Transformation 236: Seconds Out.

18/11/2016

This week, we have both metaphorical and literal wrestling.

And then some more wrestling.

First up, Radhandler gets in the ring with a man in green pants.

Then, Optimus must wrestle with his conscious as his troops prove they're no Hulk Hogans.

It's all in my look at issue 236!

11 Comments

Tetsuro

18/11/2016 05:36:26 pm

As a Finn, I can assure you there are enough pale redheads in Finland to not make it implausible for Snowjob to not pass off as such.

I mean, at least they're not using Iceberg instead...

Ryan F

18/11/2016 08:45:41 pm

Random fact: the "Bird Lady of Brooklyn" is, in real life, the name of a statue.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

19/11/2016 09:45:28 am

Ah Bob's final story. As we'll see he seems to be trying to get key pieces into place to make it easier for Simon to get going, but otherwise this is an odd issue to go out on. I guess he might be aiming to show how Transformers just can't easily interact with humans per the cartoon - any attempt by the Autobots to build relations will be torn down by Decepticon actions. Curiously this is exactly the theme of Simon's last regular British story. But also here there's a swipe at the latest toy gimmick, showing why it just can't work in the existing fiction. So maybe Bob is putting in more effort on his last issue than we've hitherto expected.

Deathbringer is even darker than I remember and a big rejoinder to those who claimed the comic was childish & that I was now too old to read it (at the age of 9! - was there any age when readers didn't face this?!). But it's also somewhat awkward when it's not entirely clear as to why the Matrix has recreated a euthaniser (is that the correct term) as a powerful destructive force. Yes I know this is supposed to be a prelude to a big storyline coming up, but having such a thread left unanswered for many months (even without reprints and old limited series we'd have been waiting over six months for Dark Creation to appear here) goes well beyond simple foreshadowing and into the realm of endless waiting.

Turning to Action Force, the line about Outback is sufficiently ambiguous that I think it actually means his cover is "an engineer from a refinery in an Arab country". A lot of westerners used to work in the oil industry and related technological outlets in Saudi Arabia and other countries (my late uncle was one such worker) and it's completely realistic for a refinery to have been represented by a non-Arab member of staff at the time. Today Saudisation has shifted things a lot.

This story is a curiosity as it was originally drawn by Todd McFarlane but his art was deemed unacceptable and so he was replaced by Marshall Rogers. (I guess the previous McFarlane drawn story in issues #225-#229 was commissioned too late in the day to replace but even then there was criticism of what he came up with.) Later in 1994 when Marvel US ended G.I. Joe they went out with one final Special that printed the McFarlane artwork with the same script as the Rogers issue, to capitalise on the fame McFarlane had since gained.

The letters page is becoming increasingly problematic for anyone trying to sort out continuity debates and the whole multiple futures thing is precisely the kind of matter that needs Furman himself answering the questions as otherwise we end up with numerous different takes on what is and isn't in the same timeline. And is it me or is Mountain Man the second most tampered with Combat Colin foe, frequently altered to meet the demands of the story?

Tigerbread

19/11/2016 12:01:07 pm

Bob B gets a lot of criticism for his last few stories, but in his defense he was working with Micromasters, the most useless and overrated characters to ever appear in the book. Easy to dispatch with a hand swipe and obviously not as strong as regular sized TF, despite what a certain Powermaster would claim.
On to Dread Tidings,at this point in time I actually considered offering my services as a surrogate letter answerer about the more taxing questions they received. (A job anyone could have done far better than "Dreadwind") Then I just thought sod them, Grimlock's gone and he ain't coming back.

Ralph Burns

20/11/2016 05:41:51 am

For meat the time the very dramatic Deathbringer story and concept stood out even more when a few months later the UK strip had devolved into 'hilarious' dumbed-down Earthforce bollocks. We're nearing the end of the golden age by this point.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Ralph Burns

20/11/2016 05:42:36 am

Agh typo! 'Me' not 'meat'!

Felicity link

24/11/2019 12:43:19 am

I didn’t get the feeling Bob Budiansky was getting tired when I read “The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!”, so if he was, he hid it well enough that I never noticed. Good for him! As you say, professional.

