From Newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers

THE TRANSFORMERS issue #61 is called "Primal Scream!" and is the issue
that rather infamously reveals the Marvel Comics origin for the
Transformers, which is not only quite different from the cartoon
version, but even differs dramatically from what we were told back in
issue #1.

This issue was printed on October 24, 1989. -aAs I said in an earlier
review, Marvel was in the middle of doing some strategic reshuffling of
their printing schedule in late 1989, and was trying to reduce the lead
time between the titles being published and the point at which they were actually available on newsstand shelves. -aTo that end, this is the mid-December issue of TRANSFORMERS, which effectively gave us 14 issues
for that calendar year instead of just the standard twelve. -aThe story
was later broken into pieces and reprinted in the UK issues #259, #260,
and #261.

I've struggled to get these reviews done in a timely manner, of late,
and I think I've finally figured out why. -aEven though I started
reviewing the Marvel stories several years ago, and I've gotten through
about five years' worth of stories, it's the late Furman issues that
I've really been itching to talk about. -aThey are by far my favorite. -aHowever, I love them so much that I almost hate to dissect them and
point out possible mistakes and things, because I revere them so greatly
that it almost feels blasphemous to do so! -aThese are the best issues of
the comic book and my first instinct is to have nothing but praise for
them. -aHowever, for the sake of objectivity, I shall continue...

The cover is illustrated by Don Perlin (haven't seen him for a while!)
and inked by Vince Mielkarek, a Marvel artist who was often recruited
for the WHAT IF...? title. -aIt showcases poor Jazz, Bumblebee, and
Grimlock being tossed around as a result of Primus coming to
consciousness and shouting, "WHY DID YOU GUYS TRACK FOOTPRINTS IN HERE
WHEN I JUST BARELY CLEANED THE FLOOR!?" -aI'm almost certain this is
exactly what he's screaming at them. -aSource: I have kids. -aI know.

This is the first USA issue in which Geoff Senior contributed as artist
(he always penciled and inked his own work). -aIt's also the first issue
in which the editors started poking light-hearted fun at themselves in
the opening credits. Script writer-aSimon Furman is credited as "Simon
Furman Maximus" (a play on the name of Fortress Maximus),-athe artist is credited as "Geoffire Senior" (Jetfire), our letterer is "Jimlock
Massara" (Grimlock), the colorist was "Shrapnel Yomtov" (Shrapnel),
"Megadon Daley" served as editor (Megatron) and "Double Dealer DeFalco"
was the Editor-in-Chief. -aTom DeFalco's credit is interesting in that
it's the only reference in the American comic book to Doubledealer at
all, a character who never otherwise appeared and was not mentioned in-universe. -a(He did show up in the UK stories, though.)

So, we see that the Classic Pretenders and the Micromaster Rescue Patrol
were diverted during their trans-dimensional jump, arriving not on Earth
but somewhere in the depths of Cybertron. -aAn odd-looking mechanoid, who
we will learn later is the Keeper of Primus, stands before them,
pointing an accusing finger at them and demands that they genuflect
before the face of Primus. -aThe Keeper's face is always eclisped in
shadow, and despite being a mechanical robot, seems to be wearing long,
flowing robes that bend like cloth. -aBut, I absolutely love the dynamic
manner in which Furman draws, well, everything. -a

Seawatch of the Rescue Patrol (who I always imagine sounding just like Seaspray, just 'coz) suggests Grimlock get down on his knees and show a
little respect, but Grimlock isn't having any of this. -aHe doesn't
believe it's really Primus and he doesn't believe the Keeper is on the up-and-up. -aThe Keeper agrees to tell a story...

Back at Autobase, Xaaron and his soldiers are repairing the damaged
dimensional portal generator. -aWe get our first appearance of
Doubleheader, an Autobot Pretender who has two heads and two
personalities, but it's never explained why he was designed this way or
what possible benefit it has. -aThere are two random red-and-grey
Autobots repairing the portal generator who I always wanted to be
Fastlane and Cloudraker, though they're clearly not. -a(There's a big
close-up drawing of Xaaron that you tend to see on Twitter a lot because there's a fan who uses this image as his Twitter avatar.)

Somewhere under Cybertron, Bludgeon is still leading Stranglehold and
Octopunch through the sewer system in search of the Autobots they were
ordered to kill. -aI think darker colors were used here to show that
they're in a murky tunnel, but Stranglehold looks African-American to
me, which would be a changed premise from his last appearance. -a(If any
of these Pretenders should be African-American, it's Jazz.)

