You Got Me Beggin' You For Mercy.
Issue 66: Return to Cybertron Part 1: The Smelting Pool! Part 1. 14th June 1986.
"My arm--My ARM! My special arm... There is no other like it!"
"Now there is not even one like it!"
So I have returned from Auto Assembly, a full fun weekend of debauchery that, amongst other things saw me come back with some original More Than Meets the Eye Nick Roche art (and yes, there is ANOTHER YouTube video, don't worry, I won't be making a habit of them). Though the real excitement came from a conversation with James Roberts where I discovered he was aware of the existence of this website.
Now, I'm sure there was a degree of politeness there and he's more aware of it in the same sort of way I'm aware of the Marianas Trench, in that I don't know much about it beyond it being a deep dark scary place you wouldn't want to get sucked into. However, my raging ego hasn't stopped me mentioning this to every single person I've met in the four days since I came back from the convention.
Still, as much as I'd like to stroke my own ego for hours on end, there's little time for it this week as we've got one of the most important, and densely written, issues of the entire series to talk about. This my friends, is going to be a long one so put your feet up and have a nice hot cup of tea to hand as we witness the renaissance of Bob Budiansky.
The fact this is a very different issue to anything we've had up until now is instantly obvious from Herb Trimpe's excellent cover. Melting, screaming pain ridden robots clinging on for dear life as an anguished Blaster is chucked into join them. That's just plain nasty in a way even something like Traibreaker getting melted back in Man of Iron couldn't manage, and perfectly sums up the dark, gritty story inside.
The Return to Cybertron two (or rather four in the UK) parter is generally regarded, including by the man himself, as being amongst the very best of Uncle Bob's work, which is one of several ironies about this arc. That the writer who generally does the "Lighter" stories, the one who considers a heavy human involvement to be vital to his take on Transformers, reaches his peak with a storyline that's dark, brooding and violent with only the smallest involvement from humans (or indeed, any of the established characters, though several of them popped up in the first Annual for UK readers, as far as Americans were concerned this issue had an entirely new cast) at the very end of the arc.
"My arm--My ARM! My special arm... There is no other like it!"
"Now there is not even one like it!"
So I have returned from Auto Assembly, a full fun weekend of debauchery that, amongst other things saw me come back with some original More Than Meets the Eye Nick Roche art (and yes, there is ANOTHER YouTube video, don't worry, I won't be making a habit of them). Though the real excitement came from a conversation with James Roberts where I discovered he was aware of the existence of this website.
Now, I'm sure there was a degree of politeness there and he's more aware of it in the same sort of way I'm aware of the Marianas Trench, in that I don't know much about it beyond it being a deep dark scary place you wouldn't want to get sucked into. However, my raging ego hasn't stopped me mentioning this to every single person I've met in the four days since I came back from the convention.
Still, as much as I'd like to stroke my own ego for hours on end, there's little time for it this week as we've got one of the most important, and densely written, issues of the entire series to talk about. This my friends, is going to be a long one so put your feet up and have a nice hot cup of tea to hand as we witness the renaissance of Bob Budiansky.
The fact this is a very different issue to anything we've had up until now is instantly obvious from Herb Trimpe's excellent cover. Melting, screaming pain ridden robots clinging on for dear life as an anguished Blaster is chucked into join them. That's just plain nasty in a way even something like Traibreaker getting melted back in Man of Iron couldn't manage, and perfectly sums up the dark, gritty story inside.
The Return to Cybertron two (or rather four in the UK) parter is generally regarded, including by the man himself, as being amongst the very best of Uncle Bob's work, which is one of several ironies about this arc. That the writer who generally does the "Lighter" stories, the one who considers a heavy human involvement to be vital to his take on Transformers, reaches his peak with a storyline that's dark, brooding and violent with only the smallest involvement from humans (or indeed, any of the established characters, though several of them popped up in the first Annual for UK readers, as far as Americans were concerned this issue had an entirely new cast) at the very end of the arc.
Transformation page prologue.
The Transformation page sets the tone with an extremely Biblical summing up of the current situation on Cybertron. It’s arguably somewhat redundant as it covers a lot of the same ground the issue does, but it adds an appropriately epic tone to what in and of itself would be a major event for the comic; the return to present day Cybertron. This is where the comic has the advantage over the cartoon (which got in touch with Space Janitor Shockwave almost immediately after the pilot), by holding off on it for nearly two years this gets to be a proper, special issue.
