Tag Archives: Starscream

Transformers The Manga Review

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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

Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy: Kingdom Review

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Transformers has been quite busy. Since the end of the second part in the trilogy I got to review the Rescue Bots Academy show as well as the recent Battlegrounds game. Well, now we’re at the final part of the trilogy. Part 2 ended off with a ton of plot lines to explore but since each part only has a few episodes I’d say a lot of us expected there would be loose ends. The only question was, would these be in the form of direct cliffhangers or more like threads that aren’t really mentioned but you know they’re out there? I’d say it’s closer to the former to we’ll see if there’s a part 4.

This part pretty much opens with the Autobots and Decepticons crash landing on this mysterious planet. They are greeted by the locals which are the Maximals and Predacons. Unfortunately for the heroes, the Decepticons and Predacons hit it off really quickly. Meanwhile Prime has to figure out a way to defeat the Maximals and to find the All Spark once and for all. If he can get that, then all the sacrifices will have been worth it.

Now you may be wondering about what’s going on with the subplot back on Cybertron but there’s no time for that so we don’t get one. We find out what happened in the aftermath though. The Kingdom saga is only 6 episodes so those are all really spent on this planet as the gang tries to work together. The series has certainly come a long way from the original days of war on Cybertron that’s for sure.

It’s fun to see the Maximals return. It’s been a while since I saw Beast Wars but the old characters are all pretty familiar. Primal and the gang actually do pretty well in the fight. I would even argue they should have beaten the Autobots pretty quickly. The heroes have been running on the last smidges of Energon pretty much since the beginning of the trilogy so I’d expect they would be out of luck by now. I suppose Autobots are naturally tougher than Maximals so it balances out but if the fight kept going they really should lose.

We don’t really get to see the heroes fight much in any part of Transformers so it was a cool skirmish and I wouldn’t have minded if it kept on going for a while longer to be honest. The heroes look good as you would expect. Prime is still calling the shots well. While I may not have always agreed with him in the previous two parts, at this point he is committed so I’m with him on seeing this mission through to the end. Turning back now would just not make any sense and they all know it.

Prime’s so close to the goal after all. The rest of the Autobots are solid as well but Prime really gets the biggest role. Bumblebee also gets his moment to shine as he is acknowledged by Prime as being the best candidate for the Matrix and leadership position. In context I definitely think it’s a stretch since Bumblebee just joined the team but you can also interpret it as a diss to the other members not being ready for this.

For the Maximals, Primal is fun of course. He definitely does not like Nemesis at all which is why it’s hard to work with him at first but gradually he softens up. He doesn’t really have the same commanding presence as Prime but does what he needs to. Then you have Airazor who does the most dangerous jobs for the team. It doesn’t always go well for her but she stays strong and does well at convincing a Predacon to rethink things.

Then on the Predacons side you have three main members. First is Megatron II but I wasn’t a big fan of that guy. He basically worships Megatron and is always mentioning how great the guy is. He doesn’t exactly feel like a leader and acts like a minion. The guy needs to have more self respect to be taken seriously here.

Dinobot was great as always though. He looks very strong and is also reasonable. His decision to go along with Starscream for a while may have been shaky but ultimately he wisened up and got out of there pretty quickly. He was one of the best characters in Beast Wars so I wasn’t surprised that he was great here as well.

Then you have Blackarachnia. There are so many spider themed villains in Transformers that it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Still, she’s a fun member and definitely likes goading Starscream on. Both of them aren’t exactly the most loyal fighters out there so they make for a good team. Both will need to watch their backs though.

As for the Decepticons, Megatron is a fun leader as always but at this point he’s just a complete villain who is running around and trying to destroy things. Gone is the Part 1 Megatron who you could make the case of having a stronger argument than Prime. That’s one thing I miss from the first part which is that we had a whole lot of nuance between both factions. Due to the show skipping the initial outbreak of what set off the war, you really didn’t know who was right. We could assume that Prime was given the entire franchise history but the fact that it was close was interesting.

