The President is on the Line, as 99 Red Balloons Fly by.
The Transformers Issue 12: International Incident Part 4: “All My Sins Remembered.” October 13th 2010.
After this, I’d better get a lot more respect around here.
With hundreds of Transformers characters in Generation One alone, one of the great minor joys of the franchise is there’s a near infinite combination of character interactions that can happen, and it’s always fun to get a rare or even previously unseen one.
So, if nothing else, the concluding part of this story, gives us what I believe is the first real moment between Rampage and Optimus Prime. Which Rampage actually comes the better out of as Prime tries his “No, actually, my joining up with America is very different to you teaming up with China” spiel again, which just gets a major eye-roll and, an accurate, accusation of hypocrisy.
The Predacons are perfectly happy working for China, because they admire their patience. Which, the Wiki claims is a call-back to how their absent leader Razorclaw is a patient man, but considering Rampage is still calling his bosses the wrong name and is therefore actually claiming to be an agent of Taiwan, it’s hard to credit it with too much thought.
After this, I’d better get a lot more respect around here.
With hundreds of Transformers characters in Generation One alone, one of the great minor joys of the franchise is there’s a near infinite combination of character interactions that can happen, and it’s always fun to get a rare or even previously unseen one.
So, if nothing else, the concluding part of this story, gives us what I believe is the first real moment between Rampage and Optimus Prime. Which Rampage actually comes the better out of as Prime tries his “No, actually, my joining up with America is very different to you teaming up with China” spiel again, which just gets a major eye-roll and, an accurate, accusation of hypocrisy.
The Predacons are perfectly happy working for China, because they admire their patience. Which, the Wiki claims is a call-back to how their absent leader Razorclaw is a patient man, but considering Rampage is still calling his bosses the wrong name and is therefore actually claiming to be an agent of Taiwan, it’s hard to credit it with too much thought.
Big "I know you are, but what am I?" energy.
Speaking of call-backs, Prowl calls in to Bumblebee during this chat, explaining the situation and making it clear that, of all the possible outcomes his theoretician mind can see, the only ones that won’t involve in death need Thundercracker to stay on side, so whatever Bee said to him really better have worked.
Hmm, they’re screwed.
Still, it does initially look like things are going to be OK, as Rampage is simply there to pass on a “Stay off our lawn” message, before the Predacons turn to leave.
Unfortunately, but hilariously, Onslaught proceeds to shoot Rampage in the back whilst giggling manically, in a move that is absolutely against the interests of his own employers, but he just can’t help doing the thing that provides the maximum amount of comedy.
This drastic change in circumstances means Bumblebee needs better visuals, giving us couple of pages of faffing about as Cosmos is ordered to move a satellite and Sandra goes down to the basement server room to stop the NSA realising their signal has been highjacked.
Hmm, they’re screwed.
Still, it does initially look like things are going to be OK, as Rampage is simply there to pass on a “Stay off our lawn” message, before the Predacons turn to leave.
Unfortunately, but hilariously, Onslaught proceeds to shoot Rampage in the back whilst giggling manically, in a move that is absolutely against the interests of his own employers, but he just can’t help doing the thing that provides the maximum amount of comedy.
This drastic change in circumstances means Bumblebee needs better visuals, giving us couple of pages of faffing about as Cosmos is ordered to move a satellite and Sandra goes down to the basement server room to stop the NSA realising their signal has been highjacked.
Costa as he gets away with this crap:
What they see after this is a full on three-way fight between the Autobots (and Skywatch) and two teams of cons. Which apparently so upsets Sandra, she decides to end the encryption and let the world see what’s really going on.
Which, whilst I’m all for transparency in government, is so clearly going to have disastrous consequences, she is either an idiot or really wants a third world war.
Upstairs, Silverstreak (as he’s called at the moment) compares the fight they’re seeing to a nightmare, before asking if he’s got that right, as he turns out to be the only Cybertronian who doesn’t have apocalyptic doom ridden visions when asleep and thinks they’re just a human thing.
