“You just had to say ‘you and what army’, didn’t you?”
The Transformers #74
Marvel (January, 1991)
“The Void!” WRITER: Simon Furman PENCILER: Andrew Wildman INKER: Stephen Baskerville COLORIST: Nel Yomtov LETTERER: Rick Parker EDITOR: Rob Tokar
Through Xaaron, Primus gives the full origin of himself and Unicron, completing the origin story for the Transformers. He names Optimus the leader of allied force against Unicron. Optimus is worrying that Xaaron is being lost to Primus, He doesn’t have time to consider it between Circuit Breaker slowly using her mind being on a planet full of robots, Scorponok dealing with doubts, and an army of Unicron-possessed Transformers attacking him. Autobots and Decepticons come together to rout the Unicronians, which Primus had intended, naming Prime to give them a target in order to draw them out. Then Prime’s pains continue before he can protest Primus’ actions. While the Dinobots find the Ark and begin flooding the stasis pods with Nucleon (unaware that Megatron is in there, too), the Creation Matrix finishes repairing Thunderwing’s body and heads for Cybertron to get revenge on the Transformers. It will have to wait in line…Unicron has arrived!
While not one of Furman’s worst stories, I have my problem with it. The Neo-Knights serve no purpose (and won’t do much later on). Why were the Dinobots not called back with all the other Transformers. Galvatron didn’t talk about having Primus recall the Transformers from Earth, but from everywhere. There’s a reference to “two Autobot signals” being found on Earth. While that could be a reference to Spike and Fortress Maximus, Max should be in the Ark. The parts about Primus being a jerk god will amount to nothing so there’s no point having that would-be subplot in there.
I think what really gets me (outside of the Neo-Knights being here) is that Furman seems to think “self-doubt” is a great character trait except for his pet characters (Grimlock and Galvatron). Prime’s been doubting himself since Ratchet disappeared and was believed dead. Now Scorponok’s on the same kick. Apparently Furman has a problem with strong leaders, but self-doubt is not a character trait that should be dropped in despite evidence to the contrary by the previous writer and called “character development”. And how DID Unicron just pop up out of nowhere when Primus is supposed to have a mental link with his rival and I’m sure the Transformers have general early-warning systems in place as part of their civil war? Lampshading it doesn’t make it less stupid unless your writing comedy and nothing’s funny here.
Once again I’m force to suggest avoiding a Transformers comic, something I’ve gotten tired of doing because I love the Transformers. The plot is decent but the specifics are still a turn-off.
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