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THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

Marvel Comics
(1984-1994)
Japanese
Manga
Other Books
and Titles
Titan Books
(2001-2010)
Club/Con
(2001-2016)
Dreamwave
(2002-2004)
Devil's Due
(2003-2007)
IDW Publishing
(2005-now)

CURRENT TRANSFORMERS COMICS FROM IDW PUBLISHING

The New Avengers/Transformers #2 (of 4)
The "Doom review" by Kremzeek75

Issue Review

Well, well, looks like Moore upped the ante a bit by leaking in some crucial information regarding the story itself. It would seem Megatron and company discovered, and subsequently stole Dr. Doom’s mind controlling Psycho-Prism, which now permits the Decepticons to absorb the anomalies present in the physiology of the Avengers. Surprise! Prime and the Avengers have to stop them.

It seems history does indeed repeat itself, as inflatable dalek mentioned in his review for the first issue, man and machine meet, squabble, then side with one another to conquer the opposition. However, those that make up the sides are not who you would normally think! The last notable time Doom teamed up with “the good guys” was during the Onslaught Crisis in the Marvel Universe. But in true Doom fashion, there is something else going on here, Doom just up and leaves to find a diplomatic solution with the country of Symkaria, which was pitted against Latveria as a result of Megatron using the Psycho Prism.

The alliances are uneasy at best, I was quite shocked to hear Prime utter “Autobots… standard human containment techniques! No killing…unless absolutely necessary.” I never thought in my wildest dreams that Prime had the faintest inkling of that kind of brutality, I mean, didn’t we all grow up with Prime protecting humans “no matter the cost” (i.e. Remember the episode “Megatron’s Master Plan” from the original cartoon series? The Autobots were set up, and likewise, deported due to a plan concocted by Mayor Sean Burger and Megatron.)? Even in the very end, he never had a single thought of retribution against the humans who left the Autobots in the dust. In terms of actual dialogue, the issue is mainly carried by the Avengers with a few speech bubbles thrown in by the Autobots, particularly Ratchet. The main Transformer dialogue is all from Megatron, who is siphoning Spiderman’s blood molecules and placing his anomalous power within the Decepticons. Of course, it is mostly along the lines of “We are superior, we will rule the Universe, all will fall to me, blah blah blah,” and in true Spiderman fashion, a couple of wise-cracks are thrown in to offset the “seriousness” of Megatron’s usual power speech.

On the Avengers side of things, Captain America is still carrying the team leadership quite nicely. Wolverine is still an animal, and the last page appearance by Iron Man was a nice twist - definitely not your usual Iron Man visage. Also, Ms. Marvel throws a fit about Ratchet implanting a counter active device to the Psycho-Prism, which seemed to be more important at viewing versus the actual interaction between man and machine. Nevertheless, the last page does promise something better to come, so my anticipation of the next issue is high.

Notes

Since I am the resident Latverian Authority at the Archive, my concentration on this review is pure Doom. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Transformers, but my allegiance is with the Marvel Universe and Doom himself. Moore captured Doom in all his glory, the ego, the pattern of speech that always includes his own name in his dialogue, his superiority over enemy and ally alike, and the honor that Doom holds personally for his own country. Make no mistake; no one is going to harm a single hair on a Latverian without being scalped entirely by Doom. When I saw the subduing of Wolverine by Doom, it showed his mastery of cunning and logic in mastering the animalistic tendencies of everyone’s beloved pin-up boy for Marvel. And then of course, the ego, “You may now give thanks…to Doom.” Fact of the matter is; Doom is important to the story and the Universe itself, even if he needs to toot his own horn once in a while. If he had not explained the entire mess to both the Avengers and the Autobots, they would still be beating each other over the head with severed limbs due to the madness implanted by the Psycho-Prism. The one thing that bothers me about this is the sudden retreat to find “diplomatic solutions.” This worries me about because, if it turns out that Doom is actually aiding the Decepticons, that would totally destroy his honor in the story. Then again (and I truly hope this is the case), he just might come up with something that will turn the tide in the Autobots and Avengers’ favor.

Quote/Unquote

Wolverine: “Seems like all you want is for us to do your dirty work!”
Doom: “Very perceptive, mutant. What else are one’s lessers for?”

Criticisms

I prefer the Autobots talk for themselves instead of using their simulacrums (? - ed), which they used throughout the second half of the issue.

When Megatron reveals his whole plan is to just destroy the Avengers, I was kind of let down. Since when did one as great as Megatron ever really care about the puny Earth creatures?

 
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