Even if a large part of going back now is almost certainly that Budiansky had began to realise Transformers was going to be around for at least a little while longer and that the influx of new toys was going to be constant. Re-establishing contact with Cybetron means he no longer has to contrive to bring new Transformers to Earth with Matrix plots and memory crystals, they can just come over the space bridge. The rest of the year will see a slow transition between the two approaches (with characters like Omega Supreme and the first batch of Special Teams being made on Earth), but after that virtually every new Transformer we see will just turn up without a special secret origin beyond “They came from Cybertron”.
The fact this is going to be very different from our last few Budiansky stories is immediately apparent from the opening, as a group of Decepticon jets roam the desolate Cybertronian landscape rounding up “Empties” and anyone else they come across so they can be melted down for raw materials. It’s fair to say there’s certainly a feel of The Terminator to this scene, but there’s also the shadow of another 1980’s film, one that will be an immense influence of the comic for the rest of its run. A little picture you may have heard of called The Transformers: The Movie.
Now, that might seem a strange thing to say as Bob has been fairly honest in interviews about how he wasn’t terribly interested in the film as its characters were the first in the franchise that he hadn’t developed. Indeed, if he’d hadn’t been allowed by Hasbro (working on the assumption that the film was going to be such a mega blockbuster hit the new characters wouldn’t need extra comic promotion) to skip so many new and expensive toys for the first and only time in his run- though for some reason he didn’t extend that apathy to Ratbat- this is probably the issue they would have been introduced in. In some parallel Universe there’s a version of this issue where Blaster’s resistance team is led by Ultra Magnus and includes Kup, Blurr, Hot Rod and Springer rather than a bunch of cheaper mini-bots.
Now, the similarity to the film’s basic set up of the Decepticons ruling Cybertron and the Autobot resistance working from secret bases to reclaim the planet may well be complete coincidence. But the very first panel of the issue is a shot of Cybertron with two moons (which really makes no sense in terms of what is claimed to still be a nomadic planet), next week will reveal that Beachcomber’s Cybertronian mode is Kup and the entire story revolves around a concept from the TV series in the Space Bridge (this comes only a couple of months after we were brought energon cubes and Optimus Prime started saying things like “Transform and roll out!” as well).
There’s clearly a degree of cross-pollination between the various versions of the franchise going on here, with various ideas that are being shared out by Hasbro amongst its subcontractors being seized upon by Bob as they take his fancy. With him editing the comic adaptation of the film as well he’ll have almost certainly seen the various scripts for it as it was being developed before writing this issue, the idea of him being at least indirectly inspired by it is more than plausible.
Though of course, the flow of inspiration runs both ways, Vector Sigma in the cartoon is basically identical to the Creation Matrix (at least in terms of what it does); whilst the actual cartoon Matrix in the film takes the “Hugely valuable McGuffin Optimus has within him” aspect of it.
Even if a large part of going back now is almost certainly that Budiansky had began to realise Transformers was going to be around for at least a little while longer and that the influx of new toys was going to be constant. Re-establishing contact with Cybetron means he no longer has to contrive to bring new Transformers to Earth with Matrix plots and memory crystals, they can just come over the space bridge. The rest of the year will see a slow transition between the two approaches (with characters like Omega Supreme and the first batch of Special Teams being made on Earth), but after that virtually every new Transformer we see will just turn up without a special secret origin beyond “They came from Cybertron”.
The fact this is going to be very different from our last few Budiansky stories is immediately apparent from the opening, as a group of Decepticon jets roam the desolate Cybertronian landscape rounding up “Empties” and anyone else they come across so they can be melted down for raw materials. It’s fair to say there’s certainly a feel of The Terminator to this scene, but there’s also the shadow of another 1980’s film, one that will be an immense influence of the comic for the rest of its run. A little picture you may have heard of called The Transformers: The Movie.
Now, that might seem a strange thing to say as Bob has been fairly honest in interviews about how he wasn’t terribly interested in the film as its characters were the first in the franchise that he hadn’t developed. Indeed, if he’d hadn’t been allowed by Hasbro (working on the assumption that the film was going to be such a mega blockbuster hit the new characters wouldn’t need extra comic promotion) to skip so many new and expensive toys for the first and only time in his run- though for some reason he didn’t extend that apathy to Ratbat- this is probably the issue they would have been introduced in. In some parallel Universe there’s a version of this issue where Blaster’s resistance team is led by Ultra Magnus and includes Kup, Blurr, Hot Rod and Springer rather than a bunch of cheaper mini-bots.
