Marvel's The Transformers Year Two, Part I: Dinobot Hunt! (US #13-14 / UK #42-54)

This set of stories is mostly UK stories, with a couple US ones at the end. In the early years of the book, at least, there's pattern of four US issues and then a set of UK stories and so on; in this case, though the four US stories span two of my posts, so I'll cover the other two US ones from this sequence next week. It also incorporates two "special" stories: one from the 1986 UK annual (I haven't even gotten through all the stories from the 1985 annual yet, but this one fits best here) and one from... Woman's Day!?

Crisis of Command! / The Icarus Theory / Dinobot Hunt! / "Victory!" / "Shooting Star!" / "Rock and Roll-Out!" / "The Night the Transformers Saved Christmas", from The Transformers US #13-14 (Feb.-Mar. 1986) / The Transformers UK #42-54 (4 Jan.–29 Mar. 1986), The Transformers Annual [1986], and Woman's Day 26 Dec. 1985; reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium One (2025)

scripts by Mike Collins, James Hill, Simon Furman, and Bob Budiansky; pencils by Geoff Senior, John Stokes, Barry Kitson, Will Simpson, and Don Perlin [with Herb Trimpe]; inks by Geoff Senior, John Stokes, Barry Kitson, Will Simpson, Marc Griffiths, Tim Perkins, and Al Gordon; colours by Steve Whitaker, Gina Hart, Stuart Place, Jeff Anderson, and Nel Yomtov; letters by Mike Scott, Starkings, Annie Halfacree, and Janice Chiang

from The Transformers UK #44

Crisis of Command! picks up on a detail seeded in the previous UK story about how Optimus is feeling a lack of confidence in his abilities following how Shockwave removed his head and almost made off with the Creation Matrix. In later years, Optimus's crises of confidence would go so frequent one wondered how he ever rose to a position of leadership at all, but this one is decently done; he waffles a bit, and then realizes he is awesome, crisis over. This is nicely paralleled to the various Decepticons jockeying for authority in the absence of Shockwave.

Then we have two Dinobot-focused stories. In the first, The Icarus Theory, a human scientist dredges up the body of Swoop and figures out how to remote control it. This was, like most Furman stories, interestingly told, though I found the climax a bit rushed and underbaked. It leads into the next; Ratchet realizes Swoop was rendered mindless by his millennia of submersion in the Savage Lands and that the other Dinobots (who departed for parts unknown) would have suffered the same, so the Autobots must hunt them down... only there are Decepticons on their tail. I found Dinobot Hunt! confusing and jumpy, a rare total misfire from Furman. Partially the issue is too many characters; I usually struggle to keep track of the largely indistinguishable G1 characters. I did like the epilogue story, "Victory!", about what the Dinobots dream as they await repair and revival. You can't go wrong with Geoff Senior drawing the Dinobots!

from The Transformers US #13

One thing that has surprised me about this project is that I did not have very good memories of Bob Budiansky's stories... but his stories from issues #5 to 12 have been quite good. Not high art, but solid kids' comics; the way he has kept the sf elements grounded in the real world through Buster has been quite effective. But in the two stories here, I feel like Budiansky has completely lost, almost overnight, what made the early stories work. (In his history of the comic, Stuart Webb speculates Budiansky thought he would be off the book at issue #12.) 

In the first, we finally learn what happened to Megatron, trapped in gun mode when last seen. A cowardly hood finds him, using him to strike at his enemies. I feel like this had real potential, but there's barely any Megatron in the story. Aside from a brief conversation, Megatron is mostly trapped in gun mode, so he's just a nice weapon for the protagonist to yield. Imagine if the emphasis of the story wasn't on Megatron-as-tool, but Megatron-as-advisor, if he'd helped this guy by encouraging his ruthless side. So much better!

The other story is the first of many dumb Decepticon plans we'll be subjected to. In this one... they are stealing music from rock concerts? Okay sure. Both are drawn by Don Perlin; his work isn't great but I seem to recall he comes to grips with Transformers better as he goes.

from Woman's Day 26 Dec. 1985

Lastly, there's a very short story (just four pages) originally published in Women's Day, I guess so moms could share it with their kids. It's a Christmas tale, so the compendium puts it later, with the 1986 UK Christmas strip, but in terms of narrative and character status, it fits in nicely after US #14. Just ignore the fact that it was Christmas only a few strips ago! It's fine, you know.

This is the fourth in a series of posts about Marvel's The Transformers. The next covers US issues #15-16 and UK issues #54-63. Previous installments are listed below:

1. US #1-3 & 33-34 / UK #1-6 & 9-17 (1984-85)
2. US #4-8 / UK #7-8 & 18-30 (1984-85) 
3. US #9-12 / UK #31-41 (1985-86) 

Marvel's The Transformers Year One, Part III: The Next Best Thing to Being There! (US #9-12 / UK #31-41)

The Image Til All Are One compendia are arranged in a story order that, like my own, tries to balance chronology and publication in order to make a readable experience. They don't always make the same choice that I have made, but I find their choices defensible.

One place where we differ is with the stories from the UK annuals. Some of these stories were written to fit into the continuity of the weekly title, and do so quite well, but others clearly were not written with the weekly in mind. (In fact, this was done purposefully, as the annual stories often highlighted characters who had not made it into the regular series.) The compendia take the stories that don't fit well into continuity and place them all in volume four, presumably so they don't disrupt the experience of reading the main US/UK series. I didn't want to do that, though, so my approach has been to either 1) read them somewhere near where they kinda fit even if it's not perfect, or 2) if there's no such place, around the time the annual stories would have been read. (Annuals are usually released in the fall, but are thought of as Christmas gifts.)

With this week's post, I hit two stories from the 1985 annual. One is a flashback to Cybertron in the early days of the Autobot/Decepticon war; the compendia place this (along with a 1986 story with a similar setting) before the first UK story from the regular comic as a sort of prelude. The other is set during the time the Transformers' war came to Earth, but it has some continuity issues (most notably, it features the Insecticons, who would later be introduced in a completely different way in a US story) so the compendia place it in volume four. Following my system, I read them both after the 1985 Christmas story from UK issue #41.

For the first, "And Then There Shall Come... a Leader!", this worked well; it actually is referred to directly in the very next UK story, Crisis of Command! from issues #42-44. Now that I've reread it, I would actually recommend reading the other, "Plague of the Insecticons!", much earlier, around the same time as Man of Iron and The Enemy Within!, between US issues #3 and 4. Presence of the Insecticons aside, we have Megatron still leading the Decepticons, and both sides are obviously recently arrived on Earth.

