for some big news soon (after a couple weeks of much needed vacation). 

Talking about the future I actually can say a little more about, I wanna tell you how excited I am for IDW. Yes, I'm leaving, but IDW remains home to so many people--both at the company and our freelance creators--and so many projects that are close to my heart. Next year is their 25th anniversary. That is an impressive feat in not just the world of comics, but any industry. For the milestone, they've got a lot of cool stuff planned. 

I'm not going to blow up IDW's spot and say anything about what's coming up too early. Just to talk about the things that are already public knowledge, you've got things like the new TMNT: The Last Ronin sequel! The TMNT ongoing on it's road to issue #150! There are cool new originals like Golgotha Motor Mountain! There's the launch of the aforementioned Fang the Hunter which is IDW's first Classic Sonic mini-series and sees 100 unique issues of Sonic at IDW and is just laugh-out-loud funny and full of such good action! And I'll tease this, when the Sonic ongoing is back with issue #69 in May, you'll be in for an absolute treat as that series runs up to #75! 

I know some readers of this blog don't read a ton of American direct market comics. You aren't "Wednesday Warriors" who go to the comic shop every week. You like the comics you like and I've been graced to be a person working on those comics. If you aren't as familiar with how these comics work, let me assure you of a couple things. The books I was editing and many unannounced projects that I set up will still be happening. Because of the timelines of comic production, you'll still see my name in IDW books for a few more months and, at the same time, you'll see new credits creeping in. And if we've done everything right, that'll be about the only thing you'll notice is different, at least at first. As the editors really take the reins and take over, we'll both be in for the treat of the unknown! I'll be reading them with a good sense of professional jealousy. 

Now, there's one other book that has been announced for next year and I wanted to do a special call out for. Godzilla: Valentine's Day Special went to press this week. It's the last IDW book I saw all the way from inception to completion. And, in many ways, it's kind of a really good analogy of a comics editorial career. I think, genuinely, this may be the book that went from conception to reality the fastest in my career. I think it took... less than a week from a half-joking suggestion of doing a Godzilla Valentine's Day book to getting Zoe Tunnell's pitch in and approved by Toho and getting it on the publishing schedule. Usually these things take a bit--people are working on other projects, licensors need time to review things, whatever other bumps happen along the way--but this was like lightning. Everyone just got it instantly. And then Zoe turned in the script and it was great! Things continued, as they do, and then... we got a curveball or two. I won't go into too much detail, but major thanks to Sebastian Piriz and Rebecca Nalty for getting it done and having a book that we were all so proud of that I could send to press this week. And it struck me on that final press day that despite the curveballs we had been thrown, when it came to actually getting it approved, everything was so easy, straightforward, and smooth. When you read it in February, if I've done my job right, maybe you'll remember seeing somewhere that there were some curveballs. But mostly, you'll just have a really good book in your hands. (BTW, you did JUST MISS the final order cutoff on that, so do check in with your shop about still trying to get you a copy!) 

Most of the time, after a book like that goes to press, an editor gets ready to do it again--maybe in a few minutes or days or the next week. For the first time in a long time, I won't be getting ready to do it again at IDW. That's a complicated feeling, but I'm so excited for the future. 

The best metaphor I've been able to come up with for what is happening is it's like I've been working in a one room office constantly for the past seven years. It's got that dull office lighting, you know the kind. Each day, projects come and go across my desk, and as they otherwise disappear into the world, I put up one of those glow-in-the-dark stars as a memory of it. And each day, I work with so many people--my coworkers at IDW who've helped foster my growth, my collaborators as both a writer and editor who have made so many stories with me, all the folks where things never quite lined up but we kept trying, and the readers who are an inherent part of the ecosystem, the reason we make what we do. And so, for each of those people, I put up a little glow in the dark toy. 

Now, for the first time, I'm going to get up and leave the office. As I flick the switch behind me, everything in there that has been soaking up light for years now glows. Some of the glows are slight. Some are so fantastically bright, it feels like they're drawing attention through the walls of the room. Together, they make the room brighter than it was when I left. Now, sometimes, I might sneak in to borrow a toy--make a copy of it for the new office I'm doing the same thing in. Other people will certainly do the same and make they've got their Evan Stanley figure on their shelf. If I ever return for a longer time, I'll be so glad to flick the light back on and let them all absorb even more light to glow an even longer time. If I don't, I rest happy that the glow goes on and forever people will be able to come back and discover some part of it. And I'll start working on a new office soon. 

If I keep going,  I'm a little afraid that I won't be able to stop. So, for now, I'll just say again, thank you. The future is about to be very exciting. Next year is for the creators you love or don't know you love yet, the books that are going to light you up that you've come to expect and the ones that will catch you by total surprise. While there are a lot of things I'm going to miss deeply and books that I'm going to wish I had gotten to do more on, I also have the really exciting experience of getting to see this stuff as a fan of IDW, just like you. And, hey, I hope you'll be a fan of the stuff I do next too! 

As for next steps, like I've said, I'm not going far. I'll still be in comics. I'll share the news when I can.

Before that, I'm getting a little break. Not too long, just a few weeks, and obviously the holidays are part of those, but in my time between my jobs, I'm going to be working on some personal projects. I put together a little tracking list recently and I have something like 40 projects in various stages of gestation right now. Obviously, I'm not going to be working on all of those at once, and chances are, some of them will never see the light of day, but I'm going to be working on trying to bring a couple of them to you in the new year (and beyond). If you're an artist that I've had the pleasure of working with in the past and you think you might be interested in peeping the list and seeing what we could do together, let me know. You can reach me on my website contact page, through my email, or through Discord (feel free to ask if you don't have it!). 

And if you read this blog, you'll see me hyping my last IDW projects up until we run out of what I left behind. Simultaneously, once I've got stuff to start hyping up for my personal projects and for the new gig, you'll see those start to pop up here too! I'll also keep talking about making comics and my thoughts on the state of the world and whatever else it is I blog about here on a regular basis! 

Thanks for reading. Bye-DW! Next week, I'll be doing a little Best of 2023. But for now, onto our regular features. 

What I enjoyed this week: Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), Reverse 1999 (Video Game), Nancy (Comic), Lego Masters (TV show), Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (Short story collection), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Cunk on Earth (TV show), I'm a Virgo (TV show), The Boy and the Heron (Movie), an easy last week at IDW, all the well-wishes that've already poured in, leaving today to celebrate Christmas with my family and then have some downtime to work on my stuff, signing the paperwork for the new job, not being on Twitter anymore, getting all of our mail out in a timely fashion for the holidays, Chainsaw Man (Manga), I picked up Superman and Hawkgirl, so excited to get caught up on those, and knowing that in leaving this job, there are certain folks I just get to deepen my relationships with as friends, instead of co-workers. 

New Releases this week (12/20/2023): Godzilla: The War for Humanity #3 (Editor) Godzilla Rivals: Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon (Editor)

Announcements: The Cartoonist Cooperative is still doing E-Sim cards for Gaza. You can donate a digital sim card so that residents can get access to the internet and have more functional phones and, in exchange, get some comics or a drawing or whatever else is available from the many participating artists. Additionally, the CC is hosting their mini-comic awards! It's a cool way to maybe get your mini-comic recognized and make some scratch!

You can also give more directly. If you don't have money, and I get it, you can call or fax or email or show up at the offices of your representatives. Keep your eyes open for actions too, whether they're another general strike or demonstrations and marches in your area. Given the nature of the things, they often come together fairly quickly, so do exercise your due diligence. Also, of course, being informed and just giving your time to Palestinian journalists and writers is incredibly valuable. 

While Becca has got some things brewing for next year (and now on a schedule), you should reach out if you'd like to work on comics with them! You can find their gallery on their website and also, y'know, maybe pick up a few things for belated gifts while you're there!

Finally, I called out my Patreon earlier. You can support me (and boy, that would be cool during the time between paychecks because vacation is nice, but living is still expensive) and get not just this blog, but a lot of cool special features like extra posts, comics, infographics, and more! At the $10+ levels, you can also access stuff like a holiday gift guide I made, a podcast pilot for a spicy show with Becca, and a ton more! 

Pic of the Week: Happy holidays from Becca and me! If you wanna full card in your inbox, lemme know! 

[ninjapotatohead]

I'm one of the people that wanted to give flynn a chance after being sick and tired of the shit Pontac wrote. Flynn blew it too, my question is why are so many people complaning about Sonic's current mediocrity and not jumping ship to a better franchise all together? Why are people hurting themselves lmao

Believe it or not, while I was in no way bothered by Pontaff's tenure on the series (due in no small part to having accepted the fact that Sonic storytelling has always been wonky-at-best), I was looking forward to seeing what Ian had to bring to the table.

And, while you could never pay me to give enough of a shit about the Archie comics to read all 290 issues front-to-back, I used to be in full support of the IDWverse back when it was new. Any real gripes I had with it at the time was stuff I was more than willing to look past, since I figured I could excuse a few oddities if the comic is doing its own thing separately from the games...

But then, Issue #12 happened, the Zombot Virus arc went on for WAY too long, characters acted less and less like themselves, the writing felt so tongue-in-cheek that it made Lego Dimensions shake its head in disappointment, every critique of Ian's questionable writing decisions were either deflected or just half-heartedly addressed, IDW Publishing started bleeding money, and it overall just felt like a slow and grueling death by a thousand paper cuts.

