Review: Marvel G1 #40: Pretender to the Throne!

Pretender to the Throne! is the fortieth issue in the US G1 Marvel comic series.  As the series went eighty issues, that means I'm more or less halfway through the original run.  (A bit closer to more, now that all the mini-series are behind me, but less than the half of whole US Marvel continuity, since G2 adds in another 17 or so issues.)  The creative line-up is unchanged; Budiansky penned the tale, with Delbo pencils, Hunt inks, Oakley letters and Yomtov colors.  Once again, José Delbo and Dave Hunt draw the cover.

It's a pretty lackluster cover, though, unlike last month's offering.  We get a generic high-tech background, with three Pretenders in the foreground.  Two of them are fairly monsterous, and the other one may as well be a robot because we don't see anything organic about it.  It's Landmine, and presumably his face is obscured to avoid giving away the surprise, but then why not just do a third Decepticon Pretender?  Most significantly, Optimus Prime is on a giant-ass monitor, in a monochrome red to signify his computer-generated nature.  It all adds up to a big pile of who cares.  Delbo's robots are always fairly correct if not always dynamic, but I think he was a bad choice to emphasize the organic nature of these Pretender monsters.  While they're not the best idea in Transformers history, a cover full of monsters should be a slam-dunk, and sadly this is anything but.

The issue itself is somewhat uneven, most likely as a result of trying to serve two purposes.  It opens strongly enough, with a computer-generated Optimus Prime leading the mighty Mechabots of Hyperfax into battle against the brutal Bombasticons.  This, or some variant on this, would also have made a nice cover.  We soon learn that Ethan Zachary, who killed Prime himself back in issue #24, has indeed saved a copy of Optimus Prime's mind, personality and schematics.  He's built a whole computer gaming company around the idea of jumpstarting Prime's ego, making him believe he's more than just a video game hero.  Presumably it's taken some time for him to build an operating system around the core datafiles that make up Optimus Prime.  After all, it's very difficult to imagine that Optimus Prime's mind was an executable file able to run on a late eighties machine.

Ethan has recently unlocked Prime's memories of past associates.  Though he remembers leading the Autobots, he still puts all his past memories in the context of computer simulations. Even a newspaper article about Decepticons overrunning a genetics lab doesn't help. At Ethan's direction, Optimus tries to contact the Ark, but it's still missing.  Buster Witwicky proves a more fruitful lead.  With his name and location, Ethan contacts Sparkplug, who angrily brings the audience up to speed on the events of the last few issues and hangs up.

This is not quite the deadend Ethan fears, though, since Spike has bugged his dad's phone.  On board the not-quite-named-yet Steelhaven, the newly rebuilt Goldbug is skeptical about Optimus Prime contacting anyone.  He claims to have seen Optimus's lifeless body launched into the sun. Whoops! Goldbug must have watched a video of this, since he was blown apart by G.I. Joe at the time of the funeral.  Also, of course, the Matrix Quest plotline a few years hence will reveal that Prime's body has actually found its way to VsQs.  Two continuity glitches, one backwards, one forwards, in one panel.  Impressive.  Also, I just realized it, but at this point in the story Bumblebee/Goldbug has been completely destroyed and rebuilt twice ... both by humans.  Finally, I wonder why the rebuilt him as Goldbug again ... I thought that was just G.I. Joe doing the best they could.  Surely his own internal schematics are for Bumblebee, no?  In any event, with Fort Max still in the shop following the spanking Shockwave gave him, Goldbug goes down to Earth to investigate things.

Soon he's face-to-monitor with the virtual presence of Optimus Prime, who's looking forward to his next game.  They concoct a scheme to send Optimus into battle against REAL Decepticons, hoping that it will be more effective at helping his true personality to come to the forefront.  They hack into the genetics lab the Decepticons have occupied and send him on in.  I rather like the art for this sequence.  I mean, sure, it's silly, but it feels about right.  Optimus uncoveres Scorponok's most harebrained dastardly scheme yet.  He's going to coat his warriors with organic synthoplasm, making them look like horrible evil monsters.  This will allow them to ... surprise the autobots? ... umm ... operate undetected? ... ummm .... well, it's a scheme, anyway.  Optimus records the data and heads home, but he's been detected.

Optimus has analyzed the data and recommends that Ethan create six new characters to mount an effective counterattack.  He also urges haste, as the Decepticons may have traced him.  Goldbug and Ethan are considerably more perturbed by this prospect than he is, since it's all just a game to him.  Goldbug points out the futility of 'making six new characters,' but Ethan thinks that Prime's initiative should be encouraged.  And so, in short order, six new Autobots we've never seen before are being turned into Pretenders, which really must be a VERY easy process given the complete lack of lead time.

