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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)

TRANSFORMERS TITLES FROM TITAN BOOKS / MAGAZINES

Titan Transformers #21
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

Issue Review

Very much a filler issue this one -- whilst there’s nothing terrible here it seems to just be making time till Optimus finally notices a human he’s been working closely with for a good few issues now is in fact evil. The padding is most evident in the inclusion of Kullt, a character with no bearing on anything who gets killed off as soon as he’s filled the required page count.

The Optimus/Jazz interaction suffers from the fact it should really be Ratchet (as the cause of the problem) who has to deal with this. Optimus has barely had any on page interaction with his lieutenant so the attempt to pass them off as old and close friends turned against each other is more than a bit empty.

Coller does his usual solid job on art but he’s let down by sub par colouring, everything seems to be either blue or purple.

This makes the whole issue sound much worse than it is, but in execution this is just perfectly average.

Notes

There’s no mention within the strip of the impending doom of Earth, or the Nucleon the Autobots have brought with them. The “Previously on…” recap does specifically say the Autobots have already used the Nucleon to save Earth, so at a pinch they might have dropped it off with Evac before going back to their base. However, considering the editorial madness evident elsewhere in the issue this is hard to quantify.

The Jazz plot picks up where issue 16 left off, he’s now sent himself up firmly as a for hire bounty hunter, though there’s a hint he’s not all evil. It’s not said but he was most likely hired by Starscream.

Kullt is possibly the first speaking role Transformer to have been specifically created for the comic (he isn’t specifically referred to as such, nor he is seen to transform though).

President Allen was taken over back in issue 15, though this is his first really overt move against the Autobots in that time, meaning Optimus only now suspects him of being evil. The events of the Aftermath two parter are specifically referred to by Prime when discussing this.

The Arcee profile mentions Kup and justifies using pictures of the G1 version by claiming she likes to alter her form a lot and used to like being a sports car.

Though last issues use of Jazz was ambiguous (as it could easily have been the Animated version) this issue definitely has the G1 version of Starscream in the corner box.

Goofs

The Straxus was destroyed during the course of the previous story but is here seen fine and well [At a pinch it’s a shuttle of the same class they found on Cybertron].

President Allen has gone grey again and painted his office yellow [Being a Decepticon stooge must be affecting him].

All sorts of errors abound across the editorial parts of the issue:
The main editorial claims Unicron has followed the Autobots to Earth (he hasn’t);
The same page calls the lead story Return to Cybertron Part 6 (it isn’t, and last issues conclusion to the Return story was part 4);
The “Previously…” box claims Starscream has conquered Earth (he hasn’t);
The artists name is misspelt;
The profile for Arcee includes pictures of Elita-One.

They’re reprinting Megatron: Origin.

Fantastic Free Gift!

A Trans-Dimensional Sticker Set. Also a pencil, no word on if it’s Trans-Dimensional as well.

Extras

Competition for Universe Acid Storm;
Cover based poster;
Barricade: 10 reasons I Like Being A Saleen S281, including him quoting South Park (“…especially those who don’t respect my authority”);
Way Past Cool!, more computer reviews;
Arcee Profile;
Top Gear cover Dungeon Maker for the DS and Changeling and Dragon Keeper books with competitions for all;
Artobots has an Origin drawing of such quality I think Alex Milne sent it in;
Starscreams has more hilarious faux personal ads.

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