This Aint Love Girl, 'Cause This Hug World is Just a Big Game of Thrones.
Issue 170: Deadly Games! Part 1/Transformers*. 11th June 1988.
You clod-hopping moron, he hasn't gone anywhere!
*The bonus strip is untitled; I like to call it Magnus Monologue though.
Well, this is an odd one. Coming slap bang in the middle of a run of three stories where the bread is well regarded, Deadly Games! is the bland meat filling. That may sound harsh, but it's not my opinion, it's what Simon Furman now thinks of it. The interview with him in the fifth Classics UK book is basically a shoulder shrug and tellingly despite normally trying to remain upbeat in his editorial work on the series, James Roberts effectively responds in kind. This story is to all intents and purposes a means of plugging a two issue gap and serves very little purpose beyond that.
On the other side, from a fan perspective this story is haunted by one thing: This is the last appearance of 20th century Ultra Magnus, his dangling plot threads to be left forever hanging. Indeed, the only real function of this story is to explain why Magnus isn't in the next two parter. Which to be fair, actually means this will wind up contributing more to the overall narrative than the Flame story did. But considering this could have been as easily covered by having him be injured whilst fighting zombies, that isn't the most exciting of reasons for 22 pages. A story this light can't support being the last appearance of such a major character, meaning in retrospect it collapses under the weight of a moment it cannot possibly do justice too.
That may all seem a tad mean considering at least some of these problems are not directly the fault of this issue but subsequent ones. So before I talk more about some of the other things that don't work, let's praise an unexpected bonus: the use of State Games as source material. The comic generally takes a relaxed attitude to the continuity of the first two Annuals, indeed even between them we get two first meetings between Megatron and Optimus, considering it was a story he didn't write in a book he didn't edit it would be forgivable if Furman had forgotten all about James Hill's work. Or indeed, chosen to come up with his own take on Megatron's back-story, which must surely have been tempting (indeed it's a surprise Budiansky didn't attempt a version on the American book, pleasingly the only flashback we'll get there will just about fit as long as you accept Megatron meeting Prime for the first time for the third time).
You clod-hopping moron, he hasn't gone anywhere!
*The bonus strip is untitled; I like to call it Magnus Monologue though.
Well, this is an odd one. Coming slap bang in the middle of a run of three stories where the bread is well regarded, Deadly Games! is the bland meat filling. That may sound harsh, but it's not my opinion, it's what Simon Furman now thinks of it. The interview with him in the fifth Classics UK book is basically a shoulder shrug and tellingly despite normally trying to remain upbeat in his editorial work on the series, James Roberts effectively responds in kind. This story is to all intents and purposes a means of plugging a two issue gap and serves very little purpose beyond that.
On the other side, from a fan perspective this story is haunted by one thing: This is the last appearance of 20th century Ultra Magnus, his dangling plot threads to be left forever hanging. Indeed, the only real function of this story is to explain why Magnus isn't in the next two parter. Which to be fair, actually means this will wind up contributing more to the overall narrative than the Flame story did. But considering this could have been as easily covered by having him be injured whilst fighting zombies, that isn't the most exciting of reasons for 22 pages. A story this light can't support being the last appearance of such a major character, meaning in retrospect it collapses under the weight of a moment it cannot possibly do justice too.
That may all seem a tad mean considering at least some of these problems are not directly the fault of this issue but subsequent ones. So before I talk more about some of the other things that don't work, let's praise an unexpected bonus: the use of State Games as source material. The comic generally takes a relaxed attitude to the continuity of the first two Annuals, indeed even between them we get two first meetings between Megatron and Optimus, considering it was a story he didn't write in a book he didn't edit it would be forgivable if Furman had forgotten all about James Hill's work. Or indeed, chosen to come up with his own take on Megatron's back-story, which must surely have been tempting (indeed it's a surprise Budiansky didn't attempt a version on the American book, pleasingly the only flashback we'll get there will just about fit as long as you accept Megatron meeting Prime for the first time for the third time).
"Aston Martin call it the Vanquish..."
