You Better Pay Attention or This World We Love so Much Might Just Kill You.
Issue 196: The Flames of Boltax! Part 1. 10th December 1988.
They survived again! Watching screws rust is more entertaining than this!
Considering that the original Return to Cybertron arc is regarded by many—including the man himself—as Bob Budiansky’s best story it’s surprising it’s taken more than two years for him to attempt another story set predominantly on the Transformers’ home planet. As much as he loves Earth based tales with a heavy human focus you would have expected him to capitalise on his most notable success before this.
It’s not even as if returning to Cybertron is a conscious attempt to build on something that has been proven to work, but is instead born out of the desire to do a Megatron story. Bringing back the main villain of the series in the lead up to issue 50 is an obvious move (if Bob had more fondness for the character it probably would have been a permanent return in issue 50 itself), especially as a way of trying to generate interest in a book that was on the wane by this point. And the original American cover (more on which next week) screams his return to the heavens. With Bob being determined to keep Megatron “Dead”—though a footnote is actually the first indication American readers would have had he might not actually be dead. Amusingly this is changed for the UK printing to be the first indication for British kids that there were Decepticons who didn’t know he was back—that effectively require a flashback story. Leading to both Cybertron and the chance to tell a story of the early days of Optimus Prime.
"Though how you'll hear what's on the tape with just one ear I'll never know"
The plot device to tie the flashback into Bob’s attempt at a BIG four part story is the first sign of the influence of the biggest (and pretty much only) American SF show of the late 80’s/early 90’s. Though the BBC’s apathetic attitude to the genre means it wouldn’t arrive on UK TV until 1990 (though by this point in 1988 we should have had rental videos), Budiansky would have written this in the aftermath of the broadcast of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first season. It’s easy to forget now as it was a device used in ridiculous and poorly thought out ways by the end of Voyager, but the Holodeck was actually a pretty groundbreaking idea at the time which even people who thought the new Trek series was pretty bad liking the concept. It didn’t invent the idea of virtual reality of course, but it did firmly bring the idea into the mainstream, and was probably the first iteration of the idea to involve just walking into a simulation without headsets or suits.
As such, Holodeck’s have been massively influential (for good and bad) and Budiansky gets in here with what must be one of the first rehashes of the idea with “Realvision”, which is basically exactly the same thing. The issue even opens with a subtle send up of the idea of a Holodeck malfunction—not even quite a cliché yet—as Buster is being chased around by the sort of nightmare imagery that Delbo would later recycle into his brother’s dreams in Man in the Machine! It turns out however he was perfectly safe all along, and Ratbat was just using their pet prisoner to test the Realvision equipment. Presumably because they have no use for the Witwicky now their holiday scam is over; not that they’ll be killing him now of course. No, just put him in a cell where he can do his best impression of Sean Connery escaping in Dr. No so as to try and sneak back and watch the main show.
The framing device is flawed, but surprisingly fun. Ratbat and Starscream (who continues to be wonderfully snarky, suggesting he watches the simulation as well just in case anything happens to their wonderful leader) watch historical recordings on Grandslam and Raindance whilst being constantly surprised by the fact Optimus Prime isn’t killed by the events happening four million years ago. It’s also not clear why the Cybertronian Autobots would have included this in a message for Optimus Prime when he was there at the time. Despite that, the interplay between the two Decepticons as they treat Realvision like your gran trying to understand the video recorder makes far more of their scenes than there really should be.
As such, Holodeck’s have been massively influential (for good and bad) and Budiansky gets in here with what must be one of the first rehashes of the idea with “Realvision”, which is basically exactly the same thing. The issue even opens with a subtle send up of the idea of a Holodeck malfunction—not even quite a cliché yet—as Buster is being chased around by the sort of nightmare imagery that Delbo would later recycle into his brother’s dreams in Man in the Machine! It turns out however he was perfectly safe all along, and Ratbat was just using their pet prisoner to test the Realvision equipment. Presumably because they have no use for the Witwicky now their holiday scam is over; not that they’ll be killing him now of course. No, just put him in a cell where he can do his best impression of Sean Connery escaping in Dr. No so as to try and sneak back and watch the main show.
The framing device is flawed, but surprisingly fun. Ratbat and Starscream (who continues to be wonderfully snarky, suggesting he watches the simulation as well just in case anything happens to their wonderful leader) watch historical recordings on Grandslam and Raindance whilst being constantly surprised by the fact Optimus Prime isn’t killed by the events happening four million years ago. It’s also not clear why the Cybertronian Autobots would have included this in a message for Optimus Prime when he was there at the time. Despite that, the interplay between the two Decepticons as they treat Realvision like your gran trying to understand the video recorder makes far more of their scenes than there really should be.
