Transformers (2023)

[Magnus]

Week late but figured I'd see if anyone else picked it up and had any comments.

Some background: IDW had the Transformers license from 2005 (with a hard reboot in 2019), and it ended at the end of 2022. There had been rumors that Skybound Entertainment was in talks, but nothing was officially announced (or even leaked out) until Skybound released Void Rivals #1 in June, an original IP with Robert Kirkman writing. Well, lo and behold, turns out Void Rivals was actually a stealth kick-off for the new "Energon" universe, including the new Transformers and GIJOE books, as Skybound had indeed gotten the license from IDW. Void Rivals is basically a sci-fi "Enemy Mine" story with two warring alien races, and each issue has had a Transformers-related tie-in so far. I'm pretty sure the plan is for VR and Transformers to be ongoings, while there's two GIJOE minis coming up ("Duke" and "Cobra Commander") and the plan is to keep the amount of concurrent titles for the universe around 4 at a time. Transformers itself seemed to be getting a bit of hype, partly because Daniel Warren Johnson is on creative duties (both writing/art).

So, as for the first issue of Transformers itself... pretty good! Though not astounding for me, probably a B+ I'd say. The art is phenomenal - it's colorful, and really kinetic - the fight scenes are great, heck there's even a splash panel that's just two characters in vehicle mode driving that's amazing. (Not a fan of the speech text though, bit hard to read). As a longtime hardcore Transformers fan, the 1984 cartoon-style setup feels a little well-worn, but I completely understand why they went for it to attract the wider, more casual fanbase. It's also a bit ultraviolent and I know that turned some people off, but I think it has its place. I'm interested to see where it goes, and I'm definitely more excited than I was after the first issue of IDW's 2019 reboot.

[Anna Raven]

Yup I grabbed it. I liked it quite a bit. I also loved the art. Transformers comics to me are always better if there are some human characters along with the Transformers so I was glad to see that was the case here. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Spoiler: show

There's no way Bumblebee is dead right?

[Magnus]

Spoiler: show

There's no way Bumblebee is dead right?

Spoiler: show

I'm pretty sure he's dead.

From an interview DWJ did: "Let me be totally honest about the Bumblebee page, let me address this. I do really- I do like Bumblebee. I don't like drawing Bumblebee, I don't like those rivets in his arms. That's not the only reason why he had to go, I just honestly wanted to change things up. I just wanted to change things up, and I had seen a lot of Bumblebee, I think we all have, in a lot of Transformers media, and I just thought it would be a fun little swerve. And this is actually funny, our contact over at Hasbro was also a little tired of seeing Bumblebee everywhere, and he actually asked, before he saw my script, he's like, "is there any way we can not use Bumblebee in the main line?" And I told him, I was like, "I got good news for you!" He had to go, he had to go. Sorry Bumblebee fans, sorry to let you down like that, I am so sorry. They are Transformers, maybe they'll come back... but not for a long time. It's Cliff's time baby! You said it!"

(If he doesn't like drawing Bumblebee I think that'd be bad news for Cliffjumper though...)

[Anna Raven]

Spoiler: show

There's no way Bumblebee is dead right?

Spoiler: show

I'm pretty sure he's dead.

From an interview DWJ did: "Let me be totally honest about the Bumblebee page, let me address this. I do really- I do like Bumblebee. I don't like drawing Bumblebee, I don't like those rivets in his arms. That's not the only reason why he had to go, I just honestly wanted to change things up. I just wanted to change things up, and I had seen a lot of Bumblebee, I think we all have, in a lot of Transformers media, and I just thought it would be a fun little swerve. And this is actually funny, our contact over at Hasbro was also a little tired of seeing Bumblebee everywhere, and he actually asked, before he saw my script, he's like, "is there any way we can not use Bumblebee in the main line?" And I told him, I was like, "I got good news for you!" He had to go, he had to go. Sorry Bumblebee fans, sorry to let you down like that, I am so sorry. They are Transformers, maybe they'll come back... but not for a long time. It's Cliff's time baby! You said it!"

(If he doesn't like drawing Bumblebee I think that'd be bad news for Cliffjumper though...)

Spoiler: show

Oh wow, huh, did not expect that! It's a bit like starting a big X event by killing Wolverine haha