The Ark Addendum - Megatron's Master Plan (d)

Another week, another Ark Addendum!  I'll admit that I'm not feeling especially creative today, so I'll just pick up from where last week left off.  Yup, Megatron's Master Plan! 

As a two-part episode, there were a plethora of models.  This time I look into some of the structures around town, including houses, gymnasiums, Berger's office, and of course the TV Studio where a good deal of the action around the phony Autobot attack took place. 

Next week, I'll finish up this episode and the week after, who knows?  Maybe some Masterforce or some Headmasters.

Bish's Review: Marvel UK #113 "Wanted: Galvatron - Dead Or Alive" Part 1

Wanted: Galvatron - Dead Or Alive Part 1 was written by Simon Furman, drawn by Geoff Senior, Coloured by Steve White and Lettered by Anne Halfacree. This was the first UK originated story for nine issues - the previous eight were the US issues detailing the trauma surrounding the death of Optimus Prime and Megatron once again having trouble with Predacons. With Optimus Prime still dead and Megatron missing in action Furman picks a a good time to catch up with the future portion of the storyline and check in with the movie era characters.

The cover was also by Senior (quite obviously so) and is of a very angry looking Rodimus Prime. Sometimes Senior's art-style works better for action shots than showpieces like this but it is certainly not a bad image. The anatomy is a little imprecise but here is a lot of emotion here (Senior's strong suit) and Rodimus is well-depicted and on-model, with a certain amount of artistic licence.

The issue opens with a wonderfully evocative image: a wanted poster, bearing the likeness of Galvatron and offering a reward. As a splash page this is unusual but immediately intriguing. We find that this poster has been put up in a bar on the robot planet of Elpasos, and, in contrast to last issue, we are back in the (then) future, 2007.

A horned and armour plated mechanoid, known as Death's Head, sees the poster and asks the bartender what it means. This allows Furman to retread the Galvatron/Rodimus Prime battle from the end of Transformers: The Movie, but also to fill in the intervening year. We find out that Rodimus searched unsuccessfully for Galvatron's body but was forced to abandon this when Shockwave (so he survives to the future then? Or will we get further time travel to put this in doubt?) gathered the remaining Decepticons and attacked Cybertron. Rodimus, unable to continue his search for the Decepticon leader, is now offering a reward for his capture or destruction.

Death's Head immediately takes off to find Galvatron and we get a lovely piece of character development where the bartender demands he pay for his drink and comes off very badly. Death's Head claims to have some kind of moral objection to being called a "bounty hunter" by the bartender, preferring "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent" but really he is just a thug who wants a free drink.

Death's Head works out that since Scourge and Cyclonus were Galvatron's lieutenants they might know where he is so he heads to Cybertron to track them down. We find them complaining about Shockwave's orders before Death's Head arrives and takes them both down in short order. Scourge makes the mistake of calling Death's Head a "bounty hunter" and suffers suitable retribution. After offering token resistance Cyclonus crumbles cretinously and lets Death's Head know about Galvatron's time-jump equipment, which seems to offer the best solution as to his whereabouts. The issue ends with Death's Head preparing to jump to the distant past of 1987.

This issue is something of a landmark among fans of the UK book because it introduced Death's Head, a perennial favourite, and with good reason. The intention to create a breakout character with the "freelance peacekeeping agent" is clear without being obnoxious. The rights to Death's Head were secured by Marvel and he had his own run of comics for a while without ever becoming truly successful but he fits right in to the Transformers universe and his introduction is not grating in the way that spin-off generating stories sometimes are. It helps that he is tied directly into a major ongoing plotline: the fate of Galvatron.

With the Prey arc somewhat underwhelming, it has been the time-jumping shenanigans of the future Decepticon leader that have provided the truly compelling narrative and with this this issue we can see that it will be back front and centre. Death's Head is interesting enough by himself, but the prospect of him interracting with all our favourite characters on Earth is very exciting indeed.

The story as told is simple enough. Furman is really just moving his new pieces onto the board in order to start a new arc, but even in this short appearance Death's Head is such a strong presence that we immediately know who he is. Senior's art goes a long way to make him distinctive: he is clearly robotic but obviously not a Transformer, and, obviously the skull-like face that gives him his name is instantly recognisable. While some of the idiosyncracies that make the character a cult classic are not fully realised yet, Death's Head is such a strong central figure that this issue cannot help but be a classic.

