IDW Plans to Kill Ironhide. (What? Again?)
Okay, guys. First I’ve gotta say that “death” in comics is no longer what it once was. It feels as if everyone who has ever died has eventually found their way back to the realm of the living. The “death” angle is played out and should really be retired. Or, as I said in the office last week, they should just spend an entire year “killing” a major hero (the same one) every month.
Anyway, IDW has decided to jump on the deathwagon and plan to kill Ironhide in their upcoming Transformers #1. (Releasing next week.) Yeah, that comic title and numbering isn’t confusing at all. But wait, this is about comic death so I’ll skip the rant about starting over with #1 every couple of years.
Maybe I’m just more cynical than ever, but this article at CBR News does nothing to make me feel comfortable about the idea of killing Ironhide. Again. Come on, people. We’ve all seen the real Transformers Movie* so we know that Ironhide died back in 1986.
“Regarding the decision to announce Ironhide’s death in advance of the issue’s ship date, Schmidt said that IDW had considered not discussing the death at all in promoting the new series, but saw compelling reasons to tip their hat. “We realized that we need to let people know why this book is important. And no, it’s not that a major character dies (although that is a big deal in and of itself) but even more so, what effect Ironhide’s demise has on the rest of the Transformers cast and universe,” Schmidt said.”
This one paragraph out of the CBR News story does nothing to make me happy about the decision. Is it cynical of me to think that this information was released only so that we would talk about it, build some hype, and then (hopefully) see more people buy the comic?
I’ve enjoyed several of IDW’s Transformers comics, but announcing this before the release just makes me think this is a publicity stunt. And besides, it’s not as if Transformers characters stay dead. How many times has Optimus been killed?
*Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
Ugh…. I’m so sick of IDW and wish they’d lose the TF license something fierce. Transformers comics are god-awful, and this sounds like more of the same. They can’t ever decide what to do with the franchise because I doubt they can make any major changes, so they just restart and tell the same story every couple years with a slight twist, and it’s always terrible. The art above also looks really bad…
I really don’t get why they kill off characters in comics… its really kinda dumb.
@Ben – I’ve enjoyed some of the IDW comics, and I like a lot of their art choices, but I wish they would start a series at #1 and just keep it going. The constant name changes, new #1 ones, and the entire Spotlight series leave me unable to completely understand which path to follow when reading the trades.