#ROM vs. Transformers

[amebanworld]

Dirge, you're too sweet for being a Dcon.

Well, Scream knows how to be a boss with his hetchmen.

[edgymegatronus]

he was so pretty in this omg

[shnowyfox]

the hear me out cake is getting worse and worse i fear (idw phase 3 spoilers)

rom vs transformers shining armor.. i was so excited about star drive i really wish they got to do more with her before the comic had to wrap things up! and her interactions with prowl were wonderful? anyhow because i am the way i am i immediately imprinted on freaky magnus.

and then i had a panic attack and made an au

small thing where i introduced hellbat, this is the only fully fledged comic i feel okay including everything for uncensored because it's just self contained little story. Hellbat was intended since the beginning though.

the crack on my camera really f'd with the sunlight when i was taking pics of this bit. this one i actually have a longer plan for, it's not done yet. plot though is that seaspray asks who the leader is between the three of them.. they can't agree so hellbat's just like "what if we break a famous villain out of prison." i still gotta write the breaking the villain out of prison part. I might also just straight rewrite how i introduce the next member of the crew.

panels from rom vs transformers shining armor. i need you to understand. i need you to understand. he's so beautiful to me..

[wipbigbang]

The 2025 WIP Big Bang & WIP Reverse Bang Are Open For Sign-Ups!

Welcome to a new round! We're bringing back the OG WIP Big Bang, which is for finishing fic and getting art to go with it, and introducing the first full round of the WIP Reverse Bang, which is for finishing artwork and getting fic to go with it. All fandoms/ratings/ships are welcome, including original works!

Schedule

All times are by 11:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Sign-ups Begin- April 1st

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Sign-ups Close- May 21st

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #1- May 22nd

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #2- June 15th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Snippets Due- July 1st

Big Bang Art Claims/Reverse Bang Fic Claims Begin- July 17th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #3- July 22nd

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #4- August 6th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Rough Drafts Due- August 15th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Claims Begin- August 23rd

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Claims Ends- September 1st

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Final Drafts/Art & Fic Due- September 7th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Starts- September 8th

SIGN UP LINKS

WIP Big Bang | WIP Reverse Bang

FAQ

[getupthestairs]

alex milne we need to Talk.

[spidersonicbatl0]

In case don’t why I pick these characters

Transformers comics in the 1980s were published by marvel. There also did take place in earth 616 before getting retcon.

Godzilla also have a comic series published by marvel that took place in earth 616. The only difference is, it still canon to earth 616.

Marvel zombies did a crossover with evil dead. It also canon to marvel zombies timeline.

Dr who comics were punished by marvel and canon in marvel multiverse.

Predator and alien comics rights are own by marvel currently.

Ryu, marvel vs capcom

Mega man x & zero. Marvel vs capcom

Rom the space knight was a toy that got a marvel comics series that introduced a ton of cosmic lore.

Invincible has a crossover issue with Spider-Man that is canon to his series.

Conan the barbarian has comics published by marvel that made him more popular

[kryptonitecore]

Reread: ROM vs. Transformers: Shining Armor

I was unsure what to expect going in. On the one hand, I’ve seen lots of interesting panels from this comic floating around, but on the other hand I don’t have the highest opinion of a lot of the IDW1 crossover things and I didn’t have any prior knowledge of ROM. I’m happy to say I didn’t need a lot of prior knowledge and there were some very concise notes at the front laying down the basics. Honestly, I think perhaps ROM was an easier combination with the Transformers canon, given that it seems to have its own space opera and SFF aspects.

