The influence IDW’s comics have had on the brand is quite significant, introducing or solidifying characters, story elements, and mythology that will undoubtedly be permanent fixtures in future Transformers fiction for years to come. Just about everyone who has read IDW Transformers at some length has a beloved story or preferred take on a classic or new character or even a favorite toy directly influenced by the IDW comics.
BUT.
IDW’s also produced some stinkers in their time. Bad stories, bad takes, misreads of the fandom, and utter misfires of projects. This is what I’d like to talk about for a little while because I’m in a mood. What follows is my personal bottom fifteen WORST things IDW ever produced, and they’re not all stories. Also, there’s a dis-honorable mention and a “0” entry, as usual with my lists.
One last thing… SPOILERS- Tom Scioli’s work is not on this list because it’s awesome and you’re bad for not liking it.
“An Axe to Break the Ice"/"Chasing the Infinite”
Written by James Roberts, Art by Jack Lawrence.
This two-part momentum killer comes after what I felt was a middling opening arc of the Lost Light book and a fairly good one-off issue (#7) that promised better things to come. There’s several elements here that didn’t work for me and let’s go right for the jugular straight off with this story’s spotlight on Anode and Lug.
Anode, quite frankly, is James Roberts trying his darndest to sell a new character in a bizarre parallel to Shane McCarthy and Drift nearly ten years prior. Anode is zanier than Swerve, more daring than Skids, has a specialty more special than Chromedome, and has her own Rewind in Lug (who even comes pre-killed!) The character’s kinda insufferable and a honeypot of Roberts’ worst writing excesses.
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| Mechs in the City |
It always struck me as bizarre that Roberts didn’t choose to have Firestar accompany the crew of the Lost Light instead of Velocity. Firestar and Nautica’s “fire and water” dynamic would have certainly made for more interesting and expansive character interactions going forward, but instead… we get Nautica and Velocity's "water and slightly-more-tepid water" dynamic.
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| I mean, you might as well add a blush to Swerve's face too. |
Annnd finally, we come to Nautica, whom everyone loves. I love Nautica. Or I did, until this story. This is the story where Nautica decides to literally sell her friendship with Velocity to resurrect the recently-deceased Skids. This is after Nautica lectured the other members of the cast in the previous arc about “incorrectly” managing their grief over Skids’ passing. All of a sudden, when the chance to bring Skids back arises, Nautica does a 360 and is willing to actually throw away her entire friendship with Velocity to do it (by selling it to an emotion-trafficker.)
I mean, I guess I didn’t care too much about Velocity, but damn, Nautica… that’s just cold. In the end, she keeps her friendship with Velocity, but loses all her warm feelings towards Skids instead and gives up trying to resurrect him. And we’re supposed to what… empathize with her again after this?
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| You reboot BAD stuff, not good stuff, Nautica. |
This story also introduced a bunch of plot elements that would factor into Roberts’ endgame, like the Magnificence/Epistemus, the Infinites, and the return of Scorponok. NONE of these things really paid off in a satisfying manner when it came to the final storyarc. I remember initially thinking that Roberts was implying that Scorponok was the mysterious Grand Architect himself, one of the “final bosses” of his run. But nah, Scorpy turns out to be just a flunky who eventually gets a pretty underwhelming death for someone with his cred. Meh.
To say something nice about this story, it does feature Wipe-Out! Wipe-Out’s neat.
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| Yeah! |
15. Combiner Wars
Transformers Vol. 2 # 39-41, Windblade Vol. 2 # 1-3
Written by John Barber and Mairghread Scott, Pencils by Livio Ramondelli, Saren Stone, Corin Howell, and Marcelo Ferreira
Ah, Combiner Wars. Great, great toyline and of course, Hasbro had to
make sure to promote it in the comics (as if it NEEDED the promotion
with diehard fans.) Sooo, we get the Combiner Wars crossover running
through John Barber’s ongoing book and launching Windblade’s short-lived
ongoing series.
James Roberts’ MTMTE was spared a forced tie-in, but
he had to temporarily relinquish Mirage, First Aid and the other
Protectobots from his cast for them to participate. People at the time
were annoyed that anything dared disrupt the holy MTMTE in ANY way, but
frankly Roberts wasn’t doing a whole lot with ANY of those characters at
that very moment. Even First Aid, who was part of MTMTE’s main cast,
had been relatively inactive as the book’s second “season” rolled on.
Not that any individual characters that made up the titular combiners
made a lot of impact on this story, as the focus was on their merged
forms. Combiner Wars the comic story as a whole is honestly kind
of...okay for the most part. Barber and Scott managed to push forward
with their ongoing plots while fulfilling Hasbro’s need to push their
product. However, what many people remember most about Combiner Wars as
a story...was how seemingly rushed and error-laden its own production
was.
Livio Ramondelli draws most of the crossover, and he’s a pretty divisive
artist amongst the fanbase. I think he’s fine when utilized correctly
on the right stories, but I just don’t think he was able to put forth
his best effort on Combiner Wars, and again...that’s probably a symptom
of a rushed production. In a rather infamous example of this,
Ramondelli consistently drew Streetwise and Blades as Grotusque and
Mainframe throughout all their appearances in the story.
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| Top- original issue, Bottom- trade revision |
When asked,
Ramondelli said he was given the wrong reference material for them, but
to this day I’m still baffled as to how this could have possibly
happened. Like, how DO you draw two completely-unrelated (and
relatively obscure) characters that featured in another comic in place
of the two Protectobots whose brand-new toys need to be promoted?
As you can see, the art was corrected for the trade release of Combiner
Wars, as well as some dialogue- Starscream refers to the Protectobots
as “you five” in the original issue, the writer apparently unaware or
forgetting that the new Combiner Wars Defensor is formed from SIX
characters now. See poor Rook poking his head up from the rear of the
group there? He was probably drawn in at the last minute! In the
corrected art, Ramondelli also adds a little red X to First Aid’s cheek,
having referenced the medic’s appearances from MTMTE # 4-5, where the
“X” denoted exposure to a plague. At least we can trace THAT mistake
back to its source.
