Transformers #1 Review (SPOILERS)

[Yaya]

Actually, not a bad start.

As an introductory issue, it accomplishes in 22 pages what AHM couldn't accomplish in six issues. It sets the tone and premise for the new direction the story will take, not beating around the bush.

Where do we stand? The war is over. The Decepticons (save a few scattered 'third-stringers') have left. The humans have figured out a way to take down the Transformers, forcing them into hiding. And of course, Ironhide is dead, after which Optimus Prime rescinds his leadership role (thankfully, not by committing suicide for sacrificing virtual reality lives in a video game).

Not much in the way of characterization, but then, most first issues just lay down the foundation, which I think this one does a nice job of.

What's promising? Costa isn't going to shy away from using lesser known bots, which is nice. We see Breakdown and Streetwise. Even Windcharger gets a mention. And of course, Don's work is again a thing of beauty. I didn't find the mouths of the bots to be as distracting as others. I think Don's ability to draw action and fights scenes more than makes up for any of the facial shortcomings that might be present.

What's concerning? Well, Prime comes off as a bit of a wuss, doesn't he? Just kind of throws his hands in the air and gives up. I mean, I understand where the frustration comes from in losing his close friend. But maybe doing this later in the series would have more of an impact. Again, I think it's more a tactic to set this new direction up. I personally am glad Prime is out of the way (again), as it always gives other bots a time to shine.

All in all, I'd say a good start. Nothing earth-shattering, but at least this time, unlike with AHM, things happen.

The question will be "Will we care?"

Give it a "B".

[Guest]

And of course, Ironhide is dead, after which Optimus Prime rescinds his leadership role (thankfully, not by committing suicide for sacrificing virtual reality lives in a video game).

Does he land the Ark on the Moon and abandon the Autobots in order to walk off into a dark crater?

[Jack Cade]

I blogged about this: http://fuselit.blogspot.com/

It's OK. I'm pretty much in CS's camp. There's some dodgy stuff going on but it gets moving and it gives us an all right set-up for future stories. Nothing really woeful in the dialogue department but no real outstanding moments either.

Everyone looks like Jack Frost in profile!

[BB Shockwave]

I'm sorry, but OP turning himself in to the humans is insanely stupid. WHY? He has done this Inflitration/etc. phases for lots of worlds. Sure, he has seen bad stuff happen. Sure this affects him. What I don't get it why he feels the need to turn himself in to a hostile species whose fate he's not even responsible for (he was tricked and exiled to Cybertron due to a traitor, the Cons did the damage to Earth). What good would this accomplish? Not to mention that again, Earth is the center of attention. I don't buy it that the Cons, after defeating the Bots galaxy-wide during AHM, are now defeated galaxy-wise.

Sorry but with such a stupid and illogical premise, the ongoing already starts on shakey grounds with me.

[Yaya]

I'm sorry, but OP turning himself in to the humans is insanely stupid. WHY? He has done this Inflitration...

I don't think the premise of Prime surrendering is as far fetched as you make it out to be. It's been years of war, why wouldn't he try something he hasn't before when all else has failed? I mean he's destroyed their planet, has killed many a human, and lost many a friend. Granted, the way he just gave in was kind of wusslike, but I can see Prime going this route as an attempt to negotiate with the humans, which I'm positive is what he'll be doing.

In terms of how you approach this ongoing, the more you choose to cling to the past, the more you will dislike the future. If you find Prime's decision jarring with Infiltration, you will surely find much more to dislike as we move forward.

Not saying this is something you shouldn't do, certainly it's a matter of taste, but I think accepting this new direction is going to require accepting the way it doesn't follow exactly what happened in the past.

Basic events of the past will likely be respected, but there's bound to be disagreement with minor things when a new writer comes on.

[bumblemusprime]

The faces are so hideous that I really can't decide whether to buy this. I don't want Bayformers in my Figformers.

[Jack Cade]

It doesn't help that the preview for the next issue at the end of this one says, in huge red letters, 'Prime quit!'

It really should be looked at in the light of him saying, "Look, I think actually I'd make a better ambassador/diplomat character than leader at the moment, because I've kind of lost my way on the 'what to do with ourselves' front."

