Bring it on, Bring it Bring it on Now.
Stormbringer Issue 1. July 19th 2006.
Er, unscientific as this sounds, I’d suggest fire at will!
The first thing to really note about this issue is how IDW tried to find a halfway house between their series of miniseries structure for the series (which was pretty much standard for licenced comics at the time, there were very few ongoings) and helping readers keep track of the order things were supposed to be happening in. Especially with a late addition to the line-up like this that doesn’t follow the handy naming convention of the -tions books.
So, on the cover (I believe inspired by what the 80s and 90's Superman comics did), and on pretty much all the Simon Furman written issues going forward, there’s a smaller, secondary number. In this case 7. However, out of order storytelling, a relaunch happening as Furman was still writing and general apathy to the concept means it won’t really stick and, after mentioning it here, there’s going to be no real need to bring it up again.
Which leads us to the far more interesting contents themselves. For the last decade, I’ve only reread this in trades that put the IDW continuity in “Best reading order”, with other comics between in and Infiltration, coming back to its original context here creates quite the shocking contrast to the last issue I talked about.
Er, unscientific as this sounds, I’d suggest fire at will!
The first thing to really note about this issue is how IDW tried to find a halfway house between their series of miniseries structure for the series (which was pretty much standard for licenced comics at the time, there were very few ongoings) and helping readers keep track of the order things were supposed to be happening in. Especially with a late addition to the line-up like this that doesn’t follow the handy naming convention of the -tions books.
So, on the cover (I believe inspired by what the 80s and 90's Superman comics did), and on pretty much all the Simon Furman written issues going forward, there’s a smaller, secondary number. In this case 7. However, out of order storytelling, a relaunch happening as Furman was still writing and general apathy to the concept means it won’t really stick and, after mentioning it here, there’s going to be no real need to bring it up again.
Which leads us to the far more interesting contents themselves. For the last decade, I’ve only reread this in trades that put the IDW continuity in “Best reading order”, with other comics between in and Infiltration, coming back to its original context here creates quite the shocking contrast to the last issue I talked about.
Optimus Prime: STFU challenge.
The difference of course is because of the initial vocal negative feedback to the opening miniseries. Furman has always said the events depicted in Stormbringer were part of the plan (though presumably it would have been a subplot in the -tions, or maybe a Spotlight), he and editorial just brought it forward and created a miniseries around it to sate the cries for something more traditional.
And by traditional, we’re going all the way back to 2003. The dirty secret of IDW is how much the crooked legacy of Pat Lee influenced a lot of their decisions. The best received comic Dreamwave did was The War Within miniseries, a comic by Furman and artist Don Figueroa that was set on Cybertron, had apocalyptic planet threatening action and lots of portentous narration. Plus, in the second series (that Figueroa didn’t draw) a plot by Bludgeon to revive and awaken an ancient evil.
By reassembling the team and a lot of the basic concepts, it means after (despite not being perfect) a fairly bold opening new direction, the comics retreat at the first sight of criticism into about as safe a story as they could have done.
And it’s also easy to forget (and we’ll talk about how he burnt his bridges as we go along) that Figueroa was The fan favourite artist at the time, largely due to us all imprinting on him for being the first actually good artist to work on the comics this century and the fact his pioneering work on creating Cybertronian modes for the characters (something his two successors on the War Within sequels didn’t do as well) meant he was as big a draw as you were likely to get at the time.
Indeed, I suspect the only reason he wasn’t on Infiltration is that he’d backed the wrong horse when it came to which company was going to inherit the Transformers licence and signed an exclusive deal with G.I. Joe publisher Devil’s Due and helped develop their failed pitch.
Once that bombed and he’d been quickly let go of his deal, IDW almost immediately brought him aboard. Out of the first four original content series IDW did, Figueroa drew half of them. That’s the presumed level of fan love for him there was at the time.
And by traditional, we’re going all the way back to 2003. The dirty secret of IDW is how much the crooked legacy of Pat Lee influenced a lot of their decisions. The best received comic Dreamwave did was The War Within miniseries, a comic by Furman and artist Don Figueroa that was set on Cybertron, had apocalyptic planet threatening action and lots of portentous narration. Plus, in the second series (that Figueroa didn’t draw) a plot by Bludgeon to revive and awaken an ancient evil.
