Marvel's The Transformers Year Two, Part III: Return to Cybertron (US #17-20 / UK #64-74)

"To a Power Unknown!" is another one of those stories from the UK annuals that, due to continuity issues, the Til All Are One compendia choose to place in volume four with the other out-of-continuity stories. However, my practice is to try to read them as close to where they could fit if they did fit. For "To a Power Unknown!", that seems to be somewhere between UK issues #65 and 71, as the story has Megatron and Shockwave in joint command over the Decepticons. Given that, I suggest it reads best between Second Generation! and Return to Cybertron, as the latter story leads straight into "Command Performances!", where Shockwave cedes sole leadership to Megatron.

from The Transformers UK #65

Second Generation! Parts Two & 3, from The Transformers UK #64-65 (7-14 June 1986), reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium One (2025)

written by Simon Furman, penciled by Kitson and Jeff Anderson, inked by Perkins and Jeff Anderson, letters by Scott and Annie Halfacree, colours by W&P and T. Jozwiak

Surely this is the most "meh" of all the UK-original storylines thus far. Part two of Second Generation! is mostly a dream sequences, as Optimus Prime and Buster Witwicky see a vision of the future of the Transformers, expanding on "The Special Teams Have Arrived" from ten issues back. At that point, Furman runs out of story, so part 3 is on a totally different topic, the struggle between Megatron and Shockwave for control of the Deceptions, which resolves with them adopting joint leadership. Fine, whatever. 

 

"To a Power Unknown!", from The Transformers Annual [1986], reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium Four (2025)

script by Ian Mennell & Wilf Prigmore, art by Will Simpson, letters by Annie Halfacree, colours by Josie Firmin

from The Transformers Annual [1986]

My kids have watched a decent amount of toy tie-in tv over the years. Seeing things like PAW Patrol and the Hot Wheels show have made me realize that's while it's certainly not high art, we got lucky with Transformers. Its creators took it seriously enough. Every now and again, though, you get a Transformers work by someone who plainly did not take it seriously. Such is true of "To a Power Unknown!", which has a stupid premise and risible dialogue. In another world, it could have all been like this, though, so we should count our blessings. This is kiddie stuff in the sense that it's written by people who think they can get away with crap if it's for kids... which very much jars with the fact that this is the story where the Autobots accidentally kill an innocent human being with a heat-seeking missile! Is this the only human death in Marvel's Transformers? So weird.

 

Return to Cybertron / "Command Performances!" / "Showdown!" / "The Mission" / In the National Interest, Part 1, from The Transformers US #17-20 (June-Sept. 1986) / The Transformers UK #66-74 (21 June–16 Aug. 1986) and The Transformers Annual [1986]; reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium One (2025)

written by Bob Budiansky, Jamie Delano, and Simon Furman; penciled by Don Perlin, Herb Trimpe, and Will Simpson; inked by Keith Williams (with Vince Colletta), Ian Akin & Brian Garvey, and Will Simpson; lettered by Janice Chiang and Annie Halfacree; colored by Nel Yomtov and John Burns

from The Transformers US #17

I am a big fan of Transfan "Broadside"'s analysis of Transformers storytelling as falling into two modes: Budianskian and Furmanist. Named after the two primary writers of the G1 comics, Budianskian stories place the Transformers in a human context, Furmanist ones don't see the necessity of that. (I lean more Furmanist than Budianskian in my tastes, personally; my two favorite pieces of Transformers media, Beast Wars/Machines and More than Meets the Eye/Lost Light are both Furmanist.) As Broadside points out, each man was capable of adopting the other mode, however; Furman's approach in IDW's continuity was Budianskian, while Budiansky's Return to Cybetron arc collected here is Furmanist. Each writer actually excels in the other mode—Return to Cyberton remains one of my favorite G1 comic stories. For the first time, we find out what's been happening on Cybertron in the millions of years since Optimus Prime and the Ark left the planet; it's become an apocalyptic hellhole ruled by the Decepticons. We follow the beleaguered Autobot resistance, particularly Blaster and Scrounge, as they work against Lord Straxus of Darkmount. It's dark stuff, which works well here, and Blaster and Scrounge are both great characters. Poor Scrounge! I might go so far as to suggest that Furman's own "Furmanist" stories (such as the imminent Target: 2006) actually take their cues from it, meaning that both modes of Transformers storytelling are actually Budianskian!

