The vast majority of IDW's collections are material I already have, so I
don't buy them. But once in a while they put out a collection of material
that I do buy.
Transformers Cybertron: Balancing Act: IDW - This is a collection of the
Transformers Collectors' Club comic pieces. Let's see if it reads any better
all in one piece than it did in short chunks, shall we? Could hardly do
*worse*. And the answer? Eh. Aside from being written in chunklets and
trying really hard to bring in all the Universe and non-cartoon Cybertron
stuff, it's also writing around the edges of the Cybertron storyline, meaning
that the climax comes when something unrelated to *this* story pops up and
pulls a literal deus ex machina. It almost reads like a party game story,
the kind where each person writes a sentence before passing it on. Plus, it
relies on other Fanclub-only continuity in important ways, making the story
less accessible to those who don't drop unreasonable amounts of money on
convention exclusives. All told, it's at best hopelessly mediocre fanfic
given good Dan Khanna art and crappy murkwerks coloring. Neutral. $9.99
"Hi, I'm The New Toy For This Page" Award to Transformers Cybertron:
Balancing Act
Transformers Prime: IDW - A digest-sized book starring Cliffjumper and
Arcee from the new Prime cartoon. Written by Mike Johnson, with art by four
separate teams...so it could be seen in part as a test of how well IDW's
stable can stick to the show's model sheets. Unfortunately, the decision to
make it a digest size must have come late in the game, because the lettering
is rather tiny. It's definitely set up as a four issue mini, the rotating
art team letting them get all four parts out at once, I guess going to an
instant TPB was a reasonable move. The story is fairly straightforward, with
Arcee and Cliffjumper meeting by chance on the dead husk of Cybertron,
finding a plot device, escaping to Earth with Starscream in pursuit. Lots of
fighting, mostly against faceless no-names, and it's the classic prequel
story of "enemy would have had this thing but they don't" that isn't
necessary to the main series. More important is the emotional story, which
while very action-movie-ish does add depth to the two stars. Recommended.
$9.99
"Practically Begging For Stampy To Show Up" Award to Transformers Prime
TITAN BOOKS Collections
Titan Books got the rights to reprint Marvel's Transformers comics, G1, G2
and UK, and they decided to concentrate on just the Furman stuff. I have
them in G1 order, then G2 order, then the UK books. This is NOT necessarily
the publication order.
Generation One - Marvel
Transformers Primal Scream TPB: Titan - This third volume from Titan
covers Furman's first seven issues and Senior's first two, with five of the
issues being drawn by Jose Delbo. And I'd just gotten to where I was
thinking "You know, Delbo wasn't THAT bad." Um, for Transformers, he WAS.
His humans are okay, but unlike the Dreamwave book, this series focused on
the Transformers, not the humans. At least, in Furman's issues it was.
Anyway, there's a few short essays and sketches as well, to flesh this out.
Recommended. $19.99/#14.99UK
Transformers Matrix Quest TPB: Titan - Good storytelling, uneven art (a
bunch of artists contributed to the issues collected here). The title is a
bit misleading, since the issues involved in the Matrix Quest storyline
aren't all here...part 1 was in the Primal Scream TPB. This is not an
arc-based TPB, it's a sized-based one, just covering the next chunk of size
N. It starts in the middle of one arc, and ends in the middle of another.
So it doesn't make a good standalone purchase, only get this if you've
decided to get all the TPBs. But the series is worth getting.
$19.99/#14.99UK
Transformers: All Fall Down TPB: Titan Books - Reprints Transformers v1
#69-74, with a cover gallery and a few pages of additional material (both
text and art). In this closing year of the original Transformers comic,
Hasbro was pretty hands-off, letting Simon Furman play around with themes of
mythic grandeur and epic scale. However, in many ways he was still feeling
his way around, and while the writing was certainly head and shoulders above
what you'd expect from a toy-tie-in comic, it's the kind of thing that has
grown more in the remembering than in the actual story. What does grow
noticeably in this issue is the skill of artist Andrew Wildman, a contrast
that is more stark because of the lackluster inking in #69 before Baskerville
joins the team. Okay, so the general lack of backgrounds and the transfer of
late 80s/early 90s comic art to glossy paper in the age of computer coloring
don't look so good. Anyway, I'm going to give a split recommendation on this
one. Strongly recommended for Transformers fans, Recommended otherwise.
