Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Transformers Generation One, Vol. 1 by Chris Sarrachini ISBN: 0-9730837-2-7 Publisher: Dreamwave Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Amazing, but...
Comment: When I picked up the first issue of this series, I read the best single comic issue I have ever been lucky enough to get my hands on. Even today, I still think that the first 2 issues of this collection are the best comics I've ever read. The art is simply astounding - Nothing comes close. Period. And the plot slips nicely into the 20 unseen years between season 2 and the movie. The most promising start anyone could ask for.
But then something happened. It started to suck. A lot. All of the sudden, the world is threatened by a "virus" that the transformers have to fight. This "virus" spreads like a glacier and is apparently metal that grows. Yep, I'm not making this up. So in classic Ghostbusters-2 fashion, the transformers get guns that shoot jelly and fight the "virus". It's as corny and stupid as it sounds. And all the continuity is quickly thrown away (then totally abandoned in the follow-up series.)
Oddly, while all this is happening in the arctic, everything else is great. Optimus and gang are duking it out with the decpticons back in San Francisco old-school style. It's awesome. The dialogue is great, the structure, pacing, and design makes it feel like a really good movie. So what's holding it back? Well, it seems like Sarrachini is incapable of throwing away all the tired old camp and kiddy-ness of the original. Megatron is still as one-dimensional as ever, spouting his usual maniacal tirade and playing the role of generic and cliched mad scientist/world domination obsessed bad guy (not that he shouldn't be that character, but we've seen that from day one from Megatron. How 'bout adding something new?).
The book was most heavily criticized for it's human characters, which many claim bogged down the book. I couldn't disagree more. The humans don't hog much of the story, and add some reality and grounding to the plot. In response, the second book, "War and Peace", has no humans at all, and it really hurts the story. Without any humans, the bots are forced into the role of politics and intrigue, and it's as awkward as a cykill figure at BotCon. And the author lays it on thick, war and peace has so much politics and dialogue, I've had to read it 3 times, and it's still confusing.
So overall, the two Generation 1 graphic novels that have been published so far are well worth the price for the beautiful art and wonderful nostalgia, despite their minor scripting flaws. I think even non-fans can enjoy these books. Perhaps best of all is the high re-reading factor - because of the level of detail, these books will never get old.
Rating: 4
Summary: Cool, but could've been far better
Comment: Like most males from my generation, I get decidedly nostalgic when discussing anything related to the Transformers. That is the main reason why I liked this book a lot, and it probably will be its main selling point. It's just great so see all the old heroes and villains from the classic cartoon back in action again.
Nostalgia aside however, I severley doubt this comic will attract many, if any, new fans to the series.
For one: the story isn't much to look at. It is a quite obvious attempt at making a more grimm and "mature" Transformers story, dealing with issues such as the human view on the Autobot-Decepticon conflict an so on. In theory, that could've worked really well, but in practice, it falls somewhat short of expectations. I won't bore you with details, but the human characters are still as blant as they were in the cartoon, the dialogue tends to get tacky and the reasons for the Decepticons to run amok on our planet Earth are even more vague than they were on the old series. As said: it is an obvious attempt at ginving Transformers some maturity, but unfortunatly, its failure to deliver that promise is almost even more obvious.
The artwork is quite good, as long as you don't examine it too closely. The way people are depicted, for one, is just downright poor. They are basically all generic, caucasian or semi-caucasian screen filling without much of a facial expression or obvious emotion. Since this series in essence revolves around giant, transforming robots beating each other senseless, this wouldn've been such a problem if humans hadn't played such an important role int his book.
The Transformers themselves look, in general, a lot betterthan the human cast. They still have the same basic look and design from the old cartoon series (hello again, nostalgia) but somewhat updated in the sense that the robots look more detailed and "bulky" and are therefore more believable as being massive, living machines. An actual improvement over the classic series, if you ask me.
Unfortunatly, on the whole the artwork on the robots usually either works great or doesn't work at all. Especially 1980's #1 role-model Optimus Prime looks either great or downright silly with sometimes enormously oversized lower legs. Sometimes, the whole "detailed and more bulky" thing backfires dramatically and makes the robots look like walking assortments of discarded car-parts. Finally, as some other reviewers have mentioned as well, there is a distinct lack of continuity in the artwork with the same characters having completely different faces depending on the panel they're on and so on.
