Star Wars fans have it lucky. For all the online griping about continuity, I think there's an unspoken gratefulness that so much more adds up than doesn't. Because, imagine the alternative.

This fall, Transformers will start yet another incarnation in comic book form, before its current comic continuity can be resolved or completed. Due to Dreamwave comics going out of business before wrapping up a number of compelling storylines, another publisher, IDW, is starting fresh in a bid to attract new readers and, presumably, avoid percieved pitfalls suffered from the previous publishers.

Now, I'm not all that perturbed. Yeah, I'm disappointed that the DW storyline was cut off just as it was hitting its stride -- especially The War Within plotlines that started heading in an interesting new direction. But, I don't carry the notion with me that there is a static, objective Transformers universe out there that needs to be kept preserved or in order.

I just want my stories about big honking robots that turn into big honking trucks. Well, maybe a bit more than that, but I'm saying it I wasn't crushed. I'm hopeful IDW can bring cool stuff and interesting new ideas to the table.

But off the top of my head, this is the 16th Transformers universe to be started.

There's

1) The original Marvel storyline (which, apparently was an offshoot of the existing Marvel universe since Spider-Man and the Savage Land appeared in the series, including the Generation 2 mini-series
2) The Sunbow animated series, which had enough disparities within the episodic run to suggest that itself contained a number of different continuities.
3) The original toyline itself, if one is to believe the text in the packaging as indicative of a storyline, which brings the possibility that subsets like Generation 2 and Machine Wars, and European toylines are their own separate continuities
4) The original Japanese animated series, which diverged from the American series following the movie
5) The UK comic series, which diverged from the American comics
6) Beast Wars, which may or may not be the same continuity as the Sunbow animated series and/or Generation 2 comic series (but, yet, not the Generation 1 comic series...)
7) The Japanese toyline
8) Robots in Disguise animated series
9) Transformers: Armada animated series
10) Transformers: Energon animated series
11) Transformers: Armada and Energon comics series
12) Transformers: Cybertron toyline
13) Transformers: Universe toyline
14) Binaltech/Alternators toyline
15) The new Transformers movie
16) The new Transformers comic series

So, that's not even counting series I know I've overlooked, nor counting one-off books and literature that suggests a seperate continuity.

Confusing, isn't it? And yet, I don't really mind. Because it's more about the characters and whether or not the storyline is compelling. Continuity has its rewards, but in the end, I think it's kind of overrated.

Click here for the original release regarding IDW, courtesy tformers.com


... and click here for a remarkably confrontational interview with IDW's editor in chief.

ph