Combiner Wars also suffers from the other artists who draw around
Ramondelli’s issues, as their styles are about the farthest from
Ramondelli’s as you could get at the time. Seriously, let’s look at
Swindle’s visual history through the six issues of Combiner Wars-
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| Ramondelli, Stone, Ramondelli, Howell. |
I’m sure they had to scramble to get artists if indeed this storyline was requested by Hasbro on short notice, but yeesh, at least get people who are a LITTLE stylistically similar to Ramondelli! I’ve ragged on Ramondelli’s mistakes so far, but Marcelo Ferreira couldn’t end the story without one more goof that had to be corrected for the trade-
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| Scrapper was dead by this point- it's his GHOST!!! |
So yeah, Combiner Wars the comic story is mostly remembered for these goofs and not for being, like I said, a kind of middling story, I guess? Well, even with these mistakes and wild fluctuations in style, comic Combiner Wars was still far superior to Machinima’s animated Combiner Wars, at least. But that’s not a high bar to clear...
14. All Hail Megatron (minus issue 15)
All Hail Megatron #1-#14, #16
Written by Shane McCarthy, with Simon Furman, Mike Costa, Andy Schmidt, Zander Cannon contributing.
Pencils by Guido Guidi, Casey Coller, E.J. Su, Robert Deas, Emiliano
Santalucia, Don Figueroa, Chee Yang Ong, and Andrew Griffith
All Hail Megatron was the first “soft reboot” of IDW’s main Transformers
continuity. Hoping for a sales boost, IDW editorial cut Simon Furman’s
ongoing and well-received run on their Transformers books short and
handed the steering wheel over to newcomer Shane McCarthy. The intent
was to leave Furman’s interconnected, continuity-heavy approach behind
and tell a more “back-to-basics” Transformers epic over the course of a
twelve-issue maxi-series. If you were there when this happened, then
you know just how pissed off the dedicated readers of Furman’s two-year
spanning run of stories were by this development.
Furman’s run ended in a brief, messy burst, with several promising
plotlines and character journeys being left in the lurch or
unsatisfactorily concluded. Of course, this immediately left me and
many at the time in no welcoming mood to accept “All Hail Megatron” as a
“from the bottom up” tale. It wasn’t helped by the fact that
McCarthy’s approach to writing comics was very much in the more modern
decompressed “written for the trade” style made infamous by Brian
Michael Bendis and others at the time. We went from Furman’s
slow-burning-but-satisfyingly-dense world-building to McCarthy’s
wide-screen blockbusting action set-pieces in the space of an issue, and
the transition was jarring to behold.
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| The building is a metaphor for Simon Furman's run. |
Despite his registered distaste for the Michael Bay Transformers movie (which had been released the previous year), Shane McCarthy sort of paralleled it with his story, especially in its first six issues. A heavy focus on the human military response to the Decepticon invasion, macho characters constantly showing off how badass they were, and somewhat overblown and cliché characterization of the titular robot protagonists.
McCarthy's most likable and relatable human character, Andy Reid, turns out to be a decoy protagonist who is killed in the third issue and replaced an issue later with an edgy and "kewl" take on classic Transformers human sidekick Spike Witwicky. Virtually all of McCarthy’s non-legacy human characters were pretty unmemorable and never revisited. Sadly, we never got any closure on the eternal battle between “You Will Not Have Honey” Guy and “But I Like Honey” Guy in any future IDW storylines after McCarthy departed.
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| Epic Honey Battle is a metaphor for the great McCarthy versus Furman battles of 2008. |
Adding injury to insult, McCarthy had one of Furman’s chief human
protagonists, Hunter O’Nion, wind up tortured, dissected, and eventually
euthanized. Hunter being featured at ALL in this story seemed counter
to the underlying “fresh start” mission statement of All Hail Megatron.
McCarthy hard-reversed on that initial plan at issue # 7, hinging
perhaps the largest plot twists of the series on elements from Simon
Furman’s run. So now you HAD to have read Simon Furman’s run to
understand key elements of McCarthy’s plot. His choice, or IDW
editorial’s mandate after the first few issues of “All Hail” were met
with divisive reaction and no substantial recorded sales jump from the
end of Furman’s run? We don’t know, but I know what it LOOKS like...
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| Crudely pinned-up, brain-drained, half-dissected Hunter is a metaphor for Shane McCarthy's run. |
I could write a list of “Top Fifteen Worst Things” From All Hail Megatron ALONE, but I’ll stop here to keep this briefer. I haven’t even mentioned Drift yet, after all (don’t worry, he’ll get his.) All Hail Megatron does have some legitimately good bits- McCarthy added some depth to Megatron and Starscream’s relationship, great characterization for Thundercracker and a few others, and of course; the art. As the main artist on this series, Guido Guidi’s one of the all-time greats, and he nails all the aforementioned wide-screen action with ease.
You may have noticed up in the header that I also disqualified All Hail
Megatron #15 from this entry, and that’s because it contains one of my
favorite Transformers comic tales of all time- Nick Roche’s spotlight on
my favorite character Prowl. McCarthy’s main story wrapped up in #12,
but add-on issues #13-#16 featured shorter tales (two an issue) that
supplemented “All Hail” or set-up imminent future stories (that were
mostly disappointing and some of which will appear later on this very
list.) But that one Prowl tale...man, what an outlier in a crowd of
disappointment and mediocrity.
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| This scene is a metaphor for… well, nothing, it’s just Nick Roche trying to explain dumb Shane McCarthy plot points. |
In the end, All Hail Megatron has its defenders, but I will always
remember the bitter feelings it provoked in me and the fierce division
it created in the readership at the time. Aside from the oasis of “Last
Stand of the Wreckers”, it’d be over two years after “All Hail” before
the readership were nearly uniformly united in praise and excitement for
IDW Transformers again, with the start of the Roberts/Barber era. The McCarthy-through-Costa era of comics were truly a dim time, and this
series is what kicked it off.
13. Primeless
Optimus Prime #11-#12
Written by John Barber, pencils by Sara Pitre-Durocher, Fico Ossio, Paolo Villanelli, Kei Zama, and Andrew Griffith
A two-parter in the Optimus Prime book not featuring Optimus Prime. He
was too busy at the time featuring in the larger IDW shared universe
crossover “First Strike”. First Strike was… a story… at that… for sure.
The real problem with this two-parter isn’t the lack of Optimus Prime
though, it’s who it DOES primarily feature that lands it here on this
list.
