Whatever Happened to Fay Wray?
Issue 235: King ‘Con! Part 4/Deathbringer Part 1. 9th September 1989.
Y’see? That elevator was simpler than it looked!
Oh well done America. We were worried over here that Britain would wind up looking the most self-destructive country in the world for 2016, but you managed to swing right in at the end and steal it from us thanks to assuming no bad things can happen under a President endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Still, at least we can jump into the world of Transformers comics for some harmless escapist fun.
So judging by the fantastically bleak Geoff Senior cover, this week’s issue is all about an American apocalypse and dead illegal aliens caused by an orange maniac with a ridiculous head wielding power they were never meant to have.
Hmm.
Still, at least we have the light hearted lead American story where a storm of darkness is unleashed from a tower in New York by an insane monster.
Hmm.
Y’see? That elevator was simpler than it looked!
Oh well done America. We were worried over here that Britain would wind up looking the most self-destructive country in the world for 2016, but you managed to swing right in at the end and steal it from us thanks to assuming no bad things can happen under a President endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Still, at least we can jump into the world of Transformers comics for some harmless escapist fun.
So judging by the fantastically bleak Geoff Senior cover, this week’s issue is all about an American apocalypse and dead illegal aliens caused by an orange maniac with a ridiculous head wielding power they were never meant to have.
Hmm.
Still, at least we have the light hearted lead American story where a storm of darkness is unleashed from a tower in New York by an insane monster.
Hmm.
Tactical geniuses.
The conclusion of King ‘Con finally reaches the cause of its title as Iguanus climbs the Empire State Building to reap the whirlwind of the artificial storm.
It’s actually worth noting here that—as with Shockwave’s plan to steal sound back in Rock and Roll Out!—the Decepticon plot seems fairly benign here. Despite the ferocity of the storm no humans lives are at risk bar the one the Autobots bring into danger with them and it’s even a device you could see the equally energy starved Autobots adopting with a more out of the way lightning rod. That means this is ultimately a very low stakes story, with Budiansky instead enjoying a more leisurely penultimate chance for some of the culture clash humour that has been a mainstay of his time on the book.
This boils down to the Race Car Patrol being bemused by all things human, first by a policeman trying to stop them entering Empire State. Who becomes much more agreeable after being hung up from a lamp post. Oddly the police assume they Micromasters are in fancy dress. Has the news of the robots (including near human sized ones right from the off) terrorising the country not reached New York yet?
The greatest moment of the issue comes from them attempting to use the elevator though. Despite trying to dump Cecilia she won’t give up on a story and is on hand to show them the magic up and down box that goes to the roof. For which they thank her by not letting her come with them again. However (in a scene suspiciously similar to Scotty’s attempt to deal with a PC in Star Trek IV) the buttons completely defeat them, even at the suggestion of talking to them. All of which lets Cecilia get to the top floor first and get grabbed by Iguanus who is determined to fit the full Kong in.
The Autobots meanwhile have achieved their greatest victory—getting an elevator to work. Tailspin’s sheer joy at outwitting the box is probably the single most memorable bit of Micromaster characterisation any of them will ever get.
It’s actually worth noting here that—as with Shockwave’s plan to steal sound back in Rock and Roll Out!—the Decepticon plot seems fairly benign here. Despite the ferocity of the storm no humans lives are at risk bar the one the Autobots bring into danger with them and it’s even a device you could see the equally energy starved Autobots adopting with a more out of the way lightning rod. That means this is ultimately a very low stakes story, with Budiansky instead enjoying a more leisurely penultimate chance for some of the culture clash humour that has been a mainstay of his time on the book.
This boils down to the Race Car Patrol being bemused by all things human, first by a policeman trying to stop them entering Empire State. Who becomes much more agreeable after being hung up from a lamp post. Oddly the police assume they Micromasters are in fancy dress. Has the news of the robots (including near human sized ones right from the off) terrorising the country not reached New York yet?
The greatest moment of the issue comes from them attempting to use the elevator though. Despite trying to dump Cecilia she won’t give up on a story and is on hand to show them the magic up and down box that goes to the roof. For which they thank her by not letting her come with them again. However (in a scene suspiciously similar to Scotty’s attempt to deal with a PC in Star Trek IV) the buttons completely defeat them, even at the suggestion of talking to them. All of which lets Cecilia get to the top floor first and get grabbed by Iguanus who is determined to fit the full Kong in.