Roadhandler is kind of like Raphael…he’s the one with the red colour scheme and he’s hot-headed and rebellious and rude (which would make him movie Raphael; despite the cartoon’s theme song lyrics, cartoon Raphael was more the comedian of the group than the angry rebel).

Sometime in the last few years I actually saw footage from an old talk show with a “bird lady.” I don’t remember much about it except that (a) it was from Florida rather than New York, and (b) it made me think of this comic.

I wasn’t a fan of wrestling when this issue was first published, but I became a wrestling fan a few years later, and when I reread this issue from the standpoint of a wrestling fan, I didn’t feel disrespected. There wasn’t a lot of wrestling content here but it didn’t demonstrate ignorance of pro-wrestling or seem like it was looking down its nose at it.

Since this comic was written in the late 1980s, wrestling wasn’t quite at the peak of popularity it had enjoyed a few years earlier, and it would decline even further before the next big boom came along in the mid-1990s. The wrestling in this issue is definitely patterned on the 1980s WWF type of pro-wrestling, where there was still a little bit of pretending that it was real, although any adult fan knew it was not and was willingly suspending disbelief in order to enjoy it. (And even knowing that it’s scripted and choreographed, talented wrestlers could do work in the ring or on the microphone that would still get the “smart” fan emotionally invested.)

I liked “Casanova” Brown, Jake’s manager. I also liked “Hollywood” from “Mannequin” so that makes sense.

Was Jan Deacon from Tamworth talking about Optimus standing in the light of the Underbase back at Boltax’s temple? It’s my opinion that it did change him a little. As a result of the few minutes had in the Underbase tanning booth he became a little stronger and a little wiser. He didn’t start to get complexion problems like Starscream though.

I’d forgotten about the non-Billy part of that “Action Force” comic. It might have continued on in “Special Missions,” as the two series would sometimes tag-team storylines that way. If this is the one where Outback ends up escaping while the rest of the team gets captured, and everyone back at HQ acts like a dick to him even though Stalker explicitly ordered him to get away and let the rest of the team know what happened, then I do remember it, and the part of it (how Outback got out of the country) that crossed over into “Special Missions.”

Snowkatt

24/8/2020 01:38:18 am

In the original Mirage comics all TMNT wore red bandana's.
On both the covers and the First Comics colored collected comics.
Issue 1 in v1 is colored by Eastman and they all have red bandana's.

And I assume he should know.

Felicity

24/8/2020 03:15:04 am

True, in the original comics, all the Turtles wore red. But it was the 1987 animated series that really captured the imagination of late 1980s children and launched the Turtles to the next level. If the two Autobot Micromaster Race Car Patrol storylines were Bob Budiansky’s attempt to speak to the tastes of fans who were part of that second wave of Ninja Turtle popularity, then he would be referencing the cartoon.

I reread the article just to figure out what I was talking about and I think I was responding to Stuart writing “Roadhandler is no Raphael.”

LiamKav

10/10/2020 11:48:56 am

The Turtles having their own colour bandanas is something that's carried on through with pretty much every version of the Turtles since. Which makes sense as they are otherwise identical (although the early 2000s Nick version gave them different skin tones and current versions tend to vary their body types). They usually keep the red arm and knee pads now though.

I always thought it amusing that Raphael had his personality changed so much for the 80s/90s cartoon. Every version since has gone with the original "he's basically Wolverine" personality. Probably because Wolverine became way more popular outside of comics as well.

I always forget that their was a Micromaster called Swindle. Did Bob/Hasbro forget about the Combaticon, or were they just running out names by this point? (Bit weird that they'd pick arguably the most famous of the SPECIAL TEAMS characters to steal a name from.)

And regarding wrestling, the thing that helped me understand it was that it's basically American panto. The audience aren't just there to watch but also to take part in the fiction. "He's behind you" and "you can't see me" are two leaves from the same tree.

Ryan F

10/10/2020 03:55:45 pm

The Micromaster was Swindler, not Swindle. However, there was one called Barrage (like the Deluxe Insecticon), and Sky High (like the Pretender).

Transformation 236: Seconds Out.

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