"Games of Deception" comic review - SPOILERS!
G.B. Blackrock
Classics-universe comic story "Games of Deception." Here are my
thoughts on the good, the bad, and the bizarre.
But first, the obligatory SPOILER SPACE!
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The Good:
-- So, Megatron's using the Ark as his base these days? (Last seen
crashed into Northern Canada in issue #79 of the US Marvel comic-
Remember, G2 doesn't count in the "Classicsverse"!)
-- Ratchet (or his body, at least) is seen in one frame, below a
seated Megatron in the Ark
-- Is that Galvatron's cannon placed above Megatron on page 10?
-- We finally find out what's up with Shockwave-a disembodied head
kept around by Megatron strictly as an advisor, but given no freedom
or access to the computers on his own. Megatron's a mean one!
-- Snarl is still an Action Master. Nice tie to comic continuity.
Pity we never see Tyrannitron, though (I'd put this in "The Bad," but
it's pretty incidental, and really only has meaning in the context of
Snarl's presence).
-- We are given oblique mentions of the two Nebulans who used to be
binary-bonded to characters seen here without them, giving some clues
as to what's happened to them.
-- The little bit of characterization we see for Thundercracker,
especially where it's clear that he positively can't stand Weirdwolf,
is awesome!
The Bad:
-- Why bother having Huffer be one of the convention-exclusive toys
if he's not even going to play a part in the story? He basically
shows up long enough to say, "Hi, I'm here, but I'm gonna stay behind
on the ship because I hate Earth so much," at which point he
disappears from the rest of the story entirely.
-- For that matter, Springer doesn't have much to do, either,
although he at least is *present* for the duration.
-- Elita-1 is given much more to do than Huffer and Springer, and
she's not even a convention-exclusive toy. This certainly gives fuel
to the belief that she's likely to show up as a club-exclusive
sometime soon, but even HER involvement in the story is completely
unnecessary to the story itself. She finds the Ark (which Swoop
handles just fine on his own), and then gets into a battle with
Ravage, which does nothing to propel the main plot along, serving only
to remind us that Ravage talks in this continuity and to show off that
Elita-1 has camouflaging skills that are clearly superior to
Mirage's. Oh, and she tells the other Autobots where in the room
Mirage is. Again, something that really could have been done without
her.
-- Obligatory reminder that gendered Transformers did not exist in
the US comic continuity prior to Classics, making the inclusion of
Elita-1 (a formerly cartoon-only character who is explicitly female)
in this continuity without explanation a bit jarring.
-- Mirage shows off that he can turn invisible, only to have his
invisibility penetrated almost instantly. Why is Mirage, for whom
being a spy (let alone invisible) is pretty much his whole schtick,
found so easily? With this kind of incompetence, how could Mirage
have possibly survived *this* long? And then, Mirage's function for
the rest of the story is to serve as a hostage, a situation that does
not serve to propel the story along in any meaningful way, since the
Autobots would *already* have needed to follow Bug Bite and his crew
to investigate what was going on, anyway.
-- As much as I enjoyed the Ratchet easter egg, it did little to
explain how Megatron is able to function these days (for the
uninformed, we were told in US issue #70 that neither Ratchet nor
Megatron could survive without the other).
-- What happened in those last few panels, anyway? Examples:
// -- Who's shooting at who? Pete told us at one point that he
wanted an "old Seekers vs. coneheads" scene, but that seems to be
relegated to one panel on page 18 where, for no apparent reason,
Thundercracker shoots at Thrust and Dreadwind (not a conehead), his
then-current teammates. And, on the last panel of page 20, who's
fist, foot, or other appendage, is doing what to whom?
// -- Is the Ark destroyed (again), or merely damaged? The
Autobots make a really big deal about taking out the computers for no
apparent reason.
// -- What is it in Megatron's hand that he's crushing in his last
panel? Does it serve any significance at all other than to show us
that Megatron survived, and that he doesn't like Autobots? If not,
why bother?
-- OK, so just what happened to BugBite's universe, anyway? He
tells us "a precious balance" was "upset" there, that "time itself was
simply unraveling around [them]," and implies that the "Classics"
universe is responsible, but we never learn how. Megatron certainly
was unaware of it. How does BugBite know?
