The starship Enterprise finds there's more to the final frontier when Kirk and his crew come face-to-face with the strangest life forms of all: the shape-changing robots of Cybertron! Prepare to beam up and roll out this September with Star Trek vs. Transformers, a four-issue comic book crossover that is more than meets the eye and is inspired by the continuities of two iconic cartoon shows: Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) and The Transformers (1984).
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The fate of all worlds are at stake, as the world-eating menace Unicron has set his sights on Cybertron, home of the TRANSFORMERS robots, and next in line… EARTH! A bi-weekly six issue event titled TRANSFORMERS: UNICRON arrives this July and will bring about the end of the TRANSFORMERS universe as we know it. As Optimus Prime gathers his defense against this monstrous threat, it might be too little too late.
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IDW Publishing is thrilled to announce that in 2018 Bumblebee from the TRANSFORMERS franchise will star in his very own original graphic novel! The perfect jumping on point for the next generation of TRANSFORMERS fans, Transformers: Bumblebee – Win If You Dare gives readers the opportunity to join in the fan-favorite character’s adventures. Life can feel rough when you aren't the fastest or the tallest Autobot, but Bumblebee is up to the task!
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Bluefin, the leading North American distributor of toys, collectibles, and hobby merchandise from Japan, Asia and more, announces that it has become an official distributor for Hong Kong-based Flame Toys. Bluefin is also pleased to announce the opening of pre-orders for the first Flame Toys product – the Drift Transformers figure.
Read MoreUpdate: Apparently I got this a month late again. Fun. I hope that doesn't happen to paid subscribers.
Having received this last week I had the chance to use most of the items. The Spider-Man shirt was so thin and the weather so hot, that you could see my man-boob sweat constantly. That was a letdown. The Viewaskew universe stuff was pretty shitty. Both were smaller than usual and no I haven't gotten bigger, but they were labeled the correct size. Doubt I'll keep them. While I haven't used the towel yet, I did take the Spider-Man trinket and hang it on my bag. That's a win in my book. This was sadly the worst Loot Wear package I have received which has been indicative of all the Loot brand products lately.
Read MoreDo these even come by the month anymore? Seems like I get them when they're damn well and ready to send them to me and that means I have no fucking clue which month they're tied to nor do I care. The boxes are getting bigger, but sadly, some of the shit still seems like a weird warehouse finds like a particular Marvel item that you'll see on the video. Also recently I talked about a different monthly service coming and how it was shit I actually liked, but the cost is too high and they make you jump through a lot of hoops to get free shit and I'm not talking about reviewers either, just normal people. Anyway, fuck that shit. Loot Crate may not have the best products, but at least it's easy to deal with.
Read MoreThat's right, two in one day! Here's February's Loot Wear and yes I know it's March... see the part where I said I just got it and the January one on the same day. I didn't get the Power Rangers jogger pants, but I'm not an MMPR fan, so it's no love loss. I was curious about their comfort level, but oh well. Also, if you want to see the full reaction to this unboxing watch this week's Comic Bastards Podcast... it's explained on there.
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I’ll be honest, I’ve avoiding doing this for IDW because I don’t enjoy the majority of their titles and didn’t want to suffer through them. I figured that this was a good week to go through them all since they had so many new titles and one of those new titles is Highlander, which is where the title of this review derives.
Read MoreOh, Loot Wear. You are by far my favorite of the Loot Crates, but this month... you were just alright. The theme for Loot Wear is always the same as the regular Loot Crate so its "Speed" again. There's some okay things. A lot that I'm sure others will be excited about, but when, when are they going to give me some man size shorts? Also, they need to give Nintendo a month off from the boxes because I'm not that big of a fan of theirs. Do something with Tetris please or just any other video game company in the modern era. Alright, enjoy me freaking out over a shirt and not in a good way.
Read MoreIn truth, this review doesn’t matter. The sales for this series were decided three months ago, and they were dictated by the fact that there’s nineteen covers in all. That is how you make a successful crossover event. Nineteen covers. The content at that point doesn’t matter because the shows are invested in selling the variants and sure the $3.99 priced regular cover to fans of these Hasbro franchises that continue to buy and support everything IDW does with them.
Which is why this story is so weird. Why take Transformers, arguably one of their biggest titles with the most offshoots, and slam it together with G.I. Joe? Something that has failed recently and has sat on the sidelines waiting for this event. In reality, I’m sure that was just the excuse not to relaunch the title yet again after soft sales on the last two volumes. Then there’s unproven titles like Action Man which just made it to its fourth issue and ROM, which has two issues shipping at the same time. The question becomes, will a shared universe help these brands or hurt them?
