Transformers!

[Eternal Padawan]

I didn't know that. I stopped reading Savage Dragon years ago. I'm surprised it's still going. Did they ever figure out his origin?

[vynsane]

yes, his origin was printed as part of the 5-year-late image 10th anniversary, and reprinted as an issue #0 for those who didn't care about any of the characters that were around 15 years ago at image's inception save for the savage dragon, which is actually quite a big group as evidenced by the dragon forum at imagecomics.com.

i still collect the dragon and it's awesome.

[anarky]

Can you give Erik a call and say, "Dude, collect some of this stuff in trade paperback"? He's like ten years behind or so.

[Eternal Padawan]

I like how the TF/Avengers topic has morphed into an Erik Larsen topic.

[anarky]

Because Larsen is way fucking cooler than any Transformers comic beyond Furman's classic #80, and cooler than any Avengers comic ever.

[Rob Liefeld]

MOOOOOOOOO!!

[anarky]

This is probably mostly for EP, who I'm sure has wanted to read both of these as long as I have:

Another Time and Place:
http://www.seibertron.com/comics/uk/ano ... /index.php

Alignment:
http://www.transforce.org.uk/alignment.pdf

Spoilers:











AT&P picks up neatly after TF #80 (this is the story referred to in the afterward to that issue), and explains the nagging detail about how Grimlock and the others could transform in Generation 2. It also confirms that Ratchet did not survive the destruction of the Ark. There's one glaring continuity problem in that several characters are killed here who are quite alive and well in G2, but that could be chalked up to the Autobots not being as thorough as they intend and one or two Decepticons surviving to re-create the others using nucleon. It also doesn't address Starscream, also aboard the Ark at the time of the crash and later seen quite a bit in G2, who may well have followed Bludgeon's crew and subtly reclaimed Megatron's body afterward to lay low aboard the Ark. Or it could be the remains of the Megatron clone built by Straxxus in the UK series, and not the real Megatron. (Either way, Megatron is heavily damaged when he returns in GIJoe, and the damage is inconsistent with what we see here.)

And we already know that Megatron is talking to another Decepticon aboard the Ark when they return in GIJoe. Based on what little we see, it definitely is not Shockwave, and likely not Galvatron, either (as he'd take a more hands-on approach to things). Pretty definitely is the Fairycon himself, which is why I'm leaning toward my first guess.

Alignment: Interesting story, and I was a bit surprised to see that the G1 comic series ends up in Beast Wars as well. (Perhaps it's even a more consistent prequel to BW than the old 'toon was.) I would've liked some detail about Galvatron II and how he deposed Megatron--and, especially, this massive battle that killed both him and Optimus Prime. I'm not sure if these stories exist somewhere (and I'll only take them as canon if Furman wrote them). It was a little sad to see Grimlock die a hero (the real Grimlock, not the pussy moderator), and it seemed a little pointless to bring back Megatron only for him to die almost immediately.

[anarky]

Fuck me, it looks like most (if not all) of the Titan reprints are OOP.

One of the volumes (Time Wars, probably the most important one) I can only find one copy of... and the idiot's asking $145! (There is an eBay auction for it, too, but the guy has a picture of Stormbringer. I don't trust it.)

I guess we're SOL unless IDW decides to reprint these, which could take a damned long time.

[Eternal Padawan]

What are the Titan Reprints? I'm not familiar with those.

[anarky]

http://www.titanbooks.com/transformers.html

They are (apparently, now, were) a line of paperbacks that reprinted the entire Marvel G1 & G2 series (missing only GIJoe/Transformers, the movie adaptation, Man of Iron, and The Big Broadcast of 2007), as well as the bulk of the UK stuff.

As you can see, there's a shitload. I got a copy of End of the Road in a remainder bin about a year ago (figured it would be worthwhile to have a reading copy, since the individual issues are going for a shitload of money), and ordered the four manga collections (Earthforce (mistakenly listed as a US reprint volume on the Titan list), Aspects of Evil, Perchance to Dream, Fallen Star, and Way of the Warrior). I didn't have enough dough to get the whole series, and now it looks like it's much, much tougher to do so.

