IDW Transformers Issue 11 Full Preview

Seeing Slipstream's name gives me hope of a new figure. Hopefully not just a straight recolor of the seeker mold.

Posted to the IDW Twitter are new profiles for two of your favorite goons in green, Constructicons Bonecrusher and Scavenger!

The depth of character being pumped into this new world of Transformers is truly amazing. Writer Tyler Bleszinski with artist Livio Ramondelli seem to be natural fits to the launch of this new arm of the IDW Transformers world. We'll be sure to post here as new ones arrive but until then also enjoy an image posted by Livio to his Twitter of Insecticon Kickback feasting on...something. Let your imaginations whirl with that one, Livio's art makes it easy enough to do so most times.

Enjoy the views and share your thoughts with the Seibertron crew in the forum. As always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!



And from Livio on the Insecticons:
"One of the noble goals @papiblez and I have on TF: Galaxies is to deliver one of the most disturbing versions of the Insecticons ever"

Damn I am really excited for Scavenger and the insecticons and their disturbing behaviors

Again, "New" continuity, name drops combiner MacGuffin from the previous one

The enigma has been adopted by the whole franchise though, as seen in the card game and the toyline (it was used in the power of the Primes line)

Doesn't mean the comic has to.

But yeah, because we have scientists and inventors galore in Transformers that could and have created the Gestalt technology in the past. A logical concept for an advanced alien race. But no, let's just dumb down the mythology and say a trinket did it

Who says the enigma wasn't created by scientists? Besides this could be an edict to help simplify the mythos, same saying all tfs had sparks, which was a concept that beast wars introduced and carried forward to this day.

Devastator was always kinda a unique combiner in comparison to the Scramble City-types that followed. Maybe scientists will try reverse-engineering him in an attempt to reproduce the results of the Enigma without actually having access to the artifact?

ZeroWolf wrote:Who says the enigma wasn't created by scientists? Besides this could be an edict to help simplify the mythos, same saying all tfs had sparks, which was a concept that beast wars introduced and carried forward to this day.

Except that makes it more convoluted. Instead of a play on Frankenstein's Monster, we potentially have scientists creating a gizmo to create Frankenstein's Monster. Which is stupid. Strike two, would be the fact that Sixshot exists in universe, already. When you have one extremely powerful Multi-Former that can do six things, what is the point of having Gestalt technology at all?

That is why it is never a good idea to add Multi-Formers into a universe too early. They are an end product. A technological advancement beyond Gestalt. Hopefully they make them a bit more special (and durable) in the new continuity.

The Spark thing does make me laugh when people try to retroactively place it into G1. There are so many inconsistencies you really can't IE the Optimus Prime Floppy Disc.

I'm intrigued by the mention of Glyph; makes me wonder if WFC's Bumblebee figure (whenever and whatever it'll be) will have a Glyph retool (i.e. an actual mass-released Glyph toy).

Glarryg

I don't care about the Constructicons/Devastator and the Combaticons/Bruticus. I don't care about their origins if they were created by the Enigma of Combination, Omega Supreme, Starscream, Vector Sigma, a group of mad scientists, or something else.

I don't care about the Constructicons/Devastator and the Combaticons/Bruticus because IMHO they're all overused to a sickening degree and they all are boring as hell to me. If this series was about the Stunticons, Predacons, Seacons, Terrorcons, Dinoforce/Pretender Monsters, or even one of the Autobot teams like the Areialbots, Protectobots, Technobots, or the Trainbots, then I would be willing to give this series a chance.

Mixmaster's profile posted from the IDW Twitter

Thanks to a few new posts to IDW's Twitter we have two new Constructicon profiles for you to enjoy. This round gives us the master at the turn tables and the chemistry lab, the Mixmaster, and the man with the plan, the chief engineer who the rest of the team fears, Scrapper! These profile cards are very much in the vein of the classic tech spec file cards that came with all the G1 bots that gave each character a distinct personality and power rating. These are definitely a fun lead up to the Transformers: Galaxies series debuting next month. Galaxies is written by Tyler Bleszinski with art duties handled by longtime Transformers artist Livio Ramondelli.