Oh right, and the Sonic Encyclospeedia being of such shit quality didn't help either.

So yeah, is it any wonder why I (and others) lacked confidence that Frontiers' plot would be of any substance when it was announced Ian was tasked with writing it, especially given his track record?

[quetzalpapalotl]

The only IDW I’ve read is MTMTE/LL, and I want to read more, specifically about Optimus. I only know him from Prime, and there, he’s the Superman-like hero, can do no harm kind of guy; I was hoping to see a different take on him. Where do I start for comics that focus on him?

Hello! So glad to have this question! I looove IDW1 Optimus and it's my interest to spread that, lol. When it comes to IDW1 Optimus, many writers have different takes on him, but John Barber is really the one that defines the character, or at least it is if you're interested in OP because of my blog. So the short answer is to read the exRID and Optimus Prime ongoings.

That being said, MTMTE is a far more self-contained story than the rest of the entries in the continuity. Barber's stuff not only gets a lot of crossovers and side stories, but Barber is known for being continuity-obsessed (same), and his Optimus is very much written as a reconciliation of all the interpretations of the character in the comics, taking even the negative implications others ignored and dealing with them face-on. The reading is definitively enriched by context.... but also I'm not gonna ask you to read all of IDW1 because a lot of those comics are... boring at best tbh, and I understand reading comics just for lore is not everyone's idea of a good time, haha.

So I prepared for you a Optimus-focused reading order for IDW1 with little explanations for each entry. Because Optimus is such an important character, his path crosses with many plotlines, so I tried to make it so you would be able to get a full, mostly-coherent story, while also keeping the focus on him. Just keep the following in mind: I am biased. This skips most, if not all, of phase 1 (comics published from 2005 to 2011) because I personally judged it not worth it in an attempt to lower the number of comics (so many). This also skips all the series and crossovers where Optimus doesn't feature prominently (so none of the Windblade series or things like Revolutionaries) so you will lack context for some stuff but I think you should be able to pull through. Finally, there will be issues of exrid/OP where Optimus doesn't show up, but it's all part of the storyline, and also Barber writes about Optimus not only as a person but as an ideal, his influence speaks even in his abscence.

Stormbringer by Simon Furman

An ancient evil awakes, Optimus deals with it while remembering the events that led to Cybertron dying. Nothing to write home about, you can skip it, but it's a quick read and it will give you a taste of how Furman writes Optimus (I'm skipping everything else by Furman btw), which was a heavy influence on JRo (from Marvel) and Barber. You can skip it if you want.

The Transformers (2009 ongoing) by Mike Costa

This is a big jump, so for context: previously the Decepticons did a full scale invasion of Earth as well as almost wiping out the Autobots thanks to intel from a traitor. Eventually the Autobots managed to come on top and defeat the Decepticons. Now the Autobots are stranded on Earth, humans have a terrible opinion of Cybertronians and Optimus wants to make reparations. This series presents a lot of interesting stuff that Barber will expand on. Unfortunately, Costa was (by his own admission) not invested in writing Transformers and it shows, particulary, he doesn't understand Optimus' appeal enough to make something interesting with it, but it was still an influence on Barber. There is some good stuff, but I'm afraid to bore you before getting to the actual good stuff. So you can skip it or come back to read it later.

Chaos Theory by James Roberts

These are issues #22 and #23 from the Costa ongoing, in case you decide to skip it. This is the one thing in phase 1 that you must read. We get a more complex take on Optimus, a look into his relationship with Megatron and their past. It introduces JRo's not-at-all controversial idea of making Orion Pax a cop (if only there was a writer that would later deal with the implications of that).

Autocracy by Chris Metzen & Flint Dille

A radically different take on Orion from JRo, this series is set in the past and shows us a bitter Orion who sees no good sides anywhere in the events that lead to the fall of Zeta Prime. Look, I like this in retrospective, but I don't think it's good on its own, feels very edgy for edge's sake (I have a lot to say about this, actually). Still a dear friend likes it so maybe you will. Either way, Barber will later write an arc that feels like a direct response to this that's one of my favorite parts of OP's character so it's worth a read at some point.

The Death of Optimus Prime by James Robers & John Barber

A single issue that serves as a prologue for the sister ongoings. after using the matrix to save the day at the end of Costa's ongoing, Optimus awakens to a rejuvenated Cybertron. The neutrals come back home and Optimus wonders about his place in peacetime.

Robots in Disguise #1-9 by John Barber Robots in Disguise annual

We see how Bumblebee and co. try to deal with an unstable peace on Cybertron. OP only shows up in issue 6, but since you will eventually have to read all of exRID, may as well read the beginning. Also Arcee shows up, and she will be as important for the themes as Optimus himself, so again, might as well.

More Than Meets the Eye #9-11 by James Roberts More than Meets the Eye #36 Spotlight: Orion Pax

It will do good to revisit Mtmte's Shadowplay arc as we see more of Orion's backstory and his relationship with Senator Shockwave. It may be a long jump, but since we're not focused on Mtmte itself, might as well complete JRo's stuff and read issue #36, where Team Rodimus travels back in time, in that issue we see what Orion is doing after angering Sentinel with no Senator to protect him, now under the guide of Zeta. All of this important for OP's character and for Cybertron's political backstory. Then in Spotlight: Orion Pax, we see Orion working under Zeta-now-Prime and his perspective on current issues.

Monstrosity and Primacy by Chris Metzen & Flint Dille

Following Autocracy, these two series shows us Optimus struggling with his newly-adquired Primacy. Suffer from a lot of the same issues as Autocracy, but in my opinion they're less pointlessly edgy. They don't have as much relevance, however, so you can skip them if it feels like too much.

Robots in Disguise #10-22 by Jonh Barber

We're back to the main series. Again, Orion only shows up in issues #10 and #19, but the same as above applies. Also this will lead up to...

Dark Cybertron by John Barber and James Roberts

A crossover event between the two ongoings, which honestly fits much more better on exRID than it does on Mtmte. It consists of 12 issues, of which #1 and #12 were published on their own, and the rest were published as More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise alternatively, but you can find it all compiled in one volume. Orion has some important moments here, including retaking the name Optimus Prime (but was that really such a good idea?).

Robots in Disguise #28-34 by John Barber

After Dark Cybertron, Barber leaves most of the stuff on Cybertron to Mairghread Scott and takes us back to Earth. Optimus is now at the center on this series and will remain there. Here we start to see his struggles in trying to maintain peace, which will only get more complicated.

The Transformers #35-#38 (2014 ongoing, exRID) by John Barder

This is the same series as Robots in Disguise, expect they reduced the name to just The Transformers to avoid confusion with the comics for the Robots in Disguise 2015 cartoon. That's why we refer to the whole thing as exRID.

Punishment by John Barber

A miniseries where Optimus returns to Cybertron and tries to track down a Decepticon serial killer. Here Barber lays down some themes he will keep revisiting fot the rest of his work. Optimus faces some questions and we see how his self doubt is really taking a toll on him.

This is the first part of the Redemption of the Dinobots trilogy, followed by Redemption and Salvation set later in the continuity. Those two don't feature Optimus and so aren't on this list. However I want to say that they showcase the best of Barber's work when not restrained by editorial mandates, so I do recommend them.

Combiner Wars by John Barber & Mairghread Scott

A crossover similar to Dark Cybertron published across two series, this time between exRID and Windblade. Strascream schemes so Camminus will be indebted to him, Windblade and Optimus use OP's Prime clout to try to diminish his influence (this will surely not become an habit for OP). As questionable as that is, Prowl thinks is not enough and takes matters into his own hands. I think it does a good enough job depiste all the To Sell Toys mandates and either way, it will influence what's to come and we get to see the reason for Prowl and OP falling out

The Transformers #42-#55 (exRID) by John Barber

We continue with the Earth plot. Optimus keeps struggling with peace and makes more questionable decisions. Should he leave Earth alone or is he obligated to protect it? How do you protect that which doesn't want yout help?

Titans Return

A sort of crossover, it opens with a one-shot which is followed by exRID #56-57, and then Mtmte #56-57. For our purposes, you don't have to read the MTMTE chapters, but if you did while on your own MTMTE read you may want to revisit them now with context.

Revolution by John Barber and Cullen Bunn (+others)

Okay, this is where we start with the Hasbroverse crossovers. A six issue series (from 0 to 5) backed up by one shots from every individual series featured. This isn't impossible to follow, but it does drag because it features a buch of characters and plotlines a Transformers-only reader won't care about and the writing isn't great. It does feature some "WTF, Optimus" moments (as in, on purpose), Optimus learns humans are not so defenseless and it is kinda relevant, so you may still want to read it. If you do, make sure to also read the Till All Are One: Revolution one shot (and might as well add the The Transformers one because Thundercraker is in it and he's great, and again, the Mtmte one so you can read it with context this time).

Optimus Prime #1-8 by John Barber

We start phase 3 with an arc that's a favorite of mine. Optimus plays with fire to get Earth to join the Council of Worls for its own good. We also get flashbacks of Orion working under Zeta pre Autocracy and pre Spotlight. Barber recontextualizes Autocracy!Orion, deals with the cop thing in ways JRo didn't dare and explores why me made the choices he did without trying to wash his hands.

Transformers Annual 2017 by John Barber

I don't know why this isn't labeled as an Optimus Prime annual, but whatever, it takes place after issue #8. Optimus and Pyra Magna have talk.