"The Wrath of Guardian!" / "The Wrath of Grimlock!" / "Dis-Integrated Circuits!" / "The Next Best Thing to Being There!" / "Brainstorm!" / "Prime Time!" / "Christmas Breaker!" / "And There Shall Come... a Leader!", from The Transformers US #9-12 (Oct. 1985–Jan. 1986) / The Transformers UK #31-41 (19 Oct.–28 Dec. 1985) and The Transformers Annual [1985]; reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium One (2025)

scripts by Simon Furman, Bob Budiansky, and James Hill; pencils by Barry Kitson, Mike Manley, Ricardo Villamonte, Herb Trimpe, William Simpson, and John Stokes; inks by Barry Kitson, M. Hands, Brad Joyce, Tom Palmer, Al Gordon, William Simpson, and John Stokes; colours by Gina Hart, Whitaker/Place, and Nel Yomtov; letters by A. Halfacree, Mike Scott, Rick Parker, Janice Chiang, Diana Albers, and Starkings

from The Transformers UK #32

This sequence of stories mostly concerns the rise of Circuit Breaker, the whereabouts of the Creation Matrix, the Autobots' deal with G. B. Blackrock, and the defeat of Shockwave. At the end of the previous arc, Ratchet and the Dinobots headed off for the Ark, where their deactivated comrades were stored. Here, the stories cover Ratchet and the Dinobots regaining access to the Ark (Shockwave reprogrammed the Autobot Guardian droid), Buster Witwicky struggling with realizing that he has the secret of Autobot power in his mind, and Josie Beller remaking herself into a supervillain, all while the Autobots struggle with the fact that Optimus is literally headless.

I found a lot to like in this sequence. There's some good comedy in the Dinobot stuff, especially with Grimlock. I like the kinda dumb Grimlock of the cartoon, but the smarter-but-still-hotheaded one of the comic is good too, especially his interplay with the other Autobots. Furman's story are small but usually have good character focus and one interesting formalistic technique per issue.

 

from The Transformers US #11

I kind of remember not having a lot of time for the Witwickys reading the US stories before, but I enjoyed them this time out, especially Buster's indecision over whether to tell his father about having the Creation Matrix, and Sparkplug's eventual realization that Buster is trying to do what's right—and there's nothing a father wants more than that. I think Budiansky's instinct that Transformers needed to be grounded in the human is a good one, even if it doesn't always work out in practice... but that's more later. 

 

The resolution to the whole Shockwave subplot is also a good one: the way Optimus finally returns and unleashes his full power is really well done. I will say, though, I though the art on many of the US stories in this run was rough. It felt like they were scrambling from artist to artist who didn't quite know how to deal with drawing giant robots on a monthly basis. Which, fair enough, does seem to be a specialized skill.

 

from The Transformers UK #41

The Christmas story is decent, but would be better if half of it wasn't recapping the arc you just read. Did they think a bunch of new readers would jump on at Christmas and need catching up? 

 

Lastly, I thought "And There Shall Come... a Leader!" was fine. Like a lot of early UK stories, the art is a bit stiff, but this story gives us Emirate Xaaron and a lot of other key facts about the early Autobot/Decepticon war on Cybertron... though notably not what a "Prime" is; Optimus Prime here is just some guy promoted to battle commander, not the leader of the Autobots by name. 

 

"Plague of the Insections!", from The Transformers Annual [1985]; reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium Four (2025)

script by Furman, art by Collins/Anderson, letters by Starkings, colours by Hart

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. Melodramatic, but solid. Clearly not high art, but good at tone and very visceral. As a one-off, it's basically everything you could want.

This is the third in a series of posts about Marvel's The Transformers. The next covers US issues #13-14 and UK issues #42-54. Previous installments are listed below:

1. US #1-3 & 33-34 / UK #1-6 & 9-17 (1984-85)
2. US #4-8 / UK #7-8 & 18-30 (1984-85) 

Justice League International Year Two: Suicide Squad vs. Justice League (JLI #13-21)

The second year of Justice League International brings the title into a crossover with Suicide Squad. This time-span also saw four issues of Secret Origins with Justice League collections published; three of these were reprinted in the third JLI omnibus, but I chose to read them by release date, in between issues of JLI. (Clearly they're more useful to me here than much later, but also experience has taught me I don't enjoy reading a bunch of origin stories in a row, so better to spread them out a little.) Plus, as with my "Year One" post, there is one story set during this period that was written later.

from Justice League International vol. 1 #14

Suicide Squad vs. Justice League / "Shop...or Die" / "Gnort and South!", from Justice League International vol. 1 #13 & Suicide Squad vol. 1 #13 (May 1988) and Justice League International vol. 1 #14-15 (June-July 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis and John Ostrander; pencils by Kevin Maguire, Luke McDonnell, and Steve Leialoha; inks by Al Gordon and Bob Lewis

First we get a crossover with Suicide Squad: the Suicide Squad decides to free one of their members from a Russian prison; in order to prevent an international incident, the JLI is sent in to stop them. I enjoyed it even if I am very unfamiliar with Suicide Squad. Apparently Captain Atom is dating one of its members; the gag about how they pretended to fight but were actually tickling each other was a good one. The best part, though, was when J'onn J'onzz runs into one of his old Justice League Detroit teammates, Vixen, now a Suicide Squad member. Vixen says he must have seen her and her version of the league as a joke, but he confesses how important they were to him. It's a great moment.

Weirdly, the story ends with Batman declaring his frustrations with the JLI, calling everyone a moron, and quitting. It doesn't feel quite in character... but also in later stories, he's still a member!

After this, we have the first two parts of an eight-part story about the alien Cluster coming to Earth to trade... or compel it to trade by blowing it up. While there has been lots of character-interaction comedy so far, Lord Manga Khan and his sidekick robot, L-RON, are the first overtly comic villain characters we've seen, with lots of goofy back-and-forth and even some metatextual jokes. ("Please, L-RON--you sound like a contrived plot summary." "Sorry, m'lord.") I enjoy their interplay a lot.

In addition, Gnort returns (so far so good but I'm worried there will be a point I max out on Gnort comedy), and the Green Flame and Icemaiden, formerly of the Global Guardians (who appeared in some backups earlier in the series), finagle their way into joining the shorthanded JLI.

from JLA: Incarnations #6

"Buddies", from JLA: Incarnations #6 (Dec. 2001)

written by John Ostrander, pencilled by Val Semeiks, inked by Prentis Rollins, lettered by Ken Lopez, colored by John Kalisz

JLA: Incarnations was a seven-issue 2001-02 miniseries, where each issue contained stories from the history of the Justice League, beginning with its original incarnation and ended with the then-current "Watchtower" version. Issue #6 contains two stories, one from the JLI era, the other from the (as far as I can tell, extremely regrettable) "Extreme Justice" incarnation. Chronologically, there's no good place to fit this story in: the Green Flame and Icemaiden are League members, so it must take place after JLI #15, but Colonel Harjavti is still ruler of Bialya, so it must take place before issue #16. However, during that time, Mister Miracle was kidnapped by the Cluster, and Martian Manhunter was in space trying to rescue him, but they're both in this story. As we'll see, though, that was a problem the actual JLI series had too!

