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) 

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!