#idw2019

[emperor-kumquat]

I saw them holding hands in the background. While looking so serious, they still hold hands

The Rainmakers are always holding hands in this series, it’s cute

[laserbread]

Some TF comic screenshots that never get old:

[elfdragon12]

I got my hands on trade #5 of IDW 2019 and absolutely giggling over this line from Perceptor! XD

[candychameleon]

so excited to finally post my piece for the Spectrum Zine!!  some Sapphic Decepticons 💖✨ i'm REALLY proud of how this came out, I tried out a lot of new things with this!  I also recorded the process of the lines and colors!

Lines timelapse

Colors timelapse

[pluralsword]

Compiled a list of all the different scoped weapons we’ve seen Arcee use in canon, for reasons, does anybody have any to add? It’s really interesting how vastly different the designs are. Side-mounts, holosight-esque, and whatever the scrap is going on with Earthspark Arcee’s snub-scope. An image of her from WFC the videogame with any of the scoped guns would also be appreciated (or really anything of her from any of the videogames with a scoped weapon)

Close up of images in order of appearance below

IDW1/IDW2005 Arcee (in 2012, three full body reformats so far on her gender journey, currently with a cybertronian car alt-mode) with side-mount stock over shoulder two-hand rifle in Robots in Disguise #9, “Night and the City.”

Same Arcee (2013) with a massive over the shoulder missile launcher or cannon, in Robots in Disguise #23, Dark Cybertron #3, “Winners and Losers.” Honestly this thing may have a scope but it sure seems like she’s eyeballing until she has the go ahead to fire. This weapon is called the Superior Cannon in Wave 2 (2019) of the now canceled Transformers Trading Card Game by Wizards of the Coast.

Forged to Fight Arcee (present in the game at launch in 2017, basically T30 Generations Arcee but lankier with long arms) kneeling to fire her stock mounted round scope blue sniper rifle with a side mounted red laser sight as part of her special attack. The front of the barrel lights up blue when it fires... and what is actually fired is a metal bullet! A nice surprise from a G1-stylized character. Image sourced from this video.

IDW1/IDW2005 Arcee (2018, now five full body reformats so far on her gender journey, currently with an earth car alt-mode that was inspired by the Lotus Elite, this is the form she has at the end of the series we will go off about this some other time) with a fold-up/modular designated marksbot rifle looking gun with a squarish digital sight, in Unicron #2, “Stranger Eons.” It’s funny, we never see her IDW1 iteration shoot any of these three, but we do see her shoot her guns with only iron sights or none at all iirc? IDW2 on the other hand we’ll talk about in a bit, but first, Cyberverse Arcee!

Cyberverse Arcee (in 2020) in Cyberverse Season 3 Episode 13 “The Judge” readying a very large blaster with a drum ammunition barrel (when she isn’t shooting her blaster pistols or in melee, shooting a gun with a drum barrel seems to be her thing, specifically, very large guns, usually minigun/autocannon/rotary cannon sort of deal) that has a sloped forend and ridges under the front of the gun barrel, and either has a narrow scope or ?ammo counter?/probably a scope above the ammo barrel. (remembered her shooting this thanks to @arceespinkgun​ ‘s post of gifs of Shadow Striker and Arcee fighting together in this episode after seeing the G1 images they reblogged this post with, thank you!!) She also never uses the scope when she shoots the thing in her exuberant battle delight, unlike somebody...