Optimus Prime #9-10 by John Barber

We get what I think is one of the most touching issues followed by learning more about the history of Cybertron.

First Strike by Mairghread Scott and David A. Rodriguez (+others)

More crossover fun! I honestly can't tell you how easy this is to follow without having read Revolutionaries (not featured on this guide). Again it's kinda relevant, some of this is a consequence of Optimus actions, leads to Unicron being awoken, and it does have some key Optimus moments, this time by Scott rather than Barber, if you want to see what she does with him. It has the tie-in comics, Optimus Prime: First Strike and Transformers: First Strike by John Barber (the laters follow the former, despite having different names) which don't feature OP a lot.

Optimus Prime #11-14 by John Barber

We see what Optimus' followers get up to while OP is busy in First Strike and then what follows after that event.

Optimus Prime annual by John Barber

Thundercraker tries to make a movie about Starscream (who is in jail after confessing to all his crimes in the Till All Are One annual), it's great.

Optimus Prime #15-21 by John Barber

Barber starts to pay off things he has been building up since exRID as Unicron approaches.

This is the recommended order for what remains (all by Jonh Barber)

Unicron #0 Optimus Prime #22 Unicron #1-4 Optimus Prime #23-24 Unicron #5-#6 and finally Optimus Prime #25

Unicron is here to make Cybertronians face their legacy. Optimus arc comes to an end. OP #25 is my favorite comic issue. I hope you manage to get there, and if you do, let me know what you think!

I hope this was helpful. If you get confused by lacking context, it may help to check the continuity notes section of whatever issue you just read in TFWiki's page for it. And as always, feel free to as me more questions!

[vikenticomeshome]

Monster House (2006) had a tie-in graphic novel?

Yeah, it did. I only found out about it by chance when reading the wiki. It was done by IDW Publishing on June 14, 2006. This would have been roughly a month before the film had its theatrical release in the U.S. on July 21, 2006.

Before we start talking about the content, let's talk about the credits. The comic consists of two stories. I will print the credits exactly as they appear.

"Skull & Bones" Written by: Joshua Dysart Art by: Simeon Wilkins Colors by: Len O' Grady

"Honor Roll" Words and Art by: Simeon Wilkins Colors by: Len O' Grady

Edited by: Kris Oprisko Designed by: Neil Uyetake Lettered by: Tom B. Long

Now, of course, I cannot post the entire work here. Sure, the comic appears to have only been printed once in 2006. Sure, it is unlikely that it will ever be reprinted, as Monster House was a single film that told its complete story and never got any sequels or spin-offs. Sure, the only way to legitimately purchase a copy these days is to buy it second-hand. Still, I could get in trouble for posting it in full here.

However, you could try searching "Monster House Graphic Novel". You may find that someone has scanned and uploaded a copy that you can read for free. You might even feel inspired to make a Tumblr post sharing some of your favorite panels from that scan. Imagine that. https://archive.org/details/monster-house-graphic-novel

Anyway, before you go past the "read more". I recommend you obtain the graphic novel and read it for yourself to get the full experience.

The first story, "Skull & Bones", alternates between scenes that take place at the same time as the movie and scenes that took place 20 years earlier. Our protagonist for the evening in both timelines is "Bones". You remember him right?

We all remember the scene between him and Zee where he's messing with her, she gets sick of him, and she kicks him out. Mind you, the movie showed it from DJ's POV, who couldn't see much from behind the couch.

The comic lovingly recreates the scene from the front of the couch.

Comic made him more of an ugly sonuvabitch than the film did.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Remember, he did have his back-story that he talked about during the film. Now, we get to see it.

One day, 20 years ago, long before his nose was quite so big, Bones was flying his kite. The kite's name was "Awesome Kite".

But then, it all goes wrong. Awesome lands on Mr. Nebbercracker's lawn. Bones knows well and good that Nebbercracker will steal his kite if he doesn't get it back quickly. Worse, he has to listen to Nebbercracker's marital problems.

Mr. Nebbercracker is calm and reasonable about the whole thing, just like in the film.

Back in the present-day, we have Skull and Bones showing that they care about making children happy, or maybe they are just desperate for a gig. Either way, they are playing a gig at the local children's hospital.

However, they parked in a hand-capped spot. Well, nobody's perfect.

Lester very nearly ends the story early, but our heroes are saved in the nick of time.

Oh look, its the little girl from the movie's intro. Why does her face look like that?

Okay, let's go back to just after Zee kneed him the stomach and sent him packing. We know that he went to take his anger out on Nebbercracker's house.

Our idiot hero is easily lured into the house by Awesome Kite, who is made to float in the doorway.

Then, he gets eaten.

He'll be fine though. Everyone remembers the ending of Monster House, right? We got a montage of all the characters who were eaten by the house climbing out of the ruins. The children in the audience were re-assured that the house never actually killed anyone.

Yeah, no, the comic confirms that Constance isn't the only skeleton in the basement. I spy a mail carrier, a door-to-door salesman or special agent from ACME, the milk man, someone who was just shoveling the sidewalk, and at least one dog. At least I don't see any child skeletons.

Still, our plucky hero continues his search-and-rescue operation. At last, he reaches Awesome Kite.

Before, he can reach it though, let's flash back to 20 years. While Bones is sulking over his kite, Zee is having a tea party. Lovely.

Look, I don't care about the monster house anymore. This scene of Zee obliterating the dolls with a damn weed-wacker is amazing.

Bones meets up with his friend Skull, and we get our musical number.

Afterwards, Skull and Bones go on their mission to retrieve Awesome. They don't have J.D's level of planning however. Lester, who would go on to become the skinny cop, discovers them.

I know I've been making fun of the story, but it does show us an important angle that we don't get in the movie.

We see Nebbercracker frustrated with Constance's actions, as well as all of the effort he puts into keeping Constance's true nature a secret.

I want to share one particularly impactful line.

"You keep saying you love me! But you don't know how to love!"

Then, he tries to leave.

And she doesn't let him leave.

No, he returns to stare into the fire.

Yeah, he kisses her on the Mantle. Bones and Skull don't understand how tragic this whole scene is.

And now, we're back to business as usual. Nebbercracker goes after the kids, and Constance looks ready to eat them herself.

And now we're back to present-day Bones and near the end of the movie. The house rips itself out of its foundation. While it hurries away, probably to go eat three kids, Skull is able to climb out to safety.

Skull, the twist villain of the comic, has stolen his girl.

Or, maybe she was just pretending to date Skull to make Bones jealous? Maybe they're a polycule now?

No matter what happened, it looks like Zee lost in the end. That's what she gets for breaking that plant pot and blaming it on DJ.

I managed to hit the image limit before I got to the second story. However, that one doesn't really have much to do with Monster House. "Final Roll" tells us that Skull and Bones play DnD. Its really just Bones walking away from the game after refusing to make a roll. Skull badgers him for weeks until he throws the die into Nebbercracker's lawn. I may make a second post with highlights from that story, but the first story was definitely the more important one to cover.

I'm glad that I got to read this comic. It was alot of fun. The original movie is a masterpiece in presenting such dark themes to children. And then, the graphic novel expanded upon it. We got to see that Nebbercracker was not always able to keep everyone safe from Constance. We got to see how much of a toll the whole unfair situation took on him. We got a peek at Bone's, Skull's, and Zee's childhoods. We got to see Zee destroy a bunch of plastic dolls with a damn weed whacker.

If you haven't read it, go read it. My post isn't going to be the same as reading the whole thing.

[stachehand]

The one IDW Sonic issue that I hate

I like IDW Publishing's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series, though admittedly, I do have quite a number of gripes with it. My main issue with the series is how much of it's potential it seems to hold back, seemingly deliberately at points. Almost every single time it reaches the brink of absolute greatness, it suddenly backs down and starts the trek all over again. Best exemplified, I feel, with the long Metal Virus story arc, which started great.

But of course, it's shining moments are very bright. Tangle & Whisper holds up as a great showing of the series' poster children, Scrapnik Island is, from start to finish, a blast with some of the most mature writing in a piece of Sonic media, and when Evan Stanley became the regular writer of the mainline book, there's been a long line of memorable stories with nothing that break the deal, aside from a bad characterization or two. Heck, Flynn handles the smaller scale storylines, or parts of them, pretty decently. Also, let's not forget the wonderful Annuals and their thick, meaty slices of life.

However, there has been one whole story arc in the series, spanning both a four-issue mini-series, it's accompanying mainline issues, and the stuff that would come after until it's rushed ending, that I would define as a mountain of disappointment. I won't get into all the details of why I have a disdainful view of it in this post, for it's something I recently realized is the worst thing I ever read from IDW Sonic.

Imposter Syndrome. And the issue of this 4-part prologue to the low-point of this 5-year, printed journey that extends it from frustrating to absolutely pathetic?

Imposter Syndrome #3: the harbringer of a wave of flashbacks to bad early-to-mid 2010s fan fiction I really didn't need, the ruination of Doctor Starline, unsettling questions about Surge and Kit that the on-going plot never required to be asked, and boredom that should've been alleviated, not lampshaded.

This comic sucks! How did I enjoy this when it was first released last year? I don't know, but when the whole storyline it's attached to concluded in issue #56, I felt nothing but relief that it was over. And Doctor Starline? Surge the Tenrec? Kitsunami the Fennec? I never want to see them again. Not in the comic books, and certainly not in any video games.

