Suggested by Sonic Hector is a powerful fighter who has good equipment so he won’t be doing down easily. That said, he still won’t be able to keep up with Inosuke. Inosuke is a savage fighter with speed that is on a different level and his breathing techniques will give him the advantage here. Hector isn’t quite agile enough to stop the attacks in time and will go down here. Inosuke wins.
Suggested by Destroyer Anguirus has some pretty sharp spikes so he should be able to just crush Edward with a rolling attack. Edward’s got speed on his side but I don’t think it will ultimately be enough to win here. He still needs some way to deliver decisive damage to his opponent and Anguirus has enough durability to take those hits for a while. Edward would need some kind of special weapon in order for him to claim victory here. Anguirus wins.
Suggested by Destroyer King Dedede is fairly strong and deals with King Dedede a lot but I would say he may be lacking the agility to deal with Luigi here. He’ll need to spread out the Gordos and his hammer attacks while Luigi has to try and use electricity and anything else that he has at the ready. It’s a classic speed vs power battle but in this case power actually wins. I think Dedede is just skilled enough to pull out the win. King Dedede wins.
Suggested by Destroyer Ganondorf has a lot of physical power particularly thanks to Hyrule Warriors so if he can get in close then he has a shot but that will be tough because of just how strong The BioLizard is with his long range options. He has a ton of energy blasts and long range beams that he can use all day. While Super Sonic and Super Shadow were able to deal with this, it will be very tough fo rGanon and he will be overwhelmed. The BioLizard wins.
Suggested by Destroyer Now this is a really close battle between two of Marvel’s top heavy hitters. Both of these characters can easily end the planet in an instant. I would say that Thanos has more hax with the Gauntlet while Jean Grey definitely has the better long range options. In a fist fight Thanos is winning this one but he’ll have a hard time keeping up with Jean Grey in the air. So it can go either way but ultimately I trust Thanos more with his tactics and more attack options. Thanos wins.
Suggested by Destroyer Marshmallow Man is really huge and certainly an imposing villain for most fighters but he doesn’t have any great long range options which is usually Edward’s weakness. While Edward isn’t quite Superman, he does have some super speed and strength. I definitely see him chipping away at Marshmallow Man’s defense throughout the battle until he eventually takes in the win. Marshmallow Man doesn’t have any attacks that are fast enough to turn the tables here. Edward (Twilight) wins.
This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative
You may remember Christine as the bully from Carrie but the name is a coincidence. This car has been a demon for a very long time and is around to dish out the pain. The movie is about how corruption spreads fast and you have to be careful who you hang with or you could be in trouble. The main guy’s friend is annoying with how quickly he goes on the dark side though.
So the movie starts by introducing us to Arnie who has had a rough time of things. He gets picked on, has really strict parents, and just doesn’t have a high opinion of himself. Well, one day he finds a super beat up car that looks like it’s on its way to the scrapheap and decides to buy it from this shady old guy. His friend Dennis tries to convince Arnie not to do this but he does anyway. Miraculously Arnie is able to make this car look brand new and all of a sudden he has become an overconfident school delinquent. Dennis sees that Arnie is getting worse and worse but what can he do about it?
I’d say that Dennis is definitely put in a really tough spot here. There’s only so much that you can do as the best friend. He’s not family and it’s not like he’s an adult figure so his best bet is just trying to reason with Arnie as friends. Unfortunately that guy is so far off the deep end that it’s really tough to do so. Dennis is a stand-out character for trying so hard. Additionally, Dennis did risk his life in stepping in when the bullies had Arnie outnumbered 5 to 1 and disarmed the guy with the knife.
It was a great scene for him and he really didn’t lose faith in his friend until the end. Dennis really did everything he could. Meanwhile you can basically flip everything that I said for Dennis for Arnie. That guy was annoying on every front. Look, he definitely did have a tragic origin story, I can’t argue against that. The bullies scene was really rough and knowing that he has to go through things like that at school is tough. It’s also easy to see why he has so much self doubt.
The main issue is once he gets the car Christine and suddenly does a 180. If the car is going to mess with his mind, I’d like to see it be gradual so that we know Arnie is actually fighting. Instead the guy goes crazy almost immediately and starts taking this out on Leigh, his parents, and everyone around him. He stops being sympathetic real quick and at the end of the day he chose the car over everyone else. How much of that was mind control and how much of that was really him is the question that the film leaves you with.
