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bitegore · 2 years

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alright you got me. where do i start with transformers. is it possible to justread the comics and not watch the shows, and if not what single show would you recommend

It is absolutely possible to read the comics* and not watch the shows!

* There are multiple series of comics and this is more or less true for all of them except for Marvel's G1 comics, which are from the 80s and iirc (haven't read them) tie into the plots of the G1 (80s) cartoon episodes.

For clarity's sake, we have IDW1 (Started in 2005, ended 2019, and has the most attention on this site), IDW2 (started in 2019, the central title of it is clearly going long-form, and has received a lot of criticism on here), Marvel Comics (from the 80s, and a product of its time, as well as like i said very possibly a TV tie-in), and Dreamwave (which ran for a short period of time and then died; idk if anyone talks about it any more).

The "comics" you'd probably want to read are the IDW1 comics. WITHIN IDW1 we have:

Phase 1: my personal favorite part of the canon. Not objectively great, and a lot of people don't like it. Lays the groundwork for Phase 2, and ends with a massive fight that basically destroys and restarts Cybertron.

Phase 2: the part that holds that one comic that everyone talks about and pretends is the only part of the continuity to exist. This begins after the war ends, and deals with the reconstruction of Cybertron. In this is the comic More Than Meets The Eye and its continuation Lost Light, which is basically all anyone talks about on this website for the most part. Also contains (ex) Robots in Disguise/Transformers Ongoing, which is set elsewhere at the same time. If you want to read IDW1, a lot of advice will literally just tell you to start with MTMTE/LL and read nothing else. I don't like that advice, personally, because first of all it doesn't make sense because exRID is a direct parallel/tie in and is supposed to be read at the same time, but also because I think it literally must be confusing to new readers to have no background for any of the events referenced in them. But I also didn't love MTMTE/LL as much as everyone around me does, so there's also that.

My advice would actually be to follow this reading guide: https://web.archive.org/web/20180504120023/https://www.howtolovecomics.com/2016/10/17/idws-transformers-reading-order/ (yeah at that link specifically. they changed it after the continuity ended and made it worse). If you decide to follow this guide, don't read Hearts of Steel because it's from a different continuity altogether and has no importance on the story, and don't read New Avengers/Tranformers for the same reason (and also because it sucks mad ass? it's just written really badly). You can pretty much skip over anything too boring but bear in mind that Phase 1 basically explains the background of Phase 2- Stormbringer, for example, is dry as fuck but it's where "cybertron as a really messed up nightmare planet" comes from, and Spotlight: Arcee is transmisogynistic as fuck (actually you can skip that one, also this is why we all hate Simon Furman. among other reasons. fuck that guy).

Anyways this is like nearly 15 years worth of comics. Understandably, you might not want to read all that.

The 2019 comic is short enough so far, because they went on a hiatus in 2020 and also don't have nearly as much Content(tm) to read through. It's just (in my opinion, at least) not... super... engaging... and what there is, there, is not enough Stuff to really get engaging. It's been a while since I sat down to read it last, though, so it might've gotten better while I wasn't looking.

As an onboarding cartoon, Transformers: Prime is probably the best entry point. It largely keeps the same concepts from G1 and IDW (big war that is active, Optimus Prime and Megatron as figurehead enemies) and is fun enough. I also really like Transformers: Animated, but they took a really big step away from the normal formula and made Optimus a military school washout years after the war ended, so it won't really give you that much experience with Regular Transformers even though in my opinion it's probably far and away the best Transformers cartoon I've watched. People also really like Cyberverse. It takes me like a year to watch half a season of anything, so I haven't actually watched that one all the way through yet, but it starts out really dull and then gets pretty good and then from what I understand it just gets better after season 2. I haven't watched it that far yet though. There's a movie for it that just came out with ??? cool and interesting stuff that ive seen some disconnected spoilers for but completely don't understand??? so if you want to watch a lighthearted show that starts off slow, you'll be walking right into the like most excited fizzy core of TF fandom on here as of right now, and it also is pretty good for most of TF canon, though from what I understand it borrows heavily from IDW1 at times.

Sorry; this probably wasn't exactly what you were looking for. Ask anyone else and they'll tell you to just read More than Meets the Eye and Lost Light and ignore everything else, I just... as a person who didn't like them that much and find most of the concepts and characterization beats I like come from literally everywhere else, I cannot say that in good faith without feeling like I'm setting you up for failure LMAO.

#red replies #bireaucracy #spotlight: nightbeat is really great horror tbh. like the plot driver of that comic is kind of stupid but the comic itself slaps #thats one of the earlier spotlights

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bepisprime · 3 years

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IDW2 Bumper appreciation post

I don't usually make appreciation posts but oh my god guys he’s so precious and no-one seems to be talking about him

Look he's so happy and excited :D

“Bumper’s first deployment was not incredible”

Why the fuck are you so cute?

Same

Bumper loses his gun privileges this is so sad

Yeah, he got brainwashed into attacking his comrades but he’s about as threatening as an angry kitten and he wasn’t hurt so I think I’m allowed to find this kind of adorable

Prowl is a prick. Someone tell bumper he is loved.

“You totally can't go around killing people on the street.” Fucking poetry. Also it was Quake that got killed so I can’t exactly advocate against that

Look at him go, charging into a battle zone to rescue someone like to courageous dumbass he is. Yeah, he did not make it out of this one fine. Probably alive, but definitely not fine. He tries so hard and gets so much shit. This boi needs way more love.

#transformers #tranformers idw2 #transformers Bumper #Bumblejumper #I'm already ready to throw hands with Brian Ruckley but if this boi dies too I will have no choice but to fite him

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