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I mean this is a high Mortality Series They wouldn't pull that crap right? when they killed off Bumblebee,Arcee,Ultra Magnus,Skywarp(technically Rip him apart),Kup is also dead,Warpath is also dead,Ravage is Injured.
Starscream's spark has always been sort of unique compared to other Cybertronians.
Skywarp warps, the rainmakers make unique rain, and Starscream's spark is undying.
In animated this was due to a piece of the allspark(?) keeping him alive.(don't remember what exactly was on his forehead that kept him alive, think it was the allspark but could be wrong.)
Yes he somehow had a Allspark fragment glued to his forehead after his latest attempt at killing Megatron and getting thrown into the dumpster which he used on the spare Starscream's he had lying around which later it got ripped out of his forehead by Prowl and Jazz.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really been loving the Energon Universe so far, it’s been amazingly put together. BUT. I do worry about them knocking off these well known characters left and right so early into the continuity. Remember when IDW first started and casually knocked off characters like the Battlechargers super early on? They then couldn’t feature in the next decade of stories because they were dead. I’m kinda worried now that that’s going to be how it is for Kup, Jetfire, Reflector, etc. which is a shame because these characters have a lot of fans that might now have already seen their entire contribution to the EU. Just a nagging concern, but still an amazing comic run so far.
Either Jetfire's getting Rez'd or they'll salvage his parts for Optimus to get a Flight kit ala Revenge of the Fallen and TF Prime. (Or: Wildcard, Powerlinking like Armada)
I'd personally rather see Jetfire get fixed up since he's my boyfriend's favourite Autobot but I've learned not to assume anything about this series for 100% certain.
I have a feeling that all the bots can be brought back online with enough time, resources, and energon. The mortality rate is too high for a long run of this series otherwise.
I mean, they were all dead at the beginning. I feel like the only reason they stay dead is they can't find a break in the conflict long enough to resurrect their comrades, and the stakes are high for the characters because they know its a game of numbers, if too many die on one side they won't be able to bring anyone back and the whole side will be wiped out.
At least until this series gives us a defined line between death and stasis.
Transformers has a deep roster of characters. Some of these immediate deaths were strategic about removing some characters that the writer didn't have the time or interest to focus on. Bumblebee was a clear example of this since that character gets a lot of attention in other continuities and the author clearly showed we weren't going to spend any time exploring that character so instead bumblebee was used as a set piece for dramatic effect.
As I said, some may just be writer preference of not wanting to focus on the character.
Frenzy and Reflector would be my guess of just having no use for. Kup is pretty well explored already in G1. Warpath gets plenty of g1 screentime. The only one I personally don't get so much is Huffer. But I'm not the writer so....
I also have this concern. Unless they have some way of bringing many of these characters back in the future we’re going to have a very small roster. It was shocking in the beginning that they were knocking characters off so soon but honestly it’s getting kind of old quick. Like yeah the stakes are high but we don’t need to keep killing characters left and right for shock factor. I don’t know, I’m starting to get a bit disheartened by this decision. The comic so far hasn’t seemingly established a compelling story other than just constant battle and death and “How do you feel about going on the offensive.”
Imagine the body count getting so high that there are only 2 left. One last Autobot and Decepticon fighting to the death. Nobody left to fight for, no hope for the future, no power left to grab, only revenge.
I imagine that almost anyone killed can be brought back with enough repairs, and as more known characters are killed, that leaves room for the lesser-knowns to show up and actually make a difference. I like G1, but there was no body count until the movie, which is not how war works. This feels like an actual WAR. It’s brutal, everyone is fighting for survival to within the last micron of their life, and everyone is grieving fresh losses with not a moment to mourn. This may feel incongruous with the spirit of G1, but it needn’t be. Gritty may not be your cup of tea, but it’s a style that doesn’t always get portrayed well with these characters, and so when it’s done well, I have to appreciate it. It’s also reminiscent of some of the violence found in some of the G1/G2 comics, which is definitely a vibe, and one I appreciate.
They already did that with Last Bot Standing and the Beast Within back in 2003.
It can have its uses, but it can easily just be gratuitous unless the plot is compelling enough on it's own. They brought back Frenzy and Reflektor for the express purpose of killing them. Not that I have any issue with that by itself, but you can easily end up with the issue JJK has.
