Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: The Omega Effect & Runnin’ with the Devil
Written by: Brad Mick
Penciled by: Don Figueroa (The Omega Effect), James Raiz (Runnin’ with the Devil)
Inked by: Elaine To (The Omega Effect), Erik Sander (Runnin’ with the Devil)
Colored by: Espen Grundetjern (The Omega Effect), Elliot Kravchik (Runnin’ with the Devil)
Lettered by: Ben Lee
Editor: Adam Patyk
Publisher: Dreamwave
Did you know that April 2004 was in fact Megatron Month? Yes indeed, those crazy kids up at Dreamwave elected to completely ignore the rumoured Hasbro take-over bids to give us this wonderful piece of news. I tried to use it to get the month off work but sadly my employers were having none of it. Bah, they must be puny Autobots. Despite my valiant efforts to keep the holiday spirit alive, which included but was not limited to putting a bucket on my head, strapping a large gun to my arm, and accusing people of being an “idiotic Starscreamâ€, it seemed as though it was going to pass without incident. Nobody really knew about Dreamwave’s half-assed little publicity stunt except for the core fanbase and even they had nothing to get excited about. A profile of Armada Megatron in Transformers Armada: More Than Meets The Eye is nothing to get excited about. Neither is his return in a shiny new body in Transformers Energon, especially since we’ve already seen it on the cartoon series and the toy shelves. No, when you want something done properly you have to rely on the originals or Generation One as they are now known. Entering the fray at the last moment to try and redeem Megatron Month, Brad Mick arrives with a juicy little slice of maniacal Megatron mayhem as only ol’ bucket-head can deliver. Runnin’ with the Devil may only be a little back-up strip, which brings back fond memories of the sheer brilliance that was Transformers UK, but it is damn enjoyable.
The last time we saw Megatron he had been jettisoned into deep space by Starscream in a scene lifted straight from Transformers the Movie. He was eventually found and brought back online by Wreck-Gar, a Junkion from the planet Junk. No, that does not mean they are all addicted to Robo-Smack or some such similar nonsense. Junk is a planet that formed inadvertently from a Cybertronian waste disposal program that used innovative yet unstable Space Bridge technology to dump their refuse in a far-off region of the galaxy. Being generally good-natured, even if he is besotted with Earth TV transmissions, it is perfectly reasonable for Wreck-Gar to help out a fellow mechanoid. After all, he doesn’t know that this mechanoid is one of the most evil creatures in the universe so there is no reason for him to question Megatron when he starts asking for various bits of junk to be brought to him. It means he gets to go out scavenging, which is the Junkion equivalent of a teenage girl in a mall with a purse full of no-limit credit cards.
Megatron’s latest zany scheme is apparently to build a series of Seeker clones. For those not in the know, Seeker is the term used to describe the designs of those cool looking planes, i.e. Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker and Sunstorm, who is of course a clone of Starscream in particular and has a bunch of extra powers. Megatron is looking for retribution, presumably on Starscream for jettisoning him into deep space but probably also Shockwave for attempting to oust him as Decepticon leader and then ruining their cause altogether. The fact that Megatron wants to destroy Starscream with the assistance of several mindless drones that look like Starscream is really quite warped. Meanwhile, over in the main story Starscream is having a lovely little daydream about Megatron berating him as his life flashes before his eyes. Forget about the ongoing debate over Arcee and the need for female Transformers, I think it’s about time we touched on another controversial issue – homosexual Transformers! Seriously, someone just get those two guys a room, a case of Kremzeek, some Stan Bush power ballads and let them get it out their system. It would save a lot of hassle. Anyway, this lovely little 5-page back-up strip has some outstanding penciling from James Raiz that puts the main story to shame. The dank and dirty atmosphere of Junk has never been encapsulated so flawlessly, and Megatron lurking in the shadows with such a menacing aura creates a foreboding sense that something terrible could happen at any time. Indeed, something terrible does happen and it is entirely unexpected. Dreamwave certainly deserve praise for having the balls to try and pull that off this early in the series and I cannot wait to see what else comes from this story thread.
Sadly, there is the main story to deal with as well. The Omega Effect carries on straight from last issue, where Sunstorm was about to be thoroughly squished by Omega Supreme. Now, Omega may not have appeared in a Transformers comic for many, many years now but it is still well known throughout the fanbase and to anybody with two brain cells to rub together that a robot the size of several CN Towers stacked on top of one another that transforms into a space station is more than capable of wiping the floor with one of the regular Transformers. This should be as one sided a contest as an ‘80s Mike Tyson bout. Instead we get proof that Mick has a hard-on for this guy in the same way that Simon Furman has for Grimlock, or that any X-Men writer has for Wolverine, as Sunstorm uses his fancy doohickey gimmick to get all riled up and go toe-to-toe with the big guy in a contrived fight scene that ought to have the Dragonball Z lawyers reaching for their phones. Bear in mind that last issue he was taken out by Jetfire of all people. It seemed as though they were going to portray him as someone who believed himself to be all-knowing and all-powerful but was instead merely unhinged and in way over his head. Now it feels as though they have taken a 180 on that idea, which is a great shame.
The dip in form for what had been an outstanding run of issues continues with some truly abysmal dialogue between Prowl and Ultra Magnus. They are back on Cybertron, scouring through Shockwave’s files, looking for clues as to where Sunstorm came from and exactly what he is capable of. At least, that’s what I get from looking at the artwork as the conversation and narration makes no bloody sense to me. Figueroa deserves more praise for the swamp scene however, in which Warpath pulls his fellow Autobots away from the watery graves they have been calling home ever since Starscream had Bruticus assault them in the first issue proper of the series. It is a wonderful little character scene that showcases Warpath’s incredible strength, one of many such moments the series has given us so far, and it simply looks stunning. So yes, there is some wheat among the chaff here as the comic is never truly terrible but never particularly enthralling. More often than not it is irritating, as in the debut of Commander Marissa Fairborne of the Earth Defense Command. Fairborne made an appearance on Five Faces of Darkness, the five-part mini-movie that opened the third season of the old Transformers animated series. I also believe she was meant to be the daughter of Flint, one of the main G.I. Joe characters. While it is nice to see Dreamwave continue to take note of previous continuities, human characters in Transformers franchises have nearly always been total morons that bug the crap out of everyone. Only Energon has really managed to make them tolerable, so let’s hope this plot either goes somewhere worthwhile or is just dropped altogether.
All in all this is a definite let-down in quality after the promising start to volume three, mainly due to some blindingly obvious errors of judgement that will hopefully be rectified soon. Certainly the potential for a truly enjoyable Transformers comic is noticeable throughout this issue, especially with the Megatron plot, so hopefully things will get back on track next month. After all, who among us can ever truly hope to live up to the great expectations of Megatron Month?
