Review: The Marvel Comics Transformers continuity (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Comics)

On November 20th, 2008, I posted my very first review to this blog, the first issue of the US G1 Marvel Comics run of Transformers.  Now, more than two and a half years later, it's over, finished!  Yup, it's the END of the ROAD for this series of posts.  I've gone through every issue, all the mini-series and crossovers and even the collections, and looked at what made them good and what made them bad.  I've tried to be objective, to frame my comments in a historic perspective, and to share my own recollections and experiences with the books.  Hopefully you feel that I've succeeded to some degree.

So, now, looking back, the question becomes: what do I think of the series as a whole, and how did it touch me? Well, it started back around early 1985.  Eight years old, I was shopping at a Pathmark grocery store with my mother.  That Pathmark was a kind of low-end, dingy grocery store and I didn't particularly care for it.  By then I was already really into Transformers from the cartoon and from the toys, so when I saw the comic in the magazine section of this store I knew I had to have it.  It was #5, The New Order, and it was almost too intense for me.  Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it was so dark!  I also had the sense that there was much backstory I was missing, and I didn't really like that.

My next Transformers comic was a three-pack of comics, #13-15, sold at Toys R Us.  I liked these a little more.  They seemed more like the stuff I was watching on TV.  They weren't as engaging as number 5, but they were more familiar.

I don't remember exactly where I got my next comic, G.I. Joe and the Transformers #1.  It might have been Toys R Us, not positive on that.  Watching the shows, it was clear (to me) that they must take place in the same universe.  After all, they had similar voices, like Cobra Commander and Starscream, and the music was nigh-on identical.  One of my buddies who was into G.I. Joe also claimed that some Joe characters showed up in an episode, but I was skeptical.  (I shouldn't have been - he was probably referring to the Oktober Guard, guesting in the episode Prime Target.)  This issue left me flat, though.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it.  Bumblebee went down too easily, and there was too much of a Joe focus for my tastes.

I was off the Transformers comics for a good long while at this point.  Playing over at a buddies house, he mentioned that he had a Transformers comic.  It was issue #47, Club Con.  I asked to read it, and I was confronted with "I'm Starscream.  Fly me!"  What???  And then the whole story is about some chick?  No, thank you, not for me.  I remember liking that Starscream was in it, though.  The stars of the previous books I had read were more obscure than the guys I really liked.  Also, Starscream was pretty much dead (well, undead) by that point in the cartoon, so it was interesting for me to see that the comics and the cartoon were in two different universes.  I think I finally got that by this point.

The next one is the one that really did it for me, though.  July or so of 1990, Transformers were on life support.  By now I was 14, and wasn't really outgrowing Transformers though there were some hints from peers and family members that maybe I should.  Still, they'd kind of moved on without me.  There weren't any new shows on TV, and the toys had been shockingly bad for a while.  I remember looking at Monster Pretenders in some kind of small toy store while on vacation somewhere, perhaps Reno, and thinking to myself how chintzy they were.

So, there I was, just done with some kind of church activity and waiting for a ride from my parents to go home.  Standing around in front of a church, especially when you weren't really religious, isn't super fun, so I walked across the street to a drug store where I had once or twice absconded with a Playboy magazine.  (I wasn't a bad kid, I was just embarrassed.)  I was standing by a rack of comics, looking to see if the shopkeeper was distracted when I saw a Transformers comic, issue #69 to be precise.  (Haha, 69 and I was eying the girlie magazines!)  I guess I'd probably seen other Transformers comics occasionally, but the cover really caught my eye.  Optimus?  Galvatron?  UNICRON!?  Grimlock, Starscream, Shockwave, Ravage?  I know these guys!  They weren't weird Pretenders or tiny micromasters.  I flipped through a page or two and I was hooked.  I paid for it (See?  Not a bad kid.) and brought it home and read it two or three times.

In fact, I got so into it that I begged for a trip to the comic shop, which I'd mostly only used to rent bootleg anime videos.  Sure enough, issue #70 was on the stand and that was even better.  I bugged them, calling practically every day till issue #71 came out.  (At some point they took the time to explain that Wednesdays was when new books come in, so that's the day I should call.)  The quality was just so damn good that my obsessiveness started to kick in, and I began to look for back issues.  I bought some from my friend who had showed me Club Con, but he didn't have that many.  In the days before eBay, hunting a comic collection meant driving around to all the local comic shops.  Fortunately, this was 1990 and comic shops were everywhere.  Before the end of the run, I had tracked down every single issue and devoured them.  This included Universe, Headmasters, and the Joe crossover, but not the Movie adaptation.  I didn't see the point.

Speaking of Universe, I loved those books.  I absolutely loved them.  I'd make lists of which characters had profiles published since, and when I got a new backissue I'd eagerly flip to the back to see which new characters were examined this week.  It's safe to say that this is where my love of animation models got started.

But back to the main story!  The new comics revitalized the dying embers of my love for Transformers.  Suddenly they were all I could talk about again.  Oh, how crushed I was when I found out the comic was ending.  By now I was back in stores, buying new figures again, even trying to track down old figures.  Again, pre-eBay.  If I thought comics were tricky, they were nothing compared to toys.  I looked through penny saver magazines and did garage sales and would scour dealer rooms in conventions, because I had quickly exhausted what meager supplies the local comic shops had.  Yes, the figures were a LOT cheaper than they are now, though of course some of that is just that they were only 6 years old and not 26 years old.  But they were impossible to find!  I remember tearing my room apart looking for old catalogs just so I'd know who to search for, and being thrilled when some guy in a magazine posted that he had all the Predacons for sale. 

My interest sustained itself, mostly by my own force of will, and then in 1993 something wondrous happened.  My good buddy Bill, co-author of many of my books, was working in a comic shop and he told me that G.I. Joe that month had Megatron in it.  Guh?  Really?  It was hard for me to know if he was serious, though, since the issue was polybagged.  (Polybagging, something I do NOT miss from the early 90s.)  But then the next month, Megatron was right on the cover.  Transformers were back, baby!

I also remember, around this time, my parents being very disappointed when my friends burst into the house excited that Transformers were back in stores.  They were hoping to keep that a secret so that I could have an amazing Christmas.  That might be the last time that my folks knew something about Transformers before I did.

The second G.I. Joe crossover, which I absolutely loved, soon gave way to   Transformers, Generation Two. It was written by Furman, whom I'd come to love, but what was up with the art?  I was definitely a Wildman man at the time, not a Senior man, but this art seemed completely orthogonal to what had come before.  I wanted to love it, I really did, but at best I tolerated it hoping it would get better.  With time, I came to appreciate the art and enjoy the story, but when G2 ended a scant year later I was far from devastated.  Maybe wistful is a better word.  Mostly I had hoped it would recapture the magic that was #69-80, and it didn't quite do that.  By now, though, it was 1994.  I was at college, and naturally I'd brought some Transformers with me.  It wasn't long before I discovered alt.toys.transformers, and I could finally chat with like-minded individuals about my passion.  

So, what did Transformers comics do for me?  I think it's fair to say that they nurtured and eventually ignited the lingering flames of passion for these metal titans that began in childhood and stayed with me to this day.  The cartoon was fun, but the comic was EPIC.  For a long time, there were only two real visions of Transformers in the fandom, and I was definitely in the minority comic camp. 

