Transformation 189: He's Making a List, He's Killing It Twice.

25/12/2015

Merry Christmas!

And what better way of spending Christmas Day is there than watching a little man get crushed to death? A mystery figure is back and you'll never guess who it is, all in my look at:

Dry Run!

Appologies for not being up on replying to comments over the last couple of weeks, various things have kept me very busy. But I am reading them all and they're all appreciated!

17 Comments

Alex Smith link

25/12/2015 01:44:39 pm

Absolutely spot-on about the nastiness of this issue. Nightstick's death (not Fracas, Stu - I know it's Christmas, but put the sherry down!) sticks (hah!) with me to this day, and the sheer drive and drama of the whole issue means we can even forget that decapitation isn't fatal for Transformers.

Related to that, the image of Cyclonus strung up in Shockwave's base from the upcoming Time Wars is another one that's permanently pasted to the inside of my skull. It's amazing what you can get away with when the characters are robots.

Merry Christmas!

snowkatt link

25/12/2015 02:34:41 pm

G2 took the nastiness to an even higher level.
Cyclonus corpse strung up on the wall is a memorable image though
Whatever Dan Reed's faults might have been that was one of his finest illustrations.

And together with 212 and 213 some of the first TF UK comics I knowingly read.

( Firebug and Cold Christmas, were unknowing. )

Alex Smith link

29/12/2015 07:49:11 pm

To be honest, James has been giving G2 a run for its money with some of the nastiness over in More Than Meets the Eye. It says something that Ambulon isn't even the worst offender!

snowkatt link

31/12/2015 03:50:20 pm

I am behind on MTME.
In fact, I haven't even read Sins Of The Wreckers yet. ( poor showing I know)
But so far, i'm starting to become detached from MTME.
There is too much humor in the series, if the characters cant even take the proceedings seriously, why should the reader ?

The time travel story for instance, it was well done but mostly a farce. In no way did the characters actually take any of the proceedings seriously.
Which made it feel more inconsequential then it should have been.

And the rest is so much fluff, I cant even remember them.
Sounds like MTM is ramping it up in the march towards issue 50.
Which can only mean one thing.
The sue squad, ...whoo.
( I'm not a fan of the DJD, even the acronym is stupid lets leave it at that )

Ryan F

25/12/2015 02:37:20 pm

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

snowkatt link

25/12/2015 02:43:16 pm

Bah ! Humbug !
...Want a humbug ?

Tim Roll-Pickering link

25/12/2015 02:53:34 pm

Decepticon on Decepticon action always seems to be especially brutal. Perhaps there was more they could get away with. And it makes for quite a dark issue.

And if I remember correctly the 1987 annual declared the Targetmaster guns were actually robots with the mind prints of Nebulans - maybe this was an early idea and the thinking continued in parts of Marvel UK?

I think the pictures are 1 & 4 but it's a bit late to enter now.

And if this is the year I think it is there would have been a lot of post strikes around this time - I remember coming back from a holiday in France to find all the post boxes covered up.

Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home!

Ralph Burns

25/12/2015 05:01:51 pm

I think having Cam Smith do inks over Anderson's pencils really do give it a different energy. It is unlike any other art Anderson turned in.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Ralph Burns

25/12/2015 04:58:52 pm

THAT TASTY HIGH FIBRE OAT CEREAL.

I too have worked Chrimbo Day but at least Megatron did not grab me forcefully by the ears. Which was good.

I look forward to another year of...SPECIAL TEAMS!

snowkatt link

25/12/2015 06:20:20 pm

For those interested in purchasing original art.
The space bridge is selling pages from The War With In, The Dark Ages:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Transformers-Original-Comic-Artwork-Dreamwave-War-Within-DEVASTATOR-Wildman-1-/151586529998?hash=item234b42e2ce:g:9D4AAOSwBLlU287~

John D. link

26/12/2015 10:34:27 am

Merry Christmas folks! I hope I was worthy of the good Impactor! Interesting issue this one. I remember thinking it was quite gory and being impressed with the art. Does Cyclonus go down after just 1 fusion cannon blast? I suppose we didnt see it in action too often. One blast was enough to dismantle Predaking wasn't it? There's no way I would have said the art was Jeff Anderson, I remember it being good art. Cam Smith's inks must have done the pencils a big favour. She, we didn't see more of that. The lettering in the issues around this time was quite distinctive too. The entry on oneshallstand.com for this issue notes that the paper of the comic has changed. I think somebody mentioned this here too recently. I can't say I noticed at the time. I recall around issue 300 (?) the paper changed, but Blaster on the letters page said it was for the better as the ink was absorbed better or something. Was that just darn blasting lies covering up further cost cutting?

Tim Roll-Pickering link

26/12/2015 11:27:40 am

It was about issue #225 when the middle eight pages switched to a cheaper paper and were generally all printed only in black and white from now on. This had the side effect of making the calendar posters impossible to remove without destroying the issue.

From #290 onwards the UK originated stories were dropped and the US stories were moved to the middle pages which were now mostly all colour again - and it may have been coincidence given the darkness of the material but they really did look better on the cheaper paper.

