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Seibertron.com member Azrail has shared a pictorial review of the recently released Transformers Prime Voyager Dreadwing. Check out this review below.
Hello again. This is the last of the new TF Prime releases I received last week.
So here is a look at Transformers Prime: Dreadwing. Voyager Class.
As always thanks again to Andy at Kapow Toys - http://www.kapowtoys.co.uk in the UK! There looks like no chance he will see a UK release in 2012 or at all! So I'm glad they got him in or I would have missed out.
This was a standard USA box release. For some reason Hasbro decided to add a yellow Powerizer area to his nose on the picture. Which is dumb as the toy doesn't have that!
The jet mode is excellent! A real nice deep blue and a good fun size to hold. Not too big, he transforms down quite compactly. There will be scale pictures later.
The cockpit is not designed to be open and you can shine a light through the back to make it.. um glow?
So on to the biggest issue to some with Dreadwing. He has a rubber fetish! Some bigwig at Hasbro health and safety must have seen him. He has a black rubber nose cone, shoulder and tail fins, knees and.. head!
All the pointy areas have been made rubber. Some may find issues with theirs if it's been badly packed etc mine seems fine. The rear fins are the thinnest and bendy ones but mine have held there shape and look ok. The nose cone has a gap where it transforms which is annoying but it may have had that even in plastic.
He has visible hand syndrome but not head. It would be better if the fists were closed. The jet mode is so cool you won't notice after a while.
You can peg the Powerizer gimmick gun on his roof or some other immensely better weapon.
He has 2 ports under his wings which can hold his sword or a weapon. PRID Arcee's long gun looks good with Dreadwing.
There is a fold out front landing gear and 2 permanent rear ones. None of them roll.
The waist area folds out and does make a messy bit of kibble to break up his sleekness. You could always think of it as a bomb pod. There are a lot of pegs holding the areas tightly to his body which is good.
His transformation is a little tricky at first. A lot of joints and sliding areas. Rather like Bulkhead it's clever how it hides everything in a smaller form.
The hands are extended making it look a little silly holding weapons. Closed fists would have been better. There are 2 micron ports on his arms. There are 2 pegs on his waist to do with the transformation you maybe able to use for tiny port items.
His Sword can be held on his back as the same top port folds around to the back.
There are some hollow areas in the legs but compared to most deluxes he's pretty solid!
You can have the wings up high as it comes out of the box or down lower as it's meant to be. Personal choice but the way it's boxed is not the instruction way.
A good level of articulation. Ball joint shoulders and legs, swivel biceps, rotating hands, cut elbows, knees and feet. Some cool poses but the hands still bug me.
The other issue is the shoulders don't lock into place. Afaik. So they are always pulling down a bit looking odd.
A nice head sculpt but weirdly it's rubber! It seems to be pegged onto a yellow plastic piece for the light piping. Which is minimal but works. His eyes are painted but the rubber allows enough light through there only luckily. Kinda the best of both options.
The head is on a ball joint but very tight! Hard to move and having to hold a rubber head doesn't help. There's also a small gap before his neck and chest.
It comes with a light up Powerizer gun like Optimus Prime and a Sword. I've removed the light and put it back together and it looks a lot better.
The gun cannot be held underneath as it would need a longer peg which is a shame. I have seen mods online already people have done. I prefer other weapons, c'mon Dr Wu!
The sword is well detailed and I think reasonably accurate. Longer than RID Primes. This is hard plastic which is crazy considering every other area is rubber!
I prefer the nice new Dr Wu Matrix Swords! There is a purple evil crystal version too.
Apart from a few in my opinion minor issues I think Dreadwing is excellent! Decepticon Voyagers seem to get the better versions. He is really a great representation from the show.
Compared to PRID Prime the gimmick does not detract. He's closer to Megatron where the yellow blends in and looks ok. And unlike some *cough* Rumble *cough* he doesn't need Reprolabels. He's started to appear in the USA already so go and get him!
Comparison scale pics coming in the next post. Please remember it's designed to be in scale with other Transformers Prime robots. Not the older Generations!
I hope you liked this review and will leave feedback or ask questions.
Comparison shots of Dreadwing with others.
He goes nicely with the deluxe jets being suitably larger to be the Leader.
Alongside the Cyberverse Commander version.
Alongside the Cyberverse Commander robot mode. Both cool figures.
With Generations Sky Shadow. A large Jet I would say and looks great together!
I may stick the gun together but right now it still folds.
Scales perfectly with the Voyager RID Optimus Prime.
Alongside Megatron and Breakdown Voyager versions.
RID Bulkhead and Voyager First Edition versions
Takara deluxe Jeticon and Skywarp. Both have tall back kibble and Skywarp is tall. Dreadwing could be taller but I think it's not bad myself.
Generations Sky Shadow looks like he could work with Dreadwing! The older Generations were taller but that's gone now and we have to accept it.