(Since then, of course, I've come to embrace the multiverse.  To this day, though, I think it was incredibly shrewd of guys like Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio to ambiguously place Beast Wars in the future of BOTH continuities.  Alienated no one and definitely helped convince me that Beast Wars had some merit.)

Absent picking up #69 that fateful day, I'd probably not be writing this article today, and would instead be posting on a Battlestar Galactica or a Babylon 5 forum.  (Not that I never do those things, they just don't consume all that much of my time.)  Transformers comics helped me fine and develop both rich friendships in the community and an extremely satisfying second career as a writer.  They moved me so that I took a 10 hour bus ride up to Rochester, New York in 1997 to meet Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman, which was one of the highlights of my year.

Reading back over this, this isn't so much an overview of the comics as an overview of how the comics have impacted me.  I think that's appropriate, I suppose I've mostly said what there is to say about the books.  However, I feel compelled to give at least a cursory overview.  In a nutshell, you've got about five big eras.  #1-12 kick things off, establishing the universe and generally being quite good.  #13-55, while varied, tend to explore similar themes with varying degrees of success.  By the end, though, it was clear that Bob was getting pretty bored of the universe and was ready to move on.  #56-80 brings in the space opera and generally kicks up the quality, especially if you like that kind of story.  And then there's G2, which was closer to 56-80 in scope but tonally very different.  It comes to over a hundred issues when you add in the ancillary books.  I think each era has its charms, and on the whole the tend to work well together.  Even G2 isn't quite so jarring with the Joe book bridging the gap.  100 issues is a lot for comics, so having tone shifts isn't inappropriate.

Most comic runs can't tell a single huge story with that many books, and Transformers doesn't try to.  Instead, the action comes in waves, with big issues like #12 or #41 or #50, but also may smaller issues peppered in-between. Sometimes they are build-up, sometimes they are stand alone, but it gives the overall story a nice rhythm.  Both Budiansky and Furman are quite good at establishing pace, and it helps the book stand the test of time. To me, it's no accident that a book originally slated to be a four issue mini-series would go eighty whopping issues, plus multiple mini-series and a sequel.

Final verdict time!  Transformers is not the best book you'll ever read.  There are some amazing runs out there, like Neil Gaiman's Sandman or the Peter David run on The Incredible Hulk or Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men.  However, it's a surprisingly solid story about giant robots from outer space who can look like cars or planes or mechanical dinosaurs or 20 foot tall guys in space suits.  Having two disparate visions, which helped torpedo the War of the Worlds series, here makes the whole stronger.  Bob's vision of car washes and car-thief supervillains and even pro-wrestlers provided a solid foundation, grounding the universe in a way that allows Simon's space epic to have all the more emotional resonance.  It remains one of the strongest single Transformers continuities out there, and should be required reading for any fan of Transformers: Generation One.

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It's been an absolute pleasure reviewing these books with you.  I want to thank each and every person who took the time to post a comment or drop me an email about these reviews.  It was extremely gratifying to have a dialog going about my thoughts on these books.  I turn this space now over to my colleague Chuffer and look forward to his excellent Death's Head reviews.  

Review: Marvel Transformers trade paperbacks

I just can't give up on this series of posts.  Thursdays roll around I and feel compelled to talk about the Marvel Transformers comics!  I figured this week I'd tackle the trades collecting Transformers that have come out in recent years.  (I.E. I'm not going to go in-depth on the G.I. Joe and the Transformers trade from 1993, nor the Transformers Universe trade from 1987.)  Two companies have tackled this problem, Titan Books and IDW Publishing.  Since Titan Books did it first, I'll start with them.

Back in 2001, Geewun fans were having a ball.  Dreamwave Productions had the Transformers comics and were selling insane numbers of books, so the time seemed ripe to revisit some of the old Marvel material.   Titan Books deigned to do so.  However, they didn't start at issue number 1, no.  You see, most comics that have runs in the dozens don't have every story reprinted.  Instead, publishers opt for highlights.  Since Furman was involved, it's unsurprising that they started with what he considered to be his best work, The Unicron War.  And so, come summer of 2001, All Fall Down was published, containing issues #69-74.  Shortly thereafter, End of the Road came out and collected #75-80.

It's clear that titan was pleased with the sales on these books, because by the end of 2002, the rest of Furman's US run was collected.  Issue 56-68, and G2 #1-12 were collected over four volumes.  (Sadly, the Halloween Special from G2 was skipped, as was the G2 G.I. Joe crossover.  The latter I can understand, since it was probably a separate license, but the former chafes.)  Since these apparently sold well, Titan drew up plans to reprint the rest of the G1 Marvel run, issues #1-55.  The out-of-continuity stuff, Man of Iron and The Big Broadcast of 2006, was skipped.  The Headmasters mini-series was folded into the run, but the out-of continuity movie adaptation was skipped.  This wasn't too problematic, though G.I. Joe and the Transformers mini-series was likewise skipped, with slightly more serious continuity implications for the book.

Generally 5 to 7 issues were printed per book.  Each book came out in a softcover edition first, followed shortly thereafter by a Diamond edition.  An exception was the first (chronological) volume published, All Fall Down.  This first appeared as a Botcon exclusive hardcover with a Geoff Senior cover.  Actually, it's good that I've gotten to the covers.  The softcovers had some pretty nifty CGI / pen&ink designs by Andrew Wildman.  Each featured a few characters that were prominent in the story, along with some large background element.  Book were published in pairs, so All Fall Down's cover linked up strongly with that of End of the Road.  What was really fun, though, was that all the books linked weakly together, and the final book from G2 (Rage in Heaven) linked up with that from the first G1 book, Beginnings.  Slick.  The choice of background elements ranges from the likes of Unicron and Primus to the Space Bridge to the Mecannibals.  The Diamond hardcovers were by an impressively large number of artists, including familiar names like Don Figueroa and Pat Lee, and more well-known comic artists like Dave Gibbons and Howard Chaykin.

Titan didn't skimp on the extras either.  Given that the project started off as a few isolated stories, they took care to frame the stories in the proper context.  Many of the books had newly-commissioned forewords, from guys like Greg Berger and Bob Forward and of course Simon Furman and Bob Budiansky.  Also included were sketches, original treatments, and in two of the later, shorter books, galleries of the Titan covers.  Slightly meta, maybe, but since I had all the hardcovers I liked getting a gallery of the softcover covers.

All in all, it was an excellent collection.  Sixteen volumes, available at $19.95 each for softcover or $24.95 each for hardcover, came out to $320-$400 for the collection.  Pricey, yes, but far less than purchasing the 93 issues individually would have been.  The collection was not, however, without problems.  It was clear that some of the originals had degraded, leading to a few issues with washed-out colors or a VERY slight blurriness to the lines.  This mostly impacted the earlier volumes, later volumes tended to be of higher quality.  Also, the original covers were all present but they tended to be presented two to a page.  I'd have preferred a whole page each.  Finally, and this is a nitpick but it's always bothered me so I'll say it, it annoys me that every one of the 16 books uses the latter-half of G1 logo.  (There were three logos, the classic G1, the *Masters G1, and then the G2 logo.  All sixteen volumes use the *Masters G1 logo.)

