TransFormers/G.J. Joe #6

April 3, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: The Iron Fist

With Bruticus on a rampage, only the the Autobot Matrix can save the world… but at what price?

Writer: John Ney Rieber
Art: Jae Lee
Colors: June Chung
Letters: Ben Lee
Cover Art: Jae Lee
Publisher: Dreamwave

While the initial premise for this series was great – the G.I. Joe and TransFormers titles reimagined in a World War II setting, in execution the book has suffered from extremely slow pacing and issues that felt padded. If this had been done in four issues instead of stretching it to six, many of which were quite late, it would have read better and more satisfying.

This issue features the long-awaited final battle, which delivers for the most part, focusing on the odd friendships that have bonded between the characters – Stalker, Roadblock, Grimlock and Bumblebee make for an intriguing foursome. By contrast, you see the distrust and venom between Cobra Commander and Megatron, Destro and Starscream. The villains are every bit as dastardly as the heroes are noble.

One of the things that makes an alternate timeline setting like this appealing is the freedom of doing things to characters that couldn’t be done in-continuity for fear of damaging the continued marketability of the property. Rieber takes full advantage of that freedom, but I think he actually goes a bit too far, sealing off the storyline so much that any potential to return to the setting is almost voided. Not that this is a book screaming for a sequel for me, but I do think there’s a lot of potential in the basic idea, and the character designs are great.

Jae Lee did a great job reimagining these characters for a 1940s setting, particularly the Autobots. Seeing Grimlock as a tank and Bumblebee as a motorcycle were nice twists, and the huge, imposing Optimus Prime was a highlight of the book. The only downside to the artwork is that I never felt we got to see quite enough of the robots to totally envision them, although I suspect a toy line would be a best seller. June Chung’s color scheme employs grays and dark greens and browns almost exclusively, giving the whole series a dark, stormy mood that’s appropriate for the story but extremely gloomy for the reader.

In the end, out of the two crossover series these properties have shared in the past year, this one may have been the most anticipated but just wasn’t as good as Devil’s Due’s G.I. Joe Versus the Transformers. This one didn’t use the potential of combining the two favorites to its fullest potential, but that potential is still there, and if they ever decided to revisit this world, I for one would at least take a look.

Rating: 6/10

TransFormers/G.I. Joe (2003 Series) #3

November 28, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Trial By Fire

The Autobots and G.I. Joe rejoin the fray.

Writer: John Ney Rieber
Art: Jae Lee
Colors: June Chung
Letters: Benjamin Lee
Editor-in-Chief: Pat Lee
Cover Art: Jae Lee
Publisher: Dreamwave

The World War II-era alternate universe crossover continues. The G.I. Joe team believes Snake Eyes dead in battle, but in reality everyone’s favorite All-American Ninja is locked in deadly combat with Storm Shadow and Ravage. Meanwhile, the G.I. Joe team and the Autobots finally take the initiative in the battle while Megatron and Cobra Commander get locked in a power struggle of their own.

This is another good issue of this crossover event, but it’s starting to wear a little thin. It feels like an example of the “decompressed” storytelling Marvel is putting to such use right now. G.I. Joe and the Autobots have been preparing for battle for two issues now, and the Snake Eyes/ Storm Shadow/ Ravage fight is starting to feel a bit padded and stretched out. Also, it makes perfect sense and is perfectly in character for Megatron and Cobra Commander to get locked in a power struggle, but that doesn’t make it any fresher. I feel like I’ve read the scene with them a dozen times already.

What we get works well, though. We get introduced to a couple more villains (well… re-introduced, since they’re longtime bad guys from both of these properties), and Rieber has these characters down pat. I particularly enjoyed the scene with Roadblock and Grimlock rolling into battle together. They make a pretty well-matched pair, I must say.

On the art front, Jae Lee continues to prove he is the perfect choice for this project. His dark, gritty style is well-suited to what is essentially a war story. Pages in this book are like reading “Saving Private Ryan”. He’s also fantastic at drawing the TransFormers characters in their World War II forms – but again, I have to complain a little about the fact that we still haven’t gotten really good looks at most of the redesigned forms. There’s a nice shot at the beginning of the issue of one of the Aerialbots with Stalker, and I still think making Grimlock a tank in this incarnation instead of trying to explain a tyrannosaurus rex was a stroke of genius, but we’re halfway through this series and most of the shots we’ve gotten of the big guns — Optimus Prime, Megatron, etc. – have been in the shadows. This is done, I presume, to have some “big reveal” moments later in the series, but the audience is still itching for more of what they paid admission for – great big robots.

On just a side tangent, I hate the title of this issue. “Trial of Fire” is one of those titles that has been overused so much I think it should be retired permanently.

This is a good series, but it’s getting stretched out too much. The hand-to-hand with Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow is getting old. We need some big action, and we need it soon. Hopefully, we’ll get it in the next issue.

Rating: 7/10