While the art on this book remains spectacular for the most part, the plot and script just come off as too ham-fisted in the conclusion. The darkness that hooked me in the first issue is gone, replaced with some conventional storytelling and stilted dialogue. While this closing issue was the weakest of the series, overall, Generation 1 was a good bit of fun and opened the door for Dreamwave to suddenly become a force in the comic-book publishing industry.
A nuclear missile is streaking through the sky toward San Francisco, where the Autobots are doing battle with the Decepticons... and losing. While Megatron tries to convince Optimus Prime to abandon the humans and join his cause, elsewhere, Spike confronts the madman who launched the missile... and who killed his father. And in the frozen Canadian wilderness, Wheeljack, the only member of the Autobot splinter team left standing, must contend with the Canadian military and the techno-virus that's enveloping the countryside.
The detail that Lee brings to the huge, robotic characters from which this book derives its title is stunning. Despite their awkward forms, Lee manages to convey motion with seeming ease. The human characters in this issue looked a bit off, though, as though the artists were rushed when it came to their depiction.
There were three separate conflicts in this issue. Spike's confrontation with Hallo was resolved rather quickly and anti-climactically. Wheeljack's heroic, last-minute sacrifice in the Northwest Territories should have come off as tense and touching, but instead, the presence of the equipment and just-enough juice to get the job done was too big a pill to swallow.
Finally, we have Optimus Prime, defending the human race. Though I enjoyed the notion of why Prime admires humans -- unlike machines, they exercise choice -- the argument made robbed the title characters of any humanity. Essentially, Prime says that as an Autobot, he protects people because he's programmed to do so. And Megatron destroys because it's his digital nature. All of a sudden, we're with a hero, without a villain. There is no conflict as a result, just process.
