The Memories you Gave to me.
Issue 104: Resurrection! Part 2. 7th March 1987.
Hmmm. And are there any other orders... Megatron?
Now here's a bizarre coincidence, I've been writing this whilst watching an episode of classic 1960's proto-Prisoner spy drama Danger Man, or to be more specific the voodoo episode A Man to be Trusted. Which at one point features a scene of a bunch of voodoo worshipers dancing around what looks for all the world like a giant statue of forthcoming Simon Furman creation Death's Head's... Well head. An, admittedly rubbish, picture can be found below, presumably this is the result of all the time travel the character will wind up doing.
Back in 1987 rather than 1964, I must admit I approached this issue with a little trepidation. Furman always struggles when it comes to his climaxes, and this week he not only has to come up with a decent final to more than two months worth of plot, he has to do so in such a way as is flows smoothly into the American stories he's been cheerfully nicking ideas from. My memory was that the final result was a bit of a bodge job, but how well would it actually work in context?
The opening is a fine example of how Furman is working hard to make everything fit as we witness the Earthbound Autobots holding a funeral for Optimus Prime. On the one hand it's a sequence inspired by the forthcoming Budiansky story Funeral for a Friend, but equally so as not to make it seem like a complete rehash Furman has Prime buried on Earth rather than shot into space (he likely thought the visual gimmick of the headstone made for an arresting opening image as well). This means Blaster has to actually point out this isn't how things are normally done so as to try and pre-empt reader letters when Optimus gets his second funeral in a month's time.
This means, just two pages in, the story has already had to jump through various hoops because of the contrived nature of the flow of inspiration. However, ignoring that (and every reader at the time would have been completely unaware of what was to come), it's a nice stark opening with a fantastic visual of the gathered Autobots that's only let down by the fact half of them don't seem to have bothered to turn up to the ceremony.
Hmmm. And are there any other orders... Megatron?
Now here's a bizarre coincidence, I've been writing this whilst watching an episode of classic 1960's proto-Prisoner spy drama Danger Man, or to be more specific the voodoo episode A Man to be Trusted. Which at one point features a scene of a bunch of voodoo worshipers dancing around what looks for all the world like a giant statue of forthcoming Simon Furman creation Death's Head's... Well head. An, admittedly rubbish, picture can be found below, presumably this is the result of all the time travel the character will wind up doing.
Back in 1987 rather than 1964, I must admit I approached this issue with a little trepidation. Furman always struggles when it comes to his climaxes, and this week he not only has to come up with a decent final to more than two months worth of plot, he has to do so in such a way as is flows smoothly into the American stories he's been cheerfully nicking ideas from. My memory was that the final result was a bit of a bodge job, but how well would it actually work in context?
The opening is a fine example of how Furman is working hard to make everything fit as we witness the Earthbound Autobots holding a funeral for Optimus Prime. On the one hand it's a sequence inspired by the forthcoming Budiansky story Funeral for a Friend, but equally so as not to make it seem like a complete rehash Furman has Prime buried on Earth rather than shot into space (he likely thought the visual gimmick of the headstone made for an arresting opening image as well). This means Blaster has to actually point out this isn't how things are normally done so as to try and pre-empt reader letters when Optimus gets his second funeral in a month's time.
This means, just two pages in, the story has already had to jump through various hoops because of the contrived nature of the flow of inspiration. However, ignoring that (and every reader at the time would have been completely unaware of what was to come), it's a nice stark opening with a fantastic visual of the gathered Autobots that's only let down by the fact half of them don't seem to have bothered to turn up to the ceremony.
Macho bot.
Back on Cybertron (via a brief return of the excellently handled scene transitions from last week), we get a fantastic scene of Optimus Prime declaring his bad ass intent. The Wreckers will lead a decoy raid on a Decepticon fuel dump so as to allow Prime and Magnus to lead a raid on Polyhex with the express purpose of killing Megatron.
This brutal no nonsense approach, despite Prime's attempts at rationalisation, comes across as Prime being simply so fucked off with his arch foe as to have decided it's time to end it once and for all. Again, it's hard to credit this is from the same author who made Prime an ineffectual cry baby in ReGeneration One, here he's genuinely a credible military commander with balls the size of Omega Supreme.
The real meat of the issue though is in the Megatron scene that follows. Rather neatly from a structural point of view it mirrors the Prime scene by having them set out their stall whilst recapping events so far from their perspective- in the case of Optimus listing the recent reasons he has to be so pissed with Megatron, in the latter’s, the struggle between the two personas in his mind.
