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TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION 1 #2
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Dreamwave Productions
Writer: Chris Sarracini
Pencils: Pat Lee
Inks: Rob Armstrong
Backgrounds: Edwin Garcia
Colors: Ramil Sunga, Gary Yeung & Alan Wang
Letters: Dreamer Design
Editor: Roger Lee
Price: $2.95 US |
I get it now.
For the longest time, I didn't really get the whole giant robot anime/manga thing. Sure, they made for cool visuals and all, but more often than not, I wondered what the point was. Now, the 1980s Transformers cartoon was more of a super-hero thing than a show about Japanese giant-robot sensation. But thanks to the Dreamwave Productions crew, I finally get it -- this is a monster movie put to paper, like Godzilla Vs. King Kong, just with robots with better dialogue.
The U.S. Army has turned to Spike because they need to awaken the dormant robotic form of Optimus Prime so as to fight back against arms merchants who are using Megatron and other Transformers to achieve their corrupt and violent ends. Meanwhile, those selfsame merchants hold a demonstration and auction of their new hardware, but the ultimate winner in the bidding turns out to be a nasty surprise.
Lee and company can be added to the list of artists who do "widescreen" comics extremely well. Not only does Lee capture the larger-than-life quality of the title characters -- something that never really came together in the television incarnations that I've seen of the Transformers -- but there's a celluloid look to the art in general. The computer coloring plays a big part in that, and it adds depth and texture to the visuals.
I remain impressed with how accessible the story is. Sarracini has given the reader everything s/he needs to follow along, but there's also a payoff for those signing on for the nostalgia factor. Thanks to the artists, one can detect a subtle despair among the Autobots who appear alongside the Decepticons in a key, powerful scene.
And therein lies the real strength of this book: the emotion that Sarracini has instilled in the plot. Spike's resentment of the dormant Optimus Prime is understandable and comes off as genuine. Through his script, the writer also conveys the strength of Optimus, granting the enormous, metallic exterior a key component of humanity. Sure, Transformers: Generation 1 has been a fun read so far, but it's also been an intelligent one.
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