Anyway, this story is fun enough. Colonel Harjavti makes Bialya into a supervillain sanctuary so that supervillains will invest their money in his banks; Booster and Beetle decide to infiltrate the country (as some delightfully awful 1990s-style supervillains) to make the entire scheme collapse... only Colonel Harjavti expects their arrival, and they have to be rescued by the rest of the League. Writer John Ostrander decently captures the tone of this era, doing a good job with the Booster/Beetle interplay in particular. I really liked the art by Val Semeiks and Prentis Rollins which, like that of Kevin Maguire, goes for detailed and realistic, and lets the comedy emerge from that.

from Justice League International Annual vol. 1 #2

"Hit or Miss!" / "Bialya, My Bialya" / "Only the Dead Know Bialya!" / "Where No League Has Gone Before!" / "Raising the Roof!", from Justice League International Annual vol. 1 #2 (1988) and Justice League International vol. 1 #16-18 (Aug.-Oct. 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis and Mark Askwith; pencils by Bill Willingham, Kevin Maguire, and James Webb; inks by Joe Rubinstein, Al Gordon, and Mark Pennington

Like "Buddies" from JLA: Incarnations #6, Justice League Annual #2 takes place in a nonexistent gap because Fire and Ice are on the team and Colonel Harjavti still rules Bialya, but Mister Miracle, Martian Manhunter, and Big Barda are not in space. The omnibus places it before issue #14, but I think it reads better after #15 since otherwise the presence of the Green Flame and Icemaiden is completely random even if there's not an actual gap for it to fit in. 

Anyway, this is a goofy story about the Joker teaming up with Colonel Harjavti while Booster and Beetle try to make extra money by doing repossessions, which leads to them running afoul of the criminal gang the Thousand; meanwhile, Big Barda and Mister Miracle are preparing to host a barbecue... and while Scott Free can rewire a mother box, a gas grill may prove beyond his ken. I enjoyed this a lot, particularly all the Booster/Beetle stuff and the Scott/Barda stuff. Mister Miracle has been part of JLI from the beginning, but I'm happy to see the increased inclusion of Big Barda, who is also a great character.

After this, we get the next three parts of the Cluster storyline, though it also incorporates a story about Colonel Harjavti and Bialya. It reads a little weirdly to have the JLI infiltrating Bialya again if you've read JLA: Incarnations, but there's nothing that says they haven't done this before. This one, again, has some fun stuff, with Batman pretending to be Bruce Wayne (!), Booster and Beetle being Wayne's hired help, and the Green Flame getting into a number of improbable escapades. It all ends, though, in the death of Colonel Harjavti, replaced by his consort "Queen Bee" as ruler of Bialya... as well as the reveal of Bialya's own super team, made up of the alien superheroes from JL #2-3 and rejects from the Global Guardians.

Meanwhile in space, Martian Manhunter and Big Barda do their best to liberate Scott; Lord Manga Khan hires Lobo to take them down. Lobo is a character who is often misused... but here he's in the hands of cocreator Keith Giffen and thus on great form, particularly in the sequence where he's accidentally sent to JLI embassy on Earth.

There's also a backup story here called "Raising the Roof"; Scott and Barda's home is accidentally blown up, so they move into the JLI embassy. Barda does housework to earn her keep but is terrible at it, so the other JLI members decide to rebuild their home to get her out... only they do a bad job of it. I have no idea where this story might fit chronologically, if at all, but I enjoyed it. Will Scott and Barda still live in the embassy in future stories? I guess I will see when we finally get there.

from Secret Origins vol. 2 #32

"All Together Now: The Secret Origin of the Justice League of America", from Secret Origins vol. 2  #32 (Nov. 1988)

story by Gardner Fox, plot by Keith Giffen, dialogue by Peter David, art by Eric Shanower, letters by Gaspar, colors by Gene D'Angelo

While issues #33-35 of Secret Origins were origins for various JLI members, #32 was an origin for the JLA overall, the first one told in the post-Crisis universe. It's not included in the JLI omnibus volumes, which makes sense, but I did want to read it. (The cover has some JLI members on it, but they're not in the actual story.) The story is fine, nothing too exciting to be honest; it does its job well, but that's about it. That said, I did really like the sequence where the various future JLA members figure out how to work together without actually talking about it. Peter David does the dialogue to a plot by Keith Giffen, but surprisingly, there's only one overtly comic bit in it. The art is by Eric Shanower, best known on this blog as the illustrator of numerous Oz books and author of quite a number of Oz comics. Shanower is an excellent storyteller, and overall he does a good job adopting a superheroic style... but I noticed he draws Black Canary's face the same way he does Princess Ozma's!

Coincidentally, I recently read JLA: Year One, and I note that that story basically picks up right from the end of this one. Maybe they should have collected Secret Origins #32 with it?

from Justice League International vol. 1 #19

"No More Mr. Nice-Guy!" / "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be-- Apokolips!" / "Apokolips... Wow!", Justice League International vol. 1 #19-21 (Nov.-Dec. 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen, scripts by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kevin Maguire and Ty Templeton, inks by Joe Rubinstein

I alternated these issues with the three Secret Origins issues below, but reviewing them that way seems silly. These finally bring an end to the ongoing Cluster storyline, with Manga Khan trying to sell Scott Free to Darkseid on Apokolips, while Barda summons the whole JLI to help her battle. Lots of great stuff in this one... particularly Darkseid being above it all! Barda is awesome. Also, Guy Gardner turns into an asshole again and throws down with Lobo.

Also during this stretch of issues, the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl briefly (re)join the League. Hawkman is depicted as an obnoxious old fogey who doesn't like how thew League has become more irreverent. At one point, he complains about how their cursing shows a lack of decorum, which causes Beetle to tease him by calling him a Republican. Funny to think that thirty-five years ago it was the Republicans who were the party of public decorum! 

from Secret Origins vol. 2 #35

Secret Origins of Justice League International, from Secret Origins vol. 2  #33-35 (Dec. 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 3 (2024)

written by Mike Carlin, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Gerard Jones, Cary Bates with Greg Weisman, William Messner-Loebs, J. M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, Mark Verheiden, and Robert Loren Fleming; pencilled by Don Heck, Chuck Austen, Valentino, Alan Weiss, Irv Novick, Stephen DeStefano, Dan Jurgens, Ken Steacy, and Eduardo Barreto; inked by Klaus Janson & Art Adams, Gary Martin, Eduardo Barreto, Joe Rubinstein, Stephen DeStefano, Tom Dzon, and Ken Steacy; lettered by Albert De Guzman, Todd Klein, Helen Vesik, Bob Lappan, and Agustin Mas; colored by Tom Ziuko, Greg Theakston, and Gene D'Angelo

These three issues of Secret Origins give us origins for Mister Miracle and Oberon, the Green Flame, Icemaiden, Captain Atom, Rocket Red, Gnort, Booster Gold, Martian Manhunter, and Maxwell Lord. 

