A Farewell To Arms.
Issue 43: Crisis of Command! Part 2. 4th January 1986.
All resistance is futile!
It's strange how your perceptions of a work of fiction can change over time. As hinted at last week, in every previous reading of this issue (most recently in the Classics UK reprint) I'd firmly been of the opinion that Prowl is an out and out bastard here, manipulating the hesitant Optimus into doing his bidding in readiness for his Ultimate Autobot push.
Now, whilst it's certainly true that both Bumblebee and Prime both privately think this, reading it again has changed my opinion of Prowl entirely. When his leader is indecisive, he offers firm advice, privately with only Bumblebee able to overhear them. There's no attempt to usurp authority or push his own agenda, he's just doing his job as second in command (and oddly enough, whilst Decepticon leaders will usually have their strong right hand we'll rarely see this so explicitly in the Autobots).
Now, compare this to the roughly similar scene 250 odd issues later in Eye of the Storm, where Kup actually shouts down Prime and threatens him with removal from office in front of several of their troops. That's arguably full on insubordination, Prowl's actions are much more in keeping with proper military procedure and reflects much better on him than I'd ever previously given him credit.
It's actually a fairly smart bit of writing for Prowl that uses his tech spechs well, it'll be a long time before we'll see him so well used on a regular basis and I would give full credit to the writers for it. I say would, because James Hill admitted it the UK Classics book that he wrote Prowl like this, not because of his character profile lending itself to this sort of development, but because he turns into a police car and a police car being all stern makes sense. Which is a slightly disappointing behind the curtain moment as it's the sort of thing Mike Costa would do. Still, at least it works here.
Bumblebee's unfair worries about Prowl's influence on the depressed Prime's mind is what motivates his actions, and thus the rest of the story. It's the first time since the opening issue the little yellow guy has gotten to do something of substance, which is perhaps surprising considering how popular he is.
All resistance is futile!
It's strange how your perceptions of a work of fiction can change over time. As hinted at last week, in every previous reading of this issue (most recently in the Classics UK reprint) I'd firmly been of the opinion that Prowl is an out and out bastard here, manipulating the hesitant Optimus into doing his bidding in readiness for his Ultimate Autobot push.
Now, whilst it's certainly true that both Bumblebee and Prime both privately think this, reading it again has changed my opinion of Prowl entirely. When his leader is indecisive, he offers firm advice, privately with only Bumblebee able to overhear them. There's no attempt to usurp authority or push his own agenda, he's just doing his job as second in command (and oddly enough, whilst Decepticon leaders will usually have their strong right hand we'll rarely see this so explicitly in the Autobots).
Now, compare this to the roughly similar scene 250 odd issues later in Eye of the Storm, where Kup actually shouts down Prime and threatens him with removal from office in front of several of their troops. That's arguably full on insubordination, Prowl's actions are much more in keeping with proper military procedure and reflects much better on him than I'd ever previously given him credit.
It's actually a fairly smart bit of writing for Prowl that uses his tech spechs well, it'll be a long time before we'll see him so well used on a regular basis and I would give full credit to the writers for it. I say would, because James Hill admitted it the UK Classics book that he wrote Prowl like this, not because of his character profile lending itself to this sort of development, but because he turns into a police car and a police car being all stern makes sense. Which is a slightly disappointing behind the curtain moment as it's the sort of thing Mike Costa would do. Still, at least it works here.
Bumblebee's unfair worries about Prowl's influence on the depressed Prime's mind is what motivates his actions, and thus the rest of the story. It's the first time since the opening issue the little yellow guy has gotten to do something of substance, which is perhaps surprising considering how popular he is.
Skywarp's Marvel highlight.
Though there's nothing directly taken from the cartoon here, it's easy to see that Bumblebee was picked for this plot so scenes of him being chased across the desert by Decepticons in Transport to Oblivion could be used in the hypothetical advert we talked about last week. He's also pretty much written as his TV persona (much as he will the next time a non-Budiansky/Furman writer works on the comic) rather than the more willy and sardonic character we'll become more familiar with later in the book's life.
After the deliberate vagueness over Soundwave's exact plan, here it's spelled out. Have Ravage get captured, then escape leading any Autobots who follow into a trap. It's indicative of how his mind will work over this little mini-run of issues before Shockwave returns. Small, low key easily attainable goals will be the order of the day. That might seem somewhat underwhelming but it will actually give him a better success rate overall than either of his two predecessors.
There are however, elements that don't make sense. It's only a pure fluke that Bumblebee found out about Ravage's escape as quickly as he did. If no one had followed for several hours would the spy cassette have really hung about behind a rock for that long?
These Machiavelli machinations lead to the centrepiece of the issue. A big no-holds barred fight between Bumblebee and pretty much all the still active Decepticons (the Constructicons had a not from their mother).
I heaped praise upon Geoff Senior last issue, but if that début wasn't him at quite his best here, just one week later, those few rough edges have been smoothed out. He now completely gets it, and every single panel sings. Only some of the extraneous exposition, such as Bumblebee narrating his transformation escape, doesn't quite work in an fantastic sequence. And how awesome is it that Skywarp gets something to do?
The real surprise is, that though he'll provide covers and likely worked on his story for the second Annual in the interim, we won't see Senior on interior art again until Target: 2006, well into the second half of the year. It won't be uncommon for him to take lengthy breaks from the book; as said last week he'd little interest in the series beyond the pay-check; but it was unexpected to see there's such a gap between his arrival and becoming a more regular fixture.