I think it may be due to IDW's reprinting the old Marvel stuff. They recently started reprinting Target 2006, though it could take a fucking long time for them to reprint everything as monthly issues, then as paperbacks.

If you can get them, the mangas are cool. They collect a lot of the B&W backup stories from the UK. Among other things, they explain what the fuck Deathbringer was, what was up with the demons that started coming out of the woodwork after Prime killed Unicron (and that ate the BattleChargers), and several other things that Furman made reference to in the US comic despite there being very little chance US readers could "get" the references.

[anarky]

Got the Infiltration, Stormbringer, Spotlight 1, and Escalation in the mail yesterday! So far I've read all but Escalation.

Overall, I really like the approach. It's especially nice to see the teams are a good mix of old and new (well, newer) characters. The updating of some of the characters (particularly Thunderwing, Hot Rod, and Magnus) is an interesting twist on what I knew from before, but that doesn't necessarily apply in this world.

Lots of cool little cameos. I've been able to pick up on a lot of them, and am sure I'm missing just as many.

Thoughts (in case any of you are reading these):

• It appears Headmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters, and Pretenders will never exist. Only two Pretenders have shown up as such. Both were driven mad by the process. Thunderwing is destroyed, no doubt about it. Hopefully Bludgeon's notes will provide someone (Scorponok?) with the necessary data to perfect the process and perhaps salvage Bludgeon. I can't see Furman killing off two of his favorite Decepticons at once, and the new Bludgeon design kicks so much ass it's not funny.
• In any case, Scorponok can't be a Headmaster, having accidentally killed Zarak.
• Nice twist that the "mythology" seems to have been scrapped. There doesn't appear to be a Matrix, or Primus and Unicron, for that matter. (There have been a couple of references to a god named Primacron, likely a combination of the two names.) This could be a nice twist; as fun as the "magical" stuff is, it tends to take over.
• Who was the villain in charge of the mystery Decepticons who attacked Nightbeat? I'd read somewhere that, in this continuity, Galvatron was not Megatron and actually existed far earlier. We didn't see much of the villain, but it could easily be Galvatron.
• Deathbringer! I knew I recognized him, but until Sixshot named him, I couldn't place it. Wonder how many more references to the (non-Marvel owned) characters from the past we'll get? Straxxus? Jhiaxus? Fallen?
• The humans aren't extremely interesting, but they appear to be in the spotlight for short periods at a time. I can't help but wonder if and when a certain Witwicky clan with a habit of giving the males ridiculous names will show up.
• Nice origin for the Dinobots. It fits them perfectly. And it was equally cool to see an homage to the Savage Land origin story as well. I'd complain that Grimlock's vocabulator didn't seem faulty, but not a huge deal. Knowing Furman, I'm sure Grimmy's buried near Shockwave, and those humans will dig him up shortly.
• Wonder if Combiners will ever show up (the super-robots, not the Micromaster spinoff)? We've seen several teams so far (though Swindle seems to be, oddly enough, a rogue agent), and in some pretty heavy combat, but no super-robots yet.
• Were Shockwave's experiments the source of Ore-13? For that matter, were they the reason that the Beast Wars Earth of the past had dangerous levels of energon? Hmmmm. Interesting how all continuities seem to point toward Beast Wars. I'll need to watch that sometime.
• Nebulos is a little hairy. I mean that it seems to be pretty strange in the overall scheme of things. There's a Decepticon contingent there, but seemingly no Autobot faction. And I figure the Ultra Magnus spotlight story had to take place in the fairly distant past, since it seems odd that Scorponok could conduct his experiments in plain view of other Decepticons without being noticed. (And how badly was the world damaged by Thunderwing?)

[anarky]

Just read Escalation. I may need to revise a few of my earlier thoughts.