$19.99/#14.99 UK
Transformers: End of the Road TPB: Titan - Reprints Transformers #75-80,
which I have fond memories of. I wish I could say the nostalgia is a result
of youth the first time around, but I turned 21 just after #80 came out. }->
Anyway, Furman finishes off this bit of his mythological romp through
Transformerdom in these issues, and there's some solid storytelling, although
there's a lot of obscure characters running around (and, mostly, dying) in
these issues. I wish they'd decided to recolor these issues for the TPB,
though, as the garish pre-computer-coloring work done by Yomtov translates
poorly to glossy stock. No extras to speak of this time, just a couple of
short text bits and a cover gallery of the relevant issues. Recommended.
$19.99/#14.99UK
BONUS REVIEW! The End of the Road TPB came out again in October 2002,
after I'd changed stores twice, and I ended up having it sitting in my pull a
second time. Oops. Compare and contrast the reviews!
Transformers: End of the Road TPB: Titan - But better still to be a
successful deep story. While the pacing was not always the best for the more
introspective bits (they were often either rushed or popped in and stopped
the story dead in its tracks), Furman had clearly had time to think about the
issues brought up and to figure out how to bring them to the fore. You can
clearly see an attempt at this sort of thing in TFG1 #6, but while it felt
tacked on in that book, it was more integral here. Not to say that this is
the best story I've read in years, but it's solid. Plus, it has Geoff Senior
at the height of his expressionistic style, and the good-looking (if a bit
distractingly organic) art of Wildman. Recommended. $19.95/#14.99UK
[Note: this review was written after TF: G1 #6 in the same week.]
Generation Two - Marvel
Transformers Dark Designs TPB: Titan - This collects the first half of
the G2 comic from the early 90s, but sadly can't include the four issues of
GI Joe that led up to it (or even the cruddy UK-only story that replaced the
Joe story) because of rights issues. Given a fresh canvas, Furman launched
into a new story of epic scale, but sadly was cut off again at the end of
what was really just the prologue (#12). There's certainly parallels to be
drawn here to War Within, although that title won't be canned as long as
Dreamwave is solvent, methinks. As for the art in this collection, it's
pretty variable. The series started with Derek Yanigher's blocky and
energetic style that for various (tongues) reasons (teeth) didn't (neck
wires) go over with all fans. But then came Manny Galan, who made everyone
wish for Yanigher's return. Andrew Wildman did a few pages here and there,
but it wasn't his best work. There are a number of technical problems with
this collection, such as a color-flop on one page and the seemingly random
insertion of the cover gallery pages. Also, sadly, it's not complete. The
Geoff Senior-drawn backup story in #2 (which was originally a free Halloween
giveaway) is not included in this book. And it would have been nice to have
the full gatefold cover of #1 included somehow in here. Still and all,
though, it's a decent set of issues. Recommended. $19.95/#14.99UK
[Covered G2 #1-6, I later heard that Furman left out the Halloween story
because it didn't fit the flow.]
Transformers: Rage In Heaven TPB: Titan - Yes, more Furman-written
Transformers this week [review written same week as Armada #7]. This TPB
covers the second half of the Transformers: Generation 2 comic, and is mostly
Manny Galan art with a sprinkling of Yaniger (in Simon Bisley mode) and
Senior. Anyway, this segment of the series was really being used to set up
the Main Event, which never got to come to pass (although ideas from it will
no doubt find their way into Furman's Dreamwave work). As a result, there's
a lot of hints and foreshadowing and detail that don't get to pay off, which
can be frustrating, but also gives the issues more depth. Recommended.