Senior delivers his usual strong work and shows a flare for design that is perhaps not often shown in a book where most of the characters are toys long before they ever made it to the page. Death's Head, as mentioned, is particularly vivid, but I feel special mention must also be given to the robot bartender, again obviously mechanical, but spindly and so clearly not a Transformer. I have always been entranced by the conceit in these stories that the Transformers are in no way unique. The idea that the universe is brimming with mechanical as well as organic life is an original and exciting concept and it is issues like this that bring it to the fore.

Furman reminds us that Transformers is sometimes a full-on space opera with winning style and an intriguing central character. I'd be looking forward to the next issue if I hadn't already read it so many times before. In only a few pages Death's Head's arrival has been one of the most interesting developments for a good many issues. More from everyone's favourite hypocritical bounty hunter next week, yes?

Unintentional Hilarity - Babylon 5, Batman, Star Trek

I delight in life.  Little joys, big triumphs, dancing a tiny jig in the bookstore when they play a song I like, a large grin on my wife's face when I crack some silly joke. One tiny pleasure I take is the small moments of unintentional hilarity in the sci-fi and fantasy shows and movies I watch.  I'm not talking about something that's intended to be funny, nor am I talking about the so-bad-it's-good kind of joy I get from shows like The Cape.  (BTW, we're having a Curtains for the Cape party at my house this Saturday, if you're in LA email for details.)  Nope, I mean those minuscule moments in an otherwise quality program that make me laugh out loud at their absurdity.  Often they require a moment to think about, but having trod that mental road it's impossible to not laugh at the absurdity.

Here's one that always gets me.  I'm a huge fan of Babylon 5.  It had so much potential, and though there were some issues towards the end it remains one of the most ambitious sci-fi undertaking ever attempted on television.  This scene is from Infection, the fourth episode aired but the first one (post-pilot) produced.  They were still finding their feet, and it's regarded as one of the weaker episodes.  But there's one line in particular, that's delivered with such sincerity and zeal that I almost want Dr. Franklin's response to be something like, "well, you raise a valid point."  I'll remember this scene the next time I'm doing a little bit of harmless smuggling.

I feel funny bashing B5 without taking a little poke at Star Trek.  Now, to be sure, there's a ton of cheese in Star Trek.  However, one line in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country made me chuckle then and has in fact entered my lexicon.  Keep in mind that Scotty is supposed to be one of Kirk's very best friends in the universe, loyal to the point that he'd break the laws of the universe for this man.  So, when Spock asks him to visually inspect some torpedoes to clear Kirk's name...

Is it just me or should the next line from Spock be a sarcastic, "well, then don't do it."  My friends and I now use this phrase in a whiny voice when someone asks us to do something perfectly reasonable and necessary.  "That could take hours!!!"

Finally, here's one from Batman: The Animated Series.  The episode? The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne, where Hugo Strange gets video proof of Batman's secret identity and attempt to auction it off to the Joker, Two-Face, and the Penguin.  I'll admit that this might be a bit of a cheat.  It's entirely possible that this line was SUPPOSED to be funny.  However, the tone of the episode is so serious that that's not at all clear.  Still, Strange's reaction is so wonderfully understated that it cracks me up every time.  I'd certainly be less caviler if the Joker was given reason to believe I was trying to screw him!

Hope you enjoy!  If there's some unintentional hilarity that you've found in otherwise quality sci-fi, please let me know and I'll check it out.

Review: Marvel G2 #1 - War Without End!

In May of 1991, the final issue of the Transformers comic from Marvel came out.  The universe wept.  But all was not lost!  A scant year and a half later, September of 1993, Transformers: Generation 2 #1 hit comic shops and newstands.  Even better, veteran scribe Simon Furman returned to writing duties. Art is by newcomer Derek Yaniger, with colors by Sarra Mossoff (goodbye, Nel Yomtov, you had a good run) and letters by Richard Starkings (with Gaushell).  The cover is by Yaniger as well.

