Requiem for a Misguided Effort - Transformers: ReGeneration One

I've made no secret of the fact that, among the many versions of the Transformers franchise to come and go over the past 30 years, the 1980s Marvel Comic holds the most value for me, personally. To me, it remains the definitive version. The standard that other re-tellings of the struggle between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons continue to be measured against. This is, no doubt, why I was so excited when I learned that IDW Publishing was continuing that continuity with the book that eventually become known as ReGeneration One, which ended its run with issue #100 earlier this week.
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Transformers Robots in Disguise Jhiaxus

Although it is fairly uncommon, there are a few Transformers toys that depict characters that were first seen in some other part of the Transformers franchise. Drift was one such example, having been created for the IDW comics. Spike, the Headmaster partner of the original Fortress Maximus, clearly homages a prominent character from the original cartoon, and is perhaps the earliest example of this trend. Arguably the first toy created for a previously-comics-only character is Jhiaxus.
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So, Superman's a Blogger Now?

To be perfectly honest, I stopped reading Superman comics when they rebooted the continuity last year. In fact, the only DC Comics title I've followed at all since then (and that in fits and starts) has been Firestorm, and that has far more to do with long-standing loyalty to that character than with the "New 52" take on the concept (which, frankly, has been awful, and I can't tell you how happy I am about the "back to basics" take starting with Firestorm #13). So I can perhaps be forgiven for having missed the news that came out last week about Clark Kent quitting his job at the Daily Planet, purportedly to begin his own blog.

Indeed, after having found out about the change while listening to this past weekend's episode of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (and even that, I only caught yesterday morning), my reaction was essentially as one of the "millions of people issuing a simultaneous 'meh'" that was described over at Geekosystem. Frankly, I'll believe that the move is permanent when I see it still in place a decade from now.
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The Transformers in 3-D comic issue #1

Most of the time, when I'm talking about Transformers comics of the 1980's, I'm talking about the Marvel series. However, there was another Transformers comic series that came out during that era, which is now all-but forgotten. A company called Blackthorne Publishing, most known for publishing 3-D comic books, was able to get a license from Hasbro to do such 3-D comics at the same time as Marvel had the Transformers comic book license. Apparently, the 3-D gimmick was enough of a difference to convince Hasbro (and Marvel? I have no idea if there were ever any lawsuits) that Blackthorne's work would not infringe on the existing agreement.
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Batman and the Power of Wealth

I'm still recovering from a week-long vacation, but have been trying to keep up with what's going on in the outside world just a bit. Before the recent release of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Returns was overshadowed by the opening-night shooting that left a dozen people dead, and scores more injured, its coming was anticipated as an enjoyable escape from the realities of every day life.
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Ratbat: Teaching Kids to Conserve

It's no secret that children's entertainment often incorporates education about important values. This is certainly true today, but it was even true of the shows I grew up with. Some shows were more explicit about this than others. No one had to give themselves a headache wondering what values were behind shows like Captain Planet or The Care Bears, but I doubt anyone was truly surprised when a show like GI Joe offered public service announcements at the end of each cartoon, or when He-Man did much the same thing, with the added bonus of having the lesson be an important plot point of the preceding episode itself. Even shows that weren't quite so over-the-top about teaching life lessons would nonetheless routinely work them into the stories.
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Money's Gotta Circulate!

For years and years, Scrooge McDuck—Donald Duck's uncle and well-established as "the richest duck in the world"—was strictly a comic book character. First introduced at the end of 1947, Scrooge didn't appear in animated form for twenty years (excepting a brief cameo in a crowd of characters as part of the opening of The Mickey Mouse Club in the '50s), until he was used in a 1967 educational short called Scrooge McDuck and Money. It took another 16 years after that for McDuck to to be used again, in 1983's Mickey's Christmas Carol. Finally, in 1987, McDuck showed up in Sport Goofy in Soccermania a few months before the beginning of DuckTales, after which McDuck was finally firmly established as a cartoon character, in addition to being a comic book icon.
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A Brief History of G.B. Blackrock - Part Three

