Marvel UK comics marathon

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed May 04, 2011 2:27 pm

Fair do's, wait 'til I get home and I'll facebook it to you

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed May 04, 2011 2:30 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:Fair do's, wait 'til I get home and I'll facebook it to you

Cheers!

Also, if Karl feels like coming over to Washington State, this place is fantastic:

http://www.manpies.com/

The Karl I know would never mind a man pie or two. He'd eat a lady pie as well, but he would give equal weight to the man pie.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu May 05, 2011 3:08 pm

Did that work?

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu May 05, 2011 3:20 pm

Yeah! Cheers! Thanks!

I downloaded it, started opening it and was immediately attacked by evil children, which is why I forgot to message you back.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu May 05, 2011 8:48 pm

Karl can never die, only the actor who plays him. Oh yeah!

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:43 pm

I read the whole Legacy of Unicron trade on Tuesday or so, and then the workpocalypse happened.

Ladies' Night!

Fun stuff. I loved the jeep full of explosives that charged Swindle, and the cheesy, but somewhat Swindle-y comment about resale value. The Senior art makes even a bunch of hot chicks in a tank taking on Decepticons look awesome... actually, i guess that's awesome even if Senior wasn't drawing it.

But Furman can make his human characters likeable. Cindy kind of has a thing for Ultra Magnus, doesn't she? "I was going to say for mere humans." HA!

How does Swindle change shape like that? Dan Reed makes a jeep look like a loaf of bread in his hand. Anyway....

What in the world did you UKers think when Rhythms of Darkness Galvatron showed up, after the way that T2006 Galvatron absolutely refused to stay dead?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Sun May 08, 2011 10:21 pm

bumblemusprime wrote: What in the world did you UKers think when Rhythms of Darkness Galvatron showed up, after the way that T2006 Galvatron absolutely refused to stay dead?

Well Galvy's death in Time Wars was kinda earth-shattering. I couldn't believe that they had actually killed him off. But then it was totally undermined less than 20 issues later when an alternate future Galvatron turned up in Aspects of Evil. Even worse, he showed up again in Perchance to Dream and was duffed over by a bunch of classic Autobots.

Rhythms of Darkness Galvatron might have been yet another alternate Galvatron but he was written much better from the start. I remember being tremendously excited when he turned up on the cover again and was looking forward to him shaking things up: http://transfans.co.uk/popup.php?id=1666

Post by **Best First** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:42 am

Yep - classic Autobot's duffing up galvy was a real low point.

When confronted with Autobots (other than Prime or UM), Galvy's job discription clearly states he is to stand there and laugh while they shoot him then beat them all unconcious whilst seemingly entirely unharmed.

Then UM shows up and they have the best fight ever which will sadly not be topped for going on 25 years now.

It's the robot law.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue May 10, 2011 6:30 pm

Oh, and I forgot the best part of Ladies' Night. "Mere women? Well, for your information—"

"I was going to say mere humans."

I love Simon's jokes, both here and in Prime's Rib, about the lack of sexual politics among TFs. As if he was trying to preempt the horrible moment when all TF fans hit puberty and a good segment of them immediately began writing sticky slashfic about Elita One.

Legacy of Unicron! Parts 1 & 2! UNRATED!

Well f*ck my f*ckstwanger, Will Ferell and a stripper, this is one hell of a story.

Where to start?

It's fair to say that although the zenith of Marvel TF stories maybe elsewhere, there are few 22-page stories that can beat these two together. Geoff Senior in beautiful top form. Death's Head at his very best, showing that he can waste Shockwave but he doesn't want to. Twists galore in both chapters.

And did I mention the Shockwave fight? Holy violence, Batman! This goes down as one of the best TF showdowns in all TF showdowndom--"Did you really think I'd fall for--" BLAM!

Senior beautifully eviscerates old Purple One-Eye.

DH even promises to avenge Shockwave while he snaps the sucker's brain module. I kind of miss the brain modules, by the way--nowadays he would tear out the spark. Too much quasi-religious stuff in my TFs lately.

