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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Iguankick on 2024-04-27 10:55:14.
This is something that I’ve been working on for some time, a little pet project that represents a slice of fandom history. It’s also my attempt to recapture a lot of lore that has been lost over time due to the deaths of old forums, fansites, communities and the like.
Disclaimer: A lot of this is reconstructed from memory or secondary sources, many of which have themselves been lost to time, and are recounting events that occurred decades ago. What I have assembled here is a best guess at these events. Please take everything said here with a grain of salt.
Background: Robotech is an American sci-fi franchise. Originally created from the combination of three unrelated Japanese anime series, it has spawned numerous spin-offs including novels, comics, role-playing games, toys, video games and several failed attempts at sequels. Along the way it has managed to attract considerable drama through legal battles over copyright, ownership, derivative works, development hell live action movies, failed Kickstarters, fandom divisions, big name fans, toxic gatekeeping and any number of other things. This drama has even managed to bleed over into other franchises that have become collateral damage along the way.
This series is covering the history of Robotech in comic books, an element that was a vital part of keeping the franchise alive across the decades. While yes, the franchise has been subject to a lot of drama, I will only be touching on those parts relevant to this discussion. I also ask that comments be kept similarly on-topic.
Also note that as this section is discussing media that is less than a decade old that leaves it open for spoilers.
Can I do no less?
Following the end of Robotech/Voltron (in part V), Robotech had hit another content drought. That began to change in 2016 with the announcement that the dormant Robotech TTRPG licence had been picked up by two different companies. Battlefield Press was going to be publishing a Robotech setting book for the Savage Worlds system(1), while Strange Machine Games was going to be publishing one using their own entirely original AD6 system.
At the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Titan Comics announced that they had acquired the Robotech comic licence. Their plan was to publish an entirely new Robotech comic, while also reprinting from the extensive back catalogue of Robotech comics from prior publishers. At the same time, they also put out some promotional art for their new comic. These announcements were met with a somewhat mixed reception for several reasons.
While there was a desire for new material, all the promotional art that Titan released was based around the Macross characters and mecha. And while it was traditionally the most popular part of the series, Masters and New Generation fans were once again feeling like they didn’t matter; a feeling that was somewhat justified given the focus of Robotech comics in the 21st Century. Likewise, while Wildstorm had pledged to reprint all of the Comico Robotech comics, they had only covered the Macross Saga material.
As more information came out, the fandom’s reaction became somewhat more positive. Titan revealed their creative team for the new comic, with Marco Turini providing art. More interestingly, the writing was going to be handled by Brian Wood, a critically acclaimed writer with a long string of credits to his name(2). This latter point sparked a lot of interest, especially as Wood confirmed that he was a long-term fan of the series and not just a celebrity being slapped on the book for the sake of headlines.
And then Titan dropped some previews for the first issue, ones that had been carefully manufactured to give a hint of what the story might be without giving too much away, It depicted the SDF-1’s crashing on Earth and the first exploration of the vessel. In short, it appeared that they were setting up another Roy Fokker on Macross Island story.
You won’t believe the things I can do now!
Titan’s Robotech #1 released in July of 2017. Despite the previews, it was not in fact a Roy Fokker on Macross Island story. Rather, at first glimpse, it appeared to be a comparatively straight retelling of the Macross Saga, albeit updated somewhat for modern sensibilities and aesthetics while downplaying a lot of the anime elements that were inherent to the series. Most notably, through a combination of the writing and Turini’s artistic choices, the characters were meant to be somewhat older than their ‘canon’ counterparts(3). These changes were generally well-received, even if they had some questionable moments (such as the image used as the stock depiction of Vanessa Leeds in the interior cast list that became a minor meme).
However, the next few issues showed a growing deviation from the source material in more than just characterisation(4). There was a growing air of mystery, with the implication that Captain Gloval knew something about the SDF-1 that he was hiding from everyone else, and that he was almost expecting events to unfold in a particular way. This then spun off in an entirely unexpected direction in issue #4 with the apparent death of Captain Gloval.
The artwork also had its moments; while generally consistent, there were times when it became obvious that Turini was obviously copy/pasting backgrounds or other elements. Or his gratuitous use of obvious CG objects for some scenes.
Oh, and the Waltrips were bought in to draw some variant covers because it’s what you do.
Like some giant predatory bird
Issue #5 bought one big change in the writing. While the story was still credited to Brian Wood, the actual script was being written by Simon Furman(5). A long-time Transfomers writer who was basically the cornerstone of the franchises’ mythology, in many ways Furman was the opposite of Wood. He was the sort of cheap writer who you could hire to slop out a book with few questions asked and lots of executive control, and then fire as soon as sales dropped(6). Furman had no prior connection to the Robotech franchise, however he seemed to be a good fit no less.
The next few issues continue with the deviation from the source material. The order of events begins to shift around. Rick appears to be slowly going blind, while rather than wining a talent content Minmei is rejected from it. The investigation to Gloval’s death suggests that he was murdered by Roy Fokker, while the plot point is raised that he found something deeply disturbing in the wreck of the SDF-1 years ago. Finally, the idea of alternate universes (“Protoverses") is raised, something that had been a long-running hallmark of Furman’s Transfomers writing. The story also introduces T.R. Edwards, because you have to have T.R. Edwards. Its basically a rule at this point.
The biggest change, however, came with issue #9. At that point, Furman was getting sole credit for the writing, with Wood no longer being involved with the book. While never confirmed, there was a growing speculation among the readership that the book ad actually been Furman’s baby all along and that Wood had been airdropped in as a big name to punch up the book’s title. This made sense for a number of reasons; writing an eighties nostalgia bait franchise book was certainly not the sort of thing that Wood normally did, and the actual title had been lacking a lot of the themes and ideas common to his writing. On the other hand, it was basically right in Furman’s wheelhouse.
The book continued with escalating stakes and even more new elements, reaching a point where it was now bearing only a passing resemblance to the source material. Key to this was the introduction of Lazlo Zand, a character who had originally been created for the Luceno/Daley novels. Zand had been ‘bought in’ to modern Robotech through the Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles comic, and had remained a consistent feature since. Two other notable new characters were introduced as well. The first was Sara Hayes, the mother of Lisa Hayes who appeared alive, rather than her usual status of ‘dead in backstory’. The second was [Persephone ‘Persy’ Satori](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/9547…
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