The Keeper tells a tale of how Primus, one of the Gods of Light, did
battle against Unicron, a God of Darkness. -aPrimus looks a lot like Hot
Rod, with the same yellow chevron on his back and the same sort of color scheme. -aKnowing he could not best Unicron in a fight, Primus tricked
Unicron into following him through a portal, and the two emerged on the
other side as lifeless asteroids. -aHe hoped this would imprison Unicron forever, but over time, Unicron learned to reshape his prison into a
mechanical planet form, and even taught himself to change shape (one
might even say... transform) into a metallic, mechanical form. -aPrimus likewise refashioned his prison into a metallic world, which eventually
became known as Cybertron. -aCopying Unicron's ability to transform,
Primus populated Cybertron with beings who, themselves, could also
change shape, not into planets but into weapons and vehicles. -aHe
called them Transformers, and it was his hope that they would be the
last line of defense if Unicron ever came knocking again. -a

Primus also bestowed upon his creations a little trinket called the
Creation Matrix, which was imbued with the life essence of Primus and
allowed the Transformers to create additonal generations using that life
force. -a(IN a flashback we see a pretty generic-looking orange-and-blue
robot, ostensibly the very first Transformer, who who later get named
Prima. -aSupposedly he's the same character as the Cyclonus-style
gladiator from the cartoon's "Five Faces of Darkness" even though they
have wildly different designs.) -aThe Keeper knows that Primus must
remain asleep, and that it falls to the Transformers and the Creation
Matrix to take up arms should Unicron ever venture close to Cybertron. -aHowever, at that moment the Keeper is killed and the Mayhem Attack
Squad advances upon the Autobots.

Simon Furman is admittedly a big fan of The Transformers: the Movie and
its themes and concepts, and unlike Bob Budiansky, was eager to
incorporate its characters and ideas into the Marvel comic book. -aSo,
the new origin story certainly explains why the Matrix, as explained in
The Transformers: the Movie, is the one thing that Unicron fears, and
the one thing that can destroy him. -aAnd, I suppose in some ways it does elevate Unicron to being a creature that's even more menacing. -aInstead
of the cartoon's explanation in "Call of the Primitives" that he's
basically an oversized robot that Primacron built one day just for
funsies, Unicron is in fact a living god. -aThis also elevates planet
Cybertron to much higher significance, going from a factory built to
make toys (as per the cartoon's "Five Faces of Darkness") to another
living god, whose life essence and corporeal body remains trapped within Cybertron. -a

However, this really is a pretty significant retcon, given that the
first issue describes a scenario in which the Transformers naturally
evolved on their mechanical world from gears and pulleys and such. -aAnd
in some ways it cheapensthe concept of transformation, since instead of
being a wartime innovation (as told in cartoon episodes like "More Than
Meets the Eye" and "Desertion of the Dinobots") it was just Primus being
a copycat and duplicating what Unicron had already done. -aAnd it further creates a strong dichotomy between "true" Transformers being brought to
life using the Creation Matrix and the duplicate brains of Tracks,
Skids, etc. which were merely copies of the originals, or the manner in
which the Headmasters were likewise duplicated from the originals. -a

On Earth, the Decepticon base is in New Jersey and Scorponok is having a
tough time getting his rowdy bunch of Decepticons to calm down. -aThey're
none too happy about accepting Starscream back into the ranks, and none
are so upset about it than Mindwipe, who still bears the battle damage
from when Pretender Starscream arrived on the scene and, under
Megatron's orders, tried to kill everybody there. -a(It's hard to discern individual characters in the angry mob yelling at Scorponok, but I can
pick out Misfire and Slugslinger.) -a

Scorponok has been promised reinforcements from Cybertron, but until
they show up, he explains he needs Starscream and his Pretender powers.
-aBut, he promises he'll be watching Starscream closely. -aThe deceitful
robot in question is actually right on the other side of the wall,
listening and delighting in the chaos he seems to have created. -aI
especially love the row of dissatisfied Decepticons as they begrudgingly
accept Scorponok's decision (Misfire, Soundwave, Snapdragon,
Slugslinger, and Apeface). -aI'm still not sure how Soundwave survived
the Underbase attack, but he's a cool character so I'm glad he's still
around. -a