Hope you enjoy all the pics and if you want to see any comparisons then ask and I will see what I can do
SPOILER FREE
(CONTAINING SPOILERS FROM PREVIOUS RID ISSUES, HOWEVER)
With summer fun in the books, the IDW ongoing Transformers series starts September off with Robots In Disguise #9. Issue #8 left us with a rather vague cliffhanger involving Ironhide and the Dinobots. Barber continues the RID series with a rather abstract issue in #9. Initially I felt that the Cybertronians stuck on their motherplanet had a slew of villains to deal with - I find it rather perplex and unfortunate that those 'villains' have yet to come and there's animosity among the ranks!
And she's climbing her spaceship to heaven
The characterization of the Dinobots continue, and they are certainly following their leader who's stuck in the MTMTE-verse. They manage to acknowledge their lack of intelligence by oddly bringing themselves together as a group. That's not very good news for Ironhide. Reading through the issue I get the sense that's there's something wrong with the water outside of the major city. A virus? A plague? Jedi mindtricks? We'll find out in the next few issues or two.
Hey I just met you
Moving back to the main group, as readers we are focused into the mind of Bumblebee. While Bumblebee's political status in the Cybertronian hierarchy has increased tenfold in the previous Ongoing series and RID, I feel that Bumblebee's leadership qualities and personality have gone backwards. Once capable of bringing his fellow Autobots out of turmoil on Earth, he seems to be pulling a G1 Rodimus Prime, filling himself with doubt and stress, as his list of things to do keep piling on. Bumblebee's true resolve will be tested in due time.
Got 99 issues, but Prowl ain't one!
We also get guest appearances from Arcee, Blurr and Reflector. The Reflector trio is hilarious as always. Being a bartender has turned Blurr into a moody fellow, and Arcee smiling is one of the creepiest sights I have seen in awhile.
'Reflectors' at their best
overall, #9 sets up the Cybertronian faction with an incoming hurricane of events, however individually I felt that the issue lacked a 'wow' factor, even with the typical end page reveals. I also felt that the issue was forced to conclude itself in regards to Bumblebee, resulting in some confusion. Hoping our next issues and the upcoming RID Annual make this flight a little more enjoyable.
Time is not in lines, time is in circles. That's why clocks are round
Seibertron.com member optibotimus has posted his video review of Transformers Prime "Robots in Disguise" Deluxe Class Arcee. See his thoughts on the figure in the embedded video below.
Popular YouTube toy reviewer peaugh has uploaded a video detailing the highly anticipated Transformers Prime Deluxe Arcee. Check out his review embedded below.
Seibertron.com member Soundwave9 has shared a video review of the NYCC exclusive Transformers Prime set featuring Bumblebee in taxi deco, Arcee in G1 pink, and Jack and Raf mini-figures. Check out his video embedded below.
-Joseph Conrad, 'The Heart of Darkness' circa 1902
While this comic series (#2 in stores Wednesday!) will probably not make it into quite the same literary acclaim that the predecessor novel has, it looks to be exploring a character in a new, deeper and more exciting way. Will this book lead us into deeper thinking and understanding for people’s inner demons and parallel said book’s themes of what’s dark in and around all of us? We’ll have to read it to find out, but from our beginning two issues we can see that Galvatron has taken a very introspective look at himself, and his new relationship to the universe.
Accomplished veteran writing duo, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, step into the Transformers universe and take their shot at iconic characters Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge, and Arcee in this mini-series about Galvatron’s return to Gorlam Prime and the dead universe, and what he finds waiting for him there. We had a taste of what they could do with our favorite robots in Transformers Infestation #’s 1 and 2, and in Transformers Heart of Darkness they continue their set up of Galvatron as a major mover and shaker in the months to come.
Recap Issue #1 leading into Issue #2 Summary (SPOILERS!!!):
Galvatron feels called to Gorlam Prime and finds it devoid of life forms, as if there were a mass planetary exodus, or some sort of genocide. He and his recently reborn minions (sort of re-establishes what Galvatron did in Transformers Ongoing Coda #14 using the ‘Heart of Darkness’ and what happened to him after Optimus Prime flung him into the nega-energy core thingy).
Returning to where the trans-dimensional portal was found deep below the surface of Gorlam Prime, Galvatron displays new strength, and a narrow determination to find out how Gorlam Prime’s fate ties in with the dead universe, and his newly reconstructed self. This area was a focus for Nightbeat, Hardhead, Jhiaxus, and the micromasters in the fondly referred to ‘-tion’ series (Infiltration, Escalation, Devastation, and Revelation) and a pivotal nexus for crossing between the universe and the dead universe.
The previous portal was a giant lake-like area, but Galvatron and company find it has changed in its state from liquidish lake to a floating energy sphere. And besides the new spherical portal, they have found the tortured, and ruined pieces of Jhiaxus, who Arcee was busy ripping apart the last time we saw her (end of Revelation) to get revenge for Jhiaxus’ experimenting on her and creating her female form (Spotlight Arcee and the -tion series).
Galvatron uses the Heart of Darkness (anti-matrix) to re-create/re-animate/re-power/re-construct Jhiaxus, as he did Cyclonus, and Scourge. Through Jhiaxus he hopes to learn the fate of the people of Gorlam Prime, and how the spherical portal came about.
However, before too much can be shared, an unlikely pair of super-charged Autobots comes out guns blazing to protect the sphere. These two Autobots being none other than Arcee and Hardhead and they beat Galvatron down something fierce!
