Forget About Your Sin, Give the Audience a Grin.
Issue 247: All the Familiar Faces! Part 2/Dawn of Darkness. 2nd December 1989.
There - dumb ‘Cons! Demons killed other dumb ‘Cons! Not us!
Ah, the hilarity of the 28 year long brain fart I exposed to the world last week. One thing all the comments people left both on the blog and twitter showed very clearly was that no one, and I mean no one, has ever seen the cover of #246 as anything other than a reflection in Seawatch’s eye.
So, having completely blotted my copy book for all time there, I can only hope at least one person is still reading.
Still, I’m sure we can all agree this week’s cover is of a cheeky Labrador puppy sodomising the skull of the corpse of Pol Pot, right? No?
Ahem.
I’m never going to live this down. I might as well make a t-shirt of that cover for TFNation (tickets on sale NOW by the by) and walk around wearing it in shame.
More vaguely seriously though, the “We are fighting together!” quote from Life of Brian on the front cover is just fantastic.
There - dumb ‘Cons! Demons killed other dumb ‘Cons! Not us!
Ah, the hilarity of the 28 year long brain fart I exposed to the world last week. One thing all the comments people left both on the blog and twitter showed very clearly was that no one, and I mean no one, has ever seen the cover of #246 as anything other than a reflection in Seawatch’s eye.
So, having completely blotted my copy book for all time there, I can only hope at least one person is still reading.
Still, I’m sure we can all agree this week’s cover is of a cheeky Labrador puppy sodomising the skull of the corpse of Pol Pot, right? No?
Ahem.
I’m never going to live this down. I might as well make a t-shirt of that cover for TFNation (tickets on sale NOW by the by) and walk around wearing it in shame.
More vaguely seriously though, the “We are fighting together!” quote from Life of Brian on the front cover is just fantastic.
Back in 1989 where it had only been a week since I misunderstood the previous cover, and American readers are given their first glimpse of Furman`s fondness for the ‘86 film as All the Familiar Faces! Part 2 opens by playing with one of its key moments.
As the Autobot shuttle prepares to blast off (with its entrance ramp open because screw health and safety), Hot Rod looks back and decides Prime is in trouble and—ignoring the advice of his nearest superior officer—he decides to jump into the fray and save Prime. Luckily it doesn’t end in Optimus' violent death as he’s successfully talked sense into Lord Zarak, but this is a trend that the Autobot leader needs to speak to him about. It could create trouble in the future.
The strength here is in the Zarak/Prime interaction. It’s a little more on the nose than it will later become—Zarak is literally arguing with himself out loud—but it ably shows the conflict between the bloodthirsty Decepticon dedicated to his cause of destroying all Autobots and the sensible if flawed Nebulon scientist we met two years ago that is prepared to listen to the point this is an obvious trap and they need to pool resources. The scene ends before Zarak makes his choice, but the determination in his jaw makes it clear his growing respect for Prime is going to lead to the right decision.
Unfortunately amidst this we get some incredibly poor action art from Delbo. Prime’s chest has been threatening to fall off his waist this entire storyline, and Mindwipe finally makes it happen in the panel that so upsets Hot Rod with a mild push. Then Prime manages to beat off all the Decepticons that have piled on top of him by...doing interpretive dance at them? It’s confusing and something of a shame considering the earlier “Prime goes nuts” pages were highlights of this arc.
As the Autobot shuttle prepares to blast off (with its entrance ramp open because screw health and safety), Hot Rod looks back and decides Prime is in trouble and—ignoring the advice of his nearest superior officer—he decides to jump into the fray and save Prime. Luckily it doesn’t end in Optimus' violent death as he’s successfully talked sense into Lord Zarak, but this is a trend that the Autobot leader needs to speak to him about. It could create trouble in the future.