IDW2/IDW2019 Arcee (2021, notes on reformats later)*, has a cybertronian look the whole series), aiming her blocky anti-armor rifle while crouching, the scope is kind of holosight-like, in Transformers #35, “Lord of Misrule: Sea of Rust II”. She shoots this thing several times in the series and gosh you don’t want to get hit by the brief beam of plasma that cuts through a Seeker like butter when she pulls the trigger. RE reformats: possibly one, twice if she did off-screen before series start for trans reasons? like she had a look more like Earthrise Arcee at the beginning mixed with IDW1 but then they went for the An Arcee Sort of Day look that is basically a WFC Chromia/Nightbird retool with outer armor of the backpack made into back stacks instead after Galaxies was over, maybe because she joined the Autobots and wanted to change her look or literally armor up, or the artists just felt like it, we don’t know but would like to know. In any case her alt mode went from a sci-fi convertible to an armored fighting car look. (which we are the only person we know of with a custom or toy of at all so far as of early 2023)

Then from this promotional image from Nickelodeon we have Earthspark Arcee (2023) smiling while one-handing a giant aft pistol that’s all rounded and curved with a TAIL FIN SCOPE in a way that looks like her G1 car mode she doesn’t have since she has a muscle car mode instead. Okay dear you’re cool as frag for having a gun that looks like the alt mode you don’t have while you rock the boxier one you have instead. I’m so trans that I can hold a version of my old body in my hand and shoot it. Like okay we’re just waiting for her to say she’s trans now right that’s the consensus- anyway about the scope:

HOW DOES SHE AIM DOWN THAT SCOPE. IF THAT’S WHAT IT IS. LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING? Like this goes past what her IDW2 rifle’s scope does which lets her comfortably lean her head down a little while resting the gun against her neck guard armor- but this is like, plonking your head down to aim forward unless... unless she eyeballs the scope itself or links up with it via her hand. Which she could. Would not put past sage in martial arts, ethics, and bullshitting Earthspark Arcee to have a weapon that defies expectations while showing her history in the palm of her hand. Gods why do we feel like crying over this promo image, anyway that’s a wrap on this until y’all send us more images.

Also we found the gun thanks to @fancyrobotenthusiast​ ‘s post of the image and then we did a reverse google image search while we started compiling the other images finding that inspired, so thank you, you by chance gave our trans brain something to do for a few hours that has made us very happy after

[mendely]

something about how sassy and smug and mean Flywheels/Skytread is in IDW 2019 feels illegal

[starsandbots]

...

[thunderxino]

do it, i dare you.

tap for better quality

[short-wooloo]

I want non G1 Transformers comics

We're now on our 4th (5th? 6th?) G1 rebooted comic universe, and don't get me wrong, I do love these universes, IDW2005 is a definitive version of Transformers to me, I really love IDW2019 and wish it had gone on longer and gotten to reach its natural conclusion, and Energon universe has been really good so far

But in the end, they're all just Geewun again, and while they are trying to be different, in the end they're all just retelling the original cartoon

And this is precisely why Beast Wars 2021 was such a breath of fresh air, for once the story being retold was something other than G1

So can't we do that with other Transformers continuities?

I want a comic that takes all the characters, concepts, and plots of the Unicron trilogy and make them actually work as a single cohesive story!

Can you imagine it?

And since hasbro doesn't give a shit about stuff that isn't G1, the writers could have free reign to do as they wanted

[protagonistprime]

Legacy Evolution Green Dinobot Ranger Gridlock(not IDW2019 Gridlock) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hello again. Today i want to show you my second to last Digibash based on Transformers x Power Rangers crossover. I present you Green Dinobot Ranger Gridlock, Grimlock's brother who upon coming to earth in search of his missing brother is captured by Evil forces of Lord Zedd and Rita and put under mind control spell. However after many fights with Dinobot Power Rangers he is freed from evil's influence and joins his brother in a fight with revived Predacons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Previous/Next ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His design is mostly based on Green Megazord with few details coming from RID2001 Grimlock.

Power Rangers, Dinobots, Transformers and etc belong to their rightful owners This digibash belongs to me

[emperor-kumquat]

I WISH TO PROPOSE A NEW MEME FORMAT The "Sixshot Slap" available in small and big bubbles

Reblog with your own!

[askvectorprime]

What is the story of stardrive in idw2019?

