THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

TRANSFORMERS TITLES FROM TITAN BOOKS / MAGAZINES

Titan Transformers #5 (Ironhide)
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

It's something of a shame that an issue where Ironhide confronts creatures that turn out to be ghosts comes right after one where Devastator has the same experience. Taken on its own merits though, this is good fun, mostly for the lovely Guido art. It's also nice to see the universe expand slightly by including more non-film characters making their debut.

The problem remains though that after five issues there's still no firm sense of direction for the title. With only one more lost Transformer left to go hopefully things will pick up a gear quickly.


For Ironhide it's been many solar cycles since the events of issue 2. This means that for once the difference in his appearance here can be put down to him having scanned a new alt mode in the interim.

The mysterious ship is the first time the origins of the Allspark have been touched upon in the comics. The device used to trace the Allspark looks like a transmetal 2 drive from Beast Wars.

Ironhide's troops in the flashback are all based on Movie toys that are repaints of older Transformer toys. Swindle is in charge of the Prison, which is in keeping with his portrayal in the Prequel comic where he's in charge of Bumblebee's imprisonment.

Ironhide's trick of avoiding people messing with his brain by focusing on irrelevant memories is not only the same as that used by Dr. Zarkov in the 1981 in Flash Gordon, but also by Hunter in Devastation issue 2 that Furman would have been working on at about the same time as this.

Guido is the latest IDW artist to make the transition from the American comics.


What does Ironhide do with the aliens at the end? Does he really just fly off and leave them in charge of a ship that could have all sorts of advanced secrets on it? Considering his Movie character, I always suppose it's possible he killed them but some clarification would have been nice...

Ironhide uses the expression "duck and cover" at one point at least several thousand years before it will be coined during the cold war on Earth.


An amazing Neutron Blaster! Or, rather a disc launcher with Autobot, Decepticon, Movie, and Sector 7 logo's on the discs.


- Sam Whitwicky Vs. Frenzy Smackdown (credited to Furman). The first time a human has been included in the feature.
- A cover based poster.
- Competitions to win the Transformers Scalextric set and Beast Machines season 2 on DVD.
- Profile on Jazz.
- The Top Gear page covers Blackout, IDW's Art of transformers book, and Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream Fast Action Battlers. There are competitions to win everything except the book (annoyingly as that's the one I want. Bah.)
- The Mech mail page drops hints that old time Transformers artists "Staz" may be joining the art team soon.

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