Transformers Comic Review...

GIJOE vs. Transformers: The Art of War #1
(series three from Devil's Due)

Format: Limited series (one of five)


Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Joe Ng

Cover Art:
Cover A by Joe Ng, Espen Grundetjern, Tom Liu;
Cover B by Tim Seeley and Rob Ruffulo;
Cover C by Don figueroa and Sunder Raj


Synopsis: In the desert of New Mexico, a secret base (Area 52) houses the remains of the Decepticons forces from Earth (we see Megatron and Soundwave's heads). A science team experiments around Megatron's head and talks about the great power they could obtain from Cybertronian technology--it's usefulness to America and ensuring that they stay the dominant force in the
world. A few levels above them, GIJOE welcomes a team of Autobots from Cybertron (Perceptor, Grmlock, Arcee and Bumblebee). The Autobots have been sent by Optimus Prime to retrieve the Joe's mech-suit things (from volume 2, I guess--I never read those), thus leaving no Cybertronian tech on Earth. Just then, on cue, Cobra Commander launches an assault on the base with a legion of B.A.T.S (Battle.Android.Tacti--who cares! They're robot soldiers;). The Joes and TFs repel the attackers, but it's just a distraction while Cobra Commander and Zartan sneak into the base (using intel from Zarana, who's disguised). The three Cobras decide to steal the new Serpent O.R. android--a prototype shell made with Cybertronian technology and programmed with the battle tactics of history's greatest conquerors. Cobra Commander thinks it would be a great asset for Cobra so he sets it free. The robot comes to life... it has not been programmed as of yet and it appears that Megatron attempts to access it's brain. The robot attacks Cobra Commander and his
allies, knocking them out while it accesses Soundwave's mind and learns what's going on and what it is. It sees Megatron's head and calls it "father". Putting on Serpent armor, it decides it must seek out the Autobot Matrix of Leadership--the source of great power!

Comments: There's two ways to take a story like this... either it's a blast from the past! A great re-imagining of classic story elements with a modern twist. The other way is to consider it a total hack job that mines old stories with an eye to playing on their nostalgia. I think I drift more to the latter.
I gave volume one of GIJOE vs. Transformers a chance, wasn't impressed by what I saw and then skipped out on volume two entirely. This is volume three now and I still see the same elements I saw in volume one.
For one thing, the story plays like a old GIJOE cartoon. This may or may not be to one's liking... for my tastes, the cartoons were always a bit simplistic (although sometimes imaginative) which is why I preferred the comics. The plot follows certain convenient contrivances--Cobra just happens to attack exactly when the Autobots have arrived; as always, Zartan/Zarana or somebody manages to infiltrate a high security facility with ease; the Joes happen to be exactly in the right place at the right time, etc. Also, Serpentor is from the original 80s concept. Originally, he was a clone programmed with the tactics and minds of the most brillant military conquerors of history--at the time, somehow Cobra Commander never considered such a personality would possibly want to run the show. This time, Serpentor is a android but the same thing applies. As it happens, that plot isn't pursued but one does wonder why none of the characters think about the obvious in these stories. For that matter, why do they always make something like a superpowerful android that can be easily co-opted for evil?
Also, the story is chock full of dumb little fan jokes like,
"I didn't know they made girl robots."
"Arcee. I get that a lot."
Or... in reference to Megatron's severed head.
"This machine, Martin... is not a toy."
Ha, ha, hah..?
The plot is fairly obvious too. Serpentor runs amok, gains resources, makes some plan to get the matrix and/or use it to rule everyone. Due to some spunky good guys, he'll fail in the nick of time. But...insert epilogue to set up the next series.
The art is by Joe Ng and is inconsistent. Some frames look good but others seem detail-less. I think they're trying to go for an anime-esque look in their characters like Dreamwave used to. I don't much care for it, though. I remember in the old days, comic artists used to actually have to have talent.

If you liked the first or second volume of Devil's Due Joe/TF crossover, you'll probably like this one too. If not, then I'd pass on this one.

Transformers Comic Review...

