Transformers!

[anarky]

Fuck, dude, it honestly slipped my mind because I was blown the fuck away.

I won't say another word about it, except to apologize that you have to wait a few days. Honestly, it is more unfortunate that you cannot read it yet than that I have spoiled it. I'm not being snarky. I truly feel pity for you because your life will change for the better when you read this.

As much as I love G.I. Joe and Larry Hama, Furman is doing a better job with a true continuation of the original series. Of course, this probably means Scorponok won't suddenly show up and then we get an awesome cloak-and-dagger story explaining why he (and Thunderwing) are alive.

[anarky]

Seriously, I am dying with anticipation of being able to discuss this issue with another Furman/Wildman fanboy.

The only regret I have is that IDW wasn't selling retailer incentive covers at their booth. As much as I love the retro cover, I would've gotten the Geoff Senior cover because that would be both the awesomest TF artists on a single issue. There were a few other guys from the UK run who were never published in the US book, but those two guys blow away all competition. Fuck Figueroa. If this wasn't TF we were talking about, he might have a shot, but Wildman and Senior smoke all pretenders. And Pretenders. (See what I did there? Thank you, folks, I'll be here all week.)

[anarky]

So, um, you able to get this yet?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Nope.

[anarky]

This makes me sad.

(No, seriously, I'm not taunting or anything. I really want your thoughts on the issue.)

I have also decided that I will absolutely have to break my "trades only" rule for this series. One (and a half) issues in, and there's more happening per issue than any other book. I don't think I can deal with spoilers on Transformers.

Hama may be a better writer overall, but Furman's run on TF is probably my favorite of all time.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I finally got this today(just in time for next weeks new issue).

Holy crap. I was blown away by the reveal in the final pages. And Grimlock shows up next issue. He's been absent far far FAR too long in the main continuity.

[anarky]

No shit. You see what I mean, right? If this isn't the best comic being published right now, I'm not sure my brain can handle the best.

Getting into spoilers, using tags since JJ might possibly be coerced into reading this masterpiece. (I doubt anyone else will, just because of tastes, though they should, especially DB, since it would make up for never seeing Blues Brothers.)

I loved the foreshadowing with Megatron getting the drop on Kup in the simulation. The casual throwing in of new (to American G1, at least) characters was a brilliant way of echoing the tone of the classic series. Berko and the Cosmic Carnival was awesome, though it makes me curious where Sky Lynx is.

The destruction of Earth worked surprisingly well here. It bugged me in All Hail Megatron, because it simply didn't follow what came before and was a much harder reboot than they intended. (Also, putting the emphasis on unsympathetic humans and having the Autobots run around whining wasn't much fun.) It also bugged me in Generation Two, since it was entirely for shock value, and also because that book actually crossed over with G.I. Joe just an issue or two earlier, and such a dramatic split so soon was ridiculous. Here, it showed how Prime's current policies have doomed Earth.

Who's on Earth? I've kept away from spoilers, but have looked at some covers and saw a solicit or two. Ratchet looks to be hooked to some sort of life support machine on one upcoming cover. Megatron and Starscream are definitely around. Megatron and Galvatron II seemed pretty tight in the end, I'm guessing either Megatron found Galvatron and revived him, or Galvatron wasn't as out-of-commission as he seemed and revived Megatron. Shockwave is a wild card; however, with only these four 'Cons on Earth and the two 'Trons being so powerful, he probably fell into line when he realized the logic of "waste this planet before the Autobots find out."

The only (Earthbound) human confirmed alive is Spike. Since he's not Fort Max's head, I'm going to guess Max is dead, or in a condition humans can't repair. He has Circuit Breaker's technology, making me think she's dead. The other NeoKnights are probably dead as well. Spike could have Roadjammer tech as well; if Furman dredged up Berko (who wasn't really that "lingering"), he surely will address the "'You haven't seen the last of the Roadjammers!'/The Roadjammers were never seen again" bit. Nice parallel to the alternate 2009 where Spike led the human resistance movement against Galvatron.