[Yaya]

It really should be looked at in the light of him saying, "Look, I think actually I'd make a better ambassador/diplomat character than leader at the moment, because I've kind of lost my way on the 'what to do with ourselves' front."

I think that's the way we're intended to look at it.

In fact, I think the point here is that Hot Rod is actually right in his criticisms and Prime knows it, so he steps down.

Or said another way in the cheesiest of fashions, "Prime quit!"

[Guest]

I'm confused.

Not having read this issue, and therefore going only on comments here, has Prime actually quit, or just stated his intention which will bear out next issue?

What I suppose I'm really asking is, did someone leave off an 's' and therefore make a grammatical error?

[Professor Smooth]

I kind of don't like Optimus Prime taking his cues from Sarah Palin...

[Yaya]

But if you think about it, Prime has been a pretty ineffective leader of late. He fell into a cartoonesque Decepticon trap, then subsequently was saved by a human just before Megatron took him down...for the second time (the first being Escalation).

So in this situation, Prime's move and Hot Rods criticisms make sense.

Prime's losing it.

I'm sure he'll find a way, though. He is Prime, after all. Diplomacy actually makes the most sense now.

[The Last Autobot]

Prime is an idiot as of late because idiots been writing him.

[Jack Cade]

Whoever was writing him, Yaya's right - Prime was rubbish throughout AHM, and now Costa has to make lemonade.

[Yaya]

Saw this interview with Andy Schmidt on Seibertron, thought this was interesting:

FG: I'm glad that you compared Transformers Ongoing to other works such as the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. In an exclusive interview we did with Mike Costa, he also fielded some questions regarding the story and how he was writing them. He likened it to such storylines as Marvel's Amazing Spiderman in which Brian Bendis is considered the lead writer and other writers, who use the Spiderman character in other titles such as the New Avengers, may cause some confusion within the overall continuity of Spiderman's story. For the sake of the casual fan that may not know this, we know that most scripts for story arcs are done months in advance and this can create issues with writers staying on track, therefore creating "plotholes" that later need to be filled it. How do you plan to minimize the continuity gaps with Transformers Ongoing? Will Mike be the exclusive writer or are there plans to create an "Ongoing Team"?


A.S.: Mike's the guy for now at least. He seems really into it and has big, big plans. Hasbro is really happy that we're going to new places with it, so that's really great to have their support. In order to minimize plot holes, I've got all the writers initially in contact with each other. But let me be honest, we ran into several problems in our initial arcs with the three books. This happens when they're being built simultaneously. Currently, there are nine story arcs for the G1 TRANSFORMERS being written at the same time. They're planned out, but sometimes you get into a script and you realize you need a certain character but, wait, we actually need him over here, or whatever happens. And one huge problem for me is crowd scenes. I like to give the creators freedom to put their favorites in the crowd scenes but then in the case of this first story arc, that caused a problem too. The good news is, 9 times out of 10, Denton and I are catching them, or the artists or writers are catching them. It's much easier to see it as a reader than as it's being created, but the best way to minimize it is by having everyone working on the universe in touch with one another. That way we can all stay on the same page, at least.


But yes, Mike's book is THE book, as it were. If you're only reading one, this is the one to read. But I think most fans will want to read the others. And that's another way that some fans feel we're inconsistent--different books have different tones and are intended for different parts of the TRANSFORMERS audience. LAST STAND OF THE WRECKERS, for example, is intended for the core die-hard fans. Obscure characters, weird off-world setting, that's for the die-hards specifically. But it has a different tone, and I think that sometimes because we make series or one-shots that are so different in tone and intended audience that there are perceived mistakes, that aren't really there. It's a bit concept--TRANSFORMERS--with lots of room for all kinds of stories. But yeah, definitely trying to keep it all down to a minimum in terms of continuity gaffs.


Sorry, rambling again! This is just one of those hot-button topics so I'm trying to explain fully. And this is an explanation, not an excuse. Although a big challenge, we're doing everything we can to make sure there aren't problems within the continuity . I'm impressed, looking at the continuity from the editor's side at how few gaffs there are currently given the number of creators, concurrent titles that have been published and the switching over of editorial, what, four or five times in nearly four years? Yes, there are glitches, but not as many as I would expect given how many comics have been published with such a large number of people involved along the way. Of course, I'm going to get publicly flogged for saying that... but it's true.

