Transformers: Drift #1-4 / TPB

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Commander Shockwav
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Transformers: Drift #1-4 / TPB

Post by Commander Shockwav »

A four-part, bi-weekly series starring Drift.

Preview @ Comics Continuum.

- ziggy

---------

Check any pre-concieved notions at the door. This issue wasn't bad.

Actually, I can say I enjoyed it, more than the ongoing anyway.

McCarthy sets up the premise fairly competently. Sometimes, the most effective way to develop the titular character is to flesh out the peripheral characters first. That's what Shane does here, and I think it works well. Well enough that it doesn't seem Drift is being shoved down our throats. Rather, I think he's believably and subtlely worked into the story.

Not a big fan of Milne's artwork in the past, but I think he also does a pretty good job here. He has improved his panel layout to what we've seen from him in the past, and though things are still a bit cluttered, they are only slightly so.

Give it a "B+". Sometimes it's hard to give something a chance when past efforts have fallen short, but I do think that, like the Ironhide mini, there might be something here worth investing in.

Of course, Megatron:Origin seemed to start in a similar fashion, but let's think positive.
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Post by Blackjack »

Despite me actually not hating Drift for a bit, nothing in this issue held my interest other than the background cameos.

Alex Milne = keeping those post-Action Masters toys from being forgotten by geekdom. Look, it's Skyjack! And Road Pig! And Windbreaker! And Metalhawk! And Jetstorm! And Fearswoop!

And to top it all, we have Deadlock shooting a guy coloured like Carnivac in the head, to piss everyone who says 'Drift should be Carnivac'.
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Post by Warcry »

That was as huge mess of cliche, complete with an entirely unlikeable protagonist, a supporting cast with no personality at all and the random death of around half a dozen named characters. The art is also completely muddled to the point where it's hard to tell who's actually supposed to be a preexisting character and who's a generic Gundam with Carnivac's colour scheme. And when Wing shows up neither his character model nor his colour scheme look anything like the Victory character. I genuinely can't tell if he's supposed to be the same guy or if they just picked a name and didn't bother to check if it had been used. And finally, the story also manages to perpetuate McCarthy's masturbatory idea that Sunstreaker was an important senior officer pre-Earth.

All in all, it reads like a fanfic than official fiction.
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Post by Blackjack »

Good lord, I've just visited the IDW Forums learnt that one of the generic Autobots killed by Deadlock are supposed to be Manta Ray, but are intentionally miscoloured because the editors actually remembered that Manta Ray had died.

Continuity!

Stop the presses!


On an unrelated note... that Wing was supposed to be the one from that Multiforce combiner? Really? If so, then he's been so horribly Gundamized by Alex Milne.
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Post by Warcry »

That's the thing, it's impossible to tell. Since Milne raped so many preexisting character designs to make them fit with his style, how would you know if this is supposed to be the original Wing with a heavily-altered character model or a totally different guy who's just cribbed his name? I'd be hard-pressed to think that Milne doesn't know who the Multiforce are, though, considering some of the cameos he puts in.
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Post by Denyer »

Does the full issue read like the preview inasmuch as the opening scene is an freaky antimatter equivalent of the opening scenes from Wreckers?
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Post by Warcry »

No. The preview is the best part of the issue. :(
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Drift #2 Review (SPOILERS)

Post by Commander Shockwav »

Eh. Wasn't bad, but not what I'd call good either.

I'm finding some of the story rather cliche. The bad guy who is trained by the good guy to become the inevitable good guy himself. Yawwwn. Seen it before, in so many movies and comics. Shane is too liberally transposing cliche "hero vs. villian" ideas and themes to the Transformers, ala his Cliffjumper spotlight.

That kind of approach appeals to younger, less experienced readers who haven't read every kind of sci-fi/fantasy story under the sun, and thusly, things might seem really cool to them. Maybe that's the target audience, I don't know.

But I'm finding this all mediocre.

One thing for sure though is he's got the pacing right this time. A lot has happened in these two issues. Whether what's happening is good or bad is a different story, but Costa could take a page out of McCarthy's book this time in the pacing department. Shane doesn't seem destined to create the same pacing debacle AHM surely was.

And is it just me, or did Milne's work just take a huge dive this issue? Starting to look a lot like Megatron:Origin in some scenes. And that ain't good.

Give it a "C+". Despite liking the idea of a pacifist third faction, not liking the banality of how Drift's turning is being presented. Here's to hoping there's some unpredictability with events in the next two issues.
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Still on the first one, my forbidden planet seems to be getting these a week late.

First issue was ok, but I was left wondering why we need this story. An origin story for a character only McCarthy will probably use seems a bit silly. Unless they tie it in to the ongoing but I cant see that happening.

Art is typical Milne. I'm not a fan and when he's not dealing with established designs everyone looks the same. The page when Drift comes through in particular highlights this. Also, when Drift gets out of the pod, anyone else feel he looks exactly like Megatron did in Origins when he won his battle with cyclops and took his helemt off.

Another thing which nagged me is that this could have been any manga style comic. Theres nothing to really indicate this is transformers. Always a bit sad when that happens.
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Post by Blackjack »

Good lord, I look at the cover with the Gundam-ish swordsman convention and I wonder if Alex Milne is on drugs. Those designs look crap. And this from someone who usually enjoys likes tolerates his art... Gad, this thing looks as bad as Megatron Origin, even though most of his recent art in the Movieverse comics was okay.

Just looking at the preview... well, McCarthy has discovered how to use monologue boxes, at least. But Wing's head design is half-assed, while where the story will go is so predictable if you have watched any anime series. Deadlock isn't even realistic as a villain.

As with AHM, there are brilliant concepts. A bunch of neutralists making a Cybertronian city out of hiding and whatnot... but it's executed poorly like bad fanfiction.

... is that Hot Shot being blown to shit in the flashback? Did Milne run out of G2 characters to kill?
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Post by Denyer »

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Post by Cliffjumper »

Life's a riot with twat versus twat, as Billy Bragg would have said if he was as uncouth as me.
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

You know what? More than the shitty storylines, that response from the IDW editor (who I'm guessing is speaking for the company) has pushed me far closer to ending my purchasing of this range of comics. What a ****er.
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Post by Blackjack »

Egad. Walky's delusional, Milne's an excuse-pushing d*ck, and Tipton is a twat that couldn't be bothered about a series he's supposed to be editing.

Of course, we all know that already.
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Post by Heinrad »

None of this is actually making me want to go out and get this one........ Although after reading the comments, I am left to wonder how many people working at IDW have incriminating photos involving Chris Ryall and various livestock.

Do they do this to the CSI fans, or the Metal Gear fans? Or..... the fans of whatever else they put out? Then again, have they ever put out anything like Transformers before they got the rights to it?

And if they're ticking off the Transformers fanbase, what are they doing to all of the Whovians........
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Post by Cliffjumper »

What the **** is a Whovian?
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Post by Denyer »

Honestly, it's nice if creators are nice, but I'd settle for the comics being good...
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I'm 99% I'm sure I'd kill most of my favourite comic writers if I came face to face with them.

I do think it would have been more awesome if the IDW team, regardless of intent, had played the "Who? What?" card. Or gone the whole hog and just had a self-obsessed moron who deals in red herrings called "Waky" or "Porky" getting butchered in a pointlessly violent completely irrelevant divergence from the plot.
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Post by Halfshell »

Yeah, I think Walky comes off best in this due to Milne admitting that Hot Shot and SG Ravage were there to annoy him. If they'd just shrugged it off and denied all knowledge then he'd have looked like a crazy deluded fool with a persecution complex... as is, he is actually right.

[/speaking as somebody who has actually been offed in a fanfic solely because the author didn't like him]
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Halfshell wrote:[/speaking as somebody who has actually been offed in a fanfic solely because the author didn't like him]
Amateur, I had a whole forum devoted to killing me constructed on my behalf when someone didn't like me.
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