Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

With Transformers: Ongoing nearing it's final climax, the series will now be split into two different comics, Transformers: Robots In Disguise, and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. RID follows Rodimus and his fellow Autobots as they travel across the Universe. MTMTE features Bumblebee leading his crew back to the ravaged Cybertron. Comic Book Resources were fortunate enough to be able to interview both writers for RID and MTMTE, John Barber and James Roberts. The interview features many spoilers and some never before seen artwork. An excerpt can be seen below, while the interview in all of it's entirety is avaliable at Comic Book Resources. Both series are set to be released at the start of next year in January.

CBR News: John and James, after the events of "Chaos," it looks like both series are heading into space, apparently severing ties to Earth. Does this mean we will we see new alt-mode designs for familiar characters, since they no longer need to disguise themselves as human vehicles, etc.?

John Barber: Oh, yeah. They'll be familiar looks, but the Transformers will adopt Cybertronian-leaning designs. Well, most of them. Certain dinosaur-esque Autobots might stay dinosaur-esque. But that's a little way down the road.

With the war between the Autobots and Decepticons seemingly over, will we see any characters shift allegiances?

Barber: A big theme in both "Robots in Disguise" and "More than Meets the Eye" is that it's pretty hard for old animosities will die down. The Autobots and Decepticons have been at war for a very, very long time, and these grudges die hard. But they are definitely forced to deal with each other in ways that we haven't seen before.

And as to whether allegiances will shift -- there will definitely be some unexpected partnerships. We'll be seeing characters forced to work together in ways that are not natural fits, and we'll see Starscream in particular find a niche for himself that nobody really expected.

James Roberts: I think one of the defining elements of Mike Costa's run was his treatment of Thundercracker, who became a sympathetic, multi-faceted character who essentially positioned himself between the Autobots and the Decepticons. After "Chaos" and the events in "The Death of Optimus Prime," the dividing lines between Autobot and Decepticon are more blurred, even if some characters find that easer to accept than others. With the return of Cybertron's civilian population, the two factions at the heart of the civil war are suddenly outnumbered -- and, in a sense, marginalized -- and that adds to the general sense that anything is possible. And John and I are determined to exploit that freedom.

Seibertron.com - The Ultimate Transformers Resource

Is it just me, or the preview indicates that "the death of Optimus Prime" was once again a fleeting moment?

I give it 6 issues before he's back.

Psychout wrote:I give it 6 issues before he's back.

An entire half year without Prime? I give it 3 issues!

Dear IDW,

Please try again with the Rodimus redesign. I don't mind changing things up, but this one is awful.

Yeah, the art is very off-putting.

That first picture of rodimus is bad ass he look like he is about to kick some ass or he already did

I think he looks way too feminine...

I wish they wouldn't use the WFC designs. That's just gonna confuse people even more since these are supposed to be for non-G1 characters.

Chaoslock wrote:Is it just me, or the preview indicates that "the death of Optimus Prime" was once again a fleeting moment?

looks like it man yeah.

then again, he could be a "ghost"/dimensionally displaced like the lads in the beastwars comic.

seriously NO ONE expects prime to be dead so it'd make sense as an out.

i wouldve prefered alex to do the art on one of these books but TBH at this stage im so starved for decent storytellin that i can forgive that to see what james and john have in store.

im liking where this civilian population is going.

partholon wrote:

Chaoslock wrote:Is it just me, or the preview indicates that "the death of Optimus Prime" was once again a fleeting moment?

looks like it man yeah.

then again, he could be a "ghost"/dimensionally displaced like the lads in the beastwars comic.

seriously NO ONE expects prime to be dead so it'd make sense as an out.

Well, think about this for a moment. In all the previous times Optimus died, he came back because he had toys to sell. This comic, however, does not promote any accompanying toyline so it does not really look like Optimus is really obligated to come back for this one. I mean, other than selling toys, he always came back for the kid viewers, but this comics is being read by mostly adults instead. So, kids are more likely to miss Optimus than adults would, but that factor isn't really in effect here. The way I see it, if there were ever a series of any kind that Optimus could die in and *not* return in, this one would probably work the best for the that.

Pimpin Hat wrote:That first picture of rodimus is bad ass he look like he is about to kick some ass or he already did

If he already did then that must mean he's the one who killed all those Autobots.