Some are good. The Gnort one is fun (is his planet supposed to be a Dr. Seuss planet?). The Captain Atom one doesn't really give an origin for him, but ties into what I think was an idea in the character's then ongoing, that he had a superheroic career in the 1960s... that was all made up! (I think I detected a bit of a Miracleman influence here. I'll be curious to see what I think if I ever read his actual solo series.) The Rocket Red one also doesn't give much of an origin, but it does give us more of a sense of the main character that has been missing from his appearances in JLI so far. The Booster one is great—for a character so often played for comedy in JLI, he has quite a tragic life! The Martian Manhunter one is nicely atmospheric.

Some are just fine. It's good to get backstory for Green Flame and Icemaiden; my understanding is they had no origins at all until these stories. But the actual Icemaiden story is just okay, and I didn't care for the art in the Green Flame one, which I don't think quite matches what the Bierbaums were trying to do in their writing. The Maxwell Lord one is kind of pointless, because it retells something we just got a few issues ago in JLI #12... but I did find this telling more streamlined.

One is not good. I found the Mister Miracle and Oberon one a chore to read, and it felt to me like it didn't really capture key parts of the characters' origins, rushing over them, spending a lot of time on stuff that didn't matter much. The key to Mister Miracle is that need to escape, and this story doesn't really nail that at all.

This is the second in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #22-30 of JLI/JLA and #1-6 of JLE. Previous installments are listed below:

1. Justice League #1-6 / Justice League International #7-12 (May 1987–Apr. 1988)

Justice League International Year One: Born Again (JL #1-6 / JLI #7-12)

I wouldn't have gotten into Justice League Europe if Bob Greenberger hadn't lost his job.

Back in the mid-2000s, I was in college and just getting into comic books; my main entry point was Star Trek and Star Wars, seeking stories I'd read about, but were not contained in the novels I'd been reading since childhood. At that time, Bob got fired from DC Comics and needed to raise money, fast, so he auctioned off his comics collection. I bid on a lot of stuff, mostly Star Trek (this is where my runs on Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages come from), but other stuff I'd heard of, too, like Green Lantern/Green Arrow (the 1980s prestige format reprints). In particular, there were two series I picked up just because the basic premises tickled my fancy: Alpha Flight and Justice League Europe. Canada's premiere superhero team! The Justice League... but in Europe! Something about the very American concept of superheroes being transposed into other countries very much amused and intrigued me.

I can't claim to be a big Alpha Flight fan (that will have to be another post someday), but I fell in love with Justice League Europe. Character-driven and funny, it's everything I want from an ongoing narrative, and it's thanks to JLE that Elongated Man is my favorite DC superhero. 

I hadn't known when buying it that JLE was a spin-off of Justice League International, or that it was intertwined with Justice League America, but I soon figured that out when I got to crossover events like The Teasdale Imperative and Breakdowns, which were largely incomprehensible because I was only getting half the story; even outside of that, this series clearly continued character threads begun in the earlier series. Additionally, JLE continued beyond what I had, just under another title: issues #51-68 were retitled Justice League International.

So I've long intended to read the whole of the JLI era, with both series intertwined and all the various side stories and spin-offs. To that end, about ten years ago I picked up Formerly Known as the Justice League, which collects the six-issue reunion miniseries of that name. 

The setup...
from Justice League vol. 1 #2

Well, it finally made it to the top of my reading list, so it's time to dive in. Since then, the core Giffen/DeMatteis run on the two titles has been collected in three hardcover omnibus volumes, and I'll definitely be reading those, but me being me, I'm making it even more complicated. 

I'll also be reading Justice League Task Force (which has been collected a little), Justice League Quarterly (early issues of which are in the JLI Omnibus volumes), and various other side stories and flashbacks set during this era. I won't end where the omnibuses end, but keep going, up until the point that JLI was cancelled, just before Zero Hour. (JLA kept going after that, but I won't.) Some of the post-Giffen/DeMatteis material has been collected, mostly issues of JLA in the Superman & Justice League America and Wonder Woman & Justice League America trades; I'll read single issues when I have no other option.

I'm mostly reading in the order things are collected in the JLI omnibus volumes, but I've made some adjustments based on the Cosmic Teams timeline. Here on this blog, I'll be writing them up in chunks of approximately twelve ongoing issues to a post. So, when it's just JLI, I'll cover a year's worth of stuff, but once JLE is added to the mix, I'll do two posts per year, and then once JLTF comes along, three.

So here's the first post. This covers issues #1-12 of the title originally known as Justice League, later Justice League International, plus the Justice League Annual, and two stories set during this era that were published later. 

...and the payoff.
from Justice League vol. 1 #2

"Born Again" / "Make War No More!" / "Meltdown" / "Winning Hand" / "Germ Warfare" / "Gray Life, Gray Dreams" / "Massacre in Gray" / "Justice League... International!", from Justice League vol. 1 #1-4 (May-Aug. 1987), Justice League Annual vol. 1 #1 (1987), Justice League vol. 1 #5-6 (Sept.-Oct. 1987), and Justice League International vol. 1 #7 (Nov. 1987); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis; pencils by Kevin Maguire and Bill Willingham; inks by Terry Austin, Al Gordon, and Dennis Janke, P. Craig Russell, Bill Wray, Robert Campanella, Bruce Patterson, & Dick Giordano

Like many ongoing titles, Justice League takes a bit to find its footing. I'm not saying it's bad—I'm just saying it's not what it would later become. The first four issues especially are pretty serious in terms of plot, with terrorists attacking the UN, looming nuclear meltdowns in Soviet Russia, people escaping dead worlds, and a fairly desperate fight between Booster Gold and the Royal Flush Gang. The comedy, such as it is, mostly comes from two things.

First, Keith Giffen's breakdowns, J. M. DeMatteis's scripts, and Kevin Maguire's pencils lean into the character interplay and highlight the differences between these various characters. To me, this is always the pleasure of a team book: the premises of, say, Batman and Booster Gold, make for fairly different approaches to superheroics, and it's just fun to have them butt up against each other here. In particular, Batman kind of becomes the cranky straight man to the other characters, as one of the only experienced JL members, and certainly the most serious... though not averse to cracking a joke on occasion. The other character who really stands out here is Guy Gardner, who's full-on in his boorish asshole characterization here. Captain Marvel is in his "holey moley" mode, which is fun too.

Second, as much as they put people in danger, there is a slight hint of comedy to the machinations of the League's mysterious benefactor, Maxwell Lord. Obviously being toyed with by forces beyond your comprehension can be frightening, but it can also be the set-up for some good jokes. So, the the first four issues are decent enough. The visual storytelling is top-notch, as it always is when Giffen is doing breakdowns or layouts. 

