THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

TRANSFORMERS TITLES FROM TITAN BOOKS / MAGAZINES

Transformers # 14 [UK]: Head in the Clouds
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

After last months high with the Bludgeon story we get a rather plodding fall back to Earth here. Instead of any follow up to the interesting dangling threads from the Bludgeon story (a new group of Decepticons, the Autobots looking bad on telly) we get a deeply flawed rewrite of one of Furman's old stories that wasn't especially good to start with.

Skywarp makes no impression whatsoever, oddly as the Decepticons have been the saving grace of most of the weaker issues so far. At least he's not Stratosphere though, a character with the one and only trait of being good at flying, and here he is ON THE GROUND. Taste the irony. Furman's clearly trying for a bad ass but he comes across as such a pussy he decides to run away from Devastator after the Autobots have won.

With Davis-Hunt having a rare off day as well with some incredibly hurried looking art the titles yo-yo quality continues. More like last issue next month please.


Another story set in Furman's favourite place of Canada. The head of the NEST base being called Fraser may be a nod in the direction of Due South.

Devastator was badly damaged by a rail gun in Revenge of the Fallen. The effort to repair him in combined mode, only for the whole thing to get blown up, is taken from the Furman written issue #264 of the Marvel UK comic, Desert Island Risks!. That's two months in a row for a reworking of a black and white Marvel issue.

Devastator is being repaired by several identical generic robots with construction vehicle alt modes. They're probably not supposed to be the duplicate Constructicons as seen in the film as they don't look very like them and these don't seem to have any offensive capability as they just stand about whilst their work is attacked. The story only makes sense if the other Constructicons seen in the film can't combine (much like the individual toys).

As the 39th issue the comic ends its third year of publication. As a birthday treat the tradition of the cover being totally different from the “Next Issue” box the previous month (where it was a stock photo of Devastator) returns.


Why are the Decepticons repairing Devastator in combined mode? If nothing else it makes him much harder to keep him out of sight.

Also, why is Skywarp the only guard at the site?

Instead of making sure Devastator's finished everyone just wanders off? If nothing else at least get some back up if you feel scared.

How did the Decepticons get hold of Devastator when he'd have been in Autobot hands after the film? [If this is Bludgeon's group his bits may have been in the lock up as well. Or, as in Desert Island Risks they're building a whole new Devastator and Stratosphere is wrong about it being a repair job as he's a tool].

The big flaw is that Davis-Hunt's art is unusually poor considering he's normally so good. What's supposed to be Stratosphere crashing into Devastator instead looks like he's being attacked which makes the subsequent scenes very confusing, the fights are oddly laid out to the point of incomprehensibility and if anyone can tell me what's happening on the last panel of page 8 they'll get a sweet.


Yet another disc shooter.


Prince of Persia, Split Second Velocity and Pure Football computer games;
Competitions for Star Wars Lego,
Cover based poster,
War For Cybertron game preview;
Megatron's Mind Maulers quiz page;
Bumblebee's Guide to the Solar System covers Venus;
Law and Disorder which thankfully finally drops Starscream's Stars to make room for more reader art.

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