The strength here is in the Zarak/Prime interaction. It’s a little more on the nose than it will later become—Zarak is literally arguing with himself out loud—but it ably shows the conflict between the bloodthirsty Decepticon dedicated to his cause of destroying all Autobots and the sensible if flawed Nebulon scientist we met two years ago that is prepared to listen to the point this is an obvious trap and they need to pool resources. The scene ends before Zarak makes his choice, but the determination in his jaw makes it clear his growing respect for Prime is going to lead to the right decision.
Unfortunately amidst this we get some incredibly poor action art from Delbo. Prime’s chest has been threatening to fall off his waist this entire storyline, and Mindwipe finally makes it happen in the panel that so upsets Hot Rod with a mild push. Then Prime manages to beat off all the Decepticons that have piled on top of him by...doing interpretive dance at them? It’s confusing and something of a shame considering the earlier “Prime goes nuts” pages were highlights of this arc.
As a continued sign of where Delbo’s interest lies, when we switch to Cybertron the art drastically improves. As well as the continued well executed facial expressions, Megatron is also a nicely intimidating bruiser of a character, looking appropriately menacing when looming over Ratchet.
The plot also finally kicks into high gear. Starscream is all ready to go and is transported to Earth with a blank mind (plus a “Surprise” from Ratchet), Megatron cheerfully admits he’s going to blow up the Ark anyway and Ratchet uses his inbuilt tools—not disabling those when he’s not working on his “patient” is arguably a flaw, but then keeping track of all of a Transformers tricks must be hard—to set of a Race Car Patrol disabling explosion so as to keep people distracted from the main lab. There’s more plot momentum in those three pages than in the entirety of the last seven issue put together.
And it’s all held together by how Furman continues to handle Ratchet brilliantly. He has managed to come up with a plan on the hoof, but Megatron is moving too quickly and he’s desperately having to improvise by the seat of his pants as things fall apart. It’s quite brilliant and makes you regret we’ve seen so little of Ratchet in the last few years. It also makes you worry for him as the issue ends with Megatron looking to shove his fusion cannon down the medic’s throat.
The real shame here is that the strength of these scenes shows up how much meandering we’ve had so far, if the previous part of this arc had been as concise and tense this would be a much better regarded story. I think this is the point where you can really feel Furman`s feet getting comfortable under the table.
The plot also finally kicks into high gear. Starscream is all ready to go and is transported to Earth with a blank mind (plus a “Surprise” from Ratchet), Megatron cheerfully admits he’s going to blow up the Ark anyway and Ratchet uses his inbuilt tools—not disabling those when he’s not working on his “patient” is arguably a flaw, but then keeping track of all of a Transformers tricks must be hard—to set of a Race Car Patrol disabling explosion so as to keep people distracted from the main lab. There’s more plot momentum in those three pages than in the entirety of the last seven issue put together.
And it’s all held together by how Furman continues to handle Ratchet brilliantly. He has managed to come up with a plan on the hoof, but Megatron is moving too quickly and he’s desperately having to improvise by the seat of his pants as things fall apart. It’s quite brilliant and makes you regret we’ve seen so little of Ratchet in the last few years. It also makes you worry for him as the issue ends with Megatron looking to shove his fusion cannon down the medic’s throat.
The real shame here is that the strength of these scenes shows up how much meandering we’ve had so far, if the previous part of this arc had been as concise and tense this would be a much better regarded story. I think this is the point where you can really feel Furman`s feet getting comfortable under the table.
The black and white half of the story however sees someone preparing to remove his feet from the table. After close to four years, the black and white story, Dawn of Darkness, is the final interior work on a UK story by Geoff Senior. After I inadvertently failed to note Lee Sullivan’s last work in issue 238 (as with many of his contemporaries, Marvel US called and he’s currently on Robocop) this can’t pass without comment, even though as far as we Brits are concerned it’s a loss that will have its blow softened by his arrival on the American book.
