Zobovor
2024-10-15 22:02:04 UTC
THE TRANSFORMERS issue #52 is called "Guess Who the Mecannibals Are
Having for Dinner?" The title is a play on the 1967 film, "Guess Who's
Coming to Dinner!" which would have been a film the writers and editors
themselves grew up on, even if the pop culture reference would have been
largely lost on kids of the 1980's.
Printed on January 24, 1989, the issue had a cover date of May 1989, so
it was potentially on newsstands for as long as four months. The story
was reprinted in UK issues #213 and #214. The front cover (by Jose
Delbo and Danny Bulanadi) features Pretender Landmine (with some weird,
almost goofy-looking eyeballs) dealing with the "Menace of the
Mecannibals!" The creatures in question are rotund, spherical machines
with spider-like legs and a face full of teeth, reminding me a little of
robotic versions of the creatures from the 1986 film Critters.
Our beleagured writer for this issue is Bob Budiansky. Artwork was by
Jose Delbo (pencils) and Dave Hunt (inks). The letterer is credited as
Manny Manos, which is a cutsey Marvel-style way of saying that multiple
people worked on it (manos is Spanish for "hands," so it required "many
hands" to complete the lettering for this issue). At least some of it,
particularly the last half of the issue, looks like Jade Moede's
handwriting to me. Nel Yomtov tirelessly colored the artwork, as to be
expected.
We haven't seen much of the Autobot Pretenders since they were
introduced in issue #40, but with most of the old guard now officially
written out of the comic book, the Pretenders are among the only
remaining characters still active and functional. This story plays like
a "buddy movie" starring Landmine and Cloudburst as they go on a wacky
adventure full of outer space hijinx.
Our story begins at the Black Hole Bar and Grill inside Grand Central
Space Station, a dive that is reminiscient of the alien cantina from
Star Wars. It's packed full of crazy space monsters, and Landmine and
Cloudburst (in their Pretender shells, disguised as gigantic humanoids)
are trying their best to blend in. (You can also spot Hi-Test and
Throttle in the far background, but they're wearing hoods and are in
disguise.) When J'oh the bartender (because all bartenders are named
Joe, even in space) takes issue with a little chromoid robot, all eyes
are on the little guy. This is also a lot like Star Wars, where the
bartender refused to let C-3PO and R2-D2 enter because "we don't serve
their kind here!"
Landmine and Cloudburst are, of course, secretly robots themselves.
It's perhaps for this reason that Landmine decides to butt in,
essentially starting a bar fight by getting involved in a situation that
absolutely doesn't concern him. Before too long, everybody is swinging
punches and the Pretenders are invited to finish their drinks and leave
as quickly as possible.
I wish there were some interesting things to say about the bar patrons,
but they're all kind of bland and generic. Some of them have the same
vibe as the psychic energy vampires or whatever it was that Dogfight and
the Triggerbots contend with during the Matrix Quest in a later issue,
so I guess that's just how José Delbo draws his aliens.
In a flashback, we learn that Powermaster Optimus Prime recruited
Landmine and Cloudburst for this mission. After the attack by the
underbase-powered Starscream, millions of the Autobots' microchips were
burnt out, rendering the Autobots inoperative. (We specifically see
Grimlock, Blaster, and Goldbug in a state of severe disrepair, with
their heads disconnected from their bodies. The one-armed torso of
Gears is seen as well.) Prime is aware of a black market at Grand
Central Space Station where more can be acquired, but he knows robotic
life forms aren't allowed to visit. So, the plan is for Landmine and
Cloudburst to pretend to be (gigantic) humans, with Cloudburst's inner
robot acting as a lifeless space vehicle to transport them there. The
logistics of Cloudburst's inner robot, in vehicle mode, carrying both
his outer shell as well as Landmine are bizarre at best, and probably
not worth dwelling on. (Groundbreaker and Sky High make a brief
background appearance during the flashback as well.)