By reassembling the team and a lot of the basic concepts, it means after (despite not being perfect) a fairly bold opening new direction, the comics retreat at the first sight of criticism into about as safe a story as they could have done.
And it’s also easy to forget (and we’ll talk about how he burnt his bridges as we go along) that Figueroa was The fan favourite artist at the time, largely due to us all imprinting on him for being the first actually good artist to work on the comics this century and the fact his pioneering work on creating Cybertronian modes for the characters (something his two successors on the War Within sequels didn’t do as well) meant he was as big a draw as you were likely to get at the time.
Indeed, I suspect the only reason he wasn’t on Infiltration is that he’d backed the wrong horse when it came to which company was going to inherit the Transformers licence and signed an exclusive deal with G.I. Joe publisher Devil’s Due and helped develop their failed pitch.
Once that bombed and he’d been quickly let go of his deal, IDW almost immediately brought him aboard. Out of the first four original content series IDW did, Figueroa drew half of them. That’s the presumed level of fan love for him there was at the time.
It's Jetfire and those other guys!
And as presumptions go, it was a sensible one as this is a gorgeous looking series. I think the only reason its reputation visually isn’t as strong as Infiltration is that it’s just a continuation of the Dreamwave house style (at its best rather than as the punchline it became) rather than a drastic reinvention.
Of course, a comic is not just its artist, and if the art is firmly in the Dreamwave style, the opening flashback page is very much Furman retreating into himself as well. After six (and a bit) issues where he’s been trying very hard to capture the Noughties style, the opening flashback page to a mysterious figure in flame is full of a doom-laden Optimus Prime monologue that is straight out of Generation 2.
“It emerges, swathed in flame and dripping white phosphorus” is how it starts and it gets denser and denser from there, including taking in a Furmanism (“It never ends”). It almost reads like a piss-take of peak Furman rather than work by the writer himself, and it very much sets the tone as pretty much all the characters are going to talk in proclamations, even if not quite as ponderous as Prime’s.
What’s especially funny though is Optimus has no idea that these events about Cybertron’s past are about to come back into the present day, so his inner-monologue must be like this all the time. Living in his head rent-free.
Over the page, and back in the present (or rather, during issue 4 of Infiltration as will become clear), we get one of Furman’s greatest innovations in the series to counter the stock character writing. An Autobot science ship, the Calabi-Yau, is in orbit of Cybertron with Jetfire and the Throttlebots (though it’s not really clear if they have the team name yet. Nor will it become apparent till a little later they’re not combiners) aboard, and it’s a dead empty world. Killed by millions of years of war.
Of course, a comic is not just its artist, and if the art is firmly in the Dreamwave style, the opening flashback page is very much Furman retreating into himself as well. After six (and a bit) issues where he’s been trying very hard to capture the Noughties style, the opening flashback page to a mysterious figure in flame is full of a doom-laden Optimus Prime monologue that is straight out of Generation 2.
“It emerges, swathed in flame and dripping white phosphorus” is how it starts and it gets denser and denser from there, including taking in a Furmanism (“It never ends”). It almost reads like a piss-take of peak Furman rather than work by the writer himself, and it very much sets the tone as pretty much all the characters are going to talk in proclamations, even if not quite as ponderous as Prime’s.
What’s especially funny though is Optimus has no idea that these events about Cybertron’s past are about to come back into the present day, so his inner-monologue must be like this all the time. Living in his head rent-free.
Over the page, and back in the present (or rather, during issue 4 of Infiltration as will become clear), we get one of Furman’s greatest innovations in the series to counter the stock character writing. An Autobot science ship, the Calabi-Yau, is in orbit of Cybertron with Jetfire and the Throttlebots (though it’s not really clear if they have the team name yet. Nor will it become apparent till a little later they’re not combiners) aboard, and it’s a dead empty world. Killed by millions of years of war.
Prime never gets off easy.
