Transformation 70: Lilac Sideswipe.

13/9/2013

It's back to Earth with a bump as Omega Supreme débuts. Plus, Megatron picks the wrong troops to go on a mission, the UK change even more lines but mess up a "See issue" box and Skids dares to question.

All in: Command Performances Part 1.

7 Comments

Ryan F

13/9/2013 03:27:56 pm

I think I've spotted yet another change in the dialogue here: in the US original, there's a line from Shockwave explaining how he's found and rounded up the Constructicons (in the US, this was their first appearance since their debut in issue 10). As the Constructicons had been seen in the UK a few times since then (in Dinobot Hunt and Devastation Derby, for example), this line explaining their absence was no longer required and so was tweaked.

Sorry for being an annoying know-it-all... I'll go away now!

Stuart

13/9/2013 04:03:11 pm

Damn... you're right! Now I'm going to have to make a new collage. :(

I must admit, unless anything really stands out (Co-Commander being an obvious one, though I'm surprised to not have seen it mentioned elsewhere...) I only spot these changes if the tfarchive/wiki guides mentions them as I'm not holding up the original versions next to every one for comparison (indeed, I only have the Titan trades for most of the American series and I understand there are a few differences between there contents and the original published issues. Hence me relying on someone with the actual issue 19 to check the "See issue" box rather than just taking my Showdown trade at face value, just in case Marvel US originally got it wrong and said 15 and fixed it in the interim).

Will update, and thanks for that.

Ryan F

13/9/2013 05:13:46 pm

Hey, no problem! It's amazing how these comics have been doing the rounds for nearly thirty years, and yet there's still so much "new" stuff to be found in them that's never been documented before.

And by this I don't just mean facts and lists, but also new readings, insights and interpretations of the material.

A few notable websites aside, the G1 comics are pretty much virgin territory when it comes to any sort of in-depth analysis / criticism... your site is leading the way in addressing the situation!

Stuart

13/9/2013 05:42:06 pm

I may be leading us into a blind alley though...

It's starting to change now thanks to the work James Roberts is doing on the current reprints and the fact the wiki can be edited by anyone who happens to have an issue, but for a long time most of the information out there on the web came from the TFArchive guide (or at least its forebears) and Tom/Cliffjumper freely admits it's antiquated and groaning at the seams a bit.

I believe he'd actually like it nuked from orbit, which I would say is being a bit harsh on it as it's still a good read. But you do have things like the entry for these two issues not mentioning any of the UK changes (and indeed, creating a plot hole for In The National Interest as a result) because he was just working off the original American issue when he wrote it.

As you say, the amount of new data that's come along even in the ten years since I became involved in fandom is surprising. I can even just about remember the point where everyone thought Budiansky was the lazy hack who never did anything like the same amount of work as Furman because the fact he'd written all the profiles and backstory hadn't come out yet.

Simon Hall

14/9/2013 02:19:32 pm

I'd never thought that of Budiansky...all I knew was that the American stories somehow weren't quite as good as the UK ones. The less than dynamic art on the US comics generally doesn't help, either. It's really hard not to see them as a slightly poor relation to the UK stories, particularly with the way I mainly followed the Collected Comics as a young 'un and bought the odd American issue.

It's really nice to be reminded how UK editorial tried to sew the two continuities together. These days I do see them as slightly divergent paths, but I like that. I like that G1 is this bizarre stew of disparate takes on the franchise, from the cartoon to the comics to the Ladybird books and so on.

...None of which has anything to do with this story. Which is alright. Having only read this in the Titan reprints, I thought the Dinobots sodding off was a bit abrupt and yeah, the Autobots getting all militarised for er, peace is amusing in itself without my having even realized all that stuff in 'Crisis Of Command'.

Sometimes I wonder if I read things with my eyes shut as I swear i miss all this REALLY OBVIOUS stuff...

...must be my age.

Stuart

15/9/2013 02:27:28 pm

The advantage is had when we were kids is it had been six months since Crisis, which is a lifetime when you're 8. That made it a lot easier to fudge the details.

Felicity

28/10/2019 12:08:47 am

I think I prefer TV Grimlock. In either continuity Grimlock seems to be a jerk. At least when he’s a dumb jerk, his jerkiness isn’t being glamourised!

Thanks to your review, it just occurred to me that the theft of industrial secrets goes back and forth between the ’Bots and the ’Cons several times. First Shockwave steals Prime’s Creation Matrix energy to make the Constructicons. Prime gets him back by copying the Constructicons’ combiner technology in this issue. But then Megatron copies the Matrix energy to give life to the Stunticons! And then later Prime (on disk at Ethan Zachary’s office) copies the Pretender idea from Scorponok!

Transformation 70: Lilac Sideswipe.

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