The Pretenders are given a small tube full of "concentrated energon
cubes," which is kind of funny since energon is, itself, a form of
concentrated energy. It's also a universally accepted currency, which
is also rather weird since, as far as I can tell, Transformers are the
only beings in the comic book who refuel using energon.
Landmine and Cloudburst don't know this yet, but Hi-Test and Throttle
are following them every step of the way. They make several attempts to
secure new microchips at a run-down part of the station called Asteroid
Alley, but their encounters with various aliens range from unhelpful to
downright hostile. (Somebody had a lot of fun with the word balloon
design for this issue. Pretty much every alien and creature gets his
own distinctive style of word bubble.)
At one point they nearly step on Berko, formerly of the Cosmic Carnival,
who is evidently down on his luck and drinking a bottle of booze wrapped
in a paper bag. Hi-Test and Throttle, still digsuied in hoods, approach
the Autobot Pretenders and offer to make an exchange for some
microchips. They arrange a time and place to meet, but afterwards,
Berko just laughs in their face. He, too, had dealings with Hi-Test and
Throttle, but he claims it resulted in the disappearance of his partner,
Sky Lynx. Landmine, recognizing the name, wants to find Sky Lynx and
rescue him.
Outside, Hi-Test and Throttle board the combined form of Darkwing and
Dreadwind. The Nebulans refer to the combined form as Darkwind, twice
in a row, but previous stories established it as Dreadwing. Inside, the
Autobot Pretenders are about to make the transaction when Landmine
suddenly refuses to deal with subordinates and insists on trading
directly with their boss. Hi-Test and Throttle reluctantly agree and
take them to the Mecannibals' ship. On board, Landmine and Cloudburst
come face to face with robotic skeletons strew all around, as well as
dozens of hungry, salivating mecannibals, including their leader, who
identifies himself as Master Mouth.
The mecannibals have captured the chromite from the bar (we learn later
that Hi-Test and Throttle delivered him to them), and make quick work of
him as an appetizer. They then bring out the main course, Sky Lynx, and
prepare to eat him when suddenly Landmine's inner robot comes bursting
in and attacks. The meccanibals are "accidentally" impeded by
Cloudburst and Landmine's outer shells, who claim to have difficulty
walking on their spider webs. Landmine's inner robot frees Sky Lynx and
tells him to flee, and then he proceeds to blast the energon cubes,
creating a blinding burst that gives his inner robot just enough time to
secretly recombine with his outer shell.
The trade is a success, and the Pretender shells make it back to
Cloudburst's vehicle mode with the microchips. (I'm not sure how the
Autobots were able to pay for the chips when they blew up their energon
cubes, but that's neither here nor there.) Unfortunately, once again,
Landmine still isn't satisfied and wants to do more. He wants to go
back and rescue Berko. So, they find him in the back alley, opening
their Pretender shells and revealing themselves as Transformers.
Naturally, Hi-Test and Throttle have followed them and, having learned
their secret, are quick to report them to J'oh. When Landmine and
Cloudburst return to the bar to settle Berko's tab, the crowd get unruly
and attacks them, eventually tossing them out the airlock. Darkwind, if
that's what we're calling the ship now, zaps the Pretenders and captures
them. It's odd that Darkwing and Dreadwind are acting as a lifeless
vehicle and neither of them even speaks in this issue. It's like the
problem with the 1988 Decepticon Headmasters all over again.
Landmine and Cloudburst awaken as captives of the Mecannibals, or
perhaps I should say dinner guests. The unspoken message here is that
Landmine would have succeeded if he hadn't constantly been trying to
help others, which seems at odds with the moral of the story that you
might expect.
The issue ends with two additional full-age Marvel advertisements, which
suggests to me that there was a plan to include at least two more
TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles but that they weren't ready by the time
of publication. ( The story is only 21 pages long, and a standard
monthly issue tends to be 22 pages in length.)
So, I like that some of the newer characters are finally being featured.
