Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: “Destined for Nothingâ€
Written by: James “Brad Mick†McDonough & Adam Patyk
Penciled by: Rob Ruffolo
Inked by: Erik Sander
Colored by: David Cheung
Lettered by: Ben Lee
Editor: N/A
Publisher: Dreamwave
The immediate reaction is that this issue more than lives up to the story title. It seems to fail on practically every level and is a massive disappointment, perhaps the single greatest failure Dreamwave has provided us since their Transformers franchise sprung to life. Even more annoying is that you simply can’t fault the creative team at Dreamwave for trying to provide something new and innovative for the fans. However, where similarly original endeavours such as The War Within have succeeded, Micromasters is apparently doomed to failure unless things pick up drastically in the remaining three issues. Hell, even the introduction fails to work as they have elected to put it after the strip itself has finished, which more than misses the point of having one in the first place.
The idea for doing a series on the Micromasters, who had always merely been a wave of small and affordable Transformer toys in the past, spun out of the More Than Meets The Eye profile books, where Dreamwave writers managed to provide full characteristics for each of the Micromasters and reasons for their creation. As it transpired, they were created in a complicated procedure involving Vector Sigma at Shockwave’s instructions. He logically understood that the rapidly depleting energy levels on Cybertron due to the Great War meant that new soldiers had to be smaller and more energy-efficient in order for there to be any hope for the future. After their creation (without the use of the Matrix, I hasten to add… no explanation is given for this oversight), they were left in a ghetto called Little Iacon and allowed to choose whether they would pledge their allegiance to the Autobot or Decepticon ranks. However, both parties elected not to wait and instead went in to pick up those already earmarked for service. Quite why the Autobots would do this is a mystery to me as it seems to go against everything they stand for. Sure, desperate times call for desperate measures and they were being led by Ultra Idiot Magnus at the time, but it seems as uncharacteristic a move as Batman so readily accepting Spoiler as the new Robin.
Anyway, the confused rookies are split into two opposing forces and forced to fight for the larger bots in charge. If this seems at all familiar then it’s because the exact same thing happened with the Minicons in Armada as recently as last year. Simply cutting and pasting the same premise into a Generation One setting is not the hallmark of a great idea. A great idea would require a fresh twist being added to this rather flimsy foundation in order to overlook some of the glaring plot holes and similarities present. The introduction does hint at something like this being provided. McDonough and Patyk wax lyrical about showing a true learning curve and maturation period for these youngsters instead of just focusing on their “adult†perspectives. They pose questions like â€What happens when the world loses its heroes and villains? What happens when it’s then engulfed in a massive grey cloud of despair? And what happens when you’re caught smack-dab in the middle of this, completely unsure of what’s right, what’s wrong and what any of it has to do with you?†Well, if someone like Garth Ennis had been given the chance to work on this project then I’m sure we would have found some interesting answers, or at the very least an opening issue that could hook the readers. As it is, none of the Transformers fans I have spoken to about this were impressed in the least.
The main problem is that there are simply far too many new characters introduced at once. They can get away with doing this in Generation One and, to a lesser extent, Energon due to the vast levels of supplementary material available to the readers to check out. However, Micromasters features toys that have been unavailable in well over a decade, were never particularly popular in the first place, and where never made the focal point of any comics or cartoons back in the day! We’re introduced to the entire cast here and I cannot recall a single damn name of any of them. All I can remember is that the Autobot Micromasters meet Ultra Magnus and Fortress Maximus, both of whom are drawn phenomenally poorly by a bizarre scale system in relation to their smaller brethren. Maximus in particular fares poorly, with humongous shoulders covering up a head about the size of a pea. The Decepticon Micromasters have a run-in with Shockwave and Astrotrain, who fare slightly better in the art department, and the general consensus seems to be that both sets of Micromasters are feeling rather unappreciated. The Decepticons send them on perilous energy-seeking missions and then keep the energon for themselves, while the Autobots are pretty much doing the same thing without realizing it. With both sets of Micromasters angry at their superiors/captors, they set off back to Little Iacon. Along the way they bump into one another and realise that fighting is futile as their real anger is directed at the Autobots and Decepticons, not one another. Then… some robots turn up, who they apparently don’t like that much. I have absolutely no idea who or what these robots are and we are given no hints at it either, so as far as cliffhanger endings are concerned, this is about as dangerous as stepping off the kerb.
Quite frankly, this is a terrible introduction to a new series. None of the characters make an impression, the intriguing premise is wasted for a rehash of the Armada Minicons instead of the robotic Vietnam tale Dreamwave hinted at, and the artwork is truly, truly shocking. The big robots were drawn poorly, as said above, but the Micromasters themselves fare just as badly. They all seem to be far too chunky and incapable of standing correctly, instead squatting at incredibly peculiar angles. Worst of all is the bottom panel of page nine. Supposedly an epic fight between two of the Autobot and Decepticon Micromasters, it instead just looks like they are disco-dancing with one another. Ruffolo – come in, your time is up.
