Dave's Transformers Rant:

     Transformers G1 #1 (of 6) - "As Ye Sow..."

     No, there isn't an individual issue title, so I supplied one.

CAPSULE

     I dislike several of the stylistic choices made in the art, the writing
is passable and the plot moves a bit slowly and in directions that I'm not
sure I'll like.  Mildly recommended.  $2.95

RANT

     First, some spoiler space (please leave this in if replying about actual
plot elements).



















     The Art: Pat Lee's work is of the same basic style as seen from Udon
Studios.  Very realistic computer-colored backgrounds, stylized anime
cel-looking foreground figures with lots of shading and texturing, leading to
an overall "cel comic" look.  The word balloons look incongruous against this
background.  Also, most scenes have some pretty heavy filtering for
environmental effects (nighttime, dawn light, heavy snow), and this tends to
obscure more than it enhances.
     It's obviously a popular style, otherwise we wouldn't see so many people
using it lately.  But I don't care for it.
     As for specific figures, the humans are okay, but we really don't get
much of the Transformers themselves.  So it's hard to really tell if Pat Lee
can do a good job of portraying on-screen Transformers that aren't in pinup
poses.  Megatron gets a reasonable amount of screen time, but his movements
are deliberately inelegant for plot reasons.  What we see looks good, but we
don't see much.  All in all, like the preview comic, this is a comic about
humans, with Transformers only appearing to tease the reader.  Hopefully this
will change in #2 and beyond, so I can get a better idea of Lee's visual
storytelling skills using TFs.

     The Script: The writing does suffer a bit from too-heavy exposition,
beyond the simple needs of introducing any potential new readers to the
setting.  Some character go a bit overboard in introducing themselves...we
don't actually get any resume' dumps, and the phrasing isn't as awkward as in
the preview comic, but it has its dry moments.
     As for character voices, the range is kinda narrow.  Daniel, while he
only has a few lines, really doesn't talk like a little kid, he sounds more
like a teenager or older.  Often when characters are talking, there's really
only one voice in the room, with everyone having the same sort of speech
pattern (yes, I'm being picky...but no more picky than I am when reviewing
Transformers toys).  About the only character with a really distinctive voice
(other than the doomed rebel on the first couple of pages) is Lazarus, who
has a very pretentious voice.  Granted, giving different characters
personality through their dialogue is hard, but given all the hype this title
has gotten, I feel justified in holding it to higher standards.

     The Plot: Here's the background in brief, mostly found in the two page
text piece at the end.  Earth eventually got together to help the Autobots
wipe out the Decepticons, and then the Autobots went home, taking a few
humans with them as observers.  But the Ark II exploded in a Challenger-like
disaster, supposedly killing all the Autobots (and Sparkplug Witwicky) in
1999.  (Side note: both Spike and Buster exist, suggesting more of a
continuation from some point in the original G1 comic, not the cartoon.)
Three years later, Lazarus has managed to dig up a few surviving
Cybertronians and fix them, but not before implanting control circuits.  And
the U.S. government dug up Optimus Prime.  Now Lazarus has started using his
pawns, and the U.S. government has spotted Megatron in action, calling Spike
in to help figure out what might be going on.
     Essentially, this issue is about the humans.  Spike and the government
guy, Lazarus and his terrorist potential hire Bishop.  The Transformers are
just props and tools, they don't even (apparently) act of their own volition
at any point.  I'm neutral towards this idea...on the one hand, a comic
called Transformers should kinda be about them, not just use them as props.
On the other, this does allow the building of suspense, since it's clear that
Megatron is nobody's servant...he's faking it.
     The plot element most likely to rile up fans is the "Transformers are
puppets" one.  Megatron is the most obvious one, although he seems to be just
biding his time until taking over.  But Hound is also just a slave of
Lazarus.  If there hadn't been the bit with Megatron's "glitch" I'd
definitely be down on this element, but it's clearly only a temporary
matter.  I'm guessing Megatron will free his Decepticons and leave the
Autobots as slaves (or just try to blow them up).
     But now for my personal pet peeve.  While this is just a possibility and
might be a red herring, I got the strong impression from this issue that the
Ark II was blown up on purpose, by The Government.  Your basic "We got rid of
the Decepticons, now we'll get rid of the Autobots too, so we can be safe"
conspiracy theory.

     Other Comments: The tone of this issue was a lot darker than I expect
many were thinking it would be.  And it was dark at a base, human level,
rather than the cosmic darkness of Furman's stuff.  We have evil rich guys
enslaving living beings, we have the possibility of an evil government
killing their own people to get rid of dangerous allies, we have an opening
scene with scummy soldier types, and we have a world in which pain and death
are all many young people would know.  If anything, the setting seems way too
intact considering the text piece's discussion of a long, hard-fought war.
     There's a pull-out miniposter of G1 and Armada Autobots, but I don't
care for the artist's style.  Dreamwave planned pretty well in getting this
to market, as the text page was a newspaper articel for April 3...except that
most markets didn't get comics until April 4 because of Easter (some did,
before you email me to say you got it Wednesday). 
     And, of course, Matt Nelson of superdeformers.com got a little piece
down in the lower left hand corner of "house organ" page.

     Overall: It's an okay comic, but it could easily go downhill fast if
certain bits of foreshadowing are played out in a cliched way.  And I don't
know writer Chris Sarracini's previous work, so I can't really give him any
benefit of the doubt on this.  Just on its merits as a comic, I'd only give
it a mild recommendation.

     Dave Van Domelen, "Say, Manny, should I ask the general for permission
to pull up my pants?" - Doomed soldier