#tf comic licensing

[numberonetribble]

Due to their size, it's easy to forget that Piston is still a baby, brand new to the world and every feeling they feel is the biggest thing they've ever felt. They're a child with a child's understanding of nuance. Piston is a happy sparkling, they've never cried in their short life, they hadn't had a reason to. But this? They still don't cry, they just want this feeling to go away.

This happens the same day Piston sneaks out of the house to follow Breakdown.

Bonus:

[optimistpax]

Well looks like the cat’s out of the bag wrt tf comics licensing.

[decepti-thots]

🔥 on IDW

People like to blame IDW2's lackluster fan reception among enthusiasts for them losing the license. I think this is bullshit, and that they would have lost it whether or not they continued the IDW1 continuity instead. At the end of the day, IDW as a license holder never had amazing sales figures for the Transformers comics after the original launch post-Dreamwave- I know Roberts and Barber have both confirmed that MTMTE was doing better than the official sales figures indicated (as it was selling unusually well on digital platforms due to its demographic appeal, which are not counted because Comics Industry Bullshit), and I believe them when they say that helped there. But even by the overall dismal standards of USAmerican monthly comic sales (and they are dismal), by 2018 every single comic they were selling for Transformers was not looking good figures wise, and nothing they tried was boosting them for long. Hasbro didn't take it away because critical reception was poor; they took it away because they saw a better offer, and IDW as a company is just often... not... great at getting their comics the kind of publicity that is needed to keep your longterm serialised monthly comic out of the cancellation-figure graveyards. It's sad as hell it got cut short and I really wish it hadn't been. But I think attributing it to anything but sadly mundane comics industry problems- that unless you are Literally Batman, the market is tiny and highly spread out and keeping comics profitable is a losing game- is grasping at straws. Certainly I think laying all the blame at Ruckley's feet because not everyone loved IDW2 is unfair. (It sold better than the LL and OP runs in phase three!) (That relaunch was, of course, also comics industry BS, and not their fault.)

By contrast, Skybound is as of the latest sales figures outselling EVERY SINGLE DC COMIC. This is so incredibly rare among non-big-two comics. It won two Eisners. That is near unthinkable for a licensed comic. It's clear that Hasbro took that offer when the license was being renewed because Skybound had a plan to make TF comics explosively popular again, one which has self evidently worked to date, and there's really no need to get conspiratorial about why this happened when that explains the decision perfectly well. Shrug.

[geek-antic]

I wish I could’ve asked the writers of idw2 about the background story they had written for soundwave.

Because it seems like they had something pretty clear in mind that they wanted to delve into. And from the looks of things it could’ve been a rather interesting background story.

i love the how the artist was able to make him so expressive I can only imagine that it would’ve given some much needed depth to Soundwave’s character. Also would’ve been nice to finally see him get a proper origin story which I don’t think he really got in idw1 (the fact he starts out with no memories of his origins and no resolution still bothers me)

But I admittedly have a lot more issues with idw2, (mostly the repetition of words and sentences) yet surprisingly from what I did read in regards to soundwave I didn't have any major issues with his portrayal. (y'know aside from his yellow visor and job position) from what we did see of him he behaved coherently and according to his character. His little issues with starscream added some fun drama and made him a bit more relatable.

And then throughout the comics there are hints to soundwave having what seems to be a complicated past involving both soundblaster and sixshot? Which points towards it being a mercenary group of some kind.

And we never saw him in any of the flashbacks of the war against the Three fold spark, despite it being the perfect place for soundwave to become acquainted with megatron. but no, there's no explanation for how they met but there is a lot of megatron giving soundwave both orders and almost mentor like advice.

Its always a shame to see a continuity go dead when it had just started but I can’t say i’ll mourn anything else from it that isn’t soundwave. which says a lot.

RIP idw2 tf continuity, atleast you gave us a nice little story in the shattered glass comics you made before you lost the license.

Though now that the new license holder is image comics, I look forward to seeing what they’re gonna do with it. And if they’ll learn anything from the previous continuities.

[dynared]

Well, Year Two of the Energon Universe is in the books with the Free Comic Book Day Special, and with the spoiled appearance of Matt Trakker of M.A.S.K., albeit not looking identical to Duke anymore, it's once again time to check on the other Hasbro properties and see if any of them are viable to also enter the Energon Universe, especially with a fourth slot for the books open, since Robert Kirkman was adamant that they would not publish more than four books at a time.

