Transformation: What A View... to a Kill.

1/8/2014

This week we get an issue long fight between Galvatron and Ultra Magnus that, though very good, is all there is to the issue.

Luckily, of of Furman's (and mine) obsessions rears its head and allows me to talk about greatest living Englishman Sir Roger Moore for half the write up instead.

All in my look at Burning Sky! Part 2.

11 Comments

Tim Roll-Pickering link

1/8/2014 01:14:10 pm

I'd never noticed the Bond homage before - I guess context is key. And yes people never seem to notice the bases - though the US is a big country and there's a history of Transformers being undisturbed in remote open air, starting with the Ark.

On the reason for naming any female Cindy it might be revealing if someone could tally up all the significant ones created by a writer to see what the most prevalant names are - e.g. John Wyndham's most common ones are "Joan" and "Mary".

As for the advance announcements, it's time to plug Joepedia which has reasonably good coverage of all the Action Force comics according to the person-wot-wrote-them-up at http://gijoe.wikia.com/wiki/Action_Force_(weekly)

Each issue had a five page original British strip which could either be a one-off story or part of a longer epic, plus US reprints that usually had no direct connection to the homegrown material. In terms of gaps issue #22 ends the four-part Doppelganger story and #29 starts the three-part Sky Strike! Issue #35 does begin a more epic saga (which also follows the trick of breaking things into separately named one and two parters) that ties in with the (out of sequence) reprint of the US story Silent Job in issues #37 & #38. There are enough inconsequential one and two parters around Ancient Relics that it could have been easily run at almost any point in the #20s & early #30s. My best guesses for choosing a timing that meant interrupting a Transformers storyline:

* To make sure the whole thing ran in August when most children would be on holiday for the month (sorry Scotland) and likely to have bonus pocket money to pick up an extra comic.
* Maybe Hasbro (ISTR the Action Force copyrights tended to reference Milton Bradley, yet another twist in explaining the toyline!) demanded particular toys be highlighted in particular weeks, perhaps to tie in with other pushes. Issue #29 has the Skystriker on the cover, the start of a three parter in which the jet is prominent and a competition to win one of twelve so it's possible this was an externally thrown spanner in the works.
* They wanted to avoid the Action Force issues overlapping Transformers running the Headmasters as a back-up strip and thus providing competition for more Transformers material being available than normally that month. That latter task was left to Timmy Mallet.

Blackjack

1/8/2014 11:47:38 pm

Good stuff, and rings quite true in my head as not 24 hours have passed since I reviewed that Regeneration One issue with another Magnus/Galvatron fight that doesn't feel necessary.

Bond films... I've watched I think nearly all of them, but I think they all blur together in my head so much that you could say the title of the movie and I'd go 'oh, that's the one where they went to SPACE!' or 'oh, that's the one with the invisible Aston Martin!' or 'oh, that's the one that doesn't feel like a Bond film!' or something, but ask me about anything else from the movie and I'd probably frown and not remember anything. It's been so long since I watched them and I watched them in one massive sitting through a couple of weeks, so...

I might have to follow Furman's footsteps and do a big Bond binge myself in the future.

Stuart

2/8/2014 02:05:41 am

@Tim:

Excellent link Sir, the last time I looked at the Joe wiki (when I was reading the American series a few years ago) the comic section was a bit anemic, good to see its been pumped out. I guess they couldn't quite make things work so as to have the crossover start in an issue with the beginning of an America issue in it so as to make it a really good jumping on point for the lured in Transformers readers.

@Blackjack:

That Reg fight is just bizarre, deciding to ignore the British stuff was a perfectly valid creative choice (though not the one I'd have made), but that means you can't do sequences that depend entirely on knowing the British stuff.

I will probably have to reread Reg when I cover the Marvel continuation stuff at the end of this project, not looking forward to it.

As far as Bond goes, of course it only blatantly stands out if you're an insane super fan like me (and it seems, Furman), but it's a fun thread to spot in his work once you do notice it.

Blackjack

3/8/2014 07:54:29 am

Just too much of the Regeneration One hangs on us knowing UK and/or G2 stuff, while the rest hangs on us having an encyclopedic knowledge of the US comic. For Marvel freaks like you and I it might be manageable, but it's still exhausting nonetheless to read... especially since these UK-reliant things are the least of the problems with Regeneration One.

I'll fully admit that there are a couple of stronger issues, and reading through practically everything except for the second Scorponok arc doesn't make it feel as horrid as my first run-through, but it still suffers from horrible pacing issues, a lack of tension and suspense, the constant feel of unoriginality and generally is just a soup of unused ideas Furman had for the Marvel and IDW comics. There are the occasional interesting gems here and there that sorta reads good on paper -- Megatron being psycho and destroying Earth to attract Optimus Prime, explaining what's the deal behind the Demons, an alternate origin for Jhiaxus, the Anti-Matrix, the Nucleon side effects, practically everything with Soundwave... but the general execution and pacing and conclusions just muck the entire thing up.

Blackjack

3/8/2014 09:04:54 am

Also, Scorponok riding a blimp?

When did this happen?

Stuart

3/8/2014 10:07:23 am

Maximum Dinobots I think... either there or Spotlight Grimlock. One of the stories where he was going after the Dinobot.

Stuart

3/8/2014 10:17:40 am

Ah yes, it's Spotlight Grimlock. The Solar Agitator from The Man With the Golden Gun gets a name check as well.

snowkatt

3/8/2014 08:55:28 pm

actually i am going to leave this here
https://www.humblebundle.com/books

a humble idw transformers bundle for the average of $15
you get

classic tf v 1 to 4 reprinting marvel US G1 1-48
all hail megatron v 1-4
rid v 1 and 2
mtme v 1 and 2
autocracy
2009 transformers V1
fall of cybertron
rage of the dinobots
and regeneration one

they come in Hd pdf
pfd
mobi
epub
cbz
and are drm free

anybody who doesnt have these comics this would be an excellent way to get them
its an obsolute steal

you are also allowed to download all versions in all 5 formats which is about 24 gig of transformers comics

Blackjack

4/8/2014 03:02:09 am

Holy shit, there IS a blimp! I never noticed that. I never realized Scorponok is operating from a blimp.

Freakin' crazy, that IDW Scorponok.

Colin H

8/4/2018 07:42:15 pm

I'm half-hoping that the "original" running order (with the whole Scraplet story before Ancient Relics!) is honoured by Hachette when they eventually do Volume 9 of the partwork, but they can't even get the early issues in the right order, so I'm not *very* hopeful.

Felicity link

1/11/2019 06:34:54 am

“ ’80s slump”?! I like the 1980s Bond films! Including “A View to a Kill.” I saw that one in the theatre with my parents. Simon Furman having a Bond binge makes me think of Alan Partridge’s much-anticipated Bond-a-thon weekend. ☺

Transformation: What A View... to a Kill.

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