These are followed by Justice League Annual #1, which I thought was okay but a bit long-winded. Some of Ted "Blue Beetle" Kord's employees are infected by a mind-controlling virus, which spreads around the world; it's not really interesting enough to see a bunch of mind-controlled superheroes to justify the double-length story. And, unfortunately, the next story (the "Gray Man" one from JL #5-6) is also about mind-controlled superheroes. This is probably the weakest story in the whole book; I found the conflict about an ancient servant of the Lords of Order who rises up to bedevil Doctor Fate kind of long-winded and hard to care about. That said, JL #5 is the issue with the infamous "one punch" moment where Batman lays out Guy once and for all.

After this, the book was retitled from Justice League to Justice League International with issue #7; as you might imagine from the new title, this is also the story where the JL officially gets UN sanction. The Gray Man plot is wrapped up quickly, and the issue focuses on Lord manipulating the League and the press... but we also get some of the series's initial forays into more overt comedy, with Guy getting the bump on the head that turns him into an obnoxiously pleasant sap. On the other hand, there are nice moments of characterization, too, such as when J'onn "Martian Manhunter" J'onnz reflects on how the League itself is his home on Earth, the one place where he can be himself.

from JLA 80-Page Giant #1

"Mousebusters", from JLA 80-Page Giant #1 (July 1998); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 3 (2024)

script by Keith Giffen, pencils by Kevin Maguire, inks by Karl Story, colors by Gene D'Angelo, letters by Bob Lappan

This story was written a decade later, but takes place during JLI #7. Its first page retells the first page of issue #7, with Guy crawling under a console in the JL headquarters looking for a mouse and hitting his head. The rest of the short story involves the rest of the League, particularly Beetle and Booster, working to try to catch the mouse. (The issue implies the rest of its events follow immediately after the first page, but this can't be the case; most of the story's events must occur simultaneous to the events of pages 14 through 17 of JLI #7 based on the presence of the Martian Manhunter. A couple days pass according to "Mousebusters," which isn't what JLI #7 implies, but is possible.)

Anyway, it's a very short but funny story about some Booster/Beetle hijinks. At the time I read it, I felt it was more overtly comedic than anything we'd seen in the actual JL comics so far, but it's actually pretty much on the level of "Moving Day," the very next issue.

from Justice League International vol. 1 #8

"Moving Day" / "Old News" / "Seeing Red" / "Brief Encounter" / "Soul of the Machine" / "...Back at the Ranch..." / "Constructions!" / "Who Is Maxwell Lord?", from Justice League International vol. 1 #8-12 (Dec. 1987–Apr. 1988); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen, scripts by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kevin Maguire, inks by Al Gordon

The rest of the first year of JLI sets up the series's new status quo, involves the characters in the Millennium crossover, and wraps up the subplot about Maxwell Lord manipulating the League while something else manipulates Maxwell Lord. Issue #8, "Moving Day," is comics perfection as far as I'm concerned. No superheroics, just character interplay as the JLI moves into their new UN-provided "embassies" around the world. Lots of great jokes, like Booster trying to hit on women and Mister Miracle not realizing that every superhero headquarters has a roof up to landing a shuttle on it.

"Seeing Red" and "Soul of the Machine" focus on battling the Manhunters; part of the premise of Millennium is that characters from every book would be revealed as evil alien Manhunters, but unfortunately the character picked here is Rocket Red, who literally joined the team one issue earlier, so it's not much of a shock reveal! In "Soul of the Machine," the League is suddenly in space (I did read Millennium, but over a decade ago, so my memory is foggy); I was surprised to actually enjoy the appearance of Gnort, the nepo baby Green Lantern. In the past, I have found the a little bit of the character to be far too much, but I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire would handle him better than their many imitators.

To be honest, I found a lot of the reveals about Maxwell Lord pretty confusing, but I did kind of feel like the creative team was trying to wrap up this plot sooner rather than later so it wouldn't drag on too long.

There are also some backup stories here; in particular, we see the UN shutting down the Global Guardians, which had been their sanctioned superhero team before the JLI (as established in Infinity, Inc.)... but which never had America or Russia as participants. These stories are okay on their own but will end up having several different ramifications for the main series.

from Justice League America Annual #9

"In 30 Seconds", from Justice League America Annual #9 (1995)
written by Gerard Jones, pencilled by Jeff Parker, inked by John Nyberg, lettered by Clem Robins, colored by Gene D'Angelo

Lastly, I read this "Year One" annual from 1995. Unlike "Mousebusters," it's not collected in any of the JLI omnibuses (they seem to have only gone for retroactive-continuity JLI stories when they were created by members of the original creative team), so I had to hunt down the single issue. 1995's "Year One" annuals were all set (as you might imagine) during the first year of their characters' superheroic careers; this one actually takes place between pages of JLI #12. 

Basically, it further complicates the already complicated story about Maxwell Lord and Metron by having Metron accidentally boom tube the JLI to New Genesis, where they have to stop the machine intelligence that was controlling Max (here called "Kilg%re," though that hasn't been established in the actual JLI stories yet) from exerting its control over New Genesis and Apokolips. In Earth time, the whole trip takes just thirty seconds, between panels of JLI #12, hence the title... though much of the story retells the Max-focused scenes from JLI #12 over again, which must take more than thirty seconds. I found the retelling pretty unnecessary (though writer Gerard Jones adds some wrinkles which I think must be setting up some ongoing plot from 1995), and I honestly didn't really understand a lot of the turns in the New Genesis/Apokolips plot.

I usually enjoy Jeff Parker's writing, but I think this is my first time seeing his art, which I think is overall good, but what I am discovering about many of the people trying to imitate the JLI style is that they go for "comedic" in the art itself, which is something Kevin Maguire himself doesn't do. He just goes for character-focused and realistic, and lets the comedy emerge naturally from that.

This is the first in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #13-21 of JLI. 

Review: Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus, Volume 1 by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon, et al.