Senior has—by his own admission—never viewed it as more than a stepping stone in his career kind of job, and has taken two lengthy breaks from the book previously. But he has also done more to define the look and feel of the British stories than any other artist and it is more than fair to say the development of new artists by the editorial team since he made his mark has largely been about Finding the New Geoff Senior. He’s about to have a similar impact on the US series and in doing so will also blow the doors open for the equally talented if very different Andrew Wildman. Mr. Senior, we salute you and the work you’ve done since Crisis of Command!
It’s also worth noting that, with the gradual drift away of the established talent, due to both American work and the likely fact the comic had less money to throw at established faces with established rates (Jeff Anderson will be there till the end, but after him Wildman and Staz will be the elder statesman of the book), we’re going to be seeing various new artists in early 1990 to carry us through the Autumn of the UK stories.
Senior has—by his own admission—never viewed it as more than a stepping stone in his career kind of job, and has taken two lengthy breaks from the book previously. But he has also done more to define the look and feel of the British stories than any other artist and it is more than fair to say the development of new artists by the editorial team since he made his mark has largely been about Finding the New Geoff Senior. He’s about to have a similar impact on the US series and in doing so will also blow the doors open for the equally talented if very different Andrew Wildman. Mr. Senior, we salute you and the work you’ve done since Crisis of Command!
It’s also worth noting that, with the gradual drift away of the established talent, due to both American work and the likely fact the comic had less money to throw at established faces with established rates (Jeff Anderson will be there till the end, but after him Wildman and Staz will be the elder statesman of the book), we’re going to be seeing various new artists in early 1990 to carry us through the Autumn of the UK stories.
For this story, we’re very much in Senior’s debt as it is unashamedly not an adventure about the plot, but an excuse for the artist to show off. The Demons attack, the Autobots and Decepticons team up, Xaaron gets what he needs out of Seawatch about the creatures feeding on energy and turns up with big guns to overfeed them till them explode.
It’s a fairly stock story, though it’s more usual to trick the monster into over-feeding themselves (as happened with Starscream back in Dark Star), just shooting it for the same effect makes the tropes on display even more straightforward than usual.
That’s not to say there’s not joy to be had in parts of the plotting. Grimlock is a magnificent bastard throughout, complete with the quote I used at the top. Plus, Cindersaur of all characters gets a gloriously dramatic (seeming) death with his “Demons, eh? Well – let’s give them a real taste of hell-fire!” before taking a creature three times his size. With doomed results.
Xaaron also continues to excel, effectively breaking Seawatch’s mind (though he’ll get better!) to get the information he wants with no hesitation and turning up at the end to save the day and explain that these creatures are from legend and were sealed underground by Primus after accidentally creating them as the flip-side to his “Good” robots (and the continuation of the idea from Aspects of Evil that the Matrix has a dark flip-side means that this has a connection to the forthcoming American stories beyond the eventual reuse of the monsters). Complete with ominous warning that there are lots more down there.
It’s a fairly stock story, though it’s more usual to trick the monster into over-feeding themselves (as happened with Starscream back in Dark Star), just shooting it for the same effect makes the tropes on display even more straightforward than usual.
That’s not to say there’s not joy to be had in parts of the plotting. Grimlock is a magnificent bastard throughout, complete with the quote I used at the top. Plus, Cindersaur of all characters gets a gloriously dramatic (seeming) death with his “Demons, eh? Well – let’s give them a real taste of hell-fire!” before taking a creature three times his size. With doomed results.
Xaaron also continues to excel, effectively breaking Seawatch’s mind (though he’ll get better!) to get the information he wants with no hesitation and turning up at the end to save the day and explain that these creatures are from legend and were sealed underground by Primus after accidentally creating them as the flip-side to his “Good” robots (and the continuation of the idea from Aspects of Evil that the Matrix has a dark flip-side means that this has a connection to the forthcoming American stories beyond the eventual reuse of the monsters). Complete with ominous warning that there are lots more down there.
