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Date Posted: 31/08/02 21:16:59 GMT+10
Author: Goktimus Prime
Subject: Armada #2! (spoilers)

The artwork has continued to impress me. Great use of forced perspective once more (much gooder than Pat Lee's). The CG colouring and effects are nice, although sometimes I think that there needs to be more old fashioned inking done. e.g.: on the second page where we see Optimus and Hot Shot standing around, they look too super-imposed, suffering from a comic book equivalent of "blue screen" syndrome and not being matted onto the background well enough. This could have been simply fixed if they'd given them strong black shadows beneath their feet. There are shadows there, but they're not strong enough IMO.
I also like how we're seeing more of the Transformers' personalities arising -- although on the most part, they are pretty one dimensional as Omega said. Although the Mini-Cons tend to have deeper personas. But hey, it's still early days -- so far all of these Transformers have demonstrated MUCH more personality than any of the Transformers in the DW G1 comics!

I was expecting Red Alert to be portrayed as a Ratchet type character, but it was interesting to see that he was more like Perceptor -- being distracted by technical details and needing to be reminded to stay on task. Personality quirks make characters interesting. Megatron is the typical conquerer archetype -- and boy does he love shoving his hip forward! Yeah baby! The imprinted footprints on the bridge looked cool, though I'm not sure what the purpose is -- which is a storytelling flaw. Nothing should happen without a reason. There might be one later, but so far, it makes no sense. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- Simon Furman and Bob Forward often made seemingly irrelevant references in their stories, that would only make a whole lot of sense later on.

Sparkplug's rescue was an interesting side story. I do like how the plot switches between the two stories -- the story of the Autobots/Decepticons and that of the MiniCons. I liked how they used the Air Team, as so far they've been the ONLY Armada toys I've played with so far! (:

The cinematic technique used in this book is pretty good. I do like the scene when the Air Team tell Sparkplug of their plan to free all the other MiniCons.

The junkyard looked very cool -- lots of detail. And I like that flying garbage ship in the background -- nice touch! The fact that the Transformers are used a drone to dump their rubbish shows how unpopular that zone is, making it an ideal hideout. And kudos to ExcelonZero for pointing out an Easter Egg in the MiniCon hideout -- near where the jetpacks are lying int he corner is a frame hanging from a shelf -- it is the MiniCon insignia without the "M" in the middle.

I like how Raiz has drawn the generic robots in Cyber City to actually look Cybertronian, and not like generic Asimov-esque droids like Jose Delbo used to do them (shudder). Although they lack any prominent alt mode kibble like Geoff Senior used to include (remember that one generic Autobot we all confused for an Autobot Clone?), at least they do look like Transformers -- albeit very plain ones.

But this also kinda shows that Cybertronian society is divided into castes -- you have the common populace who look rather plain. Then you have the Autobots, who seem to be viewed upon as the warrior class. When the Decepticons attacked, NONE of the common class Transformers even bothered attacking or even fleeing. The responses were "Where are the Autobots?" and "Why isn't Optimus Prime helping us?" -- clearly indicating that not ony were the Autobots above the common class, but that they had an obligation to serve and protect the classes beneath them; much like the romantic imagery of the Knights of Europe or the Japanese Samurai. And in certain periods of history, the Knights and Samurai were indeed benevolent and good to their people -- yet the Decepticons represent what the warrior class often did in many other periods of history (e.g.: the Crusades); mass pillaging and conquest. So in effect, the Autobots and Decepticons are both different aspects of the same caste.

As portrayed since the first issue, the MiniCons are the underclass... possibly even the Untouchable Caste (which would explain why nobody had ever bothered to experiment with their potential to augment the power of the warrior caste until recently -- which shows great initiative on the part of the Decepticons, possibly out of desperation though).

The fight scenes are much better choreographed in this series than in DWG1 (shudder). Also, the premise that the MiniCon augmentation makes the Decepticons stronger and faster than the Autobots makes it more believable for them to do more exaggerated moves -- such as the way Starscream is utterly ignoring Hot Shot's right arm, the way Demolishor is totally ignoring the rest of Scavenger and Red Alert's bodies -- smashing their heads together at a speed so fast, there was no time for them to react. It's often said that over-dedicated techniques have the inherent flaw that they leave the combatant vulnerable if the opponent is faster and/or stronger than you -- however, if you are the one who is undeniably stronger and faster, then you can afford to use extremely dedicated and exaggerated moves, as there is little danger of the opponent being able to move fast enough to counter -- or even if they could, the Decepticons' endurance may be such that any attempt at damaging them would be negligible. Of course, this is my own personal presumption. It would have been nice if the comic had some kind of narrative which clearly explained this. In fact, the narrator in this comic seldomly says anything, which does have its disadvantages.

Decepticon HQ looks cool, especially with that holographic insignia. Though... it is kinda stupid if it's meant to be a secret base. The MiniCon's attempt to break into the base was quite comical. In fact, the Air Team seem to be the comic relief in this issue -- and not in a stupid sense like Wheelie or season 3 Grimlock. These guys are funny, but their plans work (at least most of the time)!

Visual error: the jetpack that Sparkplug uses -- when we saw it lying on the floor at MiniCon base and when Runaway hands it over to Sparkplug, the right side is blue and the left side is silver/gray. When we see Sparkplug take off, the right side is silver/gray and the left side is blue!! Then two panels later, we see that the colours have switched yet again with the left side being clearly gray/silver!! Also, notice that when Sparkplug is flying around, in the second panel of the page when Jetstorm and Runaway and ducking down, they're UNCOLOURED! And why were all the MiniCons PINK when they were incarcerated? Yomtov!!
While we're on the issue of colour, are Megatron's teeth white or red? Cos they seem to fluctuate throughout the book...

The way they "zoomed in" on Megatron talking to Optimus with his hand on Prime's neck was a bit disappointing -- the whole "let's copy, paste, zoom and crop the same image over and over again" is kinda lazy. It would've been if they made Megatron's expression change from a snarl to a maniacal smile when he says, "Because Cybertron is mine now."

Again, the second melee of fighting at Cyber City looked cool -- I liked how there was several fracture marks and cracks all over the Autobot's bodies; the way that Hot Shot made a long groove in the ground as he slid along (which must REALLY hurt considering that it's paved with metal! -- this should've been further emphasised with lots of sparks flying around Hot Shot); and I like the way Cyclonus throws Scavenger.

The way the story ended in a cliffhanger was nice -- and I do like how Cybertron looks more "bronze" than silver from space.

Overall I thought this was a pretty groovy issue. My main complaint is that it came out too late!! What? Two days before the end of August? And I only picked up my issue yesterday!

Can't wait for issue #3 -- and here's hoping that it'll be more PUNCTUAL.

Hey, it's September now, where the SLAG is G1 #5??

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