I immediately latched on to Stardrive like a gosling onto its mother. I may also be about to go down a rabbit hole of over-interpreting minor details, but here I go. Stardrive raises some interesting ideas about Cybertronian ageing. The IDW1 continuity doesn’t really account for a subadult period of life. There are ‘newer’ characters and periods of training and education, but not really a fundamental and distinct phase of life that would be equivalent to childhood or adolescence. Stardrive, surrounded by mostly organic species, is shown experiencing a childhood and is interpreted as young by multiple characters from multiple different species: she went to school, someone must have found her that purple cuddly toy, and characters like Rom, who tries to soften criticism directed her way, and the Dire Wraith, who claims she screams ‘like a child’, do not interpret her as a full adult. Admittedly, there’s multiple ways to interpret this in the story itself. It could all be down to socialisation, or, alternatively, it could suggest that there is a period of Cybertronian life (even if it’s relatively short…) that is subadult or somewhat ‘childlike’ and they just don’t mark it? That or the writers just wanted to make Stardrive seem cuter or more innocent, which… goal achieved, I suppose. It’s a shame we didn’t see more of this character, especially with that ending and the question of how, should she survive, these experiences might alter Stardrive given that she seems quite young and soft - not a pushover, but quite a soft person.

I still know nothing about ROM, but I have to say I was not expecting the Solstar Order to be as planet-destruction-happy as they turned out to be. I have to wonder how no one in the Order is questioning Livia a bit more considering… well, everything she says and does? I mean, she can barely hold back her contempt for her peers, let alone everyone else. I enjoyed the multi-sided conflict and it gave the story a nice sense of scale, though I am starting to wonder about the Galactic Council and their hatred of Cybertronians, which seems to be their only defining feature - I don’t know whether I find that a bit wearing or quite funny.

A lot of the images I’ve seen from this comic have been of Starscream and for good reason. If you like IDW1 Starscream, especially if you are interested in a more upbeat take on the character, this is well worth a look. There’s also an interesting sense of camaraderie among the Decepticon characters - some of their interactions are informal, there are nicknames, there are jokes, Astrotrain and Blitzwing are grudging friends, Starscream gets a bit territorial, etc. Also bringing villainous energy, there is ROM’s contribution in the form of Vekktral, who is just delightfully enthusiastic about his combination of magic and technology.

This book mostly escapes continuity traps, but the one thing that does come up is Ultra Magnus - specifically, this is NOT Minimus but someone called Convoy, despite being seemingly close to the modern era. Ultra Magnus’ characterisation is very, very deliberate - it’s even a joke at one point, where Bumblebee talks about how ‘Magnus reacted with a level head, as always’, immediately followed by a scream of ‘Annihilate them!’. Similarly, ‘They’re organics! They barely count as life, anyway’ is certainly a sentiment. It was actually quite entertaining to see evidence of such a wildly different version and a further exploration of the concept of Magnus-as-role rather than individual, however it does have the side effect of suggesting Minimus was not in the job for that long.

I honestly had a lot of fun with these issues. They’re relatively self-contained and might be a bit tonally dissonant compared with what was probably going on in the mainline comics at the time, but it had a lot of life to it, with great art, fun character moments, and it went well above what I expected from a crossover. It got a little cluttered towards the end, but otherwise I was pleasantly surprised by this!

[amebanworld]

The funfact is both of them are right. In IDW and Alignated continuities, Decepticons are a political movement faction that actually thinks Cybertronian society is sick, and politics such as Nominism and Funtionalism mean to be destroyed in order to archive equiality (just like Scream says).

But along the way, things turned quite "messy" and Dcons movement become a genicidal horde. And it's even more ironic b/c Starscream actually is against genocide.

The poor Stardrive just found out too much in a short time.

I feel like this should be on a recruitment poster or something.

“The Decepticons: We’re all about Equality!*

*plus genocide.”

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

About the "kwamis as mentors" angle: Interesting to read and analyse, yet I can't help but feel they were not necessarily meant to be seen as mentors. At least to me, they seemed to be kind of whacky mascot characters who are tied to the lore, who have a personality to crack a joke or point something out or cause a little situation or be cute, but nothing more.

