You Think You're Chocolate, But You're Bubblegum.
Issue 177: People Power! Part 2. 30th July 1988.
Existing on that disc was...a living death. Escaping it...for these few moments of precious life...is well worth it.
Facts can be annoying sometimes. My memory of this story, and it was one born by the first half, is that the return of Optimus Prime was basically incidental to it. Something forced in by a reluctant Budiansky who, worryingly, would likely have been much happier continuing to play out the King Grimlock plot indefinitely. Therefore I was already to build this piece around the suggestion that Uncle Bob never quite grasped what he had with what is, by a considerable margin, the most iconic character he ever created even before the Bay films turned Prime into a cinematic legend.
This is largely true and Prime will very quickly fall back into the role he had towards the end of his prior time in the American book: making brief cameo appearances setting up the plot before exiting stage left and letting characters Bob liked more/was obliged to promote the toys of (delete as applicable) take the strain. Tellingly even in the last Budiansky issue he has a decent role in--Dark Star--Prime is held back from the main action, watching it from afar before turning the plot off. However, this is a train of thought that is rather derailed by the actual events of this issue, which are actually very much focused on Prime and how other characters relate to him.
The cost of this is that the area of most interest last week gets short strife. This is where splitting the original issue in two is likely a help as the sudden shift in focus away from Dreadwind and Darkwing (who don't seem to ever become aware they're up against Optimus Prime) becomes less jarring. What we do get continues to be a condensed version of the Headmasters miniseries. They fight the Autobots and best them, the Autobots then go through the Master process themselves and fight back, winning. The Decepticons are forced off the planet, but the Autobots must go into exile as well due to the continued threat of violence they pose.
Existing on that disc was...a living death. Escaping it...for these few moments of precious life...is well worth it.
Facts can be annoying sometimes. My memory of this story, and it was one born by the first half, is that the return of Optimus Prime was basically incidental to it. Something forced in by a reluctant Budiansky who, worryingly, would likely have been much happier continuing to play out the King Grimlock plot indefinitely. Therefore I was already to build this piece around the suggestion that Uncle Bob never quite grasped what he had with what is, by a considerable margin, the most iconic character he ever created even before the Bay films turned Prime into a cinematic legend.
This is largely true and Prime will very quickly fall back into the role he had towards the end of his prior time in the American book: making brief cameo appearances setting up the plot before exiting stage left and letting characters Bob liked more/was obliged to promote the toys of (delete as applicable) take the strain. Tellingly even in the last Budiansky issue he has a decent role in--Dark Star--Prime is held back from the main action, watching it from afar before turning the plot off. However, this is a train of thought that is rather derailed by the actual events of this issue, which are actually very much focused on Prime and how other characters relate to him.
The cost of this is that the area of most interest last week gets short strife. This is where splitting the original issue in two is likely a help as the sudden shift in focus away from Dreadwind and Darkwing (who don't seem to ever become aware they're up against Optimus Prime) becomes less jarring. What we do get continues to be a condensed version of the Headmasters miniseries. They fight the Autobots and best them, the Autobots then go through the Master process themselves and fight back, winning. The Decepticons are forced off the planet, but the Autobots must go into exile as well due to the continued threat of violence they pose.
Probably the most dignified defeat Goldbug will suffer in the coming year.
Trying to fit the beats of four issues into one doesn't quite work, most obviously the Llyra substitute of Kari is a pale shadow of her predecessor. She objects to the Powermaster process (luckily Goldbug is so awesome he doesn't need it) but it's not really clear what motivates her. It may be pacifism but she'll happily still hang about for the battle, even giving tech support. She may be the victim of unrequited love for HiQ, but the only real suggestion is that the final scene of her weeping as the Autobots leave is a direct steal from Llyra doing the same for Galen at the end of Headmasters, making it natural to assume the same motivation. Otherwise she's an almost entirely redundant residue of the prior story Bob is recycling.
The two Decepticons do remain good value, though them actually winning their first battle with the Autobots feels odd in retrospect and makes them cheerful, rather undermining both what worked last week and what people remember about them.
One final thing to note is something pointed out in the comments last week: The idea of using humans (and the Nebulons are just a straight human proxy) as a battery is ludicrous. This is something The Matrix would later get a lot of stick for from people who've missed the point that the very idea of being turned into a living battery is an inherently terrifying idea that carries enough body horror weight to work extremely well despite the fridge logic.
Despite Bob's token attempts to deal with the lack of power potential in the human body, this doesn't work anywhere near as well, mainly because it's forced to try and present having your soul sucked dry by a machine as an exciting thing rather than horrific. However, as with Soundwave shrinking or Megatron's black hole eyes, scientific plausibility is a ship that has long sailed with this franchise so it's not something that comes anywhere near winding me up. Especially as the Powermaster process will eventually be treated as the body horror it truly is in the dying days of the book.
