Thursday, November 4, 2010

Review: Marvel G1 #73: Out of Time!











NicodemusLegend said...


This is, perhaps, my only complaint with this issue (I also remember fondly how Furman used the continuity of issue #6 re: Shockwave and Circuit Breaker). Not only were the "mechanics" of Furman's Transformer-transport unclear in this issue, but it really doesn't make any sense why only the Transformers on Earth (and only those gathered in a single large group, at that) should be gathered.

If you're a cosmic entity, and you're gathering Transformers from light-years away, why are you not gathering all Transformers from everywhere?

(If one wanted to bring in future continuity on this, we'd also have to come up with an explanation as to why the Generation Two Cybertronians seem not to be affected.)

Jimtron said...

It's definitely a weakness. You can paper over it with fan explanations, but it remains a flaw.

As an exercise, let's fansplain:

As for missing guys on Earth... only Spike was missed, and I can pretty easily imagine that he didn't qualify as a Transformer to Primus.

For the rest... hmmm... bodies in stasis didn't have an active life essence in any meaningful sense, so they got left behind. Grimlock and the Dinobots, corrupted by nucleon. Thunderwing, tainted by the evil matrix and offline to boot. The G2 Cybertronians (and the swarm as well), perhaps too far mutated away from what constitutes being a Transformer, their life essence too diluted.

Or, alternatively, Primus just didn't know about them. His senses didn't extend that far. Galvatron presumably pointed the way to Earth, so perhaps with limited senses that's all Primus saw.

Jimtron said...

You mentioning the G2 Cybertronians brings up an old thought I had. When reading 75, the assembled might of all the Cybertronians seemed kind of pathetic against Unicron. However... imagine the vast fleets of Jhiaxius' Empire going to war with the Chaos Bringer! That seems like it might actually be a fair fight.

LBD "Nytetrayn" said...

This is perhaps Transformers at its very best, rivaling anything before or since.

As for the teleportation thing, it seems as though they hinted in the later issues-- I think after Xaaron is blasted, or with the Neo Knights' presence-- that Primus had some idea of how things would go down.

That said, Thunderwing and Grimlock's party may have been deliberate moves, pieces left on the sidelines to enter the game later to affect the battle in ways they might not have had they all been brought in together.

He is a god, after all.

Hans said...

Jim wrote:

I remember a UK fanfic which was quite good, and offered a proper ending to the G2 saga. It involved Unicron (form another timeline I think) fighting the fleets of the Leige Maximo, and ultimately consuming the Hub, planet by planet (as the hub is built out of seperate planets linked by Cybertronian material). Real cool :)