This brutal no nonsense approach, despite Prime's attempts at rationalisation, comes across as Prime being simply so fucked off with his arch foe as to have decided it's time to end it once and for all. Again, it's hard to credit this is from the same author who made Prime an ineffectual cry baby in ReGeneration One, here he's genuinely a credible military commander with balls the size of Omega Supreme.
The real meat of the issue though is in the Megatron scene that follows. Rather neatly from a structural point of view it mirrors the Prime scene by having them set out their stall whilst recapping events so far from their perspective- in the case of Optimus listing the recent reasons he has to be so pissed with Megatron, in the latter’s, the struggle between the two personas in his mind.
This is a truly glorious bit of writing by Furman, as the internal narrations of the two being sharing one head switch perspectives from panel to panel, showing the full extent of the torment the two Decepticon leaders are in and the fact they’re both losing their mind. Ratbat even manages to call him Megatron without the leader even noticing, which convinces the conniving cassette it’s time for action in a brilliantly subtle way.
This is then followed by a genuinely hilarious scene where the confused and dazed Megatron (who seems more prominent at this point but is also losing his memories) in wandering the corridors trying to keep a grip on his sanity, when the very worst thing that could happen, happens: He bumps into Optimus Prime strolling along as if he’s out for a Sunday walk. Finding your arch foe in your headquarters acting as if he owns the place is going to result in a double take at the best of times, and this does nothing good for Megatron’s state of mind.
It seems at first as if this derangement is going to work to the Autobot’s advantage, as they take down Megatron fairly easily and Magnus gets to vent his frustrations at his recent failures. But Megatron is now so loco he cheerfully starts using his black hole eyes, not caring he’s going to kill himself as well as everyone else in the base, and unlike in Raiders of the Last Ark! there’s no Windcharger there to save the day.
This is all Ratbat needs to see to decide that it doesn’t matter who it is inside the bucket head- he needs to be got rid of (the fact this will promote him to leader is no doubt something that didn’t have the merest chance of even slightly crossing his mind) and the best bet is to just space bridge the whole sorry lot of them to Earth where the three can become somebody else’s problem. This results in a nice satisfying explosion and Octane getting one last moment to shine as he declares Earth is welcome to them.
This is then followed by a genuinely hilarious scene where the confused and dazed Megatron (who seems more prominent at this point but is also losing his memories) in wandering the corridors trying to keep a grip on his sanity, when the very worst thing that could happen, happens: He bumps into Optimus Prime strolling along as if he’s out for a Sunday walk. Finding your arch foe in your headquarters acting as if he owns the place is going to result in a double take at the best of times, and this does nothing good for Megatron’s state of mind.
It seems at first as if this derangement is going to work to the Autobot’s advantage, as they take down Megatron fairly easily and Magnus gets to vent his frustrations at his recent failures. But Megatron is now so loco he cheerfully starts using his black hole eyes, not caring he’s going to kill himself as well as everyone else in the base, and unlike in Raiders of the Last Ark! there’s no Windcharger there to save the day.
This is all Ratbat needs to see to decide that it doesn’t matter who it is inside the bucket head- he needs to be got rid of (the fact this will promote him to leader is no doubt something that didn’t have the merest chance of even slightly crossing his mind) and the best bet is to just space bridge the whole sorry lot of them to Earth where the three can become somebody else’s problem. This results in a nice satisfying explosion and Octane getting one last moment to shine as he declares Earth is welcome to them.
He's not messing.
After a strong finish this is where the wrap up and placing of the toys back in the box so Uncle Bob can then remove them again and do near enough the same thing gets perhaps a bit too neat. First the Predacons have returned to Cybertron on the pretext of carrying on the Prime/Megatron hunt, but it still winds up feeling a little contrived as it’s really been done for no other reason than Cybertron being the place they’re located when they do all this again in three weeks.
It’s also very neat that, rather than being dumped on Earth together, Megatron and Prime happen to land in their respective bases. Megatron’s plot induced amnesia is also a huge face-palm moment, and surprisingly one of two times Furman has used the device to get rid of memories he doesn’t want Megatron to keep (the other being the muddle that is the end of the first War Within), and even if you don’t have the foreknowledge of what’s to come it still can’t help feel more than a little lazy.
However, I would like to thank TFArchive member Cliffjumper (aka Tom Prankerd, the original owner of the comics I’m using for this project) for making an excellent point the last time I discussed the contrived nature of the wrap up with him: There are many, many occasions in comics and cartoons where the villain comes up with a brilliant plan that almost works and is only undone at the last second by pure chance, yet the villain never builds on this almost success, instead completely abandoning their efforts to start a new Evil Plot in the next adventure. The example Cliffy used was the cartoon episode A Prime Problem, where despite coming so close to destroying all the Autobots the cloning technology is never used again to create confusion.