All of this though is basically the sideshow, and this is where the decision to reintroduce Prime in a fairly run of the mill story rather than the curb-stomping all out epic that would more normally be the case (and which the cartoon did do) works as we get a story that actually gets to look into the philosophical side of being brought back from the dead.
The two Decepticons do remain good value, though them actually winning their first battle with the Autobots feels odd in retrospect and makes them cheerful, rather undermining both what worked last week and what people remember about them.
One final thing to note is something pointed out in the comments last week: The idea of using humans (and the Nebulons are just a straight human proxy) as a battery is ludicrous. This is something The Matrix would later get a lot of stick for from people who've missed the point that the very idea of being turned into a living battery is an inherently terrifying idea that carries enough body horror weight to work extremely well despite the fridge logic.
Despite Bob's token attempts to deal with the lack of power potential in the human body, this doesn't work anywhere near as well, mainly because it's forced to try and present having your soul sucked dry by a machine as an exciting thing rather than horrific. However, as with Soundwave shrinking or Megatron's black hole eyes, scientific plausibility is a ship that has long sailed with this franchise so it's not something that comes anywhere near winding me up. Especially as the Powermaster process will eventually be treated as the body horror it truly is in the dying days of the book.
All of this though is basically the sideshow, and this is where the decision to reintroduce Prime in a fairly run of the mill story rather than the curb-stomping all out epic that would more normally be the case (and which the cartoon did do) works as we get a story that actually gets to look into the philosophical side of being brought back from the dead.
"Fair enough, I'd rather die that wear anything other than this amazing coat"
The idea of Prime being convinced he's a computer character is often routinely mocked, mainly because of how it's treated in Pretender to the Throne!, if this payoff wasn't so overshadowed by Prime's new physicality I suspect it would be much better regarded as we get a serious and played completely straight look at euthanasia.
After the last few Budiansky stories, even the best of them, the idea of a story looking at assisted suicide seems mildly implausible. The fact it treats the subject seriously and with some respect even more so. When presented with the fact that HiQ can rebuild Prime but the fuel situation means he'll die almost immediately, Goldbug is unequivocal: Carrying on as a computer simulation is worse than a living death for Prime and it's better he die as himself with dignity rather than carry on as he is.
Weirdly when I first went on the Internet all those years ago one of the few guides to the comic I could find (which treated the British comic as an irrelevant sideshow, we were never going to get along) was extremely down on this idea, calling it idiotic that Goldbug would have gone to all the effort of coming to Nebulous only to let Prime die at the first hurdle. As well as ignoring the inner logic that he didn't know about the fuel issue when he left the moon, this ignores the many real life examples of people going to extreme lengths to take their terminally ill relatives to places like Switzerland "just" to let them die. The idea that Goldbug, who of course has known Optimus from the start, would make that choice is probably the truest character moment Bob ever wrote.
This is something emphasised when Optimus is put into his new body and it takes the experience of pain to snap him out of his computer game delusion, he's very clear that he would rather die like this that carry on as he was. Which neatly dovetails into the payoff to HiQ's plot, where seeing Prime act in this way makes him realise the Autobots aren't just machines but living, feeling beings that deserve his help. It's a surprisingly neat and thoughtful bit of writing for this stage in Bob's run, and shows he can still deliver when he puts his mind to it.
Oh, OK, it is fair to ask why they don't just have HiQ build Prime a new body and then take it back to the Ark to be powered up, but that's something I feel fine handwaving considering the quality of the material we get as a result.
After the last few Budiansky stories, even the best of them, the idea of a story looking at assisted suicide seems mildly implausible. The fact it treats the subject seriously and with some respect even more so. When presented with the fact that HiQ can rebuild Prime but the fuel situation means he'll die almost immediately, Goldbug is unequivocal: Carrying on as a computer simulation is worse than a living death for Prime and it's better he die as himself with dignity rather than carry on as he is.
Weirdly when I first went on the Internet all those years ago one of the few guides to the comic I could find (which treated the British comic as an irrelevant sideshow, we were never going to get along) was extremely down on this idea, calling it idiotic that Goldbug would have gone to all the effort of coming to Nebulous only to let Prime die at the first hurdle. As well as ignoring the inner logic that he didn't know about the fuel issue when he left the moon, this ignores the many real life examples of people going to extreme lengths to take their terminally ill relatives to places like Switzerland "just" to let them die. The idea that Goldbug, who of course has known Optimus from the start, would make that choice is probably the truest character moment Bob ever wrote.
This is something emphasised when Optimus is put into his new body and it takes the experience of pain to snap him out of his computer game delusion, he's very clear that he would rather die like this that carry on as he was. Which neatly dovetails into the payoff to HiQ's plot, where seeing Prime act in this way makes him realise the Autobots aren't just machines but living, feeling beings that deserve his help. It's a surprisingly neat and thoughtful bit of writing for this stage in Bob's run, and shows he can still deliver when he puts his mind to it.
