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Post by blueshift on Sept 22, 2011 21:05:43 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Sept 22, 2011 21:41:33 GMT
To be honest, it sounds utter shite.
But the way I see it Costa's run is over soon, Messrs Barber and Roberts take over.
Shame that the quite splendidly atmospheric art from Livio is slave to this story.
Andy
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Post by blueshift on Sept 23, 2011 8:26:02 GMT
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Sept 23, 2011 17:29:48 GMT
We don't know which bits of Chaos are Costa's and which bits are Roberts, but god you can tell the execution is Costa's. Shame that the quite splendidly atmospheric art from Livio is slave to this story. It is magnificent, isn't it? |
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Sept 23, 2011 17:34:04 GMT
PRESS RELEASES DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!!!! |
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Post by legios on Sept 23, 2011 19:05:15 GMT
PRESS RELEASES DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!!!! Apparently this one does...... Ah well. I was, courtesy of my library, reading the trade of "Revenge of the Decepticons". Oh my, that was slow in the extreme. There seems to be only the content for a couple of issue which means that it seems to take an age for anything to happen. This is not helped by the paucity of dialogue - it seems like it is paced on the basis of only one character being allowed to speak in a given panel, which means that dialogue that should be quick and snappy feels unduly drawn out. It completely lacks any real sense of tension to the story or any real progression. One thing happened, then another thing happened, but there didn't seem to be any real sense that these elements represented an escalation of the situation, and it didn't really sell the idea of the events driving each other. It was not good reading, but on the bright side it didn't cost me anything... Karl (Doctor Science is also a little boggled by the idea that Megatron is carrying around a railgun (basically a magnetic cannon that throws a big chunk of metal) that can destroy an entire city with a single shot - to do that it has to generate more energy than the kinetic harpoon that was dropped on him by an order of magnitude or two, by means of throwing a round several orders of magnitude smaller than said - and therefore lighter unless it is pure neutronium or something similar. Which poses its own problems. The idea that a railgun is inherently more powerful than a cannon that fires plasma so hot that it has commenced fusion just makes me laugh for the wrong reasons). |
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Post by KnightBeat on Oct 20, 2011 21:34:38 GMT
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Nov 9, 2011 12:33:24 GMT
Okay, the last few years make more sense now we know Spike was meant to be rubbish and dangerous.
But I have to wonder if the whole time on Earth since AHM was always meant to be vaguely crappy for the Autobots and lead to them giving up. That's an odd thing to spend up to three years doing.
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Post by jameso on Nov 17, 2011 1:03:07 GMT
Finally got to read James' first two issues the other day now that the trade is out and they are just light years ahead of anything I've read of Costa and there aren't even words to explain how far ahead of McCarthy he is. Absolutely different class.
So much is my goodwill generated by these issues, I'll even concede that the Costa Lost in Space issues also in the trade were actually not that bad.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Nov 17, 2011 1:09:00 GMT
Read the latest issue of the ongoing. Pretty art.
Woeful story.
Andy
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Post by KnightBeat on Nov 17, 2011 22:51:40 GMT
Well, that was utter rubbish.
Now that we're reaching the end of Chaos, I think it's safe to say that the main plotpoints of the Heart of Darkness mini-series could have been told in a single issue - Galvatron is influenced by the HoD and Arcee & Hardhead are resurrected. The resurrected Transformers were simply cannon fodder that were despatched in the first few issues.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 8, 2011 0:19:12 GMT
Issue 31. Glad to see that Mike Costa is done with the book.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 8, 2011 15:41:07 GMT
There, there. It's all over now!
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 8, 2011 15:54:27 GMT
A very pretty looking last issue that has no real story at all.
Andy
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2011 23:26:17 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 8, 2011 23:37:44 GMT
The thing is he was right about one thing. There os a large chunk of Transformers fans who do only read transformers comics. However, he was not a good enough writer. Whatever the fanbase issues there are, his ability to tell a good story using transformers was sub-par.
Andy
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Dec 9, 2011 0:56:35 GMT
He really shouldn't have been writing for Transformers if he felt that way - though now we know he did, it explains a lot about some of these stories.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 9, 2011 7:24:37 GMT
He really shouldn't have been writing for Transformers if he felt that way - though now we know he did, it explains a lot about some of these stories. I haven't read the article but taking it out of context I largely agree with that quote. Also, Transformers don't have a natural limit to their lifespan, and they don't appear to have personal property. They should _not_ have personalities like humans, or the same personality problems as humans. If they do, they become no more interesting than humans (to me). Bob Budiansky wrote them as alien and different from us and it worked. My least favourite Transformers _characters_ are the ones most based on human characteristics - those introduced in the animated movie and Beast Wars/Machines - even if they are the stars of some otherwise very good _stories_. The challenge for a TF writer is to create new facets of Transformer personality to fill the void left by lack of human characteristics. For example, the psychological issue of not knowing whether you are a real physical being or a computer game character (Prime) or whether you have two TFs fighting over the same mind (Megatron/Straxus) or a mind link (Megatron/Ratchet) or a condition where you must obey all verbal orders received (Megatron/Joey Slick) or are being remote-controlled (Swoop/Morris, Road-jammers), plus all the complexities of Headmasters, Powermasters, combiners, etc., etc. Plus trying to understand creatures like us. With all that, who needs issues of gender or age or money or whatever else seems important to humans, to make them interesting as characters? Mike Costa means nothing to me because I've never bought an issue of a comic in which he was the main writer. The on-line previews have never interested me. I think the average word count per page is the main reason - in which he appears to be the anti-Budiansky. (Plus the fact it's not a continuation of the definitive Marvel saga.  ) Martin |
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Post by blueshift on Dec 9, 2011 11:41:26 GMT
He really shouldn't have been writing for Transformers if he felt that way - though now we know he did, it explains a lot about some of these stories. Bloody hell, how'd he get the job with an attitude like that? EDIT: Just read that mini transcript. Holy crap, really?!? |
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Post by Benn on Dec 9, 2011 13:55:37 GMT
Fear the fallout. IDW's boards are particularly toxic/funny.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 9, 2011 15:59:05 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 9, 2011 16:52:41 GMT
Yup.