Collection published: 2020
Contents originally published: 1989-93
Acquired: September 2020
Read: February 2021

Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus, Volume 1

Plot/Pencils/Layouts: Keith Giffen

Story/Dialogue: Tom & Mary Bierbaum
Inker/Writer: Al Gordon
Pencils: Chris Sprouse, Paris Cullins, Craig Brasfield, Dougie Braithwaite, Brandon Peterson, Dan Jurgens, Jason Pearson, Dusty Abell, Rob Haynes, Ian Montgomery, Joe Phillips, Colleen Doran, Curt Swan, David A. Williams, June Brigman, Stuart Immonen

Inks: Bob Lewis, Doug Hazelwood, Larry Mahlstedt, Carlos Garzon, Brett Breeding, Michael Christian, Brad Vancata, Scott Hanna, Tony Harris, Karl Story, John Dell, Karl Kesel, Bob Smith, Steve Leialoha

Story/Story Assists: Dan Jurgens, Tom McCraw, Jason Pearson

Colors: Tom McCraw, Glenn Whitmore

Letters: Todd Klein, John Workman, Albert De Guzman, Janice Chiang, Coffin N. Coro, Bob Pinaha

I'm always ping-ponging around the Legion timeline, based on what DC has deigned to collect and what I can get hold of. This volume collects the first thirty-nine issues of the so-called "Five Year Later" era (plus assorted annuals and other tie-ins). In terms of publication, it began three months after the previous issue, Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3 #63, but in terms of story, there was a five-year gap during which the Legion of Super-Heroes had disbanded, Earth had withdrawn from the United Planets and become a Dominator puppet state, and many of the Legionnaires had suffered various dark fates. The series was the brainchild of Keith Giffen, who pencilled and plotted the majority of the early issues-- previously a collaborator of Paul Levitz for much of his run, but now the series's lead creative force. New-to-comics writers but longtime Legion fans Tom & Mary Bierbaum dialogued his issues, and wrote many of their own; most issues were inked by Al Gordon, who also contributed to the plotting and wrote several issues as well.

You could write a book on this book (it is over 1,300 pages), but I will try to limit myself by sticking to one paragraph for each of the major storylines. The first, covering issues #1-12, is simply dubbed Five Years Later, and slowly reveals the situation of this new world. On the one hand, it's very confusing: partially this is because a lot has happened in those five years, and partially this is because the latest-published issue of the Legion I've read is from 1984 (in The Curse), so this is ten story years after what I was familiar with, and partially this is because Giffen's layouts are dense and packed and confusing. He uses the nine-panel grid here, with lots of quick cuts and little exposition, leaving the reader to piece togther events themselves. On the other hand, though, it's incredible: more happens in a single issue of this comic than in entire sixty-issue runs of contemporary comics. Giffen has always been an artistic master, but I feel like this is him at his peak: a very distinctive style and a command of characterization mostly unmatched. I didn't entirely understand everything that happened here... but I wanted to, and this is a story that will richly reward rereading, I suspect. There's lot of great character stuff here: for the first time, I care about Cosmic Boy, the rock upon which the Legion stands even when "powerless"; Cham is put into a new role of authority; new character Kono is an utter delight, a "female chauvinist"; Laurel Gand quickly establishes herself as the kind of strong woman who I love. There are time travel shenanigans and attempted genocides... but best of all is Matter-Eater Lad! Oh my god, I don't think I've laughed so much at a comic book in a long time as I did at #11, where he defends Polar Boy in court. In the midst of all this darkness, we have humor: Giffen and the Bierbaums get it. The one thing I didn't like about this storyline is that it almost seemed too easy to actually reunite the Legion: if so many of them were up for it, why did it take so long since the dissolution for this to happen?

The second is even more simply dubbed The Legion of Super-Heroes, and spans #12-25. It covers a couple different crises the Legion handles: Matter-Eater Lad battling Evillo, a Khund invasion, a Dark Circle infiltration, the Moon exploding, and the return of Darkseid. I found these hit or miss. The Matter-Eater Lad issue was great, of course. The Khund story didn't have the weight it should have; the whole thing seemed to happen so suddenly. The aftermath of the Moon exploding was interesting, but the actual way it happened didn't work for me, a crossover with Superman where Superman and the Legion reminisce about the "pocket universe Superboy," a character earlier issues went through some pain to establish had been removed from history! The Quiet Darkness, the Darkseid story, saw inker Al Gordon take over writing duties, and I found it a strong thriller with a neat take on Darkseid.

The third is Terra Mosaic, #26-36, which focuses on Earth finally rebelling against the Dominators, as well as the emergence of "Batch SW6," clones of the Legion from their young, idealistic days. Giffen switches from pencilling to doing layouts, and it's to the book's detriment. It's just not as dense anymore, it's more straightforward comics. Though some good stories are told about the Batch SW6 Legionnaires (I have mixed thoughts about the trans representation in #31, but it's an emotional triumph), they are a huge number of extra characters in a book already straining to use its cast, and most of the "adult" Legion sits around doing nothing for most of this crisis. The at first straightforward retcons start to get more complicated, too, with the introduction of Kid Quantum. But the Sun Boy story is terrific, the fight between Laurel Gand and B.I.O.N. is one of the best fights in comics, and the climax comes together extraordinarily well.

The last doesn't have an overaching title (but you could probably call it The End), and is just #37-39. #37 is a cute side story about Star Boy being a baseball manager, but then in #38 the Earth is destroyed! I'm not sure what I think about this; it feels gratuitous. It's an ambitious issue, covering lots of ground... but that means you feel rather distanced from its momentous events. #39 reads more like the start of something new; I suspect it's here because Giffen pencils some of it and DC wanted to get all of his "Five Years Later" work in this volume, but it reads more like the beginning of the next storyline.

There's also three annuals included. #1 is great, pulling together a history for Ultra Boy and deploying some clever retcons. Weaving Glorith into the events of the two Superboy and the Legion volumes almost makes what Brainiac did there palatable. I never cared much for Ultra Boy before, but this story made me appreciate him a whole lot. #2 does a lot to clarify Valor's history, though it's one of those stories that sounds better in summary than in actuality; I found its events too compressed to have much impact. #3 is half set-up for the Timber Wolf miniseries, but half a "story" where the Legion just chills out. I really enjoyed it: great character writing, lots of good moments. Plus some great Kono jokes!

And then there's Al Gordon's Timber Wolf miniseries. I appreciate that it is here, but it is quite frankly not very good. Timber Wolf is sent to the 1990s, and it's the most mediocre and generic 1990s superhero comic you've ever read. Full of bland, awful characters doing who knows what, and I didn't think it really felt much like Timber Wolf.

Lastly, the volume collects a sequence of Who's Who entries published during its run. These were helpful in orienting me, though it was hard to know when to read them: some contain spoilers for later issues, so beware! I eventually decided I'd just risk it, and usually I alternated between issues and Who's Who issue (so I wouldn't read them all in one go). There's even a series of postcards Giffen illustrated!

Given how much is in here, it feels churlish to complain about what's not, but by a total coincidence, I read Secret Origins #42 right around the same time I started this volume, and it really should have been included: it's by the Bierbaums, giving an origin for Phantom Girl that introduces some threads picked up on in Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1. When reading that story, I found myself glad I had read the Secret Origins issue. I see from Wikipedia that issues #46, 47, and 49 also featured Legion-related tales, but as I haven't read those, I don't know if they would have made good inclusions here. (Only one is by the Bierbaums.)

