Revisitation 136: Tomorrow's World.

30/7/2023

It's the end of an era this week, as, finally and after many struggles, we've reached the end of the Mike Costa era!

Learn the importance of never standing still (especially when it comes to moving on quickly) as I look at Pax Cybertronia!

5 Comments

Post Mordor

30/7/2023 08:04:22 pm

And thus, it all ends...oh wait who am I kidding, it never ends!

When I first started getting into comics (I'd say around 2016 if I recall correctly), one of the earliest series I read was Mike Costa's Venom run. This was my first introduction to Costa's writing, and years later I was exposed to him again when I branched out into IDW with Transformers.

In hindsight, both of his runs are similar in showing his flaws as a writer. They both start out with a DISASTEROUS first issue, containing unlikeable military pricks as our human protagonists (Lee Price & Spike Witwicky) with a swift disregard to the setup of the previous run (2 year time skip ignoring the reconstruction period from the AHM invasion and Flash Thompson's return to Earth). This is then followed by Costa trying to course-correct after fan backlash, with the ensuing issues being a largely mediocre slog to read through. All of this then concludes with a final story arc set in space, where it's clear that Costa is just too tired at this point and chases after nostalgic story beats rather than writing something meaningful.

Oh, and there's also the apparent toxicity he has with future creative teams taking over after him. In the case of his final issue of Venom, I remember he told his twitter followers who didn't like his final issue to fuck off and slide into the DMs of the main artist for the next Venom run, followed by calling those folks philistines. Yeesh.

I started reading IDW Transformers in late 2021. Looking back at this era, it really surprises me that this universe ever went anywhere. Furman's run was already losing its spark near the end, and the All Hail Megatron era was widely seen as a disaster. For all of that to then culminate into 2 full years of this mediocre run? I can't imagine what it was like being a fan of Transformers comics at the time, although I know it wasn't all bad. We still had gems like Last Stand of the Wreckers and Chaos Theory, but they were so few and far between that it couldn't fully redeem the lackluster direction Phase 1 was taking as a whole.

But now we've finally reached the last issue of Phase 1! And thus, the turning point for both IDW Transformers and Revisitation is finally within reach! I remember quite liking this last issue the first time I read it, and I still do after re-reading it. Casey Coller's art is always a treat, and it helps that this issue largely focuses on Ironhide and Alpha Trion. In that regard, it's also a conclusion to Costa's Ironhide mini, which I really loved and think is easily his best work on IDW Transformers.

The story itself isn't much, but the pages showing iconic moments from previous runs do well-enough to evoke nostalgic vibes for me personally. I have to agree, however, that for a story meant to be the last ever issue of Transformers comics, it's...not much and doesn't feel earned. Still, I thought it was a nice closure to this run and Phase 1 as a whole. Costa has his occasional peaks and many valleys, so I guess I'm a little more forgiving here.

What really appeals to me about this final issue is the focus on the power of storytelling. It's clearly a story about stories. The young optimistic 'bots go out in Remembrance Day to seek out old-timers Alpha Trion and Ironhide to talk about the dark past, which concludes with the iconic Furmanism that these stories never truly ended, with the promise of a newer and brighter future ahead. It's kind of poignant in a way, because while this marks the end of Phase 1, a new and better era for IDW Transformers awaits. Maybe I'm overestimating Costa a bit there, but either way it's a great send-off imo. One of my favorite issues from IDW TF. And yes, I didn't like what Barber did with this story later on either.

I appreciate the will it took to reach this point Stuart, it was a long but noble effort on your part to do this every week. I can't wait for what's about to come next! Phase 2 here we go!!!

Snowkatt

31/7/2023 07:30:18 pm

Polarizing
From what i Recall and its 13 years ago, the reactions were polarizing lots of people hates AHM but a lot liked it too because it moved closer to the G1 cartoon or was just a totally different direction

From what I recall the Costa run was met with caution and confusion.
I bowed out with issue 6 after being extremely dissapointed with issue 5,
I didn't return until the death of Optimus Prime Oneshot.
And I got issues with the MTME run as well.

Wreckers towered head and shoulders over this 31 issue miserable run, but Wreckers was just 5 issues, and couldn't stem the flow of garbage.
How IDW allowed Costa to have nearly 3 full years of this garbage i'll never know.
Nor why Hasbro let them.

Snowkatt

31/7/2023 07:32:22 pm

This issue is the epitome of Costa’s “writing”
All sound and fury signifying nothing
Pretentious empty gestures going nowhere written by a “writer” that thinks he is better, smarter and more profound than he is

Utter garbage, fluffy nothingness
Even the art is bland and lightweight.
But I always thought of Collers art as bland at the best of times.
The cartoon in comic form

But at least this miserable stretch of threadbare, confusing comics is finally over.
Something better awaits us.

Jules

1/8/2023 06:55:45 pm

The Ironhide/Trion relationship is easily the best thing Acosta did, and at the time it made this issue really enjoyable. Mostly by comparison since this is still an extremely light issue in which Costa as thins the page count worse than usual with full page flashback panels. It’s weird thinking back to how lauded Collar’s work was when he first debuted during the AHM era. I don’t think anyone could say it isn’t technically good. It’s clean and easy on the eyes especially after Ramondelli’s dark messy art - sort of like going back to TNG after watching the dimly lit bridges of nu-Trek (not counting SNW of course). In fact, it’s a good issue for him considering how bland his generics were (though this was a problem for most of IDW’s artists) and how non-dynamic his style was at the time. He definitely improved on both by the end of the 2005 continuity.

I’m surprised you’re go cold on what Barber did with this issue though. I think Barber failed to do much in terms of most of his character’s “arcs” but what he did with this at least merited giving any amount of focus to Ironhide. Though both he and Alpha Trion manage to be consistently much less fun than they were in Costa’s hands.

Llama God

4/8/2023 07:21:50 pm

Sorry for being late with my comments on this one. It’s almost like I don’t want Costa’s run to be over or anything.

This is clearly not even remotely near the truth. I’m just terrible at time management.

So first of all let me say: Well done everyone! We did it! Especially you, Stuart. You could say that we’ve achieved something, but that phrase is somewhat overused by now. And besides what we’ve achieved is questionable. But it’s certainly been an interesting ride.

I am, oddly enough, not that down on this issue itself. It is indeed slight, but by that it manages to not be awful. It is, of course, not in any way deserved by Costa’s run, and he remains, as he has been throughout, not as clever as he thinks he is. But still, end as you went on, I guess. Or something. And don’t come back.

Reading this issue at the time certainly produced mixed emotions. Costa’s era had, certainly, been a struggle. It was only the promise of the odd gems like Last Stand of the Wreckers that kept me buying the comics. I certainly wasn’t sad to see the back of Costa, though.

I was, however, fearful of the idea of another reboot. After all, the two previous reboots had give us All Hail Megatron and then Costa’s run in painful succession. At this point I had little or no faith in editorial to turn this around at all. But I kept on, anyway. Just to see. And that… is a story that we’ll tell over the course of the next… six years, I guess? From the number of comics there are.

So yes, this has certainly been a journey. But this stage has finished, so let’s stare at the stars wordlessly for a bit and then let’s see what’s out there…

Revisitation 136: Tomorrow's World.

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