Costa hasn't covered himself in glory.
Andy
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Rich
Protoform
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Post by Rich on Dec 9, 2011 17:05:53 GMT
To a large extent, I agree with him. It's partly what's put me off writing any fanfic in the last few years. Vexing as the problem of TFs' otherness is (and off-putting as I and he has found it) it is clearly possible to write interesting stories despite the 'limitations' of the premise, as has been highlighted above. So, ultimately, there can be no conclusion other than, reasonably intelligent and thoughtful (that adjective was selected after reading the bleeding cool article, but having now read the tfw transcript I'll amend it to reasonably thoughtful when talking about writing, but also quite arrogant and silly) guy though he is, he simply wasn't the correct writer for this series. But I doubt he feels too bad about not writing Transformers again because it clearly wasn't something he was any good at.
I do only read Transformers comics these days - fell out of the comic buying habit because of the prohibitive cost and have fallen out of buying trades because I don't know what's good and what's not - but I would have happily bought his comics if they were better. I bought his first trade and was appalled by how dreadful it was and didn't buy it again. I picked up some of his issues on the strength of wanting to know the frame for James Robert's stories and of those a couple were good, so I bought some more, but they were rubbish, so I stopped again. According to my entirely subjective assessment, he is a poor writer and will not be missed.
I don't post on any other transformers boards, so the other 99 of you must be very busy!
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Post by Benn on Dec 9, 2011 17:16:41 GMT
We do try!
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 9, 2011 17:18:38 GMT
It's really difficult remembering all the great wicked cool usernames we all have!
Ratchetprimegod47
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 9, 2011 17:52:38 GMT
Ah, the smell of burning bridges.
-Ralph
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Post by legios on Dec 9, 2011 19:39:19 GMT
I would have to take issue with Costa on this - it seems unduly reductive to say that because there are no female robots, and they therefore cannot have conventional male-female romantic relationships then Transformers can have no relationships at all. Relationships are simply the ways in which characters interact - characters can have relationships that have nothing to do with romantic love or reproduction. Friendship, comradeship, rivalry, hatred, jealousy, mentorship.... all of these are relationships and to say that Transformers cannot have and value any of these relationships seems odd to me to say the least. And a somewhat more restrictive view of them than any writer, even Parkhouse, has ever taken.
Karl
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2011 21:36:14 GMT
Having now listened to the first hour (!) of the interview, I found it quite interesting with a mixture of both the insightful and the highly dubious but certainly not vicious as I had first thought when I'd read the transcript.
There are some things taken out of context, such as him saying GI Joe has more respectability than Transformers in the comic book community, which he qualifies by mentioning that the notion itself is quite unfair, and a lot of it is down to the reputation Larry Hama gave to Joe.
Other things are as the transcript says, such as his belief that there are only a tiny amount of TF fans posting across the various forums, but even then he doesn't really say it with venom or bitterness.
He was quite honest and his description of how he, as a writer, looked at Transformers from a writer's point of view was interesting, even if one doesn't agree with his conclusions.
Much ado about nothing, in the end...
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Dec 9, 2011 23:35:48 GMT
I just saw at Bleeding Cool "they don’t believe in an after life there’s no, like, religion or spirituality that they have". What?! They've had that since the 1980s. Even before Furman, we had sacred rituals like the Rite of Oneness in "Warrior School!" and oaths about a "Divine Weld". And a latter-day Transformers writer not knowing that Transformers have a god and religious beliefs is a bit worrying. That's a major lack of research. Mind you, we should have known that from "they don't have women": yeah, only one in IDW and Marvel, but elsewhere? I haven't read the article but taking it out of context I largely agree with that quote. In context, he's saying that's why he doesn't "get" the Transformers and how you could do much with them. Which, obviously, Budiansky (and Mantlo in #1) proved wrong. So depending on your view on TF's - I'd strongly disagree that Budiansky made them that alien, they always had emotions, and motives that were the same as a human's - he's either the only writer to be unable to write Transformers as people, or he's saying he can't possibly achieve what Budiansky did on a regular basis even when Bob was burnt out. Bloody hell, how'd he get the job with an attitude like that? He could have hidden it at the time. The real question is why did he keep doing the job! Chris Ryall seems to be thinking that too, based on the quoted tweet at Bleeding Cool... |
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Post by jameso on Dec 10, 2011 2:14:28 GMT
Another one saying 'actually, he does have a point' here - Transformers shouldn't be motivated by the same things humans are, and, like Richard, that's put me off writing fanfic. I had a great time fanfic writing in the past, but I look back at those stories now and think are they actually Star Wars or X-Men stories instead. Even James Roberts two issues that I've read, as brilliant as they are, sometimes seemed a bit too human type motivated.
As for Costa deluding himself that the people slagging him off are actually the same few people pretending to be lots of people, that's long been the desperate wailing of unpopular writers.
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