Nine concurrent G1 story arcs? Sounds like a lot to juggle. Which also means we'll likely be seeing more from Shane and Simon, I would think.

Also, can't wait for LSOTW.

[bumblemusprime]

Yeah, that description of the target audience for Last Stand actually makes me really happy.

[Predabot]

Just read it. 'Twas good actually. The dialogue was a little bit rough in a few places, but it feels like this Costa guy could turn out to be pretty good.

We'll see. Maybe I've just got low expectations, but I think I'll give it a try.

[Best First]

Preview of my not entirely timely review for Fantasy Magazine here:

http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/?p=7374

[Yaya]

Preview of my not entirely timely review for Fantasy Magazine here:

http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/?p=7374

Can't see it. Where do we look?

[Best First]

wierd - i can see it. In that case Sprunkadunk needs to publish it properly...

or

--------------

Transformers Issue 1 (IDW Publishing)

Story: Mike Costa

Art: Don Figueroa

First things first, I have a problem. Actually I have several problems (in this way I am much like Jay-Z), ranging from the existential to the residential, but the relevant problem for today’s topic is this:

I am stupid for Transformers.

I am not talking normal stupid here, I am talking Bush/Palin lovechild stupid. Since about the age of 4 I have been a Transformers nut. Which is normal up to a point, the point obviously being at about 10-11 years old when you stop being a Transformers nut, put your toys in the box and stop buying comics that are essentially adverts for things you should no longer be buying and have put in a box

Developmentally I totally skipped this last bit. One possible reason is that in my homeland of the UK, the comics were not just jumped up toy adverts, but were written for the main part by Simon Furman, a man with aspirations of being a ‘real’ comic book writer who therefore treated his ‘toy comic’ job as such. So while the US comics stories generally felt like an ongoing serial of new toy of the week, and the original cartoon basically had one plot and no sense of consequence from episode to episode, the stories that originated in the UK had death, tension, genuine character development and, at one point, someone’s robotic eyeballs getting sucked out by a hole in the space time continuum.

In short these comics blew my tiny little mind, and continued to do so until they sadly petered out after a more than respectable 332 weekly issues.

There was a brief flicker of light when Marvel launched Transformers Generation 2, again helmed by the aforementioned Furman, but then my friends… nothing.

But, as a fan, is nothing always such a bad thing? All good things must, or at least should, come to an end and in their absence you are free to dream how your cherished characters went on, which many of us dubiously dubbed Transfans (if you like both robots and cross dressing, you sir are in for a googletastic treat) did.

And then, as with 84% of things, the internet came along and ruined everything. Yes, perhaps at first it seemed like a good thing. Finally we could gather in virtual huddled masses and share our memories of days gone by and hopes for stories yet to be. But it also highlighted two other things: firstly, a depressingly fractured fan base and secondly, and perhaps most damagingly, the fact that there were probably enough of us harking back to the 1980s to warrant a nostalgia tinged relaunch.

And so it began. Dreamwave acquired the Transformers licence and, by and large, made a big fat mess out of it. Naturally there are people out there who disagree with this assessment, but there are also people out there who get sexually aroused by faeces. My personal opinion on the matter is that a Venn diagram displaying these two groups of people would consist of exactly one circle. Luckily for me Dreamwave were as cack-handed with their financials as they were with their editing and the company folded, leaving the TF licence and plot threads from this new continuity impotently dangling, a bit like an old man’s… last remaining hair.

And so we were back to nothing, but now a more muddled nothing as we had an extra continuity hanging around and stinking the place out.

Into this haze a beam of light shone, IDW publishing, who despite their suspiciously similar name had nothing to do with DW publishing. IDW seemed a bit different. They engaged the fans in a way that Dreamwave never did, they talked about an ‘Ultimate’ version of Transformers and, best of all, they put Simon Furman back in charge seemingly with a remit to plan and oversee the Transformers universe for the foreseeable future.

