Barber has been hailed by fans as ‘The God of Continuity’, which makes him the perfect man to take on something like Revolution – as it not only brings together these characters but does so without compromising the stories already told. Is ‘The God of Continuity’ a fitting moniker?
“I don’t know about that,” he says laughing. “When I came on to Transformers, I sort of approached it as an archeologist. I dug in and read everything and took notes and thought about things and tried to see what resonated and what I could build on. I think I got too into the woods with that in places, but it created the worldview I have on some of the characters. Like, I looked at how Soundwave or Prowl were handled, and they were both written really differently by different writers over the years, and I thought through—what would make somebody be like that? What if they really did act all those different ways, what’s their deal? And that led to—I hope—richer characters.”
“I think it’s about telling a story first; I mean, that’s the most important thing, not being beholden to a tic somewhere,” he adds. “It’s just that a lot of times those little tics can suggest something really interesting.”
Barber has written for two different types of Transformers – the IDW on-going series and the comic tie-ins for Michael Bay’s live action movies. “I did the movie tie-in comics first, so a lot of it was just learning how to write, and how to write Transformers,” he recalls. “I think philosophically, there’s a part of me where I wanted to have the high-octane non-stop action of the Bay movies in a comic, and another part that wanted to explore the world in a different way. The Rising Storm series was me trying to write a Michael Bay story in a comic; the Foundation series—which was the first time I worked with Andrew Griffith!—was meant to have a different tone. That was a thing I was thinking about a lot, then. And when Andrew and I came on to the IDW Universe series, it was more about our take on Transformers. We respected the past, but we weren’t operating under, or really reacting to, anybody else’s style. I talked to James Roberts, who was starting writing the other series, and we bounced ideas around and tried to figure out where we could intersect and how we could keep a different feel between the books but still feel coherent.”
But the real question is: who would win in a fight between Bay’s Optimus Prime and IDW’s Optimus Prime…?
“The Bay Prime is more vicious, but I think Optimus in the Transformers comic is more tactical in his thinking at this point, and he’s not exactly a pushover,” he says. “I think the comic book one wins.”
When Revolution was announced earlier this month, there was a large vocal outrage from fans who felt that this ‘cash in’ was going to ruin the stories they’d liked in G.I. Joe: Real American Hero and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. IDW editor Chris Ryall spent a long time on Twitter answering fan queries and concerns, and told them all to trust the process.
“I used to edit Wolverine. I’m used to the internet reaction being negative,” Barber jokes.
But one has to wonder, did that level of negativity have some effect on the plans for Revolution?
“Nope. The plan is the plan and the plan is awesome,” Barber emphatically states. “I mean, there’s pressure, of course – Cullen and Fico and editor David Hedgecock and colorist Sebastian Cheng and I all feel a lot of pressure to not let people down, and to do justice to the characters, and to build a strong foundation to this world. Telling a story has it’s own pressure! A nice pressure, I’m not complaining – it’s great! But I don’t feel any additional pressure based on anybody’s initial reactions.”
One of the big things promised coming from Revolution is that things will change. Big things. Groundbreaking things. So what can we expect?
“Transformers is going to change – the grand, over-arcing story I’ve been telling is still totally in place, now with cooler pieces making Earth a richer, more interesting place,” Barber says. “But the actual title will have a couple big changes.”
He adds: “Micronauts will be on Earth – which is huge (pun completely intended this time); Rom will have new relations to Transformers and G.I. Joe; G.I. Joe will have a big, new mission coming out of Revolution; Action Man will have a pretty interesting remit and goal; and M.A.S.K. will exist, which it doesn’t now. I mean, it’ll do a lot more than just exist! But M.A.S.K. is born in this crossover.”
Moving away from Revolution and looking at IDW’s impressive line-up of licenced titles – Back to the Future, Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to name just a few – are there any Barber would like to tackle?
“Oh, yeah—there’s all kinds of stuff I’d love to get to do,” he says. “It’s funny, there’s some stuff like Star Trek where I’m such a big fan, I’m happy to just be a fan and not interact with it in a professional way. I mean, just Star Trek as an example, Star Trek comics have a lot of really talented folks working on ’em, they don’t need me!”
“But I’m a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan, and that would be an honor,” he adds. “My daughter has just gotten hard-core into My Little Pony which means I have, too. Outside of IDW, I’d love to get to work on Fantastic Four, Punisher, Hulk, the original World War II Blackhawk. I’m a big fan of pulp characters, which isn’t really a direction I’ve gotten to go in with Transformers, but that kind of stuff is really appealing to me.”
Our thanks to John Barber for taking the time to speak with us. Action Man #1 is out now.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the co-host of The Flickering Myth Podcast and Scooperhero News. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen and read his weekly feature The Week in Star Wars.
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