|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 9, 2008 14:48:16 GMT
In all but name, pretty much.
Andy
|
|
|
Post by legios on Dec 10, 2008 21:43:58 GMT
So, "Transformers: The Movie".. Unfortunately I can't take part in the head-to-head aspect of this, as I have only read one of the two versions. I didn't bother with the IDW mini-series, so I am only acquainted with the Marvel version. I remember feeling at the time that it was a perfectly serviceable movie adaptation comic - something that Marvel had a fair amount of experience in doing. Whilst not perhaps up to the level of things like the "Empire Strikes Back" adaptation, it was a good solid second tier offering. At the time it felt like a decently epic story in the "Target:2006" mold, and it didn't suffer in comparison to the film as it wasn't until two years or so later that I actually saw the movie (as it never actually reached cinemas in my vicinity). In retrospect the comparison doesn't entirely do it any favours as the thing I most like about the movie as I get older is the quality of the animation (and the colour pallette) which for obvious reasons the adaptation doesn't share. I haven't actually re-read the Marvel movie series in a while now and I do wonder how I would find it, going back as an adult.
As mentioned previously, I didn't read the IDW version so I can't really draw comparisons there. So I guess this one goes down on my log-book as a partially completed mission....
Karl
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Dec 13, 2008 13:52:26 GMT
Marvel version is fun, only let down by dodgy repro of the time. The IDW version adds little to the story but I can't help but like it, damn it.
*strokes embossed cover*
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 13, 2008 23:32:31 GMT
I loved the Marvel version as a kid, getting the comic adaption before I'd seen the film. Rips along at a fair clip and it's obviously working from an earlier draft of the script but given the staging of a few panels it does look like they must have seen some storyboards at some point.
Artwise Perlin, Akin & Garvey do their customer great job of it. As Ralph says the repro isn't as good as it could be but at that point Marvel were throwing out some shitty repro jobs.
IDW version - an extra issue and some purple narration from Uncle Bob coupled with Don Figueroa's strongest work to date, nice clean storytelling but still in keeping with his design aesthetic.
Marvel one does however come out on top for me.
Andy
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Dec 18, 2008 17:59:31 GMT
Ooops, we forgot to suggest one this week. Er...
CHRISTMAS BREAKER
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 21, 2008 11:53:47 GMT
A break in the otherwise unbroken string of perfect issues stretching from #37 to #50.
Martin
|
|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 22, 2008 15:07:17 GMT
The first Christmas-themed story of the UK comic and it has great art by Will Simpson and the nightmare flashbacks are top notch. The story is typical sci-fi genre meets Christmas fare and is no worse than others but pretty indistinct. There is some foreshadowing of next week's tale but it is definitely a weaker story than those that preceded it and those that come after.
Andy
|
|
|
Post by legios on Dec 22, 2008 22:00:10 GMT
Ah, Christmas Breaker. Terribly pretty to look at, but unfortunately a bit lightweight in the content department. Like so many other Christmas stories it feels a little bit separated out from the stories around it, as if it is in a special festive box demarcating it out from the ongoing story. Not unlike, really, many other Christmas specials truth be told. It isn't terrible - the art is very nice, with the flashback sequences being rather good, but it suffers in comparison to the stories around it. That said, of the Christmas issues that I can remember of the UK comic I do tend to prefer this one to some of the later ones. I'm not sure if that is rose-tinted nostalgia or not (oit probably is).
Karl
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Dec 25, 2008 11:41:43 GMT
Just read it again. Seemed fine to me. I always enjoyed the TF Chrimbo tales (usually I'm not a fan of Christmas specials). Taken in context, they are meant to be read by kiddies at Chrimbo time. This was meant to be read, once, during one week in 1985. The usual death and destruction seems out of place at that time (a Christmas story formula of long standing in many series), so something lighter is fine. This was sandwiched between some fairly dramatic storylines. Something lighter was needed to cleanse the pallete inbetween. It forshadows Crisis of Command just fine, with Prowl voicing some misgivings and Prime acting strangely so it's not completely throwaway. And you can't beat an obviously depressed Prime standing about in a Santa costume. It just looks really disturbing and says a lot more about his current state of mind than any internal monologue could.