[popculturebuffet]

Owl House and Amphibia Weekly Review: Any Sport in A Storm, Sasha’s Angels, and Olm Town Road: HUNTLOW WINS BITCHES

Hello all you happy people! I”m Jake, i review animation and i’ts week 3 of my regular coverage of Amphibia and Owl House. 

Before we get started as usual the news front is pretty quiet. The only piece of it is a sad one. Turns out the Light Novel for the Owl House isn’t happening as they wouldn’t pay them enough and disney clearly didn’t you know.. make sure tokyopop would pay the writers a decent wage or Tokoyopop dosen’t get people want actual money tomake content. Either way it’s consistent with Disney having no fucking idea what their doing publishing wise a lot of the time. I mean granted CN isn’t doing much better as it hasnt made any tie in comics in ages, but still, at least they actually got some out and didn’t have the mini series end half way. And yeah i’m still bitter about the star vs mini series. I”m also bitter abotu the joe books run of darkwing duck, the recent end of their contract with idw and in general disney just.. not carring about their audience’s wants or needs. 

Thankfully the episodes this week were excellent. As usual Owl House outpaced Amphibia as the latter is having a slower build to it’s finale, but Amphibia was still no slouch with two truly excellent episodes. There was huntlow, kidnapping, huntlow, a refrence to an episode I truly hate that ended up working out, huntlow, ultra instinct toadie, and I belivie I said huntlow. So let’s get into it. Also now Tumblr is read moring posts automatically so I don’t have to do the read more anymore! Woo hoo! 

Any Sport in A Storm:

Okay one more time

HUNTER     AND  WILLOW EPISODE

Okay look if you follow this blog or even just these reviews, you’ll know how much I was looking foward to this one. I complained for most of the season 2a reviews that Willow had been sidelined, and rightfully so: even with the show pulling away from Hexside, there was no reason Willow couldn’t show up and even when she did she didn’t get to engage with the story: she dosen’t actively fight her supsension despite the fact she has every reason to resist amity’s parents, and in Gus’ episode despite being his motivating factor in doubting himself after he accidently gets her hurt, she makes all of one apperance and said tragic incident happens OFF SCREEN. It felt like they stopped carring about the character.

Thankfully that’s no longer the case: the season premiere gave us a sneak peak as willow got multiple scenes including an absolutley great one with amity that also gave her her sweet new braids and this episode makes up for a half a season’s neglect by FIRMLY pushing her into the spotlight and giving us an episode showcasing just how far she’s come. 

It’s also the first time it’s really felt like Willows story has stood on it’s own: While Luz and Amity are vital players in it, being the reason she came out of her shell and the reason she was in one respctively, most eps with willow centered around the others just as much and Willows arc was just as much about Amity’s as it was her own. 

Here though the story, while shared with another person, is fueld by her desires: following in her dad’s footsteps (something I didn’t realize till a post pointed it out) Willow is determined to start a flyer derby team, a sport that while not as popular as grudgby is still damn cool: it’s essentially flag football on brooms, with both teams fighting to snatch the flags off the back of the other teams brooms, while being fully within their rights to use their magic as much as they can and as rough as they can. Bodychecks are also not just a part of the sport but vital to it. Turns out her working out last time we saw her was foreshadowing, as when we first see her she’s using her plants as ropes to train from doing strength training to doing jump rope with clover who continues to be the cutest thing alive. She wants to found Hexsides first Flyer Derby team, and that alone shows her growth: she’s gone from a girl doing a tract she hates and filled with insecurity, to a young woman who knows what she wants, goes after it and is ready to lead instead of follow. I’m so proud of her I swear. 

So it’s here Hunter enters.. well he actually started the episode but hey. But to the shows credit the two share equal footing, with Willows desire to have her team run fueling the first half and Hunter’s desire to be seen as a worthy succesor to the golden guard fueling the second, while being his reason to participate in the first. And yes SUCCESOR. Turns out Golden Guard is a legacy title and none of the heads, especially Darius are impressed the current lead is a teenager, to the point they reschedule a meeting he was going to lead... granted I don’t know how any of them think “blowing off the person their boss EXPLICITLY put in charge” is going to go well and Rahne to their credit at least seems sorry about it, you can’t brainwash out his empathy bitch, but this emphasies just how alone Hunter is: he has no one his age there, the people above his age only respect him because they ahve to and his peers all hate him for being a child and in some cases like kiki want him dead becaue he’s in the way. Seriously how is it EVERY TIME we see this poor kid’s life they somehow find a way to make it sadder? So hutner goes to hexside to find recruits, which is really just Darius’ way of getting him out of his gooey hair for a day so he can enjoy his day off, and he’s about what you’d expect

Trying to recuit hamfistedly because he GENINELY dosen’t relaize both how terrible life in the emperor's coven is or how teenagers actually work, going to the same after school club fair as Willow and Luz are. Also as a sidebar one of the summaries said “Luz would put Hunter’s mission in jeapordy” this is a lie. The two don’t interact all episode and the closest we get is both her and amity having an anuresum of pure confusion at the end when they find out he was on Willows team for a day.  Seriously it’s okay to misdirect in solicits but don’t outright lie. 

But yes hunter trying and failing horribly to react with kids his own age is darkly hilaroius, as is Viney, returned from that one episode I never saw with the detention kids, ‘s pet griffin mauling him. Apparently slapstick animal attacks are a thing for me as I also recently enjoyed hank venture getting beaten up by an orangutan, doggie daddy getting attacked by an eagle and i’ve always enjoyed this. 

So yeah add that to the list of “things I enjoy”. Neat. Anyways, Willow soon runs into a problem. of her own: her old abomination professor who, while I obviously did see HIS episode.. I completely forgot existed. I’m sure most of you did too.  This is the only part of the main plot that’s eh to me as it feels like an excuse to put willow in a situation where she needs recurits fast, as after trying to shut down the club entirely, he agrees to approve it if they beat his team in a match.. which is also mostly teenagers

So that’s where our heroes stories collide: hunter needs strong peeps to get the approval of his second dad, and Willow needs to form a team fast to beat dean bitterman.. er abomination man. Who DOES have a cool abomination that’s also a palsiman, complete with unique color. Someone take it from him he does not deserve it. 

So after Hunter shows off his rad moves, and Hunter sees willows own, both decide the other will help their goals. And if I didnt’ ship them before holy shit i would’ve now. Though Willows recuritment tactics need work as her method.. is grabbing him out of the sky and kidnapping him. He intially plans not to join till he find out she wants the best of the best and hey he wants the best. Gus isn’t happy about it because Hunter is doing everything but wearing a sign that says “I’M WITH THE EMPEROR’S COVEN”.. and that’s only because he accidently broke it on the way here, and because Willows happy for once after a rough few years. And look we’ve seen what Gus can do to a person with Bria, Hunter better be careful not to break her heart less he wake up in some freddy kruger shit that’s all i’m asking. 

Anyways once the two are together while the episode has been good thus far it REALLY gets going. While I already shipped them this episode showed just how perfectly compliment one another and how much they have in common: During the ep both claim to be “half a witch” a nickname of willows I honestly forgot since she hasn’t been called that since her debut. But it speaks to both having to overcome similar hudles: Hunter has spent his life trying to prove that despite not having inborn magic, he’s still talented and has to deal with his abusive uncle-dad who has impossibly high standards and gaslights him constantly, co-workers who outright see him as lesser for both his age and lack of inborn magic, and the sheer gauntlet that is getting into the coven, with Hunter so out of it he sees the labyrinths, mountiain stranding and brutal duels as fun rather than the horrible brutal conditoning they are. Hunter seemingly has every advantage except magic.. but all they really have done is left him a miserable, lonely person  throughly loyal to someone clearly intending to sacrifice him for his goals, as he would with anyone. 

In contrast Willow had a loving set of parents (if not perfect given they tried to get her to take a tract she wasn’t capable in).. but while she did have her magic, she simply wasn’t strong and thus Alador and Odalia forced Amity to discard her. Everyone thought she was weak... so she didn’t try becuase she started belivied them. 

It was only when she stopped beliving that that she truly bloomed into who she was always meant to be. It helped though that she slowly gained friends with Gus, Luz and eventualyl once again amity that helped her pick herself back up when her own self doubt threw her down. It’s why it’s utterly fitting to me forming her own team and trying to help others who are understimated gain the same confidence is where she ended up... and why she’s the first to truly break through Hunter’s toxic worldview that’s been drilled into him by Belos. Luz did a bit, but at most got him to back down and Amity tried... but it’s Willow, coming from the perspective of someone who everyone also looked down on and who strives to prove them wrong not for them or because she cares, but for her own sake, that helps him. 

It shows most in Willow picking her team. Though I am bummed NON of the non-human supporting cast joined. Like don’t get me wrong, Viney and Skara are both there for specific reasons and Viney is awesome, so fair enough, but at the same time I would’ve prefered the cresent moon girl or the eye ball or weird mouth kid whose booth was right next to willow. You know spice it up a bit. IT’s one of the few complaints I can make: out of the main cast only king and hooty are non-human. So the one time they coul’dve messed with that they didn’t. Still small complaints. 

Hunter naturally brushes off the rag tag bunch of misfits so Willow has to do another kidnapping.. and show hunter she’s wrong. It again shows her growth: Gus struggles to fly normally but can sky surf at ludcrious speed, Viney is terrible at beast taming but easily the best healer in the school, and Skara is an experinced sports person who while seemingly just glued to her phone, was actually brushing up on strategies. It makes hunter see past his elitiest view. 