The time is set for battle! Optimus goes back into the digital realm, as bait.  Scorponok inputs his brain into the computer while sending his Pretenders to Ethan's lab.  First they get to demonstrate their weapons on RAAT, in what is I believe their last appearance.  Then they travel to the game company and are surprised to see six giant humans.  The humans pretend to retreat for all of about ten seconds, then turn around and counter attack.  Guh?  With Goldbug as his eyes, Optimus directs the battle.  Naturally, the Autobots do very well.  There are hiccups, such as when Goldbug's optics malfuction (hey, it's a new body, cut him some slack.)  Optimus and Scorponok have their first encounter here in the virtual world.  Prime emerges victorious, naturally, as do his men.  They gather around his screen, and Optimus can feel a change!  He knows now what it is to be a warrior, a leader.  It's something he'll never forget!  Never!

So, he asks, when do they start the next game?

It's a very satisfying ending, at least.  All that and Prime still thinks he's nothing but a game character, albeit a very good game character.  Ah, the wry irony of it all.

The title, too, is clever, if perhaps a bit obvious.  It works on more than one level, though, which is nice.  After all, Grimlock and Fortress Maximus are the nominal Autobot leaders, but here we have a possible supplanter to them in the form of this CG Prime.  Then again, maybe it's Grimlock and Fort Max who are the pretenders.  Neither one of them has a completely legitimate claim.  Fort Max is basically Spike, a human to took the place of the former Autobot leader.  Grimlock, well, he was elected leader but then swiftly began to abuse his authority. 

Unfortunately, the internal logic of the story is pretty weak.  Scorponok's Pretenders DON'T look like Decepticons, it's true, but they DO look like 30 foot tall monsters.  Really, who's that going to fool?  They might have gotten, one, maybe two raids in before the Autobots realized what was up. And Prime's plan is just as ridiculous.  If it didn't work, I'd have said it's because his addled brain thought in video game terms, but since it did work it just seems contrived.

I like the conceit of Prime not realizing that he is a real being. It's a fun direction to take the character, and seems very in keeping with the method of his resurrection.  Still, a floppy disk containing his brain AND schematics? Seems hard to believe.  I also like how some of the scenes in the virtual realm use an extra border to separate them from the main action.  It properly distances them from the 'reality' of the main story; a subtle, but well executed, touch. 

There is good in here, but it's hard to find.  Ignore all the extraneous elements and you get a pretty good tale about what it means to be sentient.  Budiansky seems hampered by the introduction of twelve new characters.  The Prime plot is fun and interesting, but everything else seems like a distracting sideshow.   For a tale that gets Pretenders right, see the four issue Revelation series from Furman, some two decades on.  Of course, he was under far different creative constraints than Budiansky. Still, when a story doesn't work, it doesn't work, and sadly this one doesn't.

Next  issue, we're promised "The Battle You Demanded! Grimlock vs. Blaster! (and about 100 more Transformers dukin' it out, too!")  That sound just awesome! Grimlock's been missing from the comics since issue thirty-six.  That's five months of wondering exactly what happened to the Earthbound Autobots.  This gap is exactly the opposite of the Pretender weakness above.  Here Budiansky has taken the opportunity presented by the arrival of the Headmasters to move our former heroes off-stage and allow the tension to build.  We even see that the absence of the Autobots has allowed Ratbat and Shockwave to operate unhindered, building for themselves a might space vessel.  It was a very shrewd move on Budianky's part, and we'll see how well he exploits it now that the payoff is finally here.  I'm looking forward to it.  Pretender to the Throne!  is available in IDW's  Classic Transformers Volume 3 from Amazon.com.

Bish's Review: Marvel UK #85 "Target: 2006" Part 7

Target 2006 Part 7 was written by Simon Furman, pencilled by Will Simpson, inked by Tim Perkins, lettered by Richard Starkings and coloured by Tony Jozwiak.

The cover is by Will Simpson and is fairly uninspiring. The caption reads "Galvatron's Autobot Zombie!" and a very stiff Jazz is depicted very stiffly knocking out Tracks and Bluestreak. Apart from the looks of shock on their faces these characters too are almost lifeless and it's very strange to have all three looking straight at the "camera". Very awkward composition. Galvatron's face oversees all of this and it's a perfectly adequate rendering, I suppose but he stares fairly blankly with mouth open when one would have expected him to be laughing or at least smirking at getting one over on the Autobots.