Jazz may be just about the only Autobot who has ever successfully bested Bludgeon in combat, at least temporarily. -aHe jumps out of his Pretender
shell just in time to avoid Bludgeon's sword attack and says, "Whoa
there, my man. -aCan't have you damagin' my snappy new Pretender duds!
-aYou do that, you eat floor, dig?" -aAnd with that, he throws Bludgeon face-first into the floor. Bludgeon gets the best of Jazz a moment
later, but it's still an impressive moment. -aAlso, Furman seems to be deliberately writing Jazz's dialogue to evoke the speaking style of
voice actor Scatman Crothers, to further cement the fusion of the comics characters with their cartoon portrayals. -aBudiansky had already done
this with Grimlock, but I love seeing it done with other popular
characters from the TV show.

Bumblebee has a moment where he realizes Primus isn't going to save
them, and if they're going to survive, they've got to save themselves. -a(Bumblebee makes a reference to having already died once, but you could
argue that it's happened to him twice now... namely the damages that
forced his reconstruction into Goldbug, and the damages which prompted
his restoration to his Bumblebee design. -aI wonder which one he's
thinking of, and why he doesn't count the other one?) -aAnyway, In
vehicle mode, he plows into Bludgeon from behind in a dramatic moment,
only for Seawatch to clamp onto Bludgon's leg with a magnetic tow cable.
-a"You know how to water-ski, Bludgeon? -aMe neither!" he quips as he
drags the samurai warrior away down the river. -a(Up to this point, we've
been told again and again that Cybertron has no water. -aIt's such a
foreign concept that the Throttlebots had never even heard of it before.
-aSo I guess this is, uh, a mercury river? -aOr something?)

Grimlock head-butts Octopunch right in the scuba mask, breaking the
glass, and the Rescue Patrol trip him and force a fall off a sharp
ledge. -a(We get a peek at the face of his Pretender shell behind the
mask, and it's just as ugly as you might expect!) -aJazz tricks
Stranglehold to charge, in rhinoceros mode, right into a wall. -aIt seems
the three have been defeated, until Octopunch crawls out of his
Pretender shell and, woozy, fires off a final parting shot at Grimlock.
-aThe blast just bounces off Grimlock, but then it ricochets and hits
Primus dead center in the forehead. -aThe Autobots are transported to
Earth, and they wonder whether anybody else heard Primus scream as he
awakened. -aThe answer is not known to them, but it's known to Unicron,
who is now advancing towards Cybertron.

So, this isn't the Unicron from The Transformers: the Movie. -aThis is
1989, and the events of the movie don't take place until 2005. -aSo, this
is present-day Unicron, BEFORE the events of the movie take place.
-aWhich is a little weird. -aBut, it's exciting! -a

We learn that next issue begins the Matrix Quest, a multi-issue story
arc in which the Autobots go in search for the Creation Matrix, the one
thing they need to stop Unicron. -aThey are arguably some of Furman's
best and most memorable issues.

We also get TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles for Triggerhappy, Landfill, Quickmix, and Scoop. -aAt this point I think the editors more or less
gave up on trying to play catch-up with all the remaining 1987
characters. -aThere was just too long of a gap between the point at which
the HEADMASTERS characters were introduced and the point at which Marvel realized TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE VOL. 2 was not going to be printed. -aIn
fact, a lot of the 1988 characters are going to end up getting skipped
over as well. -aThere were twelve original Pretenders introduced in issue
#40, but only two of them are ever going to get printed profiles. -aThe
simple fact is that even with Furman writing shorter issues (this story
is only 18 pages long) there are still only so many slots to make
available for TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles, and it would be silly to
continue to feature profiles for older 1987 robots who had been already
killed by Starscream. -a

So, up until this point, Bob Budiansky had written full-length profiles
for the Transformers characters he created, and then he would take those profiles and highly truncate them to fit on the Hasbro toy packaging.
-a(The amount of truncating was not always consistent, and for example,
the tech specs printed on Mixmaster's toy package are not exactly the
same as the biography he got in the collectible Transformes Action
Cards.) -aAnyway, with Budiansky still creating toy names and characters
for Hasbro but no longer writing the comic book, it fell to Furman to do
the opposite of what Budiansky had been doing. -aFurman would have to
take the short biography printed for the Hasbro toy boxes and fill in
the blanks, adding back story and details for every character to bring
the amount of information up to the length of a standard TRANSFORMERS
UNIVERSE profile. -aFurman had a jokey, conversational writing style that
was at odds with the very technical character descriptions of former
civil engineer Budiansky, and it's noticeable in the way the newer
profiles are written. -a

