BotCon '13 Comic Preview Page
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 5:56PM CDT
Categories: Comic Book News, Event NewsPosted by: Blurrz Views: 23,481
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Posted by DecepticonFinishline on April 23rd, 2013 @ 6:20pm CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on April 23rd, 2013 @ 6:21pm CDT
Posted by emeraldbeacon on April 23rd, 2013 @ 6:33pm CDT
Thundercracker is green with a dark head:
Skywarp is white with a yellow head:
Posted by Mindmaster on April 23rd, 2013 @ 6:47pm CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on April 23rd, 2013 @ 6:53pm CDT
It would seem that the Autobots and Decepticons had to team up under the command of Strika and Obsidian once Megaplex and his clone army forces killed Optimus Prime and Galvatron.Mindmaster wrote:What's up with Octane hanging out the Autobots?
Posted by Downbeat on April 23rd, 2013 @ 6:57pm CDT
Posted by Mindmaster on April 23rd, 2013 @ 7:01pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:It would seem that the Autobots and Decepticons had to team up under the command of Strika and Obsidian once Megaplex and his clone army forces killed Optimus Prime and Galvatron.Mindmaster wrote:What's up with Octane hanging out the Autobots?
So it's like how Covenant Separatists teamed up with the UNSC when the Covenant Loyalists (or rather Jiralhanae and San 'Shyumm) started a mini-genocide against the Sangheili in the Halo franchise. Interesting.
Posted by Poyguimogul on April 23rd, 2013 @ 7:26pm CDT
Posted by Henry921 on April 23rd, 2013 @ 7:37pm CDT
Mindmaster wrote:Sabrblade wrote:It would seem that the Autobots and Decepticons had to team up under the command of Strika and Obsidian once Megaplex and his clone army forces killed Optimus Prime and Galvatron.Mindmaster wrote:What's up with Octane hanging out the Autobots?
So it's like how Covenant Separatists teamed up with the UNSC when the Covenant Loyalists (or rather Jiralhanae and San 'Shyumm) started a mini-genocide against the Sangheili in the Halo franchise. Interesting.
Not the first time we've seen Autobots and Decepticons team up to battle the Cybertronian Empire either.
And that looks like Universe Tankor there as Octane's model. Bit of an in-comic joke? Maybe G1 Thrust will show up too and ask Obsidian about loyalty just to reference us to death.
Though if Bots and Cons are teamed up here in the far-flung future of the Wings universe, that likely means we can use figures from our Classics shelf to go with the figures from the convention.
Posted by Sabrblade on April 23rd, 2013 @ 7:48pm CDT
But Universe Tankor is Octane. What's there to joke about?Henry921 wrote:And that looks like Universe Tankor there as Octane's model. Bit of an in-comic joke? Maybe G1 Thrust will show up too and ask Obsidian about loyalty just to reference us to death.
Only in certain cases. Some characters have modern toy bodies, some have their original bodies, and we do know that at least all of the 1997 MW toy characters will make an appearance.Henry921 wrote:Though if Bots and Cons are teamed up here in the far-flung future of the Wings universe, that likely means we can use figures from our Classics shelf to go with the figures from the convention.
Posted by Henry921 on April 23rd, 2013 @ 7:51pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:But Universe Tankor is Octane. What's there to joke about?Henry921 wrote:And that looks like Universe Tankor there as Octane's model. Bit of an in-comic joke? Maybe G1 Thrust will show up too and ask Obsidian about loyalty just to reference us to death.
An in-joke, my friend. Tankor, like from Beast Machines. Thrust, like from Beast Machines. A new character called Jetstorm, in case the reference wasn't apparent enough.
Oh, never mind.
Posted by Sabrblade on April 23rd, 2013 @ 8:06pm CDT
It would feel more like an in-joke if he was called "Tankor" instead of "Octane", but he's not. He's "Octane".Henry921 wrote:Sabrblade wrote:But Universe Tankor is Octane. What's there to joke about?Henry921 wrote:And that looks like Universe Tankor there as Octane's model. Bit of an in-comic joke? Maybe G1 Thrust will show up too and ask Obsidian about loyalty just to reference us to death.
An in-joke, my friend. Tankor, like from Beast Machines. Thrust, like from Beast Machines. A new character called Jetstorm, in case the reference wasn't apparent enough.
Oh, never mind.
Posted by Mkall on April 23rd, 2013 @ 8:45pm CDT
Posted by Seibertron on April 23rd, 2013 @ 11:01pm CDT
Mkall wrote:Not my favourite art style, but The Club usually comes through in story telling.
Really? Have we been reading the same comics for the past 4 or 5 years?
Posted by Sabrblade on April 23rd, 2013 @ 11:33pm CDT
To each his own, I guess.Seibertron wrote:Mkall wrote:Not my favourite art style, but The Club usually comes through in story telling.
Really? Have we been reading the same comics for the past 4 or 5 years?
I've met some who love nearly all the club comics, and those who basically can't stand just about any of their fiction.
Posted by Seibertron on April 24th, 2013 @ 12:16am CDT
Sabrblade wrote:To each his own, I guess.Seibertron wrote:Mkall wrote:Not my favourite art style, but The Club usually comes through in story telling.
Really? Have we been reading the same comics for the past 4 or 5 years?
I've met some who love nearly all the club comics, and those who basically can't stand just about any of their fiction.
In my opinion, their stories are convoluted, full of unnecessary fan appeasements, confusing, lack direction, and have difficulty focusing on the primary subjects of the topic at hand ... written by people whose primary job isn't writing comic books. The Botcon comics were OK through the 2009 comic, but it's been downhill since. 2010 on has been an attention deficit disorder nightmare. All over the board. The books try to do too much. Instead of focusing on a few good points and expanding upon those ideas, it unsuccessfully tackles way to many characters and plot points which is simply confusing and accomplishes far less than if they were to focus on the exclusive characters. This is a perfect example where less would be more.
