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Post by karla on Mar 19, 2009 14:19:31 GMT
oh god I remember reading that one, but can't remember what happened oh no gots ta find it again!
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Post by blueshift on Mar 19, 2009 14:52:17 GMT
oh god I remember reading that one, but can't remember what happened oh no gots ta find it again! In the first reprint of it in the 80s, it doesn't have Shockwave killing everyone, instead Optimus just gets up and makes a speech! (To give it closure as its own story, obviously)
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Mar 19, 2009 20:07:47 GMT
One slightly annoying thing is that the artist didn't pay close attention to the script. Early on in the issue, the writer (Jim Salicrup) went out of his way to establish that Soundwave, Skywarp, Rumble and Frenzy were out of action, and avoided mentioning them or giving them any lines during the battle - but the artist went and drew them in anyway, changing what was scripted quite tightly as five Autobots against five Decepticons into something a bit more messy.
But the script itself was awesome, one of the best. Shockwave did make for a great plot twist and cliffhanger, but even without him it's a fine concluding twist to have Sparkplug's poisoned fuel kick in. Most TF story arcs fail to come up with a clever plot twist ending worthy of the build-up - The Last Stand had two! Now that's just showing off...
Martin
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Post by legios on Mar 19, 2009 21:45:33 GMT
Last Stand is a fantastic finale to the first arc of stories in the Transformers comic, and a cracking good yarn in its own right. It has a lot going on in here - plenty of characterisation (Mirage's development, culminating in him doing the right thing for purely selfish reasons is nicely handled, as is the quite understandable anger of the Autobots when they believe that they have been sold out by Sparkplug who they put themselves in danger to protect) and some fantastic spectacle - the knock-down, drag-out battle between the Decepticons and the last defenders of the Ark is superb stuff.
There is a great deal in here to like. Megatron has rarely seemed so powerful and frightening. Something that is deftly established in a mere three panels, where he stands and takes everything the US Army can throw at him for fifteen minutes. A quarter of an hour, the amount of hurt that the US Army could have put on one stationary target in that length of time - even twenty-five years ago - doesn't bear thinking about. So for Megatron to simply stand there and take it quite nicely establishes a sense of unstoppability about him. This is something that transfers through nicely to the final battle, it doesn't seem surprising that the Decepticons seem to be about to roll over the Autobots without breaking a sweat. (And Megatron's willingness to shoot through his own side for a good shot at Prime is a wonderful expression of the utter-ruthlessness of the character.). Indeed a Decepticon victory doesn't just seem possible, but almost inevitable. Which is what makes the twist outcome of that so very effective. It is well set-up in the story as well, with both the Korean War flashbacks and Sparkplug's attempts to put his side across serving to lay the ground work for the twist. Like the best plot-twists it is one that surprises and yet feels like a logical and natural outcome of the rest of the story.
The second twist is perhaps a little more arbitrary - serving as it does more as set-up for a story to come than as anything that really bears on Last Stand. But as entrances go, Shockwave is well served - arriving from off-panel to bring the sky crashing down on the Autobot's victory certainly allows us to impress the audience. It is a very effective way to end the opening issues, overturning the status quo almost completely and requiring that future issues have to be on a different footing than what has gone before.
There is enough content in this single for almost an entire mini-series these days, and it keeps the story moving along at a good clip. And not content with serving up a heaping helping of story, it delivers a great ending, and then just for good measure another one. A hard act to beat in many ways.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 22, 2009 22:24:11 GMT
Great lettering from the distinctive John Workman.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 23, 2009 20:53:30 GMT
It was also the first appearance of the inking tandem of Ian Akin and Brian Garvey who would make quite an impact on the art of the US Transformers comic over the next few years.
Andy
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Post by grahamthomson on Mar 25, 2009 9:17:22 GMT
I hate to sound like Captain Palm and his Five Lovely Fangrrls, but I would have loved a near-direct adaptation of the first four Marvel US used as the script for the Transformers film. The Sparkplug plot/twist would have been brilliantly played out.
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Post by blueshift on Mar 25, 2009 9:28:03 GMT
I hate to sound like Captain Palm and his Five Lovely Fangrrls, but I would have loved a near-direct adaptation of the first four Marvel US used as the script for the Transformers film. The Sparkplug plot/twist would have been brilliantly played out. Including Spiderman? ;D
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 25, 2009 18:27:32 GMT
Of course!
-Ralph
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Post by grahamthomson on Mar 25, 2009 21:07:06 GMT
Live action Spider-Man would never work.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 25, 2009 21:34:22 GMT
Yeah, what I've seen of the Spidey films is dreadfully dull and pompous.
-Ralph
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dyrl
Empty
Transforming robots are no match for combat waitresses from the future!
Posts: 1,652
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Post by dyrl on Mar 31, 2009 20:43:50 GMT
Been watching the wrong live-action Spiderman again? This is the one to check out. Stan Lee Approved!
Pete
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 31, 2009 20:58:38 GMT
Yes. That is Proper Live Action Spidey.
-Ralph
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Post by legios on Mar 31, 2009 21:07:45 GMT
There is any other kind of live action Spider-Man than that? Surely you jest? When we have Spider-Man battling against the Iron Cross army what other live-action version is required?
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 6, 2009 20:05:46 GMT
In memory of Frank Springer, the very first Marvel story, known simply as...
THE TRANSFORMERS
-Ralph
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Apr 6, 2009 22:53:11 GMT
The amount of backstory it crams into eleven pages before everyone gets revived is staggering.
The concept of organic life being utterly alien and incomprehensible to the Transformers is also a great concept, and sadly was rarely used outside of this issue.
