Disciples of Boltax

The Ark Addendum - Punch's Transformation - Spacepunch!

2012-01-24T09:41:00.000-08:00

Howdy, gang! I'm very busy today, working on a project that I hope to be able to talk about soon, so commentary will be minimal. Today's Ark Addendum is a Headmasters Transform: Spacepunch! Spacepunch is the name of the Autobot form of Punch in Japan. It's a pretty nice conversion, as far as they go. Next week I'll probably go ahead and upload Counterpunch. Hope you enjoy!

Death’s Head Review: Marvel Heroes #33 – The Brute and the Bounty Hunter!

2012-01-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

Death’s Head’s final appearance (to date) came in March 2011, within the pages of Marvel Heroes, a magazine-style format aimed at younger readers and published by Panini (who now hold the Marvel UK licence). On the cover – fighting for space among the other features and a ‘Free Vortex Blaster’ – is a pretty good Death’s Head and Hulk by Simon Williams. They are both facing the same direction, so it doesn’t really portray the promise of the caption: “Hulk vs Death’s Head! ‘Nuff Said!”.

The creatives involved were: pencils and inks by Simon Williams; colours by Jason Cardy and Kat Nicholson; letters by Tim Warren-Smith and editor Ed Hammond. The writer responsible for this resurrected guest-spot was, of course, creator Simon Furman.

This story is actually in two halves, the first part being “The Hero Inside” by Ferg Handley and John Ross. We begin with Bruce Banner meeting with a facsimile Betty Ross. Realising he has been duped by General Thunderbolt, he promptly goes green and tussles with the Hulkbusters for a few pages, before getting tagged with an electronic device that brings Banner’s consciousness to the surface.

Thunderbolt and S.H.I.E.L.D. Assistant Director Maria Hill arrive to explain the situation: an alien race called the D’Bari are threatening to conquer Earth (their own homeworld was destroyed by the Phoenix in X-Men #135). They have demonstrated sufficiently advanced weaponry to cause concern, but in order to capture Earth intact, they have issued a challenge of champions. As Earth’s champion must be human (thus ruling out Thor etc.), they have decided that Hulk is their best chance for victory.

Banner/Hulk agrees, and the D’Bari are told that the challenge has been accepted. They respond by urging haste, saying their own champion is not known for his patience. We see a familiar silhouette and a metallic arm pulling on brown gauntlets. “Especially when there’s a fee at stake, yes?”

“The Brute and the Bounty Hunter” begins on the Blue Area of the Moon, where Banner/Hulk is in the ruined Kree city, waiting for his opponent. Monitoring nearby, S.H.I.E.L.D. discover that, sure enough, there isn’t much time left before the neural regulator fails and Hulk’s personality returns.

With his payment of ten thousand shanix confirmed, Death’s Head teleports into battle. He tosses Hulk around and they exchange a few punches. Meanwhile Thunderbolt is conspiring with one of his officers, Yoth, to wait until Hulk has won, then attack him while he is exhausted and weakened.

In the D’Bari ship, the commanders are arguing. Apparently their show of strength and threatened invasion is one almighty bluff – hence their reliance on hired help. One of them, G’Aspx, is repelled at the thought of using a bounty hunter (having lost his lifemate to the mercenary Tyrus Krill). He teleports to the moon and finds an old Kree cannon, vowing Death’s Head will not live to enjoy his earnings.

Back to the duel, Death’s Head’s attacks have been wearing Hulk down, and the mean, green characteristics start to resurface. Lurking nearby in a Hulkbuster suit, Yoth is waiting to strike as G’Aspx gets ready to fire on Death’s Head. But the mechanoid’s internal sensors detect the weapons-lock of G’Aspx’s cannon – he realises the double-cross, immediately cancels the deal and offers Hulk a plan.

Hulk punches out Death’s Head, then leaps over him to G’Aspx. He lifts up the cannon and redirects its fire to the orbiting D’Bari ship, ending their threat. Back on his feet, Death’s Head returns the favour by blasting Yoth before he could attack.

Yoth confesses all, and Death’s Head offers Hulk the chance for payback. In the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, something teleports behind Thunderbolt and a large green finger taps him on the shoulder…

It’s easy to pick holes in this story: would Earth really be threatened by a D’Bari? Is Hulk really the best choice of champion – especially without the power of his monster rage? If Hulk lost, how were S.H.I.E.L.D. planning on telling everyone on Earth they had pack their bags? For a story like this, I guess the only important question is: does it entertain? And for that, I’d say it earns about half marks.

For a 13-page story, far too much time is spent setting up the premise (which, as I’ve noted, seems pretty thin). It doesn’t take much to put Death’s Head’s against an opponent – the only motive he needs is a contract. Setting up the D’Bari plot means we only get a few pages of the headline fight – and that doesn’t really get beyond the introductions.

The double-double-cross is trademark Furman, as is Death’s Head and Hulk trading opponents. I’m not sure there’s enough space to make it work here, and perhaps cutting down to a single act of treachery might have given the story a bit of needed elbow-room.

Moreover, there is something of the deus ex machina about how this is resolved. Death’s Head displays some very specific sensors to pick out, not only a threatening weapon, but the specific race aiming it. He also manages to talk sense to a half-crazed Hulk very quickly.

While it’s great to see Death’s Head return (there really isn’t much he won’t do for ten thousand shanix), the character does little more here than go through the motions. While the way he turns on his employers is fair enough (if a little sudden), his initial tactics against the Hulk lack his usual cunning. In a straight fight, Hulk must surely be his superior in power, yet Death’s Head deals with him as if he were little more than, say, Backbreaker. There’s also a little too much tough-guy and not enough dry wit, so I don’t think he’ll be winning over many new fans from this cameo.

Simon Williams’ artwork is nicely rendered, the inking is solid and the colours are strong. Death’s Head’s appearance is equal to many of his previous stories and a lot of respect is being paid to the character, including some of the original touches (such as the raised mechanical eyebrow). The movement in the panels seems oddly two-dimensional: the protagonists don’t seem to be really hitting each other with any impact. I know this has a younger readership, so perhaps has to tone down the violence, but Hulk and Death’s Head are reeling from punches that don’t even seem to connect.

In terms of Death’s Head’s chronology, this story struggles to find a place. He is human-scale and in his original uniform, so unless is happened between his encounter with Doctor Who and Dragon’s Claws, it presumably occurred right after he was stolen from Lupex, but before he became Transformer-scale. It’s probably not worth worrying about, since I assume the ‘Marvel Heroes’ stories are outside regular continuity.

And that concludes my Death’s Head reviews. It’s been great fun to revisit these old issues, and I’ve gained a new appreciation for a much-overlooked character. Thanks to all who took part in discussing the adventures of everyone’s favourite freelance peacekeeping agent. I hope you enjoyed it, yes?

SWTOR: Let's play "Tag, you're dead!"

2012-01-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

Greetings again, Blogspot readers. I will not speak of the current "Anti-SOPA Anti-PIPA" movements because ... well ... because it is time to speak of Star Wars! (Though, should SOPA and PIPA pass, who knows what anyone will be able to talk about anymore ... )

So 2 weeks ago, when I had my last real post, I said I would talk about Flashpoints in my next post ... well, I have been unable to find anyone to group up with and have a mentionable Flashpoint. Instead, I shall bring you tales of PvP. As with any MMORPG in this day in age, there is the area where you can go questing, and then there is the area that you can combat other players of an opposing alliance (and sometimes the same alliance). SWTOR presents these player versus player zones as Warzones; small instanced arenas where players on opposing teams fight towards an objective. One such Warzone is called Huttball, a warzone where each team (comprised of same and opposing faction members) must run to the center of the arena, grab a ball, and bring it to the opposing side. Think of it like its a football game. Grab the ball, take it to your opponents side. They must defend their side. If they kill the ball carrier, they get the ball.

The premise for this is that one of the illustrious Hutt cartels is sponsering the game. Thusly, he has a grand view of the two teams doing their best to kill each other.

I will upload a bunch more images so you can see what it looks like in there.

So the PvP aspect is fun. Not exactly something I would sell the game on, it is much less story interactive, mostly because it cannot be story interactive. Definitely check out the game, though. Click here for more details

The Ark Addendum - Fire on the Mountain (part 2)

2012-01-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

Hola, amigos! Time for me to finish out the models from Fire on the Mountain, a middle season one episode of the G1 Transformers cartoon. The models this week are some nice industrial landscapes, which are pretty cool. Decepticons are always raiding factories and power plants... they're like candy to the 'Cons! Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Death’s Head Review: S.W.O.R.D. #1-5 – No Time To Breathe

2012-01-12T11:15:00.001-08:00

For more than a decade after his death at the hands of Minion, Death’s Head remained deactivated. But, true to maximum that only Uncle Ben stays dead in comics, he resurfaced in 2005 as a supporting character in the five-issue run of S.W.O.R.D. As Death’s Head only appears briefly, and the short-lived run makes up a complete story, I’ll look at them as a whole.

The creative line-up ran as follows: Kieron Gillen, writer; Steven Sanders, pencils; Craig Yeung, inks; Matt Wilson, colours; Dave Lanphear, letters and editor Nick Lowe.

The covers are quite a mixed bag. The first three, by John Cassaday and Laura Martin, are all portrait-style: the first is a standard team-assembly of S.W.O.R.D. commander Abigail Brand standing in front ofBeast, Sydren and Lockheed. The second is co-commander Henry Gyrich with some sinister underlighting standing before an ‘Aliens Go Home’ message. The third is a semi-comical one of the little dragon Lockheed, wreathed in fire and brandishing a couple of handguns.

The last two covers are by Mike del Mundo, and have a more realistic style, albeit with a much more surreal composition. While they are both interesting to look over, I’m not sure either would have me grabbing it off the shelves (although the series was cancelled by that point). The difference in styles is jarring, although the biggest problem is the overall depiction of Beast. All five covers show Hank McCoy’s flat, feline face instead of the long-snouted version drawn by Sanders. It’s each artist’s choice, I suppose, but such inconsistency for a main character between cover and inside pages feels wrong.

Now to the story. For the uninitiated, the Sentient World Observation and Response Department is the alien-facing counterpart of S.H.I.E.L.D. From its orbital space station, The Peak, it seems to operate as a mix of Deep Space 9/Babylon 5 and Men In Black – monitoring and negotiating with Earthbound aliens.

In what seems a typical day, Abigail Brand is confronted by a number of red alerts: a fleet of Drenx pirate ships are threatening Earth; a mysterious signal has been picked up; and her alien half-brother, pursued by a ruthless bounty hunter, is seeking sanctuary. Putting the affable Sydren in charge of negotiations with the Drenx, Brand heads off to deal with her wastrel brother, Lothi, who has stolen an valuable artefact.

The bounty hunter turns out to be Death’s Head, appearing by hologram to introduce himself as a ‘freelance personnel recovery specialist’ and offer Brand a cut of the bounty. When given a flat refusal, he quickly accepts – only to activate his spacecraft’s stealth mode, blast a hole in The Peak and steal Lothi anyway.

Brand gets Beast and Lockheed ready to pursue, but first she needs find out how to overcome the stealth technology. She visits a top-security prisoner – a charming robot called Unit – who provides her with the answer. But while Brand is away chasing Death’s Head, her co-commander Gyrich is undermining her to their superiors. He begins putting into action plans to extradite all the aliens on Earth.

The S.W.O.R.D. agents find and board Death’s Head’s vessel, only to be caught by its owner. The real surprise comes with the scale – Death’s Head towers above them, Transformer-size. There follows a lopsided battle where Brand’s team try to stay alive (although they do manage to cost the mechanoid an optic sensor, as well as Beast suggesting the classic ‘freelance peacekeeping agent’ as a new title) before escaping with Lothi.

Meanwhile, Gyrich mobilises S.W.O.R.D. against the resident alien super-heroes (Noh-Varr, Adam X, Hepzibah, Beta Ray Bill etc) and with surprise and low cunning, manages to round up almost all of them.