Instead, something obviously appealed to Furman in that tale of gladiators and political corruption, resulting in a thematic sequel (or themequel) where aliens on Cybertron have revived the games for their own amusement. This small step will lead to another themequel in the last colour story before he would carry the idea over to Dreamwave. This, by a rather lengthy route would lead to Megatron: Origin and thus IDW adopting it before it finally hit critical mass and became Megatron’s origin in any new continuity that chose to give him one. That validation of James Hill's opus begins here, which arguably makes Deadly Games! a far more important story than it is ever given credit.
It might also be worth noting that this is the second story in a row where something or someone from Cybertron's golden past is brought back in a distorted and horrific way. It's almost anti-nostalgia and, considering Transformers is now into the downward phase of its popularity, you might almost wonder if this is a deliberate meta commentary on lost glories.
The issue is that the end result is rather plodding. The cold open serves to establish three things: That the games are back and being run brutally by aliens; to show that competitor Hooligan is a tough fighter and to kill the Autobot Chameleon so his dead body can be the McGuffin to get Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots involved.
The problem is this takes up half the issue. Compare that to the similar teaser to Legion of the Lost!, which was two pages of a story that was ultimately three times longer than this will be. It's basically gratuitous padding (though this time the flow of influence from Bond runs the other way as Chameleon's abilities predate the Aston Martin Vanish by 14 years) that even fails in the basic job of making Hooligan look a credible threat to Ultra Magnus for next week, as Chameleon is so utterly rubbish it's an embarrassment it takes him six pages to die.
Amazingly though, this is still the best part of the issue. Hooligan may not be a grade A villain but he is a rather fun big dumb thug and Chameleon feels (possibly deliberately) evocative of our last pathetic Cybertron based Autobot Scrounge, even down to having his arm ripped off. There’s also a nice close out to the scene as the mysterious alien running events performs the full Roman emperor routine by putting his thumb down to mark Chameleon’s death as the crowd of space tourists brays for blood. It’s just about four pages too long for its own good.
It might also be worth noting that this is the second story in a row where something or someone from Cybertron's golden past is brought back in a distorted and horrific way. It's almost anti-nostalgia and, considering Transformers is now into the downward phase of its popularity, you might almost wonder if this is a deliberate meta commentary on lost glories.
The issue is that the end result is rather plodding. The cold open serves to establish three things: That the games are back and being run brutally by aliens; to show that competitor Hooligan is a tough fighter and to kill the Autobot Chameleon so his dead body can be the McGuffin to get Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots involved.
The problem is this takes up half the issue. Compare that to the similar teaser to Legion of the Lost!, which was two pages of a story that was ultimately three times longer than this will be. It's basically gratuitous padding (though this time the flow of influence from Bond runs the other way as Chameleon's abilities predate the Aston Martin Vanish by 14 years) that even fails in the basic job of making Hooligan look a credible threat to Ultra Magnus for next week, as Chameleon is so utterly rubbish it's an embarrassment it takes him six pages to die.
Amazingly though, this is still the best part of the issue. Hooligan may not be a grade A villain but he is a rather fun big dumb thug and Chameleon feels (possibly deliberately) evocative of our last pathetic Cybertron based Autobot Scrounge, even down to having his arm ripped off. There’s also a nice close out to the scene as the mysterious alien running events performs the full Roman emperor routine by putting his thumb down to mark Chameleon’s death as the crowd of space tourists brays for blood. It’s just about four pages too long for its own good.
"Hey, I suddenly have a giant hand!"
This means the rest of the issue becomes an awkward recap of the events that led to Magnus investigating Chameleon’s death because there isn’t the proper space to show them. In the last story, I praised the decision to cover what would otherwise be important plot information through conversation because condensing those beats allowed for the room to allow an issue to be given over to an essential character scene for our regulars. Doing the same here for a hi-then-die character doesn’t work because we’ve never seen Chameleon before and never will again and it’s simply not worth the time it takes for this sidestep.
So Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots are walking around Cybertron and telling each other things they already know and which only just happened to them: The Wreckers are preparing to go back to Earth (and for plot reasons the space bridge has to be turned on when “the dimensional vectors come into alignment”) and twat Galvatron, but when Chameleon’s body is found Magnus decides to break orders and investigate because if he didn’t then “who speaks for Chameleon?”.