The Club comics have been a mess almost since the beginning for the same reasons as the BotCon comics.
They could also use some pointers regarding the fonts that they use for the Club and BotCon comics. There's a lot to be said for fonts that are easily read by the human eye (that's why Verdana and Arial are such popular computer fonts). The font they use for the speech bubbles is a very poor choice for the sake of readability.
Posted by Sabrblade on April 24th, 2013 @ 12:26am CDT
Posted by Seibertron on April 24th, 2013 @ 1:03am CDT
Sabrblade wrote:Huh, 2010 also happens to be the year that the Club stopped having text stories, with their last one coming out that year. I wonder if the lack of prose stories might have affected their 2010-Present fiction.
The 2005 to 2009 comics were at least focused on the toys associated with the BotCons of those years. Having fiction of the toys I had just invested in helped sell whatever the "theme" was of that year. Having diverged from that since 2010 by not focusing on that year's set has significantly diluted the sets and whatever story they were pushing. Again, my opinion, but this year's lack of interest (as demonstrated by this week's extremely candid message about reallocating stock from attendee to non-attendee) seems to show that I'm onto something about the perceived decline or the lack of interest in the BotCon exclusives.
The initial Club comics, while extremely convoluted, also followed suit. Initially they were focused on the club toys which worked "OK" since the first 5 were all one set, but it has been downhill for quite a while.
It seems I pay a lot of money to read comics that do little for my enjoyment.
Posted by Sabrblade on April 24th, 2013 @ 9:07am CDT
But I asked about the text stories, if the lack of them affected the writing style of the comics from 2010 and onward.Seibertron wrote:Sabrblade wrote:Huh, 2010 also happens to be the year that the Club stopped having text stories, with their last one coming out that year. I wonder if the lack of prose stories might have affected their 2010-Present fiction.
The 2005 to 2009 comics were at least focused on the toys associated with the BotCons of those years. Having fiction of the toys I had just invested in helped sell whatever the "theme" was of that year. Having diverged from that since 2010 by not focusing on that year's set has significantly diluted the sets and whatever story they were pushing. Again, my opinion, but this year's lack of interest (as demonstrated by this week's extremely candid message about reallocating stock from attendee to non-attendee) seems to show that I'm onto something about the perceived decline or the lack of interest in the BotCon exclusives.
The initial Club comics, while extremely convoluted, also followed suit. Initially they were focused on the club toys which worked "OK" since the first 5 were all one set, but it has been downhill for quite a while.
It seems I pay a lot of money to read comics that do little for my enjoyment.
Posted by Seibertron on April 24th, 2013 @ 9:20am CDT
Sabrblade wrote:But I asked about the text stories, if the lack of them affected the writing style of the comics from 2010 and onward.
I have no idea ... I've never read any of the Club's text only stories.
Posted by Flux Convoy on April 24th, 2013 @ 9:24am CDT
Posted by Seibertron on April 24th, 2013 @ 9:35am CDT
Flux Convoy wrote:I like it. I've enjoyed all the comics so far. I don't know what anyone is talking about saying they don't focus on the con figures. They're all in the comics, even if just a cameo. There's more than ten figures every year. You can't have them all drive a 32 page story. They get they the set-up done in an issue. Where the story goes from there? Your call. That or prose which we haven't gotten in some time. Not sure what else you want from it.
I'd like less focus on characters that aren't the exclusives so that the story can focus on the BotCon and Club exclusives. The BotCon 2010 set is a perfect example. The non-convention characters should've been cameo appearances, not the other way around. Same with the TFA Stunticon set the following year ... the Stunticons should've been the main focus of the comic.
Posted by Sabrblade on April 24th, 2013 @ 9:46am CDT
The lack of the text stories could have affected the comics since, when they were writing them, the prose stories were used to expand on the world-building of the comics' universes. Without, the comics might have suffered without having to rely on the text stories for the development and expansion of the comics' various realities, leaving that task to fall to the comics themselves.Seibertron wrote:Sabrblade wrote:But I asked about the text stories, if the lack of them affected the writing style of the comics from 2010 and onward.
I have no idea ... I've never read any of the Club's text only stories.
As far as the text stories went, I did not long just how tediously long they were, but some of them did feel well worth the read. I've only got three left to read, as I'm still behind in my Club fiction reading.
Of the ones I've read, I recommend "Wreckers: Finale Part II", "Gone Too Far", "Eye in the Sky", and "Blitzwing Bop". The former two of which are my favorites.
Posted by Flux Convoy on April 25th, 2013 @ 8:56am CDT
Posted by Seibertron on April 25th, 2013 @ 10:27am CDT
Flux Convoy wrote:I dunno, I always feel like they do a good job of integrating the con characters into a decent enough story. I've yet to be disappointed by any of them. I know our separate comic tastes vary wildly though. Those old G1 and G1 UK comics that you hold dear? To me, they're awful. I enjoy them for the history of it all but I don't enjoy reading them. They're a chore to me. My two cents. Looking forward to what I think will be another good Botcon comic.
I hold the Marvel US and Marvel UK Transformers dear to me for sentimental value. It's not Shakespeare. I see the books for what they are and for their true intention which was to push whatever the current products were. I enjoy the simplicity and naivety of them.
There was a dramatic difference between the BotCon 2005 to 2009 sets and the 2010 to 2012 sets. The last 3 years suffer greatly from being all over the board and introducing too many unnecessary characters instead of staying focused on the convention exclusives.