Megatron insists on using the Matrix in this season but you can’t help and think that it is just holding him back. The matrix doesn’t offer any super abilities and all of the characters let him know that it refuses to be used by a Decepticon. I’d toss it or lock it up if I was him.

Then you have his loyal follower Soundwave who finally gets some action here. He’s definitely not portrayed as a big fighter here but Soundwave still gets his hype. Mainly through Laserbeak who really does good here and takes on several challengers. Finally there is Starscream who has his plans as always. You wonder if he will end up being the main villain since that happens a lot. Either way you’ll be satisfied with his portrayal. He’s as cunning and quick witted as ever.

Throughout the part we have a lot of fights between the 4 factions but gradually we are given more and more hints that something else is coming. Galvatron appeared in the opening episode after all with the golden disc of destiny and there was all the foreshadowing with Unicron early on. Well, here’s where this all comes to play as Nemesis and Galvatron show up. I wish they could have appeared more because to me this was the most interesting part of the whole saga.

In season 2 the show already delved into the idea of a multiverse with the whole Dead Zone aspect. (Which comes into play here) Well, it looks like in one timeline Unicron ended up winning and took both Prime and Megatron as his lackeys. In a Galactus kind of way, Unicron reformatted them so they would work for him as Nemesis and Galvatron. It’s very interesting and cool to see both a Prime and Megatron teaming up like this.

Sure, they may be evil and potentially not in their right minds but it’s a great team up nonetheless. I love it when a show introduces multiple timelines and parallel dimensions. There is so much you can do with that and even if you don’t go the guest star angle, you can still get a lot out of it just through discussion and lore.

Mind you, Netflix sometimes likes to go a little too far with sci-fi lore and there was an instance where I was worried this was going to happen here as well. We do get some info dumps and pondering about the universe but it ends as quickly as it begins so we’re good. The climax is really a big battle as everyone tries to fight these invaders off and it’s pretty epic. Galvatron and Nemesis were pretty outnumbered but otherwise I dare say they would have crushed everyone.

In theory we’ll see them more in a Part 4 if we ever get that. You know how I’m a big fan of cliffhanger endings so of course I had a blast with the ending. If we ever do get a sequel it’ll probably be the best part. Nemesis may not talk but he has a cool aura around him and Galvatron is as fun as ever. I like that he has a lot of plans going and was doing his best to defy Unicron. In a way he’s like Starscream in that respect as Megatron doesn’t like to work for anybody. He’ll likely continue resisting Unicron until he ceases to function.

The graphics are pretty good. It’s CGI so it won’t look quite as clean as all of the animes but you can always tell what is going on and who is who. CGI will likely never quite stack up to hand drawn for me but if you are going to go the CG route, you should always try to be colorful. That way the fight scenes will pop out at you and you can still get a lot of cool visuals. So I’d say the CG here is good because there are definitely a lot of moments where you can pause and what is happening on screen will look pretty good. The soundtrack is more on the underwhelming side though. I couldn’t tell you about a single theme in the show. I’m sure there is music of course but none of it is memorable.

It’s worth mentioning that this is another Transformers title that didn’t need to add any humans. It’s all about the bots and it works well. There’s a whole lot you can do with the franchise without even needing the humans because the Transformers world is incredibly vast. Part of the fun in season 2 was seeing the world with Soundblaster because it was a whole alien culture that the Transformers had to visit. You could make a Star Trek type story just about exploring other planets as well. The battles with Prime and Megatron are classic but those are all other avenues we could explore.

Of course in a Part 4 we need to go into the whole Unicron angle. That said, I think the toughest part about incorporating him into the mix is it’s hard to picture him being defeated. Take this trilogy for example. Both sides are incredibly low on energon and the combined armies had trouble with his heralds. What would they do when the actual Unicron shows up? They would need a bunch of the celestial Transformers and some of those living cities to do much of anything to him and even then I’d find it pretty hard to buy into them winning.