The fact Magnus would care about an overlooked soldier is a nice idea (and again, evocative of how Blaster was the only one to care about Scrounge), but considering the Sparkler Mini-Bots also seem to care and don’t seem to be going to Earth, wouldn’t it be easier for them to go look into what seems to be a minor issue by themselves? Indeed, they seem slightly more enthusiastic than Magnus in following through on the half hearted plan of just walking about and hoping to run into a rumoured alien/Decepticon plot, being the ones who insist they check out the Jekka Amphitheatre. Because of course, if you’re looking for a secret group of hidden aliens checking out a large abandoned building would be a silly idea, right Magnus? They're more likely to be booked into the Cybertron Hilton no doubt.
So Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots are walking around Cybertron and telling each other things they already know and which only just happened to them: The Wreckers are preparing to go back to Earth (and for plot reasons the space bridge has to be turned on when “the dimensional vectors come into alignment”) and twat Galvatron, but when Chameleon’s body is found Magnus decides to break orders and investigate because if he didn’t then “who speaks for Chameleon?”.
The fact Magnus would care about an overlooked soldier is a nice idea (and again, evocative of how Blaster was the only one to care about Scrounge), but considering the Sparkler Mini-Bots also seem to care and don’t seem to be going to Earth, wouldn’t it be easier for them to go look into what seems to be a minor issue by themselves? Indeed, they seem slightly more enthusiastic than Magnus in following through on the half hearted plan of just walking about and hoping to run into a rumoured alien/Decepticon plot, being the ones who insist they check out the Jekka Amphitheatre. Because of course, if you’re looking for a secret group of hidden aliens checking out a large abandoned building would be a silly idea, right Magnus? They're more likely to be booked into the Cybertron Hilton no doubt.
Dan Reed earns his check.
It’s lucky the Sparkler Mini-Bots were there as it turns out they’re not just pretty vehicular modes, the main entrance to the amphitheatre is filled with dead Transformer bodies--which oddly surprises them even though the previous story established the entire surface of Cybertron is covered in corpse--including Chameleon’s arm. It’s never explained how his body got out of this mass grave, you might expect it was part of a deliberate trap to lure in new contestants but there’s no suggestion of this at all.
It’s as the Firecons reveal themselves it suddenly hits you that the four Autobots have decided to investigate a mysterious murder that could be related to Decepticon activity completely unarmed. Not the smartest move, especially as the Sparkler Mini-Bots seem to have lost the mojo that saw them the equals of the Firecons in Enemy Action!, as they’re rather easily beaten down. Magnus can’t help as they mysterious alien Zabra reveals himself and knocks Magnus out so he can fight in the games. Resulting in the sinking revelation that this story that has struggled to fill eleven pages is going to limp on for another week.
This is comfortably the weakest issue of the year so far, and it’s odd that it comes off so underwhelming considering that Furman is otherwise on fine form at this point. Dan Reed has some fun with Hooligan and Zabra whilst the graveyard gives him a brief chance to relive his zombie glories, but he also struggles in other places with the penultimate panel before Zabra’s reveal being especially awful. There is going to be an upward struggle next week for things to be turned around.
It’s as the Firecons reveal themselves it suddenly hits you that the four Autobots have decided to investigate a mysterious murder that could be related to Decepticon activity completely unarmed. Not the smartest move, especially as the Sparkler Mini-Bots seem to have lost the mojo that saw them the equals of the Firecons in Enemy Action!, as they’re rather easily beaten down. Magnus can’t help as they mysterious alien Zabra reveals himself and knocks Magnus out so he can fight in the games. Resulting in the sinking revelation that this story that has struggled to fill eleven pages is going to limp on for another week.
This is comfortably the weakest issue of the year so far, and it’s odd that it comes off so underwhelming considering that Furman is otherwise on fine form at this point. Dan Reed has some fun with Hooligan and Zabra whilst the graveyard gives him a brief chance to relive his zombie glories, but he also struggles in other places with the penultimate panel before Zabra’s reveal being especially awful. There is going to be an upward struggle next week for things to be turned around.
