Shadowboxing, I agree with the sentiment, as well as the comment- Bay will rape the G1 plot blind and make a killing off of the people who are going to go see it solely because it's a Transformers film.
To the comments on quality: I believe it's not the 'flashy demeanor' people want. It's the characters. The "meat and gravy", if you will. The UMU is foreign to most, and it's attempt to rush through the 616 is going to eventually exhaust the novelty of 'flashy demeanor' when we see how Marvel handles the prospect of this new universe. 616, while at the point where people easily forget the classics, is still the definitive Marvel. I bet you 50 years from now we'll still be seeing Spidey in red and blue duds, no matter how many Iron-Spideys come. I bet you 50 years from now no one will remember the grey Hulk that ate people. I bet you 50 years from now Gah-Lak-Tus will be a gurgling sound babies make after choking on oatmeal, and nothing more.
Why? The Ultimate Universe, to me, lacks the glue the "hokey" 616 once sported. When I open up an old 616 comic, I feel like the people behind the book actually cared about the fans and making satisfying stories. Did the tales become convoluted? Yes. But nevertheless it appealed to many demographics. The UMU tries to "bring the classics to the real world" in an unnecessary manner, and is ironically nonexistent in the mindset of the demographic it initially aimed for. As said before, I see more people more interested in manga than comics. I see people in their 30's and 40's at comicstands, and droves of teens at the malls buying manga. It's not because it's flashy or new. It's because the stories, however childish some people consider them, are appealing. I go to read a Marvel book nowadays and see someone punching another person's heart out, multiple OOC moments using classic icons and no real draw-in. There is no better day, just mounting conflict and the erosion of long-standing characters to fufill a point.
To me the real issue is not quality in the worldly sense, but in the timeless sense. Manga-ka, in particular, know when to end things. While some tales go on for a long time, there's no fear of time changing the tale or of keeping the characters recognizable. Nowadays comics lack that, and continue to show their age. This is why I believe the UMU is futile- comics are already entering the public view as memorabilia rather than a worthwhile trend, and so long as companies such as Marvel aim at one demographic and one demographic only it will continue as such.