Ignorant of this, and having returned to The Peak, Brand is again called by a surprisingly-cheerful Death’s Head: “Hello again, human friends. You catch me in the middle of doing a little accounting. It appears you owe me one alien, one artefact, one eyeball and whatever is costs me to refit the gaping hole in the side of my ship.” They agree a deal: the artefact in return for free passage for Lothi. Brand is then captured by Gyrich and thrown into the brig.

While Lockheed is hunted through the air vents (which explains the John McClane style of cover for #3), Beast confronts Unit, who he deduces has been putting his unique problem-solving ability to Gyrich’s service. Beast then frees Brand, and they escape with the aid of Death’s Head (who has happily accepted this rescue as a new contract).

Some of the threads from the beginning of the story now begin to pay off: the mysterious signal turns out to be a teleportation beam for Metroliths – giant rock-monsters who invade Mount Rushmore. Though deposed as S.W.O.R.D. commander, Brand feels obligated to resolve this. She attempts to communicate with the rocks as Death’s Head fights to keep them in check (in a characteristic show of dark humour, he loses his temper at being knocked down and tries to fire a missile at a Metrolith: “No deadly force, Brand said. It’s possible you could live through this, yes?”). Brand eventually convinces the Metroliths that Mount Rushmore is not a rock creature in distress and they quickly apologise.

The other story thread comes from Sydren’s ongoing negotiations with the Drenx (mainly by offering the pirates endless cups of tea). As Sydren is taken away by Gyrich’s men, the murderous aliens learn that the base is in disarray and that Unit is being held prisoner. They force their way into the detention cells and Unit (his face now adjusted from human to Drenx) helpfully tells the pirates how they can capture the entire station.

The Peak quickly and bloodlessly falls to the Drenx, who then set up an ambush for the returning Brand and Beast. The ambush is quickly reversed by the arrival of Death’s Head and his minigun attachment. While the mechanoid bravely holds off the pirate ships (“Can’t … give up … now … Just … think … of … the … bonus.”) Brand frees all the alien superheroes, who tear the invaders to shreds.

Pursued by Beast, the chief Drenx seeks help from Unit – who asks for his liberty in return. Before McCoy can stop him, the Drenx frees the robot. With a sinister look in his eye, Unit kills the Drenx with a thought, then allows Beast to re-activate his energy cage. He explains that he helped the Drenx only to ensure a peaceable takeover, but warned Brand about the ambush because he does not resent his prison. He is happy to remain as the indispensable advisor to S.W.O.R.D. while he considers his next long-term move.

The series concludes with Brand forcing the resignation of the disgraced Gyrich, and hence becoming the sole commander. Death’s Head cheerfully departs with his fee while Brand and Beast meet with the high-commander of the Drenx fleet. In a neat turnaround they point to the number of superheroes on the planet and suggest that S.W.O.R.D. exists not to protect Earth from aliens, but to protect aliens form the Earth. The Drenx quickly take the hint and take off, leaving Brand and Beast to enjoy the Earthrise together.

The whole series makes for a really good romp. Though following the single narrative of Gyrich’s plan, there’s still plenty going on in each issue. Plot threads are nicely set-up (the Metroliths, the return of Death’s Head, the Drenx threat) and developed logically. The whole idea of an alien-specific agency has a lot of potential for story, and it’s a pity this run got cancelled.

As the main character in all this craziness, Abigail Brand comes across as the most moral, level-headed and capable. These are all good (and standard-issue) qualities for a leader, and there are some moments of dry humour in her tough-as-nails attitude, although her borderline-infallibility does make her a little dull at times.

Beast has long since been established a genius-intellect court jester, and he makes for a nice pairing for Brand, both as sidekick and romantic foil. He also gets to interact with Unit – one of the best characters in the title.

The concept of Unit is that he was created, many ages ago, but a utopian race that sought to bring paradise to the universe and realised they needed hard measures to do so. They would drop a ‘unit’ robot on a difficult planet, who would begin manipulating its rulers until it became compliant or destroyed. These utopians were seen as tyrants by other races and eventually annihilated, leaving only Unit – who must redeem their memory by bringing peace to the universe. This explains his endless patience and helpful attitude, while at the same time giving out a ‘Hannibal Lector’ vibe of a deranged genius in a cage.

As for the other mechanoid of the series, I really enjoyed Death’s Head’s return. For a character that’s only ever really be written by one writer, Kieron Gillen did a great job of capturing the essence of the mechanoid, while adding his own touch. Nicely menacing to begin with (and the idea about making him Transformer-scale was inspired), Death’s Head comes into his best when he has Brand as a client, combining polite subservience with light disrespect in a way that seems more British in tone than Furman’s original (a mercenary Jeeves, rather than the lone gunslinger, perhaps). I’d happily read more of this character from this writer.

The character design of Death’s Head is new, and very well done by Steven Sanders. The original ‘battered body-armour’ look is given the ‘blue samurai’ colours and some impressive weapon attachments (mace, missile etc). The skull-head looks like a hockey-mask with smaller tusks and bigger horns – most of the personality is conveyed by the deep-set glowing red eyes.

The rest of the artwork looks great and flows nicely – there are a few impressive splash panels, but it doesn’t interrupt the story moving apace. It can sometimes veer into cartoony, although that’s hard to avoid when you have lots of non-humans as lead characters. And there are some lovely background touches that appear on a re-read (Death’s Head skull-themed furry dice in his spacecraft, the holographic ‘yes’/’no’ icons that appear when he makes his offer).

In terms of where this belongs in the Death’s Head chronology, my guess would be the start of his career, post-Lupex. The giant size would suggest it occurs before he met The Doctor, as does the fact that he seems to discover his ‘freelance peacekeeping agent’ catchphrase. As this is 2005, it would allow him to change his uniform, get a new face and hop over to the Transformers universe in time to begin the hunt for Galvatron (nice timing by Gillen there).

Next issue: the very last (so far) appearance of Death’s Head as he takes on The Incredible Hulk in “The Brute and The Bounty Hunter”

Issues 1-5 were collected (with a marketing-savvy ‘X-Men’ prefix added) as X-Men: S.W.O.R.D. – No Time To Breathe

SWTOR: Late post

2012-01-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

I'll post later today. I didn't bring my files with me today

The Ark Addendum - Fire on the Mountain (part 1)

2012-01-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

I'm back! I hope you'll forgive my two week absence, my wife and I took a couple of weeks off to relax and enjoy the holidays. But now I'm back, and bringing you another edition of The Ark Addendum! This week, I'll go back to something I touched upon about a year ago, the G1 episode Fire on the Mountain.

This was a slightly odd episode, all told. It starts out way up in the arctic north, where they dig out Skyfire. It seems to me that, if it was that easy to get him out, they'd have done so in Fire in the Sky. I wonder if that episode was finalized, and then someone changed their mind about killing off the character. Anyway, that's why there is an arctic landscape amidst all the other more traditional South American fare.

Next week I'll finish off this episode. Sadly, I don't have Luisa's character model. I think that, next to Chip and Arkeville, she was probably the most prominent human introduced in S1.

In other news, it's been out that Bill and I will be attending Roll Out Roll Call in the UK, and we're pretty psyched about it. Our Bios are now up on the show website. You should go and check them out, Bill and I had fun making them.

SWTOR: The Good, the Bad, and the Butt-Ugly

2012-01-04T18:50:00.001-08:00

Hello again friends and foes. It is time for another SWTOR update from the amazing Rob!

Sorry for the late posting today. Sick and all. So SWTOR is truly a land mark game. They sell it as a story driven MMORPG and it rocks the floor off of your expectations. If you are familiar with the Mass Effect game franchise, then all you need to know is that it is a multiplayer version of that with auto aim. For anyone who has never played the game, then what you should know is that it is highly cinematic and includes cut scenes and voice overs plus animations for all quests and even sometimes just general areas. As great as I find this game, I will admit that it is not without its faults. There are still plenty of bugs in the game, from clipping issues in gameplay and cutscenes, to things like irrational numbers for some stats. It is still a truly amazing game even with the issues it has. Let's not forget, this is merely the first month of the game release. Any other MMO that has been worth its weight had just as many problems at release. They all do.

Last week, I mentioned in my post that you need to make sure you create a character that you will be able to look at. I thought based on my history from playing the the beta, I knew what I was getting myself into. I forgot. Meet 'Robear'. His name ... is nothing that screams 'Star Wars'. His face is hideous. He is abnormally tall. What have I done? I thought I had a good character when I initially made him, but after playing him to level 22, it occurred to me that all I want to do when I play this character is to punch him in the face. And his name ... Robear? Terrible name. After a week of watching him in cut scenes, I had enough. I created him from scratch, which was a huge pain because the guys I had been playing with were already a little higher than me and now had to wait for me to create a new character. But finally, I got my new character to a playable level. Meet 'Griffon'. All the same everything as my last character, just much easier on the eyes. I have played plenty of MMOs. This is truly the first time I remade a character because I couldn't stand to look at him.

Next week, I shall discuss Flash Points. They are the most fun in an instance you will likely ever have. If you are curious about getting the game, click here!

SWTOR: A New MMO

2011-12-28T14:51:00.001-08:00

Greetings friends and strangers,

I am the enigmatic Rob-in-hood. I am here to take you on the journey of a world yet to be fully realized: the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

From what I have played thus far, it is a truly outstanding game. The opening cinematic is very outstanding as it starts off in a starport above a planet and shows a couple of jedi masters escorting a smuggler to a cell after he was caught trying to smuggle ancient sith artifacts. After one of the jedi feels something bad in the force, a huge fleet of ships come out of hyper space and begin firing on the starport. Right away, two sith warriors board the starport and attack the jedi in a very acrobatic fight. In the end, one of the jedi masters must flee while the other sacrifices himself. It’s a very beautiful cinematic, but beautiful cinematics are industry standard now. The cool thing about this game is that when you choose an allegiance, you are treated to another beautiful cinematic which highlights the strengths of whichever side you have just chosen. Again, the cinematics in this game are just icing. Fortunately, the game itself makes the icing look lame.

After choosing your class (4 on each side) and race (4 or 5 options within each class), you can customize your look. Now, I have to say that this was one of the coolest features I had seen from a new MMO in a while. While there are MMOs that allow you some changes made to your body type, few give you the option of making your character overweight. While that is not exactly a selling point, it was one of those ‘hahaha, that’s cool!’ moments. Now, if you’re going through the character creation process, I highly recommend you make a character that looks good. Most times when playing any MMO, you create a character and give little heed to his facial features. Some people get really into it, but for the most part, it’s something you can ignore completely. With SWTOR, however, if you created an ugly character during character creation, you will be looking at and suffering through your ugly character through every in game cut scene. Take from my experience … after 5 levels of watching an ugly character talk for you, you will regret not taking an extra few minutes to make him more to your liking.

After character creation is finished and you have a character you can stand to look at, you are treated by the lip curling sound of trumpets blaring as the wall scroll appears from the bottom of your screen and begins to relay to you the story of your character and his role in the world. You immediately are thrust into a grand storyline, depending upon your class, and all written directly towards the class. For example, smugglers start out with dropping off a cargo shipment and their ship ends up getting stolen. Bounty hunters are told one thing when they start … become notorious. Imperial troopers are on an infiltration mission. All class quests are very appropriate.

For the purposes of this review, I shall be relaying the tales of Robear, Imperial Agent. I started off on the planet of Hutta, a planet obviously run by the Hutt clans, and I am to infiltrate their clan and suggest they take up arms against the Republic. The game play is fairly standard to most any other MMO. Attack with enemies with powers, loot bodies, rinse, repeat. It’s a very familiar system. The main driving force in this game is the storyline. BioWare built this game around being a story-driven MMO and they excel in spades. Any quest you pick up is not a simple “quest giver tells you to kill 50 rats”, but is instead a treat of an interactive experience. Getting a quest puts you and whoever else is in your party into a cut scene where you can make decisions for what you respond to the NCP with. If they say “I’m injured and hurt”, you can call them a coward or you can offer to help them. Your responses don’t affect your quest (that I’ve seen), but they can affect your companion’s relationship with you, though, during the first 8 levels, that is irrelevant. There is a system in place that gives you light side and dark side points for your responses, but your light side and dark side points only affect social items and titles.