Well M.A.S.K. is set, but whether they get their own book or not is a question mark. Ever since Hasbro bought the property, they have had a loose connection to G.I. Joe as separate but allied organizations, culminating in a Matt Trakker figure being released under the Joe branding.

They could easily fill the role of a private organization studying the Cybertronians, or even what the Bay movies tried and failed to do with the Order of the Wittwicians, having a group aware of the Transformers and dealing with them in secret.

ROM and the Micronauts: When it first appeared that Marvel was going to be reprinting the ROM and Micronauts stories, there were some assumptions Hasbro had given up on trying to make stories about the characters independent of Marvel. Two years later, while ROM Vol 1 is the bestselling Marvel omnibus of all time, there has been no word on trying to make a new ROM or new Micronauts story. They could potentially return to the Energon Universe but would face the same problem they did in their atrocious IDW comics, trying to rebuild the mythology of the Spaceknights and Inner Space from scratch, and not being able to use any of the characters Marvel had came up with, although Marvel’s attempt to use them without the Micronauts resulted in Quantumania, aka the moment where the public opinion of the MCU started to shift considerably more sour than at any point prior. They may be available, but it may be an incompatible mixture. I don’t suppose Marvel is interested in them again, are they?

Action Man - Originally the branding for European releases of the original G.I. Joe figures licensed by Hasbro to British company Palitoy, Action Man was eventually turned into a do-it-all super spy when Hasbro directly bought the rights to the franchise, both as a competitor to Mattel’s Max Steel toyline and TV show (which also was about an extreme athlete turned spy. No word on whether or not the XXX franchise also took inspiration). A spy character could work as a supporting character for another book, but the last time Hasbro tried to do an Action Man comic, it died in four issues, leading Hasbro to awkwardly shove him into the critically panned low selling Revolutionaries comic. He may just not be worth the hassle to be his own star, but can work better as a supporting role.

The Visionaries - While it was originally believed that after the failure of Transformers vs Visionaries that the Knights of the Magical Light would be shoved into a corner to be forgotten, they get namedropped in Void Rivals. Furthermore, unlike the IDW versions, Hot Rod appears to have a rather favorable opinion of them, speaking fondly about a “Prysmodian wedding” (Prysmos being the planet where Visionaries takes place). They could easily be the focus of a Void Rivals arc where our heroes (depending on who you follow the book for, that’s either Darak or Solia, the titular Void Rivals, or Hot Rod and Springer, who seem to be on half the covers to boost sales) visit the planet while the magical war is going on. But getting their own series might be tougher.

Hell, so far that seems to be the issue with a lot of the non-Joe/TF franchises that could theoretically be in the Energon Universe. They would be potential interesting additions to the stories of G.I. Joe and the Transformers, but are far less likely to carry their own books. That leaves one Hasbro property, one that IDW adored even when it sold like crap. One Hasbro seems to have declared radioactive.

Jem and the Holograms.

Yes, Jem.

https://youtu.be/m6G_o1MYECg?si=ekg9_H_lVSs5xB8V

The theme song may say Jem is truly outrageous, but after the legendary failure of the Jem movie (less than $2 million profit on a paltry $5 million budget) and the comics from IDW selling the worst out of all of the Hasbro licenses, Hasbro tends to think she’s truly radioactive.

She has been mentioned ONCE during the Energon Universe’s run, in a letters page in the Cobra Commander miniseries from writer Joshua Williamson.

You know, there might be something to this. But it would be a radical departure from Jem as was done in IDW and might just piss off just about everybody.

What if Jem was a Dreadnok, or at the least, a member of Cobra? Someone whose family went into a cause that she could care less about when she just wants to sing? Only now she’s potentially armed with Cobra technology which she can use to start her music career, including a computer that will allow her to assume a disguise so no one know who she is.

The only problem is that she’s still a homicidal Dreadnok, one not afraid to kill anyone who starts with her. Think Hannah Montana meets Dexter.

If that’s too radical a departure for Jem, the alternative is Jem being someone who is trying to start a career, only to run smack dab into the insanity that is the Energon Universe. Cobra saboteurs because someone thinks a band called Cold Slither is good PR. Alien technology and robots interested in music. Black market tech and battles when she just wants to sing.