They are rather naive magical entities chained to jewelry (a fact they don't seem to mind that much or think about at all except for Plagg) and all that talk about "being around for 5000 years" and having seen many holders before is just there to make them seem more wise than they actually act like. From what I've seen on the show I would even assume there's a threshold to how much they can even mature emotionally and understand humans. Sometimes Tikki and Plagg even come off as indifferent and egoistical towards their holders (like an example you gave with Tikki, or Plagg's fixation on cheese over Adrien at times).

So...sorry if I missed it, but why do you view them as mentor characters? You made an interesting post about rom-com vs magical girl and the magical girl part is exactly why I always viewed them just as critters to appeal to kids, but nothing more. I can see that the show's writing is so inconsistent that sometimes they are portrayed as wise but more often then not they are just background noise to get a little interaction on screen so that the characters are not talking to themselves about miraculous stuff or to point something out for the audience.

The show's writing is pretty weird, so there are elements that are hard to get a clear read on. The Kwamis are one such element. When they're one-on-one with their chosen, they often feel like mentors to me. When they're all together, they almost always read like "critters to appeal to kids" (mostly because there are too many of them to let them have individual personalities when they're all together). So while I think that they're supposed to be mentors, it's not like that's the only canon-accurate read.

To dig into what I mean by the one-on-one writing, let's look at this exchange from Feast:

Master Fu: See, Wayzz? If Marinette had kept her Miraculous, the sentimonster would have swallowed her right up. Wayzz: Or she would have transformed into Ladybug and fought it. Master Fu: Sometimes fighting is futile, Wayzz.

And then later on we get this:

Wayzz: Master, look! Ladybug and Cat Noir, despite their ridiculous costumes, they haven't let you down! Wang Fu: That's impossible! They don't have their Miraculous! Wayzz: Master, it's obvious it's them—who else would do something so crazy? Cat Noir (Adrien): Hey, have a taste of this! Some exploding banana split from Bananoir! Ladybug (Marinette): Much tastier than any Miraculous! Wayzz: Look, Master, there's no use in running! Your disciples never give up the fight, no matter what! With or without their Miraculous, they are Ladybug and Cat Noir!

That's some pretty active mentoring right there.

Wayzz is probably the character that feels the most like a mentor to me. When he's with Fu, he feels like Fu's partner or adviser, which is why I think that the Kwami's aren't supposed to just be cute critters. They're regular ol' Jimmy Crickets meant to act as a conscience that the characters can talk to since this is visual media and you want a way for the characters to talk through their thoughts instead of having them do it all internally.

I also present this exchange from Desperada as evidence:

Adrien: Plagg, Ladybug needs me. She needs "Adrien"! Plagg: If you asked me, this whole idea is worse than cheese in a can. Adrien: She thinks I'm the perfect guy for this mission. Plagg: You can't be Cat Noir and another superhero at the same time! Which means that you're not the perfect guy for this mission. Adrien: The Lucky Charm told her I am. Plagg: That's not how it works. Why am I bothering? You're not even listening.

We then get Plagg reiterating that this is a bad idea through multiple loops, ending with this:

Plagg: Ah! At last, you've come to your senses. Adrien: I'm not sure Ladybug will have very fond memories of her experience with "Adrien Agreste". Plagg: Then make up for it as Cat Noir.

See? I told you Plagg can be a good mentor when he wants to! Tikki, take notes!

I'd even call this bit from Sapitos some quality subtle mentoring from Trixx:

Alya: Oh please, Ladybug! We'd make a great team! I could help Cat Noir and you every day! Ladybug:(her earrings ring) I'm about to transform back! Hurry! Alya: Please? Ladybug: I have to go! I'm trusting you! (opens a nearby door and goes inside, so she can detransform) Trixx: You're absolutely right, Alya. I'm sure the three of you would make quite the team! You have all the makings of a true superhero. You're strong, brave; but most of all, you're trustworthy.

Way to both build Alya up and reminder her of her duty, Trixx. Gold star. Quality mentorship!