 

After four US issues of mediocre wheel-spinning, this is actually a very solid run of US comics overall. "Command Performances!" features an amazing sequence where the newly built Autobot warrior Omega Supreme lays the smackdown on the Decepticons, but the other highlight is "Showdown!" If Return to Cybetron features Budiansky at his most Furmanist, then "Showdown!" represents the peak of Budiansky's Budianskian mode. Skids has been damaged and isolated from the rest of the Autobots; he's found a grocery store cashier named Charlene in rural Wyoming, who dreams of bigger and better things. Skids enjoys the respite from centuries of war (he was originally an anthropologist), while Charlene enjoys the attentions of someone who validates her dreams of adventure. But real "adventure" finds them when Ravage tracks Skids down, and Skids must go back to war to defend his innocent friends while Charlene must learn to enjoy the life she has. As I said above, I prefer Furmanist storytelling on the whole (though it certainly has its failure modes), but this shows the real potential of the Budianskian approach. It's a lot like Russell T Davies's approach to Doctor Who, actually: these exciting things only matter inasmuh as they affect ordinary people.

 

from The Transformers Annual [1986]

After this, we get a decent UK text story, "The Mission," about Hoist and Jazz on a desperate mission in the Alaskan wilderness. It's intense stuff! And then the first part of In the National Interest, which promises good stuff; Furman always does well by the Dinobots. I didn't expect Professor Morris from The Icarus Theory (UK issues #45-46) to come back! We'll see how this goes in future installments. 

 

This is the sixth in a series of posts about Marvel's The Transformers. The next covers UK issues #75-84. 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) 
4. US #13-14 / UK #42-54 (1985-86) 
5. US #15-16 / UK #54-63 (1985-86)

Marvel's The Transformers Year Two, Part II: Devastation Derby! (US #15-16 / UK #54-63)

In the Til All Are One compendia, the two prose stories from the 1985 UK annual are placed in volume four, with the stuff that doesn't fit. Since I'm trying to read these stories in a hybrid chronological/publication order, I wanted to read them among the 1985/86 stories. The Transformers Wiki will tell you that the lineups in these stories pretty much preclude them from fitting anywhere in the main US/UK comics continuity, but it does say that most of the characters in "Missing in Action" were introduced in UK issue #53, and that the sequel to "Missing in Action" in the 1986 annual ("The Return of the Transformers") references the events of UK issue #65, so I've placed "Missing in Action" in between those two points; there's a continuity gap between UK issues #58 and 59, so that works nicely. "Hunted!" pretty much doesn't fit anywhere according to the wiki, so I just read it alongside "Missing in Action." In retrospect, since it includes Megatron as Decepticon leader, I think it would read better in the nebulous, nonexistent gap during the original US miniseries where other early UK stories take place.

"I, Robot-Master!" / "Plight of the Bumblebee!", from The Transformers US #15-16 (Apr.-May 1986) / The Transformers UK #55-58 (5-26 Apr. 1986); reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium One (2025)

written by Bob Budiansky and Len Kaminski, penciled by Don Perlin and Graham Nolan, inked by Keith Williams and Tom Morgan, lettered by Janice Chiang and Bill Oakley, colored by Nel Yomtov

from The Transformers US #15

I have bad memories of the US stories from when I previously read them on their own; these are certainly the kind of stories that explain why. Like many recent US stories, "I, Robot-Master!" seems to indicate Bob Budiansky has lost interest in the Transformers themselves, as this focuses almost entirely on humans trying to cover up the existence of Giant Alien Robots from Space on the earth. This isn't a bad premise per se, but the way it's carried out here isn't particularly interesting, either: the Intelligence and Information Institute of the US government recruits a comic book writer to pretend to be a human terrorist masterminding the Transformers, though by the story's end, he's working for the Decepticons. There are some decent jokes (I liked the gag about Donny's cigarette) but it goes on too long compared to how interesting it is (Donny is just not interesting enough as a person to sustain this). Also, this is the debut of Don Perlin, who I think becomes better later on, but at this point is just not very good at drawing giant robots.