All in all, from what I’ve seen thus far, the game is well made, fresh, and extremely fun to play. It brings the addiction back into the MMO experience. And just so we’re clear, this is only the first part of my review. More to come next week!

For all those who are now enticed to purchase the game, you can click here.

Something something 'dark side'

2011-12-26T14:22:00.000-08:00

Greetings to the intrawebs!

I am Rob-in-Hood, enigmatic ruler of my chair and lord of my pants. I have been carefully selected from the very short and diminishing list of people who Jim has not yet chosen to destroy to bring you all news and knowledge of a new game that has enter the video game market: Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I am a fan of the Star Wars franchise, though I don't think I am a diehard Star Wars fan. Video gaming is a passion of mine, however, so hopefully my experiences with other games will allow me to shed light on this new game and give an accurate portrayal.

My postings will begin this Wednesday, December the 28th. See you all then!

-=rob in hood=-

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

The Ark Addendum - Phoenix's Transform

2011-12-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

Hello, intrepid Transfans. This week's Ark Addendum was inspired by last week's offering. It seems like a while since I've done an extended Masterforce Transformation sequence, so here one is. Naturally, I chose Phoenix.

As usual, the designers did a kick-ass job with this, lots of motion and excitement. Note how many of the models break from the panel. They just can't be contained. I also like the speed lines in the final panel.

Death’s Head Review: What If #54: What if Minion Had Not Killed Death’s Head?

2011-12-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

The final appearance of Death’s Head (for a dozen years, at least) came in the pages of the ‘What If’ series. The old creative team is reunited – Simon Furman writer and Geoff Senior artist – with Janice Chiang letters, Sarra Mossoff colourist and Rob Tokar editor.

The cover, also by Senior, is big and brash: an over-muscled Minion goes toe-to-toe with a spikey-armoured Death’s Head. Beneath them are items from fallen Marvel heroes: Captain America’s shield and War Machine’s helmet. The caption asks, “What If … Death’s Head I had lived”, which does the job, although I would have added a question mark, and using a big, thick Roman numeral does immediately make you assume it means “Death Head II” (which makes no sense).

It’s a strong image – both protagonists are tearing into each other – although nothing like as gory as some of the Death’s Head II covers. Minion’s blade looks to be doing no more than surface damage to Death’s Head’s face, while the mechanoid’s fist appears to be punching into pink jelly, rather than flesh. Death’s Head’s legs are also bent at an impossible angle, just to fit them into the frame.

Manhattan 2020. In film-noir style, Dr Necker is walking through a dark, rain-streaked alley in a hat and trenchcoat. She rendezvous with Spratt, who introduces her to Death’s Head, rebuilt after his near-death at the hands of Minion. We are treated to a full splash page of the mechanoid’s third uniform, which mostly consists of enormous arms, extra guns and lots more spikey bits. His head is unchanged and looks quite small atop this titanic construction.

Necker reveals that Minion has (somehow) become a liability for A.I.M. and offers him the chance for revenge. Though angry at Necker for setting Minion after him, Death’s Head is prepared to listen – but not for free. As Spratt reminds him, there’s no profit in vengeance.

The narrative is picked up by Uatu the Watcher, who reveals this prologue to be a ‘What if’. He recaps the story of the Death’s Head II limited series, then speculates what would happen if Death’s Head had teleported away a split-second before Minion killed him.

In this universe, Minion forgets about the escaped Death’s Head and goes on to assimilate and kill his next target, Reed Richards. However, without Death’s Head’s body for Strucker to possess, there can be no Charnel, so Minion is left waiting for a threat that never materialises. Instead, Strucker lures Minion into a trap and possesses him instead. There follows a classic sci-fi monster-attack sequence where Minion/Charnel destroys an A.I.M. installation.

This brings us up-to-speed with the prologue: in a shipwrecked freighter that serves as an atmospheric office, Spratt is counting out Necker’s money as Death’s Head accepts the contract. He requests use of a time machine and a really big gun.

Travelling back to 1992, Death’s Head convinces the grief-stricken Fantastic ~~Four~~ Three to help him, since all that remains of Reed is now trapped in a killing machine. Using similar powers of persuasion, he recruits Captain America, War Machine, Luke Cage and Namor to his cause. Necker is impressed at gathering so much power for free, which Death’s Head attributes to his understanding of the ‘super-hero mentality’.

We jump straight into a full-on superhero dogpile on Charnel. They land some good hits on the creature (I especially like Sue Richards’ nasty method of creating a force-field inside Charnel’s body, then popping it), which concludes with Thing dropping a building on him.

Of course, this has only succeeded in making Charnel mad! Having adapted to the attacks, he fights back, killing the heroes in quick succession (once again, a special mention for his means of dispatching War Machine – a narrow blade configuration through the eye slits).

Death’s Head has so far remained on the sidelines, allowing the superheroes to sacrifice themselves, so Charnel is worn down (something Necker views with admiration). He now steps forward, toting a gun the size of a Buick, and blasts Charnel. He follows up with an attack that uses everything in his arsenal, including gouging Charnel with his tusks. Though outmatched, Death’s Head goads Charnel that he is too thuggish to access any of his 105 personalities to win the fight.

Charnel takes the bait and taps into Reed Richard’s intellect to ensure maximum suffering for Death’s Head. Before he can strike the final blow, he freezes, allowing the mechanoid to decapitate him. The escaping energies cause Charnel to spectacularly explode.

In a neat reversal, Death’s Head is left holding Minion’s skull. He explains to Necker and Spratt how he tricked Charnel into giving control to Reed Richards’ personality and ponders the nature of heroism, “Struggling against impossible odds, risking almost certain death to help those in trouble … I just hope it’s not catching, yes?”

It’s a fitting swan-song for the character. Death’s Head is allowed to show off his sardonic, cool, ruthless personality for the last time, as well as being granted a plausible victory against his nemesis, using cunning rather than brute force. And at the story’s end, he finds himself no wiser or nobler, with just a shrug for fallen comrades and an eye for the next paycheck.

Furman admitted that he found writing this to be a “deeply satisfying and cathartic experience”. Aside from sparing his creation at the expense of its successor, it does give him the chance to demonstrate how he would have written the all-superhero brawl against Charnel. Though hardly original, I liked the battle. There were some nicely inventive ways for the heroes to attack (and get killed) by the monster (compared with the fairly blunt methods used in 2020 Vision) and Death’s Head stays in character as a cynical manipulator. It could be argued that Minion is also in character as a superpowered machine that can’t be beaten by any other Marvel superhero, even some of the greatest, which may also have been Furman’s point.

Though clearly favouring Death’s Head, Furman does a good job of working with the established story: Strucker’s grudge against A.I.M. is maintained (and expanded upon, given we actually get to see Charnel destroy some installations in this version) and the inclusion of Reed Richards as target #106 is good continuity. It also makes for a satisfying twist: Death’s Head gives Reed’s personality control over Minion, just as Reed gave Death’s Head control over Minion in the ‘true’ story.

Senior’s artwork is very good, though a long way from his best and perhaps his art isn’t suited to the reduced colours of the US print. His depiction of movement and action is still great, however, so there is plenty to enjoy in the explosive, brutal slugfest against Charnel (although I wasn’t convinced by the squishy pink-gore of the cyborg’s insides). Charnel’s attack on the A.I.M. installation is also very well handled – single-frame depictions of the sudden assault that match the pace of the text and keep the attacker out of view until the final reveal.

Death’s Head’s new look is a parody of the fashion for big guns and big muscles, but Senior keeps the augmented mechanoid looking formidable, rather than ridiculous. Compared with the bloody and overly-detailed work of the Death’s Head II series, the artwork already seems to be out of step with its contemporaries, but it’s certainly no worse for that.

The What If #54 was republished ‘Death’s Head Volume 2’.

The Ark Addendum - Phoenix's Truck

2011-12-13T11:40:00.000-08:00

Listen up, true believers! It's another installment of The Ark Addendum. After four weeks of cassettes, I figured it's time to go back to Japan. Trawling through my archives and what did I find but Phoenix's truck!

I enjoy the designs of Masterforce, as a rule, especially the props. This one is kind of an odd one. While Masterforce nominally took place in the future, most of the aesthetic seemed to draw from the present day. This truck is a bit of an exception. It seems like it would be home among the vehicles of someone like, I dunno, Victor Drath from S3's Only Human. Enjoy!

BTW, the signing went very well. I'll post up some photos in a bit. It was great catching up with Mike, Livio, Marty, and some of the TF Prime folks.

Death’s Head Review: Doctor Who Monthly #173: Party Animals & The Incomplete Death’s Head #1-12

2011-12-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

For this, I’m attempting the rather-ambitious goal of thirteen issues in one review. The Incomplete Death’s Head series was published around the launch of Death’s Head II. It reprinted most of the original mechanoid’s tales, and was given a framing story featuring Minion and Tuck.

The Doctor Who Monthly #173 was published two years earlier. It has practically nothing to do with Death’s Head, except for its puzzling inclusion in the ‘Death’s Head Volume 2’ collection. It only really makes sense when it was retroactively included in the framing story, which is why I include it here.

The framing story of The Incomplete Death’s Head was written by Dan Abnett, pencils by Simon Coleby, inking alternated between Simon Coleby and Neil Bushnell, lettering was either Annie Parkhouse or Gary Gilbert, colour David Leach, and the editor was John Freeman (also credited with the ‘plot’ for issue 1, so I guess this was his idea).

The cover to the first issue is by Liam Sharp and Hank Kanalz, and it’s quite a good one. Minion poses dramatically (behind him, Tuck just poses) and examines a glowing sphere that contains a portrait of Death’s Head. The real treat is that the sphere is a cut-out circle and the cover opens, like a pop-up book, to reveal the rest of Death’s Head facing many of his enemies: Mayhem, Big Shot, Plaguedog etc. Everyone is charging towards the mechanoid and, though I have my usual reservations about the way Sharp depicts movement, the whole image would make decent poster art.

The story begins with Minion and Tuck unexpectedly transported to a mysterious, hi-tech location. We later discover this is Maruthea – an ‘impossible’ space station in the centre of the space-time vortex. Quickly defeating the robot guardians, they discover they are in an archive dedicated to the original Death’s Head.

With one panel, the Pyra and Lupex origin is swiftly covered (the omission of the actual story is odd, but the high standard of that story’s artwork might have been ruined in this format) and move on to the next step: Death’s Head was stolen, programmed to be a bounty hunter, and set up in business where he ran into the unfortunate Tex.

Minion plugs himself into the archive to learn more, and a missing piece is added to the Death Head story: he was stolen again and sent to a parallel universe (i.e. The Transformers universe) where his size was considerably increased. To circumvent copyright, the computer screen shows a poor quality image of Death’s Head fighting an off-colour Galvatron. The story concludes that, during this robot war, Death’s Head was caught in the gravitational well of a collapsing planet and accelerated into the Crossroads of Time (not exactly matching the original story, but perhaps easier to explain in the limited space).

After viewing his adventures with The Doctor and Dragon’s Claws, Minion is intrigued to know more about Death Head, since without that dominant personality he would never have gained his own free will. He is suddenly blasted by electrical feedback and his mind is pulled into the cyberspace of the archive.

The consciousness of Minion then meets the consciousness of Death’s Head, which has materialised within cyberspace. Over the course of the series, they both review the past adventures of the freelance peacekeeping agent, peppered with moments of action (such as when the memory of Big Shot comes alive and attacks) to keep things interesting.

In the real world, Tuck is attacked by the creator of the archive: Hob. The diminutive robot valet survived the explosion of the Dogbolter Temporal Rocket, but his master went missing. Obsessed with finding Dogbolter, and rebuilt in mechanical-spider form, Hob created the archive to study Death’s Head (although he is ignorant of the Minion incarnation). His apparent hope is to trap Death’s Head and The Doctor, in the hope that they can be made to find his master.

As Hob has Tuck in his clutches, and Minion watches helplessly, the actual Death’s Head and The Doctor both arrive at Maruthea, which segues into the Doctor Who story ‘Party Animals’ (Gary Russell script, Mike Collins pencils, Steve Pini inks, Glib letters, John Freeman editor)...

