School's Out For Summer.
Issue 245: The Resurrection Gambit! Part 3*/Underworld!
No Autobot warrior takes his initiation in the Underworld nowadays! They went out with the Ark!
*Again, the title is shortened to just “Gambit”.
By one of those strange little coincidences, between this week’s Transformation and the next, the hardback from the Hachette Partwork containing the American arc I’m currently talking about will be in shops. Hopefully therefore furious Googling from the legions of new fans brought aboard by that series will see them reading this in amazed awe.
Hello there new people who may, or may not, be the product of my imagination! Let’s hope your initiation into the fandom goes a little better than Tailgate’s into the Autobots in the second of the two stories I’m talking about this week.
No Autobot warrior takes his initiation in the Underworld nowadays! They went out with the Ark!
*Again, the title is shortened to just “Gambit”.
By one of those strange little coincidences, between this week’s Transformation and the next, the hardback from the Hachette Partwork containing the American arc I’m currently talking about will be in shops. Hopefully therefore furious Googling from the legions of new fans brought aboard by that series will see them reading this in amazed awe.
Hello there new people who may, or may not, be the product of my imagination! Let’s hope your initiation into the fandom goes a little better than Tailgate’s into the Autobots in the second of the two stories I’m talking about this week.
The surprising thing about the conclusion to The Resurrection Gambit! is that—with only a perfunctory visit to the Ratchet plot—the Earth side of things is the most interesting for the first time.
I’ve said before that what everyone forgets about Marvel Prime is that, whilst he could be introspective and self-doubting, he would almost always deal with any emotional difficulties with his fists in a way that would make the Bay version looks restrained in comparison. Here it’s interesting that it’s the perceived threat to Ratchet that really yanks his chain, I think it’s been years since we’ve seen the two interact (possibly even as far back as the headless arc?), but this re-establishment of how close they are as friends is going to be important for the first story dealing with the aftermath of all this.
So we get some wonderful pages of Optimus Prime unleashed, screaming “I’ve had enough with talking! You want a fight? Well, by Primus, You’re gonna get one!”. Followed by demonstration of a one man army of violence that reminds you of how effective he was back in Crisis of Command!, the highlight of which is him picking up a jet and twatting Skullgrin with it.
Yes, it reminds you that bringing everyone was a bit pointless when he’s so dangerous by himself (though the others do try and join in, though Blurr Vs Mindwipe is lacking some of the pleasing insanity of the pairings Uncle Bob was giving us towards the end), but the fact even Scorponok is scared of what he’s seeing is a good way of showing just how dangerous Optimus can be if you piss him off. It’s almost a shame the local General ruins the fun by pointing out to Prime that his throwing Decepticons into buildings is coming close (and probably in fact does, though it’s not outright stated) killing humans. Which gets a sheepish “Oh yeah, violence is a last resort” realisation, which is a pity because if Prime did this sort of thing more often he’d have won this war by now.
I’ve said before that what everyone forgets about Marvel Prime is that, whilst he could be introspective and self-doubting, he would almost always deal with any emotional difficulties with his fists in a way that would make the Bay version looks restrained in comparison. Here it’s interesting that it’s the perceived threat to Ratchet that really yanks his chain, I think it’s been years since we’ve seen the two interact (possibly even as far back as the headless arc?), but this re-establishment of how close they are as friends is going to be important for the first story dealing with the aftermath of all this.
So we get some wonderful pages of Optimus Prime unleashed, screaming “I’ve had enough with talking! You want a fight? Well, by Primus, You’re gonna get one!”. Followed by demonstration of a one man army of violence that reminds you of how effective he was back in Crisis of Command!, the highlight of which is him picking up a jet and twatting Skullgrin with it.
Yes, it reminds you that bringing everyone was a bit pointless when he’s so dangerous by himself (though the others do try and join in, though Blurr Vs Mindwipe is lacking some of the pleasing insanity of the pairings Uncle Bob was giving us towards the end), but the fact even Scorponok is scared of what he’s seeing is a good way of showing just how dangerous Optimus can be if you piss him off. It’s almost a shame the local General ruins the fun by pointing out to Prime that his throwing Decepticons into buildings is coming close (and probably in fact does, though it’s not outright stated) killing humans. Which gets a sheepish “Oh yeah, violence is a last resort” realisation, which is a pity because if Prime did this sort of thing more often he’d have won this war by now.
Of the other things to note in this this sequence the major is that the Air Strike Patrol run away, much to Scorponok’s disgust. As they’ll never be seen again and the comic is very quickly going to lose all interest in Micromasters they basically get away scot-free with their involvement here.