When we last discussed G.B. Blackrock, I wondered about the possible negative PR that Blackrock Enterprises might suffer as a result of its namesake having been an unwitting pawn in a scheme by the Decepticons to steal gasoline from human beings. We don't see G.B. Blackrock again until issue #68, when his company has apparently changed its name to Blackrock Industries, and is now based out of Washington, DC, rather than Portland, Oregon (given the change in locale, it is, of course, possible that this is a separate organization, but it's far more likely that new writer Simon Furman simply misremembered some details of Bob Budiansky's work, and a name change accompanied by a geographic move makes sense to me).
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A Brief History of G.B. Blackrock - Part Two

In the previous entry, I detailed multi-millionaire industrialist G.B. Blackrock's first encounters with the Transformers in issues #5 and #6 of the original Marvel Comics Transformers series, as the Decepticons attacked and captured a new oil drilling platform built by his company. Another casualty of the attack was one of Blackrock's employees, Josie Beller, who was left paralyzed. Although Blackrock is only seen in cameo appearances in issues #7 and #8 as he visits Beller in the hospital, it is clear that both are planning to fight back.
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A Brief History of G.B. Blackrock - Part One

OK. So we've been told that the old Marvel Transformers comic continuity is being picked up again, starting with a Free Comic Book Day issue in May. The good folks at Comic Book Resources have released a preview that gives us a little more information. Obviously, this has generated some speculation about just what lies in store, and I've been following all of that with interest. But what really caught my attention was the fact that G.B. Blackrock was one of the characters "we can expect" to see featured in the new stories. Having used that name as my main Transformers-forum alias for many years now, and having gone to the trouble to create a custom figure of the character, Blackrock is obviously a character I'm pleased to see again. So, for the benefit of those who only know of Blackrock from the occasional mention of his name here on the blog, it's time to fill in Blackrock's story.
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Not So Long Ago

Although in some sense I consider myself a fan of pop culture, and even make that claim on this blog, it wouldn't take very much scrutiny of that idea to quickly learn that, in many respects, I'm rather behind the times. I'm only familiar with the popular music stars of today in the vaguest sense, I watch more television via Netflix than I do first-run episodes, and I spend more of my time in the car listening to Old Time Radio podcasts than I do to anything actually broadcast live.
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On Comics, Continuity, and Change

Yesterday, the folks at IDW publishing officially announced that they will be picking up the classic Marvel comics Transformers continuity, starting with an "issue 80 1/2" in Spring 2012.  Obviously, I'm thrilled with this news, and the irony that I find myself looking to buy any comic books so shortly after Wednesday's post is not lost on me.  But if anything could get me to do it, this is definitely it.

Of course, there's a lot of risk in such an undertaking.  Not just for IDW, but for those of us who are fans, as well. As almost any Star Wars fan who saw The Phantom Menace will tell you, picking up a well-loved story after a huge gap can easily lead to huge disappointment. In regard to the Marvel Transformers comic, at least one fan has pointed out that some of what made that series work was the constant pressure from Hasbro to keep introducing new characters to keep up with the toys they were trying to sell, and that this caused the writers to create stories and personalities that would likely never have come to exist if they were simply left to their own devices. Any new Marvel-continuity continuation, no longer having that recipe of obligations, may not be able to reach the same creative heights as a result. Even so, since writer Simon Furman tells us that the plan is only to go as far as "issue 100" and then conclude, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
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The End of Superman's Marriage

Now, if you don't follow comic books, you may well be saying to yourself "Superman's married?" Yes, my friends, and he has been for nearly 15 years now. But ever since comic book fans learned that DC Comics would be making massive changes to their fictional universe, and resetting all of their titles (including the 900+ issue runs of Action Comics and Detective Comics) to "issue 1" in a couple of months, we've suspected that the marriage of Clark Kent to Lois Lane was one of the realities on the chopping block. Alas, it's been made official in the past few days. Superman's days as a married man are numbered.
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A Transformers Drabble