So are the Kwamis supposed to be mentors? Who knows! I just see them fill the role often enough to feel comfortable judging them through that lens.

Miraculous also isn't the only magical girl team show to make the cute critters into mentors. That's a pretty standard path even though it's also common to see the critters used to sell merch/appeal to kids and nothing more. In terms of classic magical girl team shows, I'd say that the Kwamis are written way more like Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon than Mini Mew from Tokyo Mew Mew.

[quitealotofsodapop]

This idea would probably be for soft Boiled and slow boiled, basically any au where Wukong is MK's teacher and not his sibling or parent. Kaiju forms.

I personally headcanon the kaiju forms and projections in the show (Mei's dragoon and Macaque's giant war form) are more... projections of one's soul/true self. So... for those who are not aware, Wukong does canonically have one on the book. It's a giant limbed monkey and with multiple heads and arms. It so is canonically so terrifying that it had frightened both his enemies and his own people so badly he had been utterly heartbroken by the event.

Sometime between s4 and s5, Wukong is working with MK to help him get used to his new monkey form and trying to help him control it. The kaiju form MK took dueint the battle with Azure comes up and MK asks about it. When Wukong explains what it was, MK gets super excited to learn and wants Wukong to teach him except...

Wukong: Sorry kid, I can't teach you how to control your kaiju. You'd actually be better off asking either Mei or, ugh, Macaque!

MK: WHAT!? Why not!?

Yesss

Wukong canonically does not like his War/Kaiju Form.

The clearest idea I could gt of how it might have looked was from a toy site, I imagine in LMK verse its lot more solid-coloured and vaguely shaped;

In Jttw he loses all interest in his victory against Heaven when his Kaiju Form scares his own people - and if we add in the Brotherhood, Macaque as well.

We discussed in dms how Wukong's anger under the mountain was likely a mixture of despair (they lost and couldn't save their bros from punishment), pain (fresh from the Furmace yo), and self-hatred.

This newly unlocked form of his - this manifestation of his inner self, was so terrifying that his own people, his allies, his own mate fled at the sight of it.

Macaque did "run off" that day, hence part of Wukong's anger. But afterwards, after the fight, Macaque had to admit to himself that while Wukong's kaiju-form was terrifying it had also been beautiful. Beautiful and sublime like a star going supernova.

Macaque's own Kaiju can be separated from him as a shadow of himself, but he's secretly ashamed of his reaction to Wukong's all those centuries ago. When he does let his Kaiju form take over his real body, it becomes primal, impulsive and brutally honest. Something that honestly helps with how quick he is to dodge confrontation.

Mei's (and by extension Ao Guang's) "dragons" are literal manifestations of what their true forms may be. Mei could have her own American-Dragon-style dragon form she could flaunt if she worked at it. That or the energy is literally Ao Lie's spirit coming in clutch as a power-up.

Ao Guang's dragon-energy meanwhile looks like his lego set colouration, suggesting homebody just a big lazy to waste his true massive form on them.

So when Wukong and the gang sees MK's own Kaiju/War-form for the first time during his fight with Azure....

Wukong is like "NOPE! Not my expertise!" cus he literally only used his War Form twice in the entirety of the book - the Battle of Flower Fruit Mountain, and when him and DBK had a Kaiju vs Kaiju battle together later in the Journey.

When MK prods him about it, Wukong becomes... kinda cold and closed off, telling MK that he's better off talking to Macaque about it.

Macaque is still barely in the "anti-hero" category, so MK is a little hesistant to ask him for help (especially since one of Macaque's teaching methods included a rom hack).

MK even tries going to DBK on the matter first, but the retired-demon king has a similar negative reaction. Seems that even he didn't like the Bull he became when him and Wukong truly fought. It's why he even refused to transform when he was under true duress from LBD or the Brotherhood.

DBK does give MK advice on what a "Kaiju/War form" is though. DBK's mind had been clouded with anger when he was a younger man, so his became a pure-white charging bull that destroyed all in it's path. Sun Wukong does not care for his War Form since it truly scares him to use.