Budiansky was at least making an effort to feature some of the 1988
characters and attempted to make them interesting. Showcasing only a
couple of Pretenders for them to play off each other, instead of trying
to tell another story featuring all twelve of them, was a good move.
Also, the story actually makes use of the Pretender gimmick in a way
that feels organic, if you'll pardon the pun. It does seem odd that
Berko as well as Hi-Test and Throttle all accept the Autobot Pretenders
as human, especially Berko, who comes from Earth. It's one thing for
the aliens at the space station to assume, I guess, that gigantic humans
are completely normal, but Hi-Test and Throttle and Berko never question
it either. But, if you begin with the premise that Autobot Pretenders
can't very well pretend to be gigantic humans on Earth, their very
nature necessitates taking the storytelling off-world in order to create
a narrative where they could fit in better. It's an inelegant solution
to a messy problem, one that could have been eliminated simply by making
the Autobot Pretenders shrink down to human size when they're in their
Pretender shells. It would have been no different than Megatron being a
tiny gun or Soundwave being a tiny tape player. Transformers have been
changing size since day one.
However, this is not a favorite issue of mine. The Mecannibals are
goofy and silly-looking, and they really don't seem like much of a
threat. I think allowing them to actually eat Sky Lynx (a toy that had
been long discontinued since 1989 anyway) would have created a stronger
sense of danger. I guess it's nice to see what finally happened to
Darkwing and Dreadwind, but I don't care about Berko as a character at
all, so it wouldn't have bothered me if we'd never seen him again.
Basically, this story suffers from focusing so much on the peripheral
characters and not enough on the Transformers themselves. The most
interesting part of the issue, to me, is when Optimus Prime is talking
about the Autobots that Strarscream destroyed, but that's not "really"
happening in this issue and is contained entirely within a flashback.
Next issue will continue the antics of Landmine and Cloudburst, and will
not only reveal their fate at the hands of the Mecannibals but also
takes us to a world populated by gigantic female humanoids. It's a
slightly more interesting story, admittedly, and we'll talk about that
one in thirty days' time!
Zob (needs to find a way to continue making money without actually
having a job or going to work)
Having for Dinner?" The title is a play on the 1967 film, "Guess Who's
Coming to Dinner!" which would have been a film the writers and editors
themselves grew up on, even if the pop culture reference would have been
largely lost on kids of the 1980's.
Printed on January 24, 1989, the issue had a cover date of May 1989, so
it was potentially on newsstands for as long as four months. The story
was reprinted in UK issues #213 and #214. The front cover (by Jose
Delbo and Danny Bulanadi) features Pretender Landmine (with some weird,
almost goofy-looking eyeballs) dealing with the "Menace of the
Mecannibals!" The creatures in question are rotund, spherical machines
with spider-like legs and a face full of teeth, reminding me a little of
robotic versions of the creatures from the 1986 film Critters.
Our beleagured writer for this issue is Bob Budiansky. Artwork was by
Jose Delbo (pencils) and Dave Hunt (inks). The letterer is credited as
Manny Manos, which is a cutsey Marvel-style way of saying that multiple
people worked on it (manos is Spanish for "hands," so it required "many
hands" to complete the lettering for this issue). At least some of it,
particularly the last half of the issue, looks like Jade Moede's
handwriting to me. Nel Yomtov tirelessly colored the artwork, as to be
expected.
We haven't seen much of the Autobot Pretenders since they were
introduced in issue #40, but with most of the old guard now officially
written out of the comic book, the Pretenders are among the only
remaining characters still active and functional. This story plays like
a "buddy movie" starring Landmine and Cloudburst as they go on a wacky
adventure full of outer space hijinx.
Our story begins at the Black Hole Bar and Grill inside Grand Central
Space Station, a dive that is reminiscient of the alien cantina from
Star Wars. It's packed full of crazy space monsters, and Landmine and
Cloudburst (in their Pretender shells, disguised as gigantic humanoids)
are trying their best to blend in. (You can also spot Hi-Test and
Throttle in the far background, but they're wearing hoods and are in
disguise.) When J'oh the bartender (because all bartenders are named
Joe, even in space) takes issue with a little chromoid robot, all eyes
are on the little guy. This is also a lot like Star Wars, where the
bartender refused to let C-3PO and R2-D2 enter because "we don't serve
their kind here!"
