Funny, people were comparing MECH more to Cobra at the time.
True, but Cobra-plus-obsession-with-transforming-tech kinda leads inevitably to Venom.
I know Cobra loved their sci-fi superweapons, but they always struck me as the more "analogue" terrorists, just with fancy-yet-ultimately-conventional gear.
*coughenergonuniversecough*
Marvel has been doing it with the Avengers for ages now. Why wasn't the Hulk or Thor or Iron Man called in? Oh, they're in space. In the end, it's still a big planet and humans are still gonna "human" leaving plenty for the Joe team to do.
If nothing else, the fact that these aliens are able to convert at will means most "action" can appear anywhere and disappear just as quickly leaving even the Joes unable to respond in time.
I think it's workable enough on a per-story basis (response and travel time alone would be a big card to play), but it's not the sort of thing that can keep happening that way and just be ignored. Before long it's "some highly trained special mission force, lol".
But like I said and to your point, the robots in disguise element can be leveraged if the coexistence is mostly done while the Cybertronians are in infiltration mode. That keeps the Transformers unknown/undiscovered and hiding, and turns it into a mystery the Joes need to track down over time rather than repeated "Dangit, just missed 'em".
But like I said and to your point, the robots in disguise element can be leveraged if the coexistence is mostly done while the Cybertronians are in infiltration mode. That keeps the Transformers unknown/undiscovered and hiding, and turns it into a mystery the Joes need to track down over time rather than repeated "Dangit, just missed 'em".
It's a problem of scale.
If the Transformers fight is just a handful of bots beating the crap out of each other in a city, that's bad but not world ending. Likewise whatever random shootout between Cobra and GI Joe probably isn't going to hit the radar of the Transformers
However, if Megatron is summoning Cybertron into Earth's orbit, causing global devastation, then you'd start to wonder why GI Joe isn't trying to get involved. Likewise when Cobra gets their hands on a weather control machine or doomsday device, you'd think the Autobots would take notice, if for no other reason than they'd have to suspect the Decepticons were behind it at first.
If the Transformers fight is just a handful of bots beating the crap out of each other in a city, that's bad but not world ending. Likewise whatever random shootout between Cobra and GI Joe probably isn't going to hit the radar of the Transformers
However, if Megatron is summoning Cybertron into Earth's orbit, causing global devastation, then you'd start to wonder why GI Joe isn't trying to get involved. Likewise when Cobra gets their hands on a weather control machine or doomsday device, you'd think the Autobots would take notice, if for no other reason than they'd have to suspect the Decepticons were behind it at first.
That's kinda how EU is handling it so far. Duke actually seen, and survived an attack by Starscream. He knows that there is a jet that can shift to a humanoid form, but nothing more then that. He's determined to track it down and who manufacuted it becuase he just thinks its human made and why wouldn't he? But largely no one believes him, but its better to keep an eye on him with his own team then let him do things on his own, as the Duke miniseries shows.
I just wish that some of these groups stuck around after the series that spawned them. MECH is cool. Why not use it in other stories?
Like... would Earthspark have been any lesser if, instead of GHOST, they used Sector 7? blah blah Bayverse... I'm just talking about reusing the name. If only to establish some consistent mythos across the brand instead of all of these same-but-different groups that every re-invention creates only to see them go unused as soon as the next thing comes up.
It's probably because nearly all of those agencies aren't terribly interesting in and of themselves. Sometimes you get an interesting character, like Silas, but overall, they're treated as interchangable because they basically are.
Right. Like... there needs to be someone going "oh you want to include a US government agency that works with or keeps tabs on the Transformers? We have this, you should use it."
Again, not the biggest fan of the Bayverse but it seems like the franchise could solidify some of its mythology if they went "ok Sector 7 is going to be our secret government agency, MECH is for human baddies," etc...
It's not that I want everything to be the same but like.... Batman is always being reinvented and re-interpreted but it's not like every new version of Batman comes up with a new GCPD commissioner that just has the same basic character and function as Gordon.
The franchise can both grow in new directions and solidify its mythos at the same time.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. The EDC, Sector 7, Skywatch, GHOST, UNIT-E, and MECH aren't terribly interesting on their own, which is why there's always a new org that basically does the same thing in the next revamp.
At the same time though, none of them will be interesting enough to build on if someone doesn't take the time to make one of them memorable enough to become a reoccurring element in the franchise.
If we’re going by the Batman comparison, all these organizations are more like the dozens of generic, vaguely Mafia dudes Batman’s always beating up in between fighting The Joker or Bane or evil multiverse Batmen. They're not memorable enough or significant enough to warrant the writer to dredge up the back issues so they just make up a near-identical version. At the end of the day, all they need are some unambiguous bad guys to shoot at the protagonist for a few panels then get handily defeated in time for the proper supervillain to enact their latest doomsday plan.
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So... you got induction duty, yeah?
Yup.
So... pile of puke that transforms...
Yup... I've already put in an application for area 51. I am NOT paid enough for this crap. The giant ones were one thing, but having your hamburger scream when you try to bite it. Three friggen xeno incursions so far, and it was MY LUNCH that gave me PTSD.