It’s hard to say but I’m always big on willpower. If you didn’t produce then that’s game over. So Arnie letting himself be turned evil like that was just bad. Especially when he turns on Dennis who was always in his corner. Beating up on the bullies and taking them out? Yeah that’s rather intense but you definitely see how it could happen. Once he started driving crazy on the highway and acting hostile towards Dennis then things were really crazy. Likewise with taking such a hard stance with Leigh after she had nearly just died by choking in his car.
Arnie’s pretty bad but then I’d also say that Leigh should have completely cut ties with him after the first incident as well. Don’t go back to him after that no matter what he says. Following him into the garage led to another blow-up since the car was his top priority and even after that she’s trying to save him. Perhaps she was extra perceptive that it was the car messing him up but realistically that’s not the first thing that you would think of. She was rather easy on him.
Another character who suspected the car awful quickly was Rudolph. He’s a detective but a rather odd one. I don’t see how anybody could jump to the supernatural conclusion too quickly but this guy seemed to suspect it right away. He was asking a whole lot of questions about the car and how it was fixed so quickly but I’m not even sure what he was getting at. It felt like he had to be hinting that he knew the car was supernatural but that’s really a headscratcher. How he could possibly have jumped to that conclusion (Even if it was correct) is a bit beyond me there.
Props to him being a great detective I suppose. He was a nice character though and I would have liked to have seen more of him. As for Christine, well she’s evil from the jump so it’s not like you can reason with her. She gets jealous quickly and is always ready to exact lethal revenge. If she hadn’t gone after Leigh then you could have at least tried to paint her as a more sympathetic character trying to protect her owner but since she is possessive like that, then there’s no shot. Of course she did the same thing in the past to the previous owner’s family so she was just always like that. I’m cool with the film not going any further into the past because I think it actually makes things more scary to know that she was just randomly an evil, sentient car as opposed to some long backstory about how she turned out that way.
The film isn’t quite as violent as the average King title. The car does take some people out for sure but usually not in super gruesome ways. The violence at times is more implied than shown explicitly. One guy gets rammed to death for example but whereas in another film we would see every moment of that for a drawn out period of time, it’s not quite as intense here. Christine is in general a bit of a mean spirited film though with the average bullies running around and causing trouble. They really go all in by attacking a second time and then you have Arnie’s boss who is rude to everyone for no real reason.
The romance here is really on the weak side for obvious reasons. The relationship with Leigh and Arnie was never going to work out with him being on the dark side and all. I really hope the film wasn’t gunning towards a rebound later on but I’ll choose to believe it wasn’t since it ends pretty quick. I was expecting a different romance plot to continue but the other girl pretty much got completely written out after the opening scenes.
Overall, Christine isn’t really a fun film to watch but at least it’s fairly tame so I wouldn’t say that it’s too bad. There just aren’t very many happy moments and with Arnie being corrupted immediately, you can’t even root for him to really be saved by the end. If you really like evil cars then that might be enough to push it over the edge for you but otherwise I’d say to skip this one. Meanwhile one character nearly chokes to death here and it reminds me why I have to eat so slowly at Jumbo’s pizza. The cheese is so thick that I swear it’s a choking hazard so I always warn people about that when I recommend the place. Top 2 pizza in the whole world but definitely an intense one so don’t take big bites.
Overall 4/10
This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative
Carrie is a very well known movie. I’d wager that every horror fan has heard of it at some point or another and so you generally know the climax before actually watching it but the rest of the film is the adventure. Unfortunately I can safely say that this film is definitely not going to rank at all. Right from the start the movie begins on a low note and doesn’t really let up from there.
When a movie starts with an extended fanservice scene at the showers you know that you’re going to be in for a looooong ride. The whole first scene may introduce how Carrie was brought up in a way where she doesn’t know basic facts but it’s probably one of the worst ways to go about it. The bullies are everywhere and taking names as expected and you’re ready to move onto the next scene. Carrie was bullied so thoroughly here that she was traumatized and at home her abusive mother Margaret blames Carrie for this since Margaret has very crazy views on the world and sin.