Amazing Fantasy #18
"Death's Head 3.0 - Unnatural Selection" (Part three of five)

Format: Ongoing (multi-issue story arc)

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: James Raiz


Cover Art by Lucio Parrillo


Synopsis: Death's Head slaughters all who oppose him in the African republic of Kuanga. General Tal, the dictator in charge of the country demands his forces throw themselves at it and either stop it or die trying. He kills his advisor for not having any information on the mechanoid and later kills a soldier that wants to quit the battle. GEIST watches from their satellite meanwhile but their director decides that they should stay out of things for now--Kuanga is a recognized independent republic and it wouldn't be easy to send their forces in there without good justification to his superiors. He tells Agent Braccia to let AIM sort it out--it's their mess. AIM, meanwhile, sends a force down there to try and retake Death's Head at all cost. Raymond Hidalgo continues searching through AIM's computers and finds an experiment that Goddard's grandmother had been working on--an attempt to capture the Uni-force for AIM's own purposes. When this fails, they instead attempt to mimic it for their own reasons--Goddard observes that he is too close to discovering her true intent and muses how she will stop him. In Kuanga, Death's Head stops all who challenge him and when General Tal will not surrender, his Captain shoots him so that more men will not die needlessly. Death's Head escapes and goes to Europe and some of Goddard's associates. They plug him into a computer where Goddard interfaces with him and uploads a new directive to him--kill Raymond Hidalgo!

Comments: Goddard's grandmother had been trying to capture then "Uni-force", which is the thing that occasionally shows up in Marvel Comics and bestows someone with superhuman powers. It gives them the identity of Captain Universe and they use the powers to avert some disaster or the other and then the powers leave them (it happened to Spiderman about a decade ago--that was a really bad storyline, imo). It all sounds more complicated then it really is...
Anyway, it seems they failed to capture the Uni-force and instead mimicked it somehow, calling their version the "Uni-Alias" (but it's sixty percent less powerful--so a bad copy of the original). Apparently, Goddard has used the Uni-Alias to "empower and free Death's Head".
The story seems to indicate that the mechanoid has several different things going on--that it was an alien soldier, designed to kill but that the Uni-Alias is acting as some sort of soul within it, trying to do right (which is why it tried to free the African rebel in part two). But, Goddard has programmed it with nanites to kill for her...
It's all an interesting set-up. Of course, we have to see where it all goes. I suspect, based off what's here so far, that Death's Head will be able to fight being a puppet and resist killing Hidalgo in the next part (or, failing that, will kill Hidalgo and then resist carrying out the UN assassination mission). Knowing Furman, it seems option "A" is more likely...
The art is this issue seemed a bit more generic in places, like Raiz was in a rush to get it done or something. For example, some shots of Hidalgo don't look as good as in the previous issues nor do the satellite displays have any images on them (you could argue this is a art style choice, though). The cover is also crappy compared to the last two issues--this employs a split-image, one of Death's Head and one of the back-up "New Universe" story while the two previous issues opted for Death's Head only (the last image of the DH story shows a back up image, likely the alternate, unused cover).
All in all, another chunk of story, but more interesting then part two proved to be.

Recommended.

Galaxy Force Magna Comic Part 2

As promised, I've finally uploaded the second half of the Magna comic:

GF Magna Comic Pt.2

Hope you enjoy. I'll try real hard to get the TransMaster Comic/Magazine site
issue fixed soon. Thanks for your patience.

Transformers Comic Review...

Transformers Beast Wars #1
The Gathering

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Don Figueroa

Cover art by Don Figueroa

Synopsis: The story begins when Magmatron leads a force of Predacons back to prehistoric Earth and the era of the Beast Wars. Cybertron is controlled mainly by the Maximals while his Predacon brethren are suffering under their control. The Predacons lack the power to wage a new war--they need strength of numbers, something they don't have. Magmatron decides to send his team back in time so that he can take those unused stasis pods and convert them all to brand new Predacon warriors (the team is set out of temporal phase so they don't interrupt the original Beast Wars). Little does he realize that he has a spy in his midst--Razorbeast, a Maximal that had been sent by Lioconvoy to keep tabs on his activities. Razorbeast sends out the activation signal to the protoforms, but he's made sure they'll awaken as Maximals instead of Magmatron's desired Predacons. The Predacons quickly realize they've been tricked, Razorbeast escapes them for the time being and goes to gather his new comrades.