The Autobots meanwhile have achieved their greatest victory—getting an elevator to work. Tailspin’s sheer joy at outwitting the box is probably the single most memorable bit of Micromaster characterisation any of them will ever get.
Screw you HiQ!
Which makes what follows fairly perfunctory. Chekhov’s Gun means Roadhandler (one word this week despite it still being the same US issue. Except when he’s called Road-Master) uses his long range fisting power to knock Iguanus off the peak of the building and into the lightning. Which seems to kill him, but I’ve a feeling he’ll be back in crowd scenes before too long.
During all this the Off-Road patrol are battling Skullgrin, though nothing of any real interest happens beyond some more confused art involving Mudslinger: This time he goes to pull down a lever on the collection device but is drawn with nothing in his hands in the next panel.
Things end on the hook for a rather unexpected sequel as Optimus arrives to take the Micromasters away, but Roadhandler decides he’s had enough of authority for a while (for no real reason) and is going to hang around with Cecilia instead.
It’s an odd ending as the Race-Car Patrol have generally had a good day and the American book hasn’t shown them as being mistreated by the other Autobots (Furman’s work two weeks ago mainly seems to be trying to help this make sense), but this has been an unexpectedly good story from Uncle Bob. I despised it as a child, but its gentle humour and amiable tone has won me over as an adult despite the Micromasters themselves not being the greatest of characters (lift thwarting aside) and it would have made a nice, understated departure from the book for Budiansky.
But it won’t be, and it remains to be seen if Micromaster culture clashes can sustain another four weeks or if my child’s eye reading of the next story will be more accurate than on this one.
During all this the Off-Road patrol are battling Skullgrin, though nothing of any real interest happens beyond some more confused art involving Mudslinger: This time he goes to pull down a lever on the collection device but is drawn with nothing in his hands in the next panel.
Things end on the hook for a rather unexpected sequel as Optimus arrives to take the Micromasters away, but Roadhandler decides he’s had enough of authority for a while (for no real reason) and is going to hang around with Cecilia instead.
It’s an odd ending as the Race-Car Patrol have generally had a good day and the American book hasn’t shown them as being mistreated by the other Autobots (Furman’s work two weeks ago mainly seems to be trying to help this make sense), but this has been an unexpectedly good story from Uncle Bob. I despised it as a child, but its gentle humour and amiable tone has won me over as an adult despite the Micromasters themselves not being the greatest of characters (lift thwarting aside) and it would have made a nice, understated departure from the book for Budiansky.
But it won’t be, and it remains to be seen if Micromaster culture clashes can sustain another four weeks or if my child’s eye reading of the next story will be more accurate than on this one.
Whoops.
As one author prepares to exit stage left pursued by a bear, we see the firmest sign yet of another having snuck in the side door of the American book over in the black and white section.
Thanks to the weirdness of out of sync publication dates, Furman actually had his feet well under the table of the US book by this point. This was released the same month as the US publication of Yesterday’s Heroes, the point where his overall arc for the series really kicked off and which would lead into Matrix Quest in November. Furman was presumably well on the way to planning that anthology epic out and may even have started writing it at the same time he sat down to author Deathbringer. We’ve seen him set up his American stories in the British a few times so far, but this is the first occasion it is a two way street as we get a story that will become the only one to be directly linked to by a US issue.
We’ll discuss how unlikely this is when we get to the flip-side, but this is in the unique position of being a key insert for a story the original intended readership would never see.
Things therefore start with a sequence we’ll see reprised in Dark Creation as a mechanoid crashes into a planet, crawls to a crater and finds...something that completely transforms him into the big scary Trump-bot of the cover.
It’s a shame this puts the reader a few steps ahead of the characters on exactly what is going on with regards to the origin of this creature (even if it doesn’t reveal exactly what changed him), but Geoff Senior—who will by happy chance also be the artist on the second time around of us seeing this—creates a magnificently moody opening aided by some faux Nostrademus narration boxes (“Child of the inferno is he, spawn of the conflagration!) which, in a fun subversion, turn out to be a bored Siren on the Ark reading an old Cybertronain legend out loud.