They remembered that Triggerhappy is a Targetmaster, and included a
drawing of Blowpipe (the drawing of Nebulan partners have, historically,
not always made it into the profiles) though Blowpipe seems monstrously
huge, like fully half the size of Triggerhappy in robot mode. -aI think
you can spot the exact point at which Budiansky stopped writing the
profile and Furman took over. -aBudiansky presents a portrait of
Triggerhappy, a gun-crazed warrior whose effectiveness is largely due to everybody else fleeing in a panic when he opens fire. -aAnd then there's
an abrupt tonal shift that explains, "And here's the reason that he is
the way he is..." and tells this anecdote about him falling off a
skateboard and bonking his head (I'm not even joking) and that ever
since that day, he's been a bit nuts. -aThat's classic Furman, to invent
these long and detailed back stories for the characters. -a

The profiles for the double Targetmasters kind of irk me because so much
text is dedicated towards describing the two Nebulan partners paired
with each Transformer, their personalities, what kind of guns they turn
into and what those guns can do, etc. -aThe abilities section for
Landfill says that he transforms into a dump truck that can haul 10
tons, can drive at 70 mph, and has a range of 350 miles. -aThat's it for Landfill. -aThe rest of that section is devoted entirely to what
Flintlock and Silencer can do. -aGranted, Landfill is kind of a one-note character (he's basically a Wide Load do-over; he's a dump truck and he
smells bad) but still. -aQuickmix seems like an Autobot version of
Mixmaster, yet another cement mixer truck who is a genius chemist. -aAlso
like Mixmaster, Quickmix has to keep his mixing drum constantly moving
because it's filled with various chemicals. -aIt's like Budiansky saw
certain vehicle modes and instantly associated them with specific
character traits. -a"Big jet? -aAfraid of heights." -a(Both Silverbolt and Broadside.) -a"Rhinoceros? -aEasy, he's angry and likes to smash stuff." -a(Headstrong, Ramhorn, Stranglehold.) -a"Pontiac Firebird? -aI dunno, something with magnets." -a(Windcharger, Tailgate.) -a

The drawings of all the gun-mode double Targetmaster weapons are all
from the side view, so you don't get any sense of which guns are double-barreled and which ones are single-barreled. -aThat's one of the
most distinctive ways to tell them apart (since otherwise they're all
just yellow and blue guns that are all the exact same size and shape) so
it's odd that they would downplay perhaps their one defining feature.
-aAlso, on another note, Quickmix's personal motto, "The faster it is,
the better I like it!" is recycled from Blurr. -aI strongly dislike when
they reused mottos, though I understand that it's difficult to come up
with hundreds of pithy and catchy sayings that easily incorporate a
character's worldview. -aBut, whenever they recycled a tech specs quote,
even as a kid, I always felt a little bit cheated. -a

I'm not sure who designed the character models for the double
Targetmasters, but it obviously wasn't Floro Dery. -aThey got animation
designs so that they could appear in the Hasbro toy commercial for a few seconds (fun fact: technically Quickmix and Landfill and Scoop are part
of the cartoon universe because they appear in both the season five
intro as well as footage from Transformers: Generation 2). -aBut, the
designs are a bit like the Seacons... really large robot heads on tiny
bodies. -aLandfill's body proportions are really strange, especially
compared to his toy. -aThey really tried strongly to de-emphasize his
dump truck chest and gave him bizarrely big arms. -aQuickmix looks more
or less normal, and then when we get to Scoop it looks like they're
basically just drawing the Hasbro toy, right down to those tiny little
yellow fists. -aI can't even tell where his elbows are. -a
-a
Liane Elliot got a letter printed in the Trans Missions letters page,
who gained infamy during the early days of the online fandom as a
fanzine organizer and fan artist. -aIn response to another letter, the
editors also hinted that we might see a peek at the distant future in
about six or seven issues down the road. -aIt's crazy that the story was planned out this far in advance! -a(They're referring to issue #67,
naturally!)


Zob (it sure would be nice if NovaBBS actually allowed me to post
this...)

--
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2