We open with the Decepticon Starship from the very first issue getting vaporised by Galvatron's experimental anti-Unicron cannon. Galvatron decides that this one test on a much smaller object is enough and that he and his band can return to 2006 once the weapon recharges. Why he has to wait for a weapon to recharge now that he needs in twenty years time isn't entirely clear, but presumably it needs to be fully charged before being concealed beneath the ground, and, eventually, Autobot City.  Galvatron makes a big show of indulging Starscream partly because he has potentially useful information, but mostly because he finds it amusing to allow the devious Decepticon to believe that he is his root to power when, from Galvatron's perspective, Starscream is already dead, at his hand.

Meanwhile, back at the Ark, Ultra Magnus is getting nowhere in his quest to solve the mystery of Prime's disappearance. While he is feeling sorry for himself the three future Autobots, Kup, Hot Rod and Blurr show up. Hot Rod does not know his history and thinks Magnus has the Matrix of Leadership (pretty bad given this is twenty years ago for him - a being who's probably millenia old by now). Kup sets him straight and introduces them, before going on to explain to Magnus that they are looking for a Decepticon called Galvatron.

Galvatron, however, is now personally handling the exchange of the captive Jazz for Scourge. The Autobots have Scourge in a set of "anti-grav" manacles which are programmed to fry him if he puts a foot wrong. This could have been a pretty good image if Will Simpson ever gave the impression that he cared about what he was doing.  While this takes place, Megatron is sneaking into Galvatron's base when he is caught by Cyclonus. The future Decepticon is once again betrayed by his lack of intelligence and is knocked out by Soundwave while crowing over Megatron. However, they reckon without Starscream, who takes them by surprise and blasts Megatron in the back.

Back at the Ark Kup is explaining to Ultra Magnus the way that time travel devices displaces beings of similar size and mass from the target time, explaining the disappearing Autobots. It shifts them into a pocket dimension between realities that leaves them unharmed. As soon as Magnus realises that Galvatron and the others are responsible for the disappearance of the Autobots he takes off at great speed, not allowing Kup to finish.

The Autobots are baffled by why Galvatron went through with the prisoner exchange but are soon shown the reason. Jazz has been modified by Galvatron and is now a remote control puppet. To give Simpson his due, the image of Jazz, slack jawed, with his eyes burning red and his mouth spewing energy (for some reason) is genuinely well realised in a horrifying sort of way. Jazz leaps up and starts battling the Autobots, taking Jetfire down very hard.

Galvatron has taken advantage of this distraction to slope off, arriving just in time to stop Starscream executing Megatron (and with him, Galvatron's future). He backhands Starscream to the ground and begins to rant about how no-one can stop him before Ultra Magnus arrives and picks up the gauntlet. To be continued...!

Scriptwise this issue is mostly great. While I am not entirely certain that the zombie-Jazz subplot is all that necessary it gets the job done by giving the Autobots a reason not to just attack Galvatron in force at his base (other than the pasting they received last time, of course). I like that the Megatron/Autobot alliance is still intact and that they are providing cover for him to use his more warlike skills to infiltrate Galvatron's stronghold. Having Soundwave back Megatron up is good characterisation as the Decepticon is well-known as a sycophant, but also an incredibly sneaky one.

Ultra Magnus solves the mystery of Prime's disappearance by... waiting around until someone from the future tells him the answer... This isn't the most inspiring of reveals but does lead us to the awesome final panel where we know that the Magnus/Galvatron confrontation is going to be massive in the next issue.
The characterisation of the future Autobots is spot-on, although they haven't done much apart from impart information so far. You just know they're here for a reason though, and it'll be fun to see how they get used.

Simpson's art is, unfortunately, still not to my taste. I would like very much, however, to see his original line drawings. I feel that the way he draws the robotic characters would still feel wrong to me, but I might be able to appreciate some of his subtlety. Perkins seems to delight in hiding the pencilling behind a storm of ink that obscures details, blurs lines and makes some of the more detailed panels look like a total mess.

A very fast, very packed issue that is obviously building towards a climax, now that the two strands of the story have been linked together.  IDW's trade of  Transformers: Target: 2006 is available from Amazon.com.

The Ark Addendum - Road King's Transform

Welcome to another edition of The Ark Addendum.  Since the last transform I posted was kinda blah, I figured that this week I'd find one that unambiguously gets it right.  So, from the Masterforce conflict, Road King!

