Dave's Transformers - Comics: Movie Adaptations

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Dave's Transformers Page

Transformers Comics

Reviews of comics adapting or related to TF movies

Last Updated 10/21/07
Link to Target exclusive prequel comic review added.

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Transformers the Animated Movie: Bob Budiansky and Don Figueroa take a stab at adapting the 1986 movie in four issues. The original comic adaptation was in 3 issues, so that's some improvement.

Transformers the Animated Movie #1 (of 4): IDW - Oooh, glossy logo on matte cover. Anyway, I've said many times that I think an adaptation of TV or movie to comics really needs to use a full issue for every 8-10 minutes, and almost no adaptation even comes close. This one is better than the Marvel adaptation in that it spends 4 issues instead of 3 (of which I only own #2, so I can't do a direct comparison yet), but still way too compressed. Budiansky manages to keep most of the dialogue (although he left out "Such heroic nonsense!") and Figueroa gamely tries to evoke lengthy action sequences in a couple of panels here and there, but if you'd never seen the movie, this comic would seem disjointed and rushed. Some of the dialogue bits make less sense or carry less impact or even change their meaning because we don't get to see the actions that go with them. There's also one misdirected word balloon, but it's really a line anyone in the room could have said without it being confusing. Well, anyone but Prime. As a trivia aside, Ralph "not the Karate Kid" Macchio wrote Marvel's adaptation, so this is not Budiansky directly recycling his own work. :) Mildly recommended. $3.99 [Later note: okay, there's more than one mispointed word bubble, the letterer seems to hate Perceptor.]
Transformers the Animated Movie #2 (of 4): IDW - From Prime's death to Hot Rod landing in the drink on Quintessa. Fewer weird transition issues than #1, although I'm slightly sad that the infamous "Spike curses" bit got left out. I didn't notice any bad balloon placement, but there was at least one footnote with no asterisked "source" panel, so it's still being edited by, well not necessarily monkeys, but inattentive people. Looks nice, though. Recommended. $3.99
Transformers the Animated Movie #3 (of 4): IDW - Goes from the underwater sequence on Quintesson to the revival of Ultra Magnus on Junk. 22 pages of story (with page numbers), 10 pages of house ads. The compression effects aren't so bad this time around, although there's a LOT of action sequences in this part of the movie, and those tend to be easier to shorten in the name of space. Recommended. $3.99
Transformers the Animated Movie #4 (of 4): IDW - While I didn't fine-tooth-comb it for the kinds of errors that have plagued previous issues, this one definitely had better pacing than those, and did a pretty good job of conveying the climax. Granted, it manages this in part by skipping a LOT of the time spent monkeying around in Unicron's guts. I do have a bit of a quibble with the art, though...Figueroa does such a good job capturing the cel feel of the a movie that the lettering and FX stand out like sore thumbs, like cel fumetti or something. Recommended. $3.99

Transformers Official Movie Prequel - A four issue miniseries from IDW telling a story set before the 2007 live action Transformers movie. Written by Chris Ryall and Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa.

