Transformation 228: Deal Me In.

23/9/2016

This week, we meet two completely different and in no way connected characters who have never been seen in the same room at the same time: Double and Dealer.

What can be the surprise twist connecting them? Don't look at the cover if you'd rather find it out from the comic!

Plus, Micromasters and suicide orders in my look at [Double]Deal of the Century!

Also, with 104 issues left to go, that means there's exactly two years before this project hits issue 332. The end, it cometh...

20 Comments

Tim Roll-Pickering link

23/9/2016 05:15:23 pm

If Transformers Universe was only a mail-order publication I'd be interested to know how I found a copy on sale in Smiths in Guildford the following spring.

The sidebar is a bit off with all three titles it's promoting - as well as #232 not #233 being the key Micromaster issue, Action Force Monthly was cancelled before it could go fortnightly (and quite suddenly it seems - the last two annuals appear to be using inventory material from what would have been issue #16). And the Punisher was actually a weekly title with the Robocop adaption soon succeeded by reprints of The 'Nam - there's more info at http://starlogged.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/1989-punisher-weekly-marvel-uk.html I guess a lot of plans were suddenly altered at Marvel UK.

Ah one of the best Combat Colin strips. I guess Lew Stringer must have been really scared by Tommy Cooper.

And the main strip... well I'm guessing that Hasbro UK was pushing for some appearances to help clear out the previous year's toys (many of which were still on sale), hence quite a few will show up in the coming weeks. But once again we get a gimmick being used by both sides (Pretender Beasts) and this time there isn't even an explanation as to why. Still at least we don't have to worry about how Doubledealer can be a Powermaster. And this is really only part of a story with a punchline based on the toy.

Tetsuro

23/9/2016 10:43:07 pm

Robocop only running the movie adaptation is kind of lame since he's always been pretty good source of satire, but I have no idea if there was any kind of an ongoing Robocop comic...well, ever, really. Maybe there was, but I bet it was based more on the Sunbow cartoon than the movie. Punisher at least had a US ongoing but content-wise his history is a lot spottier, he came out in the 70's with the whole "revenge film" fad but I don't think any writer outside of Garth Ennis has really done him well, although at least in the 80's he fared a lot better than the whole "shooting jaywalkers" nonsense. A lot of writers flat out hated him and I know Joss Whedon in particular does but I think that says more about him than it does about the character.

Ralph Burns

23/9/2016 10:53:25 pm

There was an ongoing Marvel US Robocop title, illustrated by Lee Sulllivan. Some of it also appeared in a very short lived Marvel UK anthology title called Havoc.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

snowkatt link

26/9/2016 09:10:30 am

There was a 23 issue Marvel US comic series,
by Alan Grant and Simon Furman later on.
The satire wasn't as sneering as the first movie, but for a kids comic it was rather violent, disturbing and unconventional.

Felicity link

21/11/2019 11:15:59 pm

As others have commented Marvel did publish a “Robocop” comic in 1989 and it was based on the 1987 movie rather than the 1988 cartoon. The 1988 cartoon never got a comic adaptation AFAIK. Marvel also published comic adaptations of the movie and its sequel, in black and white and at magazine size.

After that there was nothing until Dark Horse’s “Robocop vs. Terminator” in 1992.

Stuart

24/9/2016 09:45:22 am

Interesting about Universe, presumably Smith's could have ordered in a copy themselves for someone who didn't collect it? I don't know how plausible that is, especially if they had dozens of copies in there.

I should have spotted they got the wrong issue for the Micromasters (though it does say "About", suggesting some hedge betting), I spent some of yesterday trying to work out what happened to the last part of Resurrection and why no one has ever mentioned they never finished it...

I won't say how long it took me to realise the solution.

It does look like things are going on behind the scenes, this must be about the time Death's Head ended as well, yes?

Tim Roll-Pickering link

24/9/2016 03:15:41 pm

I'm not sure how well that theory works - the book is definitely a British edition with a sterling price printed on the back cover (although I can't remember if the contents show a British publisher or just US pages with a different jacket). I'd actually chalk this down to another example of Dreadwind's author not knowing the history of what they're writing about and just remembering a mail order offer

Dave Barker

30/9/2016 09:45:18 pm

I also bought a copy in... a shop. Can't remember which one, but probably Smith's in Croydon or somewhere, so I think this is 'Dreadwing' (if that is his real name) getting it wrong again.

Ralph Burns

23/9/2016 10:50:42 pm

Some fine lies on the Transformation page. Punisher was weekly not monthly and did not last too long before promising a new fortnightly revamp which instead meant Stealth Cancellation. The Robocop adaptation within in the first few issues was pretty good (He even got a cover spot on #3 by Geoff Senior) and was my first exposure to the character long before I saw the film. I'm sure it was also put out as a newsstand special as well.

A tissue of lies is also what happened to Action Force Fortnightly. It never appeared and the Monthly quietly vanished around this time, finally sinking originated UK material other than some annual text stories.

In other news, just how big is that barn?

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Stuart

24/9/2016 09:47:55 am

I think the barn door only works if you assume it has an alcove thing like the 80's Tardis seems to have!

snowkatt link

24/9/2016 12:40:43 am

And I am still around.
Nearly from the beginning, untill now .