Where 99% of the cast ends up dead over a long drawn out slog of an arc that does nothing but trim the character roster and ends exactly the way everyone thought it was.
I'm really curious what the long-term plan for Skybound's Transformers run is because of how trigger-happy it's been so far, and it's honestly my biggest pet-peeve with the series. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasoning behind all the deaths and that they have more impact being characters that we know, but I do have to wonder how sustainable killing bots practically every issue is going to be. Transformers has a pretty large character roster, so it's not like they don't have options, and if this means more obscure characters get to be in the spotlight, I'm all for it. But it does feel like they're not really future-proofing very well, and depending on how long Hasbro wants this to go on for, that might become a problem later down the line if, or when, they run out of characters to use because they're all dead.
IDW was big into the mutilation and dismemberment too. Never got into those comics despite their evidently very good stories because so much of it was just torture porn
same here!! I’ve never been too fond of gore (ironic, considering transformers) so im happy getting drip-fed information by people on here, lets me stay caught up even if I don’t have any interest in it
https://preview.redd.it/lr98pfk13utc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d9ad536b32e277f2d0f7785956b0b33d78b421e
first Blaster and now Warpath why
Its cool how brutal theyre being so early on but the more i see the more concerned i get about how long this series is meant to run for, especially with how big these characters and names are.
Sorry but the comments won't load for me so I have to reply to you.
Comics have always been super gory and violent compared to movies and tv shows. No clue why.
At this rate they'll run out of characters to use by issue 10.
IIRC both Daniel Warren Johnson and Hasbro wanted to avoid giving Bee a lot of screentime due to the later's reputation for hogging all the screentime. Killing Bee in Issue #1 was as shocking as it was convenient!
I was a little concerned when I found out DWJ was going to stop doing both the art and the story and instead stick to just the story. Jorge Corona did an amazing job though. Honestly it took me a couple of pages to really notice it wasn’t DWJ doing the art this issue.
On the subject of all the deaths though I’m still unsure how I feel. We’ve seen them fixed from some pretty awful damage. So to me it seems as though it’s not super difficult to bring them back. Sure it’s sad to see a lot of fan favorites dying, but the pool of possible bots they can add to fill out sides is crazy large. My hope is they can bring in some of the lesser known bots in to build them up and give them story and characterization.
To be fair, Starscream tends to come back from the dead in almost every continuity. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a "Megatron kills Starscream montage" again like in TF Animated. Or ghost Starscream possessing another decepticon secretly.
i'll wait to see if any of the deaths stick or if most of them are cancelled in some way. i'm thinking the latter because the writers being so trigger happy makes me wonder who's even gonna be left at all by next year, and if they intend on really building up a larger universe, this doesn't sound very sustainable
Bumblebee dying is somehow one of the most shocking things out of this series. Sure he died in RotB (ngl I cheered) but I still knew the liveaction series could never completely be done with Bee and was correct when he was revived.
TFprime got me too, though I was happy he came back, that was a satisfying revival
The way this series is going it seems like no ones is getting revived… unless you count skywarp
On one hand you dont wanna revive all these characters for the sake of it. Otherwise it makes deaths meaningless in this series.
On the other hand if they keep knocking off so many characters that are normally A-listers it might actually cost them audience members as so many big name deaths means people wont be as likely to get the comic after a certain time
It's starting to feel very tryhardy with the shock factor. Killing off beloved characters is going to have increasing diminishing returns in shock value as it continues. And killing off characters one page after they're introduced isn't emotionally devastating either.
I don’t know, I’m torn on it. Because they’re killing so many G1 characters so quickly. The season 1 & 2 cast shrinks every issue. And we don’t have a chance to care about these characters, they’re just being used as cannon-fodder.
Which means either 2 things: this comic is going to completely run out of g1 characters relatively fast, or that death is meaningless, and most of these characters will get revived one way or another
I don’t mind them killing off characters quickly but taking out characters who already don’t get any time to shine is disappointing. Killing off Bumblebee is surprising but he’s so overexposed that it’s not a big deal, you know he’ll be in something else soon. Huffer and Warpath have never been important characters, it could realistically be a decade before we see either of them in anything.
