THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

CURRENT TRANSFORMERS COMICS FROM IDW PUBLISHING

Transformers Tales of the Fallen #4: Fallen
Reviewed by Blackjack

"Too late I realize the Matrix I fashioned from pirated designs is flawed."
A mess. Despite Furman making decent work for Sideswipe's spotlight piece (and an... acceptable one for Ravage's) this one is a big, big failure. Not only it contradicts the entire background provided by the movie (Jetfire's at least could be retconned by the lax timing) but Furman also tries to reconcile some of his Galvatron II/Dreamwave Fallen into the movieverse. And more of those tainted Matrix AllSpark stuff. Also, Falen fighting off his Primes without his trademark weapon, the staff, but instead using lots of tacky alien devices, look stupid. There are many recycled plot lines, like the aforementioned tainted AllSpark, Fallen serving an even greater power... it's as if Furman is trying to tell us Dreamwave Fallen's back-story that he couldn't tell when Dreamwave folded, and crammed it into the Movie context hastily. Furman is probably the wrong author to do this issue. While time and again he's shown that he could create decent stories which do not obstruct the main storyline (Marvel UK, War Within, IDW's Beast Wars stories, Titan's early strips, even Nefarious had to count) this isn't one of them.

There are several decent moments, like the delusional Fallen roaring in rage when he thought that his brothers are the ones who drove him to desperate measures, or him thinking that he’s Death himself, thereby developing Fallen's character a little instead of power hungry baddy. However, the entire story and it being written like a bad fanfic irks me. Bringing Alex Milne is actually a good move. His aesthetic suits the movieverse designs better. At the very least, Milne is much better than Magnos' art last issue, although it isn't spectacular. Not that the story helps, mind. The plot holes given in these twenty pages are much more than what the movie gives us. Why didn’t the other Primes act against the Fallen earlier? Where is the army seen in the flashback? Why are the Primes so different from Fallen's design? Why the hell is Optimus Prime's Protoform design used? Why do they even bother doing a movie tie-in if they can't stick to the movie? The only good part is the fury when Fallen discovers that his pirated Matrix couldn't work.




The events of this issue lie concurrent with that of last issue.

The Prime who was killed last (and who said that planets with life cannot be harmed) is based on Protoform Optimus Prime’s design. What function this is supposed to do other than confuse readers is unknown.

Jetfire and the Constructicons have colours this issue.

Appparently, Fallen is the only member of the Dynasty responsible for searching of planets. It’s also implied that they had destroyed planets with life before, and were sorry about it. Well, except Fallen, of course.

Fallen’s name is parsed as ‘Fallen’ by the Dynasty when they renamed him. Without the ‘The’ in front of his name that some people are so fond of. Take that, you TFWiki people! Oh, and him being engulfed in flames after falling as an asteroid is probably a reference to his Dreamwave appearance.

The AllSpark being tainted, evil and semi-sentient is a reuse of the Matrix being tainted by Thunderwing and/or Unicron from the old days of Marvel G1. Well, it's either that or Fallen is suffering from a bad case of schizophrenia, which explains his presumably delusional narration.

Fallen says that they are the 'Children of Primus'. No doubt Furman's attempt of reconciling his G1 origin with the movieverse, what with Unicron appearing in the Titan title.

Presumably the last Prime sacrificed himself to hide the Matrix with the bodies of his brother Primes (a la the Novelization/Comic Adaptation), and Jetfire witnessed this.

The Sacrophagus would next be seen in Defiance, chronologically. Of course, this doesn’t make any sense in the Movie context, unless Starscream found a way to free Fallen from his Sacrophagus prior to ROTF. Which, in retrospect, would be the only way for the IDW movie comics to gel with the movie.




The Dynasty of Primes fluctuate between garish random generic models and 'Fallen with a different head' seen in the film (and everywhere else).

Fallen has been disavowed by his brethen when he fails to activate his own Solar Harvester by himself. Why did the Dynasty apparently pardon him afterwards?

When he stockpiles his weapons, he blows up lots of planets and slaughters entire races, but why didn't the Dynasty stop him? Why must they wait until Earth (which had only cavemen at that time) before doing something?

The events as it was told from Jetfire's point of view seemed like it was done in rapid succession (which is why he didn't have much time to dwell on his choice) but this issue it's revealed that after his audience with the Dynasty, Fallen has enough time to kill lots of other races before setting off for Earth.

If the Dynasty disowned Fallen some considerable time before Jetfire arrives on Earth, why does Jetfire keep helping him?

Fallen decidedly kills more than six other Primes during the final battle.

Fallen doesn't use his trademark staff.

The Primes teleport into Earth at different times, so it's rather different than 'Fallen takes the Matrix, the other Primes impale him and steal the Matrix and sacrifice themselves while their armies battle in the background' in the movie. And this time, we can't really blame Jetfire's memory.

The Last Prime has G1 Prime's head on his last appearance, when everywhere else in the comic he has Protoform Movie Prime's head from the toy.

How the hell did Fallen’s sarcophagi get to Cybertron if the Last Prime sacrificed himself on Earth?




Fallen: "We are the children of Primus, the inheritors of universal spoils. We are neither bound by morality nor burdened by accountability. We simply serve the will of the Allspark, and the will of the Allspark... is to feed its transformation!”

Prime #1: “He has gone too far.”
Prime #2 (Optimus cosplayer): “Broken the covenant.”
Prime #1: ”Tarnished the glory of the AllSpark. Shamed the Prime dynasty.”
Prime #2: “He shall be disavowed, cast out. From zenith to nadir… Fallen.”

Fallen: “In the process I evolve, past the other Primes, past even the AllSpark. I come to see myself first as an agent of death… and ultimately death itself.”

Fallen: "Show of force"? That, my brothers, was mere preamble, an overture... to a concerto of carnage!"

Fallen: “This… is not the end. I have come too far, tasted true omnipotence. One day… I shall have my revenge!”