Shattered Glass review

[Dominic]

Shattered Glass: Man oh man. Was this book ever a let-down. Like most readers, I pick up a comic with expectations and hopes. When I heard this book was seeing mass-release, I expected, (even hoped for), a train-wreck to rival the fiasco that was "Countdown". It was a comic published by the TF Collectors Club. (The Club's track record for fiction is spotty at best.) And, the premise of "Shattered Glass" is the old "universe of inverted morality" schtick that lends itself to bad comics.

I had planned an epic review. I was even going to write in the "voice" of my own inverted twin, giving a sarcastic review extolling the virtues of this sub-genre.

But, amazingly, my expectations were, (pun intended), shattered. "Shattered Glass" is not the best book ever, or even of the year. ("All Star Superman", issue 12, is my favorite for 2008.) But, it is not even close to the worst of this year. (Unless something *really* dreadful comes out in the next week or so, "Countdown" will take the "Worst of 2008" award, and likely hold the "Generally Worst" title for a good long while. Hell, I am retro-actively giving it 2007 as well.)

All told, "Shattered Glass" is passable. In a recent e-mail, Benson Yee said he was trying to riff on the comics of the 80s. He succeeds in doing this without making the book come across as an over the top parody of the 80s. (It is possible to have a riff or tribute come off as unintentional-parody, or simply being mean-spirited, as was the case with various relaunches handled by DC and Wildstorm a few years back.) The intro comic avoids the worst excesses of the genre, most recently displayed with DC's Crime Syndicate of America characters. While there is a fair amount of "lookie lookie lookie" and explication, (due in part to Yee aping the style and conventions of 80s comics), this generally comes off as a "first issue" type story and does not focus too much on showing how "everything is different".

In terms of narrative, the biggest problem with "Shattered Glass" is that it begins abruptly. (The events leading up to the introduction of the SG context were shown in the Fan Club's newsletter comic, which is neither included here nor widely distributed.) And, while the story does not fall flat, it is not ambitious enough. There are ideas and concepts that could be best handled with this sort of "inverse universe" setting. While nothing in "Shattered Glass" rules this out, it does not seem likely that any attempts will be made either. The recent text story, "Dungeons and Dinobots", seems to be trending more towards the self-parody angle, in part due to fan reaction to the April Fool's story, "Shattered Expectations". (Truth be told, I was fooled by this, and actually expected the comic to be as bad as the "preview" implied. And, it seems that some people want a comic that bad.)

Art-wise, the comic hold up pretty well. But, it does have a few too many un-credited "homage" panels.

Grade: C Considering the premise of the story, this is much better than one might reasonably expect.

The following are questions I have sent to Yee. Answers are pending.



-What panels were specifically references/referenced? I know the modern
"norm" for this is to just drop the reference without a credit. And,
some kind of annotation would be helpful. (I recognize the cover as
being from "Energon", and there a few other panels that are vaguely
familiar, such as the bottom of page 21 and the middle of page 16. But,
additional annotation would be nice.)

-Any plans for how to handle Unicron, Primus et al? I know that
"Dungeons and Dinobots references a creator. Megatron's (refreshing)
skeptical view of Primus, and the appearance of Cyclonus in SG beg this
question. Similarly, does any of this tie in with whatever it was that
drove mirror-Prime insane?

-What do you consider to be the greatest advantage of "inverted
morality" universes? Do you see it as a challence/necessity to prevent
them from becoming unintentional self-parody? How would you seek to
avoid or work with this?

-What is your favorite, non-TF, inverted-morality-universe?



Dom
-pretty much done with comics for the year.

[BWprowl]

"Shattered Glass", to use a horribly layered and self-referential pun, was less than meets the eye. Its existence is wholly unnecessary, mainly in the context the universe is presented in. Gripe all you want about the Crime Syndicate (I'm with you all the way Dom), but at least those characters interact with the mainline DC guys and 'contribute' to the overall story. With SG, the story's just sort of there, and Cliffjumper's only really along for the ride to give them an excuse for all that infodumping. Thing is, even outrageous self-reference and parody aside (I loved "Shattered Expectations", myself), they could have gotten a lot more clever with the Opposites Day shtick that drives this. Where's the Sunstreaker with the inferiority complex and paint job he doesn't take care of? The Shockwave who dedicates all his time to creative problem solving? The SIlverbolt who refuses to land? The honest, upstanding businessman Swindle? The Rampage who distracts himself with high-class literature? Instead we get... Optimus Prime and Megatron with the most superficial aspects of their archetypes swapped. Plus generic evil Autobots who kick Cliffjumper, and a mostly-mute group of supposedly 'heroic' Decepticons. Then there's the story, which is just...generic Transformers plot, with very little implementation of the driving theme. The battle's your standard TF comic firefight, where it doesn't really *matter* which side everyone's on, just that there're two factions shooting at each other. Megatron himself pretty much sums it up himself at one point, where he says "It's the same story you're used to, just with the players on different sides." So why even bother moving the players around if the base story is the same uninteresting filler material we've been fed for over twenty years?