Now, the similarity to the film’s basic set up of the Decepticons ruling Cybertron and the Autobot resistance working from secret bases to reclaim the planet may well be complete coincidence. But the very first panel of the issue is a shot of Cybertron with two moons (which really makes no sense in terms of what is claimed to still be a nomadic planet), next week will reveal that Beachcomber’s Cybertronian mode is Kup and the entire story revolves around a concept from the TV series in the Space Bridge (this comes only a couple of months after we were brought energon cubes and Optimus Prime started saying things like “Transform and roll out!” as well).
There’s clearly a degree of cross-pollination between the various versions of the franchise going on here, with various ideas that are being shared out by Hasbro amongst its subcontractors being seized upon by Bob as they take his fancy. With him editing the comic adaptation of the film as well he’ll have almost certainly seen the various scripts for it as it was being developed before writing this issue, the idea of him being at least indirectly inspired by it is more than plausible.
Though of course, the flow of inspiration runs both ways, Vector Sigma in the cartoon is basically identical to the Creation Matrix (at least in terms of what it does); whilst the actual cartoon Matrix in the film takes the “Hugely valuable McGuffin Optimus has within him” aspect of it.
"I'm there best there is..."
Within this dark and dangerous Cybertron we’re introduced to what is arguably Budiansky’s signature Autobot character in Blaster. Who in another little irony is completely different in personality to how his profile made him seem last week. Now, I must admit to never being a huge fan of Wolverine-Blaster, his angst and seriousness frequently seems out of place in the often very silly stories to which he’ll play a part. It’s hard to put much stock in a character that goes on about his dead partner and threatens anyone who betrays him with death when he’s facing off against a giant monster made of scraplets.
But here, in the context of his first appearance, Blaster works perfectly. He’s as angry and solemn as the world he lives in needs him to be and he’s written brilliantly throughout. His interaction with Perceptor as the leader of his resistance cell in nicely played as well, it would be so easy for Perceptor to be the stereotypical boss refusing to listen with his maverick employee, but instead once it’s clear the majority decision of the cell is to go along with Blaster to rescue Scrounge he comes around and is instantly supportive of the plan. It’s also nice to see some form of democracy at work in the Autobots, for all the virtues they’re supposed to represent they too often come over as much of a military dictatorship as the Decepticons. It’s a shame the idea Perceptor is supposed to be in charge of this merry band will slowly be forgotten.
The shrines to Optimus and the other long lost Ark crewmembers is a very nice touch, adding to the increasingly iconic status of the Autobot leader without him even being in the issue. The man is now as much a myth amongst his own people as he is to the kids at home.
Blaster’s soon to be dead partner of Scrounge is a first for the American stories in that he’s a named non-toy character. Being weak and yellow and keen to prove himself makes it hard not to compare him to Bumblebee, and it’s a comparison that again shows up how bleak the situation on Cybertron is. Whilst Bumblebee is helped and encouraged by his teammates even when he gets things wrong Scrounge is seen as a pain, a shameless attention seeker who distracts from the real work of the war. Even his one friend Blaster more tolerates than actually likes him.
But here, in the context of his first appearance, Blaster works perfectly. He’s as angry and solemn as the world he lives in needs him to be and he’s written brilliantly throughout. His interaction with Perceptor as the leader of his resistance cell in nicely played as well, it would be so easy for Perceptor to be the stereotypical boss refusing to listen with his maverick employee, but instead once it’s clear the majority decision of the cell is to go along with Blaster to rescue Scrounge he comes around and is instantly supportive of the plan. It’s also nice to see some form of democracy at work in the Autobots, for all the virtues they’re supposed to represent they too often come over as much of a military dictatorship as the Decepticons. It’s a shame the idea Perceptor is supposed to be in charge of this merry band will slowly be forgotten.
The shrines to Optimus and the other long lost Ark crewmembers is a very nice touch, adding to the increasingly iconic status of the Autobot leader without him even being in the issue. The man is now as much a myth amongst his own people as he is to the kids at home.
Blaster’s soon to be dead partner of Scrounge is a first for the American stories in that he’s a named non-toy character. Being weak and yellow and keen to prove himself makes it hard not to compare him to Bumblebee, and it’s a comparison that again shows up how bleak the situation on Cybertron is. Whilst Bumblebee is helped and encouraged by his teammates even when he gets things wrong Scrounge is seen as a pain, a shameless attention seeker who distracts from the real work of the war. Even his one friend Blaster more tolerates than actually likes him.