The series started off with a a pretty big bang, at least in the story development department. Abbnett and Lanning seem to have a pretty good grasp on the direction they want Galvatron to go, and the pace and speed they want he, and the other characters to make their important realizations.
Issue #2 continues this with more Galvatron introspection as he finds his way into the dead universe through the portal. However, the dead universe, heart of darkness, power of the anti-matrix or what not, has become somewhat of a crux for him. He seems to have lost a bit of his own independence in favor of the power that the dead universe has bestowed upon him. In fact, he relies on this power to re-animate himself, and his comrades, and himself again...so he has felt his own mortality, but is granted the power repeatedly to beat death for himself and others.
Speaking of powering up and beating death, Arcee and Hardhead seem to have become super-powered in their stay at Gorlam Prime. A few shots and they take down Galvatron, dealing him mortal wounds before he even blinks. Then they scare the bejeebus out of Jhiaxus, Scourge, and Cyclonus, as they beat them down. Scared s_itless, Cyclonus, Scourge, and Jhiaxus try as they might, seem to have no desire, will, confidence, or strength to beat these two Autobots. Having seen what was done to Galvatron, the ‘deadheads’ basically give up.
And then Galvatron gets better. And he does his best to destroy Hardhead and Arcee. They bear his best shot well, but are weakened, and panicked. Smarter heads prevail and Hardhead sends Arcee to warn her fellow Autobots about Galvatron, the dead universe, Gorlam Prime, and possibly ultimate doom.
Very quickly the cowardly deadites turn into confident soldiers and Galvatron very non-violently probes Hardhead’s mind to find out what has happened to create these changes in Gorlam Prime and the portal. Cyclonus and Scourge chase Arcee into an ancient-er area of Gorlam Prime, an underground city with sculptures of beings with Autobot matrix-like symbols on their chests.
Arcee is quickly overcome and as the chase concludes, she falls (is helped by cannon fire) into the abyss supposedly to her doom.
Galvatron enters the sphere entirely, encountering an entity called... U - N - I...just kidding, it was called D-Void and it is coming to feed on the sparks of sentient robotic beings (Gorlam Prime inhabitants were the appetizer), and finds Cybertronian sparks to be the richest flavor-- the best part of waking up--.
Galvatron vows to raise an army and defeat it. He exits the portal knowing his new goal, crazily trying to blast his new nemesis within the portal. Will the Autobots believe him and help? Will the Decepticons join Galvatron’s idealistic campaign?
My Take on the Writing:
I am intrigued by the series. Let me set this straight, I am intrigued by the characterization of Galvatron in the series, his devotion to finding out what his new purpose is, how it relates to what D-void might actually be, and considering how this will lead into CHAOS!
However, the writing falls somewhat short when dealing with the character formerly known as Cyclonus, and other supporting cast members. It’s true in Galvatron’s AHM Coda issue, Cyclonus felt beaten, and ready to just give in to the dead universe, but Galvatron and the Heart of Darkness cured him of this, and he recommitted himself to Galvatron, and being his ‘seeker’ (along with Scourge).. his lieutenant. But he does not seem to be the confident, adept, and powerful warrior that we saw in Revelation, or briefly in Coda. The character who didn’t bat an eye at single handedly taking on a ship of Autobots, or traveling between the real universe and dead universe to do tasks for Galvatron is absent, replaced by a bot who is unable to deal with dead universe enhanced Hardhead, his new situation, or the new Galvatron.
The dead universe crew seem to all be a bit sniveling and cowardly, more so than I thought we had seen based on INFESTATION and the previous material in the ‘-tion’ series.
However, it is a relief to see events, characters, and plot points re-addressed in this new series. The exposition by Galvatron can seem a bit uncharacteristic at times, but this is probably the best written version of Galvatron we have seen in fiction thus, far. Many times better than the Marvel Galvatron, or the cartoon Galvatron, he is separate from Megatron, and the inevitable meeting has to have other people than me happily anticipating a major throwdown for Decepticon leadership.
Writing has me on board. Abnett and Lanning are doing a good to great job. Galvatron’s internal dialogue is nice to read, and shows the level of introspection he is having, rather than just ‘rah! and crazy’, Autobot destroying, and power hungry, but some of the dialogue seems rather, out of place, or dated (uncharacteristic) sounding.
Artwork:
Artistically, though this series blows me away...in how poor, uneven, and inconsistent it is.
I would be very hard-pressed to find a time when there was such a mismatch in artistic quality with writing quality, although I am sure it has happened. But, and this is going to sound harsh, I feel like you could match Ulises with Shakespeare and people would not want to read the comics because the art was that bad.
There are truly some beautifully rendered pieces in the book like the his cover works. But most of the bots within the pages of the book are simply horrible to bad in their details and proportions. Chain-chin Cyclonus. Piston-Nostriled Jhiaxus. Plier-head Cyclonus. Super-legs Arcee. MP-09 handed Cyclonus.