The Seventh Doctor and Ace arrive at Maruthea to join the birthday party of a satyr named Bonjaxx. The party is a crowded scene of every character the artist can imagine (ranging from a Sontaran to Captain Britain to Star Trek’s Worf to Bart Simpson). The Doctor is told that someone is looking for him, and he wonders if it is Death’s Head, who is sat alone, drinking a cocktail with a little pink umbrella.

He is then met by another eccentrically-dressed chap with a female sidekick. They chat to each other, amiably and enigmatically, as a massive brawl erupts around them. After a comment about the First Law of Time, they step into their respective TARDIS’ and reveal the not-too-surprising truth that The Doctor has just met a past/future incarnation of himself.

And back to the framing story, Hob joins the brawl and faces off with Death’s Head. Watching from cyberspace, the virtual Death’s Head points out that his past self might actually be in danger, since causality means nothing in Maruthea.

With The Doctor gone, Minion fears that Hob will vent his frustration on Tuck. Death appreciates looking out for his partner, and admits that, given the chance, he would have tried to save Spratt (probably the nicest thing he’s said about his deceased sidekick). He offers to shunt the cyborg back into reality on the condition that he doesn’t let Hob kill him (presumably because he wants to save himself for the pleasure of being killed by Minion later on).

Minion leaps back into life and attacks Hob, severing the arm that held Tuck captive. He then teams up with the real Death’s Head and the pair make short work of blasting, then slicing, Hob into pieces.

In the aftermath, Death’s Head makes some quick deductions about the cyborg who moves like him and shares his name, and decides that Minion cannot be allowed to live. Before violence starts, Death’s Head is zapped and falls to the ground. The Doctor has returned to blast him, once again, with The Tissue Compression Eliminator (which has been modified into a Deus Ex Machina device, since it knocks Death’s Head unconscious and wipes his memories of the whole encounter).

Confronted by Minion, The Doctor confesses that he was the one who sent Death’s Head into The Transformers universe, trying to bring out his capacity for good by shaping his adventures. He was also the one who brought Minion and Tuck here, so they could conclude the unfinished business with Hob. Minion appreciates the save, but dislikes being manipulated, and so warns The Doctor against doing so again (and, continuing the theme of Minion being tougher than any other comic character, The Doctor meekly accepts). Minion and Tuck return to their own time, while The Doctor helps Death’s Head back to his feet.

As a way of reprinting the old Death’s Head titles (although I’m not sure I believe the promotional rhetoric that Death’s Head II was so amazingly popular that audiences demanded to know more about his namesake), this was nicely done. Like a compilation episode of a long-running sitcom, the framing story gave Minion a good little adventure, and even filled in some of the blanks of Death’s Head’s backstory.

Minion and Tuck still in ‘tough guy and sidekick’ mode, although space is limited to give them much more scope for character. Their initial wisecrack responses to the archive reports – commenting like Beavis & Butthead – get a little tired, but once danger kicks in, things improve. I like how some reprints are used to support an argument – such as the She-Hulk episode about time-travel – rather than have the characters passively watch them.

Having Minion speak with the cyberspace ‘ghost’ of Death’s Head was a nice touch. It’s interesting that Minion only took the mechanoid’s personality, not his memories, and it helps to give them different perspectives. And I still think that Abnett writes the first Death’s Head better than he does the second one.

Coleby’s artwork gets stronger as the series goes on. The initial line work is fairly thin and insipid to begin with, but does improve once Bushnell’s inks add some depth and atmosphere to the panels. Everyone has over-emphasised guns, muscles and blades, even by Minion’s standards, but that’s nothing new. I did like the nightmarish creation of Hob: a mechanical-spider with his little round head as an angry nodule on the end of his Alien-esque tongue.

Story-wise, it was a clever move of Abnett (or Freeman) to bring Hob back into the narrative, since Dogbolter was one of the more obvious loose threads of the series. Hob’s logic about capturing Death’s Head in order to find his master is a little skewed, but I’m happy to give him some crazy-robot leeway. It also gives a good reason to bring in The Doctor and the short story of Maruthea.

As for ‘Party Animals’, unless it figured into a large narrative about The Doctor’s future self (and I don’t think it did), I couldn’t really see the point. Aside from the glimpse of a future Doctor (and given they had free rein to create anything, a middle-age man in a dapper jacket is hardly original), there’s no drama or resolution in this story. The artwork is functional, although it tries too hard to capture Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, and Collins clearly had fun in depicting a diverse range of characters.

Generally that story felt like a bit of end-of-term silliness , and only just manages to fit into the wider narrative. It’s surprising that this made it into the republished volume – since it’s hardly a Death’s Head tale – whereas the more significant framing story did not.

I’m also not convinced by the final reveal: that The Doctor has been manipulating Death’s Head’s life – as far back as sending him to hunt Transformers. Apart from its very implausibility, Death’s Head’s career has hardly been a positive one – that’s part of his appeal – and making him the puppet of The Doctor somehow undermines his story.

Next week: Furman’s revenge – as we visit a parallel universe that asks: What if Minion Had Not Killed Death’s Head?

The Doctor Who Monthly #173 was republished ‘Death’s Head Volume 2’.

The Ark Addendum - Ratbat's Transform

2011-12-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

OK, this week I finish up my cassette transformations. I give you... Ratbat! It's a simple transformation. He basically unfolds, much like the toy. The big difference is that his weapons pop out of his back, instead of being attached manually.

And one final reminder: we've got a book signing for The AllSpark Almanac Addendum this Saturday at Emerald Knights Comics & Games in Burbank. 1:00 PM on December 10th.

4116 W. Burbank Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505

Hope to see a bunch of you there. A ton of folks from Transformers Prime will be there, as well as Mike Costa and Livio Ramondelli. Plus, of course, Bill Forster, Marty Isenberg, and myself. Join us, it'll be a blast.

Death’s Head Review: Death’s Head II – The Wild Hunt #4: 2020 Vision!

2011-12-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

The fourth and final chapter of Death’s Head II – The Wild Hunt was created as follows: Dan Abnett, story; Liam Sharp, pencils; Andy Lanning and Liam Sharp, inks; Helen Stone, colours; Peri Godbold, letters; and John Freeman editor.

After some previously mediocre covers, this one is a treat. In a wraparound cover, the Charnel monster is fighting Minion, Tuck, Necker and an assortment of Marvel heroes. Charnel looks menacing (and recognisable as the original Deaths Head), the bursts of gunfire and magic give some vibrant colour to the image, and everyone is strongly portrayed. Even the caption, “The Final Battle!” adds to the drama.

A couple of complaints: some the combatants – notably Minion and Rhino – don’t seem to be facing their enemy. It could be argued that they’re manoeuvring or flanking, but it doesn’t look very dramatic. Another problem is that Liam Sharp elected not to draw Charnel’s legs, settling for a brief outline that is coloured the same as the background, and so makes him look like a floating torso.

We begin in ‘The New York Wasteland’ of 2020. Not the 2020 we saw last issue, but a new future that will come to pass with Charnel ascendant. Four of Earth’s heroes – Spider-Man, Daredevil, Dr Strange and the Punisher – have adapted to this tough world (mainly by adding lots of guns and pouches to their uniforms and, in Spider-Man’s case, growing a pony tail).

The Punisher’s War Journal narrates the captions: the defeat of Thor’s people by Charnel means they have no hope for victory. They are attacked by hordes of featureless demon-drones and then by Charnel himself – who is now in the form of a giant red spider-creature. Daredevil and Dr Strange are quickly killed, but Spider-Man manages to swipe a disc from Charnel’s chest before his is also slain. The Punisher is offered mercy if he returns the disc, but he flings it away to safety. In a rare moment of subdued storytelling, we see only a distant explosion with the caption: “Punisher’s War Journal ends.”

The disc is collected by former-villain Rhino and brought to the bunker of this era’s Avengers: Wolverine, She-Hulk, The Scarlet Witch and Captain America. Mister Fantastic, who has been trapped in a shapeless putty form, outlines the plan: the disc is a time-travel device and they will travel back to 1992, when Charnel first appeared and was at his weakest. The five remaining heroes time-jump and Reed wishes them luck.

In a New York shopping mall, 1992, Minion arrives with Tuck and Necker. They have armed themselves with a couple of enormous guns and, continuing the strange fashion decisions, Minion has exchanged his peasant tunic for a leather bolero jacket. Minion is being flippant about the impending confrontation with Charnel, which irritates Necker and causes Tuck to defend it as ‘just his way’.

Minion is suddenly attacked by the 2020 Wolverine, stabbing him through the stomach before he breaks off a claw against Minion’s multi-purpose arm (that would be his unbreakable claw – and it’s mentioned in the story that this Wolverine still has his adamantium). Wolverine seems merely bemused at this, and Captain America calls for a truce.

The protagonists soon compare notes, and conclude the quasi-Oedipal running gag that Dr. Evelyn Clarice Sarah Necker shares a middle name with Captain America’s mother. They realise they all want the same result, although the Avengers are fighting to end their future, while Minion is trying to protect his (and can’t see the appeal of their self-sacrifice).

Charnel materialises – the Strucker/Death’s Head hybrid that destroyed A.I.M. – quickly clobbers the Scarlet Witch, kills She-Hulk and bats away Rhino. Minion faces him, and they both sense their connection with the original Death’s Head – before Charnel blasts him too.

Wolverine leaps in, then Captain America and then, walking from the fires like the liquid Terminator, Minion re-joins the fray. Necker retrieves Rhino, who sheds a tear for She-Hulk, and Tuck revives the Scarlet Witch, who hits Charnel with her hex power. Unexpectedly, Charnel drains her hex energy and uses it to transform himself into the unstoppable juggernaut of 2020. His awesome power is demonstrated as he effortlessly annihilates Captain America, Wolverine and Rhino.

In a desperate effort, Minion leaps at Charnel and attaches the 2020 time-travel disc next to the 1992 version already on Charnel’s chest. With one final hex bolt from the Scarlet Witch, both discs are activated – one set for prehistory, the other for the thirteenth century – and Charnel is torn apart. Minion claims to be an expert in dealing with split personalities.

With Charnel destroyed, the 2020 Scarlet Witch happily fades from existence. When Necker tries to take Minion home, he refuses, saying he doesn’t believe she ever intended to pay him, or that the future A.I.M. now has the means to do so. Angrily destroying her gun, he claims that the entire mess was her fault and she should consider the blood on her hands.

Stealing a truck, Minion and Tuck drive away, as the present-era Avengers and Fantastic Four arrive. In no mood to explain, Necker time-jumps away. The final page has Minion’s truck, pursued by a Quinjet, Fantasticar and what appears to be The Hulk, as he promises Tuck, “action, adventure and heinous intrigue – and that’s just on the subway. Whatever happens – I can promise it won’t be dull!”

And so ends the Death’s Head II limited series. Having lined up all the pieces in the previous issues, Abnett delivers a solid tale. The action was handled well, and that’s pretty much all there was for this story.

Taking the series as a whole, I was less impressed. The idea is a sound one: title character is created to battle an destructive evil force and, after a few turns in the road, eventually defeats him. As an introduction/origin story it could have worked very well, especially as the original Death’s Head (or at least parts of his body) are worked into the final battle.

The problem is that, after four issues, I am still no closer to know anything about Minion. In the first issue, he was a blank slate; and in the second issue, a blanker one. By the final two issues, there was no trace remaining of the Death’s Head personality, but nothing had replaced it. He haggles relentlessly over his fee in issue three, but seems uninterested in payment by issue four. He scorns the suicidal heroism of the 2020 Avengers, but then joins in anyway. Flippant wisecracks are fine as a trait, but every character needs a motivation beyond simply moving to the next page.

The way he defeats Charnel is neatly done (although the idea that Minion is an expert in ‘split personalities’ doesn’t bear close inspection) and the time-disc as a MacGuffin is well-played. It might have worked better if Charnel had been in his original form – and very obviously composed of two halves – but it’s a good ending (and conjures up the intriguing possibility that Death’s Head’s original body has been banished somewhere in prehistory…)

As I mentioned previously, the story arc of confronting and defeating Charnel more properly belongs to Necker. Although she takes a back-seat in this issue, and quickly departs the scene before we can properly register if she has learned anything, or is remotely upset at having lost her project.