Doomed.
Scrounge may have a special, and much sent up by fandom, hand, but it’s very obvious when he infiltrates the Decepticon fortress of Darkmount to try and find out information on the missing scientist Spanner (and it’s very clever how this is presented as a throwaway unimportant detail that just seems to be there as an excuse to have Scrounger overhear the conversation about Soundwave’s message. Instead it’s a plot point that will grow in importance) he’s clearly over his head. He does get to copy the message that arrived at Cybertron at the end of last issue, but the reader is already aware that unlike when Bumblebee does something brave and foolhardy, Scrounge is too much out of his depth to come out of the situation well. And indeed, he barely gets five feet before being captured.
As he is returned to Darkmount we get our big splash page of the titular smelting pool, which is just as horrific as the cover suggests, the sight of doomed and dying robots trying to crawl their way out of the boiling melted metal is extraordinarily brutal. It also servers the purpose of building up our lead villain, the second American created non-toy named Transformer; Lord High Governor of Polyhex: Straxus.
He only shows up on the last two pages, but the way we see what he’s doing and how the other characters talk about him means he has a reputation that precedes his entry into the room. Later UK stories will somewhat reduce the character to a more traditional, enjoyably camp character, after all, he’s a disembodied head out to perform a mind-transplant, it’s hard for him to be anything but a B-Movie villain with plots like that, however fun. Then Generation 2 will retcon him into being one of the rubbish Decepticons left behind on Cybertron for being a bit crap.
But here, before we even see him, he’s by far and away the most effective Decepticon leader the comic will ever have. He rules Cybertron (something else that later stories will erode as they reveal that “Decepticon leader on Cybertron” is a title several people seem to have at once) and most importantly he’s responsible for more deaths, and more horrible deaths, of Autobots than Shockwave, Megatron, Soundwave, Scorponok, Thunderwing and Bludgeon will ever manage all put together. He’s turned murder into a production line, and as such, even though there’s a certain campery to most of his lines (including the endlessly quotable “Mercy is not dispensed here fools... only death!”) you never forget for a second what a completely ruthless bastard he is.
By running the Transformers version of gas chambers he’s terrifying in a way his counterparts aren’t. Meaning he is therefore the perfect one off baddy, like Blaster he wouldn’t work in the regular world of the comic where the Decepticons attempt to steal energy from rock bands. As much as I enjoy a lot of the later Straxus stuff it’s almost a shame this monster will have his impact diminished by his UK showings.
As he is returned to Darkmount we get our big splash page of the titular smelting pool, which is just as horrific as the cover suggests, the sight of doomed and dying robots trying to crawl their way out of the boiling melted metal is extraordinarily brutal. It also servers the purpose of building up our lead villain, the second American created non-toy named Transformer; Lord High Governor of Polyhex: Straxus.
He only shows up on the last two pages, but the way we see what he’s doing and how the other characters talk about him means he has a reputation that precedes his entry into the room. Later UK stories will somewhat reduce the character to a more traditional, enjoyably camp character, after all, he’s a disembodied head out to perform a mind-transplant, it’s hard for him to be anything but a B-Movie villain with plots like that, however fun. Then Generation 2 will retcon him into being one of the rubbish Decepticons left behind on Cybertron for being a bit crap.
But here, before we even see him, he’s by far and away the most effective Decepticon leader the comic will ever have. He rules Cybertron (something else that later stories will erode as they reveal that “Decepticon leader on Cybertron” is a title several people seem to have at once) and most importantly he’s responsible for more deaths, and more horrible deaths, of Autobots than Shockwave, Megatron, Soundwave, Scorponok, Thunderwing and Bludgeon will ever manage all put together. He’s turned murder into a production line, and as such, even though there’s a certain campery to most of his lines (including the endlessly quotable “Mercy is not dispensed here fools... only death!”) you never forget for a second what a completely ruthless bastard he is.
By running the Transformers version of gas chambers he’s terrifying in a way his counterparts aren’t. Meaning he is therefore the perfect one off baddy, like Blaster he wouldn’t work in the regular world of the comic where the Decepticons attempt to steal energy from rock bands. As much as I enjoy a lot of the later Straxus stuff it’s almost a shame this monster will have his impact diminished by his UK showings.
