Take a Look at the Lawman, Beating up the Wrong Guy.
Issue 8: Back-to-Back/All Hail Megatron: Darkness Fall! 31st December 2009.
Zip it. What will be... will be.
The amazing thing to note about this month’s cover is that Revenge of the Fallen is now far enough in the past for the title to have reverted back to just Transformers. But we’re still only just finishing the prequel to the film (oh, and a return to art covers as well).
Which may be why this is the last hurrah for the format that has done the comic so well for two and a half years. From issue 9, there will be a (presumably, though more on that later) budget cutting streamlining of the book and a move, finally, to stories set after the film. And as noted last time, there’s certainly a feeling that this might have been the last issue at one point.
Which would still have been a solid run, eight issues for the second volume alone is pretty good going for a film tie-in UK comic. The 33 of the series as a whole is incredibly impressive. Not just letting it fold naturally is something of a surprise, creating the impression that, as in the final days of Marvel, someone (almost certainly Steve White) had enough fondness for the title to as a show-piece for the company to keep it going.
Zip it. What will be... will be.
The amazing thing to note about this month’s cover is that Revenge of the Fallen is now far enough in the past for the title to have reverted back to just Transformers. But we’re still only just finishing the prequel to the film (oh, and a return to art covers as well).
Which may be why this is the last hurrah for the format that has done the comic so well for two and a half years. From issue 9, there will be a (presumably, though more on that later) budget cutting streamlining of the book and a move, finally, to stories set after the film. And as noted last time, there’s certainly a feeling that this might have been the last issue at one point.
Which would still have been a solid run, eight issues for the second volume alone is pretty good going for a film tie-in UK comic. The 33 of the series as a whole is incredibly impressive. Not just letting it fold naturally is something of a surprise, creating the impression that, as in the final days of Marvel, someone (almost certainly Steve White) had enough fondness for the title to as a show-piece for the company to keep it going.
Feel the Starscream swagger.
But before that, we have to finish the story that they’ve doggedly stuck to for eight months even though it clearly wasn’t working. One wonders, considering the padding to get us here, why someone at some point didn’t have a word to change the course of the series earlier. Unless the lead-in times were just too long? It’s especially frustrating as a lot of this would still work and work better with minimum rewriting as a story about Soundwave putting a plot together after the film.
Which is as good a way of avoiding talking about Back-to-Back as long as possible. We open with Soundwave roughing up Ransack for being the wrong colour.
I mean, not telling him where the Matrix and the Tomb of the Primes are, because it turns out Soundwave is (possibly, it’s all very undefined, but as Ransack will only talk to the Fallen, if he was on the level he’d have just gotten the Fallen on the Space Phone) playing his own his own sneaky game.
Which is as good a way of avoiding talking about Back-to-Back as long as possible. We open with Soundwave roughing up Ransack for being the wrong colour.
I mean, not telling him where the Matrix and the Tomb of the Primes are, because it turns out Soundwave is (possibly, it’s all very undefined, but as Ransack will only talk to the Fallen, if he was on the level he’d have just gotten the Fallen on the Space Phone) playing his own his own sneaky game.
I mean, he's the best thing in the issue.
There is some good interaction from the Decepticons who are watching though, with Starscream putting on some very smug body language as he suggests killing their one source of information and pissing off the Fallen might not be a good idea.
Watching all this (on Phobos again, which has a blue sky apparently) Skids and Mudflap are ready and pissed. And showing off their actual faces for one panel before the less terrifying battle-masks return.
Their plan is simple but inexplicably effective as they just attack a Decepticon force that outnumbers them, managing to take out Grindor and Ravage and dodging a volley of fire from Soundwave and Starscream.
Starscream does finally get the upper hand and takes the time to strike a “Such heroic nonsense” pose, but gets shot in the back by Ransack for his troubles. The Seeker then flies off saying he’s going to tell the Fallen everything, but presumably he was immediately killed due to biplanes not being able to fly in a vacuum as he clearly never got there.
Watching all this (on Phobos again, which has a blue sky apparently) Skids and Mudflap are ready and pissed. And showing off their actual faces for one panel before the less terrifying battle-masks return.
Their plan is simple but inexplicably effective as they just attack a Decepticon force that outnumbers them, managing to take out Grindor and Ravage and dodging a volley of fire from Soundwave and Starscream.
Starscream does finally get the upper hand and takes the time to strike a “Such heroic nonsense” pose, but gets shot in the back by Ransack for his troubles. The Seeker then flies off saying he’s going to tell the Fallen everything, but presumably he was immediately killed due to biplanes not being able to fly in a vacuum as he clearly never got there.
So delighted to never have to write about these two again.