Out of all the girls who messed with Carrie, the only one who feels bad about this is Sue and she wants to find a way to make it up to Carrie. So she has an idea, she’ll convince her boyfriend Tommy to take Carrie to the prom and pretend to like her. This will in theory get Carrie’s confidence up and allow her to make friends which will buffer the impact from Tommy leaving Carrie to go back to Sue afterwards. This plan is anything but full proof however it’s the best that she’s got and Tommy decides to roll with it. Little do they know that the main bully Christine also has plans of her own for the prom to try and wreck Carrie’s life once and for all.
The whole town is very mean spirited that’s for sure. The only two really decent characters here appear to be the teacher Miss Collins and Sue. Tommy’s okay as well I guess but very weak willed and probably should have said that the plan was not a good one. At the end of the day he just listens to Sue’s ideas without really throwing his own views into the mix and that was a big mistake. I didn’t think the plan was very well thought out at all because no matter what, someone is going to be feeling real bad by the time this is all over.
Lets dial it back though and first we’ll talk about what didn’t work for the film. Obviously the fanservice is the big issue right off the bat and destroys any momentum from the outset. Not to be stopped there though, the film even throws animal violence as the villains slaughter a bunch of pigs in order to get the blood they’ll need for the plan. It’s yet another edgy moment in what I would call a very edgy film. The movie didn’t even need to go that far because things were already really dire and a lot of other traps would have worked without the animal component.
Then we have the crazy mother where all of her scenes are definitely real sketchy. She’s always trying to drill fake lessons into Carrie’s head and mess with her further. It’s rough as Carrie is trying to do the right thing in not talking back to her but in the end that just results in her having to give in. Margaret’s just way too far gone at this point for anyone to help her out. Considering that Carrie has powers and is seemingly in control of them when she wants to be, Margaret is lucky that she’s still around at all.
We can’t forget about the bully Christine who is basically around just to try and make Carrie’s life as miserable as possible. I liked that the teacher actually stood up to her though. A lot of the time it seems like the bully gets away with everything but here Miss Collins actually took a swing at her and forces Christine to run off. It’s one of the rare times where the teacher actually got a complete victory over the student which is incredibly rare.
Billy is just as bad for going with the plan. I wouldn’t even say he was coerced into it, the guy was thrilled to help out. They had a very toxic relationship from the start that’s for sure. All of their scenes are painful as well and you’re waiting for them to get bumped off but they actually lasted a bit longer than you’d expect. In the end all of these bad characters and scenes add up to make for an awful movie though. You can’t really go back to back scenes without something bad happening. The film rarely gives you a chance to actually be happy.
Take Carrie for example, she is doing her best to have a fun life but you know that trouble is around every corner. I don’t blame her for saying no to the prom at first because in 99% of the cases she would be right that it was a trap. It actually wasn’t this time but it very well could have been and why put yourself in that position? Then Margaret was pressuring her from the other end so Carrie ended up going and the whole thing didn’t work out. Even in the brief moments in the party where she was having a good time, you knew that it couldn’t last.
Carrie was a good character though and I can see why she would blow up at the end though. After a while it was just too much. Too bad she couldn’t target only the villains though but by then her headspace was a little too cluttered. It’s ultimately what ended up turning her into more of a villain rather than ending things off with an anti-hero development. A part of me thought that Sue would end up turning into a traitor in the end so I’m glad that this didn’t happen. While I didn’t like the plan, at least she was trying to be helpful so I can give her that. Likewise for Tommy but then he loses all of those points when he actually does have an affair with Carrie.
He may be doing Sue a favor but cheating wasn’t included in that. He’s still her boyfriend after all so you can’t really cross that line without making things into an issue. Finally Miss Collins was definitely the best character here. She took charge and kept a level head. Considering that she was dealing with so many troublemakers, I’d say that she did a good job in keeping them all under control. By the end she may have made a mistake in how things were handled but from her pov it is easy to see how she would make that mistake. The party was really hectic and she couldn’t let any bullying go on over here. It was just game over there and she had a grisly end even though she tried being helpful.
They did a good job with the fire effects here. The climax felt like something out of a thriller film with explosions everywhere. The film also had a suitably ominous soundtrack going on for it. So on a technical level I can give the film some props there but at the end of the day it’s just too relentlessly depressing for all of the characters involved. The film would need a lot of clean up before I could say that it was ready to be a good film. Maybe throw in the government and some kind of subplot about tracking Carrie down and the origin of her powers. I wasn’t a big fan of the writing so you could also change large parts of the script and scale down Margaret’s scenes.