What else? There are Demons and possibly Mecannibals still running around Cybertron. Unicron is either not quite so dead, or Prime is going insane. It'd be cool if there was a nod to the G.I. Joe continuity that crossed with TF in the miniseries, maybe a few surviving members running around. Bludgeon is clearly around, and possibly in possession of Thunderwing's corpse. The original Headmaster heads (including the evil Scorponok) are likely still on Nebulos. Jhiaxxus looks like he'll show up, though I'm assuming it's more a "since this guy was said to have been around forever in G2, he has to be around in this continuity" thing. I wouldn't mind getting an official answer to the Liege Maximo thing, either.

And, obviously, Grimlock is back, searching for a cure for Nucleon, which appears to have left many of his comrades insane or suffering other ill-effects, just like the guardians on Hydrus IV warned him.

How sad is it that I can remember the name of the planet with Nucleon all these years later?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I seriously need to go back and reread the original series. Probably not the entire thing, but definitely everything after the Underbase saga.
The Berko cameo was a nice touch.
I think the Unicron vision is just Optimus snapping a bit. I don't think Furman would revisit it "five issues" later. The Unicron saga is over and done with, and has been scraped clean in so many other continuities. It's not Furman's style to recover old material.

[anarky]

I'd read the first 25 issues, because they're mostly awesome, then the Underbase Saga, then skip to #56. You've read it before; those are the key issues. #51-55 are some of the worst issues in the series, maybe worse than "Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom" or "Roadjammers." (Yeah, I love the concept of mercs with stolen Decepticon tech that interferes with transformation. The actual issue sucked massive donkey balls, though. "I, Mr. Z, am secretly LORD ZARAK!! Tremble before my badass Headmaster armor, which I've been wearing under this tailored suit without any sign of wearing cybernetic equipment that's twice as big as my actual body!")

I'd recommend picking up the UK issues. Titan reprinted a lot of them, and they're still around, even if not in print. IDW's reprinting the whole shebang in order, but they're not too far along yet. Even if he contradicted UK stories, Furman still referenced them. (The whole flashback bit in Matrix Quest where it shows Powermaster Prime looking at the Matrix in the body of the Deathbringer, on Earth, really messed with my head until I finally found the UK story.)

Refresh my memory on two things, if you can:

1) Wasn't Soundwave one of the Underbase casualties? How did he get revived? I seem to remember him popping back up in later issues, without the use of Nucleon, but don't remember how it came about.

2) In the IDW-verse, Grimlock was buried, resurrected, busted ass in Maximum Dinobots, was imprisoned on Garrus IV in exchange for saving the Dinobots, and was somehow driven insane during Overlord's occupation. The speech impediment came about in Maximum Dinobots, but I seem to recall his self-repair mechanisms fixed it almost immediately. Am I right? Wonder if his experiences on Garrus IV will make him the smooth-talking Dinobot we love again?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

MTMTE is so damn funny, I'm still cracking up half a dozen times every issue.

"..you're just miserable aren't you Crankcase?"
"Bah!"
"Did he just say--?"
"I know. You've seen it written down but never heard it said out loud, right?"

And

"What the--? I'm thinking magnets, but I'm hoping magic powers..."

And

"I'd have called it something noble and majestic, like Mega Starpuncher or Mighty Spaceship."
"Crankcase, I think Mighty Spaceship is the best name[for a spaceship] ever."


Jeebus, I have tears in my eyes.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

And to answer your two questions;

1. I don't know. A lot of the 'deceased' from the Underbase saga, showed up again just in time to get deceased again durin the Unicron saga. I kinda feel like Furman and Senior weren't sticking to Budainsky and Delbo's work y'know?

2. Grimlock showed up at the end of MTMTE 7, so next issue we find out where he's been in the three years since Garrus-9.

And, ironically, fuck you Grimlock. Because I double posted.

[anarky]

According to the Transformers Wikia, Soundwave was taken out of commission by Soundwave in TF #50, but appeared in a shorter story called "Fallen Star" in TF UK #248, which takes place before TF #59, and he appears in Scorponok's army several times thereafter. The site mentions the seeming discrepancy that he has no organic components, but is restored. (It also mentions something I'd never caught--a lot of Autobots are referred to in later stories as having been killed by Starscream, though they're apparently off-panel.) So is Thundercracker, apparently.

