Wheeljack Lives! ( The Transformers Comic Thread)

[El Chuxter]

I always thought Robot Master should've killed G B Blackrock and assumed control of the NeoKnights.

Budiansky loved to forget things. Like Circuit Breaker. Where was she supposed to be for all those years? Or the Roadjammers? Set up a major thorn in the side of 'bots and 'cons, then leave them in limbo. Jinkies!

Simon Furman, on the other hand, I blame for my geekiness. I picked up Transformers 56 and 57 on a whim one day and loved them. It was on my subsequent journeys in search of back issues I'd missed (about 50-60 of them in all) that I branched into other comics that looked cool or I'd heard of. One cover in particular of a half-naked wild man (who I already knew was Wolverine) slashing some daffy orange-smelling man apart, as well as the story inside about some punk kid saving Wolverine's sorry butt yet again, got me hooked on X-Men.

The coolest possible crossover would be Jubilee and Bumblebee.

[Eternal Padawan]

I know all about branching. It's what happens when you go a week without a comic book and need to buy something.

In the Beginning
The year was 1988. Transformers and G.I.Joe were the full extent of my comic reading. But as we all know, two comics a month can't sustain the addiction (and it is an addiction) when you are walking into the comic shop every other day looking for back issues (man is there anything cooler than the smell of a comic shop. All that aging paper under the full blast of the A.C. to keep it climate controlled...) Eventually, both series would hit their brick walls. Although I stopped G.I.Joe around the time Snake Eyes became the major selling point and Scarlett started dressing up like a super heroine. Last year, I tracked down all the issues I missed. (except #154, the penultimate issue, and the Special which retold #61's story with "long lost" McFarlane artwork). The 'formers I stayed with until the bitter end.

Some kids at school ( Junior High) were bonkers for The Punisher. I picked up #14. Frank as a substitute teacher. Whilce Portacio blew me away with his art. Then the War Journal beckoned with the first ever Wolvie/Punisher crossover and Jim Lee's stellar doodling. I stayed almost to the end (including War Zone and the excellent Eliot Brown Armory series) but quit when the whole multiple Punisher story kicked in. Then I read they were ending all three series and madly dashed around to find the handful of issues I had missed. I am still missing #98, 100, and 102 of the original series, #74-77 of W.J. and #35-39 of W.Z.

Batman had just whacked Jason Todd and Detective Comics was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Dark Knight with issue #600. Plus there was a movie or something right around then. The hooplah got me interested, but Jim Aparo and Norm Breyfogle kept me interested. Until #525 for Bats and #691 for 'Tec. Not sure what was going on in those particular issues, but I think a general dismay of all things comic made me stop at the time. Of course, Jim Lee got me interested again last year.

Comics go Bi-Weekly for the Summer
It gets a bit fuzzy which comics they were. I think The Amazing Spider-Man was starting the AssassiNation plot by Michelinie and McFarlane. Silver Sable, Captain America, and the Paladin all help Spidey fight the Red Skull. That Cap appearance also led me to...
The Bloodstone Hunt in Captain America. Not an exceptional story, but Kieron Dwyer drew a cool Cap and the lure of back issues led me to a wicked storyline where Cap got fired and U.S.Agent took over, culminating in Steve's return in #350. I kept reading until #446.

The Uncanny X-Men. Where it all began. Somewhere between the Fall of the Mutants and Inferno, the X-Men headed off to Genosha for a couple issues. I wanna say my first issue was the one with a postcard(?) of two X-men hanging by their feet surrounded by Genoshan's saying "Wish you were here!" They were all hiding out in Australia. Alex was falling for his brother's wife. Peter was painting. Storm and Wolvie were trying their best at co-leading. Professor X was nowhere to be found. Silvestri was drawing it and Claremont was writing. This of course, led me to X-Factor to see what that cad, Scott was up to. Buying back issues of these two series became my sole purpose for earning money.

Inferno
So many books came out of this crossover. Avengers hit #300 during Inferno and that was enough for me to buy it. Plus the team was down to basically uhhh...Jarvis. That led to [b]Avengers West Coast[b] (with the really cool John Byrne stuff like the Vision dismantled all over a table and the return of Iron Man (which would get me interested in Iron Man.

I started Excalibur because of Inferno (and quickly tracked down all the issues I could find, including the original Bookshelf one shot). Claremont and Davis ruled.

And since you couldn't understand Inferno with just X-Men and X-Factor, I picked up New Mutants too. I dropped it after Inferno, but then picked it up again when Cable showed up in #87. I collected that until the end ( and many back issues as well) and steam rolled right into X-Force until #49. I have 14 copies of X-Force #1. ( I'll explain why if you ask nicely)

Acts of Vengeance
(sigh) I started reading Web of Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man because of the whole "Cosmic Spidey" thing happening in Amazing. I also bought Daredevil because he was tussling with Blob and Pyro, but stuck around because of Nocenti and Romita Jr.