Sabrblade wrote:Well, think about this for a moment. In all the previous times Optimus died, he came back because he had toys to sell. This comic, however, does not promote any accompanying toyline so it does not really look like Optimus is really obligated to come back for this one.

The problem with that line of reasoning is that you're ignoring the fact that even if the current audience is older than the bunch of crying children that protested Prime's death in the animated movie, he is still the favorite character of a LOT of fans. Removing Optimus from the comics permanently is about as unlikely (and would be as stupid and self-destructive a move on IDW's part) as it would be for Marvel to permanently kill off one of their most popular characters, like Wolverine. Would it make a compelling story? Sure, it could. Would it ever happen? No chance in hell.

stk wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Well, think about this for a moment. In all the previous times Optimus died, he came back because he had toys to sell. This comic, however, does not promote any accompanying toyline so it does not really look like Optimus is really obligated to come back for this one.

The problem with that line of reasoning is that you're ignoring the fact that even if the current audience is older than the bunch of crying children that protested Prime's death in the animated movie, he is still the favorite character of a LOT of fans.

At SDCC, when IDW announced the Death of Optimus Prime, the audience reaction was a great amount of groanings of boredom and indifference to hear of yet another Optimus Prime death. Since it's been done to death, no one was really outraged or mad at all. They were just... bored.

stk wrote:Removing Optimus from the comics permanently is about as unlikely (and would be as stupid and self-destructive a move on IDW's part) as it would be for Marvel to permanently kill off one of their most popular characters, like Wolverine. Would it make a compelling story? Sure, it could. Would it ever happen? No chance in hell.

Marvel killed off Ultimate Peter Parker.

Sabrblade wrote:

stk wrote:Removing Optimus from the comics permanently is about as unlikely (and would be as stupid and self-destructive a move on IDW's part) as it would be for Marvel to permanently kill off one of their most popular characters, like Wolverine. Would it make a compelling story? Sure, it could. Would it ever happen? No chance in hell.

Marvel killed off Ultimate Peter Parker.

Isn't about 99% of the popular Ultimate Heroes dead (including Wolverine)?

Prime dead, Prime alive, I'm for some growth and development here. Love Prime, and a big fan of G1, but even the basic story has been done so many times that its getting old. Season three of G1 could 've been better had they put more into development of the series instead of pushing for more toy sales. The only way they could've pulled it out of the crapper was to bring Prime back, then they gave up with 3 episodes of season 4. What made Beastwars work was the character development and the connection to the G1 universe without rehashing it. Unicron trilogy, Animated, Prime, RID, and Bay-verse trilogy all rehash the same basic story. If Prime lives, maybe move him to the back of the plot for awhile. If he dies, actully develop the characters and make us care about them like we do Optimus Prime. I was upset when an important character died near the end of the Beastwars animated series. I want to care about the characters in what I watch and read. I was hoping for more development with Thundercracker in the ongoing series.

Now my beef about these two new series is this: One takes place on Cybertron, the other is intergalactic. Transformers is about robots in disguise. The basic story is about robots who crash on earth and disguise themselves for recon, to be unseen from the native populace, and basic survival from their enemies. What made it coo was the realistic and recognizable earth forms. In my opinion, this is what killed the toyline near the end of the 80's and brought the critics out for the unicron triology. An airplane, a gun, a truck, a sportscar that turn into a fighting robot? Awsome! Now we are back on Cybertron, no need for earth modes. Alt modes are more for convenience or transportation, rather than disguise. Tne there is the other story. Ok, visits to other planets will permit modes of disguise. Of course then there is the transportation aspect as well. But where is the real connection here? Vehicle modes are only limited by imagination, and whatever character limits exist. I think often the reader and the writers get lost on the imagination after time. Eventually the reader loses interest as stories become more "out there". Writers get to a point where they run out of new and interesting ideas. I think this has been the downfall of many science fiction, fantasy, and animated shows, as well as the written word. Not to mention what thrills me about the transformers has always been the complexity of the character design. To take them off Earth, would seem to remove limits to the character design (how this robot becomes a police car, that robot becomes a tank) making future designs too easy to come up with, to explain away the mode and transformation. Might as well make them grow and shrink at will, add and remove extra appendages at any given time and develop any kind of weaaponry needed at anytime. Limitations and relation to earth kept the story real and grounded. I'm concerned that these stories are going to fizzle out and lose interest. On that note, as a collector and a fan, I'm going to give it a chance and hopefully I'll be pleasntly surprised.