The artwork is very...disturbing is not the correct word. I guess I just want to know where Ulises got his commission from. He has a web page with his art on it, he’s been hired to do different things, but for some reason, his style, his work just is not translating really well to this form of art. He’s a newcomer to Transformers, but his art seems much better suited to flesh and bloods, rather than robots.
From Issue #1 to Issue #2 he has improved a lot in his consistency, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Issue #1, I needed to look to see if other artists were credited for doing any of several of the pages, issue #2 I did not feel like that--it was much more even.
I just cannot fathom why there are some fantastic draw dropping pictures of Hardhead and Galvatron, and then there are some of Cyclonus, Scourge, Arcee and others that look like they were drawn by a much, much, much lesser hand.
And who am I to judge? Just a consumer who knows what he likes, has a little bit of art school training, many years of comic book reading and enjoying, and once thought he might illustrate comics. Looking at this, I need to get my portfolio in order, I might be able to find me some work out there.
Keep working Ulises, IDW is giving you your chance and you are making improvements. I hope you make the most of it!
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I believe you, a Transformers comic book fan and reader, should give this series a look. Two issues of four down, it’s very intriguing, and looks to more than likely be leading into the CHAOS which is happening this starting this summer. It also relates itself very clearly to previous story arcs, characters, and plot details, bringing back some things that perhaps you did not know you should care that were still dangling. Some loose ends are getting tied up, which for long term readers is quite a rewarding feeling.
I haven’t enjoyed much in Transformers lately, but I found this to be a worthy read.
The art will be hard to take for many when you first look, but as I stated, there are certainly some gems amongst the rabble, but every series is far from perfect in the creative areas, just as hacks like myself are far from perfect at writing, drawing, and creating items to share with our communities.
So since I reviewed the last issue of Dark of the Moon Rising Storm I get to review this one too.
Just like last time I will give a spoiler-laden synopsis and then crucify evaluate the comic based on art and story separately.
Lets get started.
The comic starts off at the N.E.S.T. Base, the bots and the humans have a bit of a conversation on how weird and creepy the refugees are. I'm not really going to describe everything in detail because I don't care, the reason comes later.
We cut back to Optimus Prime and co in a plane off to save Sam. Optimus and Elita have a conversation about how dedicated they are to killing Decepticons. Elita gets angry because Prime left them back on Cybertron and she saw Chromia die, and then died herself or something, Prime then says the funniest line any Optimus Prime has ever said:
“Don't forget you you're talking to, I've died too, Elita.”
For some reason that just cracks me up, he's like Stan Lee, pointing out the awesome things he's done whenever he gets the chance, just that Prime is kinda lame while doing so.
Who edits this? Who edits this? Insecticons. Insecticons.
There is one thing bothering me though, until now I've been under the impression that Arcee is the main unit of the three, while the other two are extensions of her but still have a bit of autonomy from one another. But here it looks like Elita-1 is the main unit while Arcee is part of her. You know what, I'm beyond caring at this point, these three are from now on the Magic Threesome to me.
So anyway, the Magic Threesome is thrown out of the plane to do something, it wasn't really stated what they where going to do, just that it had something to do with infiltration (herm, I'd rather be reading that comic to be honest).
We cut back to EXTREAM Sam and company who are still under attack by Club Starscream. In this fight it is revealed that Bludgeon is not based off off the ROTF toy, but has a new different design, or it's just the artist not giving a f**k about what the character's supposed to look like – take your pick (But I have to say I wouldn't mind buying a toy that looks like that). Also Bludgeon kills a Decepticon while aiming at Mirage, who is invisible, I like Bludgeon especially due to his response:
“Sorry, Storm Surge. I always knew you'd wind up as Collateral damage. Now where did Mirage go...”
Better than "My bad".
We also learn that Wheeljack has forcefields, just like Trailbreaker, oh and he's British. I can't help it, but the pages featuring Mirage and Wheeljack sound like a commercial for their toys.
“Hey kids I'm Wheeljack. I have lasers, I do science and I have a Forcefield!” “That's my best mate Mirage, he goes invisible! And look at his awesome Ninja skills!” “BUY OUR TOYS NOW, buy em or go and ask your bloody PARENTS TO BUY THEM!”
Well, then EXTREAM Sam goes out to find Brains, in an EXTREAM way. There he meets Space Case, who tries to kill Carly so he drinks his POWERTHIRST and gives Space Case an EXTREAM wack to the head with a crow Bar, EXCTREAM.
Then Carly saves Sam by shooting Space Case with a gun that looks to be attached to a Transformer lying on the ground, don't ask me which one, they all look the same, so I guess it's Jazz.
Why Carly, is that a gun or are you just happy to.. NO!
Bad Joke!
Then we go back the the Magic Threesome sneaking up on a large Decepticon, who is talking over a com link with another Decepticon. Stating that the cage is set and the pet is locked up.
It's revealed that the Decepticon is Astrotrain, seriously he's in this comic o_O, so I guess it wasn't Cybertron Thundercracker I saw in the last issue, and the Master is Shockwave. Also the hunt for Brains is just a way of distracting Club Starscream.
There's a tentacle monster in the cage, or is the tentacle monster part of the cage? Also that cage seems useless, because the Tentacle monster can slide it's tentacles through it.