 

The story that follows this, though, is worse: Shockwave decides to disable Bumblebee, calling him the weakest of the Autobots... completely coincidentally at a time when Bumblebee leaves the Ark on his own because he's feeling down. Bumblebee ends up falling in with a pair of two-bit crooks and helping them do crimes. Like... why? Again, you could probably tell a good story with these ingredients—one where Bumblebee gets a sense of belonging from these guys, but then realizes they're toxic—but instead it more feels like he passively sits there and lets them do stuff until he doesn't. The end.

 

"Missing in Action" / "Hunted!", from The Transformers Annual [1985]; reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium Four (2025)

written by James Hill, illustrated by John Stokes

from The Transformers Annual [1985]

These two prose stories from the 1985 UK annual were apparently written to focus on characters who hadn't yet made it into the main comic. In "Missing in Action," Tracks falls in with a pair of two-bit crooks and helping them do crimes... why was this a thing? The best part of the story is the appearance of a kid, Danny Phillips, who is a strong viewpoint character in the tradition of Buster and Man of Iron's Sammy. The other story, "Hunted!", has the Autobots discovering a nefarious plot by Megatron in South America. It's fine. In both cases, the selling point is clearly the John Stokes art; in particular, catch that beautiful title page image of Ravage in "Hunted!" That said, given the point of these stories is to highlight toys, it's weird there aren't more images of actual Transformers in these stories. A lot of the pictures are just of humans doing human things!

 

Robot Buster! / Devastation Derby! / Second Generation! Part 1 / "The Special Teams Have Arrived", from The Transformers UK #54 & 59-63 (29 Mar. & 3-31 May 1986); reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium One (2025)

stories by Simon Furman; plot idea by Barry Kitson; pencils by Barry Kitson, Will Simpson, and John Stokes; inks by Barry Kitson, Tim Perkins, Will Simpson, and John Stokes; colours by Josie Firmin, T. M. Cooks, and John Burns; letters by Annie Halfacree and Mike Scott

This run of UK stories focuses on Buster, first as he attempts to augment his abilities so he can hang out with the Autobots and then as it's discovered the Creation Matrix being installed in his mind has had lingering effects. The idea of Buster getting a robot suit to fight alongside the Autobots is a bit silly, to be honest, and I did not find this to be among Furman's better work on the title so far. Of particular note is how the stories attempt to integrate the new Combiner toys (the "Special Teams") into continuity. They would not appear until much later in the US stories, but Hasbro needed them to be in the UK comic earlier as the toys were on the shelves. So that their eventual debut in the comic would not be contradicted, Furman solved this dilemma by having Buster dream about the impending characters! This happens in the Second Generation! story in issues #63-65; a three-page preview of the story was published in issue #54. This preview works on its own fine as a regular (if incomplete) tale, but if you read it in the context of Second Generation! is cleverly revealed as a fragment of Buster's dreams. (The compendium places it before part 1 of Second Generation!, but I think it reads better between parts 1 and 2.)

from The Transformers UK #54

Anyway, so this might be clever from a storytelling construction standpoint... but I hate combiners. They are good toys (I assume: I wouldn't know, I've never owned any), but bad as characters in actual stories, since you suddenly add a half dozen new robots whose main function is to not have distinct personalities. Making your combiners just dream characters makes it all even worse because they're not even real!

This is the fifth in a series of posts about Marvel's The Transformers. The next covers US issues #17-20 and UK issues #64-74. 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) 
4. US #13-14 / UK #42-54 (1985-86) 

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) 

JLA: Year One by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, Barry Kitson, et al.

