Transformation 238: Robo-Maniacs.

1/12/2016

This week--in a piece I had to hastely rewrite the second half of after my tablet ate it--it's time to meet Roadhandler's fan club!

Both of them.

Though that's more fans than Carnivac has as he goes to the dogs.

It's all in my look at ISSUE 238!

9 Comments

Tim Roll-Pickering link

2/12/2016 03:33:03 pm

Ah the death of Cobra Commander. Reportedly because of a Hasbro mandate and it's more dramatic than turning him into a snake. But given the later revival, I do wonder if there was ever a get-out intended that got lost amidst Macfarlane not drawing to intent and then the replacement of the art.

Survival Run has got to be one of the bleakest of all the Marvel stories. There may be others with higher death tolls but how many are because of the actions of the protagonist?

And I think Sky Driver was a new villain here. It's odd that he seems to have been a one-off joke to set-up the new story but would subsequently get treated as a key part of Colin's rogues' gallery.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

7/9/2018 11:47:41 pm

Two years later I've now seen the Macfarlane art (it was published as a special at the end of the Marvel US run) and he has Cobra Commander shot (rather bloodily) in the right hand side of the body whereas Rogers drew a shot through the heart. The same issue shows Snow Job getting shot through the chest but surviving so there is some potential and looking at the eventual return it makes more sense as originally drawn.

Alex Smith link

2/12/2016 04:44:47 pm

I have to say the Carnivac stories are a real highlight of the black and white era (next week's daft death notwithstanding) and once again I curse the wiki for banishing it to an alternate continuity along with Earthforce.

Tetsuryu

2/12/2016 05:07:37 pm

Considering Octopunch later gets to SHOOT GOD IN THE FACE, I'd hardly call him mocking Carnivac his biggest individual moment.

Alex Smith link

3/12/2016 01:19:13 am

It's a deflection, it shouldn't count!

Tetsuryu

3/12/2016 01:06:36 pm

He fired the shot, it's close enough to count!

Ralph Burns

6/12/2016 07:30:53 pm

BONK!

-SPECIAL TEAMS!

Cradok

24/1/2018 02:13:36 pm

This was the first issue I'd missed since I started at 182, but it'd be ages before I missed another. I don't think the ennui had set in yet, so it was probably that my newsagent didn't keep it for me for whatever reason, but I didn't care too much because I was seven...

Felicity link

25/11/2019 01:28:46 am

I could have sworn Roadhandler had a couple of more fans in that scene where he was giving a self-defence lesson at the gym…but I don’t have the issue handy. And anyway, you’re right—in that panel with the banner, even the guy sitting between Dwight and Evan doesn’t seem that into it. Still, Roadhandler went from having one fan before his first match to having two (both Dwight *and* Evan) so that’s a 200% increase!

It’s not impossible for Roadhandler to win every match week after week if he’s getting a big “push” to make him seem strong. In WCW in the mid-1990s the new wrestler Goldberg debuted with a super-long winning streak, with the result that when someone finally beat him, it was presented as being a really big deal.

(Upon looking it up I see that I misremembered who it was, which shows what an impression it made. It was Kevin Nash. I thought it was my fellow Canadian Bret “The Hitman” Hart in a brilliant variation on the Marty McFly manoeuvre where he put a metal plate under his shirt so that when Goldberg did his trademark “spear”—tackling his opponent head-first in the mid-section—Goldberg knocked himself out. But that was a different match.)

Presumably, despite this story taking place in a universe in which wrestling is as pre-determined as it is in our universe, the fight with Whisper was for real (a “shoot”). The story makes it seem as if a lot is riding on this, with Roadhandler not just losing the match but being destroyed in order to save his fan club. I don’t know whether Lord Zarak would have stayed in the wrestling business after that, if his plan had worked out. I like to think he would!

The main characterisation difference between Dwight and Evan is that one of them didn’t want to root for Roadhandler at first, but was won over, only to then feel that he was right the first time when Roadhandler does his “heel turn” and “cuts a promo” trashing the fans. That was the blond one. I forget whether he was Dwight or Evan.

I know that Roadhandler feels that he can’t have fans because as long as he does they’re in danger, but it’s depressing that he dodges the question after the show, when his fans ask if he didn’t mean what he said in the ring and it was just to protect them. I mean, come on. Just say “No, I didn’t mean it. But more importantly, believe in yourselves.” That’s the only part of this story where I feel Bob Budiansky copped out.

No one ever really dies in comics, and that includes Cobra Commander. It’s too bad he’ll be back to being evil when he comes back to life. Still, between Roadhandler and Cobra Commander we saw a heel turn and a face turn in the same issue.

Transformation 238: Robo-Maniacs.

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