The second, as you’ll have seen from the quote above, is that this is the first mention of Primus in the American comic. Which is done in such a casual way I’ve never even noticed it as such before. This is obviously set up for what Furman has planned for the Americans and is far more natural feeling than how the character’s name will next crop up.
On Cybertron, we just get some simple stuff of it being made clear to Ratchet the other three shells won’t be used in this project (which sets his mind thinking) and he’s introduced to his patient, the instrument of Megatron’s revenge: Starscream!
Of course, for British readers this will have been fairly obvious. But it is strange that Megatron regards Starscream as his “Traitorous ex-lieutenant” when for the 100-ish issues they were both around in the comic Starscream tried to betray him about...twice. Three times if you include Megatron backhanding him for cheek in the original miniseries. They’ve almost no relationship at all as far as Marvel is concerned, if Megatron really wanted to do irony by making an enemy his tool he’d have been more likely to go for Shockwave.
Still, the throwaway gag from Darkwind about Mecaniballs is the best tie-in to a British story in this entire arc.
This instalment may not have much depth, but seeing Prime let go is always good value and even if Delbo doesn’t quite pull off all the action (at one point it looks as if Scorponok is knocking him back into the Delbo pose after trying to adopt a different posture) it’s still good old fashioned fisticuffs.
The second, as you’ll have seen from the quote above, is that this is the first mention of Primus in the American comic. Which is done in such a casual way I’ve never even noticed it as such before. This is obviously set up for what Furman has planned for the Americans and is far more natural feeling than how the character’s name will next crop up.
On Cybertron, we just get some simple stuff of it being made clear to Ratchet the other three shells won’t be used in this project (which sets his mind thinking) and he’s introduced to his patient, the instrument of Megatron’s revenge: Starscream!
Of course, for British readers this will have been fairly obvious. But it is strange that Megatron regards Starscream as his “Traitorous ex-lieutenant” when for the 100-ish issues they were both around in the comic Starscream tried to betray him about...twice. Three times if you include Megatron backhanding him for cheek in the original miniseries. They’ve almost no relationship at all as far as Marvel is concerned, if Megatron really wanted to do irony by making an enemy his tool he’d have been more likely to go for Shockwave.
Still, the throwaway gag from Darkwind about Mecaniballs is the best tie-in to a British story in this entire arc.
This instalment may not have much depth, but seeing Prime let go is always good value and even if Delbo doesn’t quite pull off all the action (at one point it looks as if Scorponok is knocking him back into the Delbo pose after trying to adopt a different posture) it’s still good old fashioned fisticuffs.
The British story kicks off a little “Mini-Epic” (as Transformation calls it) which will wind up having consequences for the American series as well. Though unlike the efforts of the last two weeks this seems to have been unintentional. It’ll be a couple of years before the ideas here make the shift over the Atlantic and only at a point where Furman wasn’t expecting there to be a next American issue and may well have been having to rustle through old plots for something to throw together quickly.
Underworld! (not to be confused with either the Tom Baker Doctor Who story or the underwear factory in Corrie that Gareth Roberts named after it) is on the surface a very simple horror story. Some teens (Tailgate, Subsea and Flattop. Only one of them has a toy—even if Flattop is also a name a Decepticon will use—guess who makes it out alive?) go into a place with a scary mythology behind it on a dare and are killed off one by one by the monsters down there, before concluding with a “The end...or IS IT?!?!?!” note. Throw in some gratuitous breasts and it could be any scary movie of the period.
The conceit though is a good one, and there’s some great casual world building here. The idea Autobot cadets would have once had a private school style initiation ceremony of going down into the abandoned urban myth filled sewers is a good one, and when Pipes and Outback (still a cadet, poor bastard. Saving Optimus counts for nothing it seems) discuss it and the stupidity of their colleagues up on the surface there’s also some nice throwaway slang of describing the ceremony as having gone out “with the Ark”.
Underworld! (not to be confused with either the Tom Baker Doctor Who story or the underwear factory in Corrie that Gareth Roberts named after it) is on the surface a very simple horror story. Some teens (Tailgate, Subsea and Flattop. Only one of them has a toy—even if Flattop is also a name a Decepticon will use—guess who makes it out alive?) go into a place with a scary mythology behind it on a dare and are killed off one by one by the monsters down there, before concluding with a “The end...or IS IT?!?!?!” note. Throw in some gratuitous breasts and it could be any scary movie of the period.
The conceit though is a good one, and there’s some great casual world building here. The idea Autobot cadets would have once had a private school style initiation ceremony of going down into the abandoned urban myth filled sewers is a good one, and when Pipes and Outback (still a cadet, poor bastard. Saving Optimus counts for nothing it seems) discuss it and the stupidity of their colleagues up on the surface there’s also some nice throwaway slang of describing the ceremony as having gone out “with the Ark”.