Overall, The cast here is very weak which mixed in with the rest of the film’s issues made this one an easy L. You’ll want to avoid it even if the film does have a fairly legendary reputation. There just isn’t a lot of fun to be had here. The whole town may not have been on Carrie’s side but ultimately there was nobody to rescue her from her home situation or help out at all so they may as well have been. Carrie really was all alone for most of the day and ultimately this ended up catching up to her.
Overall 1/10
Assassin’s Creed is back with another adventure. This one is a bit longer than the last one at 4 volumes. Still rather short in the grand scheme of things but this means that we have more time for the story. Like with the last one we’re jumping between the past as Shao Jun and the present with Lisa as the two leads. It’s a fairly good manga, I’d say that the artwork is on point although the story in the past isn’t super solid. Half the time you’re waiting to get back to the present to see what Lisa is going to do about her current predicament.
The story kicks off with the past as Shao Jun is the main character. Basically her group of assassins was betrayed by The Eight Tigers, one of their top ranking members was a guy named Gao. At this point Shao just wants to avenge her fallen comrades and prevent this group from succeeding in their goal with the mysterious box. In order to accomplish this, Shao will need to take down all of the 8 tigers. This will be difficult though as most of them are either expert fighters or have hired whole armies with which to protect them. Shao is an assassin by trade so her objective is usually to end the opponent in an instant before they actually know that she’s there.
That advantage is removed when she has to fight straight on which becomes an issue at several points in the manga. Meanwhile in the present, it is Lisa who is using the animus in order to relive the memories of Shao. She is being used by a shady scientist named Kaori who is hoping to find the location of the box in the present time. At this point, both the Assassins and the Templar agents have no idea where it is. I wonder if this is the plot of every Assassin’s Creed game because that’s basically what happened in the movie as well as the other manga I read. I suppose it’s a classic plot but I have to assume the games eventually have a bit of a different story in there. Ezio makes a cameo here which is cool though.
So Lisa doesn’t realize that this is the task and is here because she was always getting into a lot of trouble in school and this should help to rehabilitate her. She quickly sees how realistic the visions are and that she is even retaining some skills but Kaori tells her that this is normal. Lisa’s cousin Mari finds this rather suspicious but can’t convince Lisa to walk away from the experiments. Meanwhile Kiyoshi is a mysterious wild card here who is watching Lisa and Kaori from afar. What is his game and whose side is he on?
Now if you’re really enthusiastic about the present story, remember that the past is the focus here. It’s at least a 70-30 split I’d say and the present timeline usually doesn’t move much until the end. It’s probably something that could be expanded upon if this ever became a complete ongoing anime or something like that. Still, what we do get is always fun. Lisa makes for a good main character. I don’t think her plans are the most sound but at least she does have a plan.
I just feel like getting into the animus is giving the villains way too much power. No matter what plan you might have for when you wake up, that assumes that they’ll let you wake up. The instant the helmet is on, you have no idea what is going on in the real world and I don’t see how you could possibly trust them not to do something while you’re out. Keep in mind that they see everything that she sees through their monitor so the instant that she discovers the location of the box, they can just bump her off and that’s game over.
It’s very fortunate that Lisa has her cousin Mari here to help. Mari is really critical in coming in to help near the end and also working with Kiyoshi on getting intel. You always want to have a dependable ally like Mari on your side. Meanwhile, while I wouldn’t trust Kiyoshi at all, his interests to align with helping out Lisa for now so it’s good that he’s around. He actually has combat skills and training as well so he can mix it up as needed. Lisa will also be able to say that she can fight now that the memories will be permanently stored within her.
The manga and movie always seem to end right before we can really see what the lead can do though. I’d love to get a whole sequel manga about the adventures in the present. Evidently the Assassins and Templar agents are still around so lets see how it goes in the modern day. I think that would be a very exciting thriller series with both sides making big moves in the shadows. You already now that both groups have probably infiltrated all kinds of groups from the shadows already.
Kaori also makes for a solid villain in the past. She is quite devoted to her goal and really goes all out on being a crazy evil scientist. I’d say she underestimated Lisa just like Lisa underestimated her so it all events out. She was a lot more interesting than the villains in the past. Gao and the rest of the Tigers just felt like fodder for the most part. Technically a few of them even had the upper hand on Shao on a few occasions but none of them had very unique designs or personalities so they still felt like throwaways even when they were doing good. It’s hard to describe but they didn’t stand out.