But equally it’s hard to ignore the fact an autopsy would have shown how the Decepticons died. Or that Xaaron suddenly claims that the demons’ energy feeding is a well established part of their legend. Meaning he could have pieced the entire thing together easily without doing anything to poor old, cover confusing, Seawatch.
No, this is really about the art. And Senior, as expected, rises to the occasion and creates perfect panel after perfect panel of great, dark and moody masterpieces. There’s barely a panel here you wouldn’t want to turn into a t-shirt. Even something as simple as Xaaron’s expression of satisfaction as he gets the information he wants is full of the personality of both the character and artist.
And I’ll let him off not including the absence of Grimlock and company’s Pretender shells as an art goof as it’s very quickly going to become apparent these will be dropped at the first opportunity.
Overall, despite being promoted as a “Mini-Epic”, this has been more of a strong but throwaway filler story elevated by the two artists working on it and the character work on Xaaron. Whilst not the best the series has to offer, the fact the average has risen so high since the early flawed days of the new format is an immense relief.
The sidebar on Transformation continues to try and make the forthcoming combined 250th/Christmas/“Just over 5th anniversary” final issue of the year sound exciting. That last one sounds a bit desperate, and they still struggle to come up with anything as epic sounding as readers now expect from these milestones beyond the wraparound cover.
There’s also a note from an annoyed Dreadwind about his page being dropped again, and a promise from the editor he’ll be back next week if no punching is involved.
The Classics Covers Calendar for December (only two days late) is an appropriate one of Barry Kitson’s Scrooge Starscream from #145. Though sadly without the speech bubble that makes it. It’s fair to say that, though it has the obvious advantage of being cheap filler, this has not been a great success. One wonders how far into 1990 it will carry on. There’s also a “Merry Christmas” message from Marvel on the classified page, though whether that’s from festive cheer or a lack of advertising sales at Marvel this week is hard to say.
No, this is really about the art. And Senior, as expected, rises to the occasion and creates perfect panel after perfect panel of great, dark and moody masterpieces. There’s barely a panel here you wouldn’t want to turn into a t-shirt. Even something as simple as Xaaron’s expression of satisfaction as he gets the information he wants is full of the personality of both the character and artist.
And I’ll let him off not including the absence of Grimlock and company’s Pretender shells as an art goof as it’s very quickly going to become apparent these will be dropped at the first opportunity.
Overall, despite being promoted as a “Mini-Epic”, this has been more of a strong but throwaway filler story elevated by the two artists working on it and the character work on Xaaron. Whilst not the best the series has to offer, the fact the average has risen so high since the early flawed days of the new format is an immense relief.
The sidebar on Transformation continues to try and make the forthcoming combined 250th/Christmas/“Just over 5th anniversary” final issue of the year sound exciting. That last one sounds a bit desperate, and they still struggle to come up with anything as epic sounding as readers now expect from these milestones beyond the wraparound cover.
There’s also a note from an annoyed Dreadwind about his page being dropped again, and a promise from the editor he’ll be back next week if no punching is involved.
The Classics Covers Calendar for December (only two days late) is an appropriate one of Barry Kitson’s Scrooge Starscream from #145. Though sadly without the speech bubble that makes it. It’s fair to say that, though it has the obvious advantage of being cheap filler, this has not been a great success. One wonders how far into 1990 it will carry on. There’s also a “Merry Christmas” message from Marvel on the classified page, though whether that’s from festive cheer or a lack of advertising sales at Marvel this week is hard to say.
Speaking of the promotional side of the book, now is as good a time as any to mention something that’s been stinking (and that’s the level of humour we’re talking about here) up the Might Marvel Checklist for the last six weeks: The Bog Paper. A sign of the uncertain state of Marvel this humour comic (which will only last 11 issues) was an attempt to branch out into Viz style humour. But at its most basic level: Every gag was based around toilets, either directly or through shitting and farting. Including, as mentioned in the blurb here, flatulent footballer Rude Goollitt. You can see why it’d be hard to maintain a standard of such a narrow field of humour, and being Marvel its need to stay aimed at kids means it would never have the same appeal to kids as the far more gloriously crude Viz.