And it’s impressive of the book to add a new thing that doesn’t quite line up with the film right at the end there.
Things do start to look bad when that army from issue 1 appears, but luckily this is when the Autobots come raining down in their protoforms, having finally put two and two together and realises the twins aren’t evil, they’re just awful. Meaning we do get a nice full page splash of Prime’s team slashing through the cons.
Before an odd panel of first film toy Arcee gathering up the surrendered drones. Considering Davis-Hunt previously drew the Arcee trio correctly, is the implication here that there are actually four Arcees?
Things do start to look bad when that army from issue 1 appears, but luckily this is when the Autobots come raining down in their protoforms, having finally put two and two together and realises the twins aren’t evil, they’re just awful. Meaning we do get a nice full page splash of Prime’s team slashing through the cons.
Before an odd panel of first film toy Arcee gathering up the surrendered drones. Considering Davis-Hunt previously drew the Arcee trio correctly, is the implication here that there are actually four Arcees?
That trooper was armless.
The rapid wrap up then sees the Twins gain Ironhide’s respect (though they never really lost it, telling their biggest critic, Sideswipe, says nothing) and agreeing never ever ever to mention the Fallen again.
Which is an unsatisfying ending, to put it mildly.
As with the previous month, this isn’t too bad in and of itself, even if it’s not the most exciting of stories. But in the context of the rest of the arc, it’s incredibly underwhelming and doesn’t feel it’s from the same Furman who made such a success of the last run of the first volume. And yes, eight months of two characters who are otherwise going to be almost entirely ignored by everyone going forward was too much. A new, tighter, direction is very welcome at this point.
Which is an unsatisfying ending, to put it mildly.
As with the previous month, this isn’t too bad in and of itself, even if it’s not the most exciting of stories. But in the context of the rest of the arc, it’s incredibly underwhelming and doesn’t feel it’s from the same Furman who made such a success of the last run of the first volume. And yes, eight months of two characters who are otherwise going to be almost entirely ignored by everyone going forward was too much. A new, tighter, direction is very welcome at this point.
Three pages in one.
Of course, what this issue is most remembered for is what it does to All Hail Megatron in its final chapter, Darkness Fall! (which feels like it should be Falls plural). Ending the story before even reaching the halfway mark when there are so many disparate subplots was always going to be tricky, and if nothing else you’ve got to admire the attempt.
So this effectively, across 24 pages, meshes three sequences (two of ten pages, one of four) from three different issues.
The first, from issue 6, carries on the conversation between Jazz and Kup (with more attempts at violent male dominance over who should be in charge), with cuts to Megatron in Israel having an imagined conversation with Starscream about what happens next.
Which is notable for how the level of destruction the Decepticons did outside of New York would vary wildly across the series, but I suspect has largely been included because Megatron otherwise wouldn’t actually appear in this final part.
Next, in issue 7 is the Autobots going for a drive (which, with the missing material, is given no context, meaning they go for a spin and return during what now looks like the same conversation for no reason) with flashbacks to the Autobots defeat, which if nothing else, has some impressive art (there’s actually three artists working on this chunk—including E.J. Su and Emiliano Santalucia—but Guido Guidi is the only one to be credited. Robert Dreas is uncredited for his additional colours as well) including a lovely Devastator.
So this effectively, across 24 pages, meshes three sequences (two of ten pages, one of four) from three different issues.
The first, from issue 6, carries on the conversation between Jazz and Kup (with more attempts at violent male dominance over who should be in charge), with cuts to Megatron in Israel having an imagined conversation with Starscream about what happens next.
Which is notable for how the level of destruction the Decepticons did outside of New York would vary wildly across the series, but I suspect has largely been included because Megatron otherwise wouldn’t actually appear in this final part.
Next, in issue 7 is the Autobots going for a drive (which, with the missing material, is given no context, meaning they go for a spin and return during what now looks like the same conversation for no reason) with flashbacks to the Autobots defeat, which if nothing else, has some impressive art (there’s actually three artists working on this chunk—including E.J. Su and Emiliano Santalucia—but Guido Guidi is the only one to be credited. Robert Dreas is uncredited for his additional colours as well) including a lovely Devastator.
The other altered panel.
The most interesting/infamous though is the final four pages from issue 9. Where we get our first actually edited American material since... well, it’s a shame that issue of Megatron Origin with removed captions was so recent.
So we get one page, made up of panels from what was originally three different pages. First of Ratchet saying Prime is likely to die, then of Mirage asking what all this has been for and then Sideswipe giving an angry speech about Prime being dead.
Which was originally about Sunstreaker being dead, which is why he makes it sound like Prime committed suicide in contrast to the flashback we’ve already seem.
