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Post by dinogrrl on Jan 16, 2010 4:54:38 GMT
Well, here's the preview pages for #2 in the Bumblebee mini: bigsmallcomix.blogspot.com/2010/01/transformers-bumblebee-2-preview.htmlAs I noted over at the AllSpark - I am not a fan of the reversion to ZOMGITALKREALLYREALLYFASTALLTHETIMEBECAUSEMYNAMEISBLURRGEDDITGEDDITGEDDIT - because it functions as a gimmick in place of actual characterization and also because it's really fucking annoying to read. Also, what the hell is up with Ratchet's chin? Did he fall and break it and slap a strap over it to hold it to his face?
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Post by Kingoji on Jan 16, 2010 8:36:30 GMT
Seems to me that the apprehension of Blurr is there to drive the story onwards, and not, as I've read some complaints about, simply about being an action set-piece designed to make you go 'WOW!' rather than 'what's next?' Seriously, there are people out there actually saying things like "To follow up the awesomeness that was All Hail Megatron with this drivel..."
I never liked the chin-straps when Dreamwave seemed to give them to everybody, but the one Ratchet sports here makes the old ones seem subtle.
Finally, I LIKE Blurr talking fast. I like removing the spaces from his dialogue to make him sound fast. But I can understand Dinogrrl's gripe about it seeming too much like a gimmick. For the better part of twenty-five years, Blurr has been one of my least favourite characters simply because the gimmick is all he was. But then Animated came along and showed us that the gimmick can work if the character is written well. I haven't seen what happened to Blurr's team yet, but it's clear here that he's supposed to be the one who can see exactly where this is all going and is scared into panic over it. So here, I don't have a problem with the gimmick.
And it's amazing how having a throw-away line like "You don't realize how much concentration it takes to talk this slow" eliminates a massive amount of picking apart online over "Why wasn't this explained? Are they going to tell us why it's different down the line, or is it blatant retconning?" (EDIT; Scratch that last bit. There are already about three pages complaining about exactly that over at IDW.)
So for the most part I would say that Cannon and Chee's book is the one I've been happiest with since the end of Furman's run. Maybe that is just because it reminds me so much of old-school Marvel UK.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2010 11:55:33 GMT
Is it me or does Blurr appear to have a penis?
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Post by dinogrrl on Jan 18, 2010 1:40:34 GMT
Fair 'nuff, Kingoji, and plenty of people like speedy talking Blurr, and I'm not dissing people on that like. I just find it eye-straining and tl:dr in written form.
The review of this preview hits the nail on the head for me - there's perhaps now too much artistic and writer freedom going on at IDW, such that these series, which are all supposed to correlate tightly to one another within the one continuity, read and especially look like completely separate continuities.
In this Bumblebee mini, Blurr has his Cybertronian alt mode but in the Ongoing he has an Earth car mode. While he hasn't had lines in the Ongoing as yet (that I remember), if Costa writes him with normal speech, it just further degrades the notion that these stories are all about the same characters in the same time/space continuum.
It certainly doesn't have to look all the same, far from it, but there still needs to be a bit more consistency between them on a gross visual level, like robot/alt modes. Having completely different alt modes for a character from one series to the other when said stories take place on top of one another time-wise is just silly.
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Post by Kingoji on Jan 18, 2010 6:28:57 GMT
Hmm. They do like to hawk on about how each of the writers maintains a high level of communication with each so as not to step on anyone's toes. Apparently the artists are not so fortunate. Considering how close together Ongoing 3 and Bumblebee 2 were released, it's safe to say that the two books were being drawn at the same time, and Chee simply hadn't seen Blurr's new look yet.
I can't help but feel that some people put a little too much stock in the visuals. If the written continuity is tight enough, and the character's looks are recognisable as who we know that character is (as opposed to simply, how someone else is drawing them at the moment), then it should be clear enough for everyone to follow with no problem. At least Chee's art looks good whereas Don's, despite being unquestionably technically impressive, has just gotten ugly.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2010 11:42:09 GMT
I can see what you mean about the art not being too important if the writing is good enough but I'm one of those people who likes the art to also be in line with continuity. I had a gripe not so long ago about Bumblebee's design. In the early IDW issues he transformed so that the bonnet of his VW was his chest plate but in more recent issues he transforms the old-fashioned G1 way with his bonnet being his feet.
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primenova
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Post by primenova on Jan 18, 2010 13:04:52 GMT
Just read the preview of #2. The Bluur bit talking about noticing Bumblebee Autobot logo does really make much sense.
says whats happen to your logo - in the art Blurr is covering up the logo with his hand. But on the last page & next you can see the logo clearly. Should have been - what's that above your logo.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 18, 2010 17:07:16 GMT
I can't help but feel that some people put a little too much stock in the visuals. If the written continuity is tight enough, and the character's looks are recognisable as who we know that character is (as opposed to simply, how someone else is drawing them at the moment), then it should be clear enough for everyone to follow with no problem. Inconsistent approaches to both artwork and script were par for the course in the Marvel comic, especially when flipping between UK and US sources. It didn't confuse readers though, because there was only one TF comic continuity in existence, so you knew that even if a character had changed his relative size and strength to other characters, his appearance, his speech and his personality from one issue to the next, it was still the same person, because alternative continuities were a still-unopened can of worms. Instead of moaning about the inconsistencies (there was no Internet back then), those of us who picked up on these things got added pleasure coming up with explanations for them. But they annoy me more now that I've been exposed to other fictional sagas that for the most part get it right. Nowadays I have less patience for jarring inconsistencies from one bit of a story to the next, and (for this and other reasons) I rate the Marvel US run more highly in isolation than the Marvel UK/US combined run which kept flipping writers and artists. (My other TF continuities of choice - the Masterforce cartoon series and the live-action movies - have good internal consistency of style.) But people for whom consistency/continuity within a saga is important really shouldn't expect it from a comic that lacks a single long-term controlling writer/editor or a bible of character models for artists. Either it aspires to uniformity or it doesn't. The Marvel UK comic didn't, and I take it from what you guys are saying that IDW doesn't either. Martin
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