Aileron was introduced in John Barber’s previous series as a naive new
arrival on Cybertron, who Optimus Prime befriended and took under his
wing. Aileron had a religious reverence for Primes, and hanging out
with Optimus made her see the reality behind the legends- that he wasn’t
some perfect messiah and just a bot trying to do his best in a
complicated world. It was a sound idea for a character and Aileron made
for a good temporary replacement for Bumblebee in Optimus Prime’s inner
circle (Bee was trapped in another dimension at the time.) So then
John Barber decided… “what if I introduce like… SIX MORE Ailerons into
the story?”
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| This is actually a really good visual representation of this group of characters and their dynamic with each other and the larger plot itself. |
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| This is every Slide scene ever, with various other characters subbed in for Aileron each time. |
This two-parter’s A-plot features Aileron and the Colony Recruits
tooling around, trying to find Jazz, who is off doing… Jazz stuff, I
forget, the POINT is… it’s not a good time. Slide and Aileron argue and
snipe the whole while while the others fail to stand out as characters.
Also, the first part has FOUR different pencillers on it for whatever
reason, and Fico Ossio’s pages certainly do capture the absolute
unpleasant personalities on display.
The other pages not focused on this group are actually mostly okay, but
this two-parter is certainly the best showcase for why these characters
just didn’t work. As much as I and some like to joke that Aileron is
the “Rose Tico” of Transformers, I think she did work initially as a
character, but most people just lump her in with Slide now. But while
Aileron’s shown up again in a new role (in the 2019 IDW continuity), I
don’t think anyone wants to ever see Slide again… at least this version
of her.
12. The Mutineers Trilogy
Lost Light #10-#12
Written by James Roberts, Penciled by Jack Lawrence and Andrew Griffith
Following directly on from Lost Light #8-#9 which appeared earlier on
this list, we get this messy, repellent, disappointment of a story. I
had actually been looking forward to a promised focus on the people
remaining on the Lost Light, a chance for James Roberts to spotlight
some minor players and update us on Getaway’s doings. All “The
Mutineers Trilogy” did was showcase to me that Roberts seemingly didn’t
have a lot of interest in characters that weren’t “his babies” and only
had about one trick when it came to writing an Autobot that had broken
bad.
See, I had considered Getaway’s mutiny to be one of the best twists in
Roberts’ run, and a great setup to toy with the readers’ feelings and
moral leanings. Sure, Getaway’s victimizing of Tailgate back in MTMTE
was abhorrent, but he had a seemingly noble end goal in trying to force
the reformed Megatron to face his long-delayed justice. I thought
Getaway, who Roberts established as a special operations secret agent,
was a canny and complex adversary for Rodimus in particular.
At least I DID...until this three-parter wherein Getaway’s stripped of any moral and professional clout he may have possessed and rendered a much less interesting character overall. Any kind of subtlety or ambiguity about how Roberts thought the readers should perceive Getaway was quickly tossed out the window… or rather THROUGH the window with this brick of a scene.
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| Lock him up. No seriously, now, you morons. |
“Fake News” barely even makes SENSE in the context of that scene, but
it’s obvious what Roberts is saying here. This was just an ugly topical
reference that immediately removed me from the story and away from the
thing I had been reading to ESCAPE from such matters in the real world.
The story continues to batter into the readers’ heads that Getaway is a
very, very bad man and wipes any semblance of moral ambiguity (and for
me, interest in the character) away. Virtually ALL of Roberts’
Autobot-aligned antagonists kind of feel struck from the same mold as
Getaway- Skyfall, Pharma, Froid…
Speaking of Froid, this story also features his return, as well as his
partner-in-crime Sunder, both of whom I consider to be two of the weaker
villains Roberts ever created. Froid is just a lesser variant on
Pharma, and Sunder is derivative of Overlord, the Sparkeater, and is WAY
too overpowered to boot. Sunder’s boundless psychic abilities are even
required as a story crutch here to help explain why the rest of the
crew of the Lost Light behave like meek, oblivious morons in the face of
Getaway’s blatant wrongdoings.
There’s also Getaway’s accomplice Atomizer, who I was slightly drawn to being as he’s a badass-looking dude with a bow-and-arrow (I’ve got a type when it comes to fictional badasses, okay?) He heel-turns in this story and opposes Getaway, only to end up dead for his trouble. Roberts never really bothered to flesh out his motivations or personality to any serious degree anyway, so just a waste of a good design, I guess.
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| "We're Fighting Robots and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense." |
On THAT note, a LOT of characters are wasted here, and I do mean that literally. Remember new Protectobot Rook? A blank slate of a character rife with possibility? Whelp, much like Atomizer, he dies pointlessly here to add another check in the “Getaway is teh EVILZZZ!” column.
If newbies dying doesn’t bother you, how about we talk about Mirage, who has possibly one of the dumbest deaths in IDW history here? The guy who can turn INVISIBLE, who can cast illusions… stands his ground in the face of a charging Star Saber (oh yeah, Star Saber bad Roberts Autobot with no gray area too) and tries to reason with the religious zealot who tried to purge everyone who was “born wrong” not that long before. Ironically, I kinda liked Roberts’ take on Mirage in the issues before his death, as slight as his panel-time was. Not that it mattered...
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| Star Saber still wouldn't lie about wetting his bed, though. |
When I first read the above scene, I immediately assumed it had to be a cop-out or a fake, since Roberts was long infamous for fake-out deaths by this point. It was too stupid, too gratuitous to be otherwise, right? Nope, that was for real, and the other Protectobots (except First Aid, saved by his “Roberts pet” status) are gunned-down shortly thereafter with such finality that some readers to this day think they were killed too (they weren’t- they show up alive in the final issue of Lost Light, look closely in Swerve’s bar and you’ll see them block-colored together.)
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| Actually, they're looking kinda gray... |
Heck, Roberts even contrived it that with Rook’s death, Protectobot combiner Defensor had to be formed using the deceased Ambulon (a Roberts original character) as one of his legs. This apparently overlooked or ignored the fact that Mirage could have filled that spot too thanks to his recently gaining the ability to combine (in the aforementioned Combiner Wars storyarc.) How many fans would have loved to add their Combiner Wars Mirage toy to a Defensor formation to create Defensor “Lost Light” edition? Roberts missed out on a chance to seamlessly plug Hasbro’s toys in order to give a damn corpse he created more panel time!