On the Ark, it’s a day of unlikely coincidences. First that Siren is entertaining himself with the old myth about the Deathbringer the same afternoon they run into a robot calling itself Deathbringer, second that Nightbeat becomes the first person in the year since Prime has been back to ask what happened to the Matrix when said Deathbringer happens to have been touched by the Matrix in some way. What are the odds?
Thanks to the weirdness of out of sync publication dates, Furman actually had his feet well under the table of the US book by this point. This was released the same month as the US publication of Yesterday’s Heroes, the point where his overall arc for the series really kicked off and which would lead into Matrix Quest in November. Furman was presumably well on the way to planning that anthology epic out and may even have started writing it at the same time he sat down to author Deathbringer. We’ve seen him set up his American stories in the British a few times so far, but this is the first occasion it is a two way street as we get a story that will become the only one to be directly linked to by a US issue.
We’ll discuss how unlikely this is when we get to the flip-side, but this is in the unique position of being a key insert for a story the original intended readership would never see.
Things therefore start with a sequence we’ll see reprised in Dark Creation as a mechanoid crashes into a planet, crawls to a crater and finds...something that completely transforms him into the big scary Trump-bot of the cover.
It’s a shame this puts the reader a few steps ahead of the characters on exactly what is going on with regards to the origin of this creature (even if it doesn’t reveal exactly what changed him), but Geoff Senior—who will by happy chance also be the artist on the second time around of us seeing this—creates a magnificently moody opening aided by some faux Nostrademus narration boxes (“Child of the inferno is he, spawn of the conflagration!) which, in a fun subversion, turn out to be a bored Siren on the Ark reading an old Cybertronain legend out loud.
On the Ark, it’s a day of unlikely coincidences. First that Siren is entertaining himself with the old myth about the Deathbringer the same afternoon they run into a robot calling itself Deathbringer, second that Nightbeat becomes the first person in the year since Prime has been back to ask what happened to the Matrix when said Deathbringer happens to have been touched by the Matrix in some way. What are the odds?
The gentrification of London has gone too far.
Joking aside, the short page count makes the odd contrivance to speed things along acceptable, and the Nightbeat moment is also a key one for upcoming US stories as he and Prime watch Ratchet desperately working to revive the Starscream and Galvatron casualties (as we never saw his patient Beachcomber fall, I’m going to assume an epic one on one fight with Galvatron) without the sacred life force to restore them.
It’s also a handy way of turning a retcon into a plot advantage. As long term readers will remember, the Matrix started out as a computer program before Furman merged it with the glowing disco ball of the same name from the film. Therefore Prime here gets to be riddled with a melancholy guilt from Nightbeat’s “Why not use the Matrix?” question. The truth of the Matrix had been hidden from his troops for security and they blasted his body into space without realising they needed to remove the physical object first. Whoops.
Despite needing you to roll with a few conceits (that no one thought to ask what happens to the Matrix computer program at the time; that every previous Autobot leader had enough time to pass it on quietly before death; that Ratchet wouldn’t know this despite it’s medical applications and having examined Prime`s body a lot), the situation still feels real and very dark. With bonus points for Nightbeat being the perfect character to actually think of asking this question.
This musing on past mistakes is interrupted by a call from Cloudburst who has been leading a team investigating a disturbance in an American city. Furman shows his love for the first wave pretenders by casually having him blasted aside, causing Prime and a small team (oddly none of the Pretenders in this story are wearing their shells, were they in the wash?) to investigate and take us to the money shot:
The rebuilt giant mechanoid throwing some serious shit down as he wrecks the city with his superpowers whilst delivering a flowery speech about being Deathbringer. We'll talk about this more next week, but there's probably more on page yet unacknowledged human death in this one panel of a skyscraper being destroyed than any other story in the series. But this isn’t what holds Prime in awe or stays his hand, it’s that he can sense the Creation Matrix has touched it...
This wasn’t quite the issue I was expecting, I’m assuming the stuff I really remember about this story (the big curb stomping battle) will be next week. But it’s a dark and thoughtful opening with a great atmosphere and mood to it. Plus for an added bonus, continuity patching in an interesting way.
Geoff Senior is on fine a form as always (and his art really works on the rougher paper the comic is currently using for the original story) and there’s some amusement to be had from the fact that his upside down horns make Deathbringer look like an inverted Death’s Head. Indeed, it rather pre-dates the look of Death’s Head II.