Things get worse as they realise that the very same fight they’re watching is on the news, Sandra has done a bunk and, at the same time the President has denied those Skywatch looking mech suits are Skywatch, Russia have declared they’ve launched a nuclear missile at the location, in keeping with the USA’s prior statement that the Transformers are to be treated as WMDs.
Which, whilst I’m all for transparency in government, is so clearly going to have disastrous consequences, she is either an idiot or really wants a third world war.
Upstairs, Silverstreak (as he’s called at the moment) compares the fight they’re seeing to a nightmare, before asking if he’s got that right, as he turns out to be the only Cybertronian who doesn’t have apocalyptic doom ridden visions when asleep and thinks they’re just a human thing.
Things get worse as they realise that the very same fight they’re watching is on the news, Sandra has done a bunk and, at the same time the President has denied those Skywatch looking mech suits are Skywatch, Russia have declared they’ve launched a nuclear missile at the location, in keeping with the USA’s prior statement that the Transformers are to be treated as WMDs.
Russian aggression in the 2st century? Science fiction.
There is absolutely no way on Earth that Russia would ever fire a nuclear missile at the Chinese boarder, effectively attacking one of their main friendly nations. But maybe geopolitics have really shifted since the invasion.
This news causes the Predacons to simply… walk away. Though oddly this isn’t something the Autobots can also do to get out of the blast range, and their main “Knocking a nuke out the air” guy, Thundercracker, seems to have run off.
Luckily, and in by far the best part of the issue, Cosmos is on hand to send it off-course, all whilst hoping he gets a bit more respect for this.
Though, as great a visual as him hanging off the side of a nuke is, this is no less than the third time in less than a decade a Transformers comic has ended with a character bouncing a nuke out of the way of its target, the second from IDW. You wouldn’t think that could get a bit too repetitive, but here we are.
This news causes the Predacons to simply… walk away. Though oddly this isn’t something the Autobots can also do to get out of the blast range, and their main “Knocking a nuke out the air” guy, Thundercracker, seems to have run off.
Luckily, and in by far the best part of the issue, Cosmos is on hand to send it off-course, all whilst hoping he gets a bit more respect for this.
Though, as great a visual as him hanging off the side of a nuke is, this is no less than the third time in less than a decade a Transformers comic has ended with a character bouncing a nuke out of the way of its target, the second from IDW. You wouldn’t think that could get a bit too repetitive, but here we are.
Best part of the issue.
On the ground, Optimus Prime turns out to have been in complete charge all along, revealing the nuke will have detonated in the Arctic and…
Wait, they nuked the Arctic? And everyone is fine about this? Well, OK. I guess we’re just lucky Russia only have one nuke. Nor that America didn’t launch in retaliation immediately.
Still, the nuke is “Safely” detonated, and he had Thundercracker go destroy the energon making facilities in both Korea and China (despite not even knowing about the Chinese/Predacon alliance till 5 minutes ago), meaning the Predacons and Combaticons will no longer have any motivation to work for their bosses, and be out of fuel.
Even though the Predacons seemed genuine in their claims it was an ideological team-up on their part, and that there’s nothing stopping China at least just building another facility quickly.
Still, even though they don’t have any means to take the Combaticons home as prisoners, this is a good and happy ending as everyone has forgotten the North Korean invasion of the south. So, I guess they’ve been allowed to win there?
Wait, they nuked the Arctic? And everyone is fine about this? Well, OK. I guess we’re just lucky Russia only have one nuke. Nor that America didn’t launch in retaliation immediately.
Still, the nuke is “Safely” detonated, and he had Thundercracker go destroy the energon making facilities in both Korea and China (despite not even knowing about the Chinese/Predacon alliance till 5 minutes ago), meaning the Predacons and Combaticons will no longer have any motivation to work for their bosses, and be out of fuel.
Even though the Predacons seemed genuine in their claims it was an ideological team-up on their part, and that there’s nothing stopping China at least just building another facility quickly.