This volume cuts off at a pretty logical point, when Keith Giffen left the book, and when the Earth was destroyed. Another big omnibus could collect Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #40-61, the two remaining annuals, the eighteen issues of spin-off Legionnaires, and its one annual, enclosing the entire "Five Years Later" era in two large volumes. DC often starts Legion collections and cuts them off before getting anywhere, but I really really hope they can follow through on this book's "volume 1" and tie up this unique, worthwhile era of comics. I think I only scratched the surface in my reading, and I barely even did that in my write-up. I look forward to revisiting this someday and doing it justice.

I read a Legion of Super-Heroes collection every six months. Next up in sequence: Legion: Secret Origin

Review: Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Mike Machlan, et al.

Okay, there actually wasn't a volume two of The Generations Saga. But if DC had bothered, it would have collected (one assumes) issues #5-10 of Infinity, Inc., so I'm going to review those as a unit before progressing to the series in its entirety at a later date.

I was kind of down on the first half of The Generations Saga (typically called The "Generations" Saga or The "Generations Saga" in the actual issues, fact fans!), but I feel that's fair. The first four parts were never designed to be read as one unit. Either you read them one by one as they came out, or you read them as part of all ten. DC's weird collecting strategy leaves you with an unsatisfying read. But the last six installments pull everything together pretty nicely. In this half, what's going on becomes clear: the Ultra-Humanite (in revenge for his defeat in 1942 at the hand of the All-Stars/JSA and Infinity, Inc.) infected Superman with water that turned him ruthless; Superman in turn infected several other JSA members with it; now, Infinity, Inc. has to stop them. So the Ultra-Humanite will get to make parents battle children and watch them all destroy each other.

This being Roy Thomas, the ruthlessness water is from an old issue of All Star Comics; of course he does a ten-part saga as a follow-up to an obscure 1940s one-off. But to be honest, the source of the water doesn't really matter, because it leads to some good storytelling, especially in parts VII–IX, where Infinity, Inc. splits up to take down the individual members of the Justice Society. This means the Infinitors have to think about what their parents most desire, and how to thwart it, which allows for some good character work for both the Infinitors and the JSAers. A lot of good-guy-goes-evil-because-of-reasons stories have the evil good guys go snarling and power-mad because reasons, and there's a little bit of that here, but mostly this works well. Wonder Woman wants to obtain immortality for her husband, Steve Trevor, and their daughter Fury has to stop her; the Atom (always anxious about being underpowered) seeks out a new source of atomic energy, and his godson Nuklon must stop him; the Green Lantern (who once lost control of a communications company because he neglected it) seizes control of all communications on Earth, and his children-of-uncertain-provenance Jade and Obsidian must stop him. It's well thought out, and interesting.

from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #9 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas,
script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan & T. Dezuniga)

Plus the fight scenes themselves are a cut above. I am often not a fan of the split-the-team-up-into-subgroups trope of team books, because I don't read team books for a set of six abbreviated solo stories, you know? But Thomas, Ordway, and Machlan give each of the fights enough space to really work-- one of the benefits to devoting ten issues to this whole saga, I suppose. Jade and Obsidian vs. the Green Lantern was my favorite one. A lot of ups and downs, clever strategy, good use of powers, interesting interior monologues from the two young heroes, and of course great art.

Jerry Ordway is always good, of course, but man, I'd forgotten how good these "Baxter" books looked. Infinity, Inc. is printed on high-quality paper, and back in the day you paid good money for it. Infinity, Inc. #5, for example, was $1.25, while the same month's issue of All-Star Squadron was just over half that at $0.75. But the difference in quality is clear even thirty-five years later: the colors pop in Infinity, Inc. (a definite perk in a book where one character is bright green), and nthe blacks are black (also a perk when one of your characters is made of shadow). Ordway's breakdowns give a clear sense of motion, and his facial expressions really take you into the characters. Maybe I'm projecting, but I detect a real sympathy for Jade on his part.

The one thing The Generations Saga doesn't give you is a actual sense of what Infinity, Inc. will be like as an ongoing book. The whole ten issues (plus the three of All-Star) is the Infinitors reacting to one crisis. I'm curious to see how Thomas sets up a status quo that will fuel an ongoing, but I also think this is a really good foundation for one.

Parts V–X of The "Generations" Saga originally appeared in issues #5-10 of Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 (Aug. 1984–Jan. 1985). The story was written and edited by Roy Thomas; pencilled by Jerry Ordway; inked by Mike Machlan (#5, 7-10), Al Gordon (#6), Tony DeZuñiga (#8-10), and Jerry Ordway (#9); co-plotted by Dann Thomas; lettered by David Cody Weiss (#5-10) and L. Buhalis (#9); and colored by Anthony Tollin (#5-10) and Adrienne Roy (#5, 7-10).

This post is the fifth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Showcase Presents... Power Girl. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
   

Review: The Transformers Classics, Vol. 2 by Bob Budiansky, Don Perlin, et al.

I just realized I've been neglecting to mention my work at USF the past couple weeks, which have seen four of my reviews materialize: The New Counter Measures: Who Killed Toby Kinsella? (Christmastime during the Three-Day Week), Doctor Who: Aquitaine (the Doctor meets a robot butler who can butle with the best of them), The Avengers: The Lost Episodes, Volume 6 (Steed and Keel fight crime in the streets of London, at a shipyard, and at a fun fair), and Doctor Who: The Peterloo Massacre (the Doctor visits North and South, only it really happened).

Comic PDF eBook, 284 pages
Published 2011 (contents: 1986-87)
Acquired August 2014
Read March 2016

The Transformers Classics, Vol. 2

Written by Bob Budiansky, Len Kaminski 
Pencils by Don Perlin, Graham Nolan, Herb Trimpe
Inks by Al Gordon, Keith Williams, Tom Morgan, Vince Colletta, Ian Akin and Brian Garvey
Letters by Janice Chiang, Bill Oakley, Hans Iv
Colors by Nelson Yomtov

Even within the bounds of what you can or should do with comic books based on a toyline, The Transformers is not and never will be great. There are just too many characters with too little personality to distinguish them from one another, and more are constantly being introduced, meaning you never get to know anyone long enough to care about them. Plus, Bob Budiansky's plots range from bizarre to far-fetched: this volume features a Decepticon plot to steal music from a rock concert, an out-of-work comic book writer hired by the government to pretend to be a terrorist controlling the Autobots and Decepticons, a group of Decepticons who go rogue to leave graffiti on human monuments, and Optimus Prime committing suicide when non-player characters are accidentally killed when he has a videogame duel with Megatron. This isn't great comics; it's not even great hokum.

I love the idea that Megatron is so convinced that Optimus is not dead, he kills himself to get one over on Optimus.
from The Transformers #25 (script by Bob Budiansky, art by Don Perlin and Ian Akin & Brian Garvey)

(You do, I think, have to give Budiansky credit for never settling into a repetitive status quo: the Decepticons are always shifting their leadership and plans throughout the series. I'd take Shockwave over Megatron as leader any day.)