The game is also a fucking feast for the eyes: fast paced, full of great magic, some great gags (Seriously Viney give the poor guy ab reak. he didn’t know you’d be facing each other. Jorbo’s life is hard enough as is), and a truly great finish. It also subtly showed that Hunter’s mastered his trademark speed spell, the one he mildly struggled with during his duel with amity, easily using it to win in the clutch. He’s gotten used to Flapjack and it’s a ncie way to show that progressing without telling us. 

So our heroes win and the following scene.. is hilaroius as Hutner fails to get how kidnapping his friends and conscipting them is a good thing, complete with a great

We also get more Steve! See gif above but he’s great, from Hunter complaning skara hit him “It’s okay emotions are running high. Icepack for steve”.. to him being the one to get Hunter to realize what he’s done: while it was fun for hunter, he didn’t know better and was conditined. For Steve being yanked from your home, loosing your palismen (by they way holy shit that’s unsettling), and being put through absolute hell of training without being a shonen anime protagnist.. it sucks. 

So hunter goes to save them, though cleverly we see willow and co do plenty themselves, with Gus cleverly using an illusion on Darius.. and in the end it’s Hutne rhimself standing between them and Darius to save them that turns the tide, proving to the others he is their friend.. he just has a LOT of issues. But Willow warmly still considers him part of the team as they leave and it’s still a powerful scene as for only the second time, Hunter goes against something that woudl supoiisdley strenthen his uncle to do wha’ts right. And while letting Luz go was easy this is something that could easily spill over to his uncle if Darius felt willing and make belos deeply disapointed.. but it dosen’t matter. He’s realized now what his life is.. and dosen’t want his friends to be forced into it. 

And the turn Darius takes here is INSTANTLY engaging. While he’s still a bad person, he’s still complicit in whats going on with rahne and still was going to murder a bunch of teenagers just for pissing him off, it shows complexity he’s not some one note villian and while annoyed with hunter, simply wantd the boy to grow as a person, to grow out of being the obident nephew and try and be a normal kid. So he gifts the kid a scroll and reveals the whole thing.. was just a snipe hunt. His friends weren’t in danger until the last minute, and he’s simply proud Hunter stood up for them and himself. He even fixes the previous GG’s cape. It’s a bold character moment, showing Hunter has a chance to finally break fromhis uncle’s shadow after last time he had the chance he made the wrong , desperate choice, and that maybe not everyone in the covens are irredemibly evil. Darius is still an obstacle to face.. but he may have a place in the isles after belos is overthrown. 

Also yes before we move to the subplot I blatnatly ship hunter and willow but besides the episode itself subtly doing the same, they just work together. They need each other: He needs her confidence, and she needs someone whose willing to back her no matter what. She’s what he always needed.. and hopefully that won’t go terribly for her when he has to make the choice between her and the rest of his friends and big scary colonislt uncle man. Tillt hen we always hav eadorable fanfic so there’s that. 

As for the subplot it’s.. not much. It’s not BAD, the lumity content is great and the bit with Boscha is fucking hilaroius with the most she can muster to them ignoring her is “Your not cute you know> I HAVE MORE FRIENDS THAN YOU!’

And it’s clearly a lighthearted jab at us fans diggin way too deep into everyting.. but given we’re this close to the season finlae, it does feel like a waste of time to spend it on a comedy plot. Even if Tiny Nose (Who just like Luz I was utterly suprised had an actual name.. and wonder how Amity knows that) and Matholomule got great bits. And Tibbles got punched. So it wasn’t TERRIBLE, I just question why this plot was here. Also as for the crew bringing tibbles back again and again

Seriously i’ve seen worse characters but why do you keep using him. No one asked for this. But i’ts harmless good fluff, so it dosen’t really impact anything, I just wish it had more of a point is all. Then again maybe that’s the whole point of it. Still it can’t drag down the a-plot and overall ti’s still a fantastic shiptastic episode. 

Sasha’s Angels:

Look this episode has Maddie not only finally get a cool post-apocalypse look but she has fucking WOLVERINE CLAWS IN HER GLOVES

Seriously just ... maddie having Wolverine claws is something I didn’t know I needed to complete my life till now. Kinda like how I didn’t know I needed a talking panda homonculus till I started reading Jujutsu Kaizen. Sometims life just gives you what you need most when you least expect it. Also now i’m picturing maddie riding on panda’s back so i’m double happy. Not on all fours mind you like on his back diddy kong style. 

Anyways this is a fine episode, though most of the REALLY good stuff is on the fringe of it. To explaint his one has Sasha and Anne go on a mission with Loggle, Croaker, Maddie, and Toadie. Toadie isn’t adapting well to the post apocalypse and while he ends up saving the mission, I HIGHLY question Sasha bringin him along when said save is only because toady fucking snaps. I mean.. i’m happy Toady got a proper focus episode and character development, i’m always down for more Jack McBrayer, but it felt predictable as a result: i knew either his orignization would save htem, he’ dbreka out of his shell, or as happened some comination of the two. It was just a bit predictable though the fact BARRY of all people, you remember him that candy asshole from Maddy’s episode seriously the callbacks this season, being the head of the marauders (sadly not mutant pirates but a neutral party that revels in the chaos andrias has brought), was fucking hilarous. He has a sweet tooth for anarchy! And as always the fight scenes are top notch. 

But the real meat of the episode was with Anne and Sasha, and their clash in how to handle things. When the rest of the group gets captured anne’s first insinct is to naturally go save her friends.... while Sasha tells her to stay put. And this is the kinda thing I was talking about last week: While Anne is on much better terms with Sasha the wounds of who she was and what she did to Anne are still there, as Anne assumes the sit and wait approach means Sasha dosen’t care about them, something she outright says later even as she regrets them. And it’s a great use of this being for both demographics as younger viewers might assume Sasha really is being callous till her faith is proven right.. while most older viewers can sense the dramatic irony. That leaving them to at least try to break out IS the right call: they do quickly, and only get caputred thanks to toady and break out again and succeed. Not barging in there and getting themselves captured too or going for reinforcements was the right call.  And when both talk it over later, Sasha not only understands given her past but explains the hard truth we could see coming: She DOES care about them.. but she’s also their commander. Being the leader means having to make the hard choices sometimes, doing what’s better for everyone instead of yourself and having the utmost faith in your people. It reminds me of Cyclops of the X-Men when written properly: a leader who does truly care about their team and wants them to live.. but does sometimes have to make seemingly cold decsions because it’s what’s needed for all of them to surivive. It’s great character stuff that elevates this episode from pretty good to great. That and maddie getting fucking wolverine claws. 

Olm Town Road:

This one was more of the same as above: a pretty typical plot elivated by character work.. let’s go. 

This time around Sasha’s looking at the bigger picture: the resitance is doing good, having mostly stamped out the Marauders and done many succesful raids.. but the problem is much like the Freedom Fighters, they can’t really make a dent in the larger problem of Robotnik... er Andrias. And unlike with Robotnik and the Freedom Fighters, where as long as they keep fighting it’s good and they eventaully win once they find a way  to, The Wartwood Freedom Fighters are on a timer: the longer they take to actually do something about Andrias, the more troops he gets and the closer he gets to conquering other worlds.. and if he gets another world it’ll just be that much harder to stop him. 

So naturally given the title the whole Mother of Olms things comes back into play, but the problem is no one’s seen an olm in decades as their isolationists... except Sprig and Polly who remember Lsil and Angwin from Quarallers Pass. You remember that one right? The one that was pure

Except for the boyfriend gag and the characters their bringing back for this episode? Yeah I tried to block it out like Nam too. And look I still hate that episode but if your going to bring something back, those two are worth it and this episode gives them a shocking amount of depth: After our heroes head onto joe, whose still around thankfully, and find the siblings (in the most hilarious way possible as she picks a fight with sprig “Yes WHINE MORE”), and Sasha threatens to cut them open from the inside if they try eating her, we find out their exiles: they bickered on watch and thus got banished.. and having made tons of mistakes she regrets herself, Sasha wants them to have another chance. This part works.. it paints these two seemingly monsterous figures as sympathetic, simply having grown desperate to eat. dosen’t make eating kids okay but still, it does make them more complex than two bickering monsters. 

The issue with the ep is more olm town itself, which is your standard isolatonist asshole community, with the leader refusing to acknowledge the drill above them from andrias or the war and shooing them away. Honestly the episode feels like a shorter version of the drill from avatar the last airbender; our heroes are trying to get to a heavily guarded place and have to do a task. Hell they already DID that minus the asshole isolatoinsim with “Marcy at the Gates”. So yeah this one feels tired and the twins and sasha are the only thing that really works about it.  But Sasha telling the leader of the olms, or vice president under mother olm, off was OH SO satisfying, as was her offering the twins a home.. though thankfully they get to come back. So yeah not the series BEST but still had enough good stuff to make it worth it, including the twins sacrifice of nearly getting baked in the sun to save their people. 

Next Week: Amity gets into underground fight clubbing to make this stop with her dad

 And we finally find out just what the pot meant. But i’m more excited abotu SPRIG AND GRIME EPISODE. HELLS YEAH. 