JLA: Year One: The Deluxe Edition

Collection published: 2017
Contents originally published: 1998-99
Acquired and read: July 2025

Writers: Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn

Penciller: Barry Kitson

Inkers: Michael Bair, Barry Kitson, Mark Propst, John Stokes

Colorist: Pat Garrahy

Letterers: Ken Lopez

Like the previous installment of this series (see below), this one covers a story that is arguably pretty tangential to the Blackhawks. But I couldn't see how I wouldn't like this book, so I really wanted an excuse to buy it and read it sooner rather than later.

This book comes from a (somewhat odd, in retrospect) period of DC history where Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were not founding members of the Justice League, thanks to various changes in continuity introduced following Crisis on Infinite Earths. Thus, the main characters are the Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance), Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. The story chronicles the first year of the JLA, picking up from them fighting off an alien invasion. They organize as a group, face various crises, discover that the alien invasion they fought off is not quite over, try (and fail) to recruit Superman, and learn about each other and themselves and how to work as a team.

I loved it. This is, as far as I am concerned, perfect superhero comics. This should be of little surprise to anyone familiar with the other work of the creative team; Mark Waid is, in my opinion, one of the all-time greats, able to unite continuity with characterization in really compelling ways. I haven't read much by his frequent collaborator Brian Augustyn, but Waid sings his praises in the intro, so clearly they are simpatico. Definitely also simpatico is Barry Kitson; Kitson came out of the UK comics scene (specifically, of course, Transformers), but really won himself over to me with his amazing five-year run on L.E.G.I.O.N., where he went from pencilling the title to plotting it and then scripting it. That was, I believe, where he first worked with Waid, who scripted the title for a year. After JLA: Year One, the two would work together on the excellent Legion of Super-Heroes "threeboot".

I understand why Batman and Wonder Woman couldn't be founding members of the JLA in the post-Crisis continuity—Batman was supposedly an "urban legend" in the post–Batman: Year One comics, which would hardly be true if he was giving Justice League press conferences, and George Pérez's Wonder Woman reboot moved her origins up to the present day—and I can also see why the editors of the Superman titles might not want him in the JLA in the present day—presumably they didn't want his actions in that book to constrain what they were doing in theirs—but it's not clear to me why Superman couldn't have been a past member of the JLA. But I guess it worked out; I don't think this story would have been anywhere near as good if these five characters were outclassed by a hero of Superman's power and narrative significance.
from JLA: Year One #7 (art by Barry Kitson & Michael Bair)

When I was a young comics fan, I used to make fun of Aquaman. This book made me feel bad for that.
from JLA: Year One #3 (art by Barry Kitson)

All of this is to say, I think this creative team was entirely on the same page, and what was on that page is beautiful. I like my superhero comics to be character-driven and fun, and this is undoubtedly both. One of the benefits of this odd team is that they have a lot of good hooks for characterization, especially early in their superheroic careers. Aquaman is trying to adjust to living on the surface world, where he feels like an alien of sorts; I liked the idea that he mumbles compared to people from the surface because of how sound propagates more loudly underwater. 

I think Hal is probably the one who gets the fewest character moments, actually, but he's fine, even if the playboy thing is laid on a bit thick. (I do, however, think the decision to call Tom Kalmaku "Pie" was not really any better than "Pieface" surely.)

Black Canary is a real highlight of the book, which as a Dinah Laurel Lance stan I very much appreciated. Post-Crisis, Black Canary was split into two characters: Dinah Drake (later Dinah Drake Lance), who was the Justice Society's Black Canary, and Dinah Laurel Lance, her daughter. But in most of the comics I've read, this is a fact of backstory, not something dealt with in the narrative; one of the benefits of going back to Black Canary's origin is actually seeing how she relates to her mother. The elder Dinah wants to mold the younger into her own image, but the younger Dinah must find her own path. There is a lot of good JSA stuff in the book; Dinah is often comparing her new colleagues to the heroes she grew up alongside, but also she discovers that those heroes weren't so perfect, as Waid and Augustyn make good use of the revelation from Starman that the elder Dinah had an affair with Ted Knight, the original Starman.

