THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

TRANSFORMERS TITLES FROM TITAN BOOKS / MAGAZINES

Titan Transformers Animated #2
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

A improvement on the last issue -- simply because no kids' comic will ever go wrong with giant robots fighting dinosaurs if it’s drawn right -- there’s still something missing here that means it doesn’t feel very like Animated. It does come closer to getting that sense of silly fun but never manages to fully shake the feeling of being too po-faced. I mean, are we supposed to take the Afterburner plot seriously or not?

That said, it’s a decent debut for a new writer and shows plenty of promise. If they’d just been able to go wild and wacky the comic may have lasted longer.


The first Animated comic not to feature Optimus Prime, it furthers the Afterburner arc by having him constantly undermine Bumblebee’s authority.

Whilst they spoke in Dino-MITE! here Swoop and Snarl are as mute as their TV counterparts.

The Rage Virus is either a homage to The Return of Optimus Prime from the original cartoon or 28 Days Later, depending on how much the author knows about Transformers. Or, of course, both.

The title is a homage to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, an existential play by Tom Stoppard about the two characters from Hamlet. Not bad for a kids' comic.

New blood! Roger Etherington becomes the first person whose name doesn’t rhyme with lymon Burman to write a Titan Transformers comic. He’s possibly the first Eagle Award nominated writer to have worked on the franchise as well. This is also the only Titan Animated strip not to have art by John McCrea.

Though issue 1 used stock shots from the cartoon for the cover this seems to be original artwork. By strange coincidence this was published exactly 14 years after the last time the Dinobots made a UK comic cover with issue 3 of Fleetway’s Generation 2 comic.


Whilst later events make it clear Afterburner is lying about his medical training no-one else finds it odd he’s fooled by the termination inhibitor thing.

Whilst it’s fair enough the other Autobots might be doing terribly important things back at their base which mean they can’t turn up here, wouldn’t it make more sense to send Bulkhead (who looks as if he could actually give the Dinobots a fight) along?


Free! Bot-Kicking Badges and Tattoos! Either Autobot or Decepticon depending on which copy you buy.


Bots and Bolts, this time with art by Nick Roche;
Search for the Allspark, competition for an alien food maker thingey;
Character Puzzles: Prowl, puzzles about the character of Prowl;
Nano-Bites!, plugs for the various Animated toys and books;
Professor Sumdac Explains, info on various robotics related things, this issue telling you about the Robogames convention;
Competitions for Animated stationary and Dangerous Books For Boys;
A plug for the Animated DS game, which tries to excite kids by telling them it’s the first ever computer game with Ultra Magnus in it, complete with competition;
The Many Faces of Megatron Part 1 a poster, the second half of which can be found in issue 19 of the film comic, double sided with a Animated Megatron on the other side;
Challenge Optimus Prime, a shame the comic didn’t last long enough to reach Challenge Grimlock;
Bee Mail guest staring Bulkhead.

?>