Tuck actually manages to do less this issue than previously, and it’s made no clearer why Minion needs or values her as a sidekick. The one interesting point is when Tuck tells Necker that his attitude is ‘just his way’ – having a partner who can understand his jumbled personalities would be an asset, except we have no reason to believe that she knows Minion any better than Necker, or has any sway over him.

In terms of storytelling, the switch to an alternate future is unexpected (although less so than the Robin Hood planet). Alternate apocalyptic futures can be fun – everyone gets to look a bit meaner and be killed at random – and Abnett does well with it (although from a visual point of view, I’m not sure if ‘meaner’ translates to ‘add more pouches’).

Sharp’s artwork is probably the best it’s been so far – he seems to do leaping better than running, and the all-action nature suits his style. In terms of character design, both versions of Charnel are suitable horrific (I preferred the unholy hybrid original to the larger ‘alien queen’ version) and there’s plenty of gore, magic, gunfire, explosions and shattered scenery filling the pages. There is also a surprisingly touching display of emotion on Rhino’s face as he mourns She-Hulk.

Some of the character costumes are more questionable. Most of the future superheroes wear a vertical stripe from chest to crotch, which gives unity but does look peculiar and turns Captain America’s star into a comet. Rhino’s seems not to be wearing the all-over suit that gives him his powers (certainly his arms are bare) and everyone seems to be tattered and bandaged, in modified uniforms, except for the Scarlet Witch, who has a pristine version of her original costume.

Despite his healing factor, Wolverine is among those wearing bandages, and the scene where he breaks off a claw is an example of the writer trying a little too hard to make Minion the toughest-hero-of-them-all. Which, to me, sums up the whole problem with Death’s Head II.

Next week: Death’s Head meets Death’s Head II meets Doctor Who – I’ll be looking at the framing story of The Incomplete Death’s Head as it connects with the Doctor Who story ‘Party Animals’.

The Ark Addendum - Transforms for Soundwave and Laserbeak

2011-11-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

Continuing the theme begun two weeks ago, the detailed transformations for Laserbeak and Soundwave!

Soundwave's transform I've actually already published. It showed up in The Ark and The Complete Ark. It was tiny, thumbnail size, but nevertheless it was there. I thought it was worth a closer look though, so here we go.

Because we'd seen it already, I coupled it with the Laserbeak transformation. That one is brand new, though it's so simple that I didn't think it warranted its own page.

Don't forget to pick up Timelines #6, out a couple of weeks ago. 16 pages of AllSpark-infused Almanacky goodness! I'll be in Burbank on 12/10 to promote it, see Emerald Knights for details. I hope to see you there.

Death’s Head Review: Death’s Head II – The Wild Hunt #3: Outlaws!

2011-11-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

The third instalment of the Death’s Head II limited series kept the same creative line-up: story by Dan Abnett; pencils by Liam Sharp; inks by Andy Lanning; letters by Peri Godbold; colours by Helen Stone; and the editor was John Freeman.

The front cover competes with the previous issue for non-action. Minion and Tuck – a feisty redhead wearing a skimpy costume, some large tattoos and a number of blades – are posing in a forest, doing nothing but looking directly ahead with grim expressions. Minion is wearing a medieval tunic and bearskin cloak which, considering he doesn’t need to wear clothes, looks like a terrible disguise or a strange affectation. The captions tell us “On the run in the far future … Death’s Head and Tuck are partners in crime”. As we don’t know who Tuck is, and the swords and trees don’t look too futuristic, this doesn’t add much.

As with last issue, the back cover has a better idea, but a worse execution. Minion is off-centre and awkwardly posed, duelling swords with a muscled opponent who is almost standing behind him. Tuck and Dr Necker (one of whom we don’t yet know, the other we wouldn’t recognise) are in the background, and the caption promises, “Swords, sorcery and big guns!”. The image looks like an interior panel and looks like some speech balloons have been removed.

The story begins in 3442AD on the forest planet of Lionheart. An unseen narrator explains how a caravan train (drawn by dinosaur beasts, rather than horses) is travelling warily though the forest. As feared, they are attacked by swashbuckling bandits led by Minion – who is calling himself The Hood.

Inside one of the wagons, a group of nuns suddenly produce weapons to “Lock and load – and blow those stinking robot outlaws apart!” (none of them actually have guns – which we learn are prohibited on Lionheart – but I guess the gag took precedence over story consistency). The Mother Superior gets the drop on Minion, but is stabbed in the back by another nun, who throws off her wimple to reveal Tuck in disguise. She has been tracking The Hood for months and wants to join the band.

In the aftermath of the battle, Tuck gives her reasons for joining with some heavy exposition: the King of Lionheart is fighting a crusade light years away, while the corrupt authority exploits the people to enrich themselves. ‘The Hood’ and his band are the only ones fighting back. Minion explains that his band of cybernetic outlaws are united by the laws that forbid artificial sentients, not by any high ideals. Tuck reveals that she is also artificial – a replicated organic – and deserving of a place in the band (forgetting that she wanted to join for a cause that Minion doesn’t apparently believe in). Minion gruffly relents.

Back in 2020, Spratt – now sporting a broken nose – and Baron Strucker V are working to repair the original Death’s Head. Strucker notes that the damage was too extensive to be repaired by 2020 technology (which does explain why the technically-able Spratt would need extra help). Spratt also notices that Strucker’s tools are sorcerous ingredients, so the Baron clearly has a non-scientific solution in mind.

Returning to 3442 and the citadel of Lord High Protector Roderick, an indolent, boastful noblemen. Roderick is flirting with his harem when he hears news of The Hood’s recent attack. He gives orders to fetch ‘Major Oak and the Huscarls’ before returning his attention to one of the woman. She removes her veil to reveal “Lady Evelyn Clarice Necker of Aym”, dressed in a Princess Leia slave girl costume, and continues her odd running gag about sharing a name with Roderick’s mother.

In the outlaw’s camp, Minion and Tuck share a fireside moment as he recaps the past two issues. He has been in Lionheart for a year and, contradicting his earlier cynicism, claims to be enjoying the life of a popular hero.

The peace is broken by the sudden attack of Major Oak, the muscled opponent from the back cover, and his Huscarls. As the Merry Men are slaughtered, Necker and Roderick watch from the sidelines. Necker discreetly changes back into her A.I.M. uniform and knocks Roderick unconscious.

Minion – his arm configured for a sword – duels with Major Oak and proves his superior fairly effortlessly. While Oak keeps coming back at him, Minion is relaxed enough to make fun of his dialogue. Oak gains a brief advantage and, in one of the issue’s good jokes, tells Minion to “Prepare to meet thy maker”. He is then shot in the back by Necker (who decided to violate the anti-technology laws in style, by brandishing an enormous gun).

The outlaws decimated and royals neutralised, Necker tries to reassert control over Minion’s programming. When that fails, she offers payment and they haggle for the space of a page (which is fairly laboured, but I guess the point was to show, in addition to his unparalleled fighting skills, what a hard negotiator Minion is). Tuck insists on coming along and all three time-jump away.

Moving to 2020, Spratt is horrified to see that Baron Strucker has merged his own body with the remains of Death’s Head, becoming a mechanical-sorcerous hybrid. He claims he will seek revenge on A.I.M. for spurning his family line. The terrified Spratt tries to run, but is killed with a mere spark from Strucker’s eye. Towering over Spratt’s corpse, Strucker quotes Revelation and re-names himself ‘Charnel’.

Minion, Tuck and Necker leap into A.I.M. headquarters, presumably some time later, as Charnel has already visited and killed everyone. The place is a grisly mess of skeletons, fused together with magic. Using the time tracker, Necker discovers that Charnel has gone back to 1992, where he will threaten the timeline and their very existence!

There were some exciting pages prior to this cliffhanger, but for me, the rest of the issue fell flat. Minion is thrown into a Robin Hood homage, and given a new sidekick, with no real reason for either. Playing around with different genres is fine, but not when the central character is so ill-defined. The story ends where it could have ended last issue: an independent Minion being coerced by Necker. And while the Charnel sub-plot was good, the whole issues feels like filler: written to meet the demands of a four-part series, when there was only enough story for three.

After allowing some leeway for his jumbled-up personalities, I’m still no closer to getting a handle on the Minion character. The ascendency of the Death’s Head personality – promised at the end of last issue – is nowhere to be seen. While prompted to action by good deeds and/or the promise of money, he doesn’t seem motivated much by either. In battle and at rest, everything is met with a smart-alec/tough-guy response which just makes it seem as if Minion is bored.

The addition of Tuck does little to open up Minion, as they don’t have any chemistry. Her hero-worship gives no edge to their relationship, and since Minion doesn’t seem to care either way, it also lacks the comedy of Death’s Head’s exasperation with Spratt. Maybe Tuck is going to turn out to be Charnel-kryptonite, justifying a whole issue to get her into the story (although since she’s usually depicted striking a pin-up stance, I’m guessing her reasons for inclusion are otherwise).

It’s not a good issue for Dr. Necker either. Adding a whole year to the story not only robs her quest of its desperate urgency, but makes her seem incompetent. With little to do but show up and hire Minion, Necker is reduced to cheesecake poses in Roderick’s harem. Her comment to Roderick that time-line archives were very precise about this period is an odd one: a) for someone trying to infiltrate the royal court, b) considering the date is over 1400 years after Necker’s own time and c) raises the question of, if she was so well-informed, why did it take a year to find Minion? I don’t think it has an explanation, other than Abnett couldn’t be bothered to make sense of it.

This seems to be a problem for whole of Lionheart. There’s nothing wrong with having a futuristic Robin Hood setting with cod-dialogue, but the writer has to take it seriously. I like a good pun (and even a bad one), but having a road that leads from ‘Finder’s Keep’ to ‘Loser’s Weep’ is just painful to read. Characters lapse from medieval-speak into “Give me a break” and “Pronto”; Minion makes a huge deal of mocking the expression “Beshrew me” – it feels like Abnett has created this world, wants us to buy into it, but then makes fun of it anyway.

Sharp’s artwork has gone back a step from last issue. Things are looking too dark and too detailed, as if it has been shrunk down from a larger format. For an issue filled with swordplay and swashbuckling actions, the depictions of action still need a lot more energy. Also, the dinosaur-steed are almost cartoonishly poor.

The one solid thread is the Strucker sub-plot. It’s a well-trodden irony, but I like that A.I.M. inadvertently created the very threat they tried to avoid. The depiction of Strucker/Charnel is very good – Sharp seems to improve when he’s being less literal – and the scene of death at A.I.M. is wonderfully macabre. His journey back to 1992 is a bit contrived – why would Charnel endanger his own creation when he could just go forward to conquer? But it does give the heroes something to chase after.

And finally, RIP Spratt. He wasn’t always my favourite sidekick (although, as this issue shows, there are worse options), but it was fun whenever he got under Death’s Head’s metallic skin to irritate him. The little scavenger deserved a better end.

Next week: an epic conclusion from an apocalyptic future! The Marvel superheroes take on Charnel in “2020 Vision”!

P.S. There's a great overview of the entire history of Death's Head in Starburst's interview with Simon Furman. I especially liked the letter of congratulation from Stan Lee after Issue 1 was released.

Bish's Review: Marvel UK #150 "The Legacy Of Unicron" Part 5

2011-11-22T04:11:00.000-08:00

The Legacy Of Unicron! Part 5 was written by Simon Furman, pencilled by Jeff Anderson, inked by Steve Baskerville, coloured by Steve White and lettered by Annie Halfacree.

The cover was by Jerry Paris and John Burns and, being the one-hundred and fiftieth issue, is a little bit special in that it's a wraparound poster style cover. I have been a little disparaging about the quality of the covers for this particular story as I do not feel they really do justice to the issues themselves. This, however, is different. The image depicted is not one that is actually from the story, or any one story, but it is iconic. On the front cover we have Hot Rod, floating in mid-air opening the matrix of leadership and bathing the viewer in its otherworldly light. This is actually quite a strange version of Hot Rod. Not off-model, as such, but not the way he is usually depicted. It does make him look like a religious figure, however, which is in the aim of the cover.