Prime meanwhile, is still mopping when he realises Bumblebee has ignored his Prowl motivated orders and gone out after Ravage alone. Quickly followed by an odd flying Autobot life sign detected approaching the Ark. As everyone rushes outside they're confused to see Laserbeak... but the Autobot signal is quickly explained as he drops Bumblebee's arm down upon them.
This very nicely sets up the grand final. However, it also results in one of the single silliest moments in the comic to date, when Prime asks “Bumblebee... what have they done to you?”. To which the only obvious answer is “Duh, they've ripped his arm off”.
Perhaps Prowl should be exerting his authority a bit more.
After the deliberate vagueness over Soundwave's exact plan, here it's spelled out. Have Ravage get captured, then escape leading any Autobots who follow into a trap. It's indicative of how his mind will work over this little mini-run of issues before Shockwave returns. Small, low key easily attainable goals will be the order of the day. That might seem somewhat underwhelming but it will actually give him a better success rate overall than either of his two predecessors.
There are however, elements that don't make sense. It's only a pure fluke that Bumblebee found out about Ravage's escape as quickly as he did. If no one had followed for several hours would the spy cassette have really hung about behind a rock for that long?
These Machiavelli machinations lead to the centrepiece of the issue. A big no-holds barred fight between Bumblebee and pretty much all the still active Decepticons (the Constructicons had a not from their mother).
I heaped praise upon Geoff Senior last issue, but if that début wasn't him at quite his best here, just one week later, those few rough edges have been smoothed out. He now completely gets it, and every single panel sings. Only some of the extraneous exposition, such as Bumblebee narrating his transformation escape, doesn't quite work in an fantastic sequence. And how awesome is it that Skywarp gets something to do?
The real surprise is, that though he'll provide covers and likely worked on his story for the second Annual in the interim, we won't see Senior on interior art again until Target: 2006, well into the second half of the year. It won't be uncommon for him to take lengthy breaks from the book; as said last week he'd little interest in the series beyond the pay-check; but it was unexpected to see there's such a gap between his arrival and becoming a more regular fixture.
Prime meanwhile, is still mopping when he realises Bumblebee has ignored his Prowl motivated orders and gone out after Ravage alone. Quickly followed by an odd flying Autobot life sign detected approaching the Ark. As everyone rushes outside they're confused to see Laserbeak... but the Autobot signal is quickly explained as he drops Bumblebee's arm down upon them.
This very nicely sets up the grand final. However, it also results in one of the single silliest moments in the comic to date, when Prime asks “Bumblebee... what have they done to you?”. To which the only obvious answer is “Duh, they've ripped his arm off”.
Perhaps Prowl should be exerting his authority a bit more.
Pay attention, they'll be a test.
With the departure of Machine Man our new backup, presumably as a result of his 2020 successor, is the original Tony Stark version of Iron Man in Night of the Octopus. Originally published as a one-off in issue 22 of the high quality Marvel Fanfare title this is the first time we've seen real good non-lots of dots colouring in an American reprint.
The difference between this and both the previous back-up stories and the Yomtov coloured Transformers stories is staggering, and means the art really pops out at you in comparison to what we're used to.
The story itself is, at least so far, somewhat unmemorable, though the visual of Doc Octopus' spare arms going out of control under his mental power in order to come rescue him from prison is a rather fun way this instalment to end.
What's more interesting is that someone at Marvel was clearly worried that the number of Iron Men out there might be confusing- as well as the 2020 version the UK had just seen the end of the Secret Wars reprints that had Jim Rhodes in the suit- so Transformation has what's supposed to be a useful quick guide to all the different versions. However, as they don't really know what happened between Tony and Arno it winds up being vague to the point of uselessness. Points for effort though.
On his letters page Soundwave preserves the surprise cliffhanger we'll be getting in two weeks time by lying about which issue we'll next see Dinobots in. Sorry if that's ruined it for you. I do wonder if Soundwave/Furman was getting sick of the “Why is the cartoon different?” and “Why is Jetfire's toy an Autobot?” questions by now, both recur again with pretty much the same answers.
Next week sees pretty much the end of regular non-Furman writers on the UK stories (bar the odd one-off) and Optimus Prime dealing with his demons with his fists.
ISSUE 42
1986
COMMENT
The difference between this and both the previous back-up stories and the Yomtov coloured Transformers stories is staggering, and means the art really pops out at you in comparison to what we're used to.
The story itself is, at least so far, somewhat unmemorable, though the visual of Doc Octopus' spare arms going out of control under his mental power in order to come rescue him from prison is a rather fun way this instalment to end.
What's more interesting is that someone at Marvel was clearly worried that the number of Iron Men out there might be confusing- as well as the 2020 version the UK had just seen the end of the Secret Wars reprints that had Jim Rhodes in the suit- so Transformation has what's supposed to be a useful quick guide to all the different versions. However, as they don't really know what happened between Tony and Arno it winds up being vague to the point of uselessness. Points for effort though.
On his letters page Soundwave preserves the surprise cliffhanger we'll be getting in two weeks time by lying about which issue we'll next see Dinobots in. Sorry if that's ruined it for you. I do wonder if Soundwave/Furman was getting sick of the “Why is the cartoon different?” and “Why is Jetfire's toy an Autobot?” questions by now, both recur again with pretty much the same answers.
Next week sees pretty much the end of regular non-Furman writers on the UK stories (bar the odd one-off) and Optimus Prime dealing with his demons with his fists.
ISSUE 42
1986
COMMENT