These were the days--when men were men, Geoff Senior was the manliest of all, and an original Furman character could slaughter Shockwave without a bunch of 30-something men getting offended.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed May 11, 2011 9:30 am

The first two issues of Legacy are pants-wettingly brilliant. The reveal at the end of Part 1 was like "Holy ****!"

And even though it was a future story, killing Shockwave was a massive moment.

I think I prefer brain modules to sparks. Seeing Shockers' get crushed in this told you he really wasn't coming back.

Furman really kept up the momentum in Legacy for the first five issues, raising the stakes with each one. Shame the finale was a bit of a letdown.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed May 11, 2011 7:01 pm

bumbleprimething wrote:These were the days--when men were men, Geoff Senior was the manliest of all, and an original Furman character could slaughter Shockwave without a bunch of 30-something men getting offended.

Hell yeah. One of the top moments of the original run right there.

Post by **Best First** » Wed May 11, 2011 8:50 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:The first two issues of Legacy are pants-wettingly brilliant. The reveal at the end of Part 1 was like "Holy ****!"

i know! I remember thinking how cool it was that they had kept the title until the last page to make sure that it was a suprise. In the day's before the internet it really was. Lovely stuff.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu May 12, 2011 4:48 pm

Legacy of Unicron! Parts 3 & 4

Dan Reed brings us 22 wobbly pages! And what a 22 pages they are, with Smokescreen going through the windscreen, Wreck-Gar killing a fellow Junkion, an onslaught of Decepticons against Rodimus Prime's fortress, and Death's Head continuing to be the biggest badass in the galaxy by defying Unicron's mental control.

Pretty awesome stuff. My favorite moment was the tragic version of Wreck-Gar's dialogue. "I disqualified one of my own team. Four faults!" Not to mention the brilliant moment when Death's Head defies Unicron, yes?

I'm already sad knowing that this is the last we'll see of mister Head in this run of TF comics.

Post by **Best First** » Thu May 12, 2011 4:55 pm

"But of Death's head there was... no trace!"

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Thu May 12, 2011 5:05 pm

What I love about Legacy is on paper it should be terrible, Furman using the 150th issue milestone to give a two fingered salute to the title he's supposed to be writing as he gives over the story to trying to launch his own character. It's what would go amazingly tits up with the Neo Knights later on.

Whilst the fact it's, in TV terms, a backdoor pilot for the Death's Head comic (tellingly he's the one set up as Unicron's arch foe rather than Rodimus Prime, amongst various other bits that put him first and foremost as the stories lead character), it still works. Lots and lots and lots of lovely moments. And my goodness, poor old Shockwave.

The only real shame is that it's the workmanlike Anderson who gets to draw the pivotal origin story rather than Senior, or even new boy Hitch. Luckily the American comic would wind up giving us the Senior take on it...

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:14 am

I have a sudden urge to show up at IDW's head office in a full DH costume and announce that I have "an appointment with Mr Schmidt. About a...contractual obligation, yes?"

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sat May 14, 2011 1:38 am

The Legacy of Unicron! Concluding chapters...

Rodimus Prime is indeed a pansy, isn't he? I mean, let's run down the list of badass actions here:

- Wreck Gar prepares to blow himself and his buddies up just to stop Unicron.

- Death's Head jumps right into Unicron's mental peanut butter to fight him.

- Smokescreen goes back up against the creature that nearly got him killed.

- Rodimus jumps into the mental peanut butter for a while, armed with the only thing that can kill Unicron, in order to serve as a distraction. And this is after he's tried to weasel out of going at all.

Something about Rodimus Prime, man. I will say more once I get to Space Pirates, but he was far better as Hot Rod. He seems to have become the worse of Optimus and Hot Rod--inexperienced and overly pensive.

Some pretty ******* badass art from Bryan Hitch in the final chapter here, and partially inked by Senior. Including a rather convenient time portal. I love all the scary shots of Unicron blasting out eyebeams, raising his big nasty claws, etc... the final chapter is a stunner artwise, although it's not as balls-to-the-wall of a battle as Time Wars and Space Pirates will be.

