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TRANSFORMERS
SUMMER SPECIAL 2004

This one's a bit different to my regular reviews. In addition to reviewing the individual stories, I've also reviewed the Special as a whole. —Bombshell

TRANSFORMERS G1:
“WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE”

Story: Brad Mick with Adam Patyk
Pencils: Pat Lee
Inks: Rob Armstrong
Lettering: Ben Lee
Setting: Planet Beast.

Plot Summary: Having left the planet of Junk (after the events of the substory in Generation One #4), Megatron travels to the planet Beast with his three zombie clones. On this planet, they run into Razorclaw and a battle ensues. Despite the ferocity of the Predacon leader, and without assistance from the seeker clones, Megatron manages to subdue him. Sometime later, Megatron rebuilds the Predacons with the ability to combine into Predaking, proclaiming that his arrival is the beginning of the end.

Transformers Featured (in rough order of appearance): Megatron, Razorclaw, Air Warrior Clones, Predaking.

Other Notes: Assisting Razorclaw in his attack on Megatron are several Battle Beasts, also known as Beastformers. These characters, a separate toyline in the US, are actually a part of the Transformer universe, having made several appearances in the Japanese Headmasters series.

Review: This story was obviously meant to follow on the heels of “Runnin’ With The Devil”, the five page substory included with Generation One #4. However, following that logic, there are several gaps in the plot. For starters, how exactly did Megatron get off of the planet of Junk? We can assume that he stole Wreck-Gar’s ship, but since this is never shown, we can only assume. Secondly, why is he on Beast? Did he crash land on the planet? Did he land to try to capture the Predacons? Was he lured down to the planet and tricked by the population? These are the sorts of things that should have been addressed by some means, although knowing Mick’s tendency to do humongous information dumps, we can probably expect to find out this information within the pages of the ongoing around the eighth of ninth issue.

TRANSFORMERS ENERGON:
“PERSPECTIVE”

Story: Simon Furman (Based on an idea by Aaron Archer)
Pencils: James Raiz
Inks: Erik Sander
Lettering: Ben Lee
Setting: Decepticon Orbital Command HQ. Ocean City.

Plot Summary: Megatron sends three of his Decepticons (Snow Cat, Slugslinger and Sharkticon) to Ocean City to find out more information about the Autobot’s Omega Supreme project. Each of them manages to fail miserably, but manage to cover their lies by concocting various lies in order to explain their failure. Megatron is unhappy at their failure, but is impressed by their ability to make their explanations for their failures plausible. And as his was the most difficult to dispute, Megatron promotes Slugslinger to senior Lieutenant.

Transformers Featured (in rough order of appearance): Megatron, Snow Cat, Omega Supreme, Slugslinger, Sharkticon, Jetstorm, Runway, Sonar.

Notable Others: Kicker.

Other Notes: The front page of this story states that it takes place outside of the regular Energon continuity, although Simon Furman has stated that events similar to those that occurred in this issue will happen later on in the storyline by Energon #31. Although Omega Supreme is mentioned by name, he is not seen clearly in the issue. Obviously, the Air Defense Team is meant to be the Energon Saber team, although whether or not this is an art error isn’t made exactly clear. Much like the ongoing Energon storyline, no real connection between Cyclonus and Snow Cat, as seen in the Energon cartoon, is made.

Review: Considering that this story is stated as being out of continuity, I can say that the story is good for what it is. If it was placed in continuity, I would have some problems with it. Of course, the most major problem (Snow Cat’s appearance) may be explained by the time that Energon #25 comes out. (Remember that the Summer Special was originally supposed to have been released in May, two months before that issue was scheduled for release). The fact that Simon Furman himself states that similar situations may occur in the proper Energon universe mean that this will no doubt cause endless continuity debates among fans, something that I personally am not looking forward to.

TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE:
“ULTRA MAGNUS…TO THE RESCUE?”

Story: Adam Patyk with Brad Mick
Pencils: Rob Ruffolo
Inks: Erik Sander
Lettering: Shaun Linsao
Setting: Decepticon Base. Arizona. Oregon. Wyoming.

Plot Summary: With his supply lines from Cybertron cut off, Megatron sends Scourge and Sky-Byte to steal some extra energy to supplant the loss. As Megatron leads the other Decepticons into an attack designed to draw out the Autobots, Scourge, Sky-Byte, Gas Skunk, Dark Scream, Slapper, Armorhide and Rollbar to steal the energy from an supply base in Arizona. Their efforts are disrupted by Optimus and Ultra Magnus, who spend as much time fighting the Decepticons as they do each other. A sudden distraction from the Predacons allow Magnus and Prime to knock Scourge out, who then orders the Decepticons to retreat. As Side Burn, Prowl and X-Brawn arrive, Magnus drives off. Although Side Burn is amazed that Optimus took the enemy all out by himself, Prime corrects him by saying that it took two Autobots instead of one.