The back cover is more traditional and in some ways more exciting - a terrific picture of Unicron tearing into Cybertron's crust with his mighty claws. There's not a lot to be said here except that it recalls the towering imagery of Transformers: The Movie perfectly and is a very memorable piece. For once, the text embellishments to the cover are welcome as they invite as to witness "The Origin Of The Transformers" which makes the issue appear to be out of the ordinary, even though it is only Part 5 of a six part story and is not any longer than usual. "Origin" has long been a powerful word in the comic book industry. This is something that has also crept into other media with the recent rash of prequels for popular films and books, but I would suggest that comic books, and especially comic book movies, really started the craze, as they habitually tell and retell the origin stories of their iconic characters. Either way, any comic book fan with a passing interest in Transformers would have immediately picked up that this would be a big and important issue, which the wraparound cover complements perfectly.

Luckily the story itself wasn't a let-down: As Death's Head begins his desperate gambit to attack Unicron inside his own mind we find Wreck-Gar, alive and well, in a cavern beneath Unicron's head. He has piled up a very impressive amount of explosives and is muttering to himself in Mission Impossible and Star Trek quotations about his plan to blow Unicron sky-high. He is slightly confused that Unicron has not noticed his incursion but decides that he must have something else on his mind.

As we all knew, he does! A rather concerned and out of his depth bounty hunter to be precise! Death's Head tumbles through a colourful mindscape, as multiple images of Unicron guffaw at his expense. This is once again a triumph of art where Death's Head is concerned as Anderson manages to make his expression almost comically surprised, despite the relative immobility of Death's Head's face. It is totally (hopefully Death's Head won't kill me for this), adorable.

Unicron cannot help but be impressed by Death's Head's strength of will but cannot help but tell him how useless the effort was. As Death's Head's sanity is being stripped away, Unicron alters his mental environment to make it a little easier on the bounty hunter. All the better to gloat at an enemy who can understand what you are saying. Unicron announces his intention to return Death's Head to his mortal body and destroy him on the physical plane. Death's Head, growing desperate, but relying on Unicron's overbearing arrogance, keeps him talking by questioning his nature. Unicron cannot resist talking about himself so prepares Death's Head for the ultimate tale: The Origin Of Unicron!

In the sort of scene transition favoured by Furman, Rodimus Prime, aboard a shuttle travelling to Junk, is also wishing that they knew more about Unicron. He recounts the few facts they do have - he came from nowhere, tried to destroy Cybertron, the Matrix stopped him - which is also a convenient recap of the salient points of Transformers: The Movie. Tempers are not entirely settled aboard the shuttle. Rodimus cannot quite get over the fact that Smokescreen left Wreck-Gar on Junk and Smokescreen himself is prepared to avenge the Junkion if he never does anything else. The atmosphere is tense as they hurtle towards the rematch with Unicron.

Death's Head, meanwhile, is being treated to a full narration of the metaphysics of the Transformers universe. It appears that Unicron first emerged as a direct reaction to life ("the lifestain" - great word choice here) spreading across the universe, but as he set out to destroy life as it spread Primus, Lord of The Light Gods appeared to challenge him and they fought. The cosmic collateral damage from this battle threatened to destroy the very life that Primus had set out to protect and so he decided to catch Unicron in a trap. Pretending to be defeated he led Unicron in a merry dance through the astral plane which culminated in them both being trapped inside asteroids.

Both gods were rendered inert, almost powerless, but over millennia Unicron was slowly able to use his remaining strength to shape his asteroid prison into a version of his old body, so becoming the first Transformer, able to shift from planet to robot mode at will. However, Primus wasn't idle either, and also shaped his asteroid, not into a new body, but into a world that started to spawn its own life, robotic lifeforms who would one day challenge Unicron - the Transformers! Primus gifted them with his own life-force, the creation matrix, that could create new life as well as fight Unicron.

Unicron knew this and knew that if he were ever to consume Cybertron, he would need to secure the matrix first. Unfortunately the proxy he chose, Galvatron, proved too strong-willed and allowed Rodimus Prime to obtain the matrix and destroy Unicron's body. A spark of life remained and now, on Junk, Unicron is preparing his rebirth. He breaks off his story (although he had basically finished) as the Autobot shuttle screams into view and starts firing on his head. In order to deal with these "bothersome insects" he returns Death's Head to his physical body and starts firing on the Autobots using his powerful eye-beams.

He orders his minions to attack as well. The Junkions obey immediately but Death's Head is able to resist.

Meanwhile, below ground, Wreck-Gar has finished planting his explosives and prepares to leave the area, saying that it's "Goodnight from me, and goodnight from him", a catchphrase from British comedy duo, The Two Ronnies.

Unfortunately for Wreck-Gar, Unicron notices Death's Head levelling a weapon at him and blasts him at close range, smashing a hole in the ground and, unwittingly trapping Wreck-Gar beneath tons of falling rock, as the counter on the explosives continues to tick over...

"To be continued?" wonders Wreck-Gar. "In fact, to be concluded!" the "Next time" caption answers enthusiastically.

This is one of those issues (and one of those stories) that shape everything that comes afterwards. If you've been a Transformers fan for any length of time you're probably aware of the story of Unicron and Primus whether or not you've ever actually read these particular panels. Furman would recap, revisit and expand upon this story in his run on the US comic but the basics were laid down here.

The amount of creative control that Furman was allowed in this story is almost unthinkable when one considers the modern state of the Transformers brand. These days Hasbro has a gigantic, 400-page bible that encompasses all continuities and forms of media. All prospective creators who want to work within the Transformers framework are under close scrutiny to ensure the brand stays in the shape approved by the corporation. In theory, millions of dollars ride upon this tight control and it is necessary to stop maverick creators playing fast and loose with the characters and universe.

In the eighties, however, there was no official universe. There were official documents describing the characters but Unicron had no official comic book origin and the origin of the Transformers themselves was vague enough - "naturally occuring gears, levers and pulleys" - to be reinterpreted in a more interesting way. Pleasingly the comic was also allowed to be sufficiently divorced from the cartoon that Furman was not forced to use its explanation for Unicron's origin, as, to put it mildly, it lacks the majesty of the comic book version.

Nowadays the Transformers comic books are never really at the bleeding edge of official continuity but even if they were there is no chance that someone like Furman, working on his own little book - one that wasn't even going to be published in America, for Primus' sake - would be allowed to blaze a trail like this. Even though each comic book and each cartoon is officially in its own continuity, Hasbro would still very likely get nervous if a single creator laid down the law about something as fundamental as the origins of life in the Transformers universe. Witness, for example, the ultimate decision by Hasbro not to allow a comic book about the Original Thirteen Transformers to be published because they had not decided where they wanted to take that story yet. This stands in contrast to the eighties comics where it seems that Marvel would publish these stories before Hasbro had their say, which is why there were occasional differences in naming and colour-schemes between comics and newly released toys.

I am not necessarily coming out on one side or the other - I certainly understand why Transformers as a brand needs to be protected and nurtured. It is simply worth too much money for poor quality or contradictory story-telling to be allowed to harm the franchise without proper scrutiny (in theory - obviously everyone has their own opinion about what constitutes a good story). That said, without people like Furman sitting down at their desks (sometimes after the pub, if his stories at Auto Assembly are to be believed) and just thinking which cool stories could be told without having to run it past a committee, you probably wouldn't have an official continuity today, and it certainly wouldn't be the same shape.

Larger considerations aside, this is a rattling good read. A fair bit is given over to the origin of Unicron, of course, which alters the pacing a little, but this is a good time to tell us, as it gives us more of a sense of Unicron as a character before the inevitable final confrontation in the next issue. A nice subtle indication for possible future storylines is given in the artwork for the Unicron origin scenes. While the god version of Unicron looks basically the same as the Transformer version, Primus has a helmet and wing designs on his back that are very reminiscent of a certain Rodimus Prime. Unfortunately this would never really pay off in this continuity, but it was obviously designed to play a part in future storylines. Perhaps this is something that Furman's imminent continuation of the Marvel comic universe will deal with.

Other than that, the angst between Smokescreen and Rodimus isn't especially compelling but it serves to demonstrate that times are dark indeed, while informing us that the Autobots are arriving on Junk with a little more than a simple scene change. Wreck-Gar is fun as always, spotting the references in his TV talk is a game for the reader in itself and they are cleverly used here. Death's Head keeps his own sense of identity while serving as the catalyst for Unicron's origin story. I love how defiant he remains, even when horribly out of his depth. My only slight gripe about his part of the story is that Furman does not set up a scenario where it is particularly necessary for Unicron to tell his story. It's a good story, and a good read, but even Death's Head's taunting does not seem enough for Unicron to tell him his entire origin. Unicron in Transformers: The Movie was arrogant, because of his awesome power, but he wasn't quite the blowhard that Furman writes him as in this story.

Anderson's artwork is generally of a very high standard. He goes for a much more, shall we say, traditional approach than Dan Reed and the characters are very much more recognisable as themselves from the cartoon and various character models. The issue has also been very carefully inked by Steve Baskerville, who would go on to ink most of the later US issues and this, combined with excellent colouring work from Steve White, lends the whole issue an air of quality.

The Ark Addendum - Rumble's Transform and Cheetor's Badge

2011-11-21T06:23:00.000-08:00

Well, that was exciting. My first work published in comic form. Transformers Timelines #6, with The AllSpark Almanac Addendum, out last week. If your local comic store doesn't have one, you can order it from the Transformers Collectors' Club. And don't forget, if you're in the SoCal area, huge TF signing on 12/10 at Emerald Knights in Burbank. Lots of cool folks from IDW and TF Prime, plus Marty Isenberg, Bill Forster, and myself, will be in attendance.

Already the intrepid Chris McFeely has published his Annotations from the same. He did a pretty good job, but so far he hasn't cracked my C.O.C. code. Will he prevail? Only time will tell. Here's something that he mostly got correct... at least what he was able to make out. Look familiar? Hint, hint! We had fun making that, especially the seal. (BTW, McFeely, that's not a GPDC...)

But it's a new week, and that means that it's time for another Ark Addendum! I figured I'd keep up the trend set last week and continue with some cassette transformations. Last week was Ravage, so this week I'm doing Rumble. Once again, this one comes from More than Meets the Eye, and is nicely dramatic. It was a bit hard getting it all on the page, mostly because he went from a square to a horizontal rectangle to a vertical rectangle, but I managed. Hope you enjoy one of my better unpublished pieces.

Bish's Review: Marvel UK #149 "The Legacy Of Unicron" Part 4

2011-11-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

The Legacy Of Unicron! Part 4 was written by Simon Furman, drawn by Dan Reed, coloured by Steve White and lettered by Annie Halfacree.

The cover is by Jeff Anderson and I feel kind of bad for constantly trashing the covers from this period but it's another bad one. The perspective gives the sense that something exciting is happening but it's actually pretty hard to see what it is that Smokescreen is flying out of. As well as this, given how dramatic the moment that this cover depicts is in the proper issue, Smokescreen's speech balloon becomes doubly unfunny.

"SHAKK!" the Autobot shuttle that escaped Junk last issue is struck by multiple shots and starts a flaming descent. Smokescreen is at the helm, his panicked thoughts providing a good recap of the previous few issues and the events in between. He has been able to pilot the shuttle back to Cybertron with the badly injured Inferno in the medical bay but Scourge and Cyclonus, still under Unicron's mental control, have tracked him and critically damaged the ship.

The two Decepticons unleash a formidable barrage of missiles that Smokescreen only just manages to avoid at the last minute when he realises the engines have regained some power. It turns out that Inferno, while still in a very bad way, has managed to repair the engines and now takes up his position at the weapon controls, blasting at the Decepticons and forcing them to peel off.