It’s part of why the past setting is never quite able to match the present for me. It’s a lot harder to care about all of these guys. The previous manga did a better job of expanding the character cast in the past and giving them a lot of personality but in this one Shao is really one of the only characters with a lot to do. She is a great character and her quest for revenge is exciting. She gradually learns how to fight better in hand to hand while also keeping to her role as an assassin.
Shao’s the kind of fighter that you can’t count out and she also believed in her friend right away when the villain tried to frame her as an accomplice. Shao isn’t easily fooled and so she’s pretty much forced to carry the whole past story on her own. I’m not sure exactly what you would do to make the past a lot more interesting though. See, another issue is that it’s all in the past so it feels like it doesn’t matter much. It’s not like a flashback in a long running manga where you care because of the world building or you know these characters. These are brand new characters, most of which will die by the end and it’s all to locate the current spot of a box. (And usually the story doesn’t actually let us know where the box is)
I guess the first thing to do would be to have better villains but that’s easier said than done. On paper the story isn’t even bad. It’s a classic revenge tale and she has to steadily defeat all 8 Tigers one by one. That’s a great plot on its own and an exciting summary. How you make the villains more interesting is really up to the writer. Still, while this may not sound too positive, the story is still good. I’d say that the manga in general is a good one. It may not reach the next level but I had a good time reading it and it also has a decent amount of replay value.
There is a lot of action here and the volumes move very quickly. The 4 volumes have so many fights and quick plot developments that it feels like you only read 2 volumes and that’s good. Additionally the art got better as the series went along and I thought it was pretty solid by the end. Everything’s very streamlined, it actually reminded me of Papercutz a bit. The action scenes could get a little violent with people getting stabbed through the neck. The series would not let you forget that these are Assassins, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t say it crosses the line or anything but it’s a bit more than you may expect.
I can also say that you don’t need to play any games to understand this one. I forget if it was based on a game or if this is a completely original story but it doesn’t really matter. It’s completely self contained and you always know what’s going on here. It’s just the ending where you wish that the manga could have kept going for another volume or 2 because effectively it’s like the real story is starting now and that’s the present timeline that I want to see!
Overall, Blade of Shao Jun is a good title. I still wouldn’t call myself the biggest Assassin’s Creed fan and the very premise of always having to go to the distant path is a bit at odds with what I want to see since I’m really big on the present and the future. It’s all executed well enough though and if you’re looking for an old school story about Assassins then this should be up your alley. After all it’s not like there are a ton of stories like this so you want to grab the ones that you can get. Maybe you’ll find the villains more impressive than I did. If you do, then that would instantly jump the series up to the next level but I wouldn’t get my hopes too high there.
Overall 6/10
Now it’s time to take a detailed look at the Transformers manga collection that came out over here. Spread across 3 omnibus volumes this brought in many different Transformers titles. So you’ve got everything from classic G1 to Starsaber and even beyond. It’s definitely a must read for any Transformers fan. The stories are typically fairly quick so they are able to fit a whole lot in here. Each volume also has a lot of artwork at the end which is always fun as well as the final volume having a lot of unused concept art for episodes that we could have gotten. Definitely a shame that they were never animated but this is a lot of Transformers hype right at your fingertips.
I figure I’m going to break this down into each oneshot/series that’s included so lets start from the top. The first miniseries introduces us to Kenji who will end up being a fairly important kid. He wants to help the Autobots as best he can but he’s mainly more like a cheerleader the way Spike and Daniel were before they got their Exo-Suits. It’s always nice to have a human cheering them on though and it beats having to hide who they are all the time. We get several fights against Megatron and co.
A lot of these issues focus on the combiners which is nice as we get to see fights like Trypticon vs Metroplex. If you’re a fan of those big ones including Menasaur and the gang then it’s a nice way to kick things off. This first series has 8 issues so it’s one of the longer ones in the collection. It’s also the most retro I’d say because each issue feels like how a classic Transformers episode would play out. At most you can just see how the fights are shorter since the comic page counts aren’t very large. Typically once the Autobots get serious the Decepticons go down in a page or two.
At the end of the day I’d say Kenji was decent. A kid who can’t really contribute to the story can only go so far but he does try so I’ll give him credit there. He’s also very enthusiastic about the whole mission and stopping Decepticons so that’s good as well. In the manga there are times when the kids can even get Decepticons to see the error of their ways or at least weaken their drive so that can be important.