At this point, had you Brits already seen Cyclonus and Scourge appear in the Headmasters series? What did you think of that, before you got this explanation? They never showed up again after their one-panel cameo in the US, I believe.

The origin sequence is cool, especially since it is related by Unicron. Primus is a kind of avatar of good, as opposed to the strange quest narrative the Keeper hinted at involving an Omniversal Matrix.

More than any previous narratives, this pure post-movie story is one that I wish I could have read when I was a kid. Not that it would make any sense without "Fallen Angel." But seriously. Generally, the storytelling quality fills me with pure blind jealousy of you kids, but it increases to rage when you also get post-2005 stories, which eight-year-old Spencie dreamt of for years, until Paul sent him to the cybermonkeys, and now he dreams of their grasping warty fingers and meat-rotting-on-an-old-circuit-board breath.

Post by **Best First** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:37 am

Post by **Kaylee** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:54 am

That's a very 80's looking cyberape about to get her head caved in. Wasn't she a one-hit-wonder on Top of the Pops?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Sat May 14, 2011 8:20 am

bumblemusprime wrote: Dan Reed brings us 22 wobbly pages!

That double page battle looks great. Dan Reed really can't draw Death's Head for toffee though.

inflatable dalek wrote: The only real shame is that it's the workmanlike Anderson who gets to draw the pivotal origin story

I quite like the artwork in 150. Baskerville makes it work I think.

bumblemusprime wrote: At this point, had you Brits already seen Cyclonus and Scourge appear in the Headmasters series? What did you think of that, before you got this explanation? They never showed up again after their one-panel cameo in the US, I believe.

If I remember rightly there were a few irate letters (The Headmasters saga ran from issues 130 to 145, Legacy from 146-151) but readers were told it would all be explained.

In a US context though their appearance makes no sense at all.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Sat May 14, 2011 3:40 pm

I always loved Dan's art as a kid. Second to Senior's of course.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sun May 15, 2011 3:17 am

PAY ATTENTION! THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT TRANSFANS POST YOU EVER READ!

Actually... no, I'm quite sure that the most important post you read would be personal advice from Karl. Or Shanti's sociopolitical genius.

But nonetheless!

Enemy Action! and a discourse on Anglo/American relations:

I have discovered something. The truth. The reason why.

British guys write better TFs.

Costa and Budiansky went for the American story. Underdogs, misunderstood by the world around them, learning to live in harmony in the melting pot. That's why humans are so important to their stuff.

But the genius of Furman is that he sticks to the works of the classic Brits and examines the minds of bigger-than-life heroes in combat. This is about the war, and the struggle against fate and hubris. This little two-parter, whilst not spectacular in story particulars or art, is a brilliant example of the Shakespearian character moment for Shockwave.

For a moment, Shockwave can turn back from his foolish, MacBeth-lite self-destructive path. But he chooses not to, sealing his foolish fate. Simon clearly sees, for whatever English reason, that this kind of meditation on pride, fate and self-destruction is far more interesting that the question of "gasp! Will humans and robots every get alonggggg?"

The Sparkabots and Firecons aren't that interesting, and the Seacons come off as a bunch of big dorks. "Sadly, that is no longer the case!" Galvatron doesn't lose one bit of badassery, though, even though he's gone and come back twice. We've seen his own hubris defeat him, so it's interesting to see how he plays on another Decepticon leader's pride. The story is saved from mediocrity by the focus on leaders as fools.

Mark me, Brits: one of you shall light our darkest hour. Let's just hope it's Roberts and he can somehow curb Costa's worst tendencies.

Post by **Best First** » Sun May 15, 2011 3:39 pm

**** that - let's hope it's me.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue May 17, 2011 2:36 pm

Stargazing! In the Second Generation trade! Back to bouncing around again--clear delineation of Legacy trade, I will miss you.

