THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

01 "The Transformers"
02 "Power Play"
03 "Prisoner of War"
04 "The Last Stand"
05 "The New Order"
06 "The Worst of Two Evils"

Marvel US book 1 of 14: Beginnings

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Reprinting: The Transformers [limited series] #1-4, The Transformers #5-6
Written by: Bill Mantlo [#1-2], Jim Salicrup [#3-4], Bob Budiansky [#5-6]
Pencils by: Frank Springer [#1-4], Alan Kupperberg [#5-6]
Inks by: Kim deMulder [#1-3], Janet Esposito [#3], Ian Akin & Brian Garvey [#4], Alan Kupperberg [#5-6]
Colours by: Nel Yomtov

Reprints of Marvel's first six issues of Transformers, concerning how the heroes and villains arrive on Earth.

The Stories:

There's one thing which really sums up the first two-thirds of "Beginnings" - the Transformers are aliens. Not cutesy robotic Morks. Aliens. There are strange speech patterns, bizarre actions by both sides and an unworldy feel helped by Frank Springer's pencils, which really convey the scale of the Transformers. It's also something of a mess... The original mini-series was clearly produced as the character models were devised, and for someone new to Transformers, the way characters change from frame to frame must be baffling. The look of the thing's not helped by Nel "Crayola" Yomtov's alleged efforts on the colouring front, and visually it's not very appealing. However, much of the plot redeems this. Unlike in the cartoon, where it's a matter of "hmm, we've crashed on this planet. We're here now, let's just carry on", there's a genuine sense of adjustment to the new surroundings, notably in the Drive-In Movies sequence, where the Autobots grapple with the idea of organic life. On top of that, the Autobots are in trouble from the start, drained of fuel and taking hits from the Decepticons left, right and centre. Think about that - there's an actual sense of war. While Buster and Sparkplug aren't exactly paragons of realism, both are likeable enough [you especially get the impression that Sparkplug's fascination with the mechanics of Bumblebee overrides his disbelief, which means in about a page the comic version is more developed than the cartoon cypher].

Sadly, they probably get about the best of the character work in the first four parts. Most of the Transformers feel rather stilted, and the dialogue's wildly overblown. It does, however, effect another alien mannerism, albeit one that gets a bit grinding. The plot itself isn't superb, but it does manage to be more or less coherent. Spider-Man actually works much better than most people give him credit for - he provides some good comic relief without the stupidity factor of turning Blue Streak into a Saturday Night Live stand-up within a few days on Earth. That said, it's probably best it was a one-off, and with retrospect keeping away from the conventional Marvel Universe did Transformers a power of good.

I did find the mini-series more readable than I expected, though the cliffhanger doesn't pack much of a punch, possibly just through 20 years of hype.

I actually found the remaining third of the book, reprinting #5-6, the first two issues penned by Bob Budiansky, to be less enjoyable. The first of these does a fair job of portraying just how much trouble Ratchet, the remaining Autobot, is in, but lots of the drama is undermined by Alan Kupperberg's unstable pencils, and some pages that would be very impressive [the spread of dead Autobots hanging from the Ark's ceiling], but again Yomtov's work is poor. Still, Shockwave has enough instant prescence to keep the story interesting, and Ratchet grows nicely. The second part's similarly mixed, with a well-scripted Shockwave and a potentially superb fight scene countered by Kupperberg's wooden pencils, and the silly oil-rig sequence that introduces G. B. Blackrock [looking uncommonly like a porn star] and Josie Beller [who looks about the least like a porn star as the poor girl will get].

The Presentation:

There's a nice, if slightly irrelevant, new cover from Andy [or is it Andrew now Transformers is a creditable nostalgia format?] Wildman, though it's rather bland, and not at all like his work on the title in the 1980s, or even much like his Dark Ages output. It's also on nice glossy paper, and there's a foreword from Jim Salicrup, which explains a bit of background info. There's also Titan's poorly presented cover pages - why do these need to be about 60% size, and offset at about 30 degrees? Why not just print the things full page, and assume that between the number on the cover and the story title printed in the damn strip that even the thickest Transformers fan would be able to piece it together? While four of the covers are below par, the work of Bill Sienkiwicz on #1 and Mark Bright on #5 are really worthy of full-page status.

But for extras, Beginnings is full of missed opportunities, mainly for material freely avaliable. A cover gallery including the UK exclusive covers used for the reprints of the stories would have been great. So would inclusion of the alternate ending for #4. Plus things like the Transformers Bible would have been great. We can find all of this online, but it'd be nice if Titan had taken a stab at making this book definitive. On top of this, would it have been too much trouble to track down the likes of Frank Springer, Bob Budiansky, Jim Shooter and Ralph Macchio to get their input?

The Verdict:

Ironically, Beginnings is not the best place to start reading Transformers comics. You'd be better scanning a few online plot summaries and taking the plunge at All Fall Down, then reading this when you've got a taste for Marvel's work. There is a lot of good work done here, especially considering the task set for Marvel, but it's far from an easy read. For fans, it's good for what it is - a slightly over-priced reprint collection to replace fading 80s back-issues.

 
Reviewed by Cliffjumper

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