This post contains spoilers for Transformers: Punishment; Age of Extinction; Windblade; Dark Cybertron; More than Meets the Eye; Robots in Disguise; and Last Stand of the Wreckers. The Transformer movies, the best selling interpretation of the brand, are simultaneously the most ideologically opposed to the stories of the IDW comic book continuity and the most racist,…
This Is Not A Drill–Gamergate Supporter Threatens School Shooting
On the morning of Tuesday, October 14th, Utah State University received an anonymous threat from someone claiming to be a student, who promised to engage in terrorist action if feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian spoke at a scheduled event on Wednesday, October 15th. Sarkeesian, and many other vocal feminist creators, have been targeted by the Gamergate…
Put Another Dime In The Jukebox: Spider-Gwen Ongoing Announced
The news we’d been hoping for finally broke. Last Friday at New York Comic Con, Marvel announced that Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman, would be getting an ongoing starting in February 2015.
Truly, Truly Outrageous- IDW Publishing Announces A Jem and the Holograms Comic
In a move certainly related to the upcoming movie, IDW Publishing’s Dick Wood announced a Jem and the Holograms comic at the New York Comic Con. Although the creative team hasn’t been announced yet, the first issue is due for release in April. IDW’s done a fantastic job with their licensed comics in the past…
Marvel’s Driving Me Nuts With “Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” Ongoing
Sigh. I knew that name trademark was leading to something. Marvel’s announced an ongoing comic book series for joke superheroine Squirrel Girl. They’ve deigned to bestow the adjective of “Unbeatable” preceding her name. It will be written by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, Adventure Time, and The Midas Flesh, while it will be illustrated by…
Reviews Roulette: Crime, Magic, Surgery
As Romona states below, Reviews Roulette is a feature where editorial staff assign comics to staff writers — comics they’ve never looked at, comics out of the blue. It’s a grab bag of mystery, and here’s what our women think! Baltimore: The Witch of Harju #2 Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden (W) Peter Bergting (A) Ben…
CHEW On This: The Transmisogyny in Layman and Guillory’s Indie Darling
I’m writing this essay because I feel disgusted and betrayed. My name is Rachel Stevens, and I am a transwoman. I live my life in fear because of it, and I have a devil of a time finding fictional works to take in that aren’t actively hateful towards people like me. Unfortunately, I have to…
Science Fictional and Fantastic — The Universe of IDW’s Transformers
This article goes into serious detail in examining the history of the Transformers in the IDW comics to explain the current status quo, and as such, spoils many plot twists. You have been warned. The thing about the premise of the Transformers — robots that turn into other things — is that there is an…
Human After All: Representation of People in IDW’s Transformers
As demonstrated in my last piece, the Cybertronians in the IDW Transformers books aren’t too different from people from the good old planet Earth. They have politics, they have religion- just as the Transformers are effectively human beings in metal skin, their society is ours coated in chrome allegory.
On IDW’s Transformers: The Robot Politique
The IDW Transformers books are smarter than comics about transforming toy robots that shoot lasers at each other have any right to be. It helps that their creative teams aren’t content to just follow a comic writing schema along the lines of “introduce new faction member who is going to be on the shelves in…