I am amused by Circuit Breaker telling us half of her back-story and not long after Jazz spontaneously thinks: "Remember Cicruit Breaker?" and tells the reader the rest of her back-story for no reason at all! OK, yeah, him then meeting CB ten minutes later stretches credulity a bit but, bah, let it go. It is the story that cements the idea that CB is not entirely well, what with her hallucinating Shockwave is a tree, which is interesting and better than the "whoooooooo aaaaaaaaam IIIIIIIIII?" bollocks we can get when a character goes a bit unstable.
Lovely art, does the job fabulously.
Bit of a shame IDW, Titan or Fun Pub don't bother doing one-off Chrimbo stories. I rather miss them.
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Jan 4, 2009 18:35:46 GMT
January 2009 in the Marvel TF universe started with Rodimus Prime feeling terribly unwell in...
THE VOID/EDGE OF IMPACT/SHADOW OF EVIL/WHITE FIRE
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by charlesrocketboy on Jan 4, 2009 19:16:13 GMT
It's a bit strange that the comic assumes we all know Unicron's in the Matrix, and so never names him.
I quite like that the Autobot's heroic actions to save Rodimus actually make the situation worse and, as we know, will condemn Roddy to centuries of possession.
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 4, 2009 19:41:50 GMT
You might as well throw in Aspects of Evil: Galvatron to that mix.
Taking them all together, they gave me very little enjoyment. For one thing, they weren't set in the mainstream TF future we had become familiar with but some new reality that was claustrophobic, bleak and (literally) colourless. Whether the Autobots had been transported to a universe running parallel to mainstream continuity (as TMUK assumed), or this was the new future that the mainstream present stories were now heading towards, I didn't feel much like caring about what happened in it, since I didn't care much about any of the characters that populated it. However, the artwork was excellent, and really deserved to be in colour and not be delivered in 5-page installments, and my reaction to the story as a whole might be a bit different if it were served up to me as a 22-page single-issue colour US story.
On the other hand, while the shipboard installments were very well written, the ending sections were extremely generic and unimaginative. They could have been saved by concluding with a more emotional rant by Rodimus, tearing Kup a new one for preventing him destroying Unicron when he had the chance. However, Furman seemed to have lost the passion by that point and wrapped it up with an off-the-shelf concluding speech.
Countdown to 1000 posts: SEVEN!
Martin
|
|
|
Post by charlesrocketboy on Jan 4, 2009 21:46:56 GMT
or this was the new future that the mainstream present stories were now heading towards You'd hope not, that'd mean all the cast's actions over the last few years had made them worse off!
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Jan 11, 2009 18:05:55 GMT
I think it's pretty decent, but Longtooth ruins it whenever he's on the pages. Just sucks the life out of the story.
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 16, 2009 7:31:08 GMT
What are people's views of ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE(read here) the text story from the 1992 UK annual and final Marvel G1 present-day story? I think it's Furman's finest piece of TF prose, an excellent epilogue to US #80 (and a superior story). As well as being damn good in its own right, it's a top story for Prowl fans as he's right all the way through it, and the day is saved when Prime sees it. If Mr Shockprowl hasn't read it he should be dragged along here to do so! The only thing I don't like about it (which I suspect I will be alone in) is the cheap teaser at the end referring to a new Decepticon enemy, which spoils the happy ending and sense of closure. It's a good book-end to the series, referring even to Ratchet's sacrifice. Any alternative perspectives? Martin
|
|
|
Post by legios on Jan 18, 2009 21:20:22 GMT
I'm afraid I may dissappoint you in that my perspective on this story isn't particularly alternative to yours.
Another time, Another Place is a very solid text story, and it does do a very good job of following on from the end of the US run. In tackling the issue of the Nucleon-infused transformers it picks up the main plot-thread left dangling at the end of the #80 and uses it fairly well as the motivating factor for a final confrontation which is distinctly more satisfying than that which closed out that issue.
Quite sensibly using a limited core cast, supported by cameos from other characters from across the run, the story has room for some decent characterisation of its principle characters. Notably Grimlock comes across as a bit of a fusion of the various versions that have been seen at various times. The story squares the circle in managing to make the unthinking brute, the anti-social grump, and the canny street-brawler all sides of his personality, rather than being various "pod-person" versions.
