“I knew I got up on the wrong side of the recharge chamber this morning!”
Transformers: Generation Two #9
Marvel (July, 1994)
“Swarm” & “Tales From Earth” part 6 WRITER: Simon Furman PENCILER: Manny Galan INKER: Jim Amash COLORIST: Sarra Mossoff LETTERER: Richard Starkings EDITOR: Rob Tokar
Ah, massive and disturbing destruction. There’s the Simon Furman I’ve grown to dislike. The Autobots and Decepticons come across the planet the Swarm wiped out earlier and Optimus tries to connect this to the premonitions he’s been having while Megatron just wants to resume hunting the Cybertronians (they’ve started using that name so I will here as well). Meanwhile, those same Cybertronians are wiping more organic life when the Swarm arrives, only attacking mechanical life, one death giving Onslaught pains (possibly he spit that guy out?–which would be hard since Megatron claimed to build them on Earth).
Meanwhile and unaware of the Swarm, Jhiaxus welcomes a special “guest”. Yep, this is where Starscream ended up, deciding that instead of being slagged by Megatron he’d just go ahead and gain a position with the Cybertronians in return for betraying them. Frankly, I blame Megatron for that. Usually it’s Starscream being painfully obvious, but this time it was Megatron, who should have realized Screamer would have done this. So as the alliance studies the results from the alien world examination and figures out that it’s at least connected to the Fission Duplication they all forgot, the Cybertronians launch their attack on the other Transformers.
I complain about the art because it’s bad, but I just realized something in this read. The Neo-Decepticon/Cybertronians are really boring designs. They have the same general color scheme (except for Jhiaxus) and no distinct alt modes. They remind of the Vehicons from Transformers Prime, only they can’t blame it on CG limitations or toy troop building. They all have personalities but there’s no uniqueness to them except for Mindset, a general that is the one who gave Onslaught pain after becoming Swarm bait (and actually paused the Swarm when he asked it what they wanted). It’s just another issue I have with the art. So, I’m still warning people away from this monstrosity. It’s just not very good.
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