MK thinks that impossible! Why would the Monkey King be afraid of his own super-cool power?

Until DBK asks him something important; "Aren't you afraid of yours?"

MK's complex over learning that he's a "Harbinger of Chaos" hits immediately, and he runs off to seek Macaque's guidance.

Macaque is amused, if not a little surprised that MK ultiamtely went to him for help with his Kaiju form.

MK: "Trust me bro, you're like my third choice. I can't ask Mei cus not even she knows how her's works." Macaque: "Eh. I'll take it. I am curious why yours is so much more taller than mine though."

Hint: it's a self worth thing Macaque developed whilst under the Brotherhood that he needed to "limit the space he took up", he's still working on that.

Some fun mentor-and-son-figure kaiju training occurs, and MK eventually asks a bombshell question;

MK: "Hey when Monkey King said you ran off, what did he mean?" Macaque, stiffens: "I didn't run from the celestial army if thats what you're wondering." MK, remembering what DBK said: "Were you afraid of Him?" Macaque, pauses and sighs: "At the time yes." MK: "At the time?" Macaque: "MK, in that moment, I hadn't known Wukong even had a War Form or even knew what they truly meant. All I saw was this... demon where my best friend once stood." MK: "OH... I mean... that sorta explains why you guys were fighting under the mountain." Macaque: "Yeah. You can see why I called him-" MK: "I mean, I wouldn't know how bad I'd feel if Mei ran away from me cus of my power up..." Macaque: "...what?" MK: "You ran away from your best friend. That's not cool. Scared or not, that was your buddy in there. And if he saw you running or I dunno shadow portal-ing away, I'd get why he was so salty when you popped up later with a peach like nothing had happened. From his view, he was going through something new and terrifying for him too and you abandoned him. Twice if you never came back to check in on him." Macaque: "... you're a smart kid MK. Way too smart for me." (*Macaque portals away to make a long overdue apology*)

Macaque himself seemed to be having a similar revelation when he saw the fight in 3rd person in the Memory Scroll. That his own reaction was more of a build-up of frustration from his treatment in the Brotherhood rather at Wukong specifically.

In Short; these bitches needed a relationship referee to call a yellow car when they tossed their unrelated anger at each other.

Bonus: I love the idea of Wukong's kaiju form being HUGE, and MK's being the medium between him and Macaque. Also, cuddly giant monkeys made of light and shadow.

[ckret2]

Decided to shake up the constant Gravity Falls asks on the blog (even though I adore them). What is your favorite transformers continuity? And what's your favorite character from that continuity?

Tough call, but probably IDW1. The comics had room to get expansive in ways the show-based continuities couldn't, and I like that feeling of bigness to the universe. It introduced a lot of my favorite Transformers lore: forged vs cold constructed bots, Functionism (especially as a critique of marrying religion to conservative politics), empurata, really creative uses of holoforms, conjunx endura & amica endura (and queer bots, let's give it up for queer bots!!), the complex network of lost colonies, the idea that the gods definitely officially existed BUT they were just guys, the DJD...

All the work that went into immediate pre-war culture with the turbulent corrupt senate and the corrupt Primes was terrific. LSOTW and SOTW are just so damn good, MTMTE up through Remain In Light was brilliant, and Getaway's coup was great. I'm thrilled we got a look at Cybertron's relationships with the rest of the galaxy and it turns out they're hated, because that makes perfect sense but we never really see that. The post-war politics on Cybertron were really fun. I was skeptical IDW could pull off writing about a post-war Cybertron—I assumed within a year they'd default back to restarting the war—and then that ended up being when the whole series really started to shine.