If you enjoyed this review thanks for reading, like and reblog as you may and follow me on patreon! Even 1 dollar backers get a free review and now a free in character chat on signup! Just give me a hook I can work with and i’ll do the rest. Also you get to choose a selectoin for my monthly poll and every person that joins gets me to my stretch goals. And the next one is owl house season 1 reviews so if you wants that, come and gets that. 

patreon

[wavedream]

"why are you even doing this", an Explanation TM

Here on this sideblog you will find a project I have been threatening to do on various social media platforms since 2019. Absolutely nobody asked for this, but you're getting it anyway!

As to what said project actually is, this is going to be an issue-by-issue reread of and retrospective on the 2002-2004 Transformers G1 comic series published by now-defunct publisher Dreamwave Productions. There's two main motivations behind this project: the first is simply that it's been over a decade now since I so much as glanced at any of these comics, and when I did initially take a look way back in 2009 and 2010, I didn't pay much attention to them at all. I'm extremely curious as to how they read in 2021, and that's simple enough.

For a more detailed explanation as to why I thought this very excessive project was inexplicably a good idea, as well as some details on how I'm going about it, check below the read more.

The second reason I wanted to do this is that since I got into Transformers all those years ago, the recognizability of Dreamwave as a part of Transformers fandom history has really decreased. When I got into the franchise it was around five years since Dreamwave had gone under as a comics publisher. I learned about it as a bit of very recent fandom drama pretty much immediately. Dreamwave's extremely ignoble end was a matter of absolute infamy in the fandom, and brought up pretty regularly. People made a lot of Pat Lee jokes and expected you to know what they meant without explanation.

Since the mid-2010s, however, I've noticed that's changed a lot; partly because it's much older news now than it used to be, of course, but also because the combined success of IDW, Bayverse, Transformers Animated and Transformers: Prime at bringing in completely new fans since then means a lot of people around these days just never heard those years-long injokes about That One Trashfire TM, and since these comics can't be re-printed these days, that means there's not really a lot of awareness of them. And since there are some places where Dreamwave has wound up being surprisingly influential, I think it's worth at least one re-visit.

There are a couple of things to answer before I get started on the actual project, so here's a quick list of them:

+ No, I'm not doing the Armada tie in comics that Dreamwave also did alongside their original take on G1. This is mostly just because I haven't done an Armada rewatch in a decade either and would need to do that first, I think. I actually own some of those though, like physical copies, so maybe one day. But for this, we're just doing their G1 comics, starting with the miniseries and then going into the short-lived ongoing.

+ I don't remember the actual content of these comics very well at all. I didn't much care about them when I first took a look back in the day. I just have vague recollections of the odd plot point and a general sense they were at times quite... strange. We can all (re)discover this together.

+ I am not going to give a schedule for this blog. I will post whenever I feel like it. Promising otherwise would end in hubris and disaster.

+ This blog is being run by me, @decepti-thots! If somehow you found this blog and not that one rather than the other way around... uhhh, now you know, I guess!

With that out of the way:

Before we get into the actual retrospectives, I'm going to write up a brief overview of pertinent stuff about Dreamwave as a publisher and their history with Transformers comics. It's not going to be a comprehensive overview, for the simple reason that there are already places you can go for that, and there's no point in me doing that instead of just linking you to TF Wiki's page on the topic. But we'll take a look at the basic context of where TF was at when these comics launched and what Dreamwave actually was before we get into the comic itself.

So keep an eye out for that! <3

[shiliria]

The misunderstanding with the  name Fleetway.

Who and what is “Fleetway”?

The character most people know as "Fleetway" or "Fleetway Super Sonic" is both a powered-up form of Sonic and over time it became his own character in-universe . We're not talking about the Sonic from the games, tv shows or even the IDW or Archie comics here. This particular Super Sonic and his Sonic only exist in the "Sonic the Comic" continuity , one of the most obscure Sonic media there is. It's an old british comic that differs drastically from most of the lore the games and other Sonic media has established for the characters and their world.

A lot of things are completely different in this particular interpretation, but we're not here to talk about that. What most people know about is the "Super Sonic" in this universe (even if they don’t know about where he came from), who is a completely different take from any other there is. 

It's not only his own character , especially after he gets separated from Sonic, but also a villain, one of the main villains of the whole serie (until he wasn't,  but that is another story). I won't go into detail about the story of the character, since you can read most of it in any wiki, video or just by reading the original source material.

What's the meaning of "Fleetway" and why put in front of "Super Sonic" (or any other character) then ?

The name "Fleetway" comes from the publisher of the original comic.

Egmont Fleetway editions were the ones who published the comic. 

(Aka. "Sonic the comic". NOT the American one call "Sonic the hedgehog" that were published by Archie and now IDW.)

Like we established before this "Super Sonic" is his own character with personality and backstory attach to it. 

The same goes for all the characters in this continuity.

And fans wanted to create more content about them. (Via fanart, fanfics, etc.) Fleetway and/or STC became a nickname the fans themselves placed on the characters to differentiate them from the Archie ones and avoid confusion (it was probably easier that saying "the characters from the comic, but not that other comic. This other comic".)

So "STC Super Sonic", "Fleetway Super Sonic" or just "Fleetway" for short became the label that would keep this character separated from other interpretations there were of him. And the same applied to all the cast.

Also if you only write "Super Sonic" in any searcher is going to show things related to the Super Sonic from the games (or even Archie or IDW).

Another example would be, you need to search "Fleetway Amy", if you are looking for that particular interpretation of the  character. But for "Tekno the Canary" you don't need the "Fleetway" at the beginning, since she originated from the comic and doesn't exist outside of it.

So, why there are people that call this "Super Sonic " just "Fleetway" in-universe?

Super Sonic was always the character that got everyone's attention and also got the  most fan-content out of all the characters in the comic by far.

Some people that didn't know (or didn't ask or even research) about the character,  where he came from and the meaning of the "Fleetway" part in his name and just saw the fan content, just assumed that was the name of said character, or the name of the transformation itself (like Dark Sonic or Hyper Sonic. And that's why, if you look for "Fleetway Sonic" you'll find a lot of STC Super Sonic instead of the STC Sonic) .

Also, we need to consider that back in the day it was really hard to get anything related to the original source material, since they were barely any scans around the internet and  unless you lived in the UK and bought your own copy of the comic. It was impossible to get it anywhere else.

So, these people started to call him "Fleetway" both in fandom and in-universe, and this created even more misconception for those who also didn't know about the character.

We have  reached a point where a lot people in the general fandom (not in the STC one) don't question the name "Fleetway" , but get confused when someone just call him by his canon name "Super Sonic".

The summary of all of this is just:

Due to  the lack of access to the original source material and some assumptions  with the naming .

This Super Sonic ended up suffering from the biggest case of "I am not Shazam" of all the entirety of the Sonic fandom.

[the-dragongirl]

Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history.  We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character).  [EDIT: Thank you @legok9​ for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

[helenarlett-rex]

Helen rambles on in a long post about her her relationship with Ninja Turtles.

Something my readers may or may not know about me is that I am a huge old school fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was born at just the right time to be just the right age for the original Ninja Turtles cartoon back when it first came out in 1987. I lived through the big Ninja Turtle boom of the late 80s/early 90s when you couldn’t turn on a TV or step outside your house without having the Ninja Turtles shoved into your face one way or another. And I loved it. It was glorious. I fully blame Ninja Turtles for turning me into a furry. And I’m cool with that...

As a kid I watched TMNT every single day, read the comic books any chance I had to get my hands on them, and had a massive collection of Ninja Turtles toys. (Like... thinking back to the financial state we were in when I was a kid, I’m really not sure how my parents even afforded to buy all the stuff I had.) Until the day came that Ninja Turtles became “occultic,” and then I didn’t have any of that anymore... My mother bought into the satanic panic pretty hard back then so it was always just a matter of time before something I loved became “of the Devil” and it would be taken away from me. Once my Ninja Turtles collection (which would have been pretty fucking valuable today if I still had all of it) made its way to the dreaded bi-annual yard sale, I wound up slipping from the fandom.

I never fell out of it entirely. Yeah, I never got to watch the original cartoon all the way to the end of the series, but I would catch an episode here and there when my mother wasn’t around. And by the time The Next Mutation started airing in 1997 enough time had passed that Ninja Turtles wasn’t on my mother’s shit list anymore (she’d moved on to other things) so when I was a teenager I got back into watching Turtles with that series. I watched the 2003 series, and the 2012 series after that... But it never really went back to being something I was obsessed over like it had been when I was a kid. It was just something I watched on TV because it was nostalgic.

Ninja Turtles still held a special place in my heart... Always has... I’d even attribute much of career as a writer to the existence of TMNT. Eastman and Laird kind of came up with the idea as something of a joke, but then they published it anyways and despite how insane the idea was, it became a massive hit. So I’ve always looked back at Ninja Turtles and told myself no idea is too stupid or insane to find an audience or even become successful. But even with the esteem I hold for the franchise, I wouldn’t have considered myself in the fandom anymore.

So when IDW got the rights to start producing comic books for Ninja Turtles I didn’t really pay it any attention. I had read the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic book published by Archie comics back in the day, but by this time I had fallen into just being a casual fan so I wasn’t really interested in getting back into comics. I was happy to see that someone was publishing comics for it again... Just didn’t feel any need to read them.