The last of the Titan trades came out in early 2005.  By this point, Dreamwave had declared bankruptcy and the future of the Transformers comics was uncertain.  Enter IDW Publishing, a much more professional outfit who swooped in and started publishing some really excellent stories.  In early 2008, they published the first of six omnibus editions collecting the G1 Marvel Comics run on Transformers.  Each one covered thirteen to sixteen issues.  At a $20 price point, they are a much better value for your dollar than the Titan collection.

However, as nice as they are, they too are sadly not perfect.  Circuit-Breaker, a fairly prominent character, was owned by Marvel Comics, a competitor to IDW.  Whereas Titan was able to reprint her stories, IDW was not.  (Issue #3, with the infamous Spider-Man guest appearance, was likewise stricken from this collection.)  A guy named Stuart Denyer wrote up some pretty decent summaries to fill the gap, but of course it's not the same.  (Thankfully, by volume 5, this issue appears to have been resolved, as Circuit-Breaker stories are included.)  Secondly, while the Headmasters mini is printed in this collection, it's not printed until Collection #6.   Thus, it's far out of place from the reading order.  Third, this collection ends at G1 #80, skipping the entire G2 saga.  Finally, the collections are pretty bare-bones.  No new forewords, no sketches, none of the sizzle.  They didn't even spring for new covers, instead making a collage from existing comic panels.  This is a shame, because IDW has a terrific stable of talented artists who could have done amazing things with it.  Remember that Nich Roche cover to Buster Witwicky and the Carwash of Doom?  (I'll admit that I don't have any of these books in front of me right now, and I don't quite remember how they handled the original covers.)

Comparing the two, it's apparent that neither one is perfect, but the Titan editions get a whole lot closer.  They just put a lot more effort into them.  The few Titan omissions that IDW fixes are hardly critical, and the extras are very nice.  However, even at retail the Titan Books books were more than twice the price of the IDW books, and the IDW books are considerably easier to find today.  For someone who is looking to just read the comics, IDW is the clear winner.  Plus, it's always possible that IDW will come out with a volume 7 covering G2 and, who knows, maybe even the Halloween Special or the G.I. Joe crossover that was skipped by Titan.  But if you're looking for a display collection, I think Titan edges it out.

By the way, as the lead photo indicates, I went with Titan hardcovers, including the Botcon exclusive version of All Fall Down.  Moreover, I've been fortunate enough to get each of them autographed by either Bob Budiansky or Simon Furman.  Normally I don't go for autographs, but this run of comics meant so much to me that I felt it appropriate.  It sits proudly in my living room, and I frequently pick one at random to peruse.

Next week is, I think, my very last formal post on the subject.  I'll try to gather up all my thoughts and recollection from the run and turn that into something coherent.  Hope you enjoy!

Review: Transformers Alignment

Well, I wasn't planning on doing this, but the feedback seemed pretty clear that it was desired.  This will be the review of Simon Furman's novella, Alignment, produced for two Transforce conventions unofficially.  It tells the story of the Liege Maximo, and also bridges the gap between the Marvel Comics continuity and the Beast Wars series.  After keeping it off-line for years, the convention organizers eventually decided to share an on-line version, which is available for download here making it by far the easiest of all my comic reviews for you to follow.  I'm going to be reviewing the 2002 printed edition, though, which features a different cover. 

Alignment was written by Simon Furman, with artwork interspersed between by Jeff Anderson, Kev Hopgood, Geoff Senior, Lew Stringer, Lee Sullivan, and Andrew Wildman.  The cover of the 2002 print edition is a piece by Sean Bastick.  (The cover of the on-line edition is by Lee Sullivan, and is reproduced in black & white in the back of the print edition.  It was originally used in the magazine edition that covered part one of the story.)

The print cover by Bastick is a CG piece, featuring an attack by Grimlock on the Liege Maximo.  It's just a bit flat, a bit too regular.  The web of planets that make up the Hub seem to be merely a large room.  Obviously scales such as expressed in the book are hard to convey visually, so I might be inclined to give that a pass.  However, there is a sort of regularity to the image that is unappealing.  The Liege Maximo's cannon, for instance, looks like a tool you'd buy at Sears rather than a weapon that seemed to be powered by a 'small sun.'  Note that I actually am a fan of Bastick's work, but in this particular piece he falls short of the mark.  (The other cover, Sullivan's Optimus versus Megatron, is much stronger as a visual, though thematically a bit odd to focus on a one-sentence line of backstory.)

The book itself is broken into two parts.  In part 1, a critical but horribly dull expedition by Grimlock, Swoop, Blaster, Springer, and Perceptor to hunt for energon accidentally uncovers a massive threat to the existence of Autobot and Decepticon alike, a mind-shatteringly gargantuan web of little Cybertrons linked together into a galaxy-spanning Hub.  At the center of this web sits the Liege Maximo, who is preparing for a once-in-the-lifetime-of-the-universe Alignment of certain stars that will allow him to become a god.  As this event is happening quite soon, he unleashes massive forces against Grimlock & co, then sends about a quarter of his forces each against the Autobot and Decepticon camps.  Their ship is destroyed, but they've managed to find some measure of safety by abandoning it and hiding in the Hub.

The Autobots are licking their wounds after their last massive battle with the Decepticons.  The Autobots emerged on top, but are critically low on energon and are considering severe options such as downsizing.  The Decepticons are holed up in their fortress, desperately attempting to formulate a new strategy.  The Autobots get a bit of warning about what is coming in the form of a log from Grimlock, but the Decepticons have nothing and are soon being razed to the ground of New Cybertron.  They have a slender strand of hope, though, in the form of Soundwave's machinations.  He and a cadre of misfits and loyalists have resurrected Megatron!

Thus ends book one.  I hate the idea of coincidence, and here we get two.  Not only does Grimlock just stumble upon the bad guys, but he does it practically on the eve of the Liege Maximo's ascendance.  I might forgive the first one.  Grimlock intentionally plots a search trajectory through realms of space rumored to harbor monsters and devils, and he finds them.  But the timing of it all seems lazy.

What is of more interest to me is the casual backstory hinted at in the book.  It's a technique that Roche and Roberts would later expand upon to great effect in the superb Last Stand of the Wreckers.  A list of epic threats not quite as big as Unicron includes Jhiaxus, the Swarm, Mogahn the Mass, Praetorian, the Ebon Knights, and Pinea Omicron, the site of the final confrontation between Optimus Prime and Galvatron II.  We also get a bunch of new Decepticon high-commanders name-checked, guys like Direwolf and Mantissa, Saberjaw and Mindgame.  I also like that Furman has given Cybertron's solar system a name, and that New Cybertron has a prior name (Pyrovar.)  These sort of universe-building details are very appealing to me.

The big ending of the book, the return of Megatron, felt a bit overdone.  How many times can Optimus and Megatron come back, I wonder? It's the sort of thing that, in theory, SHOULD make a good climax, but in practice it feels like we're retreading over well-worn ground.

Part II features three plot threads that converge.  Ultra Magnus lures the Liege Maximo's forces close to Cybertron with an energy field, then sets off an ambush from the asteroid belt that destroys them all.  Megatron, meanwhile, fakes a desperate last stand on New Cybertron and blows it up, annihilating most of the fleet set against him.  And Grimlock's band tries and fails to blow up a substantial portion of the Hub by messing with a critical energy juncture, J654.  It would destroy 0.5643 percent of the Hub, leaving a hole 'the size of a small galaxy.'  Guh, really?  Half a percent of the Hub is a small galaxy?  Maybe he meant 56% instead.  The scales are hard to imagine, and I think Furman had some difficulty with it himself.