Then a full page is given over to Sideswipe’s monologue (which, for real completism, has a speech bubble of a character asking Sideswipe a question carried over from a not-included page removed), where he still talks about Sunstreaker being dead. Which must have been confusing to British readers as he was fine a few pages earlier.
So we get one page, made up of panels from what was originally three different pages. First of Ratchet saying Prime is likely to die, then of Mirage asking what all this has been for and then Sideswipe giving an angry speech about Prime being dead.
Which was originally about Sunstreaker being dead, which is why he makes it sound like Prime committed suicide in contrast to the flashback we’ve already seem.
Then a full page is given over to Sideswipe’s monologue (which, for real completism, has a speech bubble of a character asking Sideswipe a question carried over from a not-included page removed), where he still talks about Sunstreaker being dead. Which must have been confusing to British readers as he was fine a few pages earlier.
The exciting ending.
Which brings us to our big climax... a double page spread of the just declared dead Optimus Prime fine and dandy (though it’s not much less sudden in the original comic) and saying they’re going to be better at being Heroic Autobots. Closing with the caption: The End of the Beginning!!! To see the whole story of All Hail Megatron, check out the series collections by IDW—available at Forbidden Planet.
Now this is a clunky wrap up that doesn’t touch on any of the Earth-side plots (will Spike Witwicky find a pair of jeans with a zip rather than buttons? You’ll never know), but it’s remarkable they tired rather than just closing with the next chunk and the “Go buy the books” message.
One does have to wonder though why the IDW reprints stop here. They are effectively the cheapest part of the book, something you’d expect to be held on to during cutbacks. Even if All Hail Megatron had proved unpopular, they could have chucked it here and replaced it with something else, like more of their film books. Whatever happened behind the scenes on this is likely to remain a mystery, leaving this odd little scrunched up conclusion to the attempted reprint a minor curio in Transformers history.
And though the choice of reprints hasn’t always been the best, one hopes a lot of younger readers did take a deeper dive into the wider universe from their exposure to the different continuities here.
Now this is a clunky wrap up that doesn’t touch on any of the Earth-side plots (will Spike Witwicky find a pair of jeans with a zip rather than buttons? You’ll never know), but it’s remarkable they tired rather than just closing with the next chunk and the “Go buy the books” message.
One does have to wonder though why the IDW reprints stop here. They are effectively the cheapest part of the book, something you’d expect to be held on to during cutbacks. Even if All Hail Megatron had proved unpopular, they could have chucked it here and replaced it with something else, like more of their film books. Whatever happened behind the scenes on this is likely to remain a mystery, leaving this odd little scrunched up conclusion to the attempted reprint a minor curio in Transformers history.
And though the choice of reprints hasn’t always been the best, one hopes a lot of younger readers did take a deeper dive into the wider universe from their exposure to the different continuities here.
Excuse the scanner size limitations (again).
The editorial is super excited about it being 2010 (and if only for three months I’m covering comics published this decade!), and feels like it may originally have been written as the intro to the final ever issue as the switch to talking about next month from the massive climax feels very sudden.
Welcome to Earth! is a test from Starscream to see if you, a Decepticon, can live incognito on Earth. Sample questions include “You meet a lovely girl. She asks you on a date. Do you?” and options like “Suspect she’s an Autobot spy and have her fired into space”. If you get all the questions right, you’re “Clearly an illegal Autobot sympathiser”.
There’s lots of competitions this month, but the big one is for “Volume 3” of All Hail Megatron, in reality a collection of four Spotlights that were published alongside it. Despite the caption at the end of the reprint also encouraging you to enter this, it doesn’t actually contain anything related to the main story and won’t wrap things up for you at all.
Alongside that we have the New Scotland Yard Forensics Kit, Big Pants Burpy and Bumface and Other Totally True Names by Russell Ash; Power Gogo’s Crazy Bones Official Handbook, A Boy and His Blob for the Wii (of course); Transformers deluxe action figures and the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Pokedex, which isn’t for the Wii but still Nintendo.
More Than Meets the Eye asks you to recognise various characters alternate modes (using comic art for once), spot the differences on Jetfire and name all the Autobots in a panel from All Hail Megatron. Which is surely trolling.
Bumblebee’s Busy Day is a similar quiz feature based around (checks notes) Bumblebee, first five of him turn up for work and you have to spot which is the real one; then help him work out which Decepticon a bunch of body parts come from and then lead him through a maze.
Way Past Cool looks at various games available for the Wii, including Lego Rock Band (though the cover picture is from the X-Box 360 version to try and throw you off); Super Mario Wii; Jambo! Safari—Park Rangers and Where the Wild Things Are.