Dear Stardrive Seeker,

Not all newly-forged Cybertronians spend their early lives on Cybertron—always, there are those Cybertronians born with an instinctual thirst for adventure, who yearn to venture beyond the confines of their metallic homeworld. Thus, in the years following the War of the Threefold Spark, the Cybertronian government authorized the creation of a cultural exchange program between the Cybertronian commonwealth and some friendly galactic neighbors, an incentive program where newly forged Cybertronians could study abroad on a diverse range of planets, assimilating the local culture and language as part of a possible career in Xeno-Relations.

I should comment, briefly, on the history of the Solstar Order—it originated corewards of Cybertron, not far from the barricaded region of space known as the “Quintessence”, and expanded outwards not through conquest, but by carefully negotiating trade agreements and alliances with alien civilizations and gradually building a strong federation of many diverse species: Elonians, Intriessians, Karkans, and more. By the era of the Nominus Edict, the borders of the Solstar Order nearly bumped up against remote Cybertronian colonies like Velocitron and Omicron. Despite their proximity, the two star-nations had only ever enjoyed a strained relationship. The Solstar Order consolidated much of its recent power by absorbing the defeated remnants of other empires, smashed to bits by Cybertronian hegemony—in particular, a large contingent of Szorian refugees who’d seen their homeworld obliterated by the Titan Waypoint eyed the Transformers with a deep and abiding distrust. More recently, tensions flared when unscrupulous elements of the Cybertronian government conspired with the ambitious Natalus to abruptly declare that the planet Probat was a Cybertronian colony, despite the fact that no Cybertronians lived there—deliberately smashing years of careful accession agreements that would’ve seen the citizens of Probat join their galactic government.

Into this already-tense environment came Stardrive—already a model mentee with a rare triple-changing bodyframe, a knack for languages, and eying a possible career in Xeno-Relations—who announced that she would like to study abroad on the planet Elonia. The request, while highly unusual, went through, and before long Stardrive had arrived in Solstar space and enrolled in a xeno-linguistics program on the planet Ofsted XVII, with a minor in astro-navigation. Although she faced prejudice and even outright discrimination from many of her organic classmates—and indeed, more than one lecture hall had to be renovated so that she could fit into their classrooms—Stardrive persevered.

One day, Stardrive and her class were on a field trip to monitor the unique phenomenon known as the “Quintessence”, a seemingly insurmountable barrier of electrical energy that prevented the Solstar Order from expanding any closer to the galactic core. Suddenly, while monitoring the phenomenon aboard an orbital research station, Stardrive witnessed a bizarre astrological phenomenon: what appeared to be a nebula somehow shifted into a massive portal that crackled with arcane power, a gateway through which a new kind of shapeshifting lifeform came to attack their vessel! The creatures, their slug-like bodies immune to conventional weaponsfire, easily breached the station’s hull and devoured many of the beings inside. Those who survived were infected with toxic biomatter and converted into more of their kind. However, the invaders hadn’t prepared to deal with a Cybertronian, whose mechanical biology rendered her immune to their necrotic touch, and whose tight-beam plasma blasters could simply burn through their arcane biology. Fighting her way through the hordes, Stardrive piled as many students as she could—including their professor, Rom K’atsema—into her space fighter alternate mode, then beat a hasty retreat as the station exploded behind her.

By the time Stardrive limped back to Elonia, it soon became clear that the Solstar Order faced a grave crisis. The “Dire Wraiths”, as they were now called, had launched coordinated invasions of outlying worlds like Xeres and Buras, and lightly-armed planetary garrisons had already been overwhelmed. Although the Solstar Order’s celebrated diplomatic corps had long since assumed that they could defuse any problem with negotiations, it soon became clear that they were fighting an enemy that had no obvious means of communications, and would accept nothing less than total extinction. It soon became clear that the Solstar Order would need something new to combat the hordes… and, eventually, all eyes fell upon the one Cybertronian in their midst.

