If You Love Someone, Set Them Free.
Issue 236: The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship! Part 1/Deathbringer Part 2. 16th September 1989.
Mythical monsters aren’t what I’m looking for!
At this point we’re almost bang on the 5th anniversary of the first UK issue of Transformers. Five years since that opening mini-series that was not only edited by Bob Budiansky but was basically written by him. Since then he’s had 52 stories credited to him (that’s 48 on the main American series and four for Headmasters) has had to write profiles for hundreds of characters and had to edit the film and Universe books.
Because as Transformers fans we’re used to writers being in it for the long haul—be it Furman basically having made a career out of the franchise or the likes of James Roberts and John Barber coming to it as fans who’ve waited all their lives to do this—I think it’s easy to forget that’s a very long time and an awful lot of material for a writer to put out on a licensed property.
We’ve talked about the long burn out Budiansky has gone through, how he was pretty much desperate to hand the reigns over to anyone by this point and would have quite happily jumped ship years ago if he could. What gets mentioned less though, if how he has generally managed to stay professional throughout. There have been low points and some very obvious bad days, but even as recently as last week he was clearly trying to do the best he could and actually producing some fun if not Earth shattering material. It’s very much the case that he didn’t immediately give up the second the Prime’s Head arc was finished as you often see people claim.
Mythical monsters aren’t what I’m looking for!
At this point we’re almost bang on the 5th anniversary of the first UK issue of Transformers. Five years since that opening mini-series that was not only edited by Bob Budiansky but was basically written by him. Since then he’s had 52 stories credited to him (that’s 48 on the main American series and four for Headmasters) has had to write profiles for hundreds of characters and had to edit the film and Universe books.
Because as Transformers fans we’re used to writers being in it for the long haul—be it Furman basically having made a career out of the franchise or the likes of James Roberts and John Barber coming to it as fans who’ve waited all their lives to do this—I think it’s easy to forget that’s a very long time and an awful lot of material for a writer to put out on a licensed property.
We’ve talked about the long burn out Budiansky has gone through, how he was pretty much desperate to hand the reigns over to anyone by this point and would have quite happily jumped ship years ago if he could. What gets mentioned less though, if how he has generally managed to stay professional throughout. There have been low points and some very obvious bad days, but even as recently as last week he was clearly trying to do the best he could and actually producing some fun if not Earth shattering material. It’s very much the case that he didn’t immediately give up the second the Prime’s Head arc was finished as you often see people claim.
"So you know this robot?"
But now the prison sentence is over, he’s dumped the job on the first person to have walked past and said “yes”, all he needs to do is produce one final issue and he’s gone. Perhaps surprisingly in this context he actually makes more work for himself by drawing part of The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship! (pages 1-10, and thanks to the American credits being repeated exactly on each part he’ll be drawing pages 1-10 of each six page instalment of the UK version), which suggests this might not be the running out the door hastily thrown together pap the behind the scenes circumstances might make you think would be the case.
However, if there was any hope Budiansky had some residual fondness for Transformers and is going to produce a grand farewell is quickly dispelled when it becomes clear he’s just decided to produce an issue of another franchise entirely. I mentioned before that Cecilia Santiago has more than the whiff of April O’Neil about her, and the opening here as Roadhandler (one word again) goes on her TV chat show and talks about how he and his three brothers (well, plus the Off-Road Patrol as well I suppose, but they’re literally just there) have become a young hot-headed crime fighting team in New York. Who does that remind you of?
To an extent, as with the main theme of the issue, this does show Bob trying to engage with newer, younger readers by writing an issue in the style of the favourite of the moment. But it also feels desperate and like an author who is clearly more a fan of old films and rock music than heroes in a half-shelf. And let’s face it, Roadhandler is no Raphael.
Despite the general disinterest in doing a Transformers story, it is nice to finally have the book come down on the side of everyone knowing about the giant alien robots. Though considering the government’s prior stance you have to wonder how a Cybertronian can do a highly publicised TV appearance without RAAT turning up (though Furman will explain this later), or how Circuit Breaker could have missed it. And whilst Roadhandler takes some justified pride in having done so much to build bridges with simple crime-fighting, it seems odd the people of New York would seem to react with nothing much more negative than an accusation of being a potential threat considering that from their point of view the Transformers have done nothing but try and kill them over the years.
Though Cecilia having a badly drawn picture of Optimus Prime rather than a photo is gloriously kitsch.