In addtion, Prowl comes across well in this story. Redeeming himself for being the naieve and too-trusting foil for Grimlock that he was in the last couple of issues of the comic, much of the story hangs of Prowls abilities as a strategist, and his ability to perceive both the antecedents and consequences of a set of actions and to follow that to its logical conclusion. Something that Simon Furman contrasts with Grimlock's ability to dive straight into a situation and come up with a great "next right move", but not to see the move after that one. The contrast between the two is quite effective and does bring them quite nicely into relief. It is nice to see the story acknowledge a depth of comradeship between Prowl and Optimus too. We get to see a bit of that bond hinted at with the "most trusted of my advisors" description way back in #1.
The supporting cast get reasonably well treated as well. Fangry seems the very model of a lower-ranked Decepticon in his brief appearence. Even the "spear-carrier" Autobots get something appropriate to do - Nightbeat gets to do a very gumshoe style "sneak up and whack the thug" schtick, and Springer plays the commando stereotype to the hilt.
I have mixed feelings about the framing sequence. On the one hand it doesn't actually add anything to the main story, which functions fine without it. On the other it gives me a sense of Optimus having seen an entire generation of peace on Cybertron. (I read the framing sequence as being a long, long time in the future), and a cycle of history turning. Classify me as being "on the fence" on that aspect of things I think. As to the rest of it, I do have a real liking for "Another Time, Another Place" - and whilst my affection for "State Games" might be partly base on nostalgia there is no such qualifier with this story, because I only first read it as an adult (I missed the annual that it was in back in the day). Good stuff indeed.
Karl
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Jan 18, 2009 21:56:03 GMT
I must admit, the reputaion of ATAP completely escapes me.
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 3, 2009 18:19:45 GMT
In light of the weather...
SNOW FUN!
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by legios on Feb 8, 2009 19:59:29 GMT
I'll be honest and admit that I don't remember a great deal about Snow Fun. I'm aware of having read it, but I can't say it left a particularly huge impression on me.
Karl
|
|
|
Post by charlesrocketboy on Feb 8, 2009 20:04:58 GMT
I like the idea that Grimlock is about to assault the Dinobots over this.
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 11, 2009 19:19:26 GMT
I'll be honest and admit that I don't remember a great deal about Snow Fun. I'm aware of having read it, but I can't say it left a particularly huge impression on me. Karl Who can forget such a classic tale? tfwiki.net/wiki/Snow_Fun! It's got....snow...and stuff in it and Grimlock and...and...everything! -Ralph
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 23, 2009 11:52:56 GMT
THE BIG BROADCAST OF 2006 -Ralph
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Feb 23, 2009 12:33:54 GMT
Ah ha ha ha ha
What WERE they thinking. Seriously, this is probably the worst and laziest issue of the Marvel US run. If they were running behind, why would they go to the trouble of adapting a tv script (which would still need to be rewritten anyway) and drawing all the art for it. Why not just write something new. Why make it so crappy? Why make something that doesn't fit in with the rest of the run /at all/.
The only saving grace is that in the UK version, Simon Furman kicked the sh*t out of it in the framing sequences, rather hilariously as an insane fantasy of Wreck-Gar's. Totally unprofessional, but hilarious.
It'd be like the Titan reprint of Megatron: Origin having a framing story of Rumble telling the tale, and at the end it turns out he is drunk and everyone mocks him for telling such a rubbish story.
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 23, 2009 17:47:35 GMT
The US cover screams: 'DEADLY DUEL IN THE PROMISED LAND!' while a badly drawn Galvatron and Rodimus gurn at each other as the world explodes. For that reason alone, it has greatness. Funk Yeah! It's Rodimus vs Galvatron-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Feb 23, 2009 20:39:07 GMT
I like to think that they are disco dancing
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 23, 2009 20:45:54 GMT
That too. Perhaps the world is being destroyed by funk.
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by Benn on Feb 24, 2009 9:14:32 GMT
At least the UK treatment of this story made it make sense...
"I'm a winner, I'm a winner, I believe in ME!"
|
|
|
Post by Mark_Stevenson on Mar 2, 2009 17:27:59 GMT
There was some mighty fine 'produce' being passed around marvel HQ the day they decided to put that one in, I tell ya...
Mx
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 19, 2009 12:47:18 GMT
From Marvel US #4 or UK #7/8:
THE LAST STAND
-Ralph
|
|
|
Post by Benn on Mar 19, 2009 13:06:05 GMT
Now this was the first story that sealed the TF deal for me. The Autobots got so frustrated and scared that they were lashing out at anybody, The Descepticons seeming so powerful and unstoppable, and just when it's seems that against all odds there's a happy ending:- Shockwave makes his entrance.
Awesome.
|
|