Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Simon Furman
Pencilled by: Andrew Wildman
Inked by: Erik Sander
Coloured by: Alan Wang & Ramil Sunga
Lettered by: Ben Lee
Editor: Adam Patyk
Publisher: Dreamwave Productions
The old saying is true. You can never go home again. Chris Claremont found that out the hard way with the X-Men and it remains to be seen if he will manage to find his creative feet once again after the Reload. Similarly, Simon Furman’s grand return to his beloved Generation One-era Transformers has been met with widespread indifference by the fanbase. For those not in the know Furman became, for all intents and purposes, the sole driving force behind the 80s Transformers comic book, both in the regular monthly title and the weekly Marvel UK version which came complete with it’s own storylines that Furman somehow managed to tie into the main title’s continuity. Taking what was essentially nothing more than a glossy toy catalogue with speech bubbles under Bob Budiansky and turning it into an exhilarating tale of intergalactic war, time travel and, ya know, really cool big frickin’ robots, complete with the characterization more commonly reserved for mainstream titles, he managed to keep the UK comic going for well over 300 issues. Not too shabby.
His return to the fold after Dreamwave revived the Transformers franchise was last year’s The War Within mini-series. It was an opportunity to tell the early tales of the ‘Robots in Disguise’, before they left Cybertron and arrived on Earth. Set millions of years prior to the Generation One title but featuring the same core characters, expectations were high for his return. The first issue was really enjoyable… Then, sadly, he did a Wachowski and lowered our expectations with each instalment as it limped to the finish line. Was Furman burned out or would this prove to be a one-off dip in form? After all, his work on Dreamwave’s Armada comic and its spin-off, Energon, had shown signs of past glories resurfacing. That, however, was set in an entirely different Transformers universe. We wanted some good old fashioned Furman escapades with our Generation One favourites, dammit! Then, another opportunity arose. A sequel to The War Within called The Dark Ages. Not only would Furman be writing but he would be reunited with artist Andrew Wildman (a fellow stalwart of the Marvel UK days), Optimus Prime and Megatron (leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons, respectively) would be MIA to give the chance for other characters to take the spotlight, and we would get a brand new character!
Now here we are in the 5th and penultimate part of the mini-series and, truth be told, it is even more boring than its predecessor. The new character of The Fallen certainly looks impressive in all his flame-covered glory, yet his plan to capture the four apparently most important Transformers on the planet has been decompressed to nothing by slow pacing. Yes kids, slow pacing… decompression… the most feared and loathed words in the modern comic book world. Quite why every editor under the sun feels the need to get their writers to emulate this ‘Bendis’ style is beyond me. I mean, if a story arc lasts less than six issues will the writers be shot on sight? Come on people, do what is best for the story not what is best for the trades! Okay, okay, I’d best put the soapbox down now. The aforementioned four Transformers are Grimlock, Jetfire, Blitzwing and Hot Spot. It is a strange mixture, to be sure. Blitzwing is apparently the first Triple Changer completed by Shockwave, which is a nice nod the to the Generation One: War & Peace storyline. Hot Spot, leader of the Protectobots, represents the combining technology and is presumably more stable than any of the other combiner groups. Grimlock is the Transformer equivalent of Wolverine and so must be included. Jetfire… I honestly can’t see why he is being included. Perhaps the fact that he has alliances with both the Autobots and Decepticons is meant to reflect the dual nature of the Transformer race.
Unfortunately the purpose of The Fallen gathering these four together is extremely tiresome. He rants and raves like a robotic Bond villain while casting a sinister silhouette eerily reminiscent of Unicron. Yup, Unicron. Again! And you thought Venom was over-exposed in the 90s Spider-Man books… In case you aren’t aware of who Unicron is, he is a chaos god currently roaming the galaxy as a planet-eating, er, planet. He will occasionally transform into a gigantic robot but only when there is a special movie, TV show or comic to pimp. His counterpart is the light god named Primus, who is currently trapped inside Cybertron and gave birth to the Transformers in order for them to defend him against Unicron. Unicron has currently been featured in the Armada cartoon series and comic book, the Energon cartoon series and comic book, the aforementioned Generation One: War & Peace series and War Within vol. 1. Talk about over-exposure… This guy is turning into the Venom of the franchise just because he has an admittedly cool but over-priced toy out on the shelves! So, apparently The Fallen’s grand plan is to somehow use these four pillars of the robotic community to break Primus’ defences and send a message to Unicron. Incidentally, this is what Shockwave did back in War & Peace, so we all know the outcome here.
At this moment I would just like to ask a very important question – WHEN THE HELL CAN WE GET A TRANSFORMERS COMIC WITH A STORYLINE THAT DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH UNICRON???
Sigh… Well, at least the artwork here is worth the money. Wildman always showed promise back in the good ol’ days, but here the high quality of the Dreamwave inking and colouring team amplify his artwork tenfold. For all Furman has cocked up his potential, The Fallen looks like the scariest Transformer since Galvatron went all a’cuckoo. The devastating no-sell of Grimlock’s advances simply hurts the reader as well. His one-bot assault on Jazz, Mirage and Sunstreaker in order to ‘rescue’ Blitzwing is equally devastating and, in a nice change from Dreamwave’s standard, easy for the reader to follow. Panels are uncluttered but what is there is made to matter. At the end of the day, we can’t ask for any more than that!
Oh, and in answer to my rather loud question above the last paragraph, I just stumbled upon this little gem over on Previews. There is still hope…