In the end I’d put this one pretty close to the Machinima Transformers show. This one went the more conventional route initially but by the end we had a lot of guest stars and pretty ambitious plot lines. This one wins in terms of it being so much longer than the few minutes per episode and it had time to do more. At the same time, I’d give Mach the edge in terms of the actual story and scale of what was going on. It was cool seeing all of the obscure Transformer characters showing up and doing their thing like the Mistress of Flame. This one wins overall though as the extra length is just too good to pass up. Now we just have to wait and see what the next CGI experience is, hopefully it arrives sooner than later.

Overall, The War for Cybertron trilogy was pretty fun. It does feel like the name was more applicable to the first two parts though as the third was mostly unrelated. I suppose the battles are an extension of what happened previously though so in that sense you can say it was still a war. I don’t think this will go down as one of the more memorable Transformer shows but I am glad they keep pumping out titles left and right. At this point Transformers has so many shows you’d be hard pressed to name them all without thinking about it. If you haven’t checked this one out yet then you definitely should. If you combined all 3 shows you’ve effectively got a full season’s worth of content.

Overall 7/10

Yami Yugi vs Starscream

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Suggested by Anonymous Starscream is a very popular Decepticon and one who is still very popular. He has a good amount of weapons to back him up so Yugi can’t afford to let his guard down. That being said, he does have the cards to hold his own here. Starscream will be heavily outnumbered and just can’t stand up to such an assault for very long. He’ll definitely end up crumbling against a foe like Slifer The Sky Dragon! Yami Yugi wins.

Transformers: Titans Return Review

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It’s time for the sequel to the first Transformers Machinima show. The first one had some really cool atmospheric presence and a unique setting, but was held back by the extremely short run time and how much of it was wasted on nothing happening. It was a glimpse at a part in Transformers lore that you wanted to see more of, but couldn’t since it ended so early. With this sequel we’re thrown back in there. There’s less mystery and suspense in this installment since the smoke has cleared and it’s clear who the enemies are again, but we do get more action than the first season and more of a plot as well. I’d say that it’s an improvement over the first although I’m hoping the final season focuses a little more on the core Autobots and Decepticons in favor of the larger bots.

The first season ended with Windblade announcing that the Titans had returned and this season continues that. Trypticon has been awoken and what’s more, Starscream is in the driver’s seat. He doesn’t keep control the whole time and only seems to pop in and out periodically but this is still a serious threat to the heroes. They are all still beat up and bruised from the last season so they haven’t had time to regroup. Metroplex and Windblade lead the offensive against him while the Combiners, Optimus Prime, and Fortress Maximum also prepare to join the fight. Meanwhile, Rodimus Prime has decided that he doesn’t want to be a prime anymore and goes off on his own. Megatron appears to be content to sit on the sidelines for a while and Overlord has popped up to take advantage of the situation. Quite a lot of plot lines are occurring here.

Optimus Prime looks pretty good as always. He’s on top of the situation pretty quickly and does his best to contribute in the fight. He’s a little outranked by the sheer size and power of the Trypticon, but still gets his hits in. He’s definitely portrayed as being the strongest normal size bot with Megatron being his only equal. I’m hoping he gets at least one big fight in the next season. Hot Rod unfortunately looks really bad. This is currently Cybertron’s darkest hour and he decides to get rid of the Matrix now? He doesn’t even tell anybody about it. As Hot Rod he can’t fight that well and is taken down pretty quickly. Maybe he had more fun, but it definitely does come across as incredibly selfish. Not really a cool thing to do.

Megatron seems like he’ll have a really big role in the next season since he is crucial to both the Overlord plot as well as the Megatronus one. They may even be playing him up as a temporary leader to the heroes which is sure to have a lot of the other bots riled up. He’s pretty great as per usual and I’m ready to see him fight on. Overlord hasn’t done a whole lot yet, but the show has portrayed him as a legitimate threat. It’s hard to say how strong he is because both enemies that he took down were either weakened or not really fighters to begin with. I expect he will be quite powerful though and likely you would need Megatron or Prime to take him down. Maybe Windblade could put up a good fight, but it’s hard to see her winning.

