THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

TRANSFORMERS TITLES FROM TITAN BOOKS / MAGAZINES

Titan Transformers #11
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

After a lacklustre first part Twilight's Last Gleaming has built up to be good no-brain fun. Despite Furman's claims on his blog this doesn't recapture the intensity of his best Marvel UK work, but it's a fast entertaining read that's never dull. New artist Ono does some great work as well, with some nice chunky artwork that suits the unsubtle nature of the strip perfectly.

It isn't going to win any awards, but as a kid-oriented Transformers comic it's a damn good read.


Starscream would seem to be in the usual process of betraying Megatron, though exactly what he hopes to get from setting the moonbase Autobots upon Megs when they don't seem likely to cause him much trouble is unclear. Scorponok is either on Starscream's side or has been lied to by the devilish air commander.

In a nice touch all the moon based Autobots have Cybertronian alt modes, a cross between the protoforms seen in the film and their toy vehicle modes [But see goofs].

And here the reviewer must hold up their hands and admit to a glaring error on their part: up until now I'd assumed the tunnel Bumblebee and Mikaela entered in issue 9 led them to within the nearby Decepticon command bunker. It is revealed here though that it instead took them to the Sector 7 base beneath hoover Dam. This neatly explains all the English signs and human sized controls in the base of course (though not the ones in the Decepticon built tunnel entrance of course).

Both Megatron and Mikaela have a fondness for nursery rhymes it would seem, the Decepticon quotes from Jack and the Beanstalk ("Fi fi fo fum, I smell the blood of-") and Mikaela quotes Humpty Dumpty at Frenzy.

Frenzy now speaks audible, if fractured, English, and takes off some of Mikaela's hair with his blades.

A nice touch in the strip is Ironhide and Ratchet changing their alt modes in order to infiltrate the base, it's something we've not seen before but which makes a great deal of sense as a tactic considering the ease with which the film robots can change their forms.

Bonecrusher is the first Decepticon other than Megatron who died in the film to show up in the new timeline. It may be that history diverged earlier than previous issues have indicated, or that Megatron was later able to use the All Spark to revive him.

The panel of Ironhide imagining the All Spark changing Earth into New Cybertron is very like how the cyber virus was depicted in Dreamwave's first Generation 1 mini series.

The contents page describes disaster looming for the Autobots like "A great looming thing looming overhead", which sounds suspiciously like a piss take of a stock Furmanism about giant predatory birds hovering overhead.

Because this is a bagged issue the bulk of the cover text is over the exterior bag, meaning the bulk of the actual cover is text free but for the logo, barcode, Prime picture and "Meet the starts of Animated!" bar. Compared to the other issues to date that's positively spartan.

The first page of the homegrown strip is redesigned as of this issue to be in line with the look of the two reprint strips. most obviously it now has a recap of events to date.

The two back up strips are about two pages shorter than usual, most likely they're going to stretch the remaining material out so that all three of the titles comics end with issue 13.

Prior to the publication of this issue IDW announced they would be reprinting the series for American readers with two issues in each comic. This issue also contains an advert for the first Titan pocket sized trade of the material under the title of Transformers Adventures Vol. 1.


Starscream is now in his more toy based brown colours. And is it worth pointing out his gun shouldn't be making a "VTUMM!" sound?

Skyblast seemed to be in charge of the moon Autobots two issues ago but here it's Arcee calling the shots.

Though the Cybertronian alt mode was a nice touch, it's slightly undone by all our heroes having their normal robot mode bodies.

How did Bonecrusher and a load of Swindles manage to sneak up on Ironhide and ratchet without them hearing?


Over 35 *ahem*"Awesome"*ahem* Stickers. So many the issue has to come in a bag in fact. It's a little surprising it's taken the Titan team so long to get round to such an obvious gift, the editors of Doctor Who Adventures claim stickers and stationary are the most popular gifts they do by far which is why every other issue has one or the other.


- A double sided poster, one side with the cover art and one with an Autobot group shot from Animated.
- Prime Candidates!- A quick overview of the initial Autobot characters from the new show.
- How to Draw... (artwork by John McCrea and Lee Bradley) shows how to put together a cover depicting Barricade fighting Ironhide, Though they're more sort of posing in from of one another.
- Top Gear covers the Ratchet Allspark Blaster and the First Encounter toys with competitions for both.
- Artobots (BOOM! BOOM!) features a selection of reader drawings, though no one seems to have sent in anything from the "How to Draw" features.
- Starscreams has the host taking the piss out of txtspeak. Thank God.

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