Chaos!!

[The Viz]

I just read the first two issues of chaos...and i have to say that i enjoyed it more than some of recent IDW stuff.
Like Roberts Megatron story part 1, looks like WRECKERS was not a one time fluke.

Whats the deal with issue 125 thou???

[prime_time]

No one knows whats happening with #125, they put it as that as thats how many TF comics they've put out in the G1 era, there keeping all the details for 125 to themselves, i read #21 today, was pretty good, #22 should be with me tomoro

[Duh_Prez]

22 is the first time in 5 or 6 years that I've read a current issue. Very nice indeed :) I'm looking forward to all of Chaos.

I'm assuming 125 will lay the groundwork for the double ongoing comics we're getting next year. I could probably just ask, but I'd rather read it.

[prime_time]

yea i think thats the idea of it prez, should be good if they can keep up there current work

[fudgecrumpet]

Aye, the comics are finally paying up on the promises of the past few years. Let's just hope they can pull it off.

[Rodimus Prime]

I just read 22- it was good actually- better than I expected it to be.

[fudgecrumpet]

23 was also fantastic. Optimus' origin story is proving to be much better than previous incarnations.

[NeoRanger]

23 was also fantastic. Optimus' origin story is proving to be much better than previous incarnations.

Just read it myself and yeah, very much so. Not just Optimus, but the lore in general seems a lot better thought-out; taking a lot of ideas from other incarnations and mixing them well together.

[fudgecrumpet]

I do like how they've given the writers the opportunity to introduce new characters into the mix too, albeit if on they are cannon fodder. Actually felt a sense of loss at the death of Springarm. Makes a change from just dragging out G2 bots to kill off. (unless i'm wrong and he IS a g2 bot)

[EvanusPrime]

Looking forward to Chaos, but I am still a number of issues behind in my reading!

[dannyannimus]

Read 24 today. It was still good, but not as good as the previous 2. The artwork was too blocky, with some dodgy angles. On the plus-side, the characterisation of the reaction to Sunstreaker was spot on.

[cyberjam]

got and read 24 yesterday,
i totally agree with dannyannimus, the story was good, but idw have shot them self in the foot again with the artist a bit like when we had chee,
some art forms dont work for story telling, the new guy- sorry name escapes me- i like his work on other things like his star wars pinups on his website, but i dont feel he's very skilled at story telling, or at least his styling doesnt fit with TF's story telling, as you cant seem to get the emotion over nor has he quite got some of the anatomy right in some panels,
i guess idw hired him as he does alll teh art, so they save money hiring a line artist and a colourist, but i feel after having chee, who has very similar art, i think they went into the wrong direction-again from what we can see from mosaics and what not, there are soooo many great budding artists who would have done a better job,
in all fairness, some pages and panels looked rather cool, like some panels of galvatron are looking rather awsome, but otehr let it down as you cant see what is going on

as in comics a story and art make it, so if one falls down then it falls down,
im looking forward to the earth based issues now, as the art will be at a good standard, especially with marcello matere returning in issue 25! :D

[fudgecrumpet]

Just read 24. Gotta agree about the artwork, it's all so washed out and messy, you have to squint to make out who anyone is. They do seem to have finally got round to a consistent character design, mind, so this definitely ranks about Chee.
Are those zombie sweeps I see too? Did the zombies not all get zapped away with Kup?

[NeoRanger]

Just read it myself. The art was a mess. The pencils were likely okay, albeit a bit too blocky, but then the coloring kicked in and whatever chance this had of looking presentable died right there. Waaaay too dark, I could barely tell what was going on. Not a fan of the story either, though that's largely because the script was a step-down from the last couple. Costa's okay, he did a recent run up to this point, but Roberts is just the better writer.

[prime_time]

havent been able to read anything since 22, i have to rely on someone selling them on ebay but no one had 23 or 24 and i dont live near an actual comic shop

[fudgecrumpet]

You should try http://www.oneshallstand.com or http://www.reedcomics.com for all your comicky needs.