Which idiot designed this?
The Magic Threesome then realizes that the whole thing was a
And are met by Soundwave and his minions, who lay a smackdown on them. Then the Magic Threesome decides to “Kill all Decepticons”, but also tells the Elita part to go get help.
Back to EXTREAM Sam and company and Club Starscream. Starscream finds out that he's been Shockwave'ed and finds himself in the middle of the Autobot reinforcements coming to help EXTREAM Sam.
We then return to Shockwave, who goes to the N.E.S.T. HQ to do what he does best, killing things. Yep, everybody dies,.even humans, but we don't see them die. Their death panels are just the sound effect on a background of random colours.
Feel lucky bud?
So that was it.
On the art:
The art is all over the place, some pages look pretty good while others look freaking horrible. It fluctuates, sometimes parts of a panel look good while the rest of it looks like an afterthought. There are group shots of characters standing behind other characters, where body parts that should be visible are just cut off by empty hippy coloured space. Also sometimes it looks like the art isn't even inked. The colours are a little better than in the previous image but still bad, especially due to the fact that TWO people where responsible for the colours in this comic, TWO and they still look like a comic from the 80's. Seriously, the G1 toon had less colour issues.
Overall, however, I feel that the line-art isn't too bad, it just looks worse than it is due to the colour job. That's the thing with colouring, it can make or break an image.
Oh no, I'm missing body parts! they have been absorbed into the hippy coloured black hole we have here for some reason!
I give the art on the art 3 of 10 stars.
On the writing:
The writing's not that bad, there are a few issues here and there, a few things that don't make sense, and a few things that just seem really really stupid. But overall not that bad, you know stuff is actually happening, characters are actually in character and consistent with their previous portrayals which is more than what I can say of other TF books.
Also I get the feeling that this story will be pretty good once itS' collected in the trade, it's just a shame that the art is so incredibly lazy and god awful.
also I would like to point out that the editing is almost as bad as in Spotlight: Grimlock, just saying.
I give the writing 6 out of 10 stars.
Which gives the comic an average of 4.5 out of 10.
So I get to review something again, this time it's Rising Storm #02, a comic set in the Movie Universe, it's a prequel to Dark of the Moon.
In Frank Miller's world, that's what all cops are like.
Naturally this is chock full of spoilers.
So it starts off with Megatron monologuing to Optimus Prime, only Prime isn't anywhere near him which means that he's monologuing to an imaginary Optimus Prime.
It sounds a lot like every other monologue Megatron has held in the Movie Universe, and just like all those before them, it's the exact same monologue, just slightly rewritten to include new characters and things that have happened that didn't exist the last time the monologue was spoken. And boy does it sound stupid and strange this time round.
So let’s get to the parts that are new:
This time when Megatron left, Shockwave was left behind on Cybertron so that he could show that he's the best at what he does, and what he does is killing Autobots. I would like you to write this down, it's important for a later part of the comic/review, Shockwave freaking loves killing, loves it, he clearly has a swell time doing so.
In short, killing = FUN to Shockwave.
OK did you write it down or at least memorized it? Shockwave is the only constant in Transformers, he's always badass.
So We see Shockwave killing Chromia, then the AllSpark cries out because humans have started touching it, Shockwave is the only one who can hear it and leaves Cybertron in an EXGTREAMLY fast space ship to go and play Chris Hansen.
Take a seat.
Oh he also leaves Dreadwing in charge of the one eyed drone army.
He causes the Tungasta Event and gets captured by the Soviets just like Megatron, just you know Megatron was captured by the USA.
Megatron later finds and reactivates Shockwave, who impatiently asks when he can finally start killing himself some Autobots, Shockwave F**king loves killing, Megatron brings Shockwave to his nest; yea let’s call it a nest. In this nest are a few Decepticons loyal to Megatron and Hatchlings. It's implied that Starscream now has his own faction of Decepticons, let’s call them Clup Starscream. The hatchlings, like the annoying children they are, demand to be fed., Shockwave again states his desire to kill Autobots, Megatron then waffles on about his plans that involve killing a few Autobots they don't need, and that there's plenty of time for fun later.
Now get out your note from earlier, what was it?
Ah yes, Shockwave thinks killing is fun.
This makes his next line, absolutely hilarious:
“Fun is not logical.”
Oh so he's suddenly in G1 mode and forgot that to him killing is the embodiment of fun? Awesome.
So if Megatron's the mum, who's the dad is it Shockwave?
Then Shockwave says he too has a pet, because Megatron is caring for hatchlings, Megatron then states that Hatchlings are more than just pets. He then calls:
“Hatchlings, come it's feeding time.”
This is probably followed by nap time, so Megatron’s like a mother taking care of her babies now, pretty funny actually.
Up until now this comic does not feel like an Issue 2, but more like an issue 1, you know like the beginning. But now in the last third of the comic we cut to a scene involving Bumblebee, Sam, Wheelie and a robot I first thought was a Fridge. This scene actually feels like it continues something. Turns out that the Fridge, is actually not Frenzy but a drone like Wheelie by the name of “Brains”. The whole scene involves Sam moving and shouting all EXTREAM. There is a somewhat funny part where Sam asks why Wheelie isn’t in the room he looked him in and if he broke the door again, Wheelie says no, and we see that instead of the door - he broke the wall.