This is something pretty much all future versions of the franchise will take up, as it’s a useful way of explaining why the Cybertronians keep hanging around Earth. They have nowhere else to go.
But in this series, it’s even more brutal than it will be later on in this same continuity, it’s not just uninhabitable, it actively tries to kill anyone there with lethal doses of radiation and horrendous magnetic storms. Transformers can’t walk on the surface without force fields set on a rotating frequency (handy if the Borg turn up. Between that and the out of sync with real time idea in the Beast Wars comic, Furman must have been watching a lot of Next Generation at the time), and even then, only for a short time.
It’s an incredibly arresting, stunningly realised by Figueroa, idea and shows the old dog still has some new tricks up his sleeve.
Or perhaps the planet isn’t quite so dead as they thought, as the ship’s sensors have detected a valid and weird Energon signature down there. Afterburner postulates a last remnant mutated by cosmic debris now there’s barely any atmosphere.
Which is enough to make Jetfire authorise a highly illegal landing. With the ship dropping him and three Throttlebots down (for some reason they split up based on colours, the three red and white guys on the away team, the two orange staying aboard) before quickly leaving and going back to orbit because of the conditions.
The source of the energon turns out to have been Thunderhead Pass (considering what we find out, probably named for what went down there), where the fall of Cybertron happened against a really terrible force.
And they never found a body.
But in this series, it’s even more brutal than it will be later on in this same continuity, it’s not just uninhabitable, it actively tries to kill anyone there with lethal doses of radiation and horrendous magnetic storms. Transformers can’t walk on the surface without force fields set on a rotating frequency (handy if the Borg turn up. Between that and the out of sync with real time idea in the Beast Wars comic, Furman must have been watching a lot of Next Generation at the time), and even then, only for a short time.
It’s an incredibly arresting, stunningly realised by Figueroa, idea and shows the old dog still has some new tricks up his sleeve.
Or perhaps the planet isn’t quite so dead as they thought, as the ship’s sensors have detected a valid and weird Energon signature down there. Afterburner postulates a last remnant mutated by cosmic debris now there’s barely any atmosphere.
Which is enough to make Jetfire authorise a highly illegal landing. With the ship dropping him and three Throttlebots down (for some reason they split up based on colours, the three red and white guys on the away team, the two orange staying aboard) before quickly leaving and going back to orbit because of the conditions.
The source of the energon turns out to have been Thunderhead Pass (considering what we find out, probably named for what went down there), where the fall of Cybertron happened against a really terrible force.
And they never found a body.
When your job is staring at Optimus Prime's ass all day.
Leading into the next Prime flashback, of him waking up injured on and the floor, with Megatron standing over him and saying he has to get up and fight The Adversary.
Though not the original plan, it is nicely ironic the first time we see Optimus and Megatron together in IDW, they’re working together. A sign of how things will end up. As is the possibility Megatron has been giving basic first aid to Optimus. Should have been a doctor that boy.
What wasn’t meant to be a sign of anything is that Figueroa has, presumably unaware of Furman’s original plan that Optimus would never have had the Matrix, has drawn it visible through the damage in his chest. Not the first time a background detail from an artist will contradict plans, though in this case everything will work out fine as what Furman had intended for Nova Prime will be heavily condensed and largely thrown out the window in the compression to come at the end of his arc and other writer’s make it clear that, no, Prime does indeed have the Matrix here.
In the present, we discover the Autobot command is working from a space station, with us getting one of the few bits of real deft characterisation as Prime’s slightly skittish and nervous new secretary Searchlight (Prime doesn't sem 100% sure of his name) tries to pass on a message whilst Optimus is Thinking Great Thoughts.
It’s only a little moment that’s really just to establish when this is happening (the message is the one Ironhide sent in issue 4 of Infiltration), but it’s also the only real light relief and if I remember rightly, the Prime and Searchlight dynamic will be one of the more fun parts of the early IDW era.
Though not the original plan, it is nicely ironic the first time we see Optimus and Megatron together in IDW, they’re working together. A sign of how things will end up. As is the possibility Megatron has been giving basic first aid to Optimus. Should have been a doctor that boy.