It would potentially be the most radically different of all the EU books no matter what route you chose, but a slice of life/music story in the same universe as all the shooting and robot wrasslin could potentially open up a lot of possibilities as to how the world has changed. The question remains is if Jem could attract an audience. A similar issue occurred with DC’s attempts to make Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld a thing and how DC could not find a market for her, because she was a character that was meant to appeal to young girls, constantly given to people and put in stories that wanted nothing to do with young girls, resulting in what can best be described as Tryhard horror stories that appealed to no one.

So two years later, it seems we have a lot of supporting characters, but no one who could lead a fourth book. Don’t suppose anyone at Skybound wants to write a Shinkalion comic, do they?

[violent-optimism]

A (somewhat organized) collection of thoughts/things I noticed from the new TF #7 Comic (Spoilers!) - Part 1

Hello yes, I have things I would like to say, please!!

Let's start with Soldier.

I think we all knew damn well this was coming, but I don't think anyone expected him to propose A MINUTE after where the last comic ended. They're so cute and perfect for each other in their own twisted way, UGH!!!

Also I love how Heavy says no and he blatantly ignores it because of course he does. Heavy clearly disapproves of this relationship, but I like to think he also said "no" because he understands that Zhanna is fully capable of making that decision on her own and in the end it's not his choice, it's hers.

Soldier has a LOT of scenes and dialogue in this comic and I don't think that's a coincidence. I think it was a very conscious choice to honor Rick May, whom this comic is dedicated to. All of Soldier's scenes were so good and funny and I like to think Rick May would have enjoyed them if he were still here.

2. Miss Pauling and the Australium

There is so much to talk about here but I'm going to try and keep it brief.

Now, this was always kind of my headcanon, but I genuinely think this comic proves that Australium has almost a corrupting ability for those around it (similar to the One Ring in LOTR). Almost like it brings out the worst in people, or at least the greed. Miss Pauling never seemed like a greedy person until she finally got her hands on the Australium. It really didn't seem like her and it was very off-putting (in a good way if that makes sense).

When I first read this I had this horrible, sinking feeling that Miss Pauling was going to betray the mercs and end up being the over-arching villain or something. Needless to say, I'm VERY glad I was wrong. But surely I wasn't the only one who feared this? I mean look at the way she's staring at it the entire comic! (except for the end).

Also I thought Miss Pauling was already second in command?? That's wild. She's done so much for the Administrator and she's not even near the top of the corporate ladder.

3. Spy saving Miss Pauling.

When I tell you I audibly GASPED when this happened. I was on the edge of my seat like I was watching a movie!

Between this scene and the part where Spy tries to comfort Miss Pauling when they're captured, it's obvious that he really, REALLY cares about her. It's so heart-warming that one of the (seemingly) coldest mercs is also the one that was literally willing to jump in front of a plane to save her.

Love it. Love it a lot.

4. Sniper and the Plane

Sniper, my beloved...I can't tell you how happy I was to finally see you in the new comic.

Out of all the things I would expect to be in Sniper's repertoire, being a pilot was definitely not one of them. And yet it just makes sense?? (he might not actually be a licensed pilot per say but the way Spy phrases the question makes me think this isn't the first time).

I also love how his only line of dialogue (I think) in the entire comic is when he suggests to steal a broken down plane lol truly a professional with standards.

I just love this shot SO much. Seeing all of them crammed into that tiny plane is such a hilarious idea on its own. I love how Pyro is reaching for the fire at the front of the plane (I think?) and Medic's hilarious expression as he looks out the window along with the baby baboon (His pet? His child??)

This reaffirms my theory that Sniper is just the designated driver no matter what is going on or what kind of vehicle it is. He looks like he's about to lose it on them like a frustrated dad at any second lol

5. Scout and Miss Pauling

I don't know how anyone else feels about this moment, but I personally LOVED it.

Because let's be honest, the trope of Scout being madly in love with Miss Pauling (and not receiving any ounce of affection back) was starting to become a little old and tiresome at this point. There needed to be some kind of resolution to it, but it's painfully obvious that things were never going to go the way Scout wanted them to.

And I love how he comes to this realization COMPLETELY on his own. Scout is smarter than people give him credit for and it's so refreshing for him to finally show some maturity and realize when enough is enough. It's time for him to move on and he knows that, and we eventually see him following through with it.

I also adore the scene that comes immediately afterwards. There's absolutely no hard feelings on either side and I just love their relationship for exactly what it is.