Road King, the British Wolf, was a celebrity racer when he was discovered by the Cybertrons.  He had been, unknowingly, using the Godmaster qualities of his car for some time before joining the struggle against Devil Z and his Destron armies.  This Transform emphasizes his speed, especially in the first panel.  Can't you just feel the wind on your face?

Review: War of the worlds, the series ep 12

The twelfth episode of War of the Worlds is called Choirs of Angels. It opens on a bizarre scene at the alien's lair, with a grotesque parody of a recording session.  "We are the travellers. We are your friends. Believe in us.  We need your help. We are the future. Believe in us. We can save your world. Belive in us. Believe in us."  It turns out that they are attempting to co-opt one of Earth's best minds to their cause with subliminal messages.  The vector for this attack is recording artist Billy Carlos, portrayed by the show's real-life composer, Billy Thorpe.  He's only on the show for a few moments before the aliens dressed like producers kill him and embed their message in his music. 

Dr. McCullough stumbles onto this plot in a not-quite-as-coincidental-as-it-sounds way.  She's trying to prevent live cell phase-matching and Doctor von Deer has promised her a weekend of his time.  Presumably she's trying to prevent alien body-snatching.  His own work is similar, which helps explain why both Blackwood and the aliens are after him.  You see, he was the target of the aliens subliminal message and has been knowingly working with them to develop a vaccine for them.  Unfortunately, he passes on a copy of his Billy Carlos tape to Harrison, a fellow fan.

Listening to the tape flips Harrison's world around in a big way.  He begins looking for reasons why we may have provoked an attack in the first place and settles on atomic testing and bombing of WWII.  Soon he's trying to convince the team to focus on communicating with the aliens, to prevent further misunderstandings.  Ironhorse and Drake laugh it off as a joke, but that stops when he jovially tries to cook a year of Norton's research.  Ironhorse figures out that it's the music messing with his mind and forces him into withdrawal.  McCullough does the same thing with von Deer, then figures out the alien's plans.  She taints their vaccine, but before she can leave they show up.  She bluffs her way through that encounter by pretending to be under the thrall of the music, allowing them to bring the tainted vaccine back with them.  The advocacy has the decaying producer trio test it on themselves, with predictably fatal results.

The Good: The directing! This episode was full of great moments, and the camera choices almost always emphasized this.  From the creepy opening recording session to the withdrawal process to the dying aliens at the end, the cuts and the angles were unexpected and worked well.

The recording sessions.  Not to beat a dead horse, but the aliens recording their message was wonderfully done.  The tempo started off slowly but built to a frenetic pace.  Later, at the mixing session, similar techniques were used.  I found it uncomfortable to watch, but in a good way. Makeshift alien tech, this time an arcade game, is also a hoot.

Billy Thorne was fun in his cameo.  Hey, it's his music, why shouldn't he get to show up?  It's a shame his avatar in the show had to die for his musical integrity, though. The musical piece with the subliminals was fun too, a jazzed-up version of the show's theme song.

Harrison's transition from alien hater to alien sympathizer was perfect.  First he's puzzled and starts to wonder why the aliens attacked.  That puzzlement morphs into understanding, which finally transforms into a sycophantic devotion to them.  Martin handles this superbly.

But even better is his withdrawal.  Blackwood begs, cajoles, threatens and otherwise tries everything he can think of to get Ironhorse to give him just one more taste of the music.  Chaves is strong opposite Martin, but it's Martin who really steals the show.  Ironhorse does have a great moment, though, when Blackwood emotionally collapses.  His instinct is to hug Harrison, but he for whatever reason doesn't do it.  It's a very nice, very subtle bit.

The episode is one of the few that gives all our main characters something to do.  With Harrison incapacitated and Ironhorse shepherding him through withdrawal, Drake became the de facto team leader. Drake also brings about a meltdown in Blackwood by confronting him with the reality of his parents' death by alien hands, a good character moment for both of them.  McCullough, of course, had her hands full trying to keep von Deer out of harms way while still sabotaging his research. 

The alien producer trio are very nice as well. While they were good all around, their best scene was probably their interaction with von Deer.  Their contempt for him is barely concealed, and the delivery on lines like "yes, we will live as friends" is loaded with menace. The woman, especially, has a nicely macabre sexuality about her. She takes the point with von Deer.  I loved her attempting to teach him an alien phrase.  "Rof nosh ruth morgethai," won't you?