Before BotCon, club member Jeysie posted a little contest over at the #TF-Timelines page at DeviantArt.  Basically, we were asked to write a "drabble" set in any Transformers Club-related universe.  For those that don't know, a "drabble" is a piece of fiction that is exactly 100 words long.  I've always been partial not only to the Marvel Comics Transformers universe, but to the Ratchet/Megatron storyline that featured so prominently there (here's just a sample), and since the club had done their "Classics" storyline in the future of that universe, I figured this little bit was fair game. 
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The Green Hornet at 75

A superhero is celebrating his 75th anniversary today, but few will notice.

On January 31st, 1936, more than two years before Superman first appeared in comic books, and more than three years before Batman, the adventures of the Green Hornet were first broadcast over a Detroit radio station.  Perhaps to call the Green Hornet a "superhero" overstates the case.  After all, he has no superpowers, nor even the physical or mental prowess of Batman (although the Hornet's sidekick Kato is a brilliant martial artist).  In fact, the Green Hornet has more in common with the Lone Ranger (Britt Reid, the real name of the Hornet, was intentionally implied to be the Lone Ranger's decendant) than a superhero like Superman (Batman's arguably closer, with the exception of Batman's obvious connections to the Superman crowd). But if I said "pulp hero" or "vigilante" (as the Wikipedia article does, and those terms are unarguably more accurate), who would care?
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Transformers Comic Recreation - Marvel #17 - Straxus Holds Court

Issue #17 of the original Marvel Transformers comic was something of a milestone. It marked the first story set on Cybertron since the beginning of the series more than a year-and-a-half previously. This gave writer Bob Budiansky the opportunity to feature quite a few new characters (as he was always being pressured to do by Hasbro, who had this annoying habit of continuing to make more toys that they wanted to see featured in the comic) and do so all at once.

Perhaps surprisingly, Budiansky also went ahead and created a couple of new characters for which no toy existed at the time. Notable among these were Autobot spy Scrounge and Decepticon stronghold governor Straxus. The reason for creating new non-toy characters was so that Budiansky could kill the characters off without fear of toy-buyers (and perhaps the toy-makers as well!) who might complain that they just wasted money on a toy for a character that had already been eliminated from the story. Scrounge was killed off in that very issue, and Straxus was knocked off in the next (That didn't stop UK writer Simon Furman from using Straxus — shown to have somehow survived...or his head did, anyway — in subsequent UK-only issues).

Modern Transformers fans were thus overjoyed to discover that Hasbro was finally making a Straxus figure (although it is being sold under the name "Darkmount" for trademark reasons) in 2010. This gave me an opportunity to try something a little creative. The comic image above mostly features characters that been given new or reissued toys all within the past few years.  I decided to try to recreate this group shot with actual toys. I had to fudge a bit on the couple of exceptions to this "new toy" rule. No Scrounge toy has ever been created, but I still have the figure I got from "Crazy Steve" a few years ago, and I used a single generic MiniMate to represent the generic Transformers about to be killed by Straxus. I'm pretty pleased with how it finally turned out. I hope you agree. As with most images on this blog, you can click the image to get a larger version.

Remembering the Quantum Leap Comic Book

Fans of Science Fiction over a certain age will remember a television show called Quantum Leap.  Quantum Leap was a time travel adventure featuring Scott Bakula (later to star as the captain on Star Trek: Enterprise) and Dean Stockwell (a veteran actor who has been in the business since he was a child in the 1940's, but probably most well-known today for the updated Battlestar Galactica).  Bakula played Sam Becket (not the poet!), a super-genius who invented a means of time travel within the span of one's own lifetime (in Becket's case, that meant that periods from 1953 to the then-present were considered fair game), while Stockwell played Al, who remained in Sam's original time but could communicate with Sam through holographic brainwave transmissions. The basic idea was that Sam would trade bodies with someone in the past, living their life for a while.  Sam would "leap" out of that time (and trade places with yet another person) after having changed history for the better.