However, if there was any hope Budiansky had some residual fondness for Transformers and is going to produce a grand farewell is quickly dispelled when it becomes clear he’s just decided to produce an issue of another franchise entirely. I mentioned before that Cecilia Santiago has more than the whiff of April O’Neil about her, and the opening here as Roadhandler (one word again) goes on her TV chat show and talks about how he and his three brothers (well, plus the Off-Road Patrol as well I suppose, but they’re literally just there) have become a young hot-headed crime fighting team in New York. Who does that remind you of?
To an extent, as with the main theme of the issue, this does show Bob trying to engage with newer, younger readers by writing an issue in the style of the favourite of the moment. But it also feels desperate and like an author who is clearly more a fan of old films and rock music than heroes in a half-shelf. And let’s face it, Roadhandler is no Raphael.
Despite the general disinterest in doing a Transformers story, it is nice to finally have the book come down on the side of everyone knowing about the giant alien robots. Though considering the government’s prior stance you have to wonder how a Cybertronian can do a highly publicised TV appearance without RAAT turning up (though Furman will explain this later), or how Circuit Breaker could have missed it. And whilst Roadhandler takes some justified pride in having done so much to build bridges with simple crime-fighting, it seems odd the people of New York would seem to react with nothing much more negative than an accusation of being a potential threat considering that from their point of view the Transformers have done nothing but try and kill them over the years.
Though Cecilia having a badly drawn picture of Optimus Prime rather than a photo is gloriously kitsch.
"And if this world runs out of lovers..."
The plot of the story comes from one of Cecilia’s other guests. Sadly not Flo Roccoco, the Bird Lady of Broklyn, but wrestler Jake “The Jackhammer” Jackson. In theory wrestling is just as valid a popular trend for Bob to throw the Autobots into as any of those he’s done previously, but whilst even his computer knowledge showed some awareness of the basics this (apparently the result of a Marvel office day out) is another “Kids like this right?” bit of desperation.
The shame here is it’s actually one of the more sensible genre mesh-ups. American wrestling is heightened melodrama and it feels more than likely that when real robots reach that stage they’ll do a storyline where one does sign up for WWE. But Bob’s adversarial position only helps to put him against the reader who loves the sweaty men in pants genre of entertainment.
This is shown by Jackhammer’s attitude. His persona is clearly that of what I believe is called a “Heel”, and he uses the show to goad Roadhandler into agreeing to a fight between the two of them. Which by itself is appropriate (though you have to roll with him doing this off his own back rather than it being agreed beforehand), but immediately after the show is over he’s all friendly and Cecilia has to explain to Roadhandler that it was a fake performance.
Now, kids who love wrestling completely buy into the reality of it, so for a story to flat out say it’s all fake is immediately going to put them against it. The same goes for when Roadhandler goes down to Aheics this have done nothing but try and kill them overrnie’s Gym and practices some fake moves the Jake that will let the human lift him. It makes wrestling seem small and seedy and not worth the time of the Transformers.
Now, there might be a certain reality to that (and I’m certainly no wrestling fan myself), but it doesn’t make for an especially engaging story and it can’t help but feel like a dying franchise snarling at something more popular.
So what does work here? A joke about Swindler presenting himself as Roadhandler’s agent. And Jake’s agent looking exactly like the camp gay black stereotype from the classic movie Mannequin. And from an out of fiction perspective, Cecilia encouraging Roadhandler to give it up and telling him he doesn’t have to go through with what he promised only for him to ignore her through pride feels very meta. But otherwise it’s slim pickings.
Bob seems to be having more fun on art than on writing, though with such a basic set up there’s real little chance to show-off. Which considering the bonkers potential in Robot Wrestling can only be a disappointment.
The shame here is it’s actually one of the more sensible genre mesh-ups. American wrestling is heightened melodrama and it feels more than likely that when real robots reach that stage they’ll do a storyline where one does sign up for WWE. But Bob’s adversarial position only helps to put him against the reader who loves the sweaty men in pants genre of entertainment.
This is shown by Jackhammer’s attitude. His persona is clearly that of what I believe is called a “Heel”, and he uses the show to goad Roadhandler into agreeing to a fight between the two of them. Which by itself is appropriate (though you have to roll with him doing this off his own back rather than it being agreed beforehand), but immediately after the show is over he’s all friendly and Cecilia has to explain to Roadhandler that it was a fake performance.
Now, kids who love wrestling completely buy into the reality of it, so for a story to flat out say it’s all fake is immediately going to put them against it. The same goes for when Roadhandler goes down to Aheics this have done nothing but try and kill them overrnie’s Gym and practices some fake moves the Jake that will let the human lift him. It makes wrestling seem small and seedy and not worth the time of the Transformers.
