Okay I usually don't post anything other than transformers here (that's what this sideblog is for) but I poked around the dashboards of some of my followers and I need to say this.
If you are a "radical feminist", please unfollow and block me. I'm a gnc woman and radfems (even those that aren't outright terfs) make me feel extremely unsafe.
Radfems are not welcome here and never will be welcome here. Frankly, radfems tarnish the word feminism and there's nothing radical about being a hateful little shit spouting poorly aged gender theories from the 60s.
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FUN FACT! in the DVD commentary on Transwarped they say the darker tone in season 3 was fully intentional, they were told to “age up” the series a bit while they were in the middle of writing it. It was part of the reason why we got more wartime flashbacks with Ratchet and why Sari was upgraded :0
Here we go. It's happening, just as I threatened. Let's start our look at Dreamwave's first Transformers G1 miniseries, Prime Directive, one issue at a time. Pray for me, folks, people keep reacting in horror to me telling them about this project and it's making me nervous.
Some context before we begin our comic today, though. When it came out in 2002, this miniseries was the first attempt to seriously reimagine the G1 franchise since it originally ended in the West. The then-contemporary mainline Transformers fiction was anime prouced either wholly by or in conjunction with Takara, and none of it was in the style of the original G1 cartoon. In 2001, the Takara-made Car Robots series was imported by Hasbro, dubbed, and tweaked a little into the Robots in Disguise cartoon. In 2002, when this comic came out, Takara and Hasbro's joint efforts had resulted in the Armada series. Both were complete reimaginings of Transformers compared to what had come before.
So unlike today, when G1 nostalgia is ubiquitous enough that a common complaint amongst the fanbase is that it's impossible to escape, when Dreamwave released this comic there hadn't been any G1-esque English language media of note in years. In addition, the early 2000s were the start of the nostalgia boom we're still living through today in terms of pop culture, where the process of old franchises being strip-mined for constant reboots began. 'That cartoon you liked as a kid is getting a new comic, and it's for ADULTS this time!' was still a selling point with some novelty to it. The stage was very much set for this to be a succesful endeavour, and Dreamwave was banking on that to be their big break as a comics publisher.
And with that, here we are, folks: the first issue of Dreamwave's big Transformers revival. ...Sort of?
Before Dreamwave published their first Transformers miniseries, Prime Directive, a 6-page preview was produced to be sent to retailers. If you've followed any monthly comics before, you'll probably know that ahead of an issue dropping, companies typically release 4-6 pages as a preview ahead of time; this, by contrast, is an entirely original piece, taking no content from the upcoming first issue. If nothing else, that gives a good indication as to how hard Dreamwave were banking on the Transformers license being their big break.
The thing this preview is most remembered for is probably that it features five pages of nothing but humans talking, with only one brief glimpse of any robots. We open on said humans in the arctic, a setting which is notable because a) it gives me immediate Bayverse vibes and b) it's very obviously been picked so Lee doesn't have to draw too many backgrounds. I mean, look at this.
And hey, let's be fair. It's a lot of extra work to draw six whole pages just for a preview. There'll be plenty of other reasons to call Lee a lazy hack as we go through this project, so I'll let him off easy here.
What I won't be as kind to is the dialogue.
Right off the bat we begin with a very clumsy attempt to get some themes in here. When you're working within such a small pagecount, that's a wee bit tricky. A deft writer might have a conversation pull double duty, telling you a couple of each characters' quirks so they immediately feel like more than cardboard cutouts while having it relate to a wider idea. Since Sarracini is not a deft writer, instead we get a sports metaphor that makes no sense whatsoever and which goes on for two whole pages.
Decompressed storytelling was a big thing in comics around this time, with western monthly releases experimenting a lot with the sort of slow moving, character-focused pacing found in other examples of the medium, like longer form graphic novels and manga. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who jumped on this wound up not understanding how to make it work on a structural level, and they really just made less things happen per panel and page to imitate the aesthetic elements. Dreamwave is an absolutely stupendous example of this approach. This is all foreshadowing.
What we actually learn in these two pages is that this Lazarus guy has taken the other guy to the arctic. He's some kind of potential investor in a project Lazarus is looking for partners on. Lazarus apparently hasn't explained why exactly wandering around the frozen tundra is important, and the other guy is understandably pissed. It's a little unclear why he came along to the arctic when he has no idea what Lazarus wants to invest in, but here they are, trudging through the snow.
So they argue, and then a very confusing set of panels happens.
I had to squint at this for a hot second to work out Lazarus is supposed to be grabbing him painfully. Lee is not a master of… much of anything, art wise. And clear, readable action is something he struggles with from the get go. Anything that needs a reader to understand implied motion and momentum has a good chance at winding up a dud.