Terrifying death by acid disintegration, that's what this kid's comic needs.
from The Transformers #17 (script by Bob Budiansky, art by Don Perlin & Keith Williams)

That said, every now and again, Budiansky hits it out of the park; each volume of The Transformers Classics usually has one story that sticks out above the rest, and vol. 2 actually has two. The first is "Return to Cybertron," a two-part tale that shows what life has been like on Cybertron since the Ark left three million years or so ago. In a word, it's completely terrible: it's a huge contrast between this and the kind of wacky hijinks this title is usually populated with. It's a gritty story of a world where the Autobots are barely hanging on under the cruelty of a Decepticon dictatorship, where most robots don't even have the energy or parts to resist. Characters can die here, and their deaths have real emotional consequences. If only Budiansky's run was always like this, it would have been incredible. (Though, perhaps, not very uplifting.)

This is definitely a euphemism for something sexual.
from The Transformers #20 (script by Bob Budiansky, art by Herb Trimpe and Ian Akin & Brian Garvey)

This volume actually has two very good stories, the other being "Showdown!" After a big Autobot/Decepticon battle, the Autobot Skids is left for dead, stuck in his vehicle mode (a van), where he's found by Charlene, a grocery store cashier who dreams of a better life, and who needs a new car. Charlene has Skids repaired, and, tired of war, Skids decides to lay low and just act as her van. Of course, circumstances force him to reveal himself to her-- but they decide they like the arrangement and become fast friends. It's a story of two different sides. In one sense, it's a cute slice-of-life tale. In another sense, it's the story of a wounded soldier trying to escape an endless war that has caused him nothing but pain and anguish. It's at once adorable and weighty, and it's probably Budiansky's second-best work on the Marvel Transformers title.

Next Week: The nadir and the peak of The Transformers, in Classics, Vol. 3!

Review: The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1 by Bob Budiansky et al.

Last year, I reviewed the components of IDW's Doctor Who Humble Bundle; IDW also has done a couple Transformers Humble Bundles, and I've downloaded the components of both of them and have been reading an issue a day over breakfast, on days where I don't have other comics to read. There are diverse range of comics on hand, and I'll be reviewing them in some semblance of continuity order, beginning with the first volume of the collected Generation One comics:

Comic PDF eBook, 315 pages
Published 2011 (contents: 1984-86)
Acquired August 2014
Read November 2015

The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1

Plots by Bill Mantlo, Jim Salicrup, Bob Budiansky
Scripts by Ralph Macchio, Jim Salicrup, Bob Budiansky
Pencils by Frank Springer, Alan Kupperberg, William Johnson, Ricardo Villamonte, Herb Trimpe, Don Perlin
Inks by Kim DeMulder, Ian Akin and Brian Garvey, Alan Kupperberg, Kyle Baker, Brad Joyce, Tom Palmer, Al Gordon
Letters by Michael Higgins, Rick Parker, Janice Chiang, John Workman, Diana Albers
Colors by Nelson Yomtov

I have a bit of a mixed relationship with The Transformers. I loved the two spin-offs of the original cartoon, Beast Wars and Beast Machines, both of which I followed devotedly in high school. But my attempts to return to the source material have done little for me: I don't care for any single episode of the original 1980s Transformers cartoon I have seen, aside from the 1986 film, which I like not so much for its quality, but for the sublimely unique experience that is watching it: toy robot advertisements meets mythological saga, featuring both Orson Welles and Weird Al. But I always like the idea of the Transformers-- how could you not?-- and with the cheapness of a Humble Bundle, I'm willing to give it another go.

Unfortunately, I think the opening volume of the 1980s Marvel Transformers comic betrays all the weaknesses of the format. While I think the Beast-era cartoons managed to put storytelling above toy-selling, this comic drowns in its toy-commercial roots, driven home by the giant panels where umpteen characters introduce themselves, their gimmicks, and potted explanations of their own personalities:

And, get this, this is only half of the spread! There are two whole pages of Autobots doing this, plus another whole page for the Decepticons earlier in the issue.
from The Transformers #1 (plot by Bill Mantlo, script by Ralph Macchio, art by Frank Springer & Kim DeMulder)

The worst part of it is that little of these introductions even matter! You never hear from most of these characters in any substantive way, and when you do, they're written completely generically-- the little bits of personality they deploy here never matter. This is probably unavoidable by the design of the comic; when you have eighteen good guy characters and eleven bad guy ones, and are constantly adding new ones as new toys come out, it becomes impossible for more than a handful of them, if that, to receive any kind of focus in a 22-page comic book!

The human characters are few and distinctive enough to pop, though not always for the best. There's a kid who's an obvious reader surrogate, "Buster" Witwicky, son of a mechanic but with no mechanical aptitude himself, but I find myself gravitating more toward his single father, "Sparkplug", a grizzled Vietnam vet who is scared by these strange alien robots but still has a heart of gold.

Surprisingly serious stuff, actually.
from The Transformers #4 (script by Jim Salicrup, art by Frank Springer and Ian Akin & Brian Garvey)

I also found myself liking Ratchet, the ambulance Transformer who is the Autobot's mechanic, but I think that might be because I imagined him voiced by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Jeff Combs, who voiced Ratchet in the 2010-13 cartoon Transformers: Prime.

Initially, the first four issues are written by three writers (Bill Mantlo, Ralph Macchio, and Jim Salicrup), but after that, the long-serving Bob Budiansky takes over. I've of two minds about Budiansky's work. He obviously doesn't want things to be stale. While on television, The Transformers was about Autobots led by Optimus Prime and Decepticons led by Megatron fighting an unchanging war, Budiansky is constantly adjusting the status quo. The logical Shockwave assumes control of the Decepticons, and manages to subdue and capture most of the Autobots. The Shockwave-Megatron throwdown is probably the best sequence in this whole volume, but other than that, the old status quo had so little time to bed in, that seeing the Autobots scattered and leaderless isn't all that effective an upset, and the Autobots don't end up with a whole lot of focus.

That said, this is a pretty great issue-ending image.
from The Transformers #5 (script by Bob Budiansky, art by Alan Kupperberg)

Budiansky likes to sprinkle in tales that put some focus on the human element, with mixed results; the trucker whose trailer is stolen by the Decepticons has some potential; the man who finds his life of crime enhanced by his possession of a Megatron locked into handgun mode is much more entertaining. So there's obviously potential here, but thus far I feel like Budiansky and his very varied artistic collaborators aren't really delivering on it.

(One last note of complaint: two issues here feature Marvel-owned characters, Spider-Man and Circuit Breaker, in issues #3 and #9. IDW actually did get the rights to reprint them in hard copy, which was, I believe, a first, but apparently not electronically. I understand that these things happen, but the e-book version of this collection doesn't explain their omission, just cutting from issue #2 to #4, and from page 55 to page 81, without a single comment!)

Next Week: Bob Budiansky does his best-ever work on The Transformers, in Classics, Vol. 2!