Before long, Solstar scientists had gathered enough firsthand testimony and video recordings to draw up a weapon capable of meeting the aliens head-on: a full-body suit of armor forged from artificially-synthesized cybertonium that would be cybernetically grafted to one’s skin, equipped with a plasma-blasting “neutralizer” powered by a miniature energon reactor. While the scientists referred to their creation as merely an “anti-Wraith battle armor”, it was Rom who joked that the suit resembled the knights of old—and so it was he who volunteered to become the first organic to undergo the procedure, and emerge as “Rom, the Space Knight!” Inspired by his example, other courageous members of the Solstar Order stepped up to undergo the process, and over time the efforts of these “Space Knights”, supported by Stardrive herself, gradually helped push the Wraiths back.

It soon became clear that Stardrive couldn’t fight alone; fortunately, the Cybertronian embassy on Elonia was able to pull the strings that would allow Sentinel Prime to authorize the deployment of the Wreckers on the technicality that the Dire Wraiths posed a threat to Cybertronian territory—namely, their embassy on Elonia. Supported by a hundred Space Knights, Stardrive and the Wreckers took part in the effort to take back Xeres, which had, by this point, been turned into a grotesque hive-world where billions of fast-breeding Wraiths reproduced. Their victory was pyrrhic; they were able to cut off the primary source of the infestation, but only by destroying the planet and scattering millions of Wraiths across their member worlds. The Solstar Order would have to prepare for a protracted war against the alien infiltrators, who'd already put down roots on dozens of planets—but Stardrive, honorary Space Knight, gladly agreed to support the Space Knights in their quest.

[elfdragon12]

I'm reading through IDW2019 again and there's the part where Optimus and Ironhide use Prowl as a marker for how angry Megatron is/how difficult he'll be to work with.

I think folks get caught up in the idea of Prowl being an angry person than actually considering what he's angry about. The event the two are referring to is Prowl being stuck under a pylon for 10 cycles.

For reference, Brian Ruckley has said that a cycle is a little less than an Earth day.

So yeah! Prowl being spittin' mad at being stuck under a pylon that is multiple tons for about 10 Earth days is actually pretty reasonable.

For contrast, when Rubble speaks up to say that he's seen the Voin they're on the look-out for and wants to help and Prowl's like "they all pretty much look the same unless you're experienced", Barricade scoffs "civilians" yet Prowl shuts that down and reminds him that Rubble is extremely young and yet has been exposed to the first murder on Cybertron.

Anger just so happens to be Prowl's stress response and there are a ton of things to be stressed about.

[candychameleon]

Preview of my piece for this year’s Spectrum Zine! (@ ZineSpectrum on twitter)

Grab a copy of the zine here!

[pluralsword]

A little thing we did for the end of Transformers IDW, posting now that we have access to our tumblr again. These comics were life changing for us and we know they have been for others including other trans folks, for us in particular we figured out gender stuff, solidified hope in compassion and determination, figured out what we really want to write about and connected to writing communities outside of transformers because of that, loved ourselves more, made numerous friends and met the first person we have a relationship with.

With all their ups and downs, these comics have done an unforgettable good and we hope that the best parts continue in new stories- something we are already seeing some of happen on television and in board games- and in the souls of many.

The dedication of the artists and writers and consultants and all contributors to try to tell a story about alien robot life with feelings and identity, existential crises, war, death and the ends of empires while alongside humans and other forms of life is truly something special. thank you <3

(don’t have all the comics/didn’t have room in the photo to get in more/was precarious/forgot to put the motorcycle comb sister triplets for the movie comics, but even for various things we haven’t read we are glad)