It’s also a handy way of turning a retcon into a plot advantage. As long term readers will remember, the Matrix started out as a computer program before Furman merged it with the glowing disco ball of the same name from the film. Therefore Prime here gets to be riddled with a melancholy guilt from Nightbeat’s “Why not use the Matrix?” question. The truth of the Matrix had been hidden from his troops for security and they blasted his body into space without realising they needed to remove the physical object first. Whoops.
Despite needing you to roll with a few conceits (that no one thought to ask what happens to the Matrix computer program at the time; that every previous Autobot leader had enough time to pass it on quietly before death; that Ratchet wouldn’t know this despite it’s medical applications and having examined Prime`s body a lot), the situation still feels real and very dark. With bonus points for Nightbeat being the perfect character to actually think of asking this question.
This musing on past mistakes is interrupted by a call from Cloudburst who has been leading a team investigating a disturbance in an American city. Furman shows his love for the first wave pretenders by casually having him blasted aside, causing Prime and a small team (oddly none of the Pretenders in this story are wearing their shells, were they in the wash?) to investigate and take us to the money shot:
The rebuilt giant mechanoid throwing some serious shit down as he wrecks the city with his superpowers whilst delivering a flowery speech about being Deathbringer. We'll talk about this more next week, but there's probably more on page yet unacknowledged human death in this one panel of a skyscraper being destroyed than any other story in the series. But this isn’t what holds Prime in awe or stays his hand, it’s that he can sense the Creation Matrix has touched it...
This wasn’t quite the issue I was expecting, I’m assuming the stuff I really remember about this story (the big curb stomping battle) will be next week. But it’s a dark and thoughtful opening with a great atmosphere and mood to it. Plus for an added bonus, continuity patching in an interesting way.
Geoff Senior is on fine a form as always (and his art really works on the rougher paper the comic is currently using for the original story) and there’s some amusement to be had from the fact that his upside down horns make Deathbringer look like an inverted Death’s Head. Indeed, it rather pre-dates the look of Death’s Head II.
We will force you to like Action Force.
Transformation shows the slightly parochial approach the comic takes to the importance of the two strips. In any other comic the story in colour that leads would be the main event, but the editorial not only talks about the black and white first as per normal, but has some odd phrasing about how the action then “Moves” to King ‘Con! as if it follows the British story rather than being ahead of it.
The sidebar then clarifies the Action Force situation mentioned last week: A new book will still be coming in January, but to hold you over till then they’ll be featured in the new anthology book The Hulk Presents, starting in a couple of months. It will mostly be a cheap reprint title of things like Indiana Jones that is best remembered for some of the worst regarded Doctor Who stories Marvel ever did. The sidebar also takes the time to talk about the forthcoming return of the Survivors and Mayhems.
The Transformation page also makes a joke about Action Force being a “Load of rubbish”, but not because of the quality of the story, no sir, just because the Vector is hidden on a barge. The conclusion of Airshow has more narration box pimping of tourist sites: In this case the museum ship USS Intrepid. Was Hama on commission from the New York State tourist board? No wonder there’s an attempt to try and get readers excited for the forthcoming death of a major character in the editorial as well, this may be the weakest Action Force story the book has yet done.
Combat Colin has been sent free tickets to a magic show by the Amazing Dave, a magician so good he can pull a zebra from a hat. But when he pulls Colin out of the audience to do a bullet catching trick only to unleash a bazooka on him (with Steve and the Giggly Sisters held back by a “Bizarre Magic Force”) it turns out to be a tenser evening than Paul Daniels would have been. My favourite sight gag here is that Colin’s hat stand is covered in identical bobble hats.
There’s nothing especially informative on Dread Tidings this week (though at least that means there’s little opportunity for Dreadwind Fails to Answer Questions Properly!), but with each answer clearly having been chosen to allow for banter between the Decepticon and Hi-Test it’s one of the best written and funniest for quite a while, simply by revelling in the grumpy odd couple relationship between the two hosts. Even the couple of questions that do get asked (such as a repeat of the “Who is the white Optimus Prime that comes with Ultra Magnus?” from Anthony Fielder of Somerset) receive roughly accurate answers.
