#so it makes sense things could develop on her side after Verity is gone

[kizunarae]

thinking about how Fitz seems so blind to Kettricken's affection towards him in later books. I think he tried so hard in Royal Assassin to block Verity's feelings from overflowing in himself that he just could never consider it afterwards. and it was quickly filed away under Things Too Uncomfortable To Contemplate

[mark-xeen]

Top 3 Favorite and Least Favorite IDW Transformers Comics

It’s here the final Goodbye IDW list. Unlike previous lists, I’ve decided to combined two topics- my top 3 Favorite IDW Transformers comics and my top 3 Least Favorite IDW Transformers comics. For this list, I decided to go back read through the IDW Transformers comics from the Furman –ation to the Barber/Roberts/Scotts phase two in order to make it from a fresher take and not let nostalgia mess with my decision making.

Warning: It’s long.

3rd Least Favorite- Transformers vs Visionaries

         Transformers vs Visionaries is about the evil Darkling Lords and Merklynn trying to transform Cybertron into new Prysmos with the Spectral Knights and the Cybertronians standing in their way. This crossover is an example of how to not make a crossover story with two unlikely sources. For starters, the writer made the Visionaries’ magic so strong that the Cybertronian characters could do little to stop them and had to rely on the Spectral Knights for help. Resulting in the story feeling more like The Visionaries guest staring the Transformers in the comic with the Transformers characters being grossly under focus and more like set pieces. Visionaries cast however are completely unlikable, with the exception of 2 or 3 characters on the Spectral Knight’s side, every Prysomisian supported the genocide of the Cybertronian race- even several Spectral Knights- and briefly defected to Merklynn’s side because of it. The problem with this is supporting genocide is like supporting the cannibalization of babies: No matter how you try to justify it, it’s just wrong. This resulted in me losing any sympathy I may have had left for them and just wanted them gone or wiped out.  The pacing is all over the place making it hard to keep up with it. Seriously, I thought I was missing some issues throughout the series! Finally, everyone but Merklynn gets away with their attempted genocide and terraforming of Cybertron and were instead given a small, already terraformed, section of land. Essentially, these unrepentant mass murders who attacked, mutilated, and murdered the Transformers characters were rewarded for all their atrocities.      

3rd Favorite- ROM vs Transformers: Shining Armor

         ROM vs Transformers:  Shining Armor is a great crossover, possibly the best Transformers crossover I’ve ever read. The story is about the Solstar order finding a Cybertronian protoform, later named Star Drive, raising her to become a SolStar Knight, and during a mission she comes into contact with the Autobots and Decepticons- causing her two worlds to collide. The crossover does a great job telling a story that’s not only about ROM and the Autobot characters, but also expanded on the lore and history of both sides, showing and revealing things such as why the Dire Wraith are against technology and possessing mechanical based beings, what happened between the Solstar knights and the Autobots to make them dislike each other, and how other species view Cybertronians with no personal experience. The series also deconstructs the classic trope of raising an alien child with the character Star Drive’s upbringing being so awful that the poor girl ended up developing lots of issues because the Solstar Order was trying to teach her how not to be “evil”, unlike the rest of her race. My only problem with the series was how the writer and the narrative kept claiming the Autobots are terrible and awful like the Knights but, besides a few insults and comments from Ultra Magnus and Blast Off, they were shown to be good people and to be honest, better people than the Solstar knights as a group.  

2nd Least Favorite- The Transformers (Costa Ongoing)

         The Costa run of Transformers was one of the most irritating, frustrating, and at times boring runs to read through. The comic follows the Autobots after AHM and shows how they’re doing after defeating Megatron- spoiler, not good. This series made me feel things I normally have reserved for the Bay movie sequels, Energon, and the Prime War Trilogy. The characterizations of the Cybertronians are so off it feels like they’re completely different characters. The Human characters are poorly written caricatures that are so unsympathetic I’m constantly asking myself why, in the name of all that is decent, are the Autobots even trying protect these a-holes? The pacing is either rushing or dragging in almost every arc. Then, the plots themselves make little to no sense the majority of time and I end up having to take breaks in between the arcs because they’re so bad. This was in fact the series that kept me away from the IDWverse for so long because of how terrible it is. Why, then, is it number 2? Because rereading it, while majority of it is awful, there are a few surprising good issues in the mix that I honestly enjoyed; Space Opera and Chaos Theory being the main examples. But, despite the few good ones, overall the Costa Ongoing was a terrible series overall.

2nd Favorite- Transformers: The Wrecker’s Saga

         The Wrecker’s saga is an amazingly deep, dark, and action packed Transformers series. The series revolves around the Wreckers: a group of Autobots sent on missions too dangerous or too awful for most Autobots to handle. Each miniseries of the Wreckers explores the darker aspects of the Autobots actions throughout the war and the consequences of some of those choices from the damning evidence of the Aequitas trials and the cover up on Pova, to Prowl’s past dealings with Tarantualas and how his actions cause problems for the Autobots in present day. While being a twisted and dark series with a fatality rate that would make Bay himself cringe, the deaths all serve a purpose and don’t feel cheap at all. I even found myself crying at few deaths of characters I didn’t know before reading the series. But what I love the most about the series is all the character development the main cast goes through. Springer, Impactor, Verity, and even Prowl go through an amazing amount of development where each come face to face with enemies on the outside, personal demons on the inside, and come to terms with their pasts or the fallout their actions have caused.

1st Least Favorite Transformers Heart of Darkness

         Heart of Darkness is the worst comic I’ve ever read. Similar to the Costa Ongoing, the four issue miniseries suffers from a lot of inconsistent characterization, terrible pacing, and the plot being borderline nonsense with little logic, thought, or even effort being put into it. The reason why this ranks higher than the Costa Ongoing despite the latter being longer comes down to two factors: One, the Costa Ongoing at least had a few good issues to show possible potential, this series was just bad from beginning to end. Second, the art was god awful. Seriously- I am very lenient on art in comics, I don’t mind Lawrence’s art in lost light, I’m okay with Livio’s art despite having a hard time telling characters apart at times, but this art is so horribly drawn that in almost every page and panel the characters are drawn so out of proportion that it makes me cringe. This has never ever happened before, me cringing because of a comic’s art and not it’s content. Because of those reasons, I ranked Heart of Darkness as my least of favorite comic of the Transformers IDWverse.    

1st Favorite- Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye

         I’m not going to lie, I LOVE More Than Meets the Eye. A dramedy that takes place after the war, where the Autobots go out into space looking for the ancient Knights of Cybertron and Cyberutopia, which turns into an insane adventure story. It has great characters, amazing pacing, and a deep and complex story with tons of surprises and twists that, if you look back, are hinted and spread out in such a way that it doesn’t come out of left field. Besides all these reasons, the number one reason why this is my favorite is because it’s the comic that not only introduced me to the good of IDW, but it’s also the comic that got me back into loving comics again. Prior to reading MTMTE, I was so burned out on reading comics due to all the BS Marvel and DC were putting in their series to the point that it became more of a chore just to go through one arc. Then, I found MTMTE, and it was unique, complex, interesting, deep, meaningful, but, more than anything else, it was FUN. This comic reignited my love for the genre and the industry. That is why MTMTE is my all-time favorite comic.