The Autobots and Decepticons, victorious, launch what fleets they have at the Hub and manage to do some damage.  Meanwhile, Grimlock engages the Liege Maximo head-on and actually distracts him for a moment before being blown away.  This points to the other guerrilla fighters a strategy, cause any distraction they can.  With all Autobot and Decepticon ships coordinating for a moment, Megatron manages to engage the Liege Maximo's physical body and win.  Swoop, meanwhile, completes the original mission and blows up J654, destroying the Alignment and all that remains of their foe. 

Another happy ending!

This latest burst of cooperation heralds the rise of the Predacons, downsizing, and hope for enduring peace.  "With hindsight, they really should have known better."  Cute.  Oh, and three pages later, "It never ends..." 

Chapter two is definitely the stronger of the two chapters.  The desperate cunning of Ultra Magnus and Megatron seem to be about right.  Grimlock's long trek to J654 is described as boring and desolate, which brought to mind to me the journey of Samwise and Frodo.  Perhaps he was going for that, though he didn't really have the space to summon those kinds of emotions.  Swoop gets to be the hero, which was a bit surprising.  I suppose Furman was setting him up as The Veteran, who he would eventually evolve into. There is a sort of weird symmetry to Swoop's future name change, since as Bish covered yesterday he used to be called Divebomb.  How odd that Swoop would become a lens through which Furman would view the entirety of his run on the Marvel US / Marvel UK / Beast Wars / Transforce / 3H BotCon continuity. 

The artwork was decidedly mixed, though that final image of Swoop by Jeff Anderson is absolutely lovely.  The Wildman piece I posted above is decent, and Senior does a lovely Liege Maximo that is indeed the stuff of nightmares and legends.  Many of the other pieces, though, fail to elicit much of an emotional response.  The prose, though, is consistently fresh and easy to read.  Furman invokes some nice imagery from time to time, especially when he gets more technologically inclined. 

How does the book work, as a story on its own?  Not wonderfully, I'm forced to admit.  It's not nearly as strong a conclusion as the final issue of G2 is, or even the last issue of G1.  It seems large for the sake of being large, but doesn't go deep enough into any one character to make you really care.  It's more like the outline of a six-issue comic series than like a novella.  What it does do very well, thanks to things like Sparks and downsizing, is to be an effective bridge between the G2 comics and the Beast Wars. As such, it isn't so necessary for it to be a massive climax itself.  Furman had already written that, and Bob Skir had added a new finale on top of that for Beast Machines. 

So, final verdict: worth reading, if only for the expanded universe building, but you'll be better off picking an earlier or later climax for the continuity depending on where you want to draw the line.  Interesting to see the ideas, but not emotionally satisfying.

Next week (or so), I'll review some of the ways that this continuity has been reprinted.  Then, one more big-picture post, and I'll turn the comic review space over to a new feature.  I won't say what it is, but I think you'll enjoy it, yes?

Review: Marvel G2 #12 - A Rage in Heaven!

This is it!  The final issue of the US Marvel Comics continuity.  This is issue #12 of the US G2 Marvel Comics run of Transformers.  Abandoned is the primary / back-up story, in favor of a four chapter epic structure.  Simon Furman pens this tale, naturally.  Manny Galan draws and Jim Amash inks chapters 1 and 3, with Geoff Senior as artist on chapters 2 and 4.  Richard Starkings (w/ Comicraft) letters, and Sarra Mossoff colors.  They played with their titles, though, so it's listed as Furman, Automatic; Galan: Autocad; Amash, Autolysis; Comicraft, Autograph; Mossoff, Autochrome; Tokar, Autoknowbetter; DeFalco, Autopsy.  Cute.  Yaniger drew this cover, confirming that in fact he'd draw every cover of this tragically short-lived series.

It's the END of the ROAD for: Transformers Generation 2, or so the cover proclaims.  This is itself a cute little meta-gag, as the last issue of the US series was also titled End of the Road!.  In point of fact, so was the final original issue of the UK G1 title.  It's quite a good title for a book about car robots.  But what of the cover itself?  It's some decent Yaniger work, not his best, but servicable.  Optimus Prime is literally... CONSUMED by the SWARM!  The inking is quite good, with black closing in ominously on the white background and Optimus Prime being broken down into his component atoms.  The emotion is nice, both in his face and in his body language, but the rendering seems to lack the sort of overly detailed mechagore that mark Yaniger at his best.  This image kind of reminds me of mid 90's CG models in how it breaks apart, like the robots are empty polygons.  Details like the underside of Prime's arm are nice, but there aren't enough of them.

The story kicks off with a prelude, a one page overview of the Transformers mythology to bring the reader up to speed.  Perfunctory, but gets the job done.  Perhaps shrewd to get it out of the way so quickly and leave 47 pages for the real story.  The most interesting bit is this line: 'shorn of its mystical trappings, it is a tale of evolution.'  That seems like a loaded statement to me, pulling back from the fantasy elements that characterized the end of the G1 run in favor of a more secular book.  This is a slightly odd choice, given the resolution... but I get ahead of myself.

Book One: Judgement, opens in space, with the Swarm about to menace the Warworld and the Twilight alike.  Four faces adorn the page, representing each faction involved.  Jhiaxus is there, as is Starscream, Megatron, and... Grimlock?  Odd choice, him, but then Prime's face was on the previous page and maybe Furman was avoiding redundancy avoidance.

It's all Starscream can do to keep from engaging the thing, and he begs Optimus for help.  Jhiaxus, though, has no such compunctions and opens fire, initiating hostility.  Prime is mortified, he saw a chance to reach the Swarm slip through his fingers.  Jhiaxus's underlings realize the futility of the situation, but when they point it out to him Jhiaxus crushes the life from one.  The Cybertronian has come full circle; he is back to being the vicious tyrant he was originally, um, budded as. 

Optimus, meanwhile, convinces Starscream to return what was stolen, and Optimus is once again one with the Matrix.  Off he heads, via skysled, to the Twilight, for a detente with Jhiaxus.  Jhiaxus seems more than happy to allow the Autobot aboard.  It's a good opening chapter to the book, shifting a few pieces around for the big finales.  Starscream has now played his part in the book, and won't be doing a whole lot more.  Jhiaxus and Optimus are set for their confrontation... and what of the Swarm?

Book Two: Twilight opens with Megatron and Starscream making their way through the bowels of the Warworld.  Megatron seeks to combat (Note: he's very clear on this - 'combat,' not 'defeat') the Swarm, and he gathers up the Rheanium gas taken back in issue #7.  Nice continuity, but I wish there was a bit more set-up for this.  Maybe one more mention of Rheanium in issue 10 or 11.  BTW, I liked the idea of Rheanium so much that I namechecked it in The AllSpark Almanac when talking about Omega Supreme.  Also, lovely Senior art in this, both in the depth of the Warworld and in the hangar bay.  Isn't that shuttle awesome?  Lovely and alien, no doubt stolen by Bludgeon from some hapless alien race.