Comments: This series is the same as the Dreamwave BW mini-series from last year--the company died before the series could see print. It was already done and IDW wanted something to add to their new TF franchise, so... The art is fantastic, Figueroa delivers the goods yet again. The story is basically just a set up for the larger story but what we see in the first issue seems like a good start. One thing I wonder is if all the protoforms are indeed *all* Maximals then how is this going to be fair fight? Aren't the Preds hopelessly outnumbered? Or is it like G1, where there's less of them but they're conveniently more powerful in some unspecified way? I guess we'll find out... (I bought the blue wrap-around group shot cover, btw--I thought it was the coolest).

Recommended.

Transformers Comic Review...

Transformers Infiltration #2

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: E.J. Su

Cover art: James Raiz, E.J. Su, Andrew Wildman, Guido Guidi

Synopsis: The story continues as Ratchet and the humans face-off against Runamuck and Runabout. Ratchet manages to fend the two Decepticons off long enough to escape with his new Human allies. They stop and regroup for a few minutes until they're found again and the chase continues. Finally, out in the desert, Ratchet is defended as three of his comrades arrive in the nick of time and fend off Thundercracker. His happiness is short lived however, as Prowl informs him he is under arrest for disobeying orders.

Comments: Another good issue. This continues the main story as well as further expanding upon some sub plots that have been brewing--Starscream is clearly up to something. But what? (How like him too). Elsewhere, the man with the computer that Verity stold is found dead in the desert and the police report back to some mysterious organization--who are they and just what is going on? I love it! This is how you write a Transformers comic--not like that confusing drivel that Dreamwave did.
Favorite line award this issue goes to:

Hunter: "And the guys chasing us are Decepticons, right? So... what does that make you?"

Ratchet: "Nervous."

I love it!
One minor complaint about the comic is on the production side--four covers? Still with the multi-cover garbage! And what gets me is that three of the covers really aren't that good. Most are very spartan in appearance--two characters in-frame and that's it. I went with James Raiz's nice looking cover this time--it's got more going on and of all the choices available, says "I'm the clear winner here". I really hope IDW drops the alternate covers soon--enough already!
Ignoring that, an excellent comic otherwise and I look forward to reading more.

Strongly Recommended.

TM Magazine: Issue 1

I don't know what happended, which seems to be a running gag for me lately...but I really did post this a couple of days ago. I have the response email from Blogger, but for some reason it did not appear at all on the blog. So, for the second time:


The first, of many hope, TransMasters Magazine is now online:
http://transmasters.250free.com/magazine/index.html

You may need to refresh some pages a couple of times to get everything to load correctly. The MTMTE page will be slow,I know I should have created 4 seperate pages for this.

Enjoy.

CDROM ARCHIVE news

Alright, it is still not as coded as I'd like (You may have to do some browsing of the files to find everything on it.), but it will have to do. Here are images of the CDROM covers, and the label:

I think I've decided to bring the price down to $8.00 US, to include S/H and $10.00 for other countries. If you use Paypal use: phelpscomp@internet49.com as my user ID and call the item: TM ARCHIVE. If you'd rather send funds snail-mail either check or MO in US funds to: (Made out to Peter Phelps) TM ARCHIVE, c/oPeter Phelps, PO BOX 386, SOMERSET CA 95684-0386. Remember, you as members have the right to duplicate these for shows, distribution, etc. (In other words...I'm hoping I don't suddenly have 2,000 orders or something like that.)

The files I created will be in the extras folder for the above covers/CD labels. I used Corel Draw 8 on the covers, but also exported out .JPG files of the same. The CD label is in Avery Design Pro format. Plus you'll find many of the image files I've been using for various medias, etc. I'm not going to go into great detail, but you'll find the extras folder a great store of resources outside our old medias.

tekcities problem: CDROM news

Any of you who may have tried to visit the TransMasters Comic recently might have had the problem of not seeing any of the images. I uploaded the files for the Magazine (due today) on Monday and then checked yesterday just to find out that none of the images were appearing. I am unsure of why this is happening. I will attempt to upload the files someplace else as soon as I can and redirect you to those links until I can figure out if it was something I did wrong. Sadly, this will mean a delay in the Magazine.

I'm also very appologetic to those of you waiting to see the Archive CDROM. It is nearly finished, but will also have a bit of a delay. I hope to get both of these done on Saturday.

This is all due to me getting a new security job. This time it's down in the Sacramento region, so about 1hr drive both ways from where I'm at. It's with McKesson--a Health Care computer services company. I've gone from "take away the detec scanner and you do the same job as 50 years ago" to High Tech monitoring/access badges/and in-house PBX (we're the operators). I worked 8 days in a row (9 if you count orientation) had friday off, spent my Sat at a 10 hr Red Cross First Aid/CPR course and am back now on 5 days straight. Fun. Hopefully soon I'll get into a regular schedule. At least I'll get Fri and Sat off in future.

