Dreamwave G1 - retro reviews

[Mako Crab]

I really liked E.J. Su. I like the way he draws the TFs, but also how he lays out a page and his work has a lot of energy and motion in them.

[andersonh1]

I think E.J. Su is probably the most technically skilled artist to have drawn Transformers. He's a lot better at drawing realistic humans and vehicles as well, and he's clearly a skilled draftsman. But I love Don Figeroa's dynamic art style, and the sheer creativity he's brought to the franchise. He's illustrated some of my favorite storylines of the past, including the first War Within mini series and the Worlds Collide Armada arc.

[andersonh1]

Prime Directive #4

Triangle formation! The gestalt killer, woo!

I couldn’t resist. But despite my nitpicking, most of this issue is pretty good, as the action ramps up considerably and we get Superion versus Devastator, for a few panels anyway. At least Superion doesn’t get ripped in half here! Megatron attacks San Fransisco just to get under Prime’s skin, metaphorically speaking, while his metallic virus continues to run rampant through the Canadian wilderness.

It’s interesting to note that unlike several other continuities, Optimus Prime appears here to be the better fighter than Megatron, since he almost immediately gains the advantage every time they fight. Maybe Megatron just isn’t trying all that hard. At least Prime isn’t crippled by doubts, and just immediately gets down to the business of ignoring what Megatron is saying to him and putting the smackdown on Megatron every time.

And Grimlock decides to terrorize some humans, eh? Trailbreaker sets out to put a stop to that. “You made the wrong choice Grimlock, and now you’re going to pay!” I’ve always liked that particular sequence, particularly the fact that Trailbreaker is wailing away at Grimlock with a steel girder! Heh. There’s another one of those seldom used character combinations. Like Chromedome versus Overlord, it’s two Transformers that have rarely ever interacted and there’s the potential for some interesting character facets to be revealed. We don’t get much, sadly, but I still enjoy the confrontation.

And of course, there’s the infamous last page where we’re all wondering “what are they staring at?” And actually the faces of Prime, Trailbreaker, Sideswipe and Megatron aren’t all that bad, but the fact that Devastator is apparently staring up into the sky just like them makes the whole thing confusing. A line of dialogue like “Superion is down!” or something would have helped considerably here in communicating what was going on. As it is, the book ends on a somewhat confusing cliffhanger.

And Spike gets arrested again. That's what happens when you protest what those power-mad generals are up to, Spike. Deal with it.

This is one of the better issues of the mini. The setup is done, and we’re into the action portion of the storyline on our way to the final payoff.

[Dominic]

Senior is a good artist, no question.

But, Senior's art generally would not translate to 3D without significant cheats or oddities. These would be issues with simple designs like "the Simpsons" (and are commonly problems with the toys), never mind more complex designs like "Transformers".

Figueroa's art is clean. It is consistent. And, he makes sure that his character models "work".

Su is not bad at all. He is actually responsible for some of the newer character models (like Prowl). But, he does not match Figueroa's skill as a designer and illustrator.


Dom
-needs to post some retro comics reviews.

[Mako Crab]

I should read my old Dreamwave issues and follow along. I'm pretty sure I missed out on most of the discussions, when they came around the first time.

[andersonh1]

I missed out on them too, at least with this group. I may have been posting at TFW2005 at the time. I think I've been participating on that board since around 2002 or so.

Prime Directive #5

I’ve always loved the esprit de corps of the Autobots in this issue as one group fights the cyberforming virus and the other fights Devastator in San Francisco. Red Alert’s presence in the northern group has always seemed random and out of place among the 1984 Autobots (and would turn out to be a continuity error since according to “War and Peace”, he never left Cybertron). I’ve always enjoyed this take on the 1984 Autobot crew as a very close-knit group of friends, who despite the occasional interpersonal conflict stick together and support each other and who really are the best of the best. As much as I enjoy IDW, that’s one thing I miss seeing in their comics.

Prime takes down Devastator by blowing a hole through his head. Brutal, but effective.

And I had completely forgotten that this issue reveals exactly who Lazarus was, so I have to take back my comments about him being a cypher. His involvement with the Transformers makes sense now, as does his ability to control the Transformers. And Hallo’s desperation to gain control of the situation also makes a certain degree of sense, though it doesn’t change all my criticisms of his character. It’s as though every writer who has to depict an American general has one source: the movie Dr. Strangelove with its nuke-happy generals. How someone as criminally insane as Hallo obviously is ever got to the rank of general and got away with what he’s gotten away with all this time is beyond me. It’s hard to believe in the story if I don’t find the characters credible, and I’ve never found Hallo credible in the slightest, because he’s such a cliché.

I suppose the most interesting thing about the issue is that Megatron is seemingly interested in winning Prime over to his point of view rather than just shooting him on the spot. Classic villain mistake, Megatron. Despite the issue’s attempts to make us think Prime will fall for the argument, we all know that won’t happen.

[Dominic]

I’ve always loved the esprit de corps of the Autobots in this issue as one group fights the cyberforming virus and the other fights Devastator in San Francisco. Red Alert’s presence in the northern group has always seemed random and out of place among the 1984 Autobots (and would turn out to be a continuity error since according to “War and Peace”, he never left Cybertron).