Introduced some characters I love—Drift, Tarn, Stardrive, Windblade, and Pharma stand out off the top of my head. Amazing artwork, especially whenever Milne had the pen. ABSOLUTELY LOVED seeing Starscream get to rule Cybertron. Even though they had trouble committing to it, I appreciate that they had the balls to make Optimus morph into a well-intentioned villain. Love the tragic former senator Shockwave characterization. Love the lonely logical Prowl who can see the Autobots' flaws too clearly for his own good and in his desperation to compensate for the rest of the army morally compromised his way into becoming the villain. Love horrible amoral Tarantulas with his small shining moments of love and tenderness.

Although by the end it was getting really bloated with other Hasbro property crossovers, I did like some of the crossovers they introduced: GI Joe slid in pretty seamlessly—probably helps that TF & GI Joe crossovers have an established history—and I was surprised a how much I liked Rom. And even though the sheer quantity of crossovers got tedious, the concept of going "they've all been dragged into this story because they were all affected by Cybertron's past colonialism" is GREAT.

Love that they ended the story by swinging from "yay look at all these fun new colonies for us to play with!" to "oh my god the Autobots are colonizers." LOVE that they ended with Unicron—every longform Transformers series could end with Unicron and I probably wouldn't complain—and that they let him eat some planets, let him eat half the cast, LET HIM EAT CYBERTRON... and characterized him not as some random bogeyman but specifically as the karmic vengeance for Cybertron's past colonial crimes. Love that the only way to stop him was not by killing him, but by acknowledging that Cybertron was wrong and showing him compassion.

IDW didn't always get things right with their attempted grand messages about politics and injustice and oppression and colonization—but, hell, even when they didn't quite hit the bullseye I love that they were playing with that dartboard.

Favorite character from IDW is Prowl (albeit not without stiff competition). I'm a gleeful Prowl apologist. Yeah he did those terrible things but he was right tho. I started picking up RID & MTMTE right when Prowl got Devastatored, and that was both the thing that made me go "oh hold on the comics are doing something interesting" and the thing that made me take notice of Prowl as a character for the first time in my life lmao. BIG fan of his messy lovelife. (Personally I go "he's too good for Chromedome" and then ship him with the Constructicons and Tarantulas, who are objectively far worse than Chromedome.) He's endlessly fascinating to me, one of my favorite characters to read and one of my favorite characters to write.

Right up there is Starscream—averaged out across all continuities, Starscream's probably my #1 favorite Transformers character, and IDW Starscream is my favorite Starscream, a perfect blend of the bombastic G1 campy villain and the wary, competent, resilient TFP schemer. And Tarantulas rounds out my top 3, I loved him in Beast Wars and then SOTW 3 happened and I had to stop at nearly every panel Tarantulas was in to go "oh my god, this is canon? They got away with that??" Read like a fanfic in the best possible way. "We were each the muse to the other" still has an iron grip on my heart. "I want YOU. I want US." God. SOTW 3 is a masterpiece of literature. Here, do you want a 130k no-war AU where Prowl and Tarantulas are paranormal investigators together? You can have it. For free.

I just spent a lot of time singing the praises of IDW but shoutout to Armada and Energon/Super Link (I preferred the fansub over the dub) for getting me into Transformers, wouldn't be in this fandom today if not for Starscream's beautifully melodramatic redemption arc in Armada. I'm not saying they're good. I'm saying I love them. Totally different thing.

[sun-light-ratchet]

Me:

For you

My poor baby

*says this while taking screenshots*

[dynared]

Well, Year Two of the Energon Universe is in the books with the Free Comic Book Day Special, and with the spoiled appearance of Matt Trakker of M.A.S.K., albeit not looking identical to Duke anymore, it's once again time to check on the other Hasbro properties and see if any of them are viable to also enter the Energon Universe, especially with a fourth slot for the books open, since Robert Kirkman was adamant that they would not publish more than four books at a time.

Well M.A.S.K. is set, but whether they get their own book or not is a question mark. Ever since Hasbro bought the property, they have had a loose connection to G.I. Joe as separate but allied organizations, culminating in a Matt Trakker figure being released under the Joe branding.