Landmine and Cloudburst are, of course, secretly robots themselves.
It's perhaps for this reason that Landmine decides to butt in,
essentially starting a bar fight by getting involved in a situation that
absolutely doesn't concern him. Before too long, everybody is swinging
punches and the Pretenders are invited to finish their drinks and leave
as quickly as possible.
I wish there were some interesting things to say about the bar patrons,
but they're all kind of bland and generic. Some of them have the same
vibe as the psychic energy vampires or whatever it was that Dogfight and
the Triggerbots contend with during the Matrix Quest in a later issue,
so I guess that's just how José Delbo draws his aliens.
In a flashback, we learn that Powermaster Optimus Prime recruited
Landmine and Cloudburst for this mission. After the attack by the
underbase-powered Starscream, millions of the Autobots' microchips were
burnt out, rendering the Autobots inoperative. (We specifically see
Grimlock, Blaster, and Goldbug in a state of severe disrepair, with
their heads disconnected from their bodies. The one-armed torso of
Gears is seen as well.) Prime is aware of a black market at Grand
Central Space Station where more can be acquired, but he knows robotic
life forms aren't allowed to visit. So, the plan is for Landmine and
Cloudburst to pretend to be (gigantic) humans, with Cloudburst's inner
robot acting as a lifeless space vehicle to transport them there. The
logistics of Cloudburst's inner robot, in vehicle mode, carrying both
his outer shell as well as Landmine are bizarre at best, and probably
not worth dwelling on. (Groundbreaker and Sky High make a brief
background appearance during the flashback as well.)
The Pretenders are given a small tube full of "concentrated energon
cubes," which is kind of funny since energon is, itself, a form of
concentrated energy. It's also a universally accepted currency, which
is also rather weird since, as far as I can tell, Transformers are the
only beings in the comic book who refuel using energon.
Landmine and Cloudburst don't know this yet, but Hi-Test and Throttle
are following them every step of the way. They make several attempts to
secure new microchips at a run-down part of the station called Asteroid
Alley, but their encounters with various aliens range from unhelpful to
downright hostile. (Somebody had a lot of fun with the word balloon
design for this issue. Pretty much every alien and creature gets his
own distinctive style of word bubble.)
At one point they nearly step on Berko, formerly of the Cosmic Carnival,
who is evidently down on his luck and drinking a bottle of booze wrapped
in a paper bag. Hi-Test and Throttle, still digsuied in hoods, approach
the Autobot Pretenders and offer to make an exchange for some
microchips. They arrange a time and place to meet, but afterwards,
Berko just laughs in their face. He, too, had dealings with Hi-Test and
Throttle, but he claims it resulted in the disappearance of his partner,
Sky Lynx. Landmine, recognizing the name, wants to find Sky Lynx and
rescue him.
Outside, Hi-Test and Throttle board the combined form of Darkwing and
Dreadwind. The Nebulans refer to the combined form as Darkwind, twice
in a row, but previous stories established it as Dreadwing. Inside, the
Autobot Pretenders are about to make the transaction when Landmine
suddenly refuses to deal with subordinates and insists on trading
directly with their boss. Hi-Test and Throttle reluctantly agree and
take them to the Mecannibals' ship. On board, Landmine and Cloudburst
come face to face with robotic skeletons strew all around, as well as
dozens of hungry, salivating mecannibals, including their leader, who
identifies himself as Master Mouth.
