THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

TRANSFORMERS TITLES FROM TITAN BOOKS / MAGAZINES

Titan Transformers #10
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

A distinct improvement on the previous issue, with the setup out of the way the story settles down to some old school carnage that's hugely fun if shallow.

There are still some flaws, such as the moonbound Autobots having been sitting around doing nothing for two issues straight, that might come back to bite us in the arse later on, but on its own merits this is decent stuff. The destruction in Paris is especially a highlight. Plus, what's not to love about a comic that has Captain Birdseye commanding a nuclear boat?


The Autobots didn't know Optimus was frozen, which throws something of a spanner in the works. Luckily they have Tom Banachek on hand for advice on defrosting him. Tom here makes his debut in a original comic, though the actor may not be best pleased at the way he's been drawn to look about twenty years older (no doubt due to likeness rights issues).

Frenzy also makes his Titan debut here, the last of the film characters to be seen in the comic. We also have the debut of Payload and Thundercracker, both portrayed as multiple drone characters, which is in keeping with the formers appearances in the computer games. It's unclear if, as with Dreadwing, there's a main sentient leader version of these characters.

None of the surviving world leaders seen in Paris are based on their real world counterparts (unlike Dubya in the film), with only the Russian leader (looking for all the world like David Frost) being firmly identified as such. The other two are likely supposed to be the British Prime Minister and the French President, one a black man and the other a Professor Moriarty impersonator.

The Decepticons seem to have been bombing Paris (and no doubt other world capitals) for some time, but have sensibly left the Eiffel Tower alone in compliance with the old charter that all establishing shots of the City must include it (if this were a film, you just know the first few bars of the French national anthem would play at this point).

In the ten minutes the Decepticon attack on the nuclear carriers lasts 11506 lives are lost.

Ironically, despite seemingly leading the moon based group last issue, Skyblast is the only one of them not to appear here (he's just off page no doubt).

Here, based on his evasiveness to Dreadwing on where he's going, we pretty much get confirmation that Starscream hasn't told anyone else about the Moonbots.

In-jokes are a little more thin on the ground this month, the only real one is one of the Decepticon jets being in G1 Starscream's colours. However, there's a van marked Leicester Delivery parked so prominently and randomly outside the Palais Bourbon it feels like an in-joke of some sort, but if it is it's gone over my head.

According to a small note at the bottom of the contents page the average net circulation per issue for the title from July-December of 2007 is 45092. That's very good compared to IDW's standard sale figures (The Gathering issue 4 sold 21327 copies in the month of its first release as a point of comparison). As far as the UK comic industry goes though it's less than half the number of copies current market leader Doctor Who Adventures sells.


Again, lots of useful English writing (and human sized doors and control panels) all over the inside of the Decepticon base.

If the Decepticons have been bombing Paris for a while, why haven't they taken out the seat of government before now? Why aren't the NATO chiefs in a bomb shelter somewhere?

Why haven't the Moonbots heard anything from Bumblebee or Ironhide's groups? Tom Banachek should be able to pass on a message from the former, whilst the latter have yet to run into any real difficulties that might stop them meeting a pre agreed contact time.

A different artist means most of the characters have a different look to them, but two in particular stand out. Arcee is now based upon the Target exclusive version of the toy, whilst Elita-One has a completely different head based more upon her G1 namesake.


A little ickle missile blaster, complete with little ickle targets. Awwwwwwww.


A two page introduction to Transformers Animated that basically serves as a plug for the show's UK broadcasts on Nicktoons. This replaces the more usual character profile feature.

A cover based poster.

Design your own transformer- Following on from the "How to draw..." feature of the last few issues this gives you two basic outlines (Megatron and Optimus) and asks you to design a new robot around them.

The Purple and the Red: an uncoloured version of the cover for you to use your felt tips on. The contents page seems especially defencive about the introduction of a colouring feature.

Top Gear covers plushy Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and the Swindle toy.

Starscreams has some nice old school Marvel UK letters page banter about the reasons for the Decepticons not just bidding for Sam's glasses on E-Bay (Starscream couldn't get an account as it wouldn't accept him not having a date of birth).

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