IDW to Lose the Transformers License?

[The Phazer]

It's perfectly possible to build up many different advancing stories while still having each issue have an ending and telling smaller stories - MTMTE did this very successfully, especially at the start. Sometimes Ruckley's issues genuinely feel like the last page has been cut off and they end mid-sentence.

 

[Salt-Man Z]

It's perfectly possible to build up many different advancing stories while still having each issue have an ending and telling smaller stories - MTMTE did this very successfully, especially at the start. Sometimes Ruckley's issues genuinely feel like the last page has been cut off and they end mid-sentence.

This is absolutely true! I will staunchly defend the merits of Ruckley's run as a single ongoing story, but consumed at the level of individual issues they are indeed quite lacking.

 

[Superomegaprime]

If another company does get the license for Transformers and other Hasbro properties, I doult they'll go and carry on another company's work, they would likely want to put their own stamp on the brand, at least to start with but then maybe some time down the road revisit that timeline!

 

[The Phazer]

Realistically, if you're pitching for the license now then you've got two plausible routes to get the license.

1) That you can toys better by reflecting the toy line better than IDW did. Not sure I see this as being likely, IDW already leant into this as much as I think it's reasonably possible to do, especially post reboot, given how disorganised Hasbro seems a lot of the time.

2) That you can pay more money, because you can sell more books. Now, I think Skybound/Image can probably sell comics a bit better than IDW given they're simply bigger, and they can definitely sell trades better, but that probably isn't a huge difference. So I suspect in the back of their heads Skybound feel that they can also sell more books because there's room in the market for a more popular Transformers title, either by using higher profile talent (not impossible) or by picking a story that will resonate with a greater proportion of those people who bought all those insanely numbered Dreamwave issues years ago. And I suspect that the main way you'd do that would be to do a book set between Season 2 of the cartoon and TFTM tbh.

I'm not necessarily saying that method 2 will succeed, but it's the business logic that must be behind any offer. I mean, IDW already tried soft rebooting and it didn't work (not very surprisingly to my mind but there is an industry perception that it gives a short term boost) and hard rebooting and that didn't work either.

 

[Questionable Meats]

Given how Beast Wars is suddenly ramping up from snoozefest to "oh hey things are bouncing now", kinda gives weight to the possibility of them losing the license.

TBH though, they've had it for a while, I feel like this license shift should have happened before they rebooted. But then I'm not sure what angle Hasbro is actually going for with this. Comics are not doing great overall. It's kinda like watching VHS phase out for DVDs all over again. Comics are just doing it much much slower.

 

[lastmaximal]

I mean, the Michael Bay thing is clearly referring to how, rather than maintain a proper continuity, he just shrugged and started over every time. Helps things not get convoluted if they're not actually connected. /s

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Who the hell is Skybound Entertainment, and what makes them any good for this beyond sounding like the name of a Transformer themselves?

If they do get it, I'm going to be saddened by all the lost crossover potential.

 

[The Phazer]

Who the hell is Skybound Entertainment, and what makes them any good for this beyond sounding like the name of a Transformer themselves?

If they do get it, I'm going to be saddened by all the lost crossover potential.

Skybound are an imprint of Image Comics founded by Robert Kirkman, and they are notably responsible for The Walking Dead and Invincible.

They're still Image as far as the customer is concerned. Skybound are probably a good fit for getting high profile talent onboard, but ultimately there's never really been a significant licensed property by Skybound, so it would be uncharted territory.

 

[Xaaron]

Any sort of G1 Transformers reboot is going to run into the same problem. Like with Batman or Spider-Man movie reboots, there's a matter of diminishing returns. There's only so many times you can watch Uncle Ben die, or craft a new and interesting narrative with the same basic characters and properties.

If Skybound were to get the comic license, their best hope would be for Hasbro to launch a completely new franchise / continuity family of toys at the same time, (Armada, Animated, Prime) and make comics based on that. Right now, though, Hasbro seems most interested in retreading old ground with properties like WFC (G1 but dark!) or Cyberverse (G1 but for kids!).

 

[Taz Rex]

My favorite IDW Transformers product has been the hardcover IDW Collection series. They look great on my bookshelf! Phase 3, Volume 1 just dropped recently and Volume 2 is scheduled for late March 2022. I will be really disappointed if they cease publication of those books mid-phase, especially since this is the final phase for the IDW1 run. IDW did halt the classic G.I. Joe hardcover reprints when it was only about halfway through, but that could have been a sales issue since they have had the G.I. Joe license for several years since then.

 

[Sabrblade]

Right now, though, Hasbro seems most interested in retreading old ground with properties like WFC (G1 but dark!) or Cyberverse (G1 but for kids!).

And even both of those are over now.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

I'm still bummed IDW isn't going to finish the UK Transformers run. Or put out a G2 collection.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

Image just unionized, so that might have an effect in the discussions Skybound is having with Hasbro, though I doubt it changes anything in the long run.

 

[Superomegaprime]

Image just unionized, so that might have an effect in the discussions Skybound is having with Hasbro, though I doubt it changes anything in the long run.

Last I checked Image hasn't offically recongised that Union as its a bunch of office workers, not writers or artists whos goals aside from defining what people's jobs are, is to gate keep and anyone deemed probomatic to be shamed and prevented from earning money through their company, despite the fact they aren't the ones who are calling the shots!

 

[MrBlud]

If you’re working for a company (as office *workers* most assuredly are) you deserve a Union.

As for the rest of what you typed…yikes.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

Unions dont need the permission of their employers to form. There'd be no unions otherwise.

Also the reason it doesn't include artists and writers is because Image only employs those positions as "freelance", and US law prohibits them from participating in collective bargaining.

As for whether or not Unions, or this union, is a good thing; that might be better saved for the politics forum.

 

[Paladin]

And it's official.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1484334311343996931

 

[Stepwise]

Twitter and my laptop aren't friends, so I can't see that tweet, but this was at Hollywood Reporter and this was at comicbook.com.

 

[Confuzor]

At least they have a year to wrap up any storylines.

I wonder what this means for hardcover collectors. Are they just not going to be able to release the last bit of story in hardcover like they had been doing?

 

[Undead Scottsman]

I'll always wonder where the reboot story would have gone if they had had a decade to play with instead of 3.5 years, but at least this is known early enough that we might get some kind of conclusion.

Not sure what the next guys are going to be able to offer to get me interested, but I'll definitely give it a try.