No worries though. We get straight back to po-faced declarations of The Themes Of The Comic, Honest, which only requires that he draw people standing around.
I have a high tolerance for comic book-y expository nonense. But it's so entirely joyless here. Shoot me, I have to read the entire rest of this fucking series.
On the next page, we finally get to something Transformers related I can draw your attention to, though. There's a full page of them coming across a monitoring set up for something (oh my, I wonder what it could be) in the ice. It's more space filler of no real interest, but this particular text box might ring some klaxons in a modern day Transformers fan's head:
Now, this isn't an example of 'what do you MEAN, Dreamwave did that first?!', a refrain that will crop up quite a few times as we make our way through these comics. It's true that a shocking number of franchise staple concepts originate in Dreamwave, but the gladiatorial element isn't one of them. That goes back to Marvel, with the UK-only prose story "State Games" establishing it as part of the backstory for both Megatron and Optimus. But it is notable that Dreamwave is going to be where a lot of people encounter this concept for the first time, given that the prior story was not just a UK exclusive, but specifically a prose story tucked away in an annual rather than the regular monthly comic. (And yes, spoiler alert: it will crop up again in Dreamwave.) I would not be surprised to find out the revival of this concept in places like the Aligned continuity owe at least some debt to the idea resurfacing in this series.
Anyway, the comic then tries to persuade us that the thing most of interest when it comes to what can be gleaned from terrifying alien war machines with all the onboard tech and weaponry they have is that they turn into cars sometimes. No further explanation is forthcoming. Lazarus just sort of says this as though it's self evident and moves on.
Look, making the fact Transformers characters can transform central to the fiction is my whole thing. I want it. When Transformers media doesn't take advantage of that stuff, I am sad. But the degree to which this falls flat is a bit of a warning as to a problem this series is probably going to come up against a lot as we go on, and which plenty of recent Transformers media aimed at fans has struggled with. How do you do things like that in something that isn't made for eight year olds and running on "rule of cool"? Transformers turn into cars and planes and weird animals and such because that's cool to a child who wants to buy awesome toys. It's tricky to translate that into a story aimed at adults that takes itself remotely seriously. In no way impossible. But if you don't really consider how you plan to approach that part, and indeed a great many elements integral to Transformers, you're probably not going to nail it.
They talk for another goddamn page after this and oh my god, this preview should have been three pages tops. I'm not making you read all that. Just rearrange the words in one of the above panels, it's about the same experience.
Finally, FINALLY, we hit the jackpot with the last page: a full page spread of Soundwave, partially obscured in ice as they excavate him. (See? Bayverse vibes.)
Soundwave is pretty much the single most iconic non-Optimus Transformer in broader pop culture, so that tracks. (Honestly, he'd probably give OP a run for his money.)
And it is a very nice bit of imagery, though they really didn't need those damn speech bubbles down there. But you can see here where the concept for this preview originates. All the build up being so you can have the final full-page splash of an 80's-style iconic character to get the audience hyped up. In the hands of a better writer, that would probably have worked perfectly well. As it stands, the fact this apparently did get people hyped is really more just down to Soundwave being really cool, I reckon.
So that's the preview. It's on Earth, the robots came to Earth a long time before under circumstances we don't know about, and now some shady humans have found one of them. It's a decent enough setup. One so good it's been used in Transformers at least twice; seriously, that is just a description of Megatron in Bayverse, right?
After all this riveting comic content, the original version of the preview also featured some teaser art. This gives us a bit more of an idea what the upcoming series might look like, since we get all of one panel of Lee actually drawing a robot in this one.
Pat Lee's art is, of course, one of the more infamous elements of Dreamwave's comic. He called his style "anime inspired" a lot, which was a real exciting prospect in 2002 if you were a certain kind of nerd. You can sort of see some of it in his art. In that very 'western artist in 2002 working off an English language how to draw manga book' way that is a peculiarity of the time period. But it sure doesn't look like, say, the Transformers work of Studio OX.
More to the point, his artwork is frequently a mess, with terrible composition, incoherent proportions, very little understanding of perspective, and little to no emotion conveyed by its characters. He tends to draw his robots all very... puffy and inflated-looking, too. This style would form the basis of a 'house style' all other artists brought in were expected to follow. Even when much more competent artists than Lee are to be seen, they'll be somewhat shackled by the restrictions put in place there.
And that's a wrap on this wee little six page preview, so god knows how much I'll have to say about the series itself. Stay tuned to see if any robots get to speak next time!
so me and my buddies in a server found out about this trilogy of tf books apparently written by someone who knows very little about tf as a whole, and apparently has a focus on sex and gore? i haven’t gotten to anything really juicy quite yet but here’s some of my favorite excerpts
an extremely important note about this project, since I saw this going around tumblr a while ago: the novel trilogy this book is a part of is, in fact, in the Dreamwave continuity, and you will get to watch me read all 300 pages of this goddamn thing one day very soon.
