Transformation 251: Future imperfect.

2/3/2017

This week, it's the end of the Longest Storyline Ever as Ratchet gets one up on Megatron!

Plus, back to the future as Kup takes charge.

All in my look at ISSUE 251!

Also, my pal Terome McNally (of PODCAST MAXIMUS fame) has a comedy genre spoof podcast, of which the latest episode may be of interest as it guest stars Peter Marinker, the reader of the Ladybird audiobooks! Hear it HERE.

7 Comments

Ralph Burns

3/3/2017 06:15:39 pm

The thing is, while it's tempting to think of this as when the book starts to wind down it still has a full two years of continuous publication ahead (and two Annuals), which is longer then the lifespan of most comics today from beginning to end. Not to mention that it kept going as reprint specials for a further two years after that. So Marvel UK Transformers still has a newsstand presence for almost 4 years at this stage. Hardly a title on its deathbed yet!

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Tim Roll-Pickering link

3/3/2017 07:00:03 pm

More than that - the last special came out at the end of 1994. So we're only just over halfway through, timewise.

It's incredible how different the industry now is.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

3/3/2017 06:38:18 pm

Looking back it's surprising just how rarely Furman's actually written Starscream up to this point. Leaving aside the odd moment in group scenes, he's previously really only handled the character in The Enemy Within! and Target 2006 (Fallen Star was almost certainly written after Skin Deep and Stargazing feels more like Rimmer writing up a very brief idea). And both times he's gone for a, yes, cartoon style approach to the character as the perpetually ambitious idiot who will try anything to seize the advantage, charge in to establish his credentials and even seek allies against Megatron, then come snivelling back to his leader when it all goes wrong. It's part of the general G1 mythology (look also at the Ladybird books) but has always been an awkward part of the Marvel comics because it gets presented as standard when it simply hasn't been.

"It also makes the equally inaccurate statement that the British story starts a trilogy, when it will run for four issues." Presumbably they'd been reading Douglas Adams.

I guess someone at Marvel UK had twigged that Doctor Who Magazine and Transformers had a potential overlapping audience and it was about the only natural place to encourage readers to move over to whilst keeping them in the company, rather than lose them to Fleetway or London Edition Magazines's output. Also Doctor Who was a property in uncertainty - the video torrent and the New Adventures hadn't started yet and the magazine was only slowly working up to the slightly older fan retrospective so this really was DWM's darkest hour.

Simon Hall

5/3/2017 05:33:54 pm

Have to agree, I'm puzzled why the comic just latched onto the cartoon portrayal of Starscream. You could argue that his starring role in Underbase is cut from the cartoon's cloth, but there he just seems very determined and ambitious, and goes about obtaining his objective by keeping everyone else occupied, which is one fo the rare occasions I've enjoyed Starscream. His snivelling portrayal generally I find hard to reconcile with his position of lieutenant in the Decepticon army. As far as this story goes, the only 'makes no sense' is the combined weapon fire having no effect. That's silly.

I was quite pleased to see the future cast hadn't been forgotten when I read these adventures in the wee Titan books ten years ago, although this 'saboteur' story isn't my favourite.

As well as the advert for DWM, the promotion of Strip is perhaps curious - along with Avalon (which became Knights Of Pendragon) - this is what we'd now call a 'mature readers' title (No doubt Marvel UK thought that it would be possible to launch something to tap into the then-boom of 'grown up' comics which had started with Deadline, Crisis and Revolver). Its also incredibly experimental with its content, having a sometimes jarring mix of things like Marshal Law and Death's Head, alongside oddball things like The Man From Cancer and Genghis Grimtoad. It makes sense in terms of trying to keep the interest of readers who were starting to move on from Transformers, but still strikes me as an odd thing to promote in what is still essentially a children's comic.

Alex Smith link

6/3/2017 12:44:39 pm

Furman - and indeed, the UK side of things as a whole - was far more influenced by the cartoon than those 'the comics are the real story, hume' letters pages would have you believe.

See also Furman's take on Blaster and Perceptor versus Bob's - under Furman's pen they might as well just be their cartoon selves, with no hint of the tough lone warrior or pragmatic resistance leader they originally were.

Mark Stevenson

10/3/2017 06:04:29 pm

I love Kup clutching at his pearls on the cover of this issue.

Felicity link

1/12/2019 09:27:10 pm

Previously we had seen hyperspace in the introduction of Sky Lynx, as he heads to Earth to assist Wheeljack with the Spacehikers. It wasn’t presented as mysterious so much as just a refreshing workout for Sky Lynx’s engines.

Road Pig’s split personality was only in the comics; it would have been cool to hear it in the cartoon, but unfortunately he did not appear in the cartoon except in one of the later DIC episodes and he only had one or two lines there, delivered in his thug voice.

Transformation 251: Future imperfect.

Leave a Reply.

Author

Archives

Categories