The cover, available both with and foil, as was in vogue in 1993, is a pretty slick piece of work.  We get a tight close-up on Optimus Prime's face, with a smoking gun held up to it as if he's just fired.  There are a few bullets lodged in his helmet, and oil and fluids leak down.  "THIS is NOT your father's AUTOBOT." it states, borrowing from the classic Oldsmobile slogan.  Of course, in 1993, most kids father's wouldn't HAVE Autobots, but it gets the message across.  (Nowadays, though, that statement could be pretty accurate.  How many eight-year-olds have dads who played with Transformers?  A lot, I'd reckon.)  We also get our first hints of the new art style, though one still image can't really convey that.  It's an effective cover, though, violent, bold, setting itself apart from what went before enough that maybe you wouldn't be too daunted to pick up this book.

We open "many billions of light years from our galaxy..."  (Science geek interlude - the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest proper galaxy to us, is 2.5 MILLION light years away.  The most distant galaxy that we've observed is about 13 billion light years away, and the Hubble didn't spot that till just this year.  That means that some of the action in this issue takes place pretty much on the other side of the universe from us.)  Some new robots with an unfamiliar design are aboard a ship, and we learn that one of their outposts has been attacked, with no survivors. Their report segues into...

...a nice two page VERTICAL splash page.  Once again, we find that the book takes bold artistic choices.  It seems that some of our old pals the Autobots are responsible, and looking more bad-ass than ever before.  Sideswipe, in particular, looks amazing with his spiked wheels and his massive guns and swords.  There is an uncomfortable moment when a robot tries to surrender to hound, only to get shot in the back by Blades.  Hound himself almost gets fragged by a nasty looking robot whose vehicle mode is some kind of steamroller-tank, but the arrival of Grimlock (in Dino-mode... looks like Nucleon is no longer an issue) saves him.  The Dinobots help rally the troops and we see what they were fighting for, some blueskinned aliens who look almost as scared of the Autobots as they were of the enemy robots.

In true comic-book fashion, the fight serves as the backdrop to a philisophical argument between Blades and Hound.  Hound points out that the Autobots were almost as violent as those they were fighting, but Blades retorts that Hound is weak, claiming that the 'surrendering' robot was about to turn on him.  I've always liked this kind of confrontation.  Comic books can do it so well, and Furman does not disappoint.  Grimlock ends the argument, calling for an end to the infighting since, after all, they're all Autobots...

AUTOBOTS!  Remember, that was all told via a framing story, from what we now learn are Decepticons.  Their leader, Commander Jhiaxus (a pun off of Furman's prediction for the fate of the book... 'Gee, axe us!') explains to his subordinate Rook what Autobots even are... throwbacks, anachronisms.  He intends to "Bring them screaming into the present day!"  An intriguing notion, one that will be further explored.

Cut to Optimus Prime, having an apocalyptic dream which ends in him turning to dust.  While I'm not sure it was intended this way, it feels finally like familiar territory.  Everything that had gone before, these new dispassionate Decepticons, the incredibly savage Autobots, this all feels very new.  Not necessarily bad, but new.  But Optimus dreaming about the end of everything?  Yeah, we've seen this before.  When he snaps back to the present, he, Hot Rod, and Kup are all on 'a dead planet in the butt end of the galaxy,' which means that Jhiaxius was VERY far away from where we are now.  They've been summoned by Grimlock, but they don't yet know why.  He does feel that he needs to gather up his 'scattered Autobot army,' in light of his recent premonitions. 

We get treated to a bit of a recap of the G1 comic, in the form of an interesting splash page depicting many of the greatest threats the Autobots ever faced.  (While I mostly have warmed up to the artwork, I hate how stubby Shockwave is here.  It's an anatomical sin that Yanniger would occasionally fall prey to.)  Memory lane gets invaded by some more of the G2 Decepticons, prompting a quick battle.  With the enemies dispatched, Grimlock shows up and we see why Optimus was summoned here... a massive Decepticon installation. 

It seems that Grimlock's stumbled on something... big.  He's found seventeen Cybertrons all over the galaxy.  This planet the they're on now was a failed attempt to make one - Grimlock didn't expect there to still be guards.  Optimus quickly realizes that Bludgeon's little band couldn't possibly have anywhere close to the resources necessary to pull off a trick like this.  The problem is, in fact, a lot bigger than he's realized.