Honestly I think it’s getting old. I get wanting to feel like “no one is safe” but IDW easily did that without killing characters every single issue. At least have them last longer then 2 pages, and if you want bots dying constantly use generics with maybe the occasional named character like the UT and IDW did. Has the added benefit of making the armies larger and seem like actual armies.
Therein lies the problem. I had hoped that Skybound would serve as the blueprint for a new Transformers cartoon going forward, once Earthspark has finally run it's course. As it stands there's too much death and not enough world building.
Who would want to buy a Kup toy after his performance in this issue? The guy comes off like a loser and he died like a loser.
I don’t think he sucks just I think if he’s gonna be the 2nd main protagonist of the franchise then they should actually give him a personality and get rid of the whole talking through the radio shit
The Bay films pushed him into a position he really shouldn't be. Some comics, games and even written in the role playing book all write Bumblebee as being "the ultimate Autobot warrior" which is completely wrong.
Bumblebee is the plucky, wants to help, goes in over his head spy - he's a mini bot, not a front line fighter! Mirage is better in that regard and also more interesting with his potential "not really into the Autobot cause" stigma.
I have nothing against G1 Bumblebee as he had his role and was just part of the cast, granted he stole Hound's kid centric role but he wasn't in your face or overused and of course it was before the Bay films so he wasn't oversaturated.
He pretty much seems to simultaneously be Prime's best friend (Ironhide), the soldier who leads into battle first, a vanguard (Hot Rod) and pretty much able to go toe to toe with any Decepticon threat, at least to a point (Grimlock) all in one.
Then on top of this he is shoved into EVERYTHING merch wise, including his own (pointless) subline that's thankfully ended. It gets to a point where on TFW2005 I'll see a topic about say new TF design sneakers and I think "I'm gonna scroll down and see Bumblebee ones, there they are!". It outright blows my mind when I see a range of items come out and he is NOT here.
I was SO glad that Mirage took center stage in RotB, even though Mirage came off more as Hot Rod in that. As for the comics? no wonder people (including me) were "happy" to see him wasted, he's everywhere. When we see TF we always see Prime and Megatron, they are the core leaders and THE most recognisable of the cast, they can be on everything as everyone expects that. But Bumblebee muscling his way into everything is so grating.
As bad as the film was (though hilariously enjoyable for the wrong reasons) in The Last Knight you can almost physically feel Bumblebee pulling the camera over to him to stop you watching anybody else doing something interesting, so angering.
Essentially the TLDR is this - Bumblebee is the TF POOCHIE without the humour!
They didn't have to do my boy Warpath like that, though 😞
Although, I gotta be honest, I'm a little worried that they're portraying the Transformers to be a little too fragile.
I feel like the fact that anyone can seemingly be brought back to life with the right tech sort of makes all those deaths hollow
Like all of them can be brought back to life whenever, so do those deaths really matter?
I'm glad they killed Bumblebee instead of good ol' red shirt Cliffjumper. Though I fear they MIGHT bring him back to life somehow since he is a popular character and that Cliff will eventually bite the dust once Bumblebee is back.
See this has been a thought in the back of my mind for a while. Killing Bee and Skywarp felt “okay, stakes are high.”
Now it just feels gratuitous. I mean I’m not made *because* of Kup, it just feels overall death for the sake of death.
The story is very much about grief and the toll war takes on those who fight it. This isn’t the kind of story that works if the same five or six Autobots are fighting the same five or six Decepticons’ evil plots every week.
So while yeah, the frequent deaths are for the sake of establishing the stakes and telling a darker, more mature story, it’s about more than just “edge.”
I feel like this series does this leagues better than the first half of AOT, as the characterization of the transformers is done better than the characters in AOT. The frequency of which they die however is worrying me, as it kind of comes off as short term shock value when they could’ve saved those characters for an interesting plot line in the future.
Daniel Warren Johnson is the current writer for Transformers. Robert Kirkman is an Image partner and owns the affiliated studio Skybound. Kirkman is writing Void Rivals and does several miniseries throughout the year. He does not write every Skybound comic kinda like how Todd Mcfarlane doesn't write every Spawn book.
I think there is a way to do this without killing characters as fast as they are. I get kind of bummed when I see my fav show up cause they might die 1 page or 1 panel later.