If they were repaired, that's a bit bizarre that the 'Cons could actually get some people fixed in that time, despite having only one identified medic (Hook, who's more an engineer than a medic, but was the closest thing the 'Cons ever had to one--and that's assuming the Constructicons didn't die off-panel; they last appeared in #41 it seems), whereas the Autobots had Ratchet, the guy who's consistently identified as the best mechanic on Cybertron, and he only got four characters fixed in that same time (counting Starscream), and that was entirely due to Megatron's advanced Pretender technology.

Kinda like Sunstreaker, killed by Shockwave in #4, described as probably irreparable by Ratchet in #10, and resurrected by Nucleon in #74/5. No UK appearances in the meantime. Only I didn't know until looking at the Wikia that he appeared in the background of one panel in #41, and it's clearly meant to be him. No explanation at all.

[anarky]

My turn to piss off Grimlock: I'd say Furman was more a stickler for continuity than Budiansky. There were some huge continuity farts in his run:

Essentially forgetting about Sunstreaker
Autobots team with Blackrock for fuel, then he basically vanishes (aside from useless deus ex machina appearances) until Furman has him suddenly form the Neo-Knights
Stupid schemes like Skullgrin becoming a movie star, Iguanus climbing the Empire State Building, the Battlechargers spray painting New York, etc
Ratbat and Zarak's INSANELY stupid schemes in "...Car Wash of Doom!" and "Roadjammers"
Inconsistent sizing and power levels (Omega Supreme was a major offender here)
Inconsistent long-term characterization of some major players, particularly Grimlock, Ratbat, Blaster, and Circuit Breaker
Rampant info-dumps, particularly in the clumsy introduction of characters (Hama and Furman both had the same exact problem of 10-20 new Hasbro figures at once, but you never saw six Joes standing in a line saying, "I'm Quick Kick, and I'm our Silent Weapons specialist!" "I'm Footloose, the hippie Infantry Soldier!" "I'm Barbecue, the Firefighter!" etc)
The aforementioned "You haven't seen the last of the Roadjammers!" finale
Several other major dangling plot threads that he seemed to have had no intention of revisiting
And the single thing that bugged me the worst and still does: in #1, Bumblebee says in his info-dump that he is looking forward to being on Earth since he loves water and is looking forward to a swim, but when the Throttlebots (including Gold Bug, who was Bumblebee!!) are infected by Scraplets in #30, no one knows what the fuck water is! And the previous issue, Ratbat (also infected, also ignorant of the existence of water) was setting up his hypnotizing CAR WASHES to use in the following issue--with water!

Furman just had to contend with consolidating the various sub-continuities that had already been established. For example, the Autobots teamed up with the Joe team right after they accidentally killed Bumblebee and rebuilt him into Gold Bug. But in the UK, Action Force (the Joe team, but from England) had appeared many times and the US crossover wasn't in continuity, so they had Death's Head kill Bumblebee before he was rebuilt.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I haven't read any TF UK, so they aren't 'canon' in my timeline of the original Comics run. Even the two or three issues that were reprinted in the Marvel run I just look at as an alternate universe What If? type story. It's not like "the last Autobot" was ever mentioned again.
And I'm sure theyre loads better than Budainsky's crap, and I'm sure they share some backstory and plot points. But to me, different Universe. Like the Cartoon, RID, Dreamwave, etc.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA You bastard!!! I got to read TF ReGen 82 before you!!

The events of last issue are still shocking to behold. THE ENTIRE PLANET?!? Dayum.
The Decepticons are all faring poorly.
Ratchet is faring even worse.
Who is the Autobot that brings Ultra Magnus the news about the missing shuttle. It's like a black Windcharger. I thought maybe it was the little Fort Max guy.
Grimlock!!! Yay!!!
Circuit Smasher is a bit 'Feh'.