6. The Administrator Reveal and the Mercs Reactions

I'm not gonna lie, this was.....really fucking creepy. Like, it almost ventured into the horror genre which was not what I expected from a TF Comic (not that I'm complaining at all, I loved it!).

I cannot believe that this whole time Zepheniah Mann has actually been alive, and the Administrator has been keeping him that way and FORCING him to watch his sons pointless war for the rest of his life. Like...DAMN.

I know we still don't fully understand her motivations or why exactly she's doing this but in my opinion that actually makes it scarier. I like that we didn't just get all the answers on a silver platter and the writers still left some mystery, right until the end.

Most of the mercs do a good job at representing how I actually looked while I was reading this scene. Almost everyone looks either horrified or confused. Medic's the only one that looks more fascinated than anything but what else did you expect? lol

Part 2 to come!

[altraviolet]

Hello I hope you're having a lovely day, just had a quick question. Im not sure if anyone has asked you this before but have you ever considered making a hard copy of The Echo Garden? Im a sucker for hard cover books and I just had the idea that it would be awesome if you had your own. Especially if all the art work that's been made for The Echo Garden was at the end of the book like how the do for The Art of Transformers One or The Art of Transformers Fall of Cybertron ect...

hi! yes, it's a lovely day, thanks :)

I would be extremely into making hard copies of TEG if it weren't illegal to do so. to be more specific- it's kiiiiiind of a gray area if I were to bind my own fic. it's definitely illegal if I were to bind my own fic and then sell it. it's kiiiiiind of a gray area if you were to bind my fic and keep it for yourself, or gift it to a friend. it's definitely illegal if you were to bind my fic and then sell it (and I would be very mad at you). and it's definitely illegal for you or me or anyone else to get my fic printed through a print-on-demand company, or someone selling fanfics on etsy, or anything else like that

the reason you can buy books from Hasbro about TF1 or the video games is because Hasbro owns the rights to the characters and they can do whatever they want with them

I don't own the rights to the characters, but I do own the rights to my work. kind of. fanfic is a legal gray area and the reason it continues to exist is because we don't make money off of it. AO3 is very clear about this, and it's part of what makes the website strong and free and able to exist

I've heard that fan art technically exists in this exact same legal gray area, but big companies are much more lenient about it for a bunch of historical reasons. someone who makes fan art can even use it in a portfolio and even get hired by a comic company- it happened to a lot of IDW1 fan artists, they got hired for IDW2

but fanfic writers cannot (to my knowledge) use fic in their portfolios. you ESPECIALLY cannot use fic of an IP in your portfolio to apply to that IP (editors WILL NOT read fanfic). there's lots of legal reasons for this, most of which I only understand at a very surface level

at this time, TEG is the most popular TF fic, at least on AO3. it would be extremely noticeable if printed copies popped up- and that would make me very angry. I am not willing to be mired in any kind of legal action or dispute or distribution of my work. I do not give permission for it to be printed, unless it's in the very specific instance of someone printing the fic on their own printer and binding the fic for themself or for a friend

so yeah!! if I could buy a license from Hasbro and legally get hard covers made, I heckin' would. but I cannot do that and I'm not willing to stick my neck out and possibly get fanfic thrown into court, where companies would then HAVE to set legal precedents about it, which might axe it, if not for good, in a very severe way

thanks for the thought tho! I do think that fanfic will eventually have some kind of license precedent in law (assuming the tech bros don't monetize it via AI and then lobby for law changes that allow only their AI to do it, or something equally vile and terrible): the 'vulgar arts' have a way of ascending into capitalism eventually

have a good day =)

[dorkicon]

did you see that theres a kickstarter for compendiums of the marvel transformer series??? pretty cool!! id get it but the physical copies seem pretty pricey and i have no idea if theyll have every comic? I mean imagine they will but there could be licensing issues or whatever

yesss i have heard :^] the knowledge has been tormenting me since i found out actually. :,^]

like it is really cool. and i want it so bad i cant...fucking stand it, but like honestly youre right about the whole licensing issue thing. will they include the tf x gi joe issues? probably. but what about the spiderman crossover? will they be including the letters to grimlock sections? what about those little end of issue gag comics in the uk series?? i dunno. i wish theyd be more transparent in that regard, and tell you EXACTLY what youre gonna get if they want you to drop 300 bones on the collected editions.

im not even sure if the books will be going to retail after the kickstarter. its sad. sigh.