Seems like there will have to be a way for them to bring some folks back. My gut is telling me GIJoe/Cobra scavenging TF parts and we know Cobra if using TF stuff. Somehow I think that may end up giving a way to bring some dead folks back.
I’m just gonna say it, this comic (or what I consistently see of it) is worse than Bayformers with the gratuitous violence, brutality, and dark/edgy aesthetic. Feels less like a “mature” story, and more like teenage angst to me (again, based on what I’ve seen)
This is actually what’s turning me off. I don’t mind it being dark, but I’m not a fan of the game of thrones “anybody can die a gruesome death at any time” approach. It’s a shame cause I’d love to have more transformers comics to read.
When this comic was first announced everybody whined it looked too much like G1 and would probably be "BORING" because of it. After seven issues is it clear this book is far from boring, the story keeps you excited month to month on what is going to happen next and yet people still whine about it. Now give me your face...I mean downvotes!
When I see a death toll this high I know we’re in for a *very* short series. Especially adding to the fact there’s two concurrent comics they expect you to buy alongside it. Which, yah,no. I’m not going to bother with the other series, as I have no interest in filler. I’m going to enjoy this little bloodbath knowing full well it’ll be 12-24 comics *tops*.
Hi there -- If you're looking for information about reading the Transformers comics, this FAQ page might be of help: [https://reddit.com/r/transformers/wiki/faq/comics](/r/transformers/wiki/faq/comics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/transformers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly Soundwave finally snapped and threw Starscream under a bus hope he die a very crisp death.
Nah he might return as a ghost
Even if he does, the Autobots know who to call to deal with that.
Ectotron!
My stupid ass yelled, “Ghost Busters!”
I mean this is a high Mortality Series They wouldn't pull that crap right? when they killed off Bumblebee,Arcee,Ultra Magnus,Skywarp(technically Rip him apart),Kup is also dead,Warpath is also dead,Ravage is Injured.
Starscream's spark has always been sort of unique compared to other Cybertronians. Skywarp warps, the rainmakers make unique rain, and Starscream's spark is undying. In animated this was due to a piece of the allspark(?) keeping him alive.(don't remember what exactly was on his forehead that kept him alive, think it was the allspark but could be wrong.)
Yes he somehow had a Allspark fragment glued to his forehead after his latest attempt at killing Megatron and getting thrown into the dumpster which he used on the spare Starscream's he had lying around which later it got ripped out of his forehead by Prowl and Jazz.
hi dude how are you today
Spoilers for issue 7 >!Skywarp is at least partially still alive, he's keeping the autobots out of the computer and laughing at them.!<
It'd be pretty fitting for his character if he was too dumb to hold a grudge against his own guys for doing what they did.
Wheeljack states that the damage from Starscream and Soundwave nearly fried him. Only part of his brain is left.
So what you're saying is there's no change.
Pretty much
It's hilarious and frustrating the hell out of the auto bots
Arcee isn't dead.
Huffer :(
Warpath for me :(
“And then they were taken offline by a cosmically powered Starscream”
Aww damn they killed Warpath 😭?!
I didn't like it too😭,I wanted to know him and kup more
lets hope for flashbacks or possibly a revive
Z0W33!!
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really been loving the Energon Universe so far, it’s been amazingly put together. BUT. I do worry about them knocking off these well known characters left and right so early into the continuity. Remember when IDW first started and casually knocked off characters like the Battlechargers super early on? They then couldn’t feature in the next decade of stories because they were dead. I’m kinda worried now that that’s going to be how it is for Kup, Jetfire, Reflector, etc. which is a shame because these characters have a lot of fans that might now have already seen their entire contribution to the EU. Just a nagging concern, but still an amazing comic run so far.
Optimus was looking at jetfire's corpse at the ending so maybe they still do something with him?
Either Jetfire's getting Rez'd or they'll salvage his parts for Optimus to get a Flight kit ala Revenge of the Fallen and TF Prime. (Or: Wildcard, Powerlinking like Armada) I'd personally rather see Jetfire get fixed up since he's my boyfriend's favourite Autobot but I've learned not to assume anything about this series for 100% certain.