Finally, as the trio of aliens dies, horribly, and the advocacy walks away, a random alien just watches them die. He has no pity, no revulsion, and barely even a hint of curiosity.  He is, in short, alien.  Nicely played, WotW, nicely played.

The Bad: Ok, ok, it's not all good.  Coincidence.  While I can buy that McCullough and the aliens would both be interested in the same dude, it's unlikely that they'd be interested in him on the same weekend.

The aliens just leave Dr. McCullough.  True, they debate killing her (bad for the team) or absorbing her (catastrophic for the team,) but ultimately ... do neither.  And we get no explanation either.  The same thing happened, more or less, in To Heal the Leper.  There, at least, the aliens were stopped by Harrison's barricade and perhaps scared off by the arrival of Ironhorse.  Here, there is nothing preventing McCullough's death.  She clearly represented a security risk, so why not kill her?

The Ugly: This episode was relatively gore-free ... right up until the last minute.  Then the three aliens died horribly. I managed to capture a still of one spitting up on himself.  Fun, isn't it?

Choirs of Angels is by far the strongest episode of War of the Worlds aired yet.  Even the title is a kind of twisted mirror, for if the Mor-Tax aliens are angels, they've fallen far indeed.  Unfortunately, it represents something of an apex, as the various disparate elements that occasionally make this show great never again align quite so well.  War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season  is available on DVD, and this episode is a strong argument for paying the $23 or so to get it.

Review: Marvel G1 #39: The Desert Island of Space!

The Desert Island of Space! is the thirty-ninth issue of the US G1 Marvel Transformers comic.  The creative line-up from last issue is unchanged, meaning it's a Budiansky scrip, with Delbo pencils, Hunt inks, Yomtov colors and Oakley letters.  The cover is also by José Delbo.

The cover is very nice.  A desert island, complete with palm trees, rockets up from the earth, with a transparent dome enclosing it.  It's just fired a rocket, apparently from one of the aforementioned palm trees, which has totaled Fortress Maximus.  Shockwave is flying out from the island, presumably to finish the job.  Fort Max get the Shaft!, it declares in a mildly bad pun.  It's a nice meeting of the old and the new, with some delightfully absurd notions thrown in.  The damage to Max looks devastating, and is bleeding energy into the void of space.  Pure win.

The book opens on Buster Witwicky, abducted back in 37.  He's passed out on a beach, perhaps just stirring to consciousness.  It's a rather boring image, but Budiansky's prose salvages it a bit.  "Like a solitary piece of driftwood, he lies baking in the tropical sun ... thousands of miles and days away from his home in Portland, Oregon.  And Buster Witwicky's journey has only just begun." Nice foreshadowing.  When something interposes itself between him and the sun, he objects for a moment ... until he realizes it's Shockwave.  The Decepticon leader directed Ratbat to capture Buster, which Ratbat isn't happy with.  The accountant sees the cost-benefit ratio of keeping Buster around as negative, especially after Buster starts insisting on being fed.  Shockwave disagrees, though.  There's an armada of human naval vessels, and Shockwave thinks that Buster will help keep them at bay. Shockwave and Ratbat bicker like an old married couple.  In a way, they think too much alike.  It's true that Ratbat has more fire than Shockwave, but they're both about evaluating a situation and coming up with the most rational answer.  I get the sense that Shockwave doesn't much like Ratbat, but has no logical reason for those feelings and so doesn't act on them.  Ratbat, meanwhile, openly challenges Shockwave's authority in ways that no other Decepticon could get away with, by virtue of their similar outlooks.  When faced with an argument, Shockwave will always respond in kind.

As it turns out, Shockwave is right.  I.I.I. has tracked the recent robot thefts to Shockwave's Caribbean base and is preparing an assault.  Barnett and Forsythe are both here, the former carrying a briefcase full of Autobots to give tactical advice.  Forsythe is willing to overlook Barnett's insubordination in light of his recent epiphany regarding the hostilities between Autobots and Decepticons.  We also learn that the Predacons broke off their hunt for Barnett suddenly, presumably after Ratbat absconded with Buster.  When he spies Buster on the island, Barnett halts the attack ... which seems really silly.  Autobots might behave like this, but I'd think the military would be a lot more rational.  We also get a clumsy error about how many Throttlebots there were ... Barnett and Forsythe both seem to think that there were seven originally, now six given the missing Goldbug.