$16.95/#14.99UK (huh, the exchange rate seems to have shifted in my
favor...three bucks less than previous TPBs, but just as many pounds.)
Generation One - Marvel UK
Transformers Target 2006 TPB: Titan - There was much anticipation among
fans for this TPB, since getting ahold of the original UK issues is expensive
and difficult. And I've seen a lot of praise posted in the past week or so,
too. But I'm afraid I'll have to be the wet blanket here. Let's start with
the art, since most will agree with me on this part. Because it was a weekly
title in the UK, there's a rotating art team so that no one has to keep up
the mad pace of 8-12 pages a week. This leads to a great deal of
inconsistency, made worse by the fact that most of the artists involved
aren't really strong on mecha. The coloring adds to the distraction, with
Hart's work adding way too many metallic effects that end up muddying the
page. As to the story, the introduction section makes a point that explains
my main issue with it. Namely, that these stories were still inserted
between reprints of the U.S. comic and had to make some sort of sense. As a
result, every arc had to end with everything pretty much reset to where it
had been, no permanent changes to any character who appears in the
U.S. stories, no shift away from the fundamental storyline, etc. So we'll
get plots that build and build and...then go nowhere, resetting to zero.
Mind you, it's not all bad. What makes these stories sought-after is not so
much their content as their tone. Furman took the setting and the characters
a lot more seriously than the U.S. writers before him, and was clearly not
trying to write just to kids. It may not be great writing, but it's a big
improvement over what had gone before.
Should you buy this? Well, I think that most people who
would enjoy it have already bought it. It's not really a good first purchase
for someone looking to get into the Transformers mythos, and the art may even
turn you away from trying anything else. $19.99/#14.99UK
Transformers: Fallen Angel TPB: Titan - And three, THREE Furman-written
Transformers books this week! (Insert lightning, thunder, and a laughing
Muppet vampire.) [Same week as Rage in Heaven and Armada #7] Another time
travel saga stuffed into the interstices of the reprinted US comic (an
intermezzo, if you will), with the typical rotating art team that's an
inevitable consequence of running as a weekly. This arc is notable as the
first extended appearance of everybody's favorite freelance peacekeeping
agent, Death's Head, yes? Death's Head's brand of dark humour clashes a bit
with Galvatron's raging insanity and world-threatening ways, unfortunately.
And the weekly format means there's a much higher recap rate than in US
comics. Still, a good collection of material that was previously really hard
to find in the US (unless you happened to go to the right conventions).
Recommended. $19.95/#14.99UK (oops, must've been printed before the exchange
rate was recalculated)
Transformers: Legacy of Unicron TPB: Titan - Another block of UK
Transformers reprints, and now we're getting into the realm of Furman's
serious worldbuilding. It starts with a few seeminly scattered stories, but
quickly ties it all together into a big Unicron-flavored blowout. I kinda
disagree with the choice of issues, though...I would have preferred to see
one or two of the pre-#133 stories at the beginning, and left the relatively
weak Galvatron story at the end of this collection off until the next TPB.
Ending the TPB with the conclusion of the Legacy of Unicron arc would have
worked better, I think. As usual, the art is very erratic, with good artists
like Geoff Senior and Jeff Anderson mixed in with some...indifferent ones.
Recommended. $19.99/#14.99UK
Transformers: Space Pirates TPB: Titan - This installment is kinda
scattered, in part because they omitted a big chunk of the UK issues
(#164-171 are not reprinted, just VERY briefly summarized in the text piece
at the beginning...and that's half a TPB's worth of material). Granted,
there's a LOT of UK issues out there to reprint, but why not be more complete
about it? Or will we get a few at the very end that pick up these pieces?