Bumblebee is freaking annoying in this scene, yea I know he’s supposed to talk via sound clips from the radio like in the movies, but it just doesn’t work in comic form. Comics unlike movies are a purely visual media and do not have the ability to use sounds to distinguish different voices. So Bumblebee sounds like he’s brain damaged, instead of cute.
There is a scene of Optimus Prime going on a mission, telling “The Three” that they cannot come, because they are girls or something. The Three are Arcee, Chromia, and Elita-0ne. They are the three that are one, the one that is three, so they are all one person, while still being different persons – and yes, my head did just explode.
It's alive!
Must open door in an EXTREAM! way
We cut back to EXTREAM Sam and company. Club Starscream, including Barricade (he's not dead!), suddenly attacks and demands to be given “The Brain Unit”, I guess that’s Brains. Then a battle ensues, Bumblebee gets captured by a Decepticon I first thought was Starscream. This guy then gets killed by Wheeljack, who states that is friend Mirage is now no longer invisible. Then there is some shooting.
During this battle Megatron continues his monologue to Optimus Prime, seriously, get a Blog.
What the hell is going on, who are you people, what's wrong with your FACE
So that was the story, let’s get to the criticizing part, like the last time I’m doing the art and the writing part separate from each other.
So we’ll start off with the art first, since that’s the first impression you get from a comic. The art is done by Carlos Mango, who was also responsible for the previous Transformers Movie tie-in comics Tales of the Fallen and Nefarious. The line work is actually pretty good, well most of the time anyway. However, when there are multiple characters in a panel, the art goes all fuzzy as in everybody and everything looks the same. This is also partly the fault of the colourist. Who uses dark flat colours for everything, the colours are also not detailed, meaning that they only cover the main colours of each character, Wheeljack for instance is white. Just plain white, maybe it’s a very light grey but it’s still just this one colour, nothing brakes it up, no dark grey gears no nothing – just white. Also the colours are also just flat, no lighting, or shades. This and the at times fuzzy line work let everything blend together letting you not care for what the hell is going on.
I give the artwork as a whole 4 from 10 stars, had the colours been better it could have been 7 stars, since I do like most of the line work.
Now on the writing itself. It's all over the place, it's not particularly bad, but it's also not great. Keeping in mind that this is issue #02 of a miniseries I'm going light on it, since these kind of stories tend to work better when read all at once, and the fact that I did not read issue #02. But this is also this comics downfall. You see, beginning with page one 3/4 of the comic are dedicated to what feels like the beginning of a whole new story, while the remaining ¼ is a continuation of the previous issue, but by the time you get to it, it just comes out of nowhere and makes you feel like there's been a mistake at the printers and they accidentally mixed up two separate comics. Then there is Megatron's awful monologue, it starts off someone cool and interesting but once you reach page 4 and you realize that it's mostly just stuff we've already heard in previous Movie comics and that it just won't stop it just starts annoying you.
I do like what John Barber is trying to do here, and give him kudos for it. So what is it that he's trying to do? Well, he's trying to get rid of some of the more glaring inconsistencies and questions that exist in the Movie Universe, and tries to stay consistent himself, unlike other writers who have been assigned to task of continuing a Transformers comic property. The characters are the same as we know them from earlier stories, well except Shockwave (who changes in the comic itself for no apparent reason, maybe that's just the way he'll be in the movie) and Jolt, who actually has a personality now.
I give the writing 5 of 10 stars.
As I said previously this is just part 2 in a 4 part story, and therefore believe that once this is finished it will be a good read and make a lot more sense. The story and art both have potential, it just needs better, shinier colours and seriously needs to drop the unnecessary Megatron monologues.
So all in all it has 4.5 of 10 stars.
Wait a sec, I think I may be forgetting something, but what is it? hmmmmmm...... oh yeah, Transformers: Prime is back! For the official start of it's first season!
Where do we go for this week in Transformers History? Why back to 2006 of course, for the launch of the Beast Wars 10th anniversary line.
So where to begin telling you about Transformers Prime? In less than two short days, many of you will get to experience what I've already watched about a half dozen times. Earlier this week on Monday morning, an unexpected package arrived from The Hub via UPS. I quickly opened up the package and was surprised to see that they had sent me an advance copy of the first two episodes of Transformers Prime.
I quickly got to work writing extremely lengthy and detailed summaries of the first two episodes. I wasn't sure who my review would be competing against so I decided to do summaries instead of a review first in case everyone and their robo-brother did reviews. I figured detailed summaries would be least likely by everyone. My instinct was correct. If you missed the spoilerific summaries I posted earlier this week, you can check them out by clicking on the following links.
Much to my surprise, I really liked the show. I'm not sure what I was expecting. To be honest, I've had Transformers Prime on my mind's back burner. I've been so busy with keeping up with galleries on Seibertron.com that I hadn't really given "Prime" much thought other than making sure news was getting posted about it when necessary. Prior to seeing the show, I would never have believed what my reaction would have been. To sum up my thoughts about Transformers Prime, let me put it like this in terms that Seibertronians will understand loud and clear -- "Prime is like the love child of Beast Wars and the Live Action Films". Basically everything I like about both of those series seems to be here, except without the senseless and cheesy humor.
