Transformation 295: New Year's Thunder.

5/1/2018

Happy 2018 everyone! The final year of Transformation in its current form. We've come a long way since 2012, haven't we?

This week, Thunderwing get thunder-punched in the ribs by Optimus Prime, Highbrow is a deadly weapon and Combat Colin spots a spaceship.

Plus, James Roberts! Again.

All in my look at ISSUE 295!

3 Comments

Tim Roll-Pickering link

23/1/2018 10:44:35 pm

Clearly a very memorable issue! I guess the cover is trying to convey how the Matrix is possessing Thunderwing, but a green tint to yellow just isn't the effect to do it.

Felicity

22/12/2019 09:53:29 pm

*I* still would have liked this issue if it had been drawn by José Delbo, but I like José Delbo more than most Transformers fans. One nice touch in this issue that I think we owe to Geoff Senior’s style is the choice of random mechanical floating objects and the shadows they cast when the gravity gets shut off.

I can completely relate to Wildcard. I seem to emit an electromagnetic field that causes things to break down around me.

JeremiahEcks

4/3/2025 04:19:42 pm

OK, so I have to be honest and say... I really like Thunderwing. I get why Stuart doesn't. I really do. But I like him nonetheless.

When he shows up in The Big Shutdown, that's a very good story to start with, with good storytelling and artwork. Thunderwing as a character in that works as a one off in that he's a big bad and he's dangerous.

Putting him into A Small War is also fine as it shows him to be more than just a one off piker but if he stopped there, he's been a good one and done villain.

When he comes back in Rage his character is presented as obsessional and angry. One note? Maybe. But he's clearly capable enough to be considered Decepticon leader and he *almost* manages to have Prime dead to rights with a Cyclone Cannon. If Kup had been there to tell Hot Rod it was Prime's fight, Prime becomes a HeadPowerMaster.

That he got that far with scant few beaten up troops is admirable. What he lacks in tactics he has in brute force. And when he rules Cybertron, as is said in a couple of stories, yes, he rules brutally.

Thunderwing so far is shown as obsessive, compulsive, dangerous face to face but terribly narrow minded and short visioned. In truth, he's a competent brute but still a brute.

Nonetheless Matrix Quest happens and how does it start? Obsession. He chases specifically after three Autobots who got away. That's in character. But he is also leader and now has responsibilities, responsibilities that are seemingly smoothing out some of his darker tendencies. So when he has the Junior Headmasters at his mercy, rather than killing them like he would have done just months ago, now he'll interrogate them. And the call of the Matrix piques his interest.

It's worth noting that I do believe, due to his affinity with the Matrix, that it IS calling him quite literally already at this point which isn't going to help his sanity at all.

In Wild Frontier, he's genial and dismissive of the Autobots... but he isn't obsessed by them. He wants the Matrix now. Anything else is beneath him.

When he gets the Matrix what's the first thing he does with it? Assault the Ark, like he tried before. Because he's obsessive, compulsive and he'll always return to what didn't work before and try to 'fix' it. He has the Junior Headmasters in captivity, he has the Matrix, now he wants to shoot Prime like he failed to do previously.

And because he's so obsessive, and narrow minded, that's what he decides to do with ultimate power.

I know Stuart said in The Big Shutdown nd Assault on the Ark that he feels Thunderwing's arc was 'utter crazy > saneish > utter crazy' and that didn't work as a character arc. I think it does in that we find out up front what his focal personality trait is - obsession, obsession, obsession. When he's not knee deep in one of his triggers, he can be a solid leader but he isn't a great one which is why his Reign is so short.

I like him a fair bit but if you don't, totally in support. I just liked reading someone so powerful but closed minded too!

Transformation 295: New Year's Thunder.

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