War Without End...
From the first page this is already all kinds of awesome. The scripting, the artwork, even that supercool lettering with all the little coloured triangles and squares. And Yaniger is a revelation. Out of all the Marvel artists to work on Transformers US I put him second, after Senior and above Wildman. And we've never seen a Transformer like Jhiaxus before. Just who the hell is this guy? My interest is truly piqued.
The Transformers that the Firestormer party take out are all really interesting and weird looking. Shame we don't see anything like them after this first issue.
But it's already living up to the promise on the front cover: 'This is Not Your Father's Autobot'. These 'bots are mean dudes, machine gunning down their enemies with relish, taking no prisoners.
Really, future G2 issues would have benefitted from focusing on this crack team. Instead Furman's attention will wander to the rest of the toyline. Also, the idea that these 'bots are badder than ever, that their morals have become watered down, well that's another theme that is quickly forgotten.
Hound's the odd one out. He's the only Autobot who seems concerned with the code. Blades even threatens him quite harshly. Again, forgotten later. G2 is promising so much at this point.
Grimlock's entrance is jaw-dropping. He crushes a Decepticon whilst in dino mode, breathing fire. Who cares that the Actionmaster thing has been conveniently forgotten when we get scenes this cool? He shows the same wisdom he had at the end of G1 too. He even inspires Prime at one point (all their scenes together are splendid - it seems they had so few in G1).
Optimus Prime's vision is nicely vivid and nasty. He's "standing in an ocean of corpses." This will become important later.
I love the page with all the ex-Decepticon leaders (even Ratbat has a random cameo later). It creates a pang of nostalgia and the first concrete evidence that this is the same continuity.
The first big revelation: After winning the war at the end of G1 some Autobots chose to fight on. Not so peace-loving after all.
There's a ******* incredible picture of G2 Megatron on Earth. One single panel has a thousand times the excitement of the entire Joe crossover.
The Cybertronian Decepticons' massive spaceship looks super cool. So was its name once, but Twilight now just makes me think of wet vampires.
The second big revelation: "You fought in a strange microcosm, a universe within a universe." I remember the penny dropping for me with the Straxus flashback and a feeling of "Holyyyyy ****." In one swift stroke Furman turned everything we knew about the TFs upside down. This was bigger than anything we'd seen before.
And Jhiaxus is just fascinating. He talks of lesser races and sees no distinction between Autobots and Decepticons.
The prison break out is a top notch sequence. It's exciting and pacy and brutal (lots of exploding head shots!). And I like all the Star Trek type technobabble dialogue on the ship's bridge as the damage updates come in. Scenes like this were new to Transformers.
And then we're left with "something far worse than the Decepticons" on its way. Jeez, after all that there's more?! I'm sold. Where do I sign up?
The new Autobot/Decepticon symbols are obviously not as good as the old ones. But they mark a new era and I can let it slide.
To conclude, G1 #1 is one of the best single issues of Transformers ever. It's close to a standalone masterpiece, Furman did so much with it. The next couple of issues falter a bit, and its core themes didn't last the full 12 issues, but this, right here, is stupendous.
I remember that! Time flies eh?