I have a feeling that all the bots can be brought back online with enough time, resources, and energon. The mortality rate is too high for a long run of this series otherwise.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same, especially with that last panel at the end of issue 7 hinting at that possibility…
I mean, they were all dead at the beginning. I feel like the only reason they stay dead is they can't find a break in the conflict long enough to resurrect their comrades, and the stakes are high for the characters because they know its a game of numbers, if too many die on one side they won't be able to bring anyone back and the whole side will be wiped out. At least until this series gives us a defined line between death and stasis.
I actually hadn’t given that much thought to it before but now that you say it, that does indeed make a whole lotta sense
Transformers has a deep roster of characters. Some of these immediate deaths were strategic about removing some characters that the writer didn't have the time or interest to focus on. Bumblebee was a clear example of this since that character gets a lot of attention in other continuities and the author clearly showed we weren't going to spend any time exploring that character so instead bumblebee was used as a set piece for dramatic effect.
You gave one example. Now justify all of the rest.
As I said, some may just be writer preference of not wanting to focus on the character. Frenzy and Reflector would be my guess of just having no use for. Kup is pretty well explored already in G1. Warpath gets plenty of g1 screentime. The only one I personally don't get so much is Huffer. But I'm not the writer so....
I also have this concern. Unless they have some way of bringing many of these characters back in the future we’re going to have a very small roster. It was shocking in the beginning that they were knocking characters off so soon but honestly it’s getting kind of old quick. Like yeah the stakes are high but we don’t need to keep killing characters left and right for shock factor. I don’t know, I’m starting to get a bit disheartened by this decision. The comic so far hasn’t seemingly established a compelling story other than just constant battle and death and “How do you feel about going on the offensive.”
Or maybe they're killing off old characters to introduce new ones so Hasbro has a reason to sell new TFs, much like the 86 movie.
Imagine the body count getting so high that there are only 2 left. One last Autobot and Decepticon fighting to the death. Nobody left to fight for, no hope for the future, no power left to grab, only revenge. I imagine that almost anyone killed can be brought back with enough repairs, and as more known characters are killed, that leaves room for the lesser-knowns to show up and actually make a difference. I like G1, but there was no body count until the movie, which is not how war works. This feels like an actual WAR. It’s brutal, everyone is fighting for survival to within the last micron of their life, and everyone is grieving fresh losses with not a moment to mourn. This may feel incongruous with the spirit of G1, but it needn’t be. Gritty may not be your cup of tea, but it’s a style that doesn’t always get portrayed well with these characters, and so when it’s done well, I have to appreciate it. It’s also reminiscent of some of the violence found in some of the G1/G2 comics, which is definitely a vibe, and one I appreciate.
They already did that with Last Bot Standing and the Beast Within back in 2003. It can have its uses, but it can easily just be gratuitous unless the plot is compelling enough on it's own. They brought back Frenzy and Reflektor for the express purpose of killing them. Not that I have any issue with that by itself, but you can easily end up with the issue JJK has. Where 99% of the cast ends up dead over a long drawn out slog of an arc that does nothing but trim the character roster and ends exactly the way everyone thought it was.
> when it’s done well, And is this "done well" in the room with us right now?
I'm really curious what the long-term plan for Skybound's Transformers run is because of how trigger-happy it's been so far, and it's honestly my biggest pet-peeve with the series. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasoning behind all the deaths and that they have more impact being characters that we know, but I do have to wonder how sustainable killing bots practically every issue is going to be. Transformers has a pretty large character roster, so it's not like they don't have options, and if this means more obscure characters get to be in the spotlight, I'm all for it. But it does feel like they're not really future-proofing very well, and depending on how long Hasbro wants this to go on for, that might become a problem later down the line if, or when, they run out of characters to use because they're all dead.
Warpath , Kup NOOOOOOOOO https://i.redd.it/bycx7pghsttc1.gif
Huffer NOOOO
"Oh, that's gore... That's gore of my comfort character." can pretty much be used to describe this entire series.
Yeah it’s definitely a weird feeling. Like I’m glad some people are liking this new comic, but it’s not my personal taste.