Putting this out after the film would be like releasing The Return of Optimus Prime after Rebirth.
All things considered, this isn’t the best issue to coincide with a price rise, so Transformation is given over to reassuring the three pence increase is worth it, by pointing out the competition and bonus comic. Tellingly the lead strip isn’t mentioned once, however if you were to head to Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham on June 25th you can meet Simon Furman and Geoff Senior as they promote Dragon’s Teeth. Yeah, that name change really was last second wasn’t it?
Somewhat oddly, the sidebar is given over for a promotion for Kraft food and their new beef and tomato meal. Readers can send off for a FREE American football boardgame that has for some reason been created to tie-in with this new dish. But considering American football is as popular as a dead kitten in this country I suspect this offer was not taken up in huge amounts. Let’s just hope these foolish Kraft people never end up getting their hands on something like Cadbury’s, they’d probably stick baseball cards in Dairy Milk or something even more awful.
On Grimgrams a letter from Saurabe Patel on the Isle of Wight complains about the coverage of the Richard Branson cameo in the Sunday Times, in particular the suggestion the book is read by six year olds. Grimlock is surprising sanguine about this, pointing out many six year olds do still read the comic and the Times was just generalising rather than snubbing older readers. But then, as he sums up the rest of the press coverage (including Time Out and the “Super Dick” coining NME) he’s forced to admit a lot of it wasn’t very complementary so the Times may have given the best write up. However he’s pleased to see the comic get any press attention at this point, especially as the negativity was mainly aimed at Branson.
Meanwhile, Neville Cooper from Gorleston-On-Sea reveals that Simon Furman and Geoff Senior will do anything to promote Dragon’s Teeth as the two of them showed up on, of all places, Surprise, Surprise (which is a timely reference as it’s only been a week since Cilla Black experienced the ultimate Surprise, Surprise) to talk about it. Presumably touring the Marvel offices was the reward for some little tyke who had done something wonderful rather than Furman and Senior themselves being the subject of the program. But this is definitely something someone should put on YouTube.
Somewhat oddly, the sidebar is given over for a promotion for Kraft food and their new beef and tomato meal. Readers can send off for a FREE American football boardgame that has for some reason been created to tie-in with this new dish. But considering American football is as popular as a dead kitten in this country I suspect this offer was not taken up in huge amounts. Let’s just hope these foolish Kraft people never end up getting their hands on something like Cadbury’s, they’d probably stick baseball cards in Dairy Milk or something even more awful.
On Grimgrams a letter from Saurabe Patel on the Isle of Wight complains about the coverage of the Richard Branson cameo in the Sunday Times, in particular the suggestion the book is read by six year olds. Grimlock is surprising sanguine about this, pointing out many six year olds do still read the comic and the Times was just generalising rather than snubbing older readers. But then, as he sums up the rest of the press coverage (including Time Out and the “Super Dick” coining NME) he’s forced to admit a lot of it wasn’t very complementary so the Times may have given the best write up. However he’s pleased to see the comic get any press attention at this point, especially as the negativity was mainly aimed at Branson.
Meanwhile, Neville Cooper from Gorleston-On-Sea reveals that Simon Furman and Geoff Senior will do anything to promote Dragon’s Teeth as the two of them showed up on, of all places, Surprise, Surprise (which is a timely reference as it’s only been a week since Cilla Black experienced the ultimate Surprise, Surprise) to talk about it. Presumably touring the Marvel offices was the reward for some little tyke who had done something wonderful rather than Furman and Senior themselves being the subject of the program. But this is definitely something someone should put on YouTube.
Optmus looks terrifying with red eyes.
The first of the two things designed to reassure readers about the price rise is a competition for the latest Action Force video, Arise, Serpentor Arise. Considering this requires you to recognise the body parts of different Action Force members this would probably be a challenge for most of the Forcies phobic readership.