The second series is a bit shorter with 5 issues but mainly deals with the Galvatron vs Rodimus Prime part of the Transformers mythos. So if you’re a big Rodimus fan then this will probably be the highlight for you. It’s always good to see him. I may be a bigger HotShot fan but Rodimus is fun as well. Galvatron is really outmatched in each story though so it can be easy to forget that he’s supposed to be way stronger than Megatron was. In many ways the Autobots completely outmatch the Decepticons in each of the series here. Maybe Rodimus really was the chosen one and helped keep the Autobots on a higher tier. It’s something to think about at least…
The humans don’t really get to appear in this one. This is one of the more Robot focused stories but the humans would be returning soon so you don’t have to miss them for long. Either way the Robots are doing the heavy lifting so it’s not really a problem if they miss from time to time. Some would say the stories are even better without them. I do like the dynamic with the evil kids later on though so you don’t want to lose out on that.
This next series is even shorter at 3 stories but with a title like the Great Transformers War you can bet that there is a lot of action going on here. Optimus Prime is back by this point which is cool and there is a lot of action going on across the universe. You’ve got the Dark Headmasters as well and I’m always up for a good fight. There may be a bit less in here to stand out among the other stories but it’s got a solid base which is always important. A good story and solid action scenes will always end up making for a solid product and imagining all of this animated would be fun. Daniel also gets to show up here.
There’s a oneshot during the Beastformer saga which was solid. Basically the Decepticons and their animal counterparts decide to attack while White Leo is away so Kane and the others have to defend the place. Kane is so much better than Kenji and the main reason for that is that he can fight. Not just putting up a struggle or something but he has a sword and a mech suit. He can actually deal damage and do more than just be a distraction. That’s exactly what you want to see from the humans when they’re contributing.
With 8 issues, Headmasters is one of the longer series and it makes sense since it was fairly long/important in the cartoons as well. You now have all the good and evil headmasters fighting it out like ChromeDome. The original Autobots don’t appear as much by this point but you should like the new guys well enough. Daniel and friends actually have a sizable role this time as they appear in virtually every issue.
While I thought the actual Autobots from the Headmasters show were always some of the weakest, it’s always good to see them as a change of pace. By this point the series was like Pokemon where it’s difficult to memorize all of the names. Good luck on trying though, it would definitely be impressive if you can remember them all. You get a good amount of action here so it holds up with the rest of them.
After that is the Masterforce adaption and of course that was one of my favorite shows so that was nice. Unfortunately Ginrai’s human host is already gone by the time the manga starts so he doesn’t really get to appear but instead Shuta and Cab get really big roles here as our human characters. They’re pretty solid and get a little more to do than Kenji from earlier. That’s because they actually get to debate with their evil counterparts on the Decepticons side to prove that being a hero is its own reward. They’re later joined by Minerva and the 3 of them are actually given robots so fight with so they can help on the front lines.
Again, that’s always really big in helping make the characters cool because you absolutely need to be able to contribute. It’s only when the characters can’t contribute that I start shaking my head. Masterforce gets 12 whole issues so you can see that the manga is giving it the respect that it deserves. Although on the villains side Zarak and Devil Z aren’t as impressive as their names suggest. The villains in this saga tend to be a little bit whinier at times and maybe that’s a result of having the dark kids with them. Hard to say for sure but they don’t seem as pure evil and heartless as someone like Megatron was.
Victory is next up and I always thought that Starsaber had a really cool design. It reminds me of Protoman and he really stands out for that reason. At 10 issues you definitely don’t want to underestimate this series either. This time the main kid is Jan and his evil counterpart is Solon. It follows a fairly similar format of the kid helping out at times but by now the names for fighters from both forces will probably be totally unfamiliar to you. Fortunately it’s never very hard to tell who is a hero and villain both design wise but also in context. There’s never any doubt with the villains yelling and blasting about destroying the world. The two kids from the last series return but the girl changes as instead Jan’s sister Patty takes up the heroine slot. Her design is almost identical to the last heroine except that she looks a bit older. I always think authors should go out of their way to make sure designs don’t look super similar as long as there is no plot reason for it.
