Marathoned all 3 of these TPB's this week and why did it run out of that special sauce magic so quickly?

Don't get me wrong it's still good but something's missing. What's /co/'s opinion on this almost 2 years in?

It suffers from the same thing tons of modern movies suffer from and that's the complete absence of time passing. I can't tell if this story has been going on for a week or months at this point. Spike's recuperation is the ONLY way to tell that time has passed. Where the hell is the U.S military after their aircraft carrier got sunk?

Volume 3 also introduced some wacky shit like those guys who rescued Starscream and the what the hell is going on lizard men who had Megatron held captive, is this some G.I.Joe and Cobra deep take that i just don't recognize? Other than that 6 or 7/10 at best.

>>149253234 (OP)
I've been doing something similar but with all the TPBs in recommended reading order. When you do it like that it seems to flow a lot better. Especially if you treat each graphic novel as its own "episode". The magic isn't lost on me just yet but I do worry (And this is the same issue I fear for the nu-ultimate run) that after the 2-year story is up it's going to severely drop in quality.

>>149253423

Are you reading the enormous IDW continuity? They released a gorillion books but i think the highest issue count a single book got was #57.

It's always tough launching a new continuity especially on a franchise that has a couple hundred characters and fans get outraged if you don't have at least characters # 1-50 in the first trade but i think they did a good job here.

All that being said where the fuck is PROWL,IRONHIDE,MIRAGE & HOUND?!?

I've liked it but i fear what Kirkman will do when he takes over with # 25.

>>149253388
The Lizerd guys are from Cobra-la, which is weird GI Joe stuff

>>149253388
The lizard men is cobra-la which was explained in the cobra commander mini. At the end they went into space/void rivals to get back at the cybertronians for coming to earth

What was up with Prime's visions of a weird baby and then sperging out? Was that Megatron's arm or Spark Plug yeeting himself into the Matrix's doing?

>>149253234 (OP)
>why did it run out of that special sauce magic so quickly?
Honestly, it ran out around issue 5 or 6 for me. The book started with a strong emphasis on straightforward conflict with lots of action, but there was also alot of emotional depth for both the Cybertronians and the humans. It actually felt like a war of resources where anything could happen.

But then they reached a status quo and everything kind of stagnated, and all that stupid, pointless drama between Cliffjumper and Carly started to happen—I'm really not sure what the point was in giving Cliffjumper the spotlight just to completely change his characterization. The book went from feeling fresh and dynamic to "just going through the motions" as soon as both factions were properly established.

Another HUGE part of it for me was DWJ stepping down as artist. The replacement guy's style was close enough, but his page composition and panelling fucking SUCK. I honestly haven't read any since issue 12 or 13, so I dunno if things got better, but goddamn. DWJ's layouts were excellent, and he knew how to deliberately use panels to set tone and establish pace—the book instantly got more boring as soon as he was gone. I also miss his great onamanopoiea. Every time I saw the new guy copypaste the exact same "BOOM" sound over his art, a little part of me died inside.

>>149253234 (OP)
>Don't get me wrong it's still good but something's missing
DWJ took a backseat as main artist as soon as after issue 6 and while Jorge Corona isn't half bad by any means, the general consensus is that his art is just not as dynamic as Daniel's

>>149254409
It would've been cool if it was Sparkplug's hatred for the 'cons living on through Prime's visions of his life but they went with the lamer approach and confirmed it was all thanks to Megatron's arm

Why hasn't the U.S Govt tactical nuked the Ark yet? Or do they get into that post Battle of Seattle? I haven't read #19-21 yet.

>>149254470
As of issue 21 the Ark has been stolen from the autobots by Thundercracker

>>149253456
No but I am simultaneously reading through the Transformers compendium. I'm just hoping that somebody drops a PDF when the Till all are One version comes out as I could not justify dropping $300 on that.

BASED!

CRINGE!

>>149254430
>the general consensus is that his art is just not as dynamic as Daniel's
It's much less the art and moreso the page layouts themselves. DJW sold a told of little moments just with how he paneled them.

Honestly, I get the feeling that while DJW was probably relieved to not be pulling double-duty on the book anymore, he probably died inside a little bit every time he saw one of his scenes getting completely sterilized by the new guy's boring-ass layouts.

>>149254832

So just do a full script and tell the artist what to do like Alan Moore did.

It just feels like DWJ has ideas for moments and things and is just stringing them along instead of having a cohesive plan. There's some great scenes in the series but months go by and things blur together. It just feels very stretched out