Issue #309 was an oddity, at least on my copy, with the outer 12 of 28 pages being on the cheaper paper. The two story format was restored here with the US stories printed on both paper types.

Stuart

26/12/2015 02:47:53 pm

Everyone is indeed right, the imagery the next time we see Cyclonus is--if anything--even more iconic than the head pull.

Simon Hall

27/12/2015 11:17:27 am

Yup, as all have said, a great issue - so much so I can overlook Cyclonus' rather clunkily dropping the bomb about the future on Shockwave.

As other's have mentioned, Cam Smith's inks do lend Anderson's art are more simpler and direct style, than Baskerville's touch ups do. There's only the explosions that look a bit naff, looking like a couple of octagons stuck to the wall. Tom Frame's distinctive lettering also adds a different vibe to the issue too.

These sorts of 'set -up' stories are often my very favourite bits of TF fiction.

What I find most horrible is poor Nightstick's death. Its just a punfunctory crushing, but the thought of that is just ... it makes me sad like when Overlord trampled Pipes in MTMTE.

And yes, after never really featuring in the TF comics in any major way, to see Megatron off the hook and fighting mad gave you some idea of why he is so feared. Brilliant stuff.

And next week : Skullgrin the movie star! One of my all-time favourite Uncle Bob stories (and US # 45 of which this was from I picked up whilst on holiday in Florida in this very year and started me down the path of discovering those murky damp-smelling comic book shops). I'm sure you'll all be proclaiming this as the work of genius it so obviously is.

Happy day after boxing day! There's floods near me!

snowkatt link

31/12/2015 03:58:14 pm

Well to be honest I don't care much for christmas, myself or new years for that matter.
I am however working on a new batch of reviews, if I can get them up before the end of the year however is anybodies guess.

Considering the tone and the level of violence in this book, having this issue one of the more violent scenes is certainly remarkable.

Shadow Megatron however doesn't have the spiffy manicured nails of Headmasters Zarak.

Even if it was just a replica of Galvatron its high time Galvatron is being taken down a peg. He is starting to get ludicrously powerful and hasn't really done much of any worth since the Wanted, Dead Or Alive, story line.
He has mostly wandered around and spun his wheels.

Sadly this issue complete the complete and utter neutering of Cyclonus and Scourge.
From monsters, to credible threats, to comedic relief, to complete and utter imbeciles.

In Target 2006 it took Megatron and all the available Autobots, just to capture Scourge. Here Megatron plows through them as if they aren't there and easily rips off Cyclonus head.
It might be shocking, it's also baffling how far those two have fallen.

And so the comic readies itself for several months of wanton slaughter it seems.
The Underbase Saga, Budianksy's last proper epic, pretty much kills every early character and Time Wars mops up the rest.
It's a surprise there was anybody left after all that.

But first some of the worst of the worst, the complete and utter dregs.
...Monstercon From Mars and Cash And Carnage.
...January is going to be very very, very, very cold indeed.

( I haven't read MTME 47 yet and I have no plans to go and watch star wars 7 unless I find it next year on dvd for a quid. I am aware of "the big reveal" and it was as predictable as expected )

The quiz : wait ,that means I have to reread every post since 150 or so ?

I've seen that Impactor toy http://www.collectiondx.com/toy_review/mmc_spartan

Felicity link

12/11/2019 08:24:16 pm

First, comments on the previous entry, the comments webpage of which won’t load so as to let me leave a comment:

Last night I saw the episode of “ALF” where the Tanner family holds a luau in their back yard, and in that episode ALF is reading a “Transformers” comic: US issue #41, the battle on the moon! (Later in the episode the boy character is reading “Heathcliff” comics.)

If they were making a “Visionaries” movie in the late 1980s I would have cast Timothy Dalton (another “Flash Gordon” alumnus!) as Leoric. Sean Connery might make a good Merklynn with the right wig. (Or even without—sometimes Merklynn is drawn balding, though not in the page you scanned in the entry.)

As for this entry, the panel of Cyclonus telling Shockwave “We don’t have to take that from you! We’re going to kill you in twenty years!” is one that my friend who had read the British comics liked quoting. So it has sentimental value, even though as a fan of the cartoon, I disapprove of making Cyclonus such a fool.

All right! Next entry, we get some more Delbo art! :-)

LiamKav

12/12/2021 02:07:36 pm

"But Megatron isn’t just the one character who could conceivably beat his future self in a fight"

Actually, I (politely) disagree with this and say that Megatron is the one character who could never beat Galvatron. Galvatron's whole deal is that he's Megatron but more. Anything Megs can so, Galvatron could do better. Another character could conceivably be faster, or have greater dexterity, or think outside the box, but there's nothing Megatron could think of that Galvatron won't think of better. The only advantage Megs has is that Galvatron can't actually kill him, but Target:2006 and Altered Image shows he can incapacite him fairly easily.

(As a side, I do think that Hot Rod COULD conceivably beat Rodimus Prime in a fight because they think differently enough that Hot Rod could conceivably surprise him.)

Transformation 189: He's Making a List, He's Killing It Twice.

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