The Bizarre:
-- Magnus to Prime (page 22): "It was good to see you, Optimus."
WHAT? They never saw each other in the entire story. This panel is
utterly superfluous. With so much of the rest of the story rushed,
this panel space could have been devoted to giving some of the above
"what happened" questions more clarity.
So, there it is. My two cents,
G.B. Blackrock
Thunder Fantastic!
> OK. So I've finally gotten my BotCon 2007 boxed set, including the
> Classics-universe comic story "Games of Deception." Here are my
> thoughts on the good, the bad, and the bizarre.
<snip>
Sounds like another "quality" fan club comic... :) (I have a copy coming
to me but haven't gotten it yet).
t.k.
David Willis
> -- Snarl is still an Action Master. Nice tie to comic continuity.
> Pity we never see Tyrannitron, though (I'd put this in "The Bad," but
> it's pretty incidental, and really only has meaning in the context of
> Snarl's presence).
First wide shot of the bridge. He's down in the corner.
> The Bad:
> -- Why bother having Huffer be one of the convention-exclusive toys
> if he's not even going to play a part in the story? He basically
> shows up long enough to say, "Hi, I'm here, but I'm gonna stay behind
> on the ship because I hate Earth so much," at which point he
> disappears from the rest of the story entirely.
> -- For that matter, Springer doesn't have much to do, either,
> although he at least is *present* for the duration.
> -- Elita-1 is given much more to do than Huffer and Springer, and
> she's not even a convention-exclusive toy.
Yeah. I agree on all these points. Huffer does nothing. Springer does
nothing except hold a pair of binoculars wrong. But Elita One, who doesn't
have a toy and shouldn't even be in the Marvel continuity to begin with, is
the star of the show. And even so, nothing she does is of any import.
> // -- What is it in Megatron's hand that he's crushing in his last
> panel?
It's Bug Bite's little remote control.
--David
G.B. Blackrock
> Spoilers!
>
> > -- Snarl is still an Action Master. Nice tie to comic continuity.
> > Pity we never see Tyrannitron, though (I'd put this in "The Bad," but
> > it's pretty incidental, and really only has meaning in the context of
> > Snarl's presence).
>
> First wide shot of the bridge. He's down in the corner.
Ahhh, yes. Now that you mention it, we actually talked about this (as
a fandom) when the preview pages were released.
Well, I guess it's safe to say that the Autobots on the ship didn't
notice Tyrannitron there, either (if Magnus' parting instructions to
Huffer are any indication), so perhaps I can be forgiven for the
oversight.
> > // -- What is it in Megatron's hand that he's crushing in his last
> > panel?
>
> It's Bug Bite's little remote control.
>
> --David
No doubt you're right, but as I look back through the previous pages,
I don't even see it in *Bug Bite's* hands after they get to the Ark.
The only times I see him holding it are at the bottom of page 2, and
again at the bottom of page 5. Is this the device Bug Bite presses in
a panel on page 15 (which looks like a console on a table surface, and
not at all like something being held in one's other hand while being
pressed)? I still consider this sloppy artistic direction. I should
be able to TELL what's going on....
Oh, and I've got one more for "The Bizarre":
-- On page 11, Shockwave tells us that Bug Bite arrived shortly
"before we crashed here." Either he means "4 million years ago," or
"15 years ago" depending on which crash one assumes Shockwave to be
referring to. Either way, why did Bug Bite come here so long ago?
What's he been doing all this time, to have his all plans for revenge
be thwarted so effortlessly?
David Willis
> -- On page 11, Shockwave tells us that Bug Bite arrived shortly
> "before we crashed here." Either he means "4 million years ago," or
> "15 years ago" depending on which crash one assumes Shockwave to be
> referring to. Either way, why did Bug Bite come here so long ago?
> What's he been doing all this time, to have his all plans for revenge
> be thwarted so effortlessly?
I assume he meant 4 million years ago. Shockwave's statement suggests that
there was a very short time in which he could observe Bug Bite before they
crash-landed, and I think investigating mysterious new Decepticons seems
more like a immediately-"pre-1984" thing than a "while fighting Unicron"
thing.