What wasn’t meant to be a sign of anything is that Figueroa has, presumably unaware of Furman’s original plan that Optimus would never have had the Matrix, has drawn it visible through the damage in his chest. Not the first time a background detail from an artist will contradict plans, though in this case everything will work out fine as what Furman had intended for Nova Prime will be heavily condensed and largely thrown out the window in the compression to come at the end of his arc and other writer’s make it clear that, no, Prime does indeed have the Matrix here.
In the present, we discover the Autobot command is working from a space station, with us getting one of the few bits of real deft characterisation as Prime’s slightly skittish and nervous new secretary Searchlight (Prime doesn't sem 100% sure of his name) tries to pass on a message whilst Optimus is Thinking Great Thoughts.
It’s only a little moment that’s really just to establish when this is happening (the message is the one Ironhide sent in issue 4 of Infiltration), but it’s also the only real light relief and if I remember rightly, the Prime and Searchlight dynamic will be one of the more fun parts of the early IDW era.
He got the point.
There’s no fun on Cybertron though, as Jetfire (in a very Don move, he has the animation model face, but wears the toy head as a battle-mask. Though best not to think of the logic, is it made of more metal than his face? Why does no one else need one?) is having to deal with Scattershot asking if it’s wise for them to mess with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know when doing such things wrecked Cybertron in the first place.
Jetfire’s response is they need to find out what they can in case this mysterious energon creates a new cataclysm. Which feels slightly dubious logic even if he’s going to be right because of things he doesn’t know yet. It’s hard to see what worse thing could happen to Cybertron.
Still, remembering that back in the day only a Decepticon had realised what was happening gives him his moment for a flashback, to being on a conference call with many of Cybertron’s greatest scientists. Which includes some of the obvious suspects like Perceptor, but also Soundwave for some reason as he’ll never seem that way inclined in any of his future appearances.
The call is hosted by Thunderwing, desperately trying to warn everyone that Cybertron is dying and all they can do is weather the collapse with new ways to survive. When Dr Soundwave declares this whole idea nonsense, he’s told he can either follow Thunderwing’s lead or die in screaming torment.
No wonder Soundwave won’t attend any future scientist meetings.
The reminisces are cut off though as Scattershot points out that their shields won’t survive an incoming storm, so it’s time to leave the probe they’ve brought and get back to the ship.
Jetfire’s response is they need to find out what they can in case this mysterious energon creates a new cataclysm. Which feels slightly dubious logic even if he’s going to be right because of things he doesn’t know yet. It’s hard to see what worse thing could happen to Cybertron.
Still, remembering that back in the day only a Decepticon had realised what was happening gives him his moment for a flashback, to being on a conference call with many of Cybertron’s greatest scientists. Which includes some of the obvious suspects like Perceptor, but also Soundwave for some reason as he’ll never seem that way inclined in any of his future appearances.
The call is hosted by Thunderwing, desperately trying to warn everyone that Cybertron is dying and all they can do is weather the collapse with new ways to survive. When Dr Soundwave declares this whole idea nonsense, he’s told he can either follow Thunderwing’s lead or die in screaming torment.
No wonder Soundwave won’t attend any future scientist meetings.
The reminisces are cut off though as Scattershot points out that their shields won’t survive an incoming storm, so it’s time to leave the probe they’ve brought and get back to the ship.
A page that doesn't need any of that narration to sell its point.
I’m not sure why they didn’t just drop the probe from orbit and all stay safe and legal.
Before they can though, they’re attacked by mysterious figures with cloaking devices that, despite a good effort (though Jetfire and Scattershot are stupid enough to fire all their weapons in an environment that creates a nasty feedback loop), sees them taken down.
Things aren’t any better in orbit, as a missile takes out the ship, with it being unclear at this point if Afterburner and Nosecone managed to get to the escape pod in time after deciding to send a distress call first.
After another Prime flashback of him monologing over a page of himself, Megatron and Omega Supreme fighting a last stand against... something... we get our cliff-hanger of Jetfire slowly waking up underground, to see various Decepticons that old fans would know as Pretenders standing around the mighty body of Thunderwing, chanting his name.
Which is a pretty sharp contrast to how new reader friendly Infiltration tried to be. In Jetfire’s flashback, Thunderwing is based on his small, inner robot toy. The reveal at the end (and The Things that everyone was fighting in the flashbacks) is a giant winged monstrosity based on his Pretender shell.
How he got from A to B is going to be explained, but as he’s not called by name in the flashback, if you’re not a big fan (and we’re talking the first prominent appearance of a character who wasn’t in the cartoon and whose inner robot only appeared once in a British story), the connection between the two is going to be completely lost on you. This is very much a book for Serious Transformers Fans.
Before they can though, they’re attacked by mysterious figures with cloaking devices that, despite a good effort (though Jetfire and Scattershot are stupid enough to fire all their weapons in an environment that creates a nasty feedback loop), sees them taken down.
Things aren’t any better in orbit, as a missile takes out the ship, with it being unclear at this point if Afterburner and Nosecone managed to get to the escape pod in time after deciding to send a distress call first.
After another Prime flashback of him monologing over a page of himself, Megatron and Omega Supreme fighting a last stand against... something... we get our cliff-hanger of Jetfire slowly waking up underground, to see various Decepticons that old fans would know as Pretenders standing around the mighty body of Thunderwing, chanting his name.
Which is a pretty sharp contrast to how new reader friendly Infiltration tried to be. In Jetfire’s flashback, Thunderwing is based on his small, inner robot toy. The reveal at the end (and The Things that everyone was fighting in the flashbacks) is a giant winged monstrosity based on his Pretender shell.
How he got from A to B is going to be explained, but as he’s not called by name in the flashback, if you’re not a big fan (and we’re talking the first prominent appearance of a character who wasn’t in the cartoon and whose inner robot only appeared once in a British story), the connection between the two is going to be completely lost on you. This is very much a book for Serious Transformers Fans.
He's got wings alright.
And as such, this first issue was incredibly well received at the time. But we’ll see how that goes as we go along. At the end of the day, it certainly didn’t affect sales very much either way.
Read now, where it succeeds is in creating a mood, a tense atmosphere of growing dread in the ruins of a dead world with an ominous event haunting its past.
It’s just a shame the dialogue is so heavy and overdone. Especially for Prime, who will never really recover from this. There will be some valiant efforts later on, but on the whole he’s going to be a very dour version of the character that’s going to be hard to buy as an inspirational leader.
The real surprise to me though is just how different it was to Infiltration, I think if you were to do some sort of blind taste challenge with someone not familiar with the comics, I suspect they’d not realise they were written by the same person.
Which makes it a shame that Furman is going to accept his pigeonholing and his writing is going to settle pretty much exclusively into this style. He’s clearly capable of more and if he’d been able to keep shaking things up, his reputation as a 21st century comic writer might hold up a bit better.
Still, this remains a gorgeous, moody issue. Let’s hope that continues into the second part (or 8th if you go by the special numbering) next week.
INFILTRATION ISSUE 6
2005-2006
COMMENT
KO-FI
Read now, where it succeeds is in creating a mood, a tense atmosphere of growing dread in the ruins of a dead world with an ominous event haunting its past.
It’s just a shame the dialogue is so heavy and overdone. Especially for Prime, who will never really recover from this. There will be some valiant efforts later on, but on the whole he’s going to be a very dour version of the character that’s going to be hard to buy as an inspirational leader.
The real surprise to me though is just how different it was to Infiltration, I think if you were to do some sort of blind taste challenge with someone not familiar with the comics, I suspect they’d not realise they were written by the same person.
Which makes it a shame that Furman is going to accept his pigeonholing and his writing is going to settle pretty much exclusively into this style. He’s clearly capable of more and if he’d been able to keep shaking things up, his reputation as a 21st century comic writer might hold up a bit better.
Still, this remains a gorgeous, moody issue. Let’s hope that continues into the second part (or 8th if you go by the special numbering) next week.
INFILTRATION ISSUE 6
2005-2006
COMMENT
KO-FI