The meat though is in the horror scenes. The brutes down in the sewers feel inspired by The Hills Have Eyes, a motley collection of disgusting looking Transformers who enjoy picking off and killing anyone who wanders past. This is effectively Jeff Anderson’s story and he produces what may be his best art to date. Not only are all the designs for the mutants well done (I especially like Warhead, who literally has a tank for a head like a Gobot) but the art is dark and scratchy in a way that’s unprecedented for him. I don’t know if he was trying to match the style of the story or he’s finally got the memo about the black and white format, but it really works here. Anderson is normally the old reliable of the comic, but here (like Prime in the opening) it feels like he’s been unleashed.
The casual brutality of the death’s of the two non-toys is so well done it’s almost a shame Tailgate becomes angry enough to win the fight by himself without the help of Pipes and Outback, thus passing his self-imposed initiation. But the final stinger of there being much worse creatures down there and them getting to feast on the dead bodies makes for an effective ending and sets up the next two weeks nicely.
As with zombies, this neatly shows horror tropes can work very well with Transformers and though it’s first and foremost dependant on the art rather than the plot, the art is good enough to make the whole thing work very well.
And yes, from a modern perspective, Tailgate as a naive youth who does an ancient ceremony out of peer pressure that nearly gets him killed is most amusing (Subsea even looks like a one horned Cyclonus). Same goes for Pipes having enough sense not to get into the fight with the big scary psychopaths and deciding watching is much less deflating. All in all a pretty good random use of slightly old toys that otherwise have been ignored by the book.
The casual brutality of the death’s of the two non-toys is so well done it’s almost a shame Tailgate becomes angry enough to win the fight by himself without the help of Pipes and Outback, thus passing his self-imposed initiation. But the final stinger of there being much worse creatures down there and them getting to feast on the dead bodies makes for an effective ending and sets up the next two weeks nicely.
As with zombies, this neatly shows horror tropes can work very well with Transformers and though it’s first and foremost dependant on the art rather than the plot, the art is good enough to make the whole thing work very well.
And yes, from a modern perspective, Tailgate as a naive youth who does an ancient ceremony out of peer pressure that nearly gets him killed is most amusing (Subsea even looks like a one horned Cyclonus). Same goes for Pipes having enough sense not to get into the fight with the big scary psychopaths and deciding watching is much less deflating. All in all a pretty good random use of slightly old toys that otherwise have been ignored by the book.
The excitement on the Transformation page comes from the sidebar this week, where we get a clear idea of what the UK team consider important. So top billing is given over to explaining that Combat Colin is spoofing The Prisoner. Presumably someone felt this was needed for younger readers, but it’s a shame they felt it had to be spelt out as the story works regardless of prior knowledge.
Second is the free mini-comic explaining the re-branding of Action Force...err...I mean the historic joining of Action Force and G.I. Joe.
So, to deal with those two things in the order the comic cares about them:
The spoof of the Prisoner continues to be very precise with the inclusion of dialogue from the title sequence (“What do you want?”, “We want information!”, “You’ve got me trousers, isn’t that enough?”). As the Village was a prison for retired spies, so The Place is home to old Lew Stringer characters, most notably (as his inclusion saw this reprinted in one of his own collections) Brickman. Though he doesn’t remember who he is any more.
The wardens meanwhile are all of Colin’s major foes except one...who is Number One...The Brain! Who is after the secret of the Combat Trousers. Which makes more sense than Patrick McGoohan in a monkey mask. This continues to be great fun, and I especially like the check trousers Colin is given to keep his legs warm (plus the reaction of the also kidnapped Giggly Sisters to his bare knees. Which is to giggle).
The bonus comic meanwhile sees Hasbro attempt to save money (though they probably called it something like “Global brand synergy”) by ending the practice of G.I. Joe having a different name and slightly different back-stories for the characters so they could just release the toys over here with no changes. With it being such an established brand however this is going to be done carefully, with the franchise known as G.I. Joe: The Action Force for a while before the name changes fully.
Second is the free mini-comic explaining the re-branding of Action Force...err...I mean the historic joining of Action Force and G.I. Joe.
So, to deal with those two things in the order the comic cares about them:
The spoof of the Prisoner continues to be very precise with the inclusion of dialogue from the title sequence (“What do you want?”, “We want information!”, “You’ve got me trousers, isn’t that enough?”). As the Village was a prison for retired spies, so The Place is home to old Lew Stringer characters, most notably (as his inclusion saw this reprinted in one of his own collections) Brickman. Though he doesn’t remember who he is any more.