Transformers Official Movie Prequel #1 (of 4): IDW - I got the wraparound cover B. Don Figueroa almost makes the movie designs work, but the drab sameness of them all (yes, they differ in a lot of little details, but it all runs together) combiner with an obvious intent to NOT name the viewpoint character makes it annoyingly hard to follow. Co-written by Ryall and Furman, I'm guessing that it was Ryall who created the location "Simfur". :) Anyway, both the art and writing are oppressively dark, murky and obfuscated, and I really hope the movie doesn't continue with that tone throughout. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Primus Is A Cenobite?" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #1 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Prequel #2 (of 4): IDW - I got cover A. Mostly focuses on Megatron's arrival on Earth and subsequent fate, but has some nice Victorian-era stuff as well. Still no idea who the protagonist of #1 is, unless he was Optimus Prime in disguise. The action focuses mainly on vehicle modes and humans, so the ugly movie designs aren't as much of a factor, and Figueroa's art generally looks better than in #1. Recommended. $3.99
- "Fancy Meeting You Here, Skyfire" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #2 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Prequel #3 (of 4): IDW - Well, in case I hadn't read the prequel novel to find out, the "A" cover of this one makes it pretty clear that the unnamed Autobot in #1 was, indeed, Bumblebee. A somewhat scattered issue that almost but not definitely contradicts the prequel novel (and definitely contradicts the spirit of it). I do wonder how they'll explain the gap between the events in 2003 and the movie in 2007, though. Unless the movie is supposed to be set in 2003? Ah well. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Welcome To Tranquility" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #3 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Prequel #4 (of 4): IDW - Well, as a prequel it certainly can't have a significant resolution, but...eh. It was okay. Starscream seems to have gotten the Standard Furman Grimlock Personality, plus vocalisms, but with some of the classic Starscream snark. Good Figueroa art, especially since he gets to work with mainly humans and vehicles rather than vague piles of scrap. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Mike Chary As A Transformer" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #4 (of 4)
Target Exclusive Prequel: Link is to a review of the whole DVD package, but includes a few paragraphs about the comic, and how it doesn't quite fit with Prequel #4 above. Nor, however, does Prequel #4 really work with the movie either. Oops.

Transformers Official Movie Adaptation: A four issue series by Oprisko and Milne. Released weekly in June 2007, although the TPB collecting all four hit bookstores the first week of June, thus cutting comic shops off at the knees. Oops.

Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #1 (of 4): IDW - Gasp! No variant covers...well, other than retailer incentives. I guess the fact that this is a weekly title made them decide to play it closer to the chest on the variants this time. Plus, the regular cover is wraparound. Fair warning going in, I've already read the official novel, the junior novelization and several kiddiebook adaptations by this point, so I may unconsciously fill in any gaps in the storytelling. On the other hand, I may unfairly compare it to those other adaptations as well. Keep in mind my rule of thumb, a good comic adaptation really needs one 22-page issue for every 10-15 minutes of screen time, which puts this one a few issues shy of the mark, even with 26 pages per issue. The compression shows, an entire plot thread is essentially dropped, and most scenes are rushed. It's not horrible, but it really could've used a few more issues. Also has Blackout and Frenzy mini-posters, and an interview with one of the producers. Milne does a decent job of retaining the detail of the movie designs without the detail making the art impossible to follow. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Needs More Maggie" Award to Transformers the Official Movie Adaptation #1 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #2 (of 4): IDW - You know, I've seen these scenes enough times in other adaptations that any new presentation has to be really good to impress me. And this ain't. Too compressed, and while Milne generally manages to make sense of the storytelling with his art, some panels simply look bad. Has another pull out poster, a Barricade pinup, pictures of Deluxe Brawl and an interview with the writer of the comic. Very mildly recommended. $3.99
- "HUGZ!" Award to Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #2 (of 4
Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #3 (of 4): IDW - Most of this issue's events take place at night, with associated dark and murky colors on way too many pages. The cover art looks rushed, and the story inside is mediocre in terms of adapting the full story. Very mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Okay, Maggie's IN It, If Barely" Award to Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #3 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #4 (of 4): IDW - This opens with a background element that always annoys me, the statement that all advanced real world tech is reverse-engineered from some alien artifact. An artifact in the hands of only one government. As if all new tech of the past century has come solely from America. Pfeh. If they had some stuff more advanced than real life tech (as used in the Ghosts of Yesterday prequel novel), that'd work. But while it worked as a laugh in Men In Black, it's just dumb in a story trying to be taken seriously. That aside, this is another muddled mess with insufficient pagecount to really adapt the story, and it jumps from scene to scene in such a way that if I hadn't already read the novel, I'd have no idea what was going on half the time. Pass on this adaptation and just watch the movie or read the novel. Neutral. $3.99
- "Speed Dial's Psycho Ex" Award to Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #4 (of 4)

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Transformers Comics	Reviews of comics adapting or related to TF movies
Transformers Comics	Last Updated 10/21/07 Link to Target exclusive prequel comic review added.