Cut to a dumpy motel, where Sparkpulug is staying while his house is being rebuilt.  He's chagrined that Spike is leaving again so soon, without any explanation.  They are interrupted by a phone call from Barnett, informing Sparkplug that Buster is alive but captured.  Barnett won't tell Sparkplug where his son is, so Spike has his dad keep Barnett on the phone.  He's shocked when Spike traces the call just by holding the wire, so Spike reveals to his dad that he is now a Headmaster.  We get another recap of what went before, then the introduction of the Targetmasters to the main US book.  It's one of the clunkier recaps, partially because while I can see Spike feeling obliged to show his father his new Transformer body, I can't really see him introducing the Targetmaster gimmick.

With the location of the Decepticon base now in hand, the Autobots prepare to launch an assault.  Kup isn't too happy about Spike's leadership; he thinks it's too rooted in sentiment.  I'm glad that this was acknowledged, though the fact that he's some unknown alien that they just met hasn't come up at all.  When the Autobots are spotted by Triple-I, the humans prepare to attack the shuttle.  After all, they don't have a human shield.  Rollbar objects, though, much to Forsythe's chagrin.  "You expect me to take orders from a *@#!! TOY?!" he ejaculates, to the apparent amusement of Barnett.  By the way, this is the last time we'd see either character.  Forsythe isn't much of a loss, but Barnett was one of the more interesting supporting characters that Transformers had to offer, so it's sad to see him go with so little fanfare. 

Thanks to Rollbar, the Autobots land unmolested on the island and begin their assault.  Kup cautions 'maxie' to stay behind, given his personal stake in the upcoming battle.  Buster dives for cover and discovers that the grass is a fake, made of wires.  Indeed, the whole island is in fact some kind of Cybertronian installation.  Once again, Shockwave and Ratbat have a heated exchange, this time with the latter pointing out, correctly, that it's entirely because of Buster that the Autobots are here.  Shockwave isn't worried, though, he's built countermeasures into the base.  Soon we see them in action, as autoguns pop up and begin to bwam, poom, zzip, pting, and pkow on the Autobots.  They're forced to fall back to regroup, giving Shockwave time to seal off the island and launch it into space.  Yes, the desert island is, in fact, a rocket, which would be an awesome surprise but for the cover.  Ah, well.  It's still a nice reveal.

As the Targetmasters sulk in defeat, Cerebros combines with Fortress Maximus and flies up to the rocket, grabbing onto it even as it begins to climb out of the Earth's atmosphere.  The Targetmasters think that he must be crazy, validating Kup's prediction about sentiment, but Kup himself is impressed by the sheer guts such a move must take.  Shockwave is pleased that all systems are operating nominally, but is puzzled by their lower-than-expected velocity.  Ratbat prompts the 'monocular moron' to look out the window.  Shockwave is baffled that anyone would even attempt such an illogical rescue, but impales Max on a rocket anyway.  It's a lovely image, but essentially the same as from the cover, so I won't repeat it here. 

Shockwave gloats in his own quiet way, but Ratbat needles him when Cerebros detaches and continues to keep up with the island.  Shockwave flies out of the ship, converts to gun mode and blasts Cerebros, disabling that Autobot too.  Spike is forced to detach, prompting Shockwave to come around for another pass at the human.  Using his radio control, Spike has Maximus' machine gun batteries target Shockwave's rockets.  Shockwave observes that he's too close to Earth, and that her gravity will pull him into the atmosphere, where it is only logical that he burn up.  Ratbat, meanwhile, wryly ponders the irony of the timing.  He's just accellerated the vessel AWAY from Earth, and finds that turning it around to attempt a rescue would be 'illogical.'  I'm sure Shockwave would agree.  It's a good end for the character, though he won't stay dead forever.

Said acceleration pulls the island away from Spike, who's left adrift in space.  Fortunately for him, the Autobots aren't far behind.  They're impressed with the courage that he's displayed, and all agree that they won't rest until Buster is returned to them.

This is another strong tale.  Spike continues his heroes journey, learning more about himself and earning the respect of his allies along the way.  It feels very much like a continuation of #38, which itself tied in very nicely with both Headmasters 1-4 and the existing Earthbased story.  The fact that Grimlock and the Ark are still MIA helps cement these new Autobots as the real defenders of the Earth, in a fairly organic way.