I point to Transformers vs. G.I. Joe which has had I believe five or six volumes and yet I bet if I pressed the biggest fan of the crossover they couldn’t tell me anything that happens in the story other than “Transformers vs. G.I. Joes.” Even the first series done by Dreamwave was average at best and relied on variant covers that were little more than fan art.
Why all this excess in a review? Why am I breaking the most obvious review rule in that I’m talking about anything other than the issue? Because I’m genuinely interested in how the fans will receive this book and if the brands will be damaged due to the shared universe. That and I want to give the haters an easy reason to write off my review when they rush to the bottom to see the score.
Spoiler, it’s not good.
This book is only slightly better than the zero issue prelude that they released. If you missed that issue, don’t worry, it’s at the back of this issue to pad the page count and “justify” the price tag. In it, we learn that some bad people are in charge and that they have the head of a Transformer hanging from their wall talking like a light-censored toy bass.
This issue establishes, through a lot of exposition, that the Transformers may or may not be taking over the world, and that energon (which is given a different name for some reason, probably a legal one) is exploding which is jacking up the earth and leaving the Transformers hungry. The issue and series make the mistake of starting off with Action Man. It’s a mistake because it’s terribly boring, but then at the same time shows just how out of place the character is. It’s hard to imagine anyone “popping” for Action Man in this series.
The rest of the issue is just the classic misunderstanding storyline. ROM’s villains are the villains of the series and all of the time is spent with the good guys fighting each other and coming across as unlikable dicks. I am supposed to like the Transformers, G.I. Joe’s and ROM right? The only person that isn’t a dick is Action Man, and I have no reason to like him because he just shows up and watches a man die. I did like General Colton because he was clearly evil as fuck, but then ROM shows up and just blasts him into oblivion. If ROM’s actions weren’t so out of place and lacking explanation, I would probably have cheered for him killing people. Unfortunately, you have to read his one-shot tie-in issue to understand his actions as they’re never explained in the main crossover, and he leaves after seemingly killing innocent people just trying to fight against our robot overlords. I did laugh when the G.I. Joes mistook ROM as a “little Transformer” which is kind of what he looks like.
Speaking of the G.I. Joes… I hope you like Scarlett because she’s the only Joe outside of Colton that you’re going to see. Is the state of the Joes that bad that there’s no one else that’s worth a damn? There are a few others during the battle, but their appearance was strictly for a nameplate saying their name. Outside of that, they don’t contribute to the story in any way. The Joe’s, in general, are a far cry from their former selves and make me long for the days that Devil’s Due had the licenses and made me like and care about someone other than Snake Eyes. Oh and Cobra? Not even a mention or an appearance. Same with the Decepticons. Nothing.
The art is good but wasted on a story that’s all exposition. The Joe’s pointlessly fire their guns at the Transformers that are in the middle of helping sandbag a flood. Again, it’s really good art, excellent coloring and none of it stands out because of how poor the story is. That and after Dreamwave and Devil’s Due set the bar so high for the Hasbro titles it’s hard to truly impress with the art for these franchises. You have to come in at par or don’t even bother. It makes par, but no birdies.
As I said, this review is mostly pointless. The sales have been decided. Comic fans have long ago decided to support anything IDW does with these franchises. I will not be continuing with the series. I have it one and a half, and that’s all I can muster. It’s more of the same from a publisher that has excelled at selling variants for these brands. While they’ve managed to do some interesting things with Transformers, the rest of the properties they touch feel more like a slap in the face for anyone expecting more than just nostalgia to be dulled out to them.
Now if you’re still reading this and very angry with me for bashing your beloved IDW crossover event you’re probably wondering “Then why did this asshole even write the review?” Well as a friend recently pointed out to me, to be the dissenting voice. Because I know that others out there are reading this event and wondering why they didn’t enjoy it. It’s not the “you’re killing my childhood” argument because I’m a fucking adult, and no amount of retooling and rebooting will spoil my enjoyment felt as a child because it’s protected by the untouchable wall of the past. If this is something you enjoy, congrats. You like average crossovers and variant covers. If you didn’t, at least you know you weren’t alone. I’ll be watching this from afar. Watching the sales, waiting to see the effects this will have on IDW because if it does fail, I won’t be the only wondering why they took all these individually successful brands and mashed them together so that they could be like other publishers when IDW has thrived by not being like other publishers. Why else would people continue to pay those prices?
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Revolution #1 Writers: John Barber, Cullen Bunn Artist: Fico Ossio Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital
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