Finally: some of the classic Transformers seemed strangely out of character. Optimus Prime seemed far more agressive than I remember him, Megatron seemed REASONABLE rather than megalomanic and Starscream dind't make a single attempt at overtrhowing Megatron as leader of the Decepticons. This last thing could be a major concern for the nostalgic twenty-somethings like me that seem to be the main target audience for this book.
So in short: it's a neat book for all you who like Transformers and mecha in general, but it could have been far better than it ended up being. A shame, but it's till nice to see the old crew back in action.
Rating: 3
Summary: Okay But Not True G1
Comment: Beginning in late 2001, a huge wave of 1980s nostalgia has been sweeping the country. One product of this is a new comic book series based on the 1980s hit cartoon series, "The Transformers". It's a story about giant robots from the planet Cybertron engaged in a millions-years-old civil war, which has been brought to Earth. The war is fought by the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. These robots can transform into things such as cars, tanks, jets, and guns. There were 98 episodes of the cartoon series. At the same time, Marvel had published a comic book series that ran for 80 issues (plus some crossovers in "G.I. Joe"). Then there was a 12-issue "Transformers: Generation 2" sequel series. These series occured in a different universe than the cartoon series and did the story their own way. In 2002, a new company called Dreamwave published a 6-issue "Transformers: Generation One" miniseries. The first issue became the #1-selling comic book of all time. The entire story arc is reprinted here in this trade paperback. So, how good is it? Well, it's okay. It occurs in 2002, three years before the events of "The Transformers: The Movie". On the positive side, the story is human-centric. I like that it shows what Spike and other humans think about the war. It was nice seeing an adult Spike and a very young Daniel. Carly is mentioned (but not seen). The artwork for the humans is good. On the negative side is everything else. The robot artwork is inconsistent. Dreamwave isn't sticking to the cartoon continuity or the Marvel continuity. This wouldn't bother me so much if they simply started the story from scratch with the Autobots and Decepticons crash-landing on Earth in 2002. Instead, Dreamwave is using a vague cartoon-like backstory and the cartoon's visual appearances of the characters, but they throw in a reference to the Marvel continuity's Buster Witwicky, and they blatantly contradict some of the cartoon's canon. For example, Megatron states that they haven't been back to Cybertron since first arriving on Earth. Did the writer expect the readers to forget all of the pre-Movie space bridge episodes and the space shuttle Autobot Omega Supreme, which were major parts of the show? Dreamwave is pretending that all of that stuff never happened, which is annoying. Megatron using human curses is very stupid and unlikely, considering how much he hates "puny flesh creatures". It comes off as a gratuitous attempt by the writer to make Transformers seem more "adult". On top of all that, this story arc is kind of similar to Marvel's "I, Robot Master" story. Transfans have dubbed Dreamwave's series "Neo-G1", and that's very appropriate. Dreamwave has expanded on this universe with their "Transformers: The War Within" 6-issue prequel miniseries, character profile books, and a new "Transformers: Generation One" 6-issue miniseries. So, is this trade paperback worth getting? Considering that Hasbro has recently taken away the Transformers license from Dreamwave and given it to Devil's Due (of the current "G.I. Joe" series), I'd say no. This is going to end up being a small, new Transformers universe. Even if you're a big Transformers fan, it's not essential. It's really nothing more than expensive, glorified fan fiction written by a fanboy.
 |
Title: Transformers Generation One: War & Peace by Brad Mick ISBN: 0973381701 Publisher: Dreamwave Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: Transformers: The War Within by Simon Furman, Don Figueroa ISBN: 0973278609 Publisher: Dreamwave Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: Transformers Armada: First Contact by Chris Sarracini, James Raiz ISBN: 0973083778 Publisher: Dreamwave Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: Genesis: The Art of Transformers ISBN: 1582403228 Publisher: Image Comics Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: Transformers Armada: Fortress by Simon Furman, Pat Lee, Guido Guidi ISBN: 0973278641 Publisher: Dreamwave Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