Now, there might be a certain reality to that (and I’m certainly no wrestling fan myself), but it doesn’t make for an especially engaging story and it can’t help but feel like a dying franchise snarling at something more popular.
So what does work here? A joke about Swindler presenting himself as Roadhandler’s agent. And Jake’s agent looking exactly like the camp gay black stereotype from the classic movie Mannequin. And from an out of fiction perspective, Cecilia encouraging Roadhandler to give it up and telling him he doesn’t have to go through with what he promised only for him to ignore her through pride feels very meta. But otherwise it’s slim pickings.
Bob seems to be having more fun on art than on writing, though with such a basic set up there’s real little chance to show-off. Which considering the bonkers potential in Robot Wrestling can only be a disappointment.
This is actually going to be one of the better days for Autobot/matrix fragments encounters.
As touched upon last week, Deathbringer may well be the darkest story the original comic ever did. And as the second part opens with multiple buildings in the city centre smoulding wrecks it’s very obvious this story must have the highest human death toll of anything pre-G2. Oddly when IDW would rather pointlessly (even if it gave us some nice Geoff Senior art) revisit this for ReGeneration One it would downplay this by setting the sequence at night (something that may or may not be the case in the black and white version) after most of the people working in those office blocks would have gone home.
Continuing the trend of Furman using the new UK format to test out ideas for the American book, here he sets into play the anguish that will torment Optimus throughout all his future encounters with the Matrix. He sees the Deathbringer is a danger, but it’s the only link to their lost totem, and how can he destroy it when finding the sacred life force is the only way of restoring so many?
He also has to deal with feeling violated, this thing has clearly been messing about with his old body and has taken something once precious to him.
This paralysis gives Siren of all characters the chance to shine as he takes charge and flat out says it doesn’t matter what the creature is, it’s a menace to all and must be stopped. Which actually helps bring Optimus round (pleasingly, as being too introspective and conflicted is often a criticism of Furman’s take on the character) to the point of bunging a rock at it.
This dark inner turmoil is accompanied by some brutal panels of Autobots (including, again, getaway) being blasted aside by casual waves of Death Bringer’s hands. I bet those Pretenders wish they’d bought their shells now (as this extends to Waverider—who wasn’t in the first half—this oddly suggests the lack of shells was a scripting choice rather than something either artist came up with).
Nightbeat isn’t the sort of guy to take things lying down though. In a sequence that will be paid homage to in More Than Meets the Eye by his initial attempts to rationalise the Necrobot, he refuses to believe in the mythical Deathbringer and gets on the SPACE phone to the Ark and has the otherwise useless Waverider get on SPACE Wikipedia to look up the term, which comes back with two hits (Citation Needed).
Deathbringer is also the name of a medical mechanoid that practises euthanasia. It doesn’t flat out use the word (He “Ends suffering”), but this is still incredibly mature material for a kids comic, even one where the core readership is probably in their early teens by now. What is especially grown up is how accepting of the idea the book is, at the end Prime is at pains to point out the Deathbringer was simply an innocent being doing a worthy job that didn’t deserve what happened to it.
Continuing the trend of Furman using the new UK format to test out ideas for the American book, here he sets into play the anguish that will torment Optimus throughout all his future encounters with the Matrix. He sees the Deathbringer is a danger, but it’s the only link to their lost totem, and how can he destroy it when finding the sacred life force is the only way of restoring so many?
He also has to deal with feeling violated, this thing has clearly been messing about with his old body and has taken something once precious to him.
This paralysis gives Siren of all characters the chance to shine as he takes charge and flat out says it doesn’t matter what the creature is, it’s a menace to all and must be stopped. Which actually helps bring Optimus round (pleasingly, as being too introspective and conflicted is often a criticism of Furman’s take on the character) to the point of bunging a rock at it.
This dark inner turmoil is accompanied by some brutal panels of Autobots (including, again, getaway) being blasted aside by casual waves of Death Bringer’s hands. I bet those Pretenders wish they’d bought their shells now (as this extends to Waverider—who wasn’t in the first half—this oddly suggests the lack of shells was a scripting choice rather than something either artist came up with).
Nightbeat isn’t the sort of guy to take things lying down though. In a sequence that will be paid homage to in More Than Meets the Eye by his initial attempts to rationalise the Necrobot, he refuses to believe in the mythical Deathbringer and gets on the SPACE phone to the Ark and has the otherwise useless Waverider get on SPACE Wikipedia to look up the term, which comes back with two hits (Citation Needed).
