THE TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION 1 #2

By: Tony Whitt
Review Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2002

I sang the praises of Dreamwave's new TRANSFORMERS series when it began last month, partly because I'm a silly kid at heart who has always wanted the Transformers to be as cool on paper as they were in my mind, and partly because writer Chris Sarracini and artists Pat Lee and Rob Armstrong have actually made that happen. This second issue is proof of the first issue's promise.

The government has asked Spike to help them revive Optimus Prime, whom they've recovered from the Arctic Ocean after the Ark II tragedy that killed Spike's father three years ago. Spike has a piece of the Matrix, the lifeforce that animates the Transformers, but he's reluctant to bring back the creature who promised him that his father would be brought safely home. Meanwhile, the arms brokers who have revived some of the other Autobots and Decepticons for use as weapons are trying to auction off their new toys. Only problem is, Megatron is awake and aware, and he has plans of his own.

One thing Sarracini gets absolutely right is the voices of his characters. When we read Optimus and Megatron's dialogue, we can hear the voices of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker from the original TV series - which are the only voices that count, in case anyone asks. Another is the foundation he lays for the tension which will no doubt be played out later in the series between Optimus and Spike. Even though we only know Spike's thoughts on the matter this issue, there's enough resentment there that Sarracini simply has to address it eventually.

The artistic team's doing everything right, as well. For one thing, we finally get a correct sense of scale with the Transformers, especially Optimus Prime. I was enough of an anal-retentive even back in high school that it drove me crazy to see Optimus and the other Transformers shifting size each episode, depending on what was required for a particular scene. The scene in which Spike and the others stand between Optimus's feet just before he revives his fellow Autobots is one of the most impressive in this issue, all due to Lee and Armstrong's attention to such detail. We knew the Transformers were big back then, but did we ever really know how big? Of course not, since no one pinned it down. In other scenes, the artwork is triumphant and terrifying, especially the very last page.

The book's only real problem is a lack of space. Twenty-three pages seems to be the standard length for comic book stories nowadays, but when those twenty-three pages are made up mostly of action sequences and are interrupted by in-house ads for even more TRANSFORMERS paraphernalia, they give the sense that there's not much story. Granted, we're only two issues in, and much of the necessary backstory has already been covered in the first one, but this is one of those enjoyable experiences that's over way too quickly. Sarracini doesn't seem to have enough time to develop those promising bits like Spike's resentment, and the artists have only a few splash pages at their disposal while they crush panels willy nilly against one another in the rest of the book, especially in the action sequences. But even if each issue of this title so far resembles a candle burning at both ends, it still burns twice as brightly for that. Get those motion-sickness pills out - it's about to get bumpy.