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about going back over this ground, but the story did a great job with it.
from JLA: Year One #4 (art by Barry Kitson & Michael Bair)

I think Barry Allen's thread is less involved than either Black Canary's or Martian Manhunter's, but Waid and Augustyn and Kitson do well by him. (Which I guess makes sense, as they cowrote an acclaimed and long run on The Flash, even if it was about Wally West.)

Reading this book made me think I really must get around to reading some actual Martian Manhunter comics someday.
from JLA: Year One #1 (art by Barry Kitson)

The other real highlight is Martian Manhunter, even more of an outsider than Aquaman, but also able to pass thanks to his shapeshifting and telepathy. His discomfort at seeing the way his teammates treat the aliens they fight, his need to better understand them that goes places that violate their privacy, his belief that they and humanity can do better, they're all very well done.

What really makes the characterization sing, though, is the interactions. There are lots of moments between them all: John and Aquaman, Hal and Barry, Barry and Dinah, and so on, all the permutations you can think of, perfectly rendered. This is a team of people, in their highs and their lows; you understand why the team (briefly) turns on Martian Manhunter, but the moment where he needs to tune himself telepathically into an alien device, and the whole team comes together to help him do it is a genuine punch-the-air moment, I loved it.

Awww...
from JLA: Year One #12 (art by Barry Kitson & Michael Bair)

Beyond that, the book is just fun and inventive, taking those old Silver Age stories and filtering them through a modern perspective without being either overly nostalgic or cynical. (Weird to think, actually, that this book is now thirty years old, which is about how old the original Justice League stuff was when this was written.) We see Vandal Savage, we see the Doom Patrol, we see Snapper Carr, we get cameos from Oliver Queen and Maxwell Lord. At the end of the book, the invading aliens trap every superhero on Earth in a prison, which gives the JLA its chance to shine—but also means that once the JLA liberates the others, we get glimpses of all the superheroes of the Earth at this time. (In some cases, I suspect the continuity timing doesn't add up, but who cares.) I found that each issue of this series just flew by, perfect superhero comics. 

Lots of characters in this image who should be dead!
from JLA: Year One #2 (art by Barry Kitson)

As for the Blackhawks? Well, I'm saving a discussion of their post-Crisis continuity for a future post, but this story very much doesn't seem to care about it, nor does it even sit very well with their Silver Age continuity. Their role in the story is small but significant. In an early issue, we see them in their 1970s red-and-green uniforms, and Blackhawk suggests they need to update with the times. But then in a later issue, they're all in their superhero gear from the "Junk-Heap Heroes" era (see item #6 in the list below), and they decide they all look ridiculous and go back to how they were. Additionally, Blackhawk Island is the site of the prison where the aliens put the Earth's superheroes.

You might see this as massaging how their superheroic career could fit into their new post-Crisis history... except that all the characters who got killed off during the Rick Burchett run (see #10 and 11) are there! Additionally, so is Lady Blackhawk, but we were told in Guy Gardner (see #12) that she was plucked out of time at some point in the past and brought to the present thanks to the Crisis in Time. But this isn't a complaint or anything, just observations. The joke about how they look terrible as superheroes is probably worth everything else! (It is shooting fish in a barrel, though.)

Chuck's face just screams, "Blackhawk, you promised me this outfit looked cool."
from JLA: Year One #8 (art by Barry Kitson & Michael Bair)

This is the thirteenth in a series of posts about the Blackhawks. The next installment covers Guns of the Dragon. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Blackhawk Archives, Volume 1 (1941-42)
2. Military Comics #18-43 / Modern Comics #44-46 / Blackhawk #9 & 50 (1943-52)
3. Showcase Presents Blackhawk, Volume One (1957-58) 
4. Blackhawk vol. 1 #151-95 (1960-64) 
5. Blackhawk vol. 1 #196-227 (1964-66)
6. Blackhawk vol. 1 #228-43 (1967-68)
7. Blackhawk vol. 1 #244-50 / The Brave and the Bold #167 (1976-80)
8. Blackhawk (1982) 
9. Blackhawk vol. 1 #251-73 / DC Comics Presents #69 (1982-84) 
• Pre-Crisis Continuity 
10. Blackhawk: Blood & Iron (1987-89)
11. Blackhawk vol. 3 (1989-92) 
12. Guy Gardner: Warrior #24, 29, 36, 38-43 / Annual #1 (1994-96)