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Post by Mark_Stevenson on Apr 6, 2009 23:06:03 GMT
Well, it's the reason we're all here, in a roundabout way... The essence of everything great about Transformers is in there.
Imperfect but idea-filled, exciting and charming. As compelling now as as it was 25 years ago. There are frames in that story that will be imprinted on my mind until the day I die.
RIP Frank Springer.
Mx
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Apr 7, 2009 6:26:12 GMT
I like the way he draws transformations: Looks more convincing than having the car just stand up on end and transform as per the toys, which kind of defies gravity. When I look at these panels on the page I can almost imagine them transforming like the live-action movie Autobots. Single best TF comic, Marvel #1 - it tells _the_ definitive story of the Transformers. Nothing else comes close. Martin
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Post by blueshift on Apr 7, 2009 7:58:10 GMT
Single best TF comic, Marvel #1 - it tells _the_ definitive story of the Transformers. Nothing else comes close. Martin Whilst I dont think it is the best, it is certainly a huge achievement to include so much. Really I do miss comics with lots and lots of meaty content
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Post by grahamthomson on Apr 7, 2009 9:37:33 GMT
It's certainly the best "beginning" the Transformers has ever had.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Apr 7, 2009 9:58:00 GMT
It makes you sad to see that level of story and reading in a comic and them pick up what we are generally served with these days. Like Martin, I like the boxy, functional way Frank Springer drew the transformation sequences, he had an eye for good storytelling. Mantlo and Macchio crammed so much into the story it's easy to see why it had to get a reprint and became and on-going.
Andy
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Post by grahamthomson on Apr 7, 2009 10:17:16 GMT
My copy of this issue has "Third Printing" in the indicia!
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Post by jameso on Apr 7, 2009 19:18:54 GMT
I don't know about issue 1, a lot happens, but a lot is also skipped over, and the two page spread of the Autobots (to pick an obvious example) introducing themselves isn't particulary effective story telling. To be honest, in terms of Transformer intros I prefer Arrival from Cybertron.
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Post by legios on Apr 7, 2009 20:40:35 GMT
"The Transformers". In a very literal way it is indeed why I am here. Sure I liked the toys before the comic came out, but it was when the first issue of the UK comic - reprinting the first ten or so pages of this issue - hit the stands that I was really sold.
There is a fantastic sweep to this issue - in a few pages it establishes an epic back-story of an entire planet riven by a civil war and brought to the brink of disaster. Then it strands our cast on an alien (to them) world and revives them to confront each other in a situation that they don't clearly understand.
There is a a fair wodge of content in this issue story-wise, a lot of ideas that are thrown would in these a modern comic be padded out to comprise a full issue or even a full story arc. Instead they are here thrown to the audience to catch even as the next story element is pitched at us. Sure, some of the dialogue sounds a little "stagey" now, but in its time it was off a piece with how comics where written and certainly didn't seem out of place. The roll-calls don't really bother me, they were fairly traditional in superhero team books by this point anyway and serve a purpose in namechecking all the characters and getting them established so that the story can be moved on with.
Frank Springer's art goes a long way to creating this sense of scope. In a few panels he firmly, and elegantly establishes Cybertron as a world that has been reduced to a battered, Stalingrad-esque, urban battleground. Speaking of battles, his rendition of the Decepticon assault on the Ark is fantastic - because of the way he stages it we don't need to see the battle in detail to get the important story point that it is a brutal assault, and a losing battle for the Autobots. It may not be "realistic", but the art does a fantastic job storytelling and it has an energy to it that catches the eye.
There is a lot of story here for your 75cents, lots of ideas and a story that moves with a lot of pace. It certainly did something right because it is one of the few comics from my childhood that stayed a pin-sharp memory right up until I read it again as an adult, and it fueled a life-time affection for transforming robots and mecha.
Karl (And whilst I think of it, this issue and Frank Springer also created what is for me the definitive version of the Ark - whenever it is mentioned I always see the somewhat clunky, boxy version seen here)
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Post by grahamthomson on Apr 8, 2009 7:46:00 GMT
(And whilst I think of it, this issue and Frank Springer also created what is for me the definitive version of the Ark - whenever it is mentioned I always see the somewhat clunky, boxy version seen here) Plus he drew it as though several Ironhide/Ratchet-like trailer sections opened out from its hull to provide extra weaponry!
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Post by legios on Apr 8, 2009 19:53:24 GMT
Plus he drew it as though several Ironhide/Ratchet-like trailer sections opened out from its hull to provide extra weaponry! And with maintenance/triage drones that resembled part of Prime's trailer. I actually quite like that visual approach. It creates the sense of a distinct "technological architecture" - things built by Transformers to do a given job tend to look like other things built by Transformers to do the same job. It makes sense to me in terms of world-building. (And also appeals to the part of me that thinks that having a spaceships weapons fold out from ports and apetures in its hull makes for a nice image). Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 13, 2009 15:54:25 GMT
I'd like to see a kids comics now which has so much reading in it.
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 18, 2009 18:57:22 GMT
PRETENDER TO THE THRONE!-Ralph
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Apr 18, 2009 21:20:07 GMT
NOOOOOO.
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Post by legios on Apr 22, 2009 20:24:52 GMT
I can honestly claim that I have no recollection of this story whatsoever. It falls into the period of time when I wasn't reading either the UK or US comic regularly, and I'm not aware that I have read it in the years since. It is possible that I have encountered it I suppose but if so then it has left no impression on my memory whatsoever, which judging from Ralph's horrified reaction it seems unlikely to have been possible.....
Karl
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