Not doing anything of any importance for four million years is what
Transformers do best.
--David
G.B. Blackrock
I don't necessarily think we're given that Shockwave directly observed
Bug Bite at all. He knows a lot of stuff about Bludgeon's group that
would be impossible for him to have observed directly (indeed, this
seems to be the kind of thing Megatron keeps him around for. Megatron
certainly *expects* Shockwave to know about Bug Bite). If he learned
about Bug Bite from some third-party source (perhaps during one of the
apparently-limited times when Megatron grants him computer access?),
then pretty much anything becomes possible. Certainly, you're right
in saying that Shockwave indicates that he hasn't had time to collect
much data, and seems to tie this lack of knowledge to Bug Bite's
recent appearance. But why should Megatron be so sure that Shockwave
will know something about a Transformer he himself knows (apparently)
little about, if Bug Bite's been around all that time?
G.B. Blackrock
G.B. Blackrock
wrote:
Incidentally, none of this is to mean it CAN'T be that Bug Bite really
did arrive 4 million years ago. I'm just not as confident that it's
been demonstrated by what Shockwave said. Especially if that's the
case, though, the question still applies. Most TFs had an *excuse*
for "not doing anything of any importance for 4 million years." They
were lying around deactivated all that time! Surely you don't mean to
suggest that Bug Bite was lying alongside the rest of them? That's a
HUGE plot detail that the story just glosses over, and that's sloppy.
I mean, what could Megatron (assuming Bug Bite's right) have done
BEFORE HE EVEN GOT TO EARTH that caused Bug Bite's universe to be
destroyed? Should we assume, then, that the events of "Challenge of
the GoBots" actually happened more than 4 million years ago, or does
Bug Bite travel through time, too? If so, why?
ShadowWing
"G.B. Blackrock" wrote
> I mean, what could Megatron (assuming Bug Bite's right) have done
> BEFORE HE EVEN GOT TO EARTH that caused Bug Bite's universe to be
> destroyed? Should we assume, then, that the events of "Challenge of
> the GoBots" actually happened more than 4 million years ago, or does
> Bug Bite travel through time, too? If so, why?
It's also possible that some dimensions move at different paces linearly
than others. The "Challenge" GoBots universe could run at a different time,
so in that universe it was modern (using Reality Prime--aka, our
universe--as a guide) times, but when he arrived in the Classics universe,
it was earlier.
David Willis
> did arrive 4 million years ago. I'm just not as confident that it's
> been demonstrated by what Shockwave said. Especially if that's the
> case, though, the question still applies. Most TFs had an *excuse*
> for "not doing anything of any importance for 4 million years." They
> were lying around deactivated all that time! Surely you don't mean to
> suggest that Bug Bite was lying alongside the rest of them? That's a
> HUGE plot detail that the story just glosses over, and that's sloppy.
No, I don't think Bug Bite was on the Ark. I just think Megatron thought
Shockwave knew more about Bug Bite, because, you know, Shockwave keeps tabs
on things because he's very logical! Or something.
> I mean, what could Megatron (assuming Bug Bite's right) have done
> BEFORE HE EVEN GOT TO EARTH that caused Bug Bite's universe to be
> destroyed?
Well, Megatron's fusion cannon links up interdimensionally to a black
hole...
> Should we assume, then, that the events of "Challenge of
> the GoBots" actually happened more than 4 million years ago, or does
> Bug Bite travel through time, too? If so, why?
They probably travelled to the source of the disturbance, whenever in time
it was. If, say, Megatron's fusion cannon was yanking energy from the
GoBots universe, spiralling them into an accelerated heat death, then they'd
likely arrive before Megatron crashed on Earth. He's been using that thing
for a while.
--David
www.shortpacked.com
G.B. Blackrock
It's all possible. But it's also all stuff that we shouldn't even be
having to ask or answer for ourselves.
Iron Wookiee
>having to ask or answer for ourselves.
Indeed. What we need is a new IDW Transformers / GoBots crossover
comic.
I've been wanting one for twenty years.