Red Alert and Blitzwing (visible in issue one) were both errors.

To this day, I am impressed at how Dreamwave completely owned both of those mistakes....and then moved on. There are a few examples of that sort of thing happening (mis-coloured Stunticons and Battel Chargers in "War Within" are even better examples). And, in those cases, Dreamwave basically came out, admitted that they dropped the ball, and moved the fuck on. (The fandom was also more willing to do this as well. Not sure what that implies about how the fandom has changed over the last decade or so.)



Dom
-going to start another retro thread in the UT forums....

[andersonh1]

Prime Directive #6

One thing jumped out at me first and foremost while reading this issue, and that is Prime’s speech to Megatron about humans. He seems to be saying that Transformers are programmed and have no free will, while humans do. So are we just watching a bunch of zombies running around here, doing good things because someone long ago wired them to act that way? But Megatron doesn’t seem to think that, since he clearly believes he can turn Prime against humanity with enough speech-making. There’s definitely some confusion here about the nature of Transformers and the imperatives that drive them, which undercuts any point the issue might be trying to make.

And of course, the United States doesn’t have a defense minster. And just where are the “Pacific Islands” anyway? Did Sarracini do ANY research before writing his story? And even Marvel put the first President Bush’s likeness in their comic, along with Dana Carvey’s “wouldn’t be prudent” impression of him. Pat Lee couldn’t be bothered to put the likenesses of Bush and Rumsfeld?

And the crazy general holds his staff at gunpoint, fires a nuke at San Fransisco, and goes down in a hail of bullets. And he actually says, no kidding, “If I can’t have the power, no one can.” Without a doubt, Hallo is one of the worst villains to ever appear in a Transformers comic. As I’ve said before, it feels like he’s nothing more than a pastiche of bad movie clichés and caricatures, chewed up and spit out on the page. He has no depth and no credibility. Good riddance.

I will say that it’s good to see a few humans side with the Autobots and risk it all to help Optimus, so it’s not just the Autobots who are nearly killed on behalf of humanity. The favor is returned, at least this once, by the firemen in San Fransisco. Superion’s death by nuke has never made any sense though. Seems like he could have shot the thing down, or angled it up into space. And Wheeljack is clearly killed in his attempt to stop the metallic virus, though it’s later retconned into a close call so that he’s still alive in the next mini-series. I don’t mind, honestly, and as Dom has pointed out, Dreamwave admitted they changed their minds. I’d compare and contrast the sequence with Thundercracker at the end of AHM and in the ongoing series, but who wants to go through THAT discussion again. Not me!

The series overall: Rather than do something entirely new or build off the Marvel continuity (which they may not have had rights to anyway), Dreamwave’s first Transformers mini-series takes the familiar cast and status quo from the old G1 cartoon, tweaks it a bit, and attempts to add some heavier philosophy and violence. And the result is mixed. The basic plot is very sound, but some of the characters are poorly constructed and motivated. The art is highly variable, with some shots of the Transformers and humans well-drawn, and others drawn very poorly. I’m struck by the very distinctive look of the coloring. It’s hard to describe, but it’s richer and more involved than, say, the coloring in MTMTE is. And for those of us who were used to newsprint or mando, the glossy stock the book was printed on was a huge jump in quality. The colors really pop. There’s no denying the quality of the production.

So it’s a mixed bag. Some good, some bad, and an uneven series overall that at least has the virtue of kicking off the modern run of Transformers comics. And the success of the series led to the War Within and the Dreamwave sourcebooks, both of which were high quality all around, so the series has to be appreciated for what it led to.

[andersonh1]

Red Alert and Blitzwing (visible in issue one) were both errors.

Red Alert was an error on Pat Lee's part, I believe, since he drew Sideswipe both in San Fransisco and in Canada, so the colorist corrected it. Blitzwing wasn't an error when the issue was written, but became one after the fact when the whole storyline about Shockwave developing the triple-changers was conceived. Blitzwing is present in War Within as well, which would also retroactively be an error.

But as you say, Dreamwave editorial just admitted that the story had changed and on we went. They didn't have everything planned out from the beginning, fans knew it, and it was no big deal.

[Onslaught Six]

And of course, the United States doesn’t have a defense minster. And just where are the “Pacific Islands” anyway? Did Sarracini do ANY research before writing his story? And even Marvel put the first President Bush’s likeness in their comic, along with Dana Carvey’s “wouldn’t be prudent” impression of him. Pat Lee couldn’t be bothered to put the likenesses of Bush and Rumsfeld?

If the President is going to be a character in a comic book, I would honestly rather they (explicitly) be made up characters. The TF films put explicit references to Bush and Obama in their films which will always date them to a certain era, while the GI Joe films used a completely unrelated white guy and specifically made him Not A Real President--and it really paid off in the long game.

"Pacific Islands" is a really weird thing though. I get the feeling DW had some weird editorial rules that said that stories had to be "realistic and mature" without any of the writers actually wanting it to be there, because literally every time something like this happens, it feels forced. "The conflict needs to feel global." Alright, chuck a reference to some far-off place in there. Nobody will fact check it because it's Transformers.

For DW, TF was a cash grab. For IDW, it's a labour of love.