IDW RiD / OP Soundwave concept art by Andrew Griffith

I really like this and I think it would be a cool option for him if there were ever a series where the Decepticons are only military vehicles...cause you know Decepticons and all.


Or maybe just a military Transformers spinoff where all the Transformers are a military vehicle of some type...not necessarily all of them being vehicles with guns but just vehicles used by the military in general.

Also it's pretty clever on how Soundwave's deployment gimmick works here.

Looks like this inspired the design for that upcoming activity book.

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Looks like this inspired the design for that upcoming activity book.

Transformers-My-Busy-Book-001.jpg

That just looks like a regular SUV like Animated Soundwave and some other versions of him are.

Looks like Universe (Classics 2.0) Ultra Class Onslaught.

Here's a larger preview of Optimus Prime #10: https://www.newsarama.com/36121-in-memo ... eview.html

Nik Hero wrote:Here's a larger preview of Optimus Prime #10: https://www.newsarama.com/36121-in-memo ... eview.html

Warning: There are big spoilers to Galvatron's origin in that preview!

Courtesy of fellow Seibertronian Nik Hero, and via Newsarama, we have the full preview for next week's flashback heavy issue of Optimus Prime from IDW Publishing! Check it all out below, and beware of some fairly significant story spoilers for Galvatron, and some of the other characters that immediately show up.

Optimus Prime #10
John Barber (w) • Livio Ramondelli & Kei Zama (a) • Kei Zama (c)
THE RETURN OF GALVATRON THE BARBARIAN! Optimus Prime meets with Alpha Trion, the ancient sage, who reveals a tale of Cybertron's earliest days, when the original Thirteen Primes united the world. But even then, the warrior known as Galvatron was a wild card... shaping the future in unexpected ways.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
· Leads directly into this month’s First Strike event!
· Variant cover by Andrew MacLean!

Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM kill him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Randomhero wrote:Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM killed him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Yeah that was cool, and there's an interesting piece of history to be revealed and built up. Who knew. #spoilers

Tigertrack wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM killed him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Yeah that was cool, and there's an interesting piece of history to be revealed and built up. Who knew. #spoilers

Wait, who's who in this preview? I'm confused.

ricemazter wrote:

Tigertrack wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Well there's arcee and Galvatron before the first war. I forgot she mentioned in the last issue she had a brother and he died because she stood there and watch THEM killed him. It's a really cool take on both of them.

Yeah that was cool, and there's an interesting piece of history to be revealed and built up. Who knew. #spoilers

Wait, who's who in this preview? I'm confused.

Yeah, tell me about it... Livio's craptastic art strikes again!

I think the big guy is Megatronus

The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

Yeah, Livio's come a long way since Chaos. Not an artstyle I enjoy, but it's at the point where it's fine now imo.

"Septimus Prime..." Goodness, they really need some better Prime names, even if he is a fake prime.

But this looks to be really cool. Arcee and Galvatron. Huh.

This gon' be good

Kurona wrote:Yeah, Livio's come a long way since Chaos. Not an artstyle I enjoy, but it's at the point where it's fine now imo.

He has, and I don't enjoy it as much either, but he does do great work, I just think most of his great work is in other franchises, but I appreciate that he has a style and look all his own, he embraces it, and does well with it.

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

Tigertrack wrote:

Kurona wrote:Yeah, Livio's come a long way since Chaos. Not an artstyle I enjoy, but it's at the point where it's fine now imo.

He has, and I don't enjoy it as much either, but he does do great work, I just think most of his great work is in other franchises, but I appreciate that he has a style and look all his own, he embraces it, and does well with it.

The styli itself is fine but he still needs to spend time keeping characters on some semblance of model and recognizability. You shouldn't need to guess or TFWiki look up who you are looking at in an issue. Especially when he tries to add cameos.

Ebonyleopard wrote:

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

The one Galvatron has an axe, the other carries two swords. One of the alternate covers shows Galvatron and Arcee, and as mentioned before by RH, Arcee has said recently that she has a brother killed before her eyes.

The issue will provide more 'solid' evidence, as well...

It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts).