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| There's no way he's still a load-bearing leg. |
This story had some bits I liked- Jack Lawrence’s art, a Scavengers interlude drawn by Andrew Griffith, the “time loop” set-up of the first part… but in the end left me feeling bitter, disgusted, and worst of all- TIRED with James Roberts’ writing. Really, I think the drag from this storyarc negatively affected my view of the rest of the series and the ending of Roberts’ run entirely. This is the last time Roberts shows up on this list (kinda), so I gotta let him have it now, but man do I hate this story. It’s true; the ones you love can hurt you the most.
Written by Shane McCarthy, Penciled by Casey Coller
Yeah, I told you we’d get to Drift and here’s a whole other component of “All Hail Megatron” that I didn’t touch on in its entry on this list. Shane McCarthy got to do what every amateur writer dreams of and made his fanfic character canon! Seriously, let’s just do a checklist of things about Drift, all of which are brought up in this issue-
✓ Japanese motif
✓ Wears cloak
✓ Chicks want him (and some guys too)
✓ Uses swords
✓ One of the swords is special magic sword
✓ Was trained by secret society of hidden badass “pacifists” who all use magic swords
✓ Won’t use guns (LIKE BATMAN)
✓ Dark past
✓ Was the bestest at being dark during his dark past
✓ Now seeks atonement for dark past
✓ The bestest at seeking atonement
✓ Operates solo, adjacent to main heroes, but lends them a hand cuz he’s just a swell guy
✓ Helps heroes while also kinda judging them for operating in reality and not by the tenets of hidden badass “pacifist” society
✓ Veteran hero has heard of him, vouches for him
✓ Saves team of badass heroes from contrived peril.
✓ Faces off with old comrade from dark past, who tells him “he hasn’t REALLY changed”
✓ Is called by his old “dark past” name, but “THAT GUY IS DEAD; I’M THIS GUY NOW.”
✓ Leaves old comrade pinned in crashing ship but “won’t kill him” (LIKE BATMAN)
✓ Rescues guy that heroes left behind for no apparent reason in daring escape where he jumps from a crashing ship
✓ Joins good guys, who think he’s sus, but end up liking him anyway
I probably missed some stuff, but Drift sure does check a lot of cliché boxes, doesn’t he? I mean, he certainly LOOKS totally badass, thanks to Guido Guidi’s sleek design for the character. If there’s one thing I’ll never knock about Drift, it’s his physical appearance and style. However, as a character, he really didn’t make what I’d consider an “organic” entrance into the franchise, and this issue is the most blatant offender of that notion.
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| His name’s Poochie-D(rift) and he rocks the ghetto; he’s half Himura Kenshin and a third Dom Toretto! |
Most people weren’t quite as enthusiastic about Drift’s debut as Shane McCarthy and IDW were. It didn’t help that IDW EIC Chris Ryall proudly spouted at the time that “All Hail Megatron” #5 (Drift’s first published appearance) was going to be their "Incredible Hulk #181" (the first appearance of Wolverine.) That incredibly-optimistic statement would be the spark that ignited the significant fandom backlash to Drift’s debut, and the fans were already pretty riled by the curtailing of Simon Furman’s run by that point. A sure way to get me to groan is to compare your new character to one of the most overexposed and overhyped comic characters of all time (Wolverine) and Ryall really hit the nail on the head there.
Shane McCarthy said he created Drift because he had no available characters that could serve the role in his story that Drift did. This was clearly not true, as he had Thundercracker around and actually did some good work with that (at the time) criminally-underused guy. Hell, Thundercracker has a more natural and believable redemptive character arc throughout “All Hail” than the one Drift came pre-boxed with.
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| He’s the kung-fu hippie from cyber-city; he’s a rangin’ slasher and you the fool he pity! |
I and most fans have long since accepted Drift as a viable character (thanks almost entirely to his portrayal under James Roberts) but he really had a rough start. Initially, he was totally in our faces but I think we’ve finally arrived at the fireworks factory with Drift. He did pave the way for characters like Windblade, who had a similar creation tale but was received more positively by fans, and the missing ingredient she had that Drift lacked was more measured and skillful writing in her fictional introduction. I guess Spotlight: Drift serves as a good learning tool of what NOT to do when formally introducing a new character to a franchise.
Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, Penciled by Ulises Farinas
This one’s kind of a heartbreaker, because when it was announced, people were actually pretty excited. The writing team of Abnett and Lanning had just come off a highly-acclaimed run of cosmic-setting stories over at Marvel, including a seminal revival of the Guardians of the Galaxy which led almost directly to those characters becoming the huge movie stars they are today. What’s perhaps less known is that Dan Abnett had written for Transformers before, working on a handful of stories in-between and intertwined with Simon Furman’s material on the Marvel UK run.
With Mike Costa’s work on the 2009 ongoing Transformers series not being anyone’s exact cup of tea at the time, “DnA” (as they were collectively known in the comic community) seemed to have the perfect pedigree to offer a promising alternative. I mean, a Galvatron-focused mini-series written by two Brits, one of which worked alongside Simon Furman back in the day?? How could it NOT be good?
This is how.
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| ERMEHGERD |
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| That's some heavy duty dialogue, alright. |
What didn’t help “Heart of Darkness” was the art by Ulises Farinas, who… well, seemed to have a style all-his-own and produced some really intricate and haunting images over the course of this series. But just like with the writing team, he JUST DIDN’T WORK for Transformers. His facial expressions in particular were the subject of quite a bit of mockery by readers since they… well, just look at the Galvatron from a couple of images ago!
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| Who did Nova Prime sacrifice to the Godhand? |
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| Trust your critics, see them written before you, and hear the lamentations of your readers. |
Galaxies #7-#9
Written by Sam Maggs, art by Beth McGuire-Smith and Umi Miyao
Here’s another “HOT NEW CHARACTER” introduction, although the hype was obviously toned way the hell down from the days of Drift and even Windblade. Newborn Cybertronian Gauge was officially introduced in issue #4 of the 2019 ongoing Transformers series by Brian Ruckley, and issue #18 set-up this Galaxies three-parter. Gauge was “the baby” in a family unit comprised of her and her two moms Arcee and Greenlight and issue # 18 was actually pretty good; a take on a disaster movie where a family is trying to reach safety while society crumbles around them. This three-parter is really her official “spotlight” tale though, and… god, is it boring.
