Transformation 290: Creation Myth.

1/12/2017

This week the comic becomes reprint only, but it has a belter of a US story to kick off with as the Classic Pretenders go on the hunt for some Aliens.

Plus, it's the 2017 Christmas quiz! With some pretty cool prizes.

All in my look at ISSUE 290!

THE CHRISTMAS QUIZ.

15 Comments

Chris Chapman

1/12/2017 09:40:00 pm

I remember this feeling like a really important issue to me at the time. It was the first time I'd read Legacy of Unicron and I loved how grim Dark Creation was - and for me at the time, the comic basically doesn't look back from here in terms of quality. It was all new stuff to me, even if both strips technically reprints.

Stuart

1/12/2017 09:43:00 pm

You and me both Chris!

Tim Roll-Pickering link

1/12/2017 10:36:44 pm

As I've said before, I think the paper used for the middle eight pages often absorbs the inks better and can enhance some stories - and Dark Creation is definitely one of them. I hadn't made the connection before but the idea of an all power entity going bad because of endless boredom could be a lift from Alan Moore's Superman story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" where Mr Mxyzptlk changes for the worse. And yes, this is definitely Furman stepping things up in the US - maybe Don Daley was relaxing in his final months. Although this is the UK book, it's lucky that the US covers aren't yet being used again. Bill Sienkiewicz may be an incredible artist but his Grimlock on the US issue is terrible. Everyone has an off day.

I'm another who hadn't read Legacy of Unicron in full before so it was good to see and felt suitably epic for a twelve week run.

Yeah - the original material may have gone but this really is a step up isn't it?

Snowkatt link

8/12/2017 01:05:20 pm

The cover is US 65 might a bit ...off, and thats being charitable here,
But Delbo's cover for 58, really was piss poor and probably one of the worst, if not the worst cover in the entite line up.

Colin H

2/12/2017 02:04:32 pm

I'm never one to resist a Christmas Quiz. Check yer Inbox.

Stuart Webb

2/12/2017 03:06:09 pm

Hurrah!

Snowkatt link

8/12/2017 01:09:07 pm

I actually got my hands on the entire UK run.
In their original format, so I can actually finally read along and see what everbody else has seen.

..Pity it so damn late in the title's life, we only have 42 weeks left to go.

( said run also cost me more then I am willing to admit )

Jon Talpur

2/12/2017 09:36:47 pm

The timing of the Legacy of Unicron reprint may have hinged upon other contemporary Marvel UK activity with Death's Head, as The Body in Question was concurrently being serialised in Strip, and the graphic novel version of Body, plus the Life & Times of Death's Head reprint volume of his 10-issue comic, would be published only the following month after Transformers #290.

It might have all been part of a coordinated effort to really push the character; over the next few months he would also appear in a couple of Marvel US comics, and Furman was also planning a new four-issue limited series US-format comic with the character until it was abruptly axed and directed to be replaced by Death's Head II by Paul Neary after he took over as the new Marvel UK editorial director in April 1991.

Neary was even quoted at the time as having said "I didn't think there was much future in Transformers-based robots", which is more than a little ironic in hindsight, considering the mighty two-year lifespan the "extreme" Marvel UK characters launched in 1992 ended up having.

Simon Hall

3/12/2017 01:30:09 pm

Dark Creation is the only bit of Matrix Quest I like (Senior's really weird alien aside). It's not trying too hard, keeps the focus tight and gets on with telling a good story.

I wasn't reading Transformers at this time (I picked it up again somewhere near the end when they gave away those awesome Unicron posters) - I was more interested in Death's Head: The Body In Question, Marshal Law and Titan's reprint of Dark Horse's first Predator comic book series (both of which I still have) but agree that the decision to stick the reprint at the front of the comic and be all funny about not having a competition are odd editorial choices. Hmm.

I really must dig out that Neary interview from Comic Collector. It's a great piece that sums up what he was trying to do with Marvel UK and what was going on at the company at the time.

1990 - 1991 was the period they seemed to me to be trying to capture some of the post-Watchmen boom in 'mature-readers' titles (following on from the likes of Deadline, Revolver and Crisis). Shame Strip was such an uneven and largely unreadable anthology (still baffled that Genghis Grimtoad got a graphic novel - maybe it was the draw of having Alan Grant's name...) and the best thing that came out around this time (aside from Death's Head) was Night Raven: House Of Cards.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

10/12/2017 03:30:58 pm

There was quite a bit of this across the UK comics industry - London Editions Magazines had the DC reprint licence and tried branding DC Action (New Teen Titans, Animal Man and Secret Origins) as a more mature title as well as launching Zones which combined Swamp Thing, the Shadow and Wasteland.

Unfortunately some of these titles were a bit too concerned with "yeah we're for mature readers, isn't it great?" rather than putting together clear coherent packages for a distinct age brand. DC Action might have used some of the more thoughtful strips but the contents were pretty much all ages friendly. And Zones seemed to hammer home its mature readers tag yet this seemed to amount blood and tits on panel. LEM cancelled its "mature" books at the end of 1990 and made another attempt with the monthly Shockwave, which had a somewhat better content choice, only to crash out after just four issues.

Simon Hall

3/12/2017 01:31:45 pm

...and the first run of Knights Of Pendragon...!

Stuart

8/12/2017 02:43:32 pm

Snowkatt! Hurrah!

Felicity

18/12/2019 09:31:57 pm

I’m not sure whether I got the meaning of “VsQs” (a creative spelling of “viscous”?) and “Cameron” (director James Cameron, of “Aliens”?).

I remember there being some confusion in the Matrix POV flashback, such as why Optimus Prime appears to come back to life to pick up the Matrix (and then presumably go back to being dead again).

Grimlock’s Pretender shell looks sexy standing in the doorway, half in shadow, like that.

Yes, the escape from the jungle part of that “GI Joe” story was exhausting to read. And then they have to come back again later! (In the story with the rainforest I mentioned in my previous comment.) Thank goodness not all “GI Joe” comics take place in a jungle.

Stuart

18/12/2019 09:54:56 pm

VsQs = Vasquez from Aliens. And as you say, Cameron as director of the same film. Wearing its influences on its sleeve.

Felicity

19/12/2019 02:11:24 am

Ah, that explains it! ☺

Transformation 290: Creation Myth.

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