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Transformation 110: For They Shall Not Grow Old.

20/6/2014

9 Comments

 
Picture
It's possible that Optimus Prime is having a worse day than Ratchet by dint of being dead, but it's a very close thing. Will the maniacal Mechanic's manipulations see him master of the Ark? All in my look at

Funeral For A Friend! Part 2.


9 Comments
Tim Roll-Pickering link
20/6/2014 02:42:21 pm

I agree this is a dire issue with not much in the story to talk about.

The age questions on the letterspage are a reminder of how my parents used to suggest I should give up the series (and possibly this is the source of the concerns) - I think I would have been 10 when this came up. I took no notice and carried on, and they were presumably mollified by my also reading some of the superhero comics from DC/London Editions Magazines. My classmates occasionally mocked me for still reading the book but again I guess they had no idea it was beyond a simple toy tie in and had become sub-2000 AD. Although this issue would not have been a good one to hold up in defence.

Reply
Benway
22/6/2014 03:11:37 am

Yeah, I continued reading into secondary school but didn't tell anyone because it was a toy tit-in (that should have been tie-in but I'm leaving it because...) I even got a letter published in one issue and didn't tell anyone but my best friend. There's a story with that but I'll wait till we get there (which will be a while! Luckily) Secondary school was a bad time. I remember trying to talk to people about Ghostlight from Doctor Who and no-one had seen it! At junior school we all watched it. It was a horrible moment of realising that the world was rubbish now.

Reply
Stuart
20/6/2014 04:08:34 pm

Yeah, I can understand Bob wanting to run an action plot alongside the funeral, but he could just as easily have the Ark defences malfunction without outside interference (or even have a Decepticon do it, have Bombshell sneak into the computer?) with Ratchet having to overcome with the need for the Bloody Mechanic.

Reply
Benway
22/6/2014 03:24:22 am

This is from when Transformers was from the "if I have pocket money left over" period. My Grandma shouted me on Spiderman and Zoids (how weird was that combo? And Grant Morrison writing a toy thing?!) so I'd get it if it looked good. It looked like crap at this point. I was the first at school to notice the American / British divide and would stand up for the US stuff as the original comic and the core of the story (I was an unusual ten year old) but.... those issues basically went crap for ages after the Smelting pool and I gave up. Furman's issues were better by this point. The next one I bought was 113.

I think you folks only read this stuff later, so thought it might interest you to know that there were Furman vs Budiansky arguments at the time in my school.

Also, belatedly, Transformers The Movie was massive round my way. I can't believe it flopped. It was a really big deal! I still remember a bunch of us went for my best friends birthday. His mum was rather a conservative catholic and I was feeling both nervous and cool because of the horrifying robot violence... and AN ACTUAL SWEAR WORD!!!!!!! Coolist film ever. That year.

Reply
Benway
22/6/2014 03:34:45 am

I DID still read friend's copies where I could. We used to read them at playtime in school. The mood at this point was pretty ugly. I switched fron defending Bob to saying, "There's two writers! The other one's coming back soon!" The kids weren't happy. But hey, Inhumanoids was fun!

Reply
Tim Roll-Pickering link
22/6/2014 04:42:33 am

Interesting. I can't recall any conversations about the series content with school friends but I guess having come a bit later to the party no-one wanted to acknowledge they were were still reading it and instead they all talked about computer games that I never had. But I'm sure I wasn't the only one still reading the series as some of the later issues popped up in comic boxes at school from time to time. By the time I was at my later schools the series was dead and a few would recall having once read it - but not precisely when. There were some of us there who did discuss ongoing TV sci-fi and the Marvel US books.

I did notice the different writers when I started reading regularly - only for Furman to take over the US stories not too long afterwards! Still it was clear that there was a different writer altogether on the G.I. Joe crossover and in some of the annuals.

Ralph Burns
22/6/2014 11:32:53 am

Oh, the cover is lovely! Especially when you realise that Omega is trying to hide his face in shame with his big claw arm.

Reply
Stuart
22/6/2014 01:59:00 pm

I don't think I noticed the different writers when I was first reading the comic, but did quickly cotton onto the stories with the "Dot" colouring never being as good as the other ones (this was very late Bob).

Reply
Felicity link
31/10/2019 07:41:32 pm

The editor doesn’t need to apologise too much; this is a fine issue. You’re right that the way the Mechanic beats the Autobots at every turn is frustrating, but there’s enough good stuff here that I enjoy this issue. And, surprisingly, I enjoy the Mechanic (and his feud with the cops), and am glad when he returns. I wonder what Bob Budiansky would have done with him if he had wanted to bring him back sometime. Like Circuit Breaker, once reformed he might have made a good Neo-Knight. You just have to channel his sense of superiority over machines against the right faction, the Decepticons!

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