Stuart

24/9/2016 09:48:20 am

And appreciated as ever!

snowkatt link

24/9/2016 12:14:47 pm

If anybody is wondering why I don't comment as often anymore, ( which I doubt ;p )
Most of the current reviews are about the state of the comic.
And I never read these comics in real time or in their original formats, just in the titan tpb's.

So I am afraid i just dont have a whole lot to say
I'm sure this will change when we hit Furman's Marvel US run.

John D. link

24/9/2016 11:28:12 pm

There is certainly less to get our teeth into when there's 5 pages of new material. But plenty of other things to discuss in the TF "multiverse". I was in London on Wednesday and popped into Orbital Comics. As I entered there was a young man there quizzing the staff, and I realised he was asking about Regeneration One. One member of staff just kept repeating "you will have to ask Simon Furman". I bought volume 3 of MTMTE, I read the first couple of volumes last year, but got distracted (by fatherhood!). I must say I am absolutely bowled over by MTMTE. James Roberts and Alex Milne are on fire.

Simon Hall

25/9/2016 09:08:43 am

Robocop did indeed have Marvel comic of his very own. It ran for 23 issues and was written by Alan Grant (of Judge Dredd fame) and Simon Furman succeeded him on the book (editor : Rob Tokar). It became one of a number of Marvel US books Furman took over that were on borrowed time (She Hulk, Alpha Flight).

Whilst there was indeed a Robocop cartoon (and toyline - with cap firing toys!), the comic book was, under Alan Grant anyway, a pretty decent attempt to latch onto the movies' dystopian future. Robocop being a US version of Dredd, Grant was a good fit. There wasn't quite the same satrical bite as either the first film or Dredd.

And yes, a selected reprint appeared in the pages of Havoc (1991), a short-lived action/adventure title that also featured the '90s takes on Ghost Rider, Deathlok as well as Robocop, Conan and Starjammers. Issue 6 has a glorious Liam Sharp Deathlok cover and hinted (for the first time) at the coming of an all-new Death's Head.

I'm not sure whether Robocop was cancelled due to poor sales by Marvel or whether the license had lapsed. Around 1992 was the time this ended, which is when Dark Horse lost the license to produce comics based on the first Terminator film, but that they had secured the Robocop license and would be ending Terminator and starting Robocop with Frank Miller and Walt Simonson's Robocop Versus Terminator series in October 1992 (IIRC).

As for Double-Deal of the Century, yeah, fun bit of fluff. Falls apart when you start thinking about it too much, as your review shows, but as a 5 pager, its good enough. Not the best of the comedic strips though. Shame about the cover, mind.

snowkatt link

26/9/2016 08:57:15 am

Furman's run on She Hulk was rather brief, all of 4 issues.
24, 25, 26 , and 27.
28 was by Zimmerman
29 and 30 by Louise Simonson.

And 31 was the start of Byrne's second run and eventually wrapped the series up with issue 60.

So She Hulk wasn't on borrowed time at the time.
Nor did Furman take over. He had a brief four issue run, most likely a fill in job, in between Gerber's run after Byrne left with 9 and Byrne's second run starting with 31.

Death's Head did show up for issue 24 though.

Robocop ended in Jan 92. At a guess Marvel let the license lapse, because Robocop was in decline.
The fact that Robocop 3 was lying on a shelf since 91, probably didnt help.
Releasing Robocop 3 helped even less.

Dark Horse must have snapped up the license for a pittance, because the Robocop vs the Terminator mini series was released in May.

Dark Horse wasnt a fly by night company though, they had been around since 1986 and were really starting to come in to their own in 1992.
What with Predator, Alien, Robocop, Terminator, Grendel.
Several crossovers:
Including Robocop vs Terminator.
Alien vs Terminator
Batman vs Predator
and Grendel vs Batman.
As well ask the Mask. Ghost, Nextmen, Concrete, Sin City and so on.

Tetsuro

28/9/2016 06:13:23 am

Well I was sold at "Lee Sullivan", but "Alan Grant" has me interested.

The Marvel comic also probably wasn't the kind of mess that was Frank Miller's Robocop.

Mark Stevenson

28/9/2016 10:25:44 am

I always had a soft spot for this story - my recollection is that I may already have owned the Doubledealer toy at this point. The character had certainly made an impression on me, let's put it that way. I had hoped we'd see him again but it was not to be. But it's an enjoyable five-pager, it certainly feels like Furman is getting to grips with what the b&w stories will be as we head towards Earthforce. I'm a massive fan of Wildman's b&w stuff around this time as well, it has a looseness and flow that is just superb.
Incidentally the next time anyone used Doubledealer to any great extent (as far as I know) was in a TMUK text epic - seriously, it's massive - called All That Jazz in the mid-90s by a chap named Eamon Casey. And he comprehensively murdered him at the end, so those of us who came later to the UK fanfic continuity couldn't play with him. Cheers, wherever you are...

Alex Smith link

30/9/2016 12:44:51 pm

I always had a fondness for Double-Dealer as well - though I never actually owned him - and remember also being a bit miffed that he was brown bread in TMUK! S'pose I could always have done something with Punch/Counter-Punch...

And yes, Wildman's work is nice here - even leaving aside my fetish for black-and-white art (which was probably instigated by these strips).

Felicity link

21/11/2019 11:20:20 pm

Odd that the cover, which only appears in the British comic, has the character holding greenbacks and a calculator with dollar signs as opposed to pound notes and pound signs (as in libra pondo, not octothorpe). Does that mean the character is American?

Transformation 228: Deal Me In.

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