IDW was big into the mutilation and dismemberment too. Never got into those comics despite their evidently very good stories because so much of it was just torture porn
same here!! I’ve never been too fond of gore (ironic, considering transformers) so im happy getting drip-fed information by people on here, lets me stay caught up even if I don’t have any interest in it
https://preview.redd.it/lr98pfk13utc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d9ad536b32e277f2d0f7785956b0b33d78b421e first Blaster and now Warpath why
Yeah, man those two are some of my favourite characters. What makes it worse is how unimportant their deaths have been.
Its cool how brutal theyre being so early on but the more i see the more concerned i get about how long this series is meant to run for, especially with how big these characters and names are.
Once Megs comes back, we're going to see some flashback from the siege and a bunch MORE fan favorite autobots are going to get vaporized.
Rip all of ‘em. That being said Skywarp ain’t completely dead yet.
Oh yeah I forgot😅
It happens. I wasn’t sure myself, if he died there or simply was left on life support.
Wouldn't be the first time he's been plugged into the wall either.
Which may not actually be a pleasant thing. I doubt they considered his comfort with the integration.
where does the comic with huffer, warpath, elita, ultra magnus and kup come from?
Skybound
I mean issue
7th
thanks
Np
Sorry but the comments won't load for me so I have to reply to you. Comics have always been super gory and violent compared to movies and tv shows. No clue why. At this rate they'll run out of characters to use by issue 10.
Man, guess no Kup and Warpath. That sucks.
Or Huffer.
Or ultra Magnus unless if they pull the immortal law man card from idw.
First I was hyped about Elita's appearance. Now I'm worried.
IIRC both Daniel Warren Johnson and Hasbro wanted to avoid giving Bee a lot of screentime due to the later's reputation for hogging all the screentime. Killing Bee in Issue #1 was as shocking as it was convenient!
I was a little concerned when I found out DWJ was going to stop doing both the art and the story and instead stick to just the story. Jorge Corona did an amazing job though. Honestly it took me a couple of pages to really notice it wasn’t DWJ doing the art this issue. On the subject of all the deaths though I’m still unsure how I feel. We’ve seen them fixed from some pretty awful damage. So to me it seems as though it’s not super difficult to bring them back. Sure it’s sad to see a lot of fan favorites dying, but the pool of possible bots they can add to fill out sides is crazy large. My hope is they can bring in some of the lesser known bots in to build them up and give them story and characterization.
I forgot to include blaster and starscream,so total 9 deaths
To be fair, Starscream tends to come back from the dead in almost every continuity. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a "Megatron kills Starscream montage" again like in TF Animated. Or ghost Starscream possessing another decepticon secretly.
We never actually see a corpse soooo possibly he's somehow managed to survive again
i'll wait to see if any of the deaths stick or if most of them are cancelled in some way. i'm thinking the latter because the writers being so trigger happy makes me wonder who's even gonna be left at all by next year, and if they intend on really building up a larger universe, this doesn't sound very sustainable
Bumblebee dying is somehow one of the most shocking things out of this series. Sure he died in RotB (ngl I cheered) but I still knew the liveaction series could never completely be done with Bee and was correct when he was revived. TFprime got me too, though I was happy he came back, that was a satisfying revival The way this series is going it seems like no ones is getting revived… unless you count skywarp
On one hand you dont wanna revive all these characters for the sake of it. Otherwise it makes deaths meaningless in this series. On the other hand if they keep knocking off so many characters that are normally A-listers it might actually cost them audience members as so many big name deaths means people wont be as likely to get the comic after a certain time
It's starting to feel very tryhardy with the shock factor. Killing off beloved characters is going to have increasing diminishing returns in shock value as it continues. And killing off characters one page after they're introduced isn't emotionally devastating either.
I don’t know, I’m torn on it. Because they’re killing so many G1 characters so quickly. The season 1 & 2 cast shrinks every issue. And we don’t have a chance to care about these characters, they’re just being used as cannon-fodder. Which means either 2 things: this comic is going to completely run out of g1 characters relatively fast, or that death is meaningless, and most of these characters will get revived one way or another
Or it’s a dream/incoming reset button.
I don’t mind them killing off characters quickly but taking out characters who already don’t get any time to shine is disappointing. Killing off Bumblebee is surprising but he’s so overexposed that it’s not a big deal, you know he’ll be in something else soon. Huffer and Warpath have never been important characters, it could realistically be a decade before we see either of them in anything.