Metroplex is the first of the big heroes to take on Trypticon. He seems like a reasonably good robot but is lacking in personality. He also seems like a terrible fighter who completely relies on his size, but that may just be a side effect of the animation. He falls for every single one of Trypticon’s incredibly slow attacks. Now anyone can tell you that I’m not the biggest fan of giant fights and this is why. They’re moving so slow that everything should be dodgeable. Especially since Metroplex is humanoid and should be slightly more agile. Then we have Fortress Maximus who is a really bad character. It’s his duty to fight Trypticon and restore order to the planet but he doesn’t want to do so. He is basically forced into helping out after Windblade nearly dies in the process and still doesn’t fight too well. By this point Trypticon is already pretty exhausted. Of course, win or lose it wasn’t going to help Metroplex with his weak personality. Windblade is still a fun character and this continuity is her best portrayal. She’s less of a mysterious warrior here, but still talks tough to everyone. She doesn’t really get a chance to have a big fight this time around, but I suppose it makes sense since there weren’t many opponents in this season. She is still one of the best characters in the show and has a solid design. She just needs bigger guns when in plane mode since she never seems to deal any damage like that.

Perceptor gets a fairly big role here as Prime chooses him to wield the Matrix. I was never a fan of Perceptor, but I guess he isn’t bad here. He still can’t fight though and can be a little annoying as he isn’t very quick on the uptake. I suppose every franchise needs at least one scientist figure but when you’re one of the only characters in an action show who can’t fight…it doesn’t bode well. He’s probably my least favorite character by default. Meanwhile, Trypticon is a fun villain. He basically spends the entire season fighting opponent after opponent in a nonstop battle with no breaks. It’s a pretty incredible feat of endurance. While his fighting style isn’t elegant, it apparently does get the job done. If anything, the ending to his plot is actually very rushed and anticlimactic. You almost want to root for him by the end since the heroes were just throwing wave after wave at him. If he’s stuck it out for this long then he may as well take the win right? Fans of this character will certainly like how tough he looks here.

Victorion and the Combiners still get a pretty big role in this season although they are largely ineffective. They actually get a brand new super form as they all merge but are still too small to really be of much use. The scale of the Titans really makes them live up to the title. You’ve got the normal bots, then the combiners who are about 2-3x normal size, then you’ve got the fused form which is probably 1.5x that and then the Titans which are 2-3x that. They’re quite large is what I’m trying to say. The Combiners are just annoying though as none of the members are smart and all they care about is fighting even when they are hopelessly outgunned. They just don’t have any plans in place at all and come across as reckless, but not in a cool way. They’re just cannon fodder.

The Mistress of Flame had some potential, but she really didn’t do much throughout both seasons. She will not be missed and didn’t even put up much of a fight in the end. She’s not bad, but always feels like this character could be interchangeable with anyone else. She is a ruler and that caricature is her only personality. I guess better to have a generic one than none at all right? Finally we have the big boss at the end of the series, Megatronus. He’s always been a really cool character who is even more of a final boss esque character than Megatron. His power is on a completely different level from most of the other bots and he is treated as one of the creators here. He has yet to look bad in any form of media that I have seen him in and this will likely be no exception. The series does have to be careful with the power levels rising so high though as having a finale filled with plot hax would not be a good idea.

The animation will still remind you of the classic PS2 video games, but not in a bad way. This style of CGI works pretty well as it feels like a video game which is preferable to CGI that doesn’t look like one and still isn’t good. The character designs are on point and the energy effects are pretty good. It would be nice if the fighting was a little faster though and I feel like that would improve if we had more of the normal sized bots fighting. That may be an optimistic thought though. I guess the animation just looks better when everyone is standing still, but I’ll still give it a thumbs up in the end. With all of the constant action going on, at least I was able to follow the fight scenes. There isn’t really a great soundtrack here. One or two good themes may show up, but you won’t remember them for very long. That’s unfortunate, but not altogether unexpected. It would have been a nice bonus, but isn’t a negative.