[quetzalpapalotl]

I think it bears remembering that, in the grand scheme of things, the Transformers comic are far from being a priority for Hasbro. Not that it doesn't care at all, but sometimes being in the Tumblr bubble where the comics are the most popular media kind of make them seem like the biggest deal and people find it baffling when Hasbro doesn't cater to its fans.

But the truth is that we are not in the Marvel era and the TF comics are relatively niche. Hasbro cares much more about things like the mainline cartoons or the movies which are meant to be public faces for the franchise and to have a tie-in toyline and are a direct investement on Hasbro's part, since it pays for them to be made.

Whereas with comics, the publishing house pays Hasbro for the Transformers license and then they do all the work of hiring writers and artists and doing the publishing and then cash on sales. They still have to haggle with Hasbro who may forbid some things to not damage their brand, may ask for things to keep brand synergy or to promote a toy line or whatever, but the comic creators have relatively more freedom.

Ultimately, Hasbro still makes the most sales out of children buying toys (or rather, adults buying toys for children). Adult toy collectors being a secondary market and comic fans are not necessarily all that invested in buying toys.

[palegalestudios]

I decided on what I want to do.

I wanna make my own Transformers story. HOWEVER, it is going to be set in a sort alternate universe, but still follows the lore (kind of). Why? Because I can’t trust that I’ll get the lore right. Most of my research stems from tf wiki’s (which are pretty vague to begin with) and ytbers who analyse specific shows and their universe lore, or how it continues on in the official tf timeline.

And there’s a lot of tf media that I still haven’t seen, like the comics, that I know would have so much story but I can’t access it. The only one I do have is an IDW series that someone has put onto a website, cause IDW doesn’t have the rights from Hasbro for the tf license anymore.

Honestly, I just don’t want to steer away from established lore too much.

I could also just be overthinking it tho. You tell me

But yea, if I am going to do this, the most that will come out of it will be character concepts, maybe short comics, maybe some fics, maybe even a pitch (which, tbh, will NOT be sent to anyone. I just like making pitch’s/Show bibles lol)

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

As many of you that follow me may know is that I absolutely Transformers. I love the figures, the various tv shows, the movies (good popcorn flicks) and the various video games. I have Transformers clothes, jewelry, shot classes, car stickers and so on, alongside my collection figures.

One thing I also have is Transformers comics and I have about one long box full of them. I have TF comics ranging from the classic Marvel TF comics, pretty much all of the Dreamwave comics and a pretty decent amount of TF comic published under IDW but, definitely not all as I just could really afford to keep up when I did have a pull list at a comic shop. Some of you may not know this but, IDW no longer publishes TF comics nor do they even own the license to Transformers anymore.

No, that now goes to folks over at Image Comics, aka, the people that publishes The Walking Dead, as well as many other good comic books. I don't really plan on getting into the new comics but, what I wanted to talk about is the overall look and design of the Transformers that we've gotten to see.

I regret to inform anyone reading this that I really do not like the designs shown here. Like, Prime's legs are SO BIG and SO SQUARE while his thighs, waist and even a bit of the chest are super skinny and then his chest extremely BIG AND SQUARE again. His arms, to me, are also way too big and chunky. Idk what is going on with his head but, it just doesn't look right to me and all of this also applies to Starscream as well.

Like, sorry not sorry, but the proportions of Prime and Starscream are just so bad and wonky to me that it really bothers me. Just look at IDW's G1 Transformer designs, they hit the nail on the head with them so, idk, maybe the artists over at Image Comics just don't really know how to draw robots.

[inkfamy]

Not to get all woobie on main but I'm honestly so excited, the TF comic license last changed hands almost 2 decades ago and even though I've been in/around TF fan stuff almost that long, this is the first time I've actively been on the ground floor when a comic's gone from announcement to publication and im so excited!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!!!

Skybound/Image have worked on such cool stuff in the past, Robert Kirkman, Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicier have such an amazing list of previous works, AAAAA

There is nothing but optimism and enthusiasm and yelling into a pillow. I CANT WAIT

[decepti-thots]

Do you know of anywhere to get the mtmte paperbacks I've looked everywhere and can't find any of them.