Except thats wasn't really much of a twist when you go back a realize there were about half a dozen clues of Tarn's identity. Some people even figured it out about 2 years before Dying of The Light but were quickly told "NO ITS ROLLER BECAUSE COOL!!"

Ebonyleopard wrote:

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

Because one is wielding swords the other an axe. Arcee has also been drawn in very similar poses with her swords and throughout the second season of RID/TF there's an obvious kinship between the two. Arcee threatened to kill Galvatron many times but never really went through with it and by the end of TF and through out Optimus Prime she has shown some deep emotions for the death of Galvatron.

She knew Galvatron was her brother but the question is why didn't Galvatron? At first I thought John is retconning this but like I said there's hints of something between the two for the passed three years and it's John. He makes long term plans

Tigertrack wrote:

Ebonyleopard wrote:

Randomhero wrote:The brothers are Galvatron and Arcee and the big dude with the firey arms is Megatronus of the thirteen. Even I don't like Livio but I can tell and it's not that bad in this issue.

What makes you say it's Arcee, though I guess I could be thanks to Mark's spotlight story this version was a male bit at some point so Arcee in the comics is a Trans-Transformer.

The one Galvatron has an axe, the other carries two swords. One of the alternate covers shows Galvatron and Arcee, and as mentioned before by RH, Arcee has said recently that she has a brother killed before her eyes.

The issue will provide more 'solid' evidence, as well...

You have to admit, the evidence for it being Arcee is a lot stronger than for it not being her. I didn't even notice the sword-wielding until you mentioned it.

In any case, this issue will be great setup for Power of the Primes. I'm looking forward to seeing Onyx Prime and more of Liege Maximo.

Has anybody notice notice Megatronus's pose is a little bit like this pic

https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/or ... gatron.png

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

What do you mean about their treatment of Milne?

ricemazter wrote:

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

What do you mean about their treatment of Milne?

It probably means somebody thinks Alex Milne was "let go" from drawing main transformers books and doesn't bother ever listening to the artist's they love. There's never been a full blown reason why Milne isn't on lost light. He was suppose to trade off story arcs with Jack but it never happened. When news came out about the change in artists Milne made the remark he didn't even know but was fine and blamed himself for him being unreliable to make deadlines. He openly admits he couldn't keep up on a monthly book.

Deadput wrote:It's blantly obvious at this point that Arcee is the brother of Galvatron unless they pull off another Tarn "what a twist" (Goddamn it Roberts)


Is Livio like 10 dollars to hire or something? (Wouldn't be surprised with how cheap IDW is and their treatment of Alex Milne)

He can be great at making covers but when he has to make a bunch of pages in the actual book his flaws show big time.

A comic book could have the greatest plot in man kind and I still wouldn't read it if it had horrendous art.

Livio gets work because he has a great relationship with the IDW staff and he's reliable and came make deadlines. While I'm not a fan of his work I will commend him on his passion. Plenty of artists and writers run with their tails between their legs for getting $#+% on by fandoms and never come back, Livio actually tries and has improved his art with every issue.

And I know there's plenty that will always say "I'll take a delayed book with better art over this" well this is a company and they need reliable artists to make the deadlines to keep it up.

Also IDW isn't cheap. They pay their people quite well and also have to pay for the licenses they have. Hasbro isn't giving them all their IP, they have to pay for them.

Back in 2005 Dreamwave owed Hasbro $500,000 in licensing fees alone for less than year so you can imagine 12 years later what IDW has to pay. Cheap? Not even.

Randomhero wrote:She knew Galvatron was her brother but the question is why didn't Galvatron? At first I thought John is retconning this but like I said there's hints of something between the two for the passed three years and it's John. He makes long term plans

Who says he didn't know? All of their interactions were pretty chummy, as though they already both knew each other, and Galvatron did have that line about "brotherhood" back in #42 of exRiD...

Randomhero wrote:Also IDW isn't cheap. They pay their people quiet well and also have to pay for the licenses they have. Hasbro isn't giving them all their IP, they have to pay for them.

Back in 2005 Dreamwave owed Hasbro $500,000 in licensing fees alone for less than year so you can imagine 12 years later what IDW has to pay. Cheap? Not even.

Maybe they should drop some licenses instead of raising the risks of becoming bankrupt.

Instead of having (simplify) 100 mediocre comics maybe have 20-30 really good ones, that way IDW gets to cheap out less and actually maybe pay off any debts.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Also IDW isn't cheap. They pay their people quiet well and also have to pay for the licenses they have. Hasbro isn't giving them all their IP, they have to pay for them.

Back in 2005 Dreamwave owed Hasbro $500,000 in licensing fees alone for less than year so you can imagine 12 years later what IDW has to pay. Cheap? Not even.

Maybe they should drop some licenses instead of raising the risks of becoming bankrupt.

Instead of having (simplify) 100 mediocre comics maybe have 20-30 really good ones, that way IDW gets to cheap out less and actually maybe pay off any debts.

That's... not how it works.

Va'al wrote:That's... not how it works.

Of course it doesn't because everything today is a debt trap so one can never have a good "life".

Raising the prices of everything yet pay is still awful, and job finding sucks.

Shot Put wrote:

Randomhero wrote:She knew Galvatron was her brother but the question is why didn't Galvatron? At first I thought John is retconning this but like I said there's hints of something between the two for the passed three years and it's John. He makes long term plans

Who says he didn't know? All of their interactions were pretty chummy, as though they already both knew each other, and Galvatron did have that line about "brotherhood" back in #42 of exRiD...

Because Galvatron is a nut ball. And it's very obviously he doesn't known arcee but feels something with her

Va'al wrote:

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Also IDW isn't cheap. They pay their people quiet well and also have to pay for the licenses they have. Hasbro isn't giving them all their IP, they have to pay for them.

Back in 2005 Dreamwave owed Hasbro $500,000 in licensing fees alone for less than year so you can imagine 12 years later what IDW has to pay. Cheap? Not even.

Maybe they should drop some licenses instead of raising the risks of becoming bankrupt.

Instead of having (simplify) 100 mediocre comics maybe have 20-30 really good ones, that way IDW gets to cheap out less and actually maybe pay off any debts.

That's... not how it works.

yeah they're not debts, they're fees. They have to pay to produce.

Just like the Masterpiece line. Theirs a reason only Prowl and Bumblebee have been brought over and it's because Hasbro also has to pay the licensing fees to the car companies that own those car models and it's obviously very expensive and legal paperwork and Hasbro doesn't want to do it.


And they don't need to "drop" and licenses because you and a vocal minority of the Internet don't like what they're producing. They're doing well with why they have and apparently the companies they they're working with are satisfied with what they're doing.

Randomhero wrote:

Shot Put wrote:

Randomhero wrote:She knew Galvatron was her brother but the question is why didn't Galvatron? At first I thought John is retconning this but like I said there's hints of something between the two for the passed three years and it's John. He makes long term plans

Who says he didn't know? All of their interactions were pretty chummy, as though they already both knew each other, and Galvatron did have that line about "brotherhood" back in #42 of exRiD...

Because Galvatron is a nut ball. And it's very obviously he doesn't known arcee but feels something with her

I don't think that's obvious at all, with how their first interaction had him already knowing of Arcee and and--again--that little exchange about "brotherhood."

Deadput wrote:

Va'al wrote:That's... not how it works.

Of course it doesn't because everything today is a debt trap so one can never have a good "life".

Raising the prices of everything yet pay is still awful, and job finding sucks.

Still not the point here. See below.

Randomhero wrote:yeah they're not debts, they're fees. They have to pay to produce.

Just like the Masterpiece line. Theirs a reason only Prowl and Bumblebee have been brought over and it's because Hasbro also has to pay the licensing fees to the car companies that own those car models and it's obviously very expensive and legal paperwork and Hasbro doesn't want to do it.


And they don't need to "drop" and licenses because you and a vocal minority of the Internet don't like what they're producing. They're doing well with why they have and apparently the companies they they're working with are satisfied with what they're doing.

Randomhero wrote:Just like the Masterpiece line. Theirs a reason only Prowl and Bumblebee have been brought over and it's because Hasbro also has to pay the licensing fees to the car companies that own those car models and it's obviously very expensive and legal paperwork and Hasbro doesn't want to do it.