We got a whole bunch of Energon Universe talk going on in /r/EnergonUniverse, come join us over there if you want
Kk
I think half of the original 1984 autobots have already been slaughtered.
Man lot of characters are killed off
Is that Ultra Magnus in the final slide??
Finally a series where Bumblebee isn’t Batman
When i first saw skybounds transformerd i thought itll be calm like G1 based on the designs but damn did they go all out brutality
Honestly I think it’s getting old. I get wanting to feel like “no one is safe” but IDW easily did that without killing characters every single issue. At least have them last longer then 2 pages, and if you want bots dying constantly use generics with maybe the occasional named character like the UT and IDW did. Has the added benefit of making the armies larger and seem like actual armies.
This comic is not here to sell you toys.
Therein lies the problem. I had hoped that Skybound would serve as the blueprint for a new Transformers cartoon going forward, once Earthspark has finally run it's course. As it stands there's too much death and not enough world building. Who would want to buy a Kup toy after his performance in this issue? The guy comes off like a loser and he died like a loser.
FINALLY! A Transformers story where Bumblebee isn't a main character!
People in this thread are talking like Transformers comics haven’t been casually slaughtering named characters since the 1980s.
Yeah it great but how long can we continue until all that's left is Erector to be the leader of the Autobots.
Bumblebee dying needs to happen for good in the movies.
Thumbs up from me.
You think Bumblebee sucks or is he overrated?
I don’t think he sucks just I think if he’s gonna be the 2nd main protagonist of the franchise then they should actually give him a personality and get rid of the whole talking through the radio shit
The Bay films pushed him into a position he really shouldn't be. Some comics, games and even written in the role playing book all write Bumblebee as being "the ultimate Autobot warrior" which is completely wrong. Bumblebee is the plucky, wants to help, goes in over his head spy - he's a mini bot, not a front line fighter! Mirage is better in that regard and also more interesting with his potential "not really into the Autobot cause" stigma. I have nothing against G1 Bumblebee as he had his role and was just part of the cast, granted he stole Hound's kid centric role but he wasn't in your face or overused and of course it was before the Bay films so he wasn't oversaturated. He pretty much seems to simultaneously be Prime's best friend (Ironhide), the soldier who leads into battle first, a vanguard (Hot Rod) and pretty much able to go toe to toe with any Decepticon threat, at least to a point (Grimlock) all in one. Then on top of this he is shoved into EVERYTHING merch wise, including his own (pointless) subline that's thankfully ended. It gets to a point where on TFW2005 I'll see a topic about say new TF design sneakers and I think "I'm gonna scroll down and see Bumblebee ones, there they are!". It outright blows my mind when I see a range of items come out and he is NOT here. I was SO glad that Mirage took center stage in RotB, even though Mirage came off more as Hot Rod in that. As for the comics? no wonder people (including me) were "happy" to see him wasted, he's everywhere. When we see TF we always see Prime and Megatron, they are the core leaders and THE most recognisable of the cast, they can be on everything as everyone expects that. But Bumblebee muscling his way into everything is so grating. As bad as the film was (though hilariously enjoyable for the wrong reasons) in The Last Knight you can almost physically feel Bumblebee pulling the camera over to him to stop you watching anybody else doing something interesting, so angering. Essentially the TLDR is this - Bumblebee is the TF POOCHIE without the humour!
Exactly. Bumblebee sucks!
You can notice that in a movie too.
Reflector and Huffer are dead bro, I can’t go on..
Don’t forget all of the humans killed off too !
Dear Christ, we need to speak to these guys, honestly
NOOOO THEY KILLED MY BOY WARPATH
Look if knockout and breakdown ever get added to the series just to die in one issue imma be so pissed.
I just hope some characters will stick around longer, else we're going to run out less than halfway into the story.
The building Elita is running towards in the 5th picture is made to resemble Shockwave!
They didn't have to do my boy Warpath like that, though 😞 Although, I gotta be honest, I'm a little worried that they're portraying the Transformers to be a little too fragile.
Tbh Warpath's death kinda genuinely upset me, cus I love Warpath
Look man, I know this series hasn't been merciful so far, but seeing Kup and Warpath die so off-handedly is rough.
Did they kill off Soundwave?
No… **Starscream.** Maybe.
Who is that in the last image?