The sidebar then clarifies the Action Force situation mentioned last week: A new book will still be coming in January, but to hold you over till then they’ll be featured in the new anthology book The Hulk Presents, starting in a couple of months. It will mostly be a cheap reprint title of things like Indiana Jones that is best remembered for some of the worst regarded Doctor Who stories Marvel ever did. The sidebar also takes the time to talk about the forthcoming return of the Survivors and Mayhems.
The Transformation page also makes a joke about Action Force being a “Load of rubbish”, but not because of the quality of the story, no sir, just because the Vector is hidden on a barge. The conclusion of Airshow has more narration box pimping of tourist sites: In this case the museum ship USS Intrepid. Was Hama on commission from the New York State tourist board? No wonder there’s an attempt to try and get readers excited for the forthcoming death of a major character in the editorial as well, this may be the weakest Action Force story the book has yet done.
Combat Colin has been sent free tickets to a magic show by the Amazing Dave, a magician so good he can pull a zebra from a hat. But when he pulls Colin out of the audience to do a bullet catching trick only to unleash a bazooka on him (with Steve and the Giggly Sisters held back by a “Bizarre Magic Force”) it turns out to be a tenser evening than Paul Daniels would have been. My favourite sight gag here is that Colin’s hat stand is covered in identical bobble hats.
There’s nothing especially informative on Dread Tidings this week (though at least that means there’s little opportunity for Dreadwind Fails to Answer Questions Properly!), but with each answer clearly having been chosen to allow for banter between the Decepticon and Hi-Test it’s one of the best written and funniest for quite a while, simply by revelling in the grumpy odd couple relationship between the two hosts. Even the couple of questions that do get asked (such as a repeat of the “Who is the white Optimus Prime that comes with Ultra Magnus?” from Anthony Fielder of Somerset) receive roughly accurate answers.
The person who did my scans has removed all the filled in answers, I am not mental.
There’s also our first foreign letter in a good long while, as Stacy Ranta from Fed. Way Washington talks about how the UK comic is rare in the States and several months behind, but always enjoyed by the local comic collectors. Assuming Stacy is a female reader (you never can tell with American names) I wonder what she’ll think when she catches up to last week?
This week also sees the conclusion of the Micromasters competition, with the option for kids who haven’t been here for each of the last three issues to have a chance of winning by answering some surprisingly difficult questions about the history of the comic aimed at long term readers (“Who caused Lord Straxus to lose his head?” and “Who rebuilt Bumblebee into Goldbug?””), they’re filled in on my copy and the original owner could only manage 7 out of ten, with one understandable wrong answer in “Megatron” to the Straxus question based on recent reprints.
Oddly the answer section leaves enough space for multiple names on the questions that require them (“Name the three heroines from Ladies Night”), except for the second on the names of all the Stunticons where you can barely fit Menasor in. The kid who owned my copy before has had to scrawl the others over the rest of the form.
Next week, wresting with Deathbringer and wrestling with actual wrestlers as we reach the end of an era and the start of the final Uncle Bob story!
Also, and unsurprisingly, last week’s piece got a lot of comments of both the yay and nay variety. I’ve not had chance to do more than one brief reply (to my shame), but they’re all worth reading and throw up both some well reasoned counter opinions and different takes in support of my own.
ISSUE 234
1989
COMMENT
This week also sees the conclusion of the Micromasters competition, with the option for kids who haven’t been here for each of the last three issues to have a chance of winning by answering some surprisingly difficult questions about the history of the comic aimed at long term readers (“Who caused Lord Straxus to lose his head?” and “Who rebuilt Bumblebee into Goldbug?””), they’re filled in on my copy and the original owner could only manage 7 out of ten, with one understandable wrong answer in “Megatron” to the Straxus question based on recent reprints.
Oddly the answer section leaves enough space for multiple names on the questions that require them (“Name the three heroines from Ladies Night”), except for the second on the names of all the Stunticons where you can barely fit Menasor in. The kid who owned my copy before has had to scrawl the others over the rest of the form.
Next week, wresting with Deathbringer and wrestling with actual wrestlers as we reach the end of an era and the start of the final Uncle Bob story!
Also, and unsurprisingly, last week’s piece got a lot of comments of both the yay and nay variety. I’ve not had chance to do more than one brief reply (to my shame), but they’re all worth reading and throw up both some well reasoned counter opinions and different takes in support of my own.
ISSUE 234
1989
COMMENT