The show lasted for five seasons on NBC, and a handful of episodes are available for viewing on Hulu.  I invite readers to go check it out, but I'm not looking to talk about the television series itself.  Like many popular television shows, original Quantum Leap stories were also created for other media.  There was a series of paperback books, for example, that ran for several years.  For right now, however, I want to talk about the Quantum Leap comic book.

Published by the now-defunct Innovation Corporation, Quantum Leap was fairly ambitious for a comic book of its time (the early 1990s).  Nearly all of the covers featured fully-painted artwork, a laborious feat that even today tends to be reserved only for special issues.  The stories attempted to play with the fact that Al (being a hologram) couldn't directly interact with (most of) his surroundings in the past, and considered some fairly deep social and philosophical issues that rivaled those posed by the show itself.

Following a convention set by the television show, each story would end with Sam leaping out of one person and directly into the next, creating a teaser for the next story.  While this admittedly made it difficult to reconcile the continuity of the comic with that set by the show, it preserved the feel of the show quite nicely, to say nothing of giving readers a reason to want to pick up the next issue!

That's not to say that that comic was without its faults.  Like many television tie-in media, the tie-in sometimes did things with their story that simply didn't jive with the way the world worked on the original.  For example, the comic book authors were inconsistent about following the rules of time travel as established by the television series.  Put simply, Sam was put in a particular time and place "to put right what once went wrong."  That means that when Al would tell Sam about how history unfolded, Sam was always there to change something.  Yet, in several instances in the comic book, Sam was there to ensure that something would stay the same.  For example, in issue four, Sam becomes a game show contestant during the time of the 1950's quiz show scandals.  Sam is there to make sure that the right contestant wins the show, so that an important $25,000 would be donated to MIT, enabling research to take place that would mean that the hologram portion of the Quantum Leap Project would exist.  If history doesn't unfold correctly, Al can't help Sam through his missions.  But, according to the way time travel works on the show, Sam shouldn't have been there in the first place!  Sam never changes anything to unfold differently than it did without him (or, if the guy who Sam took the place of never won, Quantum Leap as we know it could never have existed).

One noteworthy exception to this takes place in issue 12.  Sam leaps into an old hermit who runs a gas station in the middle of the desert, presumably because it allowed the hermit to avoid dealing with people most of the time.  When an unknown actress drives by, Sam gives her directions (with the help of Al) and gas, and she goes on her way.  It turns out, the guy that Sam leaped into wasn't just a hermit who avoided talking to people, but he couldn't even read, and didn't have any maps.  He could never have given the directions the actress needed to avoid dying lost and alone out in the desert.  Just before Sam leaps out, he learns the actress's name: Norma Jean Baker (aka Marilyn Monroe).

Unfortunately, this high point was immediately followed by a sign of the comic's imminent demise.  The teaser at the end of this issue promised to have Sam leap into person dying of a heart attack (we are told in the letter column that Sam is to assume the role of "Ziggy," the computer that Al uses to tell Sam how history worked out the first time, and to extrapolate what Sam is most likely supposed to change).  This story was never told.  There was one more new story to come out, but this one featured Sam switching places with a telepathic alien!  While this was indeed an interesting story, and certainly beyond the scope of the television show's budget, it just wasn't the same.  That story, also, promised a future for the series, as Sam is seen to leap into a toddler at the zoo.  But then Innovation folded, and the Quantum Leap comic was no more.

Back-issues can be found with a bit of digging.  There were 13 "regular" issues and one "Special Edition" (which just reprinted the first issue with some new--and some corrected--art).  Given the going rate of back-issue comics these days, you'll probably pay as much or more for shipping as for the issues themselves, so I would certainly encourage you to pick them up if you get the chance.  Happy Hunting!

