Transformers Comc Overview Part 3: Dreamwave Relaunch!
December 13th 2006 10:38
With the cancellation of Transformers: Generation 2 in the early 90s, the franchise was effectively dead. No comics, no cartoon, no toys. Transforming robots, and their punching and laser-blasting ways, seemed a thing of the awesome past. Thankfully, nerds grow up, and earn money. The Transformers would return in 2002!
With nostalgia heavy in the air, a small company called Dreamwave managed to snag the rights to the Transformers, mostly on the strength of some sample art by the company president Pat Lee. Before this Dreamwave had had some moderate success with titles such as Warlands and Darkminds, but Transformers would bring them new notoriety when it debuted as the #1 title for the month.
The first six-issue miniseries was a mixed bag. Played mostly as a nostalgia piece, it took the classic set-up of the Transformers stranded on Earth in the 80s, and extrapolated those events twenty years on. With the war won by a coalition of Autobots and humans, a starship was built that was supposed to take the Autobots and a few select humans back to Cybertron. As is the way of such things in backstory, the ship exploded, the Transformers were scattered and buried, and the story picked up a few years on with some Transformers being unearthed and sold to terrorists. Of course it all goes pear-shaped, and the Transformers regain their freedom, and it all devolves into one of Megatron's patented Evil Schemes.
The main draw for Dreamwave was Pat Lee's art, but even that was uneven. He was brilliant when doing posters and still shots, but dreadful when it came to storytelling. Unfortunately, we all know which one is more important when it comes to comics...
With the franchise successfully launched, Dreamwave decided to create a spinoff set at the very beginning of the Cybertronian war, It revolved around Optimus Prime, and the events surrounding his ascension to Autobot leadership. With a rare show of good sense, they hired Simon Furman, legendary Transformers scribe of yore. Aiding him on art was Don Figueroa, a Transformers fan renowned for his fan art and toys. Figueroa reconfigured all of the characters in interesting ways, seeing that they couldn't logically look like Earth cars before ever landing on Earth. The resulting mini was easily the best thing Dreamwave produced in its entire run.
The regular series continued with another six issue mini, and then a full-blown ongoing. The Transformers returned to Cybertron, and the fan service began. The whole thing was chock-full of in-jokes and references that only hardened fans would get, and the plot got more and more complicated as ongoing stories and subplots piled one on top of the other. Pat Lee's art got more confusing as the colouring techniques grew murkier. There were some great moments (such as the unveiling of an unarmoured Ultra Magnus looking like a white Optimus Prime, just like the toy), and to be honest I enjoyed it all a hell of a lot, but objectively it was muddled.
After ten issues of the ongoing and a few more spin-offs, troubling rumours started flying about. Writers Brad Mick and Adam Patyk were apparently not being paid, and they weren't the only ones. It turned out that Dreamwave were in a whole lot of debt, and things weren't looking good. The company shortly went bankrupt, leaving several employees unpaid, but it didn't stop Pat Lee buying a porsche and generally absconding with lots of money (allegedly, I say with little sincerity).
HIGHLIGHTS
Transformers: The War Within #1-6
This hasn't been collected as far as I know, but the original six issues are well worth tracking down. Come on, it's the origin of Optimus Prime!
Tomorrow: From the ashes... IDW!
The first six-issue miniseries was a mixed bag. Played mostly as a nostalgia piece, it took the classic set-up of the Transformers stranded on Earth in the 80s, and extrapolated those events twenty years on. With the war won by a coalition of Autobots and humans, a starship was built that was supposed to take the Autobots and a few select humans back to Cybertron. As is the way of such things in backstory, the ship exploded, the Transformers were scattered and buried, and the story picked up a few years on with some Transformers being unearthed and sold to terrorists. Of course it all goes pear-shaped, and the Transformers regain their freedom, and it all devolves into one of Megatron's patented Evil Schemes.
The main draw for Dreamwave was Pat Lee's art, but even that was uneven. He was brilliant when doing posters and still shots, but dreadful when it came to storytelling. Unfortunately, we all know which one is more important when it comes to comics...
After ten issues of the ongoing and a few more spin-offs, troubling rumours started flying about. Writers Brad Mick and Adam Patyk were apparently not being paid, and they weren't the only ones. It turned out that Dreamwave were in a whole lot of debt, and things weren't looking good. The company shortly went bankrupt, leaving several employees unpaid, but it didn't stop Pat Lee buying a porsche and generally absconding with lots of money (allegedly, I say with little sincerity).
HIGHLIGHTS
Transformers: The War Within #1-6
This hasn't been collected as far as I know, but the original six issues are well worth tracking down. Come on, it's the origin of Optimus Prime!
Tomorrow: From the ashes... IDW!
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