The wardens meanwhile are all of Colin’s major foes except one...who is Number One...The Brain! Who is after the secret of the Combat Trousers. Which makes more sense than Patrick McGoohan in a monkey mask. This continues to be great fun, and I especially like the check trousers Colin is given to keep his legs warm (plus the reaction of the also kidnapped Giggly Sisters to his bare knees. Which is to giggle).
The bonus comic meanwhile sees Hasbro attempt to save money (though they probably called it something like “Global brand synergy”) by ending the practice of G.I. Joe having a different name and slightly different back-stories for the characters so they could just release the toys over here with no changes. With it being such an established brand however this is going to be done carefully, with the franchise known as G.I. Joe: The Action Force for a while before the name changes fully.
The brief three page comic (written by Dan Abnett and drawn by Stewart Johnson in what I think is the first instance of him being credited by his full name) Divided We Fall! therefore has to pull of a retcon worthy of Two Megatrons!
So despite the fact that for the last two years Action Force has just been the altered name of the G.I. Joe team, it now turns out there are actually two, separate counter-terrorist forces. One British and one American. Which Cobra are now routinely beating at every turn. Meaning Joe leader Hawk and Forcies leader Flint decide to combine the two groups into G.I. Joe: The Action Force!
Obviously this isn’t really meant to be in continuity despite some effort to make things visually tie in to the current reprints (it’s faux-Cobra Commander leading Cobra), but the whole thing still feels a bit forced. Still, if viewed as a toy pack-in comic with no purpose other than to explain the name change it’s perfectly harmless. Though you do have to wonder if the “Action Force has become ridiculous in the eyes of the British public and G.I. Joe is the laughing stock of the States” line is meta commentary.
Considering Action Man was a much loved toy and even the Action Force version has been around for the best part of a decade by this point in its two different iterations, I wonder if there was much slow news day outrage at the “Americanisation” of this British institution?
And what does Snake Eyes bring to a staff meeting?
You also get a full page “Trans-Atlantic Treaty” you can sign in support of saluting the flags of the US and UK. Which is probably how the Trump/May alliance will start, with it going about as well as this re-branding.
The main backup is still Action Force however, and ends with Outback successfully making it across the border in a helicopter. Transformation seems rather glad for this to be over and describes it as the end of the story even though have the Forcies...err...Joes....Joecies are still in prison.
Dreadwind has an odd week, in that there’s not really any answers that are wrong but they’re all very short and generally unhelpful. As if he was on his way out the door for lunch and had to knock this out quickly. Most notably a repeat of the question about where to get back issues from Philip Banks of Cheshire just gets a curt “Specialist shops” rather than the more helpful list of names that was provided last time this came up. There’s also a letter to Hi-Test that is answered in Dreadwind’s purple colour.
Next week I salute the American flag of Classic Pretenders and the British flag of monsters in the sewers.
ISSUE 244
1989
COMMENT
So despite the fact that for the last two years Action Force has just been the altered name of the G.I. Joe team, it now turns out there are actually two, separate counter-terrorist forces. One British and one American. Which Cobra are now routinely beating at every turn. Meaning Joe leader Hawk and Forcies leader Flint decide to combine the two groups into G.I. Joe: The Action Force!
Obviously this isn’t really meant to be in continuity despite some effort to make things visually tie in to the current reprints (it’s faux-Cobra Commander leading Cobra), but the whole thing still feels a bit forced. Still, if viewed as a toy pack-in comic with no purpose other than to explain the name change it’s perfectly harmless. Though you do have to wonder if the “Action Force has become ridiculous in the eyes of the British public and G.I. Joe is the laughing stock of the States” line is meta commentary.
Considering Action Man was a much loved toy and even the Action Force version has been around for the best part of a decade by this point in its two different iterations, I wonder if there was much slow news day outrage at the “Americanisation” of this British institution?
And what does Snake Eyes bring to a staff meeting?
You also get a full page “Trans-Atlantic Treaty” you can sign in support of saluting the flags of the US and UK. Which is probably how the Trump/May alliance will start, with it going about as well as this re-branding.
The main backup is still Action Force however, and ends with Outback successfully making it across the border in a helicopter. Transformation seems rather glad for this to be over and describes it as the end of the story even though have the Forcies...err...Joes....Joecies are still in prison.
Dreadwind has an odd week, in that there’s not really any answers that are wrong but they’re all very short and generally unhelpful. As if he was on his way out the door for lunch and had to knock this out quickly. Most notably a repeat of the question about where to get back issues from Philip Banks of Cheshire just gets a curt “Specialist shops” rather than the more helpful list of names that was provided last time this came up. There’s also a letter to Hi-Test that is answered in Dreadwind’s purple colour.
Next week I salute the American flag of Classic Pretenders and the British flag of monsters in the sewers.
ISSUE 244
1989
COMMENT