Transformers Featured (in rough order of appearance): Megatron, Sky-Byte, Scourge, Dark Scream, Gas Skunk, Slapper, Armorhide, Rollbar, Side Burn, Prowl, X-Brawn, Railspike, T-AI, Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus.

Review: Of the four stories in the Summer Special, this is probably the worst of the bunch. The artwork brings back shades of Pat Lee, the dialogue is horrendous, and to top it all off, the writers utilized the very annoying aspect of “Pokemon” mannerisms, as both Ultra Magnus and Sky-Byte shout out the names of their attacks. Online interviews stated that the writers would try to shy away from all of the goofiness of the story while keeping the core facts of the storyline intact. Obviously, they were either lying to us or just didn’t care enough to try.

BEAST WARS: TRANSFORMERS:
“AIN’T NO RAT”

Story: Brad Mick (With Adam Patyk)
Pencils: Don Figueroa
Inks: Elaine To
Lettering: Shaun Linsao
Setting: Autobot Shuttle, Edge of the Solar System. Prehistoric Earth.

Plot Summary: As the Maximals head back to Cybertron, Rattrap dreams about the time in which he was attacked by Transmetal 2 Dinobot while testing a new device of Rhinox. Dinobot manages to knock Rattrap for a loop, but before he can close in for the kill, a trio of unknown Maximals comes to his rescue, knocking Dinobot out. Rattrap, amazed by the sight of his rescuers, invites them to return to the base, but one of them tells them no, saying that they no longer wish to fight. Waking up onboard the Autobot shuttle, Rattrap tells Optimus that he is glad to put all the insanity of the Beast Wars behind him.

Transformers Featured (in rough order of appearance): Transmetal 2 Megatron, Optimal Optimus, Rhinox, Transmetal 2 Cheetor, Silverbolt, Transmetal 2 Blackarachia, Transmetal Rattrap, Transmetal 2 Dinobot, Bonecrusher, Optimus Minor, Wolfang.

Other Notes: The flashback story takes place sometime after the events of the two part “Feral Scream” episode, although the exact time frame is never made clear. How the appearance of Bonecrusher, Wolfang and Optimus Minor can be explained is never really mentioned, since the Beast Wars cartoon is famous for not including every single character that was released as a toy. We can assume that they were among the survivors of the stasis pod mass crash that occurred near the end of the shows first season.

Review: Aside from the aforementioned lack of explanation towards the existence of Wolfang, Optimus Minor and Bonecrusher, this is actually a very interesting story that manages to fit (almost) seamlessly into the Beast Wars timeline. This story makes me at least hope that Beast Wars becomes the next miniseries that Dreamwave tackles.

GENERAL REVIEW:

With as much buildup as the Summer Special got, combined with the fact that it arrived two months late, it’s hard not to be disappointed by the end result. None of the stories fail to grasp the reader in any real way, and seem to either fill in plot holes made by the stories they are based on or done just because the bigwigs at Dreamwave wanted to. The Generation One story most obviously fits into the former category, since the folks at Dreamwave want to continue to draw out the fact that Megatron is still around until his inevitable (and by the time this came out, pretty obvious) return. The Beast Wars story also fits into this category, although it’s just as guilty of falling into the latter, as I do believe that this kind of story did not need to be told at all, even if it does end up being the best of the lot. The Energon story would be great if we can consider it canon to the whole Energon story. (And like I said, it’s canon status will no doubt be debated for a LONG time to come.) And the Robots In Disguise story, to be blunt, is the SINGLE WORSE USE OF PAPER, PENCIL, INK AND CREATIVE TALENT that these guys have done since they’ve started work on Transformers. And considering the clunkers they’ve put out (Generation One: Prime Directives, anyone?), that says a lot. Hopefully, the shoddiness of the story will convince fans not to vote RID for the next Dreamwave miniseries. And although I will probably get flak for this, I’m not entirely sure that they should do a Beast Wars miniseries, either, considering that past history has shown that they are unable to handle a story in the miniseries format. Ah, well, if I had to choose, I’d take Beast Wars over RID any day of the week, especially after seeing how they handle the material.