Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 16, 2010 12:41:38 GMT
'Tis here, and as fan-dabby-dozey as always. A mixture of the Marvel TF universe and the live-action movie universe, which - Masterforce excepted - covers my interests in Transformers nicely.
In page order
- A dynamic and colourful cover by Ed, illustrating a scene from the text story within.
- An authentic A-Z profile of Rippersnapper, true to his comic portrayal and with an interesting twist in terms of his weapons system.
- A tantalising glimpse of next issue's comic strip story featuring two of my favourite characters, and a remark about how Hubris has gone from issue one to issue twelve that I raise my eyebrows at before passing on without further comment on the number of issues in between.
- A very fair review of Revenge of the Fallen in my opinion, giving it credit and criticism where due. Only point I disagree with is the one on Decepticon characterisation, which - turncoats excluded - I personally fail to see. I thought Frenzy in the first film had more personality than all the non-side-switching 'Cons in ROTF.
- Split Decision, a three-page comic strip by Graham and Ed, and the highlight of the magazine for me. It adds a lot of thought to the otherwise shallow Marvel origin of the Pretenders, using a minimum of words. The artwork is flawless, the muted colours on the flashback scenes actually preferable to the over-bright colours of TF comics these days. I think a full strip coloured dimly like that would look better than one coloured at the usual brightness level. And, excepting the colour of Goldbug's head, the continuity is also spot on.
- A-Z Commentary - my favourite ongoing feature in Hubris, still going strong - keep it up, Graham! You haven't made your marathon task easier by branching out into non-toy characters like Boltax, but as a fan of the Marvel storyline I heartily approve of your decision. Also nice to see 'Plague of the Insecticons' included in Bombshell's entry. You could also have included the G.I. Joe / TF mini-series (which I've recently bought the 1993 TPB of and found surprisingly palatable) which pretty much doubled Bombshell's screen time in the US comic, but on the other hand it never happened as far as UK readers were concerned.
- Reviews of five ROTF Autobot toys. Surprisingly interesting for a non-collector. (Actually, I must admit to standing for a whole minute in Sainsbury's this morning looking at ROTF Ravage and wondering whether to add him to my basket before coming to my senses...)
- The Guard Part 3 - nice to see the tables turned against the supposed manipulators, and to see them start to lose their cool and make mistakes. Blaster lives up to his Bruce Willis record by taking out his enemy loudly and messily. But as commented in previous reviews, this version of Prowl just doesn't seem like Prowl to me. In fact, Prowl and Jazz seem to have swapped personalities from the Marvel comic (in particular 'Crisis of Command'). I do like the references to Jazz's special ops record and skill, but struggle to reconcile his acceptance of the collateral damage and Prowl's doubts with what we know of their characters. I like the idea that Prowl may be 7 million years old (implying that most of his 3 million years of active life was not lived in time of war), though it sadly conflicts with - or at least poses difficulties for - his TMUK origin. On the whole, I'll stick to the Thomson standard Prowl as portrayed in 'Murder on the Dashboard'.
- A breakdown of the Stephen Baskerville cover from Hubris #10. Not as good as some other Hubris covers, inluding Ed's cover for this issue, in my opinion, mainly because the lower half of the picture is too scrunched up to the right-hand side leaving a big empty gap at the bottom left. I'd enjoy seeing similar breakdowns in future issues, of fan artwork.
- The Score - a bit of light-hearted fun.
- Tech-specs - like the A-Z, perfectly authentic additions to the official set, for characters who missed out on them at the time. Well-written. Tech-spec ratings excessive (two in three Micros being smarter than Prowl), but OK if compared only with other Micros.
A kick-ass package, definitely worth getting in full colour.
Martin
In page order
- A dynamic and colourful cover by Ed, illustrating a scene from the text story within.
- An authentic A-Z profile of Rippersnapper, true to his comic portrayal and with an interesting twist in terms of his weapons system.
- A tantalising glimpse of next issue's comic strip story featuring two of my favourite characters, and a remark about how Hubris has gone from issue one to issue twelve that I raise my eyebrows at before passing on without further comment on the number of issues in between.
- A very fair review of Revenge of the Fallen in my opinion, giving it credit and criticism where due. Only point I disagree with is the one on Decepticon characterisation, which - turncoats excluded - I personally fail to see. I thought Frenzy in the first film had more personality than all the non-side-switching 'Cons in ROTF.
- Split Decision, a three-page comic strip by Graham and Ed, and the highlight of the magazine for me. It adds a lot of thought to the otherwise shallow Marvel origin of the Pretenders, using a minimum of words. The artwork is flawless, the muted colours on the flashback scenes actually preferable to the over-bright colours of TF comics these days. I think a full strip coloured dimly like that would look better than one coloured at the usual brightness level. And, excepting the colour of Goldbug's head, the continuity is also spot on.
- A-Z Commentary - my favourite ongoing feature in Hubris, still going strong - keep it up, Graham! You haven't made your marathon task easier by branching out into non-toy characters like Boltax, but as a fan of the Marvel storyline I heartily approve of your decision. Also nice to see 'Plague of the Insecticons' included in Bombshell's entry. You could also have included the G.I. Joe / TF mini-series (which I've recently bought the 1993 TPB of and found surprisingly palatable) which pretty much doubled Bombshell's screen time in the US comic, but on the other hand it never happened as far as UK readers were concerned.
- Reviews of five ROTF Autobot toys. Surprisingly interesting for a non-collector. (Actually, I must admit to standing for a whole minute in Sainsbury's this morning looking at ROTF Ravage and wondering whether to add him to my basket before coming to my senses...)
- The Guard Part 3 - nice to see the tables turned against the supposed manipulators, and to see them start to lose their cool and make mistakes. Blaster lives up to his Bruce Willis record by taking out his enemy loudly and messily. But as commented in previous reviews, this version of Prowl just doesn't seem like Prowl to me. In fact, Prowl and Jazz seem to have swapped personalities from the Marvel comic (in particular 'Crisis of Command'). I do like the references to Jazz's special ops record and skill, but struggle to reconcile his acceptance of the collateral damage and Prowl's doubts with what we know of their characters. I like the idea that Prowl may be 7 million years old (implying that most of his 3 million years of active life was not lived in time of war), though it sadly conflicts with - or at least poses difficulties for - his TMUK origin. On the whole, I'll stick to the Thomson standard Prowl as portrayed in 'Murder on the Dashboard'.
- A breakdown of the Stephen Baskerville cover from Hubris #10. Not as good as some other Hubris covers, inluding Ed's cover for this issue, in my opinion, mainly because the lower half of the picture is too scrunched up to the right-hand side leaving a big empty gap at the bottom left. I'd enjoy seeing similar breakdowns in future issues, of fan artwork.
- The Score - a bit of light-hearted fun.
- Tech-specs - like the A-Z, perfectly authentic additions to the official set, for characters who missed out on them at the time. Well-written. Tech-spec ratings excessive (two in three Micros being smarter than Prowl), but OK if compared only with other Micros.
A kick-ass package, definitely worth getting in full colour.
Martin