Gauge, Arcee, and Greenlight escaped Cybertron on a Reversionist ship- the Reversionists being religious fundamentalists who promptly imprison the older couple and mind-wipe Gauge into being one of them. For this story, she’s our spunky, naive protagonist and… that’s about it, that’s her whole personality. Gauge has the same basic personality as the ill-fated Rubble (another newborn Transformer who dies early on in Ruckley’s run), but Rubble served a story purpose and Gauge just… exists.
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| Thanks. |
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| We know. |
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| Yep. |
Transformers (Vol. 1) #1-#12
Written by Mike Costa, Penciled by Don Figueroa, E.J. Su, Javier Saltares and Guido Guidi
We got another “soft reboot” here, kicking off right after All Hail Megatron wrapped up. Hot off a well-received run on IDW’s G.I.Joe comics (particularly his acclaimed “Cobra” series), Mike Costa was given the first actual ongoing Transformers series set in their main continuity. Everything had been a string of connected mini-series up until that point, and All Hail Megatron was always intended to be finite, so this was something of a Big Deal (they certainly plugged it as such at the time.)
The first factor was the assumption that Mike Costa’s skill in writing G.I.Joe would translate to writing Transformers, and while he did seem to possess SOME familiarity with the franchise, it soon became clear that he was much more comfortable writing human protagonists. He made Spike Witwicky and the human military organization Skywatch co-leads with the Transformers, creating a set-up similar in nature to the recently-released live action Transformers movie “Revenge of the Fallen”.
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| Scrapper's one weakness... dishwashing detergent. |
When asked in an interview at the end of his run, Costa once related the difficulty he felt in writing Transformers, as he felt their robotic, alien nature precluded them from exploring love, spirituality, mortality, family, hunger, and many other “human” experiences. Even at the time, fans mocked this appraisal of his, and it has proven even more foolish as the years have gone by. Of COURSE you could explore any of those things with Transformers, but Costa seemingly didn’t even want to try. Unsurprisingly, very few of his takes on characters were popular with fans, with the exception of Thundercracker, who is spotlighted in issue #4, which is probably the best issue of these first twelve.
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| "Oh hai planet!" |
Of course, Mike Costa’s weaknesses in characterization, continuity, and plot were only half of the equation when it came to why his first year of stories were met with such derision. The other half was tragically Don Figueroa’s artwork on the first six issues and his new design philosophy for the entire relaunch in general. In what can only be described as a misread of the readership, Figueroa decided to overhaul every Transformers character with new designs seemingly inspired (again) by the live action movies.
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| "Some of us are concerned about your day-drinking, Jetfire..." |
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| If there's one thing we need, it's more Bumblebee designs for Hasbro to make toys of. |
Of course, the follies of Costa being miscast on writing this series and Figueroa misjudging the look of this series were compounded by then-editor Andy Schmidt’s laissez-faire approach to overseeing it. He was the one who just said “whatever” to the other artists wondering how the hell they should draw the characters, which resulted in a rotating mish-mash of aesthetics that lasted all the way through to the end of Costa’s run.
In the end, Costa’s run on Transformers is mostly recalled as another misfire, made doubly-so by Don Figueroa’s last, missed swing at the franchise. The first year of this run most exemplifies this notion, with the second arc drawn by Guido Guidi continuing the weak plot and character choices, if not the unappealing visual aesthetic. Costa did manage to improve somewhat in year two, but by then IDW was already looking into securing talent that had more of a read on what the readership wanted from their Transformers comics. John Barber in particular managed to grab onto and polish the gems from Costa’s run, like Thundercracker’s continuing character development.
Written by Simon Furman and Ben Yee, Penciled by alotta people
I told you this list wouldn’t just include stories! Produced in a time when IDW editorial was somewhat in flux, the Beast Wars Sourcebook is primarily remembered for its inconsistent and error-laden art, amateurish layouts, and arbitrary reinventions of established characters. IDW produced two Beast Wars mini-series in their first few years of holding the Transformers license. Both of them were kind of a case of “too much, too fast”, as Simon Furman tried to include EVERY Western Beast Wars character that hadn’t appeared in the actual cartoon in the first mini, and then EVERY Japanese Beast Wars character in the second.
Having never seen the Japanese Beast Wars series (and it’s not like they were readily available at the time, nor in the present, at least officially…) Simon Furman received help in the form of noted Internet Transformers fan Benson Yee to help incorporate them. The plan was to fold EVERY Beast Wars character, East and West, into the fabric of the Beast Wars stories that IDW were telling. While the original Mainframe cartoon’s continuity would remain sacrosanct, the events of “Beast Wars II” and “Beast Wars Neo” would be cannibalized and reinvented to better fit Western sensibilities.
Since the Japanese Beast Wars cartoons were generally geared to a younger age bracket and the characters were on the whole, generally more lighthearted, this meant some of them received complete personality “overhauls” or straight-up inversions. For those unfamiliar with the guys from across the sea, this might not have been a big deal, but these were characters that had starred in their own cartoons and were just as legitimate as their Western contemporaries. It seemed a little presumptuous to just rewrite their personalities and histories, as well as robbing them of most of their flavor and charm.
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| Was Artemis stuffed in a refrigerator too? |
While Ben Yee’s knowledge and fan cred can’t be disputed, his actual professional writing skill leaves a bit to be desired. Of particular disappointment here are his profiles for the characters that appeared in the Mainframe cartoon. Instead of giving us a breakdown of their personalities and foibles, Yee opted to just give an extreme brief and broad summary of what they did in the cartoon. I mean, the target audience for these books had almost CERTAINLY seen the Mainframe cartoon, so what was the point of that? The profiles that Furman wrote were a bit better- particularly those featuring characters he focused heavily on in his two mini-series, like Razorbeast and Magmatron.