And then I heard that IDW had introduced a 5th turtle... A turtle woman... And I was like, that’s cool. We already had Venus de Milo back in The Next Mutation, so it’s not really a new concept. Despite the way many of the fans reacted, I actually liked Venus de Milo so it was nice to see someone giving a turtle lady another shot. I hoped this new one would have better luck than the last one did, but that was about the extent of my thoughts on the matter.

Then I saw her and I was like, okay... She’s actually kind of badass...

And I approve of giving her a body shape that isn’t any different from the guy turtles. Not that I hated Venus‘ more feminine body shape or anything... But portraying her as just another Ninja Turtle instead of feeling a need to draw attention to the fact that she’s a woman every single time you look at her is a nice change of pace.

This got me interested enough to look into the comic she’s appearing in and to my surprise I learned that the comic is being written by Kevin Eastman, one of the original two creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (The better of the two if you ask me.) Now suddenly I’m really interested... A new Ninja Turtles comic book by Eastman himself? Without Laird there to interfere with all of his bullshit...? Okay, that settled it. I was going to have to give this a look.

So I did... And not only have I found the comic to be surprisingly good... but then I get to see our new turtle, Jennika (Jenny) and see what she’s like, and... oh god... Not only is she a tough, smart, capable Ninja Turtle, but she’s also an ex-con who’s done time in prison and completely hilarious? And oh god... she’s self conscious of the way she looks...? That’s something I can relate to heavily.

Okay... You are already making me love this character far too much... I mean, the only thing left that you could possibly do to make her any better would be to have her come out a queer.

Okay and then it fucking happens!

You made a tough, badass, turtle lady with a shady past who looks like a guy, is self conscious about how she looks, dresses punk, is humorous without being over the top about it, AND she’s bisexual? It’s like... Did someone tell Eastman I stopped being a hardcore fan? Did he sit down and deliberately write a character I could relate to on nearly every level just to get me back? Because that’s what it feels like right now... I mean, she’s even dating a hot pig girl, which is very much to my tastes...

Eastman may not realize this was written for me, but... this was fucking written for me...

So I guess I’m back in the Ninja Turtle fandom again... *Shrugs*

[macadam]

Hey I don't know if you're the person to ask this but I've been trying to kind of piece together in which order to read which tf comics ( like idw and lost light and stuff ) because I've been seeing snippets around forever but I'm afraid to dig in more because I don't want to run into spoilers so my knowledge of them except for the characters I'm seeing drawn is approximately zero. I've only ever consumed the animated series ( g1, tfa and tfp ). Can you just kinda tell me where to start, and are they even connected ( sorry if the questions are dumb )? It's absolutely fine if you won't answer! To be fair I'm kind of a chicken and this isn't your hassle. Have a nice day either way!

Hi hello. I'm going to start of my answer to this ask by saying that I'm probably not the person to ask about transformers comics, because I am very much new here and only just discovered where IDW 1 ends and IDW 2 begins. So.. I'm pretty lost as well.

That being said!! When I was looking into reading the comics I did a little bit of research into the timeline and publication dates, and stumbled upon a few good articles.

If what you're looking for is the organic reading experience. That is, to read the story in the order it was released (and arguably intended to be read), here's a list of all the main transformers comics in order of release. I’d suggest finding the earliest comic on the list that you’ve heard of or been thinking of reading and start there, because some of this stuff really has been left in the dust. There is some overlap between issues, as you will see. I'd wouldn’t worry about the interjections of the series in red and green, as those are one-shots and limited series which, generally, don't infringe on the plot of the larger-run comics. The overlap is more to give you an idea of what comics should be read together. 

I was really confused initially on what was going on with the comics timeline because a lot of people interchange IDW 1 and IDW 2 with Phase 1 and Phase 2 which-- it-- they’re different... so there's that. This is a list that breaks down what’s in phase 1, phase 2, and the expanded universe (which is basically also phase 2 as far as I’m concerned). Along with publication dates and authors.  

Here's what I've amassed so far: Phase 1, Phase 2, and the EU are all part of the IDW 1 continuity. (Sidenote: the big player in phase 1 was Simon Furman, the big player in phase 2/EU was James Roberts. This doesn’t really matter I just find it interesting which writers are given the mic during which eras. Anyways.) Phase 1 focuses on pre-war and current-war storylines, while phase 2/EU focuses on post-war storylines (this isn’t 100% it’s just a pattern I’ve noticed). IDW 2 has barely come out yet, only including comics published from 2019 onward. 

I’ve personally decided to start with the phase 2 comics that start off with James Robert’s MTMTE. This is the most popular series on Tumblr so I’d imagine it’s the one you’ve heard the most about. There are the occasional references back to comics from phase 1 in MTMTE, so what I have chosen to do is just write them all down for future reading (last stand of the wreckers is one that’s been mentioned a lot, off the top of my head). I know that MTMTE and RID were written a little bit in tandem with each other, and there’s some larger overlaps around issue #23 for both of them (you’ll notice this in both reading lists I linked) so I will likely pick up reading RID around the issue 23 mark. 

Here’s my TL;DR digest: 

If you’re worried about spoilers, read the comics in order of publication, not based off timeline chronology. You’ll never be given information before you should, that way. 

Phase 2 has all the stuff by James Roberts in it, which is mainly what everyone talks about on here. It’s where I’ve decided to start. 

If you want to start with comics from the very beginning (2005), I’d suggest following the first list I linked. It’s condensed down to the main comics, and shows you which ones are connected storylines, vs one-shots and limited runs. 

All IDW 1 comics (phase 1, 2, EU) fall under one continuity. IDW 2 is a brand new continuity started in 2019. 

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: March 2021

Hey March was a weird month what with all the pandemic anniversaries and such but here we are. It’s March. Goodbye March.

……….FILM……….

Attack the Block (2011) After about 20 minutes my partner asked if this was basically a British episode of Goosebumps and....she’s not wrong? I liked it back when it came out but it’s aged really well. Tight script and casual class politics along with the very good space stuff.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) It turns out I’d remembered so little of this movie that it was essentially a fresh viewing. The artistry and ambition still holds up today plus a noir set in L.A. is always good time. But then you add cartoon hijinks and it’s all just that much better.

The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears  (2021) So we watched the ep on Britney Spears and...it didn’t really seem to cover all that much. It kept feeling like it was about to start and then after an hour and a half of that it just sorta wraps with a small legal victory. I know this isn’t fiction so I’m not expecting a happy ending, but I don’t know what it wanted to say.

CBS presents Oprah with Meghan and Harry  (2021) I mean I don’t think anything said or shared was surprising anyone. Though I appreciate Oprah not letting either of them sidestep a question. Either answer or say you won’t; none of this fancy poetry.

……….TELEVISION……….

Great British Bake Off (Episode 9.01 to 9.04) This is our first season without Mary Berry, Sue, and Mel and it’s a real shift! But despite all the new faces, it still feels very much like the good-natured GBBO I’ve come to love. Great stuff.

City of Ghosts (Episode 1.01 to 1.06) I hope all that I’m seeing about this means that Netflix will greenlight another season and more television like this. The artistry is fantastic, the concept allows for both whimsy and poignancy, and it’s casually funny in a way that I can’t fully describe. Great stuff.

WandaVision (Episode 1.09) So this didn’t quite stick the landing for me. I figured there’d be some blasts and magic and zooming around in the sky, but I also assumed we’d get some resolution (maybe even consequences) for what Wanda did to the town. Sure, she’s not the villain and it wasn’t intentional, but the show appeared to be built around this theme of denial and acceptance yet abandoned that in the end. But I will give it this: it really has sold me on the relationship between Wanda and Vision.

The Night Manager (Episode 1.05 to 1.06) You know I think I’ve been so primed by Bond films and action set pieces that, while I won’t spoil the ending, I was pleasantly surprised by how it wrapped up. It was a nice change of pace. 

The Bachelor (Episode 25.09 to 25.12) What a season. It was a mess, sure, but I also think it was the uncomfortable mix of stagnation and progress. The show needs to evolve and I feel like the finale and aftershow really highlighted that the change has to happen. Maybe it’s starting to happen already or in future seasons it’ll change whether production likes it or not.

……….READING……….

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Complete) Really fantastic read and such an effortless blend of science fiction and...necromantic fantasy! Dark and gross and light and funny all at the same time. 100% recommend and am very excited for the next entry despite this feeling whole and complete on its own.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) I want to work my way through the series (or at least the original 14 written by Baum) so we gotta start at the beginning! There’s such a light air about the book that everyone kinda just rolls with everything. Sentient objects and talking animals and lots of murder are just met with a “Great! on to the next adventure!” and I love it.

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) It’s really great that the second book has a lot of the same core components (human child meets a bunch of wacky sidekicks while on a very small adventure) yet casually expands the mythos and world. It even builds on the plot established by the first book (the main conflict revolving around Scarecrow being overthrown as leader of Oz ever since the Wizard disappeared). Great stuff.

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) Bringing back Dorothy and it’s really a merging of characters from book 1 and 2. If anything, this series is shaping up to be about making friends and the genial conflict resolution is really heartwarming. Now i’m keen to watch Return to Oz.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) This might just be me but I find a mostly human cast (outside of Jim the Cab Horse) to be far less interesting than the diverse adventuring parties of the first three books. Lots of fun stuff in here and playing fast and loose with the world-building works well; highlight the fun parts of a land made of wood and then continue on to the next location! Great stuff.

Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 9 by Ryoko Kui (Complete) It feels like everything is starting to come together and wrap up and I’m totally here for a story that knows what it wants to do. And while there doesn’t seem to be as much room cooking with the overarching plot that is driving the story, it never feels like it’s moved away from the heart of the characters and for that I can’t recommend it enough. Excellent world-building, excellent cast, and really great humor.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection Volume 9 by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Mateus Santolouco, Dave Wachter, Pablo Tunica, Sophie Campbell, and many more! (Complete) The human/secret agent stuff will always be boring to me (even if they’re hunting the turtles) cause that’s not what I want in a comic. I don’t want Batman hunting burglars, I want bright colourful villains for our bright and colorful heroes. Luckily we get into a pocket dimension for a toad god and his relatives during the second half of the volume. Overall, still my favourite ooze series.

……….AUDIO……….

Musicalsplaining (Podcast) Great host dynamics and hot dang I love a good musical.

……….GAMING……….

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The group has taken a break from the infected giant colony to sort out some Pirate drama! Further session breakdowns are over here on Reddit!

Dungeons & Designers (Podcast) I had the rare chance to play in a D&D campaign instead of run it and it’s even up online! They also air the sessions through their podcast!

And that’s it! As always, let me know anything you think I should check out and thanks for reading.

Happy Wednesday.

[thanksjro]

Dark Cybertron Chapter 6: This Sure is a Comic I’m Reading.

The Dinobots are chilling out by the standing Titan, because Slag went and got his ass kicked by the super death wave a few issues back.

Excuse me, Slug.

There’s real-world context for this change- you see, in England, the word “slag” is often used as a derogatory term. Specifically, it’s either used as a stand in for “prostitute” or “whore”, or in more of a generalized “I greatly dislike this person” sort of way. It’s typically aimed at women, which is likely why Arcee said something to him as opposed to anyone else.

This little exchange is interesting, since Dark Cybertron Chapter 6 was published in 2014. Our boy Slug here first showed up in the original cartoon, back in the 80s, and was in the Marvel UK comics, where they didn’t change his name. A good portion of the IDW creative team, including 50% of the writers for this event storyline, are also from the UK. Seems like someone finally got sick of calling a whole-ass robot dinosaur a slut.

Not that there’s anything wrong with enjoying casual sex, or being a sex worker, but slapping labels on other people without their input is sort of a shitty thing to do, especially when you’re doing it in a franchise typically aimed at younger audiences, and with a surprisingly large following in the UK, where that term is used.

Anyway, while this conversation was happening, the Titan moved, and when it did, it kicked up a shit-ton of dust. Astrotrain, who is laying off to the side with his legs and an arm off, offers Swoop his binoculars. When asked why the hell he has binoculars- which doesn’t seem so strange to me, given that they’re standard military equipment in a lot of places- he tries to explain that he’s got shit eyes, and didn’t want Megatron to know about them. This would be an interesting glimpse into the inner workings of the Decepticons and how they view disability, if Swoop actually gave a damn.

But he doesn’t.

So it’s not.

Swoop sees with his special eyes that the guys who went down into the Crystal City have escaped, and are currently trying to outrun the Titan, and also the title of this issue.

Watch out, that typography’s gonna fuckin’ get you!

The Dinobots start firing on the Titan, which does fuck-all, and Prowl yells at them to head for Iacon, since that’s where the Titan’s going. Bumblebee, Skywarp, and Megatron are revealed to be MIA. Bummer.

Over on that weird water planet the Lost Light landed on a few issues back, the Rod Pod gang have puttered into Metroplex’s eye socket, and are currently making a Fantastic Voyage. Getaway asks where the hell Metroplex’s eyeball got to, but nobody has an answer for him, least of all Metroplex. Strange happenings on this weird water planet.

Ratchet gives everyone the skinny on Titan physiology theory- thank god he came along on the trip so I could at least get a little lore to feed my brain through this slog.

So, Metroplex’s spark could actually be out right now. Even though the lights are still on, that doesn’t mean anyone’s actually home, because the power of his spark needs time to actually travel through the body, and it needs a lot more time than the average robot, because he’s just so goddamned big. Humans also need time for their animating force… or, uh, blood to travel through the body. This is why we have a pulse. If it was instantaneous, we wouldn’t, but we’d probably also explode, because our squishy little bodies wouldn’t be able to handle that shit.

The gang starts scanning for life signs, even though they’re not even sure if they’ll be able to pick anything up. Brainstorm theorizes that the water could be causing degradation to Metroplex’s body. Getaway is still stuck on the Rod Pod existing. He’s having a moment. He’s been having a moment, really, ever since he saw the damn thing.

The results from the life-scan come in, and it looks like Metroplex might actually be okay, because there’s a blip for everyone in the Rod Pod, plus one! Hooray!

Nobody tell them about the hanger-on who’s basically glued himself to the ass of the Pod. We’ll let them have this little win, if only for a moment.

Ratchet suggests they head for the brain to check things out. Brainstorm reads back the report on the water sample he took, holding his data pad as precariously as he possibly can as he does. There’s admium flakes in the water. Nobody knows what this means, so they try to call Swerve, who is a metallurgist, for his professional opinion. The call goes to voicemail. Pity, that.

The fellas show up at the cranium, and there’s a small issue; Metroplex’s brain isn’t there. It wasn’t yanked out, either- it’s clean as a whistle in there, all things considered. Next stop- the spark. Hopefully they can get there before all the lights go out, because it’s beginning to look rather grim for ol’ Plexy.

Back on Cybertron, Starscream is asking about the fatality rate of the death wave, which is a bit funny to read now that I’ve typed it out. Tankor- who is our tie-in issue character today- decides he’s going to start some shit with Starscream, even as people are evaporating around him in the medical center he’s volunteered to assist at. Starscream takes the verbal stripping down with a straight face, because at this point, it’s just par for the course for him. Being head honcho of a whole planet kinda sucks, as he’s quickly finding out.

Flatline, who is also here, makes a crack at Starscream’s expense, and Starscream decides that that’s going to be the straw that breaks his camel’s back, as he starts getting dangerously sarcastic with the guy. Too bad this isn’t the time for that, however, because the Titan just showed up at the city limits.

Wow, Titan really said “fuck those two guys on the left in particular.”

Over in the Dead Universe, it turns out that the massive fiery laser blast from last issue DIDN’T kill everyone, and doesn’t actually seem like it was ever intended to. I suppose it was some sort of transport beam that Nova Prime used for his entrance, like the dramatic bitch he is. That’s neat, I guess.

Hardhead’s pretty upset by Nightbeat’s betrayal, not that Nightbeat really cares- being brainwashed tends to have that effect. Hardhead starts slamming his skull against the containment cube, living up to his name and also making himself look like a fool. Cyclonus is beginning to regret agreeing to this trip. Orion Pax punches the wall and starts yelling at Nightbeat for being a traitor, pretty much breaking his hand in the process. Rodimus tries to get him to chill out, and gets a knuckle sandwich for his troubles.

Also, this whole thing is a ruse. Orion managed to crack the cube, and he’s gonna try to get them out, but he can only do it if Nightbeat doesn’t realize what’s going on. Once Rodimus is let in on the plan, he tries to butter up ol’ Ikea Johnson, who notices the very mysterious something that’s on Rodimus’ palm. The thing that’s NOT his forcefield generator, that we don’t get to know about just yet.

Seeing the mysterious something makes Nightbeat fall to his knees, clutching his head in pain. At least, that’s what Orion says happened. I don’t know what happened or why, or why Orion would fucking know what happened or why. Or even, really, if it was Orion making the claim in the first place.

Not even any feet to try to connect to characters. I’m just guessing on previous panels.

“Dark Cybertron” makes me so, so tired.

Anyway, Nova Prime tells everyone to get on their knees, lest he shoot them with his big honkin’ back turrets.

Back inside Metroplex, the fellas have exited the Rod Pod and are on the hunt for Metroplex’s spark. Someone’s gone and drawn arrows pointing in the direction of the spark chamber, though who exactly is a mystery. Lots of mystery going on this issue. The boys decide to see where the graffiti takes them, leaving the Rod Pod to whatever fate might befall it while they’re gone.

Nobody likes the Rod Pod very much.

Also, that hanger-on from earlier is still there. This’ll turn out great, surely!

We get treated to a double-page spread of Escher proportions, as the gang tries to traverse the inner workings of Metroplex, until they hit an arrow that seemingly hits a dead end. When they brute force their way through the ceiling, it’s bad news bears; they’re right back where they started. Whirl, our most volatile friend, takes out his frustration on the Rod Pod, only for more bad news to reveal itself: the Pod’s been rigged to explode by the hanger-on!

And that’s a series wrap on the Rod Pod Squad! Let’s give ‘em a hand, folks!

Back in the Dead Universe, Nova Prime is busy deadnaming Orion, and generally just being an asshole. He notices Cyclonus off in the corner, and starts being an asshole at him too, because that’s how Nova interacts with the world. It’s all he knows.

It’s at this point that Cyclonus gives Hardhead the signal, and Hardhead bashes through the crack in the cube. Too bad it reseals itself directly behind him. Hardhead goes to punch Nova Prime, and gets his hand crushed into pulp for his troubles. Then he dies, because that was his forcefield hand.

And that’s a series wrap on Hardhead!

Nova Prime informs everyone that he’ll be taking them to visit a pal of his.

You know, this reveal would be a hell of a lot more poignant if I could FUCKING TELL WHO THE SHIT THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE.