TFARCHIVE FORUMS

During the Q & A session at Auto Assembly the mighty Furman let slip on a few things about the next War Within, Energon and a few other things related to the TF world. Here for your pleasure is everything that I remember which A: I hadn't heard before, and B: Ihaven't seen posted on here since.

MILD SPOILERS AHOY!!!!!!



















War Within 3
Optimus and Megatron are back, but don't play a major role. Grimlock will be sidelined as well, only set to appear in the first issue (The way Furman said this implied somting bad happens to remove him from the action). Blaster will be the lead, with support from Ultra Magnus, Nightbeat (YES!), and, best of all, the Turbomasters!!!!!!! (Rotorstorm in a TF comic, dreams can come true!). The plot will involve the Quintessions, though only one TF will meet and become aware of them. Apparently we'll learn why the Quints are so interested in Megs (I had no idea they were intrested in him in the first place, but what the hell). A major charecter will die in the first issue, and a minor one in the last (so anyone who hasn't made an apearence in the Gen 1 comic yet should get a sweat on;) ). It's worth noting that Furman seemed slightly disatisfied with elements of WW2, in particular the removal of exposition by Dreamwave that specificaly tied it into the Primus/Unicron backstory (and according to Andy Wildman the hand in issue 6 was heavily altered as well). It didn't help that exposition about the Angels of Desolution was removed as well as the material on Blitzwing contradicted MTMTE (Dreamwave also weren't happy with charecters being portrayed as "Younger" rather than exactly like their profiles). However, now the Ultimate Guide has made Primus part of the Dreamwave cannon, the third vollume will be much more direct with explanations. Furman also didn't like the way the breaking into the various fractions worked out, so WW3 will see them all come together again.

Energon:
Tidalwave becomes Mirage in issue 26. Issue 27 will start a four parter called Multiplicity that'll have scenes set within Unicron and feature the Terrorcon clones (but not Michael Keating sadly). Omega Supreem will appear in the story arc starting around issue 33, with the Summer special being set just before this (and featuring Megs and Snowcat). As far as Unicrons concerned he's just a location for the forseable future, while he's out of it Alpha Q will be the main non TF badie (and issue 27 will reveal a big twist about the Quint). Furmans got no desire to do another Unicron attacks Cybertron story, and feels he needed another issue to do the one in Armada 18 justice. Speaking of Armada, Smokescreen WAS supossed to have died when Megatron shot him at point blank range, but Hasbro insisted he be ressurected to become Hoist (a charecter who'll only get a one panel cameo in Energon).

Titan:
The black and white stories will follow Second Generation, but no word on weather they'll be coulored or not. He confirmed we won't see Ancient Relics, nor Enemy Within and the other early Furman stories, as he can't stand them (so that probably means poor old Man of Iron won't get reprinted either:( ). Aparently Furman's had to bid on ebay to get hold of issues Marvel no longer have the masters for, one of the titles he mentioned biding on was Headmasters #4, so I'd say we can expect that before the years out.

Dreamwave Gen1:
The Decepticon Matrix that'll be poping up soon was somthing Hasbro wanted to be featured, one of the few times they've exerted creative control on the Gen 1 title.

Atari:
The comic that's supposed to be in with the game is written by Furman, drawn by Sullivan, inked by Baskerville, coulored by Wildman and lettered by Starkins, a marvel UK reunion (or everyone expet Geoff Senior as Lee Sullivan put it). However, the thre people at the Q&A who'd already brought the game said it didn't have the comic in it, the one worked in Game and according to him none of the copies did. Hopefuly this is just a Brumie problem, but the panel got very annoyed at their hard work not being avaliable.

Panini:
There's a further three unpublished issues of the UK Armada comic in various stages of completeness, no doubt soon to be going for silly sums on ebay

And finaly, as this is starting to resemble the longest thread ever, according to Lee Sullivan, one of the generic Transformers in one of his old Marvel issues was designed to appear as if he turned into a Dalek! (of the none inflatable kind sadly).
Well gentle reader, I hope there's been at least a couple of things you didn't already know, though I've a horrible feeling the first three reply's will be "But we knew all that already!"...:

Yup, the UK realease was a "limited focal pack" supposedly to contain something to warrant the "limited" release... it contains nothing but the game. Might be worth e-mailing Atari about that one.

Originally posted by StoneCold Skywarp
Might be worth e-mailing Atari about that one.

That was Andy Wildmans surgestion as well, it's a shame really as they were hoping this would be a jumping off point for Wildfur to get other works in print.

Well I've sent an e-mail to Atari UK, if that fails I'll call 'em from work tomorrow.

Sometimes really handy working in a videogame store

I'll be pre-ordering TWW3, then...

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
It's worth noting that Furman seemed slightly disatisfied with elements of WW2, in particular the removal of exposition by Dreamwave

Bastards. I knew it.

The black and white stories will follow Second Generation, but no word on weather they'll be coulored or not. He confirmed we won't see Ancient Relics, nor Enemy Within and the other early Furman stories, as he can't stand them (so that probably means poor old Man of Iron won't get reprinted either ). Aparently Furman's had to bid on ebay to get hold of issues Marvel no longer have the masters for, one of the titles he mentioned biding on was Headmasters #4, so I'd say we can expect that before the years out.

This is a bit worrying, actually. I mean, the US comic is being reprinted in its entirety, despite huge chunks of it being sh*t. First he guts "Ghosts" from the G2 volumes (not a huge story, but some nice art) and now it's suggested that the UK reprints are going to be a revisionist grab-bag as well.

I'll be buying whether they're reprinted in colour or not. There's a slight irony that Simon's probably been bidding against Tom recently, though...

well this just sucks!!i mean....no wait what i think.....wait...uh...

OK OK!!it sounds good and i've got nothing bad to say about it!

Luckily the dealers room had a copy of the Enemy Within collected comic, while the art is fairly horrid (Brawn with those pinchers just looks silly being superman), it's still a fairly decent, if unmerorable read.
I suppose that's the problem with him being the editor, he's going to be keener to show his work in a better light than worry about completism (though to be fair, without him there probably wouldn't be any reprints, or they'd have ended by now as the GI Joe ones seem to have). Of course, it's always possible he has a draw full of Enemy Within issues and intends to make a killing on ebay with them when the word gets out...

Yeh, well, once again Furman's rewriting his history to suit himself. I'd say he's more worried about Enemy Within and Raiders from a continuity point, and if they're never printed again, it'll be easier for him to isolate them as rogue spin-offs, further cementing my belief that nothing the man says should have any impact on anyone's views of canonicity.

Titan are ****ing up the TPBs, and to be honest I wouldn't trust them with recolouring. It's be bad, done digitally [which wouldn't mesh with a lot of the b&w pencils], and probably mean they jack the price up 200%, knowing full well it'd be a fan-aimed collection. These people should have stayed with what they were doing before - getting the UK rights to US collections, and switching a "$" to "£".

In their defence, though, it's easier from a readability point of view to drop UK stories, rather than US stories. By their nature, the US books tended to have more ongoing stuff, while the UK stuff would often exist outside of the US narrative, smoothly clicking between issues. I really can't think of too many US stories that could be dropped without affecting later issues. The Spacehikers stuff, for instance, might be utterly risible, but the Grimlock/Blaster thing is important to the main plot, unless you want to drop everything between Prime being blown up and being built again. Sure, a couple could go - Cash and Car-nage for one, maybe Carwash, but not many.

Firstly, Blaster better be Budiansky's "kick ass and take names Blaster", and not Furmans, "Blaster exists?" Blaster.

Nightbeat is always cool.

Decepticon Matrix is not cool.

Not cool at all.

Deceptiocn Matrix?!

Is it a real Matrix, the Zodiac from Japan, or something dumber?

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
I really can't think of too many US stories that could be dropped without affecting later issues. The Spacehikers stuff, for instance, might be utterly risible, but the Grimlock/Blaster thing is important to the main plot, unless you want to drop everything between Prime being blown up and being built again. Sure, a couple could go - Cash and Car-nage for one, maybe Carwash, but not many.

They most certainly couldn't skip Carwash; it ties up a major loose end from the Scraplets duo (the whole GB Blackrock being brainwashed thing). They might be able to skip the whole Micromaster wrestling crap and the terrible Landmine/Cloudburst books, though. I don't think those mattered much.

[EDIT]Having a Decepticon Matrix is acceptable on the grounds that there is one in the RPG. I really can't see why it'd be necessary, in the ongoing, though.

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
the Grimlock/Blaster thing is important to the main plot,

It is? Grimlock as leader isn't exactly played upon after it happens... TBH, you can skip right to the last four US TPBs as they read as a divorced unit. There isn't another main plot, just knock-about stories with little underpinning them.

At a guess we'll see the UK annual colour versions of b/w strips before anything, possibly padded out with other annual stuff.

I can't say that I'm familiar with the UK comic continuum, being from the US and all... but.. to have Furman step in and apparently try to fudge things up, is just plain ludicrous.

Decepticon Matrix?? You've got to be kidding me.. I saw someone say.. that it was in a RPG board.. but.. thats not something really relatable to the majority of related Transformers history.

I can see the Grimlock being leader type of thing from the way the comics portrayed him as being much smarter then he looked. I don't know what they have in mind for him.. but I could see a major roll with him...

Originally posted by Warcry
Having a Decepticon Matrix is acceptable on the grounds that there is one in the RPG. I really can't see why it'd be necessary, in the ongoing, though.