Indeed it is, Optimus, for at that moment Jhiaxus shows up with his starship, the not-yet-named Twilight.  I do rather love this scorpion-looking ship.  He blasts the Autobots from orbit, destroying their ships and bringing them aboard.  Soon Optimus and Grimlock stand before the second-generation Decepticon commander, who informs them calmly that he has chosen to not annihilate them from space but rather educate them as to the current state of Cybertronian affairs.

The war ended almost four million years ago.  Once Megatron was no longer in command of the Decepticons, a faction of them left the empty husk that was their world for greener (um... greyer?) pastures.  Only a 'token administrative presence' of 'small-minded tyrants' (cue picture of Straxus) was left behind.  DEstruction has become CONstruction.  Optimus, on some level, wants to believe it, but he just can't.  It's still all conquest and oppression.  Jhiaxus doesn't help his case much when he tries to clarify.  It's not so much that they hate other species, it's that lesser beings have no value to them.  If they can coexist with the Decepticons, great, if not, they're exterminated without malice.  In a way his cold indifference is far scarier than Megatron's anger ever was, because on some level it seems more realistic to me.  I have a hard time imagining an alien race showing up that just hates everything we stand for, but the idea that some hyper-advanced beings might bulldoze the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass seems somehow more plausible. It's definitely an interesting direction to have taken the story, in any event.

(We also get a tiny, two-page interlude that lines up with the events of the G.I. Joe books.  The timing of the distress call might account for the rag-tag nature of the Autobots sent to stop Megatron.) 

In his cell, Optimus feels very small.  Grimlokck snaps him out of it, with violent rhetoric (accompanied, rather inexplicably, by a flashback to Buster facing off against Ratbat) and a violent prison break.  The Autobots, rather effortlessly it seems, shake off their bonds, arm themselves, cripple the ship, and make their way to the shuttles.  Jhiaxus seems almost melancholy that Optimus has chosen to continue to fight rather than join him in the current, glorious empire.  Still, he's planned ahead.  Pursuit craft have already been launched, so he's well positioned to track them back to their lair and destroy them all.  Hmmm.... I'd start by looking on Cybertron, were I you, Jhiaxus.  Ah, well.  Optimus Prime, apparently free, makes his way back home, only his nagging doubts persist.  He can't shake the feeling that whatever his dreams are trying to tell him isn't about Jhiaxus... something far worse is out there!

Well... wow!  It's a big issue, worthy of being a #1.  Clearly this is no mere continuation of the Generation One storyline.  Sure, it's in continuity, but that tale seems to have been told.  This story is suitably new and epic, and even plays off of the idea of a Generation Two.  While it's not definitively spelled out yet, it does seem like Jhiaxus and his crew are from a very different era than Optimus, Megatron, and their respective armies.  Their cold indifference seems as far removed from Megatron as Megatron is from Optimus.  Even now, it's clear that a confrontation between Megatron and Jhiaxius' minions is inevitable.

The more mature themes, especially the rather savage fury of the Autobots in battle, are also welcome.  It's clear that Furman is aiming at a slightly older audience than he's targeted in the past.  Some of that is probably the contemporary success of characters like The Punisher, but creatively it works and helps differentiate this book from what went before.  

There are certainly some parts of it that are a stretch.  It's hard to believe that Cybertron would have been abandoned so completely that the events of the G1 comic went completely unnoticed.  After all, if there were a diaspora of Decepticons, you'd expect for them to spread out from Cybertron at the center, not go to the other end of the Universe and work their way back.  Still, I rather like the idea that the four million year time gap actually means something, that significant events happened during the long twilight sleep on the Ark.  (An aside... doesn't Shockwave seem like the kind of bot that would have done VERY well among the G2 Decepticons?  I can't help but feel that there's a fanfic in there somewhere.)

Also, the prophetic dream thing that Optimus experiences... I've decided that I don't care for it.  We've seen a bit too much of it in the latter days of Generation One.  It worked there, with the cosmic threat that was Unicron.  Here, though, it feels like we're treading on old ground.  That might not be such an issue if the rest of the book weren't so darned new and fresh and interesting. As it is, though, it feels out of place.