Deathbringer is also the name of a medical mechanoid that practises euthanasia. It doesn’t flat out use the word (He “Ends suffering”), but this is still incredibly mature material for a kids comic, even one where the core readership is probably in their early teens by now. What is especially grown up is how accepting of the idea the book is, at the end Prime is at pains to point out the Deathbringer was simply an innocent being doing a worthy job that didn’t deserve what happened to it.
The future of the NHS under the Tories.
What does happen to it is the Captain Kirk Computer Gambit (which is fitting as the corruption of its “End suffering” program that’s resulted in it killing so many people is clearly inspired by the original series episode The Changeling), the Matrix energy is eating away at the mechanoid, so—after some prompting from Nightbeat—Optimus encourages it to follow its own Prime Directive and cease its suffering. Causing a massive explosion and a downbeat ending as not only has a blameless being been corrupted and killed and not only have they lost a lead to the Matrix, there’s obviously something gone very wrong with the glowing disco ball for it to have done this.
This story has been an absolute belter, managing to balance action and character and advance the forthcoming overall plot whilst still telling a tight self-contained story. If there’s a flaw here it’s that we’ll have to wait over a year for it to be followed up on (the Americans only have to wait six months, but they don’t know there’s anything to be followed up on!), this increased lag between the American and UK stories is one of the reasons this sort of attempt to tie the two together is going to end fairly soon.
On art we welcome Staz/Stewart Johnson aboard, a man who even today has hair that looks as if he’s been going around stealing the hair of all the balding Transformers creators whilst they sleep. If you’d have held a gun to my head and asked me who drew this beforehand I’d have confidently said Geoff Senior did the entire story, and Staz certainly manages a nice style that feels like a Senior/Jeff Anderson hybrid. The only real flaw with his work is he draws Powermaster Prime with the head at the same oversized scale to the body as the toy, which tends to make him look lovably cute rather than commanding or tormented. Otherwise though this is a very strong début on the series, especially as I’ve seen him talk about being another artist who was initially confused as to how big Transformers are supposed to be and having to go back and change things like them hiding in doorways.
This story has been an absolute belter, managing to balance action and character and advance the forthcoming overall plot whilst still telling a tight self-contained story. If there’s a flaw here it’s that we’ll have to wait over a year for it to be followed up on (the Americans only have to wait six months, but they don’t know there’s anything to be followed up on!), this increased lag between the American and UK stories is one of the reasons this sort of attempt to tie the two together is going to end fairly soon.
On art we welcome Staz/Stewart Johnson aboard, a man who even today has hair that looks as if he’s been going around stealing the hair of all the balding Transformers creators whilst they sleep. If you’d have held a gun to my head and asked me who drew this beforehand I’d have confidently said Geoff Senior did the entire story, and Staz certainly manages a nice style that feels like a Senior/Jeff Anderson hybrid. The only real flaw with his work is he draws Powermaster Prime with the head at the same oversized scale to the body as the toy, which tends to make him look lovably cute rather than commanding or tormented. Otherwise though this is a very strong début on the series, especially as I’ve seen him talk about being another artist who was initially confused as to how big Transformers are supposed to be and having to go back and change things like them hiding in doorways.
Also note the use of an old cover for the image rather than one from the issue itself.
To be blunt, Transformation clearly and unashamedly thinks the Budiansky story is terrible and makes no attempt to hide it. After devoting a third of the main page to hyping Deathbinger, we’re told “After that massive build-up, it’s hardly worth mentioning anything else in the comic...but we will anyway”. The American story then gets a sentence pointing out the title is quite long (which explains what the UK team will do to it for the next three weeks) before moving on to Action Force. Disinterested contempt is not the word. Meanwhile, the sidebar promises the long awaited return of the Mechannibals in issue 240.
Combat Colin stops The Amazing Dave’s bazooka with his garlic curry sandwich breath. We all know someone like that. Oddly Dave then turns out to also be Mountain Man from back in issue 214, which feels like it comes out of nowhere, as if Stringer realised after ending the first part on a cliffhanger he hadn’t enough material to fill an entire extra page. After Dave/Man is defeated by the dramatic Earthquake gun we do get a good gag of Colin using the Combat Earplugs to avoid listening to Steve’s avalanche of puns.
On Dread Tidings Jan Deacon from Tamworth asks why Optimus wasn’t changed by the Underbase light back in issue 197 (presumably Jan sent this in before seeing the conclusion to the Underbase or they’d be asking the same about Prime and Scorponok there). Though Dreadwind’s answer of him not being exposed for long enough makes sense, some of the physiological changes Prime will be going through as the series goes along might suggest something was done to him. But that’s my fan theory for another time.
