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Underground > Comic Books >

Transformers: Generation 1

23:48 / 06.04.02

So it's finally out.

Did anybody get it? Cameron? (Kidding!)

I liked it. It wasn't what I was expecting. I though the focus on the human characters was going to be boring (like when the original writer, Bob Budanski (sp?) wrote human-based story. Goddawful.) but it worked well. The art was pretty nice too and the last page just thrilled the fanboy in me!
It's ony a six-issue series and I'll definately be buying it.

00:25 / 07.04.02

Focus on human characters?

Crap, please don't tell me that whiny little brat Daniel is in it. The Transformers movie would have been 10 times better if he hadn't been in it.

Its got Optimus and Megatron, right? I hope so, nobody would be stupid enough to make a comic about Hot Rod and Galvatron I would hope.

03:10 / 07.04.02

you dare speak ill of Rodimus Prime?

03:22 / 07.04.02

Yes, I dare speak ill of Hot Rod.

He wasn't worthy of the matrix or the title of Prime.

Optimus Prime will always be the true Autobot leader in my eyes. No, not that damn fire truck, I'm talking about the red and blue semi-truck. He was courageous, honorable, and did the right thing even though it killed him. He was the epitome of heroism in my eyes. He'd still be alive if Hot Rod wasn't such a complete screw-up. Optimus had Megatron at his mercy and Hot Rod just had to run at Megatron because he saw Megs reaching for the gun while at the same time begging for mercy. Optimus died because of the actions of a foolish child. He could have led the autobots to a golden age. He didn't need the matrix to accomplish what he accomplished. The matrix was just a symbol of his leadership while he held it, it wasn't some sort of ultra-powerful weapon that could destroy world-eating sentient planets until Hot Rod got his punk-ass hands on it. Optimus would have found a way to defeat Unicron without the power of the matrix.

So yes, I'm speaking ill of Rodimus Prime.

(Oh Jesus, I'm a horrible horrible geek)

04:46 / 07.04.02

couldn't have said it better myself...

i haven't seen this movie since i was 6. i remember liking rodimus prime. maybe my older tastes would steer me differently. who did orson wells play anyway?

(assuming the plot you just summarized was from the movie, right?)

10:07 / 07.04.02

he played Unicron.

I mean, who else?

11:55 / 07.04.02

Actually he only did most of Unicron's voice. He died before he was able to do all the lines, so I believe that Leonard Nimoy took over there and did the last few lines needed to finish the film.

You see, the main problem with Hot Rod and Galvatron is the hardcore fans didn't like that particular part of the Transformers mythos. I would figure that the creators of the Transformers comic would want to get the hardcore fans to buy the book because theres enough of them to cause Transformers to become a more than a mini-series much like what has happened with G.I. Joe.

12:09 / 07.04.02

to slip into geekery for a minute i'd argue that 'hardcore' fans didn't like galvertron et al. I'd say that most UK based transformers fans will have fond memories of galvertron/ rodimus prime, principally because great stories featuring those characters appeared in the UK transformers comic. aside from one 'alternate earth' issue and a sub-plot to bring galverton back in time (both under the auspecies of UK transformers writer Simon Furman) the american version of the comic just ignored the characters leading most of the 'hardcore' american fans to do the same...

12:18 / 07.04.02

Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about the UK comics. What I do know seems to point to the fact that the UK Transformers comics were better than the american comics.

Gah. I just read a review of the first issue. Daniel's in it! Daniel! Human characters are great and all. I love Sparkplug and Spike, but Daniel is a complete waste of flesh.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:47 / 08.04.02

In about issue 80 something of Transformers Weekly they did a ten part sotryline in which Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge travel back in time, almost kill everyone then get sent forward in time by Hot Rod, Kup and Blur who have also come back in time (this happens off-screen to the movie). When someone comes back from the future someone from the present gets transported to this weird subdimension for no reason. Around issue 101 Galvatron comes back in time again (after the destruction of Unicron in the film) and hangs around. There then follows about 100 issues which loosely speaking set the groundwork for the finale in which a big time warp thing almost destroys the Earth, Unicron almost comes back and gets destroyed again, Shockwave in the future gets killed, Deaths Head gets introduced, Megatron goes mad then claws his way back to sanity, Galvatron just goes mad, Optimus Prime dies, his personality gets stored on a ZX Spectrum and he gets a new body as a Powermaster, Buster Whitwicky does nothing important at all, the character who Eric Idle plays in the film gets tortured, Optimus and Rodimus spend A LOT of time agonising and second-guessing every decision they make and then it all gets wrapped up neatly and there is much rejoicing.

Simon Furman then leaves to write Transformers US, the UK comic goes black and white, then reprints, then becomes toilet paper.

Hey, this all mattered to me when I was 12...

14:51 / 08.04.02

Not really one to jump aboard at this late stage, this one, is it, really?

15:12 / 08.04.02

Heh you forgot tonnes of cool stuff especially the zombie film inspired storyline set back on cybertron where dead, decaying transformers were coming back to life...

22:00 / 25.04.02

I like it. The slow build is pretty good, and the art's cool. I get the feeling that this story is carrying on from where the original cartoon left off, right? It's certainly not continuing from the comic. Furman's end-run on the U.S. title has been collected and it's really quite good. He does use some of the movie characters, but in a pre-movie sort of way. I think the next issue of the new series will be the kick-ass one, but man, Hound protecting the bad guy who's renting out Transformers. Let's hope Optimus can beat, I mean, talk some sense into him.

Zoom.

22:05 / 25.04.02

From what little I know, it takes place in between the end of the original series and the Transfomers movie.

19:49 / 29.06.02

Anyone still reading?

Bored now. The art for the most part is ok, but at times it descends into terribly proportioned cack with some terrible angles.

And there is no characterisation whatsoever that I can see. Megatron shouting "Who gives a damn!" just reeks.

But what did I expect?

02:50 / 30.06.02

Exactly. Suck it up, fanboy.

17:48 / 03.07.02

Well, I still like it. Bit disappointed with the whole "evil master plan" thing. I had hoped for more of a Furman-esque plot.

The art is dropping. Bodily proportions are weird in some panels (including Starscreams teeny-tiny head!) and the scene with them all falling into the crevase just looks really strange.

Oh, and Megatron's dialogue is dead-on. It sounds like what he should have been saying all along, particularly during during his insanity-era. (which was most of the last run!)

15:46 / 05.07.02

"Optimus Prime dies, his personality gets stored on a ZX Spectrum and he gets a new body as a Powermaster".

You have got to be kidding...right? Boy should I have been more annoyed when my parents gave my old transformers and action man comics away.

17:38 / 06.07.02

I must say, Galvertron always looked cooler, especially in the cartoons where he went mad and ended up covered in sticky stuff by the doctors...

And because I wasn't going to start another Transformers thread- What is this Armada thing? They're making a cartoon as well?

18:39 / 06.07.02

As far as I know, Armada is the new Hasbro Transformers Toy line. There is going to be a new cartoon and comic-book tie-in. It's set on Cybertron, features popular characters in their "original" (redesigned) Cybertronian modes.
It also introduces the concept of "Mini-cons" which, from the preview, seem to be smaller transformers unwittingly grafted to the autobots/decepticons bodies.