They could easily fill the role of a private organization studying the Cybertronians, or even what the Bay movies tried and failed to do with the Order of the Wittwicians, having a group aware of the Transformers and dealing with them in secret.

ROM and the Micronauts: When it first appeared that Marvel was going to be reprinting the ROM and Micronauts stories, there were some assumptions Hasbro had given up on trying to make stories about the characters independent of Marvel. Two years later, while ROM Vol 1 is the bestselling Marvel omnibus of all time, there has been no word on trying to make a new ROM or new Micronauts story. They could potentially return to the Energon Universe but would face the same problem they did in their atrocious IDW comics, trying to rebuild the mythology of the Spaceknights and Inner Space from scratch, and not being able to use any of the characters Marvel had came up with, although Marvel’s attempt to use them without the Micronauts resulted in Quantumania, aka the moment where the public opinion of the MCU started to shift considerably more sour than at any point prior. They may be available, but it may be an incompatible mixture. I don’t suppose Marvel is interested in them again, are they?

Action Man - Originally the branding for European releases of the original G.I. Joe figures licensed by Hasbro to British company Palitoy, Action Man was eventually turned into a do-it-all super spy when Hasbro directly bought the rights to the franchise, both as a competitor to Mattel’s Max Steel toyline and TV show (which also was about an extreme athlete turned spy. No word on whether or not the XXX franchise also took inspiration). A spy character could work as a supporting character for another book, but the last time Hasbro tried to do an Action Man comic, it died in four issues, leading Hasbro to awkwardly shove him into the critically panned low selling Revolutionaries comic. He may just not be worth the hassle to be his own star, but can work better as a supporting role.

The Visionaries - While it was originally believed that after the failure of Transformers vs Visionaries that the Knights of the Magical Light would be shoved into a corner to be forgotten, they get namedropped in Void Rivals. Furthermore, unlike the IDW versions, Hot Rod appears to have a rather favorable opinion of them, speaking fondly about a “Prysmodian wedding” (Prysmos being the planet where Visionaries takes place). They could easily be the focus of a Void Rivals arc where our heroes (depending on who you follow the book for, that’s either Darak or Solia, the titular Void Rivals, or Hot Rod and Springer, who seem to be on half the covers to boost sales) visit the planet while the magical war is going on. But getting their own series might be tougher.

Hell, so far that seems to be the issue with a lot of the non-Joe/TF franchises that could theoretically be in the Energon Universe. They would be potential interesting additions to the stories of G.I. Joe and the Transformers, but are far less likely to carry their own books. That leaves one Hasbro property, one that IDW adored even when it sold like crap. One Hasbro seems to have declared radioactive.

Jem and the Holograms.

Yes, Jem.

https://youtu.be/m6G_o1MYECg?si=ekg9_H_lVSs5xB8V

The theme song may say Jem is truly outrageous, but after the legendary failure of the Jem movie (less than $2 million profit on a paltry $5 million budget) and the comics from IDW selling the worst out of all of the Hasbro licenses, Hasbro tends to think she’s truly radioactive.

She has been mentioned ONCE during the Energon Universe’s run, in a letters page in the Cobra Commander miniseries from writer Joshua Williamson.

You know, there might be something to this. But it would be a radical departure from Jem as was done in IDW and might just piss off just about everybody.

What if Jem was a Dreadnok, or at the least, a member of Cobra? Someone whose family went into a cause that she could care less about when she just wants to sing? Only now she’s potentially armed with Cobra technology which she can use to start her music career, including a computer that will allow her to assume a disguise so no one know who she is.

The only problem is that she’s still a homicidal Dreadnok, one not afraid to kill anyone who starts with her. Think Hannah Montana meets Dexter.

If that’s too radical a departure for Jem, the alternative is Jem being someone who is trying to start a career, only to run smack dab into the insanity that is the Energon Universe. Cobra saboteurs because someone thinks a band called Cold Slither is good PR. Alien technology and robots interested in music. Black market tech and battles when she just wants to sing.