The final hold outs
There was an ad for Silver Surfer and the Fantastic Four . The Silver Surfer issue turned out to be #34 which introduced Thanos and his megomaniacal quest for the infinity stones and eventually led into Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Infinity Abyss, Infinity Smackdown!, and Infinity [fill in the blank]. It had killer Ron Lim artwork and Norrin Radd was too cool, even when outclassed by the just as cool Thanos. The Fantastic Four was a time travelling adventure that included Thor and Iron Man for good measure and lasted several months. Walt Simonson is a groovy cat with a unique style that got me hooked and I think probably led me to collecting Thor as well. Either that or it was the only Marvel book I wasn't picking up so I figured what the heck...

[u]The number ones[u]
Right about the time I started collecting, Marvel introduced a clever way to increase revenue. They would put out a half dozen new series every year and hoped that they all survived. I was suckered into buying just. about. every. last. one. Quasar. Darkhawk. Sleepwalker. Namor. You name it, I probably bought it for a year before I decided whether I wanted to keep reading it or not.

[Eternal Padawan]

But enough of this reminiscing! Transformers #2 has Topspin and Twintwist in it! Tee Hee!

AND Reflector! The different colored one (not the green/purple one from the cartoon...)

Now all we need to see are the Deluxe insecticons and we'll be set.

Perceptor shows up, and we finally see what happened to the Dinobots ( in this continuity anyhoo...) Hopefully Grimlock can pull the Autobacon out of the fire yet again... Grimlock is the Jubilee to Optimus' Wolverine.

[El Chuxter]

"Me Grimlock like totally save Prime's butt, y'know?"



Yes, this issue is a good one. This really has me anticipating each issue. As long as Saracini or whatever the guy's name who wrote the first volume is never allowed near a typewriter again, I retract all the bad things I've said about Dreamwave.

[El Chuxter]

Holy crap!!

Those of us who either never read or dropped Armada (and I'm sure we are legion) may want to reconsider.

From the Dreamwave site:

TRANSFORMERS ARMADA #14

It begins here... the ARMADA storyline that ALL TRANSFORMERS fans have been demanding! The MINI-CON OVER-RUN arrives with a dire warning for the ARMADA TRANSFORMERS: Chaos is coming! And he's right... big time! The walls between realities are starting to crumble, and from beyond come agents of darkness, all-too familiar faces bent on destruction and mayhem. But they serve an even greater power... one that even now has ARMADA OPTIMUS PRIME squarely in its sights! Don't dare miss this 'generation-spanning' saga... from Simon Furman and Don Figueroa!

Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by Guido Guidi
Inked by Elaine To
Colored by Shaun Curtis & David Cheung

Yeah, yeah, it's Unicron; we all knew he's finally coming out as a toy so it makes sense to put him in the comic. But check out this awesome cover.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Galvatron we know and love isn't in the Armada universe, nor is there a bad re-paint with little slots for snapping on doofy plastic "Minicons" that are just glorified MicroMasters. So which reality is this "all-too familiar [face] bent on destruction and mayhem" from? With Furman in charge, maybe we'll finally get to find out what happened to Galvatron once Fort Max whooped up on him back in Transformers #79!

[Adam]

Damnit chux, you beat me to it.

I'm starting to wonder if this is related to the "big suprise" for G1 fans at the end of the Armada toon as well.

And with Furman writing, and Don F drawing, it has to be a good issue.

[jjreason]

Not to spam, but my subscription service sent me Transformers: Armada 1-10, and I have no interest in them. Please PM me if you'd like them, cover price takes the lot. I also have "More than Meets the Eye" #1, same deal.

Now, back to your more focused discussion....

[Eternal Padawan]

Is Armada any good? The RID stuff (cartoon etc) blew except for the introduction of Scourge. And then it just kind of petered out. Did that kid ever find his dad? So the acid taste of RID left me avoiding Armada.

[El Chuxter]

Armada was hit and miss, and I dropped it, though just an issue or two ago. I actually kept buying it for a few months because Simon Furman took charge, but dropped it because I hadn't read something like four consecutive issues because the characters didn't interest me all that much.

Big news on the Devil's Due TF vs Joe comic can be found here: http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=1355&mode=flat. Looks like the art isn't nearly as weird as the initial picture made it look, and good ol' Josh "If you can't have Larry Hama, he's the next best thing" Blaylock oughtta be able to spin a pretty wild yarn.

[Adam]

Originally posted by Eternal Padawan
Did that kid ever find his dad?

Yes. He was kinda crucial for Fortress Maximus's appearance near the end of the series.


And don't forget, there are two TF/GIJOE series, one from DD and one from Dreamwave.