Smokescreen is very concerned about his comrade's functionality but Inferno stoicly tells him that one of them has to survive to inform Rodimus Prime of the threat posed by Unicron. Unfortunately it turns out that the last hit from the Decepticons took out the landing gear and now the only possible landing is a crash. Smokescreen says he will try to control it as much as possible but the chances of survival are minimal. Inferno, realising the desperation of the situation, gets the drop on Smokescreen and hurls him from the shuttle as it hurtles past a tall building. Smokescreen bounces, dazed, but alive. Inferno manages to hold the shuttle steady for long enough to avoid the main Autobot army and angle it straight towards the Decepticons.

Smokescreen looks on pleadingly as the shuttle finally pitches towards the ground and detonates in a titanic fireball. Scourge and Cyclonus make the classic comic book mistake and decide "Nothing could have survived that." not noticing that Smokescreen was thrown clear before the explosion.

Back on Junk, Unicron is pleased at the outcome. He does really think that anyone can stop him at this point, but is glad that Rodimus does not yet know of his return. Death's Head, momentarily free of control or punishment, takes the opportunity to taunt the chaos bringer, knowing that it will incite a rant about Unicron's ultimate power. This turns out to be by way of an experiment for the bounty hunter who has noticed that when Unicron speaks out like this his mental control is at its weakest.

Death's Head keeps Unicron talking by asking him the purpose behind a time portal that has been erected nearby. Unicron explains that his errant minion, Galvatron, is still at large in Earth's past and when Unicron is completely rebuilt he will use the portal to pluck Galvatron from wherever he is and teach him that he cannot escape his master.

Back on Cybertron, Smokescreen's arrival has engendered a council of war. Rodimus is reluctant to leave Cybertron while the battle still rages but the others manage to persuade him that the matrix of leadership might be the only way to stop Unicron. Rodimus orders a shuttle prepared, he, Smokescreen, the Dinobots and Scattershot are heading for Junk!

On Junk, Death's Head grabs a gun and blazes away at nearby Junkions. Unicron immediately notices and starts his psychic punishment. This turns out to be all part of Death's Head's desperate plan. By concentrating very hard he is able to ride Unicron's psychic attack onto the astral plane where he hopes to be able to battle the dark lord himself!

Furman quite rightly keeps the action at a suitably blockbuster level for this issue. The extended sequence with the crashing shuttle is very effective because while it's a well-worn genre idea, it hasn't been overused in Transformers and makes a bit of a change from the straight-forward battle-action. Even in the few panels we see them together, we get a great sense of Inferno and Smokescreen as characters and Inferno's sacrifice is ultimately quite moving.

The emotional weight of Inferno's death aside, the biggest turning point of the story is Death's Head's invasion of Unicron's mind. It's as yet unknown as to how this will play out but it's a genuine twist in the tale. It has not exactly been telegraphed that this is something Death's Head might be able to do but it certainly doesn't seem implausible either. After all, the bounty hunter is extremely strong-willed and it makes sense that for Unicron to forcefully share his thoughts with others he must open his mind in some way.

In these eleven page issues Furman frequently demonstrates the skill to paint emotional and dramatic beats with only the bare minimum of exposition. This is something that appears to be missing somewhat from modern comicbook writing, and I'm not really just talking about Transformers. I'm not about to embark upon a rant about "writing for the trade" because a) it's been done a million times before and b) writing with a collection in mind is by no means always a bad thing. That said, I can't help but view an issue like this, where so many things happen and plots twist, in only eleven pages, as well as including an exciting, but not particularly plot-necessary crash sequence as something of a masterclass in how to write episodic fiction.

That is not to say that I think this is Furman's best Transformers work, although The Legacy Of Unicron! as a whole is up there, but it just strikes me as a good example of an issue where a lot changes in a few pages and the characters aren't let down by the speed of the plot moving around them. That is something to be noted and celebrated.

Reed's artwork doesn't quite reach the heights of the previous issue because there are fewer panels uniquely suited to his talents. One of his biggest problems is that he seems to really struggle with Death's Head's face and the bounty hunter seems comically malformed in one or two panels. One thing is clear - Dan Reed saw Predator the previous summer and it gave him some pretty clear ideas about what an alien bounty hunter should look like despite the original design for Death's Head predating that film (oh hey, look, an accidental pun!).

A great continuation, slightly marred but certainly not undone by lacklustre artwork, Jeff Anderson takes over next week. Lets see how he does.

Death’s Head Review: Death’s Head II – The Wild Hunt #2: Reed Richards Dies Tonight!

2011-11-17T08:37:00.001-08:00

The Death’s Head II series continues: Dan Abnett, story; Liam Sharp, pencils; Andy Lanning, inks; Helen Stone, colours; Carolin Steeden and Peri Godbold, letters and a new editor in John Freeman.

The front cover is a close-up of Minion, seemingly frozen as green energy crackles off him. Behind him stands a grimacing Reed Richards, and behind him stands Dr Necker, warning that “He’s the Minion construct, Richards … I programmed him to kill you! Let him go, while you still can!”. It’s not much of a cover – everyone looks very static, as if they’re in a queue, and the addition of the Human Torch flying in the background looks like an afterthought. There also is the caption “Death’s Head fights for control of Minion’s mind”, which makes the cover busier than an average panel.

The alternate cover on the back is a better idea: Minion stands over Richards and bats away The Thing as he intones, “Subject 106 Reed Richards … prepare for assimilation!”. For readers familiar with the language of the first issue, it’s a powerful threat and even the obligatory caption – “Minion vs The Fantastic Four” – is more direct. However, it’s not as well-rendered as the front. Minion isn’t large or central enough, his multi-function arm looks a bit stubby, and Thing appears to be performing a jumping jack, rather than getting thumped. So a split decision for which is the best cover.

Inside, we begin with an atmospheric bit of narration: “New York 1992. Thousands of lost souls come to the city every day, driven by their own needs and desires.” An electrical bolt hits the street with a ‘Kzzzaak!’ and from the smoke appears “Minion. Four hundred pounds of laser-machines cybernetics. Three centimeters of aligmented molybdenum armor. Two megawatt high-yield plasma fusion weapon. One consuming obsession … Reed Richards dies tonight!” It’s a good opening and, intentionally or not, reminds me of Death’s Head’s arrival in 8162.

Moving to an upscale restaurant, Reed Richards is waiting for Sue to arrive as he is being attended by a classic French waiter (who looks similar to John Cleese playing a classic French waiter). He is joined by Dr Necker, carrying a large gun and wearing what appears to be a combat bikini and WWI gas mask. She introduces herself as Evelyn Necker, prompting an odd exchange whereby Reed mentions Evelyn was his mother’s name and Necker affirms that she is not his mother.

They are interrupted by arrival of Minion and Reed wonders if this robot is connected to Doom (prompting a ridiculously unnecessary footnote, explaining who Dr Doom is). Without hesitation, Necker opens fire until her gun is confiscated by Richards. He censures her for endangering innocents with a firefight and they both retreat from Minion’s attack (in a nice detail in the corner panel, a patron of the restaurant is wounded – justifying Reed’s stance and it’s not something that gets shown often in comic brawls).

Richards and Necker commandeer a taxi and flee. Minion charges after them, although the pavement slabs break under his acceleration and throw off his aim. In the cab, Necker explains that Minion is programmed to kill Richard and steal his intellect – and won’t stop until it does. She also reveals that Minion has been disobedient ever since he assimilated Death’s Head.

Interlude to the battle-damaged ruins of AIM headquarters, 2020. Posing as clean-up crew, Spratt is rescuing the ruins of the original Death’s Head. He conducts a silent (and quite moving) conversation with his deceased partner in the captions, then reveals he has a plan to resurrect him.

Back in New York 1992, the other members of the Fantastic Four have noticed the disturbance at the restaurant. The pursuit still ongoing, Necker lobs a grenade that knocks Minion off a bridge, but also shreds the taxi’s tyres, causing them to bail out of the resulting explosion.

Having arrived safely at the Four Freedoms Plaza, Reed deduces that Minion’s malfunctions are due to Death’s Head being a mechanoid. Instead of just downloading his instincts, as with his organic targets, Death’s Head downloaded himself entirely, and now his consciousness is battling Minion’s internal systems for control of the body. Believing that the Death’s Head of his acquaintance will be more amenable to reason, Reed’s solution is to help Death’s Head win that battle.The Thing shows up in the Fantasticar, then faces off with Minion to allow Reed and Necker to escape. The two trade a couple of punches, but Minion quickly proves superior and throws Ben off the bridge and onto a passing boat.

Outside the building, Minion appears behind Human Torch,unceremoniously punches him out, and gains entrance. He charges at Reed, who shoots him with a burst of tachyons. Minion topples, his neurons scrambled, and all his personalities begin to regroup.

As predicted, Death’s Head gets his act together first and causally states, “No-one needs to die, yes?” He wanders over to a computer and downloads the mainframe, effectively getting all of Reed Richards’ knowledge without killing him. “Fair exchange, yes? You save my consciousness, I save yours.” and with that, he time-jumps away.

Still trying to gain control over her project, Necker also time-jumps. The rest of the Fantastic Four arrive in time for a fairly unoriginal gag where Sue notices the lipstick from Necker’s good-luck kiss on Reed’s cheek.

Ending with ‘interlude two’ (more of an epilogue now, surely?), Spratt has teamed up with a cybernetics man named Baron Strucker the Fifth. Strucker immediately punches him in the face, then tells the unconscious Spratt that he will use Death’s Head’s body to have revenge on A.I.M.

This issue was a straightforward romp and fairly enjoyable. There is some nice characterisation, a fair bit of action and a good undercurrent developing. The main drawback is that very little of this seems to benefit the title character.

Despite his impressive entrance, Minion is the adversary of the story, a problem to be overcome. He is single-minded in his pursuit of Reed, and his ‘scrambled programming’ means he only speaks in basic operating terms. The result is that he shows even less personality that in the previous issue.

The de-scrambling at the end of the issue does mean that Minion’s evolution is moving forward and that Death’s Head is now apparently in control. He is also far more formidable that his predecessor – dispatching Thing and Torch with ease (and while the Torch fight was funny, it was also a bit of a waste). Although since a character can always be as powerful as the writer needs him to be, that’s not so impressive as I found it to be in 1992 (and not being able to run on paving slabs seems something of a design flaw).

The story actually belongs to the more flawed Dr Necker, and is better for it. The “Come with me if you want to live” device is played out nicely between herself and Richards, two scientific minds working on a common problem, but with very different moral perspectives.

I enjoyed Necker’s rationale that, as he was from the past, Reed was ‘dead anyhow’, which justifies sending Minion back to assimilate him. Although, once again, the 2020 setting seems too close to the present for this – even if Reed had died in the intervening years, he would still have seemed like a ‘real’ person. But this amorality gives Necker some good contrast – while technically working for the villains, her dedication to preventing A.I.M.’s destruction is heroic. Her genius-level intelligence is balanced by a certain lack of foresight, meaning she is always improvising to avoid (or chase after) Minion, and it makes for a fun trip.

There are some inconsistencies with the story: it makes sense that Death’s Head’s robotic personality would scramble Minion’s programming, but why would chasing after Reed Richards be viewed as a malfunction – wasn’t he the next target on the list anyway? It’s explained that Death’s Head’s motivation is to hunt (which is only partly true, as The Body In Question made clear), but then Minion’s main drive is to assimilate, so this seems like splitting hairs.

Also, Necker wants Minion to obey her orders, but she also wanted him to assimilate Richards, so her concern for Reed’s survival is a bit inconsistent. It could be argued that she is prepared to forgo Richards’ assimilation in return for regaining control of Minion, but this never seems to be her motive. The story ends where it begins: with her chasing Minion through time.

The first interlude is well done – and it was nice continuity for Abnett to bring in Spratt. His plan to resurrect Death’s Head is intriguing, and actually quite moving (more so than most of his other appearances). The close-up of Spratt’s face shows a real sense of loss for his partner.

The closing interlude is more ham-fisted: it’s odd that Spratt needs a “good cybernetics man” when he himself rebuilt and improved Death’s Head the last time around. And since Baron Strucker V plans to have Spratt help him, punching him unconscious just so he can monologue his evil plan seems ridiculous melodramatic.