The other spoonful of sugar is a “Special” one page Transformers story. However, this is actually a promotional piece for the book similar to the Death’s Head one from three weeks ago and was clearly only intended to be printed in other titles, as it’s just Ultra Magnus talking to the reader and telling them to buy the comic because awesome fights and time travel and stuff. This Furman/Sullivan piece however is mildly interesting at it now becomes the first appearance of Dreadwind, Darkwing (both getting whacked by Magnus) and Power Master Optimus Prime. This brief head only appearance is important because even at this point he’s being presented as the only person who can stop Galvatron. With six months to go before we reach it, Furman has already decided to downgrade Magnus to an also run when it comes to the final fight. This makes the character not getting a proper send-off beforehand even more annoying.
The opening of our new Action Force story, Snap Decisions (I’ve noticed that Larry seems to go for the gratuitous exclamation mark less than Simon and Bob), is basically given over entirely to a game of one-upmanship between Serpentor and Cobra Commander that’s completely delightful, with CC trying to assassinate Serpy before he can take over Cobra Island, whist the snake-thrower counters by just being really nice to the hood so as to make all the Cobra troops love him even more. It light, but huge fun and it remains somewhat surprising how well Hama is handling a character he really didn’t like at all.
Combat Colin has a slightly odd one-off strip this week where he tries to stretch out his shrunken Combat Hat. Whilst it lets us see Colin bare-headed for the first time it does feel more like a joke Stringer could have done in pretty much any of his quick gag strips.
Next week... well it’s suggestive that the Next Week box ends with a rather pleading “Don’t dare miss any of our upcoming issues!” that again creates the feeling everyone knew this was a bit of a stinker. But you never know, maybe we’ll get a surprise, surprise and seeing Magnus get down and dirty will turn things around?
Next week's piece will also be going up on Thursday as it’s Auto Assembly weekend again! Now to try and figure out how to lug a suitcase and a heavy, heavy box of books about on public transport.
Ha, you thought I wasn't going to GRATUITOUSLY PROMOTE THE BOOK this week didn't you? I just sneak it in here at the end instead.
ISSUE 169
1988
COMMENT
The other spoonful of sugar is a “Special” one page Transformers story. However, this is actually a promotional piece for the book similar to the Death’s Head one from three weeks ago and was clearly only intended to be printed in other titles, as it’s just Ultra Magnus talking to the reader and telling them to buy the comic because awesome fights and time travel and stuff. This Furman/Sullivan piece however is mildly interesting at it now becomes the first appearance of Dreadwind, Darkwing (both getting whacked by Magnus) and Power Master Optimus Prime. This brief head only appearance is important because even at this point he’s being presented as the only person who can stop Galvatron. With six months to go before we reach it, Furman has already decided to downgrade Magnus to an also run when it comes to the final fight. This makes the character not getting a proper send-off beforehand even more annoying.
The opening of our new Action Force story, Snap Decisions (I’ve noticed that Larry seems to go for the gratuitous exclamation mark less than Simon and Bob), is basically given over entirely to a game of one-upmanship between Serpentor and Cobra Commander that’s completely delightful, with CC trying to assassinate Serpy before he can take over Cobra Island, whist the snake-thrower counters by just being really nice to the hood so as to make all the Cobra troops love him even more. It light, but huge fun and it remains somewhat surprising how well Hama is handling a character he really didn’t like at all.
Combat Colin has a slightly odd one-off strip this week where he tries to stretch out his shrunken Combat Hat. Whilst it lets us see Colin bare-headed for the first time it does feel more like a joke Stringer could have done in pretty much any of his quick gag strips.
Next week... well it’s suggestive that the Next Week box ends with a rather pleading “Don’t dare miss any of our upcoming issues!” that again creates the feeling everyone knew this was a bit of a stinker. But you never know, maybe we’ll get a surprise, surprise and seeing Magnus get down and dirty will turn things around?
Next week's piece will also be going up on Thursday as it’s Auto Assembly weekend again! Now to try and figure out how to lug a suitcase and a heavy, heavy box of books about on public transport.
Ha, you thought I wasn't going to GRATUITOUSLY PROMOTE THE BOOK this week didn't you? I just sneak it in here at the end instead.
ISSUE 169
1988
COMMENT