JSA: Strange Adventures by Kevin J. Anderson, Barry Kitson, and Gary Erskine

JSA: Strange Adventures

Collection published: 2010
Contents published: 2004-05
Acquired and read: December 2022

Writer: Kevin J. Anderson

Penciller/Breakdowns: Barry Kitson

Inker/Finishes: Gary Erskine

Letterer: Rob Leigh

I think this might be the last "continuity insert" storyline of my Justice Society reading: that is to say, the last story set entirely in the "past" of the DC Universe relative to when it was published. Like Superman vs. Wonder Woman, Steel, the Indestructible Man, All-Star Squadron, The Young All-Stars, The Crimson Avenger, The Demise of Justice, The Justice Society Returns!, and All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant, this is entirely set during World War II, fleshing out the Golden Age in a modern style—which to me has become one of my favorite types of JSA story.

Unfortunately it is not very good. It is a a long miniseries, at six 30-page issues, but less seems to happen in it than in many minis of four 20-page issues. Before I picked this up, I was reading Don McGregor's Jungle Action run, and it took me longer to read a 17-page issue of Jungle Action than a 30-page issue of this. Like, there are lots of boring fights and boring meetings; the characters have long conversations about things that aren't interesting and don't matter.

This story seems to think the Star-Spangled Kid was a JSA member for some reason.
from JSA: Strange Adventures #5

The characters themselves are fairly generic. In "continuity insert" stories like The Demise of Justice and The Justice Society Returns!, the writers and artists were able to express the depths and personality of these Golden Age characters, but there's barely any of that here. It wants to be a Johnny Thunder story, about his desire to be a writer, but this doesn't go anywhere interesting. Johnny befriends the real Golden Age science fiction writer Jack Williamson, and this could be fun and meta, but unfortunately, it makes for long boring scenes. I don't rate Kevin J. Anderson very much as a writer, so I was not surprised by any of this... I was however disappointed, because I was hopeful anyway. I did kind of think the usually excellent Barry Kitson might be able to save it, but if there's nothing interesting to draw, it doesn't matter how well you draw it.

This post is thirty-eighth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers JSA Classified. 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)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
26. Chase (1998-2002)
27. Stargirl by Geoff Johns (1999-2003)
28. The Sandman Presents: The Furies (2002)
29. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book One (1999-2000)
30. Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story (2000)
31. Two Thousand (2000)
32. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two (1999-2003)
33. Golden Age Secret Files & Origins (2001)
34. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Three (1999-2003)
35. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Four (2002-03)
36. JSA Presents Green Lantern (2002-08)
37. JSA #46-87 (2003-06)
    

The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Two (From Stockbridge to Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 5)

Collection published: 2012
Contents originally published: 1986
Acquired: December 2020
Read: January 2021

The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Two

editorial notes and assistance by James Roberts

Written by Simon Furman (with Barry Kitson), Ian Mennell & Wilf Prigmore, James Hill, and Jamie Delano
Art by Barry Kitson, Will Simpson, Geoff Senior, John Stokes, Tim Perkins, and Jeff Anderson

Additional Inks by Marc Griffiths

Colors by Gina Hart, Stuart Place, Jeff Anderson, Jose Firmin, John Burns, and Tony Jozwiak
Letters by Richard Starkings, Annie Halfacree, and Mike Scott

I continue to alternate volumes of Panini's DWM reprints with volumes of IDW's Transformers UK reprints, and the Transformers UK comics continue to weave in and out of the American stories I read a few years back.* This is kind of a lot to wrap my head around at times, to be honest (my memories of the fine details of Bob Budiansky's Transformers run are foggy at best), but I am enjoying the experience. James Roberts argues in his editorial commentary that this is where Simon Furman's writing on Transformers begins to come into its own, and I agree.