It’s rare to watch a show where a whole season is essentially one long fight. Honestly, this may be the only time. Sure, we’ve had seasons where the whole thing is a long series of fights like DBZ or Bleach, but one long fight? I can’t think of any. Perhaps Goku vs Frieza was one long fight, but I’m not sure. If the animation was a little better and more streamlined then this could have gone down in history as one of the greatest TV shows ever. It was still a good concept though. What helps this title as well is that the writing is engaging. You’ll be interested in what is happening from start to finish. There are also no human characters around to distract from the fights and what is happening on screen which is certainly a good thing.

It’s almost going to be hard to go back to the usual Autobots vs Decepticons plots in the other shows. I suppose they never get old, but I’ve love to see more of an ongoing show tackle the futuristic era. Prime and Megatron should certainly stick around as main characters though. Writing them out isn’t a good idea when they still have a lot more to do. Even in this show, Prime leaves for 5 minutes and the city is in danger again. Considering that Windblade warned them in the last season it also does come across as a little odd that Prime would choose now to leave.


Overall, Titans Return had quite a lot of action and the season went by quickly. I can see it going down as a cult hit in the future. As the only positive effect of having such short episodes, the pacing was always very quick so nothing actually dragged on. With all of the seeds already sown for the third season it should be interesting to see how it’s handled. If the episodes are the same length as they were for these last two seasons, At first I thought the series was possibly starting more plots than they could finish, but now it seems like it all actually could wrap up. Ideally it just won’t be rushed. I think the Overlord plot will be the subplot once again as Megatronus is the focus but there should still be enough time to satisfactorily complete both plots. Most likely then it’ll end with Cybertron in another rebuilding stage. Well, now the waiting game returns, but long story short, I would recommend watching this season. It’s not as if it’ll take too much time and it’s simply a solid action show. It’s really like watching a short movie or a 3 part adventure if you add up the run time of the episodes.

Overall 7/10

Transformers vs GI Joe Review

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It’s time for another one of the Free comics from this year’s event. This comic is the start of a whole new series where these two popular franchises will duke it out. Since it is the first issue; we don’t get to see them fight all that much, but it is the set up. It also serves as an alternate retelling for both sides so that the continuity fit. Unfortunately, the art and character personalities take the comic down a few notches.

The plot involves the Joes as they are taking down a Cobra base and thoroughly enjoying it. None of them are actually taking it seriously, but Cobra is still pretty confident since things are going according to plan. The plan changes a little because Bumblebee and Starscream are duking it out. The Decepticon has a pretty huge advantage and explosions ripple across the area. Will the Joes be able to finish off Cobra Commander and still have enough energy left to take on a Decepticon?

The plot itself is decent, but the dialogue can be a little painful. Duke and Snake Eyes spend most of their screen time flirting with Scarlet. It’s sad enough that such an epic commander like Duke would be doing this while on a mission of life and death, but Snake Eyes? Snake Eyes is supposed to be the quiet and tough ninja that does what must be done. Not only does he ditch the mask, but Snake Eyes talks a lot. He makes many puns and jokes while showing off the fact that he’s not as professional as he used to be. Snake Eyes gets a lot of hype for his reasoning skills, but then he throws an ordinary grenade at a huge robot. I don’t believe that this was a very smart move.

The ending is pretty sad for the heroes. Bumblebee has a pretty sad fate in store for him and the Joes have a man down. Hopefully, Duke will bounce back from this and look good again. That way, the rest of the Joes can follow suit. The first issue is supposed to make you want to pick up the series, but I can’t say that this one did anything for me. It just wasn’t that fun to read.

The artwork is pretty bad and at times it feels as if it’s a fan comic. I really have to say that the art is some of the most underwhelming that I have seen in ages and the bandages scene was particularly hard to look at. I actually had to make sure that this was the official comic as I was reading it. Art is something that can really help a comic if done right and these drawings just bring the issue down.

Overall, Transformers vs GI Joe may have just been called GI Joe: Attack on Cobra! The Transformers cross paths with the Joes for a second, but they’re mainly involved in completely different plots. Naturally, this is because it’s only the first issue, but it doesn’t change the fact that we didn’t get a whole lot of interaction. I wouldn’t pick up the next issues based on this one and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to the casual reader. Start off with the Transformers and New Avengers crossover instead.

Overall 5/10