Little bit off topic, and your point isn't wrong, but we don't know the licensing is the only reason for this.

Back to OP 10 - looking through the art comments on the previous page and thought of a question for the folks that aren't into it. Seeing that Livio Ramondelli has been used to draw/color in a certain way for essentially all of the 'flashback' style stories in exRiD/TF/OP, would you want that discarded at this point? I think he makes purposeful choices at times to lend some abstraction to these stories in a way that says "this is an account of what's remembered of events but isn't a perfect recollection" and I think it fits very well, but I'm sure some of you probably dislike it enough that this doesn't matter - curious if so.

I think it fits well, it is a huge advantage of it and it is one of the things that immediately comes to mind with that art style these days - especially juxtaposed with Zama's art on the non-flashback portions - but I'm still not terribly fond of it. I'm a much bigger fan of, say, Durocher's TFP-style flashback style in TAAO or the Matvel-esque stuff in the MTMTE annual and Revolutionaries.

If you are a fan of the IDW Optimus Prime series, you will enjoy seeing this clean cover art for Optimus Prime #11. This was posted by Andrew Griffith himself via his twitter page. If you have not already seen the preview for Optimus Prime #10 check out this article.

Ooh, that looks very nice. That said, it looks more like the new Cyberverse busy book Optimus than how the IDW character currently looks. Then again, artistic liberties and one G1 Prime tends to look like another.

I like the blue on his hands, looks like MMA gloves.

It's so beautiful! I want that framed on my wall this instant!

Looks very cartoon looking knee pads stick out alot

definitely looks like robot dressed with truck like designs rather than a robot who actually turns into a truck.

Synopsis
THE RETURN OF GALVATRON THE BARBARIAN! Optimus Prime meets with Alpha Trion, the ancient sage, who reveals a tale of Cybertron's earliest days, when the original Thirteen Primes united the world. But even then, the warrior known as Galvatron was a wild card... shaping the future in unexpected ways.



Story

It's been a while since Galvatron died, pretty much for good, in this IDW continuity - so it only makes sense that we'd be going into a flashback involving him to gather some more information about the shape of the universe as we currently know it, before stories became lore, and before lore became fully-fledged belief. So here we are.



The Primes from the Aligned continuity have been making their way into this side of Transformers fiction, between Till All Are One and references to them in previous xRID and The Transformers series - but this issue brings them all back together for the first time - before they're even considered to be what we know them to be, and in a way that John Barber finds that is actually really delicious.



The framing of the story - told by Alpha Trion to the current three Prime or, let's face it, equivalents (Starscream and Pyra Magna) - also may look like nothing major in terms of plot, but we do get some follow-up to last issue's emotional resolve, and finally the lead-in to First Strike (see our review here and here!). And it also allows for some extra sassy Alpha Trion and Starscream.



Galvatron, in fact, is not the most prominent of the characters in the book, thought clearly at the centre of most of the action here - if you take it as a way in to what is happening around both him and his brother seen in the preview - but trust me, there is a lot to be enjoyed in barbarian style if that's what you're going for in the issue.


Art

The art duties are split between current day setting - in which regular Kei Zama and Josh Burcham team take the lead, and doing some really nice work on characters we haven't seen in a while, but also giving us a very nice Starscream in the mix. The staging of the frame does everything it needs too, especially in tone.



Whereas the olden days of pre-Thirteen Primes Cybertron are entirely in the hands of recurring artist Livio Ramondelli, whose grainier style of colouring on his own lineart is actually extremely fitting to the landscapes that surround the cast of the 'flashback'. His takes on the Primes are also very intriguing visually, though I'm still not utterly convinced on all the designs.



Tom B. Long is on letters for both the sections, though the most fun is had in the central part of the book, between battles and the now trademark wider scope for him to use lettering within Ramondelli's art almost as part of the art layer itself. As for the various covers for the issue, most of which we have already seen, they can be found here - and enjoy the Andrew Griffith / Josh Perez used in the thumbnail of this story, too.