But then it all started to go a bit wrong again. While the stories were, in my ohsohumblesah opinion, just the tonic, IDW approached this iteration of Fighty Car Robots with a fractured mess of one shots and miniseries, often with half year gaps between the main body of story and with key plot points scattered across the various offerings. Basically unless you were a colossal dweeb who paid far too much attention to web chatter (hi by the way, we should totally hang out some time, preferable online) then it was pretty damn hard to know what was going on. And lo the readers did fall away. Of course this may also have been down to the quality of the comics but I am comfortable with my assertion that these were the best Transformers comics we had had since the end of the Marvel days and if their release had been handled better we would still have Simon Furman helming the ship.

Instead IDW decided to go for a soft reboot, letting an in-story year pass and handing over the reins to new writer Shane McCarthy for a 12 issue maxi-series dubbed All Hail Megatron. Despite lovely art from Guido Guidi this depressing series essentially stands testament to How Not to Write a Comic. It told you things rather than showed you things, it didn’t respect what had gone before but equally failed to benefit from the incongruous changes it forced on the reader, it maintained mysteries by artificially withholding information rather than by crafting actual intrigue and it tried to be cool in the kind of way that made your skin not so much crawl as break the land speed record.

Which more or less brings us up to date, only omitting things that I think you don’t need to know or contradict my point of view. And finally we are where we should have been all along, we have a regular ongoing Transformers comic, I, with a spark of childhood passion still burning in my belly, have an ongoing Transformers comic.

But it just doesn’t feel very special. We find ourselves on earth 3 years after the events of All Hail Megatron. Our gallant heroes the Autobots remain on Earth. Apart from a few stragglers the Decepticons are nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile human forces have become quite adept at capturing TFs (who they view as an equal threat regardless of allegiance).

The primary problem with this comic is that the status quo feels forced. When we last saw these characters the Autobots had rallied from a crushing galaxy wide defeat to drive the Decepticons off earth and Megatron was left incapacitated. Three years or so later the Autobots are still sitting around on earth, in hiding from the humans forces who hunt them. The reason given for this seems to be that Optimus Prime has insisted they hang around to protect the humans on a more or less ‘just in case’ basis. This situation is used to put the Autobots in dire straights as one of their own is captured. The consequences of this capture drive the drama of this issue.

But the basis for this drama rings false. The notion that Optimus Prime would essentially sideline an eons-old conflict to have his army camp out on a hostile planet in case something bad happens while the Decepticons get up to who knows what around the rest of the galaxy doesn’t make any sense. Therefore we have a story where the writer seems to have decided what he wants to happen, then tried to fit the larger story (several things here sit ill with the end of the previous series) and character actions around those events. For anyone who writes any form of fiction it’s worth noting that this works slightly less often than Madonna’s facial muscles.

But, perhaps they key problem here is me, because I KNOW how these characters should act, because I have spent a large portion of my life actively wishing I was a truck that turned into a robot (but was also somehow still able to have sex with girls… yeah… I know… sorry… look just try to stop thinking about it).

So when I read a Transformers comic and one (or in this case several) of the characters act in a manner that I KNOW is wrong, the story instantly fizzles. To be clear I am not stating that characters cannot evolve or change, I am merely suggesting that this change needs to happen in a believable way.

And really that’s not really too much to ask is it? So essentially what we have here is a sub par comic about something I love to bits. Normally when I read a sub par comic I reflect that it was a bit of a waste of money but every time I read a sub par Transformers comic IT SHATTERS MY CHILDHOOD DREAMS.

So, were I to sum this up in two words, it would be this: Phantom Menace.

Anyway, I need to go and reassemble my childhood dreams in time for the next issue.

Did I mention I was a bit like Jay-Z?

-----------------

[Professor Smooth]

That was beautiful.

[bumblemusprime]

I know, right?

I think it's still pending. I'll send Cat an email and tell her it's past it's due date.

[Yaya]

Though I disagree with the final assessment, tis a nice review.

[Sunyavadin]

So, were I to sum this up in two words, it would be this: Phantom Menace.

Maybe they'll do a remastered version of the movie where prime shoots first and Drift is standing next to Rodimus at the end?

[Best First]

And Wheelie gets an 'amusing' Jamaican accent

[snarl]

raaaaaaaaaaas grimock.

De gal, dem sugar.