The visuals of the Sourcebooks were another large source of criticism for this series, with characters that had multiple bodies only usually receiving a random hodgepodge of visuals for them. The poor layouts and huge valleys of white space made the omitted material even more noticeable. Some artists, notably Frank Milkovich, had over-detailed, boxy styles that just didn’t work for the more organic looks of the Beast era characters. Some of the more important characters in Beast Wars had pretty weak art (like Dinobot) which was replaced in the trade collection of the Sourcebook and there were some baffling color errors as well-
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| Left- original issue, Right- trade revision |
Beast Wars (2021) #1-#6
Written by Erik Burnham, Art by Josh Burcham
Didn’t have to stay tuned for very long now, huh? IDW’s second attempt at launching a Beast Wars came late in the day and still somehow overstayed its welcome. “Two Hams” Beast Wars (Burnham and Burcham) was an attempt to reboot and retell the story of the Mainframe cartoon, but SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY. Unfortunately, the creative team could only manage lateral moves at best, and most of their reinterpretations of characters and plot from the cartoon were largely inferior takes.
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| We made a wish on a monkey's paw for a new Beast Wars comic. |
New characters Nyx and Skold were created to add some more female representation to the cast, and while it does feel like Burnham is having an easier time writing characters with no predisposed notions built-in, neither of them make a particularly strong first impression. Nyx immediately becomes a damsel-in-distress to puff up Dinobot’s fan aura and Skold doesn’t get her true spotlight until the start of the second storyarc. Speaking of, I’ve only included the first storyarc in this listing because I think the series does improve somewhat after issue six, but it merely goes from “disappointing and derivative” to “marginally-readable” at that.
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| "Dyx" FOR-EV-ERRRRRR!!! |
Josh Burcham’s mostly known as a colorist (whose style thereof goes wildly hot-and-cold with me), but he can do pencils too and gets his first major ongoing gig here. He’s drawn one-off issues and stories before, but this was a fairly big deal for him and I’m glad he got a shot with something as big as a Beast Wars series. THAT SAID… his art for this comic… doesn’t really work that well.
Frankly, I think the overall strength of the Mainframe Beast Wars cartoon can also be its biggest weakness. Writers tie themselves in knots trying to pay proper respect to the cartoon, whether it is telling stories strictly in its margins (like Simon Furman’s stuff) or trying to re-imagine its winning elements in a slightly-different way (like this series.) I often say that the only truly exceptional Beast Wars fiction outside of the original cartoon is “Beast Wars: Uprising”, the series of prose stories released by the Transformers Fan Club. The reason the “Uprising” universe worked is because it didn't require hanging on to the cartoon's coattails and thus the writers were able to truly stretch their wings creatively.
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| You say that but |
“Two Hams” wrapped up with issue # 17 and the rest of the series was marked by some improvement in both story and art, but not enough for me to want a return to this incarnation of Beast Wars. That’s probably the most damming thing; rather than completely hating this series, I find that I just didn’t CARE about it in the end. 2021’s Beast Wars series was just never able to escape from the long shadow cast by the original material, and will likely remain subsumed by it forever.
And this is STILL not the worst Beast Wars-related thing that IDW produced...
Written by Magdalene Visaggio, Penciled by Fico Ossio
The runaway success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe led to everyone seeing the potential dollar signs flashing over a “shared fictional universe” of intellectual properties, and it was no different with IDW. They sought to unite all Hasbro properties they had the publishing rights to in such a way- Transformers, G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Rom the Space Knight, Action Man, M.A.S.K. and of course… Visionaries.
IDW then decided that Transformers, the biggest and most productive cow in the stable, could perhaps nurse the lesser titles along. Transformers became the mother’s milk for the rest of the “Hasbro Universe” to nourish themselves on, with a number of “Transformers vs. “So-and-So” series being released and aspects of the shared universe being folded into the comics at the time. Most readers of the Transformers books in particular just saw any ties to the “Hasbro Universe” popping up in their comics as unwelcome intrusions, but writers like John Barber tried their best to “play ball” and make it work. Ideas like Skywarp joining G.I. Joe and Kup partnering with Action Man found legs and garnered some praise here and there. However, some of these titles suckling at the teat of Transformers tried to suck a little TOO hard, both figuratively and literally.
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| This is like if when Jay Sherman showed up on "The Simpsons", he killed Grampa before leaving. |
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| Oh you “can’t remember” who suggested Kup should die, huh Mariotte? TOTES CONVENIENT. |
Transformers vs. Visionaries is probably the best (at being worst) example of the failure of IDW’s shared Hasbro Universe, and that’s why it makes this list. Like I said, there were some good bits that came from the shared universe concept; the Rom vs. Transformers mini-series was actually pretty decent and I know there are fans out there of the Revolutionaries- a team featuring representations of each Hasbro franchise working together. Still, the renewed consumer interest in the “shared universe” hasn’t really paid off for anyone but Marvel and maybe DC, and most people have seemed to accept that nowadays. This however, isn’t the last crossover on my list, and the next entry is actually kind of ironic considering my previous statements...
New Avengers/Transformers #1-#4
Written by Stuart Moore, Penciled by Tyler Kirkham
The first franchise crossover IDW ever did with the Transformers license, before it was “cool” and predating the MCU! Fitting that Transformers returned to its roots with Marvel Comics to team the Autobots with the New Avengers and the Decepticons with Doctor Doom. As a big fan of both properties, I was quite excited for this series and New Avengers was one of the hottest books on the stands at the time, which could only be a good thing for Transformers and IDW’s exposure in general. However, when all was said and done, New Avengers/Transformers failed to live up to anyone’s expectations. To put it plainly… it’s just not very good.
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| They're turning right, not left, you ignorant Canadian. |
Whether writing unfunny jokes for Spider-Man or being unable to write anything but “street” dialogue for Luke Cage, Moore delivers a pretty dire script. He has Doctor Doom refer to himself in the third person (as is his wont) and it comes across more as parody or like Doom is trying to do his best Tarzan impression. He has Captain America quote lyrics from “The Star-Spangled Banner” non-ironically and Iron Man make jokes about heavy metal music while fighting Megatron.
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| He's not RDJ yet- cut him some slack on the quality of the one-liners. |
Funnily enough, this series IS considered canon to IDW Transformers continuity, but NOT to “616” Marvel continuity, although few fans even WANT to include it. It being canon obviously doesn’t make a whole lot of SENSE, but John Barber once (somewhat jokingly) suggested that the Avengers all died during “All Hail Megatron” which is why we never see them again. Its placement in IDW continuity is spottily placed between Transformers: Escalation #1 and #2, and Megatron makes the prophetic declaration at the end of this story that he and Optimus Prime will do battle soon (in “Escalation” #5 to be precise.) It just comes across as a very clumsy continuity bridge and again… most fans do NOT consider “Man and Machine” canon to IDW continuity, even if IDW editorial does.