So. The MTMTE physical paperbacks have been out of print since IDW lost the license and between the fact they never sold that well for a variety of reasons (and IDW, anecdotally, seemingly did not do more repeat printings than they had to; some comics may have only had one printing) and the fact that MTMTE's continuing cult popularity meaning there's very high demand, they are notoriously price gouged these days and very expensive. You can find them on ebay, but especially later volumes can go for over fifty dollars a trade. Sometimes far more. I've seen individual sales of some of the later trades in MTMTE and especially Lost Light go for over a hundred bucks for one paperback. I have to this day never seen an ebay listing for the final collected edition of Lost Light, which I suspect had a very, very small print.

Historically, I have said that weirdly the easiest way to get them at a halfway accessible price is actually to find second hand copies on Japanese sites and use a proxy service to buy several trades at once to reduce the cost of shipping overall and make it worth it. Since Japanese fandom often imported them so there's often a decent chunk of the trades available and due to the fact that secondhand comics on the Japanese aftermarket are usually much cheaper generally, since secondhand comics as a market in Japan expect things to be reasonably priced, this has often been the most cost effective way to buy those trades even considering the cost of importing them. But I gather that prices have even been ticking upwards on JP sites in the last year, so. It may not be as viable as it was five years ago, unfortunately. And I still never see Lost Light stuff on there! Worth a shot, but no longer a guarantee, I fear.

It's just very difficult to get ahold of the physical trade collections for MTMTE, unfortunately. Anyone selling them online is gonna google what they last went for, realize it was A Lot, and price them accordingly. Even charity shops in the UK that sell books have been known to get donations of them and realize they are worth a lot and put them up for over fifty quid a book, lmao. If you set up alerts on sites like ebay and regularly check, sometimes you'll find a normal listing you can snap up for RRP kinda prices, if you're quick, but it is a notoriously hard series to collect that has only gotten worse over the years.

Your best bet might be, if you are in TF collector circles on socmedia, to put out there that you would like to buy them for a reasonable price. I know of some people who on twitter/etc did so and were privately contacted like 'i wanna unload my collection, and will do so for a reasonable cost'. But it's just genuinely really hard to collect these comics physically, unfortunately. And only getting harder. Of all the IDW comics, MTMTE is the one that's hardest to get because it's the one so many people want to buy. People spend a lot of money on them these days. My personal hope is that Skybound will eventually do a reissue, as they have said they would consider doing in the past. Because right now, a full collection secondhand is just extraordinarily expensive, and likely to require months of effort, if not years.

[4th-make-quail]

This might be a really stupid question, but since my dash is experiencing a robot resurgence thanks to the new tf movie and for some reason I thought you were in that crowd... Have you ever been into transformers? You strike me as someone who would enjoy the later run of IDW comics (MTMtE especially was very queer and very good - a bit tought to recommend rn if you aren't already familiar because they lost the license so the most reliable way to get them is *innocently hums sea chanty*.) The DJD would be up your alley, I think. Or Pharma. Or hell even Cyclonus, who is a bit tamer in comparison, but he is very explicitly a cantankerous gay old man.

Omg I have to be honest with u nonny, I've only ever watched the Michael Bay transformers films! I.... Did not realise there were comics!! 🫠 I did enjoy the film and I think I saw the second one?? Idk I had a boner for Starscream's voice iirc??

I love some subsets of comics - mostly dc vertigo - hellblazer being the most notable, but I don't really read anything these days. My laptop screen is very small so it's difficult to read larger formats on there if I can't get the physical graphic novels u know?

Show me the characters tho? I'm intrigued!!

[earthstellar]

I think this was going to be called “Collision Course”, and it probably would have been handled similarly to how IDW handled their Star Trek licensed crossovers (where you had TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY/etc. all overlapping to make a singular plot/story arc). 

They did a good job on those Star Trek crossovers, so I’m thinking something along those lines may have been the template for how to start approaching something like this from IDW’s side of things (although this would have been on a larger scale--mitigated by much of the material being stuff that was already made with IDW, so their in-house teams for Transformers would have had the extra experience and familiarity to pull something like this off at that level of complexity), but of course we’ll never know for sure. 

IDW was probably the best comics group to handle something like this, given their extensive experience with large scale licenced property crossovers and smaller crossover projects which were typically around four issue short series runs (I think they did this with the Mars Attacks brand at least once, which included X-Files, Ghostbusters, etc.), but alas. 

Reminds me somewhat of Hasbro’s scrapped idea for UNIT-E, although honestly I think Collision Course would have been more coherent as it involves crossovers from within a single franchise, rather than combining multiple different properties/franchises under the same brand/ownership. 