Image ID: Standing on a trans flag and Transformers Rarities on a windowsill are large number of transformer toys. Behind them are a two book tall line of comic books: Windblade Volume 1, Transformers Phase 2 Volume 12, Lost Light Volume 4, Unicron, Best of Arcee, Transformers Volume 5 Horrors Near and Far, Shattered Glass II #4, Transformer vs Terminator, Magic of Cybertron, Transformers vs GIJOE Volume 3. Bot toys both official and custom (with some unlicensed accessories and 3d parts) are: PRID Arcee, T30 & TR Windblade, T30 & Siege Chromia, T30 Cosmos, PotP Elita, Mistres of Flame, SG Flamewar, Origins Bumblebee, T30 Skids, Siege Starscream, Velocity, Anode, Lug, CW Bombshell, Aileron, Legacy Knock Out, IDW1 & WFC Greenlight & Lancer & Siege Dazzlestrike, IDW1 & IDW2 & S86 Arcee, Gauge, Armada Sureshock, Animated Blackarachnia, WFC Airazor & Tigatron, CW Jumpstream, Dust Up, Rust Dust, & Pyra Magna, Nautica, MP Road Rage, Siege Nova Storm, ER Smokescreen, & PotP Novastar. End ID.

[quetzalpapalotl]

Quality wise (ie plot, characterization, narration), could you rank the idw phase 1 comics? Is RID good?

I'm a bit confused by this as because RID by John Barber is not phase 1, so I'm not sure if that question is besides the phase 1 one, if there's a confusion about when RID was published or if there's a confusion between IDW1/IDW2 and phase1/phase 2. So sorry, but I'm going to explain what it what just to make sure we're on the same page.

IDW1 or IDW05 is the continuity that spans the main comics published by IDW from 2005 to 2018. It's also the one called just IDW because when it was publishing there wasn't another IDW continuity and people called it that. It's divided by the editorial in 3 phases, I will try to summarize:

Phase 1, started in 2005 with Furman's -ation series (Infiltration, Escalation, Devastation) and some spotlight issues, after Furman the main writer became Shane Mcarthy with All Hail Megatron, and then Mike Costa took over with the 2009 ongoing called just The Transformers. There were other comics and mini series that took place in this continuity during this time, including Last Stand of the Wreckers, which is considered the best of all the phase 1 stuff

Phase 2, begins in December 2011 with The Death of Optimus Prime one shot, this starts the post war stage with John Barber and James Roberts writing two concurrent sister ongoings called Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye respectively. This marked a shift in the comics and popular opinion is that this is when they started being actually good (and I'd agree, but more on that later), there were more mini series, one shots, mini series and spotlights published. In 2014 they changed Robots in Disguise's name to just The Transformers so it wouldn't be confused with the 2015 cartoon and that's why the fandom calls this whole ongoing "exRID". Later they brought Mairghread Scott to write the Windblade series.

Phase 3, in 2016 Hasbro went on to make a "Hasbroverse" with all the new licenses they got, so this phase is full of crossovers, this was not a popular move. They also decided to relaunch all their main titles, even though they continued the same story. The Transformers (exRID) became Optimus Prime, More than Meets the Eye became Lost Light, and Windblade became Till All Are One. Till All Are One was the first series to end, it was all wrapped up in an annual and a year later Optimus Prime and Lost Light also ended. The last chapters of Optimus Prime occur concurrently with the Unicron miniseries, that was also set up in that comic, with the whole continuity ending in 2018.

Being done with it, IDW launched a brand new continuity from scratch, led by Brian Ruckley under an ongoing called just Transformers. It wrapped up in 2022 because Hasbro lost the license, but it had a good run, I think. Fans call this IDW2 or IDW2019 for lack of a better name.

Now to answer your question.

Obviously the #1 best comic in phase 1 is Last Stand of the Wreckers and I say this very confidently because it just doesn't have anything approaching competition. That comic is very good and everythign else is... well, is bad. You asked for my opinion and they're bad.