The mecannibals have captured the chromite from the bar (we learn later
that Hi-Test and Throttle delivered him to them), and make quick work of
him as an appetizer. They then bring out the main course, Sky Lynx, and
prepare to eat him when suddenly Landmine's inner robot comes bursting
in and attacks. The meccanibals are "accidentally" impeded by
Cloudburst and Landmine's outer shells, who claim to have difficulty
walking on their spider webs. Landmine's inner robot frees Sky Lynx and
tells him to flee, and then he proceeds to blast the energon cubes,
creating a blinding burst that gives his inner robot just enough time to
secretly recombine with his outer shell.
The trade is a success, and the Pretender shells make it back to
Cloudburst's vehicle mode with the microchips. (I'm not sure how the
Autobots were able to pay for the chips when they blew up their energon
cubes, but that's neither here nor there.) Unfortunately, once again,
Landmine still isn't satisfied and wants to do more. He wants to go
back and rescue Berko. So, they find him in the back alley, opening
their Pretender shells and revealing themselves as Transformers.
Naturally, Hi-Test and Throttle have followed them and, having learned
their secret, are quick to report them to J'oh. When Landmine and
Cloudburst return to the bar to settle Berko's tab, the crowd get unruly
and attacks them, eventually tossing them out the airlock. Darkwind, if
that's what we're calling the ship now, zaps the Pretenders and captures
them. It's odd that Darkwing and Dreadwind are acting as a lifeless
vehicle and neither of them even speaks in this issue. It's like the
problem with the 1988 Decepticon Headmasters all over again.
Landmine and Cloudburst awaken as captives of the Mecannibals, or
perhaps I should say dinner guests. The unspoken message here is that
Landmine would have succeeded if he hadn't constantly been trying to
help others, which seems at odds with the moral of the story that you
might expect.
The issue ends with two additional full-age Marvel advertisements, which
suggests to me that there was a plan to include at least two more
TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles but that they weren't ready by the time
of publication. ( The story is only 21 pages long, and a standard
monthly issue tends to be 22 pages in length.)
So, I like that some of the newer characters are finally being featured.
Budiansky was at least making an effort to feature some of the 1988
characters and attempted to make them interesting. Showcasing only a
couple of Pretenders for them to play off each other, instead of trying
to tell another story featuring all twelve of them, was a good move.
Also, the story actually makes use of the Pretender gimmick in a way
that feels organic, if you'll pardon the pun. It does seem odd that
Berko as well as Hi-Test and Throttle all accept the Autobot Pretenders
as human, especially Berko, who comes from Earth. It's one thing for
the aliens at the space station to assume, I guess, that gigantic humans
are completely normal, but Hi-Test and Throttle and Berko never question
it either. But, if you begin with the premise that Autobot Pretenders
can't very well pretend to be gigantic humans on Earth, their very
nature necessitates taking the storytelling off-world in order to create
a narrative where they could fit in better. It's an inelegant solution
to a messy problem, one that could have been eliminated simply by making
the Autobot Pretenders shrink down to human size when they're in their
Pretender shells. It would have been no different than Megatron being a
tiny gun or Soundwave being a tiny tape player. Transformers have been
changing size since day one.
However, this is not a favorite issue of mine. The Mecannibals are
goofy and silly-looking, and they really don't seem like much of a
threat. I think allowing them to actually eat Sky Lynx (a toy that had
been long discontinued since 1989 anyway) would have created a stronger
sense of danger. I guess it's nice to see what finally happened to
Darkwing and Dreadwind, but I don't care about Berko as a character at
all, so it wouldn't have bothered me if we'd never seen him again.
Basically, this story suffers from focusing so much on the peripheral
characters and not enough on the Transformers themselves. The most
interesting part of the issue, to me, is when Optimus Prime is talking
about the Autobots that Strarscream destroyed, but that's not "really"
happening in this issue and is contained entirely within a flashback.
Next issue will continue the antics of Landmine and Cloudburst, and will
not only reveal their fate at the hands of the Mecannibals but also
takes us to a world populated by gigantic female humanoids. It's a
slightly more interesting story, admittedly, and we'll talk about that
one in thirty days' time!
Zob (needs to find a way to continue making money without actually
having a job or going to work)