• Looks like Skywatch has taken over excavating Shockwave and the Dinobots. I imagine they'll be in action sometime relatively soon.
• Skywatch also has Ravage and either Lazerbeak or Buzzsaw (difficult to tell given the lighting in the panel). I wonder what their plans are. And I wonder if the animal cassettes will be able to talk and think rationally in this version.
• Historical references to Soundwave on Earth prior to Starscream's team? Hmmmmm.... I guess that's where Ravage and the other one came from. But where's Soundwave?
• Who or what was the entity watching Prime in limbo? It recognized him. And Megatron made reference to the Primes (note the plural) believing in quasi-mythical stuff. Maybe there is a Unicron, after all.
• I'm willing to bet Ironhide, Verity, and Jimmy are no more dead than Sunstreaker and Hunter.
• Speaking of Hunter, wow. I didn't see that little subplot coming. Bio-engineered, and led to a group of what appear to be Transformers bodies. Headless Transformers bodies. Maybe I was wrong about the Headmasters.
• Who's Dante talking to? I've seen some stuff on message boards speculating it may be Shockwave (unlikely, as he's only half excavated) or Starscream (who, given the tone of this series, is probably actually dead for once, and who in any case wouldn't be in human hands). The thing doesn't look like a head, but everyone seems to assume it is. Well, I think they're right, but not in the way they think. Dummy corporation, Cybertronian technology, merging human and Cybertronian? Sound familiar? I think the mangled mass of wires and whatever is Zarak, who we only assumed to be dead. Scorponok may or may not be in the picture at that point, but I'm willing to bet money that is the only Decepticon-allied Nebulan that anyone can ever remember.

[Eternal Padawan]

Or any Nebulan for that matter. So you read two years woth of books in almost one sitting? Yowza. Unfortunately my collection is spread out over two stats and three different locations. Now the whole "new Continuity" has been sidetracked by all the movie hooplah. I was kind of hoping for another Cybertronian Tale ala Stormbringer to be told in between Escalation and Devastation. Furman has a good overall grasp of where things are going so it would be cool to see different story lines in different areas that will eventually coalesce into one big storyline. My only minor grumble is that E.J. Su is not the best artist for the job. Figeuroa is a way better artist, in my opinion.

And dammit, I want someone to at least bring closure to the Dreamwave series. GRRRR.

[anarky]

Or any Nebulan for that matter.

Possibly, but my money's on Zarak. Why? First, the Sixshot and Shockwave Spotlights have already factored into the regular series. Hot Rod introduces Doubledealer's quest to befriend Rod and get "The Magnificence" for Banzaitron (tell me there's a character you didn't expect to see), and Nightbeat's an unwitting sleeper agent for someone (Galvatron?). Magnus' is the only one that seems to not play in somehow. Zarak had already been upgraded, and he seemed to be working closely with Scorponok (as opposed to what the story said about other worlds, where Scorponok merely stole their technology for himself). The thing we see is too small and too damaged to be Scorponok himself, but could be Zarak.

My only minor grumble is that E.J. Su is not the best artist for the job. Figeuroa is a way better artist, in my opinion.

Agreed. Personally, though, I'd like to see Wildman do another series. Hell, Geoff Senior's back in the TF comics game with the new movie-based UK series. What about the other Wildman-esque artists from the Marvel UK series (like the guy known only as Staz)? Or Derek Yaniger's style was apparently too time-consuming for him to meet monthly deadlines on Generation 2, but maybe it would work for a miniseries.

I was glad to see MD Bright's name on the Nightbeat spotlight. It's always nice to know that one of your favorite artists from a generation ago is still alive and working.

And dammit, I want someone to at least bring closure to the Dreamwave series. GRRRR.

Why? Sunstorm called Unicron, Unicron took his time getting to Cybertron, then he ate the entire universe, and everyone acted like they had no personality up until that point. Voila!

Unless you're talking about The War Within. I'd like to see that finished, too. And I have this crazy feeling it would require not only wrapping up the third miniseries, but another miniseries or two.

[Eternal Padawan]

Yaniger's work always seemed to "blocky" for my tastes. Too much ink on ragged pencils. And hell yes to Wildman. MD Bright was also a nice suprise. I wish we could get a wider range of artists on these books. It seems they always head to the same stable. What could Ethan Van Scriver or Josh Middleton or somebody like Whilce Portacio do with giant robots? Maybe after the movie, IDW will attract some different styles to come in and do Spotlights. We've been teased with two different Jim Lee covers in the original Marvel line. I would love to see someone of his caliber tear into a TF series. Benes. Hitch. Deodato. Talent Caldwell.

I just feel like IDW hired Su because he was cheaper than a name artist, not because he was the best guy for the job.