[prime_time]

cheers dude, ive only known of ebay to get em, and of course the fp websites will give these a go

[cyberjam]

i recomend oneshallstand, i have used him a few times for back issues when my local fp hadnt got stuff in! :P

[fudgecrumpet]

25 is actually quite good for an Earth-based story. Goes to show a smaller cast of characters makes for a more engaging story.

[cyberjam]

agreed, 25 was better, artist was pretty good, somedodgey angles/ shapes at time but good, story is pretty good
I just got this article off josh burchmans Da account
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34521
seems interesting, chaos artist looks good in some of the previews- like i said he's a pinup artist! :P
but i feel this has ruined idw's whole secrecy of 125!

[dannyannimus]

Number 26's review is similar to #24. Good story, let down by the art. What is going on with Sunstreaker's ears? This space story really kicks up a gear, with some interesting plot choices. The last few pages are great.

[Duh_Prez]

I'm liking the colours and the dark tone, which I think is fitting; but the actual drawings themselves are poor, occasionally awful.

I'm not the biggest fan of Nick Roche (much as I love him) but these crap drawings leave me yearning for his art!

[Death's Head]

Right, I've been lured back in by James Roberts excellent Megatron / Prime proper origin stories in # 22 & 23 which are the best TF comics since LSTOW. The following issues 24 - 26 are ... uneven. The space based antics of #24 & 26 are good. I don't know how Roberts and Costs have split the writing duties (one plotting, one writing perhaps?) but the mix is a strange one. You've got the slightly bloated not much happens pacing of Costa peppered with the characterisation of Roberts. still, its nice to see Optimus being properly leaderly and doing military shouting orders stuff which must be ooh the first time ever we've seen that. The scene with the ostricised Sunstreaker petting the Insecticon 'pet' was lovely. I have decided Cliffjumper is a moron and can't really say I am terribly impressed with the 'back from the dead' nature of Ironhide and Suntreaker themselves, which smacks of back tracking. The influence of Roberts is very apparent when we come to # 25, which is a real slump. A nice spotlight piece for Prowl (whom Costa does writet very well), but the Earth bound misadventures of the Autobots don't seem to have moved on since the dreadful 'International Incident' arc. Its all sneaky human organisations doing sneaky things to each other. Blah. Although enjoyable enough, I'm hoping this Chaos arc is actually heading for a big explosion and a reset (unusually for me) as IDWs continuity as it stands really isn't doing it for me and just seems a mish mash of false starts, creative dead ends, about turns and unsatisfying results. This odd mix of trying to be contemporary whilst firmly rooting nailing each character to their Marvel archetypes does no one any favours. Although he lost the plot, Furman was onto something with his year zero approach. Sigh.

On the art front. Well. Alex Milne continues to impress, but Livio Ramondelli's Ashley Wood style murk is difficult to follow and that Megatron redesign is an ugly piece of crap. Sorry, but it is. He looks like something out of Warhammer. Brendan Cahill's style is a difficult one to judge. his storytelling skills are first rate, but he seems to be the latest in a long line of modern Transformers artists who can draw the robots fine (bar that ugly looking splash of Ultra Magnus, Prowl, Streetwise and Bumblebee) but struggles a bit with humans. Incidentally, I like that most of the earth bound autobots are ones with emergency service vehicles for alt modes :)

[fudgecrumpet]

I must admit, as #26 progressed from talking to big shooty fighty bang bang pop the artwork did seem to fit. It suits an epic space battle well, but is indeed very hard to follow when the action slows.
As for #25, lets just hope this storyline wraps up all the Earth based nonsense for the time being. Tis much repetitive and jarring.

[Death's Head]

So # 27 & 28 then. repeating the process of the last two issues. The earth based stuff with Prowl 'investigating' Spike is tedious and the least interesting facet of this Chaos storyline and I don't feel any tnesion or any sense of 'kewl Spike is , like, eeevil , dude' at all. i just want it to be over. By comparrison, the shooty space war on Cybertron remains more interesting. Its becoming increasingly obvious that this is paced quite poorly though, with not a lot actually happening. I have now decided that Megatron looks like Nemesis The Warlock off of 2000AD. The art is difficult to follow too, particularly the scenes with Megatron taking on the sweeps which is a blurry mess. Not sure what i think about the whole Decepticon army forming something akin to the Scraplet monster last seen in the old Marvel comics - spray water on it, Prime! That'll stop it!