Here though, Megatron’s lost marbles means Shockwave not only has the opportunity to treat this as a dress rehearsal before perfecting his Predacon based plan, but he’ll actually take it. It’s unintentional but is actually a nice touch and works perfectly well for his character.
Prime however arrives at his own funeral, it’s a cute scene but does make you realise this is the second time in less than a year all the Autobots have thought Optimus was dead. Careful Prime that could be habit forming. Magnus actually has the best pay off of the three, not having a base to magically home in on he just materialises in the beautiful Oregon countryside. He realises he’s basically got the chance for a holiday whilst looking for the Ark, and the issue closes on that rarest of things: A happy Ultra Magnus.
It won’t last.
As I’ve made clear over the course of this arc, I do have problems with Furman’s sneaky borrowing of Budiansky plot elements which British readers hadn’t seen yet, something that is going to create some real problems for the reprints in a few weeks.
However, ethics aside, it’s undeniable Furman has worked these elements better than Bob did/will, creating one his finest, most thoughtful stories that works on several levels with good character work on both Optimus, Megatron, Straxus and Magnus. The final part has a couple of rough edges as is tries to tie things together, but that can’t take away from an extremely well realised storyline that, even if the Galvatron diversion in the middle didn’t quite work, has successfully carried the title into its first century.
Jeff Anderson’s art is a bit variable this week, possibly because it’s only been two issues since his last work (based on the pattern the title has settled into at this point this would normally have been a Geoff Senior drawn instalment, did Anderson have to step in at the last second?), the fight scene looks rather rushed but the scenes of Megatron sitting in his chair fighting the Straxus persona are brilliant. He also manages some nice badass poses for Optimus, especially on his arrival at his own funeral.
It’s likely completely unintentional, but there’s also a panel of Magnus looming behind Megatron in shadow that nicely parallels one of his doing the same to Galvatron we’ll be getting in the next Annual (though as Anderson must have started working on it around this time it might even have been deliberate).
With this issue we bid a fond farewell to Ian Rimmer. Whilst it would be a bit too neat to firmly say his editorialship of the title ends here (all we know for sure is it’s between now and issue 112), but this is the last British story he’s credited on before being succeeded by Furman. Rimmer’s contributions to the book never get the full credit they deserve- He effectively created the “classic” format for the title, transforming (ha!) it from the younger child orientated robot magazine he inherited from Crana into the two story weekly that is the most enduring version of the comic we all remember. His is also a format that will only be abandoned when falling sales means the colour has to go.
Tellingly, Furman will carry on very much in the same vein with a much smoother transition than the Crana/Rimmer one (I will also bet that the Thundercats issues he cut his editorial teeth on are in very much the same style). He has clearly learnt a lot from Rimmer as his assistant and is wise enough to know that if it aint broke there’s no need to fix it.
It’s also very neat that, rather than being dumped on Earth together, Megatron and Prime happen to land in their respective bases. Megatron’s plot induced amnesia is also a huge face-palm moment, and surprisingly one of two times Furman has used the device to get rid of memories he doesn’t want Megatron to keep (the other being the muddle that is the end of the first War Within), and even if you don’t have the foreknowledge of what’s to come it still can’t help feel more than a little lazy.
However, I would like to thank TFArchive member Cliffjumper (aka Tom Prankerd, the original owner of the comics I’m using for this project) for making an excellent point the last time I discussed the contrived nature of the wrap up with him: There are many, many occasions in comics and cartoons where the villain comes up with a brilliant plan that almost works and is only undone at the last second by pure chance, yet the villain never builds on this almost success, instead completely abandoning their efforts to start a new Evil Plot in the next adventure. The example Cliffy used was the cartoon episode A Prime Problem, where despite coming so close to destroying all the Autobots the cloning technology is never used again to create confusion.
Here though, Megatron’s lost marbles means Shockwave not only has the opportunity to treat this as a dress rehearsal before perfecting his Predacon based plan, but he’ll actually take it. It’s unintentional but is actually a nice touch and works perfectly well for his character.
Prime however arrives at his own funeral, it’s a cute scene but does make you realise this is the second time in less than a year all the Autobots have thought Optimus was dead. Careful Prime that could be habit forming. Magnus actually has the best pay off of the three, not having a base to magically home in on he just materialises in the beautiful Oregon countryside. He realises he’s basically got the chance for a holiday whilst looking for the Ark, and the issue closes on that rarest of things: A happy Ultra Magnus.