We also have the Transformers Zone adaption and they get to flesh things out a bit which is cool. I always thought that OVA had a ton of potential because it was basically an all star line up of the most powerful Decepticons to ever walk the planet. So now you have them all teaming up? That’s a winning combination if I’ve ever seen one but it’s hard to properly give them all time when it’s so short. Well in the manga version you feel like they all get to fight a bit longer. You also have the human fighters at the ready and so it feels like a fairly climactic battle with a lot of fighters on both sides. This really could have been its own series and it would have worked out really nicely. One day I’d like to see more stories from this part of the saga.
That said, as mentioned the manga does go farther than Zone into some original territory. One of these is the Battlestar one shot. Super Megatron (Cool form btw) ends up fighting with Star Convoy over in space and it’s cool to see all of these powered up modes going at it. From the story pages of unused drafts we see after this, there were really a ton of new forms and stories that were coming in the future. This is a nice preview of what we could have had and it makes sense as each G1 show did keep on increasing the power levels. It only makes sense that the robots would get more advanced each time right?
This was no exception and it was fun. It’s harder to go into detail on the draft parts but Optimus Prime would have been revived for real with a new form, he and Megatron would have had a lot of clashes in space and it all looked super hype. It also seemed more plot focused with a lot of cliffhangers and to be continued segments. One day I’d like to see Transformers get back into stories like that. The modern titles are cool and all of course but when’s the last time we got really high tier space battles with energy sabers and all? I feel like a lot of that died with G1 even if the modern titles are cool in their own ways as well.
With so many stories in the collection they can absolutely start to blend together. I’d compare it to the original DC Justice League comics where there are a lot of adventures and they follow a format each time. New villains and threats but roughly the same steps to getting there. Most of the Transformer stories are very similar in that way and since most of them are effectively stand alones, it’s easy to just pick up and read at any time.
By the same token, none of them are going to leave the same lasting impact on you as a volume from one of the modern titles would. Because those are typically a lot more plot based and tense with different story arcs and fate of the world hanging in the balance. Since these can range from being re-adaptions to side stories within the verse, there usually isn’t a whole lot of danger in the stories. They’re all very consistent though so you’re not likely to run into any weak stories here. They’re all pretty good. None are great but none are bad so it’s a fairly safe spot in there.
The artwork is okay but this is one where I would say that it can get a little messy and chaotic. Particularly during the battle scenes where everyone is blasting at each other. That’s where you can start to get lost in the sauce a little and may need to re read a page or just go slow. The series are fairly old so it makes sense that the art isn’t as polished. The way the panels are lined up and everything even feels more like an old comic. In a way it’s interesting how comics and manga both changed a lot over time into more streamlined designs. I suppose progress is progress no matter where you’re at.
The writing is on point though and it’s definitely nostalgic reading these titles. They definitely feel like real episodes on the printed page, only abridged versions to tell the full story in a small amount of pages. Whether you like Transformers or just want to check out a classic action story then you’ll have fun here. Not only will you get to meet a whole lot of different Transformer characters from over the years but you’ll get to see a lot of them fight and can understand more when people mention how Transformers used to be more about the robots than the humans.
A modern day remake of G1 would definitely be amazing in any format. I’m talking a classic full length series with traditional animation in 2022. No gimmicks or AUs or anything like that, but a straight G1 inspired story for an ongoing. That would be a blast because those titles had a lot of charm and can be modernized pretty well. You’d just switch the more episodic plot into something that’s a little more interconnected and then you’ll be all set. You could probably even include the kids if you want, at least the ones from Masterforce and beyond since they have their own robot suits and can fight.
The plot with the evil kid would work too because it’s especially easy to see how a kid would be taken in by the Decepticon’s lies and would be hard to get back on the good path. You could have a real good plot there provided you don’t let it completely take over the main plot. Robots still need to be the focus and you don’t want to change that but otherwise you’re all good.
Overall, I’d recommend checking out this collection. It’s like reading a Marvel’s Essential or DC Showcase where they bring over 500 pages of content. This one is spread out over 3 volumes but each one is really large and you can probably tell that based on all the stories above. It’s a must read for Transformers fans and it’s really impressive that they grabbed so many stories. I can basically say that I’ve read just about all of the Transformers manga now. There will always be others of course but this was a massive jump considering I hadn’t read much Transformers at all before now. (I’ve read a decent amount of the comics although probably a small drop in that big bucket of materials)
Overall 7/10
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