On November 24th, weekly entertainment trade magazine Variety posted a review of "Transformers Prime". I was hesitant to read what they wrote initially, but after getting through the first paragraph or two I realized that they liked it as well. Their review wasn't quite what I was expecting from a mainstream magazine. I thought for sure that my Transformers warped mind was making me watch the show through rose-colored glasses. Nope -- they liked it and even summed up several of my thoughts.
Variety wrote:As no-brainers go, a Transformers TV show on the Hub -- welding Hasbro's popular toy line into its cable co-venture with Discovery -- ranks down there with making a sequel to the first movie. Yet the product of that assembly line, "Transformers Prime," proves unexpectedly sharp -- better than the movies (admittedly damnation with faint praise), thanks to the arresting CGI animation, which proves especially well-suited to rendering shiny robots and their vehicular alter egos. There's nothing more than meets the eye here, but what does appear is a plenty entertaining addition to this well-oiled moneymaking machine.
Having read such a positive review from Variety, I felt more encouraged to state how much I liked Transformers Prime. The voice acting is superb, the animation looks incredible and uniquely stylized (even if the human animation models are lacking something), the musical score was beautiful, and the aggressive story below me away.
The first two episodes were serious, sophisticated, rather dark and contained various mature themes -- something I was not expecting at all, especially after the somewhat misleading character trailers that The Hub recently rolled out. This show is definitely not geared toward the younger kids like Transformers Animated was. I don't even know what previous series Transformers Prime is most like. I think I'll need to view a few more episodes to decide. I'll tell you what it's not like ... it doesn't have the kiddie feel to it like Animated, it's extremely coherent and not dumbed-down or poorly dubbed like the Unicron Trilogy, it's not simplified or hyperactive like RID, it's not a whiny complaining misguided hippie like Beast Machines, it's not like Beast Wars despite being the closest thing I could compare Prime to, and it doesn't come across like a toy commercial like G1 does at times (sacrilegious, I know).
Transformers Prime doesn't waste any time. Something major happens in the first third of the first episode that I don't think anyone was expecting. I can't wait to see if the second episode truly ended what happened or if there's more than meets the eye awaiting us. I'm still shocked at what happened, especially in the second episode. Crazy!
Knowing that an army of you Seibertronians will be here on Friday evening posting your reviews in this topic, I'll keep the rest of this review to a minimum. Here are some of my final thoughts that I want to share with you to tide all of you over until Friday afternoon when Transformers Prime debuts.
It's in widescreen, though (unfortunately) most of us won't get to watch it in widescreen because most of our Cable companies haven't started airing The Hub in HD yet. Here's hoping for a quick release of this show on DVD, or at least when the toys inevitably come out.
This show has an actual musical score along the lines of the music from the live action Transformers films. It's complex, not repetitive, and it always seems completely appropriate for the scene. Beast Wars suffered greatly in this department whereas it seems to be one of Prime's greatest strengths.
The voice acting is superb in my book. I was pretty geeked about Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprising their rightful roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. The rest of the voices seemed appropriately cast. None of the voices seem out-of-place. Everything seems natural. It definitely feels like the animation was done to the voice acting instead of the other way around, which was one of Beast Wars greatest strengths.
The kids weren't as annoying as I had expected. I'm one of those fans that understands the purpose of having humans in the Transformers cartoons. Without humans, there'd be little point to Transformers being "robots in disguise". They're a necessary evil and, in this case, they're handled fairly well. The show is about the Transformers and not the kids -- there seems to be little confusion about that.
"Prime" is dark at times -- some themes that might not be appropriate or suitable for young children. They might even be getting away with some of what happened in the first two episodes because what occurred happened to "robots" and not humans and because it's airing on a cable channel half-owned by the same people who own the Transformers (*ahem* that'd be Hasbro folks). If you question whether or not the show is dark, just ask yourself this ... has the word "cadaver" ever been used in an episode of Transformers before?
The overall mood of the show, or at the very least the first two episodes, is far more serious than we've seen in a long time. I guess this is what makes me keep thinking of Beast Wars. But not all of Beast Wars. Think "The Trigger", "Dark Voyage", "Law of the Jungle", "Other Voices", "Other Visits", and "Code of Hero". Not on an epic scale like Other Voices or a heart-wrenching scale like Code of Hero, but in its own unique way.
The animation has grown on me. There are some things that I don't like. This might be the show's weakest link and one of its greatest strengths. The backgrounds, the complexity of each scene, the transformations, the alternate modes, and the Transformers robots themselves all look incredible. Yet at the same time, I get this feeling like I'm watching the cut scenes in a video game. Something's not quite right and I can't pinpoint it. For the most part though, the show looks incredible. I really like the overall style of the animation even though I have a few issues with it. It is definitely unique, as unique as the style of Transformers Animated is and the style of the live action Transformers films.