It would potentially be the most radically different of all the EU books no matter what route you chose, but a slice of life/music story in the same universe as all the shooting and robot wrasslin could potentially open up a lot of possibilities as to how the world has changed. The question remains is if Jem could attract an audience. A similar issue occurred with DC’s attempts to make Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld a thing and how DC could not find a market for her, because she was a character that was meant to appeal to young girls, constantly given to people and put in stories that wanted nothing to do with young girls, resulting in what can best be described as Tryhard horror stories that appealed to no one.

So two years later, it seems we have a lot of supporting characters, but no one who could lead a fourth book. Don’t suppose anyone at Skybound wants to write a Shinkalion comic, do they?

[noia-starchild]

SO ! i finished relistening to kaleidotrope yesterday and it's so so good i love it so much

it's a really fluffy little queer rom-com between two radio hosts at a college + a fun school mystery. The characters are genuinely delightful to listen to the va's do such great jobs . Personally, Drew is my favourite. He has so much charisma and I love him with every fiber of my being oml.

there's a very fun dichotomy of love determined by fate vs choice and which one is more romantic at the core of the story and it's just so compelling to listen to

it's very short (9 episodes + an epilogue) and id definitely recommend you listen

ALSO

after you finish i'd like to recommend this fic

its everything to me i can't

its a bookstore + cafe AU and there are some major story changes so it's not canon compliant, but the characters are so well written they feel like they were pulled directly from the podcast.

They also keep a bit of the mystery aspect, tho it's more focused on the romance. Its arguably more fluffy than the original if you could believe it

[camilladerricoart]

🧛‍♀VS🐺 Are you #TeamWerewolf or #TeamVampire? Drop your choice in the comments 😉👇

•

My husband’s a werewolf. 🌒 I’m a vampire.🦇 It’s basically a gothic rom-com over here.😅

•

This mystical werewolf is mid-transformation and fully fabulous—fangs, fluff, and all!🐺🦷 You can catch her prowling at my solo show ‘Fabled Realms’ at @coreyhelfordgallery from June 7–July 12, 2025!🌕🎨 Wanna get your claws on her before she vanishes into the misty mythos?🐾 Email Sherri at sherri@coreyhelfordgallery.com to join the preview list before the werewolves (and art) disappear into legend!💌

•

•

•

•

•

#FabledRealms #camilladerricoart #Werewolf #Vampire #SpookySeasonEveryday #FantasyArt #MythicalCreatures #PopSurrealism #CuteAndCreepy #MonstersWithFeelings #DarkFantasy #KawaiiHorror #ArtCollectors #GothGirlEnergy #MagicalRealism #galleryshow #FluffAndFangs

[decepti-thots]

to be clear, while it's true Origin is itself notoriously a mess (being cut down from a six issue outline to four and therefore incredibly compressed, not well written even despite that, and famously just... nonsensical in many places), the real problem is that your first five comics will be, according to the most commonly cited reading list (the one people eg throw around on Reddit):

Megatron: Origin (see above)

Spotlight: Orion Pax (this is a prequel to fucking Dark Cybertron. you are not supposed to read it SECOND.)

Autocracy (bad. bad.)

Monstrosity (BAD. BAD.)

Primacy (BAD? BAD???)

i genuinely cannot think of a worse introduction than a terrible miniseries, a one-shot prequel promoting a very complex crossover that occurs years into the run and assumes you know a ton of characters, and then three shitty web-first miniseries made up of comics of like eight pages a piece that is mostly remembered for the writers who worked on it largely ignoring the entire vibe of what every other writer at IDW was doing. the idea of telling someone to read all these, in a row, as their first IDW1 comics, should be considered the eighth deadly sin, i think

the most important thing to know about giving IDW1 a go is that some people will tell you to read it 'in chronological order', as in start with Megatron Origin, and those people are i think the only truly evil people in the world. do not listen to them