Yeah, but I don't think most fans will agree with your reasoning... Dumb idea.

TWW3 sounds neat, and thank goodness about Unicron in Energon.

Originally posted by Reflector
Yeah, but I don't think most fans will agree with your reasoning... Dumb idea.

Yeah, that was just my way of saying that the concept didn't bother me 'cause I was already used to it...of course, the execution of the idea will probably bother me. I haven't been keeping up-to-date on the ongoing series rumours, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the 'Decepticon Matrix' is given to Megatron by Unicron as a way of turnng him into Galvatron...

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
in particular the removal of exposition by Dreamwave that specificaly tied it into the Primus/Unicron backstory (and according to Andy Wildman the hand in issue 6 was heavily altered as well).

argh!

It didn't help that exposition about the Angels of Desolution was removed as well as the material on Blitzwing contradicted MTMTE (Dreamwave also weren't happy with charecters being portrayed as "Younger" rather than exactly like their profiles).

arrrgh!


Speaking of Armada, Smokescreen WAS supossed to have died when Megatron shot him at point blank range, but Hasbro insisted he be ressurected to become Hoist

aaaaaaaarrrrrgh!


The Decepticon Matrix that'll be poping up soon was somthing Hasbro wanted to be featured, one of the few times they've exerted creative control on the Gen 1 title.

i could criticise thsi constructively but ill settle for: tossers

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
Speaking of Armada, Smokescreen WAS supossed to have died when Megatron shot him at point blank range, but Hasbro insisted he be ressurected to become Hoist (a charecter who'll only get a one panel cameo in Energon).

Perhaps someone up at Hasbro was reverting to the G1 style of thinking, whereas they shouldn't kill off a character.. unless its in a movie... hmm.. I in a way liked the characters though.. This had to of been planned for at least a year since I'm sure they had those episodes prepared for that long... I'm guessing thats probably just the start of where they got the ideas to change Demolisher, and Cyclonus.. and now.. Tidal Wave..

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
I really can't think of too many US stories that could be dropped without affecting later issues. The Spacehikers stuff, for instance, might be utterly risible, but the Grimlock/Blaster thing is important to the main plot, unless you want to drop everything between Prime being blown up and being built again. Sure, a couple could go - Cash and Car-nage for one, maybe Carwash, but not many.

But based on the listings I've seen on the web, isn't Treason going to skip several US issues? If memory serves it ends with issue forty-somthing instead of 36. (Annoyingly the two Man of Iron issues are amoung the skiped, if their not doing the UK version they could have at least left the US one in there ) Even if Big Broadcast is one of the others that's still a few issues of US continuity down the drain, unless it's stuff to do with the Headmasters that's being saved for the tbp with the Headmasters mini in it ?

I'm suprised the Decepticon Matrix has goten such atention, the way everyone was talking about it made me assume I was the only one there who hadn't heard of it. It's just a guess, but I've a feeling it's the mysterious "Somthing" beneath the Earth the preview for issue 5 goes on about, (though my guesses are ususaly as good as Dubya's politics;) )

Originally posted by inflatable dalek
But based on the listings I've seen on the web, isn't Treason going to skip several US issues? If memory serves it ends with issue forty-somthing instead of 36. (Annoyingly the two Man of Iron issues are amoung the skiped, if their not doing the UK version they could have at least left the US one in there ) Even if Big Broadcast is one of the others that's still a few issues of US continuity down the drain, unless it's stuff to do with the Headmasters that's being saved for the tbp with the Headmasters mini in it ?

'Treason' is US #31-32, 35-37 and 43. 33-34 is 'Man Of Iron', which is outside of US comtinuity, so might as well be skipped here (though should be reprinted at some point, damn you Furman!). #37 ends with Blaster caught by Dinobots, which is good for cliffhanger. In #38 Fortress Maximus and Scorponok arrive on Earth, and because 'Headmasters' mini wasn't reprinted yet, then the best way is to put a filler issue (so you have six in TPB), US #43 - 'Big Broadcast of 2006'.

I guess the next TPB, probably entitled 'Headmasters', will contain 'Headmasters' #1-4 and US #38-39, which is rather self-contained arc. Then will be 'Return Of Optimus' with US #40-42, #44-46, and then 'The Underase Saga'.

It would be so better if Titan stopped restricitng themselves to TPB of the same size. Some would work better as 5-issue set, some as 4 or 7. And, if only they reprinted UK stuff in some continuity order, instead some_main_story_arc + few_not_connected_fillers.

That makes sense, though I still think they might as well have included Man of Iron if there are no plans to reprint it elsewhere (though Nel's colours would perhaps make it a worhwhile sacrifice). Still, even if early Furman is out of the question, there's nothing to stop Man of Iron poping up in another UK collection, it's just only got a few left to make it into...