Also weakening this issue is that the artists for this batch were on the weak
side. Even Bryan Hitch's two issues were not so good, he was trying too hard
to copy Senior's style, I think. And the coloring's pretty muddy again. All
in all, if you can't afford to get all the UK reprint volumes, this is one
you can safely skip. Mildly recommended. $19.95/#14.95UK
Transformers: Time Wars TPB: Titan - Weird, this one reaches back and
grabs a couple issues from around two collections ago (well, it makes sense,
because the grabbed stories set up an important thread that gets picked up in
the main Time Wars part). Maybe we can expect all the UK-only stories to
eventually find their way into collections? Anyway, the main story here is
the Time Wars, a struggle precipitated by all the time traveling stuff that
ran through so much of the UK comic. Sadly, the art is on the weak side,
with no Senior and only some very early Wildman to go along with the regular
crew (who are good at humans, not so hot with TFs). Recommended.
$19.95/#14.99UK
Transformers: City of Fear TPB: Titan Books - Well, I think this is the
first UK Transformers reprint book where the timeline text piece at the start
is totally divorced from the stories. In fact, it goes back and picks up
several pieces skipped over in the timeline of previous collections, such as
City of Fear and Kup's Story. I do wish they'd put issue numbers in with the
creator credits on each story, so it wouldn't be a puzzle to figure out which
story was from what issue. Good pieces, though. Recommended.
$19.95/#14.99UK
Transformers: Dinobot Hunt TPB: Titan is now going back and reprinting
what they must have thought were some of the more marginal stories from the
UK comics, but the summary pages at the start of the book continue to forge
ahead in chronological order, making things kind of confusing. You need to
go way back to Target: 2006, the first Titan collection of UK TF comics, to
get the storyline summary for the issues collected in Dinobot Hunt. Anyway,
the issues contained herein hang together very well, following the Dinobots
and a number of human supporting cast across a couple of arcs and a vignette
in between. It's interesting to see Barry Kitson's realllly early work
here...in a "looking at a train wreck" way. Man, he was not very good back
then. His style looks NOTHING like his current work, and his Transformers
are pretty horrible. He's got a few signs of storytelling skill, but looking
at this I would never have pegged him as reaching the point of, say, LEGION,
much less Empire or Avengers/ Thunderbolts. Not that his tag-team partner
Will Simpson does any better. Anyway, I've been waiting for these stories to
be reprinted for a while, since the occasionally referred to but never really
explained Centurion has his origins in them. Recommended. $19.95/#14.99UK
Transformers: Prey TPB: The bulk of the stories reprinted here take place
between US G1 #23 and #24, giving Optimus Prime one last huzzah before
getting "killed" and downloaded onto a laughingly low-memory disk. Also,
Megatron's madness in #25 is further developed. Furman did a good job of
working between the cracks of the US Marvel issues here. The next-largest
chunk of this collection isn't as clearly slotted between US issues, but
takes place prior to the return of Prime as a Powermaster, covering a
personal story for Swoop, nee Divebomb. Yes, the grand superhero tradition
of the Name Battle comes to Transformers, as Swoop fights for his old
name...and his life. Dun dun DUN! The last short bit is a vignette with the
Pretenders done by Dan "drove me away from Legion of Superheroes" Abnett, and
it's pretty pedestrian (not that he had a lot of pages to work with, to grant
him that). The last of the G1 timeline synopses is in this installment as
well, suggesting that they're close to the end of the color material. Most
of the remaining material was B&W, so they'd have to choose between breaking
with the full color presentation or hiring someone to color the strips
once they run out of color material. There's at least one full TPB's worth
of color material left, though. Recommended. $19.95/#14.99UK
Transformers: Second Generation TPB: Well, the impressive epics and
classic tales have all been collected, apparently. Now we're getting the
completist stuff. Of course, as a completist, I'm not really complaining.