Still, even though they don’t have any means to take the Combaticons home as prisoners, this is a good and happy ending as everyone has forgotten the North Korean invasion of the south. So, I guess they’ve been allowed to win there?
Stupid sexy Silverstreak.
A week later, Spike and the Autobots are stuck on a slow boat from China, and a crowd of protesters are outside Skywatch HQ. Which is the point that Bumblebee, in contrast to all the evidence presented by this story, he is the leader, and it’s time to lead. So he decides to go outside and give a speech.
Naturally, this is an extremely delicate diplomatic moment that needs the most level heads, so he takes Brawn and a worryingly sexy Silverstreak with him. I’m sure this will go well for him.
The speech is at least a solid one, about how he knows what it’s like to be scared and frighted by bigger events, but he and his friends are only here to help and work with humanity to stop the remaining Decepticons, who are also scared and scared people lash out and actually maybe it’s not such a good speech if he’s putting that idea out there.
He also very carefully doesn’t mention nuking the Arctic.
It does seem to be sinking in as the protesters become quieter during the speech, but, it turns out, scared people do indeed lash out and a man in a flasher raincoat suddenly pulls out a gun (we’ll get a better and more revealing look at it next issue), shooting a massive laser blast right into Bumblebee’s chest whilst screaming “Death to aliens!”, which gets mixed reaction of shock and delight from those around him.
Naturally, this is an extremely delicate diplomatic moment that needs the most level heads, so he takes Brawn and a worryingly sexy Silverstreak with him. I’m sure this will go well for him.
The speech is at least a solid one, about how he knows what it’s like to be scared and frighted by bigger events, but he and his friends are only here to help and work with humanity to stop the remaining Decepticons, who are also scared and scared people lash out and actually maybe it’s not such a good speech if he’s putting that idea out there.
He also very carefully doesn’t mention nuking the Arctic.
It does seem to be sinking in as the protesters become quieter during the speech, but, it turns out, scared people do indeed lash out and a man in a flasher raincoat suddenly pulls out a gun (we’ll get a better and more revealing look at it next issue), shooting a massive laser blast right into Bumblebee’s chest whilst screaming “Death to aliens!”, which gets mixed reaction of shock and delight from those around him.
Stings like a bee.
Which leaves Bumblebee smouldering on the ground looking dead, which feels like a pretty good summing up of his run as leader.
The absolute highlight here is the couple of Cosmos moments, with giggling Onslaught a close second.
But this has been a story trying to wrestle with massive real world politics whilst it can’t even get the name of one of the countries involved right. It wants to say something, but the jumping through hoops needed to ignore any of the actual consequences of things like nuking the blooming North Pole are ridiculous and make this supposedly tense political thriller seem of no consequence.
The ending is nicely shocking, but also just adds to the sense that Bumblebee as leader has been nothing but a half-arsed idea executed with no enthusiasm.
At least Guido’s art has been allowed to settle into what he does best (though his humans are mostly terrible and identikit, not helped by the colourist apparently really liking blondes), so it’s a visually fun issue, but otherwise, this title ends its second major arc with a real sense of having gone nowhere.
Next week, will the Crystal City smash?
DRIFT ISSUE 3
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
The absolute highlight here is the couple of Cosmos moments, with giggling Onslaught a close second.
But this has been a story trying to wrestle with massive real world politics whilst it can’t even get the name of one of the countries involved right. It wants to say something, but the jumping through hoops needed to ignore any of the actual consequences of things like nuking the blooming North Pole are ridiculous and make this supposedly tense political thriller seem of no consequence.
The ending is nicely shocking, but also just adds to the sense that Bumblebee as leader has been nothing but a half-arsed idea executed with no enthusiasm.
At least Guido’s art has been allowed to settle into what he does best (though his humans are mostly terrible and identikit, not helped by the colourist apparently really liking blondes), so it’s a visually fun issue, but otherwise, this title ends its second major arc with a real sense of having gone nowhere.
Next week, will the Crystal City smash?
DRIFT ISSUE 3
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