The artwork is an improvement this issue. The characters are all well-rendered, and there is now a consistent look for Necker. Sharp is easing up on overcrowding scenes with needless clutter, although there are still too many unnecessary scratchy lines for my taste. The rainstorm and various bursts of smoke and electricity are nicely atmospheric.

The biggest let down, once again, are the depictions of movement. All the characters have a tendency to look awkward, particularly when running, which is unfortunate in a chase story.

Next week: We meet Minion and his Merry Men as Death’s Head II turns “Outlaw!”

Secrets of the Almanac II Part One

2011-11-16T01:44:00.000-08:00

Hi! It's me Bill Forster. The other Almanac guy. Now that we have a new addition to the Almanacs coming out I thought I would share a few tales from the creation of the AllSpark Almanac II that have been banging around in my head. Let's see...Where to begin? Ah! Of course. The cover!

After hours of debate, several drawings and a couple of heated disagreements Jim and I settled on an idea for the cover of what was to be the second and FINAL AllSpark Almanac. Originally we played around with the idea of Sari and Bumblebee defacing Optimus’ trailer with graffiti, which would let us feature some fun encoded messages that the Almanacs have become known for. After some discussion we threw this idea in the trash compactor. I wouldn’t put it past BB, but Sari has more sense than that.

The second idea we had was a bit darker. We really liked it, but our editors weren’t keen. They felt it didn’t have the whimsy and lighthearted charm the cover of the first Almanac had. We needed to capture the mood. I’ll hold off on the details, on the theory that we may yet get to use it some day.

Well if the first Almanac was about the art and Sari and Bulkhead were painting the cover, then what was this Almanac about? The toys. For the first time Hasbro allowed an in depth look into the design and fabrication of its flagship property. We needed to focus that. A teenage Sari and Bumblebee seemed like the logical choice, but still there was some element missing. Ah, yes! Wreck Gar! I quickly sketched up a few stick figures and sitting around playing with their own toys. We had it. Marcello drew it up and did a great job, but he had left out something that Jim was keen to get in; Wreck-Gar playing with his own toy box. Marcello added it in, where some empty space that probably would have housed the logo went. This made us hunt for a place to put the name of the book. We settled on the toy boxes at the bottom.

Pg 7: In the first book we had drawings for both Derrick Wyatt and Marty Isenburg to accompany their intro and outro pages. This time around it was without question Matt Youngberg’s turn to give us his perspective. Only we didn’t have a caricature of him. I drew up and head shot for it. Somewhere along the lines Matt saw it and liked it, but insisted on coloring it himself. Who are we to argue? Matt Youngberg colored my drawing…that goes on the resume!

Pg 11: We kind of lucked out that there was a new Optimus Prime model to headline the Autobot chapter. Ideally your book always starts on Optimus.

Pg 12 – 13: Jim and I have some to makes certain “laws” pertaining to the Almanacs. For instance, Starscream is the only character allowed to talk about himself. Or Blitzwing always has three voices with three different distinctive fonts. With the Jetsetters we wanted something that made them stand out. In the first book we had a few pages where two characters got to narrate together. Jim wrote for Jetstorm and I provided the voice of Jetfire. That worked but looked awful on the page. Changing the color of the font gave it a dynamic look and made for easier reading. A new “law” is on the books.

Pg 20 - 21: If you believe it, I originally wrote about three more paragraphs on Rodimus. Jim edited it down to get it to fit o the page. His alt mode was drawn for the show but never used.

Pg 23: Javier Reyes drew up Hot Shot’s alt mode. Jim really wanted all of Rodimus’ team to have alt modes.

Pg 25: I hate Gradus. HE is just always a problem for me. I wrote about a dozen songs and we kept rejecting them before I came up with one that Jim and I both liked. I think I was inspired by the song Ultraman.

Pg 27: Jim and I split up the character pages to write. Sometimes what determines who writes for who is a matter of love. Jim always writes for Sentinel because Jim has a passion for the character. I wrote Starscream and the clones because I really love Screamer. Other times it’s the opposite. I just can’t write for a certain character or Jim has no interest in a particular bot. It gets divided. Though Jim’s writing chores are usually much more dense. Warpath ended up on my list. I had this idea that he and Flareup were an item. I wrote up his bio along side Flareup’s and it was like…4 pages. Jim pulled his hair out. “He’s sharing a page with Dug Base! There is no room for this!” I argued with him intensely until it was pointed out to me that I usually have the same argument when I am layout pages with his words. Warpath and Flareup were edited down. In retrospect, it reads a lot better now.

Dug Base was on my list. I had nothing! I couldn’t even figure out who was going to be providing the dialog. As almost a joke we decided on Wheelie. Jim came out the bio off the top of his head. “Perfect! Let’s use that! Keep me away from Grandus…and his repaints.”

Pg 31: Jim was thinking about G1 Pipes and Huffer and noticed that each of them has personalities based around Earth. He made a point of them NOT having these personalities in Animated, since they haven’t gotten to Earth yet. If they ever get to Earth, then they’ll start to act a lot more familiar.

Pgs 34-37: So Jim had expressed a disinterest in writing for what I have called the BumbleBots. The cameo characters with Bumblebee-esk vehicle modes. I jumped at it. Jim had it in his head that we would keep the images small and give only one line of dialog to each bot. I on the other hand went insane. Once again I wrote too much. A full page for each model. Jim and I butted heads and spent the evening yelling and shouting. The end result was a compromise. Imagine that! Two to three characters to a page with appropriate amount of dialog. I think the best rock bands in history are the ones with two musicians making outrageous demined only to compromise in the middle and create the best songs.

Glyph, Tap-Out, and Volks, I wrote up like they were having some high-school drama. The reason we talk about Tap-Out’s body transplant is because Derrick told us that this body type was post-war. Jim pointed out that Tap-Out has a bust at the Cyber Ninja Dojo, and said maybe he downgraded his body. Derrick signed off on it and there we go. Also, still on Tap-Out, each of these words is a legitimate alien word. Dentalla really does mean friend in Zentraedi. The Too doe nakotae is from War of the Worlds, the Series, which Jim is a big fan of. For some reason. It’s a terrible show. Jim did about 50 blog posts on it. I got to make fun of Klingons, who I hate.

Searchlight! Yes, he is Batman. The reason for this is that Jim told me that Searchlight was one of his favorite characters, and that I should do him justice. Jim emphasized his array of scanners, which I interpreted as a utility belt. The rest came naturally.

Carrera’s voice and personality was modeled after our friend Ted Close. He was a guy who could eat 20 burgers at a sitting and never gain weight. He also was interested in being a sports caster, but had a scratchy voice.

The story Chase tells of Furao saving a ship is a real story that happened during WWII. It was on the USS Intrepid, where I served as Art Director. The rudder was disabled, so they made a makeshift sail to allow the ship to sail the direction they wanted it to go. It's the only aircraft carrier to ever sail.

We wrote in Jackpot as a buddy to Hubcap as a nod to our friends Greg and Trent.

Bumper’s bio is written by Searchlight. I was channeling Frank Miller’s Dark Knight when I wrote it. In my mind, Bumper is Robin. The line “I’ve seen things you ‘bots wouldn’t believe” was lifted from Blade Runner.

Pg 38. We had two fembots without names. Score! Blank canvas on which to write our ideas into the universe. We came up with two names, Lightbright and something else, and were really proud of them. Then Derrick told us that he’d already told Monzo that he could name them. He was going to name them after My Little Ponies. We liked the name Lickety-Split, but the other one didn’t feel very Transformersy to us. We all compromised on Lickety-Split and Lightbright. I think Derrick and Monzo liked that it was a reference to another Hasbro property.

Lightbright we had a hard time coming up with a personality and alt mode for. Eventually I came up with hovercraft. Dug Base is supposed to speak like an old 60s Japanese mega-robot.

Lickety-Split’s original personality didn’t work with the new name, so we rewrote it completely. Jim had fun making a nod to Buzz Lightyear, who of course already was a Transformer.

Pg 39: Jim borrowed foreign names for Transformers to name the species for Zaur and Ramhorn. I think we both had fun referencing some obscure songs from the various Tranformers albums over the years.

Pg 44: Fanzone’s car got wrecked a few times in the series. We kind of lampshaded that in this bio.

Pg 45: The size comparison charts were a lot of work! I’m glad I didn’t have to do them. Jim went through each episode and matched up the scales in Photoshop. He eventually had a PSD file for an image 8 inches tall and maybe 15 feet long. At 300 DPI, it was a massive file. He sliced it up and made this page.

Pg 46: There weren’t all that many prominent new ‘Cons this season. Wasp was the biggest, and got to headline the section. We mirrored the Blackarachnia page from the first Almanac here. I think it’s little touches like this that help the books feel like a single coherent entity.

Pg 49: Jim and I loved putting Furmanisms in Cyclonus’ mouth. It felt right to us.

Pg 50: Derrick told us that Cyclonus was created from Skywarp, so we had the line about Starscream’s self preservation algorithms being commented out. Did you guys pick up on that?

Pg 54: The Legion Tentacles was a kiss players reference. I don’t like people who get upset about them, so I enjoyed nodding to them.

Pg 55: We didn’t name the cerebro-shells. They were called that on the model sheet.

Pg 57: Jim hated covering up the Laserbeak guitar model with the Ratbat model. He likes to show every model from every angle, unobstructed. In this case, the power of the image was more important than seeing 7 lines drawn straight. If you really want to see the guitar without the Ratbat neck in front of it, here it is. As a result of our criss-cross, the shadow’s don’t line up. Oh, well.

That said, Jim cut off Ratbat’s rear wing from behind so that he could have the image bigger.

Pg 60: Jim loves GoBots, so he was very keen to make the Tux limo actually be Tux. He contacted a guy named Laurent who draws awesome GoBots Animated style. Derrick Wyatt provided the head! We called him Stretch, since we wanted him to actually wind up in the GoBots universe. I don’t remember why that is 17 quantum-string vibration levels distant, but it has something to do with each Universe Stream corresponding to vibrating quantum strings.

Flip Sides! Is she Rosanna? Who knows! They certainly look a lot alike.

61: Jim drew the head for Magnificus. Did you notice that the body is wider than Perceptor’s body, and his lens is longer?

Well thanks for joining me. That covers all the character bio pages from the second Almanac. At some point I will do a part two...but I might save that for when we have another book to promote. In the mean time, get out there and pick up your copy of The AllSpark Almanac Addendum.

The Ark Addendum - Ravage's Transform and The AllSpark Almanac Addendum!

2011-11-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd kick this week off extra early, because it's a big week for me and I'm feeling Transformersy. And when that happens, I go trawling through my collection looking for especially nice material to share with you, my loyal readers. People like cassettes, so I thought I'd start the week off with Ravage's transformation.

This comes from straight out of More than Meets the Eye. I like that he winds up in the classic Ravage leap, also seen in his character model and box art and numerous comic book panels. And who can blame the artists for reusing it, it looks fantastic!

But why am I feeling so excited this week? Savvy readers can probably guess. Yup, this Wednesday, Timelines #6 hits fine comic book stores everywhere. It contains the rather excellent Isenberg / Matere collaboration that was Transformers Animated: The Stunti-Con Job.

Why this is relevant to me is that it ALSO contains a 16 page AllSpark Almanac Addendum, covering the BotCon characters and events. The Transformers Collectors' Club was kind enough to post a preview of it, which I'll share here. In-universe, we cover 6 Autobots, 6 Decepticons, Trypticon Prison, the events of The Stunti-Con Job itself. Out of universe, we look at this year's BotCon, both the events and the toys. There's also a special teaser for... well, let's just wait and see.

Oh, and if you're in the SoCal region, we're doing a special signing at Emerald Knights in Burbank. On Saturday, December 10th, at 1:00 PM, Bill Forster, Marty Isenberg, and I are doing a signing for the book. We'll be alongside some of the talented folks behind Transformers Prime as well as IDW's Mike Costa and Livio Ramondelli. It's shaping up to be quite an event, so I hope to see you there. (There being 4116 W. Burbank Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505.)