The art style is different than anything we'd gotten in the 7 year run of Generation One.  It's grittier, more violent.  At the time I didn't care for it, but I've come to appreciate it for what it is.  It's also a slick move, creatively, as it helps distance G2 from the G1 book that went before. The more mature themes of the book go along well with this newer, more stylized, darker artwork.  Wires and weapons are everywhere, and mistings of ink make the whole work feel worn, used, even dirty.  There's definitely a war on here. 

It's not just the pencils.  The coloring and lettering is also pretty top notch.  Notice how the flashbacks are flushed green, making them pop out.  Also, pay attention to the lettering.  The robot speech bubbles all have little markings on the side, with squares for Autobots, triangles for Decepticons, and trapezoids for Dinotots.  That must have been a lot of work, but it's appreciated.

So, there you have it!  A mostly very very good tale, not without flaws but basically a creative success.  By recasting Optimus in the role of a resistance fighter, rather than a great general, the stakes are ratcheted up.  It's a book that clearly acknowledges what went before but is charting its own future.  I think this is one of the more ambitious bits of Transformers storytelling, and so far that ambition is paying off.  War Without End! finally brings us back to reprint territory.  It was included in the Titan collection   Transformers Dark Designs , which is out of print but pretty reasonable second hand through Amazon.com.  If you loved G1, I'd highly recommend you check out the first half of Generation Two.

The Ark Addendum - Megatron's Master Plan (c)

Once again, I pick up where the Ron Friedman scripts left us off.  During that run, I posted the script to part one of Megatron's Master Plan - alas, no part two.  To go along with it, I posted some of the background models from that episode. 

Today, I bring you the third (of five) sets of models from that episode.  This time I'm focusing on the various energy producing structures that were visited over the course of the episode.  Oil drilling and refineries, solar collectors, coal mines, and electrical generators all showed up at one point or another in this story.  Hope you enjoy!

Bish's Review: Marvel UK #104 "Resurrection!" Part 2

Resurrection: Part 2 concludes the arc begun in Prey! and was written by Simon Furman. Jeff Anderson took over the art from Will Simpson (while I like the mix in styles I wish they had been able to keep one artist per story, at least - the curse of a weekly book, I guess). Steve White coloured the story, Annie Halfacree lettered it and Ian Rimmer edited.

The cover was by Geoff Senior and is really very good. The characters are well drawn and dynamic, and we get to see Megatron in a position that he's not often in. That said, I am not a fan of this development in the actual story, but the cover is well done and shows what can be achieved with careful colouring on Senior's stylised line work. I mean - just look at the lovely rivets on Ultra Magnus' head!

The Autobots (including Omega Supreme!) are gathered at Optimus Prime's grave site on Earth, paying their last respects. Ratchet is the bot who has the honour of delivering the eulogy which helps the uninformed reader understand just why they all think Prime is dead. Perceptor is sure that this is what Prime would have wanted, which gives us a rather nice segue into -

Optimus Prime alive and well on Cybertron, explaining that what he actually wants is Megatron's head! He has planned a diversionary attack by the Wreckers to lure away Megatron's security so that Prime can confront Megatron in Polyhex.

Following last issue's brain swap shenanigans with Straxus, Megatron's body is still confused as to which mind inhabits it. He remembers the brain swap, and the subsequent destruction of Straxus' head, from both perspectives (again, allowing new readers to catch up). Ratbat disturbs his reverie by informing him that the Autobots are attacking. Megatron's befuddled response tips Ratbat off to what is actually going on as the Decepticon leader(s?) wanders off, only to run straight into Optimus Prime!

He prepares to fight but Ultra Magnus appears behind him. He explains to Megatron, while chokeslamming him against a wall that getting to destroy Megatron will help him put Impactor's death behind him. Megatron wasn't really involved in that so I'm not sure how psychologically healthy this is, but Prime seems to agree with the idea.

Optimus tells Megatron he wishes there were a better way but unfortunately he will have to die. Megatron concentrates and begins to unlock an ability only seen once before, in the "so old it's barely canon" Raiders Of The Last Ark - he connects his internal circuitry to the anti-matter energy of a black-hole in space and uses it to smash the Autobots around. This is very out of left-field but I don't really mind because I quite like the idea of the dangerously unstable Megatron having a dangerously unstable ability that is so destructive even he would only use it while totally out of his mind.