As I implied above, Tyler Kirkham’s art is pretty unremarkable at best and all the action sequences land with a clumsy thud. He manages a neat homage to the cover of Marvel US Transformers #3 in part four, but otherwise everything else is entirely forgettable. The covers to this series are all pretty cool (drawn by better artists, at that), except issue #2’s cover as seen at the head of this entry. It’s rather infamous for its portrayal of some kind of potato man in a Wolverine costume and I’m honestly shocked Marvel even let it past editorial. Jim Shooter would have made Jason Pearson draw that damn potato man again.
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| Can you roll any other way? |
This is a lackluster series that happened fairly soon in IDW’s tenure with the Transformers, and it didn’t HAVE to be because I feel like the sky should have been the limit at that time. I don’t know who decided the creative team but they clearly weren’t up to the task. There’s just a lack of care and polish here that tells me both Marvel and IDW probably felt the name brands alone would sell this series. The promo art that Phil Jimenez produced for the aborted DC/Transformers crossover had more enthusiasm, charm, and love put into it than this story-
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| We got "Man and Machine" and not this. This truly is the worst timeline. |
Transformers: Deviations
Written by Brandon M. Easton, Penciled by Priscilla Tramontano
Okay, so that’s not really the title of this issue, but it may as well be. In 2016, IDW released a spate of one-shots under the “Deviations” banner, telling “What If” (or “Elseworlds” if you prefer) tales from a number of their licensed properties. “What If Optimus Prime Never Died In Transformers: The Movie?” is probably the most obvious and immediate concept for a Transformers tale in this vein, so that’s what they went with.
NOPE.
This is some lame, bad fanfic from a bygone era of Transformers fandom when a contingent of people that utterly rejected the ‘86 Movie, its new characters, and events were a loud and vocal minority on the early Internet. I’m sure there are still people out there today that hold that view, but I feel like by-and-large, most modern Transformers fans have accepted The Movie into their hearts and acknowledge the context in which it was originally released. I do believe there COULD be an interesting story about Optimus surviving the Movie and continuing forward… in fact, I’m certain I read some of those aforementioned fanfics back in the day that sprung from that premise. I’m also certain that just about all of them were a better story than this.
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| I bet the fish weren't jumping in this version either. |
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| Springer gets to join Arcee in death. Hot Rod still can't win there. |
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| Magnus gets his fist stuck in Hot Rod's "grill shaft". "Open, dammit, OPEN!" |
There is some amusing and interesting stuff in regards to the Decepticons in this issue, with Starscream becoming leader (since Optimus successfully killed Megatron without Hot Rod’s interference.) Starscream makes a deal with Unicron here, getting the appropriate upgrades, and as “Megascream” menaces the heroes. Cute, but hardly anything that justifies the rest of this story’s quality. The art by Priscilla Tramontano is pretty good at least, although there were other artists in IDW’s stable who could more closely mimic the Sunbow aesthetic… but I’m trying to be positive in one regard at least.
As stated, Brandon Easton’s never really delivered a satisfying reading experience for me (although he came a little closer with that somewhat-approaching-decent three-parter that closed out the Transformers: Galaxies title.) His character writing always seems a bit too simplistic and his plots are usually paper-thin. I always consider one of the marks of an unskilled writer to be the inability to write convincing dialogue for children, and Daniel Witwicky certainly has some clunker lines here. Not that even the title character is spared from clunk...
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| "This is better than that time me and Wheelie got killed by Nightbirds... but not by much..." |
This comic was met with near-instant derision by all who read it, and deservedly so. What I find most galling though is that, as mentioned, I LOVE the concept of “What If” tales and make every effort to pay attention whenever a comic company (Marvel or otherwise) decides to indulge in them. All too often though, they’re saddled with less-seasoned writers or artists and fail to make the singular impact they COULD make. I guess a better “What If?” would be “What If This Story Was Handled By A Better Writer?”
Written by John-Paul Bove, Penciled by Corin Howell
You’re probably all like “huh?” now, right? I told you there was a worse Beast Wars product that was coming, didn't I?? After just speaking of bad fanfic in the last entry, we have this Botcon convention exclusive comic from 2016 that was in fact published (and later reprinted) by IDW. “Dawn of the Predacus” obviously ties in with that year’s exclusive toys and Combiner Wars to boot via the toys. A prequel to Beast Wars set in the final days of the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons, “Dawn” is a perfect storm of bad plotting, obnoxiously-aggressive fanwank, contentious continuity, and ill-suited art.
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| He means the dead, not the Unicron-Tony Todd-Mark Hamill-always on fire guy. |
This story features such plot points and “revelations” as… well, lemme just list a few-
* BW Megatron served under the original Galvatron and had the G1 Predacons/Predaking under his command, alongside Waspinator, Terrorsaur, and BW Scorponok.
* Optimus Primal, Rattrap, and Rhinox were all full-sized Autobots serving under Optimus Prime, flying around in a larger Axalon (scaled for Autobots) at the end of the Great War.
* Tigatron and Airazor also fought in the last battle of the Great War. Tigatron is referred to as someone respected by “both sides”, indicating he’s been around for awhile. Also, Tigatron and Airazor were in a relationship before meeting on Earth in the cartoon.
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| Star-crossed lovers forever doomed to be in sub-par Botcon comics. |
* The Tripredacus Council were the ones to surrender the Decepticons to the Autobots in the wake of Galvatron’s death and personally signed the Pax Cybertronia. Also, they killed Predaking, made it look like a suicide, and then named their new faction the “Predacons” in honor of their “fallen hero.”
* Protoforms are the result of a bio-weapon unleashed by the Tripredacus Council, which converts victims into nano-goo and erases their identities. At the end of this story, all protoforms are placed in stasis pods and given over to Optimus Primal, who stores them in the Axalon, where they stay until the time of Beast Wars (300 years later.)
* Because of the previous point, G1 Inferno and BW Inferno are directly implied to be the same guy.