Enjoy the views and be sure to share your favorite Constructicon and Devastator memories with us in the forum. As always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

Thanks to Twitter posts from IDW, series writer Tyler Bleszinski, and series artist Livio Ramondelli we have the tech spec profiles for all the new IDW Constructicons! These give some awesome flavor and backstory to these great characters who have been staples of the franchise for 35 years. Enjoy reading up on the bot with the plan Scrapper, the new and insecure (yet utterly valuable) Scavenger, the lofty Hook, stalwart and powerful Long Haul, the chemical genius Mixmaster, and the probably insane Bonecrusher.

The first issue of Transformers: Galaxies: Constructicons Rising is scheduled to ship this month! Be sure to pre-order your issue as soon as possible at your local comic shop. Pre-ordering is a huge help to the title and ensures you'll get your copy as soon as possible. You can find your local comic shop by going to comicshoplocator.com.

Do you love these G1 style tech specs? Publishers such as Marvel and DC have in the past gathered up character profiles in single special editions or even series of issues. Would you enjoy seeing something like this for all the new IDW Transformers characters to get caught up? Do you prefer learning about characters as stories unfold in the regular titles? Are you crazy excited about Transformers: Galaxies: Constructicons rising? Sound off in the forum and be sure to stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

Thanks to a new article posted today to CBR.com we have a full preview for the exciting new chapter in the new IDW Transformers universe, Transformers Galaxies #1 by writer Tyler Bleszinski and artist Livio Ramondelli!

Here we get the introduction to "Constructicons Rising" and get an idea of how our favorite goons in green fit into the rest of the ongoing story. Enjoy the previews below and make sure to hit up your local comic book shop for a pre order for this title which ships in just a few weeks on September 25th.

If you don't know where your local comic shop is you can find one here at comicshoplocator.com.

Here's the rundown from the listing:
"Cover A: Livio Ramondelli
Tyler Bleszinski (w), Livio Ramondelli (a & c)
Cybertron, a planet of vast beauty and extraordinary cities, wasn’t always so perfect. After the War Against the Threefold Spark, Cybertron was decimated, and new bots—the Constructicons—emerged to help rebuild it grander and more amazing than ever before. But where are these bots now? Why have they been erased from Cybertron’s history? And what are they planning to do about it? Find out in “Constructicons Rising,” Part One!
Written by one of the founders of Vox Media, Tyler Bleszinski!
An all-new series set in-universe, exploring the many characters and ideas in the Transformers galaxy!
A spotlight on the Constructicons and their ultimate destructive form—Devastator!
The bold new era continues!
Exploring the Transformers universe beyond Cybertron!
FC | 32 pages | $3.99"

Stargrave wrote:

This page shows everything I hate about Livio Ramondelli. It's not the art style, it's the terrible use of storytelling. You either get a very far away shot or a shot that's way too up close and hat last panel gives you an angle of their back, filled in shadow, instead of their front. While there is no way to confirm, this really feels to me like this approach is to draw as little as possible. I get doing shortcuts here and there but this is a page full of them and it really hurts the reading experience when the whole point of a comic is the added visuals to the storytelling.

Love these

william-james88 wrote:This page shows everything I hate about Livio Ramondelli. It's not the art style, it's the terrible use of storytelling. You either get a very far away shot or a shot that's way too up close and hat last panel gives you an angle of their back, filled in shadow, instead of their front. While there is no way to confirm, this really feels to me like this approach is to draw as little as possible. I get doing shortcuts here and there but this is a page full of them and it really hurts the reading experience when the whole point of a comic is the added visuals to the storytelling.

Agreed. Visual narrative is my thing and his is always.. off, from what it should be. I struggled to even finish the Primacy Trilogy because of it.

Damn, I am really liking how Galaxies is looking, I'm excited for it!

