They just found out the Summer Special didn’t have bikini Arcee.
Transformers Timelines volume 2 #2
Fun Publications
DIAMOND EDITION COVER ART: Alex Milne
DIAMOND COVER COLORIST: Josh Perez
LETTERING: Junemoon Studios
MANAGING EDITOR: Pete Sinclair
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Brian Savage
TIMELINES CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Lanny Lanthem
“Games Of Deception”
STORY: Forest Lee (writer), Pete Sinclair, & Benson Yee
ARTIST: Alex Milne
COLORISTS: Drew Eiden & Josh Perez
Profiles: Springer & Bug Bite
ARTISTS: Dan Khanna & Marcello Matere
COLORIST : Thomas Deer
“The New World”
WRITER/ARTIST: Greg Sepelak
COLORIST: David Willis
What a day for Transformers comics with a lot of credits.
Our main story takes place in the “Classics” universe, based on the first wave of Transformers Universe figures updating classic characters in brand new molds, as well as some Botcon exclusives. The Wreckers track members of Bludgeon’s crew to Earth. Supposedly Bug Bite is supposed to broker a piece between his and Megatron’s factions. (This reality takes cues from the Marvel comics.) Grimlock, helping Optimus on Earth, goes to meet the Wreckers and is followed by a suspicious Mirage, who gets himself captured by Bug Bite’s crew. When the sides meet Bug Bite plants cerebro shells on Megatron’s crew. He’s actually from another dimension, which was devastated by fallout from the Autobot/Decepticon war in this reality. However, Megatron isn’t so easily controlled and destroys Bug Bite while the Autobots destroy Megatron’s computers. The Wreckers leave to continue their search for Bludgeon.
The back-up is a one-page prose setting up the Classics Mini-Cons, a story that continued on the Official Transformers Collector’s Club website, which you have to be a member of to read. Or did at the time; with Hasbro splitting with Fun Publications and Botcon (as well as the official GI Joe convention) pretty much over who really knows?
What they got right: Fun Publications was setting up their own wing of the Transformers multiverse and of the ones they’ve made thus far this is one that actually doesn’t need history we’re denied to enjoy it. The characters are pretty straightforward (I’m writing “pretty” a lot today) and were based on the Transformers Universe Classics line so it’s not like we needed major introductions.
What they got wrong: Is this supposed to be a version of the Elita-One from the cartoons? When did she get a power shift? Oh well, at least her fight with Ravage was darn cool.
Recommendation: As an annual anthology series it has hits and misses, but this is easily one of the good ones. Pick it up if you find it, since this is a printing that was released in comic stores.
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