Dinobot pathos.
from The Transformers #50 (script by Simon Furman, art by Barry Kitson)

Like with volume one, what makes this work is the more character-based focused on the UK comic, which I think it kind of had to have, given the big plot events could only transpire in the US comic. In this volume, the big thread is the Dinobots, who come into the spotlight in "The Icarus Theory," "Dinobot Hunt!", "Victory!" and "In the National Interest." We see their hidden desires in "Victory!", we see them break out and undertake action in "In the National Interest." This latter story was probably my favorite in the volume, as it effectively draws together threads from a number of recent US and UK stories in a way that makes it serve as an effective "season finale" for the volume. The Dinobots frustration meets Robot Master meets Triple I meets tv reporter Joy Anderson meets frustrated scientist Professor Morris. A lovestruck Dinobot is a fun concept.

I would not have dreamed she would become a recurring character!
from The Transformers #48 (script by Simon Furman, art by Barry Kitson)

We also get a little plotline involving Buster, the Autobots' human friend, across "Robot Buster!", "Devastation Derby!", and "Second Generation!" Thanks to his time hosting the Creation Matrix, he begins having visions of the future, foreseeing the coming of the Special Teams, those Transformers who can combine into gestalts. Buster, alas, has never done much for me; give me more Sparkplug and Jesse. These stories are no exception, but I did like the way Furman reconciles a plot point Budiansky dropped from the US comic, explaining how Megatron and Shockwave came to share Decepticon leadership. (Continuity-gap plugging becomes a bit of a theme; James Hills's "The Return of the Transformers" indicates why in volume one, Optimus Prime was opposed to creating new, more powerful Transformers while here he initiates development of the Special Teams.)

UK comics Soundwave is pretty awesome, too. (Much better than cartoon-aping Soundwave of late IDW.)
from The Transformers #62 (script by Simon Furman, art by Will Simpson)

The lowlight is definitely "To a Power Unknown!", a daft story of a morality-reversing energy pulse that feels more like the mediocre cartoon than something from the more grounded(!) comic, but the other highlights are two text stories from the 1986 Annual. "State Games" by James Hill is okay as written, but once I read it, I realized how hugely influential it was: this is the origin of the IDW version of Megatron, for example, and many incarnations as well. "The Mission" (by future Hellblazer scribe Jamie Delano) is a neat little standalone tale about Jazz and Hoist on a desperate Arctic mission.

* The stories in this volume mostly overlap with those contained in volume two of the US reprints. I suggest the following order: UK #45-50; US #13-16; UK #59-63, 54, 64-65; US #17-20; UK #74-77. The annual stories, as ever, make things complicated, but "Victory!" works well after UK #50.

This post is the fifth in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers Voyager. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Iron Legion
2. Dragon's Claw 
3. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume One
4. The Tides of Time
   

The Transformers Classics UK, Volume One (From Stockbridge to Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 3)

Collection published: 2011
Contents originally published: 1985-86
Acquired: November 2020
Read: December 2020

The Transformers Classics UK, Volume One

editorial notes and assistance by James Roberts

Written by Steve Parkhouse, Simon Furman, James Hill, and Mike Collins
Art by John Ridgway, Mike Collins, Jeff Anderson, John Stokes, Barry Kitson, Mark Farmer, William Simpson, and Geoff Senior
Colors by Gina Hart, Josie Fermin, Steve Whitaker, Scott Whittaker, John Burns, and Stuart Place
Letters by Richard Starkings, John Aldrich, Annie Halfacree, and Mike Scott

In the 1980s, Marvel UK wasn't just the publisher of the Doctor Who magazine, it also published its own, original Transformers strip, which wove in and out of the events of the US Transformers comic. Doctor Who and Transformers didn't cross over per se, but there were some elements that crossed from the one to the other, so I decided-- because there's no marathon I can't make more complicated-- to alternate collections of the Doctor Who strip with collections of the Transformers one up until I reach the point where they interact. IDW has collected the first few years of the UK strip in a series of volumes with commentary and interviews by More than Meets the Eye/Lost Light scribe James Roberts. They are out of print and horrendously expensive, but you can get them off comiXology for pretty reasonable prices. This volume collects issues #9-21, 29-32, and 41-44 of the UK comic (the other issues were reprints of US material), along with the 1985 Annual; the stories take place in between the US stories collected in vol. 1 of IDW's The Transformers Classics. Someday I'd like to read the US and UK stories in an integrated order,* but for now, I'm just depending on my memories of the US comic, plus Roberts's helpful editorial commentary.