Combat Colin is brought back to The Place, having been told by Madprof that he needs to start Living in Harmony, before Colin points out that, with all the heroes and villains here, there’s nothing to stop The Brain taking over the world by himself. Meaning that, like McGoohan’s masterpiece, there is no difference between warden and prisoner and both sides team up for a raid on Number One.
Unlike in McGoohan's masterpiece the Brain (after exclaiming the team is made of “Six of one, and half a dozen of the other!”. I’ll have no respect for Stringer till he gets Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling in there) is wearing the Combat Trousers and has a really big gun in the pocket. This continues to be awesome on every level.
Action Force concludes its reprint, with the narration continuing to be overdone on the otherwise fine silent art of Storm Shadow wrestling with whether to save Snake Eyes or not (he does, with a particularly bloody dispatch of the tiger). The highlight is the end. In a direct lift from the “That’s détente comrade” ending to For You Eyes Only, Snake Eyes then destroys the McGuffin they’re both after. Which leads to a fun parallel final scene of both reporting to their superiors that, hey it was a shame that satellite exploded but at least the other guy didn’t get it.
I’ve only just remembered this, but for years I’d assumed this was the silent issue and was rather surprised when I read the real original.
Next week: New Classic Pretenders.
Or it was, but right as I was copying and pasting this onto the website I was pointed in the direction of two of the Bernie’s Inn issues! You hear almost nothing about these, and in fact there may be nothing of interest about them to say. Though if nothing else the full list of five issues (as shown in the Lloyd Young INTERVIEW ages ago) raises some curious questions. So next week you will also get the first (and admitedly mainly speculative) Addendum in over a year as we skip back in the timeline to 1987 to have a very British takeaway.
Oh, and Pretenders and all that in the regular piece as well.
ISSUE 246
1989
COMMENT
Combat Colin is brought back to The Place, having been told by Madprof that he needs to start Living in Harmony, before Colin points out that, with all the heroes and villains here, there’s nothing to stop The Brain taking over the world by himself. Meaning that, like McGoohan’s masterpiece, there is no difference between warden and prisoner and both sides team up for a raid on Number One.
Unlike in McGoohan's masterpiece the Brain (after exclaiming the team is made of “Six of one, and half a dozen of the other!”. I’ll have no respect for Stringer till he gets Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling in there) is wearing the Combat Trousers and has a really big gun in the pocket. This continues to be awesome on every level.
Action Force concludes its reprint, with the narration continuing to be overdone on the otherwise fine silent art of Storm Shadow wrestling with whether to save Snake Eyes or not (he does, with a particularly bloody dispatch of the tiger). The highlight is the end. In a direct lift from the “That’s détente comrade” ending to For You Eyes Only, Snake Eyes then destroys the McGuffin they’re both after. Which leads to a fun parallel final scene of both reporting to their superiors that, hey it was a shame that satellite exploded but at least the other guy didn’t get it.
I’ve only just remembered this, but for years I’d assumed this was the silent issue and was rather surprised when I read the real original.
Next week: New Classic Pretenders.
Or it was, but right as I was copying and pasting this onto the website I was pointed in the direction of two of the Bernie’s Inn issues! You hear almost nothing about these, and in fact there may be nothing of interest about them to say. Though if nothing else the full list of five issues (as shown in the Lloyd Young INTERVIEW ages ago) raises some curious questions. So next week you will also get the first (and admitedly mainly speculative) Addendum in over a year as we skip back in the timeline to 1987 to have a very British takeaway.
Oh, and Pretenders and all that in the regular piece as well.
ISSUE 246
1989
COMMENT