“Yesterday’s” Comic> Transformers Armada FCBD

How does a full, original story for a Free Comic Book Day issue get so lazy that they use a panel from the first arc for their cover?

Transformers Armada Free Comic Book Day

Dreamwave (May, 2003)

I’m placing this issue here based on the ending of the last arc and when it was released (or at least the fact that the ad is for the previous issue I reviewed). I’m also not sure if it was in continuity.

Rad and Carlos are on a bike ride when the come upon Swindle, who claims to have escaped the Decepticons, but it turns out to be a trap to capture the two boys. Megatron wants to see if there is a way to get energy from humans the same way they do Mini-Cons, but the Autobots arrive to stop them…and are defeated. Even Optimus gets dropped. However, Swindle (only wanting to go home) realizes he was tricked as well and comes up with a plan to free the Autobots. Reinvigorated, the Autobots send the Decepticons running, but Starscream manages to tractor beam Swindle away.

What they got right: While not using the actual writer of the comic at the time, rare is the Free Comic Book Day comic that is a full stand-alone story. (Archie used to do that with Sonic The Hedgehog but recently seems to have stopped.) You usually just get a sampler. And the story itself is good, as is the artwork. There’s also a good summary of the series plot in the beginning for new readers, which is important for a Free Comic Book Day story.

What they got wrong: Rad has made friends with enough Mini-Cons that three of them strapping him inside a space mine won’t appear to affect his opinion of Mini-Cons as a whole. So why would Swindle’s trickery be enough? And why don’t the Autobots’ Mini-Con pals show up?

Recommendation: This will probably be a harder issue to find than the rest of the series (I would expect only the mini-comics that came with the toys would be harder even though so many of them were published with different toys.) But if you do, pick it up. It’s a good story.