Shockwave hasn't had much to do since taking over from Megatron, but at least we see that he hasn't wasted his time.  He's managed to build a pretty impressive spacevessel with a nice disguise.  The vessel is itself a Transformer, dont'cha see?  It's hard to hid a spaceship, but an island is a pretty good shot at doing so.  I find it an appropriately impressive legacy, very useful and just a little dull.  His 'death', which won't be reversed until #65, (at least in the US ... he'd still be active in the UK pretty much continuously) seems perfectly in-character. He's hoist on his own petard, and can't even seem to fault Ratbat for not coming back for him the way the Autobots came back for Spike, Cerebros and Fortress Maximus.  He skips right past denial, anger, bargaining and depression, immediately hitting acceptance.  After his return, Shockwave wouldn't be quite the powerhouse he was here.  He certainly was interesting and menacing under Furman's pen, but it was during Budiansky's reign that the character shined the brightest.

Barnett and I.I.I., on the other hand, end on a whimper.  I see what the problem was, of course.  Budiansky has written himself into a corner.  Triple-I existed as an antagonistic force.  With Barnett and Forsythe acknowledging the heroism of the Autobots, however begrudgingly, they cease to be a foil and become a force the Autobots can lean on.  That's not nearly as interesting, especially since they're actually not bad at taking down the occasional Transformer.  I still feel that Barnett deserved a big final story, though.  Surely one of the late 40s or early 50s could have been devoted to him.  Micromaster wresting seems particularly superfluous.  Since I often saw Barnett as a stand-in for Budiansky himself, having his last issue be Barnett's last issue would have had a nice symmetry.  Alas, it was not to be.  Barnett WOULD show up in a Classics story, a timeline which is a continuation of the old Marvel G1 (but not G2 ... which is a bizarre-as-hell choice, but I digress) series. 

Next month, the question is raised, "is it really Optimus Prime, or just an incredible simulation?" Why can't it be both?  In a perhaps bit of meta-commentary on the state of working on a toy book, there is a slash after that question and the phrase "Also, the Pretenders!"  It's pretty clear what Bob thinks the focus of the next issue really is, and he doesn't even try to integrated the mandated new characters into said focus.  The Desert Island of Space! is available for sale in IDW's  Classic Transformers Volume 3.

The Ark Addendum - Roll For It (Part 1)

It's time for another edition of The Ark Addendum.  This time, I bring the first part of Roll For It, the second episode of the first season of Transformers.  (Fifth if you count the pilot in the numbering proper.)  I posted the second sheet from Roll For It almost a year ago.  At some point I'm sure I'll get around to parts three and four, but who knows what order I'll post them in!  MWAH HAHAHA!  I'M A MADMAN!!!

Ahem.

Sorry.

The episode is surprisingly rich in backgrounds, which is why I had to spread it out over four parts.  These are the models from the beginning, when Starscream leads the Decepticons in an attack on a hydroelectric plant.

In my opinion, the most interesting bit is the signs in the cityscape.  One can see why the poor overseas animators came up with some funky signs ... the models just kind of sketch things out.  Given this model, is Prim Cola really a huge surprise?

Also, the model identifies this as Central City.  Central City would also feature in the two part episode, Megatron's Master Plan.  A similarly named Center City would show up in a Find Your Fate Junior book.  I wonder where the name came from?  I haven't seen it in any of the series bibles, so it could be coincidence, or there might be other notes that I'm not privy to.  It's an interesting bit of trivia, if nothing else.

Stick around, Bish and Bill both have promised me some interesting posts in the not-too-distant future!

Review: War of the Worlds, the series ep 11

The eleventh episode of War of the Worlds is titled Among the Philistines.  It opens with the scene of some horrific traffic accident at night, with police and fire fighters everywhere.  Traffic has been narrowed down to a single lane.  A truck with three occupants in the cab is the focus of the camera and, as it turns out, the emergency workers.  Our heroes have been tipped to an alien operation and has set up an ambush.  Soon the truckers are beset by soldiers at all sides and pulled from the cab.  Blackwood wants them alive, but they commit suicide rather than face capture.  When the Advocacy finds out that all three soldiers perished, they are oddly glad that something is finally going their way.

It turns out that a linguist has been able to decipher parts of the alien language and has shared some info with the intelligence community.  Soon team Blackwood is interviewing Dr. Adrian Bouchard.  Since he has top secret clearance from his work with the Navy, they bring him in to their project.  There are a few hiccups, such as Debi's new dog which takes an instant dislike to the new member, but for the most part he fits right in.  A new transmission leads most of the team to take off, leaving Norton alone with Debi and the staff of the Cottage.  But Adrian is not what he appears - the aliens have infiltrated their main opponents!  When the dead body of the dog shows up, Norton puts all the pieces, such as Adrian's algorithm not working on older transmissions, together.  He comes up with a pretty decent plan to cut the phone lines and lock the intruder in the basement.  Unfortunately, Debi is with him.  Norton tries to get Debi out inconspicuously, but the alien realizes what's up and Norton is forced to confront him hand-to-hand.  Mr. Kensington, the groundskeeper last seen in the second episode, tries to help and gets strangled for his trouble.  Norton manages to defeat the alien with a staff, and the team mourns the loss of their friendly old groundskeeper.

