hinomars19 wrote:DaRonin wrote:Im really not sure who is too blame for this debale. Furman says he planned this all out and is satisfied with the finale. Then frankly, I'm glad hes been relegated to tertiary projects cuz his planning skills are degrading. I'm not even sure how the furmanites can defend this.
I haven't read a lot of his stuff in a long time, but if nobody minds I'd like to put across an (educated) theory; It seems to me Mr. Furman is perhaps a concepts man. The man has them in spades, but that does not technically make him a writer in terms of comic books. Writers are people who tell a story, not think them up. I say this because I worked (rather irritatingly) with a guy who had good ideas, and pulled concepts from out of nowhere that should have worked, but in his own hands they simply didn't. He had no idea of pacing or storytelling. I worked with him on creating the story boards, then tweaked them myself after. It was never going to be great, and I'm certainly not putting myself forward as the best man for this job,but I had to improve it somewhat to get it to a more acceptable and coherent level within the workings of comics. sadly he had too big an ego. I cannot compare this man to Mr. Furman. But, maybe there is a chance that that is what is happening here. Furman is double dipping on what maybe needed a 2 man job.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. I think back in the G1 era when furman was working closely with Wildman and Senior, his stuff was more solid and well thought out since he had two of his mates to bounce ideas off of. Ditto for G2. His Dreamwave stuff is Generally solid since he was working with what the company was mandating, But then we get to his IDW stuff where he is usually working on his own, and thats where he seems to stumble. His "Ation" story arc was slow, muddled, bland, and cliche ridden. I like many of the ideas, but the execution was horrible. The majority of his Spotlights were plodding and overwritten. Its amazing how much of a walking cliche his SixShot is, yet when the character showed up in the Metroplex spotlight he was so much more likeable and amusing.
Then we have ReGen One. Am I the only one who caught some of the continuity errors from the first arc? Zombiecon Pretenters that were in the ark Due to damage from underbase powered Starscream? Seriously? And I dont mind Furman retconning things, like by making Grimlock out to be something of a Jerk in picking who did and didn't get a nucleon shot, but if Grimlock was being picky... explain Megatron being revived to me than. If you're gonna retcon, don't go halfway. And one more thing, if Circut Smasher has enough power to make Optimus Prime scream like he's being prison raped, how is it that in twenty years, he was never sent on an assassination mission to take out megatron personally? Seriously, why is this not addressed?
And I've said it before, I'll say it again. Regen 1 has been the lowest point of Optimus Primes tenure as a mechanical Superhero. Yes, Im taking into account Afterdeath, the Armada series, the G1 Cartoon, and the Bayverse.
And then there is the last what, eight pages being taken up by contributors waxing all sentimental and a cover gallery? Look, I like fuzzy feely nostalgia as much as the next guy, and Im all for additional commentary, but this story is half baked already. Those pages could have been better used with further prose stories that fleshed out the story better.
In the end, Furmans passion for the story cant be disputed, but his objectivity and editing skills can. The guy seems to need people around him to keep him on point and call him on his BS in order to end up with a great story. The guy's put out good stuff before, most of G2, War Within and Worlds Collide being good examples. But this, was a big fumble on his part. hopefully next transformers story he writes, he gets stuck with an editor that can keep him in line.