This isn't even the real meat of the chapter, though, no.  That would be Optimus, arriving on the Twilight.  (Oh, Furman, double meaning on that word.  It does feel like we're about to fall into night, and here we are on that ship.  That's solid writing, that is!)  The ship is being obliterated by the Swarm and the crew is in a panicked flight.  If only he could find Jhiaxus, he thinks, this could all be resolved.

Sadly, Jhiaxus finds him first and crushes his vocal circuits.  Denied a voice, Optimus becomes a vessel into which Jhiaxus can vent his frustration.  Optimus never even gets in a good punch!  The beating that ensues is brutal and savage, and is a fitting climax to the Optimux/Jhiaxus rivalry that has been brewing since issue #1.  Our hero is saved only by the arrival of the Swarm, breaking through the mighty vessel.  Jhiaxus, Leige Centuro of the the Decepticon Elite, High Commander of its forces, challenges this force of nature in an epic but futile gesture.  The swarm even mimics his appearance, before consuming all that he is.

The artwork, needless to say, is terrific, and Jhiaxus' end seems almost tragic.  He has set himself up against the universe, and the universe has smacked him down.  In some ways, perhaps, Jhiaxus represents the futility of battling entropy.  No matter how hard you try to impose on the universe, eventually time grinds you down.  Jhiaxus wanted nothing more than an orderly cosmos.  Yes, he was a heartless bastard who though nothing of those in his way, but his goals on some level were sympathetic.  Here he is, reduced to the primitive version of himself before ultimately destroyed by the antithesis of all he strove to be. 

The chapter ends with Megatron, witnessing all of this from afar.  He's preparing to make planetfall with his precioius cargo, but between him and Earth is the all-consuming Swarm.  Can he make it?  We'll just have to see.

Book Three: Siege opens on Earth.  Here at last is Grimlock and the rest of the Autobot/Decepticon alliance, desperately attempting to turn an emergency rendezvous site into a fortified position in which they might hold out against the Swarm.  Megatron's shuttle is late, and they can't raise him, so they'll need to hold out on their own.  Despite the lack of prep time, though, the battle is upon them.

We get some payoff on Megatron's new Decepticons, when one of them ignores an order from Razorclaw and looks to Grimlock for leadership.  Razorclaw attempts to dispatch Manta Ray, but is saved by Leadfoot.  After all... Autobots have to stick together.  It's not a bad little plotline, though it doesn't seem to fit in in this book, which is really about Autobots and Decepticons coming together. 

And come together they do.  Robot after robot is destroyed, or sacrifices himself to take out a bit more of the Swarm.  Ramjet buys it, Frenzy sacrifices himself as a sonic weapon, Slag refuses to abandon Slingshot, Nightbeat (NOOOO!) and Dirge self destruct rather than allow themselves to die as a meal. It's all rather touching, though I think Frenzy's death gets me the most.  I love Nightbeat, but he's been a non-character since late G1.  In just a few panels here, though I come to really appreciate Frenzy and what he's capable of.  Nice way for him to go out, too, as an instrument of one of Wheeljack's inventions.

It seems like it's all for naught, until Megatron walks through the swarm.  With Rheanium, he survived the Swarm's onslaught.  His shuttle did not.  Hardcore.  He distributes the Rheanium among the troops: it's payback time.

We get an interlude in space, when Optimus is saved by Starscream, who has himself taken some Rheanium and is about to flee this sector of space.  Optimus declines his offer of Rheanium, though.  He's come to some insight about what the Swarm is and how to deal with it. For his plan to work, though.. he must die!  Of course, a cynic might point out that Optimus Prime dies a lot - twice already in this continuity alone.  I'm not too cynical, though, it's a rollicking good story.

By Book Four: Creation, we've caught up to the cover, and indeed the nightmares that Optimus has been having since about issue #4.  I rather like that. Bit by bit, he's disassembled, though he's in this position by choice.  He seeks an inner peace and tranquility, belying the 'horror of this protracted death.'  I still love Furman's turn of phrase.  To pieces he crumbles, till he's just the shredded remains of a robotic torso, and then, he explodes, releasing the light and purity of the Matrix.  To nothing he is reduced, nothing and everything!  He sees that which is, and that which was.  He flashes to Ratchet, to Fortress Maximus' sacrifice, to the victory over Unicron!

And on Earth, Grimlock and Megatron notice the swarm getting brighter, as a light dispels... no, changes the swarm!  They feel it, witness a miracle as empty voracious hunger is replaced with nobility and purpose.   And from this new beginning strides... life!  Optimus Prime is reborn, and in a new body.  (Combat Hero Optimus, to be precise.  Yes, three pages from the end of this run, we get our final new toy.  I find that hilariously apropos.  It's not even bad thematically, I kind of appreciate that tearing down Optimus to his atoms and rebuilding him wouldn't give him his exact same old body.  Of course, we've seen this before...  ) 

Optimus explains what he did, how he gave the Swarm purpose by giving up the life essense of Primus.  He takes the opportunity to give his last speech of the series, to the assembled Autobots and Decepticons.  They have an opportunity for peace, for creation.   He rallies them, and makes them believe, though maybe only for a moment, that peace between Autobot and Decepticon is truly possible.  And who knows, perhaps with Optimus and Megatron helming things, instead of the more pragmatic and less idealistic Grimlock and Bludgeon, peace truly might be possible.  One can't help but hope that maybe, JUST maybe, peace can win out in the end with enough hard work and sacrifice, that maybe the Autobots and Decepticons have earned their happy ending.

The End.

Except, of course, it's not. There's that Liege Maximo fellow that we've heard teased a bit.  In The Hub, he sits, brooding, listening to Rook tell the tale of Jhiaxus' descent.  He isn't concerned, though.  Evil cannot be destroyed, for there must always be balance.  Evil is infinite.  "This ridiculous, fragile Autobot-Decepticon alliance has destroyed but a fraction of my empire's total forces, irritated rather than wounded."  Indeed, "The day of reckoning will come!"

And that's the real end!  A teaser.  Senior pulls out all the stops, making this guy look huge and ancient and terrifying.  He's more monster than mech.  The idea, though, that his empire is so vast that all we've seen of the G2 Cybertronians are merely a 'fraction' doesn't sit that well with me.  Really, there are whole galaxies out there of this guys minions?  Seems a bit much.  How did no one notice?  I'm quibbling, though.  Emotionally, this ending is perfect.  We get a semi-happy ending, and yet with ominous overtones.  It never ends, after all!

---

And there you have it.  The final issue in this wonderful continuity.  Furman knew that he might have to end at issue 12, and structured the plot accordingly.  I'm glad he did - this series ending seems much more measured than the one we got in issue #80.  (Which I've already hyperlinked to twice and won't be hyperlinking to a third time.)  Plot threads gathered together over the series pretty much all pay off.  We get some huge battles, some pain, some joy, and have unleashed a new wonderous creation upon the galaxy.   Intellectually, emotionally, structurally, it's a great climax to a strong story.  The universe has been expanded to one that is indeed grittier, darker, less mythic.  These seem a bit more like real people and a bit less like titans, perhaps because those they fight are so much larger than themselves.  

I think I've got about one more post in me, reviewing the entirety of this continuity.  I won't rush through it today, though, so my thoughts are mostly limited to this issue and, to a lesser extent G2.  A Rage in Heaven! is the title story in Transformers Rage in Heaven. Given the very strong finish that this book, and indeed the entire latter half of the G2 run, it's a must-have in the collection of all Trans-fans, so order it if you haven't already.