Thoughts
may contain minor spoilers

As someone who works with stories and has taught writing and has had a fascination with myth-to-fact/fact-to-myth narratives, Barber's approach to this issue is really intriguing to see play out - and using the still not entirely trustworthy Alpha Trion as the vessel for it all is probably the best choice that could've been made - along with having specifically Optimus, Pyra Magna and Starscream as his audience.



For the readers, on the other hand, that may be more interested in the Galvatron style of stories we've seen in previous sections with the purple maniac so far, there is also plenty of that (visually and narratively): action, beheadings, struggle, precarious balances and long-reaching plans are not being shied away for the sake of story. A shame, perhaps, that it ends directly into First Strike.

But with an intriguing nod to a character that has pretty much always been present.

Great review Va'al! Really didn't like this issue! Lol

This is a first for me because I have always been more of a fan of John and RID/TF/OP than the other books but man I really didnt't like this one. It felt like it could have been a 2 parter or even an arc like Shadow Play and instead it felt like an recap of a story arc that was already told. Just wasn't a fan.i liked the Beast Wars Megatron and Optimus primal cameos though.

It can definitely feel compressed, I'll agree with you on that - but I felt that having Trion being basically in the dark about everything Onyx was doing was a nice, different way of addressing his character in general (reversal of roles if you will).

But the compression also leans on Trion's characterisation so far, as well as perhaps being a bit too fast due to First Strike arriving. So all in all, they really did the best they could create for this story with this timeframe, I think!



(As a sidenote, I got some interesting Rat Queens: Braga echoes in the story too, with Arcee.)

If anything, I'm glad this cemented (sort-of) the lineage of some of these figures. Do I have this right? Going off the top of my head, may not.

1. Primus and Unicron at the beginning
2. Primus splits off parts of himself that become The Guiding Hand
3. The first Titans, being Meteoplex, Chela, and Metrotitan, serve TGH in Primus' fight against Unicron (departure from Aligned alert!) Knights of Cybertron may or may not be around at this point.
4. KoC leave with the Titans.
5. The Thirteen come later, with currently unknown origins. Eventually they have their War of the Primes.
6. Galvatron kills Nexus Prime, and the other surviving Primes flee (except for A3), eventually starting collonies somehow.
7. Galvatron and Nova usher in the Golden Age.
8. Ark 1 departs, Crystal City disappears,
   Nominus comes to power.
9. Clampdown and Sentinel and Towards Peace and Megatron stuff, Zeta Prime eventually,
   then Autobot/Decepticon war.

ScottyP wrote:If anything, I'm glad this cemented (sort-of) the lineage of some of these figures. Do I have this right? Going off the top of my head, may not.

1. Primus and Unicron at the beginning
2. Primus splits off parts of himself that become The Guiding Hand
3. The first Titans, being Meteoplex, Chela, and Metrotitan, serve TGH in Primus' fight against Unicron (departure from Aligned alert!) Knights of Cybertron may or may not be around at this point.
4. KoC leave with the Titans.
5. The Thirteen come later, with currently unknown origins. Eventually they have their War of the Primes.
6. Galvatron kills Nexus Prime, and the other surviving Primes flee (except for A3), eventually starting collonies somehow.
7. Galvatron and Nova usher in the Golden Age.
8. Ark 1 departs, Crystal City disappears,
   Nominus comes to power.
9. Clampdown and Sentinel and Towards Peace and Megatron stuff, Zeta Prime eventually,
   then Autobot/Decepticon war.

That does look fairly right, but I'm now wondering what A3 is up to at the end of the flashback in this issue, what he goes do with Metrotitan or Metroplex, or heck, even Chela, and if that's all that happens.

Vigilem should also appear at some point in there!

First thing I said while this when Onyx showed up was "yeah that looks nothing like the cover"

I said earlier I think Josh just colored him how he wanted or may have thought Onyx on the cover was Deathsaurus because that's happened before. Plenty of people started saying "what's the connection?!" Here's the connection. nothing.

People even asked Josh and he said he colored it like how Livio did in the book. Umm...no? onyx is colored dead greenish grey with bronz highlights. Where is he colored like that that cover anywhere? That being said Onyx's body is comepey wrong in the book. Lol