Jan also asks for reassurance they’re not too old to be reading the book at 20, to which he points out he’s four million and still a reader.
David Philips from Pentyrch uses the threat of turning the page into a coffee mat to ask why Rodimus looks so old in Aspects of Evil but fine in Peace! Today Peace! is *Rolls Dice* canon so the explanation is Rodimus was just ill in the former and better by the later.
After a solid two weeks of good answers, Dreadwind fails at the final hurdle after being goaded to provide “Sensible” answers to the questions of Douglas Grannell from Newcastle-U-Lyme. So we get an over literal explanation of Six Changers and a “Your guess is as good as mine!” response to when Visionaries is coming back. Meaning I can once again say Dreadwind Fails to Answer Questions Properly!
Combat Colin stops The Amazing Dave’s bazooka with his garlic curry sandwich breath. We all know someone like that. Oddly Dave then turns out to also be Mountain Man from back in issue 214, which feels like it comes out of nowhere, as if Stringer realised after ending the first part on a cliffhanger he hadn’t enough material to fill an entire extra page. After Dave/Man is defeated by the dramatic Earthquake gun we do get a good gag of Colin using the Combat Earplugs to avoid listening to Steve’s avalanche of puns.
On Dread Tidings Jan Deacon from Tamworth asks why Optimus wasn’t changed by the Underbase light back in issue 197 (presumably Jan sent this in before seeing the conclusion to the Underbase or they’d be asking the same about Prime and Scorponok there). Though Dreadwind’s answer of him not being exposed for long enough makes sense, some of the physiological changes Prime will be going through as the series goes along might suggest something was done to him. But that’s my fan theory for another time.
Jan also asks for reassurance they’re not too old to be reading the book at 20, to which he points out he’s four million and still a reader.
David Philips from Pentyrch uses the threat of turning the page into a coffee mat to ask why Rodimus looks so old in Aspects of Evil but fine in Peace! Today Peace! is *Rolls Dice* canon so the explanation is Rodimus was just ill in the former and better by the later.
After a solid two weeks of good answers, Dreadwind fails at the final hurdle after being goaded to provide “Sensible” answers to the questions of Douglas Grannell from Newcastle-U-Lyme. So we get an over literal explanation of Six Changers and a “Your guess is as good as mine!” response to when Visionaries is coming back. Meaning I can once again say Dreadwind Fails to Answer Questions Properly!
The future of American counter-terrorism under Trump.
Action Force (interestingly as I write this I’ve just read a puff piece for IDW’s coming relaunch of the title that tries to make a thing of it being the first time G.I. Joe has been an international organisation. I guess even if they’re doing a letter of the law kind of truth with Action Force they must not be fans of the films) begins a new story from issue 66 of two plots. The first is a dull Plausible Deniabilty mission to Madeupcommieland to rescue a journalist that is made morbidly interesting by the foreign disguises the team will take on including the pale faced redhead Outback passing himself off as an Arab. It’ll be interesting to see how they manage that in future weeks. Luckily Snow-Job, the other pale skinned redhead who looks almost identical to Outback bar the later having a sweatband, is only going to have to pretend to be Finnish rather than suddenly becoming a dead ringer for a Japanese man.
The other plot is more interesting and sets up the promised death, even if this instalment doesn’t quite reach it. Billy now remembers everything his father did, but forgives him and goes to leave the garage with the promise on his honour he won’t reveal its location. This doesn’t convince Fred and Raptor who try to stop him but are no match for a myopic one legged boy because HE’S A NINJA. Which creates a cliffhanger of Cobra Commander having to chose whether to shot him or not... Despite the silly ninja stuff, there’s some genuine emotion here in this father/son confrontation and it’s easily the most engaging the backup has been in months.
Next week we catch up with some old friends as the Mayhem’s drop by to say hi to their renegade ex-members...
ISSUE 235
1989
COMMENT
The other plot is more interesting and sets up the promised death, even if this instalment doesn’t quite reach it. Billy now remembers everything his father did, but forgives him and goes to leave the garage with the promise on his honour he won’t reveal its location. This doesn’t convince Fred and Raptor who try to stop him but are no match for a myopic one legged boy because HE’S A NINJA. Which creates a cliffhanger of Cobra Commander having to chose whether to shot him or not... Despite the silly ninja stuff, there’s some genuine emotion here in this father/son confrontation and it’s easily the most engaging the backup has been in months.
Next week we catch up with some old friends as the Mayhem’s drop by to say hi to their renegade ex-members...
ISSUE 235
1989
COMMENT