As a result, it's something of an odd read-- no cohesive story, and because the stories are the work of four different writers, no cohesive vision, either, though near the end of the collected stories, one begins to emerge. First, Steve Parkhouse (writer of the Doctor Who strip during the fourth, fifth, and sixth Doctor eras) gives us "Man of Iron," a grim and serious tale of the Transformers coming to an English village; I've previously reviewed it as part of The Transformers Classics, Vol. 3 (the US comic reprinted it as a flashback story).

You don't talk to strangers, and you don't get in strangers' cars... but should you talk to car strangers?
from The Transformers #10 (script by Steve Parkhouse, art by John Ridgway)

"Man of Iron" sets a very distinct tone for a Transformers story, with the Transformers themselves often silent and mysterious, the way robots in disguise might seem to human beings. None of the other UK stories do that, being more in tune with the US style, but there is a more character focus than I remember from Bob Budiansky's US tales. This makes sense: the big events of the ongoing narrative being driven by what was happening in the US issues, the area the UK comic could really work was in expanding character moments. So we get stories that focus on Brawn, Starscream, Ravage, Grimlock and the Dinobots, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Circuit Breaker, and even Optimus Prime himself.

I always like a bit of Ratchet.
from The Transformers #31 (script by Simon Furman, art by Barry Kitson)

 
They're all pretty solid (with the exception of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" and the two by James Hill), but the standout character for me here was Ravage, someone I hadn't really given much thought to before (though I think he did get a nice issue somewhere in James Barber's Transformers run). In some continuities (including, I think, Marvel US), Ravage is silent, but that's not true here, where he pursues his own agenda-- one of utterly ruthless loyalty to Megatron. I liked the straightforwardness of his duplicity: he will do anything except betray his leader.

Ravage might be awesome, but Windcharger is pretty meh.
from The Transformers #20 (script by Simon Furman, art by Mike Collins & Jeff Anderson)

Plus there's a great bit where Grimlock tests a replacement hand by punching out Ratchet.

The art is interesting-- based more often on the actual toys or their package art than the character models used by the US comic. In the case of some characters, this means they have the spindly look of cheap toys; supposedly strong Brawn looks like you could break him in half. But I did like the comic's weird, unique look for Optimus. And Circuit Breaker looks a lot more curvaceous than I remember! There's real talent here, of course: John Ridgway, Mike Collins (of Darkstars fame), Mark Farmer (who later worked on Alan Davis's Killraven). I hadn't even known that Barry Kitson (whose work on L.E.G.I.O.N. and Legion was excellent) was British, much less that he'd started out here! I don't think anyone would call this his best work, but still.

I liked Warparth (the tank guy) and was a bit bummed to learn this is considered out of continuity because of him (he didn't actually debut until after this supposedly takes place).
from Transformers Annual 1985 (script by Simon Furman, art by Mike Collins & Jeff Anderson)

There are also some nice pieces of backstory, like "And There Shall Come... a Leader!", which delves into Optimus's life on Cybertron. In these days, "Prime" isn't a title, but just part of his name. I also really enjoyed "Plague of the Insecticons!", where the Autobots attempt to reach out to President Reagan, but things go terribly wrong.

Like, why is his face all blue?
from Transformers Annual 1985 (script by Simon Furman, art by Mike Collins & Jeff Anderson)

 
On its own, this is a weird set of stories, maybe, but I can see how it will be the foundation for the UK's own distinct take on the Transformers mythos, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.

* For the stories contained in this volume, I suggest the following: US #1-3, UK #9-21, US #4-8, UK #29-32, US #9-12, UK #41-44. (The annual stories are outside of continuity by and large.)

This post is the third in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers The Tides of Time. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Iron Legion
2. Dragon's Claw