Oh, OK, it is fair to ask why they don't just have HiQ build Prime a new body and then take it back to the Ark to be powered up, but that's something I feel fine handwaving considering the quality of the material we get as a result.
"I'm back, and this time I shall only be standing in one of two poses"
Prime's final confrontation with the Decepticon Powermasters is rather underwhelming after that, with his claim that "Villainy such as yours cannot go unpunished!" seeming rather over the top considering their actual crime of harassing restaurants. This week I've seen people praising the actions of "Anti-Gentrification" protesters who've defaced the Cereal Cafe in London (said protesters presumably never having noticed food in a cafe, especially a London cafe, will often be more expensive than what you can make at home. There's no word yet on if they'll avoid hypocrisy by attacking every greasy spoon in the area with cornflakes on the breakfast menu for more than the cost of a box from Tesco), they'd probably regard Dreadwind and Darkwing as heroes as well.
However, this is still a much stronger issue than I was expecting, with a nice balance between the action and the more philosophical side of the plot.
On art (with the credits still slightly askew on the British version), Delbo and friends begin to struggle with the increased Transformer focus, most notably a panel where the soon to be Powermasters are so low on fuel that they're literally falling apart is so unclear you can actually only tell what's supposed to be happening from the dialogue. The final fight is also rather a mess.
Powermaster Prime himself has a nicely imposing presence, helped by the sensible decision to portray him in super mode the majority of the time, he'll not become as iconic as the original look but it's a striking visual. Unfortunately Delbo starts drawing him as he means to go on: His character model is copied twice within four pages and when he goes into battle we get the definitive "Delbo Prime leaning back and pointing so it looks as if his top half is about to fall off his waist" pose.
However, this is still a much stronger issue than I was expecting, with a nice balance between the action and the more philosophical side of the plot.
On art (with the credits still slightly askew on the British version), Delbo and friends begin to struggle with the increased Transformer focus, most notably a panel where the soon to be Powermasters are so low on fuel that they're literally falling apart is so unclear you can actually only tell what's supposed to be happening from the dialogue. The final fight is also rather a mess.
Powermaster Prime himself has a nicely imposing presence, helped by the sensible decision to portray him in super mode the majority of the time, he'll not become as iconic as the original look but it's a striking visual. Unfortunately Delbo starts drawing him as he means to go on: His character model is copied twice within four pages and when he goes into battle we get the definitive "Delbo Prime leaning back and pointing so it looks as if his top half is about to fall off his waist" pose.
Nearly two decades early, Robin Smith invents the Pat Lee Pose.
Transformation is, unsurprisingly, just a little bit excited by the return of Prime, even if it, again, has to emphasise the boy is no longer crying wolf and this isn't a trick as back in Salvage! The sidebar is also given over to trying to make the Powermasters seem a less silly idea.
To tie in with the returning hero we get our first AtoZ not to be adapted from the original Universe series, covering Powermaster Prime complete with new, oddly proportioned art that looks to be by Robin Smith (I wonder if Furman commissioned a new piece rather than using the existing character model to create some work for a local artist or to try and hide how often that pose will be stolen in the years to come?). Despite technically being new it is clearly an abbreviated version of what would become his eventual Universe profile that would later be used as filler in the American book, which in turn is adapted from Prime's original bio.
Interestingly it assumes Roller is still a part of the toy, though this may be an attempt to cover the fuller profile's slightly odd claim that the Autobot can split himself into "Optimus" and a "Prime" component that is described in a way that suggests an accessory the final toy doesn't have.
In what may well be the most exciting news ever to grace Grimgrams, John Williams (presumably taking a break from scoring Spielberg films) of London writes in to point out that an issue of the comic has been seen in the newsagents in Coronation Street, sharing screen time with Mavis.
More pertinently though, John claims he hasn't been able to find Action Force Monthly anywhere, an early sign of the distribution problems that will undo Marvel UK's attempts at American style books. Grimlock's vague "You must be looking in the wrong places" response would have been enlivened if he'd just gone "I don't rightly know".
Speaking of Action Force, Pit-Fall ends with Hawk blowing up the Pit to kill Destro and Cobra Commander (they get better), is told Action Force are no longer suspended (till next time) and that the team is now nomadic with no fixed base (till they get a new one). The most interesting thing here is how the one surviving general has managed to hold onto his pipe.
Combat Colin attempts to communicate with Bigfoot through grunts and sign language in a probable pisstake off that year's Gorillas in the Mist. Unsurprisingly, but still wonderfully, Bigfoot can of course speak perfect English.
Next week, will the returned Prime survive the Cosmic Carnival? I don't rightly know.
ISSUE 176
1988
COMMENT