Thank you all for your patience.

Transfomers Comic Review...

Amazing Fantasy #17
"Death's Head 3.0 - Unnatural Selection" (Part two of five)

Format: Ongoing (multi-issue story arc)
Availability: General/mass media

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: James Raiz
Cover Art by Lucio Parrillo

Synopsis: Death's Head escapes the AIM facility, using as little lethal force as possible. Meanwhile, Hidalgo reports back to his GEIST contact, who tells him he'll have to return to AIM's headquarters and find out just what Goddard has planned for Death's Head. Braccia, Hidalgo's contact in GEIST is unable to get further resources for their investigation as her boss is concerned over the security arrangements for the upcoming UN conference with AIM. Elsewhere, AIM's leadership also attempt to understand what is going on--Goddard observes them secretly and gloats how they can't possibly figure her plan out in time to stop it. Once she's succeeded, AIM will rally to her side once more! Elsewhere, Death's Head comes to West Africa and assesses a high tech complex that he breaches. It turns out the complex is a high tech prison and he is there to rescue a prisoner... GEIST monitors from their satellite and assumes it is a former comrade of Goddard's held there, but they are wrong. Death's Head rescues Curtis Henri, a rebel opposed to the current government in this African country. As they attempt escape, Henri is cut down by gunfire and dies. DH reacts to his failure and starts to kill the military forces opposing him--just as Goddard had planned.

Comments: The plot continues. Part two is okay... basically, it feels like a bit of padding to the story. We know from part one that Goddard wants Death's Head to assassinate the UN Secretary General--but the characters otherwise, don't. Furman decided to go the route of them playing catch up. Meanwhile, Death's Head itself has some prior core programming and is confused about who and what it is. It's not certain taking lethal action is in it's best interests. Goddard has used the prison scenario to try and enrage the mechanoid, making it forget its inhibitions and doubts and just strike out. Will it be enough to accomplish her goals? In my opinion, probably not but we'll see. I do hope the story goes in some unexpected directions in the remaining three parts--right now, I can predict the outcome of the story (and that's never any fun!)

Mildly recommended.

Transformers comic review

Transformers Infiltration #1

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: E.J. Su

(cover artists: Guido Guidi, Andrew Wildman, E.J. Su, James Raiz, Don Figueroa, Nick Roche... I think that's everyone. Whew! There are four main covers plus several exclusive/incentive ones too. I just added the main ones to this review.)

Summary: Verity Carlo and Hunter O'Nion drive with Ratchet as he is pursued by the Decepticons from last issue (issue zero). He takes out Runamuck and Runabout for the time being and evades Thundercracker. The trio decide to head for cover in the town/place of Riverside where Verity's mechanic friend Jimmy Pink is. He helps Ratchet recover from some of the peripheral damage he's taken so far. We learn that Ratchet went out to help a human but without the offficial authorization of his faction (so he's effectively on his own). At the end, the Decepticons relocate Ratchet and his new human allies and crash the party.

Comments: The art continues to be consistently good (obviously, opinions will vary on that subject--however, I like the visual style Su has gone with here). The story moves along slowly, intriguing the reader as it goes. Just what exactly is on that palm pilot that Verity stold and why do the Decepticons want it so badly? The characters are fairly interesting--in the comic sense of things. That is, they're not fascinating but still interesting in a generalized way (more so then we ever get out of the cartoon characters). Unlike Dreamwave's previous comics, I actually want to find out what's going to happen next and look forward to next issue. This is a good thing for IDW--being able to hook and retain readers after the initial outing. It also seems like Furman's writing is more interesting then other recent attempts (especially the DW stuff)--he's either really trying here or has a lot more creative freedom then DW ever allowed (or both). The writing is interesting and the dialogue seems a bit better then normal for Furman (in that it has moments of humor). This issue also features a preview of February's Beast Wars comic (but a longer one is already available online, anyway) and some preview panels of next issue too. This is definitely a series to check out, if you haven't already... (you'll also be happy to know that yes, the Transformers do use their robot modes here--at least a bit, anyway). Go buy it! Go NOW!


Strongly recommended.