I think if anyone could do it, it would have been the IDW team(s) for Transformers. They established a broad but internally pretty consistent universe for the IDW comics, and it would have been fun to pull in characters and elements from other non-comic TF media for a crossover event or series like this. 

The hype was real, and I definitely feel like we missed out on something that had a lot of potential. 

So I just discovered there was a canceled Transformers comic

AND I AM FREAKING OUT OVER IT

I just came across the cover for it and lemme tell you I have never gasped out loud before but LOOK

I CANT EVEN CONTAIN MYSELF TO WRITE THIS

LOOK AT EVERYONE

LOOK AT WHAT WE COULD OF HAD

[altraviolet]

Could I ask for your thoughts on Last Bot Standing's ending? That tidbit intrigued when reading your post.

hahahaha. you wish to invoke my ire? my rage? *eyes clock* I wonder if I have enough time to do this before I have to leave for work

let's get the disclaimer out of the way: LBS is not for me. that's the proper thing you're supposed to say in this situation. my criticism is all extremely personal taste related. the story is cogently written, it's cogently drawn. it's An End to Transformers - that was its goal - and it fulfilled it.

so with that out of the way, I'll put my personal taste related ire beneath the cut. let's be honest, here. anger is entertaining, but it's not all that inspirational.

Second Disclaimer: I'm going completely off memory and I'm not going to cite my sources because I don't have time, but you all know where the tf wiki is. You can read the plot yourself and try to find the tweet I mention

First, a quick note on WHEN it came out, since that's important: IDW2 was coming to an end (they were losing or not renewing their TF license, whichever it was). Nick Roche wrote and drew LBS, and it was one of the very last things coming out from IDW. he described it as, per my memory of one of his tweets, the equivalent of "carrying your screaming kids out of the restaurant." Although this was done during IDW2, he specifically drew Rodimus (the main TF character) in his MTMTE form (from IDW1). Roche said that the story was meant to be "an" end to TFs, not "the" end. Meaning, yeah sure it's canon, but there are soooo manyyyyy dimensions out there. This doesn't have to be the end of MTMTE Rodimus.

but oh boy was it implied.

the story was 4 comics long and it went something like this: we're introduced to an alien girl on an alien planet towards the heat death of the universe (so, really far future). it's a Western style world. girl has a wagon, brothers, and conflict with the town she lives in. the planet has energon, which the natives find. this attracts the last living group of Cybertronians. surprise: the wagon is Rodimus. he wakes up and slaughters them all. he basically says Cybertronians have no fate but to fight: they are inherently violent and destroy everything they come across. so he's been killing them. he killed his own crew of friends when they landed on that planet. at the end of the story, when every single other Cybertronian in the entire universe is dead, he shoots himself up into orbit around the alien planet so he can slowly starve to death

that summary really doesn't do the emotional impact much justice, so, idk, read it if you want

when I finished the story, I sat back and thought, "wow, if I hated Transformers, this is what I would've written. but the guy who wrote this doesn't hate them. Nick Roche, who hurt you?"

and I had an immediate hypothesis. the 1986 movie. the movie slaughtered many beloved characters, and Roche was passing on that childhood hurt

lol. I mean, maybe. that's something we'll never know, but that was the first explanation I thought of

ok so why hate this?

it's fundamentally hopeless. there is nothing but slaughter and death. no recourse. no discussion, no chance for people to change. no further exploration of any other possible options. just slaughter and death. I, personally, hate that

any particular iteration of Rodimus you find- this isn't how he acts. MTMTE Rodimus ended LL uniting his crew into spectacular action by saying how they might not be good, but they're good enough

the portrayal of the entire species as inherently harmful bothers me

this was like, the LAST THING WE GOT FROM IDW. THIS WAS THE CROWNING, FINISHING ACT. LOL. what??? the fuck???????? to me it read as "well, we don't have them anymore, so no one else can have them. we'll destroy them."

now in an attempt to stymie anyone coming into replies and arguing with my opinions, remember: this is my opinion. I put it behind a cut after clearly labeling it. this is not a discussion. I don't want to have a discussion.

LBS is what I would've written if I hated Transformers and wanted them to suffer and die in the most personal, horrible ways possible. but I don't hate TFs. I really really like them. I love giving them stories. so LBS encapsulating the worst ending for them possible, yeah, I'm gonna hate that