Review: Marvel G2 #11 - Dark Shadows! and Tales of Earth (part 8)

We're almost done!  The penultimate issue of the US G2 Marvel Comics run of transformers was, once again, split into two parts.  The creative line-up is unchanged.  Both stories are penned by Furman, lettered by Starkings (w/ Comicraft), and colored by Mossoff.  The main story, Dark Shadows!, is drawn by Manny Galan and inked by Jim Amash.  Tales of Earth, part 8, the final in the series, is drawn by Geoff Senior.   They played with their titles (writerbot, inkerbot, etc), with editors Tokar and DeFalco listed as busybot and deactivated.  Oh, and the cover, as every, is a Yaniger piece.

Yaniger's piece is a striking image, with a gigantic Starscream veiled in red willing cackling yellow energy into Optimus Prime and Megatron.  The actual rendering is fairly simple, except for a beautifully rendered oversized hand.  To me it's the color that really sells the image.  Slightly marring it is some dialogue, "Optimus Prime (tm) and Megatron (tm), now you shall experience --" "A WARWORLD of PAIN!"  I don't think it adds much, and it's repeated almost verbatim inside.

And inside we go, picking up exactly where last issue left off.  Starscream's gloating conveys some nice exposition, tormenting Op & Meg with words before he gets down to it with action even as he directs the warworld against Jhiaxus' forces.  On Earth (but not Tales of Earth yet), Jhiaxus is disbelieving when informed that the Warworld has gone rogue.  It doesn't take him long to figure out that Starscream is to blame.  Furious, he rockets up to the Twilight, leaving a concerned subordinate calling The Hub (no, not Hasbro's new channel!) with urgent news for the Liege Maximo.  Hmmm... heard that name before. It feels like Jhiaxus is approaching his character's apex.  While Optimus and Megatron seem to have grown, the leader of the G2 Decepticons is regressing back to the state he was in back in ancient times.  It's fun to see this kind of convergence.

Op & Megatron face the interior of the Warworld, an ever-twisting maze of spikes and fusion energy and twisting metal.  They're quite a force when fighting together, but Starscream seems to be more than a match.  However, occasionally the environment seems to alter to their favor, such as a corridor that brings Optimus where he needs to go, or a cable that's lower than it seems.  Hmmm....   The pounding that the Cybertronian Empire is dishing out provides a welcome distraction.  Optimus contacts Jhiaxus from the control room of the ship, attempting to convince him that an even GREATER threat is nearly upon them.  Jhiaxus hears these words, and decides to blow up a large piece of the Earth!


It's a pretty straightforward tale, a moody piece mostly focused around the Warworld.  Optimus, even at this late point in the game, seeks rapprochement.  Jhiaxus, having devolved into a tyrant worse than the likes of Straxus, has no place for it.  It's ironic that Optimus and Megatron are able to work so well together this issue, and yet they are the ones he considers to be evolutionary throwbacks.  Starscream remains the big unkown, with his matrix-infused Warworld.  I find it funny that, in a way, his ambition is so much greater than Jhiaxus' or Megatrons'.  They seek to mold the galaxy to their liking, Starscream seeks godhood.

We're not done yet!  Senior seems to take a sadistic artistic glee in depicting the destruction of San Fransisco, matched by some pleasantly contrasting text from Furman.  "Clear skies, with a cool breeze rolling in across the bay to keep temperatures in the balmy mid-seventies.  It's hard not to smile at total strangers." 

Optimus is besides himself.  The guilt is clearly overbearing.  Grimlock and Razorclaw are awed by a mushroom cloud topping the horizon.  The end seems nigh.  Jhiaxus is elated, ordering more strikes even though, as an underling points out, some of his own troops are down there.

But salvation comes from an unexpected quarter... Starscream engages the Twilight.  Optimus questions the conniving 'Con's actions, but Starscream has no explanation.  Prime does, figuring out that the Matrix, ever willful, is rewriting Starscream into a suitable host.  This is not the dark energy that possessed Thunderwing, no, this is the Matrix purified and noble and good.  For a moment, there is hope.

And just like that, it is gone.  The Twilight and the Warworld together are engaged by the Swarm, and we are all set for the final confrontation of the Marvel Comics Transformers continuity.

Despite the final Tales of Earth (which only half takes place on Earth) being much shorter than the main story, it seems much meatier somehow.  While there's plenty of Indiana Jones style action in Dark Shadows!, Tales of Earth is all payoff.  The destruction of San Fransisco is a level of devastation never before seen in the Transformers, and I struggle to think of a comparable example since.  I mean, sure, Unicron has destroyed some worlds, I'll grant, but this is Earth!  This is HOME!  I've been to San Fransisco.  Destroying it takes balls.  This in and of itself would be enough to make this a stand-out issue, but Furman throws two more curve balls thrown at us in rapid succession.  Starscream, becoming good!  And then the arrival of the Swarm, which had of course been telegraphed way in advance, still manages to catch my by surprise thanks to the many metaphoric blows Furman rained upon my head.

After reading this issue, I feel certain that the final issue will be larger than life and probably far better structured.  The elements seem to be gathering together, and I want to see how the tapestry is woven together.  Dark Shadows! and Tales of Earth (part 8) are available for purchase in the Transformers Rage in Heaven book, published by Titan, and they come highly recommended by this not-so-humble Transformers scribe.

Review: Marvel G2 #10 - Total War! and Tales of Earth (part 7)

The tenth issue of the US G2 Marvel Comics run of Transformers. [Note, I'm being only slightly redundant when I write out all of that.  There is in fact a UK G2 series (by Fleetway) as well as a US G2 comic not done by Marvel (done instead by Fun Publications as a part of last years BotCon... see how I worked BotCon in?).  I suppose I could have dropped the country and just gone with publisher, since there is no UK G2 Marvel Comics by this point, but in the interests of uniformity with my G1 reviews I figured I'd keep it.] It is told in two parts, though they mesh somewhat seamlessly.  Both are written by Simon Furman, colored by Sarra Mossof, and lettered by Richard Starkings with Comicraft.  Pencils on the main story, Total War!, is by Manny Galan with Jim Amash on inks.  The incomparable Goeff Senior returns for Tales of Earth.  The cover is all that Derek Yaniger contributed to this issue.

Perhaps it is enough.  We get a symbolic cover this time, with a giant Jhiaxus crushing the Earth like a cheap ceramics.  TOTAL WAR! it boldly proclaims.  It's simple but very effective.  Our heroes have run out of places to hide, and all of Earth will suffer for it.  It certainly makes me want to keep reading.

Inside, we start exactly where we left off, with incoming forces buffeting the Autobase.  I find the narration rather forced.  "Autobase Earth.  A safe haven, far from the eyes and reach of Commander Jhiaxus and his second generation Transformer army.  NOT!"  Ugh.  Trying too hard, you are, Furman.  At first things seem bleak, with constant firepower knocking Megatron and Optimus off balance and killing Joyride.   Up above on the Warworld, things are faring no better.  System after system is knocked off-line, and a boarding party is forcing their way in.  The Combatacons move to repel, but it's worse than they thought.  Starscream is leading the way.  Great artwork here, especially on Starscream.  It's almost Sin City-esque.   Furman also writes desperation well.  This is starting to look like a last stand. 

