Transformation 293: Christmas Bauble of DEATH.

22/12/2017

Happy Christmas everyone!

Ho ho, and indeed ho.

Thunderwing can't wait till Monday to open his present, let's hope he likes it as the Classic Pretenders are really feeling the weight of having made the right choice.

All in my look at ISSUE 293!

Plus, an Addendum looking at DEATH'S HEAD: THE BODY IN QUESTION and various other bits and pieces about the character.

And don't forget your last chance to enter the CHRISTMAS QUIZ!

8 Comments

Tim Roll-Pickering link

23/12/2017 01:09:28 pm

Dark Creation has been a strong tale - a suitably apocalyptic climax to the search and Thunderwing's continued disintegration.

Is it me or has Furman generally only used Bumblebee/Goldbug when plot (especially Budiansky's plot) has forced his hand? Other than Desert Island Risks I'm struggling to thing of any Furman written tale that really uses the character voluntarily.

Over in the Joe strip, is this the issue where the dictator of the week (there's an earlier comment that three revolutions ago he was still a seargant) gets gunned down by his own men simply for being captured by Destro?

As for Death's Head - Marvel UK never really seemed to understand the difference between a "graphic novel" and a "trade paperback" - perhaps the latter term wasn't much used in British publishing at the time? The Death's Head strip, like Captain Britain nearly a decade earlier, seemed to expect the readers to easily leap from title to title with long gaps between them. I've never read an issue of Strip but if the Body in Question is anything to go by then it seems to have gone for a deeper themes approach to "mature readers" rather than just slapping blood and tits everywhere.

The later stuff's a mix - the She Hulk issues comes from what could have been Simon Furman's break out into the US mainstream titles but his run only lasted four issues, although I don't know why he left. John Byrne came back on the book shortly afterwards and retconned away the intevening 22 issues as a dream, which must make for some interesting Death's Head continuity. The Fantastic Four issue is from early in Simonson's run and from memory he was wrapping up a storyline he'd set-up during a brief run on the Avengers, hence the inclusion of Iron Man and Thor, and probably working off some of the editorial problems he'd had on the earlier title. (Just to add to the mess, the Kang featured here may not be the regular Kang but a temporal divergent, with flashbook issues and handbook guides regularly contradicting themselves on who is and isn't the real one.)

The What If story is another example of a writer working off the editorial interference, but it's a pity this series so often went for sensational events if not mass killings. One of the tricks it missed was to publish stories that would show how a different writer (or even the same writer free of editorial restrictions) would have handled events within the same constraints as the regular Marvel universe.

Absent from all this is the framing sequence from the Incomplete Death's Head which filled in some of the gaps and contradictions in Death's Head's continuity, particularly how he wound up as a giant in the Transformers universe. Without that the Party Animals strip is unnecessary as it's really just a cameo.

bouncelot

28/12/2017 10:58:05 pm

"s it me or has Furman generally only used Bumblebee/Goldbug when plot (especially Budiansky's plot) has forced his hand? Other than Desert Island Risks I'm struggling to thing of any Furman written tale that really uses the character voluntarily"

He plays an important part in the final issue of Dinobot Hunt. That's probably it for significant (as opposed to background) uses of the character, though.

Simon Hall

26/12/2017 07:40:40 am

Strip was an odd title. It felt very much like contemporary Deadline - (expect without the 'magazine' content) that of having a strong, recognisable lead strip and everything around it being quite experimental and off-beat, like a lot of indie and small press stuff. It wasn't a very successful mix, tbh and things like The Punisher, Marshal Law and Death's Head did stick out a bit next to some of the stuff in there. And yes, Strip didn't go down the "blood and tits" route of some mature readers comics of the time.

I'd agree that Marvel UK didn't really get the Graphic Novel format, with Night Raven: House Of Cards being the only exception. As far as The Body In Question goes, I think the continuation of stuff set up in Death's Head's short-lived comic was the result of part of this story already having been in some stage of production (those resized frames from #10) and Furman's desire to put in story stuff he was already invested in. I think with Life And Times Of Death's Head being published in the same year, there's less of an expectation that readers will have to remember a dangling plot thread from over a year ago - it's out there in print at the same time. Either way, the story itself does do a very good job of providing some sort of closure for both the character and the reader. Which is probably why Marvel UK felt comfortable giving the character such a huge overhaul - the character's been reset and there's no major outstanding plot threads to address.

Personally, I was a bit disappointed how the The Incomplete Death's Head went about filling in gaps that it really didn't need to. Those amusing lines from Death's Head #1 about being a rich man's deadly play thing never felt like something that was to be taken literally, but it seems to have been. Likewise, I didn't really want to know about the surgery that made him 30ft tall or who stole him away from Styrakos. Sometimes, it's nice to have stuff to ponder on and not have it spelt out.