The Good: This episode is very well paced.  The opening is bigger than it usually manages, with a nice action sequence and lots of extras.  We then move to a more character based script that climaxes satisfactorily at the end.

It's nice to see Norton given something to do.  He's the real star of the episode, though that isn't immediately apparent.  All too often he's stuck at base; this episode, that plot point becomes critical and used well. 

As usual, Ironhorse manages to get in some good lines, this time when consoling Blackwood about the war.  He relates a story from Vietnam to get Harrison out of a funk.

The episode is structured well.  Norton's bo-staff prowess is set up early, during a fight with Ironhorse.  (Norton wins by cheating - his staff has an iron core.)  Adrian's oddity is there, but it's subtle.  We the audience think he's an alien, but we don't know it for sure until he takes off his shirt and reveals a bunch of radiation scars.  There's no coincidence at all, either.  The whole thing is a plot by the aliens.

While Dr. McCullough typically has little to do, this episode has a tiny exception.  When the team figures out (via tuning fork ... yay!) that Adrian is an alien and goes to rush back, her first thought is of her daughter.  That felt very right.

Finally, Cedric Smith's Adrian was charming, intelligent ... and just a bit off.  Pretty much perfect.

The Bad: Tom Kensington's death was a real non-event.  He was barely even in the episode, let alone the series.  To make things worse, the promo for the episode spoke about how a member of the Blackwood team was going to die.  Ummmm ... not really, no.  The funeral for him had some scenes of him from the series superimposed, and was REALLY over-the-top.

Adrian's ability to infiltrate the team seemed a bit much.  The man was downright charming for long stretches of time, which strains credulity.  Also, given the security around the project, shouldn't they at least have given the man a physical or ran a geiger counter over him?

After the compound goes into lockdown, the rest of the team return and can't get in.  Ironhorse breaks in ... which should be really cool.  But he does it by climbing a tree outside the compound perimeter that is already fitted with pitons and climbing gear.  Guh? Then, once inside the high wall topped with barbed-wire, he runs around through the woods. There are a couple of cameras, but there's no real sense that he's in danger.  Are there mines? Soldiers? Autoguns?  What exactly is making him nervous?  An altogether unclear scene.

Finally, I've decided to list the constant 'General Wilson' references as among the bad.  Normally I like continuity, but for some reason the fact that every episode has a scene or two where they mention that they need Wilson's permission (for Adrian to join the team) or that they got intelligence from General Wilson (about the alien truckers) is starting to get to me.  I think it's because we've seen him a couple of times and THEN he became this disembodied presence.  If he had just one more mid or late series cameo I think I'd remove this 'bad', but he'll never show up again in the flesh.  As it is, I debated it before finally putting it in.

The Ugly: Aliens punching out their own hearts was a close contender, but Norton ran Adrian through with an iron bo-staff connected to a fuse box. Honorable mention to the dead dog hanging in a closet, but it was too tastefully done to be a proper 'ugly.'

It's a pretty solid episode.  Our heroes had to be just a bit dumber than they should to make it work, but it was a satisfying tale. I'm not particularly fond of the Norton character, so I'm surprised to find that the episode devoted to him would be one of the better ones. The plot even had a bit of weakness, what with the ease of infiltration, so I'm forced to conclude that my enjoyment comes from the overall execution of the episode. 

A few notes from the neither good, bad nor ugly side.  This episode establishes that they've been fighting the aliens for 'a year.'  Good to know.  We  also get the odd revelation, from Harrison to Adrian, that the aliens are from Mor-Tax.  They've previously only been called Martians.  How does he know this?  I dunno.  Maybe he read the show bible.  It certainly didn't come about in-universe ... or did it?  There's an upcoming episode that may shed some light on it.  Perhaps the airing order is obfuscating things. War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season is available for purchase on DVD.

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Last month, on December 9th, Gene Barry passed from this world at the ripe old age of 90.  He was, of course, Doctor Clayton Forrester in the 1953 George Pal film that this series is based on.