Writers: Simon Furman & Chris Ryall
Artist: Don Figueroa
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Price: $3.99
Release Date: February
IDW Publishing has quite frankly been a godsend to Transformer comics. Picking up the licence from Dreamwave when they folded and promptly putting Transformer uber-writer Simon Furman in charge of all of the output has given us some great comics (Stormbringer, Spotlight: Shockwave) and has only really dragged on a couple of occasions so far(anything with humans in it…). EIC Chris Ryall seems determined to pull together as many different elements of Transformer lore as he can possibly get his hands on, between reprinting old Marvel comics and reworking the animated movie here we find the first issue of the prequel to the forthcoming big screen film release. The aforementioned Chris Ryall is responsible for the story here, with Furman coming in to co-write the script because it would frankly be sacrilege to not let the shiny headed one come along for the ride. On art chores is Don Figueroa, now a veteran Transformer artist with outstanding work on the Stormbringer miniseries a little while ago.
So, we have one fan-favourite writer and artist and one critically acclaimed writer (I’ll let them argue over who is who) on a highly popular franchise, what could go wrong? Well, there is only one way it could possibly go wrong.
Michael Bay.
Bay is one of those directors that people either hate or tolerate, swinging between great films (The Rock) to god-awful celluloid nightmares (Armageddon, Pearl Harbour) when he got his hands on Transformers a lot of people didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Bay brings big explosions and ridiculous montages. This is good for a film about giant robots. He also brings nauseating characterisations and flag-waving appears to be his Olympic sport. This is bad. As we approach the release of the movie this summer we have at learnt that the plot will see the evil Decepticons lead by Megatron on present-day earth searching for the All-Spark, the lifeforce of all Transformers. A far cry from the animated series that so many people grew up loving, the pictures seen so far have a lot of people worried particularly in the depiction of loved characters such as Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Alas, you work with what you’re given. However, against all my concerns, Ryall, Furman and Figeroa have managed to create a fantastic comic. Running at about a million miles an hour for what is only the first issue of a four part series, it’s an absolute blast through the premise that will be the background to the movie full of nice little touches for the fans. The plot of this first issue sees the planet Cybertron in the midst of war. The once joint rulers of Optimus Prime and Lord Megatron have come to blows over Megatron’s desire to use the All-Spark to fuel his power urges, Prime is determined that the All-Spark cannot be corrupted and intends to blast the artefact into deep space.
Our guide through this attempt at inter-galactic antique disposal is Bumblebee who is holed up with five other Autobots defending the supposedly hidden launch site for the All-Spark. Prime is across the planet at the city of SimFur (Hmm, sound familiar?) in a attempt to distract Megatron from his true plan. It doesn’t work and Bumblebee and his squad find themselves under heavy attack. There are some nice little characters amidst the battle that I won’t spoil here, but I’m guessing we won’t be seeing them in the movie from what I have read elsewhere. We also get to see a lot of Megatron himself which is not something I was particularly expecting. Shame he has a face like the Predator’s arse (damn you, Bay!).
The artwork is up to Don’s usual high standards, Cybertron is the battered mechanical Lebanon that it should resemble, expelling a sense of fragility that belies its mechanical construction. The characters themselves are a mixture of Don’s previous work on the IDW Beast Wars mini-series and having to pull off the trick of portraying the movie’s stars in a pre-earth formatting. The problem simply lies in the fact that the movie has made the Transformers far too busy in design terms, which Don has done his best to convey here whilst also giving them a wonderful fluidity in the vain of Geoff Senior’s classic work on Transformers UK. I fear for the movie when what we are essentially presented with here are Gundam-styled robots that lack all the classic simple design elements that made original 1st generation characters so popular (obviously, a cynical person wouldn’t point out that blocky equals easier to produce toys of in 1984…).
From what I expected to be an extended Cybertron-bound series, I was pleasantly surprised once again by the hurtling plot advancement. Put it this way, we’re getting Earth by issue two! If the series can continue like this, I might just avoid the film altogether, it will probably be a disappointment in comparison.
James Dodsworth - Born and raised in Yorkshire, residing in London since 2000, James has a Law Degree and works for the Anti-Financial Crime Office of a International Asset Management Company. He is a writer and editor for FractalMatter.com.
But his main claim to fame is living next to the pub where Shaun of the Dead was conceived.