Always puzzled me, that despite the huge numbers Death's Head II did for Marvel UK, they never collected any of his comics in the trade paperback format, not even the initial Mini-Series, which always felt like a shoo-in for something they'd collect. Maybe they'd seen the numbers on their previous trades and graphic novels, and decided it wasn't worth the effort. But a reprint of the Night Raven : House Of Cards graphic novel was...? Unless they were testing the waters with that...

In terms of Transformers at this time, covers like this don't exactly provide a huge draw. Taking images from internal panels and making them into covers is a nice idea, but they need choosing carefully to work and be dynamic and exciting if you're going to do that.

I agree that Yomtov's colours are at their best on Senior's art. I wonder if its because his artwork is quite bold and there's less of the busy-ness of issues handled by other artists, where panels are crammed with characters, backgrounds and other detail. From hereon in, it does feel like Yomtov is putting a bit more effort in.

Simon Hall

26/12/2017 07:41:45 am

...just realised I've had no time to do the Christmas Quiz this year :( Good luck to those that entered!

John D. Mcgonagle link

26/12/2017 11:42:36 pm

I never really liked death's head. I felt there were plenty of genuine transformers available who weren't getting coverage without a whole other character. It also seemed unlikely he would be able to wipe the floor with each of Rodimus Prime and Shockwave (though Rodiums seemed to spend most of Marvel UK being beaten up). I'm surprised to hear standalone Death's Head comics ever did good numbers as I assumed the whole project was indulged in order to make Simon Furman feel he had his own IP and encourage him to continue working on laying the golden eggs at Transforners.
In other chat, is one supposed to do the Christmas quiz without checking back? I'm pretty sure Prowl is confused for a Seacon. Is that an answer :-)
Merry Christmas Stu!!

Felicity

20/12/2019 02:23:23 am

I remember that it bothered me (and still does) that the Classic Pretender shells are never seen again. What a waste.

Adding to the groanworthy “GI Joe” ending is that the briefcase containing all the money from the NABM also falls out of the plane. What a waste.

The first place I saw Death’s Head was in that “Fantastic Four” issue. Having him be drawn by Walter Simonson spoiled me for any other artists depicting him except perhaps Geoff Senior. Some time after that I read an article in “Marvel Age” called “All This and Death’s Head II!” which talked about the new series.

We’re into the home stretch of issues I like from the Simon Furman era. Next is “All Fall Down,” the conclusion to the Thunderwing/Matrix story (a fine issue); then “Rhythms of Darkness” with the return of José Delbo (yay!); and finally “The Human Factor!” with guest artist Dwayne Turner and everyone trying to recruit Hector Dialonzo (slightly odd art but there’s nothing really wrong with this issue). After that it gets depressing both in story and art. So it’s time to hunker down and really savour the next few issues. :-)

LiamKav

20/10/2020 01:04:10 pm

I am genuinely fascinated by your preference of Delbo to Wildman. Obviously to each his own and I can understand Wildman's more organic look not necessarily being a preference, but every time I read a Delbo issue is just seems to me to be full of character models with slight variations. He never seems to get to grips with how joints work on Transformers. Elbows, shoulders, knees and waists always seem in danger of flying off.

(I don't want to be harsh as he seems a lovely man. But I honestly can't see how anyone would prefer him to a Senior, Sullivan or even a Staz.)

Felicity

21/10/2020 06:29:44 am

The model sheets are often better-proportioned than the dynamic poses made up by the comic artists, so an artist that stays close to the model sheets will produce better-looking art. Part of the problem is that when it comes to proportions, Transformers are not just big people with metal armour. They’re more like the people from “Fist of the North Star” if they were robots: big chest, high narrow waist, extra-long legs. If you just draw your typical superhero and then add metal plates you won’t get the right result.

I imprinted on the cartoon before reading the comic, so to some extent the degree to which “Transformers” comic art resembles the cartoon is a factor for me. That’s less true now than when I was first reading the comic, as my tastes have broadened, but I still appreciate artists that can do it.

José Delbo’s art resembles the cartoon more than Andrew Wildman’s, certainly, but also more than most of the other artists before and after. (William Johnson was an exception.) Over the years I’ve come to like almost all of the artists on the original comic series, but there was a time when Frank Springer and Don Perlin were not good enough for me. Not constructed enough, and out of proportion.

Geoff Senior’s an interesting case because he has the clear lines that seem to be inspired by the cartoon, along with his own individual artistic strengths. I’ve come to like his art a lot, especially seeing examples of it on this blog that I had never seen before. My only real quibble would be his proportions—although funnily enough Senior was the best at drawing Powermaster Optimus Prime, a character everyone else made look sort of fat (including Delbo!).

Delbo’s disconnected body parts don’t bother me but I acknowledge that they’re a thing. A person was telling me in the mid-1990s about the DIC “GI Joe” cartoon and how when vehicles would explode they would separate into neat parts. I found that oddly pleasing but he didn’t.

Transformation 293: Christmas Bauble of DEATH.

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