Henry10TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON #1-3
October 7th 2008 07:02
The IDW relaunch of the Transformers franchise just trundles along with little fanfare. It's a long way away from the heady days of the Dreamwave series debuting at the top of the charts, but I've been enjoying things. IDW have to this point taken a more restrained approach to the storytelling than Dreamwave did, and the result is certainly more cohesive.
But now we have a different writer handling the reins, and the old rules have changed. I'd like to applaud IDw on this point - as much as I love Simon Furman and would like to have his babies, he's been writing these characters, and variations thereof, for over 20 years. You know what you're going to get. Sure, it will be solid and it will be entertaining, but it will also be familiar. And to be honest, Furman's best days are well gone. I wouldn't want to see him wholely excised from the franchise, because he's proved his worth time and again, but I'm glad there's room for other voices to chime in with their take.
With that said, All Hail Megatron is not really what I'm looking for. The story, written by newcomer Shane McCarthy, has been fast-forwarded by a year from the previous series, and the evil Decepticons are wreaking havoc across the Earth, completely unchecked by the Autobots. It's a complete reversal from the set-up Furman was working with, where the war was kept a secret, with rules and regulations governing how the war could be fought. That was an intriguing premise, and I'm still geared up to see how things got that way. But now, without ever really exploring the possibilities of that set-up, it's gone, and we have a much less interesting one in its place.
Because let's face it, there is very little substance here. The story is just Megatron and his flunkies repeatedly blowing things up. Sure, Starscream is plotting against Megatron in the background, but we've seen that a bazilitrillimillion times before. And yes, I'm interested in finding out what has happened in the interim, but less so than I was about the previous plotline. The most intriguing part of the whole story is a one-page scene involving the Autobots, which hardly says much for the writer's ability to make his lead characters interesting (especially when I have a vested interest in the characters to begin with).
Given that this is a mostly action-driven story then, the art needs to be great. I'm happy to say that on this score it delivers the goods. Guido Guidi, who started with Dreamwave and has followed the franchise since then, draws some mean Decepticons. He gives things a much more animated look, and this along with the more simplistic plot does evoke the 1980s cartoon, albeit with far more grim happenings.
The covers have to be mentioned at this juncture as well. Though the original covers are the standard garish fare, the alternates are brilliantly militaristic and propogandist. It's experimental stuff like this that I'd like to see the property exploring.
All Hail Megatron looks pretty, there's no denying that, but at its heart there is very little substance. Of the current Transformers material out there on the shelves, people would be best served by reading the reprint series Best of UK, which is currently going through the cream of Simon Furman's output.
But now we have a different writer handling the reins, and the old rules have changed. I'd like to applaud IDw on this point - as much as I love Simon Furman and would like to have his babies, he's been writing these characters, and variations thereof, for over 20 years. You know what you're going to get. Sure, it will be solid and it will be entertaining, but it will also be familiar. And to be honest, Furman's best days are well gone. I wouldn't want to see him wholely excised from the franchise, because he's proved his worth time and again, but I'm glad there's room for other voices to chime in with their take.
With that said, All Hail Megatron is not really what I'm looking for. The story, written by newcomer Shane McCarthy, has been fast-forwarded by a year from the previous series, and the evil Decepticons are wreaking havoc across the Earth, completely unchecked by the Autobots. It's a complete reversal from the set-up Furman was working with, where the war was kept a secret, with rules and regulations governing how the war could be fought. That was an intriguing premise, and I'm still geared up to see how things got that way. But now, without ever really exploring the possibilities of that set-up, it's gone, and we have a much less interesting one in its place.
Because let's face it, there is very little substance here. The story is just Megatron and his flunkies repeatedly blowing things up. Sure, Starscream is plotting against Megatron in the background, but we've seen that a bazilitrillimillion times before. And yes, I'm interested in finding out what has happened in the interim, but less so than I was about the previous plotline. The most intriguing part of the whole story is a one-page scene involving the Autobots, which hardly says much for the writer's ability to make his lead characters interesting (especially when I have a vested interest in the characters to begin with).
Given that this is a mostly action-driven story then, the art needs to be great. I'm happy to say that on this score it delivers the goods. Guido Guidi, who started with Dreamwave and has followed the franchise since then, draws some mean Decepticons. He gives things a much more animated look, and this along with the more simplistic plot does evoke the 1980s cartoon, albeit with far more grim happenings.
The covers have to be mentioned at this juncture as well. Though the original covers are the standard garish fare, the alternates are brilliantly militaristic and propogandist. It's experimental stuff like this that I'd like to see the property exploring.
All Hail Megatron looks pretty, there's no denying that, but at its heart there is very little substance. Of the current Transformers material out there on the shelves, people would be best served by reading the reprint series Best of UK, which is currently going through the cream of Simon Furman's output.
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