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

william-james88 wrote:This page shows everything I hate about Livio Ramondelli. It's not the art style, it's the terrible use of storytelling. You either get a very far away shot or a shot that's way too up close and hat last panel gives you an angle of their back, filled in shadow, instead of their front. While there is no way to confirm, this really feels to me like this approach is to draw as little as possible. I get doing shortcuts here and there but this is a page full of them and it really hurts the reading experience when the whole point of a comic is the added visuals to the storytelling.

Agreed. Visual narrative is my thing and his is always.. off, from what it should be. I struggled to even finish the Primacy Trilogy because of it.

I really enjoy his sense of scale and readily find a sense of motion in the work. I can see Wheeljack snapping back with that glare or on page 3's bottom panel it feels like those big vehicles are really coming at me. His work in Redemption with the Mad Max homage story was super awesome to me with the action scenes flowing at a cinematic-like pace in my head. There's a panel in Salvation (I think) with Typticon ravaging Iacon some distance away with Swoop or Starscream, I forget, flying from the foreground in that direction and it's just

Taste in art is subjective of course, but personally I like his style for the stories he gets put on.

When does this thing hit?

sol magnus wrote:When does this thing hit?

9/25. Pending any shipping delays that date should hold, the first issue is done.

ScottyP wrote:

sol magnus wrote:When does this thing hit?

9/25. Pending any shipping delays that date should hold, the first issue is done.

Cool. I think we can all use some universe-building.

sol magnus wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

sol magnus wrote:When does this thing hit?

9/25. Pending any shipping delays that date should hold, the first issue is done.

Cool. I think we can all use some universe-building.

Agreed

Just in from Apple books preview is a three page preview for IDW's Transformers issue #12! Here we get some insight to this incarnation of fan favorite Nautica, both from her internal narrative and an interaction with Starscream. Here's the description from Apple:

Transformers #12
Brian Ruckley & Sara Pitre-Durocher

Pre-Order
Expected Sep 18, 2019
$3.99
"Out in the vast galaxy, Cybertronian explorers encounter all manner of beings—some friendly and some in stern opposition to Cybertronian expansion. When relations start to crumble and violence is threatened, there’s only one bot to turn to—Nautica, head of xeno-relations."

Are you one of the Nauticons out there who are excited to see her return? Are you a fan of the new line art by artist Sara Pitre-Durocher? Enjoy the preview and let us know your thoughts in the forum, and as always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

Dare I say things are finally getting more interesting?

I'm just disappointed by the fact that the Sentinel prime showing up in 10 and wanting to bust some heads is still largely ignored.

i am all down for Nautica considering she is my favorite girl, but I want some more plot too. Hopefully her story is a good one

Thanks to IDW artist Andrew Griffith, we have a glimpse at one of the alternate covers for the upcoming IDW Transformers #12. The cover, which was done by Griffith, features Nautica in her favorite element: the deep sea, and very clearly enjoying herself.

Issue 12 of the IDW Transformers ongoing is set to be released within the next 2 weeks, and will star Nautica, marking her as another IDW 2005 original character that crosses over and plays some sort of major role in the new series.

You can check out the cover by Griffith below, and let us know what you think of it in the comments section below!

Big day for comics tomorrow. Death's Head 3, Aero 3 and House of X 4, gonna be a fun day. Wish there were good robot comics to mention.

Arriving in comic shops today is issue 12 of the ongoing IDW Transformers title and thanks to Graphic Policy we have the full preview. In this issue we see the introduction of long time fan favorite Nautica, seen here as a xeno-relations expert. Not sold yet? Enjoy the full preview below and see if it motivates you to get out to your local comic shop to get your issue today. You'll have your choice of covers too with cover A by the awesome Alex Milne, cover B by the amazing Andrew Griffith with colors by titanic Thomas Deer, and the retailer incentive cover by jamming Jeffrey Veregge.

Share your thoughts in the forum and as always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

Here's the summary from Graphic's Policy:
"Out in the vast galaxy, Cybertronian explorers encounter all manner of beings—some friendly and some in stern opposition to Cybertronian expansion. When relations start to crumble and violence is threatened, there’s only one bot to turn to—Nautica, head of xeno-relations."