"I wish you were several thousand miles behind me Override"
The meat of the issue though comes from our glimpse of young Optimus Prime. Budiansky is actually being quite clever here and doing something that went largely unnoticed by most readers (including myself before this reread) in making this story a parallel to the last time he wrote Megatron and Prime together. There Optimus was so dedicated to the preservation of even virtual innocent life he was prepared to die for it. Here though, younger and brasher (and not overall leader yet. This is another story that contradicts the first Prime/Megs meeting in And There Shall Come... A Leader!, though obviously Bob wouldn’t know that) he deliberately intends to break a neutrality agreement between the Autobots and Decepticons in this early stage of their war to persuade the mysterious Circuitmaster Boltax to join the war on his side.
Boltax is described as having the largest database on Cybertron, something that could be invaluable to the war effort. But as Starscream mockingly points out the Prime of today would never try and force an uninterested party to contribute, and it’s clear something terrible is going to happen to make him adopt that stance. His relative youth is emphasised by the Triggerbots—in what is probably the closest thing to something interesting that they would ever do—actively arguing against their lieutenant commander’s orders in a way they never would today. And of course, they’ll be right.
The casual mention of religious orders on Cybertron—named “Circuit Sects”—is also a nice bit of late in the day world building from Budiansky.
Boltax is described as having the largest database on Cybertron, something that could be invaluable to the war effort. But as Starscream mockingly points out the Prime of today would never try and force an uninterested party to contribute, and it’s clear something terrible is going to happen to make him adopt that stance. His relative youth is emphasised by the Triggerbots—in what is probably the closest thing to something interesting that they would ever do—actively arguing against their lieutenant commander’s orders in a way they never would today. And of course, they’ll be right.
The casual mention of religious orders on Cybertron—named “Circuit Sects”—is also a nice bit of late in the day world building from Budiansky.
Megatron's first appearance in an American story in nearly two years. Complete with changed narration box that simply said Megatron was "Missing" in the original issue.
Megatron himself also only appears in one panel here, but it continues the Afterdeath! parallels. As there, we’re being shown how Optimus and Megatron handle a lethal game based challenge in different ways, with Optimus taking the various traps around Boltax head on whilst Megatron is happy to sit back and watch him do all the hard work. The Triggercons get to be mildly more interesting than their Autobot counterparts, with Ruckus seeming genuinely angry about the Autobots breaking the neutrality agreement. Megatron of course doesn’t give a hoot as long as he gets to Boltax first, but Budiansky is careful to write him as much saner and more together than in his last few American showings.
This would actually be an extremely solid issue if not for the deadweight that are the Triggerbots. As noted when they first showed up four weeks ago, the writers of the comic seem to keep forgetting the Trigs have already appeared and keep writing debut issues for then. So here each of the traps Prime and troops encounter are designed to show off their special skills. So Override can shoot, Dogfight can fly through stuff and Backstreet can...erm drive. It’s pretty poor going through the motions stuff that doesn’t have any of the same energy or enthusiasm behind it as the main plot. It turns what could have been the best American issue in months into a more average affair.
Still, despite the lurch into mediocrity, this has a lot of memorable and interesting moments to it, and the cliff-hanger of Prime meeting the disciples of Boltax (who look like Cybertronian Humpty Dumpty’s) suggests things might get back on track next week. On art Delbo struggles as much as you’d expect with an entirely Cybertron based setting, with the Triggerbots especially looking appalling. He continues to do a good Starscream however, and Prime has a funky, almost G2esque, Cybertronian mode. Though it says a lot about the toyline at this point that even though the Triggerbots technically have Earth modes, they’re so misshapen as for this to be barely noticeable.
This would actually be an extremely solid issue if not for the deadweight that are the Triggerbots. As noted when they first showed up four weeks ago, the writers of the comic seem to keep forgetting the Trigs have already appeared and keep writing debut issues for then. So here each of the traps Prime and troops encounter are designed to show off their special skills. So Override can shoot, Dogfight can fly through stuff and Backstreet can...erm drive. It’s pretty poor going through the motions stuff that doesn’t have any of the same energy or enthusiasm behind it as the main plot. It turns what could have been the best American issue in months into a more average affair.
Still, despite the lurch into mediocrity, this has a lot of memorable and interesting moments to it, and the cliff-hanger of Prime meeting the disciples of Boltax (who look like Cybertronian Humpty Dumpty’s) suggests things might get back on track next week. On art Delbo struggles as much as you’d expect with an entirely Cybertron based setting, with the Triggerbots especially looking appalling. He continues to do a good Starscream however, and Prime has a funky, almost G2esque, Cybertronian mode. Though it says a lot about the toyline at this point that even though the Triggerbots technically have Earth modes, they’re so misshapen as for this to be barely noticeable.
The drastically rewritten Megatron AtoZ. Love how "Ex-Decepticon Commander" is apparently a function...
Transformation seems to have been put to bed before they had access to the comic strip as the three illustrations—usually from within the issue—are repurposed old Lee Sullivan drawings from Salvage! and Space Pirates! As Megatron has been around for a while as far as the Brits are concerned (and will be involved in a UK story with Prime very soon) trying to sell the story on his presence is more of a struggle than it was for the Americans. Tellingly the cover makes more of a thing of Dogfight being in danger.
