Post by grahamthomson on May 24, 2010 7:57:50 GMT
“War and Peace” was originally published by Dreamwave Productions in Transformers Generation One: War and Peace #1-6 (April-October 2003)
There’s one simple word that greedy executives use when they want to repeat the commercial successes of their past. That word is “more”. Whatever they think worked last time, this time they want more. More. “War and Peace” is everything that was wrong with “Prime Directive”, but, somehow, more.
Chris Sarracini, writer for Dreamwave’s previous Transformers mini-series, is replaced with Brad “James McDonough” Mick who is clearly much more familiar with the older Transformers stories. Perhaps too familiar.
It seems that James is hoping that a series of in-jokes and references from the animated box office flop “Transformers: The Movie” will carry the story along. If the first Dreamwave mini-series was guilty of having too little going on, then this one is guilty of the opposite. There is a lot of incident packed into the series, but the sub-plots are too chop/change and lack coherency.
The plot, such as it is, takes a running jump and the series is left not with a story but merely a series of events. There’s no direction, no focus, no character motivation, no personal conflict. It’s a heartless business relationship between the reader and the writer… it’s an uncompromising transferal of information… and it’s bad.
By the time the last issue (six of six) rolls out, five issues’ worth of subplots are seemingly abandoned for a singular “defeat the monster” story. Practically all the (many, many) sub-plots disappear with everything suddenly focusing on bringing down the bad guy.
The reader is promised war and peace, but really they’d prefer this chore to cease.
Pat Lee, artist for the previous series, is not replaced. The unintelligible artwork and confusing panel layouts are enough put off even the most seasoned comic book reading veteran.
There is one positive aspect to the series: The colouring is amazingly multi-faceted and really brings the pages to life. Kudos to Espen Grundetjern, Alan Wang, and Gary Yeung! Sadly, though, it’s not enough for those readers that are hoping for a proper Transformers story rather than a series of nicely coloured in-jokes.
“War and Peace” is a mess. And there’s no hope (no hope, no hope, no hope at all—sorry, just joining in the spirit of ripping off The Movie!) of any kind of cohesive, conclusive tale.
There’s one simple word that greedy executives use when they want to repeat the commercial successes of their past. That word is “more”. Whatever they think worked last time, this time they want more. More. “War and Peace” is everything that was wrong with “Prime Directive”, but, somehow, more.
Chris Sarracini, writer for Dreamwave’s previous Transformers mini-series, is replaced with Brad “James McDonough” Mick who is clearly much more familiar with the older Transformers stories. Perhaps too familiar.
It seems that James is hoping that a series of in-jokes and references from the animated box office flop “Transformers: The Movie” will carry the story along. If the first Dreamwave mini-series was guilty of having too little going on, then this one is guilty of the opposite. There is a lot of incident packed into the series, but the sub-plots are too chop/change and lack coherency.
The plot, such as it is, takes a running jump and the series is left not with a story but merely a series of events. There’s no direction, no focus, no character motivation, no personal conflict. It’s a heartless business relationship between the reader and the writer… it’s an uncompromising transferal of information… and it’s bad.
By the time the last issue (six of six) rolls out, five issues’ worth of subplots are seemingly abandoned for a singular “defeat the monster” story. Practically all the (many, many) sub-plots disappear with everything suddenly focusing on bringing down the bad guy.
The reader is promised war and peace, but really they’d prefer this chore to cease.
Pat Lee, artist for the previous series, is not replaced. The unintelligible artwork and confusing panel layouts are enough put off even the most seasoned comic book reading veteran.
There is one positive aspect to the series: The colouring is amazingly multi-faceted and really brings the pages to life. Kudos to Espen Grundetjern, Alan Wang, and Gary Yeung! Sadly, though, it’s not enough for those readers that are hoping for a proper Transformers story rather than a series of nicely coloured in-jokes.
“War and Peace” is a mess. And there’s no hope (no hope, no hope, no hope at all—sorry, just joining in the spirit of ripping off The Movie!) of any kind of cohesive, conclusive tale.