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the duality of g1 Optimus....like he is that dad who points at a plane and says MAN IS THAT BAE OR WHAT but also he can and will murder Megatron with zero hesitation and dab over the corpse
I put this in the tags but I'm too invested. g1/tfp op swap where tfp op spends like the entire time siting in a corner of the arc cringing in embarrassment while these wacky old dudes try to send him home but the tfp people are like .....WHO is this embarrassing WEIRD OLD MAN. OPTIMUS???? and then they go into battle and he fuckin casually DESTROYS Megatron and they're like??????? But your history??? Your tragic friendship and romance????
And he's like my fucking WHAT LMAO??? where's my WIFE???
and Megatron's in medbay on the nemesis just like. what the fuck just happened he didn't even let me finish my speech--
Tfp OP comes back staring into the middle distance just like....the puns.....dear God the puns ...
#hi sorry but is no one going to bring up how utterly insane and funny the idea of the G1 deceptions seeing a 30 foot Optimus Prime #just like ‘we meet again Auto- WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK?????’ @ tfp Optimus’ big ass and star saber and scratches #they can hear his gentle talking bc they’re just wondering what this mf ate
#MEGATRON getting bodied by a hit from tfp OP bc he overestimated how strong he was and being HORRIFIED while the autobits cheer behind him# ‘can’t wait to tell yer wife the war is over now’’my WHAT?’ #he can’t even ball bro…..
HE CANT EVEN BALL BRO,,,
You are SO right, criminally underexamined facet of this scenario.
headcannon. what mtmte bots would give out for halloween.
Magnus- u know he gives out toothbrushes and apples. do i even need to say it.
Rodimus- he gives out like. monsters and weed. because he has no concept of how children work. a kid comes to the door and hes like uhhh….. do u want…. aaaa…. beer? and drift is just in the corner like THEYRE FUCKING FIVE
Ratchet- does not give out candy. r u even kidding me this man has NO patience for ankle biters. he going to be inside relaxing and he aint answering the door for NO bitch. he watches a movie and is in bed by 8.
Swerve- he answers the door holding a bowl, and then just never hands any candy over. he starts talking to the kids and NEVER shuts up. and eventually they just give up and leave. people think its cause hes chatty but its actually just because the bowl is empty.
he forgot to buy candy and feels too bad to not answer the door.
Megatron- also does not answer the door.
Brainstorm- my boy hands out toys. definitely makes them himself. and they definitely get confiscated by the parents 0.2 seconds later because they are guns. he is arming the children and he is not going to stop.
Rung- the only bot who actually gives the kids candy lol. king sized Hershey bars. what a sweetie.
Whirl- he’s too busy scaring the shit out of the kids to give them candy. he just COVERS himself in blood (energon?) and CHASES them. he is cackling. the parents are concerned.
Tailgate- he buys a SHIT ton of candy… and then immediately gives it away to the first like 5 kids. THEYRE JUST SO CUTE he cant help it. cyclonus has to be the one to tell the rest that theres no candy because tailgate just feels so bad about it.
More Than Meets the Eye #46 — Krok Realizes That Being Traumatized is Not an Excuse for Participating in Trafficking
Last issue ended with Fortress Maximus, the new Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord— which is a position they should consider renaming, if only for the sake of optics— blowing up Demus’s head and looming in a doorway that I fucking KNOW was significantly smaller earlier in the issue. This issue takes us back in time a smidge, showing just what exactly lead to Fort Max being on the planet of Tebris VII.
As Max had flown a spacecraft through the airspace of the planet, he chatted with Red Alert on the radio, who was established as sticking with Fort Max on Luna 1 after he was brought back online in “The Sound of Breaking Glass”. Red Alert has been busying himself with finding conspiracies where there likely aren’t any, having combed through the entirety of Wreckers: Declassified looking for ciphers in the typos Fisitron made in each entry.
Red, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but any conspiracy involved with the Wreckers fandom blog already happened, and it resulted in at least five deaths. Most folks just don’t have proofreaders for their blogs, especially when they’re not getting paid for the posts.
Sidenote: if you see any typos in this write-up, no you didn’t 💛
So much ART LATELY but I'll use it all up until artblock hits again 💅 supposed to be perspective-practice-thingy but then decided to turn it into something inspired by @dataglitch own Blitzwing drawing 🙏🌟
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Fanfiction about Jazz and the many shades of romance.
Just barely managed to get an entry for TFZineJam in under the wire! 31 pages of Jazz quadrants romance fics by me, @desdemonafictional , jabberish, and @sroloc--elbisivni . You can read it for free at the link!
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