The Solar Pool
Follow Me For Updates On:
  • Blog
  • Revisitation
  • Transformation
  • Book Shop
    • Heart of the Pool
    • Disclaimer
    • Links

Transformation 251: Future imperfect.

2/3/2017

7 Comments

 
Picture
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!

Reply
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.

Reply
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.

Reply
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.

Reply
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.

Reply
Mark Stevenson
10/3/2017 06:04:29 pm

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

Reply
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.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Stuart Webb. Who knows everything about nothing and not a lot about that.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All
    Abnett
    Action Force/G.I. Joe
    Animated
    Announcement
    Armada
    Audio
    Avengers
    Baker
    Bay
    Beast Wars
    Big Finish
    Brosnan
    Cannon
    Capaldi
    Carpenter
    Carte Blanche
    Cartoon
    Combat Colin
    Comedy
    Comics
    Computer Games
    Costa
    Cullen
    Davison
    Death
    Dille
    Discworld
    Doctor Who
    Dragon's Claws
    Dreamwave
    Dynamite
    Eccleston
    Ellis
    Fantasy
    Film
    Fleetway
    Frost
    Furman
    Generation 2
    Generation One
    Generation One
    Holmes
    Horror
    IDW
    James Bond
    James Roberts
    Jeffrey Deaver
    John Barber
    Ladybird
    Lanning
    Machine Man
    Marvel
    McCarthy
    Mccoy
    Mcgann
    Mosaic
    Nick Roche
    Nimoy
    Nintendo
    Panini
    Pegg
    Pratchett
    Prime
    Rescue Bots
    Revisitation
    RID
    Rincewind
    Science Fiction
    Science Fiction
    Shatner
    Signature
    Smith
    Sponsored
    Spy
    Star Trek
    Su
    Tennant
    Tipton
    Titan
    Torchwood
    Transformation
    Transformers
    Tv
    Visionaries
    Weatherwax
    Witches
    Wizards
    YouTube

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.