However, when we flash back to Earth, our heroes are already rallying.  We get three pages of a counteroffensive that seems pretty darned effective.  Furman hangs a lampshade on this a bit, with Jhiaxus incredulous at how badly his forces are doing.  Frankly, so am I.  Hard to imagine the hundred or so G1 Transformers, backed into a corner and still managing to win.  Jhiaxus does the sensible thing, though, and summons EVERYONE to Earth.  One way or another, the fight ends here. 

It's space, though, where the interesting things are happening.  Soundwave and the crew of the Warworld have abandoned ship, leaving it in the hands of the G2 forces... and Starscream.  The G2 forces eagerly pursue the escape craft, leaving Starscream unattended.  He quickly makes his way to the Matrix, still wired into the ship.  This can't be good.  Starscream isn't the only G1 Transformer making his way to the Matrix, though.  Optimus presses Megatron, and the latter admits that he has a cloaked ship nearby.  Up they go, though who or what will greet them is yet to be determined.  I rather like the idea that Megatron would NEVER walk into the Autobase without several means of escape nearby, and further that Optimus would know that.  It feels right.  That the G2 Decepticons would leave Starscream alone in such a pivotal position seems less likely, but I can accept it during the fog of war. And hey, it looks like Roller makes an appearance, amped up for G2 of course.  I like the top panel on this page as well, what with the urgency of Optimus and th casual backwards blast that Megatron uses to shrug off pursuers.

This story isn't quite over.  A battalion of G2 Cybertronians, en route to Earth, encounter a mysterious force.  It is, of course, the swarm, and it rips them to shreds in short order.  However, the order logged in their systems, make haste to Earth, enters what passes for consciousness in the Swarm, inexorably setting up the REAL climax of the series. 

Of course, while Total War! is over, Tales from Earth (part 7) have just begun.  Starscream, apparently in complete control of the Warworld, savors the confusion on the part of Jhiaxus' forces as he refuses to answer hails.  Eventually, he gives them an answer... guns blazing, of course.  Artwork, by Geoff Senior, is of course amazingly lovely.  Starscream's sadism is a delight.  He goes from craven coward to brutal bringer of death at the drop of a hat.  After hurling the gauntlet at Jhiaxus, he waits patiently as Optimus and Megatron come aboard. The Autobot and Decepticon leaders are, understandably, nervous.  They aren't being fired upon, but neither are their hails being answered.  SOMETHING is certainly afoot.

There's a bit of a subplot down on Earth.  (Imagine that, in a story called 'Tales of Earth') 
Megatron's latter-generation Transformers, given life between issues 6 and 7, are playing a part in the seemingly neverending battle.  Some of them, Manta Ray in particular, seems to be getting on quite well with Grimlock.  Razorclaw doesn't take too kindly to this.  There's a great full-panel of his face as his stews on this, but I decided to instead go with him ripping the throat oout of a G2 Cybertronian.  He's looking damn scary!  We also see Grimlock in headband, with 'Big Grim' written on his shoulder.  Why?  I have no idea.  This feels like a set-up for some later plotlines, nice to see in a book so close to the end of its run.

Inside the Warworld, the environment seems bizarre, unfamiliar.  Corridors twist and turn almost organically, with crackling energy everywhere.  The wall twists and turns and swallows them whole, depositing them in the realms of nightmares.  Starscream, with the Matrix, seems to have merged with the ship!  He's huge and glowing, an immense creature blurring matter and energy.  It's actually quite familiar - Issue #50 of the G1 run, Dark Star, featured the same image more-or-less.  It's still rather effective.  We now have three major plot points to resolve, and only two issues to do it in.  Starscream and the Matrix; Jhiaxus and his forces; and, of course, the Swarm.  One can't help but wonder how these three antagonists will interact in the short time left to us.

As for the specifics of THIS plot point, I'm a bit ambivalent.  After all, we HAVE seen Starscream overclock himself on mystical energy sources before, so that doesn't feel very new.  His treachery did feel like it needed a climax, but then that could have been his team-up with Jhiaxus and not this additional outrage.  This marks yet another Starscream-based cliffhanger.  I'm starting to feel like the latter half of G2 has a bit too many of them.

Ending aside, it's a strong issue.  Geoff Senior artwork is very welcome, though actually the Starscream-Warworld material would have been perfect for José Delbo.  I feel like I can almost, but not quite, see where the finale will go, which is a good thing.  Furman is playing fair but not over-telegraphing anything.    While I do think it a bit silly that the Autobot/Decepticon alliance was able to shrug off Jhiaxus' initial assault, I'm willing to accept that for the sake of the story.

Only two issues left!  Total War! and Tales of Earth (part 7) are available for purchase in  Transformers Rage in Heaven  book, published by Titan.

Review: Marvel G2 #9 - Swarm and Tales of Earth (part 6)

The ninth issue of the US G2 Marvel Comics run of Transformers again contains two tales: Swarm, and Tales of Earth (part 6).  Despite this duality, there is only one creative crew.  Writing is by Simon Furman, pencils by Manny Galan, inks by Jim Amash, colors by Sarra Mossoff, and letters by Richard Starkings with Comicraft.  The cover, as always, is by Derek Yaniger.

The cover is effective, though it's a bit hard to know for sure what's going on till you read the story.  Three of Jhiaxus' G2 Cybertronians are in pieces, perhaps being consumed by the black smoke that whorls around the cover.  Optimus Prime, faded out, is in silhouette.  "Waking NIGHTMARE!" it says, which is actually somewhat shrewd, as we'll come to find.  It's intriguing, and the artwork certainly conveys what it intends to, but I think the subject matter is just a bit abstract.

We open on a familiar scene, Optimus Prime walking among dessicated bodies, indulging in a brooding (or 'bro-ding', as my wife would say it) narration.  "A dream, a vision..." it asks.   Alas, this is the reality he finds himself in.  An Autobot science crew pores over a devastated industrial plant, while the security team looks on impatiently.  Since this isn't the work of Jhiaxus, Megatron wants to move on, and Grimlock agrees, but Optimus is having none of it.  He suspects a connection between this, his visions, and the G2 Cybertronians. The most effective bit here is the misdirection around the dream state.  Furman seemingly realized that he was overusing this trope, and poked a bit of fun at it.  The cover foreshadows this rather effectively.

Elsewhere, Jhiaxus' massive onslaught continue, this time under the command of a sub-commander named Mindset.  He's systematically and dispassionately eliminating the local life, but the arrival of the Swarm brings all of that to an end.  We get many pages of action as the Cybertonians make a futile last stand, exciting stuff and it puts the cover in the proper context.  When the swarm gets to Mindset, it pauses for a moment and imitates him.  It senses familiarity in this being, though that doesn't save the Decepticon from being absorbed.  Half a galaxy away, Onslaught reacts as his presumed offspring is consumed.  Optimus Prime feels it too, that a turning point has been reached.

Swarm has one more dramatic beat left, though.  Jhiaxus surveys the wreckage of his crew on Ethos, handed to him last issue by Megatron's timely (or untimely, depending on perspective) arrival.  A figure arrives, but Jhiaxus stays his men.  He knows this one... it's Starscream.  The miscreant is looking to switch sides!  (Galan manages to capture Starscream's evil sneer perfectly here.)