ScottyP wrote:Big day for comics tomorrow. Death's Head 3, Aero 3 and House of X 4, gonna be a fun day. Wish there were good robot comics to mention.

Actually, it was House of X #5, and it was a doosey.

12 issue, 12 months.

Year in a snapshot gang what do you think of this first maxi-chapter of the new Transformers?

Where do you see the series going from here?

Stargrave wrote:12 issue, 12 months.

Year in a snapshot gang what do you think of this first maxi-chapter of the new Transformers?

Where do you see the series going from here?

Thats not entirely accurate as the series debuted in March this time last year the Unicron miniseries was lurching to its conclusion and we wondered how Lost Light was going to tie into things but we only had one issue left... And we were kept waiting on the last Optimus Prime issue.

ZeroWolf wrote:

Stargrave wrote:12 issue, 12 months.

Year in a snapshot gang what do you think of this first maxi-chapter of the new Transformers?

Where do you see the series going from here?

Thats not entirely accurate as the series debuted in March this time last year the Unicron miniseries was lurching to its conclusion and we wondered how Lost Light was going to tie into things but we only had one issue left... And we were kept waiting on the last Optimus Prime issue.

You know I didn’t think it could have been a full year yet I was like dang that can’t be right - how did they crank 12 issues out already?

Easy, two issues a month , hopefully Galaxies will pick up the slack from this series, I'm not feeling much of a pull now to collect the trade paperback

ZeroWolf wrote:Easy, two issues a month , hopefully Galaxies will pick up the slack from this series, I'm not feeling much of a pull now to collect the trade paperback

Well i mean if you go and use math like that then yeah ok that totally makes sense
Totally thought it was a monthly not a bi monthly. I haven’t been regularly into comics for too long. I bought the first two issues but honestly am waiting for a collected edition I can just power through.

Stargrave wrote:12 issue, 12 months.

Year in a snapshot gang what do you think of this first maxi-chapter of the new Transformers?

Where do you see the series going from here?

Based on what I've read so far (I quit on the series at issue , nowhere meaningful. I'll give galaxies a try, but that is based solely on ScottyP's endorsement. When the Ghostbuster crossover is out on trade, I'll get that on Dmax's endorsement.


But for the main series? At this point it is unsalvageable to me.

1. I love MTMTE/LL Nautica's function and personality. She's perfect and should never change.
2. 2019 IDW Nautica is completely different, effectively a new character.
3. I love 2019 IDW Nautica's function and personality. She's perfect and should never change.

AcademyofDrX wrote:1. I love MTMTE/LL Nautica's function and personality. She's perfect and should never change.
2. 2019 IDW Nautica is completely different, effectively a new character.
3. I love 2019 IDW Nautica's function and personality. She's perfect and should never change.

So what you're saying is Nautica is perfect no matter what

I enjoyed the story for Nautica and Roadrage. I enjoyed those 2, but not so much the story. Which lines up so far where the few good points about this series has been, in characters that I fell in love with previously and are still pretty good (Cyclonus, Nautica, and new one Roadrage)

I can't believe the first page of this issue was an info dump on random space alien species and some of the boring political climate surrounding them.

Pitre-Durocher did a great job without a lot to work with. Art on this was wonderful but the story, yikes. This story is not good. I've never been so entirely indifferent towards a Transformers story. At least Energon and Revenge of the Fallen had the gumption to just be plain old bad in most ways but at least it was fun to watch the trainwreck.

ScottyP wrote:I can't believe the first page of this issue was an info dump on random space alien species and some of the boring political climate surrounding them.

Pitre-Durocher did a great job without a lot to work with. Art on this was wonderful but the story, yikes. This story is not good. I've never been so entirely indifferent towards a Transformers story. At least Energon and Revenge of the Fallen had the gumption to just be plain old bad in most ways but at least it was fun to watch the trainwreck.