:) The main arc(s) this time out are set around #15-17 of the U.S. series and
focus on Buster Witwicky (including a clever little bit that lets the UK
series introduce the combiner teams many months ahead of when they'd have
reprinted the U.S. issues featuring them). After that, we get the 1986, 1987
and 1988 Christmas stories, followed by a one-issue Powermaster Angstimus
Prime story picking up thematically from the 1988 holiday tale. For the most
part, the art is ehhhn on these stories (even Wildman is in a very rough and
uneven stage here), although there's a couple of good ones. Oh, and
Soundwave spits at Robot Master. Don't ask me how the oil gets out past tht
faceplate. Mildly recommended. $19.95/#14.99UK
Transformers: Aspects of Evil: Titan Books - This is the first TPB
collecting the black and white new material made for the UK Transformers
comic after budget cuts ended the color version. About 80 pages long, Titan
decided to go with a cheaper format themselves, a digest (7.5" tall, 5" wide)
about 80 pages long, with no new material (the previous full-sized
collections had timeline articles and cover galleries). Most of the stories
in this volume have to do with a single theme, if not quite a plotline. And
that theme is the corruption of the Matrix, and of its holder. It's somewhat
fractured, although I'm not sure if it's because there were missing parts
period, or that they decided to leave one of the key arcs to a later TPB
because it wouldn't all fit in the pagecount. There's also a couple of
standalones involving monsters. The art is okay, but typically uneven for a
UK TF series. Mildly recommended. $7.95/#4.99Cn
Transformers: Way of the Warrior: Titan Books - Finally broke down and
stopped waiting for Diamond to cough this (and Fallen Star) up, and made a
trade for 'em. This is the second compilation of short black and white
stories from the waning days of the Transformers UK comic. Fifteen five-page
stories, almost all following a single thread, that of the Survivors versus
the Decepticon Mayhem Team. Only the last three stories (a one-shot and a
two-parter) are really unrelated to this theme, which is tighter than most
Titan collections. The art quality is wildly variable, as usual for the UK
title (which was weekly, so had rotating teams), and isn't really helped by
the shrinking down to digest format from the original A4 magazine size. And
having the opening Skids story feature a character who only barely LOOKS like
Skids didn't help much either (his head looked more like Grimlock's!).
Still, it's got some good stories using characters who otherwise get almost
no screen time in the U.S. comics. Recommended. $7.95/#4.99UK
Transformers: Fallen Star: Titan Books - See above. This is the third
B&W digest, and it's not quite as tight as Way of the Warrior, since they're
running out of material and have to get it all in somewhere. The title story
involves the story behind the recovery of Starscream's remains post-Underbase
that led to Pretender Starscream's creation, and it's okay. The best part is
the aftermath, where Starscream deals with some personal issues. Most of the
rest of this collection concerns the various Decepticon leadership battles
and a few other Underbase-related bits. Thematically tied together, if not
dramatically. As usual, variable art quality, small reproduction size, etc.
Recommended. $7.95/#4.99UK
Transformers: Earthforce: Titan Books - FINALLY Diamond shipped one of
these, after missing the previous two. Most of these stories take place in
between the leadup to Unicron, looking at what was going on back on Earth
while the attention of the original Marvel stories was on Cybertron. The
tales get a bit goofy and arch at times, and the smaller size doesn't help
the art, but it's a decent read. Oddly, three of the artists of these
stories are not credited on the cover, only Wildman and Staz Johnson are.
Recommended. $8.95/#5.99UK
Transformers: Perchance to Dream: Titan Books - I think this may be the
last one...hard to say, even if I went back and checked all the issue
numbers, I think some issues of the original series had multiple stories in
them. The title arc is pretty good, although the ratio of buildup to payoff
is pretty high. The next chunk of stories involve Thunderwing and what he
did before he came into the U.S. comic, plus some background on the
Micromasters. You know, in a few really short pieces, Furman did a better
job portraying the Micromasters than Dreamwave did in a four issue
miniseries. The last batch of stories focus on a human, and why the Autobots
just couldn't catch a break in the press. :) A good collection, it doesn't
come across as dregs. Recommended. $8.95/#5.99UK