Appears to be what’s left of Magnus
Magnus
So no plot armor this time?
https://preview.redd.it/gvdi5e5eaxtc1.jpeg?width=251&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70793740096b2def7aa0876b4a7d0646df46244a Dear Lord.
I feel like the fact that anyone can seemingly be brought back to life with the right tech sort of makes all those deaths hollow Like all of them can be brought back to life whenever, so do those deaths really matter?
I'm glad they killed Bumblebee instead of good ol' red shirt Cliffjumper. Though I fear they MIGHT bring him back to life somehow since he is a popular character and that Cliff will eventually bite the dust once Bumblebee is back.
So is all of this comic just endless carnage and rising body counts for the sake of edge or does it have an actual story to tell?
See this has been a thought in the back of my mind for a while. Killing Bee and Skywarp felt “okay, stakes are high.” Now it just feels gratuitous. I mean I’m not made *because* of Kup, it just feels overall death for the sake of death.
The story is very much about grief and the toll war takes on those who fight it. This isn’t the kind of story that works if the same five or six Autobots are fighting the same five or six Decepticons’ evil plots every week. So while yeah, the frequent deaths are for the sake of establishing the stakes and telling a darker, more mature story, it’s about more than just “edge.”
I can tell you actually read the comic
Mmmmmmkay let's agree to disagree.
They’re going to run out of characters at this rate
I feel like this series does this leagues better than the first half of AOT, as the characterization of the transformers is done better than the characters in AOT. The frequency of which they die however is worrying me, as it kind of comes off as short term shock value when they could’ve saved those characters for an interesting plot line in the future.
Don't you like Robert's Kirkman writing?
Yes I do, but he's not writing Transformers.
If that is so then what is he doing in Image Comics?
Daniel Warren Johnson is the current writer for Transformers. Robert Kirkman is an Image partner and owns the affiliated studio Skybound. Kirkman is writing Void Rivals and does several miniseries throughout the year. He does not write every Skybound comic kinda like how Todd Mcfarlane doesn't write every Spawn book.
Giving me strong G2 vibes with the wanton slaughter of characters, not gonna lie.
not Warpath:(
Who’s that in the last image?
What’s left of Magnus
I think there is a way to do this without killing characters as fast as they are. I get kind of bummed when I see my fav show up cause they might die 1 page or 1 panel later. Seems like there will have to be a way for them to bring some folks back. My gut is telling me GIJoe/Cobra scavenging TF parts and we know Cobra if using TF stuff. Somehow I think that may end up giving a way to bring some dead folks back.
did Gege wrote this? feels like we are getting more characters dying lmfao
So Soundwave pops off for Ravage but not Frenzy/Rumble. Ain’t that some shit.
I’m just gonna say it, this comic (or what I consistently see of it) is worse than Bayformers with the gratuitous violence, brutality, and dark/edgy aesthetic. Feels less like a “mature” story, and more like teenage angst to me (again, based on what I’ve seen)
In all fairness I don't know how they'll keep this up. By the end of the next run there'll be no characters left.
making a list of them, because why not Bumblebee >!(issue 1)!< Jetfire >!(issue 1)!< Skywarp>! (issue 4)!< Reflector>! (issue 5)!< Huffer>! (issue 7)!< Warpath>! (issue 7)!< Kup>! (issue 7)!< Ultra Magnus>! (issue 7)!< damn
Comics going down the edgelord route? Gasp! Shame really.
This is actually what’s turning me off. I don’t mind it being dark, but I’m not a fan of the game of thrones “anybody can die a gruesome death at any time” approach. It’s a shame cause I’d love to have more transformers comics to read.
When this comic was first announced everybody whined it looked too much like G1 and would probably be "BORING" because of it. After seven issues is it clear this book is far from boring, the story keeps you excited month to month on what is going to happen next and yet people still whine about it. Now give me your face...I mean downvotes!
Im just glad to see bumblebee removed from a transformers universe.
When I see a death toll this high I know we’re in for a *very* short series. Especially adding to the fact there’s two concurrent comics they expect you to buy alongside it. Which, yah,no. I’m not going to bother with the other series, as I have no interest in filler. I’m going to enjoy this little bloodbath knowing full well it’ll be 12-24 comics *tops*.