Transformers The Animated Movie #1 of 4 By Hervé St.Louis Nov 12, 2006 - 2:17:39 PM

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Transformers The Animated Movie #1 of 4
IDW Publishing
Writer: Bob Budiansky, Simon Furman
Artist: Don Figueroa, MD Bright

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Transformers’ first movie, IDW Publishing participates in a campaign with Hasbro in releasing commemorative products about the film. Having already released the 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime action figure, based on his appearance in the film, and a DVD released in November 2006, this chapter tells the story of the near mythical Decepticon’s attack on Autobot City.

Truly, in the film, this was the best part. After that sequence where nearly one quarter of all the old characters from the beginning of the televised cartoon series died, the film became dumber and anti-climatic. Unfortunately, Budiansky doesn’t capture the dread and suspense of the film here. It feels as we’re reading text book written on this mythical battle. Instead of being involved in the action as it happens, we feel detached and are offered no reason to care about the fate of the Autobots.

This chapter is only 22 pages long and it seems like they tried to constrict a monumental story in but a few moments. Although the story touches on important plot points from the film, it gives but a brief taste and then takes it back to move to something else. If you have not seen the film and this comic book series is your first introduction, you will have purchased a poor ambassador.

Figueroa doesn’t grab the best moments from the film either. He tries to compress, but the shots he takes from the film are not those that translate the best for a comic book. For example, there’s a scene where we see Autobots Kup, Arcee, Hot Rod and springer push a giant artillery cannon. Instead of showing the shot sideways, he chose the bird’s eye view shot severing the connection that readers will feel with the characters. We don’t see the characters struggle to push the cannon. It feels as if they were sweeping the floor instead.

As for the letterer, he can’t even place speech bubbles in the right characters, as seen on page ten where Autobot Perceptor says his commander Ultra Magnus’ lines. There’s also anti-aliasing around all the captions and speech bubbles. One would expect a comic book letterer and his editor to avoid making amateurish mistakes such as this one. This is the type of errors that letterers learn to avoid when they start. This is not a comic book I recommend. In fact, stay away from it and watch the DVD instead.

4/10

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