-BW "I enjoyed the 'You're a GENIUS Starscream' line, at least" prowl

[Sparky Prime]

Where's the Sunstreaker with the inferiority complex and paint job he doesn't take care of? The Shockwave who dedicates all his time to creative problem solving? The SIlverbolt who refuses to land? The honest, upstanding businessman Swindle? The Rampage who distracts himself with high-class literature? Instead we get... Optimus Prime and Megatron with the most superficial aspects of their archetypes swapped.

It's only a 32 page comic... I think it'd be hard for any writer to highlight the "mirror differences" of every character like that (given how large the Transformers cast is) and fit an actual story in only one 32 page issue. So instead, the focus is more reasonably scaled down with more emphasis on the leaders and the years exclusive figures.

Megatron himself pretty much sums it up himself at one point, where he says "It's the same story you're used to, just with the players on different sides." So why even bother moving the players around if the base story is the same uninteresting filler material we've been fed for over twenty years?

Personally, it's the part where we see the players on different sides that makes this story interesting to me.

Like most readers, I pick up a comic with expectations and hopes. When I heard this book was seeing mass-release, I expected, (even hoped for), a train-wreck to rival the fiasco that was "Countdown".

Wait... so... you were hoping this would be a terrible comic but it was actually better than you were expecting?

Art-wise, the comic hold up pretty well. But, it does have a few too many un-credited "homage" panels.

I gather that means you still think those homages are a form of plagiarism?

[onslaught86]

I had planned an epic review. I was even going to write in the "voice" of my own inverted twin, giving a sarcastic review extolling the virtues of this sub-genre.

But, amazingly, my expectations were, (pun intended), shattered. "Shattered Glass" is not the best book ever, or even of the year. ("All Star Superman", issue 12, is my favorite for 2008.) But, it is not even close to the worst of this year. (Unless something *really* dreadful comes out in the next week or so, "Countdown" will take the "Worst of 2008" award, and likely hold the "Generally Worst" title for a good long while. Hell, I am retro-actively giving it 2007 as well.)

Aww, I'm disappointed, I was looking forward to that. Snerk snerk.

I agree, actually, Shattered Glass really surprised me in being good. I too thoroughly enjoyed the ridiculous over the top parody of the AFD strip, and am well pleased to see it get expanded on. Yet they played the concept straight, and it wasn't that bad at all. Straightforward and solid, room for expansion, could be some fun there.

"Shattered Glass", to use a horribly layered and self-referential pun, was less than meets the eye.

(Surprising to see Prowl play Dom's Advocate for once, heh) I felt Cliffjumper was a fairly odd character choice, and that more fun could've been had with a new character or an exclusive release as a focus rather than a mainline repaint, but his presence was indeed needed for the contrast. While I do think you're right to some extent, and it was somewhat generic, in playing it straight they kept it from being, saaay, Dawn of Futures Past. The plot was There, yet by not being crucially hinged on the concept, it wasn't just an excuse 'for' the concept. Like The Gathering was an excuse to tack dialogue onto someone's toy shelves.

Aand given how much I whinged about the terrible nature of Evil Mirror Universes, I'm happy the concept was not that important.

It has been a while since I read it, yet I recall it had longer-term value thanks to the easter eggs in the art, and the concepts behind some of the characters. Picking out that Cyclonus is in Hot Rod colours and such. And noticing the Energon Barricade redeco.

[BWprowl]

(Surprising to see Prowl play Dom's Advocate for once, heh) I felt Cliffjumper was a fairly odd character choice, and that more fun could've been had with a new character or an exclusive release as a focus rather than a mainline repaint, but his presence was indeed needed for the contrast. While I do think you're right to some extent, and it was somewhat generic, in playing it straight they kept it from being, saaay, Dawn of Futures Past. The plot was There, yet by not being crucially hinged on the concept, it wasn't just an excuse 'for' the concept. Like The Gathering was an excuse to tack dialogue onto someone's toy shelves.

Cliffjumper could've been a more interesting choice, had they embraced the "Sees traitors everywhere" part of his persona more. In this case, he's presented as being merely mildly distrusting (That CAN'T be the word I'm looking for...). Anyway, that's my main problem: The plot was just THERE. It made no use whatsoever out of it's concept. It woulda been like if the Beast Wars cartoon had come out, and we never saw them actually transform into animals. Or if we'd gotten Armada where the Mini-Cons barely showed up. You see what I'm saying. As it is, this comic was really just an excuse to tack mostly-generic Transformers dialogue onto someone's exclusive toy sets.

It's only a 32 page comic... I think it'd be hard for any writer to highlight the "mirror differences" of every character like that (given how large the Transformers cast is) and fit an actual story in only one 32 page issue. So instead, the focus is more reasonably scaled down with more emphasis on the leaders and the years exclusive figures.