Remembering Calvin and Hobbes

One of the unwritten benefits of working at Fuller is that I have easy access to a post office just downstairs from my office.  When I was there the other day to mail a package, I found this set of stamps featuring "Sunday Funnies" (as the title at the top of the sheet says) available, and picked up a sheet immediately.

Although I haven't really been active in maintaining it for many years now, I still have my stamp collection from back when I was in fifth grade.  Besides that, I'm a fan of comics enough that I probably would have picked these up anyway.  But what really clinched the deal for me was that second stamp from the left.

For those who don't know, Calvin and Hobbes was a comic about a six-year old boy named Calvin, who (among other traits) had an overactive imagination.  The signature example of this imaginative streak was the fact that, to him, his stuffed tiger (named Hobbes) was a walking, talking, living being--and Calvin's best friend.  Calvin and Hobbes provided a window into the world of the child, and along the way provided some intelligent commentary and humor that made reading comic strips a "must-see" activity.  During some of my grade-school years, when I would wait in the school library for the hallways to open and the day to begin, I would pull out that morning's newspaper specifically so I could enjoy the daily adventures of the boy and his tiger.

I've enjoyed the other four comics featured on these stamps (Beetle Bailey, Archie, Garfield, and Dennis the Menace) to varying degrees and at various times throughout my life, but Calvin and Hobbes was special.  To get an idea of just how special this particular comic strip was, it should be noted that Calvin and Hobbes is the most recent out of the five comics being featured (having started in 1985.  Garfield started in 1978, while the other three are from 1951 or earlier), yet is the only one of this group that is no longer being created with new adventures.  Calvin and Hobbes ended at the end of 1995, having lasted for barely more than a decade.  Calvin and Hobbes did not end due to any lack of popularity.  Indeed, the comic was arguably more popular than ever.  Rather, creator Bill Watterson was a true artist, and the integrity of his artistic vision meant (and means, I assume) everything to him.  He had made as many concessions to the needs of marketing as he was willing to make, and decided that he would rather quit than have Calvin and Hobbes ever be diluted by interests that were unrelated to those of creating the comic strips that he wanted to create.

One could easily complain that such a luminescent comic ended so abruptly, denying fans any more access to these whimsical adventures.  I'm sure that I myself did complain quite a bit at the time the strip ended (now nearly 15 years ago!).  But if Watterson hadn't been so adamant about maintaining the artistic integrity of Calvin and Hobbes, those ten years worth of adventures we did get to see would hardly have been as memorable.  While some fans argue that other comic strips (including some of the other comics featured on these stamps) may have lasted too long, becoming stale and repetitive rather than fresh, I think I'm safe in saying that there are very few in the world who would ever say that about Calvin and Hobbes.  I'm so glad that the strip is still so well remembered as to get this honor of being featured on a postage stamp!

Shadowstorm: Firestorm's Very Own Bizarro

20 years ago, the DC comic book hero Firestorm was going through what has been called his "Elemental" stage.  That is to say, instead of the familiar "Nuclear Man," he was understood to be a "Fire Elemental," and all of his powers (which were essentially the same powers as before, although he stopped using his previous signature power of changing things into other things) were understood through a lens of having to do with fire.  Most fans consider this period a misstep in Firestorm's history, but it did make a few contributions to the myth that were interesting at the time, if all but forgotten now.

One of those contributions was the character of Shadowstorm.  Long story short, Firestorm, who was at that time experiencing a crisis of faith, was taken to a land of African gods called Ifé (called the "Living Land" in the story, although this is somewhat at variance with the real Ifé and its African mythology).  Ifé was imperiled by shadows which threatened to overtake the land, creating shadow copies of everything--and everyone--they touched.  At one point in the story, Firestorm himself was overcome by the shadows.  Although he quickly emerged, the shadows spat out a shadow copy of Firestorm, which eventually took the name of "Shadowstorm" for himself.  The gods of Ifé finally realized that the shadows were not a force to be fought, but rather an essential part of creation, as necessary as light itself.  Although these gods therefore made peace with their shadow-selves, Shadowstorm was not so easily placated.  Whereas Bizarro was a kind of "backwards" clone of Superman, Shadowstorm was a clone created from darkness and anger.  He considered it a denial of his very being to make friends with Firestorm, and departed swearing that they would remain enemies.