[dannyannimus]

I read #30 yesterday. It turns out the mega-gestalt was D-Void from Hearts of Darkness. Interpret it how you like, but either HoD left no lasting impression on any of us, or the art was too blurry for us to recognise him. The only other big news is in the Choas checklist, where the classified #125 is revealed. I don't want to spoil it, but it's been done before, innumerate times, so it all depends on the handling.

[Robtimus]

From what I've read somewhere (can't remember where though), the big event of #125 isn't even going to last very long.

Also, in January two new series will start - More Than Meets The Eye and Robots in Disguise. Not the most original of names, but especially the first one seems appealing, with the team behind Last Stand of the Wreckers behind it. For more information, http://www.oneshallstand.com/shop/MTMTE/MTMTE-sub.html and http://www.oneshallstand.com/shop/RID/RID-sub.html (warning - contains spoilers)

[dannyannimus]

MTMTE does sound promising, but why have oneshallstand put the RID covers in the wrong order?

[The Viz]

So not sure i followed what happened with that bright white light. What are we meant to assumed happened?
Cybertron died?!

[Death's Head]

I think that's what supposed to have happened. Ramonelli's art is terrible. Sorry, but it is. Murky, unclear and reliant on the painted nature of the work to distract from his poor storytelling. What I red is an expressionist painting with speech bubbles on it. The end wasn't very epic. We got what was supposed to be Megatron (who now transforms into a flying flip flop) shooting at....well I don't what. The D-void, one assumes, but frankly your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, the Autobots stand about wringing their hands and suddenly we get the bon mot that Galvatron thinks he's saving Cybertron - really?! That makes no sense. Optimus dithers and Rodimus prods him along and that's it. The earth bound conclusion isn't up to much either, wiuth the big reveal being that it was Swindle all along!

Is this it? Is this what the last 30 issues have been building towards?

What a bunch of arse.

[cyberjam]

I think that's what supposed to have happened. Ramonelli's art is terrible. Sorry, but it is. Murky, unclear and reliant on the painted nature of the work to distract from his poor storytelling. What I red is an expressionist painting with speech bubbles on it. The end wasn't very epic. We got what was supposed to be Megatron (who now transforms into a flying flip flop) shooting at....well I don't what. The D-void, one assumes, but frankly your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, the Autobots stand about wringing their hands and suddenly we get the bon mot that Galvatron thinks he's saving Cybertron - really?! That makes no sense. Optimus dithers and Rodimus prods him along and that's it. The earth bound conclusion isn't up to much either, wiuth the big reveal being that it was Swindle all along!

Is this it? Is this what the last 30 issues have been building towards?

What a bunch of arse.
I dont think his art is bad, just not used in the right way, he's a poster artist, one page dramatic sequences- (see his website) but they used him for story telling whihc isnt his fortey(however it is spelt). I was very dissapointed in general with how the stories have been. they havent been paced right, they story has been spread out for WAY too long than needed, but that is IDW as usual cant get teh time scale right! some stroies are rushed, some are dragged out for freakin' ages!
i feel the ending was not concluding, but im assuming the next issue(31?) is going to rap them with a bow, or at least leave it in a better way.
i feel that theyve dragged it out so far, and have just died from boredom of dragging it out for sooooo long.
in the cybertron story is was more atmospheric, but earth, was done in a terrible way, i thought "oh.... thats the end then?"

[Death's Head]

I'll have to have a look at his website,but if what you say is true then idw were silly not to check this guy can do sequential art which is generally a prerequisit for drawing er,comics.unless you're rob liefeld.

Totally agree about the lack of editorial control.the space stuff in the last few issues has been way more interesting than all the wretched earth bound nonsense with spike and the combaticons.a really dismal couple of years of comics.at least all hail megatron was a decent romp.this ongoing has been beyond the pale.utter dirge that concluded with an "oh." rather than a bang.