The sidebars are concerned with the forthcoming issue 200 on the left (wraparound cover, free gift, an epic saga!) and the last chance to see the Death’s Head tour on the day of publication (though somebody clearly didn’t know what month it was as the “December” in December 10th is a clear cut and paste job over the original word) on the right. I hope everyone who got their free poster still has it.
Fittingly AtoZ covers Megatron, but rather than a straight abridgement of his Universe profile he’s given an almost entirely new write up covering his mental instabilities and obsession with Optimus Prime. Most notably he goes from having “No known weaknesses” to having “Certain mental problems”.
Dread Tidings sees David P of Ainwick be the first person to ask about Micromasters. Though the toys were presumably now out for him to be able to do this, the final name clearly hasn’t been given to the UK office yet as Dreadwind “corrects” the name to Microbots whilst promising we’ll be seeing them next year.
The most memorable letter however is from Rosemary Mayes of Ashford, a forty year old mother of two who has become a fan herself through her children. As Dreadwind says this “Completely validates my recent point about Transformers being readable by all ages. And you thought this page was just thrown together?”
Action Force continues to be rather insipid, with the only real event of note being that Scarlett fails to arrive in Funnyforeignerland in time to save Snake Eyes from being taken to the Cobra base in New York, setting up a better story for later.
Actually, no: the best thing is a random appearance from Recondo.
The sidebars are concerned with the forthcoming issue 200 on the left (wraparound cover, free gift, an epic saga!) and the last chance to see the Death’s Head tour on the day of publication (though somebody clearly didn’t know what month it was as the “December” in December 10th is a clear cut and paste job over the original word) on the right. I hope everyone who got their free poster still has it.
Fittingly AtoZ covers Megatron, but rather than a straight abridgement of his Universe profile he’s given an almost entirely new write up covering his mental instabilities and obsession with Optimus Prime. Most notably he goes from having “No known weaknesses” to having “Certain mental problems”.
Dread Tidings sees David P of Ainwick be the first person to ask about Micromasters. Though the toys were presumably now out for him to be able to do this, the final name clearly hasn’t been given to the UK office yet as Dreadwind “corrects” the name to Microbots whilst promising we’ll be seeing them next year.
The most memorable letter however is from Rosemary Mayes of Ashford, a forty year old mother of two who has become a fan herself through her children. As Dreadwind says this “Completely validates my recent point about Transformers being readable by all ages. And you thought this page was just thrown together?”
Action Force continues to be rather insipid, with the only real event of note being that Scarlett fails to arrive in Funnyforeignerland in time to save Snake Eyes from being taken to the Cobra base in New York, setting up a better story for later.
Actually, no: the best thing is a random appearance from Recondo.
Movie stars do often wind up doing crap adverts.
More interesting things are to be found in Combat Colin as their love interests—the Giggly Sisters (I honestly can’t remember if they ever get first names)—appear for the first time. They’ll go on to be a major part of the strip despite their sweet giggling ways seeming to make them incompatible with the boys. The relationship doesn’t start well as they kick Colin and Steve out on their ears after the later takes a bazooka to a bumblebee on some flowers.
Let’s face it though, there’s only one thing anyone is going to remember about this issue. And that’s the advert for the Transformers Powermaster Torch. Made by Ever Ready, this may look to the untrained eye like a perfectly normal torch with the Transformers logo slapped upon it. But no! Look at how the light it emits melts Skullgrin (in a pose copied directly from the same art that got him on the cover of the Return of Optimus Prime video)! This is clearly a terrifying weapon of death and not at all the worst example of tat merchandise we’ve yet seen. You might ask what it has to do with Powermasters as they couldn’t even be arsed to draw one being melted, but no doubt it’s a new and deadly HiQ designed weapon. If only they’d have thought to wait a few weeks and promote it as a Light of the Underbase torch.
Next week, with the rest of the tape shed some light on what is heading to Earth?
And you thought this blog was just thrown together?
ISSUE 195
1988
COMMENT
Let’s face it though, there’s only one thing anyone is going to remember about this issue. And that’s the advert for the Transformers Powermaster Torch. Made by Ever Ready, this may look to the untrained eye like a perfectly normal torch with the Transformers logo slapped upon it. But no! Look at how the light it emits melts Skullgrin (in a pose copied directly from the same art that got him on the cover of the Return of Optimus Prime video)! This is clearly a terrifying weapon of death and not at all the worst example of tat merchandise we’ve yet seen. You might ask what it has to do with Powermasters as they couldn’t even be arsed to draw one being melted, but no doubt it’s a new and deadly HiQ designed weapon. If only they’d have thought to wait a few weeks and promote it as a Light of the Underbase torch.
Next week, with the rest of the tape shed some light on what is heading to Earth?
And you thought this blog was just thrown together?
ISSUE 195
1988
COMMENT