Characters are flat, execution is boring, plots are mediocre, dumb and usually deeply reactionary and then there's the racism. There are things I enjoy about them, some moments, some ideas, the fact that I'm lore obsessed and I filter my reading of those comics through the lens of what came after so I project aditional depth that originally wasn't there. I won't say is all unsalvageable, there are concepts in them that are pretty good, some are key to my interpretation of the whole continuity. But if you as me if on their own they are comics of quality, no I can't say they are.

I can be fun to see the ways they fail, but I don't think about them enough to confidently rank them from the top of my head, I would need to re-read them all and I... don't want to do that.

I'd say Stormbringer is the best one on the basis is the one I have less issues with and even if it can be a bit dull and the narration tries to hard, it's just 4 issues. Really, the -ations are probably the best of it, but don't quote me on that.

The worst is probably... Mike Costa whose worse crime (besides the racism and all of that) it's that is all so uninspired while also being the longest running. It's just a constant stream of empty dolls going through the motions of doing a comic that's not fun and doesn't make sense. Again it has its moments, but I feel like most of the interesting stuff from it got picked by Barber who actually made something out of it, and on that topic...

exRID is so good. I love exRID. I like it more than Mtmte at times, I certainly like Optimus Prime more than Lost Light and I'm the kind of person that puts a lot of weight on a story's ending. I will use Mtmte as a point of comparison not to throw shade but because I consider both of them of the same overall quality and the "best" IDW1 has to offer (I mean also the Wreckers series, but that one os made of 3 entries thatw ere thought final and not an ongoing, so it's different).

Character-wise, exRID is not as strong as Mtmte, not because it has bad characters, but because it's more plot-focused. A lot of Mtmte's charms comes out of characters interacting and bouncing off each other even in the more plot-heavy parts, and it has kind of a sitcom-y feel. That is not something you will find in exRID, and I think that's why a lot of people who first read Mtmte are dissapointed when they pick up exRID. It has less space to breathe, not that it doesn't have interesting dynamic or funny moments, it's just that moment-to-moment Mtmte is more enjoyable, and Mtmte's dialogue is just so good.

While exRID has a much more utilitarian approach to characters, where everyone serves a specific purpose towards the overall narrative, they have enough characterization and personality to not be flat and give their actions meaning most of the time, althought everyone is kind of a jerk, exRID it's very sympathetic to its characters. Even when people are being unreasonable, they usually have a point or a reason to feel the way they do. For the most part, the narrative really isn't concerned in having someone be "right" and everyone is some manner of flawed, even the Autobots.

This results in a better narrative econony and thematic consistency, which is really where exRID excells at. Barber had something he wanted to tell and focused on achieving that, while Mtmte kind of starts falling apart at the seams due to everything JRo threw at it and some of it's main characters felt like their arcs were dropped. I feel much more satisfaction towards exRID/OP as a complete story, it does feel like, for the most part, ever small part of it contributes to the whole. While Mtmte deals with the war and it's consequences, the setting creates a distance from it, so it's more about how the characters process it on a personal level (and on this sense, it fails when it tries to work through it on a bigger scale it's not designed to handle), in exRID the consequences are very physical, the peace threatens to break at any moment and the plot is carried out by how characters react to these circumstances, for which we get very different perspectives. Really most characters just want to be safe and happy, but given their story, getting along is not so easy.

Now, problem is that to get the most out of most of exRID, you really do need to read the bad comics of phase 1 (and some of phase 2) and Barber is a continuity freak. Which honestly works great for me, but no so much for other. It is genuinely interesting to see how Barber tackles some of the concepts introduced earlier, especially when Optimus Prime re-enters the scene, as he's a fascinating character work that tries to consolidate all the other writer's portrayals. Similarly, the Optimus Prime ongoing took the brunt of all the Hasbroverse crossovers, which range from good, to mediocre, to bad. You can probably follow the plot even if you don't read any of that, but it does make much more sense if you read all the side stuff.

I'll stop now. But yeah, that's my opinion, I hope you found it useful.