It won’t last.
As I’ve made clear over the course of this arc, I do have problems with Furman’s sneaky borrowing of Budiansky plot elements which British readers hadn’t seen yet, something that is going to create some real problems for the reprints in a few weeks.
However, ethics aside, it’s undeniable Furman has worked these elements better than Bob did/will, creating one his finest, most thoughtful stories that works on several levels with good character work on both Optimus, Megatron, Straxus and Magnus. The final part has a couple of rough edges as is tries to tie things together, but that can’t take away from an extremely well realised storyline that, even if the Galvatron diversion in the middle didn’t quite work, has successfully carried the title into its first century.
Jeff Anderson’s art is a bit variable this week, possibly because it’s only been two issues since his last work (based on the pattern the title has settled into at this point this would normally have been a Geoff Senior drawn instalment, did Anderson have to step in at the last second?), the fight scene looks rather rushed but the scenes of Megatron sitting in his chair fighting the Straxus persona are brilliant. He also manages some nice badass poses for Optimus, especially on his arrival at his own funeral.
It’s likely completely unintentional, but there’s also a panel of Magnus looming behind Megatron in shadow that nicely parallels one of his doing the same to Galvatron we’ll be getting in the next Annual (though as Anderson must have started working on it around this time it might even have been deliberate).
With this issue we bid a fond farewell to Ian Rimmer. Whilst it would be a bit too neat to firmly say his editorialship of the title ends here (all we know for sure is it’s between now and issue 112), but this is the last British story he’s credited on before being succeeded by Furman. Rimmer’s contributions to the book never get the full credit they deserve- He effectively created the “classic” format for the title, transforming (ha!) it from the younger child orientated robot magazine he inherited from Crana into the two story weekly that is the most enduring version of the comic we all remember. His is also a format that will only be abandoned when falling sales means the colour has to go.
Tellingly, Furman will carry on very much in the same vein with a much smoother transition than the Crana/Rimmer one (I will also bet that the Thundercats issues he cut his editorial teeth on are in very much the same style). He has clearly learnt a lot from Rimmer as his assistant and is wise enough to know that if it aint broke there’s no need to fix it.
Desperado Destro.
There’s no Grimlock again this week (so perhaps this is indeed where the changeover in editors is happening so there’s no one in the office to write it?), and instead we get a competition for Battle Beasts. Despite the competition questions’ trying to tie the thing into Transformers- though whilst Seaspray and Hotspot work as analogies for Fire and Water “[Name] the Decepticon who can slice through wood” is more than a bit of a reach- no one in the UK will ever care.
Speaking of Hasbro properties no one in the UK ever cared about, we get a full two page advert for Action Force toys that looks as if it uses screengrabs from a commercial, mainly focusing on the Dragonfly and entirely worth it for Destro being described as “One of Cobra’s most desperate desperados”.
Inhumanoids spends most of its second instalment setting up more of the human cast; though it does end with some proper giant monster action and the promise the humans actually have some sort of super hero costumes. The Inhumanoid who emerges from the digging site looks suspiciously like Man Thing as well.
One final, slightly shame faced note. One thing that had completely passed me by before I read it at the excellent TransMasters UK forum was that yesterday (May 8th) was the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first issue of the American comic. If I’d known enough in advance I’d have put this up a day early as a celebratory treat, but instead all I can do is wish giant scary plane crushing Optimus Prime a very happy birthday.
Next week, which will be on a Wednesday as I’m on holiday again, it’s the beginning of the end for both Optimus Prime and Bob Budiansky.
ISSUE 103
1987
COMMENT
Speaking of Hasbro properties no one in the UK ever cared about, we get a full two page advert for Action Force toys that looks as if it uses screengrabs from a commercial, mainly focusing on the Dragonfly and entirely worth it for Destro being described as “One of Cobra’s most desperate desperados”.
Inhumanoids spends most of its second instalment setting up more of the human cast; though it does end with some proper giant monster action and the promise the humans actually have some sort of super hero costumes. The Inhumanoid who emerges from the digging site looks suspiciously like Man Thing as well.
One final, slightly shame faced note. One thing that had completely passed me by before I read it at the excellent TransMasters UK forum was that yesterday (May 8th) was the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first issue of the American comic. If I’d known enough in advance I’d have put this up a day early as a celebratory treat, but instead all I can do is wish giant scary plane crushing Optimus Prime a very happy birthday.
Next week, which will be on a Wednesday as I’m on holiday again, it’s the beginning of the end for both Optimus Prime and Bob Budiansky.
ISSUE 103
1987
COMMENT
Worship Death's Head!