Eeeek.
Of course, when cold hearted mass murderer Straxus meets weak willed wanabee Scrounge, there can only be one result. The scene of Scrounge has his special arm ripped off should be hilarious (especially considering how tiny it looks in Straxus’ own hand), but whilst there’s a nice vein of black comedy in the exchange quoted up at the top on the page the tension has been so racked up by this point it’s genuinely upsetting. As Scrounge is dragged off to the Smelting Pool at the cliff-hanger this reader is genuinely unsure whether or not Blaster’s crew will be able to save him in time. Considering the relatively straightforward Autobot victories in the last few American stories this is an impressive achievement in and of itself, especially considering I already know how things will end. If I’d been reading at the time I’d have probably wet myself with fear over what was going to happen.
So are there any negatives about this issue? Whilst Don Perlin does a good job on most of the art- and the designs for Scrounge and especially Straxus are fantastic- the more generic Transformers are fairly lazy in their designs and often don’t look much like Cybertronians. Sadly the look he comes up with for the robot on the street will set the standard that the American stories will use pretty much constantly till the end of the book’s life for unnamed characters. Luckily the UK stories will exercise more imagination in their background characters. Also, when we first meet the three coneheads Nel Yomtov continues his good run by block colouring two of the three identical characters the same meaning it’s going to be hard to know which is which in the rest of the story.
However, other than that, this is a big, important story that rolls along with a hell of a pace and packs an insane amount into its eleven pages, I haven’t even mentioned the first use of Cybertronian time measurements or the first appearance of the planet's “Dead End” region where all the worthless go to last out their lives. Coming off the back of a fairly poor run of stories from both our authors (with Robot Buster! being the only one since Dinobot Hunt! that could manage a better average than “OK”) it’s completely mind blowing and utterly essential.
Elsewhere this week, we get promotion for the next Collected Comics in The Enemy Within! (though the advert at the back of the issue is still pimping the previous book), a full page of Matt and the Cat (which seems to have taken up the space normally used for the Next Issue advert, oh joy) and Rocket Raccoon begins the final issue of his mini-series with a Punch and Judy show.
Soundwaves has a letter from Harry E. Healey of Sheffield that, surprisingly late in the day, asks the question that has perplexed us all at one time or another: How do Transformers shrink? His (slightly tongue in cheek) solution of each robot expelling their mass in gas manages to confuse Soundwave wonderfully.
Whew. I said it was a long one didn’t I? Will there be anything left to say next week as Blaster leads the rescue attempt on Scrounge? And will any of my nerves be left?
Issue 65
1986
COMMENT
So are there any negatives about this issue? Whilst Don Perlin does a good job on most of the art- and the designs for Scrounge and especially Straxus are fantastic- the more generic Transformers are fairly lazy in their designs and often don’t look much like Cybertronians. Sadly the look he comes up with for the robot on the street will set the standard that the American stories will use pretty much constantly till the end of the book’s life for unnamed characters. Luckily the UK stories will exercise more imagination in their background characters. Also, when we first meet the three coneheads Nel Yomtov continues his good run by block colouring two of the three identical characters the same meaning it’s going to be hard to know which is which in the rest of the story.
However, other than that, this is a big, important story that rolls along with a hell of a pace and packs an insane amount into its eleven pages, I haven’t even mentioned the first use of Cybertronian time measurements or the first appearance of the planet's “Dead End” region where all the worthless go to last out their lives. Coming off the back of a fairly poor run of stories from both our authors (with Robot Buster! being the only one since Dinobot Hunt! that could manage a better average than “OK”) it’s completely mind blowing and utterly essential.
Elsewhere this week, we get promotion for the next Collected Comics in The Enemy Within! (though the advert at the back of the issue is still pimping the previous book), a full page of Matt and the Cat (which seems to have taken up the space normally used for the Next Issue advert, oh joy) and Rocket Raccoon begins the final issue of his mini-series with a Punch and Judy show.
Soundwaves has a letter from Harry E. Healey of Sheffield that, surprisingly late in the day, asks the question that has perplexed us all at one time or another: How do Transformers shrink? His (slightly tongue in cheek) solution of each robot expelling their mass in gas manages to confuse Soundwave wonderfully.
Whew. I said it was a long one didn’t I? Will there be anything left to say next week as Blaster leads the rescue attempt on Scrounge? And will any of my nerves be left?
Issue 65
1986
COMMENT