Some Autobot needs to recruit this random kid and make him their chief strategist. Anyone who can make Starscream care about fleshlings because it's Christmas could theoretically talk Megatron into a transdimensional jump to the My Little Ponies universe, where he would stay.

It's cheesy, but not as cheesy as Christmas Breaker. And it's always fun to see a second-tier Autobot make an idiot out of himself.

But seriously. This Christmas-loving nerd is a genius. Get him on our side, ASAP!

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:01 pm

Stargazing came before Legacy of Unicron Spence. You really should be using the Transfans episode guide instead of whatever hackwork you're referring to.

Of course, the important thing about Stargazing was... Starscream was back! Woohoo! Although we didn't see him again until Club Con...

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:16 pm

"Hi, I'm Starscream. FLY ME!"

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed May 18, 2011 1:38 am

spiderfrommars wrote:Stargazing came before Legacy of Unicron Spence. You really should be using the Transfans episode guide instead of whatever hackwork you're referring to.

Of course, the important thing about Stargazing was... Starscream was back! Woohoo! Although we didn't see him again until Club Con...

Or I didn't feel like reading Stargazing...

Post by **Best First** » Wed May 18, 2011 11:16 am

bumblemusprime wrote: Christmas-loving nerd

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed May 18, 2011 4:56 pm

Salvage!

Deliberately not checked against any timeline that makes sense!

Lee Sullivan comes outta the gate swinging. Proving that he is a worthy successor to Geoff Senior, he gives us a crinkle-faced evil clown Galvatron, a hideously water-soaked Megatron and Centurion, and Richard Branson? Uh... okay.

One of the Titan TPBs has a pretty funny scan of a newspaper report on the Branson cameo. I'll see if I can dig it up once I'm home today.

A generally solid story, although Megatron's paranoia is a lot easier to buy, given his previous behavior in Gone But Not Forgotten, while Magnus is curiously a bit of a pansy, given that he chose to be buried in molten lava.

TFs must be made of one hell of an alloy to survive lava. Presumably the lava screwed up Magnus's connections, because both here and in City of Fear, he's not quite his brave old self.

Furman really can do a lot with 22 pages. This is one of the big reasons to put him on an ongoing book. He knows how to make a single issue hook while working it into a larger story.

[edit]

Found the clip from the magazine. Not much but reproduced text from something apparently known as "Thrills." Pretty funny, though:

DICK BRANSON is a dead groovy guy. Already famous as a pickle mogul, a music baron and a record breaker, the world's richest bearded git now moves into the world of Giant Robot Destroying! Yes, those wicked shape-changing Decepticon robots really meet their match when they cross dicks with Dick in issue 160 of the crap comic Transformers. Basically, this giant robot shark is well pissed off with Dick and tries to do him but Dick's too hard. Does this mark a new era of Dick style superheroes? Superdick? The Incredibly Hippy? Spider Branson? Captain Capitalist? Thrills hopes not.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu May 26, 2011 10:17 pm

City. Of. FEAAAAARRRR!!!!!!

OOOOO!

The only thing cooler than a Transformers zombie story is a Transformers zombie story way before everyone and his everything was doing zombie stories.

Dan Reed was born to draw this story. The very old, tattered TF head suddenly coming alive with sharp teeth is one of the freakiest things I've seen in this series.

Ultra Magnus is a bit off, isn't he? He calls himself 'the Autobots' greatest warrior!" Then he refuses to kill undead dudes. It's all very strange behavior. His code of honor just comes off as silly here. I mean, they're zombies. Everybody knows how to deal with zombies. You shoot them in the head. It doesn't matter who they used to be.

The Baird Beaming Transmitter is very Earth. I googled it and didn't come up with anything except a TF reference. Is this a real device? I mean, really, "Baird" as a Cybertronian name?

Furman is obviously having a blast here. Movie pastiches with the TFs are a lot of fun, because Furman never loses sight of the central conceit of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict. City of Fear will take us much farther emotionally than any zombie pastiche should, but such is for next time...