I agree with the notion that this isnt even bad in a good way. Also, fair warning, I will be using some of what you just wrote in the review I am writing. I am rather brash in my reviews when it comes to the negative and that sums up some of my thoughts.

IDW brought Transformers comics in a whole new spotlight starting with "Chaos Theory", followed by the "Death of Optimus Prime" and two new titles giving fans a wider breadth of the lore in a post war world. It brought a lot of fans into the fold. Roughly eight years have since passed, time marched on, fans slowly left through attrition and another completely fresh relaunch happened.

Now six months in, how's it been going? Well, Transformers fans are discussing X-Men comics instead and some of us aren't even really X-Men fans.

Since part of the goal here is to review Transformers #12, let's do that. The dialogue can get really grating in it's unnatural feel with lines like "We do not need to take this home with us. Home. If that is what it still is. We'll find out, I suppose." which feels more like it was written by Thundercracker for one of his films. Then there are just really excruciating sentences to read, filled to the brim with boredom, like these panels.



Everything isn't terrible, because seeing more Nautica is welcome and it's very fun to see Road Rage at all, in any capacity. Outside of a couple of fun interactions they're either world-building through exposition or doing just enough token actions to move the issue's "chase" plot forward. Ultimately, they're chasing an alien who planted a bomb, which is very similar to the oversimplified notions of radicalized insurgents we see in other fiction when trying to mirror aspects of the war on terror.

This brief interaction with an alien species reminds me of a problem that plagues the series and the various side plots dealing with alien/organic species and their politics. Why would we care about Transformers playing tightrope politics with random space aliens? We might if there were characters of said races helping out the Transformers or in direct conflict with them as a means of framing some wider message about expansionism or xenophobia or just the wonders of the unknown. This series really wants you to think it's doing that, even going out of its way with the first page of this issue being an info dump on random space alien species and some of the boring political climate surrounding them (now I know what those people felt when given reading material before seeing David Lynch's Dune on the big screen). However, the fact that little time is spent with the aliens overall make them feel more like a nuisance to the story rather than complimenting it.



What was enjoyable though was the notion that all mechanical creations have a mind, some are simply more basic than others and Nautica interacting with a bomb was probably the highlight of the issue. That complimented the Transformers mythos.

The goal of this issue seemed to be to introduce Nautica and Road Rage as a pair, not necessarily a romantic one, and it continues a general theme that's echoed throughout this series of recapturing the idea from the previous comics of fun relationships some bots have with eachother, without yet producing anything truly great. None of the pairs or interactions here are even close to Megatron and Rodimus from the previous series, for instance. Instead, with the partnerships we have seen, like Orion Pax and Megatron, Bumblebee and Windblade, Prowl and Chromia, the characters can be switched at random and aside from the change in political status (oh joy!) there would be little change to how they act with eachother.



For once I have no issues with the art. Sara Pitre-Durocher is on art duties here and she gives us a wonderful looking issue. She did a great job without a lot to work with. Colourist Joana Lafuente complimented the line art perfectly and all bots look as they should. I really like seeing the Road Rage MP toy used as a basis here for a smoother design and Nautica looks as great as you'd hope with her being the star of the issue.

The covers are easily the best part of this issue, they all look phenomenal. The main cover is handled by Alex Milne. The other covers are handled by Andrew Griffith and Jeffrey Veregge. You can also find all the cover images, full credits for the issue and a list of all the characters that appear in the book through our Vector Sigma Database page for Transformers #12.





The issue wasn't terrible but there was nothing in it I cared much for aside from the way the characters were drawn and that bit about all mechanical beings/inventions able to talk to eachother at a basic level. It made me appreciate how good my fridge has been to me, always being on the task, keeping my food cold and bacteria free.



The part that really works against this issue though is that it's technically an arc closer. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it in the slightest and will make for an odd first trade/hardcover, but that's what IDW chose to do. This makes it an odd issue to use to look back on the run so far, though I did try to cover that in my review. In the end, I am not enjoying this series much. The Transformers civil war offered us some great moments, the post war stories were on another level, but this pre war stuff is the most boring run I have ever read in any comic. And I worked in a comic store for years, reading everything I could. None of it is outrageously bad though, just uneventful and unengaging and I am not sure if that is worse or not.