Ratbat decides enough is enough - Megatron will destroy them all - and gets Octane to target the space-bridge and transport Megatron, Optimus and Magnus to Earth. As they disappear the Predacons appear - telling Ratbat that they have been sent by Shockwave to find Megatron.

Megatron appears right in the Decepticon camp (convenient!) but luckily for Shockwave he appears to have lost his memory. Soundwave mindreads Megatron (we're all about little-used abilities today) and concludes that the two personalities in Megatron's mind are clouding his thoughts.

Elsewhere, Optimus Prime arrives at the grave site (really too convenient!), surprising the Autobots and Ultra Magnus ends up in parts unknown, relishing the opportunity to explore the planet while looking for the Ark.

This has been a long arc with several ups and downs. I felt it improved last issue, with Straxus' strike at Megatron and Optimus Prime's influence on the Autobot resistance but it seems to me that the potential has gone rather to waste and the arc ends on something of a damp squib.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that Furman faced here was timing. I'm not certain, but I would guess that since the UK book was contracted to run every US issue, the timing of when they had to fall was quite precise, in order to fit them all in. Having Afterdeath! looming meant that Furman had to get all of his toys back in the box just the way Budiansky left them in Decepticon Graffiti! That would hobble any writer, so it's not surprising that the ending of this arc rather undercuts the drama. The problem here is that Furman built for too long and did not allow things to end at a natural pace. Because we have several different strands to follow, this eleven page issue has a good two and a half pages only on exposition of things we have already seen, leaving only eight and a half pages to wrap up a complicated plot. Because of this everything happens far too quickly. I find it very hard to believe that even with a diversion Prime and Magnus could simply walk into Polyhex, and there is something dramatically unsatisfying about seeing both huge Autobots beating Megatron down at the same time. Not having enough pages to deal with it also grants us such absurdities as Megatron and Prime being teleported back to their troops with no explanation. Equally jarring is the time wasted by Ratbat talking to the Predacons. They had to be back on Cybertron, because Budiansky had not yet brought them to Earth in the US book, but in this story it's just filler that the plot can ill afford.

The other complaint I have is that the whole "Optimus Prime fakes his death" plot is too overcomplicated and unbelievable. This raises its head here, with Wheeljack, who helped Prime build the facsimile construct, attending the funeral and not once raising a suggestion that his leader might be alive. Either he thought this was all part of the plan and he is stupidly loyal or he cannot recognise his own handiwork, or, in fact, count, because surely there would have been twice as much dead Prime as usual, and, if not, why didn't Wheeljack insist upon a search?

That aside, there are a couple of good things in this issue. I very much like the fact we can see the start of Ratbat's ascension here. It's a good detail that goes well with his upcoming appearances in the US issues. I think that the failed mind swap has the potential to pay off in interesting ways, although it wouldn't have done for UK readers at the time because Budiansky obviously wasn't using it. Luckily Megatron has a tendency towards instability, so the difference wasn't too jarring.

Jeff's art is to a high standard here with no massive highlights. I'm no astrophysicist but I like the effect of Megatron's black hole weapon - I suppose the energy had to be black to sell it, really. The characters are on model and the fight choreography isn't bad - Prime's head is still too big though...

The Prey/Resurrection arc is over. Never up for UK readers would be Afterdeath!, from the US book, which Jim has covered. We will pick up next week with Wanted: Galvatron - Dead Or Alive! and I couldn't be happier!

Web-Comics, Blogs, Etc!

OK, just a small post today.  It seems I'm popping up all over the place!  So is my intrepid co-author, Bill Forster. 

Let's start with me.  I've been interviewed in a couple of places that are just popping up now.  One is my old pals at Moonbase 2, talking about the Ron Friedman draft of the Transformers: The Movie that I uncovered.  Download the podcast and head to their forums. 

Bouncing over to Bill, he's got his first webcomic off the ground.  Drawing from his four years of hell at the TSA, he's lampooning the men and women who keep us 'safe' in homelandsecuritytheater.  New comics three times a week. 

Finally, a company called Crave interviewed me for their blog.  Crave is a social marketplace that's looking to service collector's communities, and I've been helping them out with some brainstorming. 

Hope you guys enjoy these various links!