The last stand of the native is a nice moment.  Though he's outmatched, his courageous stand provokes sympathy from the reader but contempt from his opponents.  One cannot help but draw connection with the similarly futile stand the Cybertronians would make scant pages later and feel that justice has been served. 


The moment with Onslaught, though, is iffier.  It's not exactly stated, but it was heavily implied that the Combaticons were made on Earth just before issue #25.  With so many hundreds of Decepticons to choose from, why Onslaught?   I do like the visual similarities between him and Mindset, though.

The final twist of the first tale of the book was a bit telegraphed.  After all, with Starscream missing last issue, where else would he go?  I think that it might have been more effective to leave this meeting undepicted.  We'd have gotten the picture, I think.

It's not over yet, though, we still have Tales of Earth!  Back at the Autobase, Perceptor educates the assembled 'Bots and 'Cons as to what they've found.  The residue from the destroyed world, J'Asik, shares  a 'genetic sequence and celluar configuration' with that of the Transformers.  I think it's a bit odd to think of the Transformers as having a genetic code, but I suppose the budding idea already introduced biological analogs to the mythology.  I absolutely love the panel I excerpted here, by the way.  Galan's abstract prime looks so down, yet it's such a simple rendering.  Well done.

Optimus fills Megatron in on his visions, connecting the dots for him (and the audience.)  They face not just the unchecked growth and accompanying amorality of the G2 Cybertronians, but also this monstrous outgrowth of their race.  However, they have no time to dwell on this... Jhiaxus has found them!

The full might, one presumes, of this far superior foe is now free to rain down on the assembled Autobot/Decepticon forces.  It's a great ending, though perhaps telegraphed a bit too much by Starscream's defection at the end of the main story.  It's a bit sad to have no Yaniger artwork.  Galan still seems to struggle with the style.  Though he has some nice moments, on the whole the imagery still seems a bit awkward and uncomfortable.

We now have three issues to go and the big confrontation has seemingly arrived already.  One has to wonder a bit where we go from here.  Three issues of Jhiaxus versus our guys?  Retreat and counterattack?  The story has certainly become exciting, and I look forward to seeing it climax.  This issue is reprinted in its entirety and available for purchase in  Transformers Rage in Heaven  from Titan publishing.

Review: Marvel G2 #8 - Escalation and Tales of Earth (part 5)

The eighth issue of the US G2 Marvel Comics run of Transformers is, as usual, a two-part tale, though this time the back up story was placed in the middle of the main story. Very strange. Both were written by Simon Furman, with colors by Mossoff and letters by Starkings with O'Neil. The artwork on Escalation!, the main story and not the excellent IDW miniseries of the same name , was by Manny Galan on pencils with Jim Amash on inks. The Tales of Earth (part 5) artwork, pencils and inks, was done by Derek Yaniger, as was the cover.

Yaniger  delivers another excellent cover.  Optimus and Megatron stand, back to back, guns smoking, a sword dripping oil.  They stand amid the wreckage of many G2 Cybertronians.  Powerful stiff.  Megatron's hip looks just a bit off, but that's a pointless nit.  Even the cover text seems somewhat necessary: "Optimus Prime and Megatron: Old Enemies / New Allies!"  Yes, the image shows that, but it's so unlikely that it's worth calling out.  Lovely work.

The issue starts off with a middling splash by Galan, Jhiaxus looking wrathful.  Jim Amash's inks definitely give it a certain energy and excitement, but overall it's a bit too static for my taste.  He (Jhiaxus, not Jim Amash) is ranting about how his mercy has emboldened his enemies, and perhaps he's right.  He's had both Optimus and Megatron in his power and let them get away in a futile attempt to bring them into the modern era.  No more, though.  The next page is a rather interesting two-page spread depicting the carnage that his forces are enacting in an effort to draw out Optimus Prime.  Jhiaxus stands in front of it, which works very well.  The coloring helps sell the action here, and the angle on the picture makes him seem contemplative.  Great storytelling, really.  The image of him in the upper right, though very clever, is perhaps a bit redundant.  It's a good three page start to the issue, though, setting the stage for the action to come.

From there we bounce into Tales of Earth, only three pages in.  Optimus and Megatron, both looking worse for wear, start to hammer out the terms of their alliance, with just a bit of interference from Grimlock.  It seems that their alliance is doomed for failure when an alien distress signal lures the Autobots on a mission of mercy, one that Megatron has no interest in.  The Autobots blast off for the frontier, leaving Megatron behind.  Aside from some rather gory Yaniger artwork, like the drool that spews from Megatron's mouth, the most interesting bit comes in at the end.  Starscream suggests that the 'Cons trash the Autobots base while they're off saving the universe, and Megatron dismisses him offhandedly.  Starscream realizes that it's time for him to come up with a real backup plan, and fast, because his time as Megatron's lackey is rapidly drawing to a close.

Thus ends tales from Earth, but the story is far from over.  Escalation continues!  Jhiaxus' troops destroy the peaceful dreamers of Ethos, and Optimus has no choice but to engage.  There's a nice character bit early on where Optimus wrings his hands about the devastation even as Grimlock calmly orders his troops about.  The action is decent, but it's clear that the Autobots have walked into an ambush.  Jhiaxus wanted this confrontation, and he's ready for it.  Help comes from an unexpected quarter, though... The Decepticons ride in to the rally.  (I love Starscream's lack of enthusiasm in response to Thundercracker's rallying cry - "Yeah, yeah. Ra-ra-ra."  Hard to do sarcasm in this format, but it plays well here.)

Optimus is glad that the Decepticons arrived to save their butts, but of course he's worried too.  Despite his lofty speech, it was the brutal edge of the Decepticons that won this battle.  He and Megatron confer aboard the Warworld, attempting to build on the success of this day, when Soundwave shows up with disturbing news.  Starscream is missing!

It's another decent offering, though moving the back-up tale to the middle of the issue feels really strange to me.  I'm not sure just having a different title block makes the changes in artwork any more or less jarring, and clearly Furman feels compelled to keep some portion of each story on Earth.  Leaving that aside, it's a pretty simple story.  Good guys show up, fight, get overwhelmed, and then the cavalry shows up even though they said they wouldn't.  Galan's artwork seems a bit off this time around, which in an action-heavy issue like this is quite a shame.  The brutality of the G2 Cybertronians, though, is a highlight.  Furman's prose does a good job of selling the beauty and wonder of the living computers of Ethos, even if Galan's artwork just shows a bunch of blobby alien creatures.   The real payoff, though, is seeing Autobot and Decepticon fight together.  As well, Starscream's desertion at the end is a nice way to end an otherwise fairly predictable story.  

Sadly, this is also the issue where we find out that the series will end at issue 12. Shame.  It took them a while to hit their stride, but they seem to have done so.  This story, while not brilliant, is solid on its own.  In the context of the overall story, it's really quite good, with Optimus and Megatron poised on one side and Jhiaxus on the other, and Starscream a wildcard. At least we get four more issues to finish things out, which is more than the G1 comic got after the axe fell.  Escalation (and Tales of Earth 5, of course) is available for purchase in the out-of-print titan collection,  Transformers Rage in Heaven.