Firestorm soon returned to the mortal realm, and found a sign of hope in a small plant growing in the middle of the desert.  After Firestorm departed that area to return to America, Shadowstorm appeared at the same spot, to do nothing more than to destroy the plant simply because it gave Firestorm hope, an act that seemed to promise that Shadowstorm could become a major Firestorm villain for some time to come.

The cancellation of the Firestorm comic only two issues later dictated that this was not to be.

Shadowstorm did reappear about a year later, in the last story arc of Captain Atom's self-titled series.  Shadowstorm had apparently never ventured far from the place of his origins, and was slowly turning an entire African city into a city of shadows, burning away all but the anger and darkness each being possesses within themselves.  Captain Atom sought to combat Shadowstorm, but was easily overcome himself, and the outcome at the end of the series was left uncertain, at best.  The intention was to set up the possibility of Captain Atom's becoming the villain Monarch in the Armageddon 2001 series, but the last-minute decision to turn Hawk into Monarch negated the impact of that story.  Another mini-series event, War of the Gods, was taking place at that exact same time, and Shadowstorm made a quick appearance there, basically long enough to take a pot shot at Firestorm and then disappear again.

Shadowstorm has never been seen since.

This gives Shadowstorm the somewhat interesting distinction of being a villain that Firestorm has never truly defeated.  He could theoretically still be out there, perhaps having built an empire of shadows and anger where he rules supreme.  But, given the several continuity reboots the DC Universe has undertaken in the years since, and the fact that Firestorm has long since left his "Elemental" persona behind, I'm not holding my breath waiting on seeing Shadowstorm again.  Indeed, this month marks the 20th anniversary of Shadowstorm's creation, and I would truly be surprised if anyone besides me even notices.

It's too bad, because there was truly some interesting potential here....

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet?

I like listening to Old Time Radio podcasts. One that I especially enjoy these days is the old 1940's Superman radio program. As a mere historical curiosity, it's worth noting if only because it was the radio program--and not the comics--that introduced the characters of Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, but it's actually fairly entertaining, too! And, at a mere 15 minutes (or less) per episode, it's not too difficult to fit in between other tasks.

There are, of course, the elements of the program's era which can be a bit eyebrow-raising in the modern era. Besides less than politically correct depictions of Asians and American Indians, for example, this Superman doesn't seem to mind putting bad guys in mortal peril in order to get them to surrender (although, even as far back as then, I haven't noticed that he's actively killed anyone. More than a few bad guys have died as a result of their own machinations, though!). And, honestly, this version of Superman seems unusually slow to me. I'm used to reading about and seeing a Superman who can move so fast that he can travel practically anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye, should he so choose. Although the programs do use a variation of the traditional "faster than a speeding bullet" line (it changes every now and again. The episode I'm listening to now says that Superman can "race a speeding bullet to its target," which is certainly close enough), I'm constantly getting the impression that Superman himself is unsure that he can make it from Point A to Point B quickly enough to save the day.

Obviously, at least some of this is simply a side effect of the need to build tension in an action-packed radio adventure. And, generally, they succeed at their goal. It's also really pretty remarkable how voice actor Bud Collyer (who also hosted some early game shows, so I've just gotta respect him!) was able to switch his voice down an octave or so from what he used as Clark Kent to the voice he used for Superman. It's as close as one could hope for in a non-visual medium to actually seeing Kent rip open his shirt to don the red and blue tights.

Hundreds of episodes were made over the course of more than a decade. Not all them exist anymore, but there are more than enough to keep you going for quite a while, especially at the rate of two or three a week (which is about how often the episodes were broadcast in the 1940's, as well). You can find a good supply of episodes for free download (they're believed to be in the Public Domain now) over at the Internet Archive.