Speaking of transformations, they're very fluid -- more along the lines of the live action films. To be honest, I really had to think about this because none of the transformations really stood out to me -- but that's actually a good thing because it means they didn't waste a lot of time forcing the transformations upon you. It just happened and the show went on.
As I've said before, War For Cybertron/Exodus and Transformers Prime are a "forced" continuity meaning that they weren't originally intended to be the same continuity despite what Hasbro tells us. There are a few things that contradict what's already been established in the WFC universe, not to mention a flash back scene in Transformers Prime that uses the Prime animation models and not anything that looks like the WFC designs. I'll consider them the same continuity to humor everyone but they're as forced together as Transformers Cybertron was forced into the Unicron Trilogy.
And now for my thoughts on the characters ...
Optimus Prime - he's basically the same as his movie counterpart. As much as I love Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, I sometimes feel that he takes the role a little too serious. Everything always seems so epic and heavy with him voicing Optimus. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just looking for something to complain about like a typical fan boy. Or maybe he does need to loosen up a little bit.
Megatron - I'm not usually on the Frank Welker-voicing-Megatron bandwagon like many fans are. Every time I've heard him do his "Megatron" voice in recent years, I kind of cringe. His recent Megatron voice is definitely not his G1 Megatron voice, whether it's him or how it's vocoded I don't know. So I was a little reluctant about him reprising the role of Megatron. His voice at the end of the first episode is like his recent Megatron voice that I don't particularly like. However, his voice in the 2nd episode is unlike any other Welker/Megatron voice I've heard before. It's unique to this character and very appropriate. This Megatron is EVIL, a true villain, something that has been missing from Megatron for a very long time. Sometimes I wonder what the difference is between Megatron and Optimus because we rarely get to see Megatron be evil. You do in Transformers Prime and that's why this Megatron has got me wondering if this could be my favorite Megatron since the Beast Wars Megatron.
Arcee - She's a pretty major character in the first two episodes that gets a lot of screen time. She's the bridge that basically brings the humans into the Transformers storyline. She's a very serious Arcee. This isn't your Headmasters "secretary" Arcee or Susan Blu's Animated Arcee. This is an Arcee with an attitude. Not IDW's Furmanized Arcee, but definitely more of a serious warrior Arcee
Starscream - not a wuss. Voice is different than previous incarnations. More like the first live action film than the second. It's unique and not the "screaming" high pitched voice either. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first. I liked it, but I just kept thinking that it's not a voice for Starscream. I was sold pretty quickly on it when I saw Starscream being a complete badass in the first episode when he does something we haven't seen in a Transformers cartoon in a really long time (if ever). Give this Starscream a chance. He might just give previous Starscream incarnations a run for their money.
Ratchet - Jeffrey Combs does an incredible job with this really fun character. This might be the best rendition of Ratchet to date. Picture a cross between G1 cartoon, comic, and Transformers Animated Ratchets -- and the best of each to boot. He's not fond of the human kids, has a sense of humor, grumbles, complains, and still gets the job done. I'm rooting for a Starscream versus Ratchet battle, they both might be worthy of revisiting Simon Furman's Marvel Comics battle between these two characters.
Soundwave - Megatron's here because of him basically, no thanks to Starscream, but we really don't find out too much about him. We don't even really hear him speak, he just plays back a recording of something Arcee said. Hopefully he's more than just a drone.
Bumblebee - more-or-less like his movie counterpart with some added bits from his Animated self. He can't talk, which is one of my few complaints about the show, especially with no explanation about why he can't speak other than via beeps and boops, which Raf can oddly understand. He surprisingly didn't get as much screen time as Arcee did, which I thought was a little odd. I'm sure he'll get his moment in the spotlight in the near future though.
Bulkhead - basically like his Animated character, but without the goofy clumsiness. All muscle it seems. Voice is similar but different. Lots of fun potential with him. Minimal screen time but enough to get a taste of him.
Cliffjumper - seems like a cool character. Not sure that they needed to bring in a Hollywood name to do his voice. His design is one of my favorites in this show. Definitely a risk taker. He was portrayed very well in IDW's Transformers Prime comic and his characterization carried over to the cartoon show.
"Transformers Prime" Production Credits:
Produced By Hasbro Studios
Executive Producers:
Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jeff Kline are executive producers. Kurtzman and Orci served as co-writers of the feature films "Transformers," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Star Trek." Kline was also executive producer of the animated series "Jackie Chan Adventures."
Main cast:
Optimus Prime - Peter Cullen
Arcee - Sumalee Montano
Ratchet - Jeffrey Combs
Bulkhead - Kevin Michael Richardson
Megatron - Frank Welker
Jack - Josh Keaton
Miko - Tania Gunadi
Raf - Andy Pessoa
Starscream - Steve Blum
Agent Fowler - Ernie Hudson
June Darby - Markie Post
Well, that's it for me for tonight. Please make sure you stop by to share your thoughts after you watch Transformers Prime. I look forward to hearing what other Seibertronians think of this show.
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Some bigwig at Hasbro health and safety must have seen him. He has a black rubber nose cone, shoulder and tail fins, knees and.. head!
He's started to appear in the USA already so go and get him!
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