32 pages is longer than you think. Look at Shattered Expectations, that comic packs more personality into its characters in three pages than "Glass" did in all of its 32. All we get from "Glass" is that Prime is generic bad guy leader, Megatron is generic good guy leader, and Rodimus has a goatee. I didn't need a comic to figure this out about the characters, I could gather all that just by looking at pictures of the toys. Sideswipe gets pages of dialogue all to himself, and he still never develops a personality. Hell, Cliffjumper, the guy from the *regular* universe, is more interesting to read than the swarm of mute recolors he's attended by. And really, they hardly managed to focus on the exclusives. Goldbug and Jazz are in, like, three panels, mostly in the background. Grimlock gets a splash panel where all we learn is that he's dumber than Animated Grimlock. Woo hoo.

I dunno, have Megatron say "Peace will break through Tyranny!". See, I came up with that *just now*.

[Sparky Prime]

32 pages is longer than you think. Look at Shattered Expectations, that comic packs more personality into its characters in three pages than "Glass" did in all of its 32. All we get from "Glass" is that Prime is generic bad guy leader, Megatron is generic good guy leader, and Rodimus has a goatee.

I'd have to disagree. Expectations I felt only gave us a sense of a few of those characters. Most I felt were still fairly generic. And even though Glass didn't go to much into it's characters, I do think we got a little more from it's characters than you suggest.

[BWprowl]

32 pages is longer than you think. Look at Shattered Expectations, that comic packs more personality into its characters in three pages than "Glass" did in all of its 32. All we get from "Glass" is that Prime is generic bad guy leader, Megatron is generic good guy leader, and Rodimus has a goatee.

I'd have to disagree. Expectations I felt only gave us a sense of a few of those characters. Most I felt were still fairly generic. And even though Glass didn't go to much into it's characters, I do think we got a little more from it's characters than you suggest.

OKay then, then let me ask you: Who was your favorite character in 'Shattered Glass', and why?

[Sparky Prime]

OKay then, then let me ask you: Who was your favorite character in 'Shattered Glass', and why?

Hrm... Might have to say Starscream. I love that he has Jetfire's colors, he actually gets along with Megatron rather than being a backstabber and his plan to stop the Autobots actually works... once they get some assistance from Cliffjumper.

[Dominic]

Like most readers, I pick up a comic with expectations and hopes. When I heard this book was seeing mass-release, I expected, (even hoped for), a train-wreck to rival the fiasco that was "Countdown".

Wait... so... you were hoping this would be a terrible comic but it was actually better than you were expecting?

Art-wise, the comic hold up pretty well. But, it does have a few too many un-credited "homage" panels.

I gather that means you still think those homages are a form of plagiarism?

Well, I was kind of expecting a bad comic. Sometimes, those are fun to review. (To be honest, after "Countdown", I am kind of used to reviewing at least one awful comic a week.)

I do not mind homages on occasion, but it used to be a matter of professional courtesy to credit the original artists. Figueroa and Khanna are especially bad about this. Rob Liefeld used to be (rightly) lambasted for exactly the kind of thing these guys are doing now.


I do not want to see simple "everything you know is opposite" stories. It is odd that BWP agrees with me about how useless the Crime Syndicate (any of the 4 or 5 iterations) is, but then wants to see a humble Sunstreaker and extols the virtures of "Shattered Expectations".

I have thought about this. Inverting morality can be a good study in the inherent ethics of certain traits, as well as the importance of motivations. Is Shockwave a badguy because that is all he can be, or do his abilities limit him? Why is SG Starscream loyal? Perhaps he doubts Megatron as much as "normal" Starscream, but sees Megatron's ability to work with the common troops as important enough to boost the leader. What about characters like Thundercracker? He would still be an elitist about his ability to fly. But, he would also be more comfortable as a heroic, rather than evil, robot.

Do the traits of the characters influence their ability to win more than the resources available? (Look at characters like Slag. He is nastier than many Decepticons. How would he work as a bad guy? Do the good guys need a guy like Slag?)

Megtron and Prime were not completely reversed. Prime seemed to be the more "religious", (as he normally would be), in contrast to the more secular Megatron. (Note Megatron's obvious discomfort when discussing Primus. Having been raised atheist, though now being agnostic, I can tell you his reaction to the concept of a god was very realistic.)

The less interaction between the SG and other universes, the better. If the concept behind an alternate universe is really that good, we really should not need to see the regular characters interacting with the alternates. Granted, there can be interesting spins on this, such as the "Masters of the Universe" arc a few years back where an alternate Man at Arms appeared, but why not let the concept stand on its own?

Cliffjumper may not trust the Heroic Decepticons, but they beat the heck out of the evil Autobots. (Still, I agree that CJ was the weakest part of the issue.)

Dom
-may have been replaced with an alternate.

[Sparky Prime]

I do not mind homages on occasion, but it used to be a matter of professional courtesy to credit the original artists. Figueroa and Khanna are especially bad about this. Rob Liefeld used to be (rightly) lambasted for exactly the kind of thing these guys are doing now.

Now you're comparing Don Figueroa and Dan Khanna to Rob Liefeld? Seriously? Rob Liefeld was (and still is) lambasted because of his art style (lack of proper anatomy, unrealistically giant guns, unnecessary amount of pouches and so on...) and not to mention because he actually is guilty of blatantly plagiarizing stuff. Drawing some homages is not the same thing at all.