You can pick it up at the Seibertron.com eBay store or at your local shop, check here to find the closest shop to you.

At least they're interacting with other species in different ways than usual. You'd expect them to do that if they don't have a non-interference policy.

Ironhidensh wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Big day for comics tomorrow. Death's Head 3, Aero 3 and House of X 4, gonna be a fun day. Wish there were good robot comics to mention.

Actually, it was House of X #5, and it was a doosey.

Ah, right, yes. And it was extremely good. I wanted something like this from the TF relaunch :'( Subversions of the familiar, clever twisty-twists, nods and deep cut references to the past that don't interfere with newbies' enjoyment (like Storm/Jean Grey in HoX 5, I got the point fine from just context and later saw online what it was referencing, which I was totally unfamiliar with.)

Also Death's Head 3 had plenty of robot stuff, just not Cybertronian robot stuff, so I was wrong on that point too

ScottyP wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Big day for comics tomorrow. Death's Head 3, Aero 3 and House of X 4, gonna be a fun day. Wish there were good robot comics to mention.

Actually, it was House of X #5, and it was a doosey.

Ah, right, yes. And it was extremely good. I wanted something like this from the TF relaunch :'( Subversions of the familiar, clever twisty-twists, nods and deep cut references to the past that don't interfere with newbies' enjoyment (like Storm/Jean Grey in HoX 5, I got the point fine from just context and later saw online what it was referencing, which I was totally unfamiliar with.)

Also Death's Head 3 had plenty of robot stuff, just not Cybertronian robot stuff, so I was wrong on that point too

About the X-Men, what arcs/runs from the past 5 years would one have to read to best be prepared for this current House of X crossover?

Plot Twist: The previous universe didn't end - "A Bold New Era" is actually just Thundercracker making a Transformers movie despite not know what people were actually doing, so He's trying his best with what he can.



(Even if the previous universe DID end, it wouldn't really matter. Actually, it might make things better, since the Lost Light can jump between universes. Who knows? Maybe this "Bold New Era" is taking place in the new universe we saw in Lost Light #25.)

I would adore the TF equivalent of HoX/PoX, but I don't think that's a realistic standard. The X-Men wing of the Marvel universe as much more narrative history and depth than TF's, so there is a lot for the creators to build on. There may be six million years of Cybertronian history, but most of it is just "war" or "peace."

I understand and sympathise with the criticisms, but I don't think Ruckley et al get enough credit for the amount of worldbuilding they are doing in a relatively short amount of time. Elements of Cybertronian social structure are directly inherited from earlier incarnations, but unified Cybertron's domestic political history and approach to intergalactic diplomacy are almost entirely new. It's very hard to dramatize those ideas in just a dozen issues of a 30-page comic book.

I guess my view is that it's fair to criticize the series for what it's not doing well, largely by design; however, I also want to praise it for what it's trying to do, even if it doesn't always succeed.

william-james88 wrote:About the X-Men, what arcs/runs from the past 5 years would one have to read to best be prepared for this current House of X crossover?

You didn't ask me, but my recommendation would be to start with the 2013-2015 Uncanny X-Men series written by Brian Michael Bendis. The tone is similar, and many of its characters are integral to the new series. That ran for 3 years.

It's outside of your timeframe criteria, but I strongly encourage you to read New X-Men written by Grant Morrison. That series came out in 2001-2004, and it is the strongest inspiration for what Hickman is doing. There are many individual scenes in HoX/PoX that directly homage it, and the new book's use of time in its narrative structure mirrors the end of the Morrison run.

New X-Men is also the best X-Men series in its history, and its 4-year continuous story is one of the best in modern superhero comics generally.

I want to talk about this a lot more. If anyone would like it, I can put together a HoX / PoX readers' guide with recommended reading and other background over in the General Discussion forum. I really love this book.