Welcome to Earth! is a test from Starscream to see if you, a Decepticon, can live incognito on Earth. Sample questions include “You meet a lovely girl. She asks you on a date. Do you?” and options like “Suspect she’s an Autobot spy and have her fired into space”. If you get all the questions right, you’re “Clearly an illegal Autobot sympathiser”.
There’s lots of competitions this month, but the big one is for “Volume 3” of All Hail Megatron, in reality a collection of four Spotlights that were published alongside it. Despite the caption at the end of the reprint also encouraging you to enter this, it doesn’t actually contain anything related to the main story and won’t wrap things up for you at all.
Alongside that we have the New Scotland Yard Forensics Kit, Big Pants Burpy and Bumface and Other Totally True Names by Russell Ash; Power Gogo’s Crazy Bones Official Handbook, A Boy and His Blob for the Wii (of course); Transformers deluxe action figures and the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Pokedex, which isn’t for the Wii but still Nintendo.
More Than Meets the Eye asks you to recognise various characters alternate modes (using comic art for once), spot the differences on Jetfire and name all the Autobots in a panel from All Hail Megatron. Which is surely trolling.
Bumblebee’s Busy Day is a similar quiz feature based around (checks notes) Bumblebee, first five of him turn up for work and you have to spot which is the real one; then help him work out which Decepticon a bunch of body parts come from and then lead him through a maze.
Way Past Cool looks at various games available for the Wii, including Lego Rock Band (though the cover picture is from the X-Box 360 version to try and throw you off); Super Mario Wii; Jambo! Safari—Park Rangers and Where the Wild Things Are.
Win the least interesting to Titan readers AHM trade!
The character profile this month is for Jetfire (with pictures of his fellow defector Wheelie hidden on the page), whilst Sideswipe’s Armoury looks at the helicopters in the films and frankly I’m well beyond listing the alphabet soup of names in these features, but the over excited shouting title of CHOPPERS! raised a smile.
On Law and Disorder, Gabriel Nikolov, 8 from Bristol, is one of those young readers excited by the different continuities, and asking about Starscream’s mother and father prompts Simon Furman...err...Barricade to declare they totally don’t reproduce like humans.
Matt Jones of Penzance sends in his OC, called Dark Sabre. Who, like a lot of fan created characters, is way more powerful than and scares Megatron, but has the added fun twist that Megatron has to make polite deals with him to get anything done. Matt asks if Arcee would like a date, and I think he deserves one for that.
Christopher Arkley, also aged 8, asks the question about the next film that (after, in response to Gabriel, Ironhide claimed it would be called Ironhide’s Revenge. Guess those contract negotiations fell through) the third in the series will be released on 1st July 2011.
Yes, the Revenge of the Fallen prequels ran so long, they have overtaken the announcement of Dark of the Moon.
Ironhide gets to solo comment on the final letter, from Tom Moolenaar, aged 9 from West Sussex, but basically says nothing beyond encouraging readers to come back next month, stay in school and fight the power. Which, again, feels like it might have been a late replacement from a last ever issue sign off.
Starscream’s Stars lets me down this month as Scorponok only talks about me having an itch to get on in life, when Libra’s warning about getting punched in the face would have been more appropriate to me this week.
Next week, it’s better than a punch in the face, but the comic downsizes. Where does it go from here?
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN 2010 ANNUAL
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
On Law and Disorder, Gabriel Nikolov, 8 from Bristol, is one of those young readers excited by the different continuities, and asking about Starscream’s mother and father prompts Simon Furman...err...Barricade to declare they totally don’t reproduce like humans.
Matt Jones of Penzance sends in his OC, called Dark Sabre. Who, like a lot of fan created characters, is way more powerful than and scares Megatron, but has the added fun twist that Megatron has to make polite deals with him to get anything done. Matt asks if Arcee would like a date, and I think he deserves one for that.
Christopher Arkley, also aged 8, asks the question about the next film that (after, in response to Gabriel, Ironhide claimed it would be called Ironhide’s Revenge. Guess those contract negotiations fell through) the third in the series will be released on 1st July 2011.
Yes, the Revenge of the Fallen prequels ran so long, they have overtaken the announcement of Dark of the Moon.
Ironhide gets to solo comment on the final letter, from Tom Moolenaar, aged 9 from West Sussex, but basically says nothing beyond encouraging readers to come back next month, stay in school and fight the power. Which, again, feels like it might have been a late replacement from a last ever issue sign off.
Starscream’s Stars lets me down this month as Scorponok only talks about me having an itch to get on in life, when Libra’s warning about getting punched in the face would have been more appropriate to me this week.
Next week, it’s better than a punch in the face, but the comic downsizes. Where does it go from here?
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN 2010 ANNUAL
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