* What’s more, the bio cards for Cicadacon and Sea Clamp’s Botcon toys (also written by Bove) imply that they are actually a reformatted Shockwave and Soundwave with new personalities.
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| Okay, I do love Ram Horn fanning himself. |
BW Megatron personally KNEW Ravage before “The Agenda”? Optimus Primal and Rattrap had been serving together for hundreds of years before the first episode of Beast Wars? Tigatron and Airazor were in a relationship prior to meeting on Earth? The incongruous characterization and needless continuity-welding in this story really boggles the mind here.
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| Samoa Joe, nooooooo!!! |
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| OOF? |
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| nudge nudge nudge nudge nudge NUDGE NUDGE NUDGE NUDGE |
“Dawn of the Predacus” is a bad comic, a missed opportunity, and perhaps the biggest and worst example of Beast Wars being retroactively decayed by trying to further link it to Generation 1. Not that IDW ever really proved that they COULD tell an above-average Beast Wars story that functioned on its own merits, but I’d like to think it’s possible. Even without all the wank, it’s not like the actual PLOT of this comic can stand on its own anyhow. Ah well, only one entry in this list to go and it isn’t a “story” per se, so I guess “Dawn” gets the “Worst Transformers Story With IDW’s Name On It” Award. Sorry to all involved, I really am.
Written by Andy Schmidt, Penciled by various
Intended as a “catch-up” for the assured surge in new readers for IDW’s new Transformers ongoing series by Mike Costa and Don Figueroa in 2009, editor Andy Schmidt took on the simple task of summarizing the events of the previous few years of stories in this 32-page all-recap issue.
He SOMEHOW FAILED.
“Continuum” not only fails to correctly summarize key events from IDW’s then roughly three year-old continuity, but is also filled with awkward florid descriptive prose lacking context incorrect tense spulling errers and a mystifrying lock of punctumation
Let’s just take a random snatch describing events from “Transformers: Escalation” from it as an example-
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| There was no hope of rescue, until Roberts and Barber came along... |
It goes on like this, incorrectly summarizing events in random, varying levels of detail with that same weird overwrought prose. It’s been suggested Schmidt was trying to write in the style of some kind of “unreliable narrator” and that events are SUPPOSED to be vaguely-wrong or wrongly-vague in some way. Hell, it’s almost like this issue is a prophetic take on James Roberts’ introduction of the concept of “information creep” in Transformers fiction, but no one is gonna give Andy Schmidt that much credit.
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| We don't know what order our own comics go in. |
As editor, Andy Schmidt oversaw the weakest era of IDW’s Transformers comics- the latter half of “All Hail Megatron” through the end of Costa’s run. He also gave the okay to use Don Figueroa’s stealth bomber Megatron design in the comics without permission or compensation, pissing Figueroa off and contributing to his decision to quit drawing Transformers comics at the time. “The Transformers Continuum” is a fitting encapsulation of Schmidt's attitude towards the fans and the franchise in general- he didn’t care. Not enough, anyway.
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| Transformers: The Complicateds |
But first, here's Shortpacked!’s take on “Transformers: Continuum”-
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| I own that legend! |
That’s right, after I’ve told you my opinion on the Fifteen Worst Things IDW Produced, now I’ll rake them over the coals for a few promising things they were VERY CLOSE to producing but DIDN’T!!!
We’ll lead off with “Legacy of Rust”, a four issue mini-series that reportedly was completely scripted but ultimately left on the shelf. Written by Stuart Moore, this mini-series would have starred Punch/Counterpunch and human ally Jimmy Pink. It would have focused on Counterpunch’s undercover work in the vein of Chuckles in Mike Costa’s aforementioned “G.I. Joe: Cobra” series and rumors persist it never saw release because it was actually just a bit TOO similar to that series!
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| Would Jimmy's undercover alias be "Counterpink"? |
Stuart Moore of course, wrote “New Avengers/Transformers” which I’ve already discussed, as well as “Spotlight: Ramjet” for IDW. Obviously my feelings on NA/TF are clear, but “Spotlight: Ramjet” had some measure of diverting charm to it. Perhaps “Legacy of Rust” could have redeemed Stuart Moore’s name a bit in my eyes, but we’ll never know now, unless someone eventually leaks the reported completed scripts for “Legacy of Rust” one day…
Next, we have the curtailed release of “Classics UK” Volume 6. The “Classics UK” series had been collecting all the Marvel UK exclusive comic stories, as well as various rare ads, letters pages, and pin-ups from the original issues. Sure, it wasn’t printed at the original “magazine” size, but the lengthy and involved plot analysis, creator interviews, and indicia by James Roberts included between each reprinted story were a pleasure to read. The whole package came off as a real labor of love, and Volume 6 would have at least completed covering all the colored UK Marvel stories before their switch to black-and-white strips.
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| Still on my Amazon Wishlist somehow. |
Finally, we have “Transformers: Collision Course”, a miniseries originally intended to close out IDW’s tenure with the Transformers license with a massive multiversal crossover. It would have featured characters from across the varied Transformers continuities, primarily those featuring in stories that IDW originated. It also would have been written/plotted by various returning Transformers pros, like Simon Furman, James Roberts, Nick Roche, Brian Ruckley and even Tom Scioli! Some covers were produced for it, showing the intended epic scale and some cross-dimensional character meet-ups, but ultimately… “Collision Course” lived up to its name and crashed and burned.
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| Naw, no one would have wanted to read this. |
Whelp, that’s that. Go home with your bad feelings and pray that whomever gets the Transformers comic book license in the future produces even HALF of the actually-stellar output that IDW did over their seventeen years with the franchise. Sometimes “I.D.W.” stood for “It Didn’t Work” but thankfully, I think the good ultimately outweighed the bad.
If you wanna read more about “the good” in IDW (and a little more bad), check out these previous things I wrote (again)-
Mike's Favorite IDW Transformers "Phase 2" Moments: Part 1, James Roberts
Mike's Favorite IDW Transformers "Phase 2" Moments: Part 2, John Barber
Mike's Favorite IDW Transformers "Phase 2" Moments: Part 3, Mairghread Scott and Nick Roche
Mike's Favorite IDW Transformers